Bollywood's "first action hero" Dara Singh, an Indian champion wrestler-turned-actor whose film and television career spanned over half a century, died on Thursday aged 83.

The star's health deteriorated a few days ago and he passed away after suffering from a heart attack, his doctor R.K. Agarwal told reporters outside Singh's Mumbai residence, sparking tributes from across the country.

A trio of "indie Hindi" films are bringing a new Indian cinema to the Cannes Film Festival, where Bollywood stars like to spice up the red carpet but their movies seldom create a serious buzz.

Dealing with corruption and coal mafias, impotency and the porn industry, the films in this year's line-up are part of a burgeoning, alternative Bollywood that departs from commercial song-and-dance hits so popular at home.

Iraq will reopen this week the Baghdad to Mumbai air route after a hiatus of more than 21 years, as a growing number of Iraqis are travelling to India, officials said on Tuesday.

"Iraqi Airways will open on Friday the route between Baghdad and Mumbai after more than 21 years of interruption," Akram Louaybi, the flag carrier's spokesman, told Agence France Presse.

President Asif Ali Zardari will on Sunday become the first Pakistani head of state since 2005 to visit arch-rival India when he makes a trip that includes lunch with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Veteran Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan was "hale and hearty" after undergoing a three-hour operation on Saturday for an abdominal ailment, a hospital official said.

Bachchan, 69, has a history of abdominal problems -- the legacy of an accident suffered while filming three decades ago.

An on-duty bus driver went on a rampage on the crowded streets of a central Indian city Wednesday, killing nine people and injuring more than two dozen as he mowed down pedestrians and rammed other vehicles.

Police chased the bus for an hour through the streets of Pune, with traffic officers firing on it in an attempt to stop it, before they managed to arrest the 30-year-old driver. He is being held on murder charges.

Television chat show queen Oprah Winfrey received a rock star's welcome when she spoke on Sunday to a heaving audience of thousands of fans at the Jaipur Literature Festival in India.

Winfrey, wearing a gold and red Indian outfit, told the packed crowd that her love of books had helped her education and enabled her to rise from a poor childhood in Mississippi to become one of the world's most influential women.

As India inched towards independence, hundreds of mixed-race Anglo-Indians feared for their future and retreated to a self-styled homeland in a thickly forested part of the country.

Ernest McCluskie, an Indian of Scottish descent, established McCluskieganj in what is now the eastern state of Jharkhand, hoping to attract Anglo-Indians anxious about the impending demise of the British Empire.

It's shortly after 9:00 am in Mumbai's red light district and about 100 men are jostling at the box office window of the New Roshan Talkies cinema to buy tickets for 15 rupees (30 U.S. cents) each.

The film hasn't been listed in any of the day's newspapers and it's soon clear why: the movie -- advertised by a poster of two busty women alongside a muscle-bound hero -- is a "morning show".

Asian markets mostly fell on Friday as a meeting between the eurozone's three biggest economies highlighted their differences on finding a solution to the region's debt crisis.

Traders remained nervous at the end of a week that saw fears over Europe deepen as the yields on Italian and Spanish bonds sat dangerously high and even Germany -- the bloc's pillar -- failed to sell all its bonds at auction.