A number of livestock traders were robbed of their lucrative Eid-ul-Adha takings after thieves threw itching powder over them at a Mumbai market, a newspaper report said on Wednesday.

The Daily News and Analysis said that several traders selling goats and sheep at the Deonar market were targeted in the run-up to the Muslim festival on Monday, which is marked by the ritual sacrifice of animals.

European stocks sank Tuesday on news of a sharp slowdown in Eurozone powerhouse Germany, and before crisis talks on the economy between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In morning trade, Frankfurt's DAX 30 index of leading shares dived 2.29 percent to 5,884.61 points, the Paris CAC 40 dropped 1.47 percent to 3,191.41 points and London's FTSE 100 slid 0.77 percent to 5,309.4.

Asian stocks put on solid gains on Monday, with Tokyo getting a boost from better-than-expected GDP figures that showed the country is on the road to recovery after its devastating tsunami.

Asia followed a positive end to Wall Street's week with green screens all over the region giving dealers hope after a turbulent few days during which they were battered by Eurozone debt fears and a U.S. credit downgrade.

Bollywood stars turned out in force on Monday to pay their respects to actor Shammi Kapoor, the heart-throb actor of the 1950s and 1960s who died at the weekend.

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, a family friend, helped carry Kapoor's flower-covered body from his home in the upmarket Malabar Hill area of south Mumbai to a waiting ambulance for the short trip to a nearby crematorium.

Asian stocks rallied on Wednesday, part of a global uptick after the U.S. Federal Reserve pledged to keep interest rates near zero for at least two years.

Tokyo rose 1.05 percent, or 94.26 percent, to 9,038.74, Sydney added 2.64 percent, or 106.5 points, to 4,141.3 and Seoul gained 0.27 percent, or 4.89 points, to 1,806.24.

Six years after leprosy was declared officially eliminated in India, officials and doctors are warning that the disfiguring disease is spreading in poverty-stricken pockets of the country.

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) in India, Nata Menabde, told Agence France Presse in an interview that nearly a third of India's districts needed urgent attention to address the spread of new infections.

The lone surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai attacks that left 166 dead has approached the Indian Supreme Court asking for his death sentence to be overturned, a court source told Agence France Presse Friday.

The source said the request by Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab had been filed via jail authorities in Mumbai, where he has been held since the attacks, and lodged with the secretary general of the court.

Indian detectives trawled for leads on Saturday to the triple blasts which rocked the country's financial hub, Mumbai, as the death toll from the coordinated explosions rose to 19.

Two men who sustained serious injuries in Wednesday's rush-hour bombings died in hospital, a home ministry statement said.

Indian detectives scrambled for a breakthrough on Friday into the Mumbai bombings that killed 17 people and left baffled police hunting for clues and suspects in the monsoon rains.

There were fears that the torrential downpours that have hit the country's financial and entertainment capital since the rush-hour blasts on Wednesday evening may hamper the probe, washing away vital forensic clues.

Indian investigators Thursday probed triple bomb blasts that killed 21 people in Mumbai, the nation's commercial capital which is still emerging from the shadows of the deadly 2008 militant attacks.

The strongest of the coordinated explosions hit busy districts in the south of the city, the same area targeted two and half years ago by Pakistan-based militants who caused mayhem in a 60-hour siege that left 166 people dead.