MUMBAI, India

Top Chef Padma Lakshmi has made a commercial that could turn a vegan onto meat. The commercial is pure food porn. Padma languorously strolls through food markets and to her stoop, then unwraps her burger, hiking up her skirt as she attacks the big hunk of meat. Some sauce lands on her legs, and she licks it off, while extolling the culinary delights of the fast-food treat. Lakshmi has penned several cookbooks.

LUCKNOW, India

A 24-year-old woman was found shot dead in an 'ashram' of Hindu godman and former MP Sakshi Maharaj in Uttar Pradesh's Farooqabad district, the police said. The victim, identified as Ragini Verma, was found inside a locked room in the complex with a bullet injury to the head. According to the police, the woman was seen by witnesses with a youth shortly before a gun shot was heard from the complex. Superintendent of Police Kashinath Singh said: “There were at least two dozens youths staying in the complex and all of them have fled.”

KABUL, Afghanistan

Afghan actress Parwin Mushthal's passion for her job has exacted a heavy toll — the murder of her husband and forcing her to live in hiding with her two children. Mushthal's career choice appears to have upset the Taliban and their supporters who disapprove of women working. She has received threatening telephone calls and abuse in the streets from people telling her to stop acting. She told the BBC she believes her defiance of the threats resulted in the shooting by unknown gunmen of her 39-year-old husband.

LHASA, Tibet

A China-based cyber spy network has hacked into government and private systems in 103 countries, including those of many Indian embassies and the Dalai Lama, a Canadian Internet research group said. The Information Warfare Monitor, which carried out extensive research on cyber spy activities emanating from China, said all evidence points to China as the source of this spy espionage.

DHAKA, BANGLADESH

British Airways has ended its direct flights between the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka and London because the 34-year-old route was no longer profitable, the carrier said. The airline suspended the three-times-a-week service as it had not made “a profitable contribution to our business for some time.” The first Dhaka to London service was in January 1975. Airlines in South Asia have been hit hard by the global economic downturn.

KERALA, India

A teenager acquitted by a juvenile court in a rape and murder case last year has committed suicide in Kerala’s Thrissur town. Police said the teen was found unconscious at his workplace after drinking alcohol mixed with poison. He was arrested two years ago on charges of sexually assaulting and murdering a seven-year-old. The boy was freed by the juvenile court last year as the prosecution failed to prove the charges. However, he continued to stay in the juvenile home and was undergoing job training in a local factory.

UTTAR PRADESH, India

Police in northern India have arrested a great-grandson of the country's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, over allegations he made inflammatory comments against Muslims. Police fired in the air and charged a crowd of at least 10,000 of Varun Gandhi's supporters shouting pro-Hindu slogans as he was arrested in his constituency in Uttar Pradesh, a crucial state in the April-May general election. The arrest of Gandhi, a member of India's powerful Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and election candidate for the Hindu-nationalist opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), could be an embarrassment for the BJP weeks before the polls start.

NEW DELHI, India

The Delhi High Court has asked police to provide security to a Jammu and Kashmir couple, who are facing threats from their relatives for their inter-faith marriage. Justice G.S. Sistani directed the Hauz Khas police station chief to provide protection to the couple and ensure they are not removed from the territorial jurisdiction of the court. A Jammu and Kashmir police team arrived in the capital to investigate a case of kidnapping filed against the boy on a complaint by the girl's parents March 21.

NEW DELHI, India

Three men accused of murdering an IT executive were formally arrested by Delhi Police last week in connection with the murder of journalist Soumya Viswanathan. The three were already in judicial custody for the murder of Jigisha Ghosh. Viswanathan, a journalist working with a news channel, was found shot dead in her car on the Nelson Mandela Marg on Sept. 30 last year while returning home after work. Ghosh's body was found lying in Suraj Kund areas on March 19.

CHANDIGARH, Punjab

An Indian banker accused of molesting a German woman 10 years ago has finally been fined $100. The woman says this is too minor a punishment. A city court convicted R.K. Sharma, then deputy general manager of the Reserve Bank of India, of outraging the modesty of the woman by making lewd remarks and indecent gestures. According to lawyer Terminder Singh, the German woman and her boyfriend went to Sharma’s office in August 1999.