A portion of a 13-story building under construction in the western Indian city of Pune collapsed on Friday, killing at least eight workers, a fire official said.

The official said the top portion of the building came crashing down on the ground.

Hamada Bayloun is not particularly religious, but across his entire upper back spreads a large tattoo of the most revered saint in Shiite Islam, Imam Ali.

He is one of a growing number of Shiite Muslims in Lebanon who have inked themselves with Shiite religious and political symbols as a show of pride in their community since neighboring Syria's civil war broke out in 2011, fanning hatreds between Shiites, Sunnis and other faiths across the region.

South Korea on Wednesday accused rival North Korea of floating propaganda leaflets down a river in the first such incident.

South Korea's military discovered dozens of plastic bags, each carrying about 20 leaflets, near the estuary of Seoul's Han River close to the tense Korean border last Friday, according to the South's Defense Ministry. Seoul is only an hour's drive from the border.

A frail 44-year-old activist who has been on a hunger strike for nearly 16 years to protest alleged brutality by India's military says she'll end her fast and run in state elections.

Irom Sharmila told a court in the northeastern state of Manipur on Tuesday that she'll give up her fast on Aug. 9 and stand as an independent candidate in elections early next year.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam and the Lebanese delegation attended the Arab League summit in the Mauritanian capital on Monday but were not expected to spend the night there, the Associated Press reported on Monday, shortly after Health Minister Wael Abu Faour questioned the impoverished African nation's ability to host top delegations.

Thomas Sutherland, a teacher was held captive in Lebanon for more than six years until he was freed in 1991 and returned home to become professor emeritus at Colorado State University, has died.

The lawyer of a dual British-Australian national indicted in a botched attempt to kidnap two Australian-Lebanese children at the center of a custody battle has said that a travel ban imposed on his client has been lifted.

Fresh torrential rains swept through China this week, flooding streams, triggering landslides and killing at least 25 people with 13 more missing in the worst-hit city.

The latest tally from the northern city of Xingtai on Saturday will push the overall casualties across the country. The Ministry of Civil Affairs reported a total of 78 deaths and 91 missing on late Friday, when the casualty toll from Xingtai was much lower.

Iran's state TV is reporting that 15 people have died after their bus crashed into a high-voltage electricity pylon and overturned in the north of the country.

The Saturday report says dozens of passengers were injured during the incident. It took place in pre-dawn darkness and caused blackouts in the rural area on the mountainous road linking the northern cities of Karaj and Chalous, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Tehran.

The lawyer of a dual British-Australian national indicted in a botched attempt to kidnap two Australian-Lebanese children at the center of a custody battle says he has objected to a travel ban imposed on his client.