Sri Lanka would want to see the Indian rupee used as much as the US dollar, President Ranil Wickremesinghe has said, days ahead of his first official visit to New Delhi.

Singapore's Indian-origin Transport Minister S Iswaran was arrested on Tuesday and released on bail while his passport was impounded, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau has said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday met French Senate President Gerard Larcher here and the two leaders deliberated on a range of issues of mutual interest and agreed to work together to deepen India-France cooperation in a number of areas.

The UN's top human rights body overwhelmingly approved a measure calling on countries to do more to prevent religious hatred in the wake of Quran burnings in Europe, over the objections of Western countries who fear tougher steps by governments could trample freedom of expression.

Milan Kundera, whose dissident writings in communist Czechoslovakia transformed him into an exiled satirist of totalitarianism, has died in Paris at the age of 94, Czech media said Wednesday.

All six people on board a helicopter carrying Mexican tourists were killed when it crashed Tuesday near Mount Everest in Nepal, authorities said.

A private commercial helicopter with six people aboard including five Mexican nationals that went missing near the Mount Everest area in Nepal on Tuesday has crashed in a hilly terrain in the country's eastern region, officials said.

 A Manang Air helicopter with six people aboard went missing near Mount Everest in Nepal on Tuesday, aviation authorities said.