India's top court on Tuesday banned a controversial Islamic practice that allows men to divorce their wives instantly, ending a long tradition that many Muslim women had fiercely opposed.

Rescuers struggled Sunday to pull survivors from the wreckage of a train crash which killed 36 passengers in southern India, the latest in a series of disasters on the country's creaking rail network.

Emergency workers raced Sunday to find any more survivors in the mangled wreckage of an Indian express train that derailed overnight, killing over 100 people, in the worst disaster to hit the country's aging rail network in years.

India signed a formal agreement Friday to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from France's Dassault for 7.9 billion euros ($8.8 billion), one of its biggest defence deals in decades.

Saudi Arabia has promised "urgent" action to resolve the plight of some 2,500 Indian workers stranded without money in the kingdom after a plunge in oil prices sparked construction layoffs.

Labor Minister Mufarrej al-Haqbani issued orders to allow the Indian workers "to immediately transfer their kafala (sponsorship) and renew their residencies," the Okaz daily reported on Wednesday.

Indian prosecutors sought the death penalty on Monday for 24 Hindus convicted over a massacre during religious riots in 2002 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was chief minister of the state where it happened.

Judge P.B Desai heard submissions from the prosecution as well as lawyers representing the 24 convicted over the killings, before adjourning final sentencing until Thursday.

Hundreds of villagers clashed with police in restive Indian-administered Kashmir Saturday after three armed militants were killed in an early morning gunbattle with government forces, the army and witnesses said.

Soldiers and special operations officers cordoned off Panzgam village, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) south of the main city of Srinagar, before dawn after receiving a tip off that militants were hiding inside a house.

Indian police said Monday they have filed initial charges against six people over a massive explosion during a banned fireworks display that killed over 100 people and left many more with horrific burns.

Thousands had packed into a Hindu temple in the southern state of Kerala on Saturday night for the show when a stray firework apparently landed on a stockpile of them, triggering a huge blast that tore through concrete buildings.

Thousands of protesters clashed with police in Indian Kashmir Thursday after two militants were killed in a gun battle with government forces, the army and witnesses said.

Protesters torched a police armored vehicle as masked militants fired automatic rifles into the air in honor of the dead men, a police officer at the scene told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Millions of voters head to the polls Monday in two Indian states, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party facing a tough fight as it tries to tighten its grip on power nationally.

Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) must win state elections to gain more seats in the nation's upper house of parliament, which has been blocking reforms seen as crucial to fueling economic growth.