Rescuers battled Wednesday to reach survivors of a deadly new earthquake in Nepal that triggered landslides and brought down buildings, as the search resumed for a U.S. military helicopter that went missing while delivering aid.

Thousands of traumatized survivors spent the night outdoors, afraid to return to their houses after the 7.3-magnitude quake, which killed dozens of people and hit less than three weeks after the country was devastated by its deadliest quake in more than 80 years.

Heavily armed separatist rebels have ambushed a paramilitary convoy in India's remote northeast, killing eight soldiers and injuring six, officials said Monday.

The militants opened fire on the troops before exploding a small bomb during the attack on Sunday in underdeveloped Nagaland close to the border with Myanmar, the state's police chief said.

A massive earthquake killed more than 1,200 people Saturday as it tore through large parts of Nepal, toppling office blocks and towers in Kathmandu and triggering a deadly avalanche at Everest base camp.

Officials said at least 1,170 people are known to have died in Nepal, making it the quake-prone Himalayan nation's worst disaster in more than 80 years.

Struggling state-run carrier Air India has grounded two of its pilots after a fight erupted between the pair just before takeoff, reports said Monday.

The co-pilot allegedly assaulted the captain inside the cockpit as they were preparing the passenger plane for takeoff from the Indian tourist city of Jaipur to New Delhi on Sunday night, the Hindustan Times newspaper said.

A blaze which erupted Sunday at India's national parliament brought firefighters rushing to the historic building in the center of New Delhi.

Smoke was seen billowing from above the red sandstone boundary wall of the parliamentary complex as police tried to clear the streets around the building.

Indian Catholic priests Thursday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government of failing to protect religious minorities as some 200 Christian protesters clashed with police in the capital.

Police pulled demonstrators -- including several nuns and priests -- onto buses after they gathered outside one of New Delhi's largest cathedrals to demand action over a series of recent attacks on churches.

New President Maithripala Sirisena vowed Wednesday to end Sri Lanka's pariah status by working with the U.N. and promised national reconciliation, six years after the island's ethnic war ended.

In an address to the nation to mark Sri Lanka's 67th anniversary of independence, Sirisena and his ministers also pledged never again to allow the "land to be traumatized by the shedding of blood of innocents".

U.S. President Barack Obama and the new Saudi king are expected to discuss the military campaign against Islamic State group extremists and the crisis in Yemen at upcoming talks in Riyadh, the White House said Monday.

Obama's brief visit to the Saudi capital on Tuesday was mainly intended as an opportunity to meet King Salman "and to pay respects to the family and to the people of Saudi Arabia" after the death last week of long-time ruler King Abdullah, a senior official said.

Delhi police questioned a former high-flying U.N. diplomat and Indian government minister late Monday in connection with his wife's murder, a case that has dominated local media headlines.

Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in a five-star hotel room in the capital last January, two days after she alleged on Twitter that her husband Shashi Tharoor had been having an affair with a Pakistani journalist.

Indian Kashmir was brought under New Delhi's direct rule Friday after political rivals failed to agree on a power-sharing coalition, more than two weeks after elections in the country's only Muslim-majority state.

A federal government spokesman confirmed that President Pranab Mukherjee had placed Governor N. N. Vohra in charge of the state, the day after the acting chief minister stepped down.