A Muslim leader in India warned Wednesday of communal unrest after a state government claimed the Koran discourages eating beef, the latest contentious effort to protect cows in the Hindu-majority country.

The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat has erected billboards with an alleged Koranic verse saying eating beef causes disease, together with an Islamic symbol of a crescent moon and star.

Indian police said Tuesday they had arrested six men after a teenager alleged she was gang-raped after being lured to a hotel on the promise of a job.

The 17-year-old girl told police she had traveled from her home in New Delhi to the western city of Jaipur with neighbors who had promised her work there.

Four suspected rebels and a soldier were killed early Thursday in Indian Kashmir in a gun battle near the de facto border with Pakistan, the second incident in 24 hours, a police officer said.

Police sealed off a forested area in northern Handwara overnight on suspicion militants were moving towards a village, triggering a 10-hour gun battle between government forces and rebels.

An Indian soldier and a suspected militant were killed Wednesday during a gunbattle in Indian Kashmir, the latest clash in the restive Himalayan region, a police officer said.

Acting on a tip-off, government forces confronted at least one militant inside a house in the village of Ladoora 70 kilometers (43 miles) northwest of the main city of Srinagar.

A boom in cashed-up visitors from China and India has helped Australia record its strongest tourism year since the Sydney Olympics, officials said Wednesday, with more than Aus$33 billion (U.S.$23.1 billion) pumped into the economy.

The government-run Tourism Research Australia's International Visitor Survey showed that seven percent more people made the trip in the year to June 30 to reach a new high of 6.6 million -- the best since the hugely successful Games were held in 2000.

Millions of workers across India held a 24-hour strike Wednesday in protest at right-wing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's economic policies, which they say will put jobs at risk and hurt ordinary people.

Ten major unions went ahead with the day-long strike over the government's pro-business initiatives after talks with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley broke down.

Hundreds of protesters clashed with police in India's restive northeast over a controversial tribal rights laws, leaving at least seven people dead, a senior official said Tuesday.

Violence erupted in Manipur state's Churachandpur district late Monday hours after the local parliament passed three controversial bills relating to the residence rights of indigenous groups.

Millions of India's workers have vowed to go on strike on Wednesday against right-wing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "anti-labor" economic policies.

Ten major unions have called the nationwide strike for 24 hours over the government's pro-business initiatives, after recent talks with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley broke down.

As thousands of Bangladeshis and Indians celebrated the end of one of the world's most intractable border disputes, Fatema Khatun was quietly hopeful of finally seeing justice.

Fifteen years after Khatun's husband, Badshah Mia, was hacked to death and his body dumped on a canal bank near their home along the border, no one has been charged with his murder.

Indian security forces on Friday killed at least six suspected armed separatist rebels in the country's insurgency-hit northeastern state of Nagaland, police said.

Police said Indian armed forces killed the rebels from one faction of the National Socialist Council (NSCN) of Nagaland in Tuensang district, close to the Myanmar border.