Natasha Fatah

Sitting in a midtown cafe in Mumbai, there are about a dozen gorgeous women all around me. Some are clearly young, aspiring models and actresses hoping to get noticed by the right casting director. This is the heart of Bollywood after all. Rajshree Vaidya, the actress who plays the dark-skinned Saloni, in the popular series, being interviewed in Mumbai. (Natasha Fatah/CBC) Others are older, with perhaps a few too many collagen injections. They, too, are beautiful and they have money to burn.

Pigeons fly away as Mumbai's celebrated Taj Mahal hotel burns on Nov. 27, 2008. ((Gautam Singh/Associated Press)) A particularly sinister type of evil crept into Mumbai this week. The type that stalks innocent people as they board commuter trains at a busy downtown station. The type that opens fire on families eating quietly at a cafe. The type that takes dozens of visitors and newcomers hostage while they are still coming to terms with a foreign land.

Allah in the Cafeteria: Inside the school prayer scandal at Valley Park Middle School Allah in the Cafeteria: Inside the school prayer scandal at Valley Park Middle School When the principal at Valley Park Middle School allowed 400 Muslim students to pray in the lunchroom, he thought he was being progressive.