LONDON, Oct 17 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Some 30 million people are enslaved worldwide, trafficked into brothels, forced into manual labor, victims of debt bondage or even born into servitude, a global index on modern slavery showed on Thursday.

A fierce cyclone tore into India's coast, killing at least five people, forcing half a million into shelters and threatening to devastate farmland and fishing hamlets.

Tens of thousands fled their homes in coastal areas of eastern India and moved to shelters on Friday, bracing for the fiercest cyclone to threaten the country since a devastating storm killed 10,000 people 14 years ago.

BHUBANESWAR/NEW DELHI, India, Oct 10 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A cyclone heading towards India's southeast coast intensified on Thursday, disaster management and weather officials said, warning tens of thousands of farmers to save their crops before the storm reaches land in the next 72 hours.

ANAND, India, Sept 30 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Dressed in a green surgical gown and cap, British restaurateur Rekha Patel cradled her newborn daughter at the Akanksha clinic in northwestern India as her husband Daniel smiled warmly, peering in through a glass door.

Air Products & Chemicals Inc said it would look for a successor to Chief Executive John McGlade and add three new independent directors, months after activist investor Bill Ackman unveiled his stake in the company.

(The following statement was released by the rating agency)

The amount of outstanding U.S. municipal bonds shrank in the second quarter of 2013 to $3.721 trillion from $3.729 trillion in the first quarter according to Federal Reserve data released on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Saudi Arabia tops the list of countries for laws that limit women's economic potential, while South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa have made the least progress over the last 50 years in improving women's economic opportunities, a report issued on Tuesday says.

The operator of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant failed to properly monitor storages tanks holding dangerously contaminated water that have sprung leaks and are a source of international concern, the country's nuclear regulator said on Friday.