WASHINGTON — Over 800 villagers lined up one day last month to celebrate the installation of a new public toilet in Janadesar, a tiny community in India’s Rajasthan desert. They had reason to celebrate the event, because a toilet is not taken for granted in rural Rajasthan, where only one in eight people has access to one. What is shocking is that this is not unusual. Worldwide, about 2.5 billion people — 40 percent of the global population — do not have access to basic sanitation. Most of those without access live in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

NEW YORK — Mohinder Singh never saw what happened to his father. But his grandmother watched him hacked to pieces after his eyes were gouged out during the 1984 Sikh massacre in New Delhi. “My father’s death never leaves me,” said Mohinder, who is now a 27-year-old truck driver in California. Exhausted by the slow pace of prosecutions in India, a group of Sikhs have opened a new front to seek justice in the United States for the horrific crimes committed more than 25 years ago.

BANGALORE, India — Praful Desai celebrated his 65th birthday last weekend by doing something special with his family. Desai, a retired chemical engineer and an avowed vegetarian, took his two brothers-in-law, their wives, children and grandchildren to Bangalore’s latest hotspot — the country’s first Taco Bell. “I’m trying Mexican food for the first time in my life,” Desai said, adding, “Never too old to try something new."