'In terms of sheer incompetence, this government has rivaled the Rajiv Gandhi-led government that was derisively called the 'Baba-log' government for its naive handling of many issues,' notes Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
A German newspaper in Hamburg was the target of an arson attack early on Sunday after it reprinted cartoons of Prophet Mohammed from the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. No one was hurt in the incident.
The single emergency number '112' will be operational throughout India from January 1 to help people reach immediate services of police, ambulance and fire department.
The last auspicious day of the ongoing Kumbh Mela was full of action
Here's your weekly digest of the craziest and funniest stories from around the world.
Six persons were killed and 34 others, including four children, seriously injured when a cooking gas cylinder exploded in East Delhi's Gandhi Nagar area on Monday night.
A pilot was on Wednesday killed and an instructor accompanying him injured when the Madhya Pradesh Flying Club-owned Cessna aircraft they were flying crashed at Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport in Indore.
The building Shree Krishna crashed around 2.30 am
As Mumbaities bids adieu to Lord Ganesha on the final day of the festival, Rediff's Hitesh Harisinghani and Satish Bordes speak to lifeguards of city's beaches.
The IMD said heatwave conditions are likely to continue over the northern plains, and central and southern parts of the country for two more days and abate gradually.
The fire started at around 5 pm from the microbiology department and thick plumes of smoke billowed from the building, sparking panic among patients, attendants and staff, and affecting emergency services.
A fire broke out because of a suspected leakage in an oil pipeline passing through a land owned by the Mumbai Port Trust in Wadala in central Mumbai, but no one was injured.
Resto-bar owner V R Dayashankar who went absconding after the incident was later arrested.
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The 35-year-old 'Shakuntala' building, situated at Bazarpeth in Mumbra area of Thane district, collapsed after midnight when the residents were fast asleep, police said.
The two western states, already battling a raging pandemic, which has put their health infrastructure under severe strain, opened new fronts to tackle the fallout of the storm which is expected to make a landfall close to Mumbai on Wednesday. They are likely to be impacted most by the cyclone.
Flight PK-303 from Lahore was about to land in Karachi when it crashed at the Jinnah Garden area near Model Colony in Malir, just a minute before its landing, officials said.
Sidhu Humanabade was passing by when he saw smoke billowing out from the upper floors of the ESIC Kamgar Hospital in Andheri. He left his bike and asked the firemen if he could join them in the rescue operation.
Over 60 shops were gutted in a major fire that broke out in South Mumbai's busy Crawford market due to a short circuit in the wee hours of Sunday.
The blaze erupted around 7 am in the gas processing plant of the ONGC located in Uran area of neighbouring Navi Mumbai, an official said.
In just 10 days, the city received 864.5 mm rain, which is nearly equal to what it gets in an entire month.
With the recovery of six more bodies, the toll in the boat mishap in Hirakud reservoir in Sambalpur district, Odisha, on Monday rose to 17.
The fire was in the middle of the wetlands, fire brigade officials said.
The Hussains, hailing from Madhubani district of Bihar, had planned to go shopping on Sunday, but fate willed otherwise.
It takes 56 hours to make the largely hand-built Defender at the firm's Solihull factory in central England
Two suspected militants were killed and another was injured in an explosion in a house inhabited by them in Burdwan on Thursday.
The helicopter 'Robinson R44' crashed in Filter Pada area of Aarey Colony in Goregaon earlier in the day.
Unverified reports from the area suggest that 25 to 30 gas cylinders have exploded.
Two treasure hunters claim to have found a mysterious Nazi train which disappeared on its way to Germany from Hungary in 1945 carrying guns, gems and other valuable items, including paintings estimated to be worth $200 million (about Rs 1,300 crore).
The chief minister said the nursing home on the ground floor of the building was being converted into some other facility for which permission from the BMC had been sought.
Several people are feared trapped under the debris of the structure.
At least five bogies of three empty stationary trains were damaged as a major fire broke out in quick succession at Puri railway station on Thursday, triggering panic among passengers and affecting rail services.
The operation to pull out a six-year old boy trapped in an abandoned borewell at a farm in nearby Sulikeri village in Karnataka's Bagalkot district was halted on the sixth day on Friday as his mother led a protest by villagers seeking an end to it.
The one-day meet, an Olympic qualifying event, was held without electricity at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium which led to results being recorded manually. Hand timings are not considered valid for record purposes and hence will not be counted for Olympic qualifications.
Fire brigade, Mumbai Police and civic officials rushed to the site to carry out the rescue operation.
'If it works, something good can come out of this tragedy for the common public good,' say Dr Prasad Gadgil and Dr Kunal Basu.
The man was shot after confronting police officers on a busy city street, authorities said. He was taken into custody in a critical condition. He succumbed to the gunshot wounds in the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
The blaze broke out in the kitchen located at the ground floor of the Regent Plaza hotel at the city's Shahrah-i-Faisal and spread across the six-floor building, trapping nearly 100 hotel guests in their rooms.
the India Meteorological Department has forecast intermittent rain with heavy to very heavy showers in the city and suburbs and extremely heavy rain at isolated places in next 24 hours.
The intensity of the fire was so high that people in the villages around were woken up to a loud noise, with their houses shaking.
The municipal body has directed its officials to form teams to ensure that all the restaurants are fire safety compliant in view of the New Year celebrations.
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