The delegations from the US and Iran head to Islamabad on Friday, carrying a ceasefire that is already fraying, a Strait that is technically open and practically closed, and a negotiating agenda that would challenge even parties actually negotiating in good faith, which these groups are not. Prem Panicker continues his must read blog on the Iran War.
A multi-storey residential building collapsed in northeast Delhi's Shakti Vihar area in the early hours of Saturday, leaving 11 people dead and 11 injured, officials said.
A regular morning alive with the chatter of students assembling for prayers quickly turned into tragedy on Friday when a portion of their government school building collapsed, killing seven children and injuring 27, some of them critically.
On Thursday night, a landslide struck a home at Montepadavu Kodi near Mangaluru, trapping five people under debris, they said.
Three elderly people died in a stampede caused by two elephants becoming agitated after crackers were burst during a festival at the Manakulangara Temple near Koyilandy, Kerala. The elephants ran towards a building, causing a wall to collapse and trapping people. The stampede also resulted in around 20 people suffering minor injuries. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan expressed condolences, and investigations are underway to determine if there were any violations of elephant management rules.
Heavy rains in Jharkhand, India, have resulted in five deaths, one missing person, and several injuries due to house collapses and flooding.
An accident inside a furnace at a private steel plant in Chhattisgarh's Raipur resulted in the death of six people and injuries to several others. The incident occurred during cleaning work inside the furnace.
A 53-year-old man died on Thursday when a portion of the Gokulpuri Metro Station on the Pink Line in northeast Delhi collapsed, the police said.
Power was also disrupted in many areas as the dust storm swept the national capital late Friday night.
Nine-year-old Devanshi was among the hundreds of pilgrims who had gathered in Chositi for the last leg of the yatra to Machail Mata temple when tragedy struck on Thursday. Buried under mud and debris when a Maggi-point shop was hit by flash floods, she emerged hours later, rescued by her uncle and other villagers.
A marriage function was going on in the hall when the storm hit the area, police said.
Monsoon hit the state on June 20 and has since then cost it Rs 5,000 crore in damages.
Since the onset of monsoon on June 20 to date, rain-related incidents have claimed 23 lives in the state, according to the state emergency operation centre.
Flash floods triggered by a cloudburst in Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, resulted in casualties and widespread damage, prompting rescue operations and relief efforts.
The IMD issued a "Nowcast" warning, forecasting thunderstorms accompanied by lightning and intense spells of rain with gusty winds reaching 50-60 kmph at isolated places in Mumbai in the next three to four hours.
Mumbai recorded over 250 mm of rain in just three hours (between midnight and 3 am), touching 305 mm by 7 am on Sunday, a meteorologist said.
Workers were seen cleaning and painting a portion of the 300-bed hospital, which is a ground plus two-storey structure of three wings, ahead of Modi's visit later Tuesday.
The local train traffic on the Central and Western Railway routes was mostly normal though the trains were running a few minutes late, railway officials said.
'If you align your ambition with India's rise, the peak of your careers will unfold alongside the peak of India's power.'
Heavy rains lashing Mumbai since Sunday have thrown rail, air and road traffic out of gear, with several trains and flights being cancelled. With IMD forecast of heavy rains for Tuesday, the authorities declared a holiday in the city and adjoining regions, asking people to avoid stepping out of their houses.
The injured -- 130 -- cannot go back to work nor do they have homes to return to. Many of them refuse to leave the hospital while some of their relatives sleep in the hospital corridors. Apart from their physical injuries, the trauma of seeing their family members swept away haunts them as does the loss of all their possessions. But the BJP-Sena government remains indifferent to this human crisis.
The building is located on Shirley Rajan Road near Rizvi Architecture College in Bandra (west), an official said.
Five persons, including two children and a woman, were killed due to an explosion at a firecracker godown-cum-factory in Uttar Pradesh's Firozabad district that caused damage to nearby houses, a police official said on Tuesday.
Body of a nine-year-old girl was on Monday pulled out of the debris, taking the death toll in the west Delhi building collapse to five, even as the Aam Aadmi Party government and the BJP-ruled civic body engaged in a blame game over the issue.
Eye-witnesses said the blast took place at around 7 am. They said a noise of the blast was heard and the 20-year-old building was reduced to rubble.
'In India, managers and the leadership almost glorify overworking.'
The metropolis also saw two other incidents of wall collapse amid heavy rains since Friday, injuring five persons.
As many as 19 persons had been killed in the last two days in various rain-related incidents including floods in Tamil Nadu, the government said on Wednesday and announced a total relief of Rs 76 lakh to their families.
Five people, including a woman, were killed and three others were injured after a three-storey building in Kamathipura area in south Mumbai collapsed on Saturday.
The rescuers pulled out Muhammad Shahid, 18, on Friday from the debris of the four-story factory.
Eight people were killed and five injured in rain-related incidents across Maharashtra where several parts were lashed by heavy rains on Friday.
Eyewitnesses claimed that a car crashed into a pillar of the 60-year-old hotel building, following which it collapsed.
The impact of the explosion led to the collapse of walls and roof of the room where the music system was kept.
'The Indian government is better prepared this time and has reached out to all contenders and not putting all eggs in one basket.'
When the landslide hit, Sruthi's house was washed away, along with its inhabitants. She lost her entire family and some relatives. All she had left for a close confidante was her fiance Jenson. Days after the landslide and the loss of her family, Jenson died in a road accident that also left Sruthi with serious injuries. News of the accident and Sruthi's backdrop as the lone surviving member of a family wiped out in the July landslide, was picked up by the media, and people rushed to help.
'The wrong person had to spend a banvaas of 14 years on a wrong charge.'
The rescuers had to make hectic efforts to remove the mangled frames of furniture, including large sofas, from the rubble at the mishap site.
Near the temple, a group of locals shouted 'Murdabad' slogans in protest when Chouhan was on way to console the victims' families.
The torrential rain that took place between September 27 and 30 has created a flood-like situation in 15 districts of the state, including the state capital.
