LIVE news updates: 17 dead in east Ukraine coal mine blast

Dy Director Gen S Balachandran, IMD Chennai: Today there was deep depression over southeast Bay of Bengal. It intensified into cyclonic storm, it is lying at 1250km southeast of Chennai, expected to intensify into severe cyclonic storm and move northwest towards south AP by 30 Apr.

Fifteen people were killed in a gun battle between the government forces and an armed group in Kalmunai city of Sri Lanka, authorities said on Saturday. Around 70 suspected suicide bombers were estimated to be at large, they said.

A military official told Xinhua news agency terrorists opened fire when the troops were attempting to raid a house, used by the armed group affiliated to an Islamic terrorist organisation. Some suicide bombers later blew themselves up inside the house.

Bodies of three men, three women and six children were retrieved from the house, the Daily Mirror reported. Three more bodies of suspected suicide bombers were recovered from outside the house.

The death toll from a coal mine blast in a separatist eastern region of Ukraine rose to 17 on Saturday, rebel authorities said.

The gas blast on Thursday ripped through the mine in Yurievka village in the self-proclaimed republic of Lugansk, which broke away from Kiev in 2014 and is run by Moscow-backed rebels.

"The tragedy took the life of 17 miners," Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the unrecognised Lugansk republic, said on Twitter.

He added that the bodies of all the miners that died have been recovered.

An angry mob in Jammu and Kashmir's Kishtwar town on Saturday attacked the office of the district magistrate and burnt the effigy of Governor Satya Pal Malik.

The mob, shouting slogans against the state government and the district administration, damaged the window panes and doors of the district magistrate's office. The protesters were demanding shifting of the district magistrate and police chief of Kishtwar district.

The protests, called by the local organisation Sanatan Dharam, were held against the failure of the administration to nab those involved in the killing of RSS leader, Chanderkant Sharma, his security guard and a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, Anil Parihar and his brother.

The northern parts of Telangana are likely to experience heat wave conditions for three days beginning Saturday, Met officials said.

The temperatures are rising due to the winds blowing from the north westerly and northerly direction, said a Met department official.

The highest maximum temperature of 44.7 degrees celsius was recorded during the past 24 hours at Nizamabad, the weather office said in its report.

Ramagundam and Adilabad recorded the maximum temperature of 44 degrees during the past 24 hours while Hyderabad witnessed a maximum temperature of 41 degrees, it said.

Another Intermediate student committed suicide in Telangana on Saturday, taking the toll to 20 since the Board of Intermediate Education last week announced the results, which were marred by goof-ups.

In the latest incident, a 17-year-old girl immolated herself in Narayanpet district.

Depressed after failing in one subject in the 12th standard examination, Sirisha committed self-immolation at her house in Dhanwada block of Narayanpet district, about 160 km from Hyderabad.

5 dead after a bus carrying a wedding party collided with a truck on National Highway 31 in Assam. The injured were rushed to Dhubri Civil Hospital.

A major fire on Saturday gutted as many as 40 shanties in Lalita Park in east Delhi, a fire official said.

According to the Delhi Fire Service, a call reporting a fire in the Lalita Park area was received by its control room at 11 a.m.

"Thirteen fire tenders were rushed to the spot, which doused the fire at 12.10 p.m. No casualty has been reported," the official said.

IMD Mumbai: Heat wave conditions likely in isolated pockets of Nashik, Ahmednagar, Pune, Jalgaon, Solapur and Sangli districts from 27 April to 29 April.

Two people were killed and nine injured on Saturday in a road accident in Jammu and Kashmir's Bandipora district.

Fifty five-year-old Naani Begum and 10-year-old Tabassum were killed and nine others injured after their vehicle went out of the driver's control on the Gurez-Bandipora road and plunged into a gorge, police said.

The injured were taken to the Bandipora district hospital.

As Air India's passenger service system (PSS) software shut down for six hours Saturday, the airline said a total of 155 flights will be delayed for an average duration of two hours till 8.30 pm.

Thousands of passengers had a harrowing time Saturday morning at airports across the world as the airline's PSS software, which looks after check-in, baggage and reservation, did not function from 3.30 am to 8.45 am due to a technical glitch.

"155 flights, with an average duration of two hours, are expected to be delayed till 2030 hours," Air India spokesperson said.

The Tamil Nadu Congress unit on Saturday lauded state-based athlete Gomathi Marimuthu for clinching gold in the Asian Athletics Championship held in Qatar and announced a cash incentive of ₹5 lakh for her.

The 30-year-old unheralded Gomathi had clocked a personal best time of 2 minute 02.70 seconds in the women's 800m race held in Doha, Qatar on Monday.

TNCC President KS Alagiri said Gomathi had achieved the feat despite hailing from a poor background, with her late father being a labourer, through sheer hard work.

A depression over the Indian Ocean and southeast Bay of Bengal has intensified and moved further northwestwards, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Saturday.

It is very likely to intensify into a cyclonic storm during next 12 hours and further into a severe cyclonic storm, the IMD said and warned fishermen against venturing into the sea on Sunday.

"The depression over east Equatorial Indian Ocean and adjoining southeast Bay of Bengal moved further northwestwards, intensified into a deep depression and lay centered about 870 km east-southeast of Trincomalee (Sri Lanka), 1210 km southeast of Chennai and 1500 km south-southeast of Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh," it said.

Security forces on Saturday morning started a cordon and search operation (CASO) in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district.

Following an information about the presence of militants, security forces started a CASO in Heff Shirmal village of Shopian district, police said.

Body of a 52-year-old woman, wife of a former Wing Commander, was recovered from her residence in Dwarka yesterday. Murder case registered, investigation underway.

The Pakistan government has suspended the anti-polio drive and post-campaign evaluation following the increasing number of attacks on polio workers in different parts of the country.

The countrywide campaign to administer anti-polio drops to 39 million children under five years of age was launched on Monday and Friday was the last day following which the evaluation of the drive was to take place.

However, the campaign, involving 260,000 polio workers, ran into trouble after reports that several children were taken to hospital as they fell sick after being administered the anti-polio vaccine in some areas of Peshawar.

Reserve Bank of India will issue ₹20 denomination banknotes in the Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series. The base colour of the note is Greenish Yellow. All the banknotes in the denomination of ₹20 issued by the Reserve Bank in the earlier series will continue to be legal tender.

Abhishek Verma wins a gold medal with a score of 242.7 in men’s 10m air pistol event at the International Shooting Sport Federation, Rifle & Pistol World Cup in Beijing

The United States has advised its citizens to reconsider their travel to Sri Lanka in view of the massive Easter Sunday bombings that killed over 250 people including Americans.

The State Department raised the travel risk to Level 3 in a travel advisory issued on Friday.

The State Department has also ordered the departure of all school-age family members of US government employees in kindergarten through 12th grade. It also authorised the voluntary departure of non-emergency US government employees and family members.

Julius Baumann, SITA's senior manager, corporate communications says, “SITA experienced a complex system issue during server maintenance today which resulted in operational disruption to Air India flights. We've now fully restored services at all airports where Air India were affected.”

“We are undertaking a full investigation to understand the root cause and prevent a recurrence. We deeply regret the inconvenience this has caused to the airline and their customers owing to this disruption. Only Air India flights were affected by the glitch.”

Congress leader PC Chacko says, “If Pragya Singh Thakur, a convicted person, an accused person, can contest an election, and in the name of separatism, Delhi is asking him (Yasin Malik) at gunpoint to surrender, anyone with self respect will react the way Mr Yasin Malik did.”

“Even though we do not support Yasin Malik's ideology or actions, the courage he has shown is something which should be appreciated because New Delhi cannot threaten anybody, India is a democracy.”

A minor fire broke out in a paper factory owned by an ex-MLA at a village, injuring some labourers, police said on Saturday.

Fire tenders were rushed to the spot to douse the flame, the police said. The factory was owned by former MLA Rajesh Bansal.

Accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, Peter Mukerjea has filed a bail plea in Bombay HC. A special CBI court had earlier rejected his bail plea. Mukerjea's HC plea mentions that CBI does not have evidence against him & cites medical conditions for seeking bail.

Accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, Varavara Rao had moved an application on Apr 22 for temporary bail or to be released with special police escort from 29 April to 4 May to attend post death rituals of his sister-in-law in Hyderabad. Matter was heard on Apr 25 and kept for order on Apr 29.

Fifteen bodies were recovered after a fierce gun battle between Sri Lankan forces and an armed group near Batticaloa, police said on Saturday.

Officers acting on a tip-off had launched a raid on Friday night in Ampara Sainthamaruthu and the armed group set off an explosion which triggered the gun battle, the BBC reported.

When troops moved in after dawn on Saturday, they found the bodies of 15 people.

“SITA server is down. Due to which flight operation is affected. Our technical teams are on work and soon system may be recovered. Inconvenience is deeply regretted, “ said Air India spokesperson

Air India flight operation has been affected as the airline's SITA server is down all over India & overseas since 3:30 am