At least 11 people have been counted dead due the heavy rains that lashed the city of New Delhi in India yesterday. Roads were submerged in knee deep water and vehicular traffic just came to a stand still, resulting to traffic jams, water gushing into low lying areas and into peoples homes, trees being uprooted, this shows the loopholes in Delhi’s management of the city just before the Common Wealth Games.

Reports state that, in three hours, the whole face of Delhi changed with sudden rains, which downpured 51.4 mm of rain in the city. It started from 5.30 to 8.30 pm, as it was reported only some parts of Delhi is recieving rain heavily, but then the humidity levels went up to 80% and it started to rain in almost all parts of Delhi. And as there was a sudden gush in the rains, the people who were communting back home were suddenly stuck in jams, clogged water on the streets and fallen trees. It took them almost five hours for the people, to ease out of the traffic.

With such a havoc created by nature, 6 people died by electocution and 5 died due to wall collapse in Delhi. Many trees and branches were lying all over after the strong winds blew, causing heavy traffic jams. It was reported that some of the trees that have been uprooted were very old.

The river Achankovil, runs in the state of Kerala, and it has been formed out of the streams of three rivers, namely, Rishimala River, Pasukidamettu River and the Ramakkalteri River. This river enriches the flora and fauna of the Pathanamthitta district in Kerala. As it is known, that Kerala is one of the most beautiful places in India, it rich in greenery, fauna and forest, it is green all through out the year.

This is one reason that the tourists are attracted to this state because it is green all the year. Kerala is also famous for its temples, and Achankovil Dharmasastha temple is a very famous place to be, for one reason it is situated in the dense forests of Kerala. Itis famous for the Lord Ayyappa idol, which is in the temple.

It has been said, the lord Parshurama his self concecrated the idol there. The temple’s design and structure is very similar to the shrine of Sabrimala. Along the way to the temple, nature astonishes us with the beautiful waterfalls of Manalar and the Kumbuvurutty falls, which in its beauty mysitfies the people.

Two men who have their association with a banned organisation in India (SIMI), have been arrested in Ahmedabad, during the eve of the Jagannath Rath Yatra 2010. According to the DCP, Himanshu Shukla, two men from the SIMI group have been arrested in Ahmedabad.

The two men who were arrested – Abu alias Abdulvali alias Abdufakir Siddiqui (34) and the other one Hasibraza alias Salim Raza (43). Both the men were arrested near the Prem Darwaza area, in Ahmedabad. They were travelling on their motorcycle before they were arrested.

Hasibraza, is convicted in conspiring to blow up the Howrah bridge in Kolkata, and allegedly send men from Jalgaon to Pakistan for terrorist training. Hasibraza has been a top-shot of the SIMI group from the recent years. After they had been arrested, one revolver, 20 bullets, and one air gun has been recovered from them.

The decision of the Supreme Court to lift the ban on James Laine’s controversial book on Shivaji, has saddened the Maharashtra government.

The Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Ashok Chavan irrespective of the order by the Supreme Court has appointed a special committee to check-on whether they can put on hold the publication and sale of ‘Shivaji – The Hindu King in Muslim India’.

James Laine, who is a professor of religious study has written ‘Shivaji-The Hindu King in Muslim India’, which was published in New York and New Delhi, respectively by the Oxford University in the year 2003.

In 2004, the government of Maharashtra put the ban on the book on the basis that it may create tension amongst the public at large. But soon after in 2005, the Mumbai High Court lifted the ban. This decision led the government to appeal in the Supreme Court and here too, the decision has come against them.

After India successfully introduced the swine flu vaccination, India is now ready to bring in its first influenza vaccination. Only a very few countries in the world, it seems doesn’t have the vaccination, but India now by October this year, would be having the vaccinaition against the flu.

Strains for the vaccination, which is the raw material, were collected from all over the world this year, and the H1N1 flu (strains) is among the three strains to be included into the vaccine. There would be four companies, who would be producing the vaccine, of which, Serum Institute and Cadilla, have already launched their products in the market.

India earlier this year had introduced, its first indigiously produced, Swine Flu vaccine. The flu has already killed more than a 1000 people in the country. The four companies who would be manufacturing the vaccine are – Serum Institute (Pune), Cadilla Healthcare (Ahemdabad), Bharat Biotech (Delhi) and Pancena Biotech (Hyderabad).

Natasha Padbidri, an aspiring Indian model, ended her life after hanging herself in her apartment at Versova locality in Mumbai on Sunday, July 11, 2010. This is the second case of suicide after super model Viveka Babajee’s suicide, within a span of a month.

Natasha used to live on the 5th floor of Pelican Apartments, while her family too lived in the same building, but on the ground floor.

According to the police reports Natasha, 31 was suffering from depression and redundancy and that could have been the reason for this extreme step of hers.

A police officer involved in the investigation of Natasha’s suicide said, “ It appears she was depressed as she was not satisfied with her professional life. We are probing other angles, including a love angle and financial difficulties”.

As per the reports, relatives of the model informed that she had done some small modeling projects in the past while she was in college. But since past 10 years or so she is professionally unstable.

BP has decided to replace the cap from the leaking well, on this weekend. As per reports, the new cap, will have a larger capacity of containing the oil from the sea floor. But the worry here is, during the replacing process, oil will gush out more into the sea.

According to the Coast Guard Officials, BP’s submersibles, would start the process of replacement by removing the current containment cap by the end of this week. Admiral Thad Allen, stated, the flowing oil from the well would be shutoff on Monday, but by that time almost hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil would be flown into the sea.

The Admiral also stated that right the term ‘contained’ can be used, ’stop’ can be said when the BP totally plugs the leaking well and the flow has been stopped permanantly. However BP on the other hand are trying numerous ways to stop the flow of leaking well, they even tried divert the flow by drilling two relief wells near by.

Indian Space Research Organisation is all set to launch its 17th flight of its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, from Satish Dhavan Space Center. The 50+ hours countdown has already begun, which commenced at 06.52 am today. The launch is scheduled on the 09.22 am on Monday.

According to the ISRO spokesperson, he has confirmed that the countdown has commenced and the launch will take place as per the schedule.

He said the all the preparations for the launch are in progress, and ISRO looking forward to launch all the five satellites on board the PSLV into space.

The satellites on board the PSLV are – Cartosat-2B from India, AlSat from Algeria, Nano Satellites from Canada and Switzerland and mircro satellite which has been built by the students of Hyderabad and Banglore, Studsat.

If the sources are to be believed then the news is that Amarnath Yatra pilgrims are the next target of the militants based in Pakistan. The security agencies have got a high alert by the government for the same.

An official said, “As the attention of the security forces is concentrated on the prevailing unrest in the Valley, the militants may try to take advantage of the situation. Therefore, we have asked everyone to be on high alert.”

“We have provided enough security men for peaceful completion of the pilgrimage,” he added.

As many as 8,500 paramilitary force personnel have been deployed in the valley as the security measures. The number exceeded by 2,200 as of last year.

The Yatra that is going to end on August 25 is expected to have around 2.90 lakh pilgrims.

It was hard to believe that the Indian government, in their reports have stated that, the contamination of soil and water around the Union Carbide Plant site, is not due to the Gas tragedy that took place in 1984. It is the pesticide production plant, which in the plants premises which has been dumping toxic waste for almost 15 years, has caused the contamination of soil and water around the plant premises.

The report clearly states, that, the gas leaked in the tragedy has nothing to do with contamination, but it was Union Carbide, who were producing pesticides, in the plant premises, and were dumping it there from the period of 1969 to 1984. This has been clearly stated by the National Environmental Engineering and Research Institute.

Environmental Minister, Jairam Ramesh, is the head of the committe which has taken the initiative to look after the clean up and the decontamination of the area around Union Carbide plant.