India

American Sandy Allen, recognized as the tallest woman in the world, has died at age 53 at her nursing home in Shelbyville, Indiana. She was 7 ft 7¼ in (232 cm) in height. Even though she was officially named as the worlds tallest woman by the Guinness Book of World Records several websites list Yao Defen as the tallest. Yao's official height is disputed, however. Allen's height was brought on by a tumor in her pituitary gland that caused it to release growth hormone uncontrollably. She had surgery at age 22. In 1978 she appeared in the fil

According to a new report released jointly by the Government of the Myanmar, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United Nations (UN), the cost of providing aid and funding reconstruction after Cyclone Nargis will be US $1 billion over the next three years. ASEAN said in a press release that Cyclone Nargis was the "most devastating natural disaster in Myanmar’s history". They also say that the cyclone had a "similar scale of impact to that of the Indian Ocean Tsunami in Indonesia in 2004". 84,530 died in the cyclone and

A car bomb was used in an attack on the Indian embassy in central Kabul, Afghanistan on Monday morning. The bombing killed 41, and injured at least 141. It is the deadliest attack in Kabul since 2001, when Afghanistan's Taliban government was ousted by American armed forces. The attack happened at the gates of the embassy, located in central Kabul, near many other government buildings including the office of the Interior Ministry of Afghanistan. A security office and part of a wall were destroyed, and the blast was large enough to spread debr

A Casa-212 aircraft owned by the Indonesian air force disappeared while on a flight from the capital Jakarta to Bogor in West Java Friday morning. The plane was carrying 12 Indonesian military personnel and 6 civilians including a British, Singaporean and Indian national. The plane was tasked to test a new digital camera designed to conduct aerial mapping and topography. The aircraft was last sighted on radar in the Salak moutain region on the main island of Java, 90 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of the Indonesian capital. The Indonesian

In the Midwestern United States, floodwaters contaminated with a toxic brew containing such ingredients as sewage, farm runoff, and petroleum are raising concerns over the availability of clean drinking water. Flooding has been reported in the states of Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kansas and Indiana, with three deaths reported each in Iowa and Indiana, prompting comparisons to similar floods in 1993 that caused US$21 billion in damages. The flooding in Iowa has resulted in damage to buildings, infrastructure and farms, and

Three workers have died after an explosion and fire at a Reliance Industries petrochemical plant in Nagothana, Maharashtra, India. The fire broke out shortly after 11 a.m. in one of the facility's two linear low density poly-ethylene (LLDPE) units. The unit, which has a 60,000 tonne per anum (TPA) capacity, had been shut down 24 hours before the accident for maintenance. Several people were injured as well as the three who were killed. There are four production units at the plant, including another LLDPE unit with a 100,000 TPA capacity. None

A spiritual guru known as "Swami Amritachaitanya" is being held in Kerala, India on charges of fraud, rape and possession of narcotic drugs. Swami Amritachaitanya, whose real name is Santosh Madhavan, was arrested by Interpol in March on criminal charges in a police raid at his 16-suite ashram in Kochi, India following multiple police complaints against him. Indians living in Bahrain have recently come forward and filed a case against Madhavan in India on allegations of fraudulent practices related to his supposed charity activities. Twenty In

Aerial photos were released Friday of an uncontacted native group in Brazil. The pictures were taken along the Peruvian border near the Envira River. According to David Hill, a researcher at Survival International, these are the first photos taken in the area for 20 years. They were taken by a collaborative effort of the Brazilian National Indian Foundation (Fundação Nacional do Índio, or FUNAI) and the Special Secretariat of Indigenous People of the Government of Acre. FUNAI has been keeping tribes under surveillance in this area for the last

The Diwan-Amiri confirmed that the former Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salim Al-Sabah passed away today at his residence in Kuwait City. He was 78 years old. He suffered colon problems which led to surgery, and numerous visits back and forth between England, the United States and India. Sheikh Saad was married to Sheikha Latifa Fahad Al-Sabah. He was born in 1930 in Kuwait.He served as emir from January 15 to January 24, until a vote by the National Assembly of Kuwait nominated Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah in place of Sheikh S

People studying the situation in Myanmar are claiming that an inadequate response of the government of Myanmar (formerly Burma) to scientists' warnings about the cyclone, coupled with large-scale destruction of protective mangroves along its coasts, aggravated the devastation wreaked by tropical Cyclone Nargis. The cyclone has killed an estimated 22,980 people so far, with millions rendered homeless by the disaster, which struck the Irrawaddy Delta region of Myanmar last week (3 May). Scientists at the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) i

Heart disease in Indians is often more severe and occurs in younger people than in developed countries, a study has found. Publishing their findings in The Lancet last week, an Indian-Canadian team of researchers analysed data on 20,937 people who suffered heart attacks, collected from 89 centres spread across 50 cities in India from 2001–2005. They then compared this data with similar studies in developed countries. The researchers found that 60 per cent of the patients had a severe form of heart disease, compared with around 40 per cent i

An Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) has successfully launched ten satellites. The 44-metre long rocket lifted off from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 03:53:51 GMT (09:24 local time), and reached a polar, Sun-synchronous low Earth orbit a little over seven minutes later. Following burnout of the fourth stage of the carrier rocket, the payloads were released. The PSLV flew in the CA, or Core Alone, configuration, with no solid rocket boosters around the first stage. The ten satellites aboard the rocket wil