One dead as rains choke India’s tech capital

Rapid growth of the southern city dubbed India’s Silicon Valley has left many waterways covered over or used as dumps, leading to water stagnating every year during heavy rains. (AFP)
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Updated 20 May 2025
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One dead as rains choke India’s tech capital

  • The Times of India newspaper reported Tuesday at least three people had died

Bengaluru, India: Torrential rains have swamped parts of India’s tech capital Bengaluru, killing at least one person, an official said, and exposing long-standing infrastructure failures in a city that has expanded at breakneck speed.

Rapid growth of the southern city dubbed India’s Silicon Valley has left many waterways covered over or used as dumps, leading to water stagnating every year during heavy rains.

“Storm water drains are encroached upon, the drains are shallow and small, and they are filled with silt,” chief minister of Karnataka state Siddaramaiah said late Monday.

“Instructions have been given to the municipal corporation multiple times to clear them, and work is still ongoing,” he added.

Siddaramaiah said it was a “matter of sorrow that a woman lost her life” in Bengaluru, the state capital which is home to more than 10 million people.

The Times of India newspaper reported Tuesday at least three people had died.

India is hit by torrential rains and flash floods each year during the monsoon season, and experts say climate change is increasing their frequency and severity.


Sri Lanka court orders 84 Iranian sailors’s bodies be handed to Iran embassy, local media says

Updated 11 March 2026
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Sri Lanka court orders 84 Iranian sailors’s bodies be handed to Iran embassy, local media says

COLOMBO: A Sri Lankan court ​has ordered that the bodies of 84 sailors killed in an attack ‌on an Iranian ‌warship ​off ‌the ⁠island ​nation’s coast ⁠last week be handed over to the embassy of Iran, ⁠local media ‌reported ‌on Wednesday.
The warship, ​IRIS ‌Dena, was ‌hit by a torpedo from a US submarine in ‌the Indian Ocean while it ⁠was ⁠returning from a naval exercise organized by India, amid the US-Israeli war on Iran.