Four people were shot dead by Maoists in a village in Bihar

Bullet-riddled bodies of four villagers abducted by Maoists have been recovered from a pond in Banka district of Bihar, police said on today.

Mansoor Ansari, Kallu Ansari, Kashim Ansari and Sahadat Ansari - whose bodies were found in a pond at Behrar village - were kidnapped from Kanaudi village in Bihar's Jamui district on Thursday.

The ultras shot them dead and dumped the bodies into the pond, sources said.

Maoists had killed three villagers and abducted these four people from Kanaudi village.

Maoists raided the village on Thursday night and killed Mumtaz Ansari, Fakhruddin and Samimul Ansari.

Police in Jamui and Banka districts have launched a joint combing operation against Maoists, officials said.

Cyclone Thane leaves 40 dead in Tamil Nadu,Puducherry

Packing a wind speed of 140km per hour, Cyclone Thane pummelled the Tamil Nadu coast and the Union territory of Puducherry on Friday morning, leaving in its wake 35 dead besides untold devastation. The cyclone made its landfall between Puducherry and Cuddalore district in the state, bringing with it strong winds and heavy rains all along the coast.

Cuddalore, Tiruvallur and Villupuram districts along Tamil Nadu's northern coast and Puducherry were the worst hit - several huts and small houses collapsed like a pack of cards, main arterial roads were damaged and uprooted trees and electric posts were strewn across streets and pavements.

The picturesque 180km coastal stretch from Marakkanam (Villupuram district), about 120km from Chennai, up to Nagapattinam, including Puducherry and Cuddalore districts, bore the brunt of the cyclone. The East Coast Road (ECR) from Marakkanam to Nagapattinam in central Tamil Nadu resembled a war zone with uprooted trees, electric posts and signboards disrupting traffic flow.

Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa, who took stock of the situation in the morning in a meeting with senior officials in Chennai, sanctioned Rs 150 crore for immediate relief measures in the affected areas and directed four ministers to visit the districts devastated by the cyclone. Jayalalithaa also directed district collectors, deputy collectors and department secretaries to assess the extent of the damage caused by the cyclone and submit a report. In a statement, she said four teams of the National Disaster Management have been sent to affected districts.

Most of the deaths were due to wall collapses, electrocution, drowning and severe cold. Cuddalore district collector V Amuthavalli said the damages were extensive. "As per preliminary assessment, more than 5,000 houses of fishermen were damaged in the cyclone. Telephone lines were affected. We don't have exact figures of the death toll as of now," she said.

In Chennai, which escaped the fury of the cyclone, two people were killed in rain-related incidents. While a woman was killed in a building collapse, a man was electrocuted.

Police said 19 persons, including two children and seven women, were killed in Cuddalore district. However, an official statement put the death toll at 26 in Tamil Nadu, including 21 in Cuddalore, two each in Villupuram and Tiruvallur and one in Chennai.

The government announced compensation of Rs 2 lakh for each of the bereaved families. The Chennai Met office forecast few spells of rain and thundershowers in the city on Saturday morning but predicted clear skies by evening. The weather conditions in Puducherry, Cuddalore and Nagapattinam are also expected to improve by Saturday.

West Bengal Liquor Tragedy Toll Shoots Up To 98

At least 98 people, mostly rickshaw pullers and labourers have died after consuming spurious liquor at Mograhat in South 24 Parganas district in West Bengal.

More than 60 people are battling for their lives in several hospitals, official sources said, adding the casualty might go up.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the government was contemplating demolition of illegal liquor dens.

In an interview to a private television channel, Mamata Banerjee said that the government was contemplating demolition of illegal liquor dens.

"I have seen many people die in hooch tragedies on several occasions. And they keep recurring. I urge help from the society and others to rise above political barriers and help in doing away with this social evil," she said.

Describing the deaths as "unfortunate", she said: "We have to run an awareness programme. If the illegal distilleries are regularised the government can earn revenue. But that would be a disservice to the society."

The state government had announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each to the families of those who died.

Four people have been arrested for supplying the moonshine in Sangrampur village in the South 24-Parganas district. Magrahat is 52 km from Kolkata.

Those taken ill have been admitted to the Diamond Harbour Hospital, health centres and nursing homes. Some have been shifted to Kolkata.

All the people fell ill after consuming spurious liquor from several illegal joints on Tuesday.

Soon after the incident yesterday, locals had smashed a liquor manufacturing unit at Mograhat and the joints from where it was being sold at Sangrampur.

18 killed' in fresh Syria clashes

At least 18 people are reported to have died in clashes in Syria as opposition activists called a general strike.

11 of the deaths were in the cities of Homs and Hama, the opposition Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC) said.

Two people also died in clashes between troops and deserters in the northern Idlib province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

Authorities in Idlib confronted members of "an armed terrorist group", said Syrian state news agency SANA.

The UN estimates more than 4,000 people have died in the nine-month uprising, including 307 children.

Syria severely restricts access to foreign media so reports of unrest cannot be verified.

The LCC said the casualties it had recorded on Sunday included two children.

There were also reports of clashes between defectors and troops in the south, near the border with Jordan.

In Jordan itself, protests at the Syrian embassy in the capital Amman turned violent for the first time.

The embassy said protesters stormed the building and attacked staff, but the brother of one of the protesters told the BBC that they were assaulted when they went into the embassy wearing opposition flags.
'Burned shops'

Heavy machine-gun fire was heard and two armoured carriers were burned in pre-dawn clashes in Kfar Takharim town in Idlib province, the British-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said.

Reuters news agency quoted residents and activists as saying army defectors had also clashed with loyalist forces backed by tanks in the town of Busra al-Harir, not far from the border with Jordan.

The Observatory said that a general strike called by opposition activists was being "very widely observed" in southern Syria's Daraa province on Sunday, the start of the working week.

And schoolchildren and civil servants stayed at home in some parts of Damascus, although central districts opened as normal, the activist group said.

Fear of pro-government militias prevented some shopkeepers from joining the strike, one Damascus resident told.

Shopkeepers who kept the shutters down in Idlib province had their property burned by troops who issued a warning via loudspeakers from a nearby mosque, the LCC said.

The LCC also said the strike was being well observed by students at Aleppo University and by residents of the town of Douma near Damascus, where it said casualties had been reported.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is under international pressure to end the continuing crackdown on anti-government protesters.

The Arab League is reported to be holding two emergency meetings in the coming days, to discuss Damascus's response to the League's plan to send in monitors.

Last month the League suspended Syria's membership in protest at the continuing crackdown and also imposed economic sanctions.