Doctors in northern India today issued a warning to avoid eating dairy-based sweets ahead of a major Hindu festival.

The death toll from Japanese encephalitis rose to 460 in a northern Indian state after 28 more people died overnight from an outbreak of the mosquito-born disease, officials said today.

Thousands of people crowding into an Indian politician’s open-air birthday party caused a stampede today, killing 21 women and children, doctors said.