More 1,500 farmers in an Indian state have committed suicide after being driven to debt by crop failure, it was reported today.

At least six teenagers died from suspected food poisoning after drinking sour milk at their boarding school in eastern India, an official said today.

Seven teenage Christian girl students have gone missing from a convent school in eastern India where Christian-Hindu violence has left at least four people dead over the past 10 days, an official said today.

Meteorologists predicted today that monsoon rains would arrive in much of India in the next few days, bringing relief from a heatwave that has killed more than 150 people.