Police in India have sent reinforcements and imposed a curfew in new areas of northern Uttar Pradesh state to defuse tensions between Hindus and Muslims created by the fatal stabbing of a 24-year-old Hindu.

Free alcohol distributed by village politicians to win votes in India’s largest state has killed 19 people over two days and was found to be laced with insecticides and other potent chemicals.

An encephalitis outbreak has killed nearly 1,000 people – almost all of them children – in India and neighbouring Nepal, as too few doctors struggle to care for thousands of sick children in outdated hospitals.

Japanese encephalitis has killed 29 more people – mostly children – in northern India, taking the death toll from an outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease in South Asia to 929, officials said today.

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.

Japanese encephalitis killed 41 people overnight in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, pushing the death toll since the start of the outbreak in midsummer to 393, officials said today.

An outbreak of Japanese encephalitis has spread to new areas of northern India, officials said today, as 20 additional deaths pushed the toll from the mosquito-borne disease to 156 fatalities in two weeks.

At least 10 people were killed when their homes collapsed and another eight were missing after being swept away by floodwaters in northern India, bring the death toll from annual monsoon rains to at least 239, government officials said today.

Eunuchs in India are planning to become a political force with their own party, says the country's only eunuch MP.