Suspected Maoist rebels freed more than 300 prisoners in an dramatic overnight raid on an Indian jail that left 11 people dead and triggered a protest today by the inmates’ relatives who were beaten back by club-wielding police.

Health workers and volunteers today distributed food, medicines and drinking water in south-eastern India where monsoon rains have killed 74 people over the last three days.

Asian officials conceded today that they failed to issue broad public warnings immediately after a massive undersea earthquake in Indonesia, which could have saved countless lives from the subsequent giant waves that smashed into nine countries.

The death toll from a heatwave which gripped south-eastern India last week has risen to at least 1,030 as reports of further deaths trickled in from remote villages in recent days.