India issued a terror alert at its airports today after receiving reports that al-Qaida-linked militants were plotting to hijack a plane.

Heavy rains lashed the southern Indian coast and nine people were reported dead as a cyclonic storm touched the coastline today.

Sunstroke and dehydration claimed another 130 lives in a southern Indian state, raising the death toll from a two-week heat wave to 765, a relief official said today.

A DEADLY heat wave in southern India has killed at least 430 people in the past two weeks, a relief official said yesterday.