INDIA: A cold wave sweeping across northern India and neighbouring Bangladesh has claimed more than 390 lives over the past few days, reports Rahul Bedi in New Delhi.
India's eastern Bihar state, one of the country's poorest, has been the worst hit by the cold spell that began last month, recording 131 deaths.
They said a large number of children in Bihar and neighbouring Uttar Pradesh state had been admitted to hospital suffering from asthma, bronchitis and chest congestion. Some 52 people have died from exposure in Uttar Pradesh, a television news channel reported.
In Bangladesh, the overnight death toll from the cold spell rose to 200 yesterday, when 10 elderly men and women died in the northern districts of Rangpur, Gaibandha and Pabna.