Stay indoors: Mercury at 46.6 deg, red alert sounded for scorching North India
The sports complex at Commonwealth Games village in East Delhi on Friday recorded 46.6°C, more than 6°C than what is normal
Weather officials separately sounded a “red category” alert for the National Capital Region (NCR) and several states around it to warn people to brace for severely hot weather until Saturday.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) uses a colour-coded scale — green, yellow, amber and red — to denote the severity of weather condition, with red being the most extreme.
Monsoon to be below normal over North, South india: Weather department
The overall monsoon across the country is “most likely” to be normal this season but it will be below normal over north and south India, the IMD said in its forecast Friday.
The El-Nino phenomenon, generally believed to have its impact on monsoon, will continue during the rainy season. However, there is a possibility of these conditions to turn neutral during the later part of the rainfall season, the IMD said.
12 dead in shooting at government building in Virginia; gunman shot dead
A longtime municipal employee in Virginia Beach shot and killed 12 people Friday afternoon and injured several others inside a public works building before he was killed in a fierce gun battle with police, city officials said.
Conditions of the surviving victims were not immediately available; five patients were sent to Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital and one was taken to Sentara Princess Anne Hospital.
E-cigarettes pose public health risk, says ICMR
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has warned of a potential public health disaster if action was not taken to completely prohibit and dissuade the use of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) or e-cigarettes.
E-cigarette use adversely affects the cardiovascular system, impairs respiratory immune cell function and airways in a way similar to cigarette smoking and is responsible for severe respiratory disease.
