At least 19 people were killed after multiple landslides in the hills of India's southern state of Kerala on Tuesday, local media reported, with heavy rain and poor internet connectivity hampering rescue efforts.
Hundreds of people are likely to be trapped and as many 19 people have died, including a child, the Indian Express newspaper reported.
Television visuals showed water gushing through rocks and fallen trees, with many houses destroyed.
"The situation is serious. The government has pressed all agencies into rescue," state Forest Minister A K Saseendran told Reuters.
The India Meteorological Department has forecast extremely heavy rain in the state on Tuesday.
Relief efforts are ongoing, and two helicopters of the Indian Air Force have been mobilised, the Kerala chief minister's office said in a statement.
Rescue efforts were hampered as there was no internet connectivity in the area, Mohsen Shahedi, a senior National Disaster Response Force officer said.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party acting Chairman Tarique Rahman returned from nearly 17 years in exile on Thursday, a homecoming the party hopes will energise supporters with Rahman poised to be the top contender for prime minister in February.
At least 5 were killed and 35 others injured when a bomber detonated an explosive inside a mosque in Maiduguri, the capital of Nigeria's Borno state, during evening prayers, police said.
A helicopter has crashed on Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro, killing five people, the civil aviation authority said on Thursday, while local media reported that the aircraft was on a medical rescue mission.
Fourteen countries including Britain, Canada, and Germany have condemned the Israeli security cabinet's approval of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, saying they violated international law and risked fuelling instability.
The US Justice Department has found more than a million more documents potentially tied to convicted American financier Jeffrey Epstein, delaying a full release for weeks while officials redact details to protect victims, the Department of Justice said on Wednesday.
Dubai Police are inviting community members to play a starring role in the city’s world-famous New Year’s Eve celebrations, by volunteering to support police operations.
A fifth batch of Indonesian medical personnel has arrived at the UAE Floating Hospital in Al Arish, Egypt, to provide medical care for Palestinian patients and those wounded arriving from the Gaza Strip under "Operation Chivalrous Knight 3".