New Delhi - At least 22 people were killed in India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh in heavy rains since Monday, taking the death toll across the country in rain-related incidents to over 1,400 during the current monsoon season, officials and news reports said Tuesday.

Most of the deaths in Uttar Pradesh were caused by incidents of house collapse and flooding, the IANS news agency reported.

New Delhi, Aug 19 : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday blamed the "partisan" and "short sighted" policies of the Congress for the present crisis in Jammu and Kashmir.

The BJP spokesperson, Ravi Shankar Prasad, told a news conference here, "The politics and policies of the Congress in Jammu and Kashmir have been partisan and lacking in foresight.”

“The Congress'' policies have weakened nationalist forces and boosted the morale of the separatist forces," Prasad added.

New Delhi - An Indian man reported to be the oldest in the world died in India's western city of Jaipur on Tuesday at the age of 139.

Habib Miyan was suffering from fever and dysentery and died in the early hours of Tuesday at a state-run hospital, the PTI news agency reported.

According to his pension card, Habib was born on May 20, 1878. But he said he was much older, a claim which was accepted by India's Limca Book of Records in its 2005 edition.

New Delhi, Aug. 19 : The Union Home Ministry today said that in the last 24 hours a fleet of 548 load carriers carrying essential commodities, petroleum products and other items had entered Srinagar.

A ministry statement said that the vehciles entered the city between 2 p. m. on Monday and 2 p. m. on Tuesday, and added that of these, 83 were laden with rice, 28 with chicken, 22 with sheep and 25 with flour.

New Delhi, Aug 19 : The Indian Air Force (IAF) has deployed 250 skilled personnel to maintain safety and fire services at 21 airfields across the country in the wake of strike call by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) on Wednesday from 7A. M. to 7P. M.

The personnels have been deployed at short notice by the IAF.

Earlier also the IAF had extended such help a couple of times at very short notices for the smooth functioning of civil air travels.

New Delhi, Aug 19 : The Sports Ministry has announced a prize money of Rs. 50 lakhs to Abhinav Bindra, for his gold medal in the Beijing Olympics 2008, under the scheme of special award to medal winners in International Sports events.

Coming in the back drop of Bindra’s medal winning performance, Dr. M. S. Gill, Sports Minister, spoke to Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh for enhancing the prize money from Rs. 30 lakhs to 50 lakhs, for gold medallists in the Olympics.