More than a dozen helicopters, hundreds of defence personnel, NDRF teams and ordinary fishermen with their motor boats on Friday launched a massive rescue operation in Kerala as rains subsided but the death toll touched 164 in 10 days.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee who thrice served as the Prime Minister of India has passed away at the age of 93. He was admitted to the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here in June with kidney tract infection and chest congestion and was on life support system. He is survived by his adopted daughter and granddaughter.

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Atal Bihari Vajpayee had quite a few things in common. Both Nehru and Vajpayee were the first leader from their respective parties to become the Prime Minister of India. As incumbent prime minister, Nehru had predicted that Vajpayee would occupy his seat "one day".

A stalwart, a poet, a writer, an enlightened mind and a compassionate being leaves this world -- that's how megastar Amitabh Bachchan began his tribute to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, whose demise has left the nation mourning.

Not many know that BJP stalwart Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his father Krishna Bihari Vajpayee had enrolled in for a course in law at the same college in Kanpur. Vajpayee and his father were not only classmates, but also shared room no. 104 in DAV hostel.  “Vajpayee was a very obedient son. He stayed together with his father in the boys’ hostel of the college,” said Vajpayee’s college friend, Ram Mohan Singh, who completed his master’s degree in Political Science with the former Prime Minister.

Hundreds of people queued up this morning outside the residence of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Delhi, to pay their last respects to the departed leader.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that he discussed the flood situation in Kerala with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

An army soldier was killed on Friday in a brief gunfight between the security forces and militants in Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara district, police said.