As many as 19,799 children died in Maharashtra between April 2017 and March 2018 due to various reasons, including poor weight and respiratory illnesses, Health Minister Deepak Sawant has said.

The main reasons of death during the period were poor weight at the time of birth, premature delivery, contagious diseases, congenital respiratory illnesses and deformities, besides others, he said in a written reply during the recently concluded Monsoon Session of the Legislative Council in Nagpur.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi, chairing the first meeting of the new Congress Working Committee (CWC), on Sunday accused the BJP of oppressing the poor and Dalits and urged party workers to fight for India's poor.

Describing the Congress as the "voice of India", Gandhi, addressing the extended CWC meeting here, said the party had a responsibility towards the present and the future.

India's star sprinter Muhammed Anas reset the national record on his way to the gold medal in the men's 400 metre category at the Cena Noveho Mesta nad Metuji meet here on Saturday.

Anas clocked a time of 45.24 seconds to break his own record of 45.31, set at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia earlier this year where he finished fourth.

A woman has been killed in a Los Angeles grocery store siege in which a gunman held multiple people hostage, police said on Saturday. The suspect has been taken into custody and an investigation is underway, Efe news agency reported.

In a shocking allegation of police brutality, a 22-year-old man from Chennai has alleged that a traffic police officer beat him up for not producing his original vehicle registration certificate(RC).

Three militants, involved in killing of a police constable on Saturday in Jammu and Kashmir, were killed on Sunday in a gunfight in Kulgam district, police said.

With serious crimes being reported from parks and narrow lanes in national capital, the Delhi Police on Saturday came up with bicycle patrols for quick and effective surveillance of these and other congested areas.

According to police, the initiative was taken as a number of serious crimes such as rape, molestation and murder occurred in different parks and markets, and officials felt that bicycles could be most optimum mode of transport for spots which PCR vans and bikes cannot access easily.

 The Congress on Saturday accused the BJP of transforming the country into a land of lynchings and is also trying to "lynch" the Supreme Court's judgment that highlighted the need for a strict law.