In Indonesia, at least 17 people have been killed and nine are missing after days of heavy rain triggered floods and landslides on the island of Sumatra. Authorities said, some 12,000 people have been evacuated, and hundreds of buildings, bridges and roads damaged. The severe weather has affected nine districts across Bengkulu province. Officials said, the waters have receded in some places but the full extent of the damage was not yet known as some areas are still cut off. 

National Disaster Agency said, the impact of the disaster may increase and landslides and floods could happen again if rain is high. Public kitchens and evacuation shelters have been set up to cater to those affected by the flooding, while search and rescue teams are trying to reach hard-hit areas with rubber boats. Landslides and floods are common in Indonesia, especially between October and April, when rains lash the vast Southeast Asian archipelago.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has issued an order for a ban on burqa, veil or covering of the face in a manner which prevents anyone from being identified. The order coming into effect today said any garment or item which obstructs the identification of a persons face would be barred. 

It follows last Sunday attacks in which more than 250 people were killed. Some Muslim organisations had also come forward and suggested a ban on burqa to help stabilize the security situation.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has urged parliament to speed up the enaction of law against terrorist activities. He said in a statement that Sri Lanka's existing anti-terrorism laws were enacted in 1979 to combat domestic activities and a new bill was presented to parliament in 2018, but a committee in charge was still sitting on it. 

The severe heat wave has gripped several parts of the country. In Gujarat, heat wave conditions prevailed in many parts, especially in the southern and the Saurashtra-Kutch regions. 

The Kandla airport remained the hottest place in the state with the maximum temperature at 46.8 degree Celsius yesterday. The maximum temperature at Surendranagar in Saurashtra touched 44.7 degrees, while it was recorded at 44.6 degree Celsius in Amreli.

In Maharashtra, Met Department has issued a heatwave warning for North Central and Marathwada regions for today. The warning comes as Akola, Parbhani and Chandrapur districts in Vidarbha region recorded the highest temperature in the country at 47.2 degree Celsius on Saturday. 

The Cyclone Fani in South East Bay of Bengal is expected to intensify into a severe cyclonic storm by this noon. India Meteorology Department said it will further intensify into a very severe cyclonic storm by tomorrow morning. It is moving in a north westwards direction at a speed of 21 kilometres per hour.

Cyclone Fani, when observed last time, was laying centred at 910 kilometres south-east of Chennai and 1090 km from Machilipattinam.It is expected to continue to travel in North West direction till Wednesday and then recurve to proceed in the north-northeast direction.

Kerala is expected to get light to moderate rain at many places today and tomorrow and heavy rain at isolated pockets. A few places in north coastal Tamil Nadu and south coastal Andhra Pradesh are predicted to have light to moderate showers for the next two days.
A few places in coastal Odisha are set to get moderate rainfall on May 2nd and heavy rainfall on May 3rd. Fishermen have been asked not to venture into the deep sea in South East Bay and the adjoining equatorial Indian Ocean.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers' meeting in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek today. She arrived in Bishkek yesterday on a three-day visit to Kyrgyzstan. Mrs Sitharaman will also hold bilateral meetings with her counterparts from some SCO member countries on the sidelines of the conclave. 

The SCO Defence Ministers will explore ways to further boost defence and security cooperation among the member countries in the wake of evolving security challenges in the region.  India is also keen on deepening its security-related cooperation with SCO and its Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS) which specifically deals with issues relating to security and defence. 

The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the Presidents of China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.  India and Pakistan became its full members in 2017.  Kyrgyzstan is the Chair of the SCO at present.

The alliance will prioritise, plan, conduct, scale up, translate relevant research in a coordinated and combinatorial way to have a tangible impact on population at risk for malaria

ICMR launched Malaria Elimination Research Alliance (MERA)- India and organised the stakeholders’ meeting at ICMR headquarters, New Delhi to have vibrant discussions on the roadmap of the alliance. National and international leaders of malaria research, officials from Government of India, NGOs participated in the day-long meeting.

Indian Council of Medical Research has established ‘Malaria Elimination Research Alliance-India (MERA-India)’ which is a conglomeration of partners working on malaria control. The principal activity of the alliance is to prioritise, plan, conduct, scale up and translate relevant research in a coordinated and combinatorial way in order to have a tangible impact of this research on the population at risk for malaria.

5th Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) Media Summit on Climate Action and Disaster Preparedness began in Kathmandu on Thursday.

The theme of the two-day summit is “Media Solutions for Sustainable Future: Saving Lives, Building Resilient Communities”. 

Nepal’s Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gokul Prasad Baskota inaugurated the summit. The basic aim of the summit is to address the issue of fully utilizing media’s potential of accelerating climate action and disaster preparedness and connect stakeholders to media professionals for collaboration and joint practical projects. 

According to ABU, over 200 participants including political leaders, representatives of UN agencies and NGOs, climate change and disaster management experts, scientists and media persons are attending the event.

India bagged a gold and two silver medals at the Asian Boxing Championships in Bangkok today. 

With this, India has won 13 medals, including two gold, four silver and seven bronze. 

Boxer Amit Panghal picked up his second successive gold medal of the year, claiming the top honours in the 52-kilogram category. Panghal defeated Korea's Kim Inkyu Korea.
 
National champion Deepak Singh and Kavinder Singh Bisht in 56-kilogram category signed off with silver medals after close losses.

India's Divyansh Singh Panwar today secured the country's fourth Olympic quota place in shooting by winning a silver in the ISSF World Cup in Beijing. 

The 17-year-old teenager Divyansh finished second in the 10m air rifle event in the International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup for pistol and rifle shooters.

 This is India's fourth 2020 Tokyo Olympic quota after Anjum Moudgil and Apurvi Chandela (10m air rifle women) and Saurabh Choudhary (10m Air Pistol men) had secured berths in the earlier World Cups and last year's World Championship. 

NASA's robotic Mars InSight lander has recorded a likely mars quake for the first time ever. 

The US space agency said the faint seismic signal, detected by the lander's Seismic instrument, was recorded on April 6 this year. 

NASA said this is the first recorded trembling that appears to have come from inside the planet, as opposed to being caused by forces above the surface, such as wind. 

Scientists still are examining the data to determine the exact cause of the signal.