The Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing for August 12 and 13 to consider petitions challenging the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar. The court has instructed petitioners to submit written arguments by August 8.

At least one person was killed and several others, including policemen, were injured in a clash between evicted people and security personnel in Paikan Reserve Forest in Assam's Goalpara district on Thursday, an official said.

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has criticised the Emergency declared by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975, saying the people of the country responded clearly to the excesses of that period by voting her party out of power by a large margin.

A dog's ability to sense danger saved 60 lives in Mandi's Siyathi village when a landslide struck. The dog's barking alerted villagers to a crack in a wall, prompting them to evacuate before the landslide destroyed the village.

Preliminary reports suggested that they were shot from a point-blank range, another official in the Churachandpur district headquarters said.

Around 70 people were undergoing treatment at the District Headquarters Hospital in Puri, with nine reported to be in critical condition, an official said.

He made the comments while visiting the site of an early morning Iranian missile strike in the city of Bat Yam, close to Tel Aviv.

A local who resides near the AI-171 crash site said that people rescued injured students from the BJ Medical College. He added that people were alive when they rescued them, but two died on their way to the hospital.