Chandigarh, May 23 - Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh continued to sizzle today even as the weather department predicted that heat wave to severe heat wave conditions may prevail in the states for the next two days. Amritsar and Ludhiana in Punjab and Hisar and Bhiwani in Haryana have been reeling under severe heat conditions with temperatures hovering between 45-47 degrees Celsius in the past few days.

London, May 22 - Well-known Kannada author U R Ananthamurthy is the only Indian to be shortlisted for the prestigious Man Booker International Prize 2013 that will be awarded here later today. Unlike the annual Booker, the international prize recognises one writer for his or her achievement in fiction and is awarded every two years to a living author who has published fiction either originally in English or whose work is available in translation in the English language.

Mumbai, May 22 - Milk will become dearer in Maharashtra from May 25, with the state government today deciding to hike prices between Rs 2 and Rs 3 per litre. Making an announcement here, Minister for Dairy Development and Animal Husbandry Madhukar Chavan said the price of cow/toned milk supplied by Government agencies has been increased by Rs 2 per litre, from Rs 29 to Rs 31 a litre.

Agartala, May 22 - Mizo Bru Displaced People's Forum (MBDPF), a body of the internally displaced people of Bru community sheltered in camps in North Tripura district, today urged the Mizoram government to initiate fresh talks for their repatriation. A bi-partite meeting had been organised by the Mizoram government at Aizawl in January but due to an all India strike on the day, MBDPF representatives could not reach there, its president Sawibunga said.

New Delhi, May 22 - Normal life remained affected as most parts of the country continued to reel under intense heat wave today, with mercury in Rajasthan's Sriganganagar district settling at a sizzling 48.2 degrees Celsius. There was no let up from heat for Delhiites as the maximum temperature in the capital stood at 44.9 degrees against yesterday's 45.1, which is season's highest thus far.

Itanagar, May 22 - Officers of Assam forest department along with police personnel allegedly carried out eviction drive in the territory of Arunachal Pradesh, official sources here said. Personnel of Jinjia police station in Assam's Sonitpur district carried out the eviction drive in East Kameng district of Arunachal on Monday, assaulted villagers of Dipik and warned them against taking up agricultural activities there, the sources claimed. 

Chandigarh, May 22 - With northern region reeling under sweltering heat, demand for power in Punjab, Haryana and UT Chandigarh has jumped by up to 23 per cent in the last ten days. Though intense heat prevailing in the region has compounded the woes of common people, power utilities claimed that adequate arrangements of power are in place to meet the rising demand for power in coming days.

Jaipur, May 22 - Bye-election to fill vacant posts of Sarpanch, Panch and others in the Panchayti Raj institutions of Rajasthan will take be held on June 7. 

Rangia, May 22 - Movement of the down Trivandrum Express was blocked by students and public in Assam's Kamrup district where four other trains also were controlled at different places due to agitation. Puthimari Anchalik Students Union with the help of local public squated on the train tracks at Kendukona railway station and blocked movement of the Trivandrum Express for four hours till noon, official sources said.

Nawada, May 22 - Two persons, including a local JD(U) leader, were killed and five others sustained burn injuries in separate incidents in Bihar's Nawada district today, police said. JD(U) leader Yadunandan Chauhan died after a speeding truck rammed into his motorcycle near Odhanpur village on NH-31 under Mufassil police station area this morning, they said.

Chandigarh, May 22 - Gurgaon-the most progressive city of Haryana has figured among districts having lowest sex ratio even as overall sex ratio of Haryana has increased to 879. According to data rolled out by Haryana Census department here for census 2011, lowest sex ratio was reported in Gurgaon at 854, Sonipat at 856 and Jhajjar at 862.

Nashik, May 21 - A ten-day festival for tourists began today at Saputara, a hill station in Gujarat, which is around 90 kms from here. Gujarat Tourism Minister Sourabh Patel inaugurated the festival, in which various cultural programmes, jungle-safari, food festival, among other things, have been organised for the tourists, Balwant Pathare, president of Saputara Hotel Association, said.

Bhubaneswar, May 21 - Heat wave conditions continued to prevail in Odisha with the temperature crossing 45 degree Celsius in eight of the 30 districts today. The highest temperature of 46.2 deg C was recorded in the coal belt of Talcher, followed by 46 deg C in Bolangir, 45.7 deg C at Hirakud, 45.5 deg C in Samalpur and Bhawanipatna, 45.4 deg C at Jharsuguda and Sonepur and 45 deg C at Titlagarh, the met office here said.

Dehradun, May 21 - The Uttarakhand government today set up a dedicated cell to check the arrangements for the ongoing Char Dham yatra and ensure speedy action in dealing with emergencies during the annual pilgrimage. Constituted on the directive of the CMO, the cell consists of officials from Tourism, Home, PWD, Health, Power, Disaster Management, Transport and Potable Water departments, besides weather and BRO officials.

Nagpur, May 21 - Nagpur today recorded a maximum temperature of 47.8 degrees Celsius, a level not seen in nearly six decades, as Vidarbha continued to reel under intense heat-wave conditions. The second capital of Maharashtra had recorded the same temperature on May 26, 1954, the Regional Meteorological Centre here said.

Bhubaneswar, May 21 - With about 78 people getting killed in heat stroke and 285 due to lightning annually in the state, the Odisha government today asked the Centre to include these natural phenomena in the list of approved calamities for financing under the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF). "Kindly consider inclusion of heat wave and lightning in the list of approved calamities for financing the expenditure on the preparedness and response activities relating to the said disasters from SDRF," Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said in a letter to Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde.

Kolkata, May 21 - The West Bengal government should stop interfering in the matters of the State Election Commission and allow it to hold the panchayat elections on time, the CPI(M) said today. "The state government should stop interfering in the jurisdiction of the Election Commission as this will only delay the panchayat elections," Left Front chairman and CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose told reporters here.

Jammu, May 21 - One hundred and fifty new mobile phone towers would soon be set up in Jammu and Kashmir to strengthen the state's communication network, a Central minister said today. "As many as 150 mobile towers would be installed to strengthen (J-K's) mobile network," Union Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology, Kruparani Killi told reporters here.