August 12, 2008	Tuesday	Sha'aban 9, 1429

HYDERABAD (India), Aug 11: At least 15 more people were killed overnight in heavy monsoon rains which have wrecked homes and destroyed farmland in southern India, taking the death toll over the past two days to 61, officials said on Monday.

The rains triggered flooding in major cities and towns and destroyed 150,000 hectares of mostly paddy crops across southern Andhra Pradesh state alone, officials said. “A failure of the rice crop in the state would certainly be a cause for concern, it is a large producer and a large consumer,” said R.S. Seshadri, a director of rice lands in the area.

At least 10 people were killed late on Sunday and 15 others went missing when a truck was swept away in flash floods in the state’s Guntur district, officials said.—Reuters