Rains cause many deaths across Asia

Nearly 200 people died in floods caused by torrential rains in the southern Chinese province of Guangxi, AFP reports from Hong Kong. At least 144 people died and more than 200 people were injured in flooding which has ravaged the autonomous region's Hechi and Liuzhou areas since June. Another 51 were killed and 98 injured in rainstorms in the region, bordering Vietnam, since early July. Losses were estimated at 1.1bn yuan (pounds 127m). The average rain that fell in both Hechi and Liuzhou prefectures has reached 500mm (20in).

At least 34 people were killed and 60 villages submerged in the northern Indian states of Punjab and Haryana yesterday as widespread floods continued in the region, bringing the toll in eight days of floods to 242, Reuter reports from New Delhi. Unusually heavy monsoon rains since 8 July have washed away hundreds of acres of fertile wheatfields in Punjab and Haryana, threatened dams in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir states, and caused irrigation canals to overflow in Rajasthan. At least 50 villages were submerged in Haryana yesterday because of a breach in an irrigation canal. Another 10 villages in Punjab were submerged, taking the total to more than 200. Some 2 million people have been forced to vacate their homes. The Punjab city of Patiala was waterlogged for the fifth day.