Death toll from Beijing weekend downpours rises to 37

The death toll from Saturday's torrential rains in the Chinese capital Beijing has risen to 37.
The city municipal government says that 25 were people drowned, six were buried under a collapsed house, five were electrocuted and one person was struck by lightening.
Twenty-two of the dead have been identified so far.
The deluge struck on Saturday afternoon and continued into the night. It led to the flooding of major roads,severe delays at the main airport and blackouts in parts of the city.
Nearly 15-thosuand people were told to leave their homes.
It was the heaviest rainfall to hit the Chinese capital in over six decades.
South China braces for strong tropical storm

Tropical storm Vicente is now moving towards China's southern provinces and is expected to make a landfall Monday night or Tuesday morning.
Ferry services between the mainland and the southern island of Hainan have been suspended and most train services have been rescheduled.
Heavy rains and strong winds of up to 100 kilometers per hour are expected to hit most parts of Guangdong in the next couple of days.
Legislative body, garrison put in place in new South China Sea city

China's newly established city of Sansha in the South China Sea has announced a list of 45 deputies to the city people's congress, the local legislative body.
At the same time, China's central military authority has approved the deployment of a military garrison to the city.
China's central government in June approved the establishment of Sansha, a prefecture-level city to administer the Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha islands and the surrounding waters in the South China Sea.
Bomb blasts rock Iraq

At least 30 people are reported dead and scores injured in a wave of weekend bombings across Iraq.
15 were killed and up to 60 injured in the capital Baghdad when three bombs exploded in a crowded market.
The city of Mahmudiyya was struck by three blasts – one of them a rocket attack on a local hospital. 10 people were killed.
23 people were also injured when a car bomb exploded in the holy Shia city of Najaf.
There has been increased sectarian violence across Iraq in recent months and worsening political tensions.
Obama visits familes of shooting victims

US President Barack Obama has scheduled to travel to Colorado to meet up with the inured and families of those killed in Saturday's cinema gun attack.
12 people were killed and 58 injured in when a man opened fire on a packed audience during a midnight screening of the new Batman film at a cinema in the town of Aurora.
The alleged shooter, 24 year old James Holmes, is being held at a local police station and will appear n court on Monday.
Police finally managed to defuse explosives at Mr. Holmes's flat. They claimed that the flat had been wired to kill any person who entered via the door.
Both Obama and his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, have taken time off from presidential campaigning in respect to the victims of the shooting.
Intense fighting continues in Syria

Intense fighting is being reported in Syria's 2 biggest cities – Damascus and Aleppo – as the government seeks to regain control of rebel-held areas.
There are reports that government forces have deployed helicopter gun-ships in an attempt to drive the rebel Free Syrian Army out of Damascus.
The fighting follows a week in which the rebels made major gains – controlling several parts of the capital,seizing border crossings in Iraq and Turkey and assassinating top security officials.
Meanwhile, the UK based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights have declared that over 19,000 people have been killed in the fighting since Match 2011. Of those, it claims that 13,200 were civilians and 4,800 military personnel.
3 killed in Madagascar mutiny

At least three people have been killed in Madagascar during an army mutiny near the capital's airport.
Government troops have now re-taken control of the army barracks following Sunday's fighting.
All flights to and from the airport have been suspended.
Army officials say government forces have arrested dozens of people but there are no civilian casualties.
The motives for the mutiny remain unclear.
Madagascar has been in a political crisis since early 2009 when military-backed opposition leader—now president—Andry Rajoelina came to power in a coup
Kidnapped Libyan Olympic Committee chief released

The President of the Libyan Olympic Committee, Nabil Elalem, has been released a week after being kidnapped by gunmen in Tripoli.
However, it is still not clear who the gunmen were and or their motives for siezing Elalem.
Elalem is known to have been friends with Gadhafi's son, also his predecessor as the Libyan Olympic Committee president.
Former Indian finance minister elected president

It's been announced that India's former finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will be the country's next president.
The 77-year-old veteran politician, nominated by the ruling United Progressive Alliance, defeated his main challenger, former parliament speaker P.A. Sangma, by a huge margin in last week's election.
Mukherjee's political career has spanned over four decades. He was considered his party's main troubleshooter until he resigned to contest the presidency.