HYDERABAD: The country

Completion of all on-going irrigation projects will be the top priority for the new Government to be formed in Andhra Pradesh.

This was disclosed by the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, at a media conference at Gandhi Bhavan on Saturday after the ruling party regained power by obtaining simple majority in the elections to the Assembly.

A day after India confirmed its first case of A/H1N1 influenza virus, government tightened the screening process of passengers from flu affected countries. Authorities had on Saturday confirmed that a 23-year-old IT student in Hyderabad had tested positive of carrying the virus.

On Sunday authorities also admitted a mother-son duo in Chennai with suspected symptoms of the disease.

Hyderabad, May 15: The tiger population in the Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve has been put at around 75 including cubs, according to the latest census by the Wild Life Wing of the AP forest department.

Sources in the department said that there are around 100 panthers in the tiger reserve area.

Hyderabad: One more patient from Bholakpur died at Osmania General Hospital on Friday after drinking contaminated water. With this, the total number of deaths have risen to 16. The patient, Sakku Bai, 66, was first admitted to Fever Hospital at Nallakunta and then referred to Osmania hospital on May 12 after her condition deteriorated, a doctor said.

May 14: The report submitted by the Institute of Preventive medicine (IPM) after testing 10 samples said that none of the samples tested positive. This report was submitted to the state health officials on Thursday.

May 14: With there being no vaccine against cholera as yet, the state health officials are having a tough time. The secretary of health, Mr L.V. Subramaniam, says that a vaccine against cholera is only in its trial stages at the Central Research Institute in Kasouli, Himachal Pradesh. It can be expected only by August.

May 14: The Andhra Pradesh High Court has quashed an order passed by the Ranga Reddy district revenue authorities taking back the unutilised land from the Bathini Mrugasira Trust.

Denied rights, aggrieved citizens abstain from voting having lost their means to earn a living, communities are increasingly using their vote to drive home the message they distrust the State. Tribals who lost their agricultural land in a forest area because of faulty implementation of forest rights laws in Maharashtra are as peeved as fishers in the Tamil Nadu-Andhra Pradesh border

May 13: Health authorities on Tuesday said one passenger, who had disembarked at the Hyderabad airport, has been referred to health facility for suspected H1N1 influenza virus. The authorities, meanwhile, maintained no positive flu case has been identified in the country so far.