Lucknow, May 5 (PTI) Two people died and two others got seriously injured after an oxygen cylinder exploded during the refilling process here on Wednesday, police said.

The incident took place at an oxygen plant in the Chinhat area of the city, Station House Officer (SHO) Dhananjay Pandey said, adding efforts were on to ascertain the identity of the victims, who died on the spot.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath took cognizance of the incident and expressed grief over the loss of lives.

Kolkata, May 5 (PTI) TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee was Wednesday sworn-in as the chief minister of West Bengal for the third consecutive term after a massive win in the state assembly elections.

Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar administered her the oath of office and secrecy at a low-key ceremony at Raj Bhawan held amid the raging COVID pandemic.

Banerjee took the oath in Bengali language.

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Jammu, May 4 (PTI) Various political parties, including the Congress and the BJP, paid rich tributes to former Jammu and Kashmir governor Jagmohan on Tuesday and remembered his contributions for the people of the Union Territory.

Former Union minister Jagmohan, whose tough measures as an administrator in various roles won him many admirers but also drew criticism from some quarters, passed away following a spell of illness on Monday.

Kanpur: As the water level in the Ganga river is going down during this summer, temporary bandh supports the drinking water supply. Lalmani Tripathi, executive engineer, Jalkal said temporary bandh has made easier availability of raw water from Ganga river.

The water level in the river was measured at 355.5 feet on Tuesday.

The bandh solidified with sandbags was raised up to 110 meters on the Shuklaganj side within 14 days, though it was to get the height up to 200 meters.

New Delhi, May 4 (PTI) Senior Nagpur-based sports journalist Ruchir Mishra died after battling COVID-19 for the last 10 days.

Ruchir was 42 and is survived by his wife and two children.

He has been a cricket correspondent with the Times of India's Nagpur edition for more than a decade and primarily wrote on domestic cricket across the central zone.

He was one of the authorities on domestic and age-group cricket, with a lot of young cricketers from Vidarbha and Madhya Pradesh immensely benefitting from his coverage.

NEW DELHI (AP) — COVID-19 infections and deaths are mounting with alarming speed in India with no end in sight to the crisis and a top expert warning that the coming weeks in the country of nearly 1.4 billion people will be “horrible.”

India’s official count of coronavirus cases surpassed 20 million Tuesday, nearly doubling in the past three months, while deaths officially have passed 220,000. Staggering as those numbers are, the true figures are believed to be far higher, the undercount an apparent reflection of the troubles in the health care system.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — China’s U.N. ambassador expressed hope Monday that President Joe Biden’s policy toward North Korea will give more importance to diplomacy and dialogue instead of “extreme pressure” to try to stop Pyongyang’s nuclear program and denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

Zhang Jun said China also hopes the review of U.S. policy will give equal emphasis to both the nuclear issue and the peace and security issue.

04 May 2021; MEMO: Iraq's Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar Ismail yesterday said he does not expect oil prices to drop below $65 a barrel and that lower oil prices should not be a concern after OPEC+ eases production cuts from May.

Iraq has been severely affected by the drop in crude oil prices over the past two years due to the coronavirus pandemic.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for youngsters ages 12 to 15 by next week, according to a federal official and a person familiar with the process, setting up shots for many before the beginning of the next school year.

The announcement is set to come a month after the company found that its shot, which is already authorized for those age 16 and older, also provided protection for the younger group.

03 May 2021; MEMO: Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has asserted that the continued targeting of Palestinians leaves the latter with no choice but an uprising, adding that the situation is on the brink of a breakdown.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A flurry of diplomatic contacts and reports of major progress suggest that indirect talks between the U.S. and Iran may be nearing an agreement. That’s despite efforts by U.S. officials to play down chances of an imminent deal that would bring Washington and Tehran back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal.