Toll from cold in India rises to 120

LUCKNOW, India, Sunday (AFP) - The death toll from a cold wave blanketing northern India rose to 120 as nine more people died overnight, an official said Saturday as fog disrupted flights and delayed passenger train services.

The latest deaths were reported from northern Uttar Pradesh state, India's most populous and one of its poorest provinces, an administration spokesman here said.

Uttar Pradesh, where a fifth of its population are homeless, so far accounts for 99 of the deaths since the cold snap hit northern Indian early December.

The unrelenting bad weather, compounded by erratic power supply, has also claimed 17 lives in the northern state of Punjab and another four in nearby Haryana, the official said.