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As many as 53 people drowned in rivers and other water bodies in various parts of Bihar during the four-day Chhath festivities, said a disaster management official here on Tuesday, Business Standard reported. Expressing grief, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced an ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh each for the next of the kin of each deceased, the official said. The CM directed all district magistrates to ensure expeditious payment to the victims' families. According to the official, five people drowned in Purnea district on October 30, while three deaths each were reported from Patna, Muzaffarpur, Samastipur and Saharsa, according to Business Standard. One person each died in Gaya, Begusarai, Katihar, Buxar, Kaimur, Sitamarhi and Banka among other districts. "At least 18 people died in the state on October 31, the last day of the festival. The state disaster management is trying to establish the identity of all deceased at the earliest," added the official.

At least 14 people – including three children – were shot in a drive-by shooting Monday night at a busy corner in Chicago where people had gathered for a vigil, and investigators are trying to find the shooters, police said, CNN reported. Two people traveling in a dark SUV opened fire on Halloween night at people on the corner of California Avenue and Polk Street around 9:30 p.m. before the vehicle was driven away, police said. A 15th person – a woman – suffered scrapes when a vehicle struck her as she tried to flee from the site, police said. A 3-year-old boy, an 11-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy were among those shot, police said. Gunshot victims were being treated at hospitals. Their conditions were described as critical for two, serious for five, good for six, and unknown for one, police said Tuesday morning. The vigil was unrelated to the shooting, police said in a news release without giving further details on a motive. People not involved in the vigil may have been at the corner at the time, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said in a news conference, according to CNN. “There may have also been others gathered for other various reasons,” he said. “It’s a very, you know, common corner where people congregate and have different meetings and gatherings.” More than 500 mass shootings have happened in the United States so far this year, according to the non-profit Gun Violence Archive. The count was at 574 as of Tuesday, an average of more than 1.8 mass shootings every day, says the group, which like CNN defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are shot, excluding the shooter. Also Monday night, a teenager was killed and six others were injured in a shooting at a Halloween party in a home in Kansas City, Kansas, police said. As many as 100 teenagers were at the home when the gunfire erupted, CNN reported.

The Indian government said that it would allow 600,000 tonnes of unmilled rice to be exported to Nepal. Issuing a notice late on Monday, India said that it would allow the companies to export unmilled rice to the Himalayan Kingdom, which traditionally relies on India to fulfill its food grains requirements. The world's biggest exporter of rice on Sept. 8 banned exports of broken rice and imposed a 20% duty on exports of various grades as it sought to boost domestic supply and calm local prices after below-average monsoon rainfall curtailed planting, according to Reuters. India, now, said it will allow cargoes of white and brown rice backed by letters of credit issued before Sept. 9 to be shipped overseas, a measure that provides some relief to exporters grappling with fresh government curbs. The surprise move trapped nearly 1 million tonnes of rice at ports which had been in transit before the government made the announcement. "It's a big relief, which we have been asking for the last few weeks," said B.V. Krishna Rao, president of the Rice Exporters Association, according to Reuters. Export prices for Indian white rice have risen 12% since Sept. 9.

Farmers in Taplejung now are busy in harvesting cardamom. With the festive season coming to an end, they are hell bent on picking, peeling and basking cardamom. The season beginning from mid-September to mid-December is a prime time for harvesting cardamom. Gyan Bahadur Gurung, a cardamom farmer of Pathivara Yangwarak Rural Municipality-1, Thechambu, said the farmers have stepped up their preparation to pick and harvest cardamom due to possible menace of wildlife. He further said they did not conveniently celebrate the grand festivals such as Dashain and Tihar due to cardamom season. Farmers had to spend their time in cardamom farm even during festivals as it was the main season for harvesting, said Basanta Limbu, a farmer of Faktanglung rural municipality-6. Madibung. Likewise, Khongdu Sherpa, a farmer of Fungling municipality-6, Bihibare said they were entirely busy in picking, peeling and basking cardamom during Tihar festival. As there is rising fear of wildlife rampage, the farmers had devoted their effort to timely harvest cardamom yields, he added. It is the high time for entire cardamom farmers across the district to harvest their yields. There is massive cardamom farming in 60 wards of all nine local level units in the district. Cardamom has been cultivated in around 4,450 hectares of land in the district.