Sharjah, Sept. 17: A nine-year-old Kerala boy was crushed to death by an inattentive Indian truck driver at a construction site near a building where he used to go for his tutorials.

A Gulf News report quoted Sharjah Police officials as saying that a lorry carrying cement mixture crushed Rickie Mathew Varghese, a pupil of Delhi Private School.

The Indian driver of the lorry was not paying attention while reversing it and ran over the boy by accident, police said.

The driver, they said, was unable to hear any cries because of the engine's noise. He also did not expect any children to be around in the area because it is a construction site.

Thiruvananthapuram, Sept 15 : Jet Airways launched its daily direct services between Thiruvananthapuram and Muscat, connecting the capital cities of Kerala and the Sultanate of Oman. 

The maiden flight took off on its inaugural services from the sector with a full complement of passengers, on-board its state-of-the-art, internationally-configured Boeing 
737-800 aircraft.

With the launch of this new flight, the airline now has three daily services to Muscat from Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Mumbai. 

Kochi, Sept 12 : The ten day long harvest festival ''Onam'' concluded with gaiety in Kerala on Friday.

The festival that began on Tuesday saw the religious fervor of the people soaring high as the thousands of people celebrated the festival with gaiety.

The festival is celebrated after harvesting of the principle crop and filling the granaries to full, a sure sign of prosperity. It began with ''Atham'', the 17th day of the Malayalam month ''Chingam'' this year and the main day of the festival is called ''Thiruvonam'' on which people celebrate the day with a grand feast.

Maruthamala (Kerala), Sept 12: Environmentalists laid out a feast for monkeys at a nearby hill in Maruthamala hillock in Kollam District of Kerala as part of the ten-day Onam festival.

The harvest festival, Onam, is celebrated after the harvest has been reaped and granaries are full, as a sure sign of prosperity. It begins on the first day of Malayalam month ''Chingam'' and culminates on ''Thiruvonam'' day, with a grand feast. On this day, young girls and women make flower patterns called ''''Pookalam'''' in local parlance to welcome the mythical King Mahabali.

Loaded with bananas, rice and other food items, the environmentalists walked up the hillock to feed their simian friends.

Kochi (Kerala), Sept 11 : Jet Airways will celebrate Onam, the popular harvest festival of Kerala on flights, by serving specially prepared Onam Sadya for all its domestic and international passengers travelling on flights out of Kochi and Kozhikode on September 12.

Passengers will be treated to delectable Onam meals such as Kalan (raw banana cubes cooked with curd, coconut paste tempered with curry leaves and south Indian spices), Erussery (raw banana and yam cooked with coconut corrainder paste and pulses), and Ela Ada (rice flour cake spread on banana leaf steamed with banana, jaggery and grated coconut stuffing).

Kochi, Sep. 10 : A five-day international Anthurium flower show held here recently drew several flower lovers.

Organized by National Horticultural Board and the Kerala department of Agriculture, its objective was to promote the exotic flower''s cultivation for commercial purposes.

Anthurium, one of the most beautiful and exotic flowers mainly used for decoration purposes, attracted huge attention by its elaborate decorations made by experts here.