A DOZEN people were killed when a three-storey building collapsed after heavy monsoon rains struck a hilly area of northern India.

Officials said rescuers are looking for up to three people who are still unaccounted for after Sunday’s collapse.

Several soldiers were among the 31 people rescued.

More than 70 rescuers and 40 fire officers have been clearing the rubble, using diggers and drills.

One rescued soldier said the building collapsed in a very short space of time.

Another injured person, Rakesh Kumar, told the Press Trust of India that dozens of soldiers and other customers were in the building, along with restaurant workers.

Building collapses are common in India during the June-September monsoon season, when heavy rains weaken the foundations of poorly-built structures.

MEANWHILE, a few daring women in Iran’s capital have been taking off their mandatory headscarves in public, risking arrest and drawing the ire of hardliners.

The hijab debate has further polarised Iranians at a time when the country is buckling under unprecedented US sanctions.

The struggle against compulsory headscarves first made headlines in December 2017 when a woman climbed on a utility box in Tehran’s Revolution Street, waving her hijab on a stick.

Last month, a widely watched online video showed a security agent grab an unveiled teenage girl and violently push her into the back of a police car, prompting widespread criticism.

ELSEWHERE, hundreds of demonstrators have gathered at the base of Hawaii’s tallest mountain to protest against the construction of a telescope on land that some Native Hawaiians consider sacred.

State and local officials will try to close the road to the summit of Mauna Kea on Monday morning to allow trucks carrying construction equipment to make their way to the top.

Protesters have been arrested for blocking the road during previous attempts to begin construction.

Scientists hope the massive telescope they planned for the site - a world-renowned location for astronomy - will help them peer back to the time just after the Big Bang and answer fundamental questions about the universe.

But some Native Hawaiians consider the land holy, as a realm of gods and a place of worship.

AND finally, Australian police have identified the remains of a French tourist who went missing on a beach about five months ago along with a British man as they holidayed in New South Wales on the country’s eastern coast.

A DNA test confirmed that three bone fragments found on a beach in the area belonged to 21-year-old Frenchman Erwan Ferrieux.