A court in the southern Indian state of Kerala has sentenced 13 people to life imprisonment for their involvement in selling contaminated alcohol.

Another 13 people were given jail terms ranging from two to seven years. The court also imposed a fine of $250,000 on those convicted.

About forty people died and hundreds of others were admitted to hospital, last October, after drinking the alcohol, which had been mixed with a cheap industrial chemical - Ethyl.

The victims came from three towns near an illegal, brewery, about 80 km from the state capital, Trivandrum.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service