Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in...
SINGAPORE: Oil prices rose above $50 a barrel Monday in Asia as investors gained some confidence from reports that U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has chosen an economic team to tackle what could be the worst slowdown in decades. Light, sweet crude for January delivery was up 37 cents to $50.30a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Singapore. The January contract Friday rose 51 cents to settle at $49.93. Asian markets on Monday were mostly lower with Hong Kong's Hang Seng index down 1.5 percent and South Korea's Kospi down 2.4 percent. Oil futures have followed stock markets recently, using equities as a proxy for economic outlook and investor sentiment.
Comments