NEW DELHI: Dozens of heavily armed Maoist rebels stormed a bauxite mine in eastern India and held roughly 100 mine employees hostage before police regained control of the mine early Monday morning, authorities said.At least eight police officers and four militants died in the nine-hour shootout in the Panchpatmali area of the state of Orissa, senior police official M.M. Praharaj told a news channel. Praharaj said the militants were hoping to steal large quantities of explosives used for mining, but they fled without them. C.R. Pradhan, director of the mine-company, National Aluminum Company Ltd., or NALCO, said the workers held inside the mine were not harmed. The rebels were likely trying to disrupt the upcoming national election, which begins Thursday, Praharaj said. ``We are trying our best to ensure that the polls are conducted peacefully,'' he said.
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...
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