SAO PAULO: Authorities said heavy rains have caused a dam to rupture in northeastern Brazil, stranding nearly 3,000 people in a region where floods have killed 53 people and displaced more than 415,000.Officials say they launched an overnight rescue operation using five helicopters to aid nearly 600 families stranded by Wednesday's dam break in Piaui state.Piaui civil defense department spokeswoman Vanize Lemos said Thursday that 150 families have been rescued. She said some residents climbed trees and rooftops after a river rose 16 feet (5 meters).Heavy rains have battered northern and northeastern Brazil since April, causing floods and mudslides in a region extending from the Amazon rain forest to the Atlantic Ocean.
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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