ROME: Fire broke out Friday on an Italian ferry carrying more than 500 people to Sicily and all the passengers were taken by lifeboat to another ferry and a coast guard vessel, officials said.Five passengers, including a pregnant woman, were taken to a hospital as a precaution.The fire continued to rage in the car hold as the vessel was towed toward Palermo, the Sicilian capital, Sicily's fire department said.The vessel Vincenzo Florio, traveling from the mainland port city of Naples to Palermo, was 25 miles (40 kilometers) from its destination when the fire broke out in the car hold."They knocked on the door of the cabin and told us to get on deck," passenger Stefano Friscia told Sky TG 24 television. "It was hard to breathe, the whole ship filled with smoke and they ordered the lifeboats lowered."The 526 passengers were taken onto the coast guard ship that came to the rescue and the other ferry, said Palermo port official Cosimo Seminara.Most of the 35 crew members initially stayed on board to help put out the flames, Seminara 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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