MANILA: Twelve people were killed and 57 rescued after a ferry sank in waters south of the Philippine capital on Saturday, the coast guard said.The boat, the MV Commander 6, was carrying people from Batangas to a resort beach on the island of Mindoro when it was hit by large waves, which cracked its hull, causing the vessel to sink, the coast guard report said.Coast guard rescue vessels and private boats rushed to the scene to rescue the people. There were no immediate reports on whether any of the people onboard were still missing. The boat had only 42 people on its manifest, indicating that many people had boarded without being listed, coast guard officials said. Small, poorly-maintained ferries are the backbone of inter-island travel in this archipelagic country and many ferry owners resort to overloading their vessels, leading to frequent maritime mishaps.
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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