WASHINGTON: The U.S. State Department said on Thursday the number of people killed in terrorist attacks in Pakistan last year rose by more than 70 percent, despite an overall drop in such violence worldwide. Data compiled by the U.S. intelligence community suggested that Pakistan faces a growing threat from terrorist violence. The number of people killed in such attacks – including the Sept. 20 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad – rose to 2,293 from 1,340, according to the data released by the State Department. The number of terrorist attacks in Pakistan more than doubled to 1,839 from 890, U.S. officials told reporters.These increases occurred even as the death toll from worldwide terrorism fell to 15,765 from 22,508 in 2007 and the number of overall attacks dropped to 11,770 from 14,506, they said.The number of people killed in Iraq fell to 5,016 from 13,606, U.S. officials said, while the number of attacks declined to 3,258 from 6,210.But the number of people killed by terrorism in Afghanistan, where the United States and other nations are fighting a renewed Taliban insurgency, surged to 1,989 in 2008 from 1,961 a year earlier, the department said. Attacks in Afghanistan rose to 1,220 from 1,125.
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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