Sunday, June 14, 2009 SAN'A: Yemen accused a Shiite rebel group Sunday of kidnapping nine foreigners in the country's rugged north. The Interior Ministry said the foreigners were kidnapped Friday by a rebel group led by Abdel Malak al-Hawthi while on a picnic in northern Sada province. The ministry did not identify the foreigners, but local Yemenis in Sada said the group included a German doctor, his wife and five children, as well as a Briton and his wife. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisal. A local state news agency said the foreigners worked in a hospital in Sada. Tribesmen in Yemen frequently take foreigners hostage to pressure the government on a range of demands and generally release them unharmed. Tribesmen on Friday freed 24 local and foreign medics working at a Saudi-funded hospital in Sada less than 24 hours after their kidnapping, which was not carried out by the al-Hawthi group. Thousands of people have been killed in Saada since a rebellion erupted there in June 2004. The rebels say the government is corrupt and too closely allied with the West. The government has charged al-Hawthi with sedition, forming an illegal armed group and inciting anti-American sentiment. The group negotiated a fragile cease-fire with the government last year, but serious tension remains.
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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