Wednesday, July 08, 2009 TOKYO: Japan's most popular robot animation, Gundam, turns 30 this year, and the creator of the anime series says the times have caught up with the futuristic show launched in the late 1970s."Gundam has presented many propositions that we face today in the real world," said Yoshiyuki Tomino, the TV show's executive director. "It will certainly live on for many years to come, perhaps another 50 years."The animated sci-fi series "Mobile Suit Gundam" first aired in 1979. It was set 100 years in the future amid a space war between the Earth Federation and hostile space colonies. The show's popularity quickly skyrocketed and further Gundam series, comic books, video games and films were spun off.To mark the 30th anniversary of Gundam's launch, a massive replica of the robot is being erected at Tokyo's Odaiba seaside park. It is scheduled to be unveiled Saturday and can be viewed until Aug. 31 — part of Gundam's birthday celebrations.
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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