Thursday, August 13, 2009 NEW DELHI: Panic ridden citizens in India, particularly in Maharashtra state have started criticizing the government for not taking adequate measures to control swine flue as death till rose to 15 on Wednesday. Schools, colleges, cinema halls have been shut in Mumbai city, Pune and adjoining areas. Some educational schools in national capital were also closed. People have been asked to stay away from crowded places. The spreading flu has claimed a total of 15 lives—one each in Ahmedabad, Vadodra, Thane, Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram, two in Mumbai and eight in Pune. More than one thousand persons are affected. The Indian Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is under focus of media criticism for not taking timely and adequate measure to control the new disease is holding emergency meetings with the centre and state officials and medical experts. Passengers on entry points at airports and border areas are being screened while warnings have been issued to the people to take preventive measures.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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