Saturday, October 03, 2009 RIO DE JANEIRO: Rio de Janeiro was ready to party, and it had the best of reasons _ winning the 2016 Olympics. Rio citizens celebrated by jamming bars along Copacabana beach,sipping the famed caipirinhas to savor one of the city's proudest moments. A huge roar from the crowd of nearly 50,000 people was heard at the famed beach the moment International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said the words ``Rio de Janeiro'' to announce the winner in Copenhagen. As popular President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and football great Pele celebrated in Denmark, the Cariocas, as Rio citizens are known, raised their arms to celebrate on Copacabana, frantically wavingflags and hugging each other.The government has promised significant improvements to get Rio ready, and the Cariocas are hoping they will benefit from the preparations in a city known for its natural beauty and fun-loving people but also for its violent crime and many slums. Winning the 2016 Olympics means more than the right to host the prestigious event, it means Rio and its 6 million people likely will benefit from the billions of dollars potentially available through new investments.
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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