Tuesday, October 13, 2009 SAO PAULO: An intense fire broke out Sunday in a slum in South America's largest city, sending residents running across rooftops to escape the flames.There were no immediate reports of deaths in Diogo Pires, a small shantytown in western Sao Paulo that is home to about 300 families.Two people sought medical treatment for smoke inhalation, according to fire officials.Television broadcasts showed flames leaping 20 meters (65 feet) into the air as some residents fled and others helped firefighters battle the blaze with hoses and buckets of water."The flames were huge. People screamed and quickly ran out of the community," resident Ana Paula Martiniano told Globo television.Fire officials said they did not know what caused the blaze, which began around 6 p.m. (2100 GMT).Two hours after it began, firefighters managed to contain the flames to an area about 1 square kilometer (a square half-mile).They also kept it from spreading to neighboring industrial buildings containing drums of combustible chemicals.
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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