November 15, 2009 WASHINGTON: The US space agency was readying for the launch Monday of the space shuttle Atlantis and its crew of seven astronauts to deliver equipment that will maintain the nearly completed International Space Station.Lift-off is set for 1928 GMT from the Kennedy Space Centre near Cape Canaveral, Florida, NASA said Saturday."Atlantis is ready to go, in really great shape," said shuttle launch manager Mike Moses at a press conference broadcast on NASA television."Here at Kennedy Space Center weather should be very good," said Meteorologist Kathy Winters, adding that there was just a ten percent chance of weather prohibiting the launch.Captained by Marine Corps colonel Charlie Hobaugh, the all-male crew arrived Thursday at Kennedy Space Center from Houston, Texas, where the astronauts are based.The shuttle mission is set to include three spacewalks aimed at storing space hardware on the exterior of the orbiting outpost.The 11-day space outing will be the fifth and last shuttle mission for 2009.There are just five more shuttle launches scheduled before the planned September 2010 retirement of the fleet.
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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