Friday, October 23, 2009 MOGADISHU: Mortar bombs killed at least 30 people in Somalia's capital Mogadishu on Thursday after rebels launched shells at the president's plane and African Union (AU) peacekeepers responded with heavy artillery fire.President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, who was leaving for a summit in Uganda, was not hurt. But residents and medical workers said at least 30 people died and scores more were wounded in one of the heaviest exchanges to rock the city for weeks.Farah Olow, a shopkeeper in the sprawling Bakara market, told sources by telephone that six people were killed by a shell that demolished a home there."They were taking cover in a concrete building, but such big shells can penetrate the strongest house," he said. "We can't go out to count how many more are dead. Bombs are raining on us."Bakara, which is notorious for its open-air weapons bazaar, has long been viewed by the government and the AU force AMISOM as a stronghold of hardline Islamist al Shabaab insurgents trying to overthrow the country's transitional administration.Washington accuses the rebel group of being al Qaeda's proxy in the failed Horn of Africa state.
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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