Tuesday, November 10, 2009 NEW DELHI: India is launching a joint maritime security exercise this week to prevent future Mumbai-style terror attacks and test various measures taken during the past one year to secure the 7,500-kilometre coastline. The exercise, involving the Indian Navy and Coast Guards, state police of the nine coastal states and several other agencies, would be carried out on both east and west coasts. It would test how and at what pace various agencies shared intelligence and acted on it to prevent terrorists and smugglers from infiltrating. Sources said the exercise, to check coordination among the agencies at various stages of an operation, would be launched formally by the end of November to avoid any possible terrorist attack on the Mumbai attacks’ first anniversary on November 26. This exercise would be bigger than the state-wise tests being carried out by the navy and other agencies to determine the response to any attacks from the sea. It would include simulated attempts by mock terrorists to sneak into Indian waters through various sea routes and how the navy, Coast Guards, Customs, port authorities, state police, Intelligence Bureau, Fisheries Department and the lighthouse directorate foil the attempts.
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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