Friday, December 25, 2009 WASHINGTON: Mother Nature’s rage has hit Oklahoma hard as a winter storm erupted today causing four deaths and keeping thousands stranded. The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning through 6 p.m., Roads are expected to be slick and hazardous, heavy wind is expected, authorities have requested people to avoid driving unless and until absolutely necessary.A 50-car pileup is clogging Interstate 40 eastbound near Hudiburg Drive in Midwest City, there have been so many accidents that troopers are not no longer responding to non-injury accidents in the Oklahoma City-area, instead focusing on fatal crashes.Oklahoma City-area airports were closed this afternoon, 16,000 households were without power about 2 p.m. Christmas day is expected to be partly sunny said the weather forecast.Interstate 44 had a crash were a person died and State Highway 51 near Sand Springs had fatal crash that resulted in three deaths.A major winter storm is sweeping across the central United States rapidly on Christmas Eve Thursday, prompting the governor of Oklahoma to declare a statewide emergency. "I am urging all Oklahomans to take winter storm precautions and stay off the roads unless travel is absolutely necessary," Brad Henry, the governor, said in a statement. Blizzard warnings were issued for parts of Oklahoma, Texas, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). "Anyone with travel plans over the Christmas holiday period should keep up to date with the latest weather information," it said in an online statement. Tornado watches were issued for southern Louisiana, Mississippi and southwestern Alabama. A Louisiana man was killed Thursday when strong wind caused a tree to fall on his house. Flooding was reported in and around Little Rock, Arkansas, after heavy rain fell throughout Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Flood watches, warnings and advisories have been issued for much of Missouri and Illinois, where several inches of rain is causing flooding in streams and rivers. The inclement weather is the second major storm system to hit the United States in a week. Last weekend, a major snowstorm blanketed a swath of the U.S. east coast in snow, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights.
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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