Fire Catches in Park Hospital - Hyderabad

30 people have injured after fire broke out in Park hospital.

February 02 2010 : It is one of the major super specialty hospitals in the city which witnessed chaos when fire caught in the building of the hospital on Tuesday morning.

Fire service personnel battled with flames for over two hours after fire broke out in Park Super Speciality Hospital at Somajiguda on Tuesday morning, leaving forty three persons including patients, their attendants and medical staff injured.

The injured have been rushed to the nearby Yashoda Hospital, where condition of six of them was termed ‘critical’.

While most of those admitted sustained injuries when they jumped out of the building, some of them suffered from suffocation, while some got burn injuries.

Fire broke out in the 100-bedded hospital housed in a five-storied building and within minutes flames spread to all the floors. Panic-stricken patients and medical staff rushed out of the building from the ground and first floors, while those in the upper floors had no other go but to jump.

A duty doctor Sheetal, nurses Usha and Pushpa who jumped from the third floor building after breaking the glass façade sustained serious injuries.

“The building has no fire safety measures” Director General of Fire Services, Aruna Bahuguna told The Hindu on the spot.

As flames engulfed the building passers by and businessmen from the adjoining shops rushed there and tried to evacuate the patients and others from the buildings.

Doctors at the Yashoda Hospital, barely 50 metres away from the fire accident site, said thirteen people have been admitted to the intensive care units. Some of them suffered burns, while some got injuries while being evacuated or when they jumped from upper floors.

“The condition of two staff nurses and another patient is critical. They are put on the ventilator”, doctors said.

Fire tenders from nearby stations were rushed to the hospital which is on the road connecting Somajiguda and Raj Bhavan. It took nearly two hours for them to control the fire.

Earthquake in China's Sichuan

1 killed and 12 injured in China earthquake.

February 01 2010 : A moderate, magnitude 5.2 earthquake in Sichuan, south-west China, has brought down at least 100 homes, killing one person and injuring 11.

US earthquake monitors report that the tremor struck at 0537 local time (2137 GMT Saturday) 35km (20m) south-east of Suining, at a depth of 18.6km (11.6m).

Houses collapsed in the Moxi area of Suining, a city of 3.5 million people.

A magnitude 8 quake in Sichuan on 12 May 2008 left at least 87,000 people dead or missing.

Chinese state media said the authorities in Sichuan were "still not sure" if the latest quake was an aftershock from the earlier disaster.

China's top auditing authority, the National Audit Office, reported this week that reconstruction after the 2008 quake was nearly complete.

By the end of last October, 11 of 72 major reconstruction projects had been completed and 54 launched, it said.


A total of 480 of the 753 schools to be reconstructed had been completed and 238 were under construction.

Repair of 797,900 rural houses and 212,900 urban houses had also been completed, with repairs on 54,400 other homes in progress, according to the auditors.

ATP and WTA Tennis rankings

Federer, Serena Williams to hold on to No. 1 rankings

February 01 2010 : Roger Federer and Australian Open women's champion Serena Williams will maintain their No. 1 rankings when new ATP and WTA rankings are released on Monday.

Federer, who played Britain's Andy Murray in the Australian Open men's final on Sunday, will begin his 268th week as No. 1 and match Jimmy Connors, currently in third place, for total number of weeks as world No. 1.

Pete Sampras leads the career list with 286 weeks at No. 1, followed by Ivan Lendl with 270.

If Murray beats Federer at Melbourne Park, he could move to No. 2. Otherwise, projections have Novak Djokovic taking over No. 2, Murray third and injured Rafael Nadal dropping to No. 4.

It marks the first time that Nadal will drop out of the world's top three since his debut there in June 2005.

Nadal has been cleared of a recurrence of the knee tendinitis that sidelined him for nine weeks last year. A small muscle tear sustained at the Australian Open, where he lost in the quarter-finals to Murray, will keep him out for the next month.

"It is not important for me, the ranking issue and losing a few spots - that's normal when you are not able to compete," Nadal said.

There will be movement on the women's side, with Li Na becoming the first Chinese player ever to enter the top 10 when she reaches a career high No. 10 following her semi-final run.

Justine Henin, who was unranked and playing on a wild-card entry at her first major in two years, still needs to play another tournament before she gets an official ranking.

Williams, who beat Henin in Saturday's Australian Open final, has extended her current stretch at No. 1 to 15 weeks. Projections provided by the WTA show Williams will begin her 88th career week as the top-ranked player.

Dinara Safina is projected to be No. 2, followed by US Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki at a career-high No. 3, French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova at No. 4 and Australian Open quarterfinalist Venus Williams at No. 5.

Projections also show Victoria Azarenka, who lost to Serena Williams in the quarter-finals, to be No. 6, followed by Elena Dementieva at 7. It's the first time that Olympic gold medalist Dementieva, who lost to Henin in the second round here, has dropped out of the top 5 since September, 2008.

Jelena Jankovic is projected to be No. 8, Aznieszka Radwanska 9 and Li at 10.

Serena beats Henin to win Australian Open title

Li said after her quarter-final win over Venus Williams that her goal was the top 10, but she may have to revise her expectations higher.

"So exciting, maybe I will have a beer tonight," said Li, who lost in the semi-finals to Serena Williams. "My goal this year was top 10, but it's only January, and it's come quickly."

Henin, who quit in May 2008 while holding the No. 1 ranking, has to play three tournaments before she re-enters the rankings.

The 27-year-old Belgian lost the Brisbane International final to US Open champion Kim Clijsters in Henin's first tournament back. After her finals appearance at Melbourne, another good showing at her next tournament, which is expected to be in March at Indian Wells, California, could see Henin return in the top 50.

Clijsters returned to the rankings at No. 19 ahead of the fourth and last event of her comeback season at Luxembourg, where she was ousted in the second round.

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