TOKYO: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is hoping to revitalize U.S. economic and development ties with Southeast Asia as she visits Indonesia during her first overseas trip as America's top diplomat. In Jakarta on Wednesday and Thursday in the second leg of her trip, Clinton intends to announce plans to step up Washington's engagement with a region that often felt slighted by the Bush administration.Clinton also plans to use the stop to continue the Obama administration's efforts to rehabilitate America's image abroad, particularly among Muslims. Indonesia is the world's most populous Islamic nation, and it has personal ties for President Barack Obama,who spent part of his childhood living there.Clinton will visit the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) secretariat in Jakarta and is likely to signal U.S. intent to sign the regional bloc's Treaty of Amity and Cooperation. Clinton will also pledge to attend the group annual foreign ministers meeting in Thailand this year, U.S. officials said.
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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