NEW YORK: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged Friday to deepen US bonds with Asia in order to tackle the global economic crisis and climate change as well as prevent nuclear proliferation. On the eve of her tour of Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China, her first foreign trip, Clinton said in a speech she is "ready to deliver a message about America's desire for more rigorous and persistent commitment and engagement." She added she is "ready to work with leaders in Asia to resolve the economic crisis and to strengthen our historic partnerships and alliances while developing deeper bonds with all nations." In her first foreign policy speech, which she delivered before the Asia Society, a non-profit educational institution, Clinton said she also is "ready to help prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons in Asia." Clinton added that North Korea's nuclear program remains "the most acute challenge to stability in northeast Asia." She said President Barack Obama's administration would build a strong relationship with the reclusive Stalinist regime if it scraps its nuclear program, which alarmed the world in 2006 with the test of a nuclear device.
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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