Obama broadens US targets in Pakistan: report

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama's administration has broadened the number of radical groups targeted by the CIA inside Pakistan by attacking a militant network seeking to overthrow the Pakistani government, a leading US newspaper reported Saturday.

The newspaper said recent missile strikes on training camps run by Baitullah Mehsud represent a broadening of the US military campaign inside Pakistan, which has been carried out largely by drone aircraft. Under former president George W. Bush, the United States frequently attacked militants from Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, but stopped short of targeting Mehsud and his followers.

Pakistani and US officials identified Mehsud early last yea, as the man who had orchestrated the assassination of Pakistani former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the report said. Bush included Mehsud in a classified list of militant leaders whom the CIA and American commandos were authorized to capture or kill, according to the paper. However, he did not do anything to implement the authorization.

But last Saturday and Monday, US missiles hit camps run by Mehsud's network, the report said.

The Saturday strike was aimed specifically at Mehsud, but he was not killed, the paper reported, citing unnamed Pakistani and US officials.

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India's swine flu death rate is increasing

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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