MUMBAI: An Indian court on Thursday appointed a new lawyer to represent the only Islamist militant suspect captured during last year's attacks on Mumbai.Advocate Abbas Kazmi was appointed to defend Mohammed Ajmal Kasab a day after his high-profile trial started in disarray, with a previous lawyer dismissed by the trial judge because of a conflict of interest.The 21-year-old Kasab, said to belong to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), faces a string of charges including "waging war" on India, murder, attempted murder and kidnapping.He faces the death penalty if convicted of taking part in the November 2008 rampage of killing in India's financial capital, which saw 10 gunmen land in the city by boat and murder more than 160 people.During Thursday's court proceedings, Kasab asked the judge to allow him to immediately meet his new defence.The court has granted him permission, and also informed the accused that a request for legal aid had been sent to Pakistan. Kasab had asked for a Pakistani lawyer, but was told his advocate had to be Indian.The trial has been dogged by the issue of who should defend Kasab.Last year, the Mumbai Metropolitan Magistrate Court's Bar Association said it would not represent him, while the Hindu nationalist Shiv Sena party called for Kasab to be executed without trial outside a Mumbai railway station.
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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