SINGAPORE: Japan would not initiate any hostilities against North Korea, but is ready to defend itself, its defence minister said Saturday amid international tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada, speaking at a high-level security forum in Singapore, said Tokyo would be transparent with its military hardware purchases in order to prevent any misunderstanding with neighbours. "We have mentioned that North Korea is a threat because of what has happened in the past, but unless there are other countries moving to us, we will never start an action as such," Hamada told delegates at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue on security. "In Japan, we have various and numerous constraints and internationally, we have also made clear that we do not use force in order to resolve conflict situations," he said. He told the forum Tokyo was looking at a range of weapon procurements including the F-22 fifth-generation fighter aircraft, but stressed these were "only for the defence of the country as such."
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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