Japan’s largest opposition party chief quits

TOKYO: Democratic Party of Japan President Ichiro Ozawa on Monday expressed his intention to step down as party head to take responsibility for the political funds scandal involving Nishimatsu Construction Co., party sources said.Ozawa reportedly conveyed his intention to DPJ executives, according to the sources.He said he decided to step down because of his strong desire that the DPJ win the next House of Representatives election.Ozawa was to hold a press conference in the evening.Party Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama and Vice President Katsuya Okada are considered strong candidates to succeed Ozawa.Ozawa's state-funded secretary has been indicted over illegal political donations from Nishimatsu, a second-tier construction firm.Though Ozawa has insisted that he did not know the money was donated by Nishimatsu, he is believed to have decided to resign as party head in the face of strong public criticism.As for Ozawa's successor, some are calling for holding a party election, while others prefer choosing his successor through intraparty discussions.After Ozawa took the helm of the DPJ in April 2006, the party won the House of Councillors election in July 2007 by a landslide.Though he explored the possibility of forming a grand coalition with the Liberal Democratic Party in talks with then Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in November 2007, the attempt failed due to strong opposition within the party.

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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...

Snake bite deaths

Monday, July 06, 2009 COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan government recorded some 33,000 snake bites in 2008, with most of the victims coming from remote villages.The Department of Government Information said in a statement that most of the snake bite cases could be fatal if neglected.The statement said snake bites are often neglected in Sri Lanka as victims do not seek treatment at hospitals where advanced medication is available. Instead, the victims rush to traditional type of treatment which could be a risk, reports Xinhua.Snake bites death at domestic level, outside hospitals, go unrecorded, said the statement.Most victims of snake bite are from the rural and remote villages where there is no electricity after dusk.Statistics show that Sri Lanka has over 90 species of snake with around 10 species possessing venom capable of killing a human being.In Sri Lanka the annual death rate due to snake bite envenoming is one of the highest in the world being 6 in 100,000 population.

Suicide bombings kill 18 in Iraq

Thursday, August 13, 2009 MOSUL: At least 18 people, most of them members of the ancient Yazidi religious sect, were killed when two suicide bombers blew themselves up on Thursday in a packed cafe in northern Iraq, a local government official said.At least 31 people were also wounded after the bombers detonated suicide belts packed with explosives in the cafe in Kalaa town, in the district of Sanjar, local district chief Dakheel Qassem Hasoon, told a foreign news agency."Two suicide bombers entered the Cafe Barbaroz at 4:30 pm (1330 GMT) and blew themselves up, killing 18 civilians and wounding 31. Most of the victims were Yazidis," Hasoon said.Kalaa, northwest of the insurgent stronghold of Mosul in northern Nineveh province is predominantly populated by the minority Yazidi religious sect, as well as Arabs and Kurds.The attack is the deadliest since Monday, when 51 people were killed across Iraq, including 28 members of the tiny Shabak sect cut down when two truck bombs det...

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