LONDON: Another member of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's cabinet, Communities Secretary Hazel Blears, said she was resigning Wednesday, making her the fourth to go in 24 hours.Blears said she was stepping down so she could "return to the grassroots" and "help the Labour Party reconnect with the British people" in a statement. "Today I have told the prime minister that I am resigning from the government," she said.The move comes the day before Thursday's elections for the European Parliament and 34 English local councils and amid a rumbling row over MPs' expenses which has badly hit Brown's popularity ratings. It came after Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's aides briefed reporters she would also step down. Cabinet Office minister Tom Watson and children's minister Beverley Hughes are also reportedly stepping down.A reshuffle is expected to take place as early as Friday as he bids to re-launch his premiership and finance minister Alistair Darling and Foreign Secretary David Miliband are among those tipped to be moved.
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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