Friday, June 12, 2009 ROME: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has lashed out at the United States by likening the 1986 U.S. Strikes on Libya to Osama bin Laden's terror attacks on the United States in 2001. He was speaking Thursday in Rome, where he is on a three-day official visit. In a speech to Italian lawmakers, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi urged the world to understand the reasons that motivate terrorists. He called for dialogue with terrorists, saying, "One must talk to the devil, if it brings about a solution."While condemning al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden, he implied there was little difference between bin Laden's terror attacks and the U.S. strike on Tripoli and Benghazi in 1986. He added that the West should not interfere in the governments chosen by other countries.The United States ordered airs strikes on Tripoli and Benghazi after an attack on a disco in Germany killed three people, including two U.S. servicemen. Gaddafi, who came to power following a 1969 coup, had long been ostracized by the West for sponsoring terrorism, but in recent years sought to emerge from his status by abandoning weapons of mass destruction and renouncing terrorism in 2003. Libya has since agreed to pay compensation to the families of the Berlin disco victims as well as the families of the victims of the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland that killed 270 people, including 189 Americans.
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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