Friday, June 19, 2009 WASHINGTON: The US Senate passed a 106-billion-dollar stopgap bill Thursday to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, shore up efforts to fight swine flu, aid Pakistan, and boost IMF loans to poor nations. Lawmakers voted 91-5 for the measure, which would fund those initiatives until fiscal year 2010 begins on October 1, sending the spending package to US President Barack Obama for his signature. Obama has vowed to end the practice of using emergency spending bills to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and instead fund US efforts there in the regular yearly appropriations process. The House of Representatives had approved the measure late Tuesday.
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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