Wednesday, July 29, 2009 RIYADH: Regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia will not recognise Israel until it withdraws from occupied Arab land and makes committed steps toward a lasting two-state solution, a senior official said on Wednesday. Foreign ministry spokesman Osama Nugali also called Israeli policy "schizophrenic" and said it was jeopardising attempts to revive Middle East peace talks aimed at creating an independent Palestinian state. "Our position is well known. It is Israel that has to move seriously towards the peace process," Nugali said. "As we all know, Israel is continuing to take unilateral measures by changing the geographic and demographic facts on the ground, by building settlements and expanding the existing ones," he said. "The Arab peace initiative is very clear," he said, referring to a 2002 Saudi-inspired Middle East peace blueprint. "That Israel should withdraw from the Arab lands and put an end to its occupation and resolve the major issues of the conflict," he said, citing the future of Palestinian refugees, water-sharing issues, and the future status of Jerusalem as a capital for both states. Such issues must be resolved "in order to achieve a permanent, just and lasting peace which is based on the establishment of an independent contiguous and viable Palestinian state," Nugali said. "In the Arab peace process normalisation comes after achieving these goals, not before it. So we should not put the cart before the horse." US Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell on Tuesday called on Arab states to take "meaningful steps" towards Israel to help open talks on a comprehensive regional peace settlement, saying that eventually they should fully normalise relations with the Jewish state. In addition, several US legislators have drafted a letter to Saudi King Abdullah calling on him to make a "dramatic gesture" towards Israel similar to ground-breaking overtures that ultimately led to peace with Egypt and Jordan. But the Saudis maintain that those overtures have not brought progress toward creating a Palestinian state. Nugali said Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank continues to prevent any progress, and the Palestinians have refused to restart negotiations until Israel freezes construction. But Israel has rejected calls by the US administration to halt settlement activity, leading to the worst public rift between the two close allies in years. "We have been seeing a schizophrenic Israeli policy. On one hand you talk about peace and their interest to achieve peace," he said. "On the other hand they take actions against the peace process that complicate it and put it in jeopardy."
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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