Wednesday, August 05, 2009 TEHRAN: Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be sworn in on Wednesday for a second term as Iranian president in a ceremony likely to be snubbed by opposition leaders who claim he was fraudulently re-elected. The 52-year-old Ahmadinejad will formally take the oath of office before parliament, top military officials and foreign diplomats. The White House on Tuesday acknowledged Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the "elected" president of Iran, but said it had no plans to congratulate the firebrand leader on his impending inauguration. Ahmadinejad was approved at a ceremony on Monday for a second four-year term by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who described him as "courageous, astute and hardworking." His victory in the June 12 elections set off the worst turmoil in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, with deadly street protests, a raft of political trials and increasing divisions among the ruling elite.
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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