Wednesday, September 30, 2009 ISLAMABAD: The two-day fourth Interfaith Conference under the aegis of the Muslim World League (MWL) will begin in Geneva, Switzerland, today.The custodian of the two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, who took initiative of the Interfaith Dialogue, will inaugurate the major event. As many as 128 prominent religious leaders and officials from around the world, including the US, the UK, China, Italy, India, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Japan and the Philippines, will take part in the conference.According to the MWL website, the main theme of the conference is ‘The Impact of King Abdullah’s Inter-Religious Dialogue Initiative in Disseminating Human Values’. Other topics for discussion in the conference are: King Abdullah’s Initiative and the Scope of Coexistence Among the Various Civilisations; the Role of Religion and Culture in Promoting Dialogue; the Impact of Religious Values in Reforming Societies; and the Role of Media in Strengthening Dialogue and Human Values.The first conference was held in Makkah in June 2008, the second in Madrid in July 2008 and the third at the United Nations headquarters in New York in September 2008.The Makkah conference, which was held from June 6 to 8, 2008, brought together about 500 Muslim leaders from around the world in order to set an agenda for the building of better relations between Muslims and followers of other faiths.
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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