Sunday, October 11, 2009 HELD AL-QUDS: US Middle East envoy George Mitchell met Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad on Saturday, a Palestinian official said.No statement was issued after the meeting, which was held at the US Consulate General.Mitchell, who is struggling to get Israel and the Palestinians to resume peace talks, is to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday afternoon, Netanyahu's office announced.Israeli public radio said the US envoy should also be meeting later Saturday with two advisors to Netanyahu.On Friday, the former US senator had stressed Washington's commitment to a Palestinian state after meeting Israeli and Palestinian leaders, at a time when hopes of a peace breakthrough appear dimmer than ever."We discussed our common vision for a viable, independent Palestinian state with contiguous territory," Mitchell told journalists after his talks in the West Bank city of Ramallah with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas."President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton are deeply and fully committed to that," he added.But Mitchell gave no indication any progress was made in the separate talks with Abbas and Netanyahu.Israel has insisted the world should give up the notion that a comprehensive solution to the decades-old conflict will be found any time soon. Palestinian officials have said the deadlock was caused by the Jewish state's refusal to stop building homes for Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
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...
Comments