Thursday, December 24, 2009 CAIRO: Arab League chief and former Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa has ruled out running for president of Egypt in elections due to be held in late 2011.Moussa, who had been tipped as a possible candidate, said in an interview published in a newspaper on Wednesday it was not possible to mount a challenge."The question is, is it possible? And the answer is, the road is closed," he said.Speculation has mounted over who will succeed 81-year-old President Hosni Mubarak, who is expected to seek another term in 2011, health permitting. Mubarak's 45-year son Gamal has been tipped as a possible successor.Moussa, aged 73 and praised by many Egyptians and Arabs for criticism of both Israel and past U.S. Middle East policies, was quoted in October as not ruling out such a bid.Analysts say constitutional rules make an independent nomination almost impossible.
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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