Wednesday, December 23, 2009 WASHINGTON: The United States warned Iran Tuesday that December is "a very real deadline" after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed an international ultimatum over its nuclear program. The United States and France have explicitly said Tehran must accept a UN-drafted deal to swap enriched uranium for nuclear fuel by the end of the year or face the threat of further sanctions. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that the so-called P5+1, which gathers UN Security Council veto-wielding permanent members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany, were all on board with the deadline. "I think that the international community is united in this. This is not (just) something that the (US) president has said... This is something that the members of the P5+1 have said," Gibbs said. "That's why we are at the point where we are now with the international community waiting to see and have been waiting to see for months whether Iran will live up to its responsibilities." Ahmadinejad earlier rejected once again the year-end deadline and delivered another broadside against Western pressure over its nuclear activities, considered suspect because of Tehran's refusal to suspend enrichment or agree to full inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
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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