JAKARTA: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived Wednesday in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country, on her first mission to start mending US ties with the Islamic world.She was to meet Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda and leaders of the Jakarta-based Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) later in the day on the second leg of her four-nation trip through Asia.Wearing a red coat over a black blouse and trousers, Clinton touched down under heavy skies and was greeted by senior officials and a choir of female students from US President Barack Obama's old primary school in Jakarta.Obama, who spent part of his childhood here in the late 1960s, has promised to improve relations with the Islamic world after the US-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan under his predecessor George W. Bush."We have a responsibility to speak out and to work with the Muslim world on behalf of positive change and to enlist the help of Muslims around the world against the extremists," Clinton told students in Japan on Tuesday.In her first trip to a Muslim country in her new role, Clinton would also meet President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday before leaving for South Korea and China.Obama's personal connection with Indonesia has made him hugely popular in the country of 234 million people, and expectations are high he will visit early in his presidency to reach out to the Muslim world.
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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