WASHINGTON: Hundreds of ethnic Tamil immigrants converged on the White House Monday, imploring US President Barack Obama to pressure Sri Lanka into ending a "genocide" on the island. "President Obama, you are our only hope!" chanted the demonstrators, many of whom held placards bearing the image of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. Earlier Monday, the government of majority-Sinhalese Sri Lanka declared an end to its decades-old war with the Tamil Tigers -- one of Asia's oldest and most brutal ethnic conflicts -- after routing the remnants of the rebel army and killing Prabhakaran and his deputies.Waving red and gold LTTE flags and holding posters with graphic photographs of women and children apparently wounded in the Sri Lankan army's offensive, the protesters crowded in front of the White House denouncing a civilian slaughter and Colombo's refusal to allow relief agencies or journalists into the war zone. Senthan Nada traveled from Toronto, home to hundreds of thousands of Tamil Canadians, to urge Obama to help "stop the genocide" which demonstrators insisted is continuing despite the end of combat operations. "The war has ended, but the ethnic cleansing and the killings are still happening... and the world knows it," Nada told media.
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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