WASHINGTON: The United States has detected no major troop movements in North Korea or renewed work at a plutonium reprocessing plant despite rising tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear test, a US defense official said on Thursday. "We haven't seen any (movement of troops)," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told media. But he added that tracking North Korea was always difficult as it remained "one of the most closed societies in the world." Seoul's defense ministry earlier said air and ground forces were keeping a closer watch on the land and sea border with the communist North after Pyongyang announced it was abandoning the armistice signed to end the Korean War in 1953. Tensions have mounted since the North on Monday tested a nuclear bomb and than test-fired five short-range missiles. Raising the "Watch Conditions" alert level for US and South Korean forces meant stepped up intelligence and surveillance efforts but no redeployment of American troops on the Korean peninsula, the defense official said. "This is a prudent step ... but it doesn't involve movement of forces," he said. The Pentagon has sought to play down the possibility of any US military action, referring reporters' questions about North Korea to the State Department. "This is something that's being handled through diplomatic means at this point," spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters.
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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