Wednesday, July 01, 2009 WASHINGTON: The United States Treasury on Tuesday imposed sanctions on an Iranian-based firm for its alleged ties to North Korea’s missile proliferation network.The firm, identified as Hong Kong Electronic, located in Iran’s Kish Island, provided support to North Korea’s Tanchon Commercial Bank and Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID).Those two North Korean entities had been designated by the United States and the United Nations Security Council for nuclear proliferation activities.“North Korea uses front companies like Hong Kong Electronics and a range of other deceptive practices to obscure the true nature of its financial dealings, making it nearly impossible for responsible banks and governments to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate North Korean transactions,” said Stuart Levey, Treasury under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.The Treasury Department said that Hong Kong Electronics has since 2007 transferred millions of dollars of “proliferation-related funds” on behalf of the two North Korean entities and has “facilitated the movement of money from Iran to North Korea on behalf of KOMID.”It said that Tanchon had been involved in financing ballistic missile sales from KOMID to Iran’s Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group, which is the Iranian organization responsible for developing liquid-fueled missiles.Tanchon has also maintained an active relationship with Iran’s Bank Sepah, said the Treasury Department. “The U.S. has reason to believe that the Tanchon-Bank Sepah relationship has been used for North Korea-Iran proliferation-related transactions.”
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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