Tuesday, October 20, 2009 TEHRAN: Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki Tuesday stepped up pressure on Islamabad, saying the group accused of launching a deadly suicide attack in the country is based in Pakistan.Mottaki said members of the group regularly violate the Iran-Pakistan border and launch attacks inside the Islamic republic."They cross into Iran illegally. They are based in Pakistan," Mottaki said without naming the group, as he ramped up pressure on Iran's friendly neighbour."The hands of those behind the crimes in southeast Iran must be cut," he added.A suicide bomber on Sunday blew himself up at a meeting between commanders of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards and local tribesmen in the town of Pisheen in Iran's restive Sistan-Baluchestan province, bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan.Seven Guards commanders and dozens of other people were killed in the attack which Iranian officials allege was carried out by the shadowy Jundallah group that is waging a rebellion against the rule from Tehran.Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday urged his Pakistani counterpart to confront the rebels, saying the "presence of terrorist elements in Pakistan is not justifiable.""The Pakistani government should help to quickly arrest these criminals so they can punished," Ahmadinejad told Asif Ali Zardari during a telephone call received from the Pakistani leader.The head of the Guards, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, said on Monday that Tehran will demand that Pakistan hand over Jundallah leader Abdolmalek Rigi, who is accused of being the mastermind of the bombing.Jafari said a Tehran delegation will head to Pakistan to deliver "proof to them so they know that the Islamic Republic is aware of its (Pakistan's) support" to the group led by Rigi.Iranian officials have also accused Britain and the United States of involvement in the attack. Both countries have denied the allegations.
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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