Updated at: 0311 PST, Wednesday, October 21, 2009 WASHINGTON: The Supreme Court Tuesday agreed to hear a plea for freedom from Chinese Muslim Uighurs held in Guantanamo Bay despite being cleared of all charges, who argue they should be released in the United States. The drawn-out case comes after a federal judge last year ordered that the men should be released onto US soil where families from the large Uighur community are willing to host them.But that decision was overturned on appeal, pushing their lawyers to turn to the Supreme Court in a bid to free the 13 men, who hail from the Uighur Muslim minority in China's remote Xinjiang region. The men, who have been held on the US military base in Cuba for more than seven years, were among 22 Uighurs living in a self-contained camp in Afghanistan when the US-led invasion of the country began in October 2001. Amid US administration fears that they face persecution if returned to China, five were freed in 2006 and sent to Albania, and four have been resettled in Bermuda.Another six have accepted to go to the Pacific island nation of Palau, but are still waiting to be transferred from Guantanamo. But all 13 still remaining in the jail contend they should be released in the United States. "All counsel involved are very pleased that the court has taken up the case," lawyer George Clarke 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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