Monday, November 30, 2009 PARIS: Iran should be given a "last chance" in talks over its atomic programme, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said after the Islamic Republic announced plans for ten more uranium enrichment plans.Asked in an interview with Le Figaro newspaper published on Monday whether tougher U.N. sanctions on Iran would be a true deterrent, Kouchner said, "Let's give dialogue a last chance and give the necessary space to the European Union which, from January 1 2010, will finally be in working order."The EU this month strengthened its regulatory and law-making powers and named new European Commission members, a president and foreign policy chief.Iran unveiled the plans to build the new plants two days after the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, rebuked it for secretly building a second uranium enrichment plant in a mountain bunker."Why did Iran announce 10 new uranium enrichment sites (on Sunday) when it has only one nuclear plant to burn this fuel?" said Kouchner."The fact that Iran persists in ignoring the demands of a big independent agency like the IAEA, that's very dangerous."French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said Iran should be given until the end of the year to accept international terms for talks over its nuclear ambitions or face further sanctions.Iran says its atomic energy programme is purely for peaceful purposes, aimed at generating electricity. The West fears it has clandestine plans to build nuclear bombs, a charge Iran denies.
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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