On his latest cross-country trip, with visits to four U.S. states, President Obama has ramped up his response to criticisms by opposition Republicans of his handling of the U.S. economy. Mr. Obama is trying to re-energize the base of his Democratic party ahead of midterm congressional elections in November that could bring big gains for Republicans.
President Obama worries that the traditional base of his party may not turn out in strength in November. This is amid predictions by political analysts that Democratic losses could equal or be worse than those in 1994 when Republicans won back majority control of Congress under President Bill Clinton.
At a boisterous rally at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Mr. Obama challenged those predictions, saying the stakes are too high for young Democratic voters and others to be apathetic or complacent.
"We cannot sit this one out, we cannot let this country fall backwards because the rest of us didn't care enough to fight," said President Obama. "The stakes are too high for our country, and for your future, and I'm going to get out there and fight as hard as I can and I know you are too to make sure we keep moving forward."
Under their "Pledge to America" unveiled recently, Republicans are calling for tax and spending cuts, federal government hiring freezes, and a repeal of President Obama's health care reform. They assert that Obama policies have failed to create jobs and are driving the U.S. deeply into debt.
On the floor of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell repeated often-heard Republican's complaints about Mr. Obama's policies.
"A budget that explodes the national debt, a trillion dollar stimulus that failed to hold unemployment down to the levels we were told it would, a health spending bill that is already leading to higher costs, and a raft of other bills that expand Washington's role in people's lives," said Mitch McConnell.
Saying he knows times are tough for Americans, President Obama appealed for a renewal of the enthusiasm that elected him president in 2008.
"If everybody who fought for change in 2008 shows up to vote in 2010, we will win," said Mr. Obama. "We will win, the polls say the same thing, we will win."
On this cross-country trip, the president has again used informal gatherings at family homes to drive home central points he wants Americans to remember when they vote in November.
Earlier, in New Mexico, he answered questions ranging from the economy and education to immigration reform, spoke about Republican obstruction to his legislative goals.
"This is the greatest country on earth and will continue to be the greatest country on earth, as long as we can go ahead and handle serious problems that we have instead of playing political games all the time," said Mr. Obama. "And when you look at the choices before you [between Democrats and Republicans] I think you have got to ask yourself who is offering serious answers."
In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Mr. Obama said it would be "inexcusable...for any Democrat or progressive right now to stand on the sidelines" in the face of possible losses in November.
Asked about this, and remarks by Vice President Joe Biden about "political whining" in the Democratic base, White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton said the main message is about profound changes if Democrats don't turn out to vote in November.
Mr. Obama returns to Washington late Wednesday after stops in Iowa and Virginia, where he will hold additional informal conversations with Americans.
Awaiting him will be a major though long expected transition in the White House as Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel prepares to announce his departure to run in the mayoral race in the U.S. city of Chicago.
Staff changes are common at the mid-point of a president's first term, and there has already been turnover in Mr. Obama's economic team. Emanuel's expected departure has triggered speculation about who will manage day-to-day affairs, as well as other potential job shifts in coming months.
A survey in the United States finds that many Americans know relatively little about religious practices and traditions - either their own faith or other religions.
The independent Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life says it asked 3,400 Americans to answer questions about their religious knowledge, and on average their answers were correct only 50 percent of the time.
Survey results released Tuesday show that Americans who either do not believe in God or are not sure if God exists scored the highest.
Atheists and agnostics correctly answered about 21 of the 32 questions, followed by Jews and Mormons, who each had about 20 correct answers.
The Pew study found that only 47 percent of Americans know the Dalai Lama is Buddhist. Less than 40 percent identify Vishnu and Shiva with Hinduism. And only about 27 percent know that most Indonesians are Muslim - even though that country has the world's largest Muslim population.
Pew researchers' previous surveys have ranked the United States as one of the most religious nations among the world's developed countries. About 60 percent of American adults say religion is "very important" in their lives. However, the foundation said its "U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey shows that large numbers of Americans are uninformed about the tenets, practices, history and leading figures of major faith traditions - including their own."
On questions about Christianity, Mormons scored the highest. Jews, atheists and agnostics scored the highest on questions about world religions like Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism.
American Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists were included in the survey, but the Pew organization said too few of them took part to produce relevant data for each group.
Roman Catholics make up the largest single religious denomination in the United States, but the survey found that 45 percent of them answered incorrectly when asked about one of their faith's core beliefs - that the bread and wine shared as Communion during Mass do not merely symbolize Christ but actually become his body and blood.
More than half or 53 percent of American Protestants could not correctly identify Martin Luther as the historical figure whose writing and teaching inspired the Protestant Reformation. And 43 percent of American Jews were unable to identify Maimonides as one of the most influential rabbis in Jewish history.
Questions in the survey included: Where was Jesus born? What is Ramadan? What religion is the Dalai Lama? It was conducted by telephone, in English and Spanish, over a three-week period several months ago. The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life said the general margin of error the survey was about 2.5 percentage points.The Pew Research Center, the nonpartisan group that operates the religious forum, posted full details of the survey at www.pewforum.org. You can take the survey yourself on the their website.
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is resting comfortably after being hospitalized in the midwestern U.S. city of Cleveland, Ohio.
A statement from the Carter Center in the southeastern city of Atlanta, Georgia, says the former president developed an upset stomach during a flight to Cleveland Tuesday.
A spokeswoman at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport says rescue crews met Mr. Carter's plane at the airport and took him to the hospital.
The former president was in Cleveland to sign his new book, White House Diary. The Carter Center says he is expected to resume his book tour later this week.
Mr. Carter is 85-years-old and served as U.S. president from 1977 to 1981.
U.S. President Barack Obama said he plans to call Mr. Carter to check on his condition.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Amnesty International has criticized European countries for deporting ethnic Roma to Kosovo where they face discrimination and violence. In a new report, the international watchdog says many Roma, who are also known as Gypsies, arrive in Kosovo with nothing but the clothes on their back.
Amnesty International Deputy Director for Europe and Central Asia David Diaz-Jogeix says Roma returning to Kosovo often do not have access to basic services.
"Many of the people who are being returned do not have a clear access to their identity and accommodation papers and that further discriminates them in making sure that they have proper access to health and hospitals or access to social housing or access to state employment," he said.
Many Roma left Kosovo when the country was racked by conflict in the 1990s. In 2008 Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia.
Diaz-Jogeix says since then many European countries have pressured Kosovo to take Roma back. He says about 7,000 people have been deported to Kosovo by European countries, including Germany and Switzerland, despite the fact that they are likely to face persecution there.
Diaz-Jogeix says Roma face persecution across Europe, but in Kosovo the problem is particularly troubling.
"In the context of Kosovo, there is a further discrimination aggravated by the fact that they are perceived as being allies of one part of the conflict, the Serbs, and that further reinforces the discrimination by the Kosovo Albanians," he said.
Around 90 percent of Kosovo's population is ethnic-Albanian.
A spokesman for Britain's right-wing United Kingdom Independence Party, Dawain Towler, says European countries cannot be expected to open their borders to Roma from Kosovo.
"The responsibility lies with the Kosovo government to ensure that people are treated properly and effectively at home. And it is not the responsibility of the U.K. or any other government indeed to take up the burden that has been ignored by their own government," said Towler.
Amnesty International says 97 percent of Roma in Kosovo are unemployed. It says Kosovo's government does not have the resources or political will to deal with their plight.
Mexican officials fear hundreds of people may have been killed by a massive mudslide in the southern part of the country.
Oaxaca state Governor Ulises Ruiz confirmed Tuesday that at least seven people are dead and 100 missing following the collapse of a hillside in the poor, rural town of Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec.
Officials say the rain-soaked hillside gave way in the early mornings hours, engulfing 300 homes as people slept. Ruiz told local media the death toll could hit 1,000 in the town of about 9,000 people.
On a post to his Twitter account, Mexican President Felipe Calderon called the mudslide regrettable. He said federal and state aid is on the way, but that officials were having a difficult time reaching the scene.
Official say bad weather has been interfering with rescue efforts.
Mexican officials blame the mudslide on days of heavy rains from a series of tropical storms that have drenched the region.
Tropical storms and heavy rains are also being blamed for a series of recent mudslides across Central America.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
Nigerian lawmakers said they are willing to consider postponing legislative, presidential and gubernatorial polls because the electoral commission said there is not enough time to register voters.
A joint committee from Nigeria's Senate and House of Representatives said it accepts the need to delay the vote after the electoral commission asked for more time.
Commission chairman Attahiru Jega told lawmakers that Nigerians aspire not to go through the process of an election, but to have the outcome of that vote be legitimate. He said that aspiration could be compromised if Nigeria keeps to its current electoral timetable - a risk that Jega says should not be taken.
"When you plan, even though you assume the worst, you also need sufficient room for adequate preparation so that if there is any problem there is room for maneuver. But the existing timelines are so tight, and unfortunately the more we miss some of these milestones, the more problematic it becomes in terms of guaranteeing free, fair and credible elections, and also guaranteeing a credible, fresh voters' register," said Jega.
Changing the timetable means changing Nigeria's constitution and this year's electoral act. So the power to make those changes rests with the National Assembly. Jega thanked lawmakers for considering the commission's request and assured them that it is not frivolous. "There is no point spending so much money going through a process, which in the end may turn out not to be satisfactory in terms of its credibility," he said.
Parliamentary changes to the electoral act require the approval of President Goodluck Jonathan. Attorney General Mohammed Adoke says the Jonathan administration understands the need for delay. "The fundamental objective of this government is to have a free, fair and credible election at the end of the day," said Adoke. "I have listened to the proposal and proposition of the INEC chairman. Our position as the government is that we will do everything possible to support and ensure that we have a free, fair and credible election."
Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Bayero Nafada is the co-chairman of the National Assembly's Constitutional Review Committee. He said, "Nigerians are watching. We pray that at the end of our deliberation, we will be able to come out with an acceptable procedure and timetable for the conduct of the general election come 2011."
Nafada said lawmakers continue to support the electoral commission, but want to make sure that the timetable presented this time is one that will work. "We pray that this time around, this will be the last request that will come from any quarters regarding this election because it will not continue that way. If there is any further [delay], God forbid, I think it will become a crisis," he said.
Nigerian lawmakers said they will start work on changing the timetable after the electoral commission proposes a new schedule Wednesday. Jega says the commission is looking for a three-month extension that would push next January's vote back to April.
Guinea could miss a proposed October 10th poll date for its presidential run-off, thanks to candidate disputes.
As Guineans remember the more than 150 people killed one year ago in a military attack on an opposition protest in Conakry, the country continues to struggle to emerge from almost two years of political crisis.
Guinea is in the middle of a landmark presidential poll meant to return the country to civilian government after a military coup in December 2008.
Electoral dispute
The first round was held on June 27, but efforts to organize a run-off between the two top-scoring candidates have stalled, due to fraud accusations, street violence, and most recently disagreement over the newly appointed electoral-commission head.
Presidential candidate, Cellou Dallein Diallo, protested the naming of Louceny Camara as head of the electoral commission last week, saying Camara supports rival candidate, Alpha Conde. Guinea's interim president has therefore not been able to confirm an October 10th poll date, proposed by the electoral commission.
Examine the situation
The head of Guinea's National Transition Council, Hadja Rabiatou Sera Diallo, met with members of government Monday in Conakry to discuss the situation.
Diallo says they examined the internal rules of the electoral commission, the country's electoral code and the constitution, and prepared an assessment and recommendations to get the country out of crisis. She says they will present this analysis to interim president, General Sekouba Konate. The final decision, she says, belongs to him.
The proposal prepared during Monday's meeting was not made public.
Diallo has also met with both candidates in the hopes of mediating the disagreement.
Find a way to resolve crisis
She says on Monday, she and members of government were not discussing how to organize elections, but rather how to get Guinea out of crisis. She says they were not motivated by color, race or political affiliation. She says it is Guinea that concerns them, and therefore she says they can not be part of any efforts to slow down the electoral process that must move forward.
The run-off was originally set for September 19, but was postponed just days before the vote, partly for technical reasons. Campaigning had been suspended two days earlier, after street violence between the two candidates' supporters left one dead and 50 wounded. The violence followed the conviction of two senior Guinea electoral officials for fraud during the first round of voting.
U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell arrives in Israel Tuesday to pressure Israeli and Palestinian leaders to continue peace talks.
Mitchell's mission comes as Israel resumes settlement construction in the West Bank, prompting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to threaten a walkout.
Mr. Abbas says he will decide whether to quit the talks after consulting senior Arab officials next week. However, he says if settlement construction continues, Palestinians will be obliged to end talks.
He commented Tuesday from Paris, following a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Palestinian officials have called on Israel to re-impose the freeze on construction for three or four more months. The freeze expired late Sunday.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Monday the United States is disappointed Israel did not extend the partial 10-month construction ban.
Mitchell may raise the issue in his talks Tuesday with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. The U.S. envoy is expected to meet with Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Abbas later this week.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has urged Mr. Abbas to continue peace talks and pledged that Israel is "ready to pursue continuous contacts" in order to reach a "historic" agreement within a year.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
India's Supreme Court has cleared the final hurdle to a verdict in a highly sensitive property dispute between Hindus and Muslims. Judges gave the nod to a regional court to issue a verdict expected within days. The dispute has sparked some of India's worst post-independence violence.
A high court in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh says it will issue a verdict on this coming Thursday in a decades-long case involving the site of a destroyed mosque in the city of Ayodhya.
That announcement came just moments after the Supreme Court in Delhi said it would no longer delay the court from ruling on the case, which has spent decades under adjudication.
Hindu groups allege the mosque was wrongly built centuries ago on the birthplace of Lord Rama, one of Hinduism's most revered deities. They say the mosque occupied land where a temple to Rama once stood.
The dispute reached a flashpoint in 1992 when Hindu extremists destroyed the mosque, igniting riots around the nation that killed more than 2,000 people. A ruling on which religious grouping owns the Ayodhya grounds was expected last week, but the Supreme Court intervened after a petitioner suggested an out-of-court settlement may be possible.
Both sides are now expressing agreement that only a legal verdict can move the case toward resolution.
Ravi Shankar Prasad is a senior leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which spearheaded the campaign to build the temple at the site of the mosque.
"Let us trust the innate maturity of the people of the country to take the judicial process with all the respect it deserves," he said.
The spokesman for India's ruling Congress Party, Janardan Dwivedi, called for calm before the court's verdict.
He tells Indians it is yours, mine and every citizen's duty in the country to maintain harmony and peace.
A massive security presence has been maintaining peace near the Ayodhya site as the case has entered its final stage. Tens of thousands of police are in the vicinity bracing for Thursday's verdict.
China says jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo should not be considered for this year's Nobel Peace Prize, which will be announced in Oslo next week. There are reports that Chinese officials have warned the Nobel committee that giving Liu the prize would harm relations between China and Norway.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu would not say Liu Xiaobo's name, but she said Tuesday that China does not believe he is the kind of person the Nobel Committee should consider for the Peace Prize.
Jiang says Liu is in prison for violating Chinese laws, which she says is in "complete contrast" with the Nobel Peace Prize's purpose. She said Chinese law guarantees citizens freedom of speech but that this should be carried out within what she described as the country's "framework of laws and regulations."
Liu convicted of subversion
Fifty-four year old Liu was convicted of subversion for helping organize the Charter 08 manifesto, which called for sweeping political reforms. He was detained shortly before it was released online in December 2008. A year later, he was tried and sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Before that, he was prominent in student-led pro-democracy protests centered on Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Troops crushed the protests on June 4, 1989.
International attention to Liu's case has been growing. Earlier this month, Czech former President Vaclav Havel signed his name to a public letter calling on the Nobel Committee to honor Liu Xiaobo for what the letter describes as "unflinching and peaceful advocacy for reform."
Charter 08 was modeled on Charter 77, a manifesto that was a rallying document for activists in the former Czechoslovakia.
Award would affect Oslo, Beijing relations
The head of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, Geir Lundestad, recently said Deputy Chinese Foreign Minister Fu Ying told him that awarding the peace prize to a Chinese dissident would affect relations between Oslo and Beijing.
Fu told reporters in Beijing Tuesday that she does not remember the meeting.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang says China accepts that it will have differences with other countries over human rights.
Jiang says China believes disputes over human rights are normal, and that Beijing does not intend to place pressure over this issue.
She says she believes China and Norway are friendly countries, and that relations between the two could proceed.
She adds that China's idea of human rights includes allowing the country's more than one billion people to "enjoy development and a peaceful life."
The Nobel Committee announces this year's Peace Prize on October 8.
The Afghan government has appointed a committee to negotiate peace talks with the Taliban, in an effort to get insurgents to lay down their arms.
President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday unveiled the 70-member High Peace Council, which includes former warlords, former presidents, former Taliban officials, civil and religious leaders, as well as women.
The decision to create the council was made in June at a peace assembly or "jirga."
President Karzai has called for the Taliban to renounce violence and respect the country's constitution. On Tuesday, he renewed his call for the insurgent group to embrace peace.
The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, said Monday that high-level Taliban leaders have approached the Afghan government seeking reconciliation.
Petraeus said the U.S. military supports Mr. Karzai's conditions, and compared the approach to the battle against Sunni insurgents in Iraq.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Vietnam's economy is bustling, having bounced back from the global downturn due in large part to the government's stimulus package.
The Communist Party has set a target of 8 percent average growth a year over the next five years. The Ministry of Planning and Investment expects growth of 7.5 percent in 2011, up from 6.5 percent this year.
Vietnam's economy has weathered the worst of the global downturn, according to Danny Armstrong, Vietnam director for Australia's Commonwealth Bank.
"If you consider what we've just come through - the worst global financial circumstances in 80 years - the Vietnamese economy last year grew at 5.3 percent when most economies - most developed economies were in reverse - I would suggest the outlook for growth is pretty bright," said Armstrong.
Economic stimulus plan
The government introduced an $8.5 billion stimulus package to reduce the damage from the global financial crisis in 2008. And monetary authorities have depreciated the currency, the dong, which makes exports more competitive overseas.
The stimulus package played a key role in preventing a recession, said Ayumi Konishi, country director for the Asian Development Bank. But Konishi believes it is time to begin reducing the support.
"The government should be able to phase out the first round of this stimulus package," said Konishi. "That should really do what was intended to do. The important thing is the stimulus package also increasingly includes large portion of the infrastructure support or the infrastructure investment."
Weak infrastructure
Many in business say the government needs to focus on improving its infrastructure. Roads, ports and power plants can not keep up with rising demand.
And that problem is a big one for business, said the Commonwealth Bank's Danny Armstrong.
"I guess the key complaint has been a lack of reliability of electricity over the last year or two. There's been a lot of comment about that in the media; still requirements there to improve port facilities. Roads … certainly in Ho Chi Minh City, if you have a look at traffic on the roads, the road infrastructure is growing a bit so, [but] infrastructure still has some way to go," he said.
Vietnam is working on the problems. Thirty new coal-fired power plants are expected to start operating soon, and there are plans to build more.
Currency devaluation poses risks
But some of the government's actions lead to other worries, and economists say the country still faces economic challenges, including inflation and concerns over corruption and government controls. The decision to depreciate the dong has prompted worries about inflation. And while it was intended to boost exports, a weaker currency raises prices for imports.
And like other emerging economies, Vietnam has seen capital rapidly flowing into its markets from slower-growing countries.
Real estate prices, for instance, have risen rapidly in the past year, adding to concerns of bubble.
Nagesh Kumar, the chief economist at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, says the inflows reflect rising real estate prices elsewhere in Asia including China, India and Indonesia.
"This is an issue which is affecting most of the Asian emerging economies. This is because of the crisis there were injections of liquidity all across the world and that is now finding its way to Asian economies because they are doing so well. Because of these capital flows the property prices and stock prices are going up," said Kumar.
Vietnam's Ministry of Construction says this year real estate accounted for almost 22 percent of all foreign direct investment in the country.
Foreign investment
Vietnam benefits from rising costs in China, a dynamic which forces some companies to shift their operations, analyst Armstrong points out.
"If you don't want to have all your eggs in the China basket, then think about Vietnam as an alternative, that has a cheap but young and trainable workforce in a relative sense, has political stability, has relatively favorable investment conditions and a welcome mat out for foreign investment," he said.
Overall foreign investment is recovering slowly after dropping during the global slowdown. For the first nine months of the year, foreign direct investment was 12 percent lower than it was a year ago, at $11 billion, well under the government's target for 2010 of $22 billion. Vietnam's main investors are from Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore, as well as the United States and Europe.
Some foreign investors are worried because the international credit ratings agency Fitch downgraded Vietnam's rating. Fitch blamed inconsistent state policies, external finances, and weak domestic banks for the downgrade.
Also foreign investors, in regional surveys, have expressed concern over corruption and intellectual property rights in Vietnam. In addition, they say that Vietnam's complex business laws undermine its attraction to investors.
U.S. President Barack Obama begins a two-day campaign trip Tuesday aimed at boosting support for Democratic Party congressional candidates in this November's crucial elections.
Mr. Obama is trying to re-energize the young voters who provided crucial support and enthusiasm for his 2008 presidential election, but who do not appear to be excited for the midterm elections.
The president told a group of college journalists Monday that young voters "can't sit it [the election] out," because of the chance opposition Republicans could take over one or both houses of the U.S. Congress.
Mr. Obama will also speak to small groups of voters in "backyard" settings to explain his policies during the trip.
He will start with a backyard talk to a group of voters in [the southwestern U.S. city of] Albuquerque, New Mexico, then fly to Madison, Wisconsin for a major rally at the University of Wisconsin.
Mr. Obama will also hold campaign events in Iowa and Virginia before returning to the White House Wednesday.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
The Asian Development Bank has raised its forecast economic growth for Asia's developing nations this year because of strong exports and consumption. But the bank warns about risks from the growing flow of foreign money to the region.
Robust economic expansion in China and India will lift average economic growth in developing Asia to 8.2 percent this year. The Asian Development Bank previously estimated growth at 7.5 percent.
Slowdown risk
However, growth is expected to fall to 7.3 percent next year because of the risk of a slow down among the large industrialized economies, a major destination of the region's exports.
China's economy is expected to grow 9.6 percent this year but that could slow to 9.1 percent next year. India's economic growth, however, is expected to increase next year to 8.7 percent from 8.5 percent this year.
Lee Jong-wha, the bank's chief economist, says foreign capital will continue to flow to developing Asian economies. But he warns that it comes with some risks.
"The massive inflows, and the possibility of sudden withdrawal, actually play a potential risk of disruption in the Asian2- financial markets and build pressure on the exchange rates," Lee said.
More foreign money
Last year, about $200 billion in investments flowed into the region and stayed. This contributed to an increase in foreign exchange reserves and stronger currencies - a growing concern for the region's export-dependent economies. For example, the Japanese central bank intervened in the foreign exchange market to weaken the yen to protect Japanese exports.
There are worries around the world that the fund inflow could trigger a currency war, in which central banks dump their own currencies to keep them weak. Lee says if they do, they will face another problem.
"The massive liquidity goes into the domestic financial markets so it creates another pressure on the inflation side," Lee said.
The Thai baht and the Malaysian ringgit have strengthened by nearly 11 percent since September 2008. But the Chinese yuan has appreciated only about one percent, and the Vietnamese dong has fallen nearly 15 percent because of the government's devaluation of the currency.
Expanding economies
The ADB, a non-profit development lender, forecasts Southeast Asian economies will expand an average of 7.4 percent this year. Singapore will be the fastest-growing economy in Southeast Asia this year at 14 percent, followed by Thailand at 7 percent. But growth in the sub-region will fall to 5.4 percent next year because of slowing export demand.
In Central Asia, growth this year is expected to be 5.1 percent, up slightly from the ADB's original forecast of 4.9 percent. Next year the region's economies are likely to expand about 5.7 percent. The ADB's 2010 update says exports of minerals, oil and natural gas are helping the regional expansion.
The Israeli navy has intercepted a boat carrying Jewish activists attempting to deliver aid to Gaza.
Organizers of the voyage say naval forces boarded their ship several kilometers off the coast of Gaza and forced it to head to the southern Israeli port of Ashdod. No violence was reported.
The British-flagged catamaran Irene left from northern Cyprus Sunday carrying nine passengers and crew members.
Members of the British group, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, organized the trip to deliver medical supplies and other aid to the region.
In May, Israel drew international condemnation after nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed when Israeli commandoes boarded a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.
Afghan police say a suicide bomber has killed a top provincial official and at least five other people in eastern Afghanistan.
Tuesday's attack killed the deputy governor of Ghazni province, Mohammad Kazim Allahyar, as well as his adult son, nephew, and a guard. Two nearby civilians also were killed.
Police say the bomber, on a motorized rickshaw, struck the deputy governor's vehicle as it traveled toward Allahyar's office in Ghazni city. The explosion also wounded at least eight people.
In an emotional speech in Kabul, President Hamid Karzai decried such violence and said he worries it will force young Afghans to leave the country.
He broke into tears at one point, and said he does not want his son, Mirwais, to become a foreigner.
The speech was about education in Afghanistan, and Mr. Karzai said children cannot go to school because of the threat of bombs and suicide attacks.
Ghazni is on the main road between Kabul and Kandahar, and is regularly hit by insurgent attacks.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.
The youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has been given senior posts in the ruling communist party and commissioned a four-star general in Pyongyang's armed forces.
North Korea's state-run news agency (KCNA) announced Wednesday that Kim Jong Un was named to the central committee of North Korea's Workers' Party. He also was appointed vice-chairman of the party's powerful central military commission, which his father heads.
North Korean television for the first time on Tuesday mentioned the youngest son of top leader Kim Jong Il.
An announcer read Supreme Commander's Order Number 51, signed by the elder Kim, in which his son, Kim Jong Un, is among those named a military general.
Denny Roy, a senior fellow at the East West Center in Hawaii, said "It's maybe a step toward what we expect to see happening in the next few months, that is the preparation of third son, Jong Un, for paramount leadership. But what many outside analysts expect is that he won't be the real power. He'll be something of a front man, the direct connection to the royal line."
Related video report by Robert Raffaele:
The ruling Workers' Party Tuesday opened its first conference since 1980 in Pyongyang, and reappointed Kim Jong Il the party leader.
Some North Korea experts expect the son to be given a senior post at the party meeting.
Little is known about Kim Jong Un. He is believed to be in his late 20's and may have studied in Switzerland under a different name. His grandfather, Kim Il Sung, was North Korea's first leader, followed by Kim Jong Il, now 68 and apparently in declining health.
The announcement of his appointment as a general did not mention he is Kim Jong Il's son. Also named as an army general: Kim Jong Il's elder sister, Kim Kyong Hui.
Long-time North Korea watcher Roy at the East West Center expects little from the Workers' Party meeting.
"If Kim Jong Un wasn't substantially advanced toward the goal of being a paramount leader that would be a surprise. Of course any major shift of policy would be a dramatic surprise. Any indication that North Korea is willing to deal forthright with the Cheonan incident would be a great surprise. Unfortunately I don't expect any of these things to happen," said Roy.
The Cheonan, a South Korean naval ship, exploded and sank in the Yellow Sea six months ago. An international investigation blamed a North Korean torpedo, but Pyongyang denies any involvement.
Seoul demanded an apology from the North before relations can improve.
Professor Lee Woo Young, of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, says there is a possibility Pyongyang this week could indirectly signal a desire to improve relations.
Lee says if someone known for having a softer line on North-South relations gets chosen for a high-level party post, that in itself could improve ties. And, he says, it could also be seen as a gesture toward improving relations between Pyongyang and Washington.
North Korea and its main ally, China, have been pushing for a resumption of six-nation talks about ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs. North Korea left the talks last year.
U.S. officials recently have said they want to see North Korea take steps showing its sincerity about making progress in the six-nation talks. Besides the U.S. and the two Koreas, the other partners are China, Japan and Russia.
As the party delegates opened their meeting in the North Korean capital, Korean War veterans marched through downtown Seoul as South Korean fighter jets flew in formation overhead. Seoul on Tuesday marked the 60th anniversary of the re-capture of the city from North Korean invaders during their war in the early 1950s.
The Kremlin said Tuesday that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has signed a decree firing Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.
According to the decree, Luzhkov, mayor since 1992, was removed because he "lost the Russian Federation president's confidence."
Mr. Medvedev appointed Vladimir Resin as acting mayor.
Luzhkov has become the target of a widespread campaign by the Kremlin-controlled media to portray him as corrupt.
Mr. Medvedev said earlier this month that the mayor should either begin to act more democratically or join the political opposition.
Luzhkov's billionaire wife has accused the Kremlin of mounting a campaign against her husband to position Mr. Medvedev for re-election in 2012.
Luzhkov is a top player in the ruling United Russia party and a reputed ally of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. He is seen as an important player in the 2012 presidential elections.
Mr. Medvedev and Mr. Putin have both said one of them will seek the presidency, and most Russians expect Mr. Putin to return to the post he held from 2000 to 2008.
Luzhkov was appointed mayor by the late president Boris Yeltsin in 1992, and won three elections since then. His term was set to end next year.
Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Palestinian officials in Gaza say an Israeli air strike has killed three gunmen belonging to the militant Islamic Jihad group.
Palestinian medics said late Monday they recovered three bodies from the site of an explosion outside a refugee camp near the Israeli border.
An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed the attack, saying it was aimed at a group of militants preparing to fire a rocket into Israel. There have been many similar Israeli strikes against militants in Gaza, which is controlled by the Islamist Hamas movement.
The latest violence underscored the significance of U.S.-backed Middle East peace talks launched this month. Diplomats are trying to prevent the talks from breaking down over a dispute about Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank.
Earlier Monday, a group of Islamic states and their allies sharply denounced Israel at the United Nations Human Rights Council, which received two reports critical of the Jewish state's actions in Gaza.
The reports presented in Geneva detailed how Israel and the Palestinians responded to a U.N. call for them to investigate abuses during the 2008-09 Gaza fighting and an Israeli raid on a Gaza aid flotilla in the Mediterranean four months ago.
Israel is not a member of the Human Rights Council and refused to cooperate with the reports, which were produced by three-member teams of appointed jurists.
Israel contends the Council is "obsessively biased" against the Jewish state, and that its reports prejudge Israel in a "politicized and extremist" manner.
The 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference, or OIC, introduced a resolution Monday calling for continued U.N. scrutiny of Israel's activities.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
North Korea's official media say the youngest son of ruler Kim Jong Il has been named a general.
The Korean Central News Agency announced the move on Tuesday, just hours before the ruling party's biggest gathering in 30 years. It lends credence to predictions that the Workers Party meeting will be used to prepare for an eventual transfer of power to Mr. Kim's third son, Kim Jong Un.
Many believe a powerful post also will go to Kim Jong Il's sister, Kim Kyong Hui, or her powerful husband, Jang Song Taek.
Either one might be trusted to hold power if anything happens to the ailing Kim Jong Il before his son is ready to take charge. Kim Jong Un is only in his 20s.
Analysts also expect the delegates to fill a number of vacant posts and name younger officials to replace some elderly members.
A South Korean news report on Sunday said North Korea also is preparing for the largest military parade in its history.
The Yonhap news agency quoted officials in Seoul as saying troops, missiles, armored vehicles and artillery rockets have been converging on an airbase near the North Korean capital since July.
The report says as many as 10,000 soldiers have been rehearsing for a parade that will be inspected by Kim Jong Il.
The North Korean leader is widely believed to have suffered a stroke in 2008, and he looked frail in photographs taken during meetings with foreign officials in the past few months.
The Workers' Party has not had a full party congress since 1980, and the conference of delegates has not met since 1966.
Next month, the party marks the 65th anniversary of its founding.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
President Barack Obama's point man for the recent Gulf of Mexico oil spill, retired U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, is suggesting changes in legislation on how oil spills are handled. Allen said Monday that he called for the changes to ease public concerns about possible conflicts of interest in a future oil spill response.
Allen spoke at a public hearing of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. The commission, created by President Obama, is investigating the events surrounding the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform that killed 11 workers and led to the worst offshore oil spill in history.
Allen said that having the oil company that is involved in a spill, responsible for the response, as is the case under current U.S. law, might raise concerns about whether the firm is taking all steps possible to clean up the spill and safeguard the environment.
"Something we might want to consider is the creation of a qualified individual that would represent the industry, oversee the response, have access to the resources, but basically would be firewalled from any fiduciary link back to the shareholders, almost putting the resources in trust, and having them executed by an industry expert," said Thad Allen.
Allen said response plans didn't foresee the scope of a spill like the one that occurred this year in the Gulf of Mexico. He said responders faced challenges with the uncertainty of the spill, its shifting direction and the vast area it covered.
"What we had were hundreds of thousands of patches of oil that moved in different directions over different periods of time that moved significantly beyond the geographical area that was contemplated in any response plan and basically put the entire Gulf Coast at risk," he said.
Billy Nungesser, a local parish [district] leader in coastal Louisiana, expressed frustration at the BP oil company and the federal government, saying they were ill-prepared and uncoordinated, and that the leadership structure of the response is unclear.
"Sitting here today, I still can't tell you who is in charge," said Billy Nungesser.
BP stopped the flow of oil from the ruptured well in July and has since permanently sealed the well.
But scientist Ian MacDonald of Florida State University told the panel that the long-term effect on the environment might not be known for some time, as was the case with the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska in 1989. MacDonald called for careful attention to be paid to the marine life in the northern Gulf.
"In many cases, we don't know what the baseline levels of these populations are," said Ian MacDonald. "Nonetheless, we should track them very closely over time because the experience in Exxon Valdez in Prince William Sound was that it sometimes took several years or seasons for the impact on a population to appear."
Oil from the BP well polluted fragile Gulf marshlands, coated wildlife and seriously affected businesses in the region. There have been several estimates of how much oil spilled into the Gulf. Last week, researchers from Columbia University put that figure at some 4.4 million barrels.
U.S. Middle East Envoy George Mitchell is traveling to the region for urgent talks on what the State Department calls the "dilemma" posed by the expiration of Israel's moratorium on settlement building. U.S. officials have welcomed Palestinian restraint in not formally breaking off peace talks.
Mitchell will be visiting the Mideast in an effort aimed at salvaging U.S.-brokered direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Despite appeals from President Obama, among others, the freeze on most West Bank settlement activity declared by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ten months ago expired late Sunday.
The Israeli leader faced a rebellion within his right-leaning coalition government if he extended the moratorium, while Palestinians had threatened to quit the talks if was not continued.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas created an opening for U.S. emergency diplomacy when he said in Paris that a decision on the negotiations would await consultations with the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Arab League.
In a talk with reporters on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley said Palestinian restraint is appreciated.
Crowley said Mitchell and key aides were flying to the region late Monday for contacts aimed at salvaging the talks, which the spokesman said are widely acknowledged to have made progress since opening in Washington September 2.
"The process is important. It's vital. As the parties themselves know, absent these direct negotiations, Israel does not get the security that it needs and deserves, and the Palestinians do not get that state that they want and deserve. So one way or another, the parties have to find a way to continue direct negotiations," said Crowley.
President Obama, delivering the U.S. policy speech to the General Assembly last week, had urged an extension of the settlement moratorium as well as "tangible steps" by Arab states toward normalization of ties with Israel.
On the sidelines of General Assembly debate Monday, a procession of diplomats urged Israel to extend the freeze, among them British Foreign Secretary William Hague. "The United Kingdom believes that it is very important for the moratorium on settlements to be continued, to be extended. This affects the credibility of the negotiations, the viability of the direct talks. So we do look to Israel to extend that settlement freeze," said Hague.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose government has invited Israeli and Palestinian leaders for peace talks in Paris, told reporters it is too soon to pronounce the regional peace process to be in crisis.
"There was no breakdown yesterday," said Kouchner. "No break. No big incident, and they are following the process of peace, waiting for the meeting of the Arab League next Saturday. I think President Abbas was wise enough to tell us yesterday that it is not the end of the peace talks, the direct talks, and Prime Minister Netanyahu was wise enough to advise the settlers not to move too much."
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continued consultations on the Middle East on Monday in New York. Her list of bilateral meetings included one with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem, the first U.S.-Syrian meeting at that level since 2007.
The United Nations is giving $6 million in cash from its Children's Fund to mothers in Niger so they can buy food amidst widespread hunger in that West African country brought on by last year's lack of needed rain for crops.
Vanessa Curney, a communications specialist for UNICEF, based in the capital Niamey, said that with the help of partners such as Save the Children, CARE and the Nigerien government, UNICEF is making monthly cash payments of $40 to mothers of children under two in the areas that have been most affected by drought.
"It's given to the mothers, it's given to the women, and the idea is that women will use it in the local markets, so it further boosts the local economy, because the money is spent locally," said Curney.
A recent combination of drought, poor harvest and high food prices have placed more than 7 million people in danger of hunger in Niger. Curney added that cash for aid is appealing because of its cost efficiency.
In May 2010, UNICEF helped distribute food rations to families in Niger. The rations were meant to exclusively feed children between the ages of six months to 23 months. Curney said, however, that people began sharing the food among the entire family, so they turned to cash to supplement the growing need.
The current cash for aid will last for three months.
"It actually started at the end of the August, so that was the first distribution," said Curney. "There are two more distributions to go, which will take us up into, I believe, October - perhaps just the beginning of November. The problem is that when you have a situation where kids are malnourished, it's going to take them time to get back to their proper weight, their proper level of health."
This year's harvest is set to begin in October in Niger, and despite some recent flooding, there are positive expectations for the result.
"It's still a pretty difficult, tough situation, because obviously you've had a long period of people not being able to eat properly. But there are glimmers of hope. We're hopeful that there is going to be a good harvest," said Curney.
The second round of cash distribution is set to begin this week, and the cash will be given in conjunction with food rations handed out by the World Food Program.
Egypt's former foreign minister Ahmed Maher has died at the age of 75.
Egypt's MENA news agency says Maher died in a hospital Monday due to unspecified health problems.
Maher served as Egypt's top diplomat from 2001 until 2004. A career diplomat, he participated in the Camp David peace talks between Israel and Egypt in 1978.
Maher was attacked by Palestinian activists in 2003 while visiting al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. The activists threw shoes at him, a deep insult in the Arab world.
The incident did not seriously injure Maher, but it underscored tensions surrounding efforts at the time to restart peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.
The future of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks is uncertain after Israel allowed a freeze on settlement construction to expire. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is delaying a decision on whether to pull out of peace negotiations.
A bulldozer digs at the Revava Jewish settlement Monday in the northern West Bank. It is a scene that stokes anger among Palestinians and raises questions about whether the talks that started less than a month ago will continue.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas threatened to quit negotiations if Israel did not extend the freeze. Now, his spokesman said the Palestinian leader will announce a decision on whether to remain in talks in early October after consulting with Arab leaders in Cairo.
Israel said it wants the negotiations to continue, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for the Palestinians to stay in talks.
It was here at the Revava settlement that hundreds of Israelis gathered Sunday to count down the end of the 10-month freeze that Israel imposed on the building of new-Jewish homes - a gesture meant as a confidence-building measure to bring the Palestinians back to talks.
Nazmi Salman is mayor of the neighboring Palestinian town of Deir Istiya, whose residents say they have lost many hectares of land to the settlers. Standing on a hillside, watching at a distance as a bulldozer works inside Revava, he said it is difficult to have confidence in the peace process as long as this and other settlements are expanding.
"Whether this settlement at Revava or other settlements surrounding Deir Istiya and all the Palestinian occupied territories, they are destroying our hope toward a Palestinian independent state," said Salman. "After 43 years of occupation, you can see that settlements are working day and night (building) on Palestinian land, so nowadays it is very difficult for a Palestinian state to be established here."
The United States continues diplomatic efforts to get both sides to reach a deal on settlement construction and keep the talks going. The Israeli's and Palestinian's top negotiators remain in the United States, keeping hope alive that a compromise may still be reached.
A leader of Somalia's moderate Islamist Ahlu-Sunna Wal-Jama'a group says members of al-Shabab are holding top positions in the U.N.-backed Transitional Federal Government. The accusation follows the Sufi group's withdrawal from a power-sharing deal it signed with the government six months ago.
<!--IMAGE-->
The chairman of Ahlu-Sunna Wal-Jama'a's Shura Council, Sheik Omar Sheik Abdul Karidir, says his group has documents that show some leaders of the Transitional Federal Government are also members of al-Shabab, an al-Qaida-linked extremist group fighting to topple the government.
The Sufi cleric did not provide any details and declined to name the government officials he says are connected to al-Shabab. But Karidir says his group will no longer - in his words - "cooperate with an insincere government."
In March, the transitional government signed a power-sharing deal with a faction of Ahlu-Sunna Wal-Jama'a in Addis Ababa. The deal called for Ahlu-Sunna to back the government in its fight against al-Shabab in exchange for several Cabinet positions. But on Saturday, the Sufi group said it was pulling out of the deal because the government had failed to live up to its promises.
Ahlu-Sunna's allegation against members of the transitional government has not been independently verified. But similar reports have been circulating since mid-2008, when an Islamist opposition faction based in Eritrea joined the secular government in a U.N.-sponsored power-sharing deal. The leader of the Islamist faction, Sharif Sheik Ahmed, subsequently became president of an expanded Transitional Federal Government, which pledged to defeat al-Shabab and curb extremism.
International Crisis Group Horn of Africa analyst E. J. Hogendoorn says despite Mr. Sharif's new role as an ally of the West, he has been dogged by rumors that he and many other former members of the Eritrean-based faction are adherents of the ultra-conservative Wahhabist strain of Islam.
"There have been lots of allegations that Sheik Sharif has been sympathetic to the goals of al-Shabab - that is the establishment of a Wahhabi state, which is obviously something that Ahlu-Sunna Wal-Jama'a would be very much opposed to," said Hogendoorn.
Many elements of Wahhabism are embraced by al-Shabab and another radical Somali insurgent group, Hizbul Islam. Hizbul Islam is led by Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, who was a close associate of President Sharif before he joined the transitional government.
Hogendoorn says although there is no evidence to suggest members of the government are working hand-in-hand with al-Shabab, there are senior officials in government, who are likely to have deeply angered the Ahlu-Sunna Wal-Jama'a faction that signed the power-sharing deal.
"What happened was the international community pressured the Transitional Federal Government and Ahlu-Sunna to form an alliance," said Hogendoorn. "There are Islamists in the Transitional Federal Government, who are opposed to Ahlu-Sunna Wal-Jama'a's vision. There are also actors, who are worried about Ahlu-Sunna becoming too powerful. So, there are a number of individuals, who would like to undermine the organization."
Ahlu-Sunna Wal-Jama'a's withdrawal from government is likely to cause further turmoil in an administration that has long suffered internal divisions. Somalia's Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke resigned last week following a bitter power struggle with President Sharif.
The United States and the United Nations, which provide the bulk of the funding for the Transitional Federal Government, have urged leaders to pull together and bring stability to the country before its mandate ends next August.
Britain's Labor Party has selected a new leader, Ed Miliband. The decision was made after a tense leadership bid that saw two brothers pitted against each other for the top job.
Losing candidate former Foreign Minister David Miliband spoke at the Labor Party Conference in Britain on Monday. "I am so proud of my campaign, I am so proud of my party, but above all I am incredibly proud of my brother," he said.
It was a tight race for the Labor leadership. Five people were fighting for the top seat, but by the end of campaigning it had become clear that there were really on two possible winners - David or Ed Miliband.
David Miliband was Foreign Secretary until the Labor Party lost power earlier this year. In Britain he is the better known of the two brothers and was initially favored to win.
But in the end his younger brother beat him with a margin of just more than one percent.
Speaking on Saturday, the new Labor leader Ed Miliband paid tribute to his brother. "David, I love you so much as a brother," he says, "and I have so much extraordinary respect for the campaign that you ran."
Tony Travers is from Britain's London School of Economics. He says the two brothers' campaign became increasingly tense towards the end of the leadership contest.
"They are close as brothers and I think it has been slightly traumatic, particularly the race to the finish bit of the leadership race. And obviously it will take a bit of time for wounds to heal although I suspect, as in most families, they will," Travers said.
The Labor Party was in power for 13 years, first under the premiership of Tony Blair and then Gordon Brown, who stepped down as leader after Labor failed to win the general election earlier this year. Britain is now run by a coalition government led by Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.
Travers says Ed Miliband is considered a left-wing party member. He has called for a move away from so-called New Labor, a movement that catapulted Labor into power during the 1990s by repositioning it as a more centrist party.
But Traverse says it is unclear in what way Ed Miliband will steer the party. "The British electorate needs to see what he stands for and what his real policies will be," he said. "Just because he was supported as the left wing of the two brothers does not mean that he is now bound to stick there."
David Miliband has not yet said what are his future plans. Forty-year-old Ed Miliband is to speak at the Labor Party Conference on Tuesday.
At an alternative investment conference in Malaysia the talk is about a change in attitude when it comes to mixing finance with looking after the environment.
Speakers at the conference on alternative investments said Monday that an increasing number of shareholders want assurances that their investments are environmentally friendly. And they want them return a healthy yield.
One of the speakers is Mary Buffett, an author, business woman and investor. Her books include several on the investment techniques of her former father-in-law, Warren Buffett, one of the world's wealthiest individuals.
She says that clean energy and the ability to produce alternative sources of fuel will play an increasingly important role in financial markets. That is particularly so in Asia where large populations in China, India and in Southeast Asia must compete for scarce resources.
"I believe that shareholders, especially younger shareholders, are going to be putting pressure on the companies and the investments that they own to make sure the companies put their feet to the fire and hold them to standards that they previously may not have had from an environmental standpoint," Buffett said.
She says investors today are very aware of the environmental and social costs tied to corporate activity.
She, herself, refuses to buy tobacco stocks. Tobacco use is linked to a number of potentially fatal diseases.
Her sentiments were echoed by another speaker, Michael North, president of Greenstar Corporation, a technology company that focuses on solar power, wireless communications and media development. He says the planet can expect to suffer a number of environmental crises over the next 10 years as the climate warms.
"The pattern is going to be sustained for some time, and those events when they take place, as tragic as they are, they are needed wake-up calls for the investor and for the entrepreneur, for the people building businesses," North said. "They will see opportunities in those crises – the little Warren Buffetts will be going green."
Both Buffett and North say they think the worst of the global financial crisis is over, although the next two years will remain tough, and will be followed by a period of low but steady growth.
Afghan and NATO forces are staging a new push to drive Taliban militants out of their stronghold around the southern city of Kandahar.
Officials say 'Operation Dragon Strike' is an air-and-ground phase of an ongoing anti-Taliban offensive that already has involved weeks of fighting.
NATO spokesman Josef Blotz, a German brigadier general, says Afghan and coalition forces expect tough battles in the coming days. He says the goal of the operation is to destroy Taliban positions around Kandahar and force the militants to leave the area or to fight and be killed.
There are no reports of casualties among Afghan or NATO forces since the operation began in recent days.
Afghan officials say the government also is focused on implementing development projects in Kandahar. Clearing the southern region of militants is a key part of the U.S.-led strategy to help Kabul extend its authority over the country.
In other developments, a roadside bomb blast killed a Polish soldier Monday in the eastern Afghan province of Ghazni.
Afghan authorities also are searching for a British aid worker and her three Afghan colleagues kidnapped Sunday by militants in eastern Afghanistan's Kunar province.
The British government has confirmed that a British national was abducted in Afghanistan. London says it is working with Afghan authorities on the case and has contacted the abductee's family.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
A Japanese professor says his former university is trying to suppress his research showing that carbon nanotubes, a material used in everything from skis to cables, may cause cancer.
Put simply, carbon nanotubes are carbon atoms rolled into microscopic tubes. The tiny needle-like cylinders have strong electrical properties and they are often used in transistors or copper wire.
But they look much like asbestos fiber, and former Shinshu University Professor Shozo Koyama says carbon nanotubes pose similar health risks. Asbestos are linked to a number of deadly lung diseases.
Koyama says that his research shows that two types of carbon nanotube fibers may cause cancer. He reached that conclusion after mice he injected with those carbon fibers developed cancer.
Studies done in Europe and the United States also have indicated a similar hazard, although the severity of the risk is still being studied.
Koyama says he unveiled his study a few years ago, but Shinshu University refused to acknowledge the findings.
His lawyer, Jiro Yamane told journalists Monday that is in part because the university has close ties with a company that produces carbon nanotubes.
Yamane says public universities in Japan have become increasingly tied to industry, since the Japanese government passed a law six years ago encouraging them schools to become more financially independent.
Yamane says a tight budget cut government funding, and universities have tried to fill that void by forming close ties with various industries.
The carbon nanotubes in question were developed by another Shinshu University professor.
But that professor and the university dismiss Koyama's findings. Last year, the university cut Koyama's access to his research facilities. A few months ago, the university fired the professor, citing issues with "sexual and power harassment."
Yamane says this points to a dangerous trend in Japan. He says universities are too focused on promoting and nurturing industry at all costs.
Koyama says companies that make carbon nanotubes have a responsibility to stop producing what he says are harmful products.
The leaders of China and Russia have signed a statement to deepen their strategic partnership and cooperation.
President Hu Jintao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev inspected an honor guard at a welcoming ceremony Monday at Beijing's Great Hall of the People.
Following a closed-door meeting, the two leaders signed a statement calling for comprehensively deepening what was described as "the strategic partnership of cooperation."
The two giant neighbors also signed agreements to fight separatism and extremism, and commercial deals covering coal, nuclear energy and banking.
The Chinese president pointed to a series of agreements to expand trade and economic cooperation. He especially praised the completion of the first oil pipeline from Russia to China.
Mr. Hu points out the pipeline, and says both sides agree to stick to the principles of openness and mutual benefit in further cooperation in trade, investment, energy, finance, legislation and high-technology industries.
The 1,000-kilometer long oil pipeline from eastern Siberia to China becomes operational in November. It connects Russian oil fields with Daqing, a major oil processing base in northeastern China.
Under the deal, China is lending Russia $25 billion dollars and will be guaranteed as much as 300,000 barrels of oil a day for 20 years. The two sides also have agreed to jointly develop a $5 billion oil refinery in China.
Russia is the world's biggest energy producer and China is the largest energy consumer, overtaking the United States last year.
The Russian president said the two leaders also discussed how Russia and China could work closer together on international issues.
Mr. Medvedev says he thinks this closer cooperation will help both nations, in his words, "deal with the increasingly complicated international situation in a better way."
During a visit to China by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin last year, Russian and Chinese companies signed more than $3 billion worth of commercial deals. The two sides also set the framework for a separate, multi-billion dollar agreement to build two natural gas pipelines to China from Russia's Far East.
Russia and China split bitterly 50 years ago over differing interpretations of Communist ideology, although relations have improved in recent years.
The Russian president arrived in the northeastern Chinese port city of Dalian on Sunday. His three-day trip includes a stop in Shanghai, where he will visit Russia's Pavilion at the Expo.
The Socialist party of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has won legislative elections, with opposition parties winning 35 percent of seats. Opposition groups said the results marked a key victory in their attempts to place a check on Mr. Chavez.
Election officials announced the results after midnight in Venezuela, following delays at polling stations outside the capital, Caracas. The head of the National Electoral Council, Tibisay Lucena, said officials waited to release numbers until the outcome of a handful of tight races became clear.
She said, in spite of a few glitches, the vote was a success.
Lucena offered congratulations to candidates who won, and those who lost, saying it was a great contest.
Initial results indicate the Socialist party of President Hugo Chavez claimed at least 90 seats in the National Assembly. Opposition groups took at least 59, and two seats went to a party that split from the ruling Socialists this year.
The outcome gives opposition leaders more than a third of seats in the assembly, enabling them to block President Chavez from passing major legislation which requires two-thirds approval.
For some opposition candidates, the vote results showed a clear message of support from voters. In Caracas, opposition candidate Maria Corina Machado said Venezuelans do not want to see the county pushed further toward Communism.
Machado said the people have rejected the current National Assembly, adding that elected lawmakers must work to represent all of the country and not just part of it.
Opposition leaders said the results showed they had claimed 52 percent of the general vote across Venezuela, defeating the ruling Socialist party. However, a new redistricting plan has boosted the number of National Assembly seats in areas with relatively lower populations.
The governor of northwestern Zulia state, Pablo Perez, said the nation's election system prevented opposition candidates from claiming 52 percent of seats in the National Assembly. But he said the vote was a clear victory for the opposition.
Perez said the challenge is for all opposition leaders to be prepared to work with the government and Socialist lawmakers to help the country.
Many voters say the new assembly must be prepared to tackle growing problems, such as rising inflation and unemployment, and violent crime fueled in part by the illegal drug trade.
North Korea is preparing to convene a rare meeting of its only political party to select new leaders. As the delegates assemble in Pyongyang, South Korea and the United States are holding a maritime exercise in the Yellow Sea intended to deliver a message of deterrence to the North.
North Korea's last Workers' Party Congress took place in 1980.
Analysts expect this conclave will fill vacant party posts and name some younger officials to replace elderly central committee members.
Anticipation is high that supreme leader Kim Jong Il's youngest son, Kim Jong Un, will be given a prominent job.
Professor Lee Woo Young at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul agrees with that assessment.
He says since Workers' Party meetings deal with organizations within the party it is highly likely Kim Jong Un is going to be officially appointed to a post.
There are numerous reports that Kim Jong Il's health continues to deteriorate. Regional experts suspect he suffered a stroke two years ago.
The party conference was originally set for early September. No reason was given for the delay, but some North Korea analysts speculate the leader's health may be one reason. Recent flooding also may have delayed the meeting.
Professor Lee says it is likely the damage from this month's rainstorms prevented delegates from reaching the capital.
Lee says the meeting is supposed to be held in a festive atmosphere but the floods ruined it and made it logistically difficult to hold the meeting as originally scheduled. But he also acknowledges the possibility that top officials failed to agree about who would get certain posts, including Kim Jong Un.
As North Korea prepares for its political gathering, South Korea and the United States on Monday began a joint maritime exercise in the Yellow Sea. The five-day anti-submarine war game is the latest in a series of joint military drills this year.
Officials of both militaries say the drill is meant to send a clear message of deterrence to North Korea.
The United States and South Korea are among the countries blaming North Korea for the sinking of a South Korean warship in the Yellow Sea six months ago. An international investigation concluded the vessel was destroyed by a North Korean torpedo. Pyongyang denies responsibility.
North Korea has condemned the exercise, saying it is a rehearsal for a nuclear war.
An uneasy peace has prevailed on the Korean peninsula since 1953 when fighting in the devastating three-year civil war ended. No peace treaty has ever been signed.
Three former Australian soldiers are being charged with manslaughter in connection with a raid in Afghanistan in which five children died. The charges against the three soldiers relate to an Australian commando raid on a suspected Taliban hideout in Afghanistan's southern Uruzgan province.
Six people, including five Afghan children, were killed in the raid in February 2009. Two other children and two adults were wounded. The soldiers allegedly attacked the wrong house.
At the time, Australia's Defense Department said the troops had returned fire against militants in accordance with their rules of engagement. Military officials investigated the raid before referring the matter to the independent military prosecutor, Brigadier Lyn McDade.
The brigadier Monday said that three former soldiers involved in the operation would be charged with various offenses. They include manslaughter, dangerous conduct, failing to comply with a lawful general order and prejudicial conduct.
The former commandoes must have the chance to clear their names, said Neil James of the indepdent research group, Australia Defense Association.
"The problem we have got is that if we do not resolve this issue, there will be allegations - possibly scurrilous - hanging over the heads of these diggers [soldiers] and the army, and indeed Australia, for a very long time," he said. "And the bottom line, of course, is the main difference between us and Taliban is we abide by international humanitarian law, and they do not."
Two of the ex-servicemen say they will defend themselves against the allegations. They have taken the usual step of issuing a statement through their lawyers, blaming the "callous and reckless act" of the suspected insurgent in the compound for the deaths of the six civilians. The men say their actions saved the lives of other Australian and Afghan troops.
The military prosecutor describes the men as "former" soldiers, but did not clarify when or why they left the military.
Australia has 1,550 troops in Afghanistan and the government in Canberra has steadfastly supported the U.S.-led military campaign there.
Voting has ended in Venezuela for legislative elections in which the ruling Socialist Party is seeking to fend off a challenge from opposition candidates.
Venezuelan election officials began tallying ballots from Sunday's legislative vote, as polling stations closed across the country. Voting sites in Caracas and many other areas closed as scheduled at 6:00 p.m. local time. But election officials reported delays in Carabobo and Vargas states, near the capital, where polling stations stayed open late.
The head of the National Electoral Council, Tibisay Lucena, said officials resolved problems in those areas and that no voters were turned away.
She added that other than minor problems with the nation's electronic voting system, the elections were a success.
Lucena said the vote was peaceful. She praised Venezuelans for fulfilling their civic duty to turn out and vote for the candidates of their choice.
Voters cast ballots for all of the 165 members of the National Assembly, which is controlled by the Socialist Party of President Hugo Chavez.
The president campaigned heavily for Socialist candidates throughout the country in an attempt to fend off a challenge from opposition parties.
Opposition candidates virtually are assured of expanding their tiny share of seats, after boycotting the previous vote in 2005. It is unclear whether they can win a third of the assembly's seats to block major legislation that requires two-thirds approval.
Many voters say that regardless of the election outcome, they hope to see lawmakers work to resolve major problems such as a rise in violent crime and unemployment.
Official results are expected late Sunday or early Monday.
Venezuelan election officials say President Hugo Chavez's ruling Socialist Party has won the majority of seats in Sunday's parliamentary election, but has fallen short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass major legislation.
Officials from the National Electoral Council said Monday that Mr. Chavez's party won at least 90 of the 165 seats, while the opposition coalition received at least 59 of the seats.
Officials say the remaining seats went to a third party or were not yet determined.
Opposition groups boycotted the last general elections five years ago, and held only a handful of seats in the outgoing National Assembly. This time the opposition campaigned actively, and succeeded in capturing slightly more than one-third of the seats - enough to block major legislation advancing Mr. Chavez's socialist program.
The president was not on the ballot, but the vote is seen as a referendum on Mr. Chavez himself, ahead of the next presidential election in 2012.
Mr. Chavez campaigned heavily for Socialist Party candidates throughout Venezuela. In the coming months, he is expected to introduce legislation to allow his government to nationalize small- and medium-sized businesses.
Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to continue peace talks as a 10-month partial freeze on West Bank settlement construction expired.
The Israeli leader released a statement early Monday, shortly after the freeze ended at 2200 UTC Sunday. He urged Mr. Abbas to continue dialogue in order to reach a "historic" agreement within a year. He said Israel was "ready to pursue continuous contacts in the coming days."
The French news agency quotes a spokesman for President Abbas as saying the Palestinian leader has urged Israel to re-impose the settlement freeze. Spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina says it is the only way peace talks can succeed.
He commented from Paris where Mr. Abbas met with members of the French Jewish community Sunday.
The Palestinians have threatened to walk out of the negotiations if construction resumes. The Palestinian Authority has requested a meeting with Arab League foreign ministers to decide how to proceed with peace talks if construction resumes.
Mr. Abbas is reported to have said the foreign ministers' meeting will take place on October 4.
Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post says Israel and the Palestinian Authority have agreed to devote another week to finding a compromise that would keep talks from breaking down.
The U.S. has been involved in negotiations with both sides. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley released a statement late Sunday saying top U.S. diplomats met with Israeli and Palestinian officials Sunday.
In the West Bank Sunday, Israeli settlers and their supporters began celebrating the end of the partial construction freeze.
About 2,000 people rallied in the settlement of Revava, where they released balloons ahead of the moratorium's expiration. In the nearby Kiryat Netafim settlement, residents laid the cornerstone for a new pre-school.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu had urged West Bank settlers to "show restraint" as the deadline approached.
Meanwhile, Israeli security officials say suspected Palestinian gunmen opened fire on an Israeli vehicle Sunday, slightly wounding a motorist. Officials say the incident took place near the West Bank city of Hebron.
Israel has allowed hundreds of thousands of Israelis to settle on lands it has occupied since 1967. Palestinians say the settlements interfere with plans for a sovereign Palestinian state.
Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
A boat carrying Jewish activists from Israel, Europe and the United States has set sail for Gaza from Cyprus in a bid to breach Israel's blockade and deliver aid.
The British-flagged catamaran Irene left from northern Cyprus Sunday carrying nine passengers and crew members.
The British group, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, organized the voyage. The group says it plans to deliver medical equipment, children's toys and other supplies to Gaza.
Group spokesman Richard Kuper said the boat's voyage is a "symbolic" act of protest against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and the siege of Gaza -- adding that, in his words, "Israeli government policies are not supported by all Jews."
In May, Israel drew international condemnation after nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed when Israeli commandoes boarded a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.
Reuters news agency says that without interruptions, it would take the catamaran now on its way to Gaza about 24 hours to reach the territory.
Some information for this report provided by Reuters, AFP and AP.
The dispute between China and Japan over the detention of a Chinese fishing boat captain by Tokyo has brought diplomatic relations between the Asian powers to their lowest level in years.
Members of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions were in the streets to protest Japan's detention of Chinese fishing boat captain Zhan Qixiong. They chanted slogans including "Japan must compensate" and "Down with Japanese militarism."
The Chinese captain had been held since his fishing boat collided with two Japanese patrol boats September 7. He arrived back in China on a chartered airplane on Saturday.
China had suspended ministerial-level contacts and canceled planned meetings with Japan while demanding Zhan's release. And, China continues to press for an apology and compensation, something Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Sunday rejected. "Senkaku islands are Japanese territory. From that point of view, an apology or compensation is unthinkable. I have no intention at all of meeting the demand," he said.
Mr. Kan told reporters in Tokyo that the group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea where the man was detained is an integral part of Japanese territory. The islands are claimed by both countries. The surrounding waters are rich fishing territory and are believed to hold undersea natural gas and oil reserves.
Mr. Kan's remarks followed a statement from China's Foreign Ministry on Saturday that called the captain's detention unlawful and asked Japan to apologize. Upon his arrival home, Captain Zhan said he firmly supports the Chinese government's position and that he did nothing illegal. "The Diaoyu Islands are a part of China. I went there to fish. That is legal. Those people (the Japanese) grabbed me. That was illegal," he said.
Some in the Japanese media criticized Tokyo's decision to free the captain as giving in to Chinese pressure.
Millions of Venezuelans cast ballots Sunday in parliamentary elections seen as a referendum on President Hugo Chavez, who has been in power since 1998.
After casting his vote, President Hugo Chavez said turnout could be as high as 70 percent.
Opposition groups boycotted the last general elections five years ago, and they hold only a handful of seats in the 165-member National Assembly. This time the opposition campaigned actively, in the hope of capturing at least one-third of the seats - enough to block major legislation advancing Mr. Chavez's socialist program.
The president was not on the ballot, but the vote is seen as a referendum on Mr. Chavez himself, ahead of the next presidential election in 2012.
First results are expected several hours after the last polling stations closed late Sunday.
Mr. Chavez has campaigned heavily for Socialist Party candidates throughout Venezuela in an effort to gain the two-thirds parliamentary majority needed to pass major legislation. In the coming months, he is expected to introduce measures enabling his government to nationalize small- and medium-sized businesses.
Recent polls show the Socialists just slightly ahead of the opposition umbrella group, Democratic Unity.
Some information for this report provided by AP and AFP.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev praised Sino-Russian friendship on Sunday at the start of his three-day visit to China, which is expected to focus on bilateral trade and investment.
Mr. Medvedev arrived in northeast China's port city of Dalian, where he laid flowers at the monument commemorating the Soviet soldiers killed while defending the city against Japanese forces during World War II. He also met with about 20 Russian and Chinese war veterans.
The Russian leader will meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao and other top Chinese officials Monday in Beijing. The two presidents will attend a ceremony marking the opening of the Chinese section of the first oil pipeline between the two countries. They will also oversee the signing of agreements on energy cooperation, bilateral trade and investment.
During the trip, President Medvedev's second to China since taking office in 2008, he will also visit Shangahi, where he will meet Tuesday with Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping and attend events marking Russia Day at the ongoing World Expo.
The Chinese section of the Russian East Siberia-Pacific oil pipeline connects the southeastern Russian town of Skovorodino with the city of Daqing in China's northeastern Heilongjiang province. The pipeline is set to open later this year.
China has become the world's largest energy consumer, overtaking the United States, and Russia is one of the world's largest energy producers. Some information for this report provided by AP and AFP.
Pakistani intelligence officials say U.S. drone aircraft have carried out two missile strikes in a northwestern tribal region, killing seven suspected militants.
<!--IMAGE-->
Officials say the air strikes happened Sunday in the Datta Khel region of North Waziristan, a day after a U.S. drone killed four militants in the same area. U.S. drones have launched almost 20 missile strikes in the Pakistani tribal region this month.
U.S. forces have been waging a drone war against militants linked to the Haqqani network who use North Waziristan as a base to attack NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan. North Waziristan is largely outside the control of the Pakistani government.
Islamabad has protested such attacks in the past, saying they anger the public and undermine its own military campaign against the militants. U.S. officials do not confirm drone operations, but say the strikes have killed several senior Taliban and al-Qaida militants.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.
A top Kashmiri separatist leader has rejected an Indian government plan to end months of deadly civil unrest in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
Syed Ali Shah Geelani says the measures proposed Saturday are unrealistic. He called them a ploy to gain time and deceive the international community.
Geelani also said Sunday New Delhi is "mistaken" if it thinks it can restore peace in Indian Kashmir by releasing a few students and paying money to relatives of protesters killed by security forces.
Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram outlined proposals Saturday to reduce security deployments in the region and free protesters detained for throwing stones at security personnel. He also is offering to begin a dialogue with a broad section of Kashmiri society.
Indian Kashmir has seen a wave of violent protests against New Delhi's rule in the disputed region since June. The unrest has killed 107 people, mostly teenage boys and young men shot in street battles with Indian security forces.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
The head of Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant has confirmed a computer worm infected some of the facility's software, but says the plant's main systems are all safe.
Bushehr Project Director Mahmoud Jahfari told state media an attack by the Stuxnet computer worm has had no impact on the operations of the nuclear power plant.
Jahfari said investigations showed that some private software belonging to Bushehr employees had been contaminated. He added that authorities are working to counter the attacks.
Iranian authorities had earlier acknowledged the worm has infected systems throughout the country, but said it had caused no serious damage.
Stuxnet, a self-replicating worm, has distinguished itself as the first known to be designed to take over industrial control systems. It is able to penetrate computer systems not connected to the internet.
The worm was detected earlier this year and has spread around the world. Iran is believed to be the most heavily affected, suffering an estimated 60 percent of the attacks.
The director of information technology at the Iranian Ministry of Industries and Mines, Mahmud Liai, told state media "an electronic war has been launched against Iran."
Several cyber experts point to the sophistication of the worm as an argument it might be the work of a state program, while political observers suggest the same, given that Iran has suffered disproportionately.
Political Science Professor Said Sadek of the American University in Cairo.
"It is very clear there was an attempt to send a strong message to Iran and its nuclear program by informing the Iranian authorities that their program is not immune and that someone can enter and penetrate and destroy and sabotage the whole process," Sadek said.
Sadek says because of the secrecy of the Iranian government and its tendency to downplay negative developments, it is difficult to tell what the full impact of Stuxnet may be.
The Bushehr plant is not believed to play any significant role in what many Western nations believe is Iran's desire to build a nuclear weapon, a goal Tehran denies.
Jordan's Queen Rania has made a plea for hope over cynicism in the Middle East peace process. The queen appeared on U.S. television in an interview taped during her visit to New York last week for the United Nations General Assembly.
Queen Rania says despite stalemates and setbacks in the decades-old quest for peace in the Middle East, there should be no defeatist attitudes among those pressing for a viable solution to the conflict.
"I know there is a lot of cynicism. And I know a lot of people do not believe it is going to happen [peace accord]. If it were easy, it would have happened by now," she said. "But it is important to emphasize why this peace process is important, why we must not let cynicism or pessimism dismiss the whole process."
The queen spoke on ABC's This Week program. She urged the Palestinian side to remain at the talks, despite uncertainty surrounding the expiration of Israel's 10-month freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank. She urged flexibility on both sides.
Queen Rania appeared to take issue with an oft-stated contention among Middle East observers: that the Israeli-Palestinian stand-off is fueling religious extremism in the region and beyond. She said extremist views would exist in the world even if the conflict did not exist.
Nevertheless, she noted that the conflict serves as a propaganda tool that extremists wield to push their ideals and agendas, often drowning out more moderate voices.
"We need to realize that when there is a population living under occupation, where there is no justice and they cannot send their children to school, and, on the other side, where Israelis feel they have to build a bubble, build a wall in order to exist safely because they live in such a hostile environment - that is an explosive situation that has repercussions not only for our region, but for the entire world," she said.
The Jordanian queen said U.S. President Barack Obama's popularity in the Muslim world, which polls show to be waning of late, would "skyrocket" if the current round of Middle East peace talks are a success.
She also defended a controversial proposed Islamic center in New York City as a vehicle for understanding and a tool to counteract extremist propaganda.
Iraqi officials say violence in and near Baghdad has killed at least three policemen and a government worker.
Police say a car bomb blast hit a police checkpoint Sunday in the town of Karmah, killing the officers, including a lieutenant colonel, and wounding at least three other people.
Authorities also say gunmen killed an anti-corruption government employee on the main road to Baghdad airport. The highway was considered one of the world's deadliest during the height of Iraq's insurgency in 2006 and 2007.
Insurgents have increasingly targeted Iraqi police and government employees in recent months.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Afghan police and media say a British woman and her three Afghan colleagues have been kidnapped by armed men in eastern Afghanistan.
Officials say the four employees of a U.S. civilian contractor were ambushed Sunday as they traveled in two vehicles in Kunar province, where they were visiting a project. Afghan officials say they have begun a search to find the hostages.
The British Foreign Office confirmed that a British citizen is missing in Afghanistan and said it is working with international agencies to investigate. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the kidnapping.
In another development, NATO said it carried out air strikes Friday against insurgents who tried to attack an Afghan security post in the eastern province of Khost. It said NATO aircraft killed more than 30 insurgents Friday and several more Saturday.
NATO said Afghan and coalition troops also killed nine insurgents in fighting Friday and Saturday -- five in the southern province of Kandahar and four in the northern province of Takhar.
The alliance said a bomb blast killed two of its soldiers in southern Afghanistan Sunday. The attack raised the number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan this year to more than 530.
Elsewhere, NATO said its troops shot and killed two Afghan civilians on a motorcycle Saturday as the vehicle approached a coalition security barrier in southern Afghanistan at high speed.
NATO said the Afghans accelerated toward the barrier in Helmand province, ignoring several verbal and visual warnings from the coalition forces. It said initial reports suggest the troops acted appropriately in opening fire after perceiving the motorcycle to be a threat.
NATO said it does not target civilians. Afghan officials have criticized U.S.-led forces for killing civilians in battles with the Taliban and other insurgents, saying such incidents erode public support for the NATO-backed Afghan government.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
Voters in Venezuela are casting ballots Sunday in parliamentary elections seen as a referendum on President Hugo Chavez, who has been in power since 1998.
The opposition is expected to increase the number of seats it holds in the 165-member National Assembly after boycotting the elections five years ago. It is hoping to capture at least one-third of the seats in order to block measures it fears will advance President Chavez's push toward socialism.
Mr. Chavez is not on the ballot. But his decline in popularity over the past two years due to increases in both crime and inflation is expected to be a factor in the outcome.
Mr. Chavez has campaigned heavily for Socialist Party candidates throughout Venezuela in an effort to ensure the two-thirds parliamentary majority needed to pass major legislation. In the coming months, he is expected to introduce measures that will enable his government to nationalize small and medium-sized businesses.
Recent polls show the Socialists just slightly ahead of the opposition umbrella group, Democratic Unity.
Venezuela's next presidential election is scheduled for 2012.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Witnesses say unidentified helicopter gunships have attacked a Somali town controlled by al-Shabab militants.
<!--IMAGE-->
Residents of Marka, south of Mogadishu, say the gunships fired on houses of al-Shabab commanders Sunday. They say the helicopter flew away after Islamist forces fired back at it.
There have been no immediate reports of casualties and no claim of responsibility.
An al-Shabab commander, Salah Ali Salah Nabhan, was killed in a U.S. helicopter strike in the town of Barawe last year.
Al-Shabab controls much of southern and central Somalia, including parts of the capital. The group is attempting to overthrow the Somali government and to turn Somalia into a strict Islamic state.
Israeli settlers are preparing to step up construction in the occupied West Bank as soon as a building freeze expires late Sunday. The expiration of Israel's self-imposed, 10-month moratorium on building threatens to derail peace negotiations, with the Palestinians threatening to quit talks if it is not extended.
As Israeli and Palestinian negotiators worked toward a possible last-minute compromise, Israeli settlers across the West Bank gathered construction equipment and prepared to resume building as soon as a partial ban on the building of new Jewish homes in settlements expired.
The settlers urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to give in to Palestinian or U.S. pressure to stop settlement construction.
Naftaly Bennett directs the Yesha Council, a group that represents the settlers. He is among those attending a rally at the Revava settlement late Sunday, sending a clear message for Israeli leaders.
"Any extension of a freeze on the lives of 325,000 Jews is not acceptable," Bennett said. "We will not tolerate that. It is unfair. It is immoral. It is against our human rights."
The resumption of full-scale construction in the settlements could cause the negotiations to collapse. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas threatens to quit talks if construction continues. At the United Nations on Saturday, he said Israel must choose between peace and the continuation of settlements.
Backing this position are many Palestinians like Abdullah Ghneim, a farmer whose lands have been taken up by another settlement, El Azar, near Bethlehem. He says there can be no peace as long as this settlement is here.
"It stole my land. This settlement is built over my land," Ghneim said. "What do you think my feeling is over this settlement? Who confiscates your land, do you like him?"
Israel has allowed hundreds of thousands of Israelis to settle on lands it has occupied since 1967. The Palestinians say the settlements interfere with plans for a sovereign Palestinian state.
In the hours before the deadline, Israeli officials said the freeze was to end late Sunday as scheduled.
In a statement, Prime Minister Netanyahu called for West Bank settlers to exercise restraint.
Hope of a compromise persisted up to the last minute. Israel's defense minister told a British television network there is a 50-50 chance that both sides would reach a deal on settlements.
Negotiators for both sides remained in the United States and have been in consultation with Obama administration officials who are working to negotiate a compromise.
Scientists in Australia are seeking to develop so-called "molecular sponges" that will soak up carbon gases and help reduce greenhouse gas pollution. Researchers at Sydney University have produced crystals full of microscopic holes that can retain gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. The aim is to use the crystals in power stations.
Scientists say Australia is particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels and warmer temperatures. Australia also has some of the world's highest per capita rates of greenhouse gas emissions. Many in the scientific community blame greenhouse gases for the vast island's climatic shifts.
To reduce such gases, academics in Sydney are developing tiny sponges that could soak up 90 per cent of emissions from coal-fired power stations that generate most of Australia's electricity.
Dr. Deanna D'Alessandro is a molecular chemist at the University of Sydney. She says the sponges, though small, have enormous absorbency.
"You could think of them a little like your kitchen sponge, so they are really absorbent," D'Alessandro said. "They can take up a huge amount of liquid or gas, so, in fact, if you took a tea spoon of one of the best materials we have at the moment, then it would actually have a surface area which was about the equivalent to a rugby field. These are really highly porous materials and it basically means they can absorb a huge amount of gas. In our case greenhouse gases like CO2."
Similar work is going on elsewhere, including Germany.
Conservationists say this type of research could give Australia the chance to clean up its dirty industrial processes.
Kellie Caught, the head of climate change at the campaign group WWF Australia, believes it would give the country time to explore longer-term renewable alternatives to burning fossil fuels.
"These technologies that can capture carbon dioxide and then store them will be beneficial in terms of retro-fitting to those coal and gas-fired power stations as well as those industrial processes," Caught said. "But these technologies don't capture 100 per cent of the carbon dioxide, so what it really means is that we need to be investing a lot more in zero-emission technologies if we want to get to zero emissions essentially."
The Sydney team also believes its "molecular sponges" could help drive a new generation of hydrogen-powered cars. The belief is that abundant supplies of the gas could be crammed into small units that would keep an average vehicle on the road for hundreds of kilometers.
Other scientists and many farmers in Australia have cast doubt on the effect of man-made pollution on the climate. They stress that shifts in temperatures and sea levels are part of a natural cycle.
Israel's 10-month freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank expires on Sunday, threatening to derail the latest round of Mideast peace talks.
Palestinian leaders have threatened to walk out of the talks if construction resumes.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in his address to the United Nations General Assembly Saturday, said Israel's "mentality of expansion and domination" is pushing his people, and the broader Middle East, into a cycle of violence and conflict that prevents genuine solutions to the region's problems.
He said Israel must choose between peace and the continuation of settlements.
The United States is pressing Israel to extend the moratorium on new settlement construction and urging Palestinians not to walk away from the talks.
Israeli and Palestinian officials met U.S. diplomats on the sideline of the U.N. General Assembly in an effort to prevent the talks from stalling.
Israeli settlers and their supporters have pressured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the restrictions. Some are planning to hold a rally Sunday to count down the end of the moratorium which expires at 2200 GMT.
Breaking the 3-year-old Gaza Blockade:
Meanwhile, a boat carrying Jewish activists from Israel, Europe and the United States has set sail for Gaza from Cyprus in a bid to breach Israel's blockade and deliver aid.
The boat set sail Sunday from northern Cyprus carrying eight passengers and several crew.
The British group, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, organized the voyage. The group says it plans to deliver medical equipment, children's toys and other supplies to Gaza.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Venezuela holds legislative elections on Sunday, which are expected to hinge on a growing number of undecided or independent voters. Some voters refuse to identify with either the government or opposition parties because of the harsh war of words between the two.
Venezuelans will cast ballots Sunday to choose all 165 members of the nation's National Assembly, which is now controlled by the rulling Socialist party of President Hugo Chavez.
Mr. Chavez has campaigned heavily for Socialist candidates throughout the country in an effort to ensure his party maintains a two-thirds majority needed to pass major legislation. In coming months, he is expected to introduce bills that would further empower community government bodies, and enable the central government to nationalize small and medium-sized businesses.
Opposition groups now hold a small fraction of seats in the Assembly, after boycotting the 2005 vote. They are hoping to seize at least a third of seats to block measures they fear will advance the president's push toward Socialism.
Mr. Chavez is not on Sunday's ballot, but the battle between his Socialist party and the opposition threatens to overshadow the individual races for National Assembly seats. Jewelry maker Hector Rodriguez says strong party supporters will vote Sunday the same way they have voted in previous elections.
He says many people are voting for their party and not necessarily for a specific candidate, because the candidates are well-known within the parties.
However, more and more Venezuelans are refusing to identify with the government or the opposition, and prefer to see themselves as independent. Political analysts call them "ni-ni" voters, which in Spanish translates as supporting neither one party or the other. And experts say they could sway the final election results.
Office worker Elizabeth Duran is turned off by the harsh tone of political debate, and she says both parties are to blame. She says she would like to see the opposition seize 50 percent of the assembly. Duran says the Socialist and opposition parties should split the assembly 50-50, just to end the political fights, which she says are damaging the country.
Iredis Salazar, a clothing saleswoman in downtown Caracas, agrees the opposition should have more representation in the assembly, even though she would not vote for an opposition candidate. She says she remains a staunch supporter of President Chavez because of his efforts to combat poverty over the past 12 years. Salazar says both parties need to be represented in the assembly, so that multiple points-of-view can be heard. She asks what good is it to give all the power to one side.
Another reason for the rise in independent voters is growing concerns about violence and economic troubles, such as high inflation and food shortages. Some voters say both the government and opposition have failed to do anything to resolve those problems.
Victor Hidrogo, a worker with the Caracas electricity cooperative, says he has not heard any new ideas from the candidates in Sunday's vote. Hidrogo says candidates are making the same promises as previous elections. But, he says the people will have to wait to see if any of those promises actually come true.
Political analysts say they have struggled to make projections about the outcome of Sunday's vote, in part because independent voters have a history of not casting ballots. They say the final result may depend on how many voters actually turn out.
Hector Rodriguez, the jewelry maker, says many of his co-workers have never voted before but plan to do so this time. He says there has been so much campaigning and news coverage, so they plan on voting. In the end, he says they may end up staying home, but they certainly want to take part.
Venezuelan election officials say they plan to release vote results a few hours after polls close on Sunday.
President Barack Obama has attacked a new economic opposition Republican plan called the "Pledge to America" as political differences sharpen before U.S. Congressional elections in November.
In his weekly address, President Obama shows disdain for the "Pledge to America", which House Republicans unveiled this week. "It is grounded in the same worn out philosophy: cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires; cut the rules for Wall Street and the special interests; and cut the middle class loose to fend for itself. That is not a prescription for a better future. It is an echo of a disastrous decade we cannot afford to relive," he said.
Mr. Obama says many current Republican leaders were the architects of failed economic policies during the presidency of his predecessor George W. Bush.
The "Pledge to America" calls for a reduction in government regulation, a repeal of Mr. Obama's health care reform, which has only just started to take effect, and an end to stimulus spending.
It also calls for all of Mr. Bush's previous income tax cuts to become permanent, while Mr. Obama is proposing to end these for wealthier individuals and some businesses.
In his party's weekly message, Republican Congressman Kevin McCarthy from California promoted the "Pledge to America." "The new agenda embodies Americans' rejection of the notion that we can simply tax, borrow and spend our way to prosperity. It offers a new way forward that has not been tried in Washington, an approach focused on cutting spending, which is sadly a new idea for a Congress accustomed to always accelerating it," he said.
The policy debate takes place against the backdrop of high national debt and unemployment, even though the U.S. economy is growing again. Republicans are making the struggling U.S. economy the main issue as they campaign to gain seats in Congress in the November elections.
Swedish police have released a man held in connection with a bomb threat aboard a Pakistani airliner that was diverted to Stockholm early Saturday.
Swedish police say the Pakistan Airlines flight carrying 273 people had left Canada for Pakistan. The flight was diverted to Sweden after Canadian police received a tip from a woman caller saying that a passenger was carrying explosives on the flight from Toronto to Karachi.
The plane was evacuated and searched and a man described as a Canadian national of Pakistani origin was detained and questioned.
No explosives were found and, after several hours, the plane was allowed to resume its flight to Pakistan. Police say the man was released without being charged, but not until after the plane had departed.
Canadian police say they are now investigating the incident as a possible hoax.
Police did not identify the detained man, but said he was not on any international terrorism watch lists.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Palestinian rivals Hamas and Fatah have announced an agreement on ways to share power and end their divisions, saying they will hold more talks before signing a final Egyptian-mediated deal next month.
The two sides issued a joint declaration early Saturday following late night talks between exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and senior Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmed in the Syrian capital, Damascus. The statement said the two sides have reached an understanding on the majority of their differences, but gave few details.
Hamas official Izzat Rashaq said the next meeting is expected during the first week of October. The two groups then plan to sign the agreement in Cairo, clearing the way for new Palestinian elections. Hamas had previously rejected the Egyptian proposal.
Reconciliation between the two factions is considered critical because Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas needs a unanimous stance to back newly restarted talks with Israel.
Hamas militants oppose peace with Israel and have threatened to derail the negotiations with violence. Hamas accuses Mr. Abbas and his moderate Fatah faction of treason for engaging in the talks.
Palestinian security forces in the West Bank rounded up hundreds of suspects for questioning after Hamas claimed responsibility for two roadside attacks that left four Israelis dead and two more injured just after Mideast peace talks opened in Washington late last month.
Mr. Abbas, speaking at the talks, vowed that Fatah security services will continue to crack down on militants, including Hamas members, who use violence to thwart the negotiations.
Two years of Egyptian mediation had previously failed to heal the rift between Hamas militants, supported by Iran, and the secular Fatah movement.
Hamas seized control of Gaza from Fatah in 2007 and Israel responded by placing the territory under an economic blockade. The Islamist group has vowed to continue attacks on Israeli settlers.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for a second straight day Saturday in a bid to salvage Middle East peace talks.
The Palestinians have threatened to walk out of the U.S.-backed talks if Israel does not extend a slowdown on settlement building set to expire Sunday. Israel has refused to consider the extension but says it is willing to consider a compromise.
The Obama administration is pressing Israel to extend the slowdown of settlement construction and urging Palestinians not to make good on a threat to walk away from the negotiations.
A senior U.S. State Department official described current U.S. negotiations with Israel and the Palestinians as "intense". Assistant Secretary for Near East Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, said the United States does not want either side to abandon the talks when a solution is possible through negotiations.
Secretary Clinton held a 25-minute minute with President Abbas in New York Friday. The two are scheduled to meet again on Saturday.
Direct negotiations between Mr. Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resumed earlier this month in Washington.
U.S. President Barack Obama called for international support for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process during his Thursday address to the United Nations General Assembly. He expressed hope for a peace deal in a year's time.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
Somalia's president has urged the international community to address threats posed by the Somali terrorist group al-Shabab, an affiliate of al-Qaida.
Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed told world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly Saturday that any delay in addressing this "clear and present danger" would prolong regional instability and international terrorism. He called on the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution aimed at deterring the spread of al-Qaida terrorists and their "homegrown" affiliates such as al-Shabab.
Al-Shabab launched a bloody offensive about one month ago in hopes of toppling Somalia's transitional government and setting up a strict Islamic state. Al-Shabab and another insurgent group, Hizbul Islam, control much of southern Somalia and most of the capital, Mogadishu.
The government has held on to a few key areas of Mogadishu with the help of soldiers in an African Union force.
On Thursday, new clashes between pro-government troops and Islamist insurgents in Mogadishu killed 20 people and wounded 68 others.
In his speech before the U.N. General Assembly, President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed also noted what he described as terrorism by pirates attacking ships in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden. He said such piracy is threatening maritime and international trade.
Somalia has not had a stable central government since 1991.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
U.S. President Barack Obama says that if the Republican Party regains control of the House of Representatives, it will bring back policies responsible for "a disastrous decade" in the United States.
In his weekly address Saturday, Mr. Obama said the Republicans' "Pledge to America" plan has worn-out ideas, including tax cuts for the richest Americans and loosening regulations for Wall Street and special interests.
The plan also calls for a reduction in government regulation, a repeal of Obama-backed health care reform legislation passed earlier this year, and an end to the administration's economic stimulus package.
In the Republicans' weekly address, Representative Kevin McCarthy said the plan reflects Americans' rejection of the idea that the country can tax, borrow and spend its way to prosperity.
Republicans are forecast to make gains in November's mid-term elections, and possibly regain control of one or both houses of Congress.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
The NATO-led force in Afghanistan says three of its soldiers have been killed in bomb attacks.
NATO says two service members were killed by a bomb blast in the east, while another died in an explosion in the south. It did not give further details.
More than 530 foreign troops have been killed in Afghanistan this year, making it the deadliest year for international forces since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
Also Saturday, NATO said Afghan and coalition forces killed more than 30 insurgents in an operation in eastern Laghman province.
In a separate operation in Paktika province, NATO said its forces killed a Taliban commander who helped conduct bombings and was directly linked to attacks during last week's parliamentary elections. The commander was reported killed in an air strike Friday.
NATO said at least two other Taliban commanders were captured this week.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Pakistan security officials say a U.S. missile strike has killed four suspected militants in the country's northwestern region, along the Afghan border.
Officials say three missiles hit a vehicle carrying the militants in the Datta Khel village in the North Waziristan tribal district.
The U.S. has launched nearly 20 missile strikes against Taliban and al-Qaida-linked militant strongholds in Pakistan's northwestern tribal region this month.
Pakistani officials publicly condemn the drone strikes, saying they violate the country's territorial sovereignty. U.S. officials do not publicly comment on the strikes, which Pakistan generally says are carried out by drones.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.
Australia and China have conducted their first-ever joint naval exercise involving the firing of live ammunition. Ongoing tensions between China and the United States forced organizers not to invite American forces to take part in the military maneuvers.
The Australian frigate, HMAS Warramunga, participated in the first live-firing exercise of its kind with the Chinese navy off the Shandong Peninsular in the Yellow Sea in north-eastern China.
The vessel took part in the drill alongside the Chinese warship, the Louyang. Joint helicopter missions and search-and-rescue operations are also part of the joint maneuvers. Australian navy chiefs say the exercises are among the most complex ever conducted with Chinese forces. The naval officials say the presence of HMAS Warramunga and her crew highlights greater cooperation between Canberra and Beijing.
The vessel's senior officer, Commander Bruce Legge, said the war games were an effective way to build trust and friendship. He dismissed concerns that Australia's traditional military ally, the United States, was not invited to take part.
In a recent essay, defense analyst Hugh White of the Australian National University wrote that growing tensions between Washington and Beijing could harm Australia's prosperity.
"I'm contrasting the future we might be facing over the next few years and few decades with the remarkably good period we've had for the last 40 years, where U.S. uncontested primacy in the Asia-Pacific region has given Asia and Australia a really wonderful ride," said White. "And my fear is that if, as China grows, the U.S.-China relationship becomes more competitive, more contested, then we're going to find ourselves in a different kind of world in which the peace of Asia is not nearly so guaranteed and the economic opportunities for Australia, particularly our economic opportunities with China, might be more constricted."
Earlier this week two Chinese navy ships arrived in Sydney, where they were welcomed into the famous harbor by a naval band and lion dancers. The visit is part of an official program aimed at improving bilateral defense ties.
China is Australia's biggest trading partner. Chinese demand for raw materials helped protect the Australian economy from the ravages of the global recession. Analysts in Canberra believe the United States must remain Australia's principal military partner, a view held by most senior government figures.
Canberra and Washington remain bound by a long-standing security treaty that dates back to the early 1950s.
The president of the Commonwealth Games Federation says all 71 countries and territories linked to the former British Empire will fully participate in the crisis-plagued games in India.
But Michael Fennell told reporters in the Indian capital Saturday that a lot of work remains to be done before the international sporting event begins October 3.
Fennell flew to New Delhi after unsanitary facilities, construction mishaps, an outbreak of dengue fever and security problems raised concerns about the choice of India to host the games.
Many of the problems have centered on filthy conditions in the athletes' village.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently intervened in the preparations, deploying an army of cleaners to make the village habitable.
India was awarded the games in 2003, but did not start working on them until 2008.
The games were supposed to be a way for India to show off its last two decades of modernization. Instead, the event has turned into a source of embarrassment for the emerging Asian power.
Australian Olympic Committee President John Coates said Friday that India should not have been awarded the Commonwealth Games.
Moody's, the financial ratings giant, said Friday the "negative publicity" about the preparations could give foreign investors considering expansion in India "reason to think twice."
About 7,000 athletes are due to participate in the games. The first athletes arrived Friday, but will be staying in hotels for a few days.
On Wednesday, part of a ceiling at the weightlifting venue collapsed. A day earlier, a pedestrian bridge under construction at the main Jawaharlal Nehru stadium fell apart, injuring 27 people.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
Japan has rejected China's demand for an apology and compensation for holding a Chinese fishing boat captain for more than two weeks.
Several hours after Japan released the captain Saturday, China's Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling the captain's detention unlawful and asking Japan to apologize.
Japan's Foreign Ministry called the demand groundless and unacceptable.
The Chinese captain had been held since his fishing boat collided with two Japanese patrol boats near a group of islands claimed by both China and Japan.
Japanese prosecutors cited the deepening rift between Beijing and Tokyo in their decision to release Captain Zhan Qixiong.
After arriving back in China on a chartered airplane Saturday, Zhan said he firmly supports the Chinese government's position and that he did nothing illegal.
The dispute took diplomatic relations between China and Japan to their lowest level in years.
China had suspended ministerial-level contacts and canceled planned meetings with Japan while demanding Zhan's release.
Some in the Japanese media criticized Tokyo's decision to free the captain as giving in to Chinese pressure.
A U.S. State Department spokesman welcomed the decision to release the captain and said he hoped it would ease tensions between the Asian neighbors.
In New York, where world leaders are meeting for the U.N. General Assembly, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Japan and China are important neighbors with key responsibilities and must cooperate with one another.
The chain of islands at the center of the dispute -- called Diaoyu by China and Senkaku by Japan -- are uninhabited. But the waters around them are rich fishing territory and are believed to hold undersea natural gas and oil reserves.
In another source of tension, China has detained four Japanese nationals suspected of illegally filming military targets in the country.
Japanese diplomats visited Saturday with the workers, who were preparing a bid on a project to dispose of chemical weapons left in China by the Japanese during World War II.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
Swedish police evacuated a plane and detained one passenger Saturday, after the jet carrying 273 people from Canada to Pakistan was diverted to Stockholm because of a bomb threat.
Police say the passenger, described as a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin, was detained as he was evacuated from the Pakistan Airlines Boeing 777 along with the other passengers.
It was not clear if the man was carrying any explosives, but a search of the plane found nothing suspicious.
A Stockholm police spokeswoman said the plane was diverted after Canadian police received a tip that a passenger was carrying explosives on the flight from Toronto to Karachi.
Other traffic at the airport was not affected.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are set to meet a second time in New York Saturday, in an effort to prevent the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks from collapsing. Clinton and Mr. Abbas met Friday.
The Palestinians have threatened to walk out of the talks if Israel does not extend a slowdown on settlement building set to expire Sunday. Israel has refused to consider the extension but said Friday it is willing to consider a compromise.
A senior U.S. State Department official said that as the administration presses Israel to extend the slowdown, Clinton will urge Mr. Abbas not to make good on his threat to leave the negotiations.
U.S. officials say they are offering ideas to Israeli and Palestinian negotiators on how to break the stalemate about Jewish settlement construction.
Direct negotiations between Mr. Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resumed earlier this month in Washington.
U.S. President Barack Obama called for international support for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process during his Thursday address to the United Nations General Assembly. He expressed hope for a peace deal in a year's time.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP.
President Barack Obama and leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have met in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly session. The U.S. and ASEAN committed to strengthening relations, and underscored the growing strategic importance of the relationship.
A White House readout of what was only the second U.S.-ASEAN summit - the first was in Singapore last year - focused on economic as well as global and regional issues, including non-proliferation, counter-terrorism efforts and climate change.
The statement said the prosperity of the U.S. and ASEAN are "increasingly intertwined", noting that ASEAN economies together comprise the fourth largest export market for the U.S., with $146 billion in total two-way trade in 2009.
ASEAN leaders briefed Mr. Obama on the planned ASEAN Economic Community, to establish a single market and production base by 2015. President Obama, the statement said, pledged additional help in support of this goal.
The president said the U.S. as a Pacific nation has an enormous stake in the ASEAN region. "We need partnerships with Asian nations to meet the challenges of our growing economy, preventing proliferation and addressing climate change. As president I have therefore made it clear that the U.S. intends to play a leadership role in Asia. So we have strengthened old alliances, we have deepened new partnerships, as we are doing with China, and we have re-engaged with regional organizations, including ASEAN," he said.
Mr. Obama said he has accepted the ASEAN invitation to attend the East Asia Summit, scheduled for Jakarta next year. That would be Mr. Obama's second visit to Indonesia as president, after one scheduled for November on his way to a G-20 Summit in South Korea and the APEC Summit in Japan.
Vietnam's President, Nguyen Minh Triet, spoke through an interpreter as the current chairman of ASEAN. "Vietnam and ASEAN always support the deepening of the relations between ASEAN and the U.S., bilaterally and multilaterally and we want to take our relations to the next level toward greater comprhensiveness and more substance for the peace, stability and development or our region," he said.
Though not mentioned in the brief public speeches, North Korea, and Burma figured prominently in Friday's talks.
The White House said Mr. Obama renewed his call on Burma's military government to embark on a process of national reconciliation by releasing all political prisoners, including democracy figure Aung San Suu Kyi, and holding free and fair elections in November.
In a separate joint statement, ASEAN leaders reiterated a call for the elections in Burma to be conducted in a free, fair, inclusive and transparent manner in order to be credible for the international community.
They also welcomed what they called the continued U.S. engagement with Burma's military government, saying they hope this will encourage Burma to undertake political and economic reforms to facilitate national reconciliation.
On North Korea, the U.S. and ASEAN reaffirm the importance of implementing U.N. Security Council resolutions. They call on Pyongyang to implement Six Party Talks commitments to abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and return, at an early date, to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards.
The joint statement said Obama and ASEAN leaders also agreed on the importance of peaceful resolution of disputes in the region, freedom of navigation,stability, and respect for international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and other international maritime law. The White House summary said this included the South China Sea.
The White House noted on Friday that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will take part in an initial East Asia Summit meeting in Hanoi at the end of October, while Defense Secretary Robert Gates will attend a meeting of Asia-Pacific defense ministers in Hanoi, also next month.
United Nations experts are describing volatile food prices as a major threat to food security. At a special meeting of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome Friday, they concluded that a repeat of the 2007-2008 food price crisis is not imminent, but new measures are needed to control fluctuations in grain markets.
Russia's exceptional drought and the country's ban on wheat exports have pushed up wheat prices to two-year highs. The increases have brought back bad memories of price spikes in 2007 and 2008, which triggered food riots in several countries around the world. But FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf says conditions are much different today. "The global production forecast for cereals in 2010 is still the third highest on record, and the world cereal stocks-to-use ratio is well above the 30-year low registered in 2007-2008," he said.
FAO officials say energy prices and economic growth also are much lower than in 2008. As a result, they agreed that a repeat of the earlier crisis is unlikely.
In addition to Russia's export ban, the delegates identified speculation by financial investors and a lack of information in some countries about global supply and demand as factors driving price volatility.
However, FAO grains chief Abdolreza Abbassian says they also agreed the danger is not over. "This issue of volatility in prices, it is not something that is now going to go away. This year [it] may be Russia. Next year [it] may be another country, or another factor," he said.
The experts said price volatility is a major threat to food security, and they recommended more work to deal with its causes.
Sophia Murphy is a senior advisor with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. She says now that countries have agreed on these key points, what they do next will be the hard part. "A lot of what needs to be done is quite controversial. It involves getting into regulating commodity exchanges. It involves a lot of developing countries thinking again about a more public role in managing food stocks and grain reserves. So I think they find it difficult to come to agreement on what to do, even though everyone agrees they have to do something," she said.
She says financial reforms the United States passed this summer are a step in the right direction, but more countries will need to make changes as well.
And agriculture experts disagree on how to manage grain reserves to protect against price spikes.
The issues are expected to come up again at an FAO food security meeting next month. And some food experts say the G-20 group of top economies should work on formulating a global response to what is fundamentally a global issue.
A United Nations preliminary report on recent atrocities in the Democratic Republic of Congo said Friday that three different militia groups raped 303 people over the course of four days. It says the militia arrived in villages pretending that they wanted to protect the population.
The U.N. preliminary report says 235 women are known to have been raped, 52 girls, 13 men, and three boys. It says many were raped numerous times.
Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, says the attacks took place mostly after dark. Around 200 members of three different militia groups arrived in Walikale in eastern DRC pretending they had come to protect the population.
"They took control of a key hill in the area which was really the only place where you can communicate by telephone," he said. "So once they had that then nobody could telephone out, raise the alarm via telephone. They cut the roads and they, you know, kept it up for four full days."
The reports says no one appears to have been killed in the attacks. But homes and shops were looted and over 100 people were abducted. And Colville says the full scale of the atrocities is still unknown. Attacks are continuing, he says, and many people are still hiding in the forest because they're too scared to return home.
Colville says the rebel groups may have been trying to punish the local population because they see it as pro-government.
"It seems to be a way of subjugating the villagers into their orbit, being so brutal, so humiliating and it being projected as kind of punishment for the villagers being too close, too friendly, or too cooperative with the Congolese army," he said.
The U.N. preliminary report covered 13 villages in Walikale, a region of North Kivu province in eastern DRC.
"This was rape as punishment, rape as a weapon of war - very clearly perpetrated against the civilian population by a range of different armed groups," said Anneke van Woudenberg, from the U.S.-based international body Human Rights Watch.
The U.N. report is critical both of the Congolese army and police and of the U.N. peacekeeping force in DRC for not doing enough to protect the population of Walikale.
It says the U.N. forces had not received enough training to protect civilians and suffered from operational constraints.
Anneke van Woudenberg adds:
"Again we saw here peace keepers who did not have civilian liaison officials attached to them, who did not have the right language capabilities to talk to the local communities, who did not know what questions to ask local communities," she said. "And frankly I think after 10 years of the peacekeeping mission being in a country like Congo they should have got that right by now."
The U.N. report said three rebel groups were responsible for the rapes: the Mai-Mai Cheka group, rebels from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda and a group connected to army deserter Emmanuel Nsengiyumva. The rapes took place over four days from July 30 to August 2.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinijad continues to insist the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks may have been staged as a pretext to invade Iraq and Afghanistan. He made the charge again Friday at a news conference in New York.
Police moved metal barricades to cordon off the Warwick Hotel in mid-town Manhattan, the venue of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's news conference. More than two dozen local uniformed police officers along with Iranian and American plainclothes security personnel rerouted pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
During the restricted news conference, distributed by The Associated Press, Mr. Ahmadinijad reiterated a theory that the U.S. government staged the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Speaking through an interpreter, Mr. Ahmadinijad said he makes no judgment about the validity of the theory; only that it should be investigated. "An event occurred, and under the pretext of that event, two countries were invaded and up to now, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed as a result," he said.
Similar remarks Thursday during Mr. Ahmadinijad's speech to the U.N. General Assembly triggered a walkout of U.S. and other delegates.
VOA was not offered an invitation to attend the Ahmadinijad news conference. This reporter was declined entry at the door by an Iranian official, who said there was not enough space.
The bureau chief for Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency, Vladimir Kikilo, told VOA the event was indeed crowded. "I raised my hand and tried to ask him a question, because this is of interest for Russia to know the response of the Iranian side to the decision of our president Dmitri Medvedev not to go ahead with the sale of S-300 anti-aircraft missile system to Iran," he said.
President Medvedev announced the decision Wednesday. The Kremlin leader also banned the sale of tanks, aircraft and sea vessels to Iran. The Russian move was in response to United Nations sanctions imposed in June for Iran's refusal to stop enriching uranium. Tehran has accused Moscow of wilting under international pressure and insists that Iran's nuclear program is peaceful.
There were no protesters outside the Warwick Hotel, but a group of curiosity-seekers stopped to see what the commotion was all about. Some thought President Barack Obama was having lunch there with the First Lady. When informed it was the president of Iran, a few left, one man cursed, but others remained - it was, after all, a somebody.
The Iranian leader left the hotel in a Cadillac limousine under New York City police escort, barricades were removed and the city went about its business.
Key leaders of north and south Sudan promised Friday to ensure that next January's planned referendum on independence for the southern region will go forward peacefully and on time. The pledges came at a meeting at the United Nations attended by world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama.
Mr. Obama's presence at the U.N meeting underscored the deep concern in Washington that Sudan's north-south peace process will derail unless the referendum goes ahead as planned without violence.
A six-year Sudan peace plan reaches a climax in January when the autonomous southern region votes on independence, and the oil-rich central Abiyeh region decides whether it will join the south.
Preparations for the voting, including delineation of a prospective north-south border, are far behind schedule.
In remarks to the meeting, President Obama said the Sudanese parties are at a critical juncture and the stakes are enormous. "At this moment, the fate of millions of people hangs in the balance. What happens in Sudan in the days ahead will decide whether a people who have endured too much war move toward peace of slip backward into bloodshed. And what happens in Sudan matters to all of sub-Saharan Africa and it matters to the world," he said.
U.S. diplomacy toward Sudan has been complicated by the the Darfur conflict in western Sudan, which has led to international war crimes charges against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.
The United States shuns direct contact with the Sudanese leader and accuses him of foot-dragging on the referendum. Mr. Obama made clear that the future of U.S.-Sudan relations depends not only on a successful referendum but accountability for Darfur crimes. "Now is the moment for all nations to send a strong signal that there will be not time and tolerance for spoilers who refuse to engage in peace talks. Indeed there can be no lasting peace in Darfur, and no normalization of relations between Sudan and the United States, without accountability for crimes that have been committed," he said.
Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha, who spoke for the National Congress Party leadership, complained of the demonization of President Bashir, and said his contributions to the north-south peace process have been critical.
Taha said the mainly-Muslim Khartoum government prefers a referendum outcome that preserves Sudan's unity, but is prepared to accept the separation of the mostly-Christian and animist south. "I would like to recall before you here the determination and willingness of our government, particularly its leader, President Bashir, to make the difficult decisions without which peace was unattainable - the most of important of which is accepting the risk of relinquishing a cherished part of your history and future, and a valued part of your country," he said.
Southern Sudanese leader Salva Kiir, first vice president in the Khartoum unity government, said the northern authorities have not made unity an attractive option, and that all signs point to a secession vote.
If that occurs, he said the south is ready to work with Khartoum authorities for long-term peace and stability. "We are genuinely willing to negotiate with our brothers in the National Congress Party, and we're prepared to work in a spirit of partnership to create peaceful and sustainable good relations between the north and southern Sudan for the long-term after the referendum. It is in our interest to see to it that northern Sudan remains a viable state, just as it should be in the interests of the north to see southern Sudan emerge also as a viable state," he said.
The north-south civil war was Africa's longest running conflict until it came to an end with the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Accord or CPA. It is believed to have killed nearly two million people while displacing millions more.
The CPA provided for the coalition government in Khartoum and six years of autonomy for the south, to be capped by the January 9, 2011 referendum.
The American hiker who spent more than 400 days in an Iranian prison is describing the experience as "relentless and grueling."
In a U.S. television interview Friday with ABC's Good Morning America, Sarah Shourd said she spent most of her jail time pacing in her small cell, wringing her hands and waiting for the brief periods each day when she was allowed to see fellow hikers Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal.
Iranian authorities jailed the trio last year on charges of spying after they crossed into Iran through an unmarked border with Iraq. Iranian authorities freed Shourd last week but Bauer and Fattal remain in custody.
In the interview, Shourd said she would be willing to return to Iran for a trial if it would prove that she and the other two hikers committed no crime and meant no harm. However, she added she was not ruling "anything in" or "anything out," at this point.
On Sunday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told ABC Shourd's release was a "huge humanitarian gesture," but Bauer and Fattal would have to face Iranian justice.
Shourd told the Associated Press Thursday there were some bright moments during her captivity, including a marriage proposal from Bauer and a surprise cake on her 32nd birthday.
Some information for this report was provided by AP.
A French official said Friday France has no immediate plans to use military action to rescue five French nationals abducted by al-Qaida forces in North Africa. A French aid worker was executed by the same group in July after France launched a failed rescue mission to retrieve him.
Edouard Guillaud, the head of the armed forces in France, said Friday a military intervention to save the hostages is not in the cards at the moment.
Seven hostages were kidnapped in northern Niger last week. Five are French nationals and the other two are from Togo and Madagascar.
The militant group al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb has taken responsibility for the attack.
Speaking on French radio, Guillard said France is right now assessing the situation and that military forces are present to support diplomacy.
France has sent a military intelligence unit to the region but has said it wants to open communication with the militant group. On Thursday, a French Minister called for the militants to put their release demands on the table.
Guillard said Friday the lives of the hostages don't appear to be in immediate danger, but he added a military intervention is possible if the situation escalates.
The militant group, which is known by the acronym AQIM, has used jihadist forums to warn France against launching a military campaign to rescue the hostages.
In July a joint French and Mauritanian operation tried to rescue a 78-year-old French aid worker who had been kidnapped by AQIM. Seven militants were killed in the operation but AQIM later executed the frenchman.
There was finally a ray of hope for the Commonwealth Games as the hockey and lawn bowling teams from England arrived in New Delhi, India Friday and New Zealand confirmed that its athletes will attend the mega sporting event.
With this, worries that major nations may pull out of the games receded.
However, the foreign athletes will stay at hotels until clean-up work at the athletes' village is finished.
In recent days the event, which starts October 3, had descended into crisis. Problems plaguing the games include the squalid conditions at the athletes village, worries over security, and the quality of construction at the venues following the collapse of a pedestrian bridge.
But conditions appear to be improving. The Commonwealth Games Federation Chief, Mike Fennell, who rushed to Delhi, took stock of the city's preparedness for the event on Friday. In a statement, he said considerable improvements have been made, but it is vital that all remedial work continues with the greatest urgency.
That urgency is being imparted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has intervened and directed top Indian officials to ensure that all goes well.
Prithviraj Chavan is a minister in the office of the prime minister, also known as PM.
"It is important, a few days are left and PM took personal initiative to see that no stones are left unturned, and we conduct successful games," he said. "We are all concerned, we know it is a very prestigious undertaking for the country."
But damage has already been done and at least nine top athletes have pulled out of the games. However others have begun signaling their confidence in the games.
The head of Australia's Commonwealth Games Association, Perry Crosswhite was upbeat after a visit to the athletes' village where hundreds of cleaners are at work.
But as India faced huge criticism over the poor organization of the games, Australia's Olympic Chief John Coates said in Sydney that the event should not have been awarded to New Delhi in the first place. He said that unlike the Olympics committee, the Commonwealth Games Federation does not have sufficient resources to monitor progress of cities.
Meanwhile, commentators in India rued that the country's global image had taken a huge beating due to the shoddy preparations for the games.
President Barack Obama has described as hateful and offensive remarks at the United Nations on Thursday by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States could have been staged by the U.S. government. Mr. Obama spoke in an interview with BBC Persian Television.
The president said people of all faiths and ethnicities see the 2001 attacks as "the seminal tragedy of this generation", adding it was inexcusable for the Iranian leader to make such a statement in Manhattan where families lost loved ones in the attacks.
Addressing the General Assembly on Thursday, President Ahmadinejad asserted that, in his words, "the majority of the American people as well as most nations and politicians around the world" agree with the view that "some segments" in U.S. government orchestrated the attacks.
The remarks triggered a walkout by U.S and other diplomats. President Obama, who at one point in the BBC interview also called the remarks "disgusting", said they do not reflect the views of the Iranian people.
"It stands in contrast with the response of the Iranian people when 9/11 happened, when there were candlelight vigils and I think a natural sense of shared humanity and sympathy was expressed within Iran," said President Obama. "And it just shows once again, sort of the difference between how the Iranian leadership and this regime operates and how I think the vast majority of the Iranian people who are respectful and thoughtful think about these issues."
Briefing reporters earlier, a senior administration official said the comments by President Ahmadinejad were part of a pattern of remarks, including denials of the holocaust, that do not serve the Iranian people and only isolate Iran.
On U.S. and allied efforts to press Iran to change course on its nuclear program, the official said the door remains open for Iran for a diplomatic solution. But he said Iran must come to the table and demonstrate through tangible actions that it intends to comply with international obligations.
In his BBC interview, President Obama said sanctions imposed on Iran by the United Nations and individual governments do not contradict a diplomatic approach.
As nations of the world convene in New York City for the opening of this year's United Nations General Assembly, one of them, Iran, is in the spotlight for its inflexibility on nuclear inspections and its long-standing hostility toward the West, especially the United States. The roots of this hostility run at least as far back as Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution and even beyond.
Ever since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran's leaders have maintained a defensive posture toward the West, and especially, toward the United States.
Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a recent Associated Press interview, said criticisms of his nation, and sanctions placed against it, make normal relations impossible.
"Those who insist on having hostilities with us kill and destroy the option of friendship with us in the future," Ahmadinejad said.
While many Iranians place the start of troubles between their country and the United States in 1953, when Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadeq was overthrown, the breaking point came on November 4, 1979. The U.S. embassy in Tehran was overrun that day by supporters of Iran's new clerical leader, Ayatollah Khomeini. More than 50 U.S. diplomats and staff were taken hostage and held for 444 days.
Roughly 30 years later, the top embassy hostage, Acting Ambassador Bruce Laingen, told VOA the Ayatollah's anger made dialogue impossible.
"The Ayatollah Khomeini, I am convinced, never wanted a relationship with the United States," noted Laingen. "That he would do everything he could to prevent it from becoming a reality."
Diplomatic relations between the two nations were severed in 1980, and remain so to this day. And when war broke out in 1980 between Iran and Iraq, the United States supported Baghdad against Tehran.
In 1997, Iran elected a reformer, Mohammad Khatami, as its fifth president. This raised hopes that perhaps now some dialogue between Teheran and Washington might be possible.
And the following year, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright made a speech that held out a hand toward Iran, calling for the two countries to "explore further ways to build mutual confidence and avoid misunderstandings," as a step toward "normal relations."
But President Khatami responded by saying normal relations could not begin before the U.S. apologized for its part in the 1953 coup against Prime Minister Mossadeq.
"Through their confession, if the Americans accept to do it, I think that this will be a very big step toward removing our misunderstandings, but unfortunately in action, they have not done this," said President Khatami on September 7, 2000.
President Khatami's successor, hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has stepped up the rhetoric against the United States, and has aggressively supported Iran's nuclear program, defying international calls for transparency regarding possible weapons development. This, in turn, has triggered U.N., U.S., and European Union sanctions.
When President Obama took office in 2009, he spoke to nations hostile to the United States, especially Iran under Ahmadinejad.
"To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit, and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history. But, that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist," President Obama stated on his inauguration.
So far though, Ahmadinejad's response has been defiant. Despite his tough stance, the Iranian president has indicated this week that he is willing to reopen nuclear talks with the United States and its partners, the so-called P5-plus-1 nations.
Pakistan is vowing to fight for the repatriation of a Pakistani neuroscientist sentenced by a U.S. court Thursday to 86 years in prison for trying to kill U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.
Speaking to parliament Friday, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani called Aafia Siddiqui "the daughter of the nation" and vowed to campaign for her release.
The effective life sentence for Siddiqui has sparked protests across the country. In Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and Siddiqui's hometown, police fired tear gas to prevent a large group of protesters from marching on the U.S. consulate. Demonstrators chanting anti-U.S. slogans also clashed with police Friday in the capital, Islamabad, as they tried to reach the U.S. Embassy.
Siddiqui was convicted in February of attempted murder, assault and other charges.
Prosecutors said the American-educated scientist grabbed a U.S. serviceman's gun and shot at FBI agents while she was being questioned in Afghanistan in 2008. Siddiqui's lawyers say they will appeal the verdict. They argued that mental illness drove the 38-year-old to carry out the 2008 attack.
Judge Richard Berman rejected that argument, saying Siddiqui's actions had likely been premeditated. Still, Berman ordered she be transferred to a prison in Texas specializing in medical and psychiatric services.
Authorities say Siddiqui was detained in the Afghan provincial town of Ghazni while carrying documents on how to make explosives and use chemical weapons.
They also said the documents listed major New York landmarks, including the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, and the Brooklyn Bridge. U.S. officials say Siddiqui helped al-Qaida operatives who were sent to the U.S. by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Siddiqui spoke at length during the hearing, repeatedly invoking the Prophet Muhammad while urging Muslims not to respond to her sentence with violence.
Defense attorney Charles Swift said government authorities never made available the military's report on the incident. He said the report, which was declassified by the government after it was published this year on the WikiLeaks website, does not mention Siddiqui as ever having fired the gun, only that she pointed a weapon at U.S. troops.
In 2003, Siddiqui disappeared with her three children on a family visit to Pakistan. Some human rights activists have suggested she was secretly held at the U.S. Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
World leaders have gathered in New York to help push negotiations regarding southern Sudan's referendum on secession. With just over 100 days until the vote, critical issues such as border demarcation and voter registration have not been settled. But aid groups say issues such as southern violence and poverty could spark further conflict if not seriously addressed.
As the January 11 referendum on South Sudan approaches, observers worldwide are raising concerns that time may be running out on the critical vote. Voter registration has yet to begin and political deadlock has stalled over critical issues such as border demarcation and oil-sharing.
Southern Sudan is widely expected to choose independence in the January vote and, in an effort to ensure a peaceful split, world leaders will bring together representatives from the North and South to jumpstart talks on those critical issues. The discussions have drawn significant international attention and will be attended by presidents from across east Africa and Europe as well as U.S. President Barack Obama.
But a collection of humanitarian aid agencies working in Sudan warned that issues of security and development were being overlooked in the global discussions. A representative from UK-based Oxfam, Alun McDonald, says the political issues have overshadowed ongoing violence in the region.
"Amid all of the politics, what tends to get overlooked is the violence that people in South Sudan, people in Darfur are still facing and could potentially face more of in the run up to and after the referendum," said Alun McDonald. "So they really need to be talking about how to ensure it goes peacefully and how to protect civilians in Sudan from that violence."
In a statement released Friday, Oxfam, the International Rescue Committee, Tearfund, World Vision and Christian Aid warned the next few months would be critical for ensuring peace and stability both before and after the election.
While international attention is focused on North-South tensions, three separate rebellions in the south have been sparked by internal grievances in recent months. At least one of these conflicts, in Jonglei State, is ongoing and Geneva-based Small Arms Survey warns that all three represent grievances which could destabilize the south after independence.
McDonald also warned that poverty and development needed to be addressed before peace was possible.
"Southern Sudan is incredibly poor," he said. "It is one of the poorest, least developed regions in the world. People do not have access to clean water, schools, hospitals, none of the basic services that have been discussed in New York already this week are available in southern Sudan for most people. I do not think any peace deal can be really sustainable, can last, unless that kind of poverty and lack of development is addressed."
But McDonald says it was not too late to ensure a peaceful referendum. The Oxfam representative said high level talks could provide stability and restart dialogue between the North and South. But McDonald said long-term discussion about development and security should begin immediately to ensure a peace both before and after the referendum.
The January vote is part of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement which ended more than 20 years of civil war in 2005. The goal of the agreement was to make unity attractive through resource sharing and southern development, but the government of South Sudan says Khartoum has failed to live up to the agreement.
Middle East peace talks are facing their first major challenge just three weeks after they began.
A showdown is looming in the Middle East with a 10-month freeze on Israeli settlement construction due to expire on Sunday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under pressure from his hawkish coalition partners to resume building in the West Bank on schedule, despite opposition from the United States and the Palestinians.
"If the prime minister will decide to extend the moratorium - he promised he will not do it, publicly and personally to me and to others - we will have to take action. He knows that, said Danny Denon, a parliamentarian from Mr. Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party. "He knows the current coalition will not allow him to extend the moratorium."
Dennis Sullivan, director of the Middle East Center at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, disscusses Israel-Palestinian direct talks:
The U.S. and the Palestinians see the settlements as an obstacle to peace, and they have urged Israel to extend the freeze on construction. Palestinian official Hazzam el-Ahmed says the ball is in Mr. Netanyahu's court.
In remarks broadcast on Israel Radio, el-Ahmed said if settlement construction resumes, the Palestinians will pull out of the peace talks.
But it took 20 months to get the negotiations going again after a long stalemate over the settlements, and neither side wants them to break down after just three weeks. So U.S., Israeli and Palestinian officials are working feverishly behind the scenes to try to hammer out a compromise that will keep the peace process on track.
The frontrunners in Nigeria's presidential election are both seeking the country's considerable youth vote.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan is 52 years old. His main rival for the Nigerian presidency, retired general Ibrahim Babangida, is 69.
Yet both men say they understand the needs of the younger generation and are actively campaigning for the youth vote in a country with more than 45 million people between the ages of 10 and 24.
Mr. Babangida says there is a disconnect between the government and young Nigerians.
"The plight of the young man and woman who together can safeguard our future must engage our collective attention. I worry about the large army of youths and women who are unemployed. They are our countries most critical resources," he said.
President Jonathan says he has passed laws to make foreign oil and gas companies source more of their goods and services locally, which he says will make more jobs for young people.
But his biggest campaign appeal to the youth vote appears to come in the telling of his life as a child in the Niger Delta - little money, no electricity, no shoes for school, some days only one meal. And yet he says he never despaired.
"If I could make it, you can make it, and nothing will inhibit you. My story is a story of a young Nigerian whose access to education opens up vast opportunities that enabled me to attain my present position," he said.
So what do young people think about the two candidates?
Bunmi Oladipo says she prefers President Jonathan, in part, because he is younger.
"Some of the things he has done, for me as a Nigerian, I think it portrays that he means well," said Oladipo. "He is insisting on credible elections. And he is insisting on one man one vote and all that. I believe that he has something to offer. We should give him a chance."
Oladipo agrees that Mr. Babangida has more experience than President Jonathan. But she says Mr. Babangida's experience is nothing Nigerians would ever want to live through again.
"No matter how he wants to wish away those incidents that happened - the annulment of June 12th [elections], the crisis in our financial sector, proscription of media houses, students going on strike for a long time - all those things. There is no way he can wish away those things. Nigerians will always remember those years he ruled," she said.
Student Shehu Musa says Mr. Babangida has every reason to be proud of his legacy.
"What Babangida did when he was the president, most of the structures he put in place are still the structures we are using today," said Musa. "Successive governments have not been able to improve on such structures. If you are telling me that Jonathan has changed the economy, I don't believe that is what happened. He has just consolidated on what he inherited from the former president."
President Jonathan's candidacy disrupts an informal agreement in the ruling party that rotates power between north and south. That deal says the next Nigerian president should be from the north to finish out what would have been the late President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's second term instead of continuing on with President Jonathan, who is from the south.
Musa says the deal, though unofficial, should be respected. So he is backing Mr. Babangida, who is known popularly by his initials IBB.
"I will go for IBB because power is in the north presently. And if we are going to abide by the PDP arrangement, it is going to give us peace in the country," he said.
Both candidates must now carry on a far longer campaign with the postponement of ruling party primaries because the electoral commission is asking that the vote itself be put back from January to April.
The Clinton Global Initiative has concluded its annual meeting in New York with multi-billion dollar commitments from participants to help address problems of poverty, disease and injustice around the world.
Former President Bill Clinton told the CGI's final plenary session that the organization has garnered more than 1,950 commitments now valued at $63 billion impacting just under 300 million lives in about 170 countries.
Former Microsoft chairman Bill Gates told Mr. Clinton on stage he is worried rich countries may cut back on foreign aid in the aftermath of the global economic crisis.
"The money they spend, let's say, on Millennium Development goals - AIDS, medicines, vaccines, food, those things - will that suffer disproportionately when there's a change?"
CGI's ambitious global agenda seeks, among other things, to help empower women, to prevent human trafficking, to spread knowledge through computer technology, to fight global warming and support public health, including the removal of stigmas in some countries attached to such diseases as cancer.
Poverty of knowledge was mentioned at several CGI forums. Speaking at a news conference on the empowerment of women, Ann Cotton, director of Camfed International, said computers can address the lack of awareness that underpins many social problems.
"Give people technology and they will run with it," she said. "They will be excited by it, it improves their status; it particularly improves the status of girls and women."
The keynote speaker at the final CGI plenary, First Lady Michelle Obama, devoted her entire speech to American military veterans. She called on CGI participants involved in non-governmental humanitarian aid to hire veterans. She said they face serious social problems of their own, including unemployment, noting they leave the military with excellent experience.
"They go on regular humanitarian missions throughout the world, providing everything from food aid to medical care to help with construction," she said.
President Clinton ended the meeting with a discourse on optimism and pessimism by drawing an analogy to physics. He said supercolliders have shown there are more positive particles on a subatomic level than negative ones. He said people owe it to the next generation to make certain positive human forces outweigh the negative ones of violence and squalor.
Japanese prosecutors say they will release a Chinese trawler captain who has been detained since his boat collided with Japanese patrol vessels in disputed waters. The incident enraged China, which retaliated by canceling meetings with Japanese officials and, traders say, halting shipments of essential exports.
Heavy security was apparent in front of the Japanese embassy in Beijing Friday, although there were few signs of the scattered protests that had taken place in recent weeks.
China sends plane
Shortly after Japanese prosecutors said they would free a detained Chinese boat captain, China said it would send a chartered plane to bring him back home.
Japanese authorities detained the captain earlier this month after his fishing boat collided with Japanese patrol ships near islands Tokyo controls and China claims.
China called his detention illegal, and canceled diplomatic meetings and student visits. There were reports this week that Beijing also halted shipments to Japan of rare earth minerals, which are essential for electronics and auto parts.
Conflict avoided
Japanese officials say they decided to free the captain to avoid worsening ties with China.
Tsinghua University international relations professor Liu Jiangyong says he thinks the timing of Japan's decision to release the Chinese captain is good.
Liu says if the Japanese had pursued legal action against the captain, it would have further worsened relations between the two countries, and would have damaged economic opportunities.
China has been Japan's biggest trading partner since 2009.
Dispute over Diaoyu vs Senkaku
The dispute over the islands has long festered between the two nations. The seabed around the uninhabited islands, which the Chinese call the Diaoyu and the Japanese call the Senkaku, is believed to be rich in natural gas and other resources.
The dispute also underscores the fragility of ties still troubled by disputes over Japan's behavior before and during World War Two.
Therese Leung, an associate fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, says she thinks the Chinese response in this case was excessive.
"The last thing I'd want to do is to not appear mature and reasonable and ready," Leung said. "And I think that their (China's) response to Japan has not been mature and reasonable."
Leung, who has worked for years in the U.S. Congress and for the government in Washington, says the United States has been watching the China-Japan spat closely.
Neighbors watch closely
Southeast Asian countries also have been closely watching developments.
Dewi Fortuna Anwar, at the Habibie Center's Institute for Democracy and Human Rights in Jakarta, says she was concerned.
"So, the increasingly aggressive rhetoric from Beijing threatening Japan and so on, I think sends a rather unwelcome news to the rest of the region," said Anwar. "We don't know whether this is a reflection of China's overall assertiveness, its increasing self-confidence, and so on, but it doesn't give China a very good image in the wider Asian region."
Southeast Asian nations also have territorial disputes with China – over the Spratly and Paracel island chains – in the South China Sea. Those uninhabited islands also are believed to lie on top of rich gas deposits.
The United States and South Korea are preparing to hold a joint sea exercise, scheduled to begin the day before the expected opening of a rare meeting of North Korea's only political party.
South Korean and U.S. military officials say the five-day exercise is meant to send a strong message of deterrence to North Korea, and also to strengthen the general capacity of joint anti-submarine warfare, says Army Colonel Lee Bung-woo, a spokesman for the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The official North Korean newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, condemned the war games, saying they "may drive the situation to an unpredictable grave phase."
The maneuvers begin the day before North Korea's Workers' Party is scheduled to hold its first meeting since 1966, at which a leadership shuffle is expected. It was originally expected to begin by mid-September, and official North Korean media gave no reason for the delay.
Analysts speculate that at this conference Kim Jong Un, the youngest son of supreme leader Kim Jong Il, will be named to a committee post, the first step for him to eventually succeed his ailing father.
The meeting and the military exercises come as tensions appear to be easing on the Korean peninsula.
The U.S. and South Korea have held a series of training exercises as part of their response to the sinking of a South Korean warship six months ago. An international investigation concluded that a North Korean torpedo destroyed the Cheonan, killing 46 South Korean sailors. Pyongyang denies responsibility. China has joined in North Korea in denouncing the exercises, particularly this one, because it takes place in the Yellow Sea, close to Chinese territory.
In recent weeks, however, rhetoric has cooled. South Korea recently sent aid to help North Korea recover from devastating floods.
North Korea also proposed resuming a program to re-unite long-divided families. On Friday, officials from the Red Cross committees of the two Koreas met at Kaesong, just north of the heavily fortified border for their second round of talks on holding another reunion. The first discussion, a week ago, failed to reach agreement on a venue.
The two Koreas remain at war, technically. Their three-year civil war, which ended with a truce but no treaty in 1953, caused several million civilian and military casualties and separated countless families.
U.S. President Barack Obama will attend a high-level meeting on Sudan Friday at the United Nations. Hosted by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and bringing together senior Western and African officials, the meeting is intended to focus international attention on Sudan in the lead-up to the January referendum which is likely to see Southern Sudan vote to secede from the North.
Many western diplomats at the U.N. have expressed concern over the last few weeks whether the referenda will be ready on time. One diplomat said the U.N. has indicated preparations are stalled.
Others say there are growing international fears that if the January vote does not go ahead on schedule there could be violence, especially if the south were to unilaterally declare its independence. But they also worry that even if the referendum is held on time and the outcome is not respected or seen to not be credible that could also push the country back into another bloody civil war.
U.S. officials say President Obama is participating in Friday's meeting to convey his vision for how to move forward towards a successful referendum.
Samantha Power is a senior advisor to President Obama. She told reporters this week during a telephone briefing that Mr. Obama's main message to the Sudan meeting will be the need to rapidly implement the Comprehensive Peace Agreement - or CPA - which calls for the North-South vote and another one on the same day by the people of the Abyei region.
"So the number one message is that these referenda must go off on time; that they must be peaceful; and they must reflect the will of the people of South Sudan," she said.
Power says President Obama would also speak about the recent uptick in violence in the Darfur region of Sudan.
"We continue to see unacceptable conditions for the people living in camps and the fact that they - none of them feel safe enough to return to their homes," she added. "So he will, of course, speak to the need for enhanced security and dignity for the people of Darfur and the need for accountability, as well."
The meeting will also likely cover the need for access for aid workers and the importance of U.N. peacekeepers not having limitations on their freedom of movement.
There are currently more than 30,000 U.N. troops and police deployed in Darfur and Southern Sudan - the biggest concentration of blue helmets anywhere in the world.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, says that while the international community is ready to support the Sudanese as they implement their commitments under the CPA, and there will be benefits for them if they do, there could also be consequences if they do not follow through on their obligations.
"We've also been clear that if they fail to follow through, that there will be - as we have always said in the context of our policy - consequences," said Rice. "Those might take the form of unilateral and/or multilateral [ie, sanctions], and we have got a number that are potentially at our disposal. But our aim is to spur them forward in their own interest."
Representing the Sudanese sides at the meeting will be Vice President Ali Osman Taha from the government of Sudan and Salva Kiir, the President of South Sudan. The chairman of the African Union, African officials, Western diplomats and senior U.N. officials are expected to attend the session chaired by U.N. secretary-general.
A U.S. federal court in New York has sentenced Pakistani scientist Aafia Siddiqui to 86 years in prison for attempting to murder U.S. soldiers and federal agents while she was in custody in Afghanistan two years ago. District Court Judge Richard Berman sentenced the 38-year-old Siddiqui to 86 years in prison for her conviction on seven counts stemming from a July 2008 incident in which she grabbed an American soldier's rifle at a police station in the Afghan town of Ghazni and began firing. U.S. forces returned fire, wounding Siddiqui, the only casualty in the incident.
The day before the shooting, she had been detained by Afghan police in a small town where she was found carrying plans for what U.S. prosecutors said were terrorist attacks in the United States. Although Siddiqui was never charged with terrorism, U.S. officials say she helped al-Qaida operatives who were sent to the United States by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
The jury found that Siddiqui acted without premeditation. But in a four-hour sentencing hearing, Judge Richard Berman repeatedly termed her acts premeditated. Her defense lawyers argued for a minimum sentence of 12 years, saying that Siddiqui is severely mentally ill.
Berman rejected that argument. He said he increased the sentence because of several factors, including terrorist intent and motivation to commit a hate crime.
After the hearing, Siddiqui's lawyers said they plan to appeal the verdict. Defense attorney Charles Swift said that government authorities never made available the U.S. military reports on the incident. He said the report, which was declassified by the government after it was published this year on the WikiLeaks website, does not mention Siddiqui as having fired the gun. It said only that she pointed a weapon. He said he believes there was a further in-depth investigation of the incident by the military that has also been withheld from the defense.
"I think there's real concern over the government's obligation to turn over exculpatory evidence," he told reporters. "And I don't blame the prosecution in this case. What I've found in national security cases like this is they have as big a battle trying to get evidence as anyone does. But the United States, to do justice, has to do it credibly and has to produce all the documents. And that's one of three or four huge ongoing appellate issues."
Siddiqui, a U.S.-educated neuroscientist, was allowed to speak at length at the hearing. In an emotional rush of sentences, she denied that she was mentally ill and repeatedly invoked the Prophet Muhammad in urging Muslims not to respond to her sentence with violence.
"I am asking all the Muslims: Don't do an act of violence," she said in court. "If you want to do anything for me, educate them about Islam," she said, saying it is a religion of peace that has made her happy and content, even in prison.
Her voice broke when she referred to her claim that she had been kidnapped with her children in Pakistan in 2003 and kept in a secret prison for many years. When she was arrested in Ghazni, her oldest son, then 12, was with her. Her daughter has since been found, but her youngest child, who would be about seven years old now, has not. "I don't know what happened to my baby," she said.
Tina Monshipour Foster of the New York-based human rights group International Justice Network, which represents Siddiqui's family, criticized Pakistan for failing to push for Siddiqui's repatriation as part of a prisoner exchange prior to sentencing.
"These were things that should have been put in place years ago, and she will still be on the mind of all Pakistanis. This case is not over. This is just the beginning," Foster said, adding that the real importance of the case, her group believes, is that it draws attention to thousands of disappearances in Pakistan, most the work of Pakistani security forces, according to the U.S. State Department and other sources.
Judge Berman recommended that Siddiqui be imprisoned in Texas at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell, a medical and psychiatric facility for female federal prisoners. Siddiqui would be more than 100-years-old by the time before she is eligible for release.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar