The New Nation - Internet Edition

BBC Online

Asia-Pacific leaders meeting in Sydney have agreed an "aspirational" goal to restrain the rise of greenhouse gas emissions to tackle climate change.

China and the US - two of the world's biggest polluters - are among the 21 nations that have signed the statement, which contains no firm commitments.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard called it "a very important milestone" towards an international deal. Environmentalists said the declaration was symbolic rather than concrete.

"The world needs to slow, stop and then reverse the growth of global greenhouse gas emissions," said Saturday's statement by the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum. Sydney has seen the biggest security operation ever mounted by Australia for the meeting. Isolated scuffles broke out on Saturday between police and a few of the 5,000 protesters who marched through the heart of Sydney for a rally in Hyde Park, but the day remained peaceful on the whole.

The APEC statement included a non-binding goal of reducing "energy intensity" - the amount of energy used to produce a dollar of gross domestic product - by at least 25% by 2030.

The leaders also called for increased forest cover in the Asia-Pacific region of at least 20m hectares (50m acres) by 2020. And they agreed greenhouse gas reduction strategies should reflect "differences in economic and social conditions" in each country. The US has made China's involvement in moves to tackle global warming a priority, but both countries are opposed to binding targets.

Summit host Mr Howard said: "We are serious about addressing in a sensible way, compatible with our different economic needs, the great challenge of climate change."

But Greenpeace said the agreement was a "distraction" rather than a "declaration".

A spokeswoman for the organisation, Catherine Fitzpatrick, said: "Without supporting binding targets for developed countries, which is where the rubber really hits the road on climate action, it looks like a political stunt by John Howard." The Sydney declaration also included China's and other developing nations' calls for global warming negotiations to take place under United Nations auspices. The UN climate convention is scheduled to host talks in December on the Indonesian island of Bali.

APEC's 21 members, which also include Russia and Japan, together account for about 60% of annual greenhouse gas emissions.

Saturday's deal followed wrangling at the summit over the shape of a treaty to replace the landmark Kyoto Protocol of 1997.

AFP, Jodhpur

Rescuers in India recovered the bodies of 85 pilgrims Saturday from the mangled wreckage of a truck that plunged into a ravine in one of the country's worst-ever vehicle accidents, police said.

Some 200 people were crowded on the truck travelling to a religious fair in the desert state of Rajasthan in western India. Apart from the deaths, some 61 people were in three hospitals, many of them seriously injured, police said.

"People have been taken out of the gorge," said police superintendent Rupinder Singh in Rajsamand district, where the accident occurred after dark on Friday. "Eighty-five bodies have been recovered."

A large number of the dead were women, said police, adding that about 50 remaining passengers were believed to have survived unhurt or with minor injuries. A witness told AFP that a crowd of motorcyclists jammed the road by the ravine where the truck fell, and piercing screams and cries could be heard as survivors called for help.

"I stopped the car and saw a truck lying upside down in the ravine," said Udaipur district official Shikhar Agarwal, who was driving by half an hour after the accident

"The wireless phone was not working so we could not even call for help from there. We started sending people to hospital in private cars."

Passersby also alerted the nearest police post

About 10 cranes were brought to the accident site overnight as rescuers using searchlights scrambled to find survivors and recover bodies.

After dawn Saturday the police operation had been scaled back to recover the badly damaged truck as survivors searched for scatered belongings. The truck driver lost control on a sharp bend in a mountainous region and smashed through a protective roadside wall, plunging into the 80-foot (25-metre) deep gorge, said police official Singh.

Anxious villagers thronged hospitals where the injured had been taken.

"We knew the truck driver who was going and he told us to come too. So 54 of us went with him," said 25-year-old Manji Lal, as he lay in a bed with a bandaged foot in Rajsamand's main hospital during the night

"It all happened so suddenly we had no idea where our family members ended up. People were screaming for a long time until someone came and rescued us."

Television channels showed the patients atached to intravenous drips, including one boy in a blue shirt with a thick bandage around his head.

"Suddenly the brakes failed," the boy told the Aaj Tak channel.

Some villagers had already taken the bodies of their family members back home to perform last rites Saturday, while others were still trying to identify the dead.

At least three people were so badly mutilated that their bodies could not be identified, police said.

Rajasthan's home minister has asked district officials to investigate how the 10-wheel truck -- meant for hauling cars and heavy equipment -- was allowed to transport people.

"We are doing an enquiry into how so many people were travelling like this," said Gulab Chand Kataria.

Reuters, Dubai

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden said in a video issued ahead of the sixth anniversary of the Sept 11 atacks the United States was vulnerable despite its military and economic power.

It was not clear when the tape, acquired by Reuters Television from a web trawler in Europe, was made. The authenticity of the tape could not be immediately verified, although bin Laden's image on an excerpt seen by Reuters matched a still photograph carried by an al Qaeda-linked Web site which had advertised the tape.

"Despite America being the greatest economic power and possessing the most powerful and modern military arsenal, and despite it spending on this war and its army more than the entire world spends on its armies and being the major state influencing the world's policies as if it has a monopoly on the unjust right of veto t 19 young men were able t to change the direction of its compass," bin Laden said in the tape.

"The subject of the mujahideen has become an inseparable part of the speech of your leader and the effects and signs are not hidden. Since the 11th, many of America's policies have come under the influence of the mujahideen."

The video shows bin Laden siting at a table dressed in white and cream robes and wearing a white hat Beneath him, a banner reads in English: "A message from Sheikh Osama bin Laden to the American people."

In it, bin Laden appears tired and sallow and his beard is much shorter and darker than in his last appearance in 2004, when he sported a long beard streaked with grey.

AFP, Kabul

At least 50 Taliban rebels have been killed in two days of operations by Afghan and US-led troops across insurgency-hit southern Afghanistan, the defence ministry said Saturday.

In a single operation in the southern province of Kandahar, more than 40 rebels were killed, the ministry said in a statement

The casualties occurred in Sha Wali Kot, an area of the province badly hit by Taliban unrest in the recent weeks, it added. Dozens more were killed in similar sweeps elsewhere in Kandahar and neighbouring Helmand province, the statement said without giving an exact figure. The rebels were killed in a two-day long sweep in the region, it added.

"In Sha Wali Kot alone, 42 enemy fighters were killed and their bodies were recovered," the statement said, adding the operations were backed by coalition air support It did not give an exact date.

Meanwhile, Afghan security forces backed by international troops launched a new offensive Thursday in Zabul province, next to Kandahar.

Seven insurgents were killed during the operation, called "Black Scorpion," it said. It was not possible to verify the figures independently.

Kandahar, the former stronghold and birthplace of the Taliban, has suffered heavy clashes in recent weeks with around 400 rebels killed in clashes since mid-August, according to official figures.

Taliban ousted from power some six years ago have been waging a bloody insurgency mainly in southern and eastern Afghanistan.

The insurgency has claimed thousands of lives -- mostly those of militants -- and has peaked in the past two years, with rebels using more sophisticated tactics such as suicide bombings and roadside explosions.

AP, Yangon

Myanmar's military junta accused detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's political party of inciting unrest and instigating Buddhist monks to take part in protests over price hikes, state media reported Saturday.

The regime also claimed that pro-democracy groups outside Myanmar and foreign media were deliberately spreading false information to destabilize the government, comparing the current situation to mass protests in 1988 when thousands of demonstrators were believed killed by security forces. "Internal and external destructive elements are inciting a period of civil unrest like the one in 1988," the New Light of Myanmar newspaper said. "It has been found that foreign broadcasting stations are launching political propaganda and exaggerated news reports on the demonstrations with the intent of misleading the public."

The report comes as Buddhist monks in northern Myanmar, angry at being beaten up for protesting fuel price rises, smashed up a shop belonging to supporters of the military government, witnesses said. The destruction Thursday night in the town of Pakokku came just hours after monks held a group of officials captive at a monastery for several hours before releasing them, also to protest their rough treatment during a march a day earlier.

Wednesday's demonstration was the latest in a string of protests triggered by a 500 percent rise in government-set fuel prices, but one of the first in which the country's monks took part Civilian supporters of the government kicked and beat the monks and soldiers fired shots into the air, witnesses said.

Myanmar's rulers tolerate litle dissent and often crack down on activists.

In a case unrelated to the price protests, six labor activists received prison sentences of up to 28 years for organizing a seminar at a U.S. Embassy center earlier this year, a defense lawyer said Saturday.

Reuters, Toronto

The Toronto International Film Festival opened on Thursday with drama "Fugitive Pieces" telling a poetic tale that asks audiences to find hope even when faced with atrocities of war.

Over the next 10 days, the festival will bring out stars such as Brad Pit, George Clooney and Jodi Foster to tout movies they hope will win critical praise, earn solid box office and launch campaigns for the Oscars.

But among the numerous red carpet premieres at the festival, organizers also promise serious personal, political and emotional dramas in many of the 275 feature films that will play to packed houses. "Fugitive Pieces" fits their bill. The film, writen and directed by Jeremy Podeswa, is based on a best-selling novel about a Holocaust survivor who, as a young boy, sees his family murdered. He grows into adulthood coping with their deaths and despite his emotional scars, he learns to show generosity and kindness to others.

"It demonstrates the best of what people are capable of, their boundless capacity for love, for generosity and self-sacrifice even in the most difficult of circumstances," Podeswa told audiences.

Organizers have touted the many serious-minded movies that will screen here -- back in August when the final lineup was unveiled, co-director Noah Cowan told Reuters: "it feels like the cinema is relevant again."

On opening night, animated French film "Persepolis" also told of people overcoming fear, hatred and murder to come to a greater understanding of themselves and of humanity.