The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Peshawar

Pakistani forces pounded militant hideouts and squeezed arms and food supply routes in the troubled northwestern Swat valley, killing more than 30 insurgents, officials said Sunday.

Chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said one soldier had also been killed and three wounded in clashes with pro-Taliban fighters loyal to a radical cleric in the region.

A 24-hour curfew slapped on the area has been extended indefinitely as the security forces try to root out militant positions, provincial official Amjad Iqbal told reporters.

"The strongholds of militants are being hit. Troops have demolished their bunkers and destroyed a checkpost," he said.

Iqbal said a key supply route had been blocked and an arms depot discovered in a school had been destroyed.

He said earlier that artillery and mortar had shelled militant positions in the towns of Kabal and Shangla through the night.

The unrest in Swat erupted in July when forces of hardline cleric Maulana Fazlullah demanding the introduction of Islamic Sharia law occupied several villages.

Clashes between the security forces and Fazlullah's men have left more than 220 militants dead since last week, the military said. It put army casualties at about half a dozen soldiers.

President Pervez Musharraf, who cited growing militancy as one of the key reasons for declaring emergency rule on November 3, ordered the army to purge the area of rebels after they had made sweeping gains in recent months.

People are continuing to flee the fighting, however, and authorities have set up four tent villages for the displaced, provincial minister Imtiaz Gilani told reporters.

The Swat administration has also set up a refugee centre in a school in the region's main town of Mingora.

Bazaars, schools and banks have remained closed since last week, and some residents are reporting food shortages.

Intelligence officials said food supplies to the areas where militants are holed up had been stopped and any kind of movement was already disallowed to prevent weapons and other supplies reaching them.

Authorities have also set up their own FM radio station to counter militant propaganda by Fazlullah -- nicknamed Mullah Radio because he uses a pirate FM radio station to call for a holy war on government forces.

Reuters, Brisbane

Incoming Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat, has pledged closer Australian ties with overseas allies and unity at home after ending 11 years of conservative rule under John Howard.

Rudd, 50, presented himself as a new-generation leader by promising to pull about 500 frontline Australian troops out of Iraq and sign the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, further isolating Washington on both issues. "To our friends and allies around the world, I look forward as the next Prime Minister of Australia to working with them in dealing with the great challenges which our world now faces," he told cheering supporters at a victory party late on Saturday.

The surge to Labor left Howard battling to win even his own parliamentary seat, which he has held since 1974. He was in danger of becoming the first prime minister since 1929 to lose his constituency.

Agencies

The Aga Khan, spiritual leader (Imam) of the Ismaili Muslims, yesterday praised Mozambique as a model of successful post-conflict development and hailed the country's economic performance and tenacity in overcoming difficulties, says a message issued by the AKDN..

"In an era when frustration often breeds cynicism concerning the possibility of progress, Mozambique can provide inspiration and encouragement to other post-conflict societies," he said.

The Aga Khan, who is chairman and founder of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) with projects throughout Africa, noted that Mozambique's economic growth was one of the best in Africa despite continued problems. "The problems of poverty, disease and, illiteracy here are still enormous. But your recent progress has been built on sound principles - and for that reason, Mozambique has become a valuable model for the whole of the developing world," he said.

The Ismaili leader made the remarks at an official banquet in Maputo, held in his honour by Mozambique's President, Armando Guebuza, who invited him to the country. Mozambique was the first leg of the Aga Khan's 9-day tour of Southern Africa that also includes Madagascar. The visit is the Aga Khan's second to Africa since July 11, which marked the start of his year-long Golden Jubilee celebrations.

The Aga Khan announced that AKDN will expand its involvement in Mozambique. He also said the people of Mozambique will benefit from the construction of a new undersea high-speed fibre optic cable that will link Southern and Eastern Africa with Mumbai in India and Marseilles in France - a project co-financed by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) - the network's economic development arm.

Reuters, Kathmandu

The chief of Nepal's Maoists has warned the provisional government that his former fighters could take up arms again if their demand for an immediate end to the monarchy was not met, newspapers reported on Sunday.

The comments by Prachanda, chief of the former rebels, were his toughest yet in a dispute this year between the Maoists and the government that has centered on scrapping the monarchy.

"If the government and the other parties do not understand the ground realities, we would be forced to take up arms again," the Himalayan Times quoted Prachanda as saying.

The government wants to hold constituent assembly elections before deciding the monarchy's future, part of a peace accord with the former rebels agreed last year that ended a decade-long conflict that killed more than 13,000 people.

The Maoists want the monarchy scrapped immediately. The impasse led them to quit the interim government two months ago and to indefinitely delay the constituent assembly elections that had been due on November 22.

Maoists and government are due to meet to discuss the issue which is expected to dominate a parliamentary sitting resuming on Thursday. The former rebels are also demanding full proportional representation in any elections.

"We will get our party's demands for a republic and a proportional electoral system fulfilled at any cost," the Kathmandu Post daily quoted Prachanda, 52, as saying.

Prachanda, whose nom de guerre roughly translates as "fierce" or "terrible," said his party still favored talks to achieve its demands but would fight for another 40 years if necessary.

Reuters, Karachi

Outraged Pakistani journalists have been confronting police on the streets since President Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency rule three weeks ago and muzzled the vibrant media that blossomed under his rule. The battle is over more than just freedom of the press. "It is actually a power struggle between the military establishment and the new emerging power centers in civilian life represented by the media barons," said Sabihuddin Ghausi, president of the Karachi Press Club. Army chief Musharraf, stung by criticism of his maneuvers to hold on to power, curbed the media and blacked out private television news channels, and international broadcasters, after imposing emergency rule on November 3. All but the most popular channel, Geo News, have been allowed back on air although none is running the political talk shows that infuriated the government. Journalists are demanding an end to the emergency and the lifting of what they describe as draconian new media laws.

AFP, Jerusalem

Hardened by years of bloodshed and embittered by past failures, Israel and the Palestinians head to a key US peace meeting cautiously hoping to narrow their ever-yawning gaps at last. US President George W. Bush has pledged that the conference in Annapolis outside Washington on November 27 will provide international support for the two sides to restart talks after a seven-year freeze marred by deadly violence. But chances of the conference -- which is taking place 60 years after the UN voted to partition British-mandate Palestine on November 29, 1947 -- are far from certain although it is likely to see Israel sit down with Arab states including regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia for the first time.

AP, Malibu

Glen Sunyich has seen flames ravage the canyons and mountains above Malibu three times and has been thankful his home was spared. The fourth time, he wasn't so lucky.

Sunyich's home was among 49, along with two outbuildings, that were destroyed by a fast-moving wildfire pushed by Santa Ana winds. Twenty-seven other homes were damaged and 10,000 to 14,000 people were evacuated. For the second time in little more than a month, residents like Sunyich were left to survey the damage left by flames in Malibu. "This time I lost," said a soot-covered Sunyich, who watched his stucco and tile house he built in 1990 slowly burn to the ground. "It means that I didn't build it well enough." The coastal community had been recovering from last month's 4,565-acre Canyon Fire that destroyed six homes, two businesses and a church when the winds began whipping up again overnight Saturday.

AFP, Xian

French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived here Sunday seeking to boost trade and bilateral ties while addressing key international issues including the environment and Iran. During the three-day state visit, his first to China since taking office in May, Sarkozy is also expected to deepen political relations between Paris and Beijing while cementing commercial links. "We would like to establish strong relations with China at a moment when relations between Beijing and certain Western countries have become more tense," an official in Sarkozy's office said ahead of the visit. The reference appears to be to ties between China and Germany damaged by Chancellor Angela Merkel's September meeting with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, whom Beijing views as a dangerous separatist.

AFP, Washington

The White House concluded in a recent secret report that the war effort in Afghanistan has not met strategic goals set this year, The Washington Post reported Sunday. The newspaper, citing unnamed US officials, said the report was prepared earlier this month by the National Security Council. Its main conclusion was that while individual military battles against the Taliban have been successful, other areas remain wanting, report said. "One can point to a lot of indicators that are positive," The Post quoted a senior US intelligence official as saying. "We go out there and achieve our objectives and kill bad guys." But the extremists, he added, seem to have little trouble finding replacements, according to the paper. While many foreigners, mostly Pakistani, join the Taliban, several officials said the main source of new recruits remain unhappy Afghans, The Post said. "There doesn't seem to be a lot of progress being made t I would think that from (the Taliban) standpoint, things are looking decent," the paper quoted the intelligence official as saying.