The New Nation - Internet Edition

China, Russia sign border agreement: Moscow to return disputed border land

AFP, Beijing

China and Russia on Monday signed an agreement that ended a decades-long territorial dispute, in the latest sign of warming ties.

The protocol, signed by the two countries' foreign ministers in Beijing, adds to an existing agreement on their 4,300-kilometre (2,700-mile) boundary.

"This means that our international border has been demarcated in its entirety," Russian Foreign Minster Sergei Lavrov said in front of reporters after the agreement was signed with his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi.

"From a legal point of view we have created the preconditions for the border to become a link of stability, openness, mutual benefit, friendship and cooperation."

There were no specific details given to the press about the agreement, but the state-run China Daily newspaper said the agreement involved Russia handing back 174 square kilometres (69.6 miles) of island territory to China. All of Yinglong island, known as Tarabarov in Russian, and half of Heixazi island, Bolshoi Ussuriysky in Russian, on the rivers that border the countries in China's far northeast were returned, according to the paper.

A bitter rift during the Cold War saw the one-time communist allies fight skirmishes along their border.

Recently, however, Russia and China have drawn closer together.

After his meeting with Lavrov, Yang spoke positively about the way ahead for bilateral relations.

"We exchanged views about how to further promote our bilateral strategic relationship and strengthen our cooperation at the regional and global levels. We reached a broad consensus. I think our discussions were positive," Yang said. China and Russia have resolved a 40-year-old dispute over their border, Chinese state media said Monday, in the latest sign of warming relations between the once bitter rivals.

Russia will return 67 square miles of territory on the northeast border with China, the China Daily newspaper reported. An agreement will be signed during Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's visit to Beijing on Monday, when he is scheduled to hold separate meetings with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, the report said. China and Russia share a 2,700-mile-long border.

The border tug-of-war reaches back centuries to the competition for territory as imperial China and czarist Russia expanded toward each other. The struggle over border areas resulted in violent clashes in the 1960s and '70s, when strained Sino-Soviet relations were at their most acrimonious, feeding fears abroad that the conflict could erupt into nuclear war.

The newspaper said Russia will return Yinlong Island (known as Tarabarov Island in Russian) and half of Heixiazi Island (Bolshoi Ussuriysky) to China. The areas lie in northeast China where the Heilongjiang river, which becomes the Amur river in Russia, and the Wusulijiang river meet.

Former Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a border agreement with China for the first time in 2004. But it is not clear how far that accord went to resolve the dispute over the stretch of river and islands along China's northeastern border with Russia's Far East.

China and Russia were bitter communist rivals during the Cold War, but diplomatic ties have warmed considerably in recent years, partly from a mutual desire to counter U.S. influence in world affairs.

Beijing is also eager to secure access to Russia's oil and gas deposits, and has been a major customer of Russian military hardware.

Indian government faces tight confidence vote

Reuters, New Delhi

India's parliament begins debate on a vote of confidence in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government on Monday that will decide whether snap elections are called and the fate of a nuclear deal with the United States.

The vote, due on Tuesday, is so close that several MPs who are ill may be flown or wheeled in from hospital, and others, in jail for crimes such as murder and extortion, have been granted temporary release.

If the Congress party-led government falls, there will almost certainly be elections this year. It would almost certainly lead to the cancellation of the civilian nuclear deal and throw economic policy into limbo just as inflation rises dangerously. The nuclear deal would grant India access to foreign nuclear fuel and technology, unlocking billions of dollars in investment.

But the government's communist allies withdrew their support in protest, saying the deal made India a pawn of Washington.

The vote essentially pits the Congress Party-led coalition in favor of the deal against the communists and a coalition led by the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP says the nuclear deal limits India's ability to test nuclear weapons.

A host of smaller regional and caste-based parties hold the balance. It is unclear which way they will vote and a spate of horse trading even included the re-naming of an airport to honor the father of one wavering member of parliament.

A government defeat would be a boost for the BJP, which has won a string of state elections this year amid rising inflation and criticism that millions of poor Indians were not benefiting from the booming economy.

The prime minister will kick off the confidence motion with an opening statement, followed by a parliamentary debate and a final electronic vote, expected on Tuesday evening.

Arriving at the parliament on Monday morning, Prime Minister Singh gave a "V" for victory sign.

"We will prove our majority on the floor of the house," he said.

Numbers are in flux, but on Monday newspapers said the decision may come down to one or two votes in the 543-member house.

"Vote looks neck and neck" was the headline of The Asian Age.

In 1999, a BJP-led government lost a confidence vote by a margin of just one.

Weak party discipline, under-the-table deals and accidents like MPs falling ill make the result almost impossible to predict.

"The problem is that money changes hands, dirty deals are struck and MPs do a volte-face nonchalantly," said political commentator Amulya Ganguli. "It's hard to predict when the race is so tight."

A week ago the government was confident of securing a majority with the support of the regional Samajwadi Party (SP), which replaced the communists as its parliamentary support.

Since then there have been signs of a rebellion in the ranks of the SP, including the defection to an opposition group of senior party member Shahid Siddiqui.

Two small political groups-the JD(S) and RLD with six MPs in all-also decided to vote against the government.

Other MPs have vacillated over voting for a government already battling rising inflation and mounting unpopularity ahead of general elections due by next May.

Insurgent clashes in Pakistan kill 36

AFP, Quetta

At least six Pakistani paramilitary troops and 30 separatist rebels have been killed in clashes in the troubled southwestern province of Baluchistan, security officials said Monday.

Security forces launched a major operation against rebel camps in the gas- and mineral-rich province after a convoy of Frontier Corps soldiers came under attack on Saturday, the officials said. Troops also arrested 30 militants and destroyed two insurgent bases used for plotting attacks in the operation near Uch, a town in the restive Dera Bugti district of Baluchistan, they said.

Impoverished Baluchistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, has seen a recent flare-up in attacks by ethnic Baluch tribes seeking more political rights and a greater share of profits from the region's natural resources.

"Six Frontier Corps men have been killed and around 30 militants have been arrested. Militants have been killed in a big number but I don't have the exact figure," a senior Pakistani security official told AFP.

Other intelligence officials in Quetta said however that at least 30 insurgents, including three rebel commanders, had been killed. Twenty-two rebels were killed on Sunday alone in the heaviest of the clashes, they said.

"The entire operation started after these militants fired on a Frontier Corps convoy," the senior security official said.

"There were two camps there of these militants, they were destroyed last night. The militants were using these two camps to destroy (electricity) pylons, carry out bomb blasts and other terrorist activities," he said.

Dera Bugti is near Pakistan's biggest natural gas field and was formerly the base of late Baluch rebel leader Nawab Akbar Bugti, who was killed in a military operation in August 2006. Hundreds of people have died in violence in the province since the insurgency flared in late 2004, but until recently it had quietened down after Bugti's death. The province has also been hit by attacks blamed on Islamist Taliban militants, but officials say that the separatist insurgents do not have links to the hardliners.

Pakistani officials have previously accused rival India of sponsoring the separatist rebels from its consulates in southern and eastern Afghanistan, a charge that New Delhi denies.

Last Wednesday a bomb blast in the town of Mastung, 35 kilometres (22 miles) south of the provincial capital Quetta, wounded 14 people, including eight security personnel.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Deal to hold power-sharing talks set in Zimbabwe

AP, Harare

South Africa's foreign affairs spokesman says Zimbabwe's president and opposition leader will sign an agreement to hold power-sharing talks.

The agreement sets out conditions for talks to form a unity government to help resolve Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis.

Ronnie Mamoepa says the signing will take place in Harare on Monday afternoon in the presence of mediator South African President Thabo Mbeki. Mamoepa says the signing is "a positive step forward in the ongoing dialogue" to resolve Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won most votes in March elections but pulled out of a June runoff against President Mugabe because of escalating state-sponsored violence against his supporters.

Zimbabwe's ruling party and two factions of the opposition will sign a deal on Monday to enter formal talks to solve the country's political crisis, a senior government official said.

"Preparations are going on right now, and as far as I know the signing ceremony for the Memorandum of Understanding will take place around 3 p.m. (1300 GMT or 11 a.m. EDT) at the Sheraton and all the parties involved will be signing," the official said.

US holds first war-crimes trial since WWII

AFP, Washington

A special military trial was to get underway Monday at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, with a former driver for terror mastermind Osama bin Laden facing the first US war-crimes tribunal since the end of World War II.

Salim Hamdan, from Yemen, is the first "enemy combatant" from the US "war on terror" to face a full-scale trial since the prison camp at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba was opened in late 2001.

And with a federal judge rebuffing the last-ditch attempt by Hamdan's lawyers to halt the trial, the landmark case is now set to open Monday after preliminary hearings over the past week. Hamdan, whose trial is expected to last two weeks, faces charges of "conspiracy" and "material support for terrorism," and could receive life imprisonment if convicted.

Australian national David Hicks was to face a military trial in 2007 but pleaded guilty at a hearing before it began.

After being held without trial for five years, Hicks admitted to providing material support to terrorism as part of a deal that allowed him to return to his country where he served the remainder of his sentence.

The Pentagon is withholding the identities of the 13-member jury pool brought to Guantanamo over the weekend, but all are US military officers.

The administration of President George W. Bush set up the special military commissions in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

The military commissions were invalidated in 2006 by the Supreme Court, only to be restored a few months later by the US Congress.

They have since been struck by a series of legal battles and hitches-including a June Supreme Court decision that granted foreign terror suspects captured abroad the right to challenge their detention in US courts-that have pushed back the opening of Hamdan's lawsuit, and perhaps others to come.

The indictment against Hamdan, who is about 40 years old, alleges that he met bin Laden in the Afghan city of Kandahar in 1996 and "ultimately became a bodyguard and personal driver" for the Al-Qaeda leader.

It alleges that Hamdan received training in the use of rifles, handguns and machine guns in an Al-Qaeda camp and also "delivered weapons, ammunition or other supplies to Al-Qaeda members and associates."

Hamdan was transferred in 2002 to Guantanamo-where he has been spent much of his detention in isolation-and ordered tried by a military tribunal.

3 die as blasts hit Chinese buses

Reuters, Beijing

Deliberate explosions on three Chinese buses killed at least three people and injured 14 in the southwestern city of Kunming on Monday, media said, amid a security clampdown ahead of next month's Beijing Olympics.

The official Xinhua news agency blamed the blasts on "sabotage" and said police had started roadside checks in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, to try to find the person or persons responsible. It did not elaborate.

The attack happened less than three weeks before the Beijing Games which China has warned could be a target of terror attacks.

An explosion on one bus happened at the Panjiawan stop at 7.10 a.m. and the second blast was nearby, Xinhua said. Pictures showed a gaping hold in the side of one of the buses and glass scattered in the street.

Another explosion occurred near Minshan, also nearby, the semi-official China News Service said in a report on its website (www.chinanews.com.cn).

Two people were killed at the scene and one died on the way to hospital, the report said.

But a Yunnan government official said by telephone from Kunming there had only been two explosions, and declined further comment.

China has occasionally witnessed bus explosions staged by disgruntled farmers or laid-off workers wanting to air grievances over poverty, demolitions or corruption.

The Kunming blasts also came two days after Yunnan police opened fire and killed two rubber farmers in the province's Menglian county in a clash that also saw 41 police officers injured.

The clash was sparked when police tried to arrest five people in Menglian for allegedly attacking a local rubber company in a long-running dispute between farmers and the private firm, state media said.

Chinese authorities have directed officials to redress local residents' grievances and act on complaints to try to resolve disputes and ensure a "harmonious social atmosphere" in the Olympics period.

But the country has struggled to curb unrest. In June, 30,000 residents rioted in the streets of Weng'an, in Guizhou province, after allegations spread that police had covered up the rape and murder of a local teenage girl.

India, Pakistan begin new round of peace talks

AFP, New Delhi

India and Pakistan on Monday started fresh peace talks despite a bomb attack on India's embassy in Kabul which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan's spy service.

Security, release of prisoners and trade will figure in the talks, which are part of a peace process the two rivals launched in 2004.

Ahead of the talks, Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir said he expected positive results from the dialogue.

Both the countries want a "peaceful atmosphere", Bashir told reporters on Sunday.

The meeting comes days after New Delhi blamed Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence for a July 7 attack on its embassy in Kabul which killed more than 40 people.

Pakistan has rejected the allegations.

The foreign secretaries of the two countries were also expected to discuss the longstanding Kashmir dispute, which has triggered two of their three wars since 1947.

New Delhi accuses Islamabad-backed Islamic militants of waging an insurgency in the disputed Himalayan territory and of triggering attacks in other parts of the country.

Pakistan strongly denies it arms or trains the militants.

A series of violent incidents in Indian Kashmir claimed the lives of 10 soldiers, a policeman and two civilians over the weekend.

New Delhi will ask Pakistan during Monday's peace talks to curb the growing number of Islamic rebels coming into Indian-Kashmir, the Press Trust of India reported.

Nepal Maoists lose presidential vote

AFP, Kathmandu

Lawmakers in Nepal on Monday voted in the country's first post-royal president, Ram Baran Yadav, rejecting a candidate backed by the Maoists, state television said.

Yadav, who was backed by the centrist Nepali Congress party, won 308 out of 590 votes cast in Nepal's constitutional assembly.

Die-hard republican Ramraja Prasad Singh, the candidate backed by the former rebels, won 282 votes, state television said.

Although the presidency is a largely ceremonial position, the development could delay efforts by the Maoists-who hold the most assembly seats but not a majority-to form Nepal's first republican government.

Army officer among 8 killed in Kashmir

Reuters, Srinagar

Two Indian soldiers, including an officer, and four suspected Muslim militants were killed in separate gun battles in Kashmir, while two others died in a grenade attack, the army said on Sunday.

The violence flared up across the Himalayan region ahead of a new round of India-Pakistan peace talks on Monday that are opposed by Kashmiri separatist militants.

The two soldiers died in a firefight with militants in Rajouri area of south Kashmir, a day after nine Indian troops were killed in a landmine blast near Srinagar.

"The encounter broke out on Saturday and still continues," Indian army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel S. D. Goswami said.

Separately, an Indian tourist and a local picnicker were killed and at least five others wounded on Sunday when suspected Muslim militants threw a grenade at a hill resort in Gulmarg, west of Srinagar, police said.

The valley of Gulmarg, ringed by pine forests and famous for its ski slopes and cable car, lies close to the Line of Control dividing Indian and Pakistani Kashmir.

No militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Four suspected militants were shot dead by soldiers on Saturday when they tried to sneak in from Pakistan in Kupwara sector, northwest of Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir.

India and Pakistan both claim Kashmir, and have fought two wars over the Himalayan region.

They launched a peace process in 2004 but made little progress on their main dispute over Kashmir, where tens of thousands of people have been killed since a separatist revolt against New Delhi's rule erupted in 1989.

New Delhi says Islamabad has not done enough to curb Muslim militants operating from its soil, a charge Islamabad denies.

Rice wants 'serious answer’ from Iran

Reuters, Shannon

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Iran on Monday that it faced more sanctions if it defied a two-week deadline to agree to curb its nuclear program.

Rice said Iran was stalling and must give a "serious answer" within the deadline set by six world powers which offered trade and technical incentives if Tehran halts its uranium enrichment. The West fears Iran wants to build a nuclear bomb.

"We are in the strongest possible position to demonstrate that if Iran does not act then it is time to go back to that (sanctions) track," Rice said, It was her first comment on the subject since Washington broke from usual policy and joined nuclear talks with Iran in Geneva on Saturday.

Rice, speaking to reporters on her way to Abu Dhabi en route to Asia, said the United States would impose more bilateral sanctions on Iran and the Europeans would look at what they could do if Iran failed to meet the world powers' demand.

"The main thing is we will have to start considering what we do in New York," she said, referring to the Security Council which has imposed three rounds of sanctions on Iran.

Envoys from the United States, Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain-the so-called sextet of world powers-attended the Geneva meeting.

Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, said at the next meeting Iran would not discuss the demand to freeze its sensitive atomic work which the West fears is aimed at making bombs. Iran says its aims are peaceful.

But Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave an upbeat assessment on Sunday. "Any negotiation that takes place is a step forward," he told reporters, according to IRNA news agency.

A senior Iranian official said Iran was ready to respond to any positive U.S. overture but it was unclear whether Washington had decided between diplomacy and force.

The U.S. government was "indecisive about whether to lean on diplomacy or the military option," said Deputy Foreign Minister Alireza Sheikh-Attar, according to the student news agency ISNA on Monday.

Middle East deal is achieveable, says British PM

AFP, Jerusalem

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown insisted Sunday that the gap between Israel and the Palestinians can be bridged and that a landmark Middle East peace deal is achieveable.

After talks in Jerusalem and Bethlehem with leaders from both sides, Brown said he was confident that all outstanding issues preventing an agreement could be hammered out. Brown clashed with his Israeli counterpart Ehud Olmert over his demand to freeze the building of settlements in the West Bank and pledged new aid to the Palestinians as part of efforts to kick-start their economy . Brown was making his first visit to Israel and the West Bank since becoming premier in June last year. US-sponsored talks between the two sides are aimed at resolving the conflict before US President George W. Bush leaves office next January.

However, the talks have become bogged down amid violence in the Islamist Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and the expansion of Jewish settlements.

Asked by AFP whether he was confident that a deal could be reached on schedule, Brown said: "When I say the difficulties can be bridged, that the problems that I have had described to me I believe can be solved, then I think there is an opportunity within our grasp.

"There is a sense from what I have heard today that people feel that they can get to a solution. The sooner that happens, the better. I'm urging people to move forward with as great speed as possible."

He told reporters that stakeholders should not lose sight of the "big prize" of a comprehensive settlement.

"What separates the sides is not unbridgeable. My own view is that there is good will to move these things forward.

"My advice is to concentrate on the main elements of a final peace agreement buttall the central issues that are preventing a resolution of the whole Israeli-Palestinian issue will have to be sorted out."

Brown crossed Israel's separation barrier for talks in the West Bank town of Bethlehem with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and prime minister Salam Fayyad.

ASEAN ministers demand release of Suu Kyi

AFP, Singapore

Southeast Asian foreign ministers expressed "deep disappointment" Sunday over Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest and called for all political prisoners in the country to be freed. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which has been criticised in the past for its failure to act firmly against its renegade member, issued the strongly worded statement at the start of annual talks.

"The foreign ministers expressed their deep disappointment that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's detention under house arrest had been extended by the Myanmar government," said Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo. "They repeated the call by ASEAN leaders for the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other political detainees as part of Myanmar's national reconciliation process," he said.

Yeo raised the prospect of Aung San Suu Kyi's release, saying Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win reiterated the junta's defence that it is legally permitted to hold a citizen for a year, and a further five years with cabinet consent.

"He told me that the six-year limit will come up in about half a year's time," he said.

Asked whether that meant she could be freed, he said: "I am just repeating to you what he told me and I think that is not an inaccurate inference."

However, the ruling generals may not be bound by existing law as they consider Aung San Suu Kyi's fate. In a decision they are unlikely to reverse, they extended the house arrest measure by one year in May.

The Nobel peace price winner has spent most of the past 18 years confined to her lakeside home in Yangon.

Aung San Suu Kyi led her National League for Democracy to a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but it was never allowed to take office.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ministers also urged the Myanmar junta to engage with Aung San Suu Kyi's movement, which has been frozen out of a much-criticised "roadmap to democracy."

"The Myanmar government should engage in a meaningful dialogue with all political groups and work towards a peaceful transition to democracy in the near future," Yeo said.

ASEAN backed the efforts of United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, who has been attempting to broker reconciliation talks between Myanmar's rulers and the pro-democracy opposition.

Pakistani court upholds curbs on nuclear scientist

Reuters, Islamabad

A Pakistani court upheld the detention of disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan on Monday and barred him from talking to the media about nuclear proliferation while he is under house arrest. Khan, lionised by many Pakistanis as the father of the country's atomic bomb, was pardoned but placed under house arrest by President Pervez Musharraf in 2004 soon after he made a televised confession to selling nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya.

Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Sardar Mohammad Aslam ruled Khan could meet relatives after security clearance and have access to health care of his choice, but would not be allowed to give media interviews.

"He will be allowed to meet close relatives subject to security clearance, which is of paramount importance. He will not be allowed to make interviews to any print or television channel on the issue of nuclear proliferation," the judge said.

Khan gave a series of interviews to media after a new government, made up of anti-Musharraf parties, came to power in late March following a general election in February.

The 72-year-old scientist, who has been treated for prostate cancer, irked the army by making comments earlier this month about the smuggling of nuclear equipment that appeared to implicate the military and President Musharraf.

In response, the military said Khan was seeking to falsely implicate Musharraf, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the army and the Strategic Planning Division that oversees Pakistan's nuclear weapons.

Musharraf stepped down as army chief late last year, eight years after taking power as a general following a military coup, and has taken a low profile since the formation of the civilian coalition government.

Khan says he had been persuaded to confess four years ago after Musharraf's government promised that he would be rehabilitated and allowed to travel freely inside Pakistan.

He says Musharraf failed to honour that commitment, and after the new government came to power Khan's wife petitioned the court to free him.

Pakistan regards the nuclear proliferation case as closed, but U.S. and international nuclear experts investigating proliferation still want to question Khan.

Lonely life as commoner for Nepal’s former king

AFP, Kathmandu

With few friends coming to visit and his son and one-time heir now living in Singapore, the new life of Nepal's ousted king as a commoner is by all accounts a lonely, meditative one.

Former king Gyanendra spends his time writing poetry, praying, surfing the Internet and taking walks in the forest around the Nagarjun hunting lodge where he lives just outside the capital Kathmandu, guards and his spiritual adviser said.

"The former king has been spending most of his time inside the bungalow," said a military guard at the lodge. "Occasionally I have seen him sitting in front of a computer or reading books. The place is quiet." Kanchha Shrestha, who runs a small sweet stall opposite the guarded gates of the reserve, has also noticed a lack of activity at the lodge. "I haven't seen many people coming to visit except some former royal secretaries," said Shrestha, adding that the ex-king rarely left the premises. "Sometimes he leaves once a week, sometimes once in 15 days."

Those outings are most likely to involve visits to his elderly step-mother, in her 80s, who continues to live in Narayanhiti Palace in the heart of the city.

The concubine of Gyanendra's grandfather, in her 90s, also continues to reside at the palace, which was turned into a museum after the king's departure last month.

Gyanendra's new life looks set to become even quieter after his son, former crown prince Paras, left for Singapore earlier this month. The departure was followed by that of Paras' wife and three children on Thursday.

But the former king may have taken some comfort this week as he watched the political parties that ousted him in May and ended the 240-year-old Shah monarchy fall out over their choice for a new head of state.

The three main parties had each put forward a candidate for president but a vote by assembly members on Saturday failed to produce a clear winner and end the political deadlock that has delayed the formation of a new government.