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India, Pakistan agree to give peace a chance

AFP, Colombo

Tensions between India and Pakistan overshadowed a South Asian summit ending in Sri Lanka Sunday, although the two nuclear-armed rivals said they would stick to their embattled peace process.

In the highest level talks between the two countries in over a year, Pakistan's Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani agreed to look into allegations his spy service was behind last month's suicide bombing of India's embassy in Kabul.

Sri Lankan diplomats hosting the summit said Gilani and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could have more informal talks before the end of the two-day summit later Sunday.

US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Richard Boucher, who is attending the summit as an observer, said he believed Gilani was determined to "conquer the problems of extremism and terrorism."

"We welcome the statement he made about looking into the causes and sources of the Kabul bombing," Boucher told reporters, adding that Pakistan's new government needed more time to tackle terrorism.

"I do remember it's a new government. There are enormous challenges," he told reporters on the sidelines of the eight-member South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in the Sri Lankan capital.

On Saturday the two premiers agreed that the bombing of India's embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul, plus a string of clashes along the Line of Control dividing the Himalayan region of Kashmir, had "cast a pall" on the four-year-old peace drive, Indian foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said.

Singh, who met Gilani at a luxury hotel overlooking the Indian Ocean, "was relatively frank in expressing his views," said Menon. But "both prime ministers said we need to overcome these (problems) and move forward," Menon told reporters, adding Gilani had "stressed that across the board in Pakistan, all political parties want improved relations."

Pakistani diplomats said Gilani had also met with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai Sunday.

Karzai accuses Islamabad of backing Taliban militants, and Afghan officials have also linked Pakistan's shadowy Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) to the Indian embassy bombing-a charge Islamabad has denied as "rubbish."

The SAARC summit saw South Asian leaders call for collective action to battle terrorism and improve regional cooperation. The annual event, however, is routinely eclipsed by tensions between India and Pakistan, who have fought three wars since partition.

Karzai said terrorism was the most "menacing" challenge faced by SAARC, which groups Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

A draft summit declaration called for collective action to combat "all forms of terrorist violence" that was threatening their "peace, stability and security." Leaders agreed to implement a regional trade pact-signed in 1995 but never fully implemented-"in letter and in spirit" to ensure a free flow of goods and services between the region of 1.5 billion people.

SAARC members also noted the urgent need to develop energy and food security, and to look at cutting international telephone call charges within the region to foster closer economic ties. The summit is being held under unprecedented security in insurgency-hit Sri Lanka, which has deployed 20,000 police and troops to guard delegates.

68 killed in India temple stampede

AP, New Delhi

Police say at least 68 pilgrims - including 30 children - have been killed in a stampede at a mountaintop Hindu temple in northern India.

Senior police officer C. P. Verma said 30 children and 38 women were killed in the crush at the Naina Devi Temple in northern India's Himachal Pradesh state.

More than 40 others were wounded and police were in the process of trying to evacuate them to hospital, he said.

Police and media outlets say at least five religious pilgrims have been killed during a stampede at a Hindu temple in northern India.

Police officer Sita Ram said there had been a stampede Sunday at the Naina Devi Temple in India's Himachal state. However, he had no details on casualties. The Press Trust of India news agency quoted Himachal police chief S. R. Mardi as saying that "five devotees were killed in the stampede which took place after a railing on the way to the temple collapsed."

However, other media reports said the toll may be as high as 68.

Iran aims to reinforce nuclear rights: Ahmadinejad

AP, Tehran

Iran will not give up "a single iota of its nuclear rights," the country's president said Saturday, rebuffing an informal deadline to stop expanding uranium enrichment or face more sanctions.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the remarks during discussions with Syrian President Beshar Assad, who arrived in Tehran Saturday for a two-day visit, the Iranian president's official Web site said. Assad is in Tehran to discuss Iran's controversial uranium enrichment following a request from French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Tehran was given an informal two-week deadline, set July 19 by the U.N. Security Council's five permanent members plus Germany, to stop expanding uranium enrichment - at least temporarily - in exchange for their commitment to stop seeking new U.N. sanctions.

Ahmadinejad's stance signaled both a failure of Assad's mission and a rejection of the deadline, although his comments indicated he was not ruling out international talks on Iran's nuclear program.

While stating that the Iranian nation "will not give up a single iota of its nuclear rights," he also said any participation in international talks on the nuclear issue would be aimed at reinforcing those rights.

Assad, who has been seeking a more prominent Mideast role for Syria, promised Sarkozy during a visit to France in July to try to persuade Iran to offer proof to the West that it isn't developing nuclear weapons.

Syria is Iran's closest Arab ally - the two countries have had close relations since 1980, when Syria sided with Persian Iran against Iraq in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

Iran's claims that it only wants nuclear technology for the production of energy have failed to quell Western suspicions that it is seeking a pathway to an atomic bomb.

Meanwhile in Brussels, a European Union official said Saturday that the office of EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana had not yet received an answer from Iran, but expected a reply "in the coming days" after the weekend deadline.

Mogadishu blast kills 13

Reuters, Mogadishu

A roadside explosion in Mogadishu on Sunday killed at least 13 people, most of them women who were sweeping a street, witnesses said.

Residents said a remotely detonated device exploded in Waberi district along a main road leading to the presidential palace. Nearly 50 people were wounded.

"We have now collected the pieces of nine dead women and still there are other parts scattered," witness Fardowsa Ahmed told Reuters.

"A minibus full of seriously injured women was rushed to hospital and I think the death toll will be more than this. Only two women who sell tea along the road survived" she added.

Four people died in the emergency room at the main Madina hospital. "We received 46 injured, including two men, most of them serious. The two men and two other women died in the emergency room," an official at the hospital told Reuters.

Insurgents have launched near-daily attacks on the transitional administration and its Ethiopian military allies. Somalia has not had a functioning central government since 1991.

On Friday a roadside bomb killed a Ugandan member of a small African Union peacekeeping force based in the capital.

Violence in the Horn of Africa nation has killed more than 8,000 civilians and driven 1 million more from their homes since allied Somali-Ethiopian forces kicked a hard-line Islamist group out of Mogadishu early last year.

Philippine separatists to sign deal with govt: Malaysia PM

AFP, Kuala Lumpur

Muslim separatists in the southern Philippines will sign a pact with Manila on Tuesday giving them control of large swathes of land, the Malaysian prime minister's department said.

The agreement grants the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) an autonomous region, which will have its own legal, banking and education systems, civil service and internal security force.

"Following several days of intensive negotiations, the ancestral domain agenda, the last and most contentious issue in the ongoing peace talks, was successfully concluded," the department said Sunday in a statement. "With a settlement achieved, formal peace talks can now resume after a lapse of five years," it said. The Malaysian government said a signing ceremony will be held in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday. It will be witnessed by Philippines Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo and his Malaysian counterpart Rais Yatim.

"It's all systems go for the signing of the agreement on August 5," MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu told AFP by phone from his base in Mindanao in the southern Philippines. "Our men on the ground want to see peace in Mindanao, and we have been talking for a long time already," he said.

The government of the proposed MILF-controlled area would have the power to send trade missions and enter into international economic arrangements, according to a draft of the pact obtained by the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

The proposed homeland will cover villages and municipalities in eight provinces in Mindanao, where the MILF has been waging a bloody rebellion since 1978.

The ancestral domain issue was the last remaining hurdle to a final political settlement that is expected to end the insurgency, which has claimed more than 120,000 lives.

Blair criticizes Brown's leadership

Reuters, London

Britain's embattled prime minister, Gordon Brown, suffered another blow on Sunday with the publication of a memo in which Tony Blair heaps scorn on his successor's performance in office.

The memo, which the Mail on Sunday newspaper said was written by Blair to colleagues last year, sees the former prime minister accuse Brown's government of "a lamentable confusion of tactics and strategy" and of failing to learn lessons.

Written in the aftermath of Brown's decision not call an early election that might have consolidated his leadership, the dispatch says poor decision-making has made Conservative leader David Cameron look substantial and a viable choice for office.

"The real problem was not the brilliance of the Tory conference, but the hubris and vacuity of our own. This meant the Tories, by having something to say on policy, appeared substantial and to represent the future," Blair wrote. "There has been a lamentable confusion of tactics and strategy. "At present, there is every indication that the lessons will not be learnt."

Blair's office would not confirm or deny that he had written the memo.

"Tony Blair continues to be 100 percent supportive of Gordon Brown and the government," a spokesman said.

Blair sent a watered-down version of the memo to Brown, the paper said. It is not known how that was received.

Since the memo was written, things have only got worse for Brown, whose poll ratings now make him the second most unpopular prime minister in modern British history.

There is widespread talk among Labor members of parliament of a potential challenge to Brown's leadership if he cannot regain the confidence of the party after the summer break.

Earthquake-ravaged Sichuan cheers Olympic torch

AP, Guang'an

Crowds roared with delight and waved hundreds of Chinese flags in welcome as the Olympic torch began an emotional tour of Sichuan on Sunday, three months after a powerful quake devastated large swaths of the lush, mountainous province.

A minute of silence to honor the victims of the earthquake was held before the start of the run in Guang'an. The city is about 190 miles from the epicenter of the quake but was unscathed.

Thousands of people were on hand, some wearing orange, red and white T-shirts that said "Light the Passion, Share the Dream." They were gathered in a tourist park that honors communist patriarch Deng Xiaoping. Guang'an is his hometown.

A traditional drum performance was held before the first of 189 torch bearers set off on the 4.5-mile route. The way was lined with thousands of people, many waving Chinese and Olympic flags.

"I'm so moved t it's been a long wait. Even if we have to wait for hours it is worthwhile," said 28-year-old government worker Li Lei. Li, who said he cried when the torch run started, is from An county near Beichuan in northern Sichuan, one of the hardest-hit areas in the earthquake. Another man said the torch would help Sichuan rebuild.

"The torch represents peace and harmony. The Olympic spirit will give us strength to rebuild," said Qin Yi, also a government worker.

After Guang'an, the torch will wind through four more cities, including Mianyang, which was threatened by post-quake floods and provided shelter for tens of thousands of residents whose homes were destroyed by the magnitude-7.9 temblor.

Sichuan is the last stop for the Olympic flame before it heads to Beijing for Friday's opening ceremony of the games. The segment had originally been scheduled for mid-June but was postponed to support disaster-relief efforts.

SKorean president denies involvement in fraud case

AFP, Seoul

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak's office on Sunday denied any involvement in a fraud case related to the nomination of candidates for parliamentary elections after his wife's cousin was arrested.

The first lady's 74-year-old cousin Kim Ok-Hee is accused of receiving three billion won (three million dollars) to help a businessman become a ruling party candidate for elections last April. "Prosecutors are investigating it, and there has been no record that Kim Ok-Hee has visited the presidential office," the president's spokesman Lee Dong-Kwan told a briefing on Sunday.

"The prosecution will investigate it in such a transparent and speedy way that even not a single piece of suspicion should be left behind."

Prosecutors suspect Kim Ok-Hee may have tried to bribe ruling party officials to help the businessman, although his attempt to secure a candidacy failed and most of the money was returned.

Seoul's Yonhap news agency said Sunday prosecutors were checking bank accounts held by the cousin.

"The probe focuses on tracing financial transactions through the bank accounts to check if the money flowed elsewhere," an unnamed prosecution source told Yonhap.

Prosecutors, who have also arrested a 61-year-old man who allegedly acted as a broker between the cousin and the businessman, were not immediately available for comment.

Lee took office in February but his popularity has been seriously hit by a widely criticised decision to resume US beef imports, and by other controversial policies.

S Africa's ambitious climate change strategy may include carbon tax

AFP, Johannesburg

South Africa's government has set out an ambitious proposal to deal with climate change in the coming years, including slapping a possible carbon tax on carbon dioxide-spewing industries.

Saying the world faced "a global climate emergency," the environment ministry unveiled the strategy geared toward reducing greenhouse gases last week. "The world faces a global climate emergency. It is now clear that only action by both developed and developing countries can prevent the climate crisis from deepening," environment minister Martinus Van Schalkwyk said in a statement.

The plan, which includes stringent energy efficiency measures, has been endorsed by the cabinet, though parliament must still approve it. Finance officials are investigating ways of implementing the tax.

The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said evidence for warming was now "unequivocal" and that there was a more than 90-percent probability that humans were the cause for it.

Human-generated greenhouse gases rose by 70 percent between 1970 and 2004 from 28.7 to 49 billion tonnes per year in carbon dioxide (CO2) or its equivalent.