The New Nation - Internet Edition

India, Brazil, South Africa meet to discuss financial crisis

AFP, New Delhi

Leaders from emerging economic powers India, South Africa and Brazil were meeting here Wednesday for an annual summit set to be dominated by the global financial crisis, food and fuel prices.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is hosting Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and South African President Kgalema Motlanthe for the third annual India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) conference.

"The summit will provide leaders an opportunity to exchange views on international and regional issuest I have no doubt that this will include the global financial crisis and food and energy security issues," Indian foreign ministry official Nalin Surie told reporters.

IBSA, which came into existence in 2003, groups some of the largest economies in Asia, Africa and South America.

The three countries, which have a combined population of 1.3 billion, believe they can best achieve results on issues such as World Trade talks and push through UN Security Council reforms by working together.

IBSA member states are also eyeing permanent seats at the UN Security Council.

The trilateral trade target among IBSA member states has been set at 15 billion dollars by 2010, up from around 10 billion dollars a year ago.

Surie said IBSA member countries would sign up to seven agreements and action plans to further cement ties in trade, investment and the environment.

"IBSA is developing well and gaining salience. It is our intention to further strengthen this unique forum of three very large developing country democracies from three different continents," Surie said. Meanwhile India and Brazil have said a prompt breakthrough in the global trade talks would send a clear signal about the political will of governments to collectively meet risks to the world economy from the financial crisis.

In a joint statement on Tuesday, Indian Trade Minister Kamal Nath and Brazil's External Relations Minister Celso Amorim said it was still possible to conclude modalities in the trade talks, and reaffirmed their commitment to such an outcome.

"Both the ministers exchanged views on possible trade impacts of the current international financial crisis," the statement said.

India and Brazil are key members of the Group of 20 nations, and have been leading the developing countries charge at the trade talks.

The ministers welcomed the resumption of the multilateral process and expressed their support to the programme devised by heads of the agriculture and non-agricultural market access (NAMA) groups.

"They emphasised the need for a prompt breakthrough in the Doha Development Agenda negotiations, which would be an unequivocal sign of the political will of governments around the world to act collectively to address the present challenges and risks to the global economy," the statement said.

Differences between the United States and developing country food exporters on the one hand and India and other big developing country importers on the other torpedoed talks among trade ministers two months ago.

Since then official-level negotiations on farm and opening up trade in industrial goods have resumed.

Both countries expressed concern with late attempts in the failed round of talks to increase demands on developing countries in the negotiations, and called for maintaining the coordination of the two negotiating teams in the discussion in Geneva.

Rice vows to leave 'no stone unturned’ in quest for Mideast peace

AFP, Washington

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pledged Tuesday to leave "no stone unturned" in her quest for a Palestinian-Israeli peace deal by January 20 when President George W. Bush steps down.

As time draws near "for the end of this administration, I still believe that we must make every effort in the time that we have to lay this foundation for peace," Rice told a conference on Palestinian business and investment.

"And that still means that we must do everything that we can with the negotiating partners to get the negotiating partners to get to the Annapolis solution," said Rice, flanked by Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad.

Bush and Rice hosted a peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland in November last year that launched the first serious Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in seven years-with the goal of a peace agreement by the end of the administration.

"And that would mean to find an agreement by these parties by the end of the year," Rice told the conference sponsored by US Chamber of Commerce and attended by around 150 people.

"There is a hard road ahead, but if we do not try we will certainly not succeed," Rice told the conference aimed at providing the economic underpinnings of peace.

She told potential investors in the Palestinian economy that she would do everything possible to create the political framework for peace in return for the business risk she was asking them to take.

"Know too that until that moment when I leave office I will leave no stone unturned to see if we can finally resolve this conflict between peoples," Rice told them. In a speech after Rice, Fayyad said he wanted to "celebrate the power of partnership," including that between the public and private sectors.

"We are now beginning to witness positive facts on the ground," he said adding that "reinforces for us the fact we are on the right track."

Fayyad, who was praised by Rice for his economic and other reforms, said the Palestinians needed to continue on the path of greater responsibility for their own future.

The Palestinians "must try to position ourselves to take advantage of the enormous debt of good will of the international community, especially of the United States," he said.

He said it was also good business sense to invest in the Palestinian future.

"This is not about making the occupation work better, this is about ending it," Fayyad said, drawing a standing ovation.

Afghan violence kills 22 insurgents, 6 police

Reuters, Kandahar

Twenty-two Taliban insurgents and six Afghan policemen were killed in overnight clashes in the south of the country, provincial authorities said Wednesday.

Dozens of Taliban fighters launched an attack on Lashkar Gah in Helmand province, some 550 km (340 miles) southwest of the capital Kabul. During a four-hour gun battle 18 insurgents were killed, provincial police chief Asadullah Sherzad said.

In another incident, armed men killed six Afghan policemen at their checkpost in the same district Tuesday night, spokesmen for the provincial governor, Dawood Ahmadi said.

NATO-led Afghan troops killed four Taliban fighters during a sweep in the Andar district of Ghazni province Tuesday, a senior police officer in the province, General Naorooz said.

Despite a slight drop in militant activity during Ramadan last month, violence in Afghanistan is running at its highest rate since the U.S.-led invasion to wrest control from the militant Islamist Taliban movement in 2001.

The United Nations says more than 3,800 people, a third of them civilians, were killed in the first seven months of this year.

Sri Lanka: Heavy fighting kills 49 rebels

AP, Colombo

Government forces pounded rebel defenses with airstrikes and ground assaults as heavy fighting across northern Sri Lanka killed 49 Tamil Tiger fighters and seven soldiers, the military said Wednesday.

The new fighting came as soldiers closed in on the rebels' administrative capital of Kilinochchi in a campaign aimed at routing the guerrillas and ending a 25-year-old war that has killed more than 70,000 people.

Out of the newly reported battles, the worst took place Tuesday in Kilinochchi where 39 rebels and six soldiers died, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said.

The army has said its forces are about 1 mile from the outskirts of Kilinochchi.

Scattered battles in Vavuniya, Mannar and Mullaitivu killed 10 rebels and a soldier Tuesday, Nanayakkara said.

On Wednesday, air force jets bombed a group of rebels who were building an earthen embankment as a defense against advancing government forces in Mullaitivu, said air force spokesman Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara.

He said the attacks were successful, but details of damage and casualties were not immediately available.

With nearly all communications to the north severed, a rebel spokesman could not be contacted for comment.

Independent verification of the military's claims is nearly impossible because most journalists are banned from the war zone. Both sides routinely exaggerate enemy losses and underreport their own.

140 Iraqi refugees in Syria head home

AP, Damascus

Some 140 Iraqi refugees living in Syria headed home Wednesday on a free trip organized by the Iraqi government. Many cited improved security in Iraq and dwindling savings as reasons for their return.

The refugees boarded a chartered Iraqi Airways flight to take them to Baghdad, where they will receive an official reception at the airport. The Iraqi Embassy says it is planning several such trips in the coming weeks.

It was the first such trip since last November, when the embassy organized similar free convoys. Hundreds of refugees went back at the time as the situation improved amid a U.S. troop increase and the decision by former Sunni insurgents to turn against al-Qaida in Iraq.

An official at the Iraqi Embassy, Adnan al-Shourifi, said Wednesday's trip - which was organized for the first time in cooperation with the U.N. agency for refugees - reflects international recognition of the improved security situation in Iraq.

He urged all refugees to return home to take part in rebuilding their country, saying they will be given cash and other incentives.

Ayman Gharabiyah, a UNHCR official, said most of the Iraqis were returning home because their savings have run out.

Firefighters battle deadly blazes in California

AFP, Los Angeles

Firefighters were bracing for more heavy winds on Tuesday as they battled to contain two wildfires blazing north of Los Angeles that have left one person dead and forced thousands to flee.

More than 15,000 acres (6,000 hectares) have been scorched by twin blazes burning near San Fernando and Porter Ranch on the northern outskirts of Los Angeles, which have roared through tinder-dry countryside in 48 hours. One person has been killed and at least 4,000 people are estimated to have been evacuated, prompting California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to declare a state of emergency in the region on Monday.

As dawn broke on Tuesday, firefighters said the fire in Porter Ranch had almost doubled in size to 9,872 acres and remained uncontained. "We are prepared for whatever Mother Nature throws at us," Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey said. "It depends on the winds. In this situation, wind is king. The winds could even be benevolent." Schwarzenegger, too, pointed to the Santa Ana winds that rake the state as a key culprit fanning the flames. "That is what makes this so dangerous," the governor said at a command center.

"We're basically getting the perfect storm. Very strong (winds), low humidity, and heat. Those are the three elements that create those kind of fires and makes them get out of control."

Across southern California, wildfires in recent days have consumed a total of 26,000 acres (about 10,000 hectares) and 64 buildings and structures, Schwarzenegger said.

The National Weather Service has predicted that the winds-packing speeds of up to 70 miles per hour (113 kph) -- will continue gusting until Wednesday.

EU leaders seek upperhand on financial crisis at summit

AFP, Brussels

EU leaders will try to show at a crunch summit starting Wednesday that they have finally brought the financial crisis under control, eager to revive flagging confidence in shell-shocked banks.

Desperate to contain the crisis, governments across Europe have pledged about 2.0 trillion euros (2.7 trillion dollars) to bring banks back from the brink of collapse.

Leaders from the 27-nation European Union, meeting Wednesday and Thursday in Brussels, are due to rally behind plans hammered out on Sunday among eurozone countries to tackle the crisis. "The stakes are higher than ever before and the coming days will be crucial for the international financial community," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told reporters in London on Tuesday. "It will take time-and these are tough times-for us to resolve the problems that have emerged in the banking system. The resolve of our leaders will be put to the test in the coming days," he said. In emergency talks in Paris, leaders from the 15 countries sharing the euro, plus Britain, agreed to prop up the hardest-hit banks through cash injections and underwriting loans between financial players.

Until the Paris talks, Europe had struggled to convincingly coordinate its response to the financial crisis, which only sapped confidence in the system all the more. Stock markets in Europe welcomed the measures on Monday and Tuesday with a massive rally, albeit from the beaten-down levels reached in the last week during one of the worst routs in years.

"Despite the positive reaction of the markets t, there is no reason to declare the end of the financial crisis and swing into exaggerated enthusiasm," Luxembourg Prime Minister and veteran summiteer Jean-Claude Juncker warned.