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AOMORI, Japan: The United States and Asia's four largest economies called here Saturday for a "gradual" end to fuel price subsidies, but India and China signaled they would not move soon. US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman met with leaders of Japan, China, India and South Korea here for talks that come one day after the highest single-day rise in crude oil prices. "We recognize that, moving forward, phased and gradual withdrawal of price subsidies for conventional energies is desirable," the five nations said in a joint statement. They said subsidies "should be replaced wherever possible by better targeted policies for intended beneficiaries."
-- AFP
WASHINGTON: Hillary Clinton formally folds her historic quest to be America's first woman president Saturday after a nominating campaign once seen as inevitable crumbled under Barack Obama's onslaught. Clinton's ordeal, in Washington's National Building Museum, will be closely watched for the tenor of her endorsement of the presumptive Democratic nominee, after her first post-primary effort on Tuesday struck some as ungracious. The former first lady's rally will be the latest attempt to unite the Democratic Party after a divisive campaign and follows a secret meeting with Obama on Thursday night and speculation about her vice presidential prospects. Clinton's constituency of white, working class voters, women and Hispanics could play a crucial role in boosting Obama all the way to the White House.
-- AFP
N'DJAMENA: Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno refused to meet a visiting UN Security Council delegation, a diplomatic source in the delegation told Agence France-Presse on Saturday, denouncing Deby's move as risky. Officially, the president was out of the country when the delegation arrived, although his whereabouts were not specified. But diplomatic sources said he had in fact returned from a secret trip to Libya late Friday and felt "too tired" to meet with the delegation, which is on a regional tour. "It is the first time a president has not received the delegation," the source said. "In doing that, in the situation in which he [Deby] finds himself, he is taking risks."
-- AFP
HONG KONG: Hong Kong on Saturday announced an immediate ban on poultry imports from mainland China after the deadly H5N1 virus was found in a city market, local broadcaster RTHK said. Samples collected from poultry stalls in a market in the Sham Shui Po area tested positive for the virus, RTHK said, quoting Hong Kong health secretary York Chow. All 2,700 birds at the market were being culled and the area was sealed off Saturday, the report said. Chow said that other markets were being checked and that culling would be extended if the bird flu virus was found in other locations.
-- AFP
LABUANBAJO, Indonesia: Five European divers fought off a komodo dragon and survived on shellfish for two nights after being washed up on a deserted Indonesian island which doubles as a dragon reserve, a French survivor said Saturday. Laurent Pinel, 31, said the group lived off mussels scavenged from the beach and had to repel the dragon during the 36 hours they waited to be spotted on tiny Rinca island in the Komodo National Park. "On the beach a komodo dragon came amongst us yesterday afternoon," the Frenchman said. "We had nothing to eat. We ate some kind of mussels scraped from the rocks."
-- AFP
TEHRAN: Iran's powerful parliament speaker Ali Larijani warned the UN nuclear watchdog on Saturday against playing for time in a dispute over Iran's controversial atomic program. Iran came under heavy fire at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) this week for failing to come clean on alleged nuclear weapons work. "The agency has submitted an ambiguous report. They might be pursuing a 'One Thousand and One Nights' diplomacy that they are continually playing for time," the state IRNA news agency quoted Larijani. IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei accused the Islamic republic of withholding key information on alleged nuclear weapons studies. Iran has dismissed the allegations as "baseless", insisting it has provided comprehensive responses.
-- AFP
JAKARTA: The operator of Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta international airport has instituted tight security checks on passengers' laptops at entrance gates to prevent the equipment' s misuse for negative purposes, an airport official said on Saturday. "We have taken the measure for passengers' own safety because certain people could use laptops for negative purposes," Herry Bakti, the airport's administrator was quoted by the national Antara News Agency as saying. The tight inspection on laptops was meant as an anticipative measure against the illegal use of documents for certain purposes, including terrorist activities, he said. The inspection on laptops was done with the help of X-ray devices and by body search, he said, noting that laptops could also be used to hide heroin.
-- Xinhua
KATHMANDU: The Communist Party Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist on Saturday challenged the Nepali Congress (NC) to claim for the presidential post by showing a majority in the Constituent Assembly. General Secretary Jhalanath Khanal suggested that political parties, who are claiming for the post of first President of Nepal, not to indulge themselves for the post. Khanal said that the NC started to claim for the post of the president after the largest party the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) gave up its claim over presidency. On Friday, NC General Secretary Ram Baran Yadav said his party will propose Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala as the first president of the country.
-- Xinhua
COLOMBO: Sri Lankan police detained more than 50 people for questioning following twin bomb attacks blamed on Tamil Tiger rebels that killed 23 civilians, the Defense ministry said Saturday. The suspects were rounded up near the town of Moratuwa, south of Colombo, where a crowded passenger bus hit a roadside mine during morning rush hour on Friday, killing 21 civilians, military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said. "Fifty-one people have been picked up for questioning" in connection with the Moratuwa blast, Nanayakkara told Agence France-Presse. Some of those detained were rounded up on Friday night, while the rest were picked up on Saturday, he said.
-- AFP
HARARE: A Zimbabwe opposition lawmaker was arrested on Saturday for the second time in recent days on accusations of incitement to public violence, police said, amid a crackdown ahead of a presidential run-off. "He has been arrested. It's the same case," said police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena, referring to the case on which Eric Matinenga was cleared two days ago. "He has been charged with incitement to public violence." An opposition spokesman said three officers picked him up at his home on Saturday morning. "Our member of parliament for Buhera West, Advocate Eric Matinenga, was taken away this morning by three men who claimed to be policemen," Movement for Democratic Change spokesman Nelson Chamisa told Agence France-Presse.
-- AFP
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