Manila's peace talks with MILF postponed: Talks being brokered by

Manila's peace talks with MILF postponed: Talks being brokered by
Malaysia to settle a decades-old Muslim separatist uprising in
the southern Philippines have been postponed, officials said on
Sunday. The exploratory talks between Philippine government
negotiators and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front
(MILF) on Monday and Tuesday in Kuala Lumpur have been reset to a
later date, Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita said. Officials gave
differing reasons for the delay. -- AP

Sri Lankan president's ally rejects truce: A Sri Lankan party
allied with President Chandrika Kumaratunga for upcoming
elections rejected a cease-fire with Tamil Tiger rebels in a
newspaper interview on Sunday, but Kumaratunga said she was
committed to the truce. A rejection of the two-year-old cease-
fire by the Marxist People's Liberation Front (JVP) would be a
blow to Kumaratunga's left-leaning Sri Lanka Freedom Party
(SLFP), which signed an alliance with the JVP last month. "We,
the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna have always said that we completely
reject this memorandum of understanding. It is clearly
threatening our national security," JVP media secretary Wimal
Weerawansa was quoted as saying in the Sinhalese-language Lanka.
-- Reuters