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