Mahathir arrives in East Timor
Mahathir arrives in East Timor
EAST TIMOR: Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad arrived in East Timor late on Wednesday leading a high-level delegation of ministers and business executives.
Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri and foreign minister Jose Ramos- Horta welcomed Mahathir and his wife at Dili international airport.
"I hope East Timor can have good cooperation with Malaysia and together we can develop East Timor," said the Malaysian leader, who steps down on Oct. 31 after 22 years in power.
Alkatiri said Malaysia had pledged assistance for East Timor's fledgling army in addition to business opportunities.
His office said in a statement that the visit was aimed at strengthening bilateral relations and to discuss technical cooperation and investment opportunities. -- AFP
;DPA;HHR; ANPAi..r.. UN-Children 1b children suffer effects of poverty JP/11/ATW1
1b children suffer effects of poverty
UNITED STATES: One billion children worldwide suffer from the effects of poverty, which range from a lack of food and water to human rights and shelter, the UN Children's Fund (Unicef) said in a new survey published on Tuesday.
Researchers at the Center for International Poverty Research at the University of Bristol and London School of Economics said the Unicef-commissioned survey was considered one of the most accurate, using the largest sample of children in 46 countries.
The survey, released at the House of Commons in London, says new research methodology shows that many children in developing countries suffer from a lack of income, deprivation of basic human rights such as shelter, food, water, sanitation, health, education and information.
It says one in three live in a house in which more than five people live per room, or in a house with a mud floor; that some 20 percent of the world's children have no access to safe water or have to walk 15 minutes to a water source. -- DPA
;AFP;HHR; ANPAi..r.. India-explosives Indian police find Huge explosives found near Bombay JP/11/ATW2
Huge explosives found near Mumbai
INDIA: Police recovered on Wednesday a massive cache of explosives hidden in a vehicle near Mumbai and arrested three people, a police spokesman said.
The vehicle loaded with 750 kilograms of ammonium nitrate and 700 wired detonators was found in the Vasai suburb of western Indian Thane district, around 20 kilometers north of Mumbai.
Police officials said the vehicle had probably entered the suburb on Tuesday night and may have been on the way to Mumbai, which has seen a number of bomb blasts in the last few months.
"It is a big haul of explosives but only Thane police can give further details," a police official said. Thane police officials were not immediately available for comment.
Mumbai was hit by twin car bomb blasts on Aug. 25 that killed 52 people and left more than 150 injured. Prior to those bombings, five other blasts had rocked the city since December 2002. -- AFP
;AFP;HHR; ANPAi..r.. Pakistan-attacks-Qaeda Pakistan arrests 2 al-Qaeda suspects JP/11/AT
Pakistan arrests 2 al-Qaeda suspects
PAKISTAN: Pakistani security agencies started on Wednesday intense interrogation of two Arabs arrested for suspected links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
Security officials said the two suspects and a Pakistani companion were intercepted by police late on Monday in Faisalabad, an industrial city 240 kilometers south of Islamabad.
They were later handed over to the military's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agency for interrogation.
"The two Arabs have told us they are Yemenis but they have no documents. We suspect they are members of al-Qaeda," an Islamabad-based security official said.
Preliminary interrogation showed the men fled the remote tribal region of South Waziristan on the border with Afghanistan after an Oct. 2 operation by the army there in which eight al- Qaeda suspects were killed and 18 arrested. -- AFP