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The US president, Barack Obama, and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev held talks Monday seeking to turn a new page in relations scarred by a series of disputes between the ex-Cold War foes.
   A joint declaration on replacing a key disarmament treaty is expected to be a centrepiece of Obama’s two-day visit, along with a deal allowing US military supplies destined for Afghanistan to transit across Russia.
   ‘We hope... all our bilateral discussions we will close a number of difficult pages in the history of US-Russian relations and open a new page,’ Medvedev told Obama at the start of their talks in the Kremlin.
   Obama added: ‘If we work hard during these next few days then we will make extraordinary progress that will benefit the people of both countries.’
   ‘We are confident that on a whole host of issues...that the United States and Russia have more in common than they have differences,’ Obama said.
   Making his first visit to Russia as president, Obama earlier stepped off Air Force One into an unseasonably cold Moscow accompanied by his two daughters and wife Michelle whose pink dress offered little protection from hostile weather.
   In a bid to present a relaxed atmosphere, Medvedev quipped that the poor weather would encourage the two sides to stay indoors.
   Both sides have repeatedly used the slogan of pressing ‘the reset button’ to lift a relationship that sank to a post-Cold War low under the presidency of George W. Bush amid a series of rows capped by Russia’s war with Georgia.
   But Obama’s visit, which will also include meetings with opposition figures and a keynote speech to a progressive economics university, is not expected to be completely smooth.
   ‘A complete reset and partnership is being blocked by disagreements on the main questions,’ said the Kommersant daily.
   The Interfax news agency reported Monday that the two sides had at the last minute agreed the final text of a framework document on the replacement of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, to be signed by the two presidents.
   Just one day earlier, the agency reported that negotiators had still not agreed the framework document on replacing START, a 1991 treaty imposing strict limits on nuclear arms, which expires in December.
   Officials have stressed the two sides are still some distance from a new treaty and that the declaration will set guidelines for negotiators to complete their work by the end of the year and, possibly, numerical targets for cuts.
   ‘There certainly won’t be an agreement on the end deal... but I think you will see an announcement that indicates some progress toward reaching that objective,’ White House arms control specialist Gary Samore said Sunday.

A Red Cross official has sharply criticised ‘complacency’ towards the impact of communicable diseases on poor countries, contrasting it with responses to flu or heart disease in rich nations.
   A report released by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies on Monday warned that the crippling and growing burden of epidemics like dengue fever, polio, or meningitis was not being sufficiently addressed.
   ‘We do not see interest, we only see vague, uncoordinated interest in high-profile issues such as influenza — which is in itself a great risk, but not the only one,’ said Tammam Aloudat, the federation’s senior officer for health in emergencies.
   Swine flu has ‘killed so far about 150 people, the potential for risk is massive, but what we have today is 14 million people dying mostly unnecessarily from easily preventable diseases that require little resources,’ he told journalists.
   Titled ‘The Epidemic Divide’, the Red Cross report said a focus on death rates had helped increase attention and resources to tackle non-communicable diseases such as heart attacks and cancers, now the leading killers worldwide.
   But the dominant threat in developing countries remains preventable infectious disease, and their societies were not only ailing due the huge mortality but also the debilitating impact of illness on their development.

Climate change is rapidly expanding the size of the world’s tropical zone, threatening to bring disease and drought to heavily populated areas, an Australian study has found.
   Researchers at James Cook University concluded the tropics had widened by up to 500 kilometres in the past 25 years after examining 70 peer-reviewed scientific articles.
   They looked at findings from long-term satellite measurements, weather balloon data, climate models and sea temperature studies to determine how global warming was impacting on the tropical zone.
   The findings showed it now extended well beyond the traditional definition of the tropics, the equatorial band circling the Earth between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
   Professor Steve Turton said that meant the subtropical arid zone which borders the tropics was being pushed into temperate areas, with potentially devastating consequences.
   ‘Such areas include heavily-populated regions of southern Australia, southern Africa, the southern Europe-Mediterranean-Middle East region, the south-western United States, northern Mexico, and southern South America,’ he said.

Mexican voters punished the president, Felipe Calderon, on Sunday for a deep recession and rampant crime, dealing defeat to the ruling party in mid-term congressional elections.
   The setback for the ruling National Action Party, or PAN, complicates Calderon’s attempts to push economic reforms through the lower house of Congress where he needs support from the opposition.
   Mexico’s economy is due to shrink more than 6 per cent this year mostly due to the downturn in the United States while oil output, long a pillar of public finances, is falling fast.
   Calderon, an ally of the US president, Barack Obama, in the fight against Mexican drug cartels, called on Congress to work with him.
   ‘Rivalry must be left behind and now we must concentrate our efforts on finding common ground to achieve the agreements the country needs to recover economic growth, job creation and public safety,’ Calderon said in an address to the nation.

Foreign Islamic militants may have had a link to a bombing outside a church in the southern Philippines that killed five people and injured dozens, a military spokesman said.
   Major Randolph Cabangbang said investigators were probing whether Jemaah Islamiyah, the group behind the Bali bombings, may have been involved in the blast outside the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic cathedral.
   The military also warned that there could be follow-up bombings across the southern Philippines island of Mindanao and said extra security measures would be put in place.
   Cabangbang told reporters a number of JI militants are ‘here in the country.’
   Known members of the group Dulmatin, Umar Patek, and Zulkifli bin Hir are thought to be operating in the southern Philippines, he said, but added that there was no proof as yet they were involved.

The United States condemned the Fijian military regime’s roadmap for a return to democracy and its suppression of the media and free speech.
   Military leader Voreqe Bainimarama, who overthrew the elected government in a 2006 coup, said last week that a new constitution would be introduced by September 2013, a year before planned elections to restore democracy.
   In a statement released through the US embassy in Suva, the State Department said it supported steps to hasten Fiji’s return to a constitution and free elections.
   But it said ‘the roadmap falls short of that goal’.
   ‘It is imposed without the participation or consent of the Fijian people and it delays the process leading to elections,’ the State Department said.
   ‘We are also concerned that public emergency regulations that curb freedoms of speech, press and political assembly remain in place.’

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Western leaders against ‘meddling’ Monday as Britain announced that all but one its embassy staff detained in Tehran have now been freed.
   Khameini admitted there are ‘differences’ among Iranians following last month’s disputed presidential election but he told the West it would be met with a ‘firm fist’ if it tried to exploit the unrest sparked by hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election.
   ‘The Iranian nation warns the leaders of those countries trying to take advantage of the situation, beware! The Iranian nation will react,’ Khamenei said in a televised speech in Tehran.
   ‘The leaders of arrogant countries, the nosy meddlers in the affairs of the Islamic republic, must know that no matter if the Iranian people have their own differences, when you enemies get involved, the people... will become a firm fist against you.’
   Iranian leaders have accused the West, particularly Britain and the United States, of seeking to exploit the protests over the June 12 election to destabilise the Islamic regime.
   It expelled two British diplomats last month, prompting a tit-for-tat response from London.
   It also detained nine locally recruited British embassy staff, accusing them of instigating the massive demonstrations in Tehran.
   On Monday the British foreign office announced that the eighth of the nine staff was released on Sunday evening, leaving just one in custody.
   ‘We are able to confirm that one of our staff remains in detention,’ a foreign office spokeswoman said.
   ‘It remains our top priority to get all of our embassy staff released as soon as possible.’
   Lawyer Abolsamad Khorramshahi said on Sunday he was seeking permission to see the embassy employee still in custody, political analyst Hossein Rassam, after being told by his family of the accusations against him.
   The detention of the Iranians working for the British embassy, who do not enjoy diplomatic immunity, prompted European Union governments to call in Iranian ambassadors across the 27-nation bloc on Friday.
   On Sunday, The British foreign secretary, David Miliband, said the international community was united in opposition to the ‘intimidation’ from Tehran.
   And at a summit in the French town of Evian on Monday, the British prime minister, Gordon Brown, warned that the European Union was ready to take joint action.

Afghanistan’s insurgent Taliban movement said Monday they had launched a guerrilla operation to thwart a major assault by newly deployed US Marines on their Helmand strongholds.
   Operation Foladi Jal, Pashtu for ‘iron net’, would teach the Marines ‘a lesson’. Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said by telephone from an unknown location.
   About 4,000 Marines poured into the southern province on the border with Pakistan on Thursday in an operation called Khanjar (dagger) that is the first test of a beefed-up US strategy to tackle extremist militants in the region.
   ‘In response to Operation Khanjar by the invading forces, we have launched Operation Foladi Jal,’ Ahmadi said.
   ‘Their Khanjar will get stuck in our Foladi Jal,’ the rebel spokesman said.
   ‘In this operation we’ll teach them a lesson so they will never again dare to come into our areas,’ he said.
   Helmand is one of the most intense battlefields in Afghanistan, with the Taliban controlling several areas and using funds from a lucrative trade in opium and heroin to rearm for their fight against the fragile government.
   The operation would include improvised bomb explosions and ‘hit-and-run guerrilla attacks’, Ahmadi said. ‘We will not engage them in front battles. We would rather hit them by mines and guerrilla attacks,’ he said.
   The assault by Marines, along with about 600 Afghan forces, has pushed into several key towns in southern Helmand and aims to hold the areas to allow Afghans to vote in August 20 presidential elections.
   One Marine has been killed but officials have not released casualty figures for the insurgents, adding that many seem to have gone to ground.
   Five British soldiers have been killed in less than a week in a similar operation underway north of the Helmand capital, Lashkar Gah. Four were killed in explosions and the other by a rocket-propelled grenade.
   The Marines and Afghan forces working alongside them have reported few obstacles, except in one area south of the town of Garmsir where officers have said there had been days of heavy fighting.
   The commander of the army’s southern corps, General Shair Mohammad Zazai, said Monday that troops were advancing with no major resistance.

Honduran coup leaders faced further isolation Monday, after blocking ousted president Manuel Zelaya from flying into the capital’s airport, where soldiers killed two of his supporters, according to the police.
   Zelaya’s attempt to return to the polarised nation one week after he was kicked out of power came as tensions reached breaking point, with tens of thousands of his supporters massed at the heavily-militarised airport.
   As soldiers fired shots and tear gas at rock-throwing protesters, two people died, according to police. The local Red Cross reported one death.
   Moments later, Zelaya’s plane swooped over the runway as military vehicles blocked it from landing.
   ‘I’m doing everything I can,’ Zelaya said live on Venezuela’s Telesur television. ‘If I had a parachute I would immediately jump out of this plane.’
   ‘From tomorrow the responsibility will fall on the powers, particularly the United States,’ Zelaya added.
   International pressure was set to increase on the heels of aid freezes, ambassador withdrawals and temporary trade blockages.
   The Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, Zelaya’s key backer, has said he suspended key shipments of oil to Honduras, which he said would drive up gasoline prices.
   To add to the country’s isolation, the Organisation of American States voted to suspend Honduras late Saturday, in the first such move since the exclusion of Cuba in 1962.
   Members of the pan-American body slammed the leaders of the coup which saw the army remove Zelaya at the height of a dispute with the courts, politicians and the army over his plans to change the constitution — which opponents said included an attempt to stand for a second term.
   After the dramatic attempt to land in Tegucigalpa, Zelaya met with OAS chief Jose Miguel Insulza and the presidents of Argentina, Ecuador and Paraguay in neighbouring El Salvador late Sunday, before heading to Nicaragua.
   His future plans remain unknown. Insulza said at a joint news conference that he was prepared to continue working on resolving the crisis.
   ‘I’m prepared to continue with all the diplomatic steps,’ Insulza said. ‘We don’t aim to intervene but to comply with the norms that all the countries have adopted.’
   In a first sign of possible dialogue, interim leaders said they had put forward an offer for dialogue in ‘good faith’ with the OAS, after they previously said they were pulling out of the body ahead of the suspension.
   But interim president Roberto Micheletti — who took over hours after Zelaya was whisked away — also said that no one would pressure him.

Impoverished North Korea has spent an estimated 700 million dollars this year on nuclear and missile tests, enough to solve its food shortage for at least two years, South Korean news reports said Monday.
   The figure includes the estimated 43 million dollar cost of test-firing five Scud and two Rodong missiles Saturday, according to unidentified government officials quoted by Chosun Ilbo newspaper.
   The latest tests, staged on the US Independence Day holiday, were seen as a show of defiance to Washington as it seeks tough enforcement of UN sanctions aimed at shutting down the communist state’s nuclear and missile programmes.
   Officials quoted by Chosun estimated it cost 300 million dollars to launch a long-range Taepodong-2 missile on April 5, and another 10 million to launch 10 short-range missiles in recent weeks.
   In addition, they estimated the May 25 underground nuclear test — the country’s second since 2006 — cost between 300-400 million dollars.
   JoongAng Ilbo gave similar figures. Neither paper gave the methodology for the cost calculation.
   Chosun quoted an unidentified official as saying the North could have bought one million tons of rice on the international market for 300 million dollars.
   ‘This amount of rice could have solved the North’s food shortage for about a year,’ the official was quoted as saying.
   The United Nations World Food Programme has said that according to a study last year, nearly nine million North Koreans — more than a third of the country’s 24 million people — are estimated to need food aid.
   Saturday’s launches were the biggest salvo of ballistic weaponry since the North fired a Taepodong-2 and six smaller missiles in 2006, also on July 4 US time.
   The US vice president, Joseph Biden, on Sunday dismissed the launches as ‘like almost attention-seeking behaviour’ and said the focus was on further isolating Pyongyang.
   ‘We have succeeded in uniting the most important and critical countries to North Korea on a common path of further isolating North Korea,’ he told ABC television, referring to Russia and China.

Indonesia’s Constitu-tional Court voted in favour of changing voter registration rules Monday after challengers alluded to irregularities favouring incumbent Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in July 8 polls.
   The dramatic ruling just two days before polls will allow Indonesians left off voter rolls to use identity cards and passports to vote.
   Presidential hopefuls Megawati Sukarnoputri and Jusuf Kalla held a joint press conference earlier in Monday to call for changes to voter registration rules, complaining millions remained off the list and casting aspersions on the poll’s credibility.
   Megawati, an ex-president and daughter of independence hero Sukarno, has obliquely suggested that Yudhoyono’s supporters are trying to manipulate the vote, claims the president denies.
   Both campaigns welcomed the court decision, but it was unclear if they would drop their complaints.
   ‘This is not about the victory of any candidate pairs, this is about restoring the rights of the people because if people are not on the voter list, and they can’t vote, then this violates their rights,’ Kalla told Metro TV.

The details of Michael Jackson’s 2002 will are to be examined in a Los Angeles court-room here Monday as authorities ramp up preparations for the music superstar’s memorial service.
   Lawyers for Jackson’s family and two men named as executors in the will are to face off in Los Angeles Superior Court, in the first significant hearing to address the tragic King of Pop’s multi-million dollar estate.
   A judge named Jackson’s 79-year-old mother Katherine temporary administrator of her son’s assets on June 29 after lawyers for the musical clan said they were not aware of the existence of a valid will.
   However two days later a will was filed by two respected business associates of Jackson — attorney John Branca and music executive John McClain — naming them as the co-executors of the pop star’s estate.
   Lawyers for Jackson’s family said last week they were reviewing the document and have not given any indication whether they will contest it.
   If they don’t, Jackson’s mother is expected to be relieved of control of her son’s assets and Branca and McClain will assume authority.
   The legal hearing comes as Los Angeles police prepare to mount a large-scale operation for Tuesday’s memorial for Jackson, who died on June 25 after suffering an apparent cardiac arrest.
   The Los Angeles Police Department assistant chief Jim McDonnell on Sunday urged ticket-less fans seeking to pay at 10:00am (1700 GMT) service to watch the event on television.
   ‘Stay home — stay somewhere with a television, with air conditioning, with a friend,’ McDonnell told reporters.
   The appeal came after 1.6 million people entered an online lottery hoping to be among 8,750 registrants to win tickets for the service at the Staples Centre arena and a neighbouring arena, where the event will be shown on giant screens.

A UN human rights mission investigating alleged violations committed during the war in the Gaza Strip at the turn of the year resumed its public hearings here on Monday.
   The two-day session in Geneva follows a first set of hearings in the Gaza Strip nearly 10 days ago that included gruesome testimony of Palestinians caught under Israeli shelling during the 22 day offensive.
   The session at the UN’s human rights headquarters in Switzerland is meant to allow those who were not able to travel to Gaza to provide public testimony, notably witnesses from Israel who were targeted by rocket attacks.
   The mission has a broad scope to investigate alleged violations committed by all sides during the offensive in December and January, which Israel said was aimed at stemming rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave.
   The mission headed by Richard Goldstone, former war crimes prosecutor for both ex-Yugoslavia and Rwanda, has not been allowed into Israel or been given access to the occupied West Bank, according to the United Nations.
   As well as visiting sites in Gaza at the beginning of June, Goldstone’s team has been gathering other testimony and accounts separately.
   The hearings are to allow ‘victims from all sides in the conflict as well as experts on its consequences to speak directly to the international community of their experiences,’ said the UN human rights office.
   Although this kind of public testimony is a novelty for the world body, Goldstone, insisted on it when he accepted to take up the probe.

More than a dozen Afghan mine-clearers abducted in the war-torn country have been released after being kidnapped and robbed at the weekend, officials said Monday.
   The group, working for the Mine Detection and Dog Centre, were taken to a wooded and mountainous area in eastern Paktya province and robbed of about 50,000 dollars worth of equipment on Saturday.
   ‘Our people have been freed but their equipment and their truck have
   been stolen. The equipment and the truck were
   together worth about 50,000 dollars,’ Shohab Hakimi, the director of the agency, said.
   ‘We believe the abductors were local thieves from a nomadic tribe,’ he added.

An Indian man condemned to death in Pakistan for spying has appealed to the president, Asif Ali Zardari, to spare his life, his lawyer said on Monday, after the Supreme Court dismissed his petition to review the sentence.
   The appeal for mercy in a case being closely watched in India comes as relations between nuclear-armed foes India and Pakistan, strained by a militant attack in the Indian city of Mumbai in November, inch towards improvement.
   The man, Sarabjit Singh, was sentenced to death in 1991 for spying and bombing that killed 14 people. His family said he was innocent and had crossed the border into Pakistan accidentally in 1990 while he was drunk.
   Pakistani officials said Singh was arrested while trying to slip back into India after the bomb blasts.
   The government suspended his death sentence in May last year after his family visited Pakistan and appealed for a pardon.

Hundreds of Tibetans gathered in the Nepalese capital to mark the Dalai Lama’s 74th birthday on Monday, a day after the government said it would not tolerate anti-China activities on its soil.
   More than 1,000 Tibetan exiles took part in the celebration, held under a heavy police presence at a huge Buddhist stupa on the outskirts of Kathmandu, an AFP photographer said.
   Nepal is home to about 20,000 exiled Tibetans who began arriving in large numbers in 1959 after their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama fled Tibet following a failed uprising against the Chinese.
   On Sunday, Nepal’s home ministry warned it would not allow any activities aimed at ‘undermining the friendship between the two countries.’
   ‘Nepal desires to maintain equal and friendly relations with both its neighbours,’ the ministry said in a statement released ahead of the Dalai Lama’s birthday.
   ‘It is also committed not to let its territory be used against any friendly country.’
   Sandwiched between India and China, Nepal has upheld Beijing’s ‘one China’ policy — that Tibet is an integral part of China.