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Pakistani and Indian troops on Saturday traded fire in the disputed Himalayan Kashmir region amid heightened bilateral tensions triggered by Mumbai terror attacks.
   The incident broke five months of relative calm along the heavily militarised border.
   The two militaries traded blame for the incident, with each accusing the other of ‘unprovoked’ firing across the de facto border dividing Kashmir between the rivals.
   The Indian army said one of its soldiers was injured in the firing, which a spokesman said lasted five hours, ending early Saturday morning.
   Pakistan said it had lodged a ‘strong protest’ with Indian authorities over the ‘ceasefire violation.’
   Pakistan and India agreed in November 2003 to a ceasefire along the LoC before they launched their slow-moving peace talks in January 2004.
   Since then there have been sporadic clashes and both countries have accused each other of violating the ceasefire.
   Last year India accused Pakistani soldiers of crossing the ceasefire line known as the Line of Control and killing an Indian soldier — allegations Islamabad denied.
   India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over mainly Muslim Kashmir, held in part by each country but claimed in full by both.
   An insurgency against New Delhi’s rule in Indian Kashmir has been under way since 1989 and left more than 47,000 people dead by official count. Islamabad denies helping the Muslim rebels.
   The peace process between the two South Asian neighbours came to a halt after last November’s Islamist militant attacks on Mumbai that India has blamed on the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba.
   New Delhi has also accused ‘official agencies’ of Pakistan — a reference to the Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency and other bodies — of involvement.
   Both LeT and Pakistan have denied any role in the attacks, which killed 172 people, while Islamabad has blamed the assault on ‘non-state actors’.

The Thai premier, Abhisit Vejjajiva, and five ministers in his three-month-old government on Saturday easily survived a no-confidence motion called by the opposition over allegations of corruption.
   Opposition MPs had sought during a fiery two-day debate to show the government was illegitimate and accused the British-born Abhisit of certifying false financial statements for his ruling Democrat Party.
   They also said his party had received millions of dollars in illegal donations and illegally distributed funds from the electoral commission.
   But Abhisit — an Oxford-educated economist who came to power in December — easily survived the censure motion by a 246-176 vote.
   The foreign minister, Kasit Piromya, the finance minister, Korn Chatikavanij, his deputy Pradit Patharaprasit, the interior minister, Chavarat Charnvirakul, and his deputy Boonchong Wongtrairat also survived with a comfortable majority.
   Abhisit said the result of the vote, the latest round in the bitter political dogfight that has divided the kingdom since former premier Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted in a 2006 coup, proved his government was sound.
   ‘Nothing needs to change. I will carry on working as I gained the vote of confidence from parliament,’ he said.
   Of the men cited in the motion filed by the Puea Thai party, which is allied to Thaksin, Kasit had been in most danger of being forced out because of his support for protesters who forced the closure of Bangkok’s airports last year.
   The foreign minister humbly thanked those who voted for him.
   ‘I don’t mind that I gained less support as all lawmakers are free to vote, but I will have to be more careful in my work,’ he said.

At first glance he looks like India’s independence hero Mahatma Gandhi, wearing only a knee-length wraparound and slippers, but Bagun Sumbarai is a seasoned politician bidding for a sixth stint in parliament.
   One of the oldest candidates in the general election beginning next month, Sumbarai, 85, treks for miles to woo voters and is hugely popular with the people of Singhbhum district in Jharkhand.
   ‘I believe in my work and follow Gandhiji’s ideology. When I was young I witnessed how Gandhiji mobilised people for the freedom of the country,’ said the bald Sumbarai, who is contesting the election on a ruling Congress party ticket.
   India holds its general election from April 16 to May 13, with the main battle between the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance and the National Democratic Alliance led by the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
   Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, better known as Mahatma Gandhi, pioneered the philosophy of non-violent resistance to British rule in India. He was assassinated by a Hindu radical on January 30, 1948, in New Delhi.
   Sumbarai regrets not being able to meet Gandhi but says such was the leader’s influence on him that he adopted not only his principles but also his simple sartorial style.
   He stopped wearing trousers and shirts when he was 22 and began wearing a short version of the Indian wraparound worn by men, called the ‘dhoti’.

North Korea on Saturday confirmed that it had detained two American journalists along the border with China earlier this week, amid tensions in the region over Pyongyang’s plans for a rocket launch.
   The US State Department had expressed concern over the fate of the two women, who are believed to have been taken into custody by border guards patrolling the Tumen river, a common escape route for those fleeing the North.
   ‘Two Americans were detained on March 17 while illegally intruding into the territory of the DPRK by crossing the DPRK-China border,’ the official Korean Central News Agency said in a three-line dispatch.
   ‘A competent organ is now investigating the case.’
   Diplomatic sources and media reports identified the two women as Euna Lee, a Korean-American, and Laura Ling, a Chinese-American, who work for Current TV in California.
   A diplomatic source said the two were held by security guards over ‘suspected border violations’ after being caught Tuesday shooting video on the North’s side of the river.
   North Korea is one of the world’s most isolated and impoverished countries. Journalists who want to visit must obtain special visas and are accompanied by official guides. Few such visits have been allowed in recent years.
   The incident occurred with tensions high over plans by the communist state to launch what it calls a communications satellite in early April — which the United States and its allies say is really a disguised missile test.
   Washington and Seoul say the North could be preparing to test a Taepodong-2 missile, theoretically capable of reaching Alaska, in violation of a UN resolution passed after missile and nuclear tests in 2006.
   Pyongyang for its part is angry about what it sees is Washington’s ‘hostile’ policy toward the communist state. It said this week that it no longer wanted to receive food aid, according to the State Department.
   The North did however on Saturday reopen military communications lines with the South as well as the border, allowing hundreds of South Koreans to access the Seoul-funded Kaesong industrial complex.
   A human rights activist and Protestant pastor, Chun Kiwon, who helped arrange the journalists’ trip to China, said that they had been held since Tuesday together with their Chinese guide, an ethnic Korean.
   Chun, who heads a missionary group providing assistance to North Korean defectors, said they had met him in Seoul to ask for his advice on their mission, and entered China last Friday.

The NATO-led force in Afghanistan said Saturday that a foreign soldier had been killed in action in the south of the country the day before, the same day that four Canadian troops died in attacks.
   The five soldiers were killed on Friday, when clashes and attacks across the country left nearly 40 people dead, 19 of them policemen, as the insurgency led by the extremist Taliban militia rages on.
   The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said in a statement that the soldier was killed in a ‘hostile incident’ on Friday. It did not release the nationality of the troop, leaving that task to the home nation.
   The Canadian military announced in Ottawa on Friday that four of its soldiers and an Afghan interpreter were killed and nine others were injured in two separate explosions in southern Kandahar province, a Taliban stronghold.
   ‘Please do not think of these incidents as a failure on the part of any person of the mission itself,’ Brigadier General Jon Vance, the Canadian commander in Kandahar, said in a nationally televised address from Afghanistan.
   Canada has 2,800 troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of ISAF, which has swollen to reach nearly 62,000 soldiers from 42 nations, according to alliance figures.
   Most of the Canadian troops are in the dangerous south, where Australia, Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands and the United States have also deployed forces.
   The latest casualties on one of the bloodiest days yet for ISAF took to 71 the number of international soldiers to die in Afghanistan this year, according to the icasualties.org website that tracks the conflict here and in Iraq.

Indonesia’s president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono pledged Saturday to continue the fight against corruption as he campaigned on the island of Bali for next month’s legislative election.
   The first directly-elected president of Indonesia said eradicating graft would top the agenda of his Democratic Party as he addressed 70,000 supporters at an election rally.
   ‘We’ll keep on fighting against corruption and catching those responsible,’ said the former general, dressed in his party’s colour, blue, and accompanied by first lady Ani Yudhoyono.
   ‘Do we want to go back to the era when corrupt people ruled? The answer to that is no.’
   Yudhoyono promised to stamp out graft when he was elected in 2004, but Indonesia remains one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

Heavy fighting between Sri Lankan security forces and Tamil Tigers continued in the northeast of the country, with troops recovering the bodies of five rebels, the defence ministry said Saturday.
   Fighting raged all day Friday as troops strengthened their defences in the Puthukkudiriruppu area, the last stronghold of the Tigers, the ministry said, which added the five rebels were killed late Friday.
   The ministry did not release information about any troop casualties.
   There was no immediate comment from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who have been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland since 1972.
   Independent verification of the casualty figures is impossible as most journalists, aid workers and international observers are prevented from entering the conflict zone.
   The military says it has surrounded the LTTE in a narrow strip of land and expects to soon put an end to the conflict, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday the Islamic republic is ready to reciprocate if the US president, Barack Obama, changes American attitude towards his country.
   ‘If you change your attitude, we will change our attitude,’ Khamenei said in a groundbreaking address to thousands of Iranians in the northeastern holy city of Mashhad which was broadcast on state television.
   Speaking a day after Obama offered Tehran a ‘new beginning’ to turn back the tide on decades of mutual animosity, Khamenei — the final decision maker on Iranian strategic issues — said however Iran is yet to see any change in Washington’s attitude towards Tehran.
   ‘We have no experience with the new American government and the new American president. We will observe them and we will judge,’ he said.
   ‘We cannot see any change. What is the change in your policy? Did you remove the sanctions? Did you stop supporting the Zionist regime? Tell us what you have changed.
   We can’t see change even in the words of the new American president. Change only in words is not enough. Change must be real,’ Khamenei said. ‘The American leaders and others must know that they can’t deceive our nation or scare it.’
   Khamenei accused Washington of having had a ‘hostile’ attitude towards Tehran since the Islamic revolution toppled the US-backed shah in 1979.
   ‘They supported all the terrorist and opponent groups’ against Iran, he said.
   ‘We can see the American hand behind these groups. Unfortunately, this support is still continuing,’ he said, adding that US-backed groups were aiding rebels fighting Iranian security forces along the Iran-Pakistan border.
   ‘The new American government wants to negotiate. They say to forget the past and are extending their hand. But if it is an iron hand in a velvet glove, it won’t have a good meaning,’ he said.
   Highlighting the three-decades old animosity, Khamenei said Iran would not forget American support to Saddam Hussein during the 1980-88 war between Iran and Iraq or the shooting down of an Iranian passenger plane in 1988 by a US warship that killed all 290 passengers on board.
   ‘In all these years, they carried out hostile propaganda against our country, especially in the past eight years,’ the powerful cleric said, referring to the tenure of George W Bush.

Andry Rajoelina promised an end to dictatorship and a new era of good governance in Madagascar Saturday in an inaugural speech capping his internationally-condemned takeover of the island.
   The 34-year-old sacked mayor of Antananarivo, who only became the Indian Ocean state’s undisputed opposition leader two months ago, was sworn in as president of a transitional authority in front of 40,000 jubilant supporters.
   But his army-backed ouster earlier this week of president Marc Ravalomanana, who ruled the country for seven years, was condemned as a coup by Western donors and regional powers who threatened sanctions.
   ‘Today we proclaim the end of dictatorship, of waste in the management of the state’s affairs, the end of the lies, empty promises... that have for too long stifled Madagascar’s political life,’ said.
   During his inaugural ceremony in the capital’s main stadium, Rajoelina — who is six years under the legal age to run for president — vowed fresh polls within two years and a new constitution.
   Three days after being confirmed in charge of the country by a constitutional court, Rajoelina took the oath in front of religious leaders, his cabinet and judges. No foreign diplomats were visible.
   ‘Before the Madagascan people and before God, I swear that I will do my utmost for the good of the people and I swear that I will respect Madagascar’s laws,’ he said, cheered on by a sea of orange-clad supporters.
   The baby-faced former disc jockey, whose three-month-old challenge for power culminated with Ravalomanana’s resignation from the top job Tuesday, tried to address some of the world’s concerns with his takeover.
   ‘To all the peoples and rulers of friendly and partner countries, to donors... who are watching today: be assured that Madagascar is a friend to every nation and citizen in the world,’ Rajoelina said.
   ‘You must know that we want change in the way our country is governed and are determined to implement the rules and principles of good governance,’ he added.
   While the world’s reaction to Ravalomanana’s forced resignation was initially muted, the decision by Rajoelina’s cabinet to suspend parliament Thursday soon left the youthful leader facing a barrage of criticism.
   Washington called new president Rajoelina’s rise to power a ‘coup d’etat’ and suspended its non-humanitarian aid to Antananarivo, while former colonial power France and the African Union also denied him legitimacy.

Tens of thousands of people converged on the grieving German town of Winnenden Saturday for a memorial service for the 15 victims of a shooting spree by a 17-year-old.
   The president, Horst Koehler, was due to give an address during the ecumenical service, which started around 1015 GMT in one of the town’s Catholic churches.
   The chancellor Angela Merkel was also present in the packed church, where large white candles had been set on the altar, each bearing the name of one of the victims and an orchestra played while the congregation waited for the service to begin.
   All flags over the region were flying at half mast on Saturday and bells were tolled at 0945 GMT.
   Around 20 giant screens had been erected in the open air to transmit the service live, including in a stadium able to seat up to 30,000 people.
   The church has only room for 900.
   The police said earlier they anticipated as many as 100,000 people would be in the town for the event.
   Meanwhile families of the victims appealed in an open letter for tighter gun control laws and a ban on violent video games of the kind which the teenage killer Tim Kretschmer regularly played.
   He is believed to have spent two hours playing the shooting video game ‘Far Cry 2’ the evening before going on the rampage with his father’s weapon at his former school on March 11, killing nine pupils, three teachers and three passers-by before turning the gun on himself.
   In their open letter addressed to Merkel and Koehler, the families of five of the victims said: ‘Despite our pain and anger, we can’t just do nothing. We want to make sure there is not another Winnenden.’
   They called for teenagers to be denied access to guns, for violent videos to be banned and violence on television to be restricted by the introduction of quotas taking into account the hours when children are likely to be viewing.

The prime minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, told his Socialist party on Saturday he was ready to step aside so that a new government under a new leader could lead Hungary out of the economic crisis.
   ‘Crisis management and further changes require wider political and social backing than today,’ Gyurcsany told a Socialist party congress.
   ‘I hear that I am the obstacle to the cooperation required for changes, for a stable governing majority and the responsible behaviour of the opposition,’ he said. ‘...If so, then I am eliminating this obstacle now. I propose that we form a new government under a new prime minister.’
   A source close to Gyurcsany said he planned to organise a ‘constructive vote of no confidence’ in parliament, in which at least one-fifth of all MPs propose a no confidence vote, a new prime ministerial candidate is picked, and parliament votes the incumbent out and his successor in.
   This would not precipitate early elections.
   ‘In a legal sense this will not be a resignation, but a constructive vote of no confidence, headed by the PM,’ the source said. ‘If there is a parliamentary majority, there could be a new prime minister by mid-April,’ he said, adding that Gyurcsany wanted to remain Socialist party president.

A global ministerial meeting was putting the final touches here Saturday to resolutions for tackling the world’s water crisis but activists attacked the process as a corporate-driven fraud.
   The communique to be issued by more than 100 countries on World Water Day on Sunday climaxes a seven-day gathering on how to provide clean water and sanitation for billions and resolve worsening water stress and pollution.
   ‘The world is facing rapid and unprecedented global changes, including population growth, migration, urbanisation, climate change, desertification, drought, degradation and land use, economic and diet changes,’ according to a draft seen by AFP.
   The document, which is non-binding, spells out a consensus for boosting cooperation to ease transboundary disputes over water, preventing pollution and tackling drought and floods.
   It also describes access to safe drinking water and sanitation as ‘a basic human need.’ France, Spain and several Latin American countries were striving to beef up this reference, from ‘need’ to ‘right,’ a change that could have legal ramifications.
   But campaigners representing the rural poor, the environment and organised labour blasted the communique as a sideshow, stage-managed for corporations who are major contributors to the World Water Council, which organises the Forum.
   Maude Barlow, senior advisor to the president of the UN General Assembly, said the Forum promoted privatisation of resources by ‘the lords of water’ and excluded dissident voices.
   She called for the meeting to be placed under the UN flag. ‘We demand that the allocation of water be decided in an open, transparent and democratic forum rather than in a trade show for the world’s large corporations,’ Barlow told a press conference.
   David Boys, with an NGO called Public Services International, said ‘transparency, accountability and participation’ were absent from the Forum, and dismissed the ministerial statement as ‘vapid.’

The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said Saturday there was no proof that Iran is try to develop a nuclear weapon and urged the West to respect and reach out to the Islamic republic.
   ‘There is no proof that Iran even has decided to make a bomb,’ he told the Brussels Forum conference, alongside EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who on behalf of world powers has led talks to curb Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
   Lavrov said the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, was best placed to monitor Iran’s activities and establish whether it might try to covertly develop a weapon under the guise of a civilian programme.
   ‘As long as the IAEA works in Iran, the IAEA monitors all these centrifuges which produce low enriched uranium for the fuel purpose’ real concerns it may develop a bomb could be allayed, he said.
   Uranium enrichment is used to make fuel for a nuclear reactor, but at highly refined levels it can serve to produce the core of an atomic weapon.
   ‘To change it to the weapon grade uranium you need to do manipulations which would be immediately known by cameras,’ Lavrov said.
   His comments came just after the US president, Barack Obama, issued a video message to Iran, offering to open a new chapter in relations with the Islamic Republic. The two nations have not had diplomatic ties since 1980.
   ‘Iran must be engaged as a constructive part of the solution and not of the problem,’ Lavrov said.
   ‘It’s negotiations, it’s respect and it’s engagement of Iran in all the areas ... including security dialogue with Iran on all the issues in the Middle East, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon.’

Pope Benedict XVI issued a warning against witchcraft Saturday during his visit to Angola, after calling on African leaders to battle corruption and drawing a tough line against abortion.
   The pope celebrated a private Mass for Angola’s clergy and laypeople in the modernist Sao Paulo church, which along with much of the surrounding neighbourhood has been freshly painted and upgraded for his visit.
   He praised the work of activists within the Church, and called on them to work to convert people to Catholicism, saying evangelising remains as important today as it was when Catholics first arrived in this region of Africa 500 years ago.
   ‘Today it is up to you, brothers and sisters, following in the footsteps of those heroic and holy heralds of God, to offer the risen Christ to your fellow citizens,’ he said to the invitation-only crowd.
   ‘So many of them are living in fear of spirits, of malign and threatening powers. In their bewilderment they end up even condemning street children and the elderly as alleged sorcerers,’ he said.
   The issue has particular resonance in Angola, where traditional and home-grown faiths are flourishing, even though some sects have been linked to child abuse and human sacrifice.
   Benedict criticised the idea that seeking to convert people was an affront to believers of other faiths.

Australia’s ruling Labor party fought off a conservative challenge in an historic state vote won by the country’s first elected woman premier Saturday, early results showed.
   Anna Bligh led prime minister Kevin Rudd’s centre-left Labor party to victory in the resource-rich northeastern state of Queensland despite a swing to the opposition Liberal National Party. Opposition leader Lawrence Springborg told reporters he had conceded defeat.
   ‘About 15 minutes ago I phoned premier Anna Bligh and congratulated her on her significant win this evening,’ Springborg said.
   With almost 45 per cent of the votes counted, Australian Broadcasting Corporation computer predictions gave more than 50 seats to the Labor Party, which needed only 45 to retain power.

Five soldiers and about 14 rebel fighters have been killed in the latest clashes in Russia’s Caucasus province of Dagestan, news agencies reported Saturday as operations wound down.
   The bodies of about 10 fighters were discovered at the close of an operation that began on Wednesday in the mountainous district of Karabudakhkent, 30 kilometres south of the regional capital Makhachkala, officials said.
   Five soldiers were killed and three were injured in the course of the fighting on Friday.
   Clashes between rebels and security forces take place on a regular basis in Dagestan and throughout the Russian Caucasus, frequently claiming lives on both sides.