W O R L D

Asian, African nations sign action plan
Jakarta, April 24
The ministers of Asian-African countries today signed a plan of action to strengthen political solidarity, economic cooperation and socio-economic relations, acknowledging the need to build a bridge between Asia and Africa based on shared vision and conviction, solidarity and equal partnership.

• What leaders agreed at

Asian, African leaders re-enact historic walk
Bandung, April 24
In a re-enactment of the 1955 Bandung Conference and reliving its spirit, leaders of 43 Asian and African countries today undertook a sentimental procession, marking the celebration of the historic occasion that led to the formation of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Pope Benedict installed, urges world to find God

Vatican City, April 24 Pope Benedict took charge of his Church at a majestic inauguration today and set the tone for his papacy with a plea to humanity to return to God and transform a world he called a desert of pain and poverty. Pope Benedict XVI waves to the crowds after his inaugural mass in St Peter’s Square in Vatican City on Sunday. — Reuters photo

Amicable solution to issues possible: Musharraf
Jakatra, April 24
President Gen Pervez Musharraf said on Saturday that Pakistan and India had decided to solve their outstanding disputes in an amicable manner. He told Indonesian leading English language daily The Jakarta Post that the two sides had taken a major step in this regard and would promote confidence building measures (CBMs).

Private security workers living on edge in Iraq
Baghdad, April 24
Cruising toward Baghdad in the belly of a Spanish turboprop plane with a dozen other private security contractors from Blackwater USA, Rich, a 43-year-old former Navy commando, squinted out the window at the Euphrates River.

Car bombs kill 7 in Iraq
Tikrit, April 24
Two suicide car bombs exploded inside a police academy compound in the town of Tikrit today, killing at least seven persons and wounding dozens, Iraqi police and doctors said.

5 kids die in Nepal blast
Kathmandu, April 24
Five children were killed and three others wounded in western Nepal when a crude bomb left by suspected Maoist rebels exploded, an army officer said today.

US tables Bill on Divali stamp
Washington, April 24
A Bill has been introduced in the US House of Representatives, calling for a postage stamp honouring Divali, the festival of lights.

Asian, African nations sign action plan

Jakarta, April 24
The ministers of Asian-African countries today signed a plan of action to strengthen political solidarity, economic cooperation and socio-economic relations, acknowledging the need to build a bridge between Asia and Africa based on shared vision and conviction, solidarity and equal partnership.

The Joint Ministerial Statement on the Plan of Action for a new Asian African Strategic Partnership was signed in Bandung on the conclusion of a summit of leaders from more than 100 countries representing three-fourths of the world’s population. India was represented by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the head of a high-level delegation.

The plan of action was adopted by the ministers from Asian-African countries at their meeting on Friday.

Reaffirming the commitment to the Spirit and Principles of Bandung as enshrined in the Final Communique of the 1955 Asian-African Conference and the Charter of the United Nations, the ministers emphasised the importance of complementing and building upon existing initiatives as well as internationally agreed development targets and goals emanating from various conferences and summits.

The meet recognised the need to enhance technical cooperation and capacity building as well as human resource development to address challenges of common concern; and emphasised the role all Asian and African regional and sub-regional organisations in the NAASP can play, and the supportive role of regional development banks and United Nations regional economic commissions in promoting Asian-African partnership.

Aiming to work for mutually beneficial areas of cooperation that were pragmatic, structured, and sustainable; the ministers said there was need to promote conditions essential for greater political cooperation and confidence building, conducive to the attainment of peace and stability in both regions.

The 10-point plan for political solidarity provides for encouraging regional, sub-regional and national mechanisms for preventing conflict and promoting political stability and supporting efforts in peace keeping and post-conflict peace-building.

The 13-point plan of action for economic cooperation calls for supporting efforts to create an enabling international economic environment and resolving the issue of poverty in a collective fashion through mobilising resources for sustained economic growth. — UNI

What leaders agreed at

Bandung, (Indonesia), April 24
The following are highlights of a Declaration issued by Asian and African leaders in a communique after two days of talks in Jakarta —

Leaders declare the establishment of the New Asian-African Strategic Partnership (NAASP), a framework to build a bridge between the two continents;

The NAASP emphasises the need for practical cooperation in areas such as trade, investment, tourism and technology;

It will also address issues such as terrorism, armed conflict, weapons of mass destruction, and organised crime;

To institutionalise the NAASP, Asian and African foreign ministers will meet every two years, heads of state every four;

Leaders express ‘’abhorrence’’ that there is still no independent Palestinian state.

Despite political gains in Asia and Africa, leaders declare there has not been enough advancement in social and economic spheres;

Leaders stress the importance of multilateral approaches to international relations and the need for countries to abide by international law, in particular the United Nations charter.

As Africa and Asia represent most of the world’s population, leaders reaffirm the need to strengthen multilateralism in addressing global issues, including reforming multilateral institutions;

Leaders declare they are committed to meet internationally agreed targets for poverty eradication, development and growth;

Heads of state also issued a separate statement on tsunami and natural disaster preparedness and cooperation. — Reuters

Asian, African leaders re-enact historic walk

Bandung, April 24
In a re-enactment of the 1955 Bandung Conference and reliving its spirit, leaders of 43 Asian and African countries today undertook a sentimental procession, marking the celebration of the historic occasion that led to the formation of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

The highlight of the celebration in Bandung, the City of Flowers and Indonesia’s fourth largest city, was the historic walk from Savoy Homann Hotel to Merdeka Building, the same route along the East Street (now Jl Asia-Africa) which Indonesian President Sukarno, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, Burmese Prime Minister U Nu, Cambodia’s Prince Sihanouk and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Van Dong walked on April 18, 1955.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese President Hu Jintao were in the vanguard of the procession, along with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

At 8 am, the new generation of Asian-African leaders emerged from the Homann and Preanger Hotels and walked to the Merdeka Building, in groups, to take part in a brief ceremony. — UNI

Pope Benedict installed, urges world to find God
Philip Pullella and Crispian Balmer

Vatican City, April 24
Pope Benedict took charge of his Church at a majestic inauguration today and set the tone for his papacy with a plea to humanity to return to God and transform a world he called a desert of pain and poverty.

Three weeks after the death of John Paul, Presidents and pilgrims again packed the cobbled expanse in front of St Peter’s Basilica to see the new Pontiff installed on the papal throne as the leader of 1.1 billion Roman Catholics.

Cloaked in shimmering golden vestments, Benedict told a crowd estimated at 350,000 that he was “a weak servant of God” and appealed for prayers to help him in the “enormous task that truly exceeds human capacity”.

Applause echoed around the colonnaded square as flag-waving pilgrims interrupted his powerful sermon more than 40 times, chanting “Benedict, Benedict,” at the end of the speech.

“My real programme of governance is not to do my own will, not to pursue my own ideas, but to listen, together with the whole Church, to the word and the will of the Lord,” said Benedict, 78, the German former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

At the end of the two-and-a-half-hour Mass service, the Pope was driven around the square in a white, open-topped jeep, smiling and waving as he passed through a sea of cheering pilgrims.

Security was again tight, as it was for the funeral for John Paul. Rome shut its airspace, closed roads and had anti-aircraft missiles and a NATO plane guarding against attack.

The great bells of St Peter’s, which had signalled Benedict’s election last Tuesday, rang out once more in celebration and organ music reverberated throughout the Vatican.

“I liked his homily a lot. He took up the previous Pope’s words. This should be a papacy of continuity,” said Silvio Viccierhai, a 50-year-old Italian in St Peter’s.

Benedict, the oldest man to be elected Pope for three centuries, is regarded by many more liberal Catholics as a champion of conservatism, a reputation he holds from his long years as the Vatican’s chief doctrinal overseer.

He takes over the Church at a time of dwindling congregations and an ageing base in Europe and stiff competition from evangelical sects for followers in the developing world.

In his first official sermon as the 265th leader of the Church, Benedict often mentioned his predecessor John Paul, and promised to continue his policy of reaching out to other faiths.

But the main focus of his sermon, delivered entirely in Italian, was on what he called a world of alienation, suffering and death that he said had become a spiritual wasteland.

Facing such woes, he said his Church was still very much alive, young and able to grow.

“There are so many kinds of desert. There is the desert of poverty, the desert of hunger and thirst, the desert of abandonment, of loneliness, of destroyed love,” the Pope said.

“There is the desert of God’s darkness, the emptiness of souls no longer aware of their dignity or the goal of human life. The external deserts in the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become so vast. — Reuters

Amicable solution to issues possible: Musharraf
By Arrangement with The Dawn

Jakatra, April 24
President Gen Pervez Musharraf said on Saturday that Pakistan and India had decided to solve their outstanding disputes in an amicable manner. He told Indonesian leading English language daily The Jakarta Post that the two sides had taken a major step in this regard and would promote confidence building measures (CBMs).

In reply to a question about the recent development in the China-India relations, President Musharraf said it would not affect Islamabad’s ties with China. “We look at our own bilateral interests, and I don’t think there is any difference in the interests between China and Pakistan, as our ties with China will carry on from strength to strength, irrespective of Beijing’s contact with Delhi.”

President Musharraf told the newspaper that during his meeting with host leader Susilo Bambang Yothoyono, they had reiterated strong political bonds between the two countries and decided to look into areas for bilateral trade and economic cooperation.

“We both agreed that these bonds need to be cemented through commercial, trade and Islamic bonds, because that is the real cement in this century of geo-economics, which are commercial, trade and political bonds.”

President Musharraf said they also discussed terrorism, saying that the two sides had decided to coordinate and cooperate in this regard.

Private security workers living on edge in Iraq

Baghdad, April 24
Cruising toward Baghdad in the belly of a Spanish turboprop plane with a dozen other private security contractors from Blackwater USA, Rich, a 43-year-old former Navy commando, squinted out the window at the Euphrates River.

The Casa 212 dove 12,000 feet toward Baghdad airport in a drunken, corkscrew landing. A short while later, Rich was riding shotgun in the back of one of Blackwater's South African-made armoured Mamba vehicles along the main highway to the capital, one of the most dangerous roads in Iraq.

‘‘I like being some place where stupidity can be fatal, because here you work with people who think about their actions,’’ said Rich, who asked for security reasons that only his first name be used. He and his colleagues voice disdain for what they consider the soft, even pampered lives of most Americans in a society he sums up as one that ‘‘puts warnings on coffee cups.’’

— By arrangement with the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post

Car bombs kill 7 in Iraq

5 kids die in Nepal blast

US tables Bill on Divali stamp