W O R L D

Taliban hold secret talks with Karzai
Kabul, October 31
Three Taliban leaders secretly met with Afghanistan's president two weeks ago in an effort to weaken the US-led coalition's most vicious enemy, a powerful Al-Qaida linked network that straddles the border region with Pakistan.

Myanmar goes to polls on Nov 7
Yangon, October 31
Myanmar will hold its first election in two decades on November 7, a vote critics say is a sham intended to put a civilian face on military rule. Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will remain locked up on election day and her National League for Democracy party is boycotting the poll.

Brazil votes to pick Lula’s successor
Brasilia, October 31
Brazilians began voting for the President today in an election widely expected to favor Dilma Rousseff, a left-leaning civil servant who has vowed to keep Brazil on its path of economic prosperity.

Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s presidential candidate from the ruling Workers' Party, arrives to vote in Porto Alegre on Sunday. — Reuters

Obama’s last-ditch plea to supporters
Chicago, October 31
President Barack Obama returned to the city where he established his political base, calling on supporters to defy expectations and tamp down a Republican tide that many people expect to crest in Tuesday’s elections.

Chinese Premier visits India pavilion Beijing, October 31 Days after his “positive” meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao today visited the India pavilion at Shanghai Expo and admired its architecture based on the Buddhist-style Sanchi Stupa, saying it left a “deep impression” on him. Chinese dancers perform during the closing ceremony of the Shanghai World Expo on Sunday. — AP/PTI

Taliban hold secret talks with Karzai

Kabul, October 31
Three Taliban leaders secretly met with Afghanistan's president two weeks ago in an effort to weaken the US-led coalition's most vicious enemy, a powerful Al-Qaida linked network that straddles the border region with Pakistan.

Held in Kabul, the meeting included a wanted former Taliban governor and an imprisoned militant who were flown to the capital from the Pakistani city of Peshawar, according to a former Afghan official.

The talks were not directly linked to the Afghan government's efforts to broker a peace with the Taliban and find a political resolution to the insurgency. Rather, they were part of an effort to weaken the Haqqani network, the former official said over the weekend.

A Western official, who spoke anonymously, confirmed that a meeting between President Hamid Karzai and Taliban figures had taken place, but did not know its full details or the names of all participants.

Led by the ailing Jalaluddin Haqqani and controlled by his son, Sirajuddin, the network is thought to be responsible for most attacks against US troops in eastern Afghanistan and has been a key US military target. The network is linked to Al-Qaida and is believed to be sheltering its second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri.

Weakening the network would take the pressure off US forces and bolster Karzai's efforts to broker some kind of peace with the Taliban in portions of the country.

The Taliban leaders who met with Karzai are: Maulvi Abdul Kabir, the governor of eastern Nangarhar province during Taliban rule and the current head of the Taliban's Peshawar council; his deputy governor in the Taliban regime, Sedre Azam; and Anwar-ul-Haq Mujahed, a militant leader from eastern Afghanistan credited with helping Osama bin Laden escape the US assault on Tora Bora in 2001, the former official said.

The men were brought by helicopter from Peshawar in neighboring Pakistan and driven into Kabul. Mujahed has been in Pakistani custody since June last year when he was picked up in a raid in Peshawar. Kabir is on the US most wanted list.

They spent two nights at a heavily fortified hotel in the Afghan capital before returning to Peshawar by helicopter, where Mujahed was placed again in custody. The US earlier this month acknowledged facilitating some Taliban trips to Kabul but provided no specifics. The Pakistani military has not commented on such reports.

Karzai has formed a 70-member High Peace Council in an effort to try to reconcile with Taliban and find a political solution to the insurgency. The Taliban say their leaders will not discuss peace with the government unless foreign troops first leave Afghanistan. — AP

Myanmar goes to polls on Nov 7
37 parties will take part in the election for about 1,160 seats across a two-chamber national parliament as well as 14 regional legislatures

Brazil votes to pick Lula’s successor

Brasilia, October 31
Brazilians began voting for the President today in an election widely expected to favor Dilma Rousseff, a left-leaning civil servant who has vowed to keep Brazil on its path of economic prosperity.

Polls show Rousseff with a double-digit lead over rival Jose Serra largely because of the endorsement of popular President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose social welfare and market-friendly policies have lifted millions of out poverty.

Her campaign in recent weeks has quelled doubts among religious voters about her moral values that cost her an outright victory in the first round a month ago, as Brazilians again focus on the economic gains during eight years of Lula's leadership.

Helio das Chagas, 48, a pastor and government worker in the capital of Brasilia speaking on the eve of the vote said he planned to back Rousseff because of improvement in the lives of Brazilians under Lula.

"A lot of things changed for the better in the country. People have more spending power now," said das Chagas, who had shunned Rousseff in the first round amid controversy over her views on religion and abortion.

"She reached out to the evangelical churches ... and said she's going to fight against abortion," he said. "She changed her discourse, which was because of pressure from (religious voters)."

Rousseff voted in the southern city of Porto Alegre and left the polling station surrounded by a mass of journalists and supporters who waved the ruling Workers' Party red flag with a yellow star. — Reuters

Obama’s last-ditch plea to supporters

Chicago, October 31
President Barack Obama returned to the city where he established his political base, calling on supporters to defy expectations and tamp down a Republican tide that many people expect to crest in Tuesday’s elections.

The rally on Saturday was part of a four-state weekend campaign dash in states Obama carried in 2008 - Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Illinois and Ohio, but where Democratic candidates for the Senate, House and governorships are struggling and where voters are angry about the economy, bailouts and high unemployment.

“Chicago, it’s up to you to let them know that we have not forgotten, we don’t have amnesia,” the president told a large outdoor crowd near his home, referring to the economic recession that hit during George W Bush’s presidency.

Obama was making a last-ditch plea to the party’s core supporters, particularly young voters, to approach Tuesday’s elections with the same enthusiasm that brought him to the White House and a wave of Democrats to Congress in 2008. — AP

Chinese Premier visits India pavilion

Beijing, October 31
Days after his “positive” meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao today visited the India pavilion at Shanghai Expo and admired its architecture based on the Buddhist-style Sanchi Stupa, saying it left a “deep impression” on him.

In what is being seen as a goodwill gesture, Wen, who is to visit India in December, went to the pavilion accompanied by Vice-Premier Wang Qishan and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on the final day of the six-month-long event. — PTI