SLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Despite growing U.S. military losses in Afghanistan, Pakistan still refuses to target the extremist groups on its soil that are the biggest threat to the American-led mission there, the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan told McClatchy.

Eight years after Washington and Islamabad agreed to fight the Taliban and al Qaida, Pakistan has "different priorities" from the U.S., Anne Patterson said in a recent interview. Pakistan is "certainly reluctant to take action" against the leadership of the Afghan insurgency.

As the war in Afghanistan becomes more brutal -- and political and popular support for it wanes in the U.S. -- Pakistan's refusal to act in support of American goals is undermining the U.S. effort to deny al Qaida and other extremist groups a sanctuary in Afghanistan.

The most effective Taliban fighters, the Haqqani network of veteran Afghan jihadist Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin, operate out of the North Waziristan region of Pakistan's tribal territory. Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar is widely thought to be based in the western Pakistani city of Quetta, from which he directs the insurgency through the so-called "Quetta Shura," or leadership council.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australian authorities delivered a formal apology Saturday to the many thousands of people who were abused in state-run orphanages and children's homes in decades past.

New South Wales Premier Nathan Rees unveiled a memorial in Sydney to children who suffered in care from the 1930s to the 1970s at an official ceremony attended by more than 500 former state wards.

"To many sufferers and especially those who have joined us today I say on behalf of the government I am sorry for any hurt and distress you suffered in the care of the state," Rees said.

"This should never have happened."

The 30,000 victims of a toxic waste disaster in Ivory Coast are being offered £1,000 each in compensation, a representative of the survivors said today.

Sources in Abidjan, the country's main city, said about 20,000 of the victims of the toxic dumping had so far been told of the offer by the oil trading firm Trafigura and virtually all had accepted. But one quoted by Reuters said he would have preferred a graduated offer according to the severity of alleged injuries.

The payout offer would amount to about £30m in total, which represents slightly more than 10% of Trafigura's declared annual profits. It represents less than the £100m cheque Trafigura wrote in 2007 to the country's government to pay for a clean-up and to make some payments to the families of 16 people who had died.

That previous payment, which the company made without any admission of liability, led to the release of the company president, Claude Dauphin, from an Ivorian jail and the scrapping of criminal prosecutions there.

The confidential negotiations are likely to include a further payment for the costs of the British law firm Leigh Day, which took on the case on a no-win, no-fee basis and is thought to have risked more than £10m. Leigh Day's original claim for the victims was for another £100m, which would have given them just over £3,000 each.

WASHINGTON -- Seven former directors of the Central Intelligence Agency asked President Obama on Friday to shut down the new Justice Department inquiry into past abuses during interrogations of terrorism suspects, arguing that it "will seriously damage" the nation's ability to protect itself.

In a letter to Mr. Obama, the former C.I.A. chiefs said the cases under study had already been examined by career prosecutors who found that no criminal charges were warranted. To reopen cases based on a change in which political party controls the government, they wrote, will make it harder for intelligence officers to take risks without worrying that some future attorney general might investigate them.

"Those men and women who undertake difficult intelligence assignments in the aftermath of an attack such as September 11 must believe there is permanence in the legal rules that govern their actions," the men said in their letter.

They argued that the new inquiry would result in the disclosure of information about past operations that "can only help Al Qaeda" elude capture, and would convince foreign intelligence agencies that they could not trust the United States to protect secrets.

AURORA, Colo. -- Djilali Kacem tugged at his beard and surveyed the warehouse of Islamic books he helps oversee near Denver International Airport.

"The government should know better by now," said Mr. Kacem, an imam at a local mosque. "It has been eight years since Sept. 11, and our government still overacts sometimes when it comes to Muslims."

As an investigation into a possible terrorist plot against New York City focused increasingly last week on a local Afghani shuttle bus driver, some Muslims in and around this Denver suburb have grown uneasy, saying they are concerned that law enforcement officials are going too far because the case involves a Muslim. But others say that even if Muslims here feel that they are being unfairly targeted, law enforcement officials are obligated to follow any leads, wherever they might lead, and that in this case the F.B.I. has acted appropriately so far.

A fierce gun battle between Maoist insurgents and security forces has taken place in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, police say.

They say that at least seven Maoists were killed in the fight, and one paramilitary soldier.

The clashes happened during an operation to remove more than 100 insurgents from a forest.

Thousands of people have died in the Maoist insurgency since it began in the 1960s as a backlash against poverty.

Chhattisgarh police chief RK Vij told the AFP news agency that more casualties were likely after an intense battle in the jungles of Singamadagu district, 500km (300 miles) south of the capital Raipur.

Republicans say the Obama administration's attempt to overhaul the health system will lead to government-run British- or Canadian-style health care that causes delays in treatment, threatening your health and even worse.

Rep. Sue Myrick of North Carolina issued the latest warning against a Democratic-backed health care overhaul as she recalled her fight with breast cancer. She said in the Republican weekly radio and Internet address that her diagnosis "took six doctors, three mammograms and one ultrasound before they finally they found my cancer. This process took only a few weeks."

"Under the government-run health care system they have in Canada and the United Kingdom, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to get those tests so quickly," she said. "One international study found that three times as many citizens in those countries wait longer than a month to see a specialist. When it comes to life-threatening diseases like cancer, delay could mean death."

Democrats are looking for competition to private insurance companies to help drive prices down: a government-run insurance option, a trigger to add that option later; or nonprofit insurance cooperatives, designed to compete with private industry and give consumers more choices.

"These so-called health care reform bills have different names: a public option, a co-op, a trigger," Myrick said. "Make no mistake, these are all gateways to government-run health care."

The White House has announced that President Barack Obama will meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Tuesday.

Mr Obama will first hold separate talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The three mwn will then hold a session of joint talks.

It comes after US envoy George Mitchell's latest round of shuttle diplomacy ended without agreement.

HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters) -- Half a million people are expected to fill Havana's Revolution Square Sunday for a concert that is supposed to be about peace, but has become another front in the war of words between Havana and the Cuban exile community in Miami.
(...)
Anti-communist Cuban exiles in Miami have pilloried Juanes, accusing him of pandering to the Cuban government. Juanes lives on Miami's exclusive Key Biscayne.

Miguel Bose from Spain, Olga Tanon from the US Caribbean territory of Puerto Rico, Jovanotti from Italy and Silvio Rodriguez and Los Van Van from Cuba are part of the lineup mostly made up of Spanish-language stars.

The unrelenting global troubles confronting Barack Obama are about to converge on him all at once, providing a stern test of leadership for a first-year president who has pledged to "change the world."

...

His first speech to the 192-member General Assembly will outline his view of leadership, emphasizing a new brand of cooperation as if to underline he is not Bush. As U.N. ambassador Susan Rice described the message: "Everybody has a responsibility. The U.S. is leading anew. And we are looking to others to join."

Obama will be the first U.S. president to be chairman of the Security Council, whose rotating presidency happens to be in U.S. hands this month during the annual meeting of the General Assembly. He expects to emerge from that special summit on arms control with a resolution that advances his goals of a nuclear-weapons free world.

The swine flu pandemic could kill millions and cause anarchy in the world's poorest nations unless £900m can be raised from rich countries to pay for vaccines and antiviral medicines, says a UN report leaked to the Observer.

The disclosure will provoke concerns that health officials will not be able to stem the growth of the worldwide H1N1 pandemic in developing countries. If the virus takes hold in the poorest nations, millions could die and the economies of fragile countries could be destroyed....

UN officials say in the report that £700m should be spent on antiviral drugs and vaccines to protect health care workers and other essential personnel as well as cover those suffering from severe illness. They have identified 85 countries that do not have the ability to access vaccines from any other source and intend to cover 5-10% of each population.

A further £147m should be put aside to organise vaccine campaigns, improve communications, monitor levels of illness and improve laboratory capacity in 61 countries, the report claims. The remainder should be used to pay for the WHO and other UN-related organisations to help in these countries as well as an emergency fund for additional antiviral medicines, it argues....

The UN's request for the money comes as the virus begins to establish itself in some of the world's most vulnerable countries. On Wednesday, health officials told one website that the African continent had recorded 8,187 confirmed cases of swine flu and 41 deaths.

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