Pakistan leader visits Russia after bin Laden death (AFP)

MOSCOW (AFP) – Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was expected in Moscow on Wednesday for talks with Russian leaders on his first major foreign visit since the killing of Osama bin Laden by US forces.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will host Zardari for talks on Thursday at the Kremlin where officials from the two countries were also expected to sign agreements on cooperation in agriculture, aviation and energy, a spokesman for the Pakistan Embassy in Moscow told AFP.

"Economics will be the focus of the visit," said the spokesman, Raja Abdul Qayyum.

The three-day visit to Russia will be Zardari's first high-profile trip abroad since the Al-Qaeda leader, the world's most wanted man, was killed in the raid by US forces on a compound in Abbottabad in Pakistan.

The Kremlin hailed the death of bin Laden as a "serious success... in the war against international terrorism" but Pakistan has expressed fury that US forces carried out the raid without informing Islamabad first.

Zardari visited Kuwait at the weekend for talks with its leaders and business executives while Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is due to visit China next week as Pakistan looks to bolster its alliances at a time of crisis.

Zardari's programme includes a tour of Skolkovo, a future high-tech centre outside Moscow billed as Russia's answer to Silicon Valley and a trip to the former imperial capital Saint Petersburg.

Speaking in an interview with Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency ahead of the visit, Zardari said he hoped his talks in Russia would breathe a new life into bilateral ties.

"I expect a lot from my upcoming visit to Russia," he was quoted as saying. "I hope that during this visit the relations between our countries will receive a new development impetus."

The Pakistani president also said ramping up economic and political ties was in the interests of both countries.

"Tsarist Russia was dreaming about getting access to southern seas," he was quoted as saying.

"Pakistan invites modern Russia to take advantage of its access to southern seas which will no doubt facilitate economic prosperity of the two countries."

Moscow is not usually seen as an ally of Islamabad, not least because of its historically close ties to Pakistan's traditional foe India.

Tensions also still linger over the Pakistani secret service's backing of mujahedeen insurgents against Soviet forces in Afghanistan during the 1980s.

But Russia and Pakistan called for the development of regional economic projects and the revival of cooperation that dated back to the Soviet era at a rare summit last year.

Medvedev hosted Zardari at his Black Sea residence in Sochi as part of the four-way summit -- which also included Afghanistan and Tajikistan -- last August when the participants agreed to pursue joint economic projects to help bring stability to the volatile region.

Citing a source close to the management of state conglomerate Russian Technologies, Vedomosti business daily said on Wednesday that the highlight of the Zardari visit would be a preliminary agreement to give Pakistan a $540 million loan to modernise the Soviet-built Pakistan Steel plant.

A delegation from Prominvest, a Russian Technologies subsidiary, has visited the plant and reached preliminary agreements, the source told the newspaper.

Russian Technologies could not confirm the report.

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S. Korea president starts Europe trip (AFP)

SEOUL (AFP) – South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak departed Sunday for a week-long visit to Germany, Denmark and France aimed at cementing ties before a sweeping free trade pact with the European Union takes effect.

Lee will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Christian Wulff to discuss expanding trade and investment with the continent's largest economy in areas including renewable energy, Seoul's presidential office said.

In Copenhagen, Lee will sign a joint strategic partnership with Denmark and deals to launch more joint projects on renewable energy, before meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy on the last leg of a trip ending Saturday.

"The tour has an added significance as it comes on the eve of... the Korea-EU FTA, tentatively set for July 1," the presidential office said earlier.

Seoul lawmakers last week ratified a free trade agreement with the EU in a deal South Korea said would allow its companies to tap deeper into the world's largest market.

The trade accord, already approved by Europe's parliament in February, is the most ambitious the EU has negotiated, and its first with an Asian nation.

Under the pact the EU called "a landmark agreement," the two sides will axe 98 percent of customs duties within five years, apart from those on a few Korean farm products.

Two-way trade in 2009 was worth 53.5 billion euros ($72.8 billion), with South Korean exports -- mainly cars, ships, electronics and semiconductors -- accounting for 32 billion euros.

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ASEAN group message lost on Thai-Cambodia border (AFP)

JAKARTA (AFP) – Southeast Asian leaders met Sunday for the final day of an annual summit that has been hijacked by a bitter feud between Thailand and Cambodia over a tiny patch of disputed borderland.

Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) expressed frustration that the dispute had not been resolved and the 10-nation group's strategic message of regional economic integration was being lost.

In an effort to bring the warring neighbours together, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono hosted an unscheduled meeting with the Thai and Cambodian leaders on Sunday morning.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen sat down with Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva a day after the former had set the tone of the summit by launching a surprise verbal attack on Abhisit during the opening session.

Hun Sen admitted after Sunday's meeting that the row was "spoiling" the summit, which was supposed to focus on long-term plans to create a harmonised economic community by 2015.

"Everyone knows that the problem of the Thai-Cambodia border has been spoiling the atmosphere and also creats a challenge for ASEAN," he told a press conference.

In a highly critical tone not usually heard at ASEAN meetings, the Cambodian leader on Saturday accused Thailand of invading its neighbour and seeking to prolong the conflict "in order to violate weaker neighbouring ASEAN members".

"The invasion of the Thai troops of Cambodia's territory resulted in a series of clashes and eventually a large-scale war from the 4th to the 7th of February, 2011," Hun Sen told the assembled leaders.

Eighteen people have been killed and 85,000 temporarily displaced in weeks of clashes over ownership of a small patch of territory surrounding an 11th-century Khmer temple. The temple itself belongs to Cambodia.

Indonesia has been trying to mediate a solution to the conflict on behalf of ASEAN, but so far it has achieved little except an in-principle agreement from both sides to accept a small team of military observers to the border.

Abhisit responded to Hun Sen's criticism by saying he was ready for dialogue and insisting the matter be resolved bilaterally, instead of under UN auspices as Cambodia wants.

"Thailand has no intention whatsoever to have conflicts. I am therefore disappointed that Prime Minister Hun Sen has stated otherwise regarding Thailand?s intentions," he told the leaders.

He agreed that the dispute, which was not on the formal agenda of the summit, threatened to undermine the credibility of the bloc's rhetoric about regional integration and playing a greater role in world affairs.

"I accept that the issue could affect the credibility of ASEAN. We must therefore make sure that any problem should be solved, locally, bilaterally and if needed with the facilitation of the region," Abhisit said.

"Thailand recognises full well that any conflict between ASEAN member states can undermine ASEAN?s community-building efforts."

Officials said the two leaders had agreed to have their foreign ministers meet again in Jakarta to discuss the conflict further.

Putting a brave face on the episode, ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan said: "The fact that they are meeting is a good sign".

But other ASEAN leaders were not so sanguine.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino, speaking to reporters late Saturday, said ASEAN unity was at stake and expressed concern that the conflict could worsen.

"How can we have one ASEAN, one family if we have two major components who cannot solve their problems?" he asked.

"It is important that ASEAN is united so that when we talk with other groups we tell them you talk to us as one whole unit.

"If we are disunited they can easily push us around... so it is in the interest of ASEAN that Thailand and Cambodia should resolve the issue."

Aquino said he had asked Hun Sen whether there was anything the Philippines could do to help, but the Cambodian leader "just smiled" in response.

In addition to strategic integration, other issues on the table at the summit include food and energy security, territorial disputes in the South China Sea, the scourge of human trafficking and East Timor's membership bid.

Myanmar stole the headlines on Friday when ASEAN officials announced that the military-led country -- which is under Western sanctions for serial human rights abuses -- had asked to chair the group in 2014.

US-based Human Rights Watch said ASEAN, already struggling for credibility, would become the "laughing stock of intergovernmental forums" if it granted the request.

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Three wounded in blast in NW Pakistan: police (AFP)

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – A bomb exploded Sunday outside the home of a provincial minister in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, with initial reports saying three people were wounded, police said.

The bomb detonated near the residence of agriculture minister Arbab Ayub Jan, who said the explosion took place just after visitors to his house had left by car. Three of the guests were injured.

"It was a remote-controlled device planted under a billboard near my house," Jan told AFP by telephone.

"Perhaps those responsible thought I was in the car."

Senior police officer Mohammad Ejaz told AFP, "We have rushed teams to find out details. Initial reports say that three people were wounded."

The minister belongs to the secular Awami National Party (ANP) whose leaders have in the past been the targets of militant attacks. The ANP leads the government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, of which Peshawar is the capital.

Northwestern Pakistan is plagued by bomb attacks blamed on Taliban-allied Islamist militants that have killed more than 4,200 people across the country since July 2007.

Sunday's blast was the first since US navy commandos killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a covert operation in Pakistan a week ago.

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Malaysia agrees to take Australian asylum seekers (AFP)

SYDNEY (AFP) – Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced Saturday that Malaysia has agreed to take hundreds of asylum seekers who land in Australia illegally, in a move described as a "big blow" to people smugglers.

Under the bilateral agreement, up to 800 boat people who try to reach Australia will be taken immediately to Malaysia instead, with their claims processed there by the United Nations.

In return, Australia has agreed to accept and resettle, over four years, 4,000 registered refugees currently living in Malaysia, Gillard and her Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak said in a joint statement.

"This landmark agreement will help take away the product people smugglers are trying to sell -- a ticket to Australia," said Gillard.

"The key message this will deliver to people smugglers and those seeking to make the dangerous sea voyage to Australia is: do not get on that boat.

"Under this arrangement, if you arrive in Australian waters and are taken to Malaysia you will go to the back of the queue."

The agreement, which has been negotiated with the Malaysian government over the last seven months, is expected to be finalised in the coming weeks with Australia covering all the funding arrangements.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said it would cost around Aus$300 million (US$320 million) over four years.

The figure of 800 is a one-off total with no time limit attached.

Thousands of asylum seekers head to Australia each year, usually on rickety boats from Indonesia, swamping already overcrowded immigration centres and prompting recent violent unrest in the often remote units.

Gillard had previously suggested that a regional processing centre be established in East Timor, but the idea was coldly received in Dili.

On Friday, media reports said her administration was considering reopening Papua New Guinea's mothballed Manus Island detention centre to asylum seekers.

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India govt panel cuts growth forecast to 8.5% (AFP)

NEW DELHI (AFP) – The top economic adviser to India's prime minister has cut his estimate for economic growth in the current fiscal year by half a percentage point to 8.5 percent, citing inflationary pressures.

The Indian government has targeted 9.0 percent growth for the year to March 31, 2012, but the battle against stubbornly high inflation is threatening to derail those plans.

The "persistence of high inflation is inimical to medium-term growth," C. Rangarajan, chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires published Friday.

His lower growth forecast came after the central bank earlier in the week projected even slower expansion of 8.0 percent for fiscal 2011-12.

Hiking interest rates for the ninth time in 15 months, by a bigger than expected 50 basis points, the bank said short-term economic growth may have to be sacrificed in the fight against inflation.

Inflation in India has been at uncomfortably high levels for well over a year now, and is currently running at around 9.0 percent.

Controlling prices is an overriding priority for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress-led government, with poorer households -- the backbone of the Congress party's support -- especially hard-hit by rising food and fuel costs.

At the same time, the government says it needs double-digit economic growth to overcome crushing poverty in the nation of 1.2 billion people.

Rangarajan also told said it would be tough to stick to the government's budget deficit target, as risks of ballooning subsidies mount following a spike in crude oil prices.

The budget aims to cut the fiscal gap to 4.6 percent of gross domestic product this year from 5.1 percent estimated for the last fiscal year.

India imports nearly 80 percent of its crude needs and the government provides a subsidy to state-run fuel retailers to sell diesel and cooking fuels below cost.

The government has budgeted 200 billion rupees ($4.47 billion) to compensate oil companies in the next fiscal year, and the subsidy burden would rise if crude prices jump.

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Cambodia rejects Thai demands over temple troops (AFP)

JAKARTA (AFP) – Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong rejected a Thai demand to withdraw troops from an 11th-century Khmer temple at the disputed border, saying Bangkok was not sincere about peace.

"We never can withdraw our troops from our own territory. That should be very clear," Hor Namhong told reporters on Friday, after a meeting in Jakarta with Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa.

The Indonesians are trying to broker a ceasefire and the deployment of neutral military observers to the flashpoint area on the Thai-Cambodia border where some 18 people have died in fighting in recent months.

The issue is likely to be discussed at a summit of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders in Jakarta starting on Saturday.

Both countries have accused each other of sparking the violence, which centres on territory surrounding the 11th century Preah Vihear temple, the most celebrated example of ancient Khmer architecture outside Cambodia's Angkor.

The World Court ruled in 1962 that the temple belonged to Cambodia but both countries claim ownership of a 4.6 square kilometre (1.8 square mile) surrounding area. The temple was granted UN World Heritage status in 2008.

Cambodia has previously denied it has troops stationed at Preah Vihear itself, although it has soldiers in the contested area.

The neighbours agreed in late February to allow Indonesian observers near Preah Vihear, but Thailand has been dragging its heals on their deployment as fighting continues.

"The problem is the willingness of Thailand to accept the observers or not, that is the real problem," Hor Namhong said.

Indonesia holds the current chair of ASEAN and has been trying to use its position to broker an end to the hostilities, which are undermining ASEAN's ambitions to create a closely integrated community by 2015.

Natalegawa said Cambodia had agreed to the terms of the observer mission but Thailand was insisting on the withdrawal of Cambodia's troops from the temple.

"We're ready (to send observers) but Thailand is saying that before the deployment of observers can be made, they require the redeployment of Cambodian troops out of the temple," he said.

"This issue is not governed in the terms of reference. It's outside the terms of reference proper. This is where we are now."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for a ceasefire and said the neighbours should launch "serious dialogue" to resolve the dispute, which temporarily displaced about 85,000 people.

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Australia PM mum on 'Pacific Solution' for refugees (AFP)

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard refused to rule out reviving the controversial "Pacific Solution" for refugees, under which asylum seekers were sent to poor island nations.

Gillard on Friday said her ministers were pursuing discussions on a regional solution, but would not comment on whether her administration wanted to reopen Papua New Guinea's mothballed Manus Island centre to asylum seekers.

"When I've got something to announce arising from those discussions then I'll announce it," she told reporters in South Australia.

"We need a regional solution," Gillard added. "We need to be engaged with international agencies like the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. We have been doing that work."

Refugees face mandatory detention in Australia as they await their visas, and immigration centres are increasingly overcrowded, prompting recent violent unrest and reports of suicides in the often remote units.

Papua New Guinea Foreign Minister Don Polye told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that Canberra had asked its northern neighbour to house a regional immigration detention centre.

"Australia is open to putting the centre anywhere, but Manus would be an ideal situation," he said after a cabinet meeting discussing the issue.

Polye said that Australia had offered development assistance packages in return for the poorer nation housing a centre but said the government had not yet made a decision.

Australian and Papua New Guinean officials flew to Manus Island on Thursday to inspect facilities, telling local leaders that a regional processing centre would be built there, the ABC reported earlier.

Under the "Pacific Solution", boat people were processed on Manus Island or the tiny island nation of Nauru in Australian-funded detention centres, but many languished on these remote outposts for years.

The Labor government pointedly abandoned the "Pacific Solution" soon after taking power in 2007, but has since struggled to stem the tide of boat people, many of whom come from Sri Lanka, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan, often on leaky boats from Indonesia.

The vast majority of boat people arriving in Australia are already processed offshore at Christmas Island, a tiny speck in the Indian Ocean, but the centre is at capacity.

Gillard's suggestion that a regional processing centre be established in East Timor has been coldly received in Dili.

Conservative opposition leader Tony Abbott said that reopening Manus Island would not stop asylum seekers from travelling to Australia, and again urged the government to consider reopening the Nauru facility.

Amnesty International said reviving any "Pacific Solution" would send a bad example to the region.

"This was a failed policy that was internationally condemned for breaching the human rights of some of the world's most vulnerable people," refugee spokesman Graham Thom said.

"Tragically, the government that once eradicated the Pacific Solution now appears to be reviving it."

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Indonesian leader warns Islamic radicalism rising (AFP)

JAKARTA (AFP) – Indonesian's president on Thursday warned that the world's most populous Muslim-majority country was confronting a rising tide of Islamic radicalism, after a spate of hate crimes and bombings.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the sprawling archipelago's cherished reputation for tolerance and pluralism was under attack by extremists bent on turning the nation of 240 million people into a strict Islamic state.

The country -- praised by US President Barack Obama in November as a "model" of tolerance for the world -- has been shaken by bloody assaults on religious minorities and persistent attacks by homegrown terror groups.

"I have witnessed that there has been a radicalisation movement in this nation with religious and ideological motives," Yudhoyono said in a speech at a national development conference in Jakarta.

"If we continue to let this happen, it will threaten the character of our nation and our people."

Yudhoyono has allied his party with conservative Muslims in the ruling coalition and rarely speaks out against extremist violence, which often goes unpunished.

But on Thursday he said Islamic extremists, who make up a small but very vocal section of Indonesia's 200 million Muslims, were encouraging young Indonesians to "love violence" and reject the law of the diverse country.

"In the long term... if it continues, it will change the character of our communities which are tolerant and love harmony and peace.

"It must not happen, we should not be passive... We have to take responsibility to save this nation and save its people and its future."

Thirty people were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque at a police compound during Friday prayers in Cirebon, West Java, earlier this month.

Police also foiled a plot to blow up a church in Jakarta over Easter, after a detainee told them the whereabouts of five bombs.

A suspicious package was found Thursday near the British consulate and an office building hosting international media organisations in central Jakarta, police said. Bomb experts were called to the scene but it was a false alarm.

Last month a series of parcel bombs were sent to liberal Muslims, a popular rock singer and a counter-terrorism official, but no one was killed.

Indonesia has won praise for rounding up hundreds of Islamist militants since it became a key battlefield in the "war on terror" in 2002 when local radicals detonated bombs on Bali island, killing 202 people, mainly Westerners.

But analysts say religious intolerance has grown under Yudhoyono's rule and blame the authorities for failing to crack down on violent vigilante groups that advocate Taliban-style Islamic laws.

Extremists convicted of serious crimes under anti-terror legislation frequently receive lenient sentences and are allowed to preach jihad or "holy war" to other inmates in prison, turning jails into recruiting grounds.

Analysts say a de-radicalisation programme trumpeted by the government in the wake of the Bali bombings has been a total failure, with recidivism common among convicted terrorists who are released after a few years in jail.

They also say that while prominent terror networks like Jemaah Islamiyah, blamed for the Bali attacks, have been contained, new threats are emerging from an array of loosely affiliated or independent militant cells.

Yudhoyono urged civil servants in his audience to take such threats seriously. But he offered no new policy initiatives and made no mention of how he intended to tackle the problem.

"Everybody must take responsibility. We have to take precautionary steps as early as possible," he said, without elaborating.

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Indian PM admits public fury over corruption (AFP)

NEW DELHI (AFP) – Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh admitted on Thursday that corruption had become a cause of serious public discontent, as he pledged to introduce an anti-graft bill in parliament soon.

Singh, credited with kickstarting India's economic boom during his time as finance minister 20 years ago, has seen his reputation suffer during his second term as premier due to a series of major corruption scandals.

Public anger at the dishonest officials and shady business deals that are part of everyday life in India recently drew huge support for a 73-year-old man who went on hunger strike to force the government to act.

"There is a growing feeling in the people that our laws, systems and procedures are not effective in dealing with corruption," Singh told civil servants during a speech in New Delhi.

"We must recognise that there is little public tolerance now for the prevailing state of affairs (and) people expect swift and exemplary action and rightly so."

His government earlier this month accepted hunger-striker Anna Hazare's demand to include activists on a panel drafting the anti-graft bill, which could ensure prosecutions of ministers and bureaucrats.

Singh said the bill would be introduced in the next session of parliament, which starts in July.

On Wednesday, a court remanded in custody five corporate executives accused in an alleged mobile phone licence sales fraud that may have cost the country up to $40 billion in lost revenue.

Disgraced telecoms minister A. Raja is already in custody along with other government officials and businessmen over the alleged fraud.

Last October's Commonwealth Games in New Delhi were also viewed as riddled with graft involving hundreds of millions of dollars.

In Thursday's speech, Singh reiterated that tackling high inflation was a government priority as India's rapid economic growth continues.

"During the past year and a half, persistent inflation, especially in the food sector, has become a cause for concern," he said.

"The long-term solution lies in increased production and productivity in the agriculture sector."

Inflation in March accelerated to nearly nine percent, which put added pressure on the central bank to raise policy rates further to tame price rises.

Surging food prices have given Singh's Congress-led government one of its biggest problems, causing hardship to the hundreds of millions of poor who powered the coalition to a second term in office in 2009.

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Australia PM vows to back disaster-hit Japan (AFP)

TOKYO (AFP) – Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard vowed on Thursday to help Japan recover from last month's earthquake and tsunami by securing natural resources and rare earth minerals for the Asian country.

Gillard arrived in Tokyo late Wednesday on a four-day visit to hold talks with her Japanese counterpart Naoto Kan and visit northeastern Japan, hit by the March 11 disaster that has left more than 27,000 people dead or missing.

"Japan will rebuild and Australia will help as a friend," Gillard said in a speech at a meeting with Japanese business leaders.

"Over the next few years Australia will become Japan's most important supplier of liquefied natural gas, as we are already with coal and iron ore," Gillard said.

"Japan can certainly continue to rely on Australia as a reliable source of supply at this difficult time.

"We are also committed to being a secure and reliable supplier to Japan of rare earth metals, which are so important to advanced manufacturing."

Attention has shifted to Australia's nascent rare earths industry after China, which dominates global production, began restricting exports of the metals which are vital in making many high-tech products.

Ahead of her speech, Gillard met Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko at their royal residence, voicing her condolences for victims of the disaster, according to government officials and local media.

Gillard and Kan were scheduled to hold talks later in the day and expected to discuss steps to boost ties in disaster relief and energy in the wake of the calamity, Japan's worst since World War II.

Gillard, on her first visit to Japan since the disaster struck, plans to visit evacuation centres in the northeast town of Minamisanriku on Saturday.

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Australia teacher suspended for 'tying up child' (AFP)

PERTH, Australia (AFP) – A teacher at an Australian school was suspended on Wednesday after allegedly tying a five-year-old boy to a chair with a skipping rope as punishment for misbehaving.

Police told the West Australian newspaper they were alerted that a female teacher used the rope to restrain the child on two occasions at a school east of Perth.

She allegedly tied his hands behind his back for about one minute before releasing him and when he continued being disruptive, she reportedly roped him to a chair in the corner of the classroom for about five minutes.

The newspaper said another member of staff witnessed the incidents and informed police, who asked the Education Department to investigate.

The department said the experienced teacher had been suspended while their Standards and Integrity Unit conduct a probe.

Western Australia's director general of education, Sharyn O'Neil, said she was deeply concerned about the incident.

"That's an unacceptable way to manage the behaviour of students," she told reporters on Wednesday.

"We've moved quickly. The teacher is not, and hasn't been, in front of students and won't be until the matter is resolved."

O'Neil said the majority of the state's 25,000 teachers looked after students with "expertise and professionalism".

"There's no excuse to tie children to a chair. There is no occasion in which that's an okay way to deal with a behaviour management issue," she said.

O'Neil said the boy was not hurt but would have been upset by the incident.

Last year, a teacher in the Western Australian town of Kalgoorlie was disciplined for sticky-taping the mouths of nine young children to stop them talking in class.

She was given a formal reprimand, received counselling and continues to have her performance monitored.

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'18 die, five hurt' in Indian helicopter crash (AFP)

GUWAHATI, India (AFP) – At least 18 people died and five others were badly burnt on Tuesday when a helicopter crashed and exploded as it came into land in a mountainous region of northeast India, police told AFP.

"The number of those killed are 18 and five people badly burnt have been taken to hospital in Tawang," said S.B. Singh, police inspector general of Arunachal Pradesh state, lowering the earlier death toll of 20.

"There were 23 people including five crew members on board the helicopter," he added.

"Sixteen bodies have already been taken out (from the wreckage), two more bodies are being taken out and five are in hospital and they are very seriously burnt," he said.

A. Toko, assistant director in Arunachal Pradesh's civil aviation department, put the death toll from the crash near the border with China at 17.

"We can confirm that 17 people have died in the crash and there are six survivors, including both the pilots, and they have been shifted to hospital with serious injuries," Toko told AFP.

The Russian-designed civilian helicopter in the state's frontier Tawang region belonged to the government-run Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd., officer Singh said by telephone from the state capital Itanagar.

"People said it exploded in a ball of fire while coming in to land in Tawang," Singh said, citing witnesses on the ground.

Two of the five injured survivors were crew members, he said.

There were two children on board the helicopter when it crashed. Their condition is unknown.

The Indian army, which has thousands of soldiers in Arunachal Pradesh, deployed 100 troopers for rescue and salvage operations, a senior officer said from Kolkata, the military's eastern headquarters.

Pawan Hans Helicopters operates daily chopper services between Guwahati and Tawang and other remote locations in Arunachal Pradesh and the rest of the northeast.

In November last year, 12 army personnel died when a Russian-made Mi-17 military helicopter crashed after take-off near Tawang, which is situated close to the heavily fortified India-China border.

An unresolved dispute over the border triggered a brief but bloody war between China and India in 1962.

India says China is illegally occupying 38,000 square kilometres (15,000 square miles) of its territory, while Beijing claims 90,000 square kilometres or the whole of Arunachal Pradesh.

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'Wake up' drink for Aussie students on ice (AFP)

SYDNEY (AFP) – An Australian state government Monday dropped a "bizarre" idea to develop a drink for high school students designed to aid their mental alertness.

The Victoria government had advertised for businesses interested in developing a non-caffeine energy drink for students aged 12 to 19 as part of a broader Aus$28 million (US$29.6 million) grants programme.

"There is a need for a pleasant-tasting, attention-sustaining, low-priced drink that enables secondary school students to work safely and with sustained alertness all day," it read.

Education Minister Martin Dixon said the idea had come from students, and while the Department for Business and Innovation had advertised to gauge interest in developing the product, it would go no further.

"We haven't put any Education Department money into it because that's not the sort of thing that we do," he told ABC Radio.

"But good on the kids for coming up with an innovative idea."

The Victorian head of the Australian Education Union Mary Bluett said she was at first surprised and thought the advertisement was a joke.

"I went from this is hysterical, to this is bizarre, to this is absolutely outrageous," she said.

Opposition spokesman Rob Hulls said: "It's the government that needs to wake up."

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Obesity, diabetes: expanding India faces big problem (AFP)

MUMBAI (AFP) – Indian housewife Sujata Budarapu was shocked when she was told that her two sons were on the verge of developing Type 2 diabetes.

"It had never even occurred to me that this could happen. I had heard that outside India this happens to other people's kids but I never thought it would happen to my own," the 38-year-old from Mumbai told AFP.

Sujata's children are not exceptional cases, even in a country more traditionally associated with malnourishment and chronic food shortages than overeating and weight-related illness.

India still struggles to feed all of its 1.2 billion population but childhood obesity and diabetes have become an increasing problem among the middle classes, who have largely benefited from a decade of rapid economic growth.

"Childhood obesity has definitely increased in the last couple of years," said Dr Paula Goel, from the Fayth Clinic in Mumbai, which runs a weight loss programme for adolescents.

"This is mainly because... they're not playing on the fields and they're spending so much time on sedentary activities that come with the affluent lifestyle.

"Visiting the malls over the weekends, eating junk food, it's bound to cause obesity."

At 12 years old, Sujata's youngest son, Saiprasad, watches three hours of television every day and weighs 66 kilograms (145 pounds) when he should be between 52 and 58kg.

Her eldest boy, Sairaj, 15, tips the scales at 89 kilograms -- more than 30kg overweight.

Both boys love eating oil-rich and fast food and are on medication to control their sugar levels. They have been attending Goel's clinic for the last three months.

Anoop Misra, president of the Center for Diabetes, Obesity and Cholesterol Disorders in New Delhi, says India has the highest number of diabetics in the world at just under 51 million people.

But that number could increase by nearly 150 percent in the next 20 years, he warned.

The high number of cases among South Asian people has been attributed to genetic factors, including a predisposition to storing more fat.

Socio-environmental factors, though, are now seen as playing an increasing role in the rising number of cases of Type 2 diabetes.

The condition, which occurs when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it makes, largely as a result of excess body weight and physical inactivity, was previously seen mainly in older people .

High-fat, high-sugar, fast food outlets proliferate in Indian cities, catering for a hard-working, time-poor population eager to spend its new-found cash, with Western brands often chosen as a visible sign of wealth.

"All over the world, except India, people love bland, less spicy food," said Himank Doshi, a medical student tucking into a takeaway from a stall on Mumbai's Chowpatty Beach.

"They love the boiled food and all for the nutrition. But Indian people are less concerned about nutrition. They first focus on the spice of the food, the taste."

That mindset, plus a decline in physical activity through increased car use and a lack of open spaces for exercise, is a dangerous combination.

A study of 4,000 Indian children in 15 cities published in August last year indicated that almost a quarter (23 percent) of five to 14 year olds in urban schools were overweight, while nearly 11 percent were obese.

Overweight children with diabetes are at greater risk of developing heart disease and heart attacks, deteriorating eyesight, kidney failure, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Many of Goel's young patients already have mild depression because of their size.

The stakes are high -- and not just for the nation's health: India spent about $40 billion dollars on treating diabetes last year.

For Misra, prevention -- from better health education to weight-loss clinics -- is more cost-effective.

"If we prevent one case we'll be saving so much more money, rather than treating this for the lifetime," he added.

"So for a developing economy like India, it makes 100 percent sense to prevent something rather than treating it with expensive insulin and so on."

Sujata realises that life in modern India is partly to blame for her children's predicament -- and that change isn't always for the better.

"If you look at the previous generation we never went out to eat, we just ate home food. Everything was made at home. Now there?s more money and more illness because we've started to eat out more," she said.

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