LUCKNOW, India - India should be prepared for war with Pakistan because it is unclear which Pakistani centre of power is behind the infiltration in Kashmir.

BEIJING - North Korea began talks with the United States in Beijing on Wednesday, but put simultaneous talks with South Korea on ice as Pyongyang weighed its next move in a series of crises.

LONDON - Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, in his first public comments on Israel‘s new leader, described Prime Minister-elect Ehud Barak in remarks published on Wednesday as an honest man who could deliver peace with Syria.

DILI - Pro-Indonesian groups in East Timor joined forces on Wednesday to campaign against independence, saying they would benefit from a two-week delay in an August ballot on self-rule for the territory.

MOSCOW - Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin said on Wednesday Russia‘s economy had stabilised in the view of the country‘s major foreign investors and was generally performing better than expected.

BONN - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, trying to reverse a steep slide in public support over bungled tax and pension reform plans, answered his critics on Tuesday with vows to push forward with tax and spending cuts.

WITTERING, England - British warplane pilots swooped home to their families on Tuesday in a reunion tinged with anxiety for NATO soldiers carrying out the peacekeeping mission in Kosovo.

FREETOWN - The Sierra Leone government has agreed to offer its rebel foes two cabinet posts in a planned peace deal but the rebels want greater representation.

HARARE - Congolese President Laurent Kabila flew into Harare on Tuesday for crucial talks with his key war ally Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe ahead of a ceasefire summit in Zambia on Saturday.

BRAZZAVILLE - Rebels attacked the town of Djambala in the northwest of the Congo Republic, wounding many people including government soldiers.

MUDANYA, Turkey - Turkey formally removed a military judge from the tribunal trying Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan for treason just hours before the court reconvened on Wednesday to hear the guerrilla chief‘s defence.

ANKARA - An influential Moslem preacher on Wednesday denied accusations he sought to subvert Turkey‘s secularist state and said video tapes of his sermons had been edited and taken out of context.

BAGHDAD - Iraq said on Tuesday that more than one million Iraqis had died due to the trade sanctions the United Nations imposed on the country for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

JAMMU, India - India pressed on with its military offensive on Wednesday to wrest control of strategic Kashmir heights from guerrillas and said Pakistan must guarantee respect for bilateral treaties before talks could take place.

HONG KONG - Hong Kong politicians and newspapers seethed with fury on Wednesday after a senior Chinese lawmaker criticised the territory‘s highest court for making a controversial ruling on immigration.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate on Tuesday approved a plan to pay the bulk of the huge U.S. debt to the United Nations in return for reforms at the world body and a reduction in future dues payments.

EDITED BY ZUZANA VILIKOVSKÁ