BBC News
Tibet's spiritual leader has said China is trying to "annihilate Buddhism", as the region marks the anniversary of a failed revolt against China in 1959.  The Dalai Lama's comments come as Tibetans also mark the anniversary of the bloody riots in 2008, which were crushed by Beijing.   China has stepped up security in Tibet's capital Lhasa amid fears of fresh protests, local residents say.  Beijing considers the Dalai Lama, who lives in exile, a separatist.  The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 and has since been living in India, says he only wants autonomy for Tibet within China.  Beijing says that rioters in Tibet killed at least 19 people in 2008, but Tibetan exiles say Chinese security forces killed dozens of protesters. It was the worst unrest in Tibet for 20 years.  'Prison-like conditions'  In his annual address on the 51st anniversary of the Tibetan uprising, the Dalai Lama stated that "whether the Chinese government acknowledges it or not, there is a serious problem in Tibet".  "The Chinese authorities are conducting various political campaigns, including a campaign of patriotic re-education, in many monasteries in Tibet.   "They are putting the monks and nuns in prison-like conditions, depriving them the opportunity to study and practise in peace. These conditions make the monasteries function more like museums and are intended to deliberately annihilate Buddhism."  (Cont)
 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8559393.stm

Reuters, Abhishek Madhukar
DHARAMSALA, India - The Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, voiced his support on Wednesday for an ethnic minority in China's troubled Xinjiang province, risking further worsening his fraught relations with Beijing.  In an address marking 51 years since he fled Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, the Dalai Lama referred to Xinjiang as "East Turkestan," the name given to it by pro-independence exiles. The region is populated by the ethnic minority Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking largely Muslim people.  "Let us also remember the people of East Turkestan who have experienced great difficulties and increased oppression," he told about 3,000 Tibetans in Dharamsala, the northern Indian hill town where the Nobel Peace prize winner has lived for five decades.  "I would like to express my solidarity and stand firmly with them."  Chinese authorities in Xinjiang have waged a heavy-handed campaign against what China calls violent separatist activity by Uighurs. Ethnic violence there last year between Uighurs and majority Han Chinese led to at least 200 deaths.  The Dalai Lama's comments riled Beijing, which reviles the him as a separatist and says he foments violence. The Dalai Lama denies both charges, saying he merely seeks genuine autonomy for the remote region of Tibet.   (Cont)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6291FI20100310?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FworldNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+International%29

BBC News
China's exports jumped by 46% in February compared with a year ago, raising hopes of a strong recovery in global trade.  The increase was higher than analysts' expectations of a rise of between 35% and 40%.  It is likely to increase pressure on the Chinese government to raise the value of the yuan, which the US in particular complains is undervalued.   China's imports also rose strongly, increasing by 44.7% last month.  The big growth in imports was helped by the government's economic stimulus spending.  The rise in imports reduced China's trade surplus to a one-year low of $7.6bn (£5bn) for February.   Yuan to rise?   Beijing had kept the yuan at the same level against the US dollar for 18 months, to help its exporters.  This has angered the US, which says the Chinese government keeps the yuan unfairly undervalued, and Washington continues to call on Beijing to allow the currency to float freely to reflect its true market value.  "The recovery seems to have gained legs and this will give China's government more confidence to start revaluing the yuan," said Ren Xianfang, an economist at IHS Global Insight in Beijing.   However, China's central bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, said at the weekend that the government was "very cautious" about easing exchange rate controls because the global economic outlook was still uncertain.   (Cont)
 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8559088.stm

Zee News
Mumbai: The acts of Ajmal Kasab and other accused in the 26/11 terror siege amounted to "waging war against India" which is punishable by death penalty or life imprisonment, the prosecution argued in a trial court on Wednesday.  "By firing at people indiscriminately in Mumbai, Kasab and other conspirators wanted to destabilise the government and break the political and economic order of the country," special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said in his arguments that began yesterday in the high-security court at the Central Prison here.  Terror acts amount to waging war against the nation because some nations chose to use this as weapon to commit proxy war on others, Nikam submitted.   He argued that the definition of offence of waging war against the nation under section 121 of IPC includes persons of all nationalities and said this applies to Kasab also who had allegedly indulged in terror acts.   Nikam said the other two accused Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, who are charged with preparing maps of 26/11 targets, are also liable to be held guilty of "waging war against India".   He referred to Kasab's confession in which he had said that the 26/11 attackers were asked by conspirators at a training camp in Pakistan to commit terror acts in Mumbai to "bring pressure on the Indian government to liberate Kashmir".   (Cont)

http://www.zeenews.com/news610124.html

BBC News
Burma has issued a law which will bar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from taking part in planned elections and could force her party to expel her.  The new law prohibits anyone with a criminal conviction from belonging to a political party.  Ms Suu Kyi has been detained on various charges for most of the past 20 years, after winning the last polls in 1990.  She was already excluded from political office by a constitutional bar on people with foreign spouses.  The Political Parties Registration Law was published in official newspapers as part of a series of daily announcements of laws intended to guide the elections.  The deputy chairman of Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) said the laws were "too much".  "This is politically motivated toward Daw Aung San Suu Kyi," Tin Oo told reporters.  No date has yet been set for polls, which the military has promised to hold this year.  Stark choice  The latest law orders any party to reject people who are "not in conformity with the qualification to be members of a party".  It also bans members of religious orders and civil servants from joining political parties. Buddhist monks were the driving forces behind anti-junta protests in 2007.    (Cont)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8559048.stm

Reuters, Rob Taylor and Telly Nathalia
CANBERRA/JAKARTA -- A suspected mastermind of the Bali bombings was killed in a police raid in Indonesia in the latest blow to an Islamist militant movement in the world's most populous Muslim country.  Dulmatin, who once trained with al Qaeda in Afghanistan, was one of three militants killed in a shootout with police at an Internet cafe and a house nearby, Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Wednesday.  "Today I can announce to you that after a successful police raid against the terrorists hiding out in Jakarta yesterday, we can confirm that one of those that was killed was Dulmatin, one of the top Southeast Asian terrorists," Yudhoyono said in a speech in Australia's parliament house in Canberra.  The series of police raids that led to Dulmatin's death will be seen as a coup in Indonesia's fight against Islamist radicals ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama's visit March 20-22.  But analysts said Dulmatin's emergence in Indonesia with a new group showed a worrisome ability of local militants to forge international links, including with al Qaeda-affiliated outfits.  Police shot dead Dulmatin, who they said fired at officers with a revolver he was carrying, and two others in a series of coordinated raids on the outskirts of Jakarta on Tuesday.  Dulmatin's body was identified after DNA tests and also by his chin shape, eyebrows and freckles, police said on Wednesday.  (Cont)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6290MK20100310?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FworldNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+International%29

AFP
JAKARTA - Indonesian police said Wednesday they had seized three remote-controlled bomb detonators at the Internet cafe on Jakarta's outskirts where fugitive militant leader Dulmatin was killed.  National police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri told reporters that the devices were ready to be used, but refused to say whether any explosives had been found in Tuesday's raid on the cafe in Pamulang city.  "We found detonators to be used to trigger bombs from a distance," he said.  Dulmatin's death came after security forces conducted a series of raids in Jakarta, West Java and in Aceh, where an extremist training camp was discovered.  "Dulmatin's role was to prepare military training, buy weapons and bullets and finance military training activities with funds of 500 million rupiah (54,500 US dollars)," Danuri added.  The Al-Qaeda trained bomb specialist, with a US$10 million bounty on his head, was killed by police, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Wednesday, confirming earlier police reports.  Danuri also said that 28 terror suspects were arrested and three policemen killed in the anti-terror crackdown.  He said the raids were targeting Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the Southeast Asian extremist group inspired by Al-Qaeda and blamed for multiple attacks across Indonesia, including the 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202 people.   (Cont)

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1042735/1/.html

AFP
BANGKOK - Thailand's main airport, which was besieged by protesters in 2008, said Wednesday it had made contingency plans for protests this weekend, as ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra rallied supporters by text message.  Suvarnabhumi Airport said the plans were to deal with travel disruption or a possible blockade from March 11-23, the period when a special security law is in place to counter protests by backers of the deposed prime minister.  "There are concerns that travelling plans of passengers may be disrupted," a statement from the airport said, advising international travellers to check in three to four hours before flying.  The airport's general manager, Nirandra Theeranartsin, said there was also a contingency plan in case the so-called "Red Shirt" protesters tried to seize the facility, as rival anti-Thaksin "Yellow Shirts" did in late 2008.   Then the capital's two airports were closed for nine days as protesters staged a sit-in to force Thaksin's allies from government, causing huge economic damage and badly denting Thailand's tourist-friendly image.  This weekend's protests come just over two weeks after Thailand's top court confiscated 1.4 billion US dollars of Thaksin's assets, which were frozen after the 2006 coup that toppled him from power.   (Cont)

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1042783/1/.html

VOA News, Phil Mercer, Sydney 10 March 2010
The leaders of Indonesia and Australia have discussed plans to fight people smuggling and say the two nations will continue to cooperate in fighting the problem. The discussion came during Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's visit to Australia.  Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Tuesday told the Australian federal Parliament that his country will toughen laws against people smuggling.  Thousands of people, primarily from South Asia, have tried to sneak into Australia over the past several years, many of them paying people smugglers to take them by boat from Indonesia. Both countries have been working to combat the problem.  Mr. Yudhoyono, on a state visit to Australia, stressed the increasing close ties between the two countries in his speech to Parliament. The relationship, which was tense for decades, has improved dramatically in the past eight years as the two have cooperated in fighting violent Islamic militants responsible for a number of bombings in Indonesia that were aimed at Westerners.  The president, who is the first Indonesian leader to address a joint sitting of the Australian Parliament, says that adversity brought the two countries closer together.   "Our intense and fruitful cooperation to bring the Bali bombers to justice and Australia's outpouring of sympathy, and rescue and relief effort in the wake of the tsunami tragedy of 2004 was the emotional turning point of our bilateral relations," he said.    (Cont)

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/Australian-Indonesian-Leaders-Discuss-Human-Trafficking-87210687.html

BBC News
A Swedish court has sentenced a Uighur refugee to 16 months in prison for spying on Uighur expatriates for China.  Babur Maihesuti, 62, was found guilty of passing on personal details, including political activity, of other Uighurs to a Chinese agent.  The court said he had infiltrated the World Uighur Congress, a political body for exiled Uighurs.   Nearly 200 people were killed last July in riots in north-west China between Uighurs and China's majority Han.  Uighurs are a Turkic-speaking, mainly-Muslim people living in north-west China's Xinjiang region.  Many complain of religious, cultural and political oppression.   The court in Stockholm found that from January 2008 to June 2009 Maihesuti had collected information about other Uighurs and passed it on to a Chinese spy posing as a diplomat and journalist.   "The crime is especially serious because the intelligence served a superpower which does not have full respect for human rights," the Stockholm district court said in a statement.   The court said it based its verdict on "strong" prosecution evidence including wire-tapped telephone conversations and interviews with Uighur witnesses.
 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8556736.stm

BBC News
China's foreign ministry has denied that the country has been spying on political refugees living in Sweden.  The reaction comes after a Stockholm court jailed a Uighur refugee for 16 months for passing on information about other Uighurs to a Chinese agent.   The court said the man had infiltrated the World Uighur Congress, a political body for exiled Uighurs.  But a ministry spokesman in Beijing said the allegations were "totally groundless" and had "ulterior motives".   "The Chinese institutions functioning abroad and Chinese diplomatic staff are performing their responsibilities and abiding by the laws of the country where they are stationed," said Qin Gang.  He said all staff followed diplomatic conventions, so the accusations were "fabricated with ulterior motives".  Babur Maihesuti, 62, was found guilty on Monday of collecting information about other Uighurs and passing it on to a Chinese spy posing as a diplomat and journalist.  The court said the case was "especially serious because the intelligence served a superpower which does not have full respect for human rights".  (Cont) 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8557777.stm

BBC News
Japan has confirmed the existence of a secret Cold War deal allowing the transit of nuclear-armed US vessels through its ports. The move by a government-appointed panel ends decades of official denial - although the existence of the pact was an open secret.   The government said that the move was aimed at increasing transparency.   But it comes at an unsettled time for the US-Japan relationship, amid a row over US military bases in Okinawa.  The secret pact is controversial because after World War II and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan adopted the three "non-nuclear principles" - not making or possessing nuclear weapons, nor allowing them on to its soil.  The secret deal was sealed in the 1960s between US and Japanese diplomats, who agreed that the transit of nuclear arms through ports did not constitute the introduction of weapons into Japan, and so did not require prior consultation on the US side.  ''By leaving the issue ambiguous, (US) ships carrying nuclear weapons could stop at Japanese ports without prior consultation, while Japan, as its official stance, could deny such a development. But neither side would make a protest,'' Kyodo news agency quoted the panel's report as saying.  Declassified US documents had already confirmed the deal.  (Cont) 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8557346.stm

IHT/NYT, Lydia Polgreen
NEW DELHI - The upper house of India's Parliament passed a bill Tuesday that would amend the Constitution to reserve one-third of the seats in India's national and state legislatures for women, after the measure drew two days of political chaos that could whittle governing coalition's majority to a dangerously thin margin.  The vote, which is an early step in the process of amending the Constitution, brought pandemonium to the floor of the Parliament, as a small group of regional caste-based parties waged a fierce fight to block it, arguing that it would diminish their influence.  The parties, allies of the governing coalition led by the Congress Party, have threatened to withdraw their support, which would reduce the coalition's voting majority to single digits and jeopardize crucial legislation such as India's budget, which was just introduced. The chaos surrounding the bill threatens to undermine what has been an otherwise stable coalition government, analysts said.   Tuesday's vote was the first of four hurdles the measure must clear. The lower house of Parliament, the Lok Sabha, must pass the bill, then the proposed amendment will need to win approval from at least half of India's state legislatures. Then India's president, a largely ceremonial post, must sign off.  (Cont)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/world/asia/10india.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

VOA News, Ravi Khanna, Washington, 08 March 2010
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, last week asked Saudi Arabia to try to influence Pakistan to crack down on anti-Indian terrorists in Pakistan. For years, India has insisted on dealing directly with Pakistan, but Saudi Arabia has close ties to Paksitan.  Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Saudi Arabia resulted in the signing several agreements, including an extradition treaty.  Terrorism also was a key issue in Mr. Singh's talks with Saudi King Abdullah.  Indian deputy foreign minister Shashi Tharoor was part of Mr. Singh's delegation. "Saudi Arabia of course has a long and close relationship with Pakistan," Singh said. "But that makes Saudi Arabia all the more valuable interlocutor for us."   Mr. Singh asked King Abdullah to persuade Pakistan to cease supporting terrorism against India.  Later, he briefed India's parliament on his visit. "Saudi Arabia is also affected by terrorism. And this was one of the subjects that came up in our discussion," he said.  "India needs that in order to manage its relationship with Pakistan," Stephen Cohen, Brookings Institution stated. "I think it needs to think more broadly about where it wants to go to Pakistan."  Mr. Singh's move shows that India is serious about improving relations with Pakistan, says Shuja Nawaz at the Atlantic Council. "It is primarily because it is in India's own interest to have a stable Pakistan on its border and to be able to open the door to Afghanistan and Central Asia," he said. (Cont)

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/asia/India-Wants-Saudi-Arabia-to-Pressure-Pakistan-on-Anti-India-Terrorism-86918282.html

BBC News
The Thai government has announced that it will invoke the Internal Security Act from 11-23 March, in Bangkok and seven surrounding provinces.  The move comes ahead of a planned march by "red shirt" opposition protesters.  They are mainly supporters of the former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a military coup in 2006.  They say they plan to rally until the current coalition government calls new elections.  The ISA puts the military in charge, with powers to impose curfews, restrict numbers at gatherings and man check points if they deem such measures necessary.  Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has cancelled a planned trip to Australia.  Fears and loathing  The last time the act was invoked was during the meeting of the regional grouping Asean held in Thailand last October - after an earlier attempt to host Asean in April was derailed by red shirt protests.   The police had failed to act against them as they took over the conference centre and the army asserted control to keep Mr Abhisit's government in power.  This time, the red shirt movement, led by the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), has promised a huge but peaceful demonstration.  Smaller rallies, meetings and "political schools" are being held in various provinces before convoys of vehicles are expected to carry protesters to the capital by the weekend.  (Cont) 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8557069.stm

BBC News
An American medical charity has warned that thousands of Burmese refugees in Bangladesh are facing starvation.  Physicians for Human Rights said government authorities are preventing the Rohingya, a Muslim minority, from receiving adequate care.  It accuses Bangladesh of obstructing efforts to help the Rohingya, who have fled Burma to escape persecution.   The government has dismissed the allegations as it did similar reports by MSF last month.  Aid blocks  The new report by the Physicians for Human Rights, "Stateless and Starving: Persecuted Rohingya Flee Burma and Starve in Bangladesh," says children will starve if aid is not allowed to be delivered.   It blamed the Bangladesh authorities for "arbitrary arrests, illegal expulsion and forced internment" of Burmese refugees, as neighbouring Burma prepares for elections later this year.  The report described the makeshift camps for unregistered refugees - where an estimated 200,000 Rohingya are living - as "open-air prisons".  "The government of Bangladesh is absolutely ignoring it. They are sweeping it under the rug," said Richard Sollom, director of research and investigation for the group.  (Cont)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8556916.stm

The Associated Press, Rod McGuirk
JAKARTA, Indonesia - Three terror suspects killed during raids Tuesday near Jakarta may include one of the masterminds of the 2002 Bali bombings, but police were still trying to confirm his identity.  The suspected mastermind, an electronics specialist named Dulmatin, was earlier thought to have fled to the Philippines, and the U.S. government has offered a reward of up to $10 million for his capture.  The Bali suicide bombings, targeting nightclubs popular with foreigners, killed 202 people and were Indonesia's worst terror attacks.  The raids were part of a police crackdown on a suspected cell of the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah militant group, which recently established a paramilitary training camp in the western province of Aceh.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35773188/ns/world_news/

PNG Post-Courier, Caldron Laepa, March 8, 2010
PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea - The president of the Republic of Indonesia will visit Papua New Guinea this week following an invitation from Prime Minister Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare.  Indo President Dr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will be in the country on Thursday for a two day visit during which he will discuss issues of common interest between the two countries. President Yudhoyono will meet with Prime Minister Sir Michael and other State ministers to discuss key issues such as the co-operation along the common borders, economic and trade links.  This will also include regional and international issues of common interest which will include the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) Climate change and Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).  President Yudhoyono will also address the parliament on Friday before he departs for Indonesia in the afternoon.  Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Abal said a framework agreement would be arranged namely for the Defence Cooperation and Double Taxation Treaty Agreement for the two countries which would be signed by relevant state ministers.  (Cont)

http://pidp.eastwestcenter.org/pireport/2010/March/03-09-01.htm

BBC News
Fiji has jailed eight men for between three and seven years for attempting to kill the country's military leader, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, in 2007.  Sentencing the men, Justice Paul Madigan said had the men's plot succeeded the consequences for the Pacific nation were "unthinkable".   But critics have said the men did not have a fair hearing in court.   Cmdr Bainimarama seized power in Fiji in a 2006 coup and has said elections can only be reinstated in 2014.  The eight men were arrested in November 2007 over the alleged plot against Cmdr Bainimarama and four senior military and cabinet officials.   Justice Madigan said Fiji had been in "a very fragile state" at the time of the plot.  "Had this plot succeeded, the consequences are unthinkable," the Associated Press news agency quoted him as saying.  "There has been no evidence before this court of any thought given to the fate of the average Fijian should the country be suddenly rid of its president, prime minister and army.  "The plans of the accused were totally self-serving, thoughtless and greedy."  (Cont)
 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8552721.stm

BBC News
Philippine troops have killed at least seven militants from the Abu Sayyaf group in a raid on their hideout in the south of the country, officials say.  An army commander said they believed the men might be linked to a wanted Malaysian militant - Zulkipli Bin Hir, also known as Marwan.   Bodies are being identified. It is not clear whether he was among the dead.   He is said to be one of the leaders of a key militant group in the region, Jemaah Islamiah (JI).   A Philippines soldier was also wounded during the raid on the island of Siasi, near the main island of Jolo, Brig Gen Rustico Guerrero said.   "We caught them by surprise," Gen Guerrero told reporters.  He said 15 assault rifles and bomb-making materials had been seized.   "We have information that Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, was hiding with the Abu Sayyaf group on the island, but we are not sure whether he was there during the raid," Gen Guerrero said.   The US has offered a $5m (£3.2m) reward for information leading to the capture of Marwan, who is said to have been behind a series of bomb attacks in the southern Philippines since 2006.   He is believed to have trained Muslim rebels in making bombs.   Abu Sayyaf is the smallest and most radical of the Islamic separatist groups in the southern Philippines.  JI has links to al-Qaeda and has a long track record of bomb attacks in Indonesia.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8554044.stm

AFP
KUALA LUMPUR : Malaysia's former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim has lost his final court battle to declare as unlawful his dramatic sacking in 1998, his lawyer said on Monday.  Anwar was sacked from his posts as deputy premier and finance minister by then prime minister Mahathir Mohamad in September 1998. Anwar launched a legal suit the same year, arguing the move was unconstitutional.  The case has been rejected twice by the lower courts in 1998 and 2007, and the Federal Court - the country's highest court - upheld the decision on Monday, saying the dismissal was executed lawfully.  "We are most disappointed but not surprised with the decision," Anwar's lawyer Sankara Nair told AFP.  "The court rules that the king is a constitutional monarch, he has to act on the advice of the prime minister and the king does not have power of his own," the counsel added.  Anwar, who now leads a three-party opposition alliance, has argued in court that the king had not approved his removal on the same day he was sacked - a requirement under Malaysia's constitution.  He said the king only signed the revocation of his appointment on September 5 and not September 2, the day of his dismissal.  Anwar said the court's decision "was almost a foregone conclusion".  (Cont)

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1042246/1/.html

AFP
JAKARTA : Indonesia said Monday that raids against militants in Aceh province would not affect US President Barack Obama's planned visit to the country this month as police rounded up more terror suspects.  "The operations have been managed well, the suspects were arrested and the weapons seized, so Obama's visit won't be affected," security ministry anti-terror chief Ansyaad Mbai told AFP.  In an update to reporters, police said 16 suspects had been charged under anti-terrorism laws since a major raid late February on an extremist training facility in a remote region of Aceh province in the north of the island of Sumatra.  "Sixteen (suspects) were arrested and three died," national police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri said.  Two of them were suspected of supplying firearms and were arrested in West Java and the capital Jakarta.  "What's clear is that this has nothing to do with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). This is purely a group that is preparing something," Danuri said, referring to the former Aceh separatist group which rules the restive province under a 2005 peace-for-autonomy deal.  The hunt for other suspected militants was ongoing, Danuri added.  (Cont)

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1042267/1/.html

BBC News
Burma's military government has passed long-awaited election laws which pave the way for polls expected this year.  Details of the laws have not yet been revealed but they are likely to include issues such as campaigning and the number of candidates per constituency.   No date has been given for the polls, although the junta has previously said the elections will be held this year.  Detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi cannot stand and her party has not confirmed it will take part.   The five new elections laws will be published in detail on Tuesday, Burma's state media said.   The laws are expected to lay out rules on how long candidates can campaign for and how many candidates can run in each constituency.   Correspondents say they could also include a date for the elections, the first in 20 years.   Burma's last general election, in 1990, was overwhelmingly won by Ms Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), but the military government annulled the result.  (Cont)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8555386.stm

BBC News
Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina have launched a joint $2.96bn (£1.95bn) takeover bid for Australian liquefied natural gas (LNG) group Arrow Energy.  The news led to shares in Arrow jumping 47% on the Australian stock market.   Arrow said in a statement that it "recommends shareholders take no action in relation to their Arrow shares" at this stage.  Analysts said Shell and PetroChina want to buy Arrow to increase their LNG supplies to China.  Arrow claims to have the largest reserves of natural gas in Australia's northern eastern state of Queensland.  LNG is gas that has been converted into liquid form through cooling, which makes it easier and cheaper to transport by sea.
 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8555006.stm

The Associated Press
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- Sri Lanka's president has rejected a United Nations plan to appoint a panel of experts to look into allegations of human rights abuses in the nation's civil war, a statement from the president's office said Saturday.  Times Topic: Sri LankaIn a phone conversation on Friday evening, President Mahinda Rajapaksa told the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, that such a step was "totally uncalled for and unwarranted," the statement said.  In New York, Mr. Ban's spokesman, Martin Nesirky, confirmed that the secretary general had told Mr. Rajapaksa he intended to form a panel to "advise him on the way forward on accountability issues related to Sri Lanka."  Sri Lanka has faced growing international criticism for not examining allegations of abuses, including remarks on Thursday by the top United Nations human rights official, Navi Pillay.  Tens of thousands of combatants and civilians died in the war.  The United Nations has reported that more than 7,000 civilians were killed in the final fighting against the Tamil Tigers last year as government forces closed in and crushed the rebellion.  Human rights groups and some countries have called for war crime inquiries. The government has been accused of firing heavy weapons into civilian areas, and the Tamil rebels have been accused of holding civilians as human shields and shooting those who tried to flee. Both sides have denied the assertions.  (Cont)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/world/asia/07lanka.html?partner=rss&emc=rss