Obama in Afghan troop level talks

US President Barack Obama is to discuss US policy in Afghanistan with his national security team, as speculation mounts over a decision on troop levels.

A White House spokesman said Mr Obama was considering four options as he headed into the meeting.
He denied reports that the president had already settled on a figure and said a decision was still weeks away.
The top US military commander in Afghanistan has asked for at least 40,000 more US troops there.
Wednesday's meeting comes as an exhaustive review of US strategy in Afghanistan, including troop levels, appears to be drawing to a close.
Reports citing anonymous officials have suggested that a figure somewhat below the 40,000 suggested by Gen Stanley McChrystal is likely to be chosen.
But on Tuesday White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president was yet to decide.
"Anybody who tells you the president has made a decision... doesn't have, in all honesty, the slightest idea what they are talking about," he said.
He gave no details about the four options that he said Mr Obama would weigh up.
Officials have stressed that the review is not just about numbers, but includes decisions on how troops should be deployed.
Among the key outstanding issues is said to be how much the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who was recently declared the winner of a widely criticised election, can be relied upon.
One senior source told the BBC that whichever option was chosen, the focus would be on protection and training rather than going out and seeking to kill the Taliban.
Critics have said the decision on Afghanistan is taking too long, while Mr Obama has said he does not want to rush a decision that involves putting troops at risk.
The BBC's Caroline Wyatt says that there is a growing sense of frustration at the length of time it is taking for the White House to make its decision amongst military commanders and politicians from other coalition countries.
As public support for the campaign wanes in almost every Nato ally, the signal sent out by President Obama's decision will be crucial - and the fear is that the current delay sends out a message to other Nato members, to the Afghan people and to the Taliban and al-Qaeda that America and its partners may be wavering, she says.
Any reinforcement of troops is expected to start next spring.
The US currently has some 68,000 troops in Afghanistan, contributing to a coalition force of more than 100,000.

Kraft makes Cadbury takeover bid

US food company Kraft has launched £9.8bn ($16.43bn) hostile bid for UK confectioner Cadbury.

Kraft announced it will offer 300 pence in cash and 0.2589 new Kraft shares for each Cadbury share, the same terms as it proposed in September.
Because Kraft shares have dropped in value since then, the bid is now worth less than the original £10bn approach.
Cadbury had rejected the original Kraft offer, saying it "fundamentally undervalued" the company.
Kraft is now taking its offer directly to its shareholders.
Under Takeover Panel rules, Kraft had until 1700 GMT on Monday to make a new offer or walk away for six months.
'Long-term value'
"We believe that our proposal offers the best immediate and long-term value for Cadbury's shareholders and for the company itself compared with any other option currently available, including Cadbury remaining independent," said Irene Rosenfeld, Kraft chairman.
Shares in Cadbury, which had been over 1% higher, fell by 0.5% to 754p.
Many investors had expected Kraft to increase its offer to tempt the board to back the offer.
Weekend reports had said that some Cadbury shareholders thought 820p a share would be a "starting point" for discussions with Kraft.
Cadbury chairman Roger Carr had previously said in a letter to Kraft chief executive Irene Rosenfeld that "Cadbury would be absorbed into Kraft's low growth, conglomerate business model" and that made the offer an "unappealing prospect".
Shares in Cadbury have risen about 30% since late August.
As well as Dairy Milk, Cadbury also owns the Green & Black's chocolate brand, Halls lozenges, Trident and Dentyne gum brands and liquorice allsorts maker Bassett's.
It spun off its drinks division as a separate business last year.
Kraft's brands include Kenco and Maxwell House coffee, Oreo biscuits, Jacobs, Terry's Chocolate Orange and Toblerone, as well as cheese products such as Philadelphia and Dairylea.

eBay in Skype deal with founders

Online auction site eBay has settled a lawsuit with the founders of Skype, ending uncertainty over the future of the internet phone company.

The case was about whether the software of the site was owned by the founders via their firm, Joltid, or by eBay.
In a complicated deal, the founders will drop their lawsuit against eBay and take two seats on the board of Skype.
Skype will still be sold to a group of investors for about $2bn (£1.2bn).
Skype's software lets computer and mobile phone users talk to each other for free and make cut-price calls to mobiles and landlines.
The deal, announced by eBay in September, is is expected to be finalised in the fourth quarter of 2009.
As a result of the agreement, eBay will keep a 30% stake in Skype rather than the 35% it originally announced.
New owners
"Skype will be well positioned to move forward under new owners with ownership and control over its core technology," said eBay head John Donahoe.
"At the same time, eBay continues to retain a significant stake in Skype and will benefit from its continued growth."
Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis will now own a 14% stake in the new Skype.
The other new owners are Andreessen Horowitz - run by Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen - as well as private equity firm Silver Lake and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
But Index Ventures, which originally invested in Skype, will no longer be part of the new takeover.
Mr Zennstrom and Mr Friis had been trying to buy back Skype for the past year, which eBay bought for $2.6bn in 2005.
They sued the company in the UK, saying their company Joltid owned the rights to underlying source code that props up the Skype network.
Unlike traditional mobile calls, which are transmitted over a cellular network, Skype turns your voice into data and sends it over the internet.
Since being acquired, the number of registered Skype users has risen to 405 million from 53 million, though free user-to-user calls still dominate the service.

Argentine ex-leader goes on trial

The trial has begun of Argentina's last military ruler, Reynaldo Bignone, and five other retired generals.

The men are charged in connection with the alleged kidnapping, torture and disappearance of 56 opponents of the military government in the late 1970s.
The abuses are alleged to have taken place at the Campo de Mayo base on the outskirts of the capital, Buenos Aires.
Human rights groups say up to 30,000 people were killed or disappeared in Argentina between 1976 and 1983.
All of the eight accused, including two former military government officials, deny the charges.
Mr Bignone, 81, appeared frail and rocked back and forth in his chair as the charges were read out, correspondents said.
"This is a historic trial in the search for truth for all of those who disappeared," Alcira Rios, a lawyer for relatives of one of the victims, told Reuters news agency.
"We have to say no to impunity. We owe it to our Argentine society."
House arrest
The other retired generals on trial are Santiago Omar Riveros, Eugenio Guanabens Perello, Jorge Garcia, Fernando Exequiel Verplaetsen and Carlos Alberto Tepedino.
More than 130 witnesses are expected to be called to testify against the defendants. The trial is not expected to finish before February.
Mr Bignone, who has been living under house arrest, faces charges in connection with alleged torture, illegal break-ins and human rights violations from 1976 to 1978.
He was the last of Argentina's four military presidents, serving from 1982-83, and handed power over to democratically elected leader Raul Alfonsin when the dictatorship collapsed in 1983.
An estimated 5,000 prisoners were held at the Campo de Mayo barracks, one of the largest death camps in operation during the dictatorship, according to human rights groups.

Pelosi unveils House health bill

The Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has unveiled a healthcare bill that would extend coverage to 36m more Americans.

The top House Democrat said the legislation would provide affordable healthcare to 96% of all Americans.

It would also let the government sell insurance in competition with private companies and make insurers offer cover to those with pre-existing conditions.

The bill is the latest step in a long-running battle over healthcare reform.

President Barack Obama has made reform of the healthcare system a central plank of his domestic agenda.

Scaled-back

Speaking on the steps of the Capitol building in Washington DC, Ms Pelosi called the bill a "historic moment for our nation and families".

She said the legislation would also include a so-called "public option", referring to a controversial new government-run insurance option.

However, the public option she unveiled was a scaled-back version, falling short of the one liberal Democrats had demanded and which had thrown the bill into a logjam.

US President Barack Obama welcomed the legislation in a written statement, saying that "a public option that competes with private insurers is the best way to ensure choice and competition that are so badly needed in today's market".

The bill will now go before the House of Representatives, where it could be voted on as early as next week.

Once both the House and Senate have approved their own versions, a conference committee, made up of lawmakers from both houses, will convene to reconcile the two.

If both chambers then vote in favour of the reconciled version, it will be sent to Mr Obama for his approval, and become law.

China economic growth accelerates

China has said it is on track to hit its growth target of 8% this year, after the economy grew 8.9% from a year ago in the third quarter.

The figure is up from the 7.9% rate seen in the previous quarter and is the country's fastest GDP growth since the third quarter of last year.

Separate reports show that industrial production and retail sales also accelerated in September.

The economy grew by 7.7% in the nine months to September.

Retail sales growth was 15.1% in the first three quarters of the year, the National Statistics Bureau said.

China's car market has become the world's largest, with sales up 34% to 9.66 million vehicles in the first nine months of the year.

Government investment

At the end of 2008 the Chinese government announced a 4 trillion yuan ($586bn; £354bn) stimulus plan involving increased spending on infrastructure, such as rail and roads, to boost the domestic economy as exports slumped.

Latest figures show that investment, accounting for nearly 88% of GDP growth earlier this year, is playing a vital role in China's growth.

Investment in factories, construction and other fixed assets rose by one-third in the first nine months of the year to a record 15.5tn yuan.

But factory owners say that in many cases, while the volume of goods they are producing has risen, the prices customers are prepared to pay for them are lower than before the financial crisis.

Unemployment is still high in many areas, and some factory workers are reported to be working shorter hours and earning less.

The next challenge for policy makers is to begin to withdraw elements of the stimulus plan, and to reduce the huge outflows of credit the country's state owned banks have issued, without damaging economic recovery.

As the stimulus is withdrawn, the hope is that demand from the private sector, from consumer spending and eventually from renewed demand for China's exports, will keep the country's growth rate stable.

China to move 15,000 from smelter

Officials in central China plan to relocate 15,000 residents after more than 1,000 children tested positive for lead poisoning, state media say.

Zhao Suping, mayor of Jiyuan city in Henan province, said the relocation would cost 1bn yuan ($146m), the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The residents live in about 10 villages around China's biggest lead smelter in Jiyuan.

Toxic emissions from the plant have been blamed for poisoning the children.

The children were moved away last week, and now the local government says a total of 15,000 people will be relocated.

The cost of the move will be borne by the lead company, officials have said.

The factory will keep operating, with its owners leasing the land surrounding the plant from the farmers, and setting up an exclusion zone for nearby villages.

'Health ignored'

Villagers say the government has not acted quickly enough to address their concerns - no timetable has been set for the relocation.

A resident of one village told Xinhua that high pollution levels were ignored in the quest for wealth.

"A few people got rich, but the whole village is poisoned," said 60-year-old Wang Shaozhou.

"How can we ignore people's health in the process of economic development?" Wang said.

The mayor of Jiyuan said the city's air quality had improved since 2003 when the city was officially listed as "seriously polluted".

Mayor Zhao told Xinhua there were plans to further reduce the pollution.

The poisoning in Henan is the latest in a series of toxic accidents that have left thousands of children sick across China.

According to the BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Beijing, Communist officials often overlook the damage that China's rapid industrialisation does to the local population.

Factories are often large contributors of local taxes, our correspondent says.

Canadians intercept migrant ship

A ship carrying 76 suspected illegal migrants has been seized off Canada's Pacific coast, officials say.

Those on board the ship said they were trying to reach Canada, according to local authorities.

The identity of the migrants was not confirmed, although Canada's public safety minister said there were indications they were from Sri Lanka.

He said it appeared to be a case of human smuggling. The migrants, all men, were said to be in good health.

The merchant vessel, named Ocean Lady, was intercepted by a navy frigate off Vancouver Island before being escorted to a dock in Ogden Point in Victoria, British Columbia.

Officials there were carrying out health and safety and immigration checks.

Those on board the ship were pictured wearing civilian clothes. Some were shirtless.

"The signs do point toward human smuggling," said the public safety minister, Peter Van Loan.

Several ships attempting to smuggle migrants from China to Canada's Pacific coast were intercepted off Vancouver Island a decade ago.

North Korean diplomat to visit US

A senior North Korean diplomat will be allowed a rare visa to visit the US later this month, officials have said.

The diplomat, Ri Gun, is the deputy negotiator in stalled talks on North Korea's nuclear programme. There have been recent moves to restart the talks.

One report said Mr Ri would attend a forum in California, while another said he was going to a meeting in New York.

He is also expected to discuss the nuclear issue in an informal meeting with a senior US counterpart.

"The State Department has decided to authorise the issuance of visas for Ambassador Ri Gun and his delegation to attend conferences in the United States in late October," said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly in a statement.

Kim Myong Gil, a minister at North Korea's UN mission, told the Associated Press news agency that Mr Ri would attend a private security forum in California.

AP cited a senior US source as saying Mr Ri was expected to discuss nuclear matters with a senior US diplomat during his visit.

Reuters news agency cited an unnamed source as saying Mr Ri would likely meet US diplomat Sung Kim, though the source said he had been granted a visa to attend a meeting of North Korean experts and scholars in New York.

Earlier this month North Korea said it was willing to return to multi-party negotiations on its nuclear programme, but it has said it wants direct negotiations with the US first.

The US has said it is willing to engage directly with North Korea, but only as part of a return to six-party forum party talks that Pyongyang pulled out of in April.

The six-party talks involve the two Koreas, China, the US, Russia and Japan.

Tensions have risen in recent months after North Korea launched a series of missiles and conducted an underground nuclear test - drawing UN sanctions in response.

The US wants North Korea to recommit to abandoning its nuclear programmes.

Obama seeks advice on Afghanistan

US President Barack Obama has met top national security advisers as speculation mounts over likely changes to US strategy in Afghanistan.

The president's Afghan "war council" discussed the volatile situation in neighbouring Pakistan.

It comes eight years after the start of US-led operations in Afghanistan and amid new evidence of fraud in recent elections in Afghanistan.

Last week the US commander there called for a substantial troop increase.

Gen Stanley McChrystal, appointed by Mr Obama earlier this year with a brief to revamp the US approach in Afghanistan, recently submitted a major strategy review to the president.

Pentagon officials now say a formal request for more troops - perhaps as many as 40,000, reports say - has been sent to the White House.

Wednesday's three-hour meeting focussed on Pakistan, ways to improve co-operation with Islamabad and how to continue "disrupting, dismantling and defeating al-Qaeda," a US official told Reuters news agency.

Another session on Friday will focus primarily on Afghanistan.

The meetings come as the Washington Post published voter turnout data from Afghanistan's recent presidential election.

The data, which had been kept confidential by the UN's chief envoy, Kai Eide, reflects badly on Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who in some provinces recorded tens of thousands more votes than estimates of the number of people who voted.

Afghanistan's election process has been dogged by accusations of fraud and malpractice since polling day in August.

Hopes dim for quake-hit Sumatra

Aid workers in quake-hit Sumatra say they are increasingly unlikely to find survivors under the rubble, as they push into devastated remote areas.

Four days after the 7.6 tremor, the scale of the disaster is becoming clear, with entire villages destroyed.

Widespread road damage is preventing teams from reaching many of the injured beyond Padang, a city of 900,000 people that took the full force of the quake.

About 1,000 are known to have died; up to 3,000 more are said to be missing.

While rescue efforts are still concentrated in Padang, concern is increasing about areas outside the city, where the earthquake triggered huge landslides.

In one village, a resident told Reuters news agency on Saturday: "Don't bother trying to bring aid up here. Everyone is dead."

Oxfam worker Ian Bray, who is in Padang, told the BBC aid teams faced huge challenges getting to outlying areas.

"There is a road that is only 25km (15 miles) long outside Padang that usually takes 35 minutes to drive - it now takes 10 hours," he said.

"We're facing huge logistical problems of trying to get to places which are really hit badly and those are the outlying areas."

Villagers contacted by reporters told of hundreds of people missing in each settlement.

"In my village, 75 people were buried. There are about 300 people missing from this whole area," one resident, Ogi Martapela, said.

The BBC's Alastair Leithead, who visited an isolated village north of Padang, says the size of the landslides is astonishing - with soil and trees ripped from the slopes and dumped into valleys.

Typhoon bears down on Philippines

Typhoon Parma is due to make landfall in the storm-battered Philippines in the next few hours.

President Gloria Arroyo has declared a national "state of calamity" and 33,000 people have been ordered to leave homes in the storm's predicted path.

The US Navy says it has two ships in Manila Bay ready to help if needed.

Many South East Asian nations are still reeling from Typhoon Ketsana, which killed hundreds in the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam last week.

Early on Saturday, Parma altered course slightly and was due to make landfall in Aurora province near the northern tip of the main island of Luzon later in the day.

Officials said it had sustained winds of 175km/h (109mph) - down from its earlier force of 230km/h (140mph), but still capable of inflicting major damage.

It is now expected to hit less populous regions, but it may still impact on areas around the capital, Manila, still recovering from last week's severe flooding.

Philippines braces for new storm

The Philippines has ordered the evacuation of thousands of people from areas in the path of a second powerful typhoon to hit the country in a week.
Typhoon Parma is expected to hit the main island of Luzon north of the capital Manila early on Saturday.
Officials fear a second disaster after Typhoon Ketsana caused the worst floods in the Philippines in decades.
Ketsana caused nearly 300 deaths in the Philippines, as well as more than 100 in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
Parts of the Philippines near Manila remain flooded after Ketsana dropped a month's worth of rain in 12 hours last Saturday.
President Gloria Arroyo appeared on national television to order the evacuation of low-lying coastal areas threatened by the new typhoon.
"We need that preventative evacuation," she said.
The military and police have been put on alert and civilian agencies have been ordered to stockpile food, water and medicine. The Philippine weather bureau said Parma, with winds of up to 230km/h (140mph), would be the strongest typhoon to hit the country since 2006.
Nathaniel Cruz, the head weather forecaster in the Philippines, said Parma could yet change direction and miss the country, adding that it was carrying less rain than Ketsana.
But he said its strong winds could be highly destructive.
"We are dealing with a very strong typhoon [and] there is a big possibility that this typhoon will gather more strength," Mr Cruz said.
There are also fears that more heavy rain could worsen flooding left from the earlier typhoon.
"We're concerned about the effects of more rain on the relief work in flooded areas because the water level could rise again," said Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro.