Briefly: India and Pakistan meet on reducing war risks
The Associated Press
August 6, 2005

NEW DELHI ASIA/PACIFIC

 
Indian and Pakistani representatives met Friday to discuss making formal a pact to share information ahead of missile tests and other measures aimed at reducing the risk of nuclear conflict, an official said.
 
The two-day talks constitute the third round between the nuclear-armed neighbors, which began a peace dialogue last year to ease decades of bitter tensions. No official statement was expected before the end of talks Saturday.
 
Relations between India and Pakistan have warmed considerably in recent months, although the two sides have made little progress in resolving their dispute over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, the issue at the core of their rivalry.

KUALA LUMPUR
 
Anwar calls for an end to privileges for Malays
 
Anwar Ibrahim, the former deputy prime minister, called on Friday for ending the longstanding privileges of the majority Malays - a bold attack on a racially sensitive affirmative action policy that few in Malaysia had dared to question before.
 
Anwar, trying to re-emerge politically after his power struggle with the former prime minister, Mahathir bin Mohamad, said the program was obsolete and corrupt and that only a few well-connected Malays had benefited from it at the expense of other Malays, Chinese and Indians.
 
Although Malays form 60 percent of the country's population of 26 million people, they control only 19 percent of the corporate equity. Most of the country's wealth is in the hands of the Chinese. (AP)
 
BEIJING
 
Villagers battle police
 
About 800 policemen clashed with armed villagers and arrested 47 people in southern China after residents resisted a crackdown on illegal mining and went on a rampage, a newspaper reported Friday.
 
Police raided several villages in Guangxi Province at dawn Thursday and seized firearms, ammunition, explosives, detonators and machetes, the Legal Express said. It did not say if any policemen or villagers were killed or wounded. (Reuters)

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