The explosion occurred during renovation work at a local factory's sports complex, the Interfax news agency quoted the spokesman as saying. An inquiry has been launched into the causes of the incident. - AFP

The three, one of them a woman, died in hospital of their injuries, a policeman named Eddy told AFP by phone from Ambon. The victims were injured by pieces of concrete seats that fell on them following the blast at the Merdeka Stadium in downtown Ambon. Another policeman who identified himself as Kamal said the explosion also injured 11 others, some seriously. He said the victims were both Muslims and Christians.

The blast is believed to have been caused by a homemade bomb, police said. Ambon has seen intermittent violence since the peace pact was signed, the worst of which was in May when unidentified attackers raided a Christian village and massacred 13 people. A state of civil emergency is in effect in Ambon as part of efforts to halt the violence, which has largely subsided elsewhere in the Malukus. - AFP

The suit, the first against a project funded by Japan's official development assistance (ODA), was filed in the Tokyo District Court by 3,861 Indonesians who said they were forcibly resettled to make way for the Kotopanjang Dam in Sumatra, lawyers for the plaintiffs said. The plaintiffs demanded five million yen ($42,430) each in compensation from the Japanese government and its foreign assistance body, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, for damage to their lifestyle, including a lack of fresh water and jobs in the area where they were resettled.

"This move was not made by choice. They became developmental refugees," said Fumio Asano, one of the group's lawyers. "The compensation is not the main thing. They would like Japan to take measures to help them regain the lifestyle they had before they had to resettle." Also named in the suit were the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), a semi-governmental bank that provides loans to foreign countries and overseas projects, and Tokyo Electric Power Services Co, an affiliate of Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), Japan's largest utility.

The hydroelectric dam, completed in 1997, was built in central Sumatra at a cost of some 31 billion yen. Plaintiffs say it has damaged the natural environment and that wild animals in the area, including elephants, face starvation, Kyodo news agency said. The Foreign Ministry had no official comment on the suit, but Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Yukio Takeuchi was quoted by a spokeswoman as telling reporters on Monday that such projects are decided by both nations and Japan then gives its assistance. "We will study the petition carefully and consider our response," he was quoted as saying.

The Japan Bank of International Cooperation said in a statement that it would consult with the other defendants on what possible response to make after studying the lawsuit. Japan was the world's top aid donor in dollar terms for most of the 1990s but lost that position to the United States in 2001, mainly due to a dive in the value of the yen. - Reuters

"China and Germany have reached consensus on a proper settlement of this problem and the consensus is being implemented," foreign ministry spokesman Kong Quan said without specifying what the solution involved. - AFP

The tremor struck at 12:43 pm from an epicenter 13.1 kilometers northeast of Taiwan's northeastern town Nanao. It originated 11.5 kilometers below the earth's crust. A quake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale on March 31 killed five people and its aftershock on May 15, with a magnitude of 6.2, left a three-month-old boy dead. - AFP

Defence Minister Robert Hill presented the 300-member Incident Response Regiment (IRR) at Sydney's Holsworthy Barracks, where the unit will be based alongside a new special forces Tactical Assault Group (TAG) trained to battle terrorists in civilian areas. As TAG commandos carried out a noisy live-fire demonstration on the base, Hill said the Incident Response Regiment would be capable of acting anywhere in the world where terrorists threaten Australian interests.

The two units, he said, "are highly-trained soldiers with the skills to deal with the worst that terrorists could endeavour to inflict on the Australian community." "The lesson of September 11 is that we can't take any chances -- the potential consequences of an attack are just too catastrophic to ignore," Hill said, referring to last year's devastating airliner attacks on New York and Washington.

The government has committed 121 million Australian dollars ($66 million) to developing the IRR and last week announced it was recruiting a dozen scientists with expertise in germ, chemical and nuclear weapons to join. "The Incident Response Regiment will be called out only in extreme cases where police and emergency services do not have the capability to deal with a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or explosive threat," Hill said.

"Their training means they will be able to conduct high-risk searches with detection equipment and dogs, disarm and dispose of a device, decontaminate victims and the exposed area and analyse the hazardous material on site," he said. The TAG force, which matches a similar Special Air Services unit stationed in the west of the country, will be able to deploy "at short notice to respond to a terrorist incident, such as a hostage siege", he said.

"The raising of a second Tactical Assault Group to complement the existing group based in Western Australia ensures that we have the capability to respond to simultaneous and geographically separate terrorist incidents," Hill said. - AFP

The more than 3,000 people who died in the attacks in New York, Pennsylvania and outside Washington "will forever hold a cherished place in our hearts and in the history of our nation," Bush declared in a statement.

"We will not forget the events of that terrible morning, nor will we forget how Americans responded in New York City, at the Pentagon and in the skies over Pennsylvania -- with heroism and selflessness, with compassion and courage and with prayer and hope," he said. "As we mark the first anniversary of that tragic day, we remember their sacrifice and we commit ourselves to honoring their memory by pursuing peace and justice in the world and security at home."

Bush called on US citizens to fly their flags at half-staff every September 11 and to observe a moment of silence at 8:46 am (1246 GMT), the exact moment at which the first hijacked plane slammed into the World Trade Center. He also urged people to participate in commemorative ceremonies, memorial services and candlelight vigils in remembrance of those killed. "Inspired by the heroic sacrifices of our firefighters, rescue and law enforcement personnel, military service members and other citizens, our nation found unity, focus and strength" after the attacks, Bush declared.

He added that "from the tragedy of September 11 emerged a stronger nation, renewed by a spirit of national pride and a true love of country." Less than half of the people polled by CNN and Time magazine late last month said September 11 should be commemorated with a national holiday. Forty-four per cent of the 1,004 adults surveyed on August 28 and 29 said the day should be a holiday, while 51 per cent said it should not be.

However, some 61 per cent of the 1,176 youngsters between the ages of eight and 18 polled by Time magazine and Nickelodeon television late last month said they believed the day would be designated a national holiday.

Showing their patriotic colors, more than three-quarters of the youths said they would most likely mark the first anniversary of the attacks by flying the US flag. - AFP

Environmentalists slammed the 65-page Plan of Implementation as gutted by compromises, which left big business free to degrade the environment, and briefly shouted down US Secretary of State Colin Powell when he spoke Wednesday morning. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan told journalists: "You must not expect a conference like this to produce miracles but it must generate political commitment ... Johannesburg is not the end of everything, it is a beginning." - AFP

"I was sure of defending a just cause. I was working for my country, for Russia. I was working sincerely, from dawn until dusk. I knew I was doing something useful for my people," Putin added. Putin enrolled in the KGB secret service in 1975 after studying law in his native Saint Petersburg. Ten years later he was posted to East Germany, where he worked until 1990. A year later he resigned as KGB colonel.

The Russian president admitted nonetheless that his past in the secret service caused difficulties when he started working for Anatoly Sobchak, the reformist former mayor of Saint Petersburg, after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. "People were blackmailing me. They demanded I favour one company or another or face having details about my past leaked," said Putin. Such leaks would have harmed Sobchak at a time when revelations about KGB crimes were surfacing. Putin, 49, left the KGB on the day of the failed hardline putsch against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on August 20, 1991. "My moral obligations took precedence over my formal duties," he said.

But the Russian president conceded some sympathy with the coup leaders' dissatisfaction over Gorbachev's pro-Western foreign policy. "I went through a very difficult time during the putsch. I didn't agree with the way things had happened. A lot of the public statements made by people who went on to become top officials in our city, region and the country were wrong," he said.

"It was absolutely clear for me that unilateral disarmament was not good for us. Our ties with former geopolitical adversaries were acceptable up to a point but the people responsible for that did not know the limits," Putin added. Putin has been compared to Gorbachev by some political commentators for his dramatic decision after the September 11 attacks in the United States to throw Russia wholeheartedly behind the US-led anti-terrorism alliance, aligning himself with the Western camp. The policy shift has provoked criticism among hardline nationalists and military top brass, who accuse Putin of selling Russian interests down the river.

The Russian leader said he had mixed feelings about returning to the secret service when he was appointed in July 1998 as head of the FSB, the successor to the KGB. "Honestly speaking, I did not think I would return to the secret service. I did not think it would lead me anywhere. The secret services remained what they were," said the president.

Blotsky's book, which covers the period from 1975 to December 1999 and the abrupt resignation of former president Boris Yeltsin, is the second in a trilogy. A virtual unknown at the time of his appointment as prime minister in August 1999, Putin was catapulted into the post of acting president by Yeltsin's departure. He was elected in the first round of presidential elections three months later. - AFP

The latest group of North Korean asylum seekers to embarrass Beijing, one of Pyongyang's few friends, scaled a wall to enter the compound enclosing a German school and diplomats' apartments on Tuesday afternoon. German refugee activist Nobert Vollertsen, a doctor who worked in North Korea for more than a year, said they had spent two days on the streets of Beijing before entering the school "with the assistance of international human rights volunteers".

In an e-mail to news organisations, he gave no details of the group helping the North Koreans, but China deported a South Korean pastor last month after he had been found guilty of trying to help 12 North Koreans reach Mongolia. A German embassy official said the 15 North Koreans had spent the night in a basement changing room and had been given food and drink. "There are also toilets and everything that they need," he said. "The situation is calm now."

"We are trying to come to a conclusion to the situation," he said of talks with Chinese officials. The Chinese Foreign Ministry declined comment.

MANILA-BOUND

It remained unclear whether the compound came under the umbrella of diplomatic territory, which would effectively make it part of Germany, but Chinese police made no move to enter it.

The latest dramatic asylum attempt by escapees from the famished Communist country came a day after police dragged about a dozen North Koreans from a Beijing compound housing several embassies. So far this year the government has let more than 80 others who managed to get into foreign missions in China go to South Korea via a third country.

Manila has agreed to allow the 21 North Koreans in Seoul's consulate to fly there en route to South Korea and officials originally expected them to do so on Wednesday. But a diplomatic source in Manila said on Wednesday such an early departure was unlikely. A South Korean diplomat in Beijing said no decision had been made on their fate.

Classes at the German school were cancelled on Wednesday -- only a week after the new school year began -- and students did not know how long the unexpected break would last. "We've been told it could last anything from two days to two weeks," one student said. "We don't know. Everything could be OK tomorrow again, it's just not sure."

The police presence around the German compound had dwindled overnight after students were told to clear out on Tuesday as the North Koreans huddled on a metal staircase attached to the outside of their school. But a police van and several squad cars remained parked outside the gates and a handful of uniformed and plain clothed police remained close to the area.

China has stepped up security outside diplomatic missions in the wake of a rash of asylum attempts, which began in March. But it has regularly defended its treatment of North Koreans as economic migrants, refusing to regard them as refugees despite protests from human rights groups. Those groups say up to 300,000 North Koreans may be living clandestinely among ethnic Koreans in northeast China. - Reuters

"Leave Mr Blair alone. He is from England, I am from Zimbabwe," he joked to reporters asking about Blair's comment in Britain on Tuesday that Mugabe did not speak for Africa. Criticising the international media, he said they should "become part of our environment, and not continue to be instruments to be used by our former colonisers".

Mugabe's ZANU-PF, which has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, enacted tough new legislation this year to limit media criticism. At least 13 journalists have already been charged with publishing alleged falsehoods under the new laws. The government has set a deadline for all reporters to register with authorities, saying only Zimbabweans will be allowed to work in the country.

Mugabe, who lashed out at Blair in an address to the summit on Monday, said Africans had little to learn from their Western critics, and urged the international community to respect the boundaries of national sovereignty. "We must be proud that we are African...We must maintain our personality," he said.

The United States has branded Mugabe an illegitimate leader following the country's disputed presidential election earlier this year and has imposed sanctions banning him and his close associates from the country. US Secretary of State Colin Powell told the summit on Wednesday that mismanagement by Mugabe had fuelled a food crisis facing almost half of Zimbabwe's 13 million people.

Former South African president Nelson Mandela declined in a radio interview on Wednesday to comment on Mugabe's summit speech or his controversial programme to hand over white-owned farms to landless blacks without paying compensation. "I prefer to express my views on such sensitive matters to the multilateral organisation SADC (Southern African Development Community)," he said.

But he acknowledged that investor concern about Zimbabwe's future was hitting South Africa's rand currency, which plunged 37 percent against the dollar last year, before recovering partially this year. "People must be aware that Zimbabwe is not South Africa," he said. - Reuters

More than 7,000 people have been directly affected by floods caused by the typhoon, the UN quoted initial Red Cross reports as saying. In Kangwon province, the only one believed affected by the storm, 4,401 people were made homeless, said Brendan McDonald, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Most of the homeless were staying in community halls and schools.

Initial reports from Pyongyang's Flood Damage Rehabilitation Committee (FDRC) indicated that the worst-affected areas were the counties of Anbyon, Tongchon and Kosong, which received between 300 to 510 millimeters (12 to 20 inches) of rain on Sunday. The floods also caused damage to infrastructure including the road network, bridges, railway lines, electricity, schools and telephone lines.

The North Korean Red Cross also said 25 kilometers (16 miles) of roads and 24 bridges were destroyed, McDonald said. Total crop production losses for the entire province was 86,000 tonnes of mostly rice paddies and maize, the official figures said. However McDonald said it was unlikely the damage was this serious as the figure represented potential harvest loss, and officials tended to be over-optimistic in predictions.

The harvest was also one to two months away, and international experts believe crops will likely survive because they had received substantial amounts of fertilizer, he added. Based on what the international aid agencies saw when they were taken on a visit to two counties affected, the damage appeared to be localized, McDonald said, with flood damage to fields estimated by the agencies to be light.

"The government will likely be able to respond to the needs itself," McDonald said. The Red Cross is assisting almost 3,000 homeless people in Tongchon county by providing them with blankets, kitchenware, water containers and water purification tablets, he said.

There have been reports of increased incidences of diarrhea, which is common when water supply is contaminated with flood water, but there is no evidence it is serious, McDonald said. - AFP