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NEW DELHI, Feb 24 (AFP): India has renewed its pledge to help rebuild war-ravaged Afghanistan and signed two accords to help Kabul strengthen its civil aviation sector and television transmission technology, an official statement said.
The signing of the accords followed talks in the Indian capital between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
The aviation agreement "is aimed at building capacity and strengthening institutional infrastructure of Afghanistan's civil aviation sector," the Indian foreign ministry statement said on Thursday.
The second accord calls for closer links between television and media organisations of both countries.
India has already installed a satellite television uplinking facility in Kabul connecting the Afghan capital with 10 provincial capitals, the statement said.
Afghan election faces delay
KABUL (AP): Afghanistan's parliamentary elections face delay after the government failed to resolve issues including the voting system for its first post-Taliban legislature ahead of a key deadline, the United Nations said Thursday.
The vote was slated for the Afghan month of Saur, which ends on May 21. The exact election date must be declared at least 90 days in advance - meaning the deadline passed at the end of last week.
Musharraf waits for Indian flexibility on Kashmir
ISLAMABAD (Reuters): Pakistan is still waiting for India to show flexibility in solving their dispute over Kashmir, despite last week's agreement on a bus service across the divided region, President Pervez Musharraf said on Thursday.
Pakistan had suggested areas where flexibility could be shown, but any move away from stated positions should be made by both countries together, Musharraf said.
"We have not shown flexibility on Kashmir, neither have we changed our stance on Kashmir. We have just given, I have given some ideas on flexibility," he told media representatives at the inauguration of a government Web site in the president's official Islamabad residence.
"Let's see if the ideas are looked into," he said.
Lanka's Marxists threaten to quit government
COLOMBO (Reuters): The Sri Lankan government's Marxist junior coalition partner threatened to quit the ruling alliance on Thursday if President Chandrika Kumaratunga discusses self-rule for Tamil Tiger rebels in the island's north and east.
The People's Liberation Front, or JVP, is rabidly against autonomy for the minority Tamil rebels, whose two decade war killed more than 64,000 people on both sides of the ethnic divide until a 2002 ceasefire.
"If the government attempts to first set up an interim administration according to the whims and fancies of the LTTE... we will pull out of the government forthwith," JVP spokesman Wimal Weerawansa told parliament.
"The war-torn north needs democracy -- not a fascist dictatorship," he said.
But the government was annoyed about the timing of its ally's outburst, saying it had not reached a deal with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels to discuss their self-rule demands.
Asia in damage control after reserves jitters
SEOUL, Feb 24 (Reuters) : Asian currency authorities scurried to control damage yesterday after a South Korean document referring to diversification of foreign exchange reserves sparked an across-the-board dollar sell-off against major currencies.
South Korea, whose reserves are the world's fourth largest at $200 billion, flatly denied diversification plans meant an exodus from the dollar, while Japan, the world's biggest holder of reserves, said it had no plans to fiddle with the composition of its funds.
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