Headlines:

• Putin: World 'On Right Track' in Syria
• Disputes Threaten Post-2014 US-Afghan Pact: Kabul
• India says Fighting Big Kashmir Incursion from Pakistan
• In Myanmar, Revival of Attacks on Muslims

Details:

Putin: World 'On Right Track' In Syria

Russian President Vladimir Putin says world powers are "on the right track" with a plan to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons. Putin said on October 2 that if global powers continued to work together, "it will not be necessary to use force and increase the number of people wounded or killed" in Syria. The deal to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons was worked out by the United States and Russia after a chemical attack on August 21 near Damascus that reportedly killed hundreds. Western governments say Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime was behind the attack and that this was confirmed by a recent report by the UN. The Syrian government and Russia have blamed rebels. A team of UN experts arrived in Syria on October 1 to begin the process of dismantling the country's chemical weapons arsenal. Putin said the deal could not have been put in place without support from U.S. President Barack Obama and leaders of many countries. [Source: Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty]

Disputes Threaten Post-2014 US-Afghan Pact: Kabul

A planned deal to let US forces stay in Afghanistan beyond 2014 to fight Al Qaeda remnants is under threat because of disagreement over the Americans' right to conduct military operations, Kabul says. President Hamid Karzai is now directly leading the talks after they ground to a halt despite US pressure to complete the security agreement by the end of this month, said Karzai's spokesman Aimal Faizi. The US plans to pull out the bulk of its 57,000 troops in Afghanistan by the end of 2014, but it has tentative plans to retain some bases and a smaller force of around 10,000 after that. "The US wants the freedom to conduct military operations, night raids and house searches," Faizi told reporters late Tuesday. "According to them, there are 75 Al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan, which is very strange as this agreement will be for 10 years to have the right to conduct military operations anywhere in the country. "Unilaterally having the right to conduct military operations is in no way acceptable for Afghans." Faizi also said the two sides could not agree on how the bilateral security agreement (BSA) should define an attack on Afghanistan that would trigger US protection. "We are a strategic partner of the US and we must be protected against foreign aggression. For us and for the US, that's the conflicting point. We are not of the same opinion and we need clarity from the US side," he said. Karzai has repeatedly said he will not be rushed into signing the pact, and that it may not be finalised until after his successor is chosen in April elections. "If signed by the current president, he will be definitely held accountable in the history of Afghanistan if things go wrong," Faizi said. On Monday US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel described the pact as "critically important" as the US and its NATO allies plan the drawdown that will see most foreign troops leave the country by December 2014. [Source: Dawn News]

India says Fighting Big Kashmir Incursion from Pakistan

India's military is fighting the biggest group of infiltrators in Kashmir to cross from Pakistan in years, a top general said on Wednesday. Some 30 to 40 heavily-armed fighters have crossed the Line of Control dividing Kashmir between the rival nations in the Keran sector and are holed up for the past nine days in thick forests in the area, Lieutenant General Gurmit Singh told a news conference. India says rebel incursions have been rising in Kashmir over the past year, feeding an armed revolt there, but these groups were usually made up of five or six people. "The army is fighting the largest group of infiltrators including some special troops on the Line of Control with Pakistan in Indian territory. It's one of the longest operations in Kashmir," said Singh, who leads the Indian army's 15 corps that is responsible for operations in the Kashmir Valley. The army has killed 10 to 12 of them, he said. On Tuesday night, another group of 10 men had tried to cross over to join the militants holed up some 200 to 300 metres on India's side of Kashmir. There was no immediate comment from Pakistan. Islamabad denies it is helping militants cross the largely fenced border with India and has urged India to hold talks to tackle the decades old dispute over the region. The latest fighting was taking place as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif pledged in New York last weekend to work towards strengthening a 10-year-old ceasefire that has frayed in recent months. But they failed to announce any concrete measures to advance peace talks that have been slow to recover since 2008 when Pakistan-based militants attacked India's financial centre Mumbai for three days and killed 166 people. Singh denied Indian media reports that the insurgents had taken over a village in the Keran sector and said the military was fully in control of the situation. [Source: Reuters]

In Myanmar, Revival of Attacks on Muslims

A resurgence of religious violence in western Myanmar this week has left six Muslims dead and dozens of homes destroyed, a senior police officer said Wednesday. The deaths and the burning of houses in and around the city of Thandwe occurred Tuesday, just hours before President Thein Sein arrived in the restive area on Wednesday as part of a scheduled visit to cool religious tensions and criticize "extremism." "There are casualties and damage on both sides," Mr. Thein Sein said on state television. But according to accounts from the police officer, Lt. Col Kyaw Tint, and a villager who witnessed some of the fighting, the violence followed a disturbingly familiar pattern: sword-wielding Buddhist mobs rampaging through Muslim neighbourhoods. "All the people who were found dead were from the Muslim community," Colonel Kyaw Tint said.  After flaring up last year in western Myanmar, anti-Muslim violence has spread to areas around the country this year, leaving dozens of people dead, almost all of them Muslims and some of them children. Buddhist nationalist groups have called for a boycott of Muslim shops, and radical Buddhist monks have stoked anti-Muslim feelings in sermons across the country. The International Crisis Group, a research organization, released a report this week saying that more clashes between Buddhists and Muslims were likely because of "the depth of anti-Muslim sentiment in the country, and the inadequate response of the security forces." Colonel Kyaw Tint said tensions remained high between Buddhists and Muslims around Thandwe; the police have imposed a curfew, he said. [Source: New York Times]