India court rules West Bengal Tata land move is legal

A court in India has ruled that West Bengal's state government acted legally in reclaiming land where Tata Motors wanted to build its low-cost Nano car.

The 1,000-acre plot of land was acquired in 2006 by the state's former communist government and leased to the company for 99 years.

The new state government took back the land in June to return it to farmers.

Tata challenged the move in the high court in Calcutta and is expected to take its appeal to the Supreme Court.

The BBC's Rahul Tandon in Calcutta says that the case has been closely followed across India, which needs to free up land for industry if it wants to continue its economic growth.

But many farmers say that cannot happen at their expense, our correspondent says.

The high court ordered Tata Motors to remove all equipment from the factory at Singur, near Calcutta, within two months.

It ruled that the company was entitled to ask for compensation if any needed to be paid.

After months of violent protests, the company pulled out of West Bengal last year and shifted production to a new plant in the state of Gujarat.

In May, the Trinamul Congress party led by Mamata Banerjee trounced West Bengal's long-serving communist government on the promise that she would restore the land to the farmers.

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Afghanistan: Eight police killed at Helmand checkpoint

Eight Afghan policemen have been shot and killed in an attack on a checkpoint in the southern province of Helmand, officials say.

They say the attack was carried out by the Taliban near Lashkar Gah on Tuesday night. Three policemen were wounded and one is missing.

Some officials say that the attackers were helped by the missing policeman.

Lashkar Gah is one of seven initial areas where security has been handed from Nato to Afghan forces.

Foreign combat troops are due to withdraw from Afghanistan by 2014.

The BBC's Bilal Sarwary says that insurgents are trying to undermine the authority and lower the morale of Afghan security forces as the transition gets under way.

On Tuesday a suicide car bomber attacked a popular bakery in Lashkar Gah, killing at least five people.High profile attacks

"The Taliban had help from a policeman inside the checkpoint," a senior policeman in the area told the BBC.

"Our information shows that the attackers were helped by this officer. He may have even have removed the [firing] pin from a heavy machine gun. He has fled the checkpoint with his gun.
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"We are going to be looking for him. We have questioned two people who know him well.''

An Afghan intelligence official in the area told the BBC that the Taliban had managed to recruit the police officer some time ago.

"He did this for money because his record shows he was not a very religious person,'' the official said.

Correspondents say that in recent months Taliban militants have carried out several attacks, some of them high profile, by infiltrating the Western-trained Afghan security forces.

The bakery attack in Lashkar Gah took place close to police headquarters.

According to witnesses, police were buying bread when the attack took place. Two civilians were among the dead.

In a separate development, the New Zealand defence ministry has announced that a special forces soldier was killed in a gun battle with Taliban fighters during a special operation in the central province of Wardak.

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Kosovo-Serbia talks off after renewed clashes

EU-mediated talks between Serbia and Kosovo have been called off amid heightened tension in northern Kosovo.

The Serbian delegation was "not ready to proceed" with talks in Brussels, EU diplomat Robert Cooper said.

Talks had been postponed from Tuesday after 16 ethnic Serbs and four Nato peacekeepers were hurt in clashes in an ongoing dispute over border crossings.

Nato said troops had used tear gas and rubber bullets after pipe bombs were fired at positions in northern Kosovo.

However, Serbia called Nato's actions "absolutely unacceptable" and a hospital boss said six of the injured civilians had been shot with live rounds.

In his statement after the cancellation of talks, Mr Cooper said the border violence was "not part of the dialogue nor the subject of any separate negotiations with Serbia".

"The dialogue will continue when the Serbian side is ready to re-engage," he added.
Roadblocks bulldozedSerbia's chief negotiator, Borislav Stefanovic, said talks could not resume until the situation in northern Kosovo was resolved.

"Talking about the crossings is a priority for us right now, and there is no other topic except this one," Serbian news website B92 quoted him as saying.

Kosovan efforts to take control of border posts have been resisted by ethnic Serbs in the north of Kosovo, who refuse to recognise the sovereignty of the government in Pristina.

Previously, the border posts had been guarded by ethnic Serb members of the Kosovan police. The ethnic Albanian government suspected them of failing to implement customs controls.

Kosovan Serbs built roadblocks to prevent access to two contested border posts, and even built a new track into Serbia to circumvent the crossing at Jarinje.

Tuesday's violence flared when troops from Nato's K-For mission used bulldozers to remove the roadblock near the Jarinje border post.

The EU has called for the barricades to be dismantled.

On Wednesday K-For troops were reinforcing their positions at Jarinje, deploying armoured vehicles, sand bags and barbed wire, according to a Reuters eyewitness.

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Shanghai subway crash: Media question safety standards

Lapses which may have led to a crash on Shanghai's subway system have been criticised in Chinese state media.

The crash on Tuesday, which injured 284 people, happened when subway staff were directing trains using phones after the signal system failed.

"China should be more cautious and concentrated in avoiding risks," said the English-language Global Times in an editorial.

The crash comes months a train crash near Wenzhou city killed 40 people.

That sparked a wave of criticism - including in some state-media outlets - which suggested that Chinese authorities' thirst for development was putting safety at risk.

Tuesday's crash occurred at about 14:51 local time (06:51 GMT) following a signal system failure at a subway station on Line 10, Shanghai Shentong Metro Group said.That failure meant staff were directing trains by phone and the trains were running at slower than usual speeds, it said.

The subway train stopped and started before rear-ending another train near Shanghai's Yuyuan Garden.

"I was stunned, not knowing what happened. We tried to open doors and windows but couldn't. I felt smoke in the car," a passenger said shortly after being rescued from the train, Xinhua reported.

By Wednesday, 189 injured passengers had been discharged from hospital while another 95 were still receiving treatment, Shanghai health authorities said according to Xinhua.

It quoted doctors as saying most of the injuries were bruises and bone fractures, but that there were also external head traumas.Critical' issue

Speaking of a "dark day" for Shanghai Metro, the company vowed to hold an investigation into what happened.

But Chinese state media were quick to highlight the role of China's lightning development in the apparent safety lapses that led to the accident.

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UN: World population to hit 7 billion

The United Nations says mankind will confront greater challenges as the Earth's population is projected to reach 7 billion at the end of October.

The UN Population Fund announced the figure at a news conference on Wednesday in Tokyo.

It says the global population during the last 50 years has increased from 3 billion to 7 billion, which means an annual increase of 78 million.

The head of the UNPF office in Tokyo, Kiyoko Ikegami, said international cooperation will become indispensable for solving problems in a world with 7 billion people. She said it will become more difficult for developing countries to secure food, water and other natural resources.

Ikegami added that Japan will also be impacted by environmental problems caused by deforestation, which results from the need to secure resources for increasing numbers of people. She said Japan should recognize the population boom as a global issue.

The UNPF plans to hold symposiums and photo exhibits on the issue in various countries in October.

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UK envoy to N.Korea comments on leadership change

The outgoing British envoy to North Korea has suggested that the heir apparent to leader Kim Jong Il faces challenges in consolidating his power base.

Former ambassador Peter Hughes, who served in Pyongyang for 3 years, spoke to reporters in Seoul on Wednesday before returning to Britain.

Hughes commented on the North Korean leader's son, Kim Jong Un, who became the designated heir exactly a year ago.

He said the people of North Korea appear unconcerned about the succession, but that the practice of hereditary rule also lacks widespread support.

Hughes noted that a younger generation loyal to Kim Jong Un is on the rise within the Korean People's Army and the Korean Workers' Party, suggesting that the heir apparent has begun efforts to rejuvenate the country's leadership.

He added that the army chief of staff, Ri Yong Ho, would be appointed Kim Jong Un's guardian. Ri, who is in his 60s, was named vice chairman of the Central Military Commission last year despite being relatively young.

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787 Dreamliner arrives in Tokyo

The first delivery of US aircraft maker Boeing's revolutionary new 787 Dreamliner has arrived at Tokyo's Haneda Airport.

The mid-size passenger plane left Everett, Washington on Tuesday and landed in Japan on Wednesday morning.

Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways took delivery of the jet. The Dreamliner is built using lightweight carbon composite material, making it 20 percent more fuel efficient than conventional aircraft.

Japanese manufacturers made 35 percent of the plane's parts, including the main wings.

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