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Official: Pakistan Election Date to be Announced Wednesday


PAKISTAN: Pakistan election officials say they agree "in principle" to delay next week's parliamentary elections. Election Commission Secretary-General Kanwar Dilshad told reporters in Islamabad today (Tuesday) that the date for the elections will be decided after talks with political parties. Dilshad said it looked impossible to hold elections as scheduled on January eighth. He said the new date will be announced Wednesday.

KENYA: Western countries are stepping up diplomatic pressure on Kenya as the death toll from post-election violence rises, and the country struggles to resolve disputes over President Mwai Kibaki's victory. The United States and the European Union have voiced concern over the vote count in the race. And now, several members of Kenya's electoral commission are calling for an independent inquiry into the results. Opposition candidate Raila Odinga and his party say the results of last Thursday's presidential election were rigged to make sure incumbent President Kibaki was the winner.

SUDAN: Western diplomatic sources say a U.S. official was critically wounded and his Sudanese driver killed in an attack on their vehicle today (Tuesday) in Khartoum. Sources say the incident occurred shortly after midnight local time as the official was heading home. The shooting comes just one day after a joint United Nations - African Union force took over peacekeeping duties in Sudan's Darfur region.

NOKOR NUCLEAR: N orth Korea has missed its end-of-year deadline to declare all its nuclear programs under a disarmament agreement. White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said the situation is unfortunate. He said Washington hopes Pyongyang will make a full declaration as soon as possible. The governments of South Korea and Japan also expressed regret over the delay. U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said what is more important than the timing of the declaration is that it is accurate and complete. Casey said he expects consultations later this week on the issue.

TAIWAN-CHINA-MISSILES: Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian says China now has more than a thousand missiles aimed at the island. In his final New Year's Day address today (Tuesday) before stepping down in May, Mr. Chen said the number of short-range ballistic missiles deployed against Taiwan had grown from 200 in the year 2000, to one-thousand-328 today. Beijing has not commented on Mr. Chen's speech. Mr. Chen said China is also preparing to designate an "air defense identification zone" in the Taiwan Strait and open a new civil air route along the median of the Strait.

Audio in Lao.

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