http://192.168.2.6/music/20061001/929.mp3

President Bush is preparing to meet the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan to discuss their differences over the handling of the conflict in Afghanistan. The Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart Pervez Musharraf have criticized each other for not doing enough to tackle the insurgency in Afghanistan. James Westhead reports from Washington.

For some time now there's been a war of words between the two countries. Afghan officials have complained that Pakistan is letting Taliban militants hide out, and launch attacks into their country from across their long-shared mountainous border. But Pakistan bristles that such charges pointing out that according to a recent UN report most of the violence is by Afghans. Now both sides are trying to soothe the friction at a dinner in Washington hosted by President Bush. The Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he was not critical of Pakistan simply seeking a more coordinated approch to the fight against terror. For his part, a spokesman for Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf said he wanted an end to finger-pointing.

The American House of Representatives has approved legislation which would give the administration new powers to interrogate and prosecute detainees suspected of terrorism. The proposed legislation is seen as a key element in President Bush's self-stated war on terror in the run-up to congressional elections in November. It would establish a military court system to prosecute suspects

Russia has demanded the immediate release of four of its army officers arrested in Georgia on spying charges. Georgian forces have surrounded a Russian military headquarters in the capital Tbilisi. From there, Matthew Colin reports.

The Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili said the Russian officers who had been detained were part of a dangerous group of spy. He said they had been under surveillance for some time and were planning what he called a major provocation. He linked the group to an attack which killed three policemen in the Georgian town of G last year. The Georgian authorities say they will continue to surround the Russian military headquarters in Tbilisi until another Russian officer gives himself up. Relations between the two countries have become increasingly strained since President Mikhail Saakashvili's pro-western government came to power in Georgia nearly two years ago.

Ten people have gone on trial in Belgrade charged with helping to prevent the capture of the former Bosnian-Serb military chief Ratko Mladic , he is wanted for war crimes. They were accused of sheltering General Mladic in several Belgrade apartments from 2002 until earlier this year. From Belgrade here's Nick Holton.
The ten defendants were arrested in separate police operations during the past few months. They are accused of helping to hide Ratko Mladic even though they knew he was charged with war crimes. The defendants denied the charges which they claim are politically motivated. Their lawyers asked for their trial to be held in public but this was rejected by the judge. Along with R, Ratko Mladic is at the top of the UN tribunal's most wanted list. He is accused among other crimes of the massacre of Serbs in 1995, in which 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed.

Police in the American state of Colorado say a hostage siege has ended at a high school in the small mountain town of Bailey. The authorities say a gunman who was holding 2 pupils hostage is dead, but they gave no details about the condition of the hostages. The gunman had originally gone to the school and seized six people, but four were later released. The local Sheriff's office is the same one that dealt with the shooting at / Columbine high school in 1999.And some news just in, police in Colorado say that the gunman shot himself and one of the hostages was also shot. She's been taken to hospital. Her condition wasn't immediately known.

The American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has warned the Sudanese government of serious consequences if it doesn't allow United Nations peacekeepers to be sent to the Darfur region. In a speech in Washington, Dr. Rice said the situation in Darfur was a matter of life and death, and that the international community would not remain neutral.

This is a choice between cooperation and confrontation. If the government of Sudan chooses cooperation, if it works with the United Nations and welcomes the UN force into Darfur then it will find a dedicated partner in the United States. But if the Sudanese government chooses confrontation, then the regime in Khartoum will be held responsible, and it alone will bear the consequences of its actions.

Talks in Berlin on Iran's nuclear program involving Tehran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani and the European Union’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana have been adjourned after five hours.