Hyundai Motor announces China truck venture

SEOUL, South Korea — Hyundai Motor Co. said Sunday it has agreed to launch a $400 million truck manufacturing venture in China with a local partner as it seeks further inroads in the world's biggest auto market.

Hyundai Motor, South Korea's largest automaker, said it signed an initial agreement with Chinese commercial vehicle manufacturer Baotou Bei Ben Heavy-Duty Truck Co. and has set a sales target of 100,000 heavy duty trucks in China by 2014.

Under the deal, signed Saturday in Seoul, the two companies will invest a total of $400 million to set up the 50-50 joint venture next year, Hyundai said. It will take over the Chinese company's existing large truck business that can manufacture 40,000 vehicles a year.

Hyundai, which already makes passenger cars in China, said it will initially focus on heavy duty trucks in the new venture and gradually boost its investment to include what it described as a "full lineup of commercial vehicles."

"The joint venture will initially launch a refreshed Baotou Bei Ben model and then launch a brand new model by 2012 with input from Hyundai's modern technology and equipment, gaining competitiveness in the Chinese commercial vehicle market," Hyundai said in a release.

"Entering China's commercial vehicle market is essential in establishing Hyundai's reputation as the most comprehensive car manufacturer in the world's largest auto market," Choi Han-young, vice chairman in charge of Hyundai's commercial vehicle division, said at the signing of the deal, according to the release.

"Our business in China will play a pivotal role in helping us achieve our global sales target of 200,000 units in commercial vehicles by 2013," he added.

Hyundai and affiliate Kia Motors Corp. form the world's fifth-largest automotive group. Both companies have been expanding aggressively overseas.

Hyundai has factories in China, India, Turkey, the United States and the Czech Republic. Kia, in addition to its recently opened U.S. plant, also manufactures automobiles in China and Slovakia.

Both automakers reported record-high quarterly net profits in the three months ended Sept. 30.

Hyundai also plans to enter the commercial vehicle market in the U.S. within 2-3 years by setting up a venture like the one in China, South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted Choi as saying in an interview published Sunday. After the U.S., Hyundai would target Europe, Choi said, according to Yonhap.

South Korea signed a free trade agreement with the United States in 2007, though the deal has yet to take effect as it remains unratified by lawmakers in both countries. South Korea has also concluded a free trade deal with the European Union, though a final agreement has yet to be signed and ratified.

South Korea enjoys large trade surpluses in automobiles with both the U.S. and Europe and that has been a source of friction for the country with both Washington and Brussels.

Tense atmosphere clouds climate talks

COPENHAGEN — The atmosphere at the U.N. climate conference grew more tense and divisive after talks were suspended for most of Monday's session — a sign of the developing nations' deep distrust of the promises by industrial countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

With only days left before the conference closes Friday, at least one world leader said he would come early to try to salvage the negotiations, and others reportedly were considering the move.

The wrangle over emission reductions froze a timetable for government ministers to negotiate a host of complex issues. Though procedural in nature, the Africa-led suspension went to the core of suspicions by poor countries that wealthier ones were trying to soften their commitments and evade penalties for missing their targets.

Talks were halted most of the day, resuming only after conference president Connie Hedegaard of Denmark assured developing countries she was not trying to kill the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 document that requires industrial nations to cut emissions and imposes penalties if they fail to do so. Kyoto makes no demands on developing countries.

Among the issues put on hold: whether China will be asked to make sacrifices similar to those demanded of the United States and other rich nations; whether it will open its carbon books to outside inspection; how to ensure every country counts its carbon emissions the same way; and how to raise a steady flow of money for poor countries to combat climate-linked economic disruptions such as rising seas, drought and floods.

The delay came just days before President Barack Obama, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and more than 110 other world leaders were scheduled to arrive to cap two years of negotiations on an agreement to succeed Kyoto.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's office said he would go to Copenhagen on Tuesday — two days earlier than planned — to try to inject momentum into the talks. Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and several others reportedly were considering early arrivals.

Former Vice President Al Gore told the conference that new data suggests a 75 percent chance the entire Arctic polar ice cap may disappear in the summertime as soon as five to seven years from now. Gore, who won a Nobel Peace prize for his work on climate change, joined the foreign ministers of Norway and Denmark in presenting two new reports on melting Arctic ice.

The world leaders are aiming for a political agreement in Copenhagen rather than a legally binding treaty. Still, the goal is to nail down individual targets on emissions cuts and financing for developing countries in a deal that can be turned into a legally binding text next year.

Conference officials were struggling to cope with the increasing crush of people, which will only get worse when the leaders arrive with large delegations and their own press corps.

More than 40,000 people applied to attend the conference, already straining to accommodate 15,000. Nongovernment agencies, which sent thousands of people, were told only 1,000 will be allowed in at one time on Thursday and Friday. Journalists will be confined to a media center and forbidden from mingling.

Throngs of newly arrived delegates, journalists and activists waited for hours to pass security and get accreditation Monday, the start of the conference's second and final week. Authorities shut down the subway stop outside the hall because it was too crowded.

Police detained up to 200 people after protesters set fire to street barricades in a downtown Copenhagen neighborhood. Protesters hurled fire bombs at helmeted riot officers who repsonded with tear gas, police spokesman Johnny Lundberg told The Associated Press. He said there were no immediate reports of injuried.

It wasn't immediately clear whether the unrest was connected to the climate conference.

Police briefing detained 1,200 people durimg demonstrations by climate activists over the weekend.

The negotiations were meant to extend the Kyoto pact for at least another five years, with deeper emission targets for rich countries. A separate stream of talks dealt with the United States — which rejected Kyoto — and obligations by the developing countries in exchange for tens of billions of dollars a year.

The Africans protested when Hedegaard wanted to lump all the talks together.

"We are seeing the death of the Kyoto Protocol," Djemouai Kamel of Algeria, the head of the 50-nation Africa group, told reporters.

Mohammed Nashid, the president of the Indian Ocean archipelago nation of the Maldives, helped resolve the deadlock with an impassioned speech to the African nations to return to the talks, delegates said.

Outside the conference, Nashid voiced his frustration.

"In all political agreements, you have to be prepared to negotiate. You have to be prepared to compromise, to give and take. That is the nature of politics. But physics isn't politics. On climate change, there are things on which we cannot negotiate," he said.

U.S. special climate envoy Todd Stern said that with leaders due to arrive soon "any lost time is unhelpful." He added that in any complex negotiation "it never goes smoothly, never according to plan. There are always bumps."

Canada's Environment Minister Jim Prentice said the dispute set back the talks. "We have lost some time. There is no doubt about that," Prentice said.

Sakihito Ozawa, Japan's environment minister, said the African demand to spend more time on the industrial nations' targets "wasn't feasible."

"When I listen to the comments made by the developing countries, it made me very worried," he said, accusing those nations of trying to disrupt the conference.

On the sidelines of the talks, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced a new program drawing funds from international partners to spend $350 million over five years to give developing nations solar energy systems and other clean energy technologies to poor countries. The U.S. share of the cost will be $85 million, with the rest coming from Australia, Britain, Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland.

The International Energy Agency said $8.3 trillion will be spent on new energy in the next 20 years, but the entire amount could be recovered in cheaper energy and in energy efficiency. IEA director Nobuo Tanaka told reporters 93 percent of the additional energy needed by 2030 will be required by developing countries.

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Associated Press writers Michael Casey and Jan M. Olsen contributed to this report.

EDITOR'S NOTE _ Find behind-the-scenes information, blog posts and discussion about the Copenhagen climate conference at http://www.facebook.com/theclimatepool, a Facebook page run by AP and an array of international news agencies. Follow coverage and blogging of the event on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/AP_ClimatePool

White House still lacks solid intel on bin Laden

WASHINGTON – Osama bin Laden may be slipping back and forth from Pakistan to Afghanistan. Or the U.S. might not have a clue, more than eight years after the al-Qaida leader masterminded the terrorist attacks on America.

Given a chance Sunday to clear away some of the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of the world's most wanted terrorist, Obama administration officials seemed to add to it with what appeared to be conflicting assessments.

President Barack Obama's national security adviser, James Jones, said bin Laden, believed hiding mainly in a rugged area of western Pakistan, may be periodically slipping back into Afghanistan. But Obama's Pentagon chief, Robert Gates, said the U.S. has lacked good intelligence on bin Laden for a long time — "I think it has been years" — and did not confirm that he'd slipped into Afghanistan.

The failed hunt for bin Laden has been one of the signature frustrations of the global war on terrorism that former President George W. Bush launched after the Sept. 11 attacks. The main explanation given by both the Bush and Obama administrations for not getting bin Laden is that they simply don't know where he is.

"If we did, we'd go get him," Gates said.

Jones, a retired Marine general, stressed the urgency of targeting bin Laden, and spoke of a renewed campaign to capture or kill him. Bin Laden had been sheltered in Afghanistan by Taliban allies while plotting the Sept. 11 attacks. When U.S. forces ousted the Taliban in late 2001, bin Laden fled into Pakistan from his mountain redoubt.

Asked on CNN's "State of the Union" whether the administration has reliable intelligence on bin Laden's whereabouts, Jones replied, "The best estimate is that he is somewhere in North Waziristan, sometimes on the Pakistani side of the border, sometimes on the Afghan side of the border." He did not comment on the intelligence behind that estimate, nor did he cite a time period or describe more specifically bin Laden's apparent border crossings.

Gates told ABC's "This Week" that "we don't know for a fact where Osama bin Laden is," although he agreed that his likely location is North Waziristan.

That's part of the loosely governed Federally Administered Tribal Areas of northwest Pakistan where the border with Afghanistan is largely unrecognized and unmarked. There is little Pakistani government or military control in this remote region, and militants affiliated with al-Qaida can move freely across the frontier into Afghanistan.

The U.S. has targeted North Waziristan and other areas on the Pakistan side of the border with drone-launched missile strikes, killing substantial numbers of militants as well as Pakistani civilians. The Pakistani army has undertaken an offensive against Taliban militants in South Waziristan but it has not expanded the effort into North Waziristan.

Obama administration officials have often asserted, as did the Bush administration, that they believe bin Laden is being sheltered on the Pakistani side of the border, along with other senior al-Qaida leaders. But Jones broke new ground by saying publicly that the al-Qaida chief may have slipped back into Afghanistan.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., made a somewhat similar, if less specific, remark Sunday about bin Laden's movements. He told NBC's "Meet the Press" that knowledgeable people have told him that bin Laden "moves back and forth."

McCain did not elaborate, except to say that although bin Laden is not currently able to establish bases for training and equipping terrorists who would attack the United States, "I think it's important to get him."

Two Afghan provinces in the country's northeast held particular attraction for bin Laden in the 1990s: Kunar and Nuristan. The towering mountains there hid bin Laden training camps that date back to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. A longtime bin Laden ally, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, holds sway in the area. U.S. troops have targeted Hekmatyar's security chief, Kashmir Khan, in Kunar.

During his years in Afghanistan as a guest of the Taliban, bin Laden operated mainly in the southern region around Kandahar.

Gates said he does not blame a lack of Pakistani cooperation for the absence of intelligence on bin Laden.

"No, I think it's because if, as we suspect, he is in North Waziristan, it is an area that the Pakistani government has not had a presence in, in quite some time," Gates said, adding that although the Pakistani government has its own priorities, any pressure it brings on the Taliban is helpful because it is in league with al-Qaida.

During a visit to Pakistan in late October, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton caused a stir by chiding Pakistani officials for failing to press the hunt for al-Qaida inside their borders. She said she found it "hard to believe" that no one in Islamabad knows where the al-Qaida leaders are hiding and couldn't get them "if they really wanted to."

Gates said he could not confirm recent news reports that bin Laden had been seen in Afghanistan earlier this year. BBC News reported last week that a Taliban detainee in Pakistan claimed to have met in January or February with an unidentified associate who said he had seen bin Laden just days earlier in Afghanistan, possibly in Ghazni province.

A recent Senate report said bin Laden was unquestionably within reach of U.S. troops in the mountains of Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan only three months after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when American military leaders made the crucial decision not to pursue him with massive force.

The report asserted that bin Laden's escape at his most vulnerable in December 2001 laid the foundation for today's reinvigorated Afghan insurgency and inflamed the internal strife now endangering Pakistan. Staff members for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Democratic majority prepared the report at the request of the chairman, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

Muslims will empty their Swiss accounts: Turkish minister

ANKARA — A Turkish minister said he expected Muslims to withdraw their money from Swiss banks in response to a referendum vote that banned the construction of minarets in the country, in remarks published Wednesday.

"I am certain this (the vote) will prompt our brothers from Muslim countries who keep their money and investments in Swiss banks to review their decision," State Minister Egemen Bagis, who is also Turkey's chief negotiator in EU accession talks, was quoted as saying in the mass-selling Hurriyet daily.

"The doors of the Turkish banking sector... are always open to them," he added.

Daniel Cohn-Bendit, co-president of the Greens in the European Parliament, has also called on rich Muslims to empty their bank accounts in Switzerland in retaliation for Sunday's referendum.

Turkish leaders on Tuesday harshly denounced the ban, calling it a reflection of growing Islamophobia in Europe and urging Switzerland to "come back from this mistake as soon as possible."

Sunday's vote saw more than 57 percent back a proposition by a right wing party for a constitutional ban on the construction of new minarets, overriding opposition from the government and the bulk of Switzerland's political parties.

The outcome was welcomed by right wing parties across Europe, with some calling for similar votes in their countries.

Prime suspect in Philippine massacre surrenders

AMPATUAN, Philippines — Authorities say a scion of a powerful clan suspected in the massacre of 57 people in an election caravan in the southern Philippines has turned himself in.

The dead from Monday's massacre include the wife, family and dozens of journalists and supporters of a gubernatorial candidate who wanted to challenge the rival Ampatuan clan, which has ruled the lawless province of Maguindanao unopposed for years.

Army Lt. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer says Andal Ampatuan Jr., a town mayor who allegedly stopped the convoy with four police commanders and dozens of police and pro-government militiamen, surrendered himself to presidential peace adviser Jesus Dureza in the provincial capital.

Ampatuan's family is denying the allegations of his involvement in the slayings.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

AMPATUAN, Philippines (AP) — Officials found 11 more bodies Wednesday at the site of an attack on an election caravan in the south, bringing the death toll in the massacre to 57, and police said they are investigating a member of a powerful clan allied with the president's administration.

Six of the bodies in southern Maguindanao province were discovered in a large pit buried alongside three vehicles, and five were found in a mass grave a few miles (kilometers) off the main highway.

The vehicles — a sedan and two vans — were crushed by a large backhoe that ran over and buried them, investigator Jose Garcia said. Police were trying to determine if the vehicles were part of the caravan.

The dead from Monday's massacre included the wife and two sisters of gubernatorial candidate Ismael Mangudadatu and 18 Filipino journalists accompanying the caravan. It is the largest number of reporters killed in a single attack anywhere in the world, according to media groups.

Police identified the prime suspect as Andal Ampatuan Jr., a scion of the powerful Ampatuan clan led by the former provincial governor. The clan, which has ruled the province unopposed for eight years, helped President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her allies win the 2004 presidential and 2007 senatorial elections by delivering crucial votes.

The military also said it will disarm two government-armed civilian militia companies, or about 200 men, in the province. The militia are meant to act as an auxiliary force to the military and police in fighting rebels and criminals but often serve as a private security force.

The killings provoked outrage beyond the Philippines, with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and media and human rights watchdogs urging Arroyo to punish the attackers.

Mangudadatu, after receiving death threats, had sent his wife and relatives to submit his candidacy. He wanted to challenge Andal Ampatuan Jr., who serves as a town mayor and whose family has ruled the province with an iron fist backed up by private armies and legions of bodyguards.

Mangudadatu said four people whom he refused to identify told him the convoy was stopped by dozens of gunmen loyal to Ampatuan. Police said they are investigating reports that Ampatuan, four police commanders, and dozens of police and pro-government militiamen were among the gunmen who blocked the convoy.

National Police Chief Jesus Versoza said the four commanders — including one provincial police chief — were relieved of their duties and confined to camp while being investigated.

Arroyo vowed justice for the victims and declared a national day of mourning.

"This is a supreme act of inhumanity that is a blight on our nation," she said in a statement. "The perpetrators will not escape justice. The law will haunt them until they are caught."

Arroyo declared a state of emergency in Maguindanao and a neighboring Sultan Kudarat province, sending extra troops and police. Troops set up checkpoints to confiscate illegal weapons, military spokesman Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner said.

The country's tourism secretary, Ace Durano, said in a statement that tourism spots frequented by travelers to the Philippines were unaffected.

Few think Arroyo will be able to restore the rule of law in the impoverished, lawless region that has been outside the central government's reach for generations, and where warlords backed by private armies go by their own rules. Maguindanao's acting governor is Sajid Ampatuan, another son of former Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr., the clan's patriarch. Members of the family could not be reached for comment.

The clan helped deliver votes for the Arroyo administration in 2004 elections. Human Rights Watch expressed concern Wednesday that the administration's relationship with the family would hinder an impartial investigation.

Arroyo's ruling party, in an emergency meeting late Wednesday, expelled Ampatuan Sr. and his two sons.

Arroyo adviser Jesus Dureza said he met Tuesday with Andal Ampatuan Sr. and received assurances that his family would cooperate in the probe. Many throughout the Philippines expressed skepticism.

The U.S. Embassy in Manila condemned the killings. "Such barbaric acts violate the most fundamental principles of human rights and democracy," Ambassador Kristie Kenney said. "We strongly believe that a thorough, rapid, and transparent investigation must be conducted, and those responsible must be brought to swift justice."

Among the dead journalists was Alejandro "Bong" Reblando, 53, a former Associated Press stringer and the most senior in the group of reporters. Reblando, who was based in General Santos City, was a staffer for the Manila Bulletin daily newspaper.

He covered the southern Philippines for the AP from the late 1980s to the early 2000s, reporting on the Muslim separatist insurgency as well as local politics.

He is survived by his wife and seven children.

G20 summit might move to Toronto area

Next year's G20 summit slated to be held in Ontario's Muskoka region might be moved to the Toronto area because of the logistics of holding the meeting at the popular cottage destination.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is leading the push to relocate the summit to Toronto or the Toronto area, but the final decision rests with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, sources told CBC News.

But Flaherty's office later denied that the finance minister was behind the charge to change locations.

The Prime Minister's Office said on Wednesday that no final decision on location has been made.

The G8 had already been scheduled to be hosted in the Muskoka region town of Huntsville in 2010. But at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh in September, Harper announced Huntsville would also host the 2010 G20 summit.

Planners had been looking at holding both meetings at the same Deerhurst resort in Huntsville around the same time, with the G8 summit being held first, followed by the G20.

But a federal official told the Globe and Mail newspaper that security and logistics might make it too difficult for the resort to accommodate the large delegations that accompany the G20 leaders.

Now organizers are looking into holding the G8 summit in Huntsville, with the leaders heading to Toronto for the G20, the Globe and Mail reported.

A spokesman for Industry Minister Tony Clement, whose riding includes Huntsville, said no decision has been made yet.

"We are still examining the feasibility of hosting this in Muskoka," Darren Cunningham told the Globe. "We've done the hotel room count and now it's a matter of making sure we look at things like securing off the roadways."

UN food chief stages hunger strike ahead of summit

ROME — The U.N. food chief said Saturday he was chilly but otherwise slept OK after his first night on a hunger strike to draw attention to the plight of the world's hungry before next week's U.N. food summit.

Jacques Diouf began the 24-hour strike at 8 p.m. Friday in the lobby of the Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. Since FAO offices are unheated at night, he donned a hat and scarf, and wore his overcoat over his pajamas as he spent the night on a makeshift mattress.

"I slept pretty well," Diouf said in a statement. "The only problem was the cold." Temperatures in the capital dipped to 8 C (46 F) overnight.

The FAO said Diouf was trying to show solidarity with the world's 1 billion chronically malnourished people, raise awareness about their plight, and put pressure on world leaders to do something about it.

FAO has said global food output will have to increase by 70 percent to feed a projected population of 9.1 billion in 2050.

To achieve that, poor countries will need $44 billion yearly of aid to agriculture, compared with the current $7.9 billion, to increase access to irrigation systems, modern machinery, as well as to build roads and train farmers.

At the summit, world leaders are expected to pledge to increase agricultural development aid. But a draft declaration already approved by delegates omits any specific financial commitments and doesn't include the 2025 deadline for eradicating hunger, which had been sought by the U.N.

Few heads of state from wealthy countries are attending, although Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe arrived Saturday and other African leaders were expected. Pope Benedict XVI will address the summit Monday.

Diouf, who was continuing the strike Saturday from his makeshift office in the FAO lobby, has called on people around the world to join in the hunger strike by skipping meals this weekend. U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon is expected to join the strike Sunday, and Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno announced he too would fast for 24 hours starting Sunday afternoon.

"We have the technical means and the resources to eradicate hunger from the world so it is now a matter of political will, and political will is influenced by public opinion," Diouf said in the statement.