The Burmese government and the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) have agreed to begin political dialogue this coming month, according to KIO spokesman La Mai Gum Ja.

The announcement came following preliminary peace talks on October 30 in the Chinese town of Ruili where a delegation from Naypyidaw led by President’s Office Minister Aung Min met with KIO representatives headed by Kachin politician Sumlut Gam.

“We have agreed to continue political negotiations,” said Gum Ja. “Assuming our central committee agrees to the proposal, we will meet in November at a venue inside Burma.”

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One of four Italian soldiers wounded in a firefight with Afghan insurgents Thursday has died in hospital, taking Italy’s death toll in the eight-year NATO-led ISAF mission to 52.

Alpine Brigade Corporal Tiziano Chierotti, 24, from the northwestern costal town of Sanremo, had surgery on abdominal wounds but “nothing could be done,” military sources said in Rome.

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A Pakistani official says over 100 militants have attacked a police station in the northwest, killing six policemen. Two of the killed policemen were beheaded.

Police officer Ishrat Yar says the attack near the main northwest city of Peshawar started late on Sunday night and triggered a gunbattle that lasted for several hours. The militants were armed with heavy machine-guns, rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades and assault rifles.

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A suicide blast killed at least 15 people in a tribal area in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, authorities said.

The blast injured 22 others in Darra Adam khel, near Peshawar, said Nasir Khan, a local government official.

Initial investigations indicate the bomb was targeting a base for anti-Taliban fighters, according to officials.

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Three soldiers from Burma’s military died on Monday following bloody clashes with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in the Mongkoe (or Munggu) area of northern Shan state, according to local residents.

Eyewitnesses told the Kachin News Group they saw the bodies of three soldiers, identified as members of Infantry Battalion No. 69, being carried away by their comrades near Nawng Heng, the site of heavy fighting all day Monday.

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