Briefly

INDIA

U.S. says nuke deal can’t be renegotiated

NEW DELHI — The United States cannot renegotiate a historic nuclear energy deal with India, an agreement that has drawn strong criticism from politicians in New Delhi, the main U.S. negotiator said in remarks published yesterday.

The comments by U.S. Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns come amid a growing chorus of demands from communist allies of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government to scrap the historic pact they say is unfair and imposes American supremacy.

“We can’t renegotiate it because the agreement is done,” a statement from India’s Outlook magazine quoted Mr. Burns as saying in an interview.

PAKISTAN

Relief supplies sent to China

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan yesterday dispatched relief supplies including rice and tents to China for victims of devastating floods that have killed more than 500 people, the foreign ministry said.

A plane carrying 150 tents, 1,000 blankets, five tons of rice and 200,000 water purification tablets had left for the northwestern Chinese city of Urumqi, a ministry statement said.

INDIA

Daughter killed over school ambition

NEW DELHI — A 12-year-old girl in western India was purportedly killed by her mother after the girl made repeated requests to go to school, a report said.

The girl, identified as Phusi, lived in Udaysar village in Rajasthan state, and wanted to go to school, but the nearest one was a long distance away and her family could not afford to buy her a bicycle for the trip, the Hindustan Times reported Tuesday.

When Phusi continued to demand to go to school, her mother reportedly hit her with a rolling pin and, to make it look like a suicide, the mother tied a rope around the girl’s neck, “hung her from the ceiling and rushed out screaming that Phusi had killed herself,” a police officer said. The mother was arrested.

SRI LANKA

U.N. chief backs relief official

NEW YORK — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Thursday said comments by a Sri Lankan official calling his humanitarian coordinator a “terrorist” were “unacceptable and unwarranted,” a U.N. spokeswoman said.

John Holmes, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said last week in Colombo that Sri Lanka was among the most dangerous places in the world for humanitarian workers.

He specifically referred to 17 workers from Action Against Hunger killed execution style in eastern Sri Lanka a year ago.

Several government officials angrily rejected Mr. Holmes’ statement and demanded a retraction.

From wire dispatches and staff reports