UN Hunger Summit ROME: The UN Hunger Summit on Monday vowed “urgent action” to combat food shortages but drew fire for failing to pledge new funds or set a timetable to beat the scourge affecting more than one billion people. As Pope Benedict XVI slammed the “greed” of grain speculators, participants at the summit in Rome declared hunger was “an unacceptable blight on the lives, livelihoods and dignity of one-sixth of the world’s population.” Their joint final declaration — which was rolled out on the first day of the three-day summit — also outlined five “principles” including “direct action” to help the most vulnerable. But no new financial commitments were contained in the document, which calls on wealthy nations to honour pledges of 20 billion dollars in aid over the next three years made at a Group of Eight summit in July. — AFP 13 killed in Iraq BAGHDAD: Gunmen dressed in Iraqi army uniforms launched execution-style attacks west of Baghdad on Monday, killing 13 members of a tribe who took up arms against Al-Qaeda, a villager and security official said. The gunmen swarmed into Seadan village, about 20 km from Baghdad during the night and ordered six residents out of their houses, lined them up in a field and shot them dead, said Mohamed al-Zubaie, a resident. The assassins then entered the home of Attala Ouda al-Shuker, a leader in the Sahwa (Awakening) movement of Sunni tribesmen who joined US forces in 2006, and shot dead three of his sons and four other relatives, Zubaie said. — AFP Suicide blast in Pak PESHAWAR: A suicide bomber on Monday blew up a car packed with explosives near a college in Peshawar, killing four people in the latest attack on the Pakistani city beset by Taliban-linked violence. The bomber struck in a suburban road as children were going to school in the northwestern city, devastating a mosque, destroying two rooms at a boys’ college and bringing down one wall of a police station. It was the fifth suicide attack in eight days to hit the sprawling city of 2.5 million people, which lies on the edge of Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt, where US officials say Al-Qaeda militants are plotting attacks on the West. “The death toll is four and there are 26 injured,” doctor Zafar Iqbal of the Lady Reading hospital told AFP. One child was among the dead and four children were among the wounded. — AFP Berlusconi fraud trial ROME: The trial of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on charges of tax fraud involving his media empire Mediaset has been postponed to January 18, media reports said on Monday. The trial was postponed because of Berlusconi’s attendance at a UN summit on world hunger in Rome, the reports said. The case involves allegations that Mediaset overcharged for television broadcasting rights and hid the profits off-shore, which prosecutors say led to a loss of revenue for Italian tax authorities. Following the postponement, Berlusconi lawyer Niccolo Ghedini said his client had no “desire to delay” proceedings and that the prime minister would be present at the January hearing, Italian media reported. — AFP Iraq vote in doubt SULAIMANIYAH: Iraq’s general election in January was thrown into doubt on Monday when the war-torn country’s presidential council demanded a greater say for minorities and nationals living abroad. President Jalal Talabani told Agence France Presse he wants parliament to change the electoral law governing the vote so that the number of seats set aside for minorities, including Christians, and Iraqi expatriates will be tripled. — AFP