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Jakarta hotel blast death roll rises

JAKARTA, July 17 (UPI) -- At least eight people were killed when two Jakarta luxury hotels were bombed Friday in a span of minutes, an Indonesian presidential spokesman said.

CNN quoted the spokesman as saying more than 40 people were injured in the morning blasts at the Ritz-Carlton and the Marriott hotels. The blast sites at the Kuningan area of central Jakarta were secured by counter-terrorist police commandos.

Indonesia's Antara news agency said the Ritz-Carlton was scheduled to receive players from Britain's Manchester United soccer club, who were to arrive Saturday in Jakarta. No additional information on that was available.

Those injured were taken to the MMC and Jakarta hospitals.

Antara reported the MMC Hospital had received at least 29 of the blast victims but their conditions were not immediately known. The Jakarta Hospital received at least 10 victims, including two foreigners, the report said. The two foreigners were later moved to another hospital.

It was not clear how many explosions occurred but Antara said the first explosion was reported at about 7:50 a.m. followed by another five minutes later.

CNN reported the explosion at the Ritz-Carlton blew out some of its windows.

India, Pakistan agree on anti-terror plan

NEW DELHI, July 17 (UPI) -- India and Pakistan have agreed to increased dialogue and information-sharing in an effort to head off terrorist attacks, leaders of the two countries said.

After a two-hour session in Egypt, the leaders decided cooperation was necessary to avoid such violence as the deadly siege at Mumbai and perhaps end the bitter blame game that followed those assaults, The Washington Post reported Friday.

Talks between the nations, which have fought three wars, broke down in November when 10 gunmen killed more than 170 people in a three-day siege of the western Indian city of Mumbai.

In a joint statement, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani agreed they would "share real-time, credible and actionable" intelligence information on possible terrorist plans.

But, while Pakistan and India agreed to restart talks and unfreeze relations, there was no move toward reviving full-blown peace negotiations between the two countries.

Gillani called the meeting a "major breakthrough" in a bid for an anti-terrorist effort.

Singh told reporters that he sought an assurance from Gillani that there would be no repeat of attacks like the 2008 Mumbai siege.

Security in place for Rafsanjani's sermon

TEHRAN, July 17 (UPI) -- Iran Friday beefed up security to prevent Friday prayers, led by a major opposition leader, from shifting into a protest, intelligence officials said.

Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani -- a supporter of opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who challenged President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 12 election -- delivered a Friday sermon after an eight-week absence from the public eye, witnesses told CNN. Rafsanjani is a former president and one of Iran's most powerful clerics.

Mousavi has said he accepted an invitation from Rafsanjani to attend the Friday sermon. Another opposition candidate, Mehdi Karrubi, indicated on his Web site he also would attend.

Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei said security was in "good condition" Tehran in advance of Rafsanjani's sermon, the state-run Fars News Agency reported.

Rafsanjani, a critic of the government's brutal crackdown on demonstrators protesting election results, has been pressured to publicly support the Iranian leadership, CNN reported.

"After a month-long silence, the position of Hashemi Rafsanjani will be very important for those of all political inclinations, particularly those who are aiming at the (destruction) of the unity of the system," lawmaker Mohammad Karim Shahrzad said in an interview with Islamic Republic News Agency.

After the election, Mousavi's supporters demonstrated to protest the outcome that gave Ahmadinejad a landslide victory. Rafsanjani's daughter and four other relatives were detained briefly for participating in one of the rallies.

Obama: Accept 'no excuses for any failure'

NEW YORK, July 17 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama Thursday urged black Americans to teach children there are "no excuses" and said "no one has written your destiny for you."

"Your destiny is in your hands, and don't you forget that," Obama said in the keynote address to the NAACP's centennial convention in New York. "That's what we have to teach all of our children! No excuses! No excuses!"

"No one has written your destiny for you," Obama said.

In a rousing speech punctuated by sustained applause, the president told parents to push their children to achieve and to focus more on getting good grades and less on playing video games.

"If we are to be true to our past, then we also have to seize our own destiny, each and every day," he said.

The speech was Obama's first to a primarily black audience in the United States since he became the first black president. He looked back on his own life, straying from his prepared text to talk about how his mother kept him focused when he was young.

"When I drive through Harlem and I drive through the South Side of Chicago and I see young men on the corners, I say, 'There but for the grace of God go I,'" he said.

Obama said "barriers still remain," including lingering "structural discrimination" and the poverty and lack of opportunity that are legacies of segregation. He said his plans to improve education and reform healthcare can help.

"The pain of discrimination is still felt in America,'' Obama said, citing injustices inflicted on blacks, Hispanics, Muslims and gays.

Benjamin Jealous, head of the NAACP, later described the president's speech as "pitch perfect."

Pope Benedict XVI falls while on vacation

VATICAN CITY, July 17 (UPI) -- Pope Benedict XVI was treated for a broken wrist and twisted ankle suffered in a fall while on vacation in the Italian Alps, Vatican officials said Friday.

The pope, 82, was able to walk into the emergency department Friday after being driven to the hospital in Aosta, Italy, by his private secretary, The Daily Telegraph (Britain) reported.

The Vatican said the pontiff fell Thursday in his room, and went to the hospital Friday after saying his daily mass, CNN reported.

Vatican officials said the incident was "not serious" and the pope was being examined as a precaution.

Every summer Pope Benedict vacations at a chalet at Les Combes near Aosta, the Telegraph said.

"The holy father fell over, it is nothing serious and he has gone to the Parini hospital in Aosta for a checkup," papal spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said Friday.