Thai police say detained man is indeed Bangkok bomber

Thai police said on Saturday a man they are holding in custody is the bomber behind a deadly attack in Bangkok last month, the latest twist in an investigation marred by contradictory statements.

Police spokesman Prawut Thawornsiri said a man arrested with bomb materials on Aug. 29, who has been referred to both as Bilal Mohammed and Adem Karadag, the name on a Turkish passport he holds, was responsible for the bombing.

The blast killed 20 people including 14 foreigners, making it the deadliest such incident in Thai history.

"From evidence police showed him, he accepted the crime," Prawut told reporters.

A military court on Friday issued arrest warrants for 17 people over a range of charges in connection to the bombing, including Bilal Mohammed and others carrying Thai, Chinese, Turkish and Pakistani passports. Prawut said the authenticity of the passports has yet to be confirmed, however.

China vows billions in aid and debt forgiveness

China's president has pledged billions in aid and said Beijing will forgive debts due this year in an effort to help the world's poorest nations.

President Xi Jinping made the pledge at a global summit on Saturday with the non-binding goals to be set over the next 15 years.

Xi and others spoke as the U.N. gathering began to shift focus from development to the high-powered General Assembly meeting that begins Monday with speeches by Xi, President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on the first morning alone.

Obama and Putin will meet Monday. The prospects for any meeting between Obama and Rouhani, even a handshake, remained unclear.

Rouhani arrived Saturday and immediately was encouraged by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to have Iran step up to help achieve political settlements to the grinding conflicts in Syria and Yemen, where Iran has influence. The Islamic republic is a top ally of the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad and supports Shiite Houthi rebels who have held parts of Yemen for months.

Iran's president said in his address that the recent deal with world powers on its nuclear program "has created suitable conditions for regional and international cooperation," including on protecting the environment.

As world leaders met quietly behind the scenes, others lined up to express support for the new development push that aimed to eliminate both poverty and hunger over the next 15 years. They replace a soon-to-expire set of development goals whose limited success was largely due to China's surge out of poverty over the past decade and a half.

China's president vowed to help other countries make the same transformation. Xi said China will commit an initial $2 billion to establish an assistance fund to meet the post-2015 goals in areas such as education, health care and economic development. He said China would seek to increase the fund to $12 billion by 2030.

And Xi said China would write off intergovernmental interest-free loans owed to China by the least-developed, small island nations and most heavily debt-burdened countries due this year.

He said China "will continue to increase investment in the least developed countries," and support global institutions, including the Beijing-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank that is due to launch by the end of the year and is seen as a Chinese alternative to the more Western-oriented financial institutions of the World Bank.

Ban made a major pitch to the private sector Saturday for its help in financing the development goals. "In a sense, September 26th is even more important than September 25th," he told dozens of global business leaders from companies including Google, Unilever, Siemens and Sinopec. "Today, we begin the hard work of turning plans into reality."

As world leaders made promises about the future, a key Jordanian leader said they needed to pay attention to the refugee crisis now spiraling out of control in the Mideast.

Jordan Minister Imad Najib Fakhoury made an impassioned plea at the U.N. summit for the world's countries to take in more Syrian refugees to help his country which has been overwhelmed by those fleeing the conflict there.

In his address, Fakhoury said Jordan's efforts are akin to the United States having to absorb 64 million more people, or the European Union 100 million, or Japan 25 million, or China 280 million.

Indigenous Filipinos accuse paramilitary group of murdering activists

Several thousand indigenous Filipinos are living in evacuation centres in the country’s south, after fleeing their villages following the killing of three of their leaders. They say these men were murdered by a paramilitary group working with the country’s military to grab their ancestral lands for mining. 

The killings took place on September 1 in Lianga, in the southern island of Mindanao, which has been wracked by a Muslim separatist conflict for the past four decades. 

Japan pledges maritime security aid to Vietnam

Japan has promised Vietnam ships to strengthen its forces in the South China Sea, with the two nations describing large-scale land reclamation there as a threat to peace -- a veiled reference to China.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also pledged on Tuesday some $835 million in infrastructure loans after holding talks with Nguyen Phu Trong, in his first visit to Japan as general secretary of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party.

Both countries are locked in separate maritime territorial disputes with an increasingly assertive China and are strengthening cooperation as a result.

Malaysia arrests suspects over Bangkok blast

Malaysia has arrested three suspects in connection with the investigation into a bomb blast in central Bangkok last month that killed 20 people, police officials said.

Two Malaysians and a Pakistani national were arrested and were assisting with the investigation, police chief Khalid Abu Bakar told reporters on Monday.

"We believe the suspects can help in the investigation ... our arrest was made to assist the Thai police in the Thai bombing investigation," he said.

Indonesia declares state of emergency over fire haze

Indonesia has declared a state of emergency in a province choked with thick haze from forest fires, as fears mount that worsening air quality could affect the upcoming Grand Prix in neighbouring Singapore.

The emergency announcement in Riau province on Sumatra island came as aircraft were deployed to water-bomb the raging blazes and conduct "cloud-seeding", which involves chemically inducing rain.

The blazes have intensified in the past fortnight, sending smog over Sumatra and Borneo that has left tens of thousands ill, forced people to wear face masks and prompted the cancellation of flights and school closures.

Although there were more fires in other provinces, Riau has been one of the worst-hit as smog blows in from the surrounding areas.