Kyodo news summary -2-

---------- N. Korea financial row to be resolved this week: LDP's Yamasaki

TOKYO - A financial dispute over which North Korea has refused to meet its nuclear disarmament obligations under the six-party talks will likely be resolved ''this week,'' veteran Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Taku Yamasaki said Sunday.

Yamasaki said on a TV Asahi program that a North Korean Embassy staff member he got into contact with during his recent visit to Beijing said Pyongyang will implement the initial denuclearization steps as promised once the financial issue is cleared.

---------- Afghan officials claim senior Taliban commander dead

KABUL - Senior Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah, who was a member of the militia's 10-member leadership council and one of its top figures in southern Afghanistan, has died, an intelligence official said Sunday.

''We have his dead body in Kandahar,'' the official who declined to be named told Kyodo News.

---------- Australian gov't bans national cricket team from touring Zimbabwe

SYDNEY - The Australian government said Sunday it has banned the national cricket team from touring Zimbabwe, which Australia and other Western countries accuse of political repression and human rights abuses under President Robert Mugabe.

''The Australian government has directed Cricket Australia not to proceed with the Australian cricket team's tour to Zimbabwe planned for September this year,'' the government said in a statement issued by Prime Minister John Howard's office.

---------- Samoa's king, one of world's longest reigning monarchs, dies at 94

SYDNEY - Samoa's King Malietoa Tanumafili II, who was one of the world's longest reigning monarchs, died at a hospital in the South Pacific island country, according to media reports. He was 94.

The king reportedly died Friday night in Apia, the Polynesian country's capital and largest city, where he had been hospitalized for about a week. Details on the cause of death were not immediately available.