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Pak response not encouraging: India 
-by N Bhadran Nair

          Evian (France), June 1: The US has promised India to exert pressure on Pakistan to stop abetting cross-border terrorism. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who had a brief informal meeting with US President George W. Bush Saturday night at St. Petersburg, told him that no meaningful dialogue could be possible with Islamabad without an end to cross-border terrorism.

          According to authoritative sources, Bush has assured Vajpayee that he will take up the issue with President Pervez Musharraf, during the latter's visit to Washington later this month. New Delhi seems to be not optimistic about any substantive action by Islamabad, as large attempts to infiltrate from across the border are continuing. The source said during May this year alone some 80 such attempts did occur. He said though no litmus test could be set for beginning the talks, "we should be convinced that Pakistan takes a strategic decision to stop helping the terrorists."

          Vajpayee made a record of sorts during his stopover in St. Petersburg to participate in the tercentenary of the city. In a span of 12 hours he met heads of state or governments of four permanent members of the UN Security Council and had substantive talks, while he had a brief interaction with the fifth member, the United States. The Prime Minister, who has been invited to attend the G-8 Summit at Evian in France, is expected to raise the issues relating to Doha round of WTO discussions, enhanced financial flows to developing or under-developed countries by the G-8 and environmental protection under the Kyoto Protocol. Vajpayee, who arrived at Evian Sunday morning was received by French President Jack Chirac. Chirac made a special gesture of walking upto Vajpayee's car and receiving him.

Call all parties for Kashmir talks: Sonia (Go To Top)

          Baramullah, June 1: Addressing a huge gathering in Baramullah, 50-km from Srinagar, today, Congress chief Ms Sonia Gandhi said all outstanding issues between India and Pakistan should be resolved peacefully through dialogue. Vajpayee last month extended a hand of friendship to Pakistan and since then India and Pakistan have taken several confidence- building measures. "Now-a-days efforts are on for talks and improving relations with Pakistan. The Congress has always said that all outstanding issues between us (India and Pakistan) should not be resolved by the army but through dialogue. I hope this beginning should lead to a good result. We welcome that. Congress welcomes it. And as earlier, we extend Congress support to the central government on this issue," said Ms Gandhi.

          On the domestic front, Ms Gandhi, whose Congress party is a junior partner in the government in Jammu and Kashmir, called upon the central government to include all sections of society, including separatists, in talks to find durable peace in Kashmir. "With respect to Jammu and Kashmir our policy has been clear. Alongwith PDP (state's ruling People's Democratic Party) and other friends, Congress will take Jammu and Kashmir on the road to peace and development. We believe that cental government should hold meaningful talks with all sections of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and show sympathy in removing their problems," said Ms Gandhi.

          Kashmir's main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) has ruled out talks with New Delhi pointsman NN Vohra who has held talks with various political parties and groups. The APHC has demanded to elevate talks to the prime minister's level. Residents of Srinagar welcomed Ms Gandhi's visit to the violence- torn valley and her decision to hold a conclave of 15 chief ministers of Congress-ruled states in the city.

Advani calls for better ties with Pakistan, China (Go To Top)

          Leh, June 1: Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani on Sunday called for improved bilateral ties with neighbours Pakistan and China. Inaugurating the 'Sindhu Darshan' (Visiting the Indus river) Festival in Leh, Advani hoped the day was not far when there would be no obstacles other than the rugged Himalayan terrain between the peoples of the three countries to visit one another. "Today Sindhu stands as the perfect example of national integration. But I know that day is not far when this (Sindhu) will also be an example for international integration. And by that time Ladakh will be a much developed place and we will have delegates both from China and Pakistan and it will be the perfect platform of international unity," Advani told reporters after inaugurating the three-day cultural festival on the banks of the Indus river.

          The 2,900-km long Sindhu (Indus) river originates in Tibet and after passing through Leh in Jammu and Kashmir, flows into Pakistan before draining into the Arabian Sea. Advani said Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee would discuss opening a route from Leh to Tibet during his visit to China later this month. "Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee would be visiting China on the 22nd of this month (June). I have urged him to bring up the topic of the Kailash-Mansarovar route (from India to Tibet) which was taken up by Defence Minister George Fernandes during his recent trip to that country. If things work out then probably people coming next year for the festival wouldn't mind taking four days off to visit the Kailash-Mansarovar route too," Advani said. The opening of the Ladakh route across Himalayas to Kailash- Mansarovar in Tibet, named after Mount Kailash and Mansarovar lake, would allow pilgrims through a safer and easier route in just a matter of four days.

          More than 500 pilgrims, each year, travel to the Himalayan shrine of Kailash-Mansarovar, mostly through the Lipulekh pass, which goes through Nepal, taking at least 24 days. Mansarovar lake and the flanking Mount Kailash which is the highest mountain in Tibet at 22,022 feet, are revered by Hindus as the abode of Lord Shiva, the deity of destruction and resurrection. The Kailash-Mansarovar route has been an ancient trade route between India and China. Hindus from India used to undertake the pilgrimage for many years until 1962 when India and China fought a brief war. The pilgrimage was resumed in 1981 following improvement in relations between the two countries. Beijing has asked New Delhi to postpone this year's Kailash- Mansarovar pilgrimage citing precautions for the spread of SARS virus. However, there are no reports of SARS infection from either Tibet or India. The pilgrimage is as good as cancelled unless allowed within the limited months during which the high Himalayan passes would remain open.

One killed, 25 injured in Bihar train mishap (Go To Top)

          Buxar, June 1: One person was killed and 25 others were injured as 14 coaches of a passenger train derailed in Bihar on Sunday. The mishap took place around 3.30 am at a railway bridge at Parasia village, eight km from Buxar district. "Everyone was sleeping at that time. At around 3.30 am (local time) we felt jolts. Then we came to know that the track was damaged," said Ajay Singh, a passenger. Manisham, another passenger, said they felt lucky to have escaped a major tragedy.

          "It was 3.30 in the night and everybody was sleeping. But suddenly there was some strange kind of noise. At first we thought it was crossing a bridge, but later we started suspecting that there was something wrong. There were even speculations that the train had caught fire but later we got to know that it had got derailed," she said. No cause of the derailment has yet been ascertained but the officials have not ruled out possibility of sabotage.

          Most of India's more than one billion people depend on the 151- year-old railway, which covers over 63,000 km and is the world's second-largest. Indian Railways runs almost 14,000 trains carrying more than 13 million passengers a day and has about 300 accidents a year. Transport critics say a surge in traffic and a lack of funds to renovate the system have made it vulnerable to accidents. But rail authorities defend their safety record, saying the accident rate has fallen to a tenth of levels of the early 1960s.

ONGC, Reliance among world's 500 largest companies (Go To Top)

          London, June 1: Two Indian companies, ONGC and Reliance Industries Ltd, have found a pride of place among the world's 500 largest companies this year. The ONGC, the public sector giant, is ranked 326th in the Financial Times Global 500 list, with a market capitalisation of 10.7 billion US dollars and is categorised in the oil and gas sector. Reliance Industries, India's largest private sector company, with a market capitalisation of 8.4 billion US dollars is ranked 442nd. Both ONGC and Reliance are the new entrants in this year's list. Hindustan Lever, which had featured in last year's list at 450th place, did not find a mention this year. Topping the list this year is Microsoft with market value of 264 billion US dollars, displacing General Electric from the top spot. Microsoft and GE have been swapping places on this list since 1996. The United States still dominates the Global 500 listing with 240 US companies, nearly half of the total finding place in it, five times as many as its closest competitor, Japan. In terms of market capitalisation the UK retained its second position. UK's 34 companies on the list were worth 1,000 billion US dollars, which is ahead of Japan's 872 billion US dollars with 47 companies.

India lose hockey final to Australia (Go To Top)

          Perth, June 1: India went down 1-2 to Australia in the final of the three-nation hockey tournament here on Sunday. Despite taking a 1-0 lead in the 49th minute through captain Dhanraj Pillay, India failed to hold on to the advantage till the end as their defence wilted under pressure. For Australia, Jamie Dwyer and Michael McCann sounded the board in the 65th and 69th minute. India, who played an attacking game in the first half and most part of the second half, failed to keep their composure when it mattered most. Intensifying the attack after conceding a goal, the hosts made several attempts on India's goalmouth in the dying moments. Though the visitors managed to survive the onslaught initially, they could not thwart the rampaging opposition strikers for long. In the third place play-off at the Perth Hockey stadium, Pakistan squandered a 1-0 lead to lose the tie 1-2 after Schubert scored his goals within two minutes late into the second half.

Gas hydrate found in Indian waters (Go To Top)

           Panaji, June 1: Scientists at National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) claim to have found huge quantities of gas hydrate in Indian waters. According to preliminary studies by NIO, the fuel stored in these hydrates is estimated to meet the country's energy requirement for several centuries. NIO director Ehrilich Desa said the gas hydrates found in the Indian sea could be a possible source of clean energy. "Gas hydrate is a possible source of energy. It's a clean energy which could be available in abundance around our coasts. We have done the first potential maps of gas hydrates and they look very interesting and now we have funding to go out and look at specific areas of the west and the east coast, and that work is ongoing," said Desa on Saturday in Panaji.

          "The excitement in that is of course that energy security is a possibility. For us the excitement is to find out how these gas hydrates were created, what is the genesis, how do they migrate, how do they conglomerate, how do we get estimates of resources, of what is physics, what is chemistry, even what's the biology," he added. The gas reserves have been found in the western coast, Godavari coast, and in Andaman islands, Desa said. India's western coast is sitting on vast unexplored natural gas reserves, estimated at around 610 million tonnes. Gas hydrate is found in ice form, containing water and gas molecules. It contains a huge volume of methane and is a source of cleaner fuel. Established in 1966, NIO's principal objective is to study the physical, chemical, biological, geological and engineering aspects of the seas around India. India's domestic gas production at present is around 29 billion cubic metres.