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Indo-Pak talks on nuclear CBMs postponed

          New Delhi: The Indo-Pak talks on nuclear CBMs, scheduled to be held in New Delhi on May 25-26, have been postponed following a request from the new Indian government. A Pakistan foreign office statement said in Islamabad "Today, the Government of India has requested us for the postponement of the talks on nuclear CBMs because, as a result of the recent transition in leadership, an External Affairs Minister of India has not yet taken office.India has proposed that the talks on nuclear CBMs could be held two days before the Foreign Secretary- level talks." When contacted, External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna confirmed that a request for a "brief postponement" has been made to Pakistan. Fresh dates would be worked out by the two sides. It is likely to he held before the Foreign Secretary- level meeting, he said. The two foreign secretaries are slated to meet in May-June for talks on peace and security including CBMs and Jammu and Kashmir.

Parliament session from June 2 (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: The first session of the 14th Lok Sabha will begin on June 2 and President A P J Abdul Kalam will address a joint sitting of Parliament on June 7. The decision to convene the nine-day session of Parliament was taken on Sunday at the first meeting of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The newly elected members of the Lok Sabha will take oath on June 2 and 3 while the election of the Speaker is scheduled for June 4. The MPs are expected to discuss the President's address from June 7 to June 9. And the motion of thanks to the address is scheduled for passage on June 10. On the suspense over allocation of portfolio, Union Minister P M Sayeed said it is likely to be announced either tonight or tomorrow. Earlier Manmohan Singh had an hour-long meeting with Sonia Gandhi on the issues to be taken up at the first meeting of the Union Cabinet later in the day. The meeting was attended by several Cabinet Ministers and senior party leaders including Pranab Mukherjee, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel, Ambika Soni and R K Dhavan.

26 BSF jawans killed in landmine blast in Kashmir (Go To Top)

          Srinagar: Twenty-six BSF jawans were killed and 12 people injured when a massive landmine blew up a paramilitary bus on Srinagar-Jammu highway here on Sunday morning, the local police said. The top terrorist organisation Hizbul Mujahideen claimed the responsibility for the attack. Hizb spokesman Junaid ul-Islam told reporters that the blast was to avenge the killing of Hizb commanders. BSF Deputy Inspector General K. Srinivasan said that a convoy of BSF vehicles was on its way to Jammu from here when the attack took place at Woodsa near Jawahar Tunnel around 10.20 am. The injured personnel were airlifted by helicopters to the Army Base Hospital here, he said. The DIG added that the casualty was high because the bus caught fire immediately after the explosion giving little time to the personnel to escape. 35 personnel were travelling in the bus.

Pak greetings to Dr Manmohan Singh (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: Pakistan's top leadership, including President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali, congratulated Dr Manmohan Singh on Saturday evening after he was sworn-in as India's new Prime Minister. They also welcomed his commitment to pursuing peace between the nuclear giants. "Please accept my heartiest congratulations on your assuming the office of the prime minister of India. We in Pakistan welcome your government's resolve to improve relations between our two countries. I wish to assure you of our sincere commitment to a just and peaceful solutions of all outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir," the News quoted Musharraf as saying in a message made public by the foreign ministry. Musharraf's message said: "I wish you a great success in the fulfillment of your important responsibilities as well as progress and prosperity to the people of India." According to the report, Jamali said that Islamabad was confident that under Singh's leadership bilateral relations "will continue to develop and the process of composite dialogue for the resolution of all outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir will be productive." "I look forward to working with you towards the realisation of the common goal of assuring peace and progress for the people of South Asia," Jamali said in his message.

Imran accepts Tyrian as his child (Go To Top)

          Karachi: Crickter-turned-politician Imran Khan and his wife Jemina Khan have finally and formally accepted Tyrian, said to be Imran's "love child" from Sita White. Imran himself announced this here Saturday. "Sita before her death wrote a letter expressing her will that both of us should accept the guardianship of Tyrian. After consultations, we have accepted to become the girls' guardians," The Nation quoted the former cricket captain as saying at the Karachi Press Club. "She would stay in the US but we shall fulfil all obligations of guardianship", Khan said, adding "we have accepted the guardianship not the custody, there is a difference between the two." According to the paper, the will left behind by Sita White stipulates that Imran gets custody of Tyrian after her death, London-based Mail has reported. "Her will says Imran gets full and complete parental rights over Tyrian if anything happened to Sita. Tyrian and Imran now have a strong bond despite his reluctance to acknowledge her during her early years," one of Sita's close friends was quoted as saying, the paper said. The report further said Imran and Jemima discussed bringing the 12-year-old to live with them and their sons - Sulaiman (7) and Qasim (4) in UK. It quoted Jemima as telling one of her friends: "We are committed to doing whatever is best for Tyrian and we are both very happy for her to move to the UK and live with us if that's what she wants."

Millions of kids administered polio drops (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: Millions of children were administered polio drops on Sunday in an effort to eradicate the dreaded polio disease from the country. Alarmed at the resurgence of the disease last year, the government is giving free polio drops to all children under the age of five. In New Delhi, parents started coming in as early as 6 a.m to avoid the scorching heat. Polio is a highly infectious disease which mainly afflicts children below the age of three. It attacks the central nervous system, often causing paralysis, muscular atrophy and deformity. Most of the cases are reported from Uttar Pradesh, which, with a population of 173 million, accounted for 66 percent of all polio cases reported worldwide last year.

          The polio eradication programme, called "Pulse-polio" was launched in India in 1994, which has brought down the incidence of the disease substantially from 28,000 in 1997 to about 2,300 in 2000. India is the largest consumer of the oral polio vaccine, using a staggering 1,150 million doses a year. Interruption of polio transmission in India is crucial for the global target of a polio-free world by the year 2005.

Buddha's new birthplace discovered (Go To Top)

          Kapileshwar (Orissa): A team of archeological experts from Orissa say their recent findings at the Kapileshwar village may help establish the small hamlet as the birthplace of Lord Buddha, instead of Lumbini, in Nepal. Officials at the Orissa State Museum, which conducted the excavation, said that the new findings, which included artefacts dating back to 6th century BC, supported the claims of Kapileshwar being Lord Buddha's birthplace. Buddhism was founded in India, when Lord Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, attained supreme enlightenment under the Bodhi tree in Bodhgaya in 6th century B.C. The Orissa museum team undertook surface exploration near Mahabhoi tank where Buddha is believed to have meditated. Pottery and other artefacts belonging to the pre-Harappan era were also discovered from the site. All the artefacts have been sent to the Institute of Physics for further verification and research. "These fossilised specimen will be tested in the Institute of Physical Laboratory, where we will be doing collaborative work, so the dateline will be determined and comparative study of potteries recovered with that of potteries recovered form other parts of the country will be conducted. Because many materials are there, literary and other evidence are there about the bath of Buddha and Kapileshwar, but solid archaeological materials like pottery with correct dateline was not available to us till date. There is an excavation, now there are archaeological material, so identification of this bath place of Buddha is getting more prominent now," said Dr. C.B. Patel, the Superintendent of Orissa State Museum.

           The team has also discovered the fossilised dung of an animal from the tank that adds to the claim of the ancient character of the site. Ruins of an ancient temple and a road linking Kapileshwar with Puri were also discovered. Buddhism is one of the four most popular religions in the world. The religion is gaining popularity especially in the West, where followers include the likes of popular Hollywood actors like Richard Gere and Steve Seagal. Though there are about 350 million practising Buddhists across the world, Buddhists account for less than 0.7 percent of India's total population of over one billion.