The grandma hypothesis!As in 2005, PM the driving force for finalising nuke deal with US in 2009.China won't play third party role in India-Pak talks.
"Big Bang" experiment advancing fast.Headley said: 'We'll retaliate against India'.Israeli president discusses Mideast talks in Egypt.26/11 mastermind Saeed freely roaming, preaching in Pakistan.With India raising strong objection to the U.S. suggesting a role for China in South Asia, Beijing seems to be backing away from mediating between India and Pakistan.Talks with New Delhi yet to start: Mirwaiz
Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams, Chapter 426
Palash Biswas
http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com/
ia not worried about US honouring N-deal: PM
Ahead of his meeting with President Barack Obama, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said India has no worries about US honouring the Indo-US nuclear deal, but would like to get a "positive reaffirmation" of the present administration to carry forward the process.
Singh, who is on his way to Washington from Geneva, said India would like to operationalise the "watershed" agreement and ensure that the objectives for the nuclear deal are realised in full merit.
"We have no worries, but we would like a positive reaffirmation of this administration to carry forward the process," Singh said in an interview to Newsweek magazine, full transcript of which was released by the Ministry of External Affairs on its website.
He was asked whether he was concerned about the US honouring the consent agreement.
Singh said the partnership with US was for sustained and sustainable development of India and the new global world order which is in search of a new equilibrium.
"India and the United States could be partners in refocusing our attention on an equitable, balanced, global order," Singh, who will meet Obama on Tuesday, said.
Asked whether India is worried about the Test Ban Treaty which President Obama seems very intent on pushing through the senate, Singh said "Why should we be worried?. We are not worried at all."
The prime minister said India has a unilateral moratorium on testing imposed voluntarily and that it stands by that.
"We would like to work with President Obama to promote the cause of global nuclear disarmament, a world free of nuclear weapons," Singh said.
"I think that is a world which has been the dream of our leaders from Jawaharlal Nehru to Rajiv Gandhi. We would like to work with all like-minded countries to achieve that goal," he said.
Singh also hoped that the US will be "more liberal" in transferring technologies to India and clear the way for implementing the landmark agreement on nuclear cooperation.
"We had a watershed and a landmark agreement with the US on nuclear cooperation. We would like to operationalise it and ensure that the objectives for the nuclear deal are realised in full merit," he said.
Singh said the restrictions on technology transfers to India "make no sense" since the country has an impeccable record of non-proliferation.
Top Indian and US officials are holding hectic parleys to conclude a deal on reprocessing of spent fuel before the Singh-Obama meeting.
Source: PTI
22/11/2009
US shares info with India on Headley's ISI links
Geneva: The US Saturday disclosed to India new information linking the anti-terror plot hatched by expatriates David Coleman Headley and Tahawuur Rana with some elements in the ISI and said it will reveal the name of a key Pakistani national linked to the Mumbai carnage in a week's time.
The disclosure came when National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan held talks with CIA chief Leon Panetta in New Delhi Saturday, reliable sources said.
The new information given by the US reinforces Indian investigations that have pointed to links between Headley and Rana, who were arrested by the FBI in Chicago last month in connection with a Laskhar-e-Taiba terror plot against India, with the Mumbai carnage.
The latest disclosures nearly coincide with the first anniversary of the Mumbai carnage.
Two key suspects in the Headley-Rana case have been arrested by Pakistan, the sources said.
The two officials also discussed finer details of a counter-terror plot that is expected to be signed after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh holds talks with US President Barack Obama in the White House Tuesday.
The counter-terror pact seeks to take existing cooperation in this area between India and the US to a new level by focusing on closer coordination of intelligence agencies and the US sharing the latest surveillance and interdiction technologies with India.
The two also discussed the volatile situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan that will also figure prominently in discussions between Manmohan Singh and Obama. Increasingly, there is a convergence of views of India and the US on the AfPak situation.
The US shares India's perception that Pakistan is not keen to act against anti-India militants even as it continues its crackdown on Taliban militia in South Waziristan, sources said.
The US was not very optimistic whether Pakistan will act against anti-India terror infrastructure, sources said.
The CIA chief also indicated that Obama will announce a major troops surge in Afghanistan. The US is hoping to see some concrete results in Afghanistan in the next 12-18 months, the sources added.
India has made it clear that it has stakes in the success of the US' AfPak strategy. But New Delhi is opposed to any distinction between good Taliban and bad Taliban. The consequences of the Taliban victory are not good for India, the US, the region and the world, the sources said.
The official, however, ruled out any military involvement of India in Afghanistan and added that there was no request from the US side on this front.
Source: Indo-Asian News Service
Obama Touts Asia Trade for US Economic Recovery
In his weekly radio and Internet address, Mr. Obama stressed that the US needs to place a greater emphasis on exports in order for the economy to grow.
VOA News 21 November 2009
Mr. Obama says Asia does the most trade with the U.S. and that the U.S. could gain economically from intensifying the trade relationship even further.
U.S. President Barack Obama says trade with Asia is crucial to U.S. economic recovery.
In his weekly radio and Internet address, Mr. Obama stressed that the U.S. needs to place a greater emphasis on exports in order for the economy to grow.
The address, published in advance on the White House Web site, was recorded in South Korea during Mr. Obama's first presidential trip to Asia.
He said Asia does the most trade with the U.S. and that the U.S. could gain economically from intensifying the trade relationship even further, saying if the U.S. could increase exports there by 5 percent, it could lead to hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
And he recapped diplomatic moves from his tour, including a joint message with Russia and China to Iran on North Korea on their nuclear programs and a set of clean energy agreements with China.
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/usa/21nov09-obama-address-saturday-economy-asia-70698852.html
Sun, Nov 22 12:33 PM
Guwahati, Nov 22 (IANS) Two powerful explosions rocked Assam's Nalbari town Sunday, killing five people and wounding more than 50, police said.
The explosions are seen as a retaliatory strike by the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) after two of its senior leaders were arrested earlier this month, officials said.
The blasts took place in a span of about 20 minutes, beginning at 10 a.m. Nalbari town is about 70 km west of Assam's main city of Guwahati.
'Preliminary reports indicate five people were killed and more than 50 injured in the twin explosions,' a senior police official said.
Police had earlier claimed there were three explosions. They later confirmed there were just two blasts, and the third was just firecrackers going off in a nearby locality.
The first explosion took place just outside the Nalbari police station, while the second went off about 20 meters away around 10.20 a.m. near a market.
'Both the bombs were packed in sacks and kept on parked bicycles,' the official said.
Most of the victims were morning shoppers or vendors as there was a Sunday market teeming with people close to the blast sites.
'It was total panic and chaos with human limbs strewn all over the place and blood splattered on the road,' Ankur Das, a witness, told IANS.
'The sound of the first blast was deafening. The second explosion took place in front of our eyes. Many people who came rushing to the site of the first explosion got injured in the second blast,' another witness Biplab Barman said.
Police blamed the ULFA for the twin explosions.
'The modus operandi of the two blasts suggests it was the handiwork of the ULFA. The explosions are nothing but attempts to make a point after two of their top leaders were arrested,' the official said.
ULFA 'foreign secretary' Sasha Choudhury and 'finance secretary' Chitraban Hazarika, in police remand since Nov 6, were arrested by the Border Security Force (BSF) near Gokul Nagar in Tripura Nov 5 while trying to sneak into India. The duo were based in Dhaka. The ULFA has denied their arrest.
There have been reports in a section of the media that the two were arrested in Bangladesh and handed over to the Indian authorities Nov 2.
On Monday, ULFA rebels blew up a petroleum-laden train in eastern Assam. At least 20 wagons went up in flames and a loss of Rs.100 million was estimated.
The ULFA is a rebel group fighting for an independent homeland in Assam since 1979. The insurgency in the state has claimed about 10,000 lives in the past two decades.
Indo Asian News Service
The grandma hypothesis
Sun, Nov 22 04:56 AM
The question is asked in every language, in every era: "So, dear, when will you give me grandchildren?" Darwin would approve. At least he would if the "grandma hypothesis" is right.
According to this idea, the reason women—uniquely among primates—outlive their child-bearing years is that a female who survives past menopause can contribute to the care of her children's children, improving their chances of reaching adulthood. Natural selection favours behaviour that increases an individual's genetic contribution to future generations; surviving long enough to help grandkids is thus an evolutionary adaptation.
Too bad data don't support this intriguing notion. In some studies, a grandmother living nearby was indeed associated with better survival of grandchildren, as the hypothesis predicts. But other studies found no such benefit.
Leslie Knapp, a biological anthropologist at the University of Cambridge, and her graduate student Molly Fox wondered if the inconsistency reflected a basic fact of genetics—namely, that because of how the X chromosome is passed down from parents to children, grandmothers are more closely related to some grandkids than to others.
Here's why. A paternal grandmother, like all women, has two X chromosomes. She passes one to her son (who gets his Y chromosome from Dad, which is why he's a he). He then passes grandma's X—the one and only X he has—to his daughter. But Dad passes his Y chromosome to his son, who therefore does not carry his paternal grandma's X. A maternal grandmother, too, passes one of her X's to her daughter; there is a 50-50 chance that that X will be transmitted to the daughter's child, of either sex. A maternal grandmother, therefore, has only a 50-50 chance that her X will be transmitted to a grandchild. A little math shows that maternal grandmothers are related to granddaughters and grandsons equally, for an "X-relatedness" of 25 percent. But paternal grandmothers are twice as close to granddaughters (50 per cent) and not at all to grandsons (zero per cent), explains Knapp. It may seem arbitrary to focus on X, one of 23 chromosomes, but it has 8 per cent of all our genes.
Many of those earlier, inconsistent tests of the grandma hypothesis lumped together both kinds of grandmas (maternal and paternal) and both sexes of grandkids. Given the different degrees of X-relatedness, says Knapp, "we decided to look at the data from a genetic perspective. Since it is adaptive to favour those with whom we share the most genes, evolution should favour women who invest in grandchildren in a way that mirrors X-relatedness."
She, Fox, and colleagues analysed existing data on the survival of 43,000 children in seven traditional societies, from rural farming villages in Japan and Malawi to towns in Germany and Canada, from the 1600s to today. "The most striking effect was of the paternal grandmother," says Fox.
In six of the seven societies, having a paternal grandmother nearby improved the survival of granddaughters (50 per cent X-relatedness) by up to 4.5-fold, but for some unknown reason decreased the survival of grandsons by 8 to 29 per cent. And a boy had a greater chance of survival if he lived with his maternal grandmother (25 per cent X-relatedness) than with his paternal grandmother (zero per cent). In four of the seven societies, a girl had a better chance of survival if she lived with her paternal grandmother (50 percent) than her maternal grandmother (25 percent).
In other words, the effect of a grandmother perfectly tracked the DNA. "The higher the X-relatedness," the scientists write in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, "the more beneficial effect the grandmother has on that child's" survival.
But there is no evidence grandmothers consciously treat grandsons and granddaughters differently, or a son's children different from a daughter's. Grandmothers will surely recoil at the very idea, which is why the reader is advised not to leave this column lying around during a multigenerational Thanksgiving.
Newsweek
'We don't want just a buyer-seller relationship with US'
Chidanand Rajghatta22 November 2009, 02:14am IST
Not since Jawaharlal Nehru's sister Vijayalakhsmi Pandit swept through America in 1949 has India had a female ambassador in the US. Tough and
accomplished, Meera Shankar is also the first career-diplomat to be sent to Washington in more than two decades. At a time when Indo-US ties are pregnant with promise and expectation, Shankar tells Chidanand Rajghatta what to expect when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrives in Washington for a state visit. Excerpts from the interview:
Q: There is a sense among the commentariat that the Prime Minister's upcoming visit is more pomp than substance and things are pretty cool with the US after the nuclear deal...
A: Well, our relations with the US today are wide-ranging and diverse. While the civil nuclear initiative remains a potent symbol of the transformed relationship and has helped remove a major past irritant, there is a need to look beyond it and focus on other aspects also...
Q: Such as?
A: For instance, our counter-terrorism cooperation has grown exponentially and the recent visit of the home minister (to the US) has laid the basis for its further development. Cooperation in renewable and green technologies will be a new area of focus. Enhanced partnerships between US and Indian educational institutions would be in tune with the priority being given to expansion and qualitative improvements in the educational infrastructure in India. We expect initiatives in this sector.
Q: But isn't there a feeling that things have eased off a bit after the ardour of the Bush administration?
A: In the US, there is a bipartisan consensus on improvement of relations with India. The PM's visit next week, as the first state guest of President Obama, would provide an opportunity to chart the course for a steady growth of relations during the term of the new administration.
Q: How would you characterize defence and military engagement between the two? Is it just a business proposition or is there strategic underpinning?
A: Well, defence relations have seen steady progress as an important aspect of the strategic partnership. Our Defence Policy Group (DPG) and its sub-groups, which meet annually, have acquired substance and depth in their deliberations. There has been an increase in the interaction between our armed forces. All our three services now conduct annual exercises with their US counterparts. At the same time, we are also looking at the US as one of the possible suppliers of weapon systems as we continue to modernize our armed forces. We would like the relationship not just to be limited to a buyer-seller relationship but also to move into areas of joint development and transfer of technology. Our armed forces are also cooperating in areas such as maritime security, which is vital to economic and national interests of both our countries.
Q: Lots of talk about space being the next big-ticket item after the nuclear deal. What's cooking here?
A: Well, as you know we have had good collaboration between ISRO and its US counterpart. The recent Chandrayaan mission carried a US experimental payload which identified the presence of water on the moon. During the recent visit of Hillary Clinton (to India) we had finalized the Technology Safeguard Agreement, which would allow American satellites and also third-country satellites containing US components to be launched on our satellite launch vehicles. We have recently signed an agreement for the US to access data from our Oceansat satellite. The two sides are keen to collaborate further in application of space technology for development purposes. Easing of US export controls would enable us to realize the potential for cooperation in this sector.
Q: It sounds like some wrinkles remain. But the two sides do have differences, don't they, such as on climate change?
A: We do have our own perspectives on the climate change negotiations but the two sides are also looking at ways to promote bilateral cooperation in clean energy, energy efficiency and renewables. It would be beneficial for both sides to look at opportunities for practical collaboration in these areas. We have launched a National Action Plan on Climate Change with its eight missions. These missions also provide opportunity for both our countries to work together in areas such as clean coal technology, wind and solar energy and in exploring ways and means to increase energy efficiency.
Q: But isn't it a fact that the nuclear deal itself is not complete and there are some residual issues?
A: Well, both our countries are making progress to complete the remaining elements of the Civil Nuclear Initiative. Consultations on Arrangements and Procedures for Reprocessing have begun and we have already had three rounds of talks. As per the 123 Agreement provision, these talks are to be completed within one year of commencement, viz. by August 2010. We hope to complete the negotiations earlier than that. The Government of India has already announced two sites that would be offered to US companies for nuclear power plants. We are also moving ahead in establishing a Civil Nuclear Liability Regime in India, which is in our interest, particularly as the share of nuclear energy in our overall energy mix increases.
Q: There is also a sense that the Obama administration expects movement from India on various non-proliferation initiatives. What is India's response to US expectations on the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT) etc?
A: As regards the NPT, the US is very well aware of our stance (India has said it will not sign the NPT so long as it remains discriminatory and places India outside the recognized nuclear five). On the FMCT, we have conveyed our willingness to participate constructively in negotiations in the Conference on Disarmament as and when they commence, for a multilateral, non-discriminatory and verifiable FMCT. Our voluntary moratorium on nuclear explosive testing continues to be in place.
Q: We recently had this dubious landmark - Indian students arriving in the US to study crossed 1,00,000. How does the government view this – as a form of investment? Is it something that can be leveraged?
A: Yes, Indian students now constitute the largest number of foreign students in the US. This is a reflection of the high reputation that US educational institutions enjoy in India as also the inadequacy of the existing infrastructure for higher education in India, which the government is giving a high priority now. Of course, these talented and hardworking Indian students are an important bridge between India and the US and a potential resource for India's fast-growing economy. Trade in services between India and the US is broadly balanced and growing in both directions and that is the point we have been making that benefits flow in both directions.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/all-that-matters/We-dont-want-just-a-buyer-seller-relationship-with-US/articleshow/5256325.cms
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is traveling to the United States for talks on how the two countries will work together on critical issues in coming years,reports voice Of America.Before departing for Washington on Saturday, Mr. Singh released a statement saying he will meet with U.S. President Barack Obama on topics including terrorism, nuclear disarmament, the global economic slowdown and climate change.
Mr. Obama also is expected to inform Mr. Singh about his decision on a U.S. troop surge for Afghanistan. New Delhi has expressed concern the war there could further destabilize Pakistan, India's nuclear-armed neighbor and longtime rival.
David Headley, a Pakistani origin American citizen at the centre of a global terrorism investigation on charges of plotting terror attacks in India and Denmark, has been portrayed as a man 'with feet in East and West.' He also wrote in e-mail messages about retaliation against India.on the other hand, he alleged mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks in which more than 179 people died was openly spotted in Lahore delivering the Friday sermon to thousands of people at the Jamia al-Qadsia mosque.Meanwhile.With India raising strong objection to the U.S. suggesting a role for China in South Asia, Beijing seems to be backing away from mediating between India and Pakistan.The Obama White House is getting prepared for its first full state visit when US President Barack Obama will host India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Manmohan Singh's three-day state visit starting on Nov. 23 is being seen as a touchstone of Obama's intention of sustaining a relationship that deepened under his predecessor George W. Bush. Global terrorism accused David Headley always felt pulled between his strict Pakistani upbringing and bohemian American culture, where he arrived at the age of 17, Investigators have said. Global terrorism accused David Headley always felt pulled between his strict Pakistani upbringing and bohemian American culture, where he arrived at the age of 17, Investigators have said.The Indian consulate in Chicago was allegedly negligent in issuing visas to Tahawwur Hussain Rana, the Pakistan-born Canadian citizen accused of planning a terrorist attack on a Danish newspaper, an internal investigation has found.For the best part of a year, Italian investigators watched patiently over a nondescript business in Brescia, hoping that two men who played a critical role in guiding the terrorists to their targets in Mumbai last November would one day show ...
However, IBn Live reports that China has allayed concerns of India over the US-China joint statement, saying that it advocated direct negotiations between India and Pakistan to resolve their bilateral issues.
A senior official of Chinese Foreign Office conveyed to Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao that Beijing respected New Delhi's position that bilateral issues between India and Pakistan should be resolved through dialogue, reliable sources said.
The Chinese have told us they advocated direct negotiations between India and Pakistan to resolve their dialogue, the sources said.
They respect our position, the official said, downplaying apprehensions among some sections in India about the US-China joint statement issued after talks between US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao that envisaged a role for China in South Asia and in India-Pakistan affairs.
The statement was seen by some sections in India as an instance of the Obama administration's focus on China at the expense of India.
Reacting to the joint statement, India's external affairs ministry ruled out any third party mediation in issues relating to India and Pakistan.
Ahead of his meeting with President Barack Obama, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said India has no worries about US honouring the Indo-US nuclear deal, but would like to get a "positive reaffirmation" of the present administration to carry forward the process.
Singh, who will arrive in Washington on a three-day State Visit late tonight, said India would like to operationalise the "watershed" agreement and ensure that the objectives for the nuclear deal are realised in full merit.
"We have no worries, but we would like a positive reaffirmation of this administration to carry forward the process," Singh said in an interview to NewsWeek magazine.
He was asked whether he was concerned about the US honouring the consent agreement.
Singh said the partnership with US was for sustained and sustainable development of India and the new global world order which is in search of a new equilibrium.
"India and the United States could be partners in refocusing our attention on an equitable, balanced, global order," Singh, who will meet Obama on Tuesday, said.
Asked whether India is worried about the Test Ban Treaty which President Obama seems very intent on pushing through the senate, Singh said "Why should we be worried?. We are not worried at all."
Consolidation of banks is good in a way as it envisages healthier banks in the global scenario and banking market, believes Canara Bank Chairman and Managing Director A C Mahajan.
The Indian Navy has floated a Request for Information (RFI) for a newer generation of aircraft which can operate from the two indigenous aircraft carriers it will commission over the next 10 years.
Indian Communists, especially the CPM, may hold the view that China or any other country has no role to play in resolving the decades-old differences between India and Pakistan, but comrades from Islamabad beg to differ.
Communist leaders from Pakistan are of the view that China, which has close links with Pakistan, can "influence" Islamabad and can in fact play the role of mediator. This at a time when the CPM has ruled out scope for any third party intervention in the light of Indo-Pak ties finding a mention in the US-China joint statement.
"China can influence Pakistan. The Indo-Pak issue has been going on for long. Somebody will have to act to bring in peace in the region. We are against any intervention by the US. Washington has no role whatsoever to play in South Asia or Asia. But China is a neighbour. When two neighbours fight, a third neighbour can mediate," Imdad Qazi, a central secretariat member of the Communist Party of Pakistan, told The Sunday Express. Qazi is here to attend the international Communist conference where China is represented by a four-member delegation.
Meanwhile, CPM and CPI leaders conveyed to the Chinese delegates that China should refrain from any such intervention. CPM leader Sitaram Yechury said, "They have told us that Beijing does not interfere nor does it gives views on such matters." "There is no role for any third party," the CPM Politburo member added. The head of the Church of England has personally confronted the Pope over attempts by the Catholic Church to convert disillusioned Anglicans.
The United States has spent 53 billion dollars in relief and reconstruction work in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, but American officials fear that Iraq will not be able to maintain the facilities once the Americans have left, a report in The New York Times said on Saturday.
Oil-exporting Venezuela is in recession, its socialist President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday, adding that the capitalist system of measuring economic growth was established in the United States.
Sixty-five world leaders have confirmed they will attend a U.N. conference in Copenhagen in December that will try to clinch a new global climate deal, and many more are considering, Danish officials said on Sunday.
Headley said: 'We'll retaliate against India'
26/11 mastermind Saeed freely roaming, preaching in Pakistan!A high level meeting has been convened at the Prime Minister's Office in Delhi tomorrow to review security arrangements at the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple, where the two-month-long pilgrimage season began on November 15.On the other hand, Bhopal gas tragedy victims seek more compensation!Stating that the Bhopal gas tragedy victims have not been paid adequate compensation even after 25 years of the world''s worst industrial disaster, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udhyog Sangathan (BGPMUS) today asked the Centre to release more funds. "The Centre should step in and make available funds to adequately compensate the Bhopal gas tragedy victims," BGPMUS convener Abdul Jabbar told reporters.He said only a flat amount of Rs 25,000 each was paid as compensation to the affected people which compared poorly with compensation amount given in other tragedies. He pointed out that the victims of Uphar Cinema (Delhi) were given Rs 18 lakh each by way of compensation while the victims of World Trade Organisation (WTO) in US received Rs 24 crore each.
Clad in a maroon and gold sherwani, businessman Raj Kundra today arrived in a horse-drawn chariot to marry Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty in Khandala.CPI-ML(Liberation) has given a call for Bihar bandh on November 24 demanding among others land reforms. Samajwadi Party leader and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, who celebrated his 71st birthday Sunday, said the Rs.7,266 crore special package by the central government was insufficient for drought relief and agricultural development of the Bundelkhand region.The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) plans to target the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in parliament on the issue of the Madhu Koda scam Monday, said a senior BJP leader here Sunday.
Facing allegations of holding a "quiet dialogue" with the Centre, Hurriyat moderates, headed by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, today said talks with New Delhi for resolving the Kashmir issue were yet to start. Though several interlocutors had met the leadership of the Hurriyat urging the need for a dialogue with New Delhi, talks were yet to commence, Mirwaiz, chairman of the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference, said.
"People like former Chief Information Officer Wajahat Habibullah, Prem Shanker Jha and others met us and urged us to start a dialogue with New Delhi. "We did speak to them but that does not mean we have entered into a dialogue with New Delhi," Mirwaiz said.
Setting pre-conditions for talks, the Hurriyat dove said "if New Delhi is serious about the dialogue, it should first release prisoners, revoke all draconian laws, start phased withdrawal of troops and fulfil other conditions put forward by us." Asserting the stand of the Hurriyat on talks was clear, he said "we want to talk to both India and Pakistan for the resolution of the Kashmir issue.
In July 2005 and in the months and years that followed, the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, was feted as the visionary architect and driving force of the landmark US-India civil nuclear cooperation deal.
At that time, the key significance behind the signing was the ending of India's more than 30 years of isolation in the field of nuclear commerce.
More than four years since that first historic signing and the hard-balled and excruciating negotiating process that has followed, Dr. Singh is once again emerging as the driving force for fine tuning the deal with Washington, keeping India's interests upper most in his mind.
Dr. Singh is keen for the deal to be signed and sealed and President Barack Obama appears to be showing the same level of enthusiasm and interest.
Going by what the sources are saying, the signing of this deal and ironing out perceived differences on the reprocessing issue could be the "big ticket" item of the entire trip.
According to sources, there are just one-and-a-half points to be covered. The negotiations are on the last stretch and a high-powered team is in Washington working out the nitty-gritty aspects well ahead of and in time for the formal discussions between the heads of government in the White House on Tuesday.
The American leadership is already on record as saying that this historic agreement should be seen as a thanksgiving event that will play a part in the much broader framework for facilitating an enduring friendship with India.
Senior officials have described the agreement as an effort to cement ties between the world's largest democracy with the world's oldest democracy, and credited "a lot of architects and driving forces behind this agreement."
The view in Washington is that the deal is and will good for democracy and good for the world.
Former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is on record as saying that "As much as the civil nuclear agreement is a breakthrough, this (US-India) is also a friendship that is based on values, a friendship that is based on ties, people-to-people ties."
The Indian side sees the deal as representing a change and a transformation, emblematic of a new relationship, a beginning of deeper cooperation.
The ultimate aim of the US-India civil nuclear deal is to enable India to gain access to state-of-the-art civil nuclear technology to enable it to keep pace with the growing demand for energy, achieve energy security, and help it to diversify and promote clean and environment-friendly source of energy.
Since August of 2007, both India and United States have adopted a step-by-step process to negotiate and agree on signing India-specific IAEA protocols on nuclear safeguards; securing exemption from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to facilitate civil nuclear trade with India; and seek US Congressional approval to the 123 Agreement.
At home, Dr. Singh's government has worked hard to secure a vote of confidence in Parliament in spite of stringent opposition to the deal, which the latter views as a pandering to American interests.
The signing and sealing of the deal during this visit, will indeed be the icing on Dr. Singh's efforts of the past four-and-a-half years. By Smita Prakash
The chief of terror outfit Lashakar-e-Taiba, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, is neither in hiding nor in jail.
"God has promised to make Muslims a superpower if we follow the right path," Saeed told his followers.
"Our rulers are the slave of America and have sold their conscience for a few dollars," The Times quoted the founder of LeT, as saying.
Meanwhile, US Ambassador to India Timothy Roemer has backed Indian calls this week for Pakistan to bring Saeed and six other Mumbai terror suspects to justice.
"We need to see actions and results from Pakistan," he said after India handed Pakistan a seventh dossier of evidence on the Mumbai terror attacks.
The real problem lies with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, which backed Saeed when he founded LeT in 1990 to fight India in Jammu and Kashmir, according to analysts.
Under pressure from the US, Pakistan banned the group in 2002, but it continued to operate under the banner of Jamaat-ud Dawa, which Saeed also founded and calls a charity organisation.
A UN Security Council resolution last December declared Jamaat-ud Dawa a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, forcing Pakistan to freeze its assets and jail many of its activists.
Saeed was put under house detention, but released after a few months when a court ruled that action against him and his group was illegal.
'The trip from a strict Pakistani boarding school to a bohemian bar in Philadelphia has defined David Headley's life,' the New York Times wrote Sunday in a report with inputs from Pakistan, Canada and the US.
Raised by his father in Pakistan as a devout Muslim, Headley arrived back in Philadelphia at 17 to live with his American mother, a former socialite who ran a bar called the Khyber Pass.
'Today, Headley is an Islamic fundamentalist who once liked to get high. He has a traditional Pakistani wife, who lives with their children in Chicago, but also an American girlfriend - a makeup artist in New York,' the daily said citing a relative and friends.
'Depending on the setting, he alternates between the name he adopted in the United States, David Headley, and the Urdu one he was given at birth, Daood Gilani. Even his eyes - one brown, the other green - hint at roots in two places,' the Times said.
Headley, is accused of being the lead operative in a loose-knit group of militants plotting revenge against a Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Accused co-conspirator, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, who was born in Pakistan, is a citizen of Canada and runs businesses in Chicago.
The men, who became close friends in a military academy outside Islamabad, were arrested last month in Chicago. Since then, the investigation has widened beyond Chicago and Copenhagen.
The authorities have learned more, with cooperation from Headley, about the two men's network of contacts with known terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taeba, a Pakistani militant group, as well as officials in the Pakistani government and military, the Times said.
United States and Indian investigators are also looking closely into whether the two Chicago men, who travelled to Mumbai before the deadly assault there last November, may have been involved in the plot.
Headley, 49, and Rana, 48, stand out from the young, poor extremists from fundamentalist Islamic schools who strike targets in or close to their homelands, the times noted.
Instead, their privileged backgrounds, extensive travel and bouts of culture shock make them more like Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed architect of the Sep 11,2001 attacks, who attended college in the US, and Mohammed Atta, one of the lead hijackers.
In 1998, Gilani, then 38, was convicted of conspiring to smuggle heroin into the country from Pakistan, the Times said. In 2006, he changed his name to David Headley, apparently to make border crossings between the US and other countries easier, court documents say. Headley also shifted to Chicago where he claimed to work for Rana's immigration agency.
E-mail messages of his show that Headley stayed in regular contact with classmates from the military high school he attended in Pakistan, often engaging in impassioned debates about politics and Islam, the Times said.
Earlier this year, Headley complained about 'NATO criminal vermin dropping 22,000 lbs bombs on unsuspecting, unarmed Afghan villagers' or 'napalming southeast Asian farmers.' Writing about Pakistan's chief enemy, he said, 'We will retaliate against India.'
"Big Bang" experiment advancing fast
After a year's delay, scientists at the world's biggest accelerator have restarted an experiment to recreate "Big Bang" conditions that had sparked suggestions the earth would be sucked in by millions of black holes.
Scientists at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) have established circulating particle beams in both directions in the underground Large Hadron Collider, a step that is already beyond where the experiment stalled during a first attempt in September 2008, CERN spokesman James Gillies said.
The high-profile experiment, through which tiny particles are smashed in a bid to learn more about the birth of the universe, failed just nine days after it was launched due to a technical problem that took longer than expected to fix.
"We are further advanced now than where we were after five days of experiment last year," said CERN's Director for Accelerators Steve Myers, saying the extra year had allowed researchers to upgrade instrumentations and computer software.
Myers added that researchers had increased the sensitivity of the protections at the 10 billion Swiss franc ($9.82 billion) collider under the French-Swiss border.
"If anything happens, we would not have the same amount of damage we had last year," he said.
CERN, a 55-year-old organisation that counts 10,000 scientists and technicians worldwide working on its research projects, has vigorously rebuffed any suggestion the ground-breaking experiment would cause the world to end.
CERN's Director General Rolf Heuer said getting the experiment re-started had been an "herculean effort".
"We've still got some way to go before physics can begin, but with this milestone we're well on the way," he said.
If things continue to progress at this speed, scientists may be able to accelerate particles at the highest energy level ever tested before Christmas, although high-energy collisions that may shed light on the secrets of the universe would only happen in the new year, Myers said.
The experiment will be fully under way when the particle beams will be smashed at high energy levels. This will most likely happen in January.
The next important step in the experiment will be low-energy collisions, expected in about a week from now, CERN said.
The experiment can be followed http://twitter.com/cern.
Iran launches war games to protect nuclear sites
Iran's armed forces launched large-scale air defence war games on Sunday to show off the country's deterrence capabilities in the face of pressure from the West over its nuclear programme.
The display of military muscle comes at a time of rising tension between Iran and six major powers, which fear Tehran's nuclear programme is aimed at producing nuclear weapons. Tehran denies this is the programme's purpose.
Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards and military forces jointly started five days of manoeuvres in various parts of the Islamic state, Brigadier General Ahmad Mighani said, according to state television.
"It is the biggest war game, which takes place over an area 600,000 sq km (230,000 sq miles). The aim of this war game
is to promote military power of the armed forces against any attack," the television quoted Mighani as saying.
The United States and Israel, which Iran does not recognise, say they want a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff, but refuse to rule out military action if diplomacy fails.
Iran has warned of a "crushing" response to any military action against its nuclear facilities.
"The aim of the drill is to display Iran's combat readiness and military potentials," Mighani said.
"Defence policies, psychological operations and innovations during the war game are among the objectives of the drill."
Iran has staged several war games in the past, including firing long-range Shahab-3 missiles, which it says have a range of 2,000 km (1,250 miles), putting Israel or U.S. bases in the Gulf in range.
World powers have urged Iran to reconsider its rejection of a U.N.-drafted deal which aimed to delay Tehran's potential ability to make bombs by at least a year by divesting the country of most of its enriched uranium.
The deal, brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), calls on Iran to send some 75 percent of its low-enriched uranium to Russia and France, where it would be turned into fuel for a Tehran medical research reactor.
Iran ruled out on Wednesday sending enriched uranium abroad for further processing, saying it would consider swapping it for nuclear fuel provided it remained under supervision inside the country.
U.S. President Barack Obama has warned Tehran of a package of sanctions against the country within weeks. Iran has been hit by three rounds of U.N. sanctions over its refusal to halt sensitive uranium activities.
Israeli president discusses Mideast talks in Egypt
Israeli President Shimon Peres held discussions in Egypt on Sunday on efforts to restart Middle East peace talks after the Egyptian president accused Israel of creating obstacles to a settlement with the Palestinians.
Egypt, the first Arab state to sign a peace deal with Israel, has long played a mediation role. That has recently included involvement in a bid to secure an Israeli soldier's release from Gaza in return for Palestinian prisoners.
Speculation has been mounting that a deal to free Gilad Shalit in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners might be concluded by the end of this month. But sources on both sides have said there was no certainty of finalising a deal by then.
A day before Peres arrived, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told parliament that Israel was making "new obstacles" to peace.
"I tell them, stop your practices in the West Bank and lift the siege on Gaza and respond to the call of peace," he said in a speech to mark the start of parliament's new session.
Egypt and other Arabs have blamed the United States for not doing enough to push Israel to stop building settlements on occupied Palestinian land.
Peres, whose post is largely ceremonial, last visited Egypt in July for talks with Mubarak. He was met in Cairo by Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, a witness said.
"The two presidents will discuss recent developments in the Middle East, advancing the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians and various bilateral issues on the agenda," the Israeli president's office said in a statement before the trip.
MEDIATION ROLE
An Israeli diplomat said the talks were also expected to cover Egypt's mediation between rival Palestinian factions.
Egypt has been hosting reconciliation talks for more than a year between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah group, which leads the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, and the Islamist group Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since 2007.
But there has been little sign of progress.
Israeli and Palestinian sources said this month there were hopes a deal on Shalit, which would commence a process of exchange lasting weeks, might be struck when the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha begins later this week.
Sources close to the negotiations have said Hamas, in the first part of a deal, would hand over Shalit to Egypt and Israel would release some 350 to 450 prisoners, some of whom would go into exile abroad rather than return to the West Bank or Gaza.
More prisoners would be released when Shalit was transferred from Egypt to Israel, while other prisoner releases could take several more weeks to complete.
All off record when Chidambaram dons his jacket
Home Minister P. Chidambaram can be at his expansive best when he is entertaining. But then his revelations are strictly off the record - if he is donning a jacket and pant and not his trademark veshti and shirt!
At a high tea organised for scribes on the home beat as well as for those who covered him when he was finance minister, Chidambaram played the perfect host with delectable goodies, mostly from southern India. The sharp as nails minister let his hair down for once, took occasional jibes at reporters and also showed his irreverent side.
He dwelt on what was his high point during a recent US visit and made suggestions for television channels seemingly carrying out parallel investigation in the Headley-Rana terror plot probe.
Unfortunately, none of it could be reported. The reason? He was not in his trademark white veshti and shirt and was wearing a blue jacket instead. At the outset he made it clear: 'All off the record, I have my jacket on!'
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Winter session marks a thaw
It is an open secret that Minister of State for Railways E. Ahamed and his boss Mamata Banerjee have not been on the best of terms. But they seem to be warming up to each other with the beginning of winter.
Many believe Didi's unhappiness stemmed from the fact that the Indian Union Muslim League, to which Ahamed belongs, fielded a candidate in the Trinamool Congress chief's South Kolkata constituency during the general election.
But things may have changed. The buzz in the ministry is that Ahamed has made peace and even won her confidence by offering full support to her party in the recent by-elections in West Bengal.
The two were seen sharing some light moments when parliament opened for the winter session. For Ahamed, perhaps the diplomatic skills honed from his stint as minister of stateff foreign affairs in UPA-1 came in handy.
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Small is beautiful, Tharoor shows how
When the foreign minister of a tiny West African country comes to town, does anyone notice? Not the media, which missed out on a golden chance to watch Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor turn on the charm offensive - sometimes in French!
Away from the media spotlight, Tharoor was quite happy to court Cape Verde's Jose Brito, who headed a delegation of two, for talks and lunch at the stately Hyderabad House. He fluently conversed in French with the visitors.
When Tharoor offered Indian help in the health sector to Cape Verde that has a population of only 450,000, Brito said he wanted Indian help in the IT sector and a line of credit to buy computers for each of the 8,000 teachers in his country.
And when lunch was over, Tharoor saw to it that his guests partook 'paan' (betel leaves), saying this was one delicacy Indians didn't export - only used for their own digestion.
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The Shivraj Patil memoirs - sans spice
With all the time on his hands after his unceremonious exit as home minister following the Mumbai terror attacks, Shivraj Patil is busy writing his memoirs. The handwritten manuscript is around 1,000 pages long and is expected to be published next year.
Patil had drawn flak on many occasions for changing his trendy 'bandgalas'. When Delhi was rocked by serial blastsb last year, he is said to have changed his suits thrice on the day.
A close aide says the memoirs would reveal his take on the episode. But the book, like the man himself, is not expected to reveal any spicy bits about his tenure as home minister or as Lok Sabha speaker.
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Shhh, Jharkhand polls coming up
Sensing a chance to reap some dividends in Jharkhand after a season of defeats, the Bharatiya Janata Party has apparently sought an assurance from its vocal brigade to refrain from speaking out of turn till the assembly polls get over in the state.
The voluble Shatrughan Sinha, MP from Patna, who has given jitters to the party leadership in the past with his remarks, has gone into a shell, telling journalists that his views on the party's presidential post would be known only after the election results.
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AIIMS has sympathetic minister in Azad
Journos hoping for controversial statements on the premier AIIMS from Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad should be disappointed. Unlike his predecessor Anbumani Ramadoss, Azad nicely dodged questions about the institute's current director.
At an informal get together recently, Azad was asked about current director R.C. Deka's reported unhappiness with the faculty. But he chose to expound instead on why the focus should be on improving the institute.
'AIIMS is like a railway station. People from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal come for treatment here. AIIMS is overburdened,' he exclaimed.
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Blessings from elsewhere?
It's rare for a union minister to speak out against a governor. So the slugfest between Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Punjab Governor S.F. Rodrigues has evoked curiosity in political circles. It is said that the latter has the blessings of some powerful people.
Rodrigues, who is also administrator of Chandigarh, has made allegations against Bansal and union minister Ambika Soni regarding allotment of land to a school society in Chandigarh. The ministers denied the charges.
Rodrigues had apparently courted controversy over some of his utterances as army chief but now Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar had come to his rescue then too. Rodrigues, who hails from Goa, had served as army chief when Pawar was defence minister in the early 90s.
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IAF vice chief testing waters?
Was there a design behind the Indian Air Force (IAF) vice chief Air Marshal P.K. Barbora's outburst against the political establishment for allegedly stalling the procurement of military hardware?
Many do believe that the political establishment has been the biggest obstacle to the modernisation of Indian armed forces, despite what A.K. Antony has been proclaiming since he became defence minister three years ago.
Perhaps what he was referring to was the proposal the IAF has quietly floated to purchase some 50 basic trainers. The force has said it is not satisfied with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, whose HPT-32 trainers it now deploys but which have been grounded due to apparent mechanical defects.
His outburst was perhaps the first salvo to gauge the government's response to the IAF proposal.
-Indo-Asian News Service
with a view to scuttle the efforts to secure loans for developmental activity in that state.