Pakistan has claimed it had gone 'out of the way' in its peace overtures towards India but failed to get a positive response, after United States President Barack Obama asked the two nations to begin talks on 'less controversial issues' and resolve their differences. Claiming that Islamabad wants early resumption of the composite dialogue process with India, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari said that his country stands for peace in the region and the world.
The Pakistan Rangers will continue their daily parade as part of the flag-lowering and hoisting ceremonies at Wagah in the traditional "enthusiastic style" without any change, except the revival of the formal handshake between personnel of Pakistan and India
Ahead of the visit by Premier Wen Jiabao, senior Chinese Communist Party leader Zhou You Kang will be in India from Sunday on a two-day trip during which the bilateral relations will be discussed.
Pakistan alleged there is a "clear chasm" between India's statements and actions on the issue of resumption of the stalled dialogue process and asked New Delhi to take steps for holding meaningful and result-oriented parleys.
India dismissed any apprehensions in Beijing about India forging closer ties with Japan, Malaysia and Vietnam to encircle China, saying these were stand-alone bilateral relations not predicated on any other country.
The average age of an Indian by 2020 would be 29 years as compared to 29 years in case of China and 48 for Japan.
Seeking to give new impetus to the bilateral relations, India and Malaysia today formally announced firming up of Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) to boost trade and decided on a range of other engagements in various sectors, including defence.
Singh hailed Malaysian companies particularly in the infrastructure sector for their good reputation and asked them 'to take a long term and strategic view' of the Indian economy and market.
He, however, admitted that there are challenges to recording such a high economic growth.
Observing that infrastructure deficit was posing a major constraint to India's growth, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said an outlay of over $1 trillion was envisaged for infrastructure projects during the next 5-year plan beginning 2012 and invited Japanese firms to play a greater role in this endeavour.
At least four people were killed and 12 others injured on Monday in a bomb blast outside a Sufi shrine in the central Pakistani city of Pakpattan, said the police. Two unidentified men parked a motorcycle outside the gate of the shrine and the blast occurred at 6.20 am, police quoted witnesses as saying.They said the explosive device was believed to have been planted in the motorcycle and was triggered by a remote control.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in Tokyo on the first leg of his three-nation visit, during which he would hold talks with his Japanese counterpart Naoto Kan on a range of issues, including civil nuclear energy cooperation.
The AFSPA was being "unnecessarily demonised" although it had "nothing to do with the present unrest (in Kashmir)", General Singh said while firmly sticking to his opposition to any withdrawal or even dilution of the Act which gives the Army vast powers to deal with insurgents.
Pervez Musharraf had plans to oust the elected government of Nawaz Sharif a year before he actually led a military coup in 1999, says a retired general whose appointment as army chief served as the catalyst for the former military ruler's action.
The Afghan Taliban have claimed that they killed three persons, including two Indians, and injured seven Afghan soldiers in a missile attack on a United States airbase and an Indian non-governmental organisation's office in eastern Kunar province.The claim was made by Afghan Taliban spokesman Qari Omar Haqqani, who spoke to reporters in Khar in Pakistan's Bajaur tribal region on the phone on Sunday. Haqqani claimed the militants attacked the office of the Indian NGO.
"We extend our deepest apology to Pakistan and the families of the Frontier Scouts who were killed and injured. Pakistan's brave security forces are our allies in a war that threatens both Pakistan and the US," Ambassador Anne Patterson said in a statement in Islamabad.
Twenty tankers which were destroyed were on their way to Afghanistan, and were attacked on the outskirts of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, early on Wednesday morning,a group of gunmen opened fire at nearly 40 tankers parked at Akhtarabad along the main highway between Quetta and the border town of Chaman, a witness said.
Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik took up with Home Minister P Chidambaram, Pakistan's proposal to send a commission to India to interview key witnesses in the Mumbai attacks case. Malik raised the issue during a telephonic conversation with Chidambaram.
Pakistani prosecutors have failed to provide 'concrete evidence' linking Lashkar-e-Tayiba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi to the 2008 Mumbai attacks even after a lapse of nearly two years since the terror siege, one of the lawyers defending Lakhvi has said. The Federal Investigation Agency, which probed the Mumbai terror attacks and arrested Lakhvi, has "failed to furnish concrete evidence against" him, lawyer Shahbaz Ahmed Janjua told the media in Rawalpindi on Monday.
US-led NATO forces are facing a tough time in Afghanistan after Pakistan blockaded the main supply route and the Taliban stepped up attacks on vehicles and oil-tankers carrying essentials with nearly 60 trucks being destroyed in last three days.
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