Islamabad, November 11
Ahead of next week's Indo-Pak Foreign Secretary-level talks, new Indian High Commissioner Satyabrata Pal today left for New Delhi to brief the Indian leadership on his informal discussions with top Foreign Ministry officials here.

Mr Pal, who took over his new posting on November 1, met Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Riaz Muhammad Khan and other officials, and held discussions with them during the past few days on the broad agenda for the talks to be held in New Delhi on November 14 and 15.

He said he hoped to have a higher level of interaction with the Pakistan leadership after he formally presented his credentials to President Pervez Musharraf.

Mr Pal said the Secretary-level talks would primarily focus on the resumption of the dialogue process that had stalled following the Mumbai blasts.

Besides reviewing the progress on the third round of the composite dialogue process, the two sides would strive to provide shape and substance to the joint mechanism on terrorism agreed in principle at the Havana meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Musharraf, Mr Pal, who would be taking part in the talks along with Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, said.

Meanwhile, Pakistan held a high-level inter-ministerial meeting to review and finalise the strategy to be adopted on the gamut of issues figuring in the composite dialogue process.

President Musharraf will give a directive on Pakistan's stand on crucial issues like proposals exchanged between the two countries to resolve the Kashmir issue, Siachen and Sir Creek based on the results of the back-channel talks between the two countries. — PTI

Ieper (Belgium), November 11
In a gesture that will go well with millions of Indian soldiers back home, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi laid a wreath at the famous Indian memorial at Menin Gate Memorial here saying it felt a shame to be alive when men so brave are dead.

Over 50,000 Indian soldiers laid down their lives in the Fields of Flanders during the 14 months of war in 1914-1915 fighting on behalf of the Allied armies of Belgium, France and Great Britain during World War I against the imperial German Army.

Wearing a sandalwood-maroon colour sari and an overcoat to beat the chill, Ms Gandhi briskly walked up to the Indian Memorial established on November 10, 2002 at an elevated place in the Menin Gate and placed a wreath.

She wrote in the Last Post Memorial book quoting British poet Emily Dickenson, “My being here to pay homage to the brave Indian soldiers who laid down their lives in the prime of their youth and so far away from their beloved Motherland reminds me of the poet’s line ‘It feels a shame to be alive when men so brave are dead, one envies the distinguished dust, permitted such a head- the stone that tells. I salute their memory.” The nearly 30-minute memorial ceremony last evening was held as a chilly wind blew at the St Martin’s Cathedral at dusk. — PTI 

Jakarta, November 11
A bomb blast at a fast food restaurant in the Indonesian capital Jakarta today wounded one person, the police said.

The blast occurred around midday at an A&W restaurant in a shopping mall in the east of the city and the police is investigating the cause, with bomb squad and counter-terrorism officers.

A Jakarta police spokesman described the bomb at the US franchised fast food store as low explosive.

“It (the blast) was in an A&W restaurant at 11.45 am (10:15 IST). Initially we suspect that the person who set it off was the victim,” spokesman I Ketut Untung Yoga Ana said.

The official said the wounded man was being treated at a police hospital.— Reuters

Washington, November 11
A 56-year-old NRI doctor has been elected president of the California Medical Association, one of the most influential medical organisations in the United States.

Dr Anmol Singh Mahal is the first person of Indian origin to head the 35,000-member association.

Dr Mahal, who works at the Washington hospital in Fremont, specialises in internal medicine and gastroenterology. He has also served as the chief of staff of the Washington Hospital Healthcare System.

“In California, we train half as many physicians per capita as does the rest of the US. We train a third as many physicians as do Pennsylvania and New York,” Mahal said after his election.

Dr Mahal came to the USA 33 years ago after receiving his medical degree from the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Palance dead LOS ANGELES: Jack Palance, the craggy-faced menace in “Shane”, “Sudden Fear” and other films has died. Palance died of natural causes at his home in Montecito, California, yesterday. — Reuters

‘Lage Raho..’ at UN
United Nations: Bollywood blockbuster ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’, which resurrected Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals through “Gandhigiri”, has become the first full length Indian movie to be shown in the United Nations auditorium. — PTI

Scribe elected
Reno (Nevada, USA): Indian-American Rajan Zed was elected unopposed in Tuesday's US mid-term elections to the Office of General Improvement District Trustee of Verdi TV District in Nevada state. He was a journalist in India before his migration to the USA. — Agency

USA vetoes UN resolution
United Nations: The USA today vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning an Israeli attack in Gaza that killed 18 Palestinian civilians and urging a quick withdrawal of the Israeli forces from the area. Nine of the council’s 15 members voted for the measure, while four abstained — Britain, Denmark, Japan and Slovakia. — Reuters