Islamabad, November 12
For Pakistan, Jammu and Kashmir will be the key issue at the foreign secretary-level talks with India next week with emphasis on building on convergences already achieved on this front, official sources told Dawn on Saturday.

“We are very clear that Kashmir will remain the central issue during the talks and the effort will be to build on the convergences,” a senior foreign ministry official said when asked about the likely focus of two-day discussions beginning in New Delhi on Tuesday.

A vital agreement in the area of peace and security is on the cards. The accord will be on reducing risk of nuclear accidents, it is learnt. A draft agreement on reducing risk of nuclear accidents or unauthorised use of nuclear weapons has been under discussion between the two countries since August 2005. At the last round of expert-level talks on nuclear CBMs in Islamabad in April this year the two sides came close to reaching an understanding but due to some reservations by Pakistan it could not be firmed up.

Apparently, Pakistan has now accepted the amendment made in the draft by India.

A draft agreement on prevention of incidents at sea proposed by Pakistan at the last round to which India had agreed, will also be discussed.

Agreements on modalities of holding flag meetings between sector-level commanders at the Line of Control and speedy repatriation of inadvertent border crossers are also in the offing.

The two sides will try to narrow down differences on Sir Creek and Siachen, officials said.

The issue of prisoners, trade matters, including a trans-Kashmir truck service, re-opening of consulates in Mumbai and Karachi and visa regime would also figure in discussions.

There are strong indications from both sides that modalities of the joint anti-terror institutional mechanism that President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decided to put in place during their Havana meeting in September would be firmed up.

Islamabad, November 12
Founder of Pakistan Muhammad Ali Jinnah told Lord Mountbatten in 1947 that he would be “delighted” if the proposal to create a separate, sovereign Bengal were accepted, a new book has said.

When Mountbatten asked Jinnah what he thought of eminent Muslim League leader H.S. Suhrawardy’s proposal, he said: “I should be delighted. What is the use of Bengal without Calcutta; they had much better remain united and independent; I am sure they would be on friendly terms with us,” US historian Stanley Wolpert says in his book on the Partition of India.

When Mountbatten asked Suhrawardy if he would wish Bengal to remain within the British Commonwealth, Jinnah replied, “Of course, just as I indicated to you that Pakistan would wish to remain within the Commonwealth.”

“Had Mountbatten followed the advice of Gandhi, Jinnah or Suhrawardy, instead of listening only to Nehru, Punjab and Bengal might have been spared the deadly horrors, and a richly united Bengal, with its capital in Calcutta, would have emerged instead of the fragmented, impoverished Bangladesh born from its eastern half a quarter of a century later,” Daily Times quoted Wolpert as saying in his book. — PTI

Brussels, November 12
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi attributed her position to her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi and her "remarkable family" as she inaugurated the centre piece exhibition on Indian spiritual art at the Bozar India Festival here yesterday.

In a personal tribute to a packed but select Indian and European audience consisting of businessmen, EU-India officials, academics and press, she provided extraordinary insight into her personal life, "I was 18 when I met my husband. I am reminded of my mother-in-law who said, 'One's real education is the university of life." Sonia Gandhi is here on a three-day trip to inaugurate a spiritual exhibition called “Tejas - Eternal Energy, 1,500 years of Indian art” at the largest-ever India exhibition to be held in 15 years.

The awe-inspiring display, consisting of some 200 bronze and stone sculptures that trace the origin and journey of Indian spiritual philosophy, has left the country for the first time since Indian independence.

Paying homage to her dynasty, Verhofstadt conferred Belgium's second highest civilian honour of a “Grand Officer in the Order Of King Leopold" on Sonia. — IANS

Dhaka, November 12
Violence erupted in Bangladesh today with protesters torching a train and attacking buses during an indefinite transport blockade called by the 14-party alliance to step up pressure for the resignation of the poll panel chief and his deputies. Dhaka was virtually cut off from the rest of the country with inter-district buses and ferries not operating while trains were stopped by protesters at various points.

The blockade follows the expiry of a deadline set by Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina Wajed for the interim government to remove Chief Election Commissioner M.A. Aziz and his deputies. The party has accused the election official of favouring its arch rival Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). — PTI

Baghdad, November 12
Two suicide bombers targeted a key police commando base in western Baghdad today, killing 35 youths waiting to join the force, as other bombs also exploded in and around the Iraqi capital.

The pair blew themselves up as potential recruits gathered at the Iraqi national police base in Qadissiyah, according to security officials who said the toll was expected to rise.

The attacks came just hours after twin bombings, including a car bomb, that killed four civilians in central Baghdad today.

South of Baghdad, a roadside bomb destroyed a civilian car, killing three persons, while a car bomb near a school southwest of the capital killed three and wounded 15. — AFP

BRIEFLY

UAE slammed for abusing workers
Dubai: The Human Rights Watch has slammed the United Arab Emirates’ record of abuse against migrant construction workers, urging the government to keep its promise to enforce labour laws. "As the UAE experiences one of the world’s largest construction booms, its government has failed to stop employers from seriously abusing the rights of the migrant construction workers”, the New York-based-group said in a report on Sunday. — AFP

Kenyan kids feel heat
NAIROBI: Kenyan children led a march by hundreds of people through the capital on Saturday to call for rich nations to do more to fight global warming. They urged action by delegates from some 189 nations meeting at a United Nations climate change conference on the outskirts of the city. — Reuters

Indian hopes for clemency
Dubai: An Indian sentenced to death for killing his Indonesian lover could get a prison term instead. A criminal appeal court has said if the victim’s relatives accept the $-27,224 compensation and give up their right to death penalty, the court would commute the capital punishment of the Indian, Johny, to a prison term. — PTI

Suu Kyi needs medical care
Yangon: Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner held under house arrest in Myanmar, let her home for the first time since May to meet with a UN diplomat, telling the official she needed more frequent medical attention. — AP