PML-Nawaz president Shahbaz Sharif today began crucial talks with PPP co-chairperson Asif Zardari on government formation. He has repudiated reports of differences between the two parties.

Shahbaz told reporters on arrival from Lahore that his PML-N had no problem in joining the PPP-led Cabinet at the Centre or co-opting it in Punjab. The PML-N leader will follow up negotiations with Zardari held earlier by a 3-member PML-N team to work out “nitty gritty” of the PPP-PML-N-ANP coalition.

The PPP-PML-N has resumed their parleys amid efforts by President Musharraf and his allies to wean the PPP away from the PML-N and form a coalition government in Punjab. The allied parties made an impressive show of strength in Islamabad at a reception, hosted by PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, attended by newly elected members of PML-Q, the MQM and PML-Pagara in an attempt to form a pro-Musharraf opposition. Only former interior minister Aftab Sherpao stayed away from it.

Sources from the PPP and the PML-N said the ongoing talks would prepare ground for another meeting between Zardari and Nawaz Shairf to clinch a final agreement on all details of power sharing at various level. ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan would also join this meeting. The coalition leaders are waiting for convening of the Assembly to spell out in concrete terms their future agenda. The hope and the initiative would then shifts from President Musharraf to the new Parliament.

Shahbaz called for immediate convening of the Assembly session to end all speculations. He said the PML-N and other political parties were wary of Musharraf’s designs considering past experience. He recalled that Musharraf did not allow the Assembly to meet in 2002 for more than one month until he manipulated a one-vote majority for his handpicked Prime Minister Mir Zafrullah Jamli.

“It is apparent that Musharraf has not accepted the overwhelming verdict of the people and has made the Army House hub of intrigues to subvert this verdict,” Shahbzaz said.

Earlier, on Tuesday night a 3-member PML-N team met Zardari to sort out outstanding issues. Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who led the PML-N team, told reporters that there was no difference of opinion between the two parties, which included the issue of the restoration of the judiciary. “There is no obstacle in resolution of any issue,” he said. The two parties would continue to meet in the coming days to resolve all issues amicably, he added. 

Manhasset (US), March 5
When they get older, Logan, Eli and Collin Penn may blanch at the notion they wore nail polish to their first news conference. But it is the only way their parents know how to tell the boys apart right now.

Identity crisis! Allison Penn looks at her identical triplets, (from left), Logan, Eli and Collin, at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, New York, on Tuesday. — AP/PTI

The identical triplets were born today at North Shore University Hospital on Long Island, New York - an event so rare that an obstetrician estimated it might happen just once in 200 million births.

The triplets’ mother, Allison Penn, was impregnated with just one embryo through in-vitro fertilisation, said Dr Victor Klein, a specialist in multiple births and high-risk pregnancies.

That embryo split in half, and then one half of that split again, he said.

“This is the first one we’re aware of in the literature in the country in which they only put back one embryo” and a woman gave birth to triplets, Klein said. “Most people put back two or three embryos, and you just never know.” Identical triplets are born at a rate between one in 60,000 and one in 200 million, depending on the research, Klein said.

Allison Penn (31) said she and her husband, Tom (46), had tried to have a baby since they got married about four years ago. Although she once thought of having several children, the disappointments over four years revised her dreams downward.

“When it took us so long to get pregnant, I just assumed we were going to have one, and that would probably be it,” she said. “So, I thought one would be good.”— AP

Dubai, March 5
An error in the question paper of the ongoing Class X examinations, conducted by India’s Central Board of Secondary Examinations (CBSE) for overseas students, has stumped students of Indian schools in Oman.

Students were in a fix about a question on India’s northernmost and southernmost international airports in the social sciences examination, held on Monday.

A particular question related to Indian map showed Nedumbasherry airport close to Kerala’s capital Thiruvananthapuram, whereas the said airport is near Cochin.

“It was misleading because Nedumbasherry is actually near Cochin and the Nedumbasherry airport is known as Cochin International Airport. The map indicated Nedumbasherry as a place near Thiruvananthapuram,” Sunil John, a parent of one of the appearing students, told the Times of Oman.— PTI

New York, March 5
New Zealand’s Parliament has turned down an appeal by a US-based Hindu priest to amend its custom of opening with the same prayer, and invite preachers from various religions for the purpose.

Rajan Zed, a Hindu chaplain, had opened Washington State Senate chamber with vedic mantras last month and has recited Hindu prayers in five other Western state senates in the past eight months.

Responding to Zed’s request to make its prayer practice more inclusive and universal, New Zealand Parliament Speaker Margaret Wilson said a survey of members to determine if there was a mood favouring change showed that 84 per cent of them wanted status quo. — PTI