London, June 29
The family of Michael Jackson is planning to bury the late 'King of Pop' at his fantasy themed abode, Neverland, on Wednesday.The family had earlier held a meeting to plan the pop icon's last rites and they want to bury Jackson at the California ranch, a family member told British tabloid Sun.

"We are making the arrangements now, we are not finished with it but we are gonna have it," Jackson's father Joe Jackson had told reporters. The 'Thriller' legend's brother Tito (55), had also earlier said the clan had spent all afternoon deciding the arrangements.They met in the Los Angeles home of Jackson and plan to hold an intimate ceremony along with a public memorial.

Family lawyer Brian Oxman last night told Jackson's global legions of followers, "I can't imagine that the fans would be excluded." Fans continue to converge on the UCLA Medical Center, where the singer breathed his last and on Jackson's 'star' on the Hollywood 'Walk of Fame', where visitors queued up with flowers, candles and toys. — PTI 

Washington, June 29
Pakistan diverted a whopping sum of over $ 5 billion provided as aid by the US to fight Taliban militants into its nuclear programme, a report has said.The report by security expert Andrew Cockburn also says that the US ignored disgraced nuclear scientist AQ Khan's proliferation activities in the 1990s.

"Most of the aid we've sent them over the past few years has been diverted into their nuclear programme," the report published in 'Counter Punch' quoted a senior national security official in the Obama administration as saying.

Most of this 'diverted aid' - $5.56 billion as of a year ago - was officially designated "Coalition Support Funds" for Pakistani military operations against the Taliban.

It said the US had allowed Pakistan's nuclear programme to continue in violation of its policy of non-proliferation, as it needed its help in defeating the Soviets in Afghanistan, among other things, and even the Obama administration has not changed this policy.

The author said: "during the years Dr AQ Khan was peddling his uranium enrichment technology around the place, his shipping manager was a CIA agent, whose masters seem to have had little problem with allowing trade to go forward".

Money has routinely been handed over essentially without accounting being required from the Pakistanis, the report said."The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has huffed at items such as the $30 million shelled out for non-existent roads, of the $ 1.5 million for naval vehicles damaged in combat but that was as far as public complaints went," the report said.

Andrew Cockburn is a security analyst, who has written several books on security issues. — PTI

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has said a decisive action against terrorists in parts of the NWFP and Fata was under way and the time for dialogue with the militants was over now.

“The operation will reach its logical conclusion very soon,” the Prime Minister told journalists at Jamia Naeemia, where he had gone to offer condolences over the death of eminent religious scholar Dr Sarfaraz Naeemi in a bomb blast.

About a statement by JUI leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman that talks should be resumed with the Taliban, Gilani said, “Maulana Sahib is a coalition partner. We respect him but the nation has an altogether different view and the people now want peace and elimination of terrorists.”

Describing the terrorists as anti-social and anti-Pakistan elements, the premier said these handful of elements were acting on a foreign agenda. He said it was not a conventional war and the army was fighting very efficiently against cowards who carried out ambushes.

Regarding the demand for a separate Seraiki province by slicing Punjab, Gilani, who himself belongs to the Seraiki belt said the rule of Constitution would be established in the country. “Such matters are not decided by individual aspirations. Division of a province is a constitutional matter and the aspirants can raise this issue in parliament or from the platform of their respective parties.” 

Tehran, June 29
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for a judicial probe into the “suspicious” death of a young Iranian woman who has become an icon of opposition protests against a disputed election that he officially won.

Ahmadinejad sent a letter to judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi requesting a serious investigation to help identify “the elements” behind this month’s killing of Neda Agha-Soltan, the official IRNA news agency said.

He accused foreign media of using the case for propaganda purposes. He also suggested that the opposition and Iran’s enemies abroad aimed to misuse it “for their own political aims and also to distort the pure and clean image of the Islamic Republic in the world”.

His letter added: “I request you to order the judicial system to seriously follow up the murder case ... and identify elements behind the case and inform the people of the result.”

Neda, a 26-year-old music student, was shot on June 20, when supporters of defeated election candidate Mirhossein Mousavi clashed with the riot police and Basij militiamen in Tehran. Footage of her death has been watched by thousands on the Internet.

Iranian state television has said Neda was not shot by a bullet used by Iranian security forces. It said filming of the scene, and its swift broadcast to foreign media, suggested the incident was planned.

In his letter to Shahroudi, Ahmadinejad termed Neda’s death “suspicious”, IRNA said. Last week, Britain’s The Times newspaper identified one person captured on Internet videos helping Neda as a doctor who has since fled Iran. — Reuters 

At least three persons of a US-based non-resident Nepali family, who arrived in Kathmandu recently, have been detected with pandemic H1N1 virus (Swine Flu), said the officials at the Avian Influenza Control Project under the Epidemiology and Disease Control Unit (EDCU).

Speaking at a press meet EDCU Coordinator Dr Manas Kumar Banerjee said three infected victims comprising 38-year-old woman; a 44-year-old man and 8-year-old boy from the same family have been diagnosed with the H1N1, which has caused a global pandemic.

The trio arrived in Kathmandu on a vacation from the US via Doha on June 21 and their names have not been disclosed yet. This is the first time Nepal detected the H1N1 pandemic.

Infection was suspected after the boy complained of fever last Wednesday and gave his blood sample for tests which was confirmed to have been infected with the virus last Friday and his parents were reconfirmed to have been infected with the pandemic on Sunday, Banerjee said.

According to Banerjee, the EDCU has sent their blood samples to the World Health Organization lab for further conformation.

Dr Surendra Raj Uprety said the trio had been in self-quarantine. The concerned officials have been mobilised to contact other national and foreign passengers, who had travelled with the trio and arrived in Kathmandu to avoid possible untoward incidents. Uprety also urged the people to opt possible preventive measures to keep them safe from the virus.