Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has reciprocated the sentiments for peace expressed by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his address to Lok Sabha on Wednesday which he termed as positive.

In a statement issued late Wednesday night by the Prime Minister House, Gilani praised the "bold vision" and “statesmanship" of his counterpart and reaffirmed Pakistan's desire to engage with India for settlement of all outstanding bilateral issues.

Responding to Indian Prime Minister’s statement in Lok Sabha, Gilani said: “We (at Sharm el- Sheikh) had useful talks and a good meeting of minds. We had agreed that terrorism was a common threat. We also agreed that dialogue was the only way forward.” He said Singh had rightly emphasised the importance of honourable settlement of the outstanding issues between India and Pakistan.

Gilani commended Singh for his bold vision of peace and prosperity in South Asia and the statesmanship that he has demonstrated.

Top leader of lawyers’ movement and central leader of Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, recently met army chief Gen Ashfaque Pervez Kayani causing stir in political circles already agog with wild guessing game about future of present dispensation.

Aitzaz has been sidelined in the PPP because of his leading role in the lawyers' movement for restoration of deposed judges. His membership of the central executive committee of the party was suspended early this year and he has been excluded from all party activities. He, however, insisted he would not quit the party saying he has invested decades of his life in his political career and made sacrifices for it.

Aitzaz confirmed media reports but insisted he remained committed to democracy and was opposed to army's role in politics in any form. “It was purely a private meeting,” he told reporters.

When asked whether the Supreme Court case and army’s possible political role were discussed during the meeting with Gen Kayani, Aitzaz said he was neither Sharifuddin Pirzada nor Malik Qayyum (who served army dictators). He said he would never encourage, facilitate or advise any political role for the army.

“It was, however, a pleasant meeting and army’s successes in Swat and FATA were discussed,” Aitzaz said. When pressed further, he said that golf also came under discussion. He said he was committed to the democratic system. “The case in the Supreme Court was neither discussed nor has he any role to play in the proceedings or decision of the case,” he added.

London, July 30
The House of Lords will today cease to be Britain's highest court of appeal as the law lords move across the street in Westminster to a new Supreme Court, ending more than six centuries of tradition.

The creation of the Supreme Court is part of Gordon Brown government's parliamentary reform, and a law to create the Supreme Court was passed in 2005. Today the House of Lords will hear the last set of appeals as the law lords pass into history.

The 12 law lords, who constituted the highest court of appeal, will function as justices of the Supreme Court, and move from the House of Lords to the Middlesex Guildhall on Parliament Square. The court will start functioning from October 1.

After this afternoon, the law lords will lose their right to speak and vote in the House of Lords until their retirement as justices of the new court. The creation of Supreme Court means that the judicial functions will finally be separated from Parliament, which will become a purely legislative body.

The Supreme Court's proceedings will be televised, with justices seated at eye level with the lawyers and the visiting public in the courtrooms.

One of the landmark cases heard by the law lords was of the East India Company in the 17th century.

In 1657, merchant Thomas Skinner sailed east in the hope of making some money, and used an island off India that he had bought from the local monarch as his base.

But the then East India Company believed he was poaching on its territory, seized his ship, his home, and his island, and made him take the long journey home overland.

The Lords awarded Skinner 5,000 pounds in damages, but the East India Company refused to accept their jurisdiction and appealed to the House of Commons, which had Skinner locked up in the Tower of London. — PTI

Melbourne, July 30
After violent attacks and expose of migration scams, the woes of Indian students in Australia seem to be mounting up with new scandal breaking. In fresh scam, it has been alleged that a large number of overseas students had copied their Masters thesis particularly in the IT programme.

The fresh scam exposed by ‘The Australian’ newspaper said several overseas students, including Indians, were found to have graduated from the University of New England (UNE) with copied Masters thesis which gave them better chance of getting permanent residency.

The paper said some of the students were allowed to graduate even after a probe began into the scam. When contacted, a University spokesman told PTI that most of the students were from Pakistan, Bangladesh and India. — PTI

Chicago, July 30
LifeGem, a city-based company which is looking to make 10 diamonds out of the late pop icon Michael Jackson’s hair, hopes to give one of the rocks to his three children as a tribute.

The company plans to make 10 half-carat diamonds from a lock of Jackson’s hair that was charred during the filming of a Pepsi commercial in 1984. It would sell the diamonds privately and offer one of them “free” to the legend’s three children.

“We will be more than happy to offer them (the children) a diamond as a tribute to their dad,” the Chicago Tribune quoted LifeGem CEO Greg Herro as saying.

Under the patented process, hair would be heated to about 5,400 degrees, reducing it to carbon so that it could be crystallised and turned into diamonds. The process took six-nine months, way faster than the “billion years” earth took to make diamonds, Herro said.

“We grow an actual rough diamond just like the earth does except that we speed it up significantly. It does not take a billion years,” he added. — PTI

New York, July 30
Dharam Shourie, PTI correspondent at the United Nations, passed away here today following a brief illness.

Shourie, 72, was Editor of PTI before being posted to the United Nations as its correspondent in 1989. Family members said Shourie was ill for the past two months and was in a hospital for over a fortnight. He died due to multiple complications that developed in the last few days, they said.

Born in Lahore on March 1, 1937, Shourie had his initial education in Shimla and Ambala after his family moved to India post Partition. — PTI