Islamabad, February 11
Pakistan today said there are no pre-conditions on either side for the proposed Foreign Secretary-level talks, indicating its readiness for parley's with India later this month.

"Let's not get into specifics. At this stage it is important to remember that there are no pre-conditions on either side," Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesman Abdul Basit told reporters.

He was asked whether there has been a climbdown since Pakistan has been insisting that nothing short of a composite dialogue will be accepted.

India has proposed talks between Foreign Secretaries Nirupama Rao and Salman Bashir to be held on either February 18 or 25.

"We are yet to respond to India's suggestion but whenever the meeting takes place, we have to discuss all issues that are of importance to us. We strongly believe that with pre-conditions, we can't have a dialogue," Basit said.

Basit's remarks came hours after Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani accused India of trying to sidestep Kashmir issue, saying "In fact, they (India) do not want to talk about Kashmir." Gilani also made it clear that the Indo-Pak composite dialogue, covering eight issues, including Kashmir and stalled since the Mumbai terror attacks, is the "only way forward".

India had suspended the composite dialogue in the wake of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and linked resumption of talks with dismantling of terror infrastructure in Pakistan and punishing those behind the attacks.

"We look forward to engaging with India in a meaningful and result-oriented dialogue. We hope that the two countries will be able to discuss all issues that bedevil our relations," said Basit.

Asked whether the Kashmir issue would be part of the talks, he said, "this is what we hope for." Appearing to favour February 25 for the talks, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said it was "not a bad date".

"I believe we should move forward. Common sense states that talks should be held as soon as possible," Qureshi said.

"What is important is that we start talking. Of course, we feel that these talks should be to re-start the composite dialogue and take it up from where we left off. After all, all the issues that both sides want to raise are included in the composite dialogue," he said in interviews to Pakistani media.

Pakistan would approach the talks with an open mind, said Qureshi, who chaired an inter-ministerial meeting yesterday to assess the Indian proposal and formulate Pakistan's response.

"When we engage with India again, we will reiterate our position. Besides that, the engagement should be irreversible and produce results. One hopes that this time around, India would not backtrack and allow the composite dialogue process to move forward in a meaningful manner." — PTI

A number of business offices in Melbourne, including at least one defence facility, have had their computer servers completely encrypted and their servers erased by people claiming to be acting on behalf of Indians in view of the spate of attacks on Indians in Australia, notably in and around Melbourne. However, the identity of the attackers was yet to be determined.

ABC radio said the hackers, who identified themselves as Ghost Buster, left behind a message with threats of more attacks to come unless assaults on the Indian community ceased. The popular radio news channel did not, however, reveal the names of the defence facility or the business offices that have been hacked.

London, February 11
An Indian-origin social and spiritual leader in the UK today won the right to be cremated in an open air funeral pyre, according to Hindu rituals, ending a prolonged legal battle.

In a landmark judgement, the Britain's Court of Appeal granted Davender Ghai, 71, the right to be cremated after his death in an open-air funeral pyre. Delighted at the ruling, Ghai said the verdict had "breathed new life into an old man's dreams. I always maintained that I wanted to clarify the law, not disobey or disrespect it." Since open air cremations anywhere outside a crematorium have been prohibited in the Britain under the 1902 Cremation Act, many Indian-origin families in Britain take bodies of their deceased relatives to India for cremation according to Hindu rites.

Ghai has been campaigning for the right to be cremated according to his Hindu beliefs for several years and sought legal redress. His bid for Britain to allow open-air funeral pyres was opposed by the Law Secretary on the ground that people might be "upset and offended" by pyres and "find it abhorrent that human remains were being burned in this way." In a statement to the court, Ghai had said: "I will not deny my claim is provocative, least of all in a nation as notoriously squeamish towards death as our own. "However, I honestly do not believe natural cremation grounds would offend public decency - as long as they were discreet, designated sites far from the urban and the residential areas," Ghai said. In 2006, the Newcastle City Council had forbidden him from organising Hindu-style cremation. — PTI 

Washington, February 11
As many as two lakh Indians are living illegally in the US, a latest official report on illegal residents for the year 2009 has claimed.

This is a jump of 40,000 as against 160,000 illegal Indians living in the US in the year 2008. This jump in unauthorised Indians living in the US comes at a time when there is a decline in the number of illegal foreign residents from 11.6 million in January 2008 to 10.8 million in January 2009 - a drop of seven per cent. "Between 2000 and 2007, the unauthorised population grew by 3.3 million from 8.5 million to 11.8 million," said the report Estimates of the Unauthorised Immigrant Population Residing in the US: January 2009 released by the Department of Homeland Security.

"The number of unauthorised residents declined by 1.0 million between 2007 and 2009, coincident with the US economic downturn. The overall annual average increase in the unauthorised population during the 2000-2009 period was 250,000," the report said. Mexico with 6.7 million (62 per cent) continued to be the leading source of unauthorised immigration to the US. The next leading source countries for unauthorised immigrants in 2009 were El Salvador (530,000), Guatemala (480,000), Honduras (320,000), the Philippines (270,000) and India (200,000), the report said. — PTI 

BRIEFLY

NASA cancels probe launch
Washington: High winds forced US space agency NASA to cancel the planned launch of a solar probe. The countdown for the launch of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) was called off because the wind load was higher than allowed, NASA said. An earlier launch was also delayed due to bad weather, and a NASA meteorologist had cautioned on Tuesday that high winds could threaten on Wednesday's launch. The SDO is the "crown jewel" of a fleet of NASA satellites planned to collect more details about what's going on underneath and above the surface of the sun, said Michael Luther, a NASA official overseeing the programme. — DPA

New photos of 9/11 released
New York: Newly released aerial photos of the September 11, 2001, World Trade Centre attack show the towers coming down from a dramatic new angle. The photos were obtained by ABC News, which filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the National Institute of Standards and Technology last year. The NIST collected the images as part of its investigation into the terrorist attack. The ABC said it was provided 2,779 pictures on nine CDs. — AP

Novel painkillers
Washington: A breakthrough has opened the door for the development of a new category of painkillers which may be effective in treating pain related to a number of conditions, including cancer, AIDS, migraines and diabetes. The painkillers, called TRPV1 antagonists, can be activated by pepper like chemicals and high temperatures. These drugs block the TRPV1 channel, which is the same receptor responsible for the sensation of hotness from hot peppers. — IANS