Islamabad, February 6
After initial hiccups, Pakistani state negotiators and a Taliban-nominated committee met at an undisclosed location today to frame a roadmap for parleys aimed at ending terrorism and bringing peace to the country.

Senior journalist and coordinator of the government's four-member committee Irfan Siddiqui said the panel would negotiate with the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) with an open mind. The state negotiators had earlier met in Islamabad to discuss how to start the dialogue and carry it forward.

The TTP-nominated committee and state negotiators were originally scheduled to hold talks on February 4, but the meeting was put off after the government panel sought clarifications on some unspecified issues.

The committee nominated by the TTP comprises Samiul Haq, a radical cleric known as the "father of the Taliban"; Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ibrahim Khan; and cleric Abdul Aziz of the radical Lal Masjid. Earlier, Aziz said the Taliban wanted to have a meeting with their nominees. He said the panel was deliberating on visiting Waziristan or calling the Taliban to a spot near Peshawar for a meeting.

He said they could ask Taliban to give their demands in writing. However, a final decision would be made after meeting the government committee. The state negotiators include Siddiqui, former ambassador Rustam Shah Mohmand, journalist Rahimullah Yousufzai and former ISI officer Maj Muhammad Amir (retd).

Meanwhile, cleric Samiul Haq called up Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and discussed ways to bring peace to the country. Khan told him the government had initiated the dialogue process with seriousness as it wanted to normalise the situation.

He said the country and the government were praying for the success of the dialogue. The government would extend full cooperation to its committee for the talks, he said. Haq appreciated Khan's role in promoting dialogue and hoped it would yield positive results. — PTI

Islamabad, February 6
Hizbul Mujahideen leader Mast Gul, involved in the 1995 siege of Charar-e-Sharief shrine in Jammu and Kashmir, was behind a suicide attack on Shias in Peshawar that killed nine persons, a Pakistani Taliban commander has said.

Mufti Hasaan Swati, who claims to be the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commander for Peshawar area, said he had tasked Mast Gul alias Haroon Khan to carry out attacks on the Shia minority, including the suicide bombing of a hotel on Tuesday.

Swati described Mast Gul as a “militant commander for Peshawar”, a daily reported today. He addressed mediapersons along with Mast Gul at Miranshah in the restive North Waziristan tribal region yesterday.

This is the first time in over a decade that 47-year-old Mast Gul has been seen in public. Little was known of his whereabouts since he was injured in an ambush near Peshawar in August 2003.

In March 1995, a group of militants led by Mast Gul, holed up inside the 14th-century Charar-e-Sharief for two months. Following the standoff, the shrine burnt down in a mysterious fire in May. The Indian Army said the militants triggered blasts that caused the fire. Twenty militants, two soldiers and five civilians died in the standoff.

Though the TTP earlier denied its involvement in Tuesday's suicide bombing of a hotel in Koocha Risaldar, a Shia- dominated neighbourhood of Peshwar, Swati said it was carried out to avenge an attack on a Sunni seminary in Rawalpindi in November.

Besides this attack, Swati said the Taliban had killed two Shias — Tehrik Nifaz Fiqah-e-Jafria Pakistan leader Ali Asghar and a bank manager — in Peshawar district. — PTI

Seoul, February 6
North Korea today threatened to cancel a reunion later this month of Korean War-divided families because of upcoming US-South Korean military drills, causing frustration in Seoul only one day after the rivals agreed on dates for the emotional meetings.

The apparent about-face fits a pattern, analysts say, North Korea often follows of agreeing to things Seoul covets and then pulling back until Pyongyang gets what it wants, in this case a ratcheting down of the massive military drills by Seoul and Washington that are seen as a huge drain on impoverished North Korea's military.

The rival Koreas decided yesterday to restart the family reunions, which haven't been held since 2010, from February 20 to 25. Before the agreement, many in Seoul were skeptical that Pyongyang would allow the reunions anytime soon because of its anger over the annual springtime military drills that are also scheduled later this month. Pyongyang calls the drills preparation for war, while the allies say the exercises are purely defensive. North Korea has a history of launching provocations and scrapping cooperation accords with South Korea to protest the allies' springtime drills. The country used last year's drills as a pretext to churn out near-daily threats, including vows of nuclear war against Seoul and Washington.

It also canceled planned family reunions last September after accusing Seoul of preparing for war drills and other hostile acts.

The North's powerful National Defense Commission today issued a statement warning that the reunions might not happen if South Korea went ahead with the drills and continued slandering leader Kim Jong Un.

"It would be a nonsense to hold reunions of families and relatives separated due to the past war while extremely dangerous nuclear war drills take place," an unidentified spokesperson for the commission's policy department said in a statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

The spokesperson said: "North Korea cannot help reviewing whether to implement the accord on family reunions if viciously defaming of our supreme leadership and groundless slandering of our system continue." — AP

India has emerged as the ninth largest global military spending power, a respected London-based defence think tank has claimed.

Indian military spending last year is estimated at $36.3 billion, ahead of Brazil but well behind the US, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the UK, France, Japan and Germany, according to the Military Balance 2014 published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London.

The IISS highlights what is describes as the growth of defence budgets and military procurements in Asia, which points to a shift in the global distribution of military power towards Asia at a time when most national defence budgets in the West have contracted.

The US, however, remains the world’s largest military power with its 2013 defence budget estimated at $600.4 billion. China comes next with an estimated defence budget of $112.2 billion, followed by Russia’s $68.2 billion.

IISS Director-General John Chipman said: “Asian states are developing and procuring advanced military equipment of types previously monopolised by the West and Russia. Beijing’s recent confirmation of a hypersonic test vehicle places China with Russia and the United States as the only countries actively testing such military technologies. Beijing seems engaged in a pattern of developing test-beds to match existing Western defence technologies, and the possibility grows that China might at some point display new and innovative defence technologies.”

Commenting on Asian governments naval aspirations, Chipman observed: “Beijing’s latest defence white paper emphasised the need for blue-water naval capabilities, and reflected China’s drive to become a major maritime power. By late 2013, Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning had embarked on its third set of sea trials. While it will be some years before China can deploy a fully operational aircraft carrier battle group, the deployment of Liaoning and its escorts into the South China Sea evidently provoked considerable US interest, leading to a close encounter last December between Chinese ships and a US Navy vessel.

“Meanwhile, construction by other Asian nations of aircraft carriers and similar ships continued. China may be in the early stages of constructing a second ‘flat-top’, while 2013 saw India launch the hull of its first domestically built carrier and Japan launch its new so-called ‘helicopter destroyer’, the Izumo.”

LONDON, February 6
"Coronation Street" veteran William Roache was cleared on Thursday of historic rape and indecent assault charges and said in a statement afterwards: "There are no winners.”

Roache, 81, who has played Ken Barlow in the world's longest-runing soap since it began in 1960, had pleaded not guilty to two counts of raping a 15-year-old girl in 1967 and four counts of indecent assault involving four girls aged 11 to 16 in Manchester in the late 1960s.

He was one of several ageing celebrities to have been accused of historic sex crimes in Britain after revelations that the late BBC TV presenter Jimmy Savile had been a prolific predatory sex offender sparked a widespread police investigation. Roache's arrest was not directly related to the Savile investigations, which has led to 14 arrests and charges against four people. — Reuters

New York, February 6
An Indian-American patent lawyer, vying for a congressional seat in the Silicon Valley, has been endorsed by top executives from technology giants such as Google, as he seeks to oust a seven-term Democrat endorsed by President Barack Obama.

Ro Khanna, 37, has mounted an “aggressive campaign” for the seat from the 17th Congressional District in the San Francisco Bay area, significantly outraising Representative Michael Honda, 72, who was first elected to Congress in 2000 and has the support of the rest of the Democratic establishment. — PTI

Kuala Lumpur, February 6
A Malaysian-Indian NGO today made a last-minute appeal to the government to stop the execution of an ethnic Indian man who has been convicted of murder, saying the death sentence was incompatible with human rights and dignity.

Death row prisoner Chandran Paskaran, 36, is to be hanged tomorrow despite decisions of the government to halt death sentences for the time being.

P Wayathamoorthy, chairman of Hindu Rights Action Force, said the call for abolishment of death sentence had been in place since October 2012 when the then minister in the PM's Department Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz tabled a moratorium on the mandatory death penalty and received approval from the government as well as the Opposition. The government had committed to respond to the UN Human Rights Council by March 2014 on the recommendation made, Wayathamoorthy said. “A death sentence is incompatible with human rights and human dignity as it violates the right of life, a basic human right," he said. — PTI

Washington, February 6
On the eve of Sochi Olympic Games, the US has warned American and foreign airlines that terrorists could try to conceal explosives in toothpaste or cosmetic tubes on Russia-bound flights.

The chairman of the US House Homeland Security Committee Michael McCaul said the Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin to airlines flying into Russia warning of the potential threat.

The bulletin indicated that US officials believed the explosives might be used during flights or smuggled into the Russian city of Sochi, where the Winter Olympics is being held from February 7 to 23.

A US law enforcement official told CNN that the cause for the Homeland Security alert was specific to the imminent start of the games.

Another official emphasised there was no known threat to the US, but the notice to American and international air carriers is based on new intelligence information. — PTI