Cameron warns Pakistan on exporting terror, stresses economic ties with India
Bangalore, July 28 (IANS) British Prime Minister David Cameron began his India visit Wednesday with a clear warning to Pakistan that it should stop "exporting" terror to its neighbourhood, even as he asserted that India was crucial for his country's economic future.

"We want to see a strong, stable and democratic Pakistan, but we cannot tolerate in any sense export of terrorism, whether to India, Afghanistan or anywhere in the world," Cameron said in his address at the Infosys Technologies Ltd campus on the outskirts of Bangalore.

Landing in the wee hours on a two-day maiden visit to India after assuming ... Read More

Munir Sheikh shows us what integrity and leadership look like
John Ibbitson

Munir Sheikh’s testimony before the Commons industry committee reminded us of something that too many forget: He did not resign as deputy minister responsible for Statistics Canada for the wrong reason; he resigned for the right reason.

Journalism sometimes distorts through conflation. So while the initial stories concerning Mr. Sheikh’s departure correctly explained what caused the first deputy minister to resign on a question of principle, as days passed, a crucial distinction became blurred.

The impression gained ground that Mr. Sheikh quit because the Conservative government decided to scrap the mandatory long-form version of the 2011 census, replacing ... Read More

Oprah gets Julia, Goldie to make documentaries
London, July 28 (IANS) Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey has roped in actors Julia Roberts, Forest Whitaker and Goldie Hawn to develop documentaries for her new US network OWN.

The trio, along with American actress Mariel Hemingway and Irish actor Gabriel Byrne, will produce documentaries for Winfrey's OWN TV network, set to launch next year.

The shows will be part of a monthly Documentary Film Club, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

Roberts will present and executive-produce “Extraordinary Moms”, a film looking at the power of mothers who have fought to make their kids - and the world - better, while Whitaker will produce and ... Read More

British business secretary for a liberal immigration policy
By Venkata Vemuri

London, July 28 (IANS) Even as British Prime Minister David Cameron begins his first official visit to India, his Business Secretary Vince Cable created a stir by saying he preferred a more liberal immigration policy for non-EU workers than what the government was currently adopting.

Talking to the media before heading for New Delhi Tuesday, Cable, a Liberal Democrat minister in the coalition government, said he wanted a liberal policy as opposed to the Conservative line of a tougher one.

A blog in Financial Times reported the news, saying Cable "has risked opening a new split within the coalition ... Read More

British PM rules out mediation on Kashmir
New Delhi, July 28 (IANS) A day before he holds talks here, British Prime Minister David Cameron Wednesday ruled out any bid by Britain to mediate on the Kashmir dispute and stressed that it was for India and Pakistan to settle the issue.

"I don't think Britain is a great place to mediate on this issue," the 43-year-old Cameron, who is on a two-day visit to India, told Prannoy Roy in an interview on NDTV.

He said this in response to a question on the Kashmir issue. "We want India and Pakistan to have good relations, to have good dialogue and ... Read More

Radar crashes at Delhi airport, flights hit
New Delhi, July 28 (IANS) The Air Traffic Control (ATC) radar that helps in tracking aircraft movements crashed at the national capital's Indira Gandhi International Airport Wednesday evening, disrupting 50-55 flights, an official said.

The ATC was conducting a trial run for a new software platform on which the entire applications of the radar system works. The scheduled trial run was on the new Auto-Trac-III software, which faced similar glitches on July 24.

"A trial run of the new software platform was going on, when at around 5.45 p.m. the screens went blank and the system crashed. Immediately all operations ... Read More

152 killed as plane crashes into Islamabad's Margalla Hills
By Awais Saleem

Islamabad, July 28 (IANS) All 152 on board a private Pakistani airline flight from Karachi were killed when the jet crashed amid heavy rain in the thickly wooded Margalla Hills near this Pakistani capital Wednesday morning.

Airblue flight 202, coming in from Turkey via Karachi, abruptly lost contact with the airport here and crashed near the popular Damanekoh resort at about 9.45 a.m., about two hours after it had taken off from Karachi.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik confirmed that nobody had survived the crash. There were 152 people on board the Airbus A-321, includng six crew members.

The ... Read More

US says aid to Pakistan no threat to India
By Arun Kumar

Washington, July 28 (IANS) Even as it downplays revelations about the "historic relationship" between Pakistan's spy agency ISI and extremist groups, the United States assured New Delhi that its military aid to Pakistan posed no threat to India.

"A stable Pakistan is not a threat to India. A stable India does not need to be a threat to Pakistan," state department spokesman Phillip Crowley told reporters Tuesday when asked how does the US make sure that its aid is not used for supporting terror across the border against India.

"In giving military assistance to Pakistan, we have systems of ... Read More

Massive opportunities seen in India-Latin America ties
By Arun Kumar

Washington, July 28 (IANS) Stressing the great integration potential between India and Latin America, a new study calls for closer economic ties between the two distant partners to tap into "massive" trade and investment opportunities.

The study "India: Latin America's Next Big Thing?" released Tuesday by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) looks into recent development and economic trends in India and their possible impact for Latin America and the Caribbean.

The study argues that India has the potential to mirror the recent economic performance of China, which has become a major market for Latin American and Caribbean ... Read More

WikiLeaks expose: Pakistan in damage control mode
By Awais Saleem

Islamabad, July 28 (IANS) The stunning WikiLeaks expose that showed the involvement of Pakistan's ISI in carrying out terror attacks against Indians in Afghanistan has received a mixed reaction here, with an analyst saying that the explosive documents present a "dismal picture of the background war strategies that led to Afghanistan offensive".

The intelligence leak is being viewed with considerable interest by the Pakistani intelligentsia and the ruling elite.

Some see it as an attempt to arm-twist Pakistan and embroil the Pakistani secret agencies, including the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), in another controversy. Others are of the opinion ... Read More

India reminds Britain of ISI's role in Afghanistan
New Delhi, July 28 (IANS) A day ahead of talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron, India Wednesday drew attention to leaks documenting Pakistani spy agency ISI's role in fomenting instability in Afghanistan and underlined that any reintegration of the Taliban should be “Afghan-led and Afghan-driven�.

"The UK is a very valuable interlocutor for India. India is supportive of the Afghan government's efforts to integrate those elements who abjure violence and abide by the Afghan constitution,� external affairs ministry spokesperson Vishnu Prakash told reporters here.

"We are also of the view that any such initiative should be Afghan-led and Afghan-driven," ... Read More

Jagan only hope for Congress in Andhra, says MP
Hyderabad, July 28 (IANS) Describing Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy as the most popular leader in the state, the Congress MP's loyalists Wednesday mounted an attack on Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K. Rosaiah and state Congress chief D. Srinivas.

Coming out in open support of Jagan, as the Kadapa MP and son of the late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy is popularly known as, Nellore MP M. Rajamohan said he was the only hope for the party. He said the central leadership should reward Jagan without heeding certain leaders working against him.

Rajamohan told reporters in Delhi that the Congress could win 2014 elections only ... Read More

'Pakistan's inaction on 26/11, a time-bomb for US-Pakistan ties'
By Arun Kumar

Washington, July 28 (IANS) Pakistan's inaction against Lashkar-e-Taeba (LeT) even after David Headley's revelations about Islamabad's collusion in the Mumbai terror attacks is a "ticking time bomb" for US-Pakistan partnership, a former CIA analyst has warned.

Indians "have suspected Pakistani collusion in the Mumbai attacks from the start but could not prove it before" Pakistani-American terror suspect David Coleman Headley's "extraordinary confessions", Bruce Riedel, now a South Asia expert at the Brookings Institution, said in a commentary.

"Headley's revelations, if true, paint a picture of official Pakistani military cooperation in an act of mass causality terror that raises very ... Read More

India turned down proposal for British PM to address parliament
By Devirupa Mitra

New Delhi, July 28 (IANS) A proposal for British Prime Minister David Cameron to address a joint session of Indian parliament during his visit here was shot down due to protocol and scheduling problems, official sources said.

Cameron had made it clear that an India visit was one of his top priorities soon after he was elected prime minister in May 2010. "It was clear during the initial discussions about the visit that the British wanted a big event and they suggested that David Cameron could address the joint session of parliament," said a senior government official.

The proposal ... Read More