The prime ministers of India and Pakistan were scheduled to meet on the sidelines of a summit in Egypt yesterday, sparking hopes of a resumption of peace talks between the nuclear rivals.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were to hold talks in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where more than 50 heads of state are attending the developing world’s most important get-together, the Non-Aligned Movement summit.
Relations between India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars, deteriorated sharply after last year’s bombings in Mumbai, which killed 166 people and were blamed by New Delhi on the banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Singh has voiced hope that Pakistan will promise action against those behind the November attacks when he meets Gilani for the second high-level talks between the two sides since the bombings.
Pakistan on Wednesday expressed optimism over the talks.
“There has recently been some forward movement in our relations with India,” Gilani told summit participants. “We hope to sustain this momentum and move toward comprehensive engagement. We believe durable peace in South Asia is achievable.”
The Mumbai siege left in tatters a fragile peace process launched in 2004 to resolve all outstanding issues of conflict between the neighbors, including a territorial dispute over the divided Himalayan territory of Kashmir.
Peace “will be facilitated by the resolution of all outstanding disputes, including Jammu and Kashmir,” Gilani said.
Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon has been holding talks with his Pakistani counterpart Salim Bashir since Tuesday in preparation for the meeting between the prime ministers.
Menon told a press conference on Wednesday that the talks were continuing.
“We have had good detailed discussions. We are still in the process of talking to each other,” Menon said.
Singh has voiced hope that Pakistan will promise action against those behind the attacks when he meets Gilani for only the second high-level contact between the two sides since the Mumbai bombings.
Pakistan has said that it would “probably” put the five accused of involvement in the attacks on trial this week.
More than 50 heads of state from the developing world are gathered in Sharm el-Sheikh to tackle the fallout from the global economic meltdown, with calls for a “new world order” to prevent a repeat of the crisis.
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
Counting was under way in Nepal yesterday, after a high-stakes parliamentary election to reshape the country’s leadership following protests last year that toppled the government. Key figures vying for power include former Nepalese prime minister K. P. Sharma Oli, rapper-turned-mayor Balendra Shah, who is bidding for the youth vote, and newly elected Nepali Congress party leader Gagan Thapa. In Kathmandu’s tea shops and city squares, people were glued to their phones, checking results as early trends flashed up — suggesting Shah’s centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was ahead. Nepalese Election Commission spokesman Prakash Nyupane said the counting was ongoing “in a peaceful manner”
RSS