Qureshi to meet NATO chief

BRUSSELS: NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen will meet with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Monday, the alliance said, amid a row over a NATO helicopter strike inside Pakistan.

He will visit the transatlantic alliance’s headquarters in Brussels on the sidelines of a two-day Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).

A NATO statement said today there would be no press briefing after the talks with Rasmussen.

Pakistan blocked a land route for NATO convoys carrying supplies to neighbouring Afghanistan on Thursday after officials blamed a cross-border NATO helicopter attack for the deaths of three Pakistani soldiers. AGENCIES

Qureshi to meet NATO chief

BRUSSELS: NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen will meet with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Monday, the alliance said, amid a row over a NATO helicopter strike inside Pakistan.

He will visit the transatlantic alliance’s headquarters in Brussels on the sidelines of a two-day Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).

A NATO statement said today there would be no press briefing after the talks with Rasmussen.

Pakistan blocked a land route for NATO convoys carrying supplies to neighbouring Afghanistan on Thursday after officials blamed a cross-border NATO helicopter attack for the deaths of three Pakistani soldiers. AGENCIES

Judicial crisis blocked resolution of Kashmir issue: Kasuri

LAHORE: Former foreign minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri said that due to judicial crisis of 2007 Kashmir issue could not be solved.

He was speaking in a programme organized under ”Aman Ki Asha” initiative.

I am satisfied that talks stood where we left, he said.

Dr Mubashir Hassan, Arif Nizami, Razzaq Dawood, Amin Haswani, I A Rahman, Shafqat Mehmood participated from Pakistan, while, Amitabh Mitto, Admiral Nair, Prem Shankar, Admiral Ram Das and former foreign secretary Salman Haider spoke from Indian side.

Kasuri talked about in detail the steps taken in this regard.

During Musharraf regime Pakistan and India were close to resolve Kashmir dispute and both parties, Pakistan and India, had agreed on a joint mechanism to settle the issue, he continued.

Pakistan, India and Kashmiri leadership discussed steps to solve the lingering dispute, former minister told participants. ”Pakistan wanted the solution as per the wishes of Kashmiri people”.

”Kashmiris demanded right of self-determination and withdrawal of all Indian forces from the occupied territory,” Kasuri said.

”Indian PM Manmohan was to visit Pakistan in late 2006 but Indian elections and judicial crisis in Pakistan sabotaged all efforts”.

It was also decided that the neither of the parties would claim victories after the talks, Kasuri added.

Judicial crisis blocked resolution of Kashmir issue: Kasoori

LAHORE: Former foreign minister Khursheed Kasoori said that due to judicial crisis of 2007 Kashmir issue could not be solved.

He was speaking in a programme organized under ”Aman Ki Asha” initiative.

During Musharraf regime Pakistan and India were closed to resolve Kashmir dispute and both parties, Pakistan and India had agreed on a joint mechanism to settle the issue.

”Kashmiris demanded right of self-determination and withdrawal of all Indian forces from the occupied territory,” Kasoori said.

”Indian PM Manmohan was to visit Pakistan in late 2006 but Indian elections and judicial crisis in Pakistan sabotaged all efforts”.

It was also decided that the parties would not claim victories after the talks, Kasoori added.

Helicopter Crash Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan:- Four American troops were killed and two injured when two helicopters collided in southern Afghanistan on Monday.

Hostile fire has been ruled out in the crash, a military statement said. US military spokesman Col. Wayne Shanks said he did not have other details yet about the cause of the collision. Shanks said the injured had been evacuated to hospitals inside Afghanistan. In another incident, another helicopter went down on Monday during an operation by international forces against insurgents in western Afghanistan in which a dozen militants were killed. So far 424 foreign troops have been killed in Afghanistan this year.

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Helicopter Crash Afghanistan was first posted on October 26, 2009 at 9:07 pm.

Zardari – Nawaz meeting ends at Presidency

Islamabad, Pakistan:- The meeting between President Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N Chief Mian Nawaz Sharif has ended in Presidency. Overall political and security situation in the country came under discussion during the 90 minutes long meeting. Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Raza Rabbani, Khursheed Shah, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Jahangir Badar and spokesman to President Farhatullah Babar were attending the meeting from Pakistan People’s Party. While from PML-N, Raja Zafar-ul-Haq, Javed Hashmi, Khawaja Asif, Ghous Ali Shah, Ishaq Dar and Iqbal Zafar Jhagra were present in the meeting. Sources revealed that Chaudhry Nisar was not part of the meeting despite being in the capital. Chaudhry Nisar said he could not attend the meeting in Presidency as party leader for he was the opposition leader in National Assembly. “This is a party meeting with the President and I am the opposition leader, so I could not attend this meeting.” President Zardari would also host a dinner in honor of PML-N chief and his companions after the talks, it was reported.

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Zardari – Nawaz meeting ends at Presidency was first posted on October 26, 2009 at 10:16 pm.

Dialogue Between NKorea And South Korea Starts

SEOUL: North Korean envoys delivered a message from their leader Kim Jong-Il when they met South Korea’s president Sunday, raising hopes of an end to high tensions that had sparked fears of military clashes.

Details of the verbal message were not disclosed.

But both sides at the first high-level North-South meeting since President Lee Myung-Bak took office 18 months ago expressed hopes for warmer ties after more than a year of deep hostility from Pyongyang.

“I’m leaving with good feelings,” Kim Ki-Nam, a close aide to Kim Jong-Il, told reporters as he left for the airport after the talks.

Relations have been icy since the conservative Seoul leader scrapped a “sunshine” aid and engagement policy towards the hardline communist state and linked economic assistance to nuclear disarmament.

Military forces along the heavily-fortified border have been put on alert at various times.

Tensions rose further after Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile tests this year, which were punished with tougher United Nations sanctions.

Kim Jong-Il’s message was “regarding progress in inter-Korean relations”, said chief presidential spokesman Lee Dong-Kwan, declining to say more.

Lee “explained the consistent and firm principles of the government’s North Korea policy and asked the North’s delegation to relay them” to leader Kim, the spokesman said.

“If the South and the North genuinely try to resolve problems through dialogue, there will be no problems that cannot be resolved,” he quoted the president as telling the visitors.

Kim Jong-Il had sent the envoys to Seoul to join national mourning for former president Kim Dae-Jung, who pioneered the “sunshine” policy and held the first inter-Korean summit in 2000.

“The North’s delegation expressed thanks for the meeting and expressed hope that the North and the South will cooperate and resolve all problems,” the spokesman said.

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Dialogue Between NKorea And South Korea Starts was first posted on August 23, 2009 at 5:31 pm.