Pakistan’s retired Army generals, have planned a long march and a sit-in before the army House in Rawalpindi to get it vacated so that Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani could move in.

Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf is ready to step down if
government drops efforts to reinstate sacked judges, sources close to Musharraf said, according to IRIB.

Foreign ministers of India and Pakistan conducted constructive negotiations in Islamabad for improving bilateral ties.
The three main issues discussed in talks between Pranab Mukherjee and Shah Mahmood Qureshi were the Kashmir crisis, terrorism and facilitating the visits of nationals to their respective countries.
The issue of ownership of Kashmir has been the focal point of disputes between India and Pakistan since 1947 when the Indian subcontinent gained its independence from British colonialists. As long as this problem is not resolved, no improvement can be expected to take place in other disputed issues.
It is not clear how the Kashmir crisis can be resolved, but in recent years, America has proposed certain plans. One such plan, which has been made available to India, Pakistan and Kashmiri independence seeking groups, suggests that the Hindu-dominated areas of Jammu and Ladakh become completely Indian territories.In return, Pakistan can officially annex free Kashmir with its capital city of Muzaffarabad to its territories. The plan also suggests that the region located in between the said areas, with its capital city being Srinagar, will become an autonomous political system, the power structure of which will be determined through holding free and democratic elections and ratification of its own laws and regulations.
There is no reliable information about whether the plan has been accepted or rejected by India, Pakistan or Kashmir separatists. At any rate, the unofficial statements made by involved parties hint at the fact that they consider the plan worthy of further scrutiny.
Radical separatists consider Kashmir as a political system that cannot be disintegrated and maintain that not only parts of Kashmir dominated by India and Pakistan, but also the strip that China conquered in its war against India in 1962 must be returned to Kashmir so that an independent Kashmir with Islamic identity can be established. Therefore, it can be seen that the dispute does not just pertain to India and Pakistan, each of which considers Kashmir as part of its territories and the separatists also have their own brand of viewpoint, which essentially contradicts the stances of New Delhi and Islamabad. Consequently, the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan encounter a situation in Kashmir, which does not have an immediate solution. Nevertheless, the very idea of holding negotiations is in itself a step forward.
The issue of terrorism is rather complicated and closely intertwined with the Kashmir crisis. India views Pakistan as responsible for the growth of sectarian terrorism through Kashmir’s separatist groups while Pakistan has accused India of interfering in the unrest of the Balochistan province. Of course, both countries have perpetually rejected interference in each other’s internal considerations, but neither side is convinced.
With regard to facilitating reciprocal visits of the nationals of the two countries, it must be asserted that the situation is ripe for striking an agreement while families that have been separated from each other since 1947 have also received the idea with unprecedented enthusiasm. This move has also affected the Kashmir standoff in a positive manner.
All in all, the fact that India and Pakistan have resumed negotiations is a good omen per se. This is especially important as the People’s Party has once again gained power in Pakistan, and India is more hopeful about settlement of the dispute between the two countries. Furthermore, it seems that the situation is more suitable than before for implementing the project of Iran’s gas pipeline to India via Pakistan. It can now be hoped that given the reduction of tensions between India and Pakistan, the peace gas pipeline project can be expedited.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday called for an immediate ceasefire between the Sudanese army and southern forces in the Abyei region.
“The secretary-general is deeply concerned about the fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army in the area of Abyei,“ that erupted on May 13, his office said in a statement, AFP said.
“If the situation is not urgently addressed, the achievements so far of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement could be placed at serious risk.“
Ban urged “both parties to immediately observe the terms of the ceasefire agreed ... on 18 May,“ and said “there can be no military solution to the parties’ differences over Abyei.“
Fighting raged on Tuesday in Abyei, a flashpoint oil district between north and south whose status remains contested three years after the end of civil war.

Afghanistan’s foreign minister said Pakistan’s policy of ’appeasing’ the Taliban is dangerous, reiterating concern that peace talks between Islamabad and rebels would see more cross-border attacks.
Pakistan’s new government is in negotiations with Taliban militants along its tribal belt, from where Afghan and Western officials allege the insurgents plot and organize attacks in Afghanistan including against foreign troops, AFP reported.
“Anyone thinking that they are able to reach peace in the region through what we call an appeasement policy--we consider it as a wrong and dangerous policy,“ Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta told reporters.
The talks launched by a new government that defeated President Pervez Musharraf’s allies in elections have led to a marked tailing off in a wave of suicide attacks across Pakistan.
A peace deal with Pakistani Taliban in 2006 led to a spike in violence just across the border.

Afghan Cop Beheaded
Taliban militants beheaded a policeman in Afghanistan and killed an aid agency’s driver in a separate attack, while bombs killed seven civilians, authorities said Tuesday.
The decapitated body of the policeman was found in the southwestern province of Farah on Monday, a day after he had been captured by Taliban fighters, the police spokesman for the region told AFP.
He was caught while traveling home for a holiday, said spokesman Abdul Mutalib Rad, blaming Taliban extremists.
The militia, which was in government between 1996 and 2001, has carried out several beheadings as part of an insurgency that targets government employees and security forces, as well as US and NATO troops.
In a separate incident, militants fired mortars at an aid agency’s water tanker in eastern Afghanistan, an Afghan army spokesman said.
“Then they came and killed the driver and stole his tanker,“ said Mohammad Gul, blaming the “opposition“.
In southwestern Nimroz province meanwhile, a mine blew up a truck transporting sheep and killed five men and several of the animals, provincial governor Ghulam Dastgir Azad said.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday promised Libya’s Leader Moamer Kadhafi that Moscow would buttress economic and military ties with Tripoli.
Putin and Kadhafi spoke on the telephone and agreed to continue “the useful confidential dialogue between the two countries and noted mutual interest in boosting cooperation in both civil and military spheres,“ a statement said, AFP reported.
Putin “stressed the need to realize the accords cinched during the recent Russo-Libyan summit and affirmed that as prime minister he intended to give it all due attention,“ it added.
Libya has had its debt to the Soviet Union waived in return for important contracts to Russian companies.
These include the Russian state railroad company’s plans to construct a 600-kilometre rail link between the cities of Syrte and Benghazi, which is estimated to cost over two billion euros.
The two countries also signed four accords on economic and financial cooperation, exchange of confidential information and promotion and protection of investments.
Libya had been an important ally of the Soviet Union and a faithful client of Soviet arms. However, ties between the two nations cooled after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

HOUSTON, Texas - Sentencing of three former El Paso Corp natural gas traders-- James Brooks, Wesley Walton and James Patrick Phillips--convicted of reporting false deals to manipulate gas prices from 2000 to 2002.
BOSTON - Sentencing of Hassan Abujihaad, formerly known as Paul Hall, a former US Navy sailor convicted of providing classified information to a London-based publication called Azzam Publications while knowing that it would be used in a conspiracy to kill US citizens.