Pak to seek release of prisoners

Islamabad: The Pakistan government is collecting details about Pakistani nationals detained in India to seek their possible release and repatriation, a Cabinet member said, reports our Pakistan correspondent.

"The details of more than 600 Pakistani prisoners are being compiled for a request to the Indian government for their repatriation," minister for law and justice Farooq H. Naek said in a television interview here.

He said Pak-India judicial committee on prisoners has visited various jails in both countries to seek their early release.

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Pak, Afghan will discuss Taliban issue

Islamabad: Pakistan and Afghanistan will discuss the issue of possible talks with Taliban in Peshawar on Monday, officials said, reports our Pakistan correspondent.

"The mini-jirga (tribal assembly) between Pakistan and Afghanistan is beginning on Monday, which would mainly focus on the modus operandi of bringing Taliban and other militant groups on the table for dialogues," a government official said.

North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) governor Owais Ahmad Ghani will be heading the Pakistan delegation.

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Top Iranian minister faces impeachment

Tehran: Iran’s Parliament will move to impeach interior minister Ali Kordan for "dishonesty" in early November after he confessed to holding a fake Oxford University degree, the ISNA news agency said on Sunday.

"Mr Kordan will face an impeachment vote on November 4," a member of Parliament’s board, Hamid Reza Hajibabai, was quoted as saying.

Pressure has been mounting on Mr Kordan to quit the Cabinet post he took up in August after the prestigious British university denied awarding him any qualification through a representative. —AFP

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Livni calls for early Israel polls

Jerusalem: A confidant says foreign minister Tzipi Livni has abandoned her efforts to put together a new coalition government and instead will recommend early parliamentary elections. The decision will put already fragile peace talks in limbo. And it could clear the way for hawkish Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu to reclaim the premiership. Mr Netanyahu rejects sweeping territorial concessions to the Palestinians, a necessary component of any peace deal. —AP

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75,000 babies in China fed tainted milk

Beijing: Nearly a quarter of around 3,00,000 babies in the Chinese Capital were once fed melamine contaminated milk, before the product was taken off the shelves, media reports here claimed on Sunday.

A door-to-door survey conducted from September 20 to October 24 in the city, revealed that of more than 300,000 families with infants under age 3 surveyed nearly 75,500 fed the contaminated formula to their babies before the product was taken off.

—PTI