The body of Uttar Pradesh Deputy CMO, Y S Sachan, was cremated in Lucknow this evening after his family members yielded to apparent police pressure to perform the last rites on receiving the post-mortem report.

The body was taken to the electric crematorium in the city and the cremation was performed with the consent of his family members, brother of the deceased R K Sachan said.

"There was no pressure from the government in this regard," he said. The family members were earlier not ready to cremate the body alleging that he was murdered.

Sri Lanka plans to set up a nuclear regulatory body to monitor radiation in case of an emergency due its close proximity to the atomic reactors in south India, a media report has said.

The government says that with the close proximity of the country to the nuclear power stations in South India, Sri Lanka needs to establish an independent nuclear regulatory arm in keeping with advice from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the ColomboPage online reported.

India has nuclear reactors in Kalpakkam and Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu and Kaiga in Karnataka.

Three bombs went off in Myanmar today.

The first one was in Mandalay, which destroyed a car in the main market area. Another one went off in Naypyidaw, again in the marketplace. And the third one was in the resort town of Pyin Oo Lwin, which also houses military training school.

No casualties have been reported so far.

It seems to be raining good news for detained fishermen in the region. After India and Pakistan, now it is the turn of Sri Lanka, it seems.

The 23 fishermen from Tamil Nadu who were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy on June 20, will be released in two days, the TN government said today.

"The Centre has informed that the Sri Lankan government had assured that the arrested fishermen will be released in two days," a state government release said in Chennai.

Former Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi today said he was not very hopeful of the ongoing Indo-Pak talks as he was not expecting any substantive outcome. 

"If you decide that let the two military bands meet, will you call it a substantive outcome?" Qureshi said, as the foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan held crucial talks in Islamabad. 

"Let's see what comes out, they are going through the motions," he said.

Qureshi was foreign minister when External Affairs Minister S M Krishna visited Islamabad in July last year, which crumbled in front of television cameras.

The Madras high court today issued a notice to the Union government on a PIL seeking the declaration of a recent notification exempting the Central Bureau of Investigation from the purview of the Right to Information Act as ultra vires of the Constitution.

A diplomat from the Pakistan high commission today visited a police station in South Mumbai where five sailors from the neighbouring country are staying since March, after being rescued by the Indian Navy on the high seas, and interacted with them.

"An assistant consular officer from the Pakistan high commission visited the police station today and interacted with the five sailors from his country," said M G Tope, inspector at Yellow Gate police station. During the interaction, police sources said the officer enquired about the sailors' well being and assured the five that they would be taken home back very soon.

Sheela Bhatt, in Islamabad to cover the foreign secretaries' parleys, sent this piece of news:

The second day of foreign secretary-level talks is equally important. As India and Pakistan sit down across the table and talk about Kashmir and only Kashmir, the two sides have learnt lessons in the last one decade of ups and downs.

From the failure of the 2001 Agra talks to Sharm-el-Sheikh in 2009, both sides tried to be too clever in using their media. Now, the spokesmen from both the sides are talking to the media only in a calibrated fashion. Their use of words is, as expected, diplomatic and they are co-ordinating their statements better. The fundamental things are going to remain the same, more or less, but the continuing chant of peace and security is most heartening and good for both countries.

Republican Party of India chief Ramdas Athavale today met the family members of murdered senior journalist Jyotirmoy Dey and gave them Rs 1 lakh financial assistance at their residence in suburban Ghatkopar in Mumbai.

"I met the grieving mother and sister of J Dey. His sacrifice is too big. The family needs moral as well as financial support," Athavale told PTI.

He has also demanded a financial assistance of Rs 25 lakh from the state government to Dey's family members, he said.

Sheela Bhatt, in Islamabad to cover the foreign secretary-level talks between the two countries, sends this interesting titbit:

Shah Mehmood Qureshi, former foreign minister of Pakistan, is offering his time and views to the Indian media since the last two days, even dropping in on Hotel Serena to give his sound bytes. He says he talks between India and Pakistan are welcome but it doesn't have substance.

He dismissed the slow progress in Pakistan acting against the accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror strikes as "hiccups in legal procedure".

Three activists of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India were arrested from Ratlam by the Madhya Pradesh police, reports PTI.

Acting on a tip-off, the Ratlam police arrested SIMI activists Mohammed Hussein, Mohammed Rafiq and Mohammed Ashiq yesterday and booked them for unlawful activities under various sections of the IPC, the police said today.

However, another SIMI activist, Maulana Mumtaz, who hails from Jogeshwari in Mumbai, is absconding, they said.

Their foreign secretaries may be talking in Islamabad even as we post this, the Pakistan foreign minister may have announced a visit to India next month, but not everything between the two nations is hunky-dory as the governments would like us to believe.

Striking a discordant note is the Indian Naval Chief Nirmal Verma, who on Friday said the Pakistan naval ship Babur damaged the helicopter net of the Indian warship INS Godavari, in the incident that happened on the high seas recently. Only last weekend the two nations indulged in verbal exchanges, each blaming the other for the serious incident on the Arabian Sea.

Sheela Bhatt sends this titbit from Islamabad, where she is covering the foreign secretaries' talks:

Pakistan politician Imran Khan's earnest suggestion since the last few years to talk to the Pakistan Taliban has at last started getting him some votes, says an Islamabad-based analyst. In a doubtful survey by Pew Research Center, the debonair Khan has emerged as the most popular leader in Pakistan. It's another matter that no one believes the survey in Islamabad.

Many may not believe this, but a new study claims that women do have the ability to tell if a man is straight or gay -- just by looking at his face.       

Researchers at the University of Toronto have carried out the study and found that women can make out whether a man is gay or not; in fact, they are at their most accurate when they feel in the mood for love.

In their study, the researchers showed a group of women photographs of faces of 80 men all with same expression. With no obvious clues, the fair sex had the uncanny ability of guessing which men were heterosexual and which homosexual.

If they were feeling romantic, or were at a certain stage in their menstrual cycle, they were even more likely to be right, with the most fertile women being the best judges of sexual orientation, say the researchers.

Sheela Bhatt, who is in Islamabad to cover the foreign secretaries' talks has this to say:

Pakistani sailors aboard the mv Suez, who have been released along with Indians after being held captive by Somali pirates for 10 months, are saying that after living on the seas for months they feel as if they have reached a new planet now. Pakistan television is showing extensive footage of the emotional bonding of sailors' families. They are also showing footage of released Indian sailors complaining against the Indian government for its inaction in releasing them in the initial stages. One of the Indian sailors is even seen saluting the Pakistan navy's efforts.

Pakistan today said that its foreign minister will be travelling to India next month to take forward the bilateral peace process.

"What we can deliver at this stage is that our Foreign Minister will be visiting New Delhi in July," Pakistan High Commissioner to India Shahid Malik said.

On the ongoing Foreign Secretary-level talks, Malik said, "they are going well."

Pakistan currently has Hina Rabbani Khar as minister of state for foreign Affairs. But there are reports that Pakistan government has decided to elevate her to full-fledged cabinet rank ahead of crucial talks with India next month.

Tears, cheers, smiles and hugs greeted the six Indian sailors of M V Suez as they finally returned to Delhi after a 10-month ordeal at the hands of Somali pirates.

Outside Delhi airport's arrivals lounge, the sailors were hugged by their smiling and sobbing family members and loved ones.

M V Suez was kidnapped by Somali pirates nearly ten months ago. The 22-member crew was guarded round the clock by armed pirates. They were forced to survive on only rice, pulses and rain water.

Sahim Salim reports from Delhi: The sailors of MV Suez, which was abducted by Somali pirates nearly 10 months ago, are currently undergoing medical check-ups at the Delhi airport. They have completed their Customs formalities. 

Scores of relatives and family friends of the sailors are waiting eagerly for them outside the arrivals gate.

And Toral Varia files this update from Mumbai on the fate of freed Pakistani sailors in Mumbai: After a happy ending to the 10 month ordeal for the 6 Indian Sailors who finally landed at New Delhi's IGI Airport, the five Pakistani fishermen currently lodged at Mumbai's Yellow Gate police Station are also all set to leave for Pakistan.

Following a communication from the Union home ministry, authorities at Mumbai's Yellow Gate police station are now ready with the requisite preparations to hand over the Pakistani fishermen to the visiting personnel of the Pakistani high commission.

"We have sent a car to receive the contingent from the Pakistan high commission to the airport. We are waiting for the team to reach the police station,' Senior Police Inspector Chadrakant Naik told rediff.com.

In a blunt message to Pakistan, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that the US will never tolerate a safe haven for those who kill Americans and it wants Islamabad to take concrete action in the war against terrorism.

"The United States has clear expectations for this relationship. And as President (Barack) Obama said on Wednesday night, US will never tolerate a safe haven for those who kill Americans," Clinton said on Thursday in her testimony before the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"We are looking to Pakistan to take concrete actions on the goals we share: defeating violent extremism, which has also taken so many innocent Pakistani lives; ending the conflict in Afghanistan and securing a stable, democratic, prosperous future," Clinton said.

India on Friday expressed its appreciation for Pakistan's help in ensuring the safe return of Indian sailors who were help captive by Somali pirates aboard M V Suez.
"We are relieved that their ordeal has ended and they would soon be safely back with their families," External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said.

"We appreciate the timely help extended to them and sailors of other countries by the Pakistani navy," he said in a statement.

China has welcomed the latest round of foreign secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan in Islamabad.Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei on told a press conference in Beijing on Thursday that China supports India and Pakistan for their attempts to solve their differences through 'dialogue and cooperation'.

Nirupama Rao and Salman Bashir, the foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan respectively, held their first round of discussions on Thursday, during which they discussed ways to liberalise the bilateral visa regime, especially for the elderly, children, businessmen and journalists; the issue of terrorism, peace and security and also moves to seek closure of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack to India's satisfaction.

Good Morning,

Sailors of M V Suez, which was abducted by Somali pirates nearly 10 months ago, have landed at the Delhi airport.

The crew members of M V Suez, including four Pakistanis, a Sri Lankan and 11 Egyptians, were freed after over two million dollars was paid as ransom to Somali pirates last week.

The crew had been held by the pirates for nearly 10 months.The 22-member crew of M V Suez including six Indians were brought to Karachi on Thursday.