In short, while Chinese are keen to have the Mirwaiz over, the latter will now be able to travel to Beijing only if China backtracks and issues him a visa properly pasted on his passport. Foreign minister S M Krishna said the Mirwaiz, who has been invited by a Chinese ‘‘NGO’’ to talk about ‘‘Muslim issues’’, was free to travel wherever he wanted, including ‘‘Pakistan or China’’.

Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao, in turn, added, ‘‘We have never prevented Kashmiri leaders from travelling abroad.’’ However, she added, if it was a question about the Chinese government’s practice of issuing stapled visas, then the Indian government ‘‘did not subscribe to this approach, which discriminates on the basis of domicile and ethnicity’’. This came even as the Mirwaiz, who apart from asking the Union government to allow Kashmiris to travel on the stapled visas being provided by China, further stoked controversy in Srinagar by holding that Beijing

Qin’s statement is significant in view of India’s unhappiness over one portion of the joint declaration issued by China and the United States during Barack Obama’s recent visit to China. The statement said the two countries supported “the improvement of relations between India and Pakistan”.

The foreign ministry spokesman was asked to comment about the snag developed during the launch of the Agni-II missile on Monday. “It is an internal matter for India. We hope India would contribute to regional peace and stability,” he said.

Virender Sehwag has raced away to 70 from 73 balls with 8 fours and 2 sixes. Gautam Gambhir is looking very confident with 59 from 84 balls with 7 fours. India’s start would have been horrible had wicket keeper Prasanna Jayawardene let Mahela Jayawardene take a sitter of a catch in the fourth ball of the match offered by Sehwag. It was a nice juicy pitched up outswinger from Welegedara and Sehwag played a rank bad shot, chasing that one away from his body to get a thick edge. Prasanna, the keeper dived across to his right and failed to latch onto the catch and in the process also distracted Mahela at first slip who would have easily taken that.

Team News : India have made two changes with Sreesanth replacing Ishant Sharma and Pragyan Ojha making his Test Debut with leggie Amit Mishra making way for the Hyderabadi. Sri Lanka are playing three spinners with Ajantha Mendis replacing the injured Dammika Prasad.

Pitch and Weather Conditions : The conditions at the moment are looking hazy at Kanpur and the new ball is expected to swing around. There is also the early morning dew which could have got onto the pitch as well and will help the ball to seam around. Spinners should also be able to get some turn because of the moisture.

Featuring Mamootty, Sarath Kumar, Suman, Manoj K Jayan, Padmapriya, Kaniha in lead roles, the film is Produced by Gokulam Films. Apart from winning rave reviews and big collections in Kerala box office, the Tamil version too has been witnessing extraordinary results at box office.

In 1972, it seemed to be a brilliant idea. The Pakistani army lay defeated in the east. The Indian menace loomed large on the western border. What could be done to prevent the juggernaut from carrying out a second invasion and finishing off Pakistan? The new president, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, was a firebrand politician. Years ago, he had talked about developing a nuclear bomb even if it meant eating grass for a thousand years. Bhutto gathered the nation’s top physicists in Multan and told them to build the bomb. Some disagreed, some were uncertain and some were gung-ho. Among those who disagreed was Professor Abdus Salam who would go on to win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979. The news that Pakistan had embarked on its Manhattan Project spread quickly, drawing in a relatively unknown metallurgist working in Denmark – Dr A.Q Khan.

The nuclear weapons have placed Pakistan in a quandary. They were supposed to help the nation survive an Indian invasion. And now the survival of the weapons themselves has become a priority. But there is controversy as to who poses the biggest threat to the weapons. The Americans say it is jihadis and the Pakistani nationalists say it is the Americans. Hersh quotes Musharraf as saying that an elaborate system of tunnels has been developed by the military to protect the weapons from a nuclear strike. The weapons are kept in a disassembled state so that no one can launch them on short notice. A 10-member National Command Authority would have to approve a nuclear strike with the president casting the deciding vote, if necessary.

But despite the plethora of safeguards, Pakistan’s insecurity continues to grow. Hersh states that President Zardari wishes that the US, which is providing extensive civilian nuclear technology to India, would provide conventional military technology to Pakistan. Pakistan’s acquisition of nuclear weapons has not restored equilibrium to the military equation. Precious capital that could be used to accelerate economic and human development is being used to beef up conventional forces.

The nuclear economic dividend remains a myth that tantalises. The country’s security managers, both civilian and military, made a huge gamble when they decided to go nuclear. Any independent observer would conclude that the nuclear weapons are a net liability on the nation’s security balance sheet. Even in the US, policymakers from the president on down have concluded that nuclear weapons have no military value and bring with them an unacceptably high risk of an accidental or inadvertent nuclear launch.