The United States wants Pakistan to concentrate its military efforts on fighting the Taliban and other Islamist groups on its western border. For this Washington would like to see India and Pakistan reduce their tensions.

So could it be that international pressure was devolving on India to resolve the Kashmir issue and New Delhi’s latest offer for talks was only aimed at deflecting that pressure by giving the impression that it was engaging with Kashmiris?

Clearly the need is for a solution that will be implementable on the ground in Kashmir and not a formula that only satisfies New Delhi and Islamabad.

Do you think New Delhi is finally m

He tells me the policy is clear. "We ask from the beginning and we say once again one to enforce the Sharia law and Islamic government in Afghanistan, and to remove foreign forces remove from our country."

He tells me presidential elections expected this year are a sham, that the Taliban are telling Afghans to stay away and he warns: "We will target the Afghan parliamentary members and government officials so if there is elections, yes it is clear we will target them."

I was told, was to tell their fighters to avoid civilian casualties.

When I asked Mujahid he told me that policy hadn't changed. In their newly announced battle plans to target Afghan officials as well as U.S. and NATO troops he told me "we ask of the civilians don't be close to the troops; be away from them; not to be targeted."

I ask what are the conditions for going into talks? "Our conditions are clear, we want to negotiate and they [the U.S.] will not interfere in our affairs, secondly they [the U.S.] will leave the country, third let the Afghan people to do what they want to do, like form the Islamic government they want to establish."

The man in front of me is Zabiullah Mujahid -- one of two spokesmen for the Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.

He is around 30, maybe a little younger, bearded, but not heavily so. He is slight but not weak and close to my height -- a little over six foot -- and meeting him is a big deal.

A television company has joined forces with a social networking site to send a message to the nearest theoretically inhabitable planet. But can our television and radio broadcasts already be picked up in space?

There is no widely accepted evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial life.

A television company has joined forces with a social networking site to send a message to the nearest theoretically inhabitable planet. But can our television and radio broadcasts already be picked up in space?

There is no widely accepted evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial life.