Pakistan Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed announced Wednesday the capture of Abu Faraj al-Libbi, and five other suspected al-Qaeda militants, after a gun battle in Waziristan on Monday. Abu Faraj al-Libbi was wanted in connection with two attempts to assassinate Pakistan's President, Pervez Musharraf, one on December 25, 2004.

Security officials said the Libyan born al-Libbi was thought to be a top general for al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and acted as an operational commander in Pakistan. Ahmed told AP, "This arrest gives us a lot of tips, and I can only say that our security agencies are on the right track."

Pakistani and Indian negotiators began talks today in Islamabad on how to avoid an accidental nuclear war between the two nations. As Newsday reports, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan told reporters the two sides were discussing "new safeguards to avoid any accidental nuclear war" -- including giving advance notification of missile tests. The two sides already notify each other prior to missile tests, but the current talks aim to formalize an agreement under which they would provide additional details about their tests, such as the range of the missile and the location of the test.

The two sides also met last June to discuss nuclear weapons. Those meetings resulted in India and Pakistan agreeing to extend a moratorium in nuclear tests and to set up a telephone hot line between the top bureaucrats in their foreign ministries. These agreements are expected to be finalized at this week's talks.

US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage has praised Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's idea of dividing the Kashmir on both sides of the Line of Control into seven regions, demilitarising them and granting them the status of independence or putting them under the United Nations' mandate.

"I was very much interested in the proposals that President Musharraf made and looked to me that it was being very forward thinking," Armitage, currently on a visit to Pakistan, told the state-run PTV. "I think he has caused a great deal of thinking both in India and here in Pakistan about the way forward."

As rediff.com reports, Musharraf came up with the idea at an Iftar party on October 25. Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri subsequently clarified that the suggestion was just a "hypothetical situation", not a proposal.