India, Pakistan were close to secret deal on Kashmir: report

WASHINGTON (AFP) — India and Pakistan came close to devising a framework for settling their long conflict over Kashmir in secret negotiations, but it was put on hold by the fall of President Pervez Musharraf, the New Yorker magazine reported Sunday.

Referred to as "the back channel," the talks were held over several years by special envoys in hotel rooms in Bangkok, Dubai and London, according to the account in the magazine by Steve Coll.

The two principal envoys -- Tariq Aziz for Pakistan, and Satinder Lambah for India -- developed a text on Kashmir called a "non paper" because it contained no names or signatures but could serve as a detailed basis for a deal.

Seven Jewish Children

Caryl Churchill's 10-minute play was written in response to the recent tragic events in Gaza. It not only confirms theatre's ability to react more rapidly than any other art form to global politics, but also makes a fascinating counterpoise to Marius von Mayenburg's The Stone, which precedes it at the Royal Court. Whereas The Stone shows how German children are often the victims of lies about family history, Churchill's play suggests Israeli children are subject to a barrage of contradictory information about past and present.

How hysterical mothers have driven men out of teaching

As endangered species go, this one is especially alarming: so rare has the male primary school teacher become that one in ten schools has none at all, while across the country they account for barely 15 per cent of those who teach under-11s.

At a time when unprecedented numbers of children live with single mothers, this means that more and more of them have little or no contact with any male role model at all.

So parents have decided, as a survey this week shows, that they aren't happy about it.

Two sexes 'sin in different ways'

Women are prouder than men, but men are more lustful, according to a Vatican report which states that the two sexes sin differently.

A Catholic survey found that the most common sin for women was pride, while for men, the urge for food was only surpassed by the urge for sex.

The report was based on a study of confessions carried out by Fr Roberto Busa, a 95-year-old Jesuit scholar.

The Pope's personal theologian backed up the report in the Vatican newspaper.

"Men and women sin in different ways," Msgr Wojciech Giertych, theologian to the papal household, wrote in L'Osservatore Romano.