Angelique Chrisafis

Ishita Ayan Dutt / Kolkata
Checks for radiation may become mandatory for metal scrap if the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has its way.

1. At the ... Plenary meeting on ... the Participating Governments of the Nuclear Suppliers Group decided that they:

a. Desire to contribute to the effectiveness and integrity of the global nonproliferation regime, and to the widest possible implementation of the provisions and objectives of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons;

Nationalist euphoria over the NSG waiver will breed monumental arrogance, great-power delusions, and contempt for peace among our social-Darwinist elite.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President George W. Bush meet in Hokkaido, Japan, on the sidelines of the G8 summit in July.

In politics, timing is everything. The timing of the release of a letter

President Bush has failed to achieve so many of his foreign policy goals, but last weekend he proved that he can still get what he really wants. The administration bullied and wheedled international approval of the president's ill-conceived nuclear deal with India.

The world's big powers have been told to expect a formal response as soon as today from the Tehran government that sets out an initiative designed to restart negotiations over Iran's nuclear programme.

The letterfollows a conversation yesterday between Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy head, and Saeed Jalili, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, that was described by Mr Solana's office as inconclusive. Further talks "were not ruled out", a spokesman said.

Iranian state television said Mr Jalili "stressed the continuation of talks" and "contacts" in the phone call.

Manmohan Singh's four-year term in office has been resurrected in the last few months of its existence. When his government this week defeated a no-confidence motion in Parliament instigated by his former coalition partners, the communists, Indian television stations used a popular Bollywood song, "Singh Is King," as a backdrop.

Mukesh Ambani must have been unusually tense when he met the Prime Minister on 14 July. The gamble the economist-turned-politician was taking