US-PAKISTAN RELATIONS? Indian and Pakistani papers often differ dramatically in their coverage of events. Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri's recent trip to the U.S. is an excellent example of the difference.

The Times of India calls Kasuri's visit "fruitless and possibly disasterous." According to ToI, Kasuri was upbraided by Powell, in public, for not doing enough to de-escalate tensions with India, for not preventing cross-border incursions of Kashmiri separatists, and for helping North Korea in its quest for nuclear weapons technology. The ToI also notes with some Schadenfreude that INS officials detained prominent Pakistani journalist, friend of Kasuri, and visiting Brookings scholar Ejaz Haider during Kasuri's trip. The Washington Post also picks up on this story, here. This detention was particularly humiliating for Kasuri, ToI intimates, because he had asked for the U.S. to take Pakistan off the INS "special registration" list. Kasuri's request was denied.

Dawn's coverage of the trip, however, was upbeat. Dawn's account of the Kasuri - Cheney discussions has not a whiff of a false note. And regarding the INS detentions, Dawn declares "Pakistan Assured of Non-Discrimination." Sure, if that means, "Pakistanis will be treated just like people from Iran."

For more stories about the INS special detention program, read the Houston Chronicle's account of fears among local Indonesian immigrants here, Mark Blix's Atlanta Journal-Constitution article on Farhad Nabipour's deportation here, and NPR's story on Pakistani families fleeing to Canada here. I recently had a few blogs on this issue but Blogger's archives of my site are screwy right now.