SHARM EL-SHEIKH (Egypt) - INDIA said on Thursday formal peace talks with Pakistan could not resume until those behind last year's Mumbai attacks were brought to justice.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was speaking after talks in Egypt with Pakistan premier Yusuf Raza Gilani, quashing any immediate hopes Islamabad had of reviving five-year-old 'composite dialogue' on all disputes between the rival nations.

THE latest global piracy report has given high marks to Indonesia and the Malacca Straits, where there were only five attacks over six months compared to 70 incidents five years ago.

That plunge contrasts sharply with total worldwide figures that showed pirate attacks went up to 240 from 182 in 2004.

TEHERAN - A TECHNICAL problem is believed to have caused the crash of an Iranian airliner which burst into flames and plunged into farmland, killing all 168 people on board, a top official said on Thursday.

'The pilot could probably not be blamed for this crash and we think it was likely due to a technical problem,' Ahmad Majidi, head of the transport ministry's crisis unit, was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency.

HONG KONG - HEALTH authorities in Hong Kong said on Thursday they were investigating whether a 42-year-old Filipino seaman died last week of H1N1 flu, after confirming he was infected with the virus.

There have so far been no fatalities linked to H1N1 flu in the southern Chinese territory.