Friday, 27 January 2012 15:30
HAVANA: Cuba in November will stage its biggest military maneuvers of past three years, a show of force that will coincide with presidential elections in the United States.
The exercises will be the first under the command of General Cintra Frias, appointed as Cuba's defense minister following the September 3 death of General Julio Casas Regueiro.
The maneuvers, dubbed Operation Bastion, have been held various times over the years by the Marxist regime, often in response to events in the United States.
Cuba conducted its first Operation Bastion military exercises in November 1980 after Ronald Reagan was elected president of the United States, a time of heightened tension between Washington and Havana, which have had no formal ties diplomatic since 1961.
Military maneuvers were also conducted in 1983, 1986, 2004 and 2009.
Word of this latest round of military maneuvers coincides with an uptick in hardline rhetoric toward Cuba by US Republican Party presidential candidates.
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Friday, 27 January 2012 13:24
NEW DELHI: The defence ministry has sought details of the probe against four naval officers in the dock for allegedly divulging classified information and data on social networking and other websites.
The recently-concluded Board of Inquiry (BoI) at the Western Naval Command in Mumbai has recommended strong action against the four commander-rank officers (equivalent to Lt-Colonels in Army) from the naval technical branch.
The "punishments'', however, would have to be "approved'' by higher authorities. Dismissal from service, for instance, has to be approved by the defence ministry.
Naval intelligence sleuths had tracked the conduct of the four officers for quite some time before finally moving in to stop the leak of confidential information, which even reportedly included location of warships and their patrolling patterns, on sites like Facebook, as reported by TOI earlier.
The government has reasons to be worried about the present case since the CBI investigation into the infamous Navy war-room leak case of 2005-06 had held that as many as 7,000 pages of classified information from the naval war-room and IAF HQ air defence directorate were "compromised'' in the episode.
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Friday, 27 January 2012 02:09
NEW DELHI: A Naval Board of Inquiry has recommended action against four senior officers who were facing charges of allegedly possessing and leaking classified information through social networking websites.
Navy sources said a Board of Inquiry (BoI) was ordered against the four officers from the technical branch for allegedly possessing classified information on their personal computers.
They were also found to be allegedly sharing the informations on social networking websites such as Facebook, which could have been seen by foreign nationals also.
They said the charges against the officers were found to be correct by the Board and it has now recommended action against them. The quantum of punishment recommended for these officers is not yet known.
However, the Navy spokesperson here refused to comment on the issue.
The inquiry was ordered by the Western Command in December after it suspected that information about service matters was being shared in open domain.
Navy had in the past issued guidelines to its officers and personnel against discussing any official information or identify their warships' location in public domain.
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Thursday, 26 January 2012 19:30
NEW DELHI: Sneha Shekhawat from Sikar in Rajasthan on Thursday created history when she led the Air Force contingent at the 63rd Republic Day parade becoming the first woman pilot to do so. Flight Lieutenant Shekhawat was assisted by three other women Flying Officers Heena Pore, Anupam Chaudhary and Pooja Negi as the 144-strong Air Force contingent marched to the tunes of 'Air Battle'. She was cheered by thousands of spectators as the commentator mentioned that she is the first woman to lead an Air Force contingent in the 63-year-old history of the parade. Shekhawat is at posted with the IAF squadron at Hindon air base. She was the face of elegance and confidence as she led the 144-member strong Air Force contingent marching to the tunes of its band playing 'Air Battle'. The Agni-IV, successfully flight tested last November, stole the limelight as people cheered when the missile which can carry nuclear weapons was rolled out on the majestic Rajpath. The Intermediate Range Surface-to-Surface Ballistic Missile mounted on a road mobile launcher was paraded by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
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Thursday, 26 January 2012 15:30
WASHINGTON: Iran is unlikely to move toward building a nuclear weapon this year because it does not yet have the capability to produce enough weapon-grade uranium, a draft report by the Institute for Science and International Security said on Wednesday.
The report by the institute founded by nuclear expert David Albright offered a more temperate view of Iran's nuclear program than some of the heated rhetoric that has surfaced since the United States and its allies stepped up sanctions on Tehran.
"Iran is unlikely to decide to dash toward making nuclear weapons as long as its uranium enrichment capability remains as limited as it is today," the report said.
The United States and Iran are engaged in a war of words over sanctions, with Iran threatening to retaliate by blocking oil shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. The United States said it would not allow that to happen.
The escalating rhetoric and tensions have led to concerns about the potential for missteps between the adversaries that might spiral into a military confrontation that neither wants.
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Thursday, 26 January 2012 12:30
NEW DELHI: Four naval officers are in the dock after they were reportedly found divulging information about the location of warships and other confidential data on social networking websites, which was even being accessed by foreign nationals.
Stringent action, including dismissal from service, has been apparently recommended against the four commander-rank officers (equivalent to Lt-Colonels in Army) by a Board of Inquiry (BoI) at the Mumbai-based Western Naval Command (WNC), the Indian Navy's premier command that controls most of the country's frontline warships, including aircraft carrier INS Viraat, say sources.
The four officers were being tracked for quite some time by naval authorities for allegedly leaking confidential information, including location of warships, armaments being carried by them and their patrolling patterns, say sources.
Despite being contacted, both the Navy HQ in New Delhi as well as the WNC, Mumbai, refused to answer the queries.
This is the second such case being kept under the wraps by the WNC within the last 30 days.
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Wednesday, 25 January 2012 12:30
INDORE: Call it infiltration of the rib-tickling kind. The performances of two stand-up comedians in Mhow Cantonment Board were cancelled by alarmed Army officers after they learnt that they were from Pakistan. Irfan Malik and Ali Hasan, known as Pakistan's Laurel and Hardy, were denied permission to put up their show at the last minute, when the officers realized the kerfuffle it might create.
Malik and Hasan were scheduled to perform before a large civilian and Army crowd at Mhow (sometimes described as an acronym of 'Military Headquarters of War' because of the huge Army base there) on Monday. The event was linked to the inauguration of an open-air theatre with state industries minister Kailash Vijayvargiya as chief guest.
The 'Mhow somersault' will now probably end up as another gag in the repertoire of Pakistani comedians Irfan Malik and Ali Hasan.
They performed for Indian soldiers near Chandigarh but once the Army got to know of their "Pakistani origin" from military internal intelligence, their show at the Mhow Cantonment Board was a no-no.
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Tuesday, 24 January 2012 19:30
CHANDIGARH: Army's Western Command has made it clear that it has no intentions to destroy the huge stocks of RDX and other explosives lying in malkhanas of Punjab police at various police stations of the state because it has already trained the to destroy such ammunition. The response has come in the wake of a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking directions for disposing off huge stocks of RDX stocks and other explosive materials lying as "case properties" in police stations all over Punjab. In an affidavit placed before the HC on Monday, Colonel Rajiv Khanna of Western Command headquarters, Chandimandir, stated that the ministry of defence (MOD) has made several requests to Punjab governments that they should raise their own bomb disposal squads because Army resources for disposal of explosives are limited and mostly committed operationally; and to deal with such kind of situations is not the primary task of the Army. "The only practical way to resolve this matter is that Punjab police should develop its own capability in the field of destruction/disposal of explosives.
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