Saturday, 04 February 2012 05:56
CAIRO: A second day of clashes with Egyptian police left two protesters dead in Cairo on Friday as anger against the ruling military boiled over amid fury at the deaths of 74 people in football-related violence.
Marchers took to the streets across the country to demand that the generals cede power immediately after a night of demonstrations in major cities left at least two more people dead elsewhere in Egypt.
In a sign of the growing threat the political turmoil poses to the economy, two female American tourists and their Egyptian tour guide were briefly abducted in the Sinai Peninsula, security officials said.
The two protesters in Cairo died of tear gas inhalation after being rushed to hospital unconscious from outside the interior ministry, medics said. The health ministry said 544 people were injured in Friday's clashes.
Thick clouds of tear gas blanketed the road to the ministry, where protesters faced off with police after overnight clashes injured hundreds, an AFP reporter said.
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Saturday, 04 February 2012 02:30
NEW DELHI: India's 1.3 million-strong armed forces, hobbled by outdated equipment and slow decision-making, are undergoing an overhaul as defence priorities shift to China from traditional rival Pakistan.
And like a refit of the imposing but dilapidated defence ministry on Delhi's grand South Block, it's a plodding process.
Defence chiefs are hurrying to modernise ageing weaponry as China reinforces a 3,500-km (2,200-mile) shared but disputed border through the Himalayas.
It took 11 years to select France's Rafale as the favoured candidate for a $15 billion splurge on 126 new combat jets to replace a Soviet-era fleet of MiGs dubbed "flying coffins" for their high crash rate.
At the same time, feeling encircled as China projects its fast-growing naval power from Hormuz to Malacca, India is rushing to firm up friendships the length and breadth of the Indian Ocean.
India is the world's largest arms importer with plans to spend $100 billion on weapons over the next decade.
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Friday, 03 February 2012 19:30
NEW DELHI: Army chief Gen V K Singh seems to have won the first round in the legal battle on the age row with the Supreme Court on Friday saying the manner in which his statutory complaint was rejected by the government "appears to be vitiated".
Posting the matter for hearing on February 10, the court sought to know whether the government would like to withdraw its December 30, 2011 order.
Defence minister A K Antony had issued an order on December 30 turning down the statutory complaint of Gen Singh that his date of birth be treated in Army's records as May 10, 1951 and not as May 10, 1950.
Posing questions to the government, the bench of Justices R M Lodha and H L Gokhale was of the view that the defence ministry's order of July 21, 2011 holding the date of birth as May 10, 1950 was based on the opinion of attorney general and so was the case when the December 30 order was passed on the statutory complaint.
After the court asked whether the government would like to withdraw the December 30 order, attorney general G E Vahanvati said he will seek instruction from the government on the issue.
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Friday, 03 February 2012 12:30
NEW DELHI: Friday will be crucial in the ongoing stand-off between Army chief General V K Singh and the government over his age.
The Supreme Court is slated to hold preliminary hearing on his petition on Friday. The case is listed before Justices H L Gokhale and R M Lodha.
The court will decide whether to take on the petition for hearing. Gen Singh's lawyers will try to get an ex-parte stay on the government order that has said his date of birth is May 10, 1950. Gen Singh has claimed that the government order on his date of birth was "arbitrary and illegal".
The court case comes after Gen Singh's efforts to get the government to agree to his demand, that 1951 is his year of birth. In an unprecedented move, Gen Singh had filed a statutory complaint before defence minister A K Antony with his demand. Once that was rejected, the Army chief took yet another unprecedented step, that of moving the Supreme Court.
Gen Singh is slated to retire on May 31, 2012, according to the government.
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Friday, 03 February 2012 06:11
LAGOS: Multiple blasts rocked Nigeria's flashpoint city of Maiduguri on Thursday but there were no casualties, an army spokesman said.
"Improvised explosive devise (IED) explosions occurred in the early hours of this morning in Maiduguri metropolis ...and no casualty was recorded," said Lieutenant Colonel Hassan Mohammed.
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Thursday, 02 February 2012 12:30
NEW DELHI: Eurofighter, the European fighter that lost out to French Rafale on Tuesday in the over $10-billion MMRCA contract, isn't quitting India anytime soon, even as it expressed disappointment in the government's decision.
Eurofighter plans to closely watch the negotiations between Rafale- maker Dassault and the Ministry of Defence (MoD), and is hoping that the lowest bidder would not be able to cope up with the demands of negotiations.
According to an official familiar with Eurofighter, if the L1, Rafale, is not able to fulfill the negotiation demands, then L2, Eurofighter, would be given the chance. "That is what is laid down in the procedure," he said.
Eurofighter has emerged successful in past contracts even when it was not the L1. For instance, Eurofighter was L2 in the contract for design consultancy for Light Combat Aircraft, but ultimately won the contract because L1 couldn't fulfill the Indian demands. "So we have precedence, and are hopeful," he said.
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Wednesday, 01 February 2012 13:30
By Ajai Shukla  While final negotiations between Dassault and the MoD are still to take place, it appears that the size of mega deal could be above Rs 75,000 croreby Ajai Shukla Business Standard, 1st Feb 12 The Rafale fighter aircraft built by France’s Dassault Aviation has emerged the lowest bidder in the contest to sell the Indian Air Force (IAF) 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft. According to sources in the defence ministry, the Rafale has emerged marginally cheaper than its rival fighter, the Typhoon, fielded by a four-nation consortium, Eurofighter. In reaching this conclusion, the IAF has calculated the Rafale would be cheaper than the Typhoon to buy, manufacture and fly over its entire four-decade service life. No prices have been made available, but MoD sources say the Rafale would cost some Rs 25 crore less than the Typhoon apiece.
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Wednesday, 01 February 2012 12:30
NEW DELHI: First, the Americans, Russians and Swedes were ejected out of the hotly-contested race. And now, the Europeans too have been shot down in the dogfight, leaving only the French flying high in the Indian skies.
After an exhaustive technical and commercial evaluation spread over five long years, India on Tuesday selected French jet Rafale over the Eurofighter Typhoon for the gigantic almost $20 billion MMRCA ( medium multi-role combat aircraft) programme to supply 126 fighters to IAF - the largest such "open-tender" military aviation deal in the world.
It will take another four to five months for the contract to be inked after the final round of commercial negotiations between the defence ministry and French aviation major Dassault, and the requisite final nod from the Cabinet Committee on Security.
Under the MMRCA project, the first 18 jets will come in "fly-away condition" from France from mid-2015 onwards, while the rest 108 fighters will later be manufactured in India over six years after a transfer of technology (ToT) to Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL).
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