Indian Military

TEHRAN: Iran's state TV says the country welcomes foreign experts to accompany the international envoys invited to visit its nuclear facilities.
The early Thursday report quotes Ramin Mehmanparast spokesman of the Iranian foreign ministry as saying an invitation by Iran to representatives of Russia, China, EU, developing and Arab countries to visit the country's nuclear facilities would be extended to experts accompanying the envoys.
The state news agency also reported Thursday that Ali Asghar Soltanieh Iran's envoy to the UN atomic agency says that representatives from Egypt and Algeria as well as Venezuela and Syria would visit Iran's nuclear sites on Saturday and Sunday.
The European Union has said it will not attend the tour.

PARIS: Foreign military intervention in Libya will not happen without a clear United Nations mandate, French foreign minister Alain Juppe said on Tuesday.
"At the moment I speak, no military intervention is planned," Juppe, a veteran politician made foreign minister in a reshuffle on Sunday, told the lower house of parliament.
"Different options can be assessed, notably a no-fly zone. But let me put it clearly here -- no intervention will happen without a clear UN Security council mandate".

FUKUSHIMA (Japan): Radiation leaked from Japan's earthquake-crippled nuclear plant on Saturday after a blast blew the roof off, and authorities prepared to distribute iodine to people in the vicinity to protect them from exposure.
The government insisted radiation levels were low because although the explosion severely damaged the main building of the plant, it had not affected the reactor core container.
Local media said three workers suffered radiation exposure at the plant in the wake of Friday's massive earthquake, which sent a 10-metre (33-foot) tsunami ripping through towns and cities across the northeast coast.
Kyodo news agency said more than 1,700 people were killed or missing as a result of the 8.9-magnitude earthquake, the biggest in Japan since records began in the nineteenth century.
( See: Quake, tsunami hit Japan )  
Later it said 9,500 people in one town were unreachable, but gave no other details.
The blast raised fears of a meltdown at the power facility, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, as officials scrambled to contain what could be the worst nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl explosion in 1986 that shocked the world.

SENDAI: Thousands of people fled the vicinity of an earthquake-crippled Japanese nuclear plant after a radiation leak and authorities faced a fresh threat on Sunday with the failure of the cooling system in a second reactor.
Operator TEPCO said it was preparing to vent some steam to relieve pressure in the No.3 reactor at the plant 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo -- which would release a small amount of radiation -- following an explosion and leak on Saturday from the facility's No. 1 reactor.
As strong aftershocks continued to shake Japan's main island, the desperate search for survivors from Friday massive earthquake and tsunami pressed on and the death toll was expected to rise.
Thousands spent another freezing night huddled over heaters in emergency shelters along the northeastern coast, a scene of devastation after the 8.9 magnitude quake sent a 10-metre (33-foot) wave surging through towns and cities.
Kyodo news agency said the number of dead or unaccounted was expected to exceed 1,800.

NEW DELHI: From Sierra Leone and Sudan to Iraq and Afghanistan, the term "child soldier" has been used to denote the conscription of children below the age of 15 into armed conflicts. Now, "child pirate" is likely to gain similar currency.
Indian authorities have been confounded to find that as many as 25 of the 61 pirates, apprehended after a gun-battle with naval warships in Arabian Sea on Saturday, are children below 15.
"At least four of them are just 11 or so. It seems younger and younger children in Somalia are being pushed into piracy, which is proving immensely lucrative in the lawless country...the established pirates, who have got rich, are no longer sailing out on raids," said an official.
Though there were a few youngsters among the 43 pirates nabbed in the earlier two encounters with the Navy on January 28 and February 5, this is the first time so many children below 15 have been apprehended.
With India's legal system is grappling with the absence of a specific provision dealing with piracy in the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the presence of "child pirates" will further complicate matters.

A United Nations forecast of the possible movement of the radioactive plume coming from crippled Japanese reactors shows it churning across the Pacific, and touching the Aleutian Islands on Thursday before hitting Southern California late on Friday.
Health and nuclear experts emphasize that radiation in the plume will be diluted as it travels and, at worst, would have extremely minor health consequences in the United States, even if hints of it are ultimately detectable. In a similar way, radiation from the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 spread around the globe and reached the West Coast of the United States in 10 days, its levels measurable but minuscule. ( More smoke rises from Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant )
The projection, by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization , an arm of the UN in Vienna, gives no information about actual radiation levels but only shows how a radioactive plume would probably move and disperse. The forecast, calculated Tuesday, is based on patterns of Pacific winds at that time and the predicted path is likely to change as weather patterns shift.

WASHINGTON: After weeks of hesitation and divisions among his advisers, President Barack Obama on Friday endorsed military action against Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, saying U.S. values and credibility are at stake to stop "the potential for mass murder" of innocents.
The US military, which is already stretched thin by two wars and an expanding effort to assist disaster victims in Japan, would take a supporting role, Obama said, with European and Arab partners in the lead. He explicitly ruled out sending American ground forces into the North African nation.
A wide range of US firepower stood ready, including Navy ships and submarines capable of launching Tomahawk cruise missiles with high-explosive warheads that could destroy air defense sites and other potential targets in the earliest stages of any allied military action.
In solemn remarks at the White House, Obama never used the word "war," but that is what US forces could face if Gadhafi refuses to comply with United Nations demands.

LA PAZ: Four UN anti-narcotics workers and two Bolivian military pilots were killed when their plane crashed on a cocaine surveillance mission, a senior Bolivian official said on Saturday.
"It was a direct impact against a tree some 50 meters (164 feet) high and the plane completely burned," Bolivian Air Force General Tito Gandarillas told reporters.
The Cessna plane left La Paz airport on Thursday to monitor coca growing in Los Yungas region, Bolivia's main coca growing region northeast of the capital.
The four staff worked for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, which works with the government to counter narcotics smuggling.

JUBA(SUDAN): Thousands of civilians were fleeing fighting in Sudan's contested Abyei district on Sunday, as the southern army admitted northern troops were in full control of its main town.
"The fighting has been very, very bad," said Philip Aguer, spokesman for the south's Sudan People's Liberation Army.
Late on Saturday, northern troops of the Sudan Armed Forces took the town of Abyei, focal point of deadly tensions between north and south in the run-up to the planned recognition of southern independence in late July, Aguer said.
"People have fled the area, because the bombardment was indiscriminate -- bombs from the air and from tanks on the ground.
"They came into Abyei with a full division of soldiers, while we did not have a fighting force on the ground."
Troops loyal to the SPLA have all retreated into the south from the disputed district on the border with the north, he added.
"We don't know the exact whereabouts of them now," Aguer said.

JUBA/KHARTOUM: The northern Sudanese army has full control of Abyei and stopped military operations, state media said on Saturday, as officials from the north and south prepared to meet to defuse tensions over the disputed region.
Northern Sudanese armed forces seized the Abyei region last week, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee and raising fears the north and south could return to full-blown conflict. The move drew sharp international criticism.
Abyei was a major battleground in Sudan's last civil war and has symbolic importance for both sides. The region is used all year by the south-linked Dinka Ngok people and for part of the year by northern Arab Misseriya nomads.
South Sudan is due to secede and form a new country on July 9, and the status of Abyei has remained one of the most contentious issues ahead of the split.
"The Armed Forces on Saturday announced the end of military operations in Abyei following the full control of the area," the state news agency SUNA said, referring to the northern army.