US-India air force exercise underway
The US and Indian air forces began a 12-day joint exercise in India on Monday - the latest in a series of manoeuvres that had marked ‘2002-2005 as the most active years of military-to-military exchange between the two countries in over 40 years’, according to a US embassy statement.
The exercise, called Cope India 2005, aims to foster closer military ties between Washington and New Delhi, and test Indian pilots’ ability to operate in an combat environment controlled by airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft.
The US Air Force has sent an over 250-member aircrew and 15 F-16 Fighting Falcon jets from a unit based at Misawa in Japan and E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control systems (AWACS) aircraft for the manoeuvres.
The Indian Air Force is represented by some 30 fighter jets, including Mirage 2000s, Su-30s and MiG-21s.
In February 2004, the last time the US Air Force participated in Cope India exercises, the Indian pilots bested US flyers in several mock-combat engagements, the military think tank, Stratfor said.
‘The Indians proved to be a tougher opponent than expected, reportedly embarrassing US flyers on several occasions,’ Stratfor said.
‘Should this happen again, the exercise will illustrate the narrowing gap between the powerful US Air Force and the increasingly sophisticated air forces of other countries.’
India’s first ‘Dalit’ President dies
Former President K.R. Narayanan, the first ‘untouchable’ from India’s pernicious caste system to occupy the office in a validation of the nation’s democratic roots, died Wednesday. He was 85.
The soft-spoken, scholarly Narayanan was admitted to an army hospital in the capital Oct. 29 with pneumonia and kidney failure. He was placed on life support two days later and died Wednesday.
Although the president’s post in India is largely ceremonial, Narayanan showed during his 1997-2002 tenure that he was no rubber-stamp executive. He broke from precedent twice to defy the government that appointed him, refusing to sack opposition-ruled state administrations.
Narayanan’s rise to the top was remarkable in a country where ‘untouchables,’ now known as ‘Dalits,’ are the lowest members of society, having faced ridicule and hostility for centuries.
The Dalits — literally ‘broken people’ — are outside the caste system, a 3,000-year-old hierarchy dividing Hindus into categories of descending social importance.
‘He proved ... that neither religion nor caste can come in the way of a person who is able to exert himself intellectually,’ former Prime Minister I.K. Gujral said.
Discrimination based on caste was outlawed in 1950, and much progress in social equality has been made since, but centuries of entrenched habits have been hard to break.
In his public statements, Narayanan never harped on the caste discrimination he faced growing up, instead emphasizing the positive.
Natwar Singh rejects UN charge
Natwar Singh on Tuesday said claims he benefited from the UN’s oil-for-food programme for Iraq which forced him to step aside as India’s foreign minister were a slur on him and the ruling Congress party.
Pointed out that the Congress party had produced ‘great leaders’ such as independence figure Mahatma Gandhi and India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, he said: ‘The Congress party and I are not afraid of any probe.’
Singh will remain in the cabinet as minister without portfolio, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will take over as foreign minister pending the outcome of a probe by a retired judge ordered Monday, the government said.
India’s former chief judge RS Pathak will look into the claims made in the UN report, prepared by former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, that Natwar Singh and the Congress party benefited from the programme.
The Volcker report named Natwar Singh as a non-contractual beneficiary of four million barrels of Iraqi oil allotted to Zurich-based firm Masefield AG. Congress, India’s oldest political entity, is also listed as a beneficiary of a separate allotment of four million barrels of oil as part of the transactions.
The report found that Saddam’s regime manipulated the programme to extract about 1.8 billion dollars in surcharges and bribes, while an inept UN headquarters failed to exert administrative control.(Rediff)
Washington friction over torture
President George W. Bush declined to comment on reports of secret US prisons for terrorism suspects but defended US interrogation tactics, declaring: ‘We do not torture.’
Amid reports that senior aides have been lobbying lawmakers to exempt the CIA from limits on aggressive questioning, Bush said he was ‘working with Congress’ to ‘make it possible -- more possible -- to do our job.’
‘Our country is at war, and our government has the obligation to protect the American people,’ he said. ‘Anything we do to that end, in that effort, any activity we conduct, is within the law. We do not torture.’
The Washington Post reported last week the CIA was holding Al-Qaeda suspects in secret prisons in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and ‘several democracies in eastern Europe’, after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
US officials, who insist they have been transparent in dealing with high-profile abuse cases like the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq, have refused to confirm or deny the existence of the secret prisons.
The Washington Post reported Monday the emergence of rifts within the Bush administration over the handling of terrorist suspects, pitting hardline Vice President Dick Cheney against officials such as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
It said Rice argued that the issue was costing Washington the moral high ground and hurting US public diplomacy around the world.
UN calls for microfinance initiatives
World Bank Director Paul Wolfowitz joined other leaders in international development at United Nations Headquarters today to call for an inclusive finance services in developing countries to reduce poverty at a forum on expanding microcredit, or small-scale services for poor entrepreneurs.
‘Microfinance is a powerful tool for reducing poverty,’ Mr. Wolfowitz said as he opened the three-day meeting, a highlight of the International Year of Microcredit 2005.
He stressed the need for reliable, continuing access to financial services for the poor, rather than one-off loans.
Emphasizing that the financial infrastructure must also establish credit bureaus, delivery technologies and payment systems, he said the World Bank was advising both the public and private sectors on providing the poor with financial retail products.
Although financial services were primarily a private-sector activity, governments had a critical role in setting policies and regulating the industry to minimize market distortions.
During the International Year, the World Bank and the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor are working with national committees around the world to host a series of events and conferences to highlight the importance of microfinance in the fight against poverty, as they also develop strategies and resources to reach an estimated 3 billion people who lack access to formal financial services.(UN)
The US and Indian air forces began a 12-day joint exercise in India on Monday - the latest in a series of manoeuvres that had marked ‘2002-2005 as the most active years of military-to-military exchange between the two countries in over 40 years’, according to a US embassy statement.
The exercise, called Cope India 2005, aims to foster closer military ties between Washington and New Delhi, and test Indian pilots’ ability to operate in an combat environment controlled by airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft.
The US Air Force has sent an over 250-member aircrew and 15 F-16 Fighting Falcon jets from a unit based at Misawa in Japan and E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control systems (AWACS) aircraft for the manoeuvres.
The Indian Air Force is represented by some 30 fighter jets, including Mirage 2000s, Su-30s and MiG-21s.
In February 2004, the last time the US Air Force participated in Cope India exercises, the Indian pilots bested US flyers in several mock-combat engagements, the military think tank, Stratfor said.
‘The Indians proved to be a tougher opponent than expected, reportedly embarrassing US flyers on several occasions,’ Stratfor said.
‘Should this happen again, the exercise will illustrate the narrowing gap between the powerful US Air Force and the increasingly sophisticated air forces of other countries.’
India’s first ‘Dalit’ President dies
Former President K.R. Narayanan, the first ‘untouchable’ from India’s pernicious caste system to occupy the office in a validation of the nation’s democratic roots, died Wednesday. He was 85.
The soft-spoken, scholarly Narayanan was admitted to an army hospital in the capital Oct. 29 with pneumonia and kidney failure. He was placed on life support two days later and died Wednesday.
Although the president’s post in India is largely ceremonial, Narayanan showed during his 1997-2002 tenure that he was no rubber-stamp executive. He broke from precedent twice to defy the government that appointed him, refusing to sack opposition-ruled state administrations.
Narayanan’s rise to the top was remarkable in a country where ‘untouchables,’ now known as ‘Dalits,’ are the lowest members of society, having faced ridicule and hostility for centuries.
The Dalits — literally ‘broken people’ — are outside the caste system, a 3,000-year-old hierarchy dividing Hindus into categories of descending social importance.
‘He proved ... that neither religion nor caste can come in the way of a person who is able to exert himself intellectually,’ former Prime Minister I.K. Gujral said.
Discrimination based on caste was outlawed in 1950, and much progress in social equality has been made since, but centuries of entrenched habits have been hard to break.
In his public statements, Narayanan never harped on the caste discrimination he faced growing up, instead emphasizing the positive.
Natwar Singh rejects UN charge
Natwar Singh on Tuesday said claims he benefited from the UN’s oil-for-food programme for Iraq which forced him to step aside as India’s foreign minister were a slur on him and the ruling Congress party.
Pointed out that the Congress party had produced ‘great leaders’ such as independence figure Mahatma Gandhi and India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, he said: ‘The Congress party and I are not afraid of any probe.’
Singh will remain in the cabinet as minister without portfolio, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will take over as foreign minister pending the outcome of a probe by a retired judge ordered Monday, the government said.
India’s former chief judge RS Pathak will look into the claims made in the UN report, prepared by former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, that Natwar Singh and the Congress party benefited from the programme.
The Volcker report named Natwar Singh as a non-contractual beneficiary of four million barrels of Iraqi oil allotted to Zurich-based firm Masefield AG. Congress, India’s oldest political entity, is also listed as a beneficiary of a separate allotment of four million barrels of oil as part of the transactions.
The report found that Saddam’s regime manipulated the programme to extract about 1.8 billion dollars in surcharges and bribes, while an inept UN headquarters failed to exert administrative control.(Rediff)
Washington friction over torture
President George W. Bush declined to comment on reports of secret US prisons for terrorism suspects but defended US interrogation tactics, declaring: ‘We do not torture.’
Amid reports that senior aides have been lobbying lawmakers to exempt the CIA from limits on aggressive questioning, Bush said he was ‘working with Congress’ to ‘make it possible -- more possible -- to do our job.’
‘Our country is at war, and our government has the obligation to protect the American people,’ he said. ‘Anything we do to that end, in that effort, any activity we conduct, is within the law. We do not torture.’
The Washington Post reported last week the CIA was holding Al-Qaeda suspects in secret prisons in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and ‘several democracies in eastern Europe’, after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
US officials, who insist they have been transparent in dealing with high-profile abuse cases like the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq, have refused to confirm or deny the existence of the secret prisons.
The Washington Post reported Monday the emergence of rifts within the Bush administration over the handling of terrorist suspects, pitting hardline Vice President Dick Cheney against officials such as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
It said Rice argued that the issue was costing Washington the moral high ground and hurting US public diplomacy around the world.
UN calls for microfinance initiatives
World Bank Director Paul Wolfowitz joined other leaders in international development at United Nations Headquarters today to call for an inclusive finance services in developing countries to reduce poverty at a forum on expanding microcredit, or small-scale services for poor entrepreneurs.
‘Microfinance is a powerful tool for reducing poverty,’ Mr. Wolfowitz said as he opened the three-day meeting, a highlight of the International Year of Microcredit 2005.
He stressed the need for reliable, continuing access to financial services for the poor, rather than one-off loans.
Emphasizing that the financial infrastructure must also establish credit bureaus, delivery technologies and payment systems, he said the World Bank was advising both the public and private sectors on providing the poor with financial retail products.
Although financial services were primarily a private-sector activity, governments had a critical role in setting policies and regulating the industry to minimize market distortions.
During the International Year, the World Bank and the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor are working with national committees around the world to host a series of events and conferences to highlight the importance of microfinance in the fight against poverty, as they also develop strategies and resources to reach an estimated 3 billion people who lack access to formal financial services.(UN)
