Pakistan: Military Operation In Buner

Pakistan: Military Operation In Buner

(NSI News Source Info) April 29, 2009: Pakistani troops took control of the key town of Daggar, the headquarters of Buner district, a day after launching a major ground and air assault against Taliban militants. The operation in Buner has been mounted to stem Taliban efforts to encroach into regions beyond Swat.

In February, the government agreed that Islamic sharia law could be enforced in Swat and its surrounding districts in the Malakand region in a deal aimed at ending two years of rebellion during which followers of radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah beheaded opponents and torched girls'. Pakistani army trucks carrying cannons and armored vehicles for the military operation against the Taliban arrive in the Umar Abad area outside Buner district.

US President Barack Obama Day To Day Activities On April 29, 2009

US President Barack Obama Day To Day Activities On April 29, 2009

(NSI News Source Info) April 29, 2009: President Barack Obama arrives at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. , aboard Air Force One, Wednesday, April 29, 2009.

Turkey Ignores Criticism Of Joint Military Exercise With Syria

Turkey Ignores Criticism Of Joint Military Exercise With Syria

(NSI News Source Info) ANKARA - April 29, 2009: Turkey's army chief brushed aside Israel's criticism of his country's first joint military exercises with neighboring Syria. "Israel's reaction does not interest us. We do not have to explain to a third country any military exercise that we undertake with another country," Gen. Ilker Basbug told a news conference April 29. "The exercises only concern Turkey and Syria," he added, describing the three-day maneuvers as a "small-scale" affair between teams of border troops. In this photo released by the Turkish General Staff headquarters, a Turkish soldier uses binoculars to search the area during an operation against Kurdish rebels at an undisclosed location. Turkey declined to set a timetable for the withdrawal of Turkish troops fighting Kurdish rebels in Iraq, despite calls from the United States to quickly wrap up the operation. Also, Turkey's military said its troops killed seven more rebels in the fighting in Iraq, bringing the total claimed death toll to 237 rebels since Turkey's ground incursion began a week ago. On April 27, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak called the exercises as a "worrying" development. "The military maneuvers are a worrying development, but the strategic ties uniting Israel and Turkey will prevail," Barak said. Non-Arab, secular Turkey is one of Israel's rare allies in the Muslim world, with the countries signing a military cooperation accord in 1996, much to the anger of Arab countries and Iran. Syria is one of the Jewish state's top foes, and the countries remain in a technical state of war since 1948. But Turkey has significantly improved ties with Syria after a long period of animosity during which Ankara threatened war over what it saw as Damascus's support for separatist Kurdish rebels fighting Turkey. Turkey hosted indirect peace talks between Israel and Syria last year, but the efforts were suspended following Israel's deadly offensive on Gaza. An undated picture released in Brussels by the pro-Kurds Firat news agency shows Turkish soldiers kept hostage by Kurdish rebels near the Iraq-Turkey border. A news agency which has close links to Kurdish rebels fighting Turkish troops published what it said were pictures of eight Turkish soldiers taken hostage by the guerrillas. The Gaza offensive also hit Israel's ties with Turkey, when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stormed out of a debate at the World Economic Forum in Davos with Israeli President Shimon Peres, accusing the Jewish state of "barbarian" acts against the Palestinians.

700 Additional British Troops Will Be Sent To Afghanistan: Prime Minister Gordon Brown

700 Additional British Troops Will Be Sent To Afghanistan: Prime Minister Gordon Brown

(NSI News Source Info) LONDON - April 29, 2009: Some 700 additional British troops will be sent to Afghanistan to provide security during the forthcoming presidential elections, Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, has confirmed. In a Commons statement, Mr Brown said the additional troops, which will take the British force to 9,000, will remain in the country until the autumn. In this image made available by the Ministry of Defence in London, Wednesday Feb. 18, 2009, British Royal Marines of 42 Commando, break down a door during Operation Diesel, an assault launched by British troops into the Taliban heartland in Afghanistan's notorious Sangin Valley. The operation resulted in the disruption of enemy command and control and logistics facilities, as well as the capture of four narcotics factories, millions of pounds (dollars, euros) worth of drugs, processing chemicals and equipment. Officials made clear that there will be no permanent increase in UK troop numbers, which will return to the current level of 8,300 once the temporary "surge" is over. Mr Brown, who visited Afghanistan and Pakistan earlier this week, said the lawless borderlands between the two countries are a "crucible of global terrorism" which ultimately threaten the security of the UK. He echoed US president Barack Obama, who warned that extremism is a "cancer that is killing Pakistan from within". Mr Brown was for the first time publishing a strategy document covering both Afghanistan and Pakistan. He described security in the mountainous borderlands between the two countries as the "greatest priority" for the international community. "They are the crucible for global terrorism, they are the breeding ground for international terrorists, they are the source of a chain of terror that links the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan to the streets of Britain," he said. He said that, in Afghanistan, Britain's aim was to build up the police and army to ensure that the country's democratic government was strong enough to withstand and overcome the terrorist threat. The goal would be to achieve a "district-by-district, province-by-province handover" to Afghan control. In Pakistan, the focus would be on supporting education and development to prevent young people "falling under the sway of violent and extremist ideologies" while at the same time helping the security forces regain control of the border areas. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (L) listens to his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani during a joint press conference at The Prime Minister's House in Islamabad on April 27, 2009. Brown held talks in Pakistan after announcing a new strategy to tackle a "crucible of terrorism" on a visit to Kabul. Brown met with Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari to discuss terror threats after visiting British troops in insurgency-plagued southern Afghanistan and meeting Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul. Mr Brown said the Afghan National Army would be strengthened from 80,000 troops to 134,000 by late 2001. However more work was needed to build up the police, who were not yet seen as an "honest and fair institution", if the rule of law was to be established. He said that, as the US forces took on an increasing role in southern Afghanistan, UK forces would "shift the balance of our operations away from frontline combat and towards an enhanced contribution to the training" of the police and army. In Pakistan, he said, much of Britain's £665 million aid programme for the next four years - including £125 million of education spending - would be refocused on the border areas. At the same time, he said, senior UK and Pakistani military, intelligence and diplomatic teams would meet on a more regular basis in an "enhanced strategic dialogue". Closer co-operation would be reinforced through a £10 million counter-terrorism capacity-building programme with the Pakistani police and security services. Mr Brown said he would continue work on a new "concordat" on strengthening co-operation between the two nations when President Asif Ali Zardari visits Britain next month.

President Barack Obama Marks 100 Days With Trip To The Heartland

President Barack Obama Marks 100 Days With Trip To The Heartland

(NSI News Source Info) ARNOLD, Missouri - April 29, 2009: Barack Obama marked 100 days as president Wednesday with a trip to the US heartland, claiming his ambitious agenda of "remaking America" had begun to take hold but warning of much more work ahead to pull the nation out of recession. US President Barack Obama speaks as Senator Arlen Specter and Vice President Joe Biden looks on, April 29, 2009 in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House in Washington, DC. Specter, a veteran Republican senator from Pennsylvania, announced April 28, 2009 that he was switching to the Democratic party. Since taking office January 20, Obama has battled the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, shifted the US military posture in Iraq and Afghanistan, and shown the world a different face of America as the first African-American US president.

As if that were not enough, he now faces a deadly new challenge in the form of a swine flu outbreak that health authorities fear could explode into a global pandemic. Against that backdrop, Obama set out from the White House Wednesday morning for the central state of Missouri for a town hall meeting where he put his own perspective on his first 100 days, a traditional milestone for gauging US presidents' debuts. "We have begun to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off and we have begun the work of remaking America," Obama told a raucous crowd in opening remarks at a town hall meeting in this St Louis suburb. "Now, after 100 days, I'm pleased with the progress we've made, but I'm not satisfied," an upbeat Obama said. "I'm confident in the future, but I'm not content with the present," he added. "Not when there are workers that are still out of jobs, families who still can't pay their bills." Obama's debut -- seen as a success by the majority of Americans, according to several polls released just ahead of the 100-day milestone -- has been marked by the worst economic crisis since the 1930s Great Depression, and what Obama described Wednesday as the administration's "bold and sustained" steps to rein it in. The president unleashed a huge government intervention in the economy with a historic 787-billion-dollar stimulus bill and now has high-stakes environmental and healthcare reforms on the launchpad. Abroad, Obama hit the "reset button" on US foreign policy, reaching out to Muslims and vowing to end decades of enmity with foes Cuba and Iran. He mandated the closure of Guantanamo Bay prison camp, outlawed torture and set a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. He also doubled down in Afghanistan and Pakistan and reversed US denial on climate change. "We've come a long way, we can see the light on the horizon, but we've got a much longer journey ahead," Obama said. Many of the new policies have not sat well with Republicans, who for the first time in eight years control neither the White House nor either chamber of Congress. "We don't have a majority. It's very difficult to pass legislation," Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell lamented. Compounding their woes, senior Republican Senator Arlen Specter announced Tuesday that he was becoming a Democrat, boosting Obama's ability to drive his agenda through the US Congress. Obama's Democratic allies hailed his first months in office, which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said followed the "misguided policies and misplaced priorities" of the Bush administration. "I am encouraged that in the brief time we have had so effective a partner in the White House as President Obama, we have taken so many strong steps, so swiftly, in the right direction and for the right reasons," Reid said. Obama returns to Washington for a nationally televised press conference Wednesday evening when he is certain to be grilled about huge challenges that face the country on many fronts. "I think the American people are less likely to spend a lot of time sitting around Wednesday judging what we've done in our first 100 days, and are more concerned with what we're going to do each and every day going forward," said Obama's spokesman Robert Gibbs, who gave his boss a report card grade of "B plus." But Americans have looked back at Obama's debut, and polls show he still enjoys strong backing among a wide swath of US voters. A survey published Wednesday by Quinnipiac University found that 58 percent of those polled approve of his performance as president, compared to 30 percent who disapprove. That was similar to the 59 percent approval rating Obama garnered in a Quinnipiac survey in early March. Meanwhile, Obama faced the first health crisis of his term, with the country experiencing its first swine flu death since the disease's outbreak in Mexico. At least 91 infections were confirmed across 10 US states as of Wednesday, and after declaring a public health emergency at the weekend Obama pressed Congress to release 1.5 billion dollars in emergency funding. On Tuesday the Senate confirmed Kathleen Sebelius as health and human services secretary, rounding out the president's cabinet amid concerns that many other senior positions remain vacant.

Debut For World's Fastest Camera

Debut For World's Fastest Camera

By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, BBC News

(NSI News Source Info) April 29, 2009: The fastest imaging system ever devised has been demonstrated by researchers reporting in the journal Nature. Their camera snaps images less than a half a billionth of a second long, capturing over six million of them in a second continuously. It works by using a fast laser pulse dispersed in space and then stretched in time and detected electronically. The approach will be instrumental in analysing, for example, flowing blood samples in a search for diseased cells. What is more, the camera works with just one detector, rather than the millions in a typical digital camera. Gathering steam Dubbed Serial Time-Encoded Amplified imaging, or Steam, the technique depends on carefully manipulating so-called "supercontinuum" laser pulses. These pulses, less than a millionth of a millionth of a second long, contain an enormously broad range of colours. Two optical elements spread the pinprick laser pulses into an ordered two-dimensional array of colours. It is this "2-D rainbow" that illuminates a sample. Part of the rainbow is reflected by the sample - depending on light and dark areas of the illuminated spot - and the reflections travel back along their initial path. Because the spreading of the pulse's various colours is so regular and ordered, the range of colours reflected contains detailed spatial information about the sample. "Bright spots reflect their assigned wavelength but dark ones don't," explained Bahram Jalali, the University of California, Los Angeles professor who led the research. Our next step is to improve the spatial resolution so we can take crystal clear pictures of the inner structure of cells Bahram Jalali, UCLA "When the 2-D rainbow reflects from the object, the image is copied onto the colour spectrum of the pulse." The pulse then passes back through the dispersive optics and again becomes a pinprick of light, with the image tucked away within as a series of distributed colours. However, that colour spectrum is mixed up in an exceptionally short pulse of light that would be impossible to unpick in traditional electronics. The team then routes the pulse into a so-called dispersive fibre - a fibre-optic cable that has a different speed limit for different colours of light. As a result, the red part of the spectrum races ahead of the blue part as the pulse travels along the fibre. Eventually, the red part and blue part separate in the fibre, arriving at very different times at the fibre's end. All that remains is to detect the light as it pops out of the fibre with a standard photodiode and digitise it, assigning the parts of the pulse that arrive at different times to different points in two-dimensional space. The result of all this optical trickery: an image that represents a snapshot just 440 trillionths of a second long. The researchers used a laser that fired more than six million pulses in a second, resulting in as many images. However, they say that the system can be improved to acquire more than 10 million images per second - more than 200,000 times faster than a standard video camera. 'Rogue cells' Instead of the millions of detectors in a digital camera, Steam uses just one While other cameras used in scientific research can capture shorter-lived images, they can only capture about eight images, and have to be triggered to do so for a given event. The Steam camera, by contrast, can capture images continuously, making it ideal for random events that cannot be triggered. Some applications that may benefit from the approach include observing the communication between cells, or the activity of neurons. But the perfect example of an application for the Steam camera's specifications is analysing flowing blood samples. Because the imaging of individual cells in a volume of blood is impossible for current cameras, a small random sample is taken and those few cells are imaged manually with a microscope. "But, what if you needed to detect the presence of very rare cells that, although few in number, signify early stages of a disease?," asks Keisuke Gode, lead author of the study. Dr Gode cites circulating tumour cells as a perfect example of such a target. Precursors to metastasis, they may exist as only a few among a billion healthy cells. "The chance that one of these cells will happen to be on the small sample of blood viewed under a microscope is virtually negligible." But with the Steam camera, fast-flowing cells can be individually imaged. The team is working to extend the technique to 3-D imaging with the same time resolution, and to increase the effective number of "pixels" in a given image to 100,000. "Our next step is to improve the spatial resolution so we can take crystal clear pictures of the inner structure of cells," Professor Jalali told BBC News. "We are not there yet, but if we are able to accomplish this, then there is no shortage of applications in biology."

Defense Focus: Age Of Wars Indian Forces

Defense Focus: Age Of Wars Indian Forces

(NSI News Source Info) WASHINTON - April 29, 2009: India has poor special forces, but its enormous manpower gives it a powerful advantage in maintaining security and fighting guerrilla conflicts. A newly raised soldier of Indian Army Jammu Kashmir Light Infantry Regiment (JKLIR) shouts during a passing out parade on the outskirts of Srinagar, India, Wednesday, April 22, 2009. Four hundred and fourteen recruits from Jammu and Kashmir state were formally inducted into JKLIR after training. This model flies in the face of the fashionable and currently widely accepted theories of military force deployment and weapons procurement spearheaded by the United States and followed by almost of all of the major industrialized democracies.

Indeed, French President Nicolas Sarkozy embarked on an ambitious program last year to drastically cut the size and manpower numbers of the French armed forces while pouring far more investment into high-tech weapons, space-based command and communications and long-distance force-projection capabilities instead. It always sounds so attractive, and it was the mantra that Donald Rumsfeld followed during his six years as defense secretary of the United States. But it didn't work well at all for the United States and its armed forces. The U.S. military had to pour a disproportionate percentage of its combat forces into a long and exhausting guerrilla conflict against Baathist and other Sunni Muslim guerrillas operating among a minority of only around 30 percent or less of the total population of Iraq, an average-sized country that is only as large as California and with a population half the size. But in fighting counterinsurgency wars and in struggling to prevent the erosion of the state to entropy or chaos -- generating forces of fourth-generation war -- the most important goal for armies to achieve is the protection of the population from being terrorized and coerced by the ruthless guerrilla forces seeking to co-opt them. U.S. Gen. David Petraeus has applied that principle with brilliant success in central Iraq over the past two years after about four years of continual failure before him. Petraeus was able to pull off his achievement despite a strict limitation on the number of troops he was able to concentrate on the ground. And the super-expensive high-tech weaponry that Rumsfeld loved proved to be totally irrelevant to his achievement. Petraeus was able to pull off his success by co-opting and paying local Iraqi tribal leaders who had been disgusted by the out-of-control violence and cruelty of al-Qaida and other insurgent forces. The Indian army continues to fight guerrilla and terrorist challenges on a number of fronts, and it has achieved considerable success against them using two low-tech and very old-fashioned and unfashionable forces. It has not sought to bribe or politically co-opt its enemies as the British Empire did for centuries around the world with mixed but generally positive results and as Petraeus more recently did in Iraq. The Indians have relied on strong passive border defenses to keep mujahedin Islamist guerrillas from wreaking havoc in Muslim-majority Jammu & Kashmir or across their eastern border from Bangladesh. But above all else, they have trusted in having large numbers of relatively low-trained and lightly equipped combat soldiers who can flood areas threatened by guerrillas for long periods at a time.

Afghanistan: British Forces On Guard And Hunting Taliban Hideout

Afghanistan: British Forces On Guard And Hunting Taliban Hideout

(NSI News Source Info) April 29, 2009: In this undated image made available in London Wednesday April 29, 2009 by the Ministry of Defence, snipers and an observer of the Black Watch, the 3rd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland, take up positions during Operation Sarak 1 in the Maywand region of Afghanistan. Operation Sarak 1, which took place from April 21 to April 25, enabled the troops to carry out searches and exploit compounds of interest following a helicopter air assault to shuttle troops to their area of operation.

Indonesia: Islamic Parties Losing Grip And Becoming Unpopular Among Masses Of People

Indonesia: Islamic Parties Losing Grip And Becoming Unpopular Among Masses Of People

(NSI News Source Info) JAKARTA, Indonesia - April 29, 2009: The recent national elections saw the Islamic parties lose half their support, although they still hold about twenty percent of the seats in parliament. Five years ago, the Islamic parties got so many votes because their promise of "clean government" was believed. Singaporean Islamist Mohammad Hasan bin Saynudin (R) sweeps his beard as he listens to the judge sentence him in Jakarta on April 28, 2009 while Ali Masyudi (C) and Wahyudi (L), terror suspects from Indonesia, sit next to him. Hasan, who trained for a "holy war" in Afghanistan and met Osama bin Laden in 2000, was sentenced to 18 years jail under Indonesia's anti-terrorism law.

But that has since been shown to be a lie, with many Islamic politicians caught in corrupt acts. Many of the Islamic parties still want to turn Indonesia into a religious dictatorship. This disturbs many Moslems, but it especially bothers the 15 percent of the population that is not Moslem. Most of these are Christian, and while the government has been effective in reducing the Islamic violence, the Islamic radicals are still there, and still hating. In Papua, tribal separatists demonstrated against the elections, and continued their attacks on government officials and police. The violence isn't just ethnic, it's also practical. The government encourages migration of Moslem Malays from the more crowded islands to the west, to the sparsely populated forests and hills of Papua. The largely Christian (and non-Malay Melanesians) don't like it. In East Timor, a recent study estimated that some 20,000 young men were part of over a hundred tribe and clan based gangs. The high unemployment, and concentration of so much of the population in urban areas, makes it easy for these gangs to form. The gangs generate a lot of crime, both against other gangs, and ordinary citizens. The government is corrupt, with the politicians stealing much of the foreign aid, and now the growing funds from oil and gas fields as well. Eight years ago, about a third of the half million population was living below the poverty level. Now half the population is, and there is no economic progress. East Timor is turning into an economic basket case, kept alive by foreign charity. April 26, 2009: In Papua, three bombs were found near a police station, and disabled before they could go off. April 20, 2009: An Islamic terrorist, wanted for murdering a Christian teacher, was arrested in South Sulawesi. April 9, 2009: For the third time since the dictatorship was overthrown in 1998, national elections were held. While there was some violence, the elections generally came off without incident. April 4, 2009: In Aceh, a former rebel turned politician was murdered by unidentified gunmen. Many separatist rebels entered politics after the peace deal two years ago. But not all the rebels agreed with this, and, so far this year, at least five former rebel leaders have been killed.

Boeing, Danish Aerotech Sign MOU For Super Hornet Support

Boeing, Danish Aerotech Sign MOU For Super Hornet Support

(NSI News Source Info) KARUP, Denmark - April 29, 2009: The Boeing Company and civil defense and aerospace company Danish Aerotech today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that outlines opportunities for Danish Aerotech to provide select F/A-18E/F Super Hornet logistics support capabilities. If the Royal Danish Air Force names the Super Hornet as its New Combat Aircraft, Boeing and Danish Aerotech could partner in a Performance Based Logistics (PBL) program for long-term support of the strike fighter aircraft and other platforms. "This MOU is of high value to our company," said Danish Aerotech CEO Søren E. Petersen. "With its wide scope of business in the defense industry and as a leading manufacturer of civilian and military aircraft, Boeing is an extremely attractive partner for Danish Aerotech. We look forward to further developing our core capabilities and jointly working with Boeing on new areas of support that are of strategic, long-term value to Danish Aerotech, as well as providing a considerable boost to revenue and employment." Boeing and Danish Aerotech may also pursue opportunities related to training; PBL contracting; maintenance, repair and overhaul; and build-to-print activities across Boeing's portfolio of programs for some of the world's most advanced military aircraft and rotorcraft. "Boeing has long been an innovator in Performance Based Logistics, and leveraging Danish Aerotech's expertise in aircraft and component maintenance and repair could further boost our strength in delivering mission readiness to our customers," said Tom Bell, vice president of Business Development for Boeing Military Aircraft. Boeing instituted the PBL model a decade ago to address maintenance and repair support as a total integrated task. PBL contracts allow the customer to comprehensively purchase a set level of readiness instead of paying for parts or services on a more expensive transactional basis. The PBL approach continually improves the cost-effectiveness of logistics products and services. Danish Aerotech is a civil defense and aerospace company specializing in the development, production, installation and support of mechanical, electrical and electronic parts and components for aircraft, helicopters, missiles and targeting systems, as well as maintenance, modifications and integration of aircraft, missiles and associated components.

India's BEL Has New Strategy For Growth

India's BEL Has New Strategy For Growth

(NSI News Source Info) NEW DELHI - April 29, 2009: As part of its new growth strategy, India's largest defense electronics company, Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL), plans to strike joint ventures with foreign companies in the future, a company executive said. BEL, Bangalore, also plans to enter the nuclear power instrumentation market as part of the strategy, and will henceforth give priority to defense and even homeland security products, the executive said. The growth initiatives have been recommended by consulting firm KPMG, which was hired in 2008 to help BEL compete in the emerging business environment and restructure itself. BEL, with an order book at about $2 billion as of April 1, recorded $923.6 million in sales for the year 2008-09 compared with the previous year's $820.5 million. The BEL executive said the company has signed a memorandum of understanding with Astra Microwave Products, Hyderabad, India, for microwave components. Under another agreement signed this year, BEL and U.S. defense giant Boeing will jointly develop an analysis and experimentation center in India to help customers make better-informed decisions on modernizing the country's defense forces. Some significant orders that BEL executed during the year include artillery combat command and control systems for India's network-centric warfare effort, radar warning receivers, surveillance radar elements, thermal imager-based integrated observation equipment, the Rohini 3-D surveillance radar, shipborne and airborne electronic warfare systems, laser rangefinders and night-vision binoculars, the BEL executive said.

Pakistan Says 50 Taliban Killed In Buner Operation

Pakistan Says 50 Taliban Killed In Buner Operation

(NSI News Source Info) RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - April 29, 2009: Pakistani security forces have killed 50 Taliban and lost one soldier in an operation to drive the militants out of the strategic valley 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Islamabad, a military spokesman said on Wednesday. Pakistan's military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas briefs the media about the recently launched military operation, Tuesday, April 28, 2009 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Pakistan deployed troops and bombed Taliban positions in a district near the capital Tuesday, the military said, in an expansion of an offensive against militants seemingly emboldened by a much-criticized peace deal. Major-General Athar Abbas told a newsconference in Rawalpindi, the garrison town next door to the capital, that forces in Buner has also freed 18 of some 70 police and militiamen kidnapped by the militants on Tuesday. Pakistani soldiers had earlier occupied the main town of Daggar, but hundreds of Taliban remain in the valley.

India Puts Army And Navy On Alert To Prevent Tamil Tigers From Entering

India Puts Army And Navy On Alert To Prevent Tamil Tigers From Entering

(NSI News Source Info) NEW DELHI - April 29, 2009: India has put its army and navy on high alert along its southern coast to prevent fleeing Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger rebels from entering the country, said the private Indo-Asian News Service on Wednesday. Sri Lankan government soldiers stand behind a display of weapons they say were captured from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) near the town of Kilinochchi located near the 'No Fire Zone' in northern Sri Lanka April 24, 2009. Government soldiers and the LTTE rebels continue to fight the apparent endgame of Asia's longest-running war despite calls to protect an estimated 50,000 civilians still trapped in an area controlled by the LTTE. Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said operations to finish Asia's longest-running war would not let up, adding troops were moving toward the rebel pocket where the LTTE's leader, Vellupillai Prabhakaran, is believed to be hiding. The news service quoted a top commander of the Indian army, Vice Chief Lt. Gen. Noble Thamburaj, as saying that the southern command of the Indian armed forces has put its personnel on high alert to prevent fleeing Tamil Tiger cadres from entering the country. "The Coast Guard and the Indian Navy form the first tier (of defense). We have some troops deployed to ensure LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) don't enter (India)," the news service quoted Thamburaj as saying. The Sri Lankan government forces are in the final stage of routing out the 26-year-old rebellion of LTTE in the northern part of the island nation.

North Korea Threatens Nuclear Tests

North Korea Threatens Nuclear Tests

(NSI News Source Info) April 29, 2009: North Korea has threatened to carry out nuclear missile tests unless the UN Security Council apologises for its condemnation of a recent rocket launch. Pyongyang said it would be compelled to take self-defence measures "including nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests" if no apology was made. Replicas of North and South Korean missiles are displayed at the Korea War Memorial in Seoul on April 29, 2009. North Korea threatened to conduct a second nuclear test and to test-launch ballistic missiles unless the United Nations apologises for condemning its recent rocket launch. When North Korea launched its rocket on 5 April, the launch was seen by the US and others as a disguised missile test. The UN denounced North Korea's actions and called for tighter sanctions. Pyongyang has insisted it put a communications satellite in orbit, and said it would ignore the sanctions, describing them as "a wanton violation of the UN charter". North Korea conducted its first and only nuclear test in 2006. Backward step North Korea's foreign ministry said the UN should apologise for "infringing" the country's sovereignty and retract "all its resolutions and decisions" against Pyongyang. It also announced plans to build a light-water nuclear reactor, according to the statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. Following the UN criticism, the North pulled out of international negotiations on its denuclearisation and ejected all monitors from the country. Pyongyang has since announced that it has started reprocessing spent fuel rods at its Yongbyon nuclear plant. The reprocessing is a possible move towards producing weapons-grade plutonium. North Korea had partially dismantled its nuclear reactor under a deal agreed at international talks in early 2007, in which it was also promised fuel aid.

Australia To Send 450 More Troops To Afghanistan

Australia To Send 450 More Troops To Afghanistan

(NSI News Source Info) CANBERRA, Australia - April 29, 2009: Australia announced Wednesday it will increase by almost one half its troops in Afghanistan to about 1,550 as part of the U.S.-led surge of international forces to bolster the faltering fight against Taliban insurgents. Australian Army soldiers from the 8th/12th Medium Regiment and British Army soldiers from the 7th Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery in Camp Bastion, Helmand Province, Afghanistan. The 7th Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery as the Army's only parachute light gun regiment, the Airborne Gunners primary role is to provide artillery support to 16 Air Assault Brigade Task Force Helmand during their operations to support the Afghan national Government in its fighting against the Taliban. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who has mostly played down prospects of increasing Australia's commitment against Afghan insurgents since taking office in 2007, said he had been persuaded to increase the deployment during discussions last week with President Barack Obama. The deployment of 450 new forces is Rudd's first new military commitment to the Afghan war, and gives him a political stake in the outcome at a time when Australian public opinion has dipped following a string of combat deaths. The new troops would mostly focus on training the Afghan National Army in the southern province of Uruzgan and will include a temporary eight-month deployment of 120 soldiers to enhance security around the August elections, Rudd said. "As I make these further commitments today, I am acutely conscious of the fact that I am placing more Australians in harm's way and I fear that more Australians will lose their lives in the fight that lies ahead," Rudd said. Ten Australians have already been killed in the conflict, four of them since November last year. Australia is the biggest contributor to the U.S.-led coalition outside NATO. Rudd has long called for other NATO partners to do more before Australia would consider increasing its commitment. He noted Wednesday that Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain had all agreed to send more troops since Obama this year ordered 21,000 new U.S. troops to Afghanistan to bolster the record 38,000 already there. Rudd acknowledged that the war was becoming less popular among Australians, but said Afghanistan must not be allowed to once again become a haven and training ground for international terrorists. "Australia concurs with the United States that the current civilian and military strategy is not working," Rudd said. "If anything, security in Afghanistan is deteriorating."

US President Barack Obama Day To Day Activities On April 28, 2009

US President Barack Obama Day To Day Activities On April 28, 2009

(NSI News Source Info) WASHINGTON - April 29, 2009: US President Barack Obama arrives alongside the 2009 National Teacher of the Year Tony Mullen and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for a ceremony in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington on April 28, 2009. Mullen is a special education teacher from the ARCH School in Greenwich, Connecticut.