Another Attack by US Shows Its Earnestness

The United States government has shown yet again that its resolve to fight terrorism is not just rhetoric but a serious preposition. US bombers have struck multiple Taliban targets in a new air offensive over the past four days in far northeastern Afghanistan near the China and Tajikistan borders.

Ever since Donald Trump has assumed charge as the President of US, he has repeatedly talked about fighting terror.

The Southern Command said in a statement that the strikes hit Taliban training facilities in Badakhshan province, preventing the planning and rehearsal of terrorist acts. The bombing also destroyed vehicles that it said the Taliban took from the Afghan National Army and were turning into vehicle-born explosive devices.

The strikes were carried out in part by a US Air Force B-52 Stratofortress, which dropped 24 guided munitions. The Southern Command, which oversees US military activities in the Middle East and Afghanistan, said it continues to carry out strikes against the Taliban and its support networks in Helmand Province in the south of the country as well.

Strikes and raids by US and Afghan forces have resulted in the removal of more than 30 million Dollars of Taliban revenue since the campaign began in November, 2017, the Command said.

US Defense Secretary James Mattis, defending the 16-year-old war in Afghanistan in a hearing by the House Armed Services Committee, said that the new US strategy of training and advisory support to local troops has the strong backing of NATO allies helping the effort.The number of allies in Afghanistan has actually grown to 41, he said.

Read More

Thank God, 22 Indian Sailors Are Now Free

An oil tanker, with an all Indian crew of 22 members that went missing off the coast of Benin in north-west Africa, has been released by pirates after four days.

Officials said, all the crew members, who endured the over four-day ordeal, are safe. Director General of Shipping Malini Shankar said, the ship, 'Marine Express', has been released and is back under the command of the captain. She said all 22 crew members are safe and the ship has resumed further sailing.

The Marine Express was at the anchorage Cotonou in the Gulf of Guinea in Benin when it was taken over by pirates on 1st February.

In a tweet, Swaraj said she is happy to inform that Merchant Ship "Marine Express" with 22 Indian nationals on board has been released. The Minister thanked the government of Nigeria and Benin for their help and support in the release of an oil tanker with 22 Indian crew.

Yesterday Swaraj had spoken to her Nigerian counterpart to seek assistance in tracing the missing oil tanker. An official said all the crew members, released by pirates are safe and the ship has resumed sailing. The vessel was at the anchorage Cotonou in the Gulf of Guinea in Benin when it was taken over by pirates on 1st February.

It was immediately not clear if a ransom was paid to secure the release of the vessel and the cargo. The Marine Express was at the anchorage Cotonou in the Gulf of Guinea in Benin when it was taken over by pirates on February 1.

All the communication systems on the vessel were switched off by pirates before making it sail. In a Facebook post, the ship manning agent Anglo Eastern said the Panama-flagged vessel was the subject of a “pirate attack and seizure”, and also confirmed the safe release. The cargo of 13,500 tonnes of gasoline remains on board, the post added.

An official at the Directorate General of Shipping (DGS) had earlier confirmed that the waters in which the vessel was taken over are infested with sea pirates. There had been a few incidents where the pirates had let off hijacked vessels and crew after siphoning-off the on board cargo without demanding any ransom.

In respect of this incident, DGS officials were in contact with the Indian mission in Nigeria, which was coordinating rescue efforts with local agencies. The ship went missing less than a month after another vessel, ‘MT Barret’, disappeared off the coast of Benin in January, and was later confirmed to have been hijacked. The 22 crew members of MT Barret, most of whom were Indians, were reportedly released after a ransom was paid.

Read More

Reason to Cheer for Donald Trump After Republican Memo's Release

United States President Donald Trump has reason to cheer after the release of the formerly classified Republican memo. "It totally vindicates me," he claimed on Twitter on Saturday (February 3).

Trump's fellow Republicans in the US House of Representatives released on Friday a previously classified memo that portrays senior officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Justice Department as being biased against him in the federal investigation into potential collusion between his 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.

The memo raised questions about what its Republican authors called "the legitimacy and legality" of FBI and Justice Department interactions with a special court to gain permission to eavesdrop on former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page, an oil industry consultant with numerous contacts in Russia. It cited "a troubling breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from abuses" related to the court, set up under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

A remaining issue is whether Trump uses the memo as rational for firing Deputy U.S. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Special Counsel Robert Mueller in May 2017 after the president fired FBI Director James Comey, and oversees Mueller's work.

Democrats said the memo mischaracterizes highly sensitive classified information as part of a coordinated propaganda effort to discredit the FBI and Justice Department and terminate Mueller's investigation, which potentially threatens Trump's presidency.

US Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team wanted to question President Donald Trump as part of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential elections. The investigation also reportedly involved a probe into whether the President obstructed justice when he allegedly asked ex-FBI Director James Comey to drop an inquiry into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with the Russian Ambassador, becoming the first senior White House official to cut a cooperation deal in Mueller’s inquiry.

Read More

India Joins Ashgabat agreement

India has joined Ashgabat Agreement on the establishment of an International Transport and Transit Corridor between the Iran, Oman, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The agreement was signed in April 2011, which envisages facilitation of transit and transportation of goods between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf. 

External Affairs Ministry said the accession to the Agreement would diversify India’s connectivity options with Central Asia and have a positive influence on its trade and commercial ties with the region. Turkmenistan, as depository state of Ashgabat Agreement, informed India yesterday that all the four founding members have consented to the Accession of India. 

India’s accession to the agreement will come into force on 3rd of this month. India had deposited the Instrument of Accession with Turkmenistan in April 2016.

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had given its approval for India to accede to the Ashgabat Agreement on March 23, 2016

The Ashgabat Agreement has Oman, Iran, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan as founding members. Kazakhstan has also joined this arrangement subsequently. Accession to the Agreement would enable India to utilise this existing transport and transit corridor to facilitate trade and commercial interaction with the Eurasian region. Further, this would synchronise with our efforts to implement the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC) for enhanced connectivity. 

Read More

A Barbaric and Dastardly Act

The suicide blast that killed at least 95 people and wounded 158 others in Kabul is a barbaric and dastardly act. It reminds us that Taliban terrorism has not disappeared from the war-ravaged country Afghanistan completely. This follows the cowardly terror attack on the children and civilians in Jalalabad on 24 January.

India has strongly condemned the terrorist attacks in Kabul. The attacks have targeted innocent civilians and the wounded under treatment. There can be no justification for such reprehensible attacks. The perpetrators of these attacks and their supporters should be brought to justice. Indians stands in solidarity with the government and the people of Afghanistan at this difficult times of mindless violence and terror imposed on them.

The attackers drove an ambulance laden with explosives past a police checkpoint into a street that was only open to government workers. The driver passed through one checkpoint by claiming to be escorting a patient to the hospital. He set off the explosives at the second checkpoint. It happened near the old Interior Ministry building and offices of the European Union and High Peace Council.

Government offices, businesses, a school and a hospital are close to the site of attack. The vibrations of the attack could be felt several kilometres away.

Witnesses say the area - home to foreign embassies and the city's police headquarters - was crowded with people when the bomb exploded today. Plumes of smoke were seen from around the city. The International Committee of the Red Cross said the use of an ambulance was harrowing.

Just four days ago, explosions and heavy gunfire rocked Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel on Sunday killing at least 40 people. The victims also included a number of foreigners. The heavily-guarded luxury hotel was popular among foreigners and Afghan officials.

The siege started on Saturday night and lasted 13 hours. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack which saw more than 150 guests flee.

Witnesses said the gunmen were dressed in army uniforms, but it was unclear how many were involved. The government said three gunmen were killed while witnesses said four were involved and the Taliban said five.

The Intercontinental Hotel, an imposing 1960s structure set on a hilltop and heavily protected like most public buildings in Kabul, was previously attacked by Taliban fighters in 2011. While it shares the same name, the hotel in Kabul is not part of InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), which issued a statement in 2011 saying that "the hotel Inter-continental in Kabul is not part of IHG and has not been since 1980".

The assaults being carried out by Haqqani Network terrorists underlines the need to effectively deal with the issue of safe havens to terrorists in our neighbourhood.   

Read More

US Indicts Pakistan Again for Terrorism Links

Ever since President Donald Trump has arrived at the helm, the United States has taken many steps against Pakistan, the scourge on the humanity, for harboring terrorism. The latest in the series is slapping of sanctions on four Taliban and two Haqqani network leaders for terrorist activities. This is again an indictment of Pakistan for its links with terrorism activities that has troubled its two neighbors – India and Afghanistan.

The US has said that Pakistan must work with the US to deny the terror groups safe haven on its soil and target their funding. All six have been designated as global terrorists by the US Department of Treasury. All property and interests in property of these persons subject to US jurisdiction are blocked and the US citizens are prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.

The four Taliban leaders include Abdul Samad Sani, Abdul Qadeer Basir, Abdul Baseer, Hafiz Mohammed Popalzai, and Maulawi Inayatullah, while Haqqani network leaders as Faqir Muhammad and Gula Khan Hamidi.

Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Sigal Mandelker said the Trump administration is targeting six individuals related to the Taliban or Haqqani Network who have been involved in attacks on coalition troops, smuggling of individuals or financing these terrorist groups.

He said the action supports the President Donald Trump's South Asia Strategy by disrupting terrorist organisations and publically exposing individuals who facilitate their activities.

This comes in the wake of a top commander of the Haqqani network along with two others being killed by a US drone attack. The drone struck a home near Pakistan's restive tribal Kurram agency bordering Afghanistan.Haqqani Network Commander Ehsan alias Khawari and two of his companions were killed during the strike. The drone strikes, carried out by US spy planes, targeted on the Haqqani Network hideout in the North .

US President Donald Trump had announced a new Afghan policy in August, in which Pakistan was accused of offering safe havens to agents of chaos.

Read More

Thanks President!

One has to thank the US President Donald Trump as he announced that he was open to citizenship for 'Dreamers' in 10-12 years. This is for the first time that President Trump has indicated that he was open to a path to citizenship for America's so-called "Dreamers" in 10 to 12 years.

The move will certainly welcomed by millions of people all over the world especially in India as it may also benefit thousands of Indian-origin undocumented immigrants.

Some 6,90,000 undocumented immigrants, who were illegally brought to the US as children, are likely to get benefited. Among them include several thousand people of Indian descent.

The term "Dreamers", which is used for the undocumented immigrants living in the US illegally, came from the DREAM Act, a bipartisan legislation that was first proposed in 2001 to provide citizenship to them under certain conditions. The bill was never passed.

Trump told reporters during an impromptu news conference at the White House before he left for Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos.

Trump called this as an "incentive" for the immigrants for the hard work. However, a senior administration official later said no final decision has been taken yet over the issue.

Read More

Pune's Blackberry Experiment To Go Global

After having won accolades from the government and people alike, the traff-i-cop experiment started in the city is set to reach to international level. The designers of the Blackberry-based system presented it to a conference in Orlando and countries like Bermuda are looking at it for the implementation.

"Right now Kolkata and states like Assam, Punjab and Gujarat have asked us for the implementation of this system. In a conference at Orlando, US, the company officials had a presentation on this system to which Bermuda has responded positively,” said Hitesh Shah, Director, Commercial Relationship India of Research In Motion (RIM), the producers of the Blackberry. The conference was organised by RIM for its worldwide partners showing their applications where traff-i-cop was applauded by all.

In November 2009, the traff-i-cop system was experimented by the Pune Traffic police with the application for the system developed by Omni Bridge Systems, a city based company. The system envisages tracking down the traffic offenders with the help of Blackberry. Initially the project was meant to be for three months but it was extended to 13 months.

"Right now we are in talks with the Pune police, RTO and other officials. Even though it is away from public glare, the work is underway to update the system and removing whatever shortcoming which came or might come in future,” said Shah.

The application has been awarded ‘Best innovative project/technological application’ by Ministry of Urban Development last week.  By using this application, traffic police could easily identify the offenders and trace them real time. Now, this is set to be used for detecting the stolen vehicles which are taken to other cities.

"National Informatics Centre (NIC) is digitising the databases of all Regional Transport Offices in the state. Once it will be available on the server, the stolen vehicles or vehicles found violating traffic norms will also be traced easily,” said Amit Shitole, director of the Omni Bridge Systems Pvt. Ltd.

Read More

So Sorry For Japan...

Photo courtesy: AP & Yahoo News

After World War II, Japan was always seen as a role model for the developing countries. For an Indian like me, the country had a special space because of its cultural affinity to us.

Radio Japan was the first international radio station which I started listening to in 1992. Soon, I was hooked to it and got to know many interesting things about this 'land of cherries'. That also prompted me to try learning that language in 1993.

Even after trying for six or so years, I could not make much progress on that front. My knowledge of Japanese never went beyond Sumimasen and Arigato or Dozo Yoroshiku.

But that did not deter me from loving this tiny nation with highest moral character possible. When the deadly quake wiped off much of country's wealth during last week, all those memories came back to me. During this time, one of the comments on a news item made me think.

The anonymous writer said, 'Even after so much destruction and chaos, there was no chaos or looting. That speak volume about the character of the nation.”

I could not agree more. Having gone through so many natural tragedies made us Indian admire more and more the tiny but great nation on this earth. Japan...we are so sorry for you!

Read More