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PARIS --- While many observers cite technology transfer, prices and performance as being major factors in India’s selection of the Rafale as its next-generation fighter, reality is very different even if these factors obviously did play a significant role. In the same way that it is true that Rafale lost several competitions through no fault of its own, it must be recognized that its victory in India was also won, to a great extent, through no fault of its own. The real reason for its victory is political, and the long memory of Indian politicians was a major contributing factor....

British Islamist Anjem Choudary Launches 'Shariah for India,' Vows to Demolish Hindu Temples and Bollywood; Muslims Urged to Join In New Delhi March Next Month Marking 88th Anniversary of the End of Islamic Caliphate Introduction British Islamist Anjem Choudary and Omar Muhammad Bakri – both former leaders of British jihadist organization Al-Muhajiroun – have launched an organization called Shariah for Hind (India) to advance their agenda for reestablishing Islamic rule in India. The group has planned a major public event in New Delhi on March 3, 2012, which marks the end of the Turkey-led Islamic caliphate 88 years ago. <...

Brazil is "very likely" to choose France's Rafale fighter jet to refurbish its air force, government sources say, a decision that would award one of the emerging-market world's most coveted defense contracts to a jet whose future was in doubt only two weeks ago. President Dilma Rousseff and her top advisers believe that Dassault Aviation's (AVMD.PA) bid to sell at least 36 Rafales offers the best terms among the three finalists, the sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity. The other two bidders in the competition are U.S.-based Boeing (BA.N) with its F-18 Super Hornet and Sweden's Saab (SAABb.ST) with...

NEW DELHI –The wife of an Israeli diplomat in New Delhi and her driver were injured on Monday when the car they were traveling in was bombed, officials said. A second attempted bombing was defused outside the Israeli embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia, at about the same time. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately blamed Iran, which has vowed revenge for the recent assassinations of several scientists involved in Iran’s nuclear program. Hezbollah, which receives funding and strong support from Iran, also had promised to avenge the assassination of one...

Anjem Choudary, a British Islamist who described himself as "in the camp" of Osama bin Laden, has founded Shariah4Hind (India). Choudary has headed several radical Islamist organizations in Britain, including Islam4UK. All of these organizations were proscribed by the UK Government in 2010. However, despite swearing allegiance to Osama bin Laden on CNN, he has been able to continue his propaganda activities with virtual impunity. Choudary's new website comes in the wake of a failed coup in Bangladesh, one of India's neighbors, by members of the radical pan-Islamic party Hizb ut Tahrir, as well as a successful coup in the...

Bombers targeted staff at Israel's embassies in India and Georgia on Monday, wounding four people, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah of involvement.

The Rafale's long flight to India The selection of Dassault?s Rafale as India?s new MMRCA fighter was only the latest step in the Air Force?s long and painstaking process to pick itself a winner Ajai Shukla / February 11, 2012, 0:03 IST Long after the streets emptied that chilly winter evening in December 1981, lights were burning on the fifth floor of Vayu Bhavan in the elite Operations Branch of the Indian Air Force. Worrying the brightest thinkers of IAF was a brash new arrival in the subcontinental skies. The US had just announced the sale of 40 F-16 fighters...

Iran's crude oil exports to India have increased 37.5% in January. India has increased oil imports from Iran to become the Islamic Republic's largest customer last month, ignoring recent sanctions imposed by US and EU on importing Iran’s oil. According to The Wall Street Journal Iranian crude exports to India rose to 550,000 barrels a day in January, up 37.5 percent from December 2011. The development, the report said, has partly offset a 50 percent cut in crude exports to China as a result of pricing dispute. China now imports around 250,000 barrels a day from Iran. The news comes...

“US sanctions on Iran include exceptions for exports of things like food, medicine, medical devices. So from our perspective, this kind of trade would not be sanctioned,” State Department spokesperson, Ms Victoria Nuland, told reporters. Ms Nuland was responding to questions on news reports that Iran is defaulting on payments to India on its purchase of rice. “If it is true that Iran is defaulting, it would simply speak of the financial pressure that they’re feeling around the world, from sanctions I would guess,” she said. The US, she said, has no quarrel with the Iranian people. “Our sanctions are...

GUWAHATI: A woman was burnt alive for allegedly practising witchcraft in Assam's Sibsagar district, police said here today. Phuleswari Halua (45), a mother of five children, was burnt alive by some residents of Jolah village of the district last night. A massive hunt has been launched to nab the culprits.

India emerged as a major new irritant on Thursday in Western efforts to isolate Iran, announcing that it was sending a large trade delegation there within weeks to exploit opportunities created by the American and European antinuclear sanctions that are increasingly disrupting Iran’s economy. ... The trade delegation announcement coincided with new reports that India, an important consumer of Iranian oil, had eclipsed China for the first time as Iran’s No. 1 petroleum customer last month, subverting efforts by the United States to persuade other countries to find non-Iranian sources for their energy needs or risk onerous penalties under a...

SNIPPET: "British Jihadi Anjem Choudary Tweets On March 19, 2011, British jihadi Anjem Choudary, spokesman for the banned Islam4UK organization, co-founder of Al-Muhajiroun, and spiritual advisor to the UK Islamist group Muslims Against Crusades (MAC),[18] launched a Twitter account and began tweeting. MAC made headlines last week for threatening a British MP who subsequently called on their activities to be closely monitored by law enforcement.[19] According to his Twitter account, Choudary is "a Muslim who believes that Islam is something we must believe in (Tawheed), live by (Shari'ah) and struggle and sacrifice for (by way of Daw'ah and Jihad)."[20] In...

Drums as loud as thunderclaps and then as soft as psalms, the sounds of the shehnai matching tunes with that of bagpipes, all heralded the close of Republic Day celebrations with the “Beating Retreat” ceremony at Vijay Chowk held against the backdrop of the majestic Rashtrapati Bhavan here on Sunday. In days gone by, the “Beating Retreat” was sounded by the buglers as a signal to soldiers engaged in battle to cease their fighting, sheath their weapons and “retreat” from the battlefield. The bugle was also used in military towns to recall soldiers to their quarters in the evenings. “Beating...

India and Norway are embroiled in a diplomatic row after Norwegian social workers took two young Indian children into care because they slept with their parents and their mother fed them with her fingers – both widespread and normal in India.

Is the world counting down to "D-Day"? After US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta estimated that Israel would attack Iran by June, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned government officials against "Iran chatter," A European diplomat based in Pakistan said that if Israel attacks, Islamabad will have no choice but to support any Iranian retaliation. The diplomat's statement raised the specter of putting a nuclear-armed Pakistan at odds with Israel, which is widely believed to have its own significant nuclear arsenal.

India's Finance Minister referred to the financial aid given by Britain to his country as nothing more than 'peanuts', it is claimed. It is also claimed that Pranab Mukherjee and other Indian ministers tried to reject the money - around £280million a year - from the UK in 2011, but the British Government 'begged' them to take the money. The Sunday Telegraph claims that the Indian government were disposed to reject the money in April last year, because of the 'negative publicity of Indian poverty' highlighted by the aid. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2096628/British-foreign-aid-India-tells-Britain-dont-need-peanuts-offer-us.html#ixzz1lWkmhZjq

Turbulence ahead with Indian jet deal The Indians, stormed “senior government sources,” had gone for the “Asda option instead of Waitrose”. By preferring the French Rafale jet rather than the British-built Typhoon, they rejected, according to the Prime Minister, a “superb aircraft with far better capabilities”. How dare they, asked MPs, snub Britain, which had given them £1.2 billion in aid? One newspaper even blamed the decision on the Gandhi family. The truth about Britain’s “failure” to land the £6.3 billion Indian military jet deal — and the thousands of jobs it will sustain - is different. The game is...

In a move that was decried by the U.S., France, and Arab countries, Russia and China on Saturday vetoed a U.S.-backed proposal at the UN Security Council to condemn Syrian leader Bashar al-Assed for violence against Syrian citizens. The resolution that had demanded that Assad resign was backed by the Arab League, and the League on Saturday night called on Arab countries to shut down their embassies and consulates in Syria, and remove Syrian ambassadors from their countries. U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said that Washington was "disgusted" by the vetoes. The vetoes followed a particularly bloody night...

Press Trust of India has quoted Pentagon spokesperson Commander Leslie Hullryde confirming that, contrary to press reports, the United States has not made available Lockheed Martin's advanced, fifth generation fighter jet F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters to India. However, it was noted that should India express an interest, the United States would submit technical information and initiate a discussion. "Should India indicate interest in purchasing the JSF, the United States would be prepared to provide information on the JSF and its requirements (infrastructure, security, etc) to support India's future planning" The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a family...

WASHINGTON: Noting that India is increasingly getting concerned about China's posture on its border, a top US intelligence official on Wednesday said that the Indian Army is strengthening itself for a "limited conflict" with China. "Despite public statements intended to downplay tensions between India and China, we judge that India is increasingly concerned about China's posture along their disputed border and Beijing's perceived aggressive posture in the Indian Ocean and Asia-Pacific region," director of national intelligence James Clapper said in his prepared testimony before the Senate Select Committee on intelligence. "The Indian Army believes a major Sino-Indian conflict is not...

World’s biggest French kiss - IAF picks Rafale for deal that can reshape Europe’s defence industry SUJAN DUTTA New Delhi, Jan. 31: A flying French kiss is in the air. The Indian Air Force (IAF) has decided French aircraft maker Dassault Aviation’s Rafale fighter jet is best suited for it. The Rafale bid was less than the price quoted by four-nation European consortium EADS Cassidian’s Eurofighter Typhoon. In a race that has lasted five years and tantalised not only India’s military establishment but also first-world countries and half-a-dozen of the globe’s largest companies, the sleek twin-engined Rafale with its ergonomic...

A scroll on the home page of the Times of India says that the French Rafale has beaten the Eurofighter for the 126 (and prolly many more) plane MMRCA deal.

Insight - From darkest India, an enlightened leader PATNA, India (Reuters) - There's an apocryphal story about Bihar, a sprawling state on the Gangetic plains of eastern India that for decades held the dubious honour of being the most violent, poverty-stricken and corrupt in the land. A Japanese minister visiting in the 1990s, shocked at the decrepit buildings, the darkness at night even in the centre of town and the crumbling roads, declared that it was all solvable. "Give me three years," he told a state leader, "and I can turn Bihar into Japan." "That's nothing," came the laconic reply...

While U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her Pakistani counterpart, Hina Rabbani Khar, attempt to normalize relations between the countries after the recent American drone strikes in Pakistan, the question has arisen as to how India can become an integral member of the multi-party Afghan equation, where U.S. and NATO stakes are still very high. What does the question entail? he Pakistani transit routes for NATO convoys that supply military cargo to Afghanistan have been closed for two months (after an “erroneous” attack by a NATO aircraft on a Pakistani army checkpoint in the Pakistani-Afghan border region in November...

Duqu, Stuxnet malware developed by same groupPosted on 20 Jan 2012 at 2:29pm The infamous Trojan software Duqu and Stuxnet were developed by only one group of malware developers, according to Internet security firm Kaspersky Lab. In fact, Kaspersky said the malware development team could already have developed other malwares using the same platform that was flexibly adaptable to specific targets. Kaspersky released a report stating that Duqu and Stuxnet, as well as a number of malware discovered in 2011 were using a development platform called “Tilded,” citing the use of the tilde symbol (“~”) in many of these malware....

They also fail to understand Gandhi's rationale for spinning his own cloth, and why he advised others to do the same. Mohandas Gandhi appreciated that importing cloth from England to India only helped the factories in the UK and hurt tax payers in India. By spinning his own clothes, he hurt England where it mattered - in the pocket. Similarly, Mr. Kyle fails to understand Gandhi's brilliance in the Dandi salt march. The English taxed salt, and by making his own salt, Gandhi was revolting against taxation without representation. He was also freeing the poor in India from the English...

Will Israel be able to sell the Arrow system to India? Elements within Israel’s industries believe that a change has occurred in the US position regarding the sale of the Arrow system to India following the weakening of the US’s special standing with the sub-continent Arie Egozi A change in the position of the US may indirectly open a door for the export of the Arrow anti-missile system to India. The US is attempting to increase its influence in India after a series of failures. Now, Washington is attempting to sell systems to India for ballistic missile defense. In the...

WASHINGTON — On Dec. 31, just hours before a New Year's Eve celebration, President Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012. Section 1245 of the law contains language providing authority to impose economic sanctions on Iran in order to deter the ayatollahs from acquiring nuclear weapons. White House efforts to have the sanctions provision stripped from the bill failed, and the measure became law with a quiet flourish of the presidential pen. Ever since, Washington and Tehran have been waging a war of words. None of this works to the advantage of the American...

Exactly 40 years ago, India won a famous victory over Pakistan due to its brilliant soldiers, an unwavering political leadership, and strong diplomatic support from Moscow. Less well known is Russia’s power play that prevented a joint British-American attack on India. Washington DC, December 3, 1971, 10:45am. US President Richard Nixon is on the phone with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, hours after Pakistan launched simultaneous attacks on six Indian airfields, a reckless act that prompted India to declare war. Nixon: So West Pakistan giving trouble there. Kissinger: If they lose half of their country without fighting they will be...

TEL AVIV: External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna on Tuesday said India and Israel have made impressive strides in areas of critical importance to both countries ranging from agriculture and water management to latest the hi-tech applications in communications, health and energy. Krishna in his remarks at the at the reception to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between India and Israel, said: "Twenty years may appear to be a short period but the impressive and multi-faceted development of our bilateral relationship shows how much can be achieved even in a few years given the necessary commitment and...

The 1971 India-Pakistan war didn’t turn out very well from the US’ point of view. For one particular American it went particularly bad. Chuck Yeager, the legendary test pilot and the first man to break the sound barrier, was dispatched by the US government to train Pakistani air force pilots but ended up as target practice for the Indian Air Force, and in the process kicked up a diplomatic storm in a war situation. Yeager’s presence in Pakistan was one of the surprises of the Cold War. In an article titled, “The Right Stuff in the Wrong Place,” by Edward...

Battle for control of Asia's seas goes underwater YOKOSUKA, Japan (AP) — It's getting a bit more crowded under the sea in Asia, where Andrew Peterson commands one of the world's mightiest weapons: a $2 billion nuclear submarine with unrivaled stealth and missiles that can devastate targets hundreds of miles (kilometers) away. Super high-tech submarines like Cmdr. Peterson's USS Oklahoma City have long been the envy of navies all over the globe — and a key component of U.S. military strategy. "We really have no peer," Peterson told The Associated Press during a recent port call in Japan. But America's...

India sizes up V-22 Osprey By:Greg Waldron Singapore India has shown interest in the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey, although it has not stated a formal requirement for the tiltrotor aircraft. Boeing confirmed that it was "invited in-country to provide more information" on the V-22, but that it has not received "an official, written [request for information] from India". In addition, Indian officials visited the V-22 aircraft during the Dubai air show in November 2011, where they asked questions about the aircraft. The V-22 would be well suited to operations along India's vast Himalayan frontier, where high altitudes and long distances...

WATCH: http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/indian-american-group-learns-shoot-after-string-vi/nGNG5/ ARTICLE Asian-Indian community taking self-defense classes after home invasions http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/asian-indian-community-taking-self-defense-classes/nGMfw/ ALPHARETTA, Ga. — A Fulton County grand jury has indicted seven Colombian nationals for a violent home invasion. Lawyers for the men appeared in court Friday morning to learn the suspects won't get bond. Roswell police said the men robbed Raj Sharma and his family at gunpoint two weeks ago looking for gold. Police are looking into whether the men are tied to cases targeting Indian families in Alpharetta and Cobb County. "As a community, we're completely ignorant about firearms," Sanjeev Navalkar said. Navalkar works in insurance but...

MUMBAI: Across the world, India is seen as an education powerhouse - based largely on the reputation of a few islands of academic excellence such as the IITs. But scratch the glossy surface of our education system and the picture turns seriously bleak. Fifteen-year-old Indians who were put, for the first time, on a global stage stood second to last, only beating Kyrgyzstan when tested on their reading, math and science abilities. India ranked second last among the 73 countries that participated in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), conducted annually to evaluate education systems worldwide by the OECD...

The AU wants Africa to manufacture and export finished products to its trading partners rather than just selling them the raw materials as it does now. She cited China, India, the EU and US and other rising stars in trade with the continent, including Turkey and Latin America, and said the AU had held talks on the new breed of partnerships with some of them. The AU also wants Africa to have a veto-wielding seat on the UN Security Council, and a place at the G20 negotiating table, Ali said. The peace and security that have eluded Africa for decades...

A recent Chinese-African cotton agreement could usher in a new era for the African cotton industry -- but not in the short-term, say industry experts. Under the agreement, signed in December with four key cotton-producing African countries -- Benin, Mali, Chad and Burkina Faso (known as the C4) - China stated it would provide machinery, expertise and materials in a bid to increase and improve the quality of local production. At the signing ceremony in Geneva, Chinese commerce minister Chen Deming suggested this was a step towards outsourcing production to Africa. "In [the] longer term, we may relocate some of...

A strain of tuberculosis that is resistant to all existing TB drugs has emerged in Mumbai, India. "We currently have 12 confirmed cases, of which three are dead," says Zarir Udwadia of the Hinduja National Hospital and Medical Research Centre in Mumbai, and head of the team whose diagnoses of four cases has just been published.

NEW DELHI: The foreign ministry has asked its missions in central Asian nations such as Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan as well as in Ukraine and Russia to re-examine visa applications of women between 15 and 40 years on the grounds of a spike in the number of sex workers from these regions reaching India. The advice has been issued just ahead of assembly elections and although there may be no connection, apart from larger volumes of unaccounted money sloshing around during the poll season, Indian officials have been asked to rigorously interview female visa applicants. The move is likely to kick...

“A leopard mauled at least three people in the northeastern Indian city of Guwahati on Saturday after the ferocious feline ran into a house and attacked the residents,” The New York Daily News reports. The BBC tells us one of those persons has died. We learn that “wildlife personnel” with a tranquilizer gun took care of the big cat—after the attacks. We also learn that this is not the first time in recent years such attacks have occurred, and that they are on the increase. So why did Indian citizens have to wait for the authorities to show up after...

Rights campaigners and politicians Wednesday condemned a video showing women from a protected and primitive tribe dancing for tourists in exchange for food on India's far-flung Andaman Islands. British newspaper The Observer released the video showing Jarawa tribal women -- some of them naked -- being lured to dance and sing after a bribe was allegedly paid to a policeman to produce them. Under Indian laws designed to protect ancient tribal groups susceptible to outside influence and disease, photographing or coming into contact with the Jarawa is illegal.

India and Israel on Tuesday vowed to upgrade their relations in all fields and work out a joint strategy to "checkmate" terrorism, while deciding on a roadmap to elevate cooperation in multiple areas like defence, agriculture, trade and hi-tech over the next two decades. Setting the ball rolling, Krishna, who is the first Indian foreign minister to visit Israel in over a decade, called Israel a "natural ally" in all frontiers during his over one-and-a-half hour breakfast meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today, a rare gesture accorded to only dignitaries from countries sharing special relations with Israel. After his...

BEIJING: China on Monday slammed the United States' new Asian-focused defense strategy, saying its accusations of a lack of openness in Beijing's military policy were "groundless and untrustworthy.'' The strategy unveiled Thursday shifts the U.S. military focus away from Iraq and Afghanistan and makes a renewed commitment to assert America's position in the Asia-Pacific region. The document says the growth of China's military power must be accompanied by greater clarity in its strategic intentions to avoid causing friction in the region. In response, China said it was committed to peaceful development and a "defensive'' policy. "China's strategic intent is clear,...

India shares its country with leopards, which is both a blessing and a curse. Another leopard-on-human attack has taken place, and left one man dead, and four injured, including a man that was scalped by the cat. The leopard strolled into Gauhati located in southeast India and started his rampage of killing. The Belfast Telegraph has a picture of the cat attacking a man.

Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna's upcoming visit to Israel marks the opening of a festive year in the ties between the two countries, 20 years since diplomatic relations were established in 1992. "The visit is perceived as the most natural thing between two countries with such close ties, even intimate," says David Goldfarb, a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi. "A visit by a foreign minister is completely normal between countries which share such a level of friendship," Indeed, in recent years the relations have grown stronger at a fast rate. In the past, the ties focused...

WASHINGTON: Despite all the hissing and spitting from both sides in course of a deteriorating bilateral relationship, the Obama administration has clarified that the United States is continuing to supply new F-16s to Pakistan and upgrading the existing fleet. "Some media have reported a stoppage in the US-Pakistan F-16 program. These reports are not accurate. Neither Pakistan nor the United States has cancelled the F-16 program," a US official said on Thursday, contesting some of the virulent anti-US grievances published in the Pakistani press. The official maintained that planned delivery of the last "new-buy" F-16 purchased by Pakistan is scheduled...

India to spend €950 million on missiles for Mirage 2000 PTI India on Wednesday cleared a €950-million deal to procure 500 air-to-air missiles from a French firm for the Indian Air Force’s Mirage 2000 aircraft fleet. A Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday cleared the deal to procure 490 MICA missiles manufactured by French firm MBDA for €950 million, Defence Ministry sources said in New Delhi. The missiles would be deployed on 51 Mirage 2000 aircraft, which are already undergoing upgrades at French facilities under a €1.47-billion deal signed earlier this year....

Pakistan today said it will take steps to maintain the credibility of its nuclear deterrence following India's decision to acquire a Russian nuclear attack submarine on a 10-year lease. "We are looking at these developments very closely. Rest assured, there will be no compromise in terms of maintaining the credibility of our deterrence," Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said during a weekly news briefing. Basit was responding to a question about Pakistan's response to India's acquisition of an Akula-II class submarine on lease from Russia and the construction of another indigenous nuclear submarine. At the same time, Basit said Pakistan...

KABUL, Afghanistan — A 15-year-old Afghan girl severely tortured for months by her in-laws in an attempt to force her into prostitution will be sent to India for medical treatment, an Afghan official said Monday. Sahar Gul’s mother-in-law and sister-in-law were arrested and her husband was being sought, said Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi. According to officials in northeastern Baghlan province, the in-laws kept Gul in a basement for six months, ripped her fingernails out, tortured her with hot irons and broke her fingers. Police freed her last week. The public health and women’s affairs ministers visited Gul, who is...

A seven-year-old Indian girl was murdered in a tribal sacrifice and her liver offered to the gods to improve crop growth, police in the central state of Chhattisgarh said on Sunday. Human sacrifices occasionally make headlines in deeply religious and superstitious India, and usually occur in poor areas where some people revere practitioners of black magic. Two suspected child sacrifices were reported in Chhattisgarh in 2010, while in the same year the decapitated body of a factory worker was found in a temple in the eastern state of West Bengal. The victims are often ritually killed by witchdoctors to appease...