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Weapons - Preventing Proliferation
After more than 10 years and $6.4 billion of U.S. aid to dismantle its stockpiles, Russia still sits on the world's most dangerous and poorly guarded arsenal of WMD, which includes 40,000 tons of weapons-grade nuclear material. American officials warned Congress last week that due to a combination of official obstruction, red tape and Russian financial tricks, the United States has been unable to help protect substantial portions of Russia's nuclear warheads and fuel. U.S. officials say they have been barred access to 73 percent of buildings that house Russia's weapons - usable material. In addition, announced Joseph Christoff, Director of International Affairs and Trade at the General Accounting Office, "many Russian biological sites that store dangerous biological pathogens remain off-limits." The Russians have cited state-security concerns as their reason for limiting access to the sites.
Newsweek - March 17, 2003.
CISF takes over airport security, New Delhi
New Delhi - April 2, 2003 - Indira Gandhi International Airport became the 46th Indian airport to come under the umbrella of the Central Industrial Security Force on Wednesday. The representative of the Delhi Police, Joint Commissioner, S.K. Chaudhary, welcomed CISF with advice on how to handle the job in hand. "The Delhi airport is unique from other airports in that it has the maximum number of flights, lots of VIP movement and because of this, is also a top target for terrorists. The CISF would need top pay special heed to these special requirements', he said. DG, CISF, B.B. Mishra, promised that the force would do its best to live up to the expectations of the people.
Hindustan Times - April 3, 2003
Eight policemen killed in MCC attack, Bihar, India
By laying dynamite sticks on the road, outlawed extremist outfit Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) blew up a police jeep on Tuesday killing eight policemen (including two officers), and injuring three, near Sugri in Nawada district of Bihar. The MCC militants took away nine weapons - six SLRs, two carbines and one revolver - besides 400 rounds of ammunition from the police. Police officials said intensive combing operations had been launched in the areas bordering Koderma and Giridih of Jharkhand. Families of the deceased policemen will be given Rs.10 lakh each as compensation.
Hindustan Times - April 16, 2003.
Landmine blast kills 6 civilians, injures 11
Srinagar - April 22, 2003 - Six civilians, including a 12-year-old boy, were blown to pieces and eleven persons were critically injured, in a powerful landmine explosion in Tral of South Kashmir's Pulwama district around 8 A.M. on Tuesday morning. The improvised explosive device (IED) had been planted in a stone wall along a patrol road outside Gulshanpora village near Butagund, to blow up BSF personnel, PTI said, quoting official sources. The BSF was reported to have begun a hunt for the people who planted the improvised explosive device though no militant outfit has claimed responsibility. Second blast: About three-and-a-half hours after the Pulwama blast, a similar explosion destroyed a BSF vehicle at Lower Munda near Qazi Gund, 80 km south of Srinagar on the national highway to Jammu. Nine personnel were injured, including two reported serious.
Hindustan Times - April, 23, 2003.
US pilots set to carry guns in cockpits
Glynco (Georgia) - April 18, 2003 -46 pilots, most of them gray-haired veterans of the airline industry, volunteered to travel to southern Georgia for the first federal training class for armed pilots. "When the cockpit door is closed, you really do not know what is going to be on the other side", said one of the pilots under training in the government's Federal Flight Deck Officer programmes organized by the US Transport Security Administration. The idea is to protect the flight dock at all costs and it is believed that weapons in the cockpit will bolster security.
The Asian Age - April 19, 2003
Illegal ISD calls touch 1 bn minutes
New Delhi - April 23, 2003 - The Telephone Regulatory Authority of India has called a meeting of companies on Thursday to discuss the menace of burgeoning number of illegal international calls, which poses a threat to national security. Apart from the volume of illegal traffic, estimated at 1 billion minutes per annum and up to Rs.100 crore in terms of revenue, illegal operators who usually front as cable operators, call centers and export houses route ISD traffic without having the mandatory interceptor feature that allows security agencies to keep track of criminals and terrorists. Licensed ISD operators like Data Access, VSNL and Bharti Telesonic, which are being hit hard by the trend, have also informed the DoT and security agencies. The illegal operators route calls through illegal satellite gateways and terminate calls at much cheaper rates than the normal per minute rate offered by VSNL etc. The solution is to take out the margin for illegal operation by reducing the gap between ILD termination rates and normal call charges and revisit regulations.
Hindustan Times - April 24, 2003.
Afghan smuggles heroin in fake almonds
New Delhi - April 24, 2003 - An Afghan national, identified as Abdul Zaheer, was arrested at the Indira Gandhi International Airport trying to smuggle in 16-KG of high quality heroin, which was packed in plastic and papier mache moulded into the shape of almonds. He had flown into Delhi from Kabul. On the basis of information received, Custoom officials watched the passengers and the crew. Zaheer was carrying about 25-kg of dry fruits of which 21-kg were almonds containing heroin, which looked normal even when the inner skin was peeled away. Only a closer look revealed the heroin, Commissioner of Customs Balesh Kumar said. According to him, the heroin had been chemically treated to give it an off-white colour of high-grade heroin. The brown skin appears to have been made of papier mache. This could only have been done in a very sophisticated moulding unit. The authorities have sought expert help to identify the material used to make the skin.
Hindustan Times - April 25, 2003.
Army turns hi-tech for kills in Kashmir
New Delhi - April 27 - After 13 years of scrapping with the proxy warrior in Kashmir, the Army is seeking an ally in high technology to dominate the clandestine enemy. The spearhead of the counter-insurgency (CI) operations, the Army has taken the lead in embracing technology. And its immediate gameplan is to use it to deny the terrorists use of the night. For night dominance, the first prerequisite is to acquire surveillance ability in the dark. RR battalions are being equipped with hand-held thermal imagers and night vision goggles to locate the terrorists, who have so far been using darkness as an effective cover. "We will gradually equip our units in reasonably large numbers," said an army officials. Modernisation includes provision of sensors and improved communication equipment. But the most critical are jammers to prevent the remote-controlled detonation of improvised-explosive devices.
Hindustan Times - April 28, 2003
Food for Thought
If you are doing something you do not enjoy, such as a certain type of work because you need the money for school, your family, or whatever, and find yourself complaining and feeling hard done by, then you are enduring a life of conflict. You either have to change your thinking or your job. When you choose to do something for a certain benefit such as money, complaining while you are doing it is, of course, a waste of energy and time and is self-destructive.
: Philip Winkelmans 1930-, author, life coach
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"As a solid rock is not shaken by a strong gale, so wise persons remain unaffected by praise or censure."
: Gautama Buddha
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"Live daringly, boldly, fearlessly. Taste the relish to be found in competition - in having put forth the best within you."
: Henry J. Kaiser, 1882-1967, American Industrialist
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