The Indians are known the world over for the excellent learning skills and the indian engineers and doctors rule the roost in US and Europe in all the leading multinational companies.
Now, India has joined the select group of nations, by manufacturing a nuclear powered submarine on its own. So far only US, Russia, UK , France, Germany and China have demostrated the capability to make nuclear powered submarines that are superior in terms of speed and safety and missile capabilities.
The latest development is indeed expected to speed up the arms race in the region in the coming months.
In the UK, the agency workers feel discriminated against, abused and treated as second class employees, a TUC report claims. Nearly half of 2,700 agency workers surveyed for the study got less holiday entitlement than permanent staff. One in three said they earned less than directly employed staff for doing the same work and three quarters said they were entitled to less redundancy pay. A government consultation on giving agency workers equal treatment to those directly employed closes on 31 July.
When employees feel this way, it would surely result in pending work and things not moving. Government needs to take steps to improve their morale.
A secret intelligence programme has been concealed from everyone else in the US. And, this is not some fiction being written. The former US Vice-President Dick Cheney gave direct orders to the CIA to conceal an intelligence programme from Congress, US media reports say. The existence of the programme, set up after 9/11, was hidden for eight years and even now its nature is not known. CIA director Leon Panetta is said to have abandoned the project when he learnt of it last month. He has now told a House committee that Mr Cheney was behind the secrecy, the unnamed US sources say.
There has been no comment from Mr Cheney.
Coming as it does now, the leaking of this report is expected to open a huge pandora’s box.
Finally, Pakistan is trying to do something to shrug off the tag of abetting crime at Indian soil. Pakistan says the trial of five men suspected of involvement in the attack on the Taj Hotel in Mumbai last November is likely to start next week. The minister said investigations were complete for these suspects and named another 12 men still wanted in connection with the case. The charges show Pakistan is serious in pursuing suspects in the case despite Indian claims to the contrary, he said.
More than 170 people died in the attacks, including nine gunmen. India has accused Pakistan-based fighters from the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba of carrying out the attacks. Pakistan has admitted they were partly planned on its soil and the two countries have suffered seriously strained relations. India has claimed that they have evidence that all the things have been planned by the ISI, Pakistan.
The billion dollar question is whether the US has turned its back on Iraq. Have we said enough is enough? When US Vice-President Joe Biden arrived in Baghdad this week for a surprise visit, two days after taking on a new role overseeing US policy in Iraq, he said this was a moment when we “have to make sure that the Iraqis don’t take their eyes off the ultimate prize”. But in the run-up to the withdrawal of US troops from Iraqi cities, Iraqi politicians and observers in Washington were worried that it was the new US administration that was taking its eyes off the ball.
Over the last 10 days, a reshuffle in administration positions and a new role for Mr Biden overseeing the US withdrawal from Iraq and the political reconciliation there, seemed designed to recalibrate US policy on Iraq.
We had seen history being made when the first black president was elected in Obama. Are we going to see another kind of history being repeated in 2012? We just might in spite of what happened to Sarah Palin during this election. The former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has announced she will resign as governor of Alaska on 26 July and not run for re-election. Mrs Palin’s term of office was due to end in 2010.
Some have speculated that Mrs Palin, who is popular with the Republican Party base, might be preparing to make a bid for the White House in 2012. Let history be made!
The Biritish Prime Minister, Gordon Brown has said he is “determined” to lead Labour into the the next general election, insisting the party is on course for victory. Labour finished third in the european parliament elections, getting just 16% of the vote. But Mr Brown told the News of the World: “We must and we will win.” In a Guardian interview on Saturday, the prime minister admitted recent political events had made him think he could “walk away from this tomorrow”. Apart from the humiliating poll results, the prime minister has faced a failed backbench plot to oust him, a string of resignations from his government and public anger over MPs’ expenses.
In a latest bombing incident, two people were killed when a roadside bomb went off near a police bus carrying prisoners Saturday in northwest Pakistan, an official said. One of the dead was an officer, according to Dilawar Bangish, police chief of the Kohat District. Eighteen people, including 16 officers, were injured in the attack in the town of Kohat, Bangish said. The bus was taking prisoners from the city of Kohat to a jail about 3 miles away, Bangish said.
Now, it is really difficult to keep track of how many times bombs are going off in pakistan. It seems that everyday at least one place in pakistan is getting bombed out.
If you remember, Pakistan has disputed the world criciket council’s decision to take off Pakistan as one of the venues of the world cup matches scheduled to happen in 2011.
When US invaded Afghanistan years back, they were shocked to see nearly 21 Chinese Uighur detainees alongside the Taleban terrorists. After months of investigation US was convinced that they were not enemy combatants, and they were kept in Guantanamo bay.
Four of them have been handed over to Albania in 2006, which is not ready to accept the balance 17 detainees fearing Chinese retaliation. Now US has tied up with Palao, a former US Pacific territory that does not recognize China to take these 17 detainees.
China is totally opposed to this, and has asked US to hand over the Uighur detainees to it, so that it can investigate their background and their network inside China. China has over 8 million Uighurs living in Xinjiang province, close to the West Asia border.
North Korea and South Korea held a rare talk between them, regarding the management of the jointly owned Kaesong Industrial park. The talks lasted for just one hour, with no concrete progress on the issue. Experts tracking the region, say that the park might be closed down anytime due to increasing tension between the North Korea and the rest of the world.
The UN security council members have agreed on a draft declaration, which is calling for additional sanctions against North Korea, for its defiance on nuclear issue.
