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Pak reacts strongly to Gen Kapoor’s remarks
Pak air force to get more F-16s
Knighthood for UK’s first Sikh judge
Scribe, 12 others dead in Afghan blasts
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Rapid H1N1 testing method developed
Canada raises warning level for travellers to India
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Pak reacts strongly to Gen Kapoor’s remarks
Pakistan on Thursday reacted strongly to the reported statement by Indian Army chief General Deepak Kapoor that Indian Army was ready to face Pakistan and China at the same time. “Such statements betray a hostile intent as well as a hegemonic and jingoistic mindset which is quite out of step with the realities of our time,” Foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit said in a statement here. He urged the international community to take due notice of the statement. General Kapoor was quoted by a leading Indian newpaper as saying that India was preparing for a possible “two-front war” with China and Pakistan. Basit said Pakistan remained mindful of the threats posed to its security as well as the importance of promoting peace in South Asia. “No one should ever underestimate our capability and determination to foil any nefarious designs against the security of Pakistan,” he added. In its report, the newspaper said the Indian Army was now revising its five-year-old doctrine to effectively meet the challenges of war with China and Pakistan, deal with asymmetric and fourth-generation warfare, enhance strategic reach and joint operations with IAF and Navy. Work on the new war doctrine - to reflect the reconfiguration of threat perceptions and security challenges - is already under way under the aegis of Simla-based Army Training Command, headed by Lt-Gen AS Lamba, sources told the Indian newspaper. The report comes against the backdrop of the 1.13-million strong Army having practiced - through several wargames over the last five years - its “pro-active” war strategy to mobilise fast and strike hard to pulverise the enemy. This “cold start strategy”, under a NBC (nuclear-chemical-biological) overhang, emerged from the “harsh lessons” learnt during Operation Parakram, where it took Army’s strike formations almost a month to mobilise at the “border launch pads” after the December 2001 terrorist attack on Parliament.
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Pak air force to get more F-16s
The Pakistan Air Force would receive 18 new F-16 planes by July 2010, Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman has said.
Talking to mediapersons on the occasion of induction ceremony of first SAAB-2000 AEW&C aircraft at PAF Base Kamra, about 50 km from here, he said that the new F-16s would be equipped with several new weapons. The Air Chief said that PAF was fully capable of meeting all challenges of air defence, making it clear that Pakistan had no offensive designs against anyone and its defence purchases were of defensive nature. To a question about modernization process of the PAF, he said talks were being held with China for supply of four AWACS planes which would be handed over to PAF by 2011. He further said Pakistan would also receive surface-to-air missile system by end of next year.
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Knighthood for UK’s first Sikh judge
London, December 31 London-based Singh, who is also a Queen's Counsel, has been knighted in the Queen's New Year Honours List for "services to the Administration of Justice, Community Relations and to the Voluntary
Sector". His decision to wear a white turban in court, instead of a wig, came to be seen as a sign of a multicultural Britain. A Ramgarhia Sikh, Mota Singh was raised and educated in Nairobi, Kenya. In 1954, he shifted to England to complete the remaining part of his studies of law. He joined the English bar in 1967. Within months, he developed a successful practice in civil law. Among the several Indian-origin people honoured in the New Year List is Achhar Paul
Dharni, who has been awarded the MBE (Member of the British Empire) for services to business and to the community in Bradford, West
Yorkshire. Dharni, 68, who is also the chairman of Bradford's Hindu Cultural Society, emigrated to the city from India in 1963. He worked as a bus driver, ran and sold his own insurance broker and travel
companies. Dharni was a key figure behind the £ 3 million project to build the Laxmi Narayan Hindu temple on the Leeds Road, which was opened by the Queen in May 2007.
— PTI
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Scribe, 12 others dead in Afghan blasts
Washington, December 31 In Washington, the dead and at least eight wounded were feared to be mostly the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) workers or intelligence contractors. The attack appeared to be by far the deadliest strike against the US intelligence community in the eight-year war in Afghanistan, The Washington Post reported on its website. Media reports from Kabul said a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest carried out the attack. In another attack on foreigners in southern Afghanistan, four Canadian soldiers and a Canadian journalist were killed yesterday in a roadside bombing in Kandahar province, the Canadian Defence Ministry said. Four soldiers and another civilian were also injured in the blast on an armoured vehicle 4 km south of the provincial capital, also called Kandahar, the Ministry said. The Canadian government is withholding the names of the soldiers killed in the Kandahar attack until their families were contacted, but the journalist's newspaper, the Calgary Herald, identified her as Michelle Lang, 34. Lang was embedded with Canadian troops in southern Afghanistan, reporting on their mission in the insurgency-plagued region, and was on patrol with a convoy when she died, it said. She was the first Canadian journalist to die during the most recent Afghan conflict, the Herald said. She had arrived on her first trip to Afghanistan in mid-December for what had been planned as a six-week stay after recently becoming engaged, it said.
— DPA
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Rapid H1N1 testing method developed
New York, December 31 Researchers from Wisconsin Medical College and Children’s Hospital have developed a rapid and automated system to differentiate strains of influenza, according to Journal of Molecular Diagnostics. The method - Real-Time Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (real-time RT-PCR) is a sensitive and specific method for identifying flu sub-strains; however, technician and assay time are significantly longer than less accurate rapid influenza diagnostic tests. The team led by Dr Kelly J Henrickson of the Medical College of Wisconsin said the test, which would detect influenza A, influenza B and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in no time, was needed in order to make quick and effective public health decisions in time of pandemic infection. The test could successfully detect human H1N1, H3N2, and swine-origin H1N1 viruses as well as distinguish these from influenza B and RSV infections, Henrickson said.
— PTI
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Canada raises warning level for travellers to India
Ottawa, December 31 Urging its citizens travelling to India to exercise great caution “at all times”, the Department of Foreign Affairs says: “Since early December, a number of protests and strikes have been taking place in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Several of these, in the vicinity of Osmania University in Hyderabad, turned violent. Canadians are advised to exercise a high degree of caution, avoid large crowds and demonstrations, and follow the advice of local authorities.” It says Canadian travellers should also be vigilant on Republic Day as militants have struck on these occasions in the past. “Canadians residing or travelling to India are strongly encouraged to maintain a high level of vigilance, remain aware of their surroundings, monitor local news reports, follow the advice of local authorities, avoid crowded places, and take appropriate steps to increase their personal security,” the advisory warns. Even before the violence over the Telangana demand broke out, the Canadian Foreign Affairs Department maintained a strongly worded advisory about the situation in India. — IANS
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Gunman kills 4 in Finland mall 
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Washington, December 31
