UK military denies cuts to be speeded up

 

Ministry of Defence on Saturday denied claims in a leaked memo that up to 16,500 soldiers -- thousands more than originally proposed -- faced the axe of budget cuts.
The internal memo seen by the Daily Telegraph also reportedly showed that 2,500 wounded soldiers, including 350 who have lost limbs, would not be spared in an ongoing programme of defence cuts.
The MoD dismissed the memo as the "factually incorrect" work of a junior officer and said there were no plans to change the level of cuts to the armed forces set out this year.
It also insisted there had been no change in the way it handled injured personnel, saying they were protected from the cuts until they "reached a point in their recovery where leaving the armed forces is the right decision".
The memo emerged as Britain's new defence minister, Philip Hammond, flew back from his first visit to troops in Afghanistan and amid preparations for Sunday's annual national ceremony in honour of the war dead.
An MoD spokesman said: "The information in this leaked army memo from a junior officer is incorrect.
"Beyond those already announced, there are no further army reductions planned. There is absolutely no plan to change our treatment of service personnel who are wounded, injured or sick.
"Personnel injured on operations will not be included in the redundancy process while they are undergoing medical treatment.
"No one will leave the armed forces until they have reached a point in their recovery that is right for them."
Following a defence review last year by the Conservative-led coalition government, the army has been told to cut its numbers by almost a fifth to 82,000 by 2020.
In July, army chiefs warned that an extra 5,000 soldiers faced the axe by 2015, on top of the 7,000 redundancies announced for the first phase, which has already begun.
The classified document quoted by the Telegraph, sent to commanders in Afghanistan, states that wounded soldiers who have been "temporarily downgraded will not be exempt" and could be dismissed in the next round of job cuts early next year.
Jim Murphy, defence spokesman for the opposition Labour party, warned that an accelerated redundancy programme could have "dangerous" consequences and that axeing injured troops would be "the cruellest cut of all".
In the past month, six British soldiers have undergone double amputations as a result of injuries caused by the roadside bombs used by the Taliban, which have accounted for many of the 385 British deaths in Afghanistan since 2001.
An officer serving with a unit in which a soldier suffered a triple amputation this month told the Telegraph the memo had badly damaged morale.
"We now know that not only will we be left with a life-changing injury serving our country over here but we will more than likely be kicked out of the army," he said.

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Lufthansa agrees to sell British Midland to IAG

 

German airline Lufthansa said Friday it has agreed in principle to sell its loss-making unit British Midland to the International Airlines Group, the holding company of British Airways.

"Deutsche Lufthansa AG and International Consolidated Airlines Group have reached an agreement in principle on the sale of British Midland to IAG," the German carrier said in a statement.

"The sale and closing of the deal remain subject to conditions including a binding purchase agreement, further due diligence and regulatory clearances. It is envisaged that the purchase agreement will be signed in the coming weeks and the aim is for the transaction to be completed in the first quarter of 2012," the statement said.

Media reports said Virgin Atlantic had also been interested in buying British Midland (BMI) because of its attractive slots -- take-off and landing rights -- at Heathrow airport.

Lufthansa acquired the British airline in 2009, but the recent crises and conflicts in the key regions of North Africa and the Middle East prevented the German carrier from steering the unit back into profit.

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Two Britons killed in Kabul attack

Two British contractors were among 13 foreigners who died when a Taliban car bomber struck a NATO convoy in the Afghan capital Kabul on Saturday, the Foreign Office in London said.

Officials had said they were all Americans, but a spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said on Sunday that NATO now believed the 13 included two Britons and the Canadian soldier whose death had previously been announced. Four Afghans also died.

"We have learned that two British nationals were among the 13 killed in yesterday's attack in Kabul," a Foreign Office statement said.

"Next of kin have been informed. Our thoughts are with the families of all who died, ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) personnel and contractors, Afghan forces and civilians.

"Consular staff in Kabul are in close touch with the employer of the deceased. We stand by to provide any consular assistance to their families."

On Saturday, the Afghan interior ministry said three bystanders and a policeman were killed in the attack, while NATO's alliance force said at least 13 foreigners died -- five troops and eight civilian employees.

US officials said these 13 were all American but the latest information from ISAF appears to contradict that, the Foreign Office spokeswoman said.

"We believe it was 13 people, and two of those were British nationals. Because of the nature of the incident, it has been difficult to identify some of the nationalities," she said.

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Turkey: 49 Kurdish rebels killed in fighting

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkish troops have killed at least 49 Kurdish rebels in a valley near the Iraqi border, the military said Saturday, as hundreds of troops also pursued Kurdish fighters within northern Iraq.

The rebels were killed in offensives in the past two days in the Kazan Valley region, near the town of Cukurca that borders Iraq, the military said in a statement posted on its website. There was no confirmation of the deaths from the rebel group.

On Wednesday, Turkey launched anti-rebel offensives involving around 10,000 troops both in southeastern Turkey and across the border in Iraq. The military operations began hours after 24 soldiers were killed in Cukurca by the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in the deadliest one-day toll against the military since the 1990s.

Turkey's conflict with the Kurdish rebels has killed tens of thousands of people since the insurgents took up arms to fight for autonomy in the country's Kurdish-dominated southeast in 1984.

The Military said it recovered the bodies of 35 rebels at the valley after it struck the area with artillery shells and airstrikes on Saturday. Seven other bodies were found inside a cave while seven more rebels were killed in separate clashes in the region.

"Operations launched in a few regions across the border and in two regions inside Turkey are continuing," the military statement said, adding they were aimed at "preventing acts by members of the separatist terror organization against our units."

On Friday, the military said air and ground offensives were mostly concentrated within Turkey, in Cukurca, while operations were also under way "in a few areas" in northern Iraq.

The military has not revealed the number of soldiers that have crossed into Iraq. But the Haber Turk newspaper reported Saturday that 1,500 elite troops were involved in the ground operation against rebel hideouts in northern Iraq. The Vatan newspaper put the figure at 2,000.

The Turkish troops had penetrated three miles (five kilometers) into Iraqi territory, Haber Turk said, while military helicopters were ferrying elite troops in and out of other areas for "spot operations" against PKK rebels. Warplanes and drones were providing air support for the gunbattles.

The paper said the offensive was targeting seven suspected PKK bases along the border, where about 2,000 rebels are believed to be hiding.

The military said the operation includes commandos, special forces and paramilitary special forces — elite forces trained in guerrilla warfare. They are being reinforced by F-16 and F-4 warplanes, Super Cobra helicopter gunships and surveillance drones.

The Kurdish rebels meanwhile, said seven of their fighters, including three senior operatives, were killed in Turkish air raids in northern Iraq on Oct. 10 and vowed revenge.

Turkey has launched more than two dozen air and ground incursions into northern Iraq over the 27 years of the insurgency, with mixed results. The rebels have returned to positions along the border soon after the troops have withdrawn. The current offensive was the largest attack on the insurgents in more than three years.

Turkey is seeking the cooperation of Iraqi Kurds, who control an autonomous region in northern Iraq, and of Iran for the latest offensive.

Hurriyet newspaper reported Saturday that Iraqi Kurdish security forces, the Peshmerga, were helping Turkish troops by providing intelligence.

Iraqi leaders have condemned the rebel attacks and promised to stop the PKK from using Iraqi territory for future attacks against Turkey. The Iraqi Foreign Ministry said both Baghdad and the regional Kurdish government in northern Iraq "are committed to securing the borders."

On Friday, Turkey and Iran vowed to collaborate against the PKK and its Iranian wing, the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, or PJAK, during a visit by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi. The PKK and PJAK have both been fighting for Kurdish autonomy in their respective countries and both are labeled as terrorist organizations by the United States.

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German police arrest 2 suspected spies

German prosecutors say police have arrested a pair of suspected foreign agents whom a media reports describes as Russian Spies since the days of the Cold War.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office says the two were arrested in Baden-Wuerttemberg and Hesse state Tuesday by German police's elite GSG-9 special operations commando.

Prosecutors said in a statement Friday they "are suspected of having worked in Germany over a long period of time for a foreign intelligence agency."

A prosecution spokesman declined to elaborate.

German news weekly Der Spiegel on Saturday reported that the pair — a Russian couple allegedly spying in Germany since 1988 — were arrested following a tip from the FBI who had uncovered a ring of Russian spies in the U.S. last year.

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U.N. assembly calls for truce before 2012 Olympics

 

The U.N. General Assembly called on Monday for a truce in the world's conflicts during next year's Summer Olympics, an ancient Greek tradition revived in the 1990s but not always honoured by U.N. members.

A resolution sponsored by host country Britain urged member states "to observe ... the Olympic Truce, individually and collectively" from the start of the Olympics on July 27 to the close of the Paralympics, for athletes with disabilities, on September 9. The two events will be held in succession in London.

In ancient Greece, where the Olympics began, often-warring city-states suspended conflicts for up to three months to enable athletes to travel freely to and from the games.

The idea of proclaiming a truce was resurrected in a General Assembly resolution in 1993. It has been affirmed by the international community at each Olympiad since but has not always succeeded in stopping conflicts.

Russia and Georgia fought over South Ossetia during the last Summer Olympics in Beijing in August 2008.

At a debate on Monday's resolution, which was adopted without a vote, Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin joined other speakers in welcoming the truce appeal. Russia will host the 2014 Winter Olympics at Sochi.

Presenting the resolution, London Games chief Sebastian Coe said it was impossible to ignore "the continuing spectre of conflict around the world" and "it would be folly to suggest that sport provides a complete answer, a panacea for all our social ills."

"But it can and does help to mend broken communities, rebuild trust, rediscover self-respect, and foster the values at the core of our common humanity," said Coe, a gold-medal-winning runner in the 1980 and 1984 Olympics.

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Cameron demands answers in defence minister row

 

Prime Minister David Cameron has demanded an urgent report into claims his defence minister involved a friend in government business concerning Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Libya.

Liam Fox denied that national security was compromised by his ties to Adam Werritty, who was best man at his wedding but has no official government role, and Cameron's office at first said Fox had his "full confidence".

But hours later Downing Street changed its tune, saying Cameron wanted a preliminary report on the facts by Monday and was not prepared to wait until an internal Ministry of Defence (MoD) inquiry reports back in a fortnight.

The claims overshadowed Fox's first visit to Libya at the weekend during which he announced £500,000 new funding for the National Transitional Council's fight against arms proliferation.

Fox, 50, ordered the MoD inquiry on Friday into claims that 34-year-old Werrity, his for privilegedmer flatmate, posed as his advisor and had access to him, despite having no official government role or security clearance.

But the row intensified as The Observer newspaper carried footage on its website of Werritty apparently being allowed to attend a meeting between Fox and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse in London in 2010.

Several newspapers also reported that Werritty had brokered a meeting in Dubai in June between Fox and a company hoping to sell phone call encryption technology to the British military.

They discussed the possibility that British soldiers from Afghanistan use it to call home without being detected by the Taliban, or allowing Libyan rebels to use it to avoid detection by Moamer Kadhafi's forces, the Financial Times said.

Speaking in Tripoli, Fox said the Dubai meeting came about by chance while he was on a stopover from Afghanistan.

"Actually the defence industry representatives asked for it when they happened to be sitting at a nearby table in a restaurant, so it's not that unusual," Fox told the BBC.

"But with these questions, they're all reasonable questions for people to ask and I don't mind that and that's what you get in a democratic society."

Fox was a contender for the leadership of the Conservative Party in 2005 but lost to Cameron and is known to be on the right of the party. He has been defence minister since May 2010.

In London, Cameron's spokesman initially said he would wait for the outcome of the MoD inquiry, led by the ministry's top civil servant.

But as the row gathered pace, Downing Street said Cameron had asked the head of Britain's civil service to look at the initial findings of the MoD inquiry "and report his conclusions to him on Monday," a spokeswoman said.

Fox admitted this week that he met Werritty on an official visit to Sri Lanka in July, and the revelation that Werritty visited Fox 14 times in 16 months at the MoD in London.

According to The Independent, the Financial Times and The Guardian, Werritty set up a meeting with Fox and members of the Porton Group, including chief executive Harvey Boulter, while Fox was in Dubai on official business in June.

Citing Boulter, the newspapers said much of the meeting involved a discussion of Cellcrypt, a technology developed by one of the group's companies which they were interested in selling to the MoD.

The Observer newspaper printed emails from Werritty to Boulter in which he appeared to have been trying to set up a meeting with Fox in April.

The Times reported that Werritty had printed up business cards with a parliamentary seal saying he was Fox's advisor.

Jim Murphy, defence spokesman for Britain's opposition Labour party, called for Fox to make a full statement to parliament on the issue.

"The Secretary of State's version of events appear to be unravelling and he now has even bigger questions to answer," he said.

                                                       

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International community needs to work together to eliminate terrorism: Patil

Berne, Oct 3 (ANI): Appreciating Switzerland's strong and unequivocal condemnation of terrorist attacks in India, President Pratibha Devisingh Patil on Monday said that the international community needs to work together to eliminate the forces of terrorism, which are inflicting wanton destruction across the globe at will.Addressing the Wandelhalle/Salle Des Pas Perdus Parliament Building, Berne, President Patil said: "International terrorism is one of the multilateral issues on which India and Switzerland share a common view. We appreciate the strong and unequivocal condemnation by Switzerland of terrorist attacks in India. The international community needs to work together to eliminate the forces of terrorism, which are inflicting wanton destruction across the globe at will. This is vital for peace and stability in the world."

President Patil said that another global challenge facing humanity today, which requires an urgent, collective and coordinated global response is climate change.

" For a country like India, with one of the smallest carbon foot-prints in the world, the first and overriding priority is to alleviate poverty and to address our severe energy deficit. Half a billion people in India still do not have access to commercial energy," said President Patil.

"Despite our huge developmental challenges, we are doing everything possible, within our means and resources, to contribute to the global action on climate change through an ambitious National Action Plan on Climate Change. We have already declared our commitment to keep per capita emissions below the average per capita emissions of developed countries," she added.

Stating that both India and Switzerland have been actively and constructively collaborating on a wide range of issues, President Patil further said both nations elieve that the United Nations system needs to be reformed to make it more democratic and effective.

"India is convinced that this would require, among other things, the expansion of the UN Security Council. We strongly believe that India meets and satisfies all objective criteria for having a permanent seat in the expanded Security Council," said President Patil.

"We thank the Swiss Confederation for supporting our candidature for a non-permanent seat in the Council for 2011-12, and hope that it would be able to support India's aspirations to a permanent seat as well," she added.

Highlighting that Switzerland ranks amongst the leading countries in the world in harnessing renewable sources of energy, including both wind and hydro, President Patil said: "Renewable energy is clearly a sector where there is a great potential for bilateral cooperation. There is also scope for greater collaboration in biotechnology, where the two countries could focus on cutting edge areas, such as bio-electronics and bio-informatics, food processing, in which Switzerland has developed great expertise."

"India too has gained recognition from the world for its human resources that makes it an ideal Research and Development location. It has also emerged as a hub for high quality, cost-competitive manufacturing. These advantages offered by India, taken together with the innovative culture of Swiss enterprises, have created enormous synergies between our two economies which we should harness to benefit both our people," she added.

President Patil arrived in Switzerland on September 30 for a five-day state visit to enhance bilateral relations. She will stay in Switzerland till October 4 and then travel to Austria for a state visit from October 4 to 7.

The members of the delegation accompanying the President include Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajeev Shukla and Members of Parliament Vijay Jawaharlal Darda, Prataprao Ganpatrao Jadhav, and Dr. Chinta Mohan.

Senior officials including the Secretary to President Dr. Christy Fernandez and Secretary (West), Ministry of External Affairs, are also a part of the delegation, besides a number of business leaders and members of the media.

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