The matter of the blacklisting of Singapore Technologies by the Indian Ministry of Defense just gets curiouser and curiouser. The arms company has contradicted the basis of the report, tabled by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India in Parliament, on the special audit it conducted at the request of the Ministry of Defense, into the facts and circumstances that gave rise to the corruption case against the former Director General of Ordnance Factories and Chairman of the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), Sudipta Ghosh.

The arms company had been recommended for blacklisting by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in June last year, after Sudipta Ghosh was implicated in a corruption case. A decision to blacklist was held in abeyance last December to allow trials of artillery howitzers and other weapons systems to be conducted, subject to the investigations agency’s final report.

But in January the company claimed this was not the case and that it had not, in fact, been blacklisted.

Last month, Defense Minister AK Antony confirmed to Parliament that the CBI had recommended the blacklisting of Singapore Technologies, a decision that was under consideration. Ritu Sarin of the Indian Express reported last Friday the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) had given its opinion saying any action against tainted firms should be in accordance with the Defense Procurement Procedure 2008, thereby leaving the decision to the Ministry of Defense.

The same day, the CAG presented its special audit report to Parliament.

The overarching theme of the report was the absence of the contemplation of ‘even the rudimentary terms and conditions of TOT (Transfer of Technology) and co-production arrangements’ between the OFB and Singapore Technologies regarding the supply of SAR 21 MMS Close Quarter Battle Carbines to paramilitary and police forces under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), India’s law enforcement and interior ministry, to which the OFB had committed, representing a partnership with Singapore Technologies, without apparent prior sanction from the Ministry of Defense.

The CAG report says, “Chairman / OFB stated that the subject matter can be taken up with MHA stating that ‘an offset agreement has been signed between OFB and STK and the latter has developed the carbine using Indian components so that the indigenization process becomes faster for supply to MHA’,” further stating that no such agreement had been concluded.

Brigadier General Patrick Choy, Executive Vice President of International Marketing at Singapore Technologies, says such an agreement on offsets was indeed signed and included a workshare arrangement as well, with production set out in phases, with more than 50 per cent of the weapon order being produced by the OFB. Choy showed your correspondent a copy of the document, a Memorandum of Understanding between OFB and Singapore Technologies dated 30 April, 2008, which he said was the agreement in question.

While Choy did not allow detailed study of the document, citing conditions requiring non-disclosure of the agreement, your correspondent noted that the memorandum was signed on behalf of the OFB by a Deputy Director General-level officer and witnessed by a Director-level officer.

If this is the case, questions can be raised as to how the CAG has omitted any reference to the memorandum in its audit report.

Choy also elaborated on other details mentioned in the CAG report. The report says Singapore Technologies was asked to supply six carbines, including five for the tests, but indicates only two weapons were provided by the company. This, the CAG says, was too small a sample for testing the weapon. The retired Singapore Army officer says the company did in fact supply five weapons for the trials, which were all tested at the National Security Guards (NSG) base at Manesar. He also says his company had no idea they would be competing with the OFB-developed AMOGH carbine at Manesar and had been given to understand their SAR 21 MMS was the only weapon the OFB was pitching to the MHA.

Choy also believes the CBI recommendation is not the reason for the cancellation of the 155mm Towed Artillery Howitzer tender, scrapped last month. “We are still in other programs,” he points out, listing their offers for the Light Strike Vehicle, where they’re pitching their Spyder vehicle, a Light Specialty Vehicle, assault weapons and an All Terrain Vehicle.

He says they only discovered the artillery field trials at Pokhran had been canceled when the Indian Army evaluation team ‘went home’. He says their iFH 2000 Towed Howitzer was being calibrated to fire Indian ammunition, for which they also had to qualify the pairing for safety purposes and certify it. “We had asked for range time of three weeks or more,” he says, as well as Indian ammunition for this purpose.

They were granted ten days at the range in the days of the last week of May and the first week of June, he says, also adding the trials kept getting interrupted due to floods, sandstorms and because the range was being used by others, leaving them with five effective days for trials, in which they ‘couldn’t finish everything’.

Choy asks for a ‘level playing field’ considering the other howitzer in contention, the BAE Systems’ FH77 B05, an advanced version of the old Bofors gun, the FH77 B02 has got opportunities to fire Indian ammunition many times before. “If I don’t have a level playing field then the competition seems to be not really fair,” he says, also saying that while India was a ‘buyer’s market’, ‘other firms may be discouraged’ because of the ‘high risk’ of trying to do business here. Right now, they have to decide what to do with their gun, which is still at Pokhran.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India was asked by the Ministry of Defense, in June 2009, to conduct an audit into the facts and circumstances that gave rise to the criminal case against the former Director General of Ordnance Factories and Chairman of the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), Sudipta Ghosh.

While submitting that the institution of the CAG was neither ‘empowered nor equipped’ to conduct inquiries of a forensic nature, the CAG nevertheless accepted the charge and submitted a report to Parliament last week, that testifies to the acts of omission and commission, based on incompetence, lack of foresight or mala fide intent, that led to the recommendation of a blacklist of companies.

The recommendation for blacklisting Singapore Technologies (ST) arose from the issue of the supply of Close Quarter Battle (CQB) Carbines to paramilitary forces under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), India’s law enforcement and interior ministry.

ST was indirectly mentioned in the FIR (First Information Report) registered by the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) against Sudipta Ghosh and so the ‘transaction with STK was put on hold in June, 2009 by MOD.

OFB, disingenuously presented itself in partnership with STK for the transfer of technology and production of carbines for paramilitary forces and, when no such arrangement existed and committed to supply the weapons to the MHA. MHA’s urgent requirements for procurement also allowed the OFB to create a fait accompli, which left few choices for the MHA to look for alternatives but to ask for the supply of STK’s weapons in partnership with OFB.

“While MHA could avoid floating the normal tendering procedures by procuring it from OFB, the fact is that OFB in absence of any co-production arrangements would have supplied carbines produced by STK. The process amounted to a sophisticated connivance by OFB and STK to sell STK carbines to MHA without going through the approved laid down procedures,” says the report, adding, “Even the rudimentary terms and conditions of TOT and co-production arrangements had not been contemplated at that stage. OFB falsely presented before MHA the SAR 21 MMS as OFB’s offer, with production and TOT arrangements with STK. OFB’s decision to approach the Ministry of Defence at a very late stage for approval of collaborative instrument between STK and OFB amounted to a fait accompli situation in which little alternative was available. If the proposal was rejected, the supply to MHA would have been jeopardized and the modernization of paramilitary forces would have been adversely affected.

The CAG found it strange that the Ministry of Defence was unaware of these developments and  found out only when it received ‘two anonymous complaints in February, 2009 through MHA’. It also pointed out that MHA officials, too, failed to verify the ‘capacity of the Ordnance Factories to produce such carbines’.

The Ministry of Defence accepts that OFB offered STK’s carbines to MHA ‘without going through the due process’, ‘even after the failure of the STK carbine in the drop-test during trials’, ‘despite the valid objections raised by the Members of OFB’ and ‘no assessment of their capabilities or track record was seen to have been made’, with an inadequate sample size of two carbines.

According to the CAG, the story began when Sudipta Ghosh received a communication from ST on 12 June, 2008, which referred to a meeting in September, 2007 which discussed ‘collaboration between OFB and STK (Singapore Technologies Kinetics) on offset arrangements for selected programs of the Ministry’. STK said that it had received Requests For Proposal (RFPs) for ‘Close Quarter Battle Carbines and ammunition and also other items like Light weight Howitzer and Towed Gun system’.

STK asked the OFB for their terms for an offset partnership. At the same time, STK told Ghosh and other OFB officials that the MHA was ‘likely to make outright purchase of CQB carbine and they would like to participate in the same’.

The CAG report says, “Chairman / OFB stated that the subject matter can be taken up with MHA stating that ‘an offset agreement has been signed between OFB and STK and the latter has developed the carbine using Indian components so that the indigenization process becomes faster for supply to MHA’.”

No such agreement had been signed.

The CAG says that even though the meeting decided that this issue could be taken up with the MHA only after the carbine, with Indian components, was developed and test-fired in India in the presence of the OFB, ‘subsequent actions of the OFB belied that decision and confirmed the intention to mislead the MHA’.

MHA and OFB officials met on 24 July, 2008, where the former expressed an urgent requirement for 5.56 mm carbines because of the imminent deadline of the modernization plan of police forces (31 March, 2010).

Even while MHA officials pointed out the OFB’s own AMOGH carbine had already failed trials, OFB officials informed them of fresh trials being planned and recommended that five carbines from ‘one Singapore firm’ also be tested, for which OFB had ‘Transfer of Technology (TOT) arrangements’.

OFB Members, Ammunition & Explosives and Weapons, Vehicles & Equipments, both stated in an internal note on 29 July 2008, that STK’s carbines should not be offered for trials by the MHA ‘since they had not been evaluated by the Ordnance Factories’.

In spite of this opinion, Ghosh called a meeting on 11 August, 2008, where it was decided to ‘offer to MHA the STK carbine having minimum 50 per cent work share with OFB along with OFB’s own AMOGH carbine’ and that STK would provide six carbines, including five for the test by the MHA.

At this meeting, STK agreed to send two carbines by 25 August, 2008 and an end-user agreement and non-disclosure agreement was concluded on the day of the meeting itself, to ‘facilitate import’.

Tests of the carbine were carried out by both the OFB Small Arms Factory (SAF) in Kanpur as well as paramilitary forces. While the weapon did badly at Kanpur, its performance seemed to have improved in the hands of paramilitary forces.

Trials of the STK SAR 21 MMS (Singapore Assault Rifle Modular Mounting System) were carried out on a 50 meter and 200 meter range at SAF, Kanpur on 15 September, 2008, where the ‘Ability to fire with One Hand grip was found Not suitable‘. The weapons was observed to overheat and the safety lever came loose at the end of firing and could not be fixed. Drop tested from 5 meters, one of the carbines experienced a ‘major misalignment problem’, rendering it nonfunctional.

The other carbine too experienced minor problems during the tests, which, at this point, did not examine the effect of dust on the weapon and its performance.

STK then asked OFB to provide a safety certificate, apprehending ‘technical complications if their carbine is subjected to reliability test specifications as spelt out in the MHA’s trial directive’ and anticipating this requirement if the carbines were being offered as OFB’s carbines, produced by Transfer of Technology. OFB obliged by supplying the ‘required safety certificate and other certificates for recoil forces, noise levels etc. that were issued by DDG/R&D based on the certificate issued by STK’.

Without formal collaboration with STK, issuing safety certificates by OFB to facilitate trial by MHA was incorrect as the carbine was fully imported and it had failed on several parameters when tested in SAF, Kanpur.

The MHA tested the weapons from 17 November, 2008 to 21 November, 2008 at the National Security Guards (NSG) base at Manesar. The trials here found the carbine satisfactory on several parameters that had been deficient at the Kanpur trials. The weapons were drop-tested from five feet and not five meters, as at the SAF. Where Kanpur complained of smoke, the Manesar trials did not find any trace of smoke, but did find that the weapon could easily be handled and fired with one hand.

OFB had also brought its own carbine, AMOGH, to the proving grounds. The Deputy Director General, Research and Development, OFB’s representative at Manesar, ‘brought out that large numbers of stoppages were observed’ during its firing, largely found to be on account of defective feeding of ammunition by the magazine. The Deputy Director General ‘opined that the gun has otherwise performed satisfactorily as far as accuracy, consistency and other parameters are concerned’. This weapon was also six times cheaper than the SAR 21 MMS.

“He further observed that ‘Poor performance of SAF Carbine during trials of NSG could have been avoided, had SAF taken more care in preparing the Weapons Systems before sending to NSG‘,” says the report (emphasis original).

What happened next was, the OFB committed to supply the SAR 21 MMS carbine to the MHA, recieving commitments from the Border Security Force (BSF) and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

“In a meeting in the MHA on 18 February, 2009 regarding procurement of Carbines, OFB committed that they can supply the first batch of 2627 carbines on 1.9.2009, 18369 by 31.3.2010 at the same monthly rate and the total quantity by 28 February, 2011. BSF opted to procure the weapon from the OFB. CRPF also agreed with that,” says the report.

The Ordnance Factory Board met on 26 February, 2009 where it considered whether to undertake production of ‘STK make carbine’ and passed a resolution saying such production would depend on the collaboration with ST being approved by the MoD and the MHA committing to buy enough numbers, so as to make production worthwhile.

Resolution: Production of 5.56 mm Carbine of Singapore Technology with 45mm chamber length would be undertaken subject to (a) MOD’s approval of collaborative instrument with Singapore Technologies and (b) MHA’s commitment to procure economically viable quantities from Ordnance Factories. The background of selection of Singapore Technologies for obtaining technology for production of 5.56 mm carbine inter-alia bringing out that no RFP was issued to identify the collaborator would be spelt out to MOD at the time of sending the collaborative instrument for their approval.

The matter went no further because Sudipta Ghosh was charged with accepting illegal gratification. The CBI recommended the blacklisting of Singapore Technologies, besides six other companies in June, 2009 and again last month. Singapore Technologies had denied it was blacklisted last January.

North Korea got booted off Facebook. At least that’s what Bloomberg is reporting. But the account in question is alive and well.

The BBC reports that a French town might have been subjected to deliberate LSD poisoning leading to the death of five citizens in 1951.

Nigerian airlines can now fly directly to the United States, reports Reuters. What could’ve driven the Nigerians to improve standards was the case of the Underwear Bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Cape Verde is one of five other African countries that already had good-enough standards to run direct flights to the US.

Defense News reports Qinetiq’s Zephyr Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to have broken several records, including one for endurance flight. It stayed in the air for more than two weeks.

Wired takes a look at satellite pictures of Pakistan’s devastating floods.

Former Indian intelligence official Bahukutumbi Ramam questions if the Islamabad has exaggerated the damage caused by floods in Pakistan to get aid.

He also discusses the possible presence of Indian nationals in the Somalian terrorist group al Shabaab.

Indrani Bagchi writes about this too, at The Times of India.

The Asian Human Rights Commission, in a release, says flood waters were selectively diverted away from an airbase being used by US forces.

The New York Times reports the Pakistani motive behind the arrest of a peacemaking Taliban leader.

‘…Pakistani officials are telling a very different story. They say they set out to capture Mr. Baradar, and used the C.I.A. to help them do it, because they wanted to shut down secret peace talks that Mr. Baradar had been conducting with the Afghan government that excluded Pakistan, the Taliban’s longtime backer.’

Algeria has invited India to partner in a project to build a trans-Saharan oil pipeline from Nigeria, reports India Abroad News Service in The Economic Times.

The Wall Street Journal explains how Wikileaks is keeping its funding secret.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was accused of rape recently in Sweden but authorities dropped the charges later.

The Washington Post reports a move by the US and Afghanistan to track the flow of cash through Kabul airport to prevent corruption.

North Korea, already on Twitter has now joined Facebook too, reports the Associated Press. At around the same time the Workers Party of Korea is holding a big meeting. The Wall Street Journal says ‘…some North Korea watchers think the meeting may reveal a bigger surprise: a step away from dictatorship to collective rule’.

Iran has shut down the operations of a cosmetics company and detained its workers, possibly because some of them are women.

Babak Deghanpisheh writes about the position of power Moqtada al Sadr has gained after the departure of US troops from Iraq, in Foreign Policy.

And Douglas Farah speculates about why Russia might be worried about the arrest and extradition of the Lord of War, Victor Bout to the US.

Four Indian warships INS Mysore, Tabar, Ganga and Aditya have set sail on a goodwill visit to several maritime nations of Africa and South Indian Ocean.

The warships will be exercising with the navies/coast guard of Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa, Seychelles and Mauritius besides making port calls at Reunion and Mozambique. The visit will also include the biennial naval exercise IBSAMAR between the navies of India, Brazil and South Africa.

“The professional skills and experiences exchanged during these interactions would go a long way in enhancing co-operation and understanding the nuances of naval operations as well as disaster management and combating maritime threats of terrorism and piracy,” said the Indian Navy in a statement, adding, “Such interactions have been hugely successful in the past as is evident from the growing scale of complexity of the exercises each year. Having initially involved only basic operations, the current interaction will feature advanced aspects of naval warfare, including anti-air, anti-surface and anti-submarine operations.”

The visiting ships are part of the Indian Navy’s Western Fleet under the Western Naval Command and are based at Mumbai. The Task Group is headed by Rear Admiral RK Pattanaik, the Flag Officer Commanding Western Fleet, who is ‘flying his flag on the guided missile destroyer, INS Mysore’.

The navy said, “The destroyer INS Mysore and the frigates INS Tabar and INS Ganga are equipped with state-of-the-art weapons and sensors, while the replenishment ship INS Aditya is capable of sustaining the warships for prolonged durations at sea,” adding further, “The visit also seeks to demonstrate the Indian Navy’s ‘blue water’ capability to deploy, operate and sustain a maritime Task Force well away from home for an extended duration.”

Waka waka.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has criticized the implementation of the Indian Navy’s plan for enabling its submarines with facilities to couple with Deep Submergence Rescue Vessels (DSRV) and Submarine Rescue Chamber (SRC) of the United States Navy (USN), which has resulted in an expenditure of USD 744,343.

The CAG said in its report that not only were many of the 16 Indian submarines at the end of three-fourths of their life, but that only seven of them were actually operational, with nine undergoing repairs and refit. Two of the submarines, INS (Indian Naval Ship) Vela and INS Vagli, both Foxtrot-class, are due to be decommissioned this year and next year.

The report reads, “75 per cent submarines in the IN fleet have already completed three fourths of their estimated operational life. In fact the IN envisaged the project without clearly identifying deadlines for completing the project. It is pertinent to mention that only 7 out of 16 submarines in IN are operational and 9 submarines are under refit/repair as of October 2009. As of November 2009, Padeyes fitment has been completed in 11 out of 16 submarines out of which only 4 SSK (Diesel Electric Attack) submarines have been certified by USN for mating with US DSRV for a period of three years effective from 20 December 2007 and of whichat least 2 are presently under refit. Two of the serving Foxtrot submarines, on which Padeyes were fitted, INS Vela and INS Vagli, would be de-commissioned in 2010 and 2011 respectively”

The CAG report has also pointed out that any actual submarine rescue would depend on the presence of a USN DSRV, which would take at least 72 hours to get to station from its nearest base, and for the services of which, an agreement was not even in place. “The DSRV is to perform rescue operations on submerged or disabled submarines. It will remain stationed with the US Navy and in the event of an accident will be transported to the nearest seaport or airport, then to a mother ship to reach the rescue site. The nominal response time is 72 hours from the time the DSRV is lifted from its location to reach the rescue site and with the capability of rescuing up to a depth of 610 meters. Such time and depth restrictions further dilutes the effectiveness of a rescue facility which in any case is nowhere close to completion,” says the report.

The Ministry of Defense attributed the delays to ‘imposition of sanctions, amendment of LOA (Letter of Offer and Acceptance) in view of change in the scope of work, interpretation of contract differently by USN and other aspects concerning technology and operational incompatibility issues between IN and USN’.

The project is yet to be fully operationalized in spite of having been envisaged in 1997. “While the initial work of fitting of Padeyes and certification of IN submarines for mating with USN, DSRV was no where close to completion, a separate agreement with USN to enable DSRV to undertake rescue operations and further recertification of submarines is yet to be concluded,” says the report.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has criticized the acceptance of inferior-grade steel used in the manufacture of fleet tankers of the Indian Navy by Italian firm, Fincantieri, saying it amounted to ‘undue favor to a foreign vendor in (the) procurement of fleet tankers’.

Not just the steel, the CAG also has a problem with the ‘excess provisioning of spares worth more than INR 300 million (USD 6 million) and under realization of offset benefit to Indian industry’ in the procurement worth INR 9.36 billion (USD 200 million).

The CAG’s report says the original Request For Proposal (RFP) had a mandatory stipulation requiring the use of ‘DMR 249A or equivalent grade steel’ in the construction of two fleet tankers, which it says is ‘almost double the cost of ordinary steel’.

The INS (Indian Naval Ship) Deepak (Lamp) in dry dock at Muggiano, Italy being launched last February.

It says, “Out of the three firms, only ROE offered a technical proposal for using DMR 249A/ or equivalent steel. The offer of HHIL was rejected due to noncompliance with RFP provisions which included non-usage of DMR 249A steel. Fincantieri’s proposal was stated to be compliant with the RFP conditions. However, the firm proposed to use DH 36 steel in place of DMR 249A steel.”

INS Deepak, launched into the sea.

“According to the firm’s own admission, DH 36 grade steel has less weight and less resilience when compared to DMR 249A. The chemical compositions of DH-36 grade steel and DMR 249A steel are different and they cannot be treated as equivalent to each other. The prices of these two grades of steel are also different in as much as DMR 249 A grade is more expensive than DH-36 grade steel,” says the report, adding, “Nonetheless, the TEC opined that the DH 36 steel was equivalent to DMR 249A grade steel and accepted the technical bid of Fincantieri without taking cognizance of the offer made by the other two bidders. The Technical Oversight Committee also recommended the offer of Fincantieri. Later, when the commercial bids were opened, Fincantieri emerged as L1 (lowest bid) with a quote of Rs 723 crore. The offer of ROE was rejected as it was costlier, being based upon the prices of DMR 249A / or equivalent steel.”

The Indian Navy has issued a Request For Information (RFI) for the procurement of a Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV).

The RFI, issued earlier this month, is for the procurement of, presumably, Naval Rotary UAVs (NRUAV). While there has been talk, recently, of the possibility of Northrop Grumman’s Fire Scout being procured by the Indian Navy, especially in light of the delays in the conversion of the Chetak helicopter into an unmanned platform, the navy’s stand is all vendors will have to go through this process begun with the RFI.

Besides Northrop Grumman’s Fire Scout, the other contenders could be EADS’ Orka 1200, Boeing’s Hummingbird and Israel Aerospace Industries’ (IAI) Malat’s NRUAV. But besides the Fire Scout, the navy understands the others to be still under development. The navy had a chance to consider the Austrian Schiebel’s Camcopter but has deemed it to small to match its requirements.

Schiebel's Camcopter at Defense Expo, New Delhi last February.

The problem India has faced in converting the Chetak into a unmanned platform is in developing systems for landing and take-off from moving platforms like the decks of warships.

Not surprisingly, the purpose of the RFI, according to defense sources is to gather information on existing systems in the market with a view for possible procurement. An understood benefit of such procurement is insight into how such systems have been made to successfully operate off moving warships.

The RFI asks for specifications relating to range, endurance, payload, launch and recovery systems. The RFI also inquires whether the respective UAVs have stealth features and the latest avionics as well as whether the UAV can be fitted with weapons.

In other news, the Indian Navy has denied reports of the departure of the Russian Akula-class submarine Nerpa for India. Reports during the day from Moscow stated the nuclear-powered submarine, to be leased to the Indian Navy, had slipped its moorings.

The navy continues to hold that the Nerpa wouldn’t be ready to be for deployment before January next year.

The Lord of War is to be extradited to the United States by Thailand. The Russian arms dealer Victor Bout, upon whom the character of actor Nicholas Cage was based in the film, The Lord of War, has been indicted in the United States for conspiring to sell arms to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC) after he was arrested at the end of a sting operation in Thailand.

Agence France-Presse reported the arrest of two Congolese for the killing of three UN Indian Army peacekeepers at Kirimba, earlier this week. The motive was said to be MONUSCO’s role in blocking the integration of the particular rebel group into the FARDC, or government defense forces.

India bolstering diplomatic presence in Sri Lanka, reports Sutirtho Patranobis of the Hindustan Times, describing the setting up new consulates in the country.

The Indian Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defense slammed the Defense Ministries ‘casual attitude’ towards surveillance of the build-up of infrastructure by the Chinese in the regions bordering India.

A beauty pageant in Canada, Miss Pakistan World, has upset Pakistanis back home, who consider the timing inappropriate considering the floods in Pakistan.

Speaking of which, the Christian Science Monitor‘s editorial board asks, Where are Islamabad’s Muslim friends and China when it needs them?

And Mosharraf Zaidi at Foreign Policy analyzes Why the world doesn’t care about Pakistanis.

Rajeev Deshpande of The Times of India reports on the manipulation of the Nuclear Liability Bill, with some in the government appearing to be trying to minimize liability.

The Union Cabinet has now fixed and cleared the bill for tabling in Parliament.

Sikhs in Jammu and Kashmir have been receiving letters asking them to ‘convert or leave’ the valley. Again, in The Times of India.

A Saudi judge has asked hospitals if they can damage a man’s spinal cord enough so as to leave him paralyzed. So far, one hospital has refused on ethical grounds. The Associated Press reports.

The Christian Science Monitor reports the departure of the last US combat brigade from Iraq. But Navy Times reports another combat brigade to be still in Iraq, under the label of an Advise and Assist Brigade. Robert Fisk’s take on this departure, at The Independent. And this analysis by NBC is skeptical of a troop withdrawal from Iraq by 2012.

Time reports China putting the squeeze on Tibetan business and the Christian Science Monitor answers why South Korea’s blocked the north’s lone Twitter account.

The New York Times reports the first interview of Afghanistan’s new intelligence chief. Says he aims to build trust.

North Korea again

A mysterious aircraft belonging to the closed-state is reported to have crashed into a house in northern China, in, what some observers are speculating as, an attempt to defect.

The New York Times quoted South Korean news agency Yonhap as reporting the plane to appear to be a Soviet-era military jet and that the pilot might have been trying to defect, citing unnamed intelligence sources. The Times also said Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that China was now communicating with North Korea about the crash.

‘Yonhap said the North Korean aircraft appeared to be a MiG-21 jet. Quoting an unnamed South Korean military source, it said the jet took off from an airfield in Sinuiju, a North Korean town on the far western border with China. Yonhap said the pilot appeared to be defecting to Russia but lost course and crashed in China. Officials in the South Korean Defense Ministry declined to comment on the Yonhap reports.’

The Wall Street Journal reported, “Photos circulating on the Internet showed what appeared to be a fighter jet with a faded red star of the North Korean military burrowed into a thick corn field, its silver fuselage draped by logs, bricks and hay matting, with a slashed tail wing,” and also carried two of the photographs.

‘The spot is about 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Dandong, the major Chinese border crossing with North Korea.

…

The Yonhap news agency speculated the pilot may have been attempting to defect to Russia. It said radar images showed the plane took off from Sinuiju, just over the border from Dandong. Such a short distance would raise the possibility the pilot ran out of fuel.

Attempting a flight to Russia over China would be extremely risky, taking it near major cities, including Beijing, although it might be the quickest route out of North Korea.

Though defectors from North Korea into China are common, they are mostly civilians, not military.’

The Christian Science Monitor had this to say.

‘Analysts believe the plane may have been bound for Russia and flown off course, but the reason for the flight or the crash remains shrouded in mystery. The inexperience of the pilot, or fuel shortage though, may have been a factor.

Bolstering that theory, analysts say North Korean pilots often lack adequate training due to scant fuel available to fly as many hours as needed to hone their skills.

“Most of their planes are out of date,” says Kim Tae-woo, senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. ”They fly very much less than our South Korean planes. They have a fuel problem and lack spare parts.”

…

The last time a North Korean pilot reportedly defected was in May 1996, when he flew a MiG19 to the South Korean air base at Suwon, south of Seoul. A North Korean pilot took advantage of a training exercise in February 1983 to fly a MiG19 to another base near Seoul. And a pilot flew a MiG15 to South Korea in September 1953, just two months after the end of the Korean War.’

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Taliban prison compound

NATO-led forces have discovered a Taliban prison in a compound in Musa Qaleh in Helmand province of Afghanistan, which held 27 prisoners in chains, reports Reuters. The report said they rescued prisoners, two of whom were aid workers, appeared to have been tortured.

The news agency also reported US officials as saying that the ban imposed on security firms on Tuesday by Preident Hamid Karzai could affect the delivery of aid in Afghanistan.

The report carried the following quote. “We are concerned that any quick action to remove private security companies may have unintended consequences, including the possible delay of U.S. reconstruction and development assistance efforts,” U.S. embassy spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement.

Reuters also reported that closure of 900 Afghan polling stations due to security concerns during the parliamentary elections.

‘More than 900 polling centers for Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections next month will not open because of security fears, an official said on Wednesday, adding to concerns after a fraud-marred presidential vote last year.’

The report quoted Ahmad Mahnawi Fazel, chairman of the Afghan Independent Election Commission (IEC) as saying that ‘those that would not be able to open were spread across 25 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces but most were in the south and the east, the heartland of the insurgency’.

And another report says archaeologists in Afghanistan have discovered Buddhist-era remains in an area south of Kabul, with some relics being reported to date from the 5th century.

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Somalian non-pirates

A US court in Norfolk, Virginia dismissed charges of piracy against six Somalis who attacked a US Navy warship. The court held the government failed to make its case that their actions amounted to piracy, reports the Associated Press.

The Wall Street Journal carried a very educative back-story to this case last Saturday.

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Zimbabwe’s diamonds

Zimbabwe is going to look east (including India) as far if its diamond trade is sanctioned. So reports the Christian Science Monitor also carrying a story on US diamond trader Rapaport’s campaign against that country’s blood diamonds.

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Wikileaks and the Pirate Party

Foreign Policy‘s blog Passport notes that Wikileaks has reached an agreement with Sweden’s Pirate Party ‘that would help protect the whistleblower web site’.

This could mean the sort of protection similar to the file sharing website The Pirate Bay. The Pirate Party has a seat in the European Parliament and The Pirate Bay’s servers are located in the Pirate Party’s office in Parliament, granting them immunity from seizure or censure. Or so one gathers.

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Humor and Brazilian elections

Passport also noted on Tuesday, in a hilarious post, how election jokes have been banned in Brazil, in spite of candidates with names like DJ Saddam, Chico bin Laden, Kung Fu Fatty and Second King of the Prawns having been fielded before.

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Did you know that Adolf Hitler received an Iron Cross in the First World War, later the foundation of his CV for dictator. The sickening irony? The award was recommended by a Jewish officer, Hugo Gutmann, according to this article in The Independent.

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Murtaza Ravi, editor at Dawn, writes revealingly of the state of Pakistan in the aftermath of the floods in the Indian Express.

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There’s talk of a coup in Iraq at Passport and a stunt pilot who survived even after getting a wing clipped. The Telegraph has the video.