COUNTRY REVIEW

South Asia

Afghanistan

• Afghan Defense Ministry: 70 insurgents killed in ‘Operation Khanjar’; Adm. Mullen: US main focus is now Afghanistan and Pakistan; 24 people, including 16 children, killed in truck bomb explosion in Logar Province

Pakistan

• Zardari acknowledges militant groups were “deliberately created and nurtured” by Pakistan for “tactical” objectives; Pak government: Operations in Swat and Buner over; Reports: Baluchistan insurgency on the rise

Bhutan

• Bhutan PM visits India, 10 hydel projects, among other joint efforts announced; Bhutan registered an economic growth of 8.1 per cent in 2008-09; Nepal to take up the issue of Bhutanese refugees with Thimpu

Sri Lanka

• Chidambaram: Sri Lanka not doing enough to cater to the needs of the displaced Tamilians; Rajapakse: No place for “racism” in Sri Lanka; Saudi Arabia provides 100 tonnes of relief material

East and SouthEast Asia

China

• Chinese Chief of General Staff meets with his Pakistani and Ecuadorean counterparts; Russia and China to conduct joint exercises; Indigenously-built ‘new-style catamaran missile speedboats’ successfully tested

Japan

• LDP loses Tokyo metropolitan assembly elections; LDP proposes reducing parliamentary chambers and the number of legislators; Reports: Foreign Ministry officials tried to destroy copies of secret 1960 nuclear agreement with the US

South Korea

• South Korea experiences third wave of cyber-attacks; Obama: US trying to keep door open for DPRK’s return to Six-Party Talks; Nuclear negotiators of South Korea and Japan discuss implementation of UNSC resolutions

SouthEast Asia

• Thai-Cambodia border dispute intensifies; Thai PM visits Vietnam; Indonesian Army gets forty APCs as part of its military modernization programme; Malaysia to propose ASEAN Defence Industry Council at the upcoming ASEAN Defence Ministers’ meeting

West Asia

Iran

• Khamenei warns West on “negative impact” on relations; Brown: The outcome of the Iranian election was “a matter for the Iranian people”; Obama denies US has given Israel a green light to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities

Iraq

• More than fifty killed in suicide bombings across Iraq

MISSILE, SPACE, NUCLEAR AND DEFENCE REVIEW

Missile and Space

• Pakistan ‘spoofing’ Thutaya satellite phones in order to make it difficult to track them; VSSC Director: Two humans to be sent into space by 2015

Defence National

• DRDO-made NBC detection vehicle inducted into Indian Army

International

• Arrow 3 to have better performance parameters than Raytheon SM-3

Nuclear Review

• Amano: IAEA not just a nuclear watchdog

• START could expire before replacement approved

• French authorities: Pakistan's enthusiasm might delay nuclear pact

INTERNAL SECURITY REVIEW

Jammu and Kashmir

• Omar Abdullah: CRPF can’t be withdrawn overnight from J&K unless capabilities of state police are augmented

Maoist Insurgency

• 30 policemen killed in Maoist strikes in Chhattisgarh

NorthEast Development

• Union Home Minister talks tough on insurgency