India seeks action over UAE boat shooting

UAE asked to investigate incident in which one Indian fisherman was killed by US navy ship in waters off Dubai.

Sailors aboard the USNS Rappahannock opened fire on the boat "after it ignored warnings" [Reuters]

India has called on the United Arab Emirates to investigate the fatal shooting of an Indian fisherman by a US navy ship in waters off Dubai, the Indian foreign ministry has confirmed. "India's ambassador in Abu Dhabi has requested UAE authorities to probe the circumstances of the tragic incident," the foreign ministry's spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said on Tuesday. Al Jazeera's Prerna Suri reporting from Delhi says: "The Indian authorities are pressing the UAE to charge those who are reponsible, this is fast becoming a diplomatic problem for India, the UAE and the US." An Indian fisherman was killed and three people wounded as their boat was shot at off the coast of Dubai in the southern Gulf. "The firing has led to the death of one Indian national and serious injury of three Indian nationals," Continue Reading...

Pakistanis stage new protest over NATO route

Pakistan and the US reached a deal to reopen land routes that NATO uses to supply its troops [Reuters]

Thousands of people in northwest Pakistan have protested against the reopening of NATO supply routes into Afghanistan and are planning to turn the protest into a march. The march, organised by the Jamaat-e-Islami political party, a leading member of the Defence of Pakistan coalition of right wing and Islamist groups, began on Monday in the city of Peshawar. Demonstrators said they would spend the night at the park in Peshawar near a highway used by NATO trucks supplying foreign forces in Afghanistan. Between 5,000 and 8,000 party activists had reached the site by the evening, police said. A spokesman for Jamaat-e-Islami said 50,000 people would join the protest from the northwestern city of Peshawar to the nearby town of Jamrud, close to the Afghan border. Pakistan reopened overland routes to NATO convoys crossing into.... Continue Reading...

Dozens of MPs quit Japan party over tax rise

More than 50 members of ruling Democratic Party resign in protest over government's controversial sales tax increase.

Democrat heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa is set to leave, with analysts saying his power is waning [AFP]

Less than a week after Yoshihiko Noda, Japan's prime minister, won approval for a controversial sales tax increase, 52 politicians have decided to quit his governing party in protest. Forty lower house members and 12 upper house members will resign, including political heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa, though the government will keep a slim majority in the powerful lower house, an aide told the Reuters news agency on Monday. The defection would leave the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) with just 249 members in the 480-member lower house of parliament. The departure of Ozawa and his followers means Noda could be in a better position to consolidate his grip on his fractious party, though he will need opposition help to pass laws, since rival parties control the upper house, which can block bills. The plan to double the sales tax to 10 per cent in three years to curb ballooning public debt was passed by parliament's lower house last week with the help of the opposition. But 57 politicians from the ruling Democratic Party voted against it, with 15 others abstaining or absent. Ozawa, a 70-year-old former party leader, has... Continue reading...

Gunman in Afghan police uniform kills three Nato troops

A gunman wearing an Afghan police uniform has killed three Nato staff in the south of the country, the coalition has said.

The gunman was injured and later detained, Nato said.

Officials did not confirm the nationalities of the killed service members, or any other details of the incident.

More than 20 foreign personnel have been killed in so-called rogue shootings this year.

Observers say this has eroded morale among foreign forces.

"An individual wearing an Afghan National Civil Order Police uniform turned his weapon against International Security Assistance Force service members in southern Afghanistan today, killing three service members," Isaf, Nato's force in the country, said in a statement on Sunday.

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India tests long-range missile; capable of reaching China

A scientist at the launch site said the launch was successful, minutes after television images showed the rocket with a range of more than 5,000 km (3,100 miles) blasting through clouds from an island off India's east coast.

"It has met all the mission objectives," S.P.Dash, director of the test range, told Reuters. "It hit the target with very good accuracy."

The Indian-made Agni V is the crowning achievement of a now-mothballed missile program developed primarily with a possible threat from neighboring China in mind.

Only the U.N. Security Council permanent members - China, France, Russia the United States and Britain - along with Israel, are believed to have such long-range weapons.

Fast emerging as a world economic power, India is keen to play a larger role on the global stage and has long angled for a permanent seat on the Security Council. In recent years it has emerged as the world's top arms importer as it rushes to upgrade equipment for a large but outdated military.

"It is one of the ways of signaling India's arrival on the global stage, that India deserves to be sitting at the high table," said Harsh Pant, a defense expert at King's College, London, describing the launch as a "confidence boost".

The launch, which was flagged well in advance, has attracted none of the criticism from the West faced by hermit state North Korea for a failed bid to send up a similar rocket last week.

But China noted the launch with disapproval.

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