Russia Reactivates Arctic Military Presence; India fires nuclear-capable 'Agni V' missile

Developments around the world are making nations think their stand on the international plane. The American strength and its apparent ability to touch on any country it wishes is giving others the motivation to go tough militarily too. Russia has reactivated its presence in the Arctic by deploying its nuclear-powered ice breaking warships to the region.

Russia’s Defence Ministry officially announced return of Russia’s military to the Subarctic region. The statement was made to mark the arrival of a task group of 10 warships and support vessels to the western coast of Kotelny Island in the Novosibirsk (New Siberian Islands) Archipelago.

The task group is headed by Russia’s most powerful battleship and the flagship of the Northern Fleet, cruiser Peter the Great (Pyotr Veliky). The group is accompanied by four nuclear icebreakers facilitating the passage through areas with particularly thick ice.

“For the first time ever, all Russia’s nuclear surface ships – heavy nuclear missile cruiser Peter the Great and nuclear icebreakers Yamal, Vaigach, Taimyr and 50 Let Pobedy, were combined to perform a joint task,” Commander Admiral Viktor Chirkov told journalists.

Russia's first Defence Minister, Army General Arkady Bakhin said that Temp military airfield on Kotelny Island that was inactive for over 20 years will become operable in October, as An-72 and An-74 cargo planes will land there, bringing instruments and supplies for the reactivated Air Force base.

In the near future the airstrip will be modified to be able to receive heavy cargo planes such as Il-76 and An-22 Antey military jumbos. This will speed up reestablishing Russia’s military presence in the Arctic region, as the air connection will be regular, all-weather and all year around.

The task group left the port of Severomorsk and has already covered 2,000 nautical miles, crossing the Barents, Kara and Laptev seas. The region has been left unmanned militarily since the demise of the USSR. Now, Russia says it wants to take charge fully.

The simple theory of might is right. China itself has embarked on massive military developments which definitely is making the Asia-Pacific region look more like an upcoming theatre of war. America too has been bolstering its forces in Asia especially by radical increase in troops presence in the Philippines. It already has Seoul and Tokyo within its ambit.

India has conducted a second test firing of its nuclear-capable 'Agni-V' long-range ballistic missile, which boasts a strike range of over 5,000 kilometers – capable of reaching Beijing and much of Europe, The Indian Express reported.

The three-stage solid propellant missile was test-fired from Wheeler Island off the coast of Odisha on Sunday. The 'Agni-V' can carry a nuclear warhead of over 1 ton. India has been struggling to keep up with China's growing military might, and is eager to have a viable deterrent against its larger, nuclear-armed neighbour.

Ghana to Treat New British Visa Policy as a Rumour; Nigeria says Britain Acted Wrongly

Ghana's foreign ministry has stated categorically that it has not received any official notification from the British authorities over the latest visa policy. Ghana's foreign minister, Hannah Tetteh says the ministry is treating the report at best as a rumour.

The minister for foreign affairs in Nigeria, Olugbenga Ashiru also commented that Britain did not act in accordance with the rules. He said such a policy should not be out before official streamlining and agreement on it. That it was wrong for such to be disclosed first by the media. The minister appealed to Britain to review the policy.

The Federal Government of Nigeria has already vowed to defend the interests of Nigerians, following the introduction of the new visa policy by the British government. The policy requires Nigerians travelling to the United Kingdom to produce a cash bond of N730,000 (3,000 pounds, $4,600 or 3,500 euros) before they enter the UK.

The Sunday Times newspaper had reported that visitors from Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Ghana whose nationals are deemed to pose a “high risk” of immigration abuse will be required to produce the bond which they will forfeit if they overstay in Britain after their visas have expired.

China discovered to be involved in a string of Cyber Espionage Activities -Kaspersky Lab

Kaspersky Lab has discovered a years-long cyber-espionage operation that victimized hundreds of high-profile targets in 40 countries. The malware, known as NetTraveler, was used for covert computer surveillance and appears to have originated in China.

The Kaspersky Global Research and Analysis Lab best known for exposing Flame and Stuxnet - sophisticated spywares launched by the US government - has uncovered a global cyber-espionage network targeting the world's diplomatic, government and military agencies.

In a report published on June 4 the malware that especially targeted Asian countries was identified as an “advanced persistent threat” similar to the Red October unveiled in January.

“Based on the collected intelligence, we estimate the [controlling] group side to about 50 individuals, most of which speak Chinese natively and have working knowledge of the English language,” the report said.

However, nowhere in the Kaspersky report is the Chinese government accused of any wrongdoing and only speculation links China to the infection software.

According to the report, NetTraveler was designed to "steal sensitive data as well as log keystrokes, and retrieve file system listings and various Office or PDF documents.”

The amount of stolen data discovered on the malware’s command-and-control servers exceeded 22 gigabytes, with that being a small fraction of the total data stolen since the rest of it was previously downloaded by the attackers and deleted from the servers.


The countries most frequently targeted by NetTraveler – Russia, India, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan – all border China. The first evidence of NetTraveler appeared in 2004, but the report said the most attacks came between 2010 and 2013.

Diplomats were targeted most often, followed by government workers, and high-level private officials then international military contractors. Tibetan/Uyghur activists and oil industry companies also ranked among the favourite targets.

The hackers did not use any advanced vulnerabilities and relied on phishing attacks, which often distribute infected links via email or social media.

“NetTraveler victims get infected through spear-phishing attacks using Office documents which exploit two publicly known vulnerabilities,” the report states with analysts surprised that such unsophisticated attacks can still be successful with high profile targets. “Although these vulnerabilities have been patched by Microsoft, they remain effective and are among the most exploited in targeted attacks.”

The researchers discovered that at least six NetTraveler targets – a Russian military contractor, a government organization in Tajikistan, and embassies in Belgium, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Belarus – were previously hacked by the Red October campaign that was likely launched from Eastern Europe. Kurt Baumgartner, a senior security researcher for the Americas on the Global Research and Analysis Team at Kaspersky, told DarkReading.com the attempts from separate phishing schemes indicates those locations are highly valued.

“Threat actors infiltrate victims simultaneously and may or may not be concerned about victim overlap,” he said. “Most likely, with these two groups in particular, the operators have a specific set of tasks at the victim organizations. If they happen to see another piece of malware on the target network, and it doesn’t interrupt their operation, they just go back to completing their assignments.”

Courtesy: Russian Times

China Wants More in Space Market; Moving Towards Hegemony

China is really keen to boost its share of the global commercial space-launching business, with the target of owning 15 percent of the market by 2020.

Deputy head of China's Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology Liang Xiaohong told Xinhua News Agency that to achieve this goal, the country plans to build strategic alliances with major launch service providers and satellite manufacturers, and to develop its own technology.

China currently owns only 3 percent of the market but it hopes to become a major player in space in the near future. According to Liang, China's first solid-fuel rocket will be ready to make its first flight by 2016.

Chinese rockets' venture has been overshadowed by the achievements of rival Japanese and Indian aerospace industries, as well as private aerospace enterprises from Europe and the US in cost-efficiency advantage, Liang explained.

Russia continues to maintain the world champion in the space launch market, according to Russian federal space agency Roscosmos. Company head Vladimir Popovkin said that Russia conducted 24 space launches in 2012, sending 33 vehicles into space, accounting for 38 percent of all launches worldwide.

China has several types of 'Long March' rockets for use in commercial launches, all of which now mainly burn liquid fuel that must be pumped in just prior to launch, according to AP.

"The development of the Long March 11 will greatly improve China's capabilities to rapidly enter space and meet the emergency launching demand in case of disasters and emergencies," Xinhua quoted Liang as saying.

Earlier this week, China's space programme unveiled plans to send three astronauts to its orbiting space station this summer as part of preparations to establish an even larger permanent presence above Earth.

The Shenzhou 10 spacecraft, which will carry one female astronaut, will spend two weeks aboard the Tiangong 1 space station, during which time a team of astronauts will conduct a variety of experiments. This will be China's second manned docking of two spacecraft in orbit.

The station will be replaced around 2020 with a permanent one weighing about 60 tons, slightly smaller than NASA's Skylab of the 1970s, and about one-sixth the size of the 16-nation International Space Station, according to AP.

G20 Leaders Pledge to Avoid Currency Wars

G20 Leaders Pledge to Avoid Currency Wars
By Alexander Bratersky

Leaders of the Group of 20 said Saturday that global economic growth remains weak despite government measures, but they agreed to avoid currency wars intended to stimulate the economy by devaluing their money.

A meeting of the group's finance ministers and central bankers was held in Moscow for the first time, due to Russia's current G20 presidency. The Manezh exhibition hall, a stone's throw away from the Kremlin, was the venue.

"We recognize that important risks remain and that global growth is still too weak, with unemployment remaining unacceptably high in many countries," read a joint communique published on the G20's official site Saturday.

The communique, signed by high-profile financial experts including former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, also called on countries to avoid "persistent exchange rate misalignments."

"We will refrain from competitive devaluation," the statement said.

Financial experts said the communique indirectly criticized Japan, which recently devalued the yen to encourage economic growth by keeping interest rates at almost zero.

French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici told reporters Saturday that G20 members had agreed not to engage in currency wars.

The commitment is in line with the position of Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, who has said exchange rates should be set by the market because Central Bank interference could lead to imbalances, Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported Saturday.

G20 leaders also said they had agreed to establish a joint study group with the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and United Nations to stimulate the financing of long-term investment.

The G20 is also seeking to increase governments' control over the global financial system.

"The pendulum has swung toward tougher financial regulation," Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said Saturday, Prime reported.

The G20 meeting in Moscow was seen as a milestone for Russia, which is nursing the idea of turning Moscow into a key financial center despite purportedly poor corporate governance.

"A clear and enforced rule of law will be important for Russian financial markets to reach their full potential," Lawrence Goodman, head of the Center for Financial Stability, a U.S.-based financial think tank, told the Moscow Times in an e-mail interview Friday.

"Russian participation in the G20 and inclusion in the BRIC category of nations helps deepen its local financial markets," said Goodman, a former adviser to the U.S. treasury secretary.

"Although the clustering of Brazil, Russia, India and China is somewhat artificial," he said, "the four nations maintain the potential to shape future growth outside the advanced economies."

Nuclear talks between Russia and the United States

                              

                              
The United States is to send a top arms-control official to Moscow to convince the Russians to continue to decommission deployed nuclear weapons by saying it would save the two countries $8 billion a year, Kommersant reported citing an undisclosed source.

The initiative will target weapon categories not covered by the Russian-US agreement, which is called New START. The treaty pretends that strategic bombers can carry only a single warhead instead of up to 20 and does not consider weapons held in storage and smaller-scale tactical weapons.

A more drastic reduction would bring down the number of warhead by another third to some 1,000 to 1,100, according to the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit journalistic organization. The number would be sufficient to maintain US’ deterrence capability and would not require structural changes to nuclear forces, the consensus in Washington says.

White House officials reportedly believe that the approaching limit of 1,550 strategic deployed nuclear weapons, agreed upon in the 2010 New START agreement, could be brought down to 1,000 without compromising nuclear deterrence between the two powers.

Pyotr Topychkanov, a nonproliferation programme coordinator at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said that "in terms of its defence strategy, the US is shifting its focus toward conventional [non-nuclear] weapons, while Russia remains more nuclear-dependent. Therefore, it is easier for the US to talk about further nuclear arms reductions."

"Russia cannot keep up with the pace of these [conventional-weapon] developments and thus still heavily relies on its nuclear might," he added. "In contrast with the US, Russia also finds itself in a close vicinity of many other nuclear-weapon states, such as India, Pakistan and North Korea."

Africa's Economy: High Prospects of Boom with Caused Failures

Africa today:

$1.6 trillion – Africa’s collective GDP in 2008, roughly that of Brazil or Russia
$860 billion – Africa’s combined consumer spending in 2008
$316 million – the amount of new mobile subscribers signed up in Africa since the year 2000
60 percent –  Africa’s share of the world’s total amount of uncultivated land
52 the number of African cities with more than 1 million people living urbanized
20 the number of African companies with revenues in excess of $3 billion

Africa tomorrow:

$2.6 trillion – Africa’s collective GDP in 2020
$1.4 trillion – Africa’s consumer spending in 2020
1.1 billion the number of Africans of working age in 2040
128 million the number of African households with discretionary income in 2020
50 percent –  the portion of Africans living in cities by 2030

Africa is a destination for cheap and less costly labour which makes the prospects of booming economic activities high. The coming of more Foreign Direct Investments will be gingered by this. It remains a hot spot for investors.

It is worthy of note that Africa’s acceleration resulted from more than just a resource boom. Their have been various attempts by governments to terminate political unrest, implement enhanced macroeconomic policies creating better business climates but all these are again truncated with leadership greed.

Africa is a continent of commodities. Natural resources accounted for 24 percent of GDP from 2000 to 2008. The rest came stemmed from other sectors i.e. retail, wholesale, transportation, telecommunications and manufacturing. This is also a positive sign of economic growth since the 80’s.

Additional efforts to privatise state-owned enterprises, reducing trade barriers, cutting corporate taxes where applicable and improved regulatory systems, have stimulated economic blood flow. The headache is this angle is the lack of adequate regulations to properly guide the workings of the private sectors, hence, abuse and 'slavery' exist in most industries especially that of the Chinese, Indians and other Asian countries.

In the year 2000 foreign direct investment in Africa stood at $9 billion. Today FDI stands at in excess of $100 billion just from China alone.

Although Africa has all these resources its future is critically dependent on other developments and measures that need to be resuscitated to peak performance in order to competitively compete holistically.

Such sectors are education from kindergarten levels. Infrastructure for education needs dramatic attention, inclusive of modern technology that can be accessed on the Chinese market. Africa as at now has not astutely taken on the sector which is a critical pivot for development.

Upgrading and improving the syllabus for teacher education programmes. Special attention must be given to the food security in rural areas where children can also access upgraded medical facilities impacting on the high mortality rates.

No greater impact will occur than by 2020 where the forecast for urbanisation will be devastating for sustainable growth. Today 40 percent of Africa’s population live in her cities. By 2020 it is projected that more than half of African households will have discretionary spending power, straining urbanisation and impacting on the pollution levels for which Africa will also have to comply.

Impacting on green solutions is the lack of refuse and waste recycling throughout Africa. The one in Nigeria in Lagos is at best a concept in its nurturing state. These industries are neglected across the continent. Metals, plastics and alternative manufacturing from recycled metals and plastics are lagging industries throughout African that enjoy high employment.

The four most advanced economies in Africa – Egypt, Morocco, South Africa and Tunisia currently enjoy advanced manufacturing and services industries. These countries are also classified as diverse economies and will face some challenges related higher labour costs and volatility in the export markets.

Africa has been exercising her economic policies and stimulating the heart of sovereign industries in order to achieve continental growth. So far we have every right to believe that we are on course for recovery and maybe a renaissance in the making.

Now more than ever, inter-continental remedies are needed to achieve stability, improve human rights, promote economic democracy outside of political ambitions and re-establish Africa as a continent proud of her heritage. To get to that desired destination, African leaders need to end avarice and imbibe dynamic patriotism wholly.

Statistics Courtesy: Ventures Africa.

Rape Again in India

Another rape occured in India on Friday and it was a gang rape. The woman was abducted and taken to a village in Punjab province before being raped. Policemen have arrested at least six suspects.

Counter-Terrorism: Abuse of Intelligence

ABUSE OF INTELLIGENCE

Redefining Counter-Terrorism Strategy

Nothing, it has been said, is new under the sun but the only thing humans have successfully done is to keep off of the learning game despite the whole projection in education. Terrorism is not new in human history but what continues to be new is the increase brutality of conventional military in response. The world has seen the US embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998 as well as the Bali bombing in 2002 and several other attacks in India with the foremost being the Mumbai twin bombings. Russia has several from Chenchya and in the North Caucusus. That on Israel needs no mention. With all these, the world learns not. What is the marriage between conventional military and terrorism? Clearly limited except to tell the people 'Might is Right.'

If the military is the best panacea for terrorism, Israel today will be the safest place in the world. The US today would have gone to bed with all eyes closed after taking on al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan but instead these countries are becoming increasingly insecure. One does not need a sorcerer or a soothsayer to reveal that conventional military has no strategic and long term cure for terrorism. The only advantage of conventional military is on the tactical side. The tactical side must be backed up by the strategic long-term policies which, based on historical counter-insurgency measures must encompass both intelligence and socio-economic revamp. The most crucial fuel of terrorism is social and economic ostracism. When a people feel they are not really valued, alienated and trampled upon, they result to subversion. Perceived oppression begets terrorism.

In case of the current world terrorist activities, terrorism has largely been associated with religion. It now looks as if Islam is Terrorism. Action and reaction are equal but opposite. Going by global events, it is only a locked heart that will fail to see that Islam has been touched with painful hands by powers of the world. Power lies West, culture lies East. Power and culture are at war. Power has shown the world that might is right, culture wants to prove that all wars are war, either by powerful military force or by selective killings. To win the war on selective killings known as terrorism, intelligence must marry root-causes not conventional military. BUT, the first is for power to check itself. Power needs real and deep introspection. Power must not blatantly oppress culture; either its religion or manner of governance. Ironically, conventional military is the best fuel for terrorism because it makes the terrorists defiant and turns people's hearts to them. It is a case of choosing the known devil than the coming angel.

The strategy of terrorism is a semblance of simultaneous attacks from several directions (SWARM). A good question is: How can conventional military fight these acts in all directions? Almost impossible. They have no uniforms, they are readily among the populace. Some of them are capable of even watching an after-blast, in fact, even sample people's comments. Fighting terrorism means the army or conventional military must create the swarm units to swarm the terrorists. This has cogently been elusive in modern military strategy on counter-terrorism. Terrorism cannot be fought with large mass of troops. Terrorists cannot be defeated with powerful and massive military firepower. Civilian casualties is what this brings. The only thing this can and will do is to alienate the population the more thereby creating more and more fertile grounds for the terrorists. Tactical success no matter how blossoming can be locked by strategic failure. Japan today would have been an indirect enemy of the United States after the American occupation if her economy and leaders are corrupt like Afghanistan and Karzai.. Swarms of attacks would have wearied out the US in Tokyo a long time ago.

The only way to counter terrorism is to combine intelligence and long-term strategy of winning the hearts of the people through the destruction of all insurgents gasoline (reasons for insurgency). The ember of annoyance and ill-feelings must be logically extinguished. Every terrorist cell has reasons for actions, both remote and immediate. Intelligence brings out these causes while strategy gradually eliminates them one after the other. Religion-influenced terrorism is on the highest scale today. Terrorists easily relapse to religious dogmatism to gain converts and spread tentacles. Identification of the rationale for the attack(s) must be the first mission. Rather than wage war on the people or show a strong antagonism of their religious belief and doctrine, a consciously sustained campaign of what the religion really stands for and truly preaches should be sought from well-meaning clerics and must be publicly revealed as well as generally debated. First strategy. This will be the foundation of intelligence gathering.

In state-sponsored terrorism, the first strategy should also be rationale identification. After this, the government of the attacked state must be ready to launch swarms of secret missions on the brains behind the cell(s) within the attacking state circles. A perfect illustration is the death of nuclear scientists in Iran. Be that as it may, government over the years have not learn anything worthwhile owing to the numerous superfluous firepower usually employed. The US failed in Vietnam, USSR failed in Afghanistan. The US is again failing in Iraq and Afghanistan. Russia is failing in the North Caucusus and Nigeria is failing in Borno and the Northeastern States. Kenya cannot close her eyes because of al Shabab. ECOWAS could also be preparing to fail in Mali if it employs massive firepower and makes the rebels turn to swarm tactics using cells.

BRIEF LESSON FROM HISTORY

From 1948, Britain was combated with the Malaya Revolutionary Liberation Army (MRLA) insurgents mainly composed of 99% Chinese and few Malays as well as Indians. The insurgents had drawn a map of a three-stage Marxist revolution. The first attack came in June, 1948. Britain wasted no time in reacting. It was swift, ferocious, good co-ordination and excellent perseverance. Major I A Nass says ' Britain remained an outstanding model of success of regular armed forces fighting low-intensity internal insurgency.' Major Daniel S. Challis, writing in the United State of America Command and General Staff College (USCGSC) journal said that 'no better example demonstrates how properly trained forces, committed to a clear strategic objective, can engage seasoned guerrillas on their own turf and win'. British and Malay troops numbered about 60,000 police and later 40,000 Home Guards. To decisively swarm the guerrillas, another private army of Payan Kampong Guards reaching over 20,000 joined the fight.

The approach of Britain was a combination of economic, social, political, psychological and military means. All these were merged into civil action programmes and combat action activities which were resource intensive, requiring long time planning and co-ordination. Real patience. There was no quick-fix approach which Nigeria is employing in the case of Boko Haram. Military operations were brought under police and civilian (political) control at all levels. There was tough curfew enforcement, amnesty was granted to communist insurgents who freely surrendered and there was a nation-wide registration system. All these made the work of the rebels difficult. Registration in particular made it cumbersome for the insurgents to mix freely with the population. Realising the root causes of the insurgency from assessment of the situation, the British embarked on programmes aimed at addressing the fundamental social, economic, psychological and political issues. All these contributed to the demise of the insurgents as they became brutal in response and alienated the people from themselves.

NO LESSON LEARNED

Numerous wars have been fought after that of Britain in Malaya against guerrillas and terrorists with no lessons learned. The most catastrophic are the ongoing ones in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen not excluding Somalia. Nigeria has double to deal with, Boko Haram in the North and Tuareg rebels of Mali in the Sahel. Nigeria's counter-terrorist measures though not sophisticated tend to mirror and tilt towards that of the US. In fact, US is her role model in all ways but good governance and value of citizens' lives as well as sound economy. Even Sri Lanka was able to decisively ward off the Tamil Sea Tigers rebels when the Sri Lankan Navy shifted to light fleet and swift vessels attacking the Sea Tigers from all angles (given the war back to them the way it was coming). More so, the government was also perfecting its political arsenal as well. It was sharpening its governance polemics to win the people's hearts especially after being accused of human rights violations. The US fought al Shabab in Somalia and the Taliban in Afghanistan without good knowledge of the terrain and with no strategy of winning the hearts of the people. Such blunder she committed too in Iraq. Exactly what Nigeria is committing now in Borno and the Northeastern part and ECOWAS might likely commit in Mali.

The only lesson we have learned from history is that we have not learned anything. Not until when nations learn to study the background rationales for terrorism and come up with broad long-term plans and counter-terrorism strategy based on more police actions and intelligence gathering will terrorism subside. The whole affair now is that with all the mammoth military force being employed and deployed, terrorism is on the rise because the people are terrorised in mostly two fronts (militia-terrorism and military-terrorism). The likely result of this is for the people to accept the 'un-uniformed' ones who are likely to eat and sleep with and around them. They will continue to choose the devil than the deep blue sea unless the sea presents a smiling face and reduce aggression to the barest minimum. Until they realise and know the sea will not swallow and drown them before they can decide to swim in it.