UK police simulate ‘nuclear attack’ exercise

September 18th, 2009 SINGAPORE - Singapore and Australia are conducting a joint naval exercise in the South China Sea Sep 18-25, officials said. Navies of the two countries will conduct a range of exercise such as surveillance, air defence and anti-submarine warfare, Singapore's defence ministry said.

September 16th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The suspected mastermind of the attack on Pakistan's Religious Affairs Minister Hamid Saeed Kazmi has been arrested, police say. The attack which took place earlier this month injured Kazmi, while his driver and security guard were killed.

September 7th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) has said that it is using unmanned aerial vehicles for intelligence gathering and surveillance and not for attacking targets. Clarifying the media reports regarding use of drones to attack targets, the PAF statement said that "drones are used by us only for intelligence-gathering and surveillance." The statement also said that the rank and name of the Chief of Air Staff has also been published incorrectly.

September 7th, 2009 HONG KONG - Eleven people were injured when a man threw acid during an altercation Sunday in a bustling market district, the fourth such attack in Hong Kong this year. Local television reports said victims had to be carried on gurneys to ambulances, their heads covered in bandages.

September 5th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan Air Force (PAF), for the first time, is using unmanned UAV drone planes in its ongoing annual war exercise in Sargodha. The focus of the drill named 'Saffron Bandit 2009-10' is to train fighter pilots in counter insurgency operations and carrying out precision attacks on militant hideouts.

September 4th, 2009 VLADIVOSTOK - A crew of Indian submariners will take part in sea trials in mid-September of the Russian nuclear submarine which is to be leased to the Indian Navy by the end of 2009, a source said Friday. Russia's Nerpa nuclear attack submarine, damaged in a fatal accident during tests last November, resumed sea trials July 10 in the Sea of Japan after extensive repairs that cost an estimated 1.9 billion roubles ($60 million).

September 3rd, 2009 NINGBO - China's maritime rescue services staged their biggest exercise so far in the East China Sea Friday by involving 35 ships, three aircraft and 1,000 personnel. The exercise was jointly held by the Ministry of Transport and east China's Zhejiang province, said He Yipei, deputy director of the Zhejiang Maritime Safety Administration.

August 12th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has rejected reports that its nuclear facilities were attacked by militants at least thrice in the last two years. "It is rubbish.

August 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Two Russian nuclear-powered attack submarines have been spotted in the Atlantic Ocean off the US eastern seaboard, The New York Times reported late Tuesday on its website, citing defence department officials. Such patrols have been rare since the demise of the Soviet Union.

August 3rd, 2009 UK police criticized for Muslim veiling exerciseLONDON — British police have been criticized for an exercise in which two female officers spent the day in full-body veils to learn about Islam. British media say the South Yorkshire Police dressed three female officers in conservative Muslim attire and sent them walking around the northern city of Sheffield as part of community-relations activity.

July 24th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US law enforcement and intelligence agencies will conduct a massive anti-terrorism exercise in the country in collaboration with four other nations, officials said Friday. All security officials in the country will participate in the five-day exercise that will begin Monday.

July 5th, 2009 NEW YORK - Thursday's suicide attack on a bus carrying officials of a nuclear establishment in Pakistan's Rawalpindi city has once again raised questions over Islamabad's claims that nuclear facilities in the country are safe and guarded well enough to counter the Taliban's increasingly bold assaults against the country's military complex. Immediately after the attack, in which one person was killed and several others grievously wounded, the government denied reports that the bus was carrying officials from nuclear plant, but military experts believe that it was apparently an attempt to avoid further embarrassment, The New York Times reports.

May 28th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Former President Reagan's defence adviser and author of Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe, Graham Allison, has warned the North Koreans of the consequences they face should they consider firing a nuclear missile - or selling nukes to terrorists. According to Allison, if North Korea's next act goes beyond launching another long-range missile, or conducting a nuclear weapons test, it could expect an overwhelming retaliatory strike.

May 28th, 2009 MELBOURNE - Australian police Thursday arrested two teenagers over the beating of an Indian student on a Melbourne train, a media report said. Sourabh Sharma, 21, was beaten by a group of thugs as he travelled on a train May 9, HeraldSun reported.

April 18th, 2009 JERUSALEM - The Israeli military is preparing to launch a massive aerial strike on Iran's nuclear facilities within days of being given the go-ahead by its new government. "Israel wants to know that if its forces were given the green light they could strike at Iran in a matter of days, even hours.