India warns US against military aid to Pakista

Turkish oficers on trial over alleged assassination plotIstanbul (AFP) May 7, 2010 - Nineteen suspects, among them nine navy officers, went on trial Friday over alleged plots to kill two admirals and discredit Turkey's Islamist-rooted government, Anatolia news agency reported. The suspects are believed to be linked to an alleged secularist network, called Eregenekon, accused of plotting to plunge Turkey into chaos and prompt a military coup against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the offshoot of a banned Islamist movement. They face prison sentences of up to 40 years on charges of membership in a terrorist organisation, possession of explosives and illegally collecting private data on several people. The investigation began in July last year when a search at the flat of two of the navy officers resulted in the seizure of TNT sticks and an alleged plan to assasinate Admiral Metin Atac, who was navy commander until August 2009, and his successor, Admiral Esref Ugur Yigit. Media reports said at the time that the officers denied any connection to the explosives and the plan, arguing that they were being set up. Friday's trial is believed to be linked to two other cases in which 50 suspects, including four admirals and several other navy officers, stand accused of plots to blow up a submarine displayed in an Istanbul museum and stage bomb attacks against non-Muslim minorities to destabilise the country. The army, the guardians of Turkey's secular system, has unseated four governments since 1960 and has often clashed with the AKP, which is suspected by many to harbour a secret plan to Islamicise the country. In recent years, it has been hit by a a series of coup allegations, leading to dozens of serving and retired officers being detained and charged. Two retired generals are on trial, along with scores of other suspects, on charges of being the ringleaders of the Ergenekon network and plotting the overthrow of the government. The Ergenekon investigation, which began in 2007, has sharply divided the public, with some hailing it as a boost to Turkish democracy and others seeing it as a tool used by the government to bully and intimidate opponents.

India's defence minister cautioned the United States on Friday against military supplies to rival Pakistan, saying the hardware could be diverted to target India. The warning came after the US in March said it would deliver unarmed drones to Pakistan and less than a month after it unveiled plans to transfer 600 million dollars to Islamabad to pay for anti-militant operations.
A. K. Antony told reporters in New Delhi that India's concerns had been conveyed to Washington.
"Even though the US is giving equipment to Pakistan to fight against the Taliban, we feel there is every possibility of (Pakistan) diverting most of them to the Indian borders," Antony said.
"We have already conveyed our concerns about transfer of equipment to Pakistan. We told the US that they have to be careful about that," the Indian defence minister added.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi moved quickly to ease India's fears, saying the hardware would be used only against militants, who have been blamed for bomb attacks killing more than 3,300 people in his country.
"The military equipment that we are getting from the United States should not worry India, because it is meant for counter-terrorism and to enhance our capacity to fight terrorist networks," he told reporters in Lahore.
"They (India) should not be afraid of this because it will be used against terrorist networks who have made this region unsafe."
Pakistan, Washington's frontline ally in its battle against militancy, has domestically produced surveillance drones but it told the United States in March that it wanted sophisticated US-made aircraft.
The Pentagon soon said it would deliver "within a year" around a dozen unarmed drones to Islamabad to aid its fight against Al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents in Pakistan.
The United States has said 600 million dollars would be paid to Pakistan to reimburse it for the operations over the past year against Islamist extremists.
India's military insists that some of the US-supplied hardware and funds have been siphoned away by Pakistan allegedly to buttress its arsenal against its estranged South Asian neighbour.
The two countries have fought three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947.
earlier related report Two NATO soldiers killed in AfghanistanKabul (AFP) May 7, 2010 - Two NATO soldiers were killed in separate attacks in southern and eastern Afghanistan during the last 24 hours, the military said Friday, taking the death toll for the year to date to 184.
One died in an "insurgent attack" while another was killed by indirect fire, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said, without giving the nationality of either victim.
There are around 130,000 foreign troops serving in Afghanistan, which is in the grip of a bloody insurgency waged by remnants of the Taliban since they were overthrown in a US-led invasion in late 2001.
More than two thirds are from the United States, which is deploying thousands of reinforcements in an effort to end a war that is claiming record fatalities among foreign troops.
In 2009, 520 foreign soldiers lost their lives in the violence, making it the deadliest year since the Taliban regime was overthrown in a US-led invasion in late 2001.