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Friday, April 4, 2008

India breaks gender bias, hires women border guards

NEW DELHI  ( 2008-04-04 18:49:44 ) : 

India is enrolling women for the first time in a combat role, overturning a mindset in the country's security establishment that women are no good at defending frontiers or fighting wars.
The largely conservative country's 1.3-million strong army has less than 1000 women, all of them in non-combat jobs such as engineering and nursing.
But India's Border Security Force (BSF) says it wants to change with the times and recognise the many roles Indian women play today -- from software engineers and space scientists to sportswomen and business czars.
"So far we were not recruiting ladies, maybe because of the nature of our duty, and the thought was that ladies are not suitable," Ashish Kumar Mitra, BSF's director general, told Reuters in an interview late on Thursday.
To begin with, BSF will recruit 750 women guards primarily for frisking duties, checking human trafficking and drug smuggling.
Once seasoned, they will be deployed along the country's borders with Pakistan to the west, and Bangladesh in the east, which New Delhi says are the most common entry points for militants plotting attacks against the country.
Mitra said the BSF was turning to women after it found that male guards were unable to effectively frisk women drug peddlers.
Last year, the BSF arrested over 700 women for smuggling narcotics and human trafficking along both the border with Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Hundreds of women also get away because male guards are not allowed to carry out body search of women.
Like their male colleagues, women guards would be posted on patrolling duties and would be armed with automatic rifles.
"So far as the charter of duties is concerned, they would be expected to do the normal job of men," Mitra said.
"The arms training will be the same as those given to men, and the equipment given will be the same," Mitra said.
The women guards will be deployed in the northwestern state of Punjab, bordering Pakistan, and the eastern state of West Bengal which shares its boundary with Bangladesh.
Mitra says the BSF, which has about 200,000 guards, could eventually raise exclusive women's battalions.
"In course of time, we plan to recruit more as they are capable of doing as good a job as men."

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Bush urges Nato to open its doors to Georgia, Ukraine

BUCHAREST  ( 2008-04-02 10:05:34 ) : 

US President George W. Bush pressed Nato on Wednesday to offer Georgia and Ukraine a 'clear path' towards membership in the transatlantic alliance.
Whether to open the door to the two erstwhile Soviet republics is a divisive issue at the Nato summit that opens later on Wednesday in the Romanian capital Bucharest, in light of Russian objections to Nato's eastward expansion.
"Here in Bucharest, we must make clear that Nato welcomes the aspirations of Georgia and Ukraine for their membership in Nato and offers them a clear path forward to meet that goal," Bush said.
"My country's position is clear: Nato should welcome Georgia and Ukraine into the Membership Action Plan," he said, referring to a Nato scheme to provide a stepping stone to full membership.
"Nato membership must remain open to all of Europe's democracies that seek it, and are ready to share in the responsibilities of Nato membership."
On the eve of the biggest Nato summit yet, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon warned that ushering Georgia and Ukraine into the alliance might upset the balance of power in Europe.
Instead, speaking on French radio, Fillon urged Nato allies to do more to reach out to Russia.
Almost a dozen other Nato member countries are thought to be opposed as well. Under Nato's tradition of decision-making by consensus, only one "no" vote is needed to stop Georgia and Ukraine in their tracks.
In a significant show of Washington's support for Ukraine's Nato ambitions, Bush visited Kiev ahead of coming to Bucharest, after receiving his Georgian counterpart Mikheil Saakashvili last month.
On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Georgia and Ukraine were "shamelessly" being pushed towards joining Nato, as he accused the United States of "infiltrating" ex-Soviet states.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Putin to become Russian PM in May: report

MOSCOW  ( 2008-04-01 15:07:08 ) : 

Russian President Vladimir Putin will be voted in as prime minister immediately after the inauguration of Dmitry Medvedev as president, the speaker of parliament said Tuesday, news agencies reported.
"Why put it off," Duma speaker Boris Gryzlov told journalists on Tuesday when asked if confirmation could take place on May 8, one day after Medvedev's inauguration, Interfax news agency reported.
Under the Russian constitution, the president puts forward a candidate for prime minister. The Duma, or lower house of parliament, then has to vote to approve the candidate.
"I think it is fully realistic that the senators, deputies will meet... and support the candidacy of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin," Gryzlov was quoted as saying, referring to the May 8 date.
Putin is expected to wield significant powers as prime minister under Medvedev, a close ally who won a landslide majority in a March 2 presidential election.
Putin and Medvedev are supported by a large majority in parliament.