Tuesday, November 10, 2009 NEW DELHI: India is launching a joint maritime security exercise this week to prevent future Mumbai-style terror attacks and test various measures taken during the past one year to secure the 7,500-kilometre coastline. The exercise, involving the Indian Navy and Coast Guards, state police of the nine coastal states and several other agencies, would be carried out on both east and west coasts. It would test how and at what pace various agencies shared intelligence and acted on it to prevent terrorists and smugglers from infiltrating. Sources said the exercise, to check coordination among the agencies at various stages of an operation, would be launched formally by the end of November to avoid any possible terrorist attack on the Mumbai attacks’ first anniversary on November 26. This exercise would be bigger than the state-wise tests being carried out by the navy and other agencies to determine the response to any attacks from the sea. It would include simulated attempts by mock terrorists to sneak into Indian waters through various sea routes and how the navy, Coast Guards, Customs, port authorities, state police, Intelligence Bureau, Fisheries Department and the lighthouse directorate foil the attempts.
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
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