Fraud halts India, Israeli arms deals

Fraud halts India, Israeli arms deals. New Delhi has suspended all arms trade with Tel Aviv after blacklisting Israel Military Industries (IMI) over corruption allegations.

The Indian government says the contracts were halted for alleged 'illicit trading and bribery'.

Arms deals with six other companies --from Poland, Singapore as well as India-- were also suspended.

The move, which came after the former head of India's Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) Sudipto Ghosh was arrested on corruption charges, puts billions of dollars worth of defense contracts at risk.

Ghosh is accused of receiving bribes from the arms manufacturers to favor them in arms purchase projects with OFB.

IMI had signed a $24 million contract with OFB under which it was about to set up an ordnance complex of five plants in northern India to manufacture 155mm Bi-Modular Charge Systems (BMCS) and other propellant charges for heavy caliber artillery ammunition for the army.

Arms trading between New Delhi and Tel Aviv, which is India's second biggest arm supplier after Russia, dates back to early 1990s, so far they have inked deals amounting to $8 billion.

Last month, India received the first of three Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) planes from Israel it purchased for $1.1 billion in 2004.

Russia's chemical stockpile for WWIII to shrink

Thousands of tons of the chemical weapons, reportedly set aside for a contingency plan to fight the World War III, are to be rendered harmless in Russia.

On Friday, international officials attended the opening ceremony of the factory which is to remove and neutralize the lethal contents of the weapons, Reuters reported.

The facility, codenamed 'Unit 1027', can process Sarin, Soman and the most deadly nerve gas VX from both cannon shells and warheads.

The 5,500 tons of chemical weapons, however, is slightly above a fourth of what the country should rid itself of by 2012 - the deadline for a wholesale clear-out.

Moscow is criticized for its alleged lax cooperation with the Chemical Weapons Convention which came in effect in 1997; ten years after Russia ceased to produce the weaponry.

At the time of the treaty, the country had been found in possession of more than half of the world's 71,000 metric tons of deadly chemical agents.

It has, however, stepped up its efforts to dispose of the weapons and meet the limit.

Ex-US senator, Richard Lugar, who had joined the inauguration, said "the arsenals had been built to fight World War III," adding that "thankfully that confrontation never came but today we must ensure that the weapons are never used and never fall into the hands of those who would do harm to us or others."

Washington and the EU also reportedly chipped in to fund the facility.

NATO standing between US-Russia ties: Putin

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says NATO military exercises in Georgia could impede attempts by Washington and Moscow to "reset" their strained relations.

In an interview ahead of a trip to Tokyo, Putin said that the NATO exercise was "a step backwards" and a "signal in the other direction" despite efforts to repair US-Russia relations, Reuters reported.

"We really hope that today's leaders of the United States will hit the pedal properly to put a brake on the negative trends in our ... ties and take the necessary steps to make sure they really gain new substance," Putin said.

Russia has questioned the timing of the exercises when tension in the Caucasus is on the rise.

Putin also criticized the NATO war games, saying they will prop up the pro-Western Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili.

President Saakashvili, who is detested by Moscow after igniting and fighting a war against Russia in August 2008, in recent weeks has faced major protests from the opposition who want him to resign.

The NATO exercise is the latest in a series of obstacles standing the way of better US-Russia relations. The two sides remain at odds over Washington's plans to deploy elements of an anti-missile shield in Eastern Europe.

The Kremlin views the move as a threat to its sovereignty, while the White House says the deployment is mere precaution against possible missile attack from 'rogue states'.

In March, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton handed a 'reset button' as a gift to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in move viewed a first step in betterment of relations between the Cold War-era rivals.

Following the move Moscow and Washington decided to reduce their nuclear warheads and work together on a number of issues.