US defence firm Lockheed Martin hit by cyber-attack

US defence firm Lockheed Martin says it has come under a significant cyber-attack, which took place last week.

Few details were available, but Lockheed said its security team had detected the threat quickly and ensured that none of its programmes had been compromised.
The Pentagon said it is working to establish the extent of the breach.
Lockheed makes fighter jets, warships and multi-billion dollar weapons systems sold worldwide.
Lt Col April Cunningham, speaking for the US defence department, said the impact on the Pentagon was "minimal and we don't expect any adverse effect".
Lockheed Martin said in a statement that it detected the attack on 21 May "almost immediately" and took counter-measures.
As a result, the company said, "our systems remain secure; no customer, program or employee personal data has been compromised".
But they are still working to restore employee access several days after the attack took place.
Lockheed Martin is the world's biggest aerospace company and makes F-16, F-22 and F-35 fighter jets as well as warships.

Afghan leader Karzai issues 'last warning' to Nato

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has forcefully condemned the killing of 14 civilians in the south-west of the country in a suspected Nato air strike.

Mr Karzai said his government had repeatedly asked the US to stop raids which end up killing Afghan civilians and this was his "last warning".
A Nato spokesman said a team had been sent to Helmand province to investigate the attack carried out on Saturday.
Afghan officials say all those killed were women and children.
The strike took place in Nawzad district after a US Marines base came under attack.
The air strike, targeted at insurgents, struck two civilian homes, killing two women and 12 children, reports say.
"The president called this incident a great mistake and the murdering of Afghanistan's children and women, and on behalf of the Afghan people gives his last warning to the US troops and US officials in this regard," his office said.
The White House said it shared Mr Karzai's concerns and took them "very seriously".
A group from Sera Cala village travelled to Helmand's capital, Lashkar Gah, bringing with them the bodies of eight dead children, some as young as two years old, says the BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Kabul.
"See, they aren't Taliban," they chanted as the carried the corpses to local journalists and the governor's mansion.
While insurgents are responsible for most civilian deaths in Afghanistan, the killings of Afghans by foreign soldiers is a source of deepening anger, our correspondent adds.
President Hamid Karzai has criticised Nato for not doing enough to prevent such deaths, especially during "night raids" and has called on the country's ministry of defence to stop what he described as "arbitrary" operations by foreign forces.
Daud funeral
In the country's north, security was extremely tight for the funeral of Gen Mohammad Daud Daud, the police commander for northern Afghanistan who was killed in a suicide bomb attack on the provincial governor's compound in Takhar province on Saturday.

Gen Daud was buried on Sunday after being killed in a suicide bomb attack on Saturday

He was one of at least six people killed in the attack, which was claimed by the Taliban.
The location of the funeral itself was not announced in advance for security reasons.
Shopkeepers closed their doors and hung pictures of the general as he was buried, and mourners waved black flags in his honour, Reuters news agency reports.
The governor of Takhar province, Abdul Jabar Taqwa, dismissed allegations that "rogue" elements were involved in Saturday's attack in Taloqan.
He said intelligence officials knew about the mission and even had the telephone number of the suicide bomber several days before his attack.
"We sadly failed to catch him before he could carry out his mission," the governor, whose face and hand were burnt in the attack, told reporters in Taloqan on Sunday.

The women who rule India

Is India now living on woman power? The most powerful Indian is a woman - Sonia Gandhi, chief of the ruling Congress party. India's President is a woman. The speaker of the parliament and the leader of the opposition are women.

Mayawati, a Dalit (untouchable) woman rules India's most populous and politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh. The urbane Sheila Dikshit rules the capital, Delhi. And last week, Mamata Banerjee created history by overthrowing a over three-decade long Communist government in Bengal to take charge of the state. Together, these three formidable women rule directly over a third of India's people.
Most of these women are influential politicians in their own right, and Ms Banerjee and Mayawati belong to the fast vanishing tribe of mass leaders.
Certainly, many of these women are beneficiaries of family patronage and male mentors. Ms Gandhi took over the party as a privileged dynast. Mayawati and Jayalalitha were anointed successors by their mentors, one a leader of the untouchables, and the other a film-star. Ms Dikshit belongs to a well-connected political family. Only Ms Banerjee has earned her spurs as a rebel who emerged victorious after a decade of gritty street-fighting politics.
However, most of these leaders have carved out their own identities and styles of functioning, however controversial they may be. Mayawati, with her penchant for diamonds, flashy birthday celebrations and statues, has managed to steer her Bahujan Samaj Party to become a formidable political force, seeking to give dignity of millions of untouchables. Jayalalitha led much-acclaimed rehabilitation work after the 2005 tsunami hit Tamil Nadu. Ms Dixit has won three consecutive terms in Delhi, thanks to her development work.
But Indira Gandhi, the subcontinent's most powerful woman politician ever, was once described as a "dumb-doll" by a group of male Congress figures who thrust her to the political centre-stage, confident that they could control her.
Ms Banerjee has been physically attacked by Communist party workers in the past, and described as "that woman" by its leaders. Last month, a Communist MP was forced to apologise after he publicly called her a "loose woman" who was interested in "bigger clients like the USA". Most parties are deeply chauvinist - for all the glib talk of gender equality, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has no female leader of any standing. India also doesn't have a single Muslim female leader, and the matriarchal states of the north-east are all ruled by rather unremarkable men.
Women comprise nearly half of India's population, but their lot needs to improve. India's sex ratio remains scandalously skewed. Sex selective abortions, female infanticide and foeticide are rife in northern states. Men remain major beneficiaries of government schemes, a lot of women still die during childbirth - though the record is improving, and more girls drop out of school than boys.
The political empowerment of women is a remarkable achievement in this context. Many believe that the presence of so many women in powerful positions in politics is a quirk. I don't agree.
Indira Gandhi's ascendancy through the Congress party to become India's most powerful and controversial leader was an an exception in South Asia those days, but things have changed.
Female literacy is improving, triggering aspirations in a booming economy. Reservation of seats in village councils and municipalities has been seen as a fillip for women. In many unprogressive northern states like Haryana, spouses and male relatives still keep their female leaders indoors and run proxies, but in large parts of India, the political empowerment of women has been genuine.
How much of a real change will Ms Banerjee and her sorority bring for the people of India? It has not been a very inspiring record till now - Ms Mayawati seems to have belied a lot of expectations in the way she runs Uttar Pradesh, and Ms Dixit's record has been marred by shoddy infrastructure work for last year's Commonwealth Games. There is still no evidence that women politicians are less corrupt than their male counterparts. "To suggest that women in power will be less corrupt is fatuous, and contrary to all prevalent evidence," says journalist-writer MJ Akbar.
Historian Ramachandra Guha says the rise of women in powerful political roles does not mark a "new age" of gender equality. The reasons for their rise, he says, may be personal (their courage and drive) or historical (the impact of a generations of reformers) or political (universal adult franchise). Whatever the reason is and whatever its consequences, he says, the phenomenon is noteworthy.
PS: On second thoughts, is India's neighbour Bangladesh also in a grip of women power? The two most powerful politicians in the country are women and one, Hasina Wazed, is in power. Five of her top ministers are women too!

Christine Lagarde in Asian charm offensive for IMF bid

Christine Lagarde is planning to visit China, India and Brazil to drum up support for her bid to head the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The French finance minister said she wanted to visit the three countries in an effort to ease concerns over her candidacy.
Emerging economies have voiced their concerns over the continuing hold of European nations over the IMF.
All 10 of the fund's managing directors since its inception have been European.
Leaders of developing economies have voiced their displeasure, saying that the head of a global body should be chosen purely on merit.
India's prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh was quoted as saying "We would like to remind the industrialised world that there is a tacit agreement that the top positions in international financial institutions must not go to specific countries as a matter of right," according to a transcript of comments issued by the Foreign Ministry.
'A long haul'

The balance of global financial power has changed drastically in the past few years.

Economies like China and India have grown at a much faster pace that those in the developed world, making them increasingly important players on the world stage.
However their influence at global bodies like the IMF has not altered much during the same period.
And India's prime minister Dr Singh said it will take a long time for that change to happen.
"You do recognise that those who exercise power, they don't want to give up power and therefore the struggle for a better, balanced world order, a more equitable world order, including the management of global institutions like the IMF, World Bank, Security Council… it is going to be a long haul, I am afraid," he said.
His views were echoed by Professor Charles Adams of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, who said that though the IMF had been moving in the right direction, the pace had been too slow.
"We have seen some changes in the IMF away from the European and major advanced economies to the emerging market economies, but it has been slow, at times painful," he said.
"It does not yet reflect the economic reality," he added.
G8 backing
The French foreign minister Alain Juppe said that Ms Lagarde had received the backing of the leaders of the Group of Eight Nations (G8) of developed economies.
"Among the eight heads of state and government, plus the president of the European Commission and the president of the European Council who were there (at the G8 meeting in Deauville, France), there was unanimous support for Christine Lagarde," Mr Juppe was quoted as saying by the Reuters news agency.
The Group of Eight Nations represents some of the biggest and most powerful economies in the world.
Its members are the US, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia.

South Asia rivals hold Siachen glacier talks

Top defence officials from India and Pakistan are holding key talks over the disputed Siachen glacier.

The two-day talks between the defence secretaries of the two countries in the Indian capital Delhi come after a gap of three years.
Siachen borders Pakistani and Indian-administered portions of Kashmir and is regarded as the world's highest battlefield.
India believes that the glacier is of vital, strategic and diplomatic value.
'Terrorist camps'
The two countries agreed a ceasefire deal over the Siachen glacier in 2003 but have yet to agree on how to withdraw troops.
India's Defence Minister AK Antony said ahead of Monday's talks that "about 42 terrorist camps were still functioning in Pakistan".
"Without destroying these terrorist camps, it would be difficult to have permanent co-operation in Indo-Pakistan relations," he said.
Relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours hit a low after Pakistani militants attacked India's commercial capital, Mumbai (Bombay).
The attack drove Delhi to cut ties with Islamabad, but earlier this year it announced talks could resume.
And in March the prime ministers of India and Pakistan vowed to repair relations between the countries.
Manmohan Singh hosted his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani at a World Cup cricket match in the city of Mohali.