India to station all MiG 29s along Pak border

NEW DELHI: To beef up air defence capabilities and react in quickest possible time along the international border with Pakistan, the Indian Air Force has decided to station all its MiG 29 squadrons at Adampur, the second largest Air Force base in the country.
The Adampur Air Force station, which is also known as home of MiG 29s, already has two frontline fighter squadrons and will see another squadron moving from Jamnagar in Gujarat soon.
“We consider ourselves to be a strategic air power establishment of the IAF in the western sector, ever ready for operations. We are fully geared up to operate in any given time frame like any other Air Force stations of the country,” said Air Commodore HS Arora, Air Officer Commanding of the Adampur air base.
To extend the service life of MiG 29 by 25 to 40 years, the RAC MiG aircraft corporation signed a contract with the Ministry of Defence to upgrade over 60 fighters in service with the IAF since the 1980s.

Iran has know-how for atom bomb: report

IAEA to inspect new Qom site Oct. 25: ElBaradei
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DUBAI: Iran has “sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable” atom bomb according to the tentative conclusions of a confidential report by the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the New York Times reported late Saturday.
The conclusions, according to unnamed European officials, came from intelligence agencies and its own investigations and go beyond the public positions taken by many governments, including the United States, that Tehran had halted its nuclear weapon program.
In 2007 the U.S. intelligence community determined that in 2003 Iran stopped its alleged efforts to design a nuclear warhead and last month the International Atomic Energy Agency said it “has no concrete proof” that Iran ever sought to make or perfect nuclear arms.
IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei, due in Iran on Saturday for talks, was quoted Saturday as saying in India that “a major question” about the evidence’s authenticity prevented the agency from “making any judgment at all” on that point.
A senior U.S. official said last week the U.S is revaluating its assessment, said the Times.
The latest report, titled "Possible Military Dimensions of Iran’s Nuclear Program," came just days after Iran revealed a secret underground nuclear enrichment center under construction near the holy city of Qom.
It describes a complex program, started in 2002 by Iran’s Ministry of Defense, "aimed at the development of a nuclear payload to be delivered using the Shahab 3 missile system," which can strike the Middle East and parts of Europe, according to the paper.
But the IAEA report does not say how far work has progressed and is careful to caution in its introduction that the “conclusions are tentative and subject to further confirmation of the evidence,” according to the Times report.
Tehran has repeatedly denied it is developing nuclear weapons and insists its program is for peaceful purposes only. On Thursday Iran met with the six world powers in talks aimed at resolving the standoff over its nuclear program.
From conspiracy to cooperation
Meanwhile the IAEA's ElBaradei said on Sunday the agency will inspect Iran's new uranium enrichment site in Qom on Oct. 25.
ElBaradei said at a news conference with Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, that Iran's relations with the West were moving from "conspiracy" to "cooperation" and that the nuclear dispute could be solved through diplomacy.
"It is important for us to have comprehensive cooperation over the Qom site. We had dialogue, we had talks on clarification of the facility in Qom, which is a pilot enrichment plant," ElBaradei said, adding Iran should have informed the IAEA of Qom when it decided to build the site.
Salehi praised his talks with the U.N. agency chief as "very successful."

Saudi cleric resigns over co-ed university spat

Opposition to mixing gender at KAUST drew criticism
DUBAI: A top Saudi cleric resigned from the board of the Council of Senior Clerics Sunday in the wake of controversy over his statements opposing gender mixing at the first co-ed university in the Kingdom.
Sheikh Saad bin Nasser al-Shethri’s resignation from the senior ulema came just days after he appeared on the Qatar-based al-Majd satellite channel and lashed out at the newly-opened King Abdullah Science and Technology University for offering co-education.
Shithri was one of several clerics who objected to the mixed gender university, which is outside the purview of the conservative cleric-dominated education ministry.
Saudi king Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, who has promoted reforms since taking office in 2005, accepted Shithri's resignation.
The senior cleric said religious scholars should vet the curriculum to prevent alien ideologies such as "evolution" and set up a committee to ensure it does not violate sharia, or Islamic law.
"We are looking at some of the sciences that have included some irregular and alien ideologies, like evolution and such other ideologies," the daily al-Watan newspaper quoted Shithri as saying last week in response to a viewer’s question.
He later withdraw his statements and stressed the importance of the university in the progress of education. He also accused journalists of taking his statements out of context.
Al-Majd TV sought to distance itself from the channel, saying it is not responsible for Shithri’s statements. Executive director Ahmed Saqr stressed that the comments reflected the sheikh’s personal opinion.
Media campaign
Shithri’s statements sparked outrage among Saudi liberals and columnists, who have been supportive of the university and liberalizing education and accused both the Shethri and the station of overlooking the significant educational role of the university and of focusing on minor issues that are likely to spread controversy.
“Amidst the Kingdom’s celebrations marking the opening of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) there were some calls which bore the dust of Tora Bora and belittled this gigantic national accomplishment by raising the issue of co-education,” Khalaf Al-Harbi wrote in the Arabic daily Okaz.
A columnist for the London-based Asharq al-Awsat described the singular focus on co-education as “the chronic state of obsession with virtue creeping in once again.”
"This is a strategy for the conservatives to control the university or at least have a major say in it. This is the old trick for them to have the upper hand to sabotage reform," said Jamal Khashoggi, editor-in-chief of al-Watan.
King Abdullah's University of Science and Technology (KAUST), designed to produce Saudi scientists, is the only educational institution in the kingdom where men and women can mix. It is located near a Red Sea village away from the clutches of religious police.
It has attracted top scientists from around the world with research potential unmatched in many advanced countries and one of the largest endowments in the world.