27 OCTOBER 2015: Chhota Rajan's unexpected arrest raises more questions then it answers

Ø  Fugitive underworld don Chhota Rajan, one of India’s most wanted criminals and a leading figure in the Mumbai underworld, was arrested at Bali in Indonesia on Sunday. Rajan gained widespread sympathy and public attention after he broke away from Dawood Ibrahim gang, condemning it for carrying out the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai. The Indonesian authorities are believed to have initiated steps for Rajan’s deportation to India. Confirming the don’s arrest, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh told the media that the Central Bureau of Investigation and other security agencies are in touch with their Indonesian counterparts to expedite Rajan’s deportation. Mr. Singh said the Indian government had been trying to arrest Rajan for a long time and had made a request to Interpol in this regard.

Ø  Days after the Indian Air Force announced that it will induct women as fighter pilots, the Navy has decided to allow women pilots in various streams. However, for now they will be shore-based till necessary infrastructural needs are addressed. The Army and Navy are also looking into the issue of appointing women in combat roles. In a major decision at altering the status quo in the male dominated military, the Defence Ministry had last week announced that by June 2017 the first batch of women fighter pilots would be serving the Air Force.

Ø  Russian submarines and spy ships are aggressively operating near the vital undersea cables that carry almost all global Internet communications, raising concerns among some U.S. military and intelligence officials that the Russians might be planning to attack those lines in times of tension or conflict. The issue goes beyond old worries during the Cold War that the Russians would tap into the cables — a task U.S. intelligence agencies also mastered decades ago. While there is no evidence yet of any cable cutting, the concern is part of a growing wariness among senior U.S. and allied military and intelligence officials over the accelerated activity by Russian armed forces around the globe. At the same time, the internal debate in Washington illustrates how the U.S. is increasingly viewing every Russian move through a lens of deep distrust. Just last month, the Russian spy ship Yantar, equipped with two self-propelled deep-sea submersible craft, cruised slowly off the East Coast of the U.S. on its way to Cuba — where one major cable lands near the U.S. naval station at Guantánamo Bay. It was monitored constantly by U.S. spy satellites, ships and planes. The role of the cables is more important than ever before. They carry more than $10 trillion a day in global business. The cables also carry more than 95 percent of daily communications.

Ø  A major earthquake struck the remote Afghan northeast on Monday, killing at least 215 people in Afghanistan and nearby northern Pakistan and sending shock waves as far as New Delhi. The quake was 213 km deep and centred 254 km northeast of Kabul in Badakhshan province.