This is IN THE NEWS in VOA
Special English.
India continues to investigate the terrorist
attacks last week in Mumbai. More than one hundred seventy people were killed
in two and a half days of violence.
Indian officials have blamed what they call "elements
from Pakistan." They tell Indian media that they have linked the
military's Inter-Services Intelligence agency to the attackers. Pakistan denies
any government involvement.
The
attackers struck hotels,
a train station, a Jewish center and other targets, including a hospital.
Mumbai, formerly Bombay, is India's financial and film capital.
Indian officials said
nine gunmen were killed and one was captured. They
say the man has said he is a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani Islamic
group that India has tied to other attacks. Pakistan banned the group in two
thousand two.
Many
Indians are angry at the government for not doing more to fight terrorism.
Hundreds have died this year in bombings
in New Delhi and other cities.
India admits
to failures by its security and intelligence services in the attack on Mumbai. American
officials say India had received warnings. India's home minister, its top
law enforcement official, resigned.
Pakistan has offered to
jointly investigate the attack with India. India wants Pakistan to surrender twenty
suspects. But President Asif Ali Zardari said that even if India provided proof
of their involvement, they would be tried in Pakistan.
India has increased security at airports
because of threats sent by e-mail to government officials and media
organizations, including VOA. They claim to come from the Deccan Mujahideen,
the same group that took responsibility in Mumbai.
India has also been looking into
the possibility that one of its citizens, under arrest for months, was involved
in planning the attack. Police in Uttar Pradesh say the man had detailed
drawings of some of the targets.
Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice and other American officials traveled to India and
Pakistan, trying to calm the tensions. The attacks threaten the recent steps that the nuclear-armed neighbors have taken to improve relations.
The issue will be one of the first for Barack Obama's
foreign policy team. The president-elect announced his team this week, led by
his nominee for secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. Robert Gates will continue
as defense secretary. And a retired Marine general, Jim Jones, will be national
security adviser when the new president takes office in January.
Last year Congress
established a group to study how to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction
and terrorism. This week the commission released
its report. It says the world must act
quickly to control the spread of biological and nuclear weapons, the greatest
threats. Otherwise, it says, terrorists are more likely than not to use such a weapon
somewhere in the world by the end of two thousand thirteen.
And
that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I'm Steve
Ember.