Amit Shah, former Gujarat home minister, gets BJP ticket

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NEW DELHI: Former Gujarat home minister Amit Shah, accused in the Soharabuddin Sheikh and Tulsi Prajapati staged shootout cases, will contest in the upcoming state assembly elections.

Shah will contest from Naranpura in Ahmedabad.

His name features in the second list of candidates released by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the capital Wednesday.

Shah won last time from Sarkhej assembly constituency with a margin of over 2.50 lakh votes.

After delimitation, Sarkhej is now divided into three constituencies -- Vejalpur, Ghatlodia and Naranpura.

Shah is a close aide of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

In September, Shah had returned to Gujarat after a gap of two years, following the Supreme Court judgment allowing him to re-enter the state. The apex court rejected the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) plea to cancel the bail granted to Shah in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh staged shootout case.

Since his return to Ahmedabad, Shah had been keeping a low profile. He has stayed away from public functions, and does not interact with the media.

The CBI has, in its charge sheet, named Shah the prime accused in the Tulsi Prajapati staged shootout case.

Acting on a petition filed by Shah, the Supreme Court had stayed all proceedings in the Prajapati case.

Besides Shah, other high-profile names in the second list of BJP candidates for the Gujarat assembly polls are: Social Justice and Empowerment minister Fakirbhai Vaghela, from Vadgam (Banaskantha); Health & Family Welfare Minister Jaynarayan Vyas, from Sidhpur (Patan); Education Minister Ramanlal Vora, from Idar (Sabarkantha); and Anandiben Patel from Ghatlodiya (Ahmedabad).

The list has named candidates for 89 of 95 seats that will see polling in the second phase Dec 17.

Six candidates would be named later.

Among the BJP leaders attending the meeting which preceded the release of the list were BJP Parliamentary Party chairman L.K. Advani, Leader of Opposition (Lok Sabha) Sushma Swaraj, and Leader of Opposition (Rajya Sabha) Arun Jaitley, besides members of the Central Election Committee of the party.

The meeting was presided over by party president Nitin Gadkari.

The two-phase Gujarat assembly elections will be held Dec 13 and 17.

Counting of votes will take place Dec 20.

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Pictures: Falcon Massacre Uncovered in India

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Photograph courtesy Conservation India

A young boy can sell bundles of fresh Amur falcons (pictured) for less than five dollars. Still, when multiplied by the thousands of falcons hunters can catch in a day, the practice can be a considerable financial boon to these groups.

Since discovering the extent of Amur hunting in Nagaland this fall, Conservation India has taken the issue to the local Indian authorities.

"They have taken it very well. They've not been defensive," Sreenivasan said.

"You're not dealing with national property, you're dealing with international property, which helped us put pressure on [them]." (Related: "Asia's Wildlife Trade.")

According to Conservation India, the same day the group filed their report with the government, a fresh order banning Amur hunting was issued. Local officials also began meeting with village leaders, seizing traps and confiscating birds. The national government has also requested an end to the hunting.

Much remains to be done, but because the hunt is so regional, Sreenivasan hopes it can eventually be contained and stamped out. Authorities there, he said, are planning a more thorough investigation next year, with officials observing, patrolling, and enforcing the law.

"This is part of India where there is some amount of acceptance on traditional bush hunting," he added. "But at some point, you draw the line."

(Related: "Bush-Meat Ban Would Devastate Africa's Animals, Poor?")

Published November 27, 2012

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Susan Rice Made Allies, Enemies Before Benghazi

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United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice, on Capitol Hill this week answering questions about her role after the U.S. consulate attack in Benghazi, has become yet another player in the divide between the left and right, with her possible nomination as the next Secretary of State hanging in the balance.


But who was Susan Rice before she told ABC's "This Week" and other Sunday morning shows the attack was a spontaneous response to an anti-Islam film and not a premeditated act of terror? Four Americans died in the September attack.


Unlike many in government, Rice holds a rare claim to Washington, D.C.: she's a local. She hails from a prominent family with deep ties to the Democratic Party. She was born Nov. 17, 1964 to Emmett Rice, a deputy director at the Treasury Department who served as a member of Jimmy Carter's Federal Reserve board, and Lois Dickson Rice, a former program officer at the Ford Foundation who is now a higher education expert at the Brookings Institution.








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President Obama to Senator McCain: 'Go After Me' Watch Video







As a high school student at the all-girl National Cathedral School in Washington, Rice was known as an overachiever; valedictorian, star athlete and class president. After graduating high school in 1982, she went on to study history at Stanford, where she graduated as a Truman scholar and junior Phi Beta Kappa. Rice also attended Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.


The family has roots in Maine. In an interview with the Portland Press Herald in 2008, Lois Dickson Rice said that she held the same high expectations for her children as her mother had held for her. According to the paper, Ambassador Rice's drive to achieve spanned generations. Her maternal grandmother, an immigrant from Jamaica, was named Maine State Mother of the Year in 1950. Rice's father was only the second African-American man to be chosen for the Federal Reserve board.


Two years out of Stanford, Rice joined Massachusetts Democrat Michael Dukakis as a foreign policy aide during his 1988 run for president. After his defeat, Rice tried her hand in the private sector, where she went on to work as a management consultant with McKinsey and Company. After President Clinton's election in 1992, she joined Clinton's National Security Council, eventually joining her mentor, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. She served as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs.


A profile of the diplomat from Stanford paints the Rices and Albrights as old family friends.


"The Rice and Albright kids went to school together and shared meals at Hamburger Hamlet," Stanford Magazine reported in 2000.




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Keeping the financial regulators on their toes

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When members of Congress need factual information and insights into the effectiveness of the financial laws put in place after the 2008 economic crisis, they regularly turn to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Orice Williams Brown.


Initially as director and now as managing director of the GAO’s financial markets and community investment section, Brown and her staff have issued dozens of reports examining the flaws and offering recommendations to improve the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailout fund, the Wall Street regulatory reform law and the initiatives to prevent housing foreclosures.

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Portuguese lawmakers clear biting 2013 austerity budget

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LISBON: Bailed-out Portugal's lawmakers gave final approval Tuesday to a 2013 budget imposing an unprecedented austerity squeeze even as protesters massed outside.

The budget, aimed at saving 5.3 billion euros ($6.9 billion), passed easily with the support of the centre-right government, which has an absolute majority.

The government says the plan, which relies on higher taxes for 80 percent of the savings, is vital to Portugal's recovery.

"The state budget for 2013 is a determined step on the road to recovery," Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar said. But "the risks and uncertainties surrounding the 2013 budget year are great."

Delivering a rare dose of good news, Gaspar said Portugal would enjoy easier bailout repayment conditions.

Portugal and Ireland had the right to the same conditions as Athens, which won lower interest rates and longer repayment terms in a deal struck in the early hours of the morning to avert a Greek bankruptcy, he said.

Portugal's new budget stipulates a broad rise in income tax to 14.5 percent for the most vulnerable and 48 percent for the most wealthy. It also reduces the number of tax brackets from eight to five, with the tax rate in each band raised by 3.5 percentage points.

Unemployment benefits are sliced by five percent and sickness payments by six percent.

"We have to finish with this policy before it finishes with us!" declared one banner unfurled at a rally outside parliament called by the main union, the General Federation of Portuguese Workers.

Protesters aimed their fire at the "troika" of creditors behind Portugal's 78 billion euro ($101 billion) bailout: the International Monetary Fund, European Union and European Central Bank.

"We say no to the troika and its policies!" said one banner carried by activists, while others declared: "It's robbery, it is the people who pay!" and "Salaries frozen, future mortgaged!"

The tight-fisted budget has sparked multiple street protests including one on November 14 that degenerated into clashes between baton-wielding police and stone-throwing demonstrators.

The main opposition Socialist Party has opposed the budget, saying the austerity policies are "exaggerated", even though it was in power when Lisbon sought the rescue in May 2011.

While recognising the enormous sacrifices by his compatriots, Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho says austerity policies are the only path to economic recovery.

With its draconian budget, the government expects to trim the annual budget deficit to the equivalent of 4.5 percent of gross domestic product next year from a target of 5.0 percent in 2012.

The budget-trimming efforts come as the economy is expected to shrink three percent in 2012, with a jobless rate already nearing 16 percent.

Slumping in the polls, Passos Coelho said on the eve of the parliamentary vote that he has "no problem facing up to unpopularity".

"The government must know how to go against the current," the premier said, adding that he would rather "guarantee the future of Portugal than receive applause".

The Portuguese leader has won significant international support for the budget.

On a visit two weeks ago, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, seen as a symbol of budgetary rigour, encouraged him along the path.

One week later, the troika of creditors unlocked a sixth instalment from the bailout, satisfied that Lisbon was abiding by their strict conditions.

Passos Coelho says he plans to save another four billion euros over two years through a "reform of the state" to be presented to the troika in February 2013.

-AFP/ac



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Two senior Zee journalists arrested on extortion charges

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NEW DELHI: Two senior journalists of Zee news channel were arrested here today on charges of trying to extort Rs 100 crore from Congress MP Naveen Jindal's group for not doing news reports on coal scam linking his firm.

The arrests on charges of extortion came following the registration of a case about 45 days ago on a complaint filed by Jindal's company with Delhi Police's Crime Branch.

Sudhir Chaudhary, the head of Zee News, and Samir Ahluwalia, head of Zee Business, have been arrested, a senior police official said.

Jindal had last month released a CD in which purportedly showed footage in which the Zee journalists were trying to strike a deal with his company officials, telling them that their channel will not air negative stories of Jindal Group if the money is paid to them.

Chaudhary had rubbished the allegations as "fabrication" and described it as "pressure tactics" to prevent the channel from doing such stories.

"We have done a series of stories on coal scam based on official papers. This is a retaliation to our relentless campaign against corruption," he had said.

Jindal Power and Steel Ltd (JPSL) Chairman Naveen Jindal had earlier claimed that the Zee executives had demanded Rs 20 crore for four years and they secretly filmed the meetings.

They later raised the demand to Rs 100 crore for not broadcasting stories against the company in relation to allocation of coal blocks, he claimed.

JSPL is among the companies named in the CAG report as one of the beneficiaries of the controversial coal block allocations.

In a retaliatory move, Zee News had last month sent a Rs 150 crore defamation notice to the Congress MP, who too had filed a Rs 200 crore case against the media conglomerate claiming the TV channel had tried to extort money from his company.

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Space Pictures This Week: Space "Horse," Mars Rover, More

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GOP Senators More Troubled After Rice Meeting

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Three Republican senators who met Tuesday with U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice say they are more troubled now over her initial explanations about the deadly Sept. 11 raid in Libya.



Rice met behind closed doors Tuesday with Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte — three of her harshest critics.





Ayotte said Rice told them that her national television description that a spontaneous demonstration triggered the attack on the U.S. consulate was wrong. She had made the comments five days after the raid based on intelligence information.



The lawmakers said the Obama administration still must answer questions about the attack.



Obama is considering Rice as a successor to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.



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Obama drafts in Geithner to crack budget impasse

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WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama has made Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner lead White House negotiator in budget talks with Congress aimed at averting the fiscal cliff, a report said Monday.

The Wall Street Journal said Geithner was viewed on Capitol Hill as a straight-shooter who had a better chance of brokering a deal than Jacob Lew, Obama's former budget chief who has burnt his bridges with some Republicans.

If no deal is reached before the end of the year, a poison pill law of tax hikes and massive spending cuts, including slashes to the military, comes into effect with potentially catastrophic effects for the fragile US economy.

The report said Geithner, who is preparing to leave his post as treasury secretary early in Obama's second term, has spent months already preparing for the fiscal talks, which will begin this week in earnest in Washington.

Geithner will be joined by White House budget and tax experts, including Lew, now Obama's chief of staff, and National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling, the Wall Street Journal said.

They will try to hammer out an elusive compromise with congressional aides but final decisions will be made by political leaders such as Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner, the report said.

In recent days, several leading Republicans have indicated a willingness to accept a deal that includes more revenue from ending loopholes in the tax code in return for cuts in funding to Democrats' beloved welfare programs.

Geithner, 51, is not affiliated with any party and has spent his career in government finance and on the political sidelines.

He first joined the Treasury at age 27. When George W. Bush became president in 2001, he went to work for the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Monetary Fund.

At 42, he was tapped to be head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, considered the Fed's second-most influential post because the New York bank interacts directly with a powerful constituency that includes Wall Street.

Despite holding high office in the years leading up to the 2008 financial collapse, when regulatory authorities are accused of having been asleep at the wheel, he was tapped by Obama to lead the recovery.

Upon assuming office in early 2009, he was charged with overseeing two major bailout packages worth more than $1.5 trillion and aimed at shoring up the country's distressed banking sector.

The administration has said that the stimulus, while costly, averted another Great Depression, while conservative critics have branded it a costly expansion of government that has failed to revive the economy.

- AFP/fa



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LeT threatens to strike at Vaishno Devi

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JAMMU: An email threatening to target the cave shrine of Vaishno Devi was purportedly sent by the banned terror outfit Lashker-e-Toiba to a hotelier in Katra to avenge the execution of 26/11 terror attack convict Ajmal Kasab, police said today.

The email was received by A H Bhat, a hotelier of Devi Grand hotel, on November 24 threatening to target the shrine to avenge the hanging of Kasab, a senior police officer said tonight.

"Investigation is going on...We cannot rule out either of the two angles to it, one hoax, the other threat from the terror outfit," the officer said.

"We cannot deliberate on the issue further since preliminary investigation into the matter is going on," he added.

Police have seized the computer and other equipments on which the email had been sent.

Efforts are on to decode the email, police said. DIG, Udhampur-Reasi, Jagjeet Kumar and other senior officials of central agencies visited Katra and reviewed the security arrangements there.

Meanwhile, an alert has been sounded in the region with additional security being being put in place.

Police have intensified frisking people, checking of vehicles and keeping an eye on suspected movements.

The email could be a prank by some anti-national elements but no chances can be taken, the senior police official said.

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