Today News : July 2013

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Hacker has a party, Assange launches WikiLeaks Party

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Thursday officially launched his political party to contest Australian elections in 2013, saying a victory for his candidates would be akin to planting the country's 'best investigative journalists' in the Senate.
Assange, the Australian founder of

the whistleblowing website, said the WikiLeaks Party would field seven candidates for Upper House Senate seats in the states of New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia.

Despite being holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for more than a year, the 42-year-old will run in Victoria, saying he planned to be "an independent scrutineer of government activity".

"WikiLeaks Party's core values of transparency, accountability and justice are the template against which we will examine any important issues for Australians: tax reform, asylum-seekers, climate change policy and more," he said in an opinion piece in The Australian newspaper.

"We will not accept legislation or government policy that is based on inaccurate, poorly disclosed or inadequate information.

"In this way our positions will always reflect fairness, good government policy and practice, and protecting the interests of all Australians."

Australia is due to go into the polls before the end of November, 2013, with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's Labor up against the Tony Abbott-led conservatives.

Opinion polls suggest Abbott will narrowly win.

Assange said he plans to keep politicians honest, complaining about "the stealth with which our elected representatives have worked together (often across party lines) to pass laws without proper public consultation".

"Putting the WLP in the Senate is the same as putting Australia's best investigative journalists in the Senate," he said.

"That is what the dishonest Canberra establishment fears most."

A key plank of Rudd's re-election campaign is a hardline response to deter boatpeople, announcing last week that all unauthorised arrivals would be sent to Papua New Guinea for assessment. They will be either settled there, sent back home or shipped to third countries.

Assange said one of his party's first actions would be to demand full details of the government's arrangement with PNG to be made public.

"Under the Migration Act 1951 Australia retains an obligation to Australia-bound asylum-seekers it may 'transfer' to PNG," he said.

"Considering PNG's developing country status the Australian government must disclose how it will assist the PNG to financially support resettled refugees."

Assange has been living inside Ecuador's embassy since June 2012 as he fights extradition from Britain to Sweden, where authorities want to question him over alleged sex crimes.

The activist has voiced fears that the United States wants to put him on trial after WikiLeaks angered US officials through massive leaks of sensitive diplomatic correspondence and material on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Courtesy:HT

Hacker has a party, Assange launches WikiLeaks Party

Courtesy:HT

No question of quitting: Kerala CM Oommen Chandy

Categorically ruling out his resignation in the wake of critical observations by high court in the solar panel case, Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy on Wednesday said the court had not passed any sharp remarks against him as reported by the media.

"There is no question of resignation. That is not going to happen. The court has not made any remark against me," Chandy told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

Courtesy:TOI

Narendra Modi visa issue: 'Fake' letter by MPs snowballs into a massive controversy

A major controversy erupted today over a 'fake' letter being written by MPs to US President Barack Obama seeking denial of visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi with some MPs denying having signed it.

Latching on to denials by CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury, DMK MP K P Ramalingam and CPI MP M P Achutan, a BJP lawmaker wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar urging for a probe into alleged forgery of signatures. The party also accused the Congress' "dirty tricks department" of being behind it and demanded a probe.

Sudarshan Bhagat, BJP MP from Lohardaga, Jharkhand, today wrote a letter to the Speaker saying that some MPs have said they have not signed the letter to Obama. "These are serious charges and amount to forgery. I have demanded that the Speaker should order an impartial inquiry and action should be taken against those responsible," he said. Yechury, whose purported signature was appended to the letter by 25 Rajya Sabha members, today issued a statement denying having signed any letter to Obama. "I don't remember having signed any such letter... It suggests some cut and paste job," he said.

"I deny having signed any such letter. It is neither in my character nor in the principles of my party- the CPI(M)- to petition any sovereign country on matters that fall strictly within the sovereign domain of that country," he said in a statement here. "It is this very principle that leads us to strongly oppose and denounce any external interference into India's internal affairs undermining its sovereignty," Yechury said.

Ramalingam, DMK MP, denied having signed any such letter. He said he always signed in Tamil. But he had no reply when it was told to him that his purported signature was in Tamil. Achutan, a Rajya Sabha member from Kerala, also denied writing to Obama. "To be frank, I don't remember writing to Obama," he said. However, Mohammad Adeeb, Independent MP, who took the initiative for the campaign, denied Yechury's allegation. "Sitaram Yechury personally signed the letter in Rajya Sabha in front of me with his pen. I am ready to face any inquiry and any investigation into the matter," he said. "Yechury should have contacted me and asked me what is the problem. Then he has gone to the media which is hurting...," Adeeb said.

Describing Yechury as one of the finest parliamentarians and a good human being, he said the CPI-M leader signed on the paper with the whole substance enclosed. He maintained that for three-four days he had painstakingly done the job of collecting the signatures himself and hoped his Lok Sabha colleagues also did the same. 40 Lok Sabha and 25 Rajya Sabha MPs had reportedly signed the letter to the US President. Yechury observed that much of this controversy has taken place in "cyberspace". "The one circulating in cyberspace, now many months after it was allegedly signed, is typed on the letterhead of a Member of Parliament which carries the insignia of our national symbol, the Ashok Chakra.

"The heading under which some signatures are appended says, 'Names and Signatures of Indian MPs'. Strange. Which other country's MPs would sign on the letterhead of the Indian Parliament? This, itself, suggests some efforts at cut and paste," Yechury said. Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh was dismissive of the whole issue. "It is for the US to decide. We have nothing to do with it," he said. BJP, however, saw a Congress hand in the whole issue.

"The denial by some MPs of having written to Obama shows that this is a clear conspiracy of the dirty tricks department of the Congress. Some MPs have said their signatures were forged. There should be a thorough probe into the matter and the guilty should be booked," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said. Another BJP spokesperson Nirala Sitharaman charged that these leaders were making US a third umpire in the issue. "External help to contain Shri Narendra Modi? These 65 MPs have failed to engage with him politically. Sponsored activists don't trust Indian courts. Seeking external assistance to prop up their unjust cause. A third umpire in the USA for an Indian political fight?" she said on Twitter.

Courtesy:IE

WikiLeaks Founder Assange to Run for Australian Senate

Australia — Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, formally inaugurated a new political party bearing the name of his antisecrecy organization on Thursday and declared his own unorthodox candidacy for a seat in the Australian Senate in national elections to be held here later this year.

In a telephone interview, Mr. Assange said he had every confidence in his ability to run a campaign from the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where he has been living for more than a year after having been given asylum so he would not have to face extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning on sexual assault allegations.

“It’s not unlike running the WikiLeaks organization,” he said. “We have people on every continent. We have to deal with over a dozen legal cases at once.”

“However, it’s nice to be politically engaged in my home country,” he added.

Mr. Assange, an Australian computer hacker who rose to prominence as an evangelist for radical government transparency and a critic of United States foreign policy under then-President George W. Bush, is a deeply polarizing figure. Many believe the WikiLeaks Party is simply a vanity project for Mr. Assange, although several polls conducted since plans to establish the party emerged earlier this year suggest it could fare better than some initially suspected.

The Australian Senate has a long history of successful protest candidates, John Wanna, a political science professor at Australian National University in Canberra, said in an interview. Mr. Assange is probably hoping to trade on his name recognition and follow in the footsteps of other rabble-rousing, single-issue senators, Mr. Wanna said.

“He’s basically a nuisance candidate who may attract a bit of attention, because he’s not really about governing and sitting in Parliament. He’s not standing to do the work, he’s standing for the nuisance value,” he said.

If elected, Mr. Assange said, his party would work to advance a platform of “transparency, justice and accountability.”

Supporters of Mr. Assange laud him as a hero for what they see as his dogged pursuit of government transparency, but prominent critics such as U.S. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. have referred to him as a “high-tech terrorist” for what they call the reckless release of classified information that has harmed American interests and put lives in danger.

Mr. Assange is perhaps best known for WikiLeaks’ 2010 release of a huge trove of American diplomatic cables. His supporters maintain that the United States and its allies have fabricated the sexual assault case against him in Sweden to hamper his ability to release further classified materials and punish him for those already released.

In addition to Mr. Assange, the party announced on Thursday the names of six other candidates it will be running in the election, which is currently scheduled to be held on Sept. 14.

“My plans are to essentially parachute in a crack troop of investigative journalists into the Senate and to do what we have done with WikiLeaks, in holding banks and government and intelligence agencies to account,” Mr. Assange said.

Mr. Assange said that his experience in running WikiLeaks had prepared him for the Australian Senate, which is similar in its powers and structure to the United States Senate.

Under Australian law, Mr. Assange would have to take his seat within one year of being elected, although the Senate could technically grant him an extension if he is unable to physically take his seat. The British government has stated its intention to arrest him if he leaves the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, which presents an unusual set of logistical obstacles should he win the election.

“There is, of course, some possibility that the Australian Senate would permit remote involvement. It’s never been done before, but it is theoretically possible,” Mr. Assange said. “But in any event we have candidates available to hold the seat until such time as I am available to take it.”

Although he is best known for his views on international affairs, Mr. Assange was eager on Thursday to offer WikiLeaks’ position on the most contentious issue in contemporary Australian politics: the record number of people attempting to reach Australia each year in rickety boats in order to claim political asylum.

Mr. Assange assailed a tough new policy announced last week by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, under which all asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat are to be sent to refugee-processing centers in Papua New Guinea. If they are found to be entitled to refugee status under the United Nations convention on refugees, they will be resettled in Papua New Guinea, but they forfeit any right to seek asylum in Australia.

“For every complex problem there is a simple and elegant solution, which also happens to be dead wrong,” Mr. Assange said. ‘'Dumping all asylum seekers to Australia into Papua New Guinea is an example of that.”

He compared his own situation, and that of Edward J. Snowden — the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked documents about American surveillance programs — with those attempting to reach Australia by boat to claim asylum.

“I am a political asylum seeker — awarded political asylum by the Ecuadorian government and another state, the United Kingdom, and other states, are interfering with that,” he said.

Courtesy:nytimes

Ready to return Bharat Ratna if Vajpayee asks: Amartya Sen

A major slugfest erupted on Thursday over BJP MP Chandan Mitra’s demand for stripping nobel laureate Amartya Sen of the Bharat Ratna award and the economist offering to return it if Atal Bihari Vajpayee asks him to do so.

While BJP steered clear of the controversy, Congress waded into it with an attack saying it reflected the “fascist mentality” of BJP.

“Mr Chandan Mitra may not know that the Bharat Ratna was given to me by the BJP-led government and was handed to me by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. If Mr Vajpayee wants me to return it, I will certainly return it,” Amartya Sen said.

He said it was unfortunate that such a demand had come forth and termed it as a “personal” view of Mr. Mitra.

“To get into a political debate and somebody takes a view which seems to me is rather unfair...to all the people as well....I think it is unfortunate....It is so unproductive actually,” Dr. Sen said.

He added that during the BJP-led NDA government, he has had a lot of discussion with leaders like L.K. Advani, Yashwant Sinha, Jaswant Singh and Arun Jaitley.

Demanding that Dr. Sen be stripped of his Bharat Ratna, Mr. Mitra had said he was not even a voter in India and wondered whether a Bharat Ratna awardee should speak for or against any party or a leader.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari hit out at the BJP for its attack on Dr. Sen, who had raised the heckles of the saffron party saying he did not want to see Narendra Modi as prime minister since he did not have secular credentials. The prominent economist had also criticised Mr. Modi’s model of governance saying he did not approve of it.

Courtesy:The Hindu

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Pope Francis seeks to ratchet up Roman Catholic energy in Brazil, amid sand and sexy samba

The white sands of Copacabana beach typically draw millions of sun-worshippers, New Year's Eve revelers and fans for free concerts by the likes of Stevie Wonder and the Rolling Stones. In the coming week, the star of the show is infinitely less flamboyant than Mick Jagger, but he promises to stir up just as much passion among devotees.

Pope Francis, the 76-year-old Argentine who became the church's first pontiff from the Americas in March, will turn the crescent-shaped shoreline into a giant stage for his first international trip as pope, returning to the embrace of Latin America to preside over the Roman Catholic Church's World Youth Day festival.

The pontiff is coming to the heart of a city known for pricey real estate and sexy samba with a message of humility, simplicity and support for the poor — priorities that he has set out already in his four months as pope.

The Catholic Church in Brazil is one he knows well, aware that it is losing legions of adherents to Pentecostal churches and secularism. But Catholic youth festivals are meant to reinvigorate the faithful, and Francis, a soccer-loving native son, is expected to rally young people with his humble and unconventional ways.

More than a million young Catholics are expected to flock to Rio to celebrate their new pope. The city overseen by the giant Christ the Redeemer statue has mobilized thousands of soldiers and police to make sure the visit goes smoothly, even as violent anti-government protests continue to erupt a month after Brazil saw mass demonstrations nationwide.

Some residents have already prepared a uniquely Rio de Janeiro welcome for Francis: They've built from sand life-sized images of the pope on Copacabana, in place of the usual sculptures of bikini-clad beauties.

Rafaela Bastos, a pilgrim walking along the beach a few days before the pontiff's arrival, said the "Francis effect" was already evident. As she spoke, an army of construction workers toiled at a furious clip on the beach to finish the enormous, white altar where Pope Francis will celebrate a Mass.

"Francis has captivated me; he's absolutely won me over," said the 23-year-old from Brazil's Minas Gerais state. "He's brought the church close to the people and especially to young Catholics. He's creative, he's modern, he's not changing doctrine, but he seems far more flexible and open to discussion."

That Francis is from Latin America "just makes him even better: He understands our culture and that brings him closer to us and allows us to understand him," Bastos said.

Despite such optimism, these are worrying times for the church, and Brazil's case is emblematic.

The vast nation was 89 percent Catholic when Pope John Paul II became the first pontiff to visit in 1980. According to the national census, that figure had dropped to 65 percent by 2010. Such declines are happening all over Latin America, which is one of the church's remaining strongholds amid growing secularism in Europe and the United States. Sex abuse and corruption scandals have further eroded trust in the church.

Francis's response to the challenges has been to help find "an entirely new way to interact with the world" by the manner in which he communicates, said Sao Paulo Cardinal Odilo Scherer, one of two Latin Americans named to the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization created in 2010.

"The church, Christianity, the Catholic faith cannot be apart from the world," Scherer said. "It must be a part of the world, inside of it, and it must interact with modern society if it hopes to have repercussions and influence."

Francis has moved quickly to build a more everyman approach to his office.

He still refuses to sign his name as pope, rarely refers to himself as pontiff, and thinks of his role more as a good pastor — and a good role model for other pastors. Once a priest who rode the subway to work, he is now a pope who spurns the ornate symbols of power: He passed on the red papal shoes for his old black ones and shed the fancy papal residence and gold pectoral cross.

Recently, Francis skipped a concert held in his honor in the Vatican auditorium, something unheard of among popes. Instead, he left his white papal chair empty as the concert went on without him.

"He doesn't seem to be interested in the kind of symbolic things that hold him at the center," said the Rev. Joseph Fessio, a fellow conservative Jesuit and head of U.S. publisher Ignatius Press.

Still, he hasn't shied from flexing his papal authority.

Francis' audacious decision to canonize Pope John XXIII was evidence that he knows full well how to wield papal power. Francis bypassed Vatican rules that require confirming a second miracle to John's credit before he could be declared a saint, skipping that formality so he could canonize both the liberal "father" of the Second Vatican Council and the conservative John Paul. That was seen as a balancing act aimed at keeping the disparate wings of the church happy.

So far, Francis' changes appear to have paid off, with public opinion polls showing broad popularity, at least among Catholics.

One recent survey in Italy said 96 percent of Catholics there have "a lot" of trust in Francis, a level not seen since the apex of John Paul s papacy. A Pew Research poll in the U.S. said 84 percent of American Catholics also have a favorable view of the pontiff, compared to 67 percent for Francis' predecessor, Benedict XVI, in the first Pew poll taken after his election.

"I think the 'Francis effect' is real. He's captured the world's imagination. He comes across as more authentic because he practices what he preaches," said David Gibson, author of a biography on Benedict XVI. "He looks like your parish priest, he talks like your parish priest, and people connect with that.

"But people from the U.S. to Africa to Asia are watching and wondering how he'll come off. Will Pope Francis translate from Rome to Rio?"

Francis will certainly take every opportunity to show off his simpler touch in Brazil, the world's biggest Catholic country, especially after what many considered the more aloof style of Benedict, who visited Brazil in 2007.

Francis is also well known for his outreach to Jews, Muslims and even atheists, so his appeal doesn't seem limited to Catholics alone. What's unclear, however, is how he will deal with the millions of Brazilians who have left the Catholic faith for evangelical churches that the Vatican considers "sects." Francis has no official encounters planned with representatives of other faiths.

After meeting with President Dilma Rousseff shortly after his arrival Monday, Francis will take a day off on Tuesday. On Wednesday he will begin his public activities in the rolling hills of rural Sao Paulo state, visiting a huge shrine built around a small clay statue of the Virgin Mary that is a figure of worship for millions of Brazilians. In Rio, he'll walk the Stations of the Cross surrounded by more than a million young devotees on Copacabana beach as part of World Youth Day festivities.

In one of the key events of his trip, the church's first Jesuit leader will venture into a rough slum that sits along a violence-soaked road known by locals as the Gaza Strip. For many Brazilians, images of that visit will conjure memories of the still beloved John Paul II, who made his own visits to Rio's slums in 1980 and 1997. Since then, evangelical groups have made deep inroads into Brazil's slums with their hands-on ministry of personal improvement and self-discipline.

Through much of the trip, Francis will forego the bullet-proof popemobile used by his two predecessors and instead wade through crowds in an open vehicle, a move strongly opposed by Brazilian security officials.

A Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Francis chose to leave the popemobile home because he likes being able to get on and off the open-topped car to greet the faithful — something that's not possible from the bulletproof cage of the more secure vehicle.

Such moves are being closely watched by Brazilians such as Fernanda Neves, a 24-year-old lapsed Catholic in Brazil's biggest city, Sao Paulo, who this month attended her first blessing rite in more than a decade.

In a tiny chapel tucked behind the Sao Judas sanctuary in a working-class neighborhood, Neves looked startled when beads of holy water hit her forehead and dripped down onto her hot pink shirt as a young priest moved around the room, blessing the two dozen faithful gathered.

"I was raised in the church, my family is strongly Catholic, but by age 14 I felt emptiness in Mass. The messages were irrelevant to me," said Neves. "But this new pope, he speaks my language, he seems like a man of the people. It's easier to understand what he wants from us and I think he'll help bring Brazilians back to the church."

Courtesy:FoxNews

BSF firing in Jammu and Kashmir: Curfew lifted in Ramban after two days, fresh protests in Banihal

Protests against the killing of 4 villagers by BSF in Srinagar

Curfew was on Saturday lifted in Ramban district even as fresh protests broke out in Banihal belt against the firing by BSF personnel with agitators blocking the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.

"The situation is under control - it peaceful and normal--there have been no untoward reports from anywhere today," a police spokesman said here.

The authorities are monitoring the situation round-the-clock and additional forces have been deployed in sensitive areas of the Jammu region, he said.

Curfew has been lifted in Ramban district as the two-day curfew period expired last night and no fresh curfew orders were passed, officials said.

The Gool, Dharam and Sanglandan area of Ramban district, which have been epicentre of protests, have returned to normalcy. There is no tension, they said.

However, there have been fresh protests in Banihal belt of Ramban district where some people have assembled on the highway and are sitting on a dharna demanding the arrest of the people involved in Thursday's firing incident in Gool.

Additional police force has been deployed in the area to ensure that there is no violent protests.

On July 18, four persons were killed and 42 suffered injuries in the firing when a mob attacked a BSF camp in Dharam area of Ramban district to protest against alleged high-handedness by a BSF team.

Protests against the killing erupted across Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday during which 16 people, including two policemen, were injured in clashes, stone-pelting and cane-charge in Jammu region's Doda district.

Srinagar-Jammu National Highway reopened to traffic

The Srinagar-Jammu National Highway was today reopened to traffic after a two-day closure over tensions in Ramban district where four persons were killed and several others injured in a firing incident.

"The highway has been reopened to vehicular traffic, which is now plying smoothly," SSP (National Highway), Virender Kumar said.

The SSP, however, added that some disruption in traffic movement was reported in Banihal belt due to protests there.

Courtesy:IT

Obama: Trayvon Martin 'Could Have Been Me'

Enlarge Image

Getty Images

President Barack Obama speaks on the Trayvon Martin case during remarks in the White House briefing room on Friday.

Six days after a Florida jury acquitted a Hispanic man in the shooting death of an African-American teen, President Barack Obama made his first extensive comments on the case, speaking in personal terms about his own experience of being black in America.

" Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago," the president said in the remarks, made Friday during a surprise appearance in the White House press room. Mr. Martin, a 17-year-old African-American, was shot and killed in Florida last year in a case that riveted millions of Americans and sparked debate over the state of race relations in the country.

In rarely made comments about race, Barack Obama discussed the Trayvon Martin case, saying the slain 17-year-old "could have been me 35 years ago" and explaining why the case is so painful to African Americans.

Saying he would leave arguments about the verdict to legal analysts, Mr. Obama didn't critique last Saturday's acquittal of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watchman who faced various charges related to the killing.

But he tried to explain the lens through which black Americans may see the case, saying that their own experiences and the country's history with race inform how many view what happened to Mr. Martin.

"There are very few African-American men who haven't had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars," Mr. Obama said. "That happens to me—at least before I was a senator."

The remarks, delivered without a teleprompter, were a striking example of America's first black president seeking to guide the country's thinking on race without inflaming racial tensions or undermining the judicial system. They also amounted to Mr. Obama's most pointed comments about race since his 2008 presidential campaign.

Mr. Obama issued a brief statement the day after the Martin verdict was handed down. He urged calm and compassion, noting that "a jury has spoken." Missing, though, was any personal reflection from a president with a unique perspective on the matter.

As the week wore on, the drumbeat from civil-rights groups asking Mr. Obama to speak out and take action continued.

In recent days, the president had conversations with a number of people about this issue before offering a detailed reaction, White House spokesman Jay Carney said. Privately, the president had outlined ahead of time the gist of his remarks.

"He knows what he thinks, and he knows what he feels, and he has not just in the past week, but for a good portion of his life, given a lot of thought to these issues," Mr. Carney said. The president spoke just before a series of planned weekend protests over the verdict.

The president's comments won praise from Benjamin Todd Jealous, the president and chief executive of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, who called it a powerful moment. "That our president has been profiled should encourage all Americans to think deeply about both the depth of this problem and how our country moves beyond it," he said in a statement.

Still, underscoring the tensions that continue to fester, Abigail Thernstrom, vice chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said Mr. Obama's original statement on the case struck the right tone and that Friday's follow-up could have the unintended consequence of ratcheting up racial tension.

"Mr. President, you said what should have been said: A verdict has been rendered," she said. "Leave it at that."

In Friday's remarks, Mr. Obama appeared to be trying to use the megaphone of the White House to affect the national discussion, and particularly to infuse it with a greater appreciation of African-American viewpoints. He didn't propose any formal government reaction, and didn't weigh in on the decision his administration still has to make, which is whether to pursue a case against Mr. Zimmerman using federal civil rights laws.

Mr. Obama did, however, propose an examination of state and local laws to consider whether some encourage altercations such as the one that took Mr. Martin's life. He said the Justice Department should work with local law enforcement to reduce mistrust in the system, and said that, in the long term, more needs to be done to support African-American boys.

Enlarge Image

Reuters

Protesters march in Orlando, Fla., this week in the aftermath of the not-guilty verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman.

Mr. Obama questioned whether "stand your ground" laws in Florida and other states, which allow individuals to use reasonable force to defend themselves, are contributing to the peace and security communities want.

Responding to calls to launch a national dialogue on race, Mr. Obama said such discussions often are more productive in churches and workplaces and within families.

"I haven't seen that be particularly productive when politicians try to organize conversations," he said. "They end up being stilted and politicized, and folks are locked into the positions they already have."

As president, Mr. Obama has taken a careful tack on racial issues, picking his spots carefully after delivering a detailed exploration of race in Philadelphia at a pivotal moment in his 2008 campaign. Then, he said that race is an issue the nation can't afford to ignore, noting that the country had yet to work through the complexities of the subject.

"If we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American," he said.

Since then, Mr. Obama has shied from sweeping speeches focused on race, saying in 2009, "I'm not somebody who believes that constantly talking about race somehow solves racial tensions."

On Friday, Mr. Obama noted that African-Americans are disproportionately victims as well as perpetrators of violence. And while he called for soul-searching on matters of race, he said he sees signs of improvement.

"Each successive generation seems to be making progress in changing attitudes when it comes to race," he said. "It doesn't mean that we're in a postracial society. It doesn't mean that racism is eliminated. But you know, when I talk to [daughters] Malia and Sasha and I listen to their friends and I see them interact, they're better than we are."

Courtesy:WSJ

Thursday, July 11, 2013

New terror module behind Bodh Gaya blasts?

Buddhist monks from Thailand offer special prayers at the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya on Wednesday. - PTI

The terror module involved in the Bodh Gaya temple blasts in Bihar could be a new one as the unexploded IEDs do not have not signatures of bombs that were used in previous terror strikes across the country, sources in the National Investigation Agency said.

The sources said a preliminary analysis of three unexploded IEDs recovered from the Mahabodhi temple do not match with the IEDs that have been so far used for terror strikes in the country.

On Wednesday, the NIA, which registered a case in connection the blasts, announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh for anybody providing information regarding the bombing suspects.

Meanwhile, the state police said that four persons, including a woman, who were detained for questioning in connection with the blasts, were released as no evidence was found against them. “The four have been released after no evidence of their connection with the explosions was found during their questioning,” senior superintendent of police Manu Maharaj said told a news agency.

In New Delhi, Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who earlier visited the blast sites along with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, said initial investigation showed the bombs were placed during night and three or four people could be involved.

“We are conducting complete investigations. Three-four people may be involved...with a car,” he said.

Shinde said it seems small gas cylinders weighing two to three kg were used, and they contained nails and ball bearings.

Asked about any involvement of Maoists, he said, “There are so many complex problems. Infiltration from other countries is there, Naxalites are there, local communal disturbances are there. We have to see all angles.”

He also claimed that the Bihar government and police had been alerted about the possibility of a terror attack on the temple. “On July 3, Bihar Police DIG (deputy inspector general of police) had taken a security review on July 3 and spoken to the local security forces,” Shinde added.

When asked about the banned terror outfit Indian Mujahidden’s tweet claiming responsibility for the bombings, Shinde refused to comment and said the NIA would look into it.

Courtesy:DNAindia

India walks the Chinese tightrope

Two important back to back visits to China - the first by the National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon and the second by the Union Defence Minister AK Antony - mark the latest moves on the Sino-Indian chessboard. The first, which took place on June 28-29, on the occasion of the 16th round of Special Representatives talks on resolving the border dispute, was described as "productive, constructive and forward looking."

The second, between the defence ministers of the two countries between July 4-6, was seen as being "cordial and friendly." Indeed, going by the official statements that marked the two events, some would imagine that the two countries were truly "natural strategic partners", as claimed by Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi at Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, earlier this month after his meeting with his Indian counterpart Salman Khurshid.

Chessboard

The reality is somewhat more complex. Because we have also witnessed Beijing's curious move on the Depsang plains in April, on the eve of their prime minister's visit to India. And just hours before Antony was due to land in Beijing, Major General Luo Yuan, a wellconnected People's Liberation Army officer was breathing fire against India at a meeting of the All China Journalists Association.

What we have is a big power game in which Beijing sometime talks and acts tough with India, but at the formal level expresses a desire for friendly relations. Now New Delhi has also decided to enter the spirit of the game and adopt a friendly face towards China at the formal level, even while shoring up its military capacity and expanding its circle of friends in the Asia-Pacific region. This is something it has learnt from Beijing which, on the surface, makes friendly noises towards India, even while pursuing a policy of undermining its security, usually via Pakistan. Critics may not agree with this, but China remains the best managed area of India's foreign policy.

This has been evident in the past months, when diplomacy saw off the Chinese transgression into Indian territory in Ladakh, and the outreach to Japan rattled some nerves in Beijing. In their talks, the Special Representatives continued their discussions on a framework for a resolution of the Boundary Question, which constitutes the second step of a three-stage process. It is acknowledged, though, that the framework agreement is a difficult hurdle as it will be the key agreement that will translate into the border line. The third stage will be the actual delineation of the border on the maps and its demarcation on the ground.

The SR talks were initiated in 2003 made quick progress and, by April 2005, there was agreement on the political parameters and agreed guidelines of the border settlement. However, thereafter the talks stalled and have not been able to close the second stage. Many explanations have been put forward for this, but the most obvious one is that the Chinese have balked at moving forward because of the growing closeness between India and the United States, marked by the Indo-US Nuclear Deal of 2008.

Atmospherics

As for the defence ministers, their aim was to improve the overall atmospherics of Sino-Indian military to military relations which have seen many ups and downs since the Chinese denied a visa to Lt Gen BS Jaswal, India's northern army commander in 2010 and New Delhi retaliated by breaking off all military-to-military links. Thereafter there was some breaking of the ice following the visit of the Chinese defence minister Liang Guanglie in 2011.

During the Antony visit, the two sides restored their military-to-military ties by working out the future course of bilateral joint exercises and exchanges. They also agreed to conclude negotiations on the new Border Defence Cooperation Agreement (BDCA) as early as possible. The Chinese are seeking a freeze on the military situation on the border, but this is not acceptable to India because of the decade plus lead that the Chinese have in building up their military infrastructure in Tibet. Apparently the two sides have worked out a broadly acceptable text which could be formalised into an agreement later this year.

Settlement
Curiously enough, parallel to the Depsang incident were trends suggesting that the Chinese are also interested in accelerating the efforts to arrive at a border settlement. This was evident from the decision to accelerate the process of settlement, arrived at by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the new Chinese President Xi Jinping in March, when they met for the first time at the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Durban and where the Chinese leader was quoted as saying "China and India should improve and make good use of the mechanism of special representatives to strive for a fair, rational solution framework acceptable to both sides as soon as possible." This was followed by Chinese premier Li Keqiang's meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi when the SRs were asked to look into the Depsang stand-off and the BDCA.

The Sino-Indian border issue is a complex one and it is not likely to be resolved in a hurry, not in the least because India currently lacks the political ambiance where a notional loss of territory, which is bound to happen in any settlement in relation to Ladakh, will be acceptable. Equally difficult is the challenge of predicting Chinese policy. Even now it is difficult to figure out just why the Chinese behaved the way they did in Depsang. In the meanwhile, New Delhi seems to be shaping a policy which seeks to push the envelope of engagement with China, even while maintaining special ties with the US, Japan and the Asean to offset the pull of Chinese power. The trick is in maintaining the balance between the two ends and it can only be effectively done if India can restore the momentum of its economic growth and meet its military modernization goals.

Courtesy:India Today

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Supreme Court takes on netas, with conviction

In a landmark judgment, the SC strikes down a provision in the electoral law that protects a convicted lawmaker from disqualification on the ground of pendency of appeal in higher courts.

- Ravi Jadhav/DNA

In a move likely to clean the political system, the Supreme Court on Wednesday decided that lawmakers convicted of any crime will be immediately disqualified.

The court struck down a provision in the electoral law, which ensures that convicted lawmakers cannot be disqualified if they appeal in a higher court within three months.

“The only question is about the vires of section 8(4) of the Representation of the People Act (RPA) and we hold that it is ultra vires and that the disqualification takes place from the date of conviction,” a bench of justices AK Patnaik and SJ Mukhopadhaya said.

This ruling could lead to several lawmakers in Parliament and state assemblies losing their seats. According to findings by the Association for Democratic Reforms, an NGO, 1,460 sitting MPs and MLAs face criminal charges in various cases. The court, however, said its decision will not apply to convicted MPs and MLAs who have already filed their appeals in higher courts before the pronouncement of this verdict.

“If an ordinary citizen does not get this kind of benefit while he remains a convict, why should MPs get it?” the bench asked.

Under Sec 8(3) of the RPA, a person convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than two years shall be disqualified from contesting elections. Further, he or she cannot contest for six years even after acquittal.

The following sub-section 8(4) says a lawmaker, if convicted, cannot be disqualified if he or she files an appeal in a higher court within three months.
The court’s decision should come as welcome news for the election commission, which has been pushing for this amendment in the law for a while now.

Political parties have opposed such a step by reasoning that it would lead to people levying false charges against politicians to prevent them from contesting.

Law minister Kapil Sibal said the government will go through the judgment to see its impact on the politics of the country and hold consultations before deciding on the next step.

BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said: “It is a very important issue with legal complexity and we would not like to comment on this without reading the judgment.”

Congress spokesperson Renuka Chaudhary said: “We respect court verdicts and we still do not have full details of the judgment... We will take note of it.”

DP Tripathi of the NCP said: “I welcome the judgment. A politician should be prevented from contesting even if he has been convicted for one day and he should not contest until he has been acquitted by a higher court.”

The apex court’s verdict came on the petitions filed by Lily Thomas and NGO Lok Prahari through its secretary SN Shukla who had sought striking down of various provisions of RPA on the ground that they violate certain constitutional provisions which, among other things, expressly put a bar on criminals getting registered as voters or becoming MPs
or MLAs.

The fine print
The Supreme Court has said parliamentarians and lawmakers convicted of a crime will be immediately disqualified.

The court struck down as ultra vires, or invalid, a provision of the Representation of the People Act, which protects legislators and gives them three months to file an appeal.

The SC decision will not apply to lawmakers who have been convicted and have filed their appeals in the higher courts before the pronouncement of this verdict.

The court order also says a convicted lawmaker cannot contest elections again or cast his/her vote from jail.

Courtesy:DNAindia

Ramdev wants Modi to become PM

Ramdev Baba interacts with the media on Tuesday - Pratham Gokhale/DNA

Baba Ramdev on Tuesday openly supported Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi for holding the post of prime minister, stating that country is not safe in the hands of Congress and only Modi can save it.

Baba Ramdev walked for five kilometers along with the Palkhi and later interacted with his followers at a private lawn in the city. While addressing a press conference, he said, “The youth of the nation supports Modi, while they refer Rahul Gandhi as `Pappu’ and `Bhondu’ since he does not talk on any real issues confronting the country. Modi visited Uttarakhand soon after the calamity and Rahul Gandhi celebrated his birthday abroad. This shows their commitment towards the countrymen.”

Ramdev said “Modi is an able leader and his commitment bore result in Gujarat while, Rahul Gandhi contribution in two successive election is ‘zero’. Modi can help the country to get rid of Congress.”

He criticized Congress for economic failure and corruption. He said, “Congress is commenting on communal issues while the real issues are price rise, unemployment and governance.”
While replying to whether he will be supporting BJP for the next General elections, Ramdev Baba said, “We will support anyone who will talk about issues raised by us. I like Modi but it does not mean that I will marry him and take the onus of entire party.”

Rudy meets Baba Ramdev

BJP national general secretary and in-charge of Maharashtra Rajiv Pratap Rudy along with city unit president Anil Shirole and other local leaders made it a point to meet Ramdev Baba and seek his blessings. In his short address to followers of Ramdev Baba, Rudy said, `Congress was trying to victimise Ramdev Baba and people of the country would never tolerate insult of an spiritual leader like him.’

Courtesy:DNAindia

Delhi gang-rape: Juvenile accused in court, verdict likely

New Delhi: More than six months after a paramedical student was brutally assaulted and gang-raped by six persons on a moving bus in the national capital, a juveniles' court is expected to pronounce the first verdict in connection with the case on Thursday.

The verdict will be pronounced by the Juvenile Justice Board, which concluded hearing the case of the teenager (one of the six accused in the case) on July 5 and reserved its order for today (July 11).

The minor accused was taken to the court this morning amid tight security. Meanwhile, the father, uncle and the brother of the Delhi gang-rape victim also reached the juvenile court to hear the verdict.

The juvenile, who was 17-year-old at the time of the crime, faces a maximum sentence of three years in a correctional facility if found guilty.

Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) presided by Principal Magistrate Geetanjali Goel concluded its inquiry that began in March against the juvenile, who, the police claimed, was the "most brutal" of all the six accused persons.

After hearing the final arguments in the matter, the JJB reserved its order, saying the prosecution and defence could give any clarification they want to on that day.

The JJB also concluded its inquiry in the case against the juvenile pertaining to robbing Ramadhar, a carpenter, who had boarded the bus on the fateful night of December 16, 2012 and was thrown out before the victim and her male friend were assaulted.

The girl had died in a Singapore hospital on December 29, 2012.

A native of Uttar Pradesh who had moved to Delhi as an 11-year-old and took up menial jobs, the juvenile was one of the six persons accused in the case.

While the juvenile faced inquiry before the JJB, the four adult accused are being tried before a fast track court. Key accused Ram Singh was found hanging in Tihar Jail in March and the proceedings against him stand abated.

During the inquiry, the JJB recorded the statements of six prosecution witnesses including the victim's male friend and also the carpenter.

The counsel for the juvenile had submitted that there was no medical evidence against him to connect him with the charges and no finger prints could be detected in the bus to show his complicity.

The defence counsel had claimed that the juvenile had been implicated by the police though neither the victim nor her male friend had done so in their initial statements.

He had also said that the victim's male friend, who is the complainant in the case, did not depose against him even before the JJB and alleged that Ramadhar, who is said to have identified him as one of the six accused in the bus, had deposed falsely at the behest of the police.

The juvenile had in his statement recorded by the Board during the inquiry claimed innocence and refuted the police version in the charge sheet of him being the "most brutal" of all the accused.

The juvenile had claimed that he was himself victimised by his employer and prime accused Ram Singh, who, he said, did not pay him for his work.

Besides the juvenile, four adults facing trial in the case are – Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur.

They have been charged with gang-rape, murder, criminal conspiracy, unnatural sex and robbery besides other sections of IPC.

Courtesy: Zee news

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Confusion prevails over Snowden's acceptance of Venezuela offer

Fugitive former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden will likely accept asylum in Venezuela to escape prosecution in the United States, said Glenn Greenwald, the US journalist who first published the secret documents that Snowden leaked.

In an interview immediately after speaking to Snowden by online chat on Tuesday, Greenwald said that Venezuela - one of three Latin American countries that have offered Snowden asylum - is the one most likely to guarantee his safety, especially as the United States pressures other nations not to take him if he is able to leave his current limbo at a Russian airport.

Nicaragua and Bolivia have also said they would accept Snowden but Venezuela is better poised "to get him safely from Moscow to Latin America and to protect him once he's there," Greenwald said. "They're a bigger country, a stronger country and a richer country with more leverage in international affairs."

WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy group that has been advising Snowden on his legal options in the search for asylum, suggested earlier on Tuesday that new developments in Snowden's search could unfold on Wednesday.

Greenwald, though, said a resolution to the crisis is still unclear and could take "days or hours or weeks." Greenwald, a blogger and columnist for the London-based Guardian newspaper, said he based his opinion on an "informed guess" after recent contacts with Snowden.

Those discussions, he said, also lead him to believe that the trove of documents that Snowden took from the US National Security Agency, or NSA, remains safely out of the hands of any foreign governments.

Greenwald returned to his home in Rio de Janeiro after a June meeting with Snowden in Hong Kong, from where Greenwald published the first of many reports that rattled the US intelligence community by disclosing the breadth and depth of alleged surveillance by the NSA on telephone and internet usage of US citizens.

The reports also appear to shed light on efforts by US intelligence to get similar data in Europe, Latin America and elsewhere.

At first, Greenwald lost contact with Snowden as the former contractor traveled from Hong Kong to Russia in search of a destination that would shield him from US prosecutors. On Saturday, however, Snowden reached out to Greenwald via an encrypted internet chat service the two use to communicate.

Snowden's challenge
Since then, Greenwald said, Snowden has explained his options but given no clear sign of how soon he might travel. While Russia has denied him entry beyond the international area of a Moscow airport terminal, Snowden has had Internet access and been able to communicate with those seeking to help him.

"He's not in anyone's custody or detention and never has been," Greenwald said.

Snowden's challenge, he added, is "figuring out how to get to the country that has offered him asylum" despite the efforts of the United States, which Greenwald characterized as "the rogue, lawless empire that has proven itself willing to engage in rogue behavior to prevent him physically from getting there."

Greenwald dismissed suggestions that Snowden's passage through China and Russia had given authorities in either country the opportunity to seize the intelligence in his possession.

"He gave no information of any kind to the Chinese government or the Russian government," Greenwald said.

Media reports have said Snowden is traveling with numerous laptop computers but Greenwald said the former contractor is not foolish enough to store information where it could be easily seized.

"There are all sorts of smarter and safer ways for someone who knows what they're doing - and he knows what he's doing - to store and carry large amounts of data."

Greenwald is facing pressure of his own as he filters through the more than 5,000 documents, a sliver of the entire trove, that Snowden gave him.

In addition to a media onslaught and criticism by opponents of the leaks back in the United States, Greenwald said he may have already been targeted by intelligence forces.

While in Hong Kong, he said he told his longtime boyfriend, a Brazilian communications student, on an Internet call that he would send him some of the documents by email. Two days later, Greenwald said, his boyfriend's laptop went missing from their Rio home.

Greenwald said he has no evidence of a break-in, but that "obviously it's a possibility."

Now, Greenwald said, he is focused on digesting the rest of the documents and writing additional stories, a process he expects to last months.

Future coverage, he said, would shed more light on how the NSA collects data and interacts with telecommunications, software companies and other intelligence agencies in the United States.

Without giving further details, Greenwald said the bulk of his energy would go toward figuring out how to corroborate and explain what is often highly technical and arcane subject matter in the documents. "You can really alienate people with the technological and legal complexity of the stories."

Despite Snowden's recent association with WikiLeaks, which in recent years upended intelligence circles with high-profile military leaks of its own, Greenwald said Snowden is unlikely to disclose the rest of his intelligence in the large, unprocessed quantities that WikiLeaks has used in the past.

"If he had wanted a WikiLeaks-style document dump he could have gone to them in the first instance," Greenwald said. Greenwald said he has for years sought to scrutinize and draw attention to the scope of US intelligence gathering.

"I have been trying to do everything possible to expose the excesses of the NSA and the dangers of extreme secrecy behind which the US government operates," he said. "So to be essentially given thousands of top secret documents that prove all the things I have been saying ... and much more ... is very invigorating."

Courtesy:HT

Government, BlackBerry dispute ends

The country's law enforcement agencies will soon be able to track e-mail as well as e-mail attachments on a real time basis over BlackBerry devices.

NEW DELHI: The country's law enforcement agencies will soon be able to track e-mail as well as email attachments on a real time basis over BlackBerry devices, check whether chats sent over the popular BlackBerry Messenger ( BBM) have been 'delivered' or 'read', and intercept web-browsing facilities on these devices, bringing to an end a long standing dispute between the government and the Canadian smart phone-maker over interception of communication on its devices.

An internal document of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), a copy of which was reviewed by ET said, "Baring a few minor points for improvement of viewers, the lawful interception system for BlackBerry Services is ready for use."

But the government appears to have dropped its demand for accessing BlackBerry's corporate e-mail service rendered through the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. The law enforcement agencies, it seems are content simply with the identity of the corporates using the service.

A Blackberry spokesperson said the company had delivered a solution that enabled India's wireless carriers to address their lawful access requirements for its consumer messaging services, which include BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) and BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) email. "The lawful access capability now available to BlackBerry's carrier partners meets the standard required by the Government of India for all consumer messaging services offered in the Indian marketplace. We also wish to underscore, once again, that this enablement of lawful access does not extend to BlackBerry Enterprise Server," said the spokesperson.

The DoT internal note said nine of 10 telecom service providers providing BlackBerry services were in the process of deploying interception solution.

Government officials from the DoT and IB were present when Blackberry demonstrated interception capabilities services on June 12 over Vodafone's network in Mumbai. This follows the first round of tests conducted last year in December, under which BlackBerry had first demonstrated interception solution. But interception of web-browsing facilities was not in readable format and the government had made more demands on tracking BBMs and e-mails.

Satisfied with the interception facilities, the government will soon sign an agreement with BlackBerry and acquire the company's monitoring architecture installed at Mumbai. The company had set up servers and other interception facilities in 2011 after India threatened to shut down BlackBerry services if the company didn't establish one. As part of the agreement to be signed between the government and BlackBerry, the company will also train government officials at its Ontario facility to handle the technical architecture, operation and maintenance of the monitoring facility. It has offered to train up to five officials.

Three telecom service providers including BSNL, MTNL and the Russian telecom operator Sistema-controlled Sistema Shyam Teleservices are yet to put a 'lawful interception system' in place. While MTNL is likely to meet the requirement by July and BSNL by September, SSTL is the only operator to not have communicated any deadline.

Courtesy:TO
I

Reserve Bank and SEBI step in, apply brakes on Indian rupee free-fall

The measures make it costlier for banks and dealers to take positions in the market expecting a further dip in the rupee and groups large buyers of dollars to a single window to keep the rest of the forex market cool.
Express Opinion: To shore up Re, policy must boost domestic productivity
Oil companies, which are the largest domestic buyers of dollars to finance their imports, have been asked to trade only with a single bank. Since oil companies typically club their needs, it creates a huge visible demand for dollars in the forex market and puts pressure on the exchange value of the rupee.
Earlier on Tuesday, the RBI also barred banks from trading in rupee currency futures and options, except on behalf of their clients. "On a review of the evolving market conditions, it has been decided that banks should not carry out any proprietary trading in the currency futures and exchange traded currency options markets," a RBI statement said.
The restrictions came into effect immediately and are expected to help prevent volatility in the domestic currency. The rupee had depreciated to a life-time low of 61.21 to the US dollar Monday and ended at 60.14 Tuesday on the back of the announcements.
Market regulator SEBI too has tightened the exposure norms for currency derivatives to check speculative activity in the market. After discussions with the RBI Monday, the margin requirement has been doubled for rupee?dollar forward trade.
The steep fall of the rupee could also affect the government's disinvestment plans with major stake sales and the launch of the exchange-traded fund of public sector firms likely to be pushed back later into the year. "Investors are wary and we need to watch the situation," said a senior official.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister P Chidambaram is trying to drum up foreign investment during his visit to the US this week and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called a meeting of industry leaders on July 29 to discuss measures, including steps linked to the rupee, to boost investor sentiment and help the domestic currency.

Measures and Impact
* RBI asks oil companies to buy dollars from single state-owned bank: Will ease pressure on oil firms that have a monthly dollar requirement of over $ 8 billion
* RBI bars banks from trading on their own in rupee currency F&O: Expected to help prevent rupee volatility
* SEBI tightens exposure norms for currency derivatives: Will help curb speculation that has eroded rupee value

Courtesy:IE