Borders row: Angry Israel PM to take on Obama

May21 , 2011

WASHINGTON: US president Barack Obama opened White House talks with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, as both men waged a public row over the shape of an elusive peace with the Palestinians. 

Netanyahu arrived at the White House with the two leaders embroiled in another spat, the latest to test their tense relationship, at a time of high significance as the Middle East is rocked by "Arab Spring Revolts." The Israeli PM, on a trip which will see him embraced by Republicans opposed to the US leader's Israel policy, quarreled with the suggested parameters of peace deal laid out by Obama on Thursday. 

Obama said that territorial lines in place before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war combined with land-swaps should be the basis for talks on a peace deal with the Palestinians. Netanyahu has long opposed such a formulation, and his office issued a blunt statement saying such a scheme would leave it "indefensible" and would isolate major Israeli settlements in the West Bank. 

The prime minister arrived in Washington at dawn, with an aide saying his tough line was motivated by worries that Obama did not understand the threats Israel faces as popular revolts sweep the region.

Pakistan: 16 killed in NATO tanker blast

May21, 2011

Landi Kotal: At least 16 people were killed early on Saturday when an explosion in northwest Pakistan hit a truck carrying fuel supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan, officials said. 

"The tanker was on fire because of a blast late in the night. There was another blast early in the morning in the same tanker and 16 people who gathered near it to collect oil were killed," a senior local administration official said. The cause of the blasts was not immediately clear.
Local administrator Abdul Nabi Khan said the incident occurred early Saturday in the Landi Kotal area of Khyber tribal region. 

According to Khan, at first, the tanker caught fire. After it appeared the blaze was under control, people tried to take the tanker's fuel. Then the blast occurred. Separately, in the Torkham area of Khyber at the Afghan border, 14 NATO tankers were damaged in a bombing. No one was hurt. Many vehicles carrying supplies for Western troops in Afghanistan travel through Pakistan.

The Hindu : News / International : China, Pakistan move closer as Gilani visit ends

The Hindu : News / International : China, Pakistan move closer as Gilani visit ends

Kalmadi was mastermind of TSR scam: CBI

May21,2011

NEW DELHI: The CBI squarely named arrestedCommonwealth Games chief organizer Suresh Kalmadi as the "mastermind" in fixing and inflating costs of a timing, scoring and results contract awarded to a Swiss firm that caused a loss of Rs 95 crore. 

In the first chargesheet it filed in a Games-related case on Friday, CBI countered Kalmadi's claim that the controversial contract awarded to a Swiss firm was cleared by an executive board and the sports ministry, maintaining the Pune MP was "the supreme authority in the Organising Committee having overriding powers". 

Agency sources said they were tracing an elaborate conspiracy that began at the Commonwealth Youth Games organized by Kalmadi at his parliamentary constituency of Pune where event organizer Wizcraft was asked to facilitate an appearance by Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty. 

A partner in the plan was a firm Gem International – now named as a conspirator along withSwiss Timing Omega and Kalmadi and his Organizing Committee associates. Gem forked out Rs 72 lakh for the event and Rs 18 lakh was allegedly paid to Shetty. Later, after it won the timing, scoring and results contract, Swiss Timing allegedly paid Rs 23 crore to Gem, seen to be an exercise in routing the money. 

The agency said the buck stopped with Kalmadi as prime accused as he oversaw forgeries and tender conditions were tweaked to benefit Swiss Timing at his behest by his aides Lalit Bhanot and V K Verma, who were arrested in February. 

Along with Kalmadi, Bhanot and Verma, the 60-page chargesheet on the Rs 141 crore contract names former OC treasurer M Jaychandran and five others. Two companies -- Swiss Timing Omega and AKR Constructions -- have been indicted. 

The agency is likely to next file a chargesheet in the Queen Baton's Relay case involving allegedly illegal payments to British firm AM Cars and AM Films. Jaychandran was arrested in the case and is on bail with two other former OC officials. Kalmadi is likely to be main accused in this case as well. 

The two private entities – Swiss Timing and AKR Constructions – have been chargesheeted for routing payments and conspiring with OC officials with the final sub-contractor carrying out the work awarded for a fraction of the deal. 

The CBI court of judge Talwant Singh is due to take cognizance of the chargesheet on Monday. The agency has been helped by two former OC officials, one of whom V K Gautam was believed to be close to Kalmadi. He along with Sujit Panigraphi are among the main prosecution witnesses. The other important testimony is that of Rahul Bhatnagar, a senior official in the sports ministry. 

Kalmadi and his associates decided to award the contract to Swiss Timing before a tender was floated and the terms were changed after its issuance to specifically ensure the firm won the deal. A much lower Rs 62 crore bid by Spanish firm MSL was rejected. Swiss Timing's bid was accepted despite a 2:2 split in the evaluation committee, investigation has revealed. 

"They (the officials) had a pre-planned design to give contract to Swiss Timing, much before Expression of Interest and Request for Proposal (RPF) was issued and they had done forgeries, manipulations and machinations to give award to Switzerland based company." 

Since it could not find direct evidence of money trail, the agency cited circumstantial and documentary evidence in a bid to nail him for cheating, forgery and other charges. It said that he had himself "manipulated the eligibility criteria for the TSR contract to favour Swiss Timing." 

The agency based its chargesheet on the statement of around 70 witnesses and several documents including a forged contract and expression of interest and a hand-written note recovered from Kalmadi's house stating the TSR contract would go to Swiss Timing. 

OC officials to be chargesheeted include Surjit Lal, A S V Prasad and three private persons – promoters of Faridabad-based Gem International A K Madan and Purushottam Arya and MD ofHyderabad based AKR Constructions A Krishna Reddy. CBI has charged all of them for cheating, forgery, and criminal conspiracy, use of forged documents and prevention of corruption act. 

Reddy, Madan and Arya are on the run and CBI is looking for them armed with non-bailable warrants. 

The two firms Swiss Timing and Gem conspired with OC officials. "They then conspired with A K Reddy of AKR Constructions and raised highly inflated and bogus invoices for Rs 11 crore for temporary cabling work for justifying the huge payment received from Swiss Timing," said the chargesheet.

China, Pakistan move closer as Gilani visit ends

May 21 , 2011

China signalled its intent to deepen strategic ties with Pakistan and back the country’s counterterrorism efforts against international pressure, with the “all-weather” allies signing a number of defence agreements to mark the conclusion of Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani’s four-day visit.

Pakistani officials confirmed on Friday that China agreed to speed up the delivery of 50 JF-17 fighter jets to the country, a deal analysts said underscored the importance of Chinese assistance to Islamabad at a time when relations with Washington have come under strains, with some U.S. legislators calling for a scaling back support.

A joint statement issued on Friday said China believed that Pakistan’s “efforts for promoting peace and stability in South Asia should be recognised and supported.”

It also reiterated Chinese support to Pakistan in the wake of criticism following the May 2 killing of Osama bin Laden, repeating Beijing’s displeasure at the United States for violating Pakistan’s sovereignty by conducting the raid in Abbottabad.

China believed “Pakistan’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity should be respected,” the statement said, adding that China “recognised the tremendous efforts and the great sacrifice that Pakistan has made in fighting terrorism,”

On Friday, Chinese President Hu Jintao also voiced strong support for Pakistan’s counterterrorism strategy in talks with Mr. Gilani, pushing back against recent international criticism.

In talks earlier this week, Chinese officials told Mr. Gilani they had taken up the country’s concerns over the May 2 raid in meetings with U.S. officials, calling on them to respect Pakistan’s sovereignty.

Chinese officials said “there should be no harm to the Pakistani sovereignty and the US should understand and appreciate concerns of Pakistan,” Mr. Gilani told reporters.

While his visit has been seen as underscoring the deepening ties between the two countries, Chinese analysts downplayed its significance on the rest of the region, and particularly on the two countries’ relations with the U.S.

“The focus of this visit was the sixtieth anniversary of ties between the two countries, and to deepen economic and trade ties” and not defence or terrorism, Rong Ying, vice president of the China Institute for International Studies (CIIS), told The Hindu.

He, however, added that “China has made clear that Pakistan’s policy on counterterrorism is based on national conditions and interests.”

“This,” he said, “has to be respected by relevant countries.”

DMK’s first daughter Kanimozhi sent to jail

May 21, 2011

New Delhi A CBI court today ordered the immediate arrest of DMK Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi in the 2G spectrum scam, calling the allegations against her “very grave” and the “magnitude of the crime enormous”. She was “in conspiracy with accused A Raja as far as grant of licence and allotment of spectrum to Swan Telecom is concerned”, the court observed, dismissing her bail plea.

Along with her, Special CBI Judge O P Saini also sent Kalaignar TV Managing Director Sharad Kumar to Tihar jail, where other accused in the scam are already lodged.
“Kumar and Kanimozhi were involved in a dubious transaction to transfer Rs 200 crore as quid pro quo from DB Group companies to Kalaignar TV disguising it as a genuine business transaction,” the 144-page order said. “The role of both accused is clear from the above incriminating material... the magnitude of the crime is enormous. The allegations are very grave. The supporting evidence is also on record.”
The judge dismissed the contention that being a woman, Kanimozhi should be granted bail.
“Considering the magnitude of the crime and the allegations against her, I am unable to show any consideration to her on this ground, though I wish I could show some consideration, considering her extremely dignified conduct in the court.”
Making a note of the statement of public witness G Rajendran before the CBI, Saini said: “He states that the meeting of board of directors of Kalaignar TV held on 13.2.2009 in which Sharad Kumar was authorised to raise funds from Cineyug Limited up to Rs 200 crore was attended by Kumar and Kanimozhi.”
The CBI has charged Kanimozi with criminal conspiracy (Section 120 B of IPC) and under Sections 7 and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Rejecting the defence contention that the Rajya Sabha MP did not play an active role in Kalaignar TV affairs, Judge Saini said she was “an initial director of the company and resigned only for the reason that her clearance from MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) was pending... she was also widely covered by the Kalaignar Seithigal (News) channel”.
The judge also noted that “considering that many witnesses are employees of Kalaignar TV, there is every apprehension that the witnesses may be influenced if the accused is relealsed on bail”.
The judge relied on statements of three witnesses before the CBI: Asservatham Achary, the additional private secretary of A Raja; G Rajendran, General Manager (Finance), Kalaignar TV; and P Amritham, Additional Director, Kalaignar.
Achary said Kanimozhi was an active brain behind Kalaignar TV and frequently visited the camp office of A Raja, where company work was discussed. Rajendran testified that shares subscription and shareholders’ agreement dated 19.12.2008 was executed between Cineyug Films and Kalaignar TV and its three promoters, M K Dayalu, Kanimozhi Karunanidhi and Sharad Kumar. The agreement was also signed by the trio. Amritham pointed out that Kanimozhi was Director (Kalaignar TV) from 6.6.2007 to 20.6.2007.
About Kumar, the order said: “He has signed all the agreements purportedly signed with Cineyug Films and other relevant documents, not only on behalf of the company but also on behalf of himself and other directors/shareholders of the company.”
Rejecting the defence argument that since the duo were produced following summons they could not be taken into custody, the order said: “When an accused appears in court in response to summons issued by it, he surrenders himself to the custody of the court.”
“By way of abundant caution,” Saini also added that his observations were “tentative” and did not “tantamount to expression of opinion on the merit of the case”.

Mega satellite GSAT-8 successfully put into transfer orbit

May 21, 2011

Country's mega geo-stationary satellite GSAT-8 was successfully deployed in an elliptical geo-synchronous transfer orbit on early Saturday by the Ariane-VA-202 rocket, an official of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said. "The 3.1-tonne satellite was injected in the GTO 31 minutes afte The space agency's master control facility (MCF) at Hasan, about 180 km from Bangalore, started receiving the signals from GSAT-8 within minutes after it entered the geo-synchronous transfer orbit (GTO). The MCF also took command and control of the heavy satellite.The satellite will be gradually put into the 36,000-km geosynchronous orbit over the next couple of days and its antenna and solar panels will be deployed."The MCF will test and monitor the health parameters of the payloads by June 1. It will be available for DTH services from July 1," ISRO director S Satish said.Along with GSAT-8, the space agency sent the global position system (GPS) aided geo augmented navigation (Gagan) as an additional payload to improve the accuracy of the US' GPS.