RSS chief favours Kalam for president - Hindustan Times
"It will be good if he (Kalam) is elected as President. The comman man thinks that he is a nice man. While rest of the people have a political background, he does not. We can only give our opinion. But only lawmakers can elect the president,” Bhagwat told reporters in Haridwar.
Bhagwat's remarks came on a day the NDA deferred its decision on whether or not to contest the Presidential election as it was divided over opposing UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee.
While Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee has rooted for Kalam, the former President is yet to announce whether he will contest.
Rodney King, L.A. police 1990s beating victim, dies - CBC
Rodney King, whose videotaped beating by police led to the 1992 Los Angeles riots, has died, California police said Sunday. He was 47.
King's fiancée called 911 at 5:25 a.m. local time to report she found him at the bottom of the swimming pool at their home in Rialto, Calif., said police Lt. Dean Hardin.
Officers arrived to find King unresponsive in the water, Hardin said. He was transported to Arrowhead Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6:11 a.m.
There were no signs of foul play, Hardin said. The San Bernardino County coroner will perform an autopsy within 48 hours.
The Los Angeles riots erupted on April 29, 1992 when a mostly white jury acquitted three of the four officers accused of beating and kicking King and failed to convict the fourth.
Rodney King is seen in May 1992 in Beverly Hills at a news conference, where he called for the end of violence in the city. (Robert Sullivan/Getty)A bystander with a video camera recorded the beating after King, a black motorist, was pulled over by the officers on March 3, 1991.
During the riots, there was another shocking scene, this time involving a white motorist. Reginal Denny was dragged from his truck and nearly murdered on live television. He was rescued by strangers and taken to hospital.
Fifty-five people were killed during the riots that followed the verdicts and King became a symbol of police brutality and racial tension in the city. Looting, vandalism and arson left an estimated $1 billion in damage.
Rev. Jesse Jackson called the incident a "wakeup call."
"It illuminated the darkness," said Jackson, speaking to CBC News from Washington D.C. on Sunday. "He showed us how ugly and unfair racial profiling is. We have not yet stopped it ... blacks remain the weak link in the justice chain."
Jackson said King moved on but "the beating lingered and the impact on his emotional and mental health, we'll never know."
At the time of the incident, the 25-year-old King was on parole after a robbery conviction. In a CNN interview in 2011, he recalled he had been drinking and was headed home when he saw a patrol car following him. He thought he would be sent back to prison, so he panicked after stopping the car.
Eventually, four LAPD officers — Theodore Briseno, Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind and Stacey Koon — were indicted on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and excessive use of force by a police officer.
After a three-month trial in 1992, three of the officers were acquitted of all charges. The jury, which had mostly white members, were deadlocked on one charge of excessive force against Powell, and a mistrial was declared on that charge.
'Can we all get along?'
The result triggered rioting in LA that lasted for three days, leaving more than 2,000 injured and swaths of the city on fire. At the height of the violence, King pleaded on television: "Can we all get along?"
A year later, the four officers stood trial in federal court on civil rights charges. Koon and Powell were found guilty and sentenced to 30 months in prison, while Briseno and Wind were acquitted.
King also sued the city for damages and got $3.8 million US.
In 2008, he released a memoir, The Riot Within, chronicling his difficult upbringing and his reflections on the beating. In several interviews, King said he had forgiven the officers.
In an interview with The Associated Press this year, King was in relatively good spirits: "America's been good to me after I paid the price and stayed alive through it all. This part of my life is the easy part now."
With files from The Associated PressRSS favours Kalam but NDA divided over its Presidential candidate, Sangma insists he is in the race - indiatoday.intoday.in
Rashtriya Seva Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Sunday came out in support of the candidature of A P J Abdul Kalam in the Presidential poll, saying he is apolitical and that it will be good if he is elected.
"It will be good if he (Kalam) is elected as President.
The comman man thinks that he is a nice man. While rest of the people have a political background, he does not. We can only give our opinion. But only lawmakers can elect the president," Bhagwat told reporters in Haridwar.
Bhagwat's remarks came on a day the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) deferred its decision on whether or not to contest the Presidential election as it was divided over opposing United Progressive Alliance (UPA) nominee Pranab Mukherjee.
While Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee has rooted for Kalam, the former Indian President is yet to announce whether he will contest.
The NDA failed to firm up a position on the Presidential poll as it was divided over opposing UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee and there was lack of clarity on extending support to P A Sangma.
With an intention of using the Presidential poll to rope in parties like AIADMK and BJD and possibly Trinamool Congress, the main opposition BJP-led alliance decided at a meeting in New Delhi that talks would be held with these parties to have a common candidate against Mukherjee.
At a two-hour meeting of the NDA which was skipped by Shiv Sena, JD-U leader Shivanand Tiwari is believed to have disfavoured a contest against Mukherjee because of his stature, reflecting a divide in the coalition.
BJP leaders L K Advani and Sushma Swaraj were said to be of the opinion that there should be a contest but there was no consensus as to whether to support Sangma, who has been propped up by AIADMK and BJD, or Kalam, who is being pushed into the race by Trinamool Congress.
There was a strong view that supporting Sangma would help NDA win back AIADMK and BJD. However, to finetune this, talks should be held with leaders of these parties before any decision is reached, sources said.
UK to order reactor for nuclear-armed submarine - source - Reuters UK
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will order the first reactor for a new generation of nuclear-armed submarines next week as part of a 1 billion pound ($1.6 billion) contract with Rolls-Royce, a defence ministry source said on Sunday, in a move that could strain the coalition government.
The deal will include an 11-year refit of Britain's sole submarine propulsion reactor factory at Derby in central England, said Defence Secretary Philip Hammond, who will formally announce the plans to parliament on Monday.
"This is sustaining a sovereign capability in the UK and some very high end technical skills in the UK for the next 40 or 50 years," he told BBC television, without giving further details of the contract.
The investment will protect 300 jobs at the Rolls-Royce factory and many others at suppliers elsewhere, the source said.
The 1 billion pound value of the deal will be shared between Rolls-Royce and its other industrial partners, a source close to the company said.
The two-party coalition government is split over plans to replace Britain's four Vanguard submarines at an estimated cost of 25 billion pounds when they retire from service in the 2020s.
Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party - to which Hammond belongs - wants a new fleet of submarines that will continue to carry the Vanguard's Trident missiles, maintaining Britain's independent nuclear capability.
Their smaller Liberal Democrat partners are pushing for cheaper and less potent alternatives, arguing that the current capability - the ability to obliterate Moscow - is an outdated hangover from the Cold War.
The two parties have postponed a final decision till 2016, after the next parliamentary election, while agreeing in the meantime to fund the advance work needed to allow the submarines to be built on schedule should they be commissioned.
The Liberal Democrats insist that the advance contracts do not represent a commitment to a like-for-like renewal, but some analysts say it is unlikely that cash-strapped Britain would lay out huge sums on design and equipment that it would later ditch.
Hammond insisted the government had not yet made up its mind about Britain's future nuclear deterrent.
"The government's policy is very clear. We are committed to maintaining a credible nuclear deterrent and we are placing orders now for the long-lead items that will be necessary to deliver a successor to the Vanguard class submarines in the late 2020s," Hammond said.
"But the actual decision to go ahead and build them won't have to be taken until 2016 and what we are doing at the moment is ordering the things that have to be ordered now to give us that option."
The government said last year it expected to spend 3 billion pounds by 2015 on preparatory work for the new submarine fleet.
The Rolls-Royce deal also includes a contract to build the reactor for the last of seven Astute class nuclear-powered attack submarines that Britain already has on order.
The nuclear propulsion plant for the Vanguard's successor will be the more advanced Pressurised Water Reactor 3 (PWR3) system, the government said last year.
Last month Hammond announced 350 million pounds of contracts, mainly with defence contractor BAE Systems, to design the Vanguard's successor submarines.
(Additional reporting by Rhys Jones; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Saudi king to bury Crown Prince, find successor - Reuters
RIYADH |
RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's elderly king led funeral prayers on Sunday for his heir, Crown Prince Nayef, whose death forces him to find a new successor capable of tackling domestic unemployment, bitter rivalry with Iran and turmoil in close Arab neighbors.
Mecca's Great Mosque, Islam's holiest place, was lined with members of the al-Saud ruling family and leaders of Arab states as an imam led the sunset prayer next to the body of Nayef, who died on Saturday.
Among the mourners was the man most likely to be named as successor: Prince Salman, 76, who is seen as more likely to continue the 89-year-old King Abdullah's cautious economic and social reforms than the conservative Nayef.
The world's top oil exporter is locked in regional rivalry with Shi'ite Iran, which it suspects of fomenting unrest among its Shi'ite Muslim minority and in allied Gulf Arab states.
Former Lebanese prime minister Saad al-Hariri was among those who met Nayef's body at Jeddah airport, representing the Sunni Muslim political alliance that Saudi Arabia cultivates against Iran.
Saudi Arabia is also struggling with entrenched youth unemployment and wary of the threat posed by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, based in neighboring Yemen, which has plotted attacks against the kingdom and sworn to topple the ruling al-Saud family.
The appointment of a new crown prince is not likely to change the kingdom's policies in the short term but might influence the course of reforms started by King Abdullah.
"We call on God to help King Abdullah choose the right person who can bear the burdens of this position at this difficult time we face, both at the level of the Arab nation and that of the Islamic community," Prince Mishaal bin Abdullah bin Turki al-Saud told Reuters.
Salman, who is seen as a pragmatist with a strong grasp of the intricate balance of competing princely and clerical interests that dominate Saudi politics, was named defense minister last year.
FAMILY COUNCIL
Although most analysts believe it is highly likely Salman will be named as heir, King Abdullah may choose to activate the Allegiance Council, a body he set up in 2006 to supervise succession decisions after his death.
The Saudi succession has moved along a line of brothers born to the state's founder, King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud. A previous crown prince, Sultan, died last October.
While the Allegiance Council will not formally start to operate until after King Abdullah's death, the monarch last year chose to put his nomination of Prince Nayef to the body before his choice was announced.
"There will be a meeting where the next crown prince will be decided. It has always been done in an orderly and organized manner. Prince Salman fits the profile in many ways," said Khaled Almaeena, editor-in-chief of the Saudi Gazette.
Saudi television showed the ambulance carrying Nayef's body arriving at the great mosque in Mecca, with the body, wrapped in a brown shroud, carried inside by his sons and other close family members.
The range of mourners sitting near King Abdullah, including the head of Egypt's military council, General Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, and leaders of Gulf Arab countries, the Palestinian authority and Lebanon, demonstrated Saudi Arabia's influence in the Muslim world.
Analysts say the most difficult decision in the succession will be when the line of Ibn Saud's sons is exhausted and a grandson must be chosen as crown prince.
Grandsons with the experience and qualifications to rule include Prince Khaled al-Faisal, the governor of Mecca province, who is 71, and Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the deputy interior minister, who is 52.
"We have seen Abdullah make pretty hard-headed decisions, unsentimental decisions, about family jobs. He chose Nayef over eight (other) living princes. He has shown that age and seniority give way to competence and appetite for the job," said Robert Lacey, author of Inside the Kingdom.
(Reporting by Angus McDowal; Additional reporting by Ismail Nofal in Mecca; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Kalam is RSS choice for Prez - Daily Pioneer
Even as after reaching Haridwar Bhagwat did express his willingness to have some ‘important talks’ with the saints in Haridwar, the agenda of these talks remained undisclosed and the RSS officer bearers were shrugging off the question saying only Bhagwat can reply to this question.
However, the present issue of Presidential poll did come up during the casual talks that the RSS chief held with local reporters. “The election of President in India has got a special process and only some selected people can cast their vote. However, according to me, former President APJ Abdul Kalam should contest election again. He is the best Presidential candidate,” Bhagwat said.
“Kalamji is a person with no political linkages and has got a mass support in the form of people who want him back as their President,” Bhagwat said, while answering a question about whether he supports the candidature of Pranab Mukherjee, as the Presidential candidate. “Former President APJ Adbul Kalam is my nominee for the Presidential poll,” Bhagwat said.
About the controversial issue of hydro-electric power projects on river Ganga, Bhagwat said the Central and the State Governments should formulate policies keeping in mind that Ganga is a holy river and needs to be preserved. “Crores of Indian consider Ganga as a goddess and also worship the river. The issue should not be politicised for personal benefits. The RSS wants the Governments to make policies keeping the importance of Ganga in mind,” Bhagwat added.
Meanwhile, Swami Ramanandacharya Rambha-dracharya, whom Bhagwat had come to meet in the former’s ashram said, “I also feel that Kalamji is the best candidate for the post of President. People have seen his tenure as a President once and want him back. He is definitely a far better candidate than Pranab Mukherjee, who is known as a Congressman.”
About the proposed Ganga Raksha programme to be organised in Delhi by Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati soon, Rambhadracharya said that the saint fraternity will support the programme only if Swami Swaroopanand keeps political parties and politicians away from the function.
Credit Suisse CEO says no plans for capital hike: paper - Reuters
ZURICH |
ZURICH (Reuters) - Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) has no plans to issue new shares after the Swiss central bank called on it to improve its capital base this year, but should be able to do so by retaining earnings, Chief Executive Brady Dougan was quoted as saying on Sunday.
"Of course I am disappointed. FINMA has given us directions as to how we should strengthen capital. We are fulfilling those," Dougan told the SonntagsZeitung paper in an interview.
"Even more surprising were the suggestions by the SNB to cut the dividend and to raise capital."
In its annual financial stability report published on Thursday, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) said Credit Suisse should urgently boost its loss-absorbing capital base by cutting risk, suspending dividends or issuing shares, sending the stock down 10 percent.
Dougan noted that FINMA is the regulator of the Swiss banks, rather than the SNB but said the bank was still taking the central bank's comments seriously. However, he rejected the idea of a capital hike: "That is not our plan".
"We assume that we will generate enough profit in the coming quarters to create extra equity capital," he said, adding that the bank was also offering shareholders the choice of receiving their dividends in shares, which demands less capital.
The criticism from the SNB has increased pressure on Dougan, who was lauded for navigating the bank through the subprime crisis relatively unscathed, but has come under fire of late for squandering that advantage as the bank's shares languish.
Dougan told the paper he had no plans to step down and was working closely with the board, but admitted some mistakes.
"Last year we massively cut the cost base. From today's perspective, I must concede that the critics were right who said we should have acted even earlier," he said.
Dougan added he was particularly surprised about the public criticism from the SNB as Chairman Thomas Jordan had not discussed the need for Credit Suisse to cut its dividend and raise capital when the two men met for lunch just 10 days ago.
He said the SNB's calculations of Credit Suisse's capital were incomplete and based on a very pessimistic scenario for the euro zone debt crisis, adding the report had shaken the confidence of clients and investors: "That is not just bad for us but for the whole financial centre."
Dougan rejected suggestions the SNB's concern was related to a U.S. investigation into whether the bank helped wealthy Americans evade taxes by providing secret offshore accounts.
The bank is expected to have to pay a hefty fine and hand over U.S. client names as part of a settlement.
Oswald Gruebel, a former Credit Suisse CEO, said the bank's shares had fallen sharply on Thursday because shareholders were afraid that the bank would have to raise capital.
"But CS also has the possibility to cut its balance sheet and thereby indirectly increase its capital, or do both," Gruebel wrote in his weekly column for Der Sonntag newspaper.
But Hans Geiger, a retired Zurich University banking professor and a former senior executive at Credit Suisse, said the bank was ill advised to try to fight the SNB.
"The reaction of CS is fatal," Geiger told the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper on Saturday. "Whoever goes on a confrontation course with the national bank has lost their reason." (Reporting by Emma Thomasson; Editing by Alison Birrane)
Modi needs to review style of working: RSS mouthpiece - in.news.yahoo.com
New Delhi, June 2 (IANS) In an apparent disapproval by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's style of working, an article in the organisation's mouthpiece has indicated that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has several prime ministerial candidates.
It also disapproved of Modi's reported insistence on resignation of Sanjay Joshi from the BJP's national executive last week.
The article, which figures in the latest issue of Panchjanaya, said it was being felt that Modi needed to do a rethink about organisational capabilities.
"It seems Narendra Modi needs to review his style of working and organisational ability," it said.
The article assumes significance because its author Devendra Swaroop is a former editor of Panchjanaya and has access to views of the RSS insiders.
"The role of Narendra Modi in the Sanjay Joshi episode at BJP's national executive meeting in Mumbai is worth considering...why despite having faith in the Sangh, Modi could not control his unhappiness towards a fellow RSS functionary is a mystery. He made Joshi's presence a prestige issue and allowed the media to attack the BJP and the Sangh," the article said.
It also attacked Modi over media reports about Joshi changing his travel plans and boarding a plane instead of going by train after the Mumbai meeting as the train would have touched places in Gujarat.
"It allowed opponents of the BJP to speak against Modi," it said.
Modi apparently insisted that he would attend the conclave only if his bete noire Joshi resigned from the party's national executive and the party bowed to his demand.
In a dig at Modi's prime ministerial ambitions, it said that the BJP had several chief ministers and central leaders who were capable of being its prime ministerial candidates. But it said that the decision should be taken by the the parliamentary party after the party won the Lok Sabha election.
The article in the RSS mouthpiece slamming Modi's action at the BJP executive close to veteran BJP leader L.K. Advani launching an attack on party president Nitin Gadkari, saying "the mood within the party is not upbeat".
Advani said in his blog that people were angry with the Congress-led government but they were upset with the BJP too.
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