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New Delhi:The Mumbai Indians have rubbished the reports that their skipper Sachin Tendulkar is doubtful for the fifth edition of the Indian Premier League.
"Mumbai Indians captain Sachin Tendulkar will be joining the in-progress camp at Wankhede Stadium from 31st March 2012 and is fully available for the entire IPL season 5," Mumbai Indians said in its statement.
Reports had been doing the rounds that Sachin might have to give the tournament a miss due to an old toe injury, which has resurfaced and might need surgery.
But Sachin is in London for what is merely a routine check-up of an old toe injury. "Sachin is in UK to consult his doctor and will be back in India to join the camp from 31st March", Mumbai Indians said.
The IPL is all set to commence on April 4 in Chennai, where Tendulkar's Mumbai Indians, the last year's second runner-up will take on defending champions Chennai Super Kings at the M A Chidambaram Stadium.
Tendulkar, who notched up his 100th international ton in the recently-concluded Asia Cup, also did not attend the BCCI-organised felicitation function of the retired batsman Rahul Dravid last evening at a hotel near his residence here, as he had already left for England.
Sachin had suffered an injury to his toe almost a decade ago. It came back to haunt him last September and upset his plans to play the ODI series in England after a not-too-successful run in the four-Test series that preceded it.
He was withdrawn from the team sheet before the first ODI, which was washed out. And then the BCCI issued a statement, saying that Tendulkar had been ruled out of the series "due to a toe injury".
Tendulkar had consulted a specialist in London after suffering the injury and was advised four weeks' rest.
Tendulkar came back to play the Test rubber against the West Indies at home after missing the Champions League Twenty20, which was won by Mumbai Indians under the stand-in-skipper Harbhajan Singh.
But after playing the Test series against the Windies, Tendulkar again opted to rest for the ODI series.
New Delhi: The chief of the Indian Army, General VK Singh, may have skidded past the point of no-return on his collision course with the government. A letter from him to the Prime Minister, warning that India's security is at risk, has been leaked to the media. Many political parties have hinted that he is responsible for the leak.
Opposition parties in Parliament demanded that the government take action against whoever is responsible, expressing as much concern over the leak of the letter as its contents. General Singh is currently on tour in Kashmir and will return to Delhi tomorrow. In his letter, dated March 12, General VK Singh asks the Prime Minister to "pass suitable directions to enhance the preparedness of the Army". The chief describes the state of artillery, air defence, and infantry as "alarming." He writes the Army's tanks are "devoid of critical ammunition to defeat enemy tanks" and air defence is "97% obsolete."
Many blame the Army chief for the leak, suggesting that this is his latest attempt to embarrass the Defence Ministry. A series of leaders from opposition parties, including Lalu Prasad Yadav, said the Army chief should be removed for breaching confidentiality and compromising institutional integrity. (Read: Some leaders ask for Army chief's removal - 10 big facts)
In Parliament, Defence Minister AK Antony described the letter as "top-secret." He said publishing "secret communication within government cannot serve our national security". Politicians like Lalu Prasad Yadav blamed the chief and asked for his immediate removal. "He is acting like someone who wants to stand for elections...remove him" said Lalu Prasad Yadav. Ram Gopal Yadav of the Samajwadi Party and Shivanand Tewari of the Janta Dal (United) agreed. Arun Jaitley of the BJP pointed out that alleged lapses in the procurement of equipment, as highlighted by the Army chief, should be addressed urgently, though privately. "Responsibility will have to be fixed and action be taken, irrespective of the position they may hold in the defence forces or the civilian administration. And that assurance must be given, and that is what we want," said the Left's Sitaram Yechury.
The details of the Army's weaknesses and its chasm with the government are now part of the imagery on display for Chinese President Hu Jintao, who is in Delhi for the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit that begins tomorrow. On Monday, the Army chief revealed that he had been offered a bribe of 14 crores to clear sub-standard trucks in 2010. The Defence Minister retorted yesterday that he had asked the chief to take action against the retired defence officer who offered him the kickback, but the Army chief had refused. (Read: Rs. 14 crore bribe offered to Army chief recorded on tape: Sources) General Singh will meet most likely with the CBI tomorrow to discuss the kickback.
Former Army chief Shankar Roy Chowdhury said that the government has been alerted repeatedly to the exigent need to upgrade the Army's resources. "This is not a new thing...it is occupying media space because of the leaks," he said. "Pakistan must be laughing... rest assured Pakistan knows about it, China knows about it," he added.
The Army chief is set to retire at the end of May. Many believe that this week's developments suggest he is hungry for revenge before he exits office. (Read: Months of acrimony for army chief and the government)
For most of last year, the minister and the Army chief fought a long battle over General Singh's age. The government refused to accept that General Singh was born in 1951 and not 1950. Records with the Army show both years, but the government said that documents used to establish his seniority and promotions declared 1950 as his year of birth and could not be amended. The Army chief took the unprecedented action of taking the government to court. But he dropped his petition after Supreme Court judges indicated they were unlikely to accept his arguments.
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London: More incidents of burglars targeting gold and jewellery in houses belonging to British-Asians have come to light, with police issuing guidelines to the community that is known to traditionally preserve family jewellery for generations.
The latest spate of burglaries for gold has been reported in Leicester, which has a large population of Indian origin.
The police say that only items of gold jewellery were stolen during the burglaries in Spinney Hills, Highfields and Evington.
Reports of houses belonging to the Asian community being burgled have prompted the police and local councillors to launch special awareness campaigns in various towns across Britain, such as Birmingham, Slough, Ealing, Reading and Bradford.
Leicester-based police official Alan Cook said: "Asian gold is generally of a higher purity than other gold and is attractive to thieves."
Sergeant Dan Eveleigh, of Spinney Hill Park police station, said: "We are seeing an increasing number of house burglaries in this area and are concerned about the number of occasions when Asian gold jewellery is being stolen."
He added: "As warmer weather arrives, it's very easy to leave doors and windows open in error, and burglars will take every opportunity to steal."
Several jewellery shops owned by Asians have been targeted in Leicester, among other towns across Britain.
The price of gold is currently at a high of 1,100 pounds for an ounce.
Amidst the spate of burglaries, the police have issued specific crime prevention advice that urges members of the community not to keep gold items at home, among other measures.
Steve Smith, of the Thames Valley Police force, said: "Ideally, we would prefer for people not to keep high value gold at home given what we are experiencing, not only in areas of our force but nationally, due to the value of Asian gold and its purity."
The police issued detailed guidelines to the community to prevent crime, including details of safes, insurance, keeping an inventory of jewellery owned, keeping photographs of the items, to use forensic marking to identify jewellery and to register all valuables on a free online Immobilise database.
Some areas in the south of the Thames Valley have particularly suffered from this type of crime in recent months, the police said and added that over 200 offences have been reported to police since April last year in Berkshire.
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Mumbai: Shah Rukh Khan, who returned to Mumbai last night after shooting for his yet untitled movie with Yash Raj Films in London, will be visiting Ra.One animator Charu Khandal in hospital later today.
SRK has wished Charu Khandal a speedy recovery.
"It's very unfortunate. I've been in touch with the office. I'll look into it. I'll pray allah makes her fine soon. Inshallah," he said.
Doctors said that the 28-year-old, who recently won a National Award for Ra.One, is still critical. Charu is not in coma, but has been put on ventilator as she is unable to breathe on her own.
Doctors have been unable to operate on her since her spine is swollen.
Charu was returning home in the wee hours of Sunday, when a drunk driver rammed his Honda City into the autorickshaw she was travelling in.
Charu's friend Vikrant Goel, who was also with her, has been operated on and while his condition is critical, doctors are optimistic about his recovery. Meanwhile, Charu's family and friends have begun a Facebook campaign to garner support for her after the accused - Manoj Netrapal - walked out on bail of a mere five thousand rupees . Manoj's neighbours say he hasn't returned home since he was released on Sunday.
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New Delhi: The BRICS group of emerging world powerhouses - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - is expected to launch plans this week for a joint development bank and measures to bring their stock exchanges closer together.
Officials say the initiatives will take time as they need to sort out details. But they herald a new level of ambition for a bloc that brings together about half the world's people. The Middle East and energy security will also be discussed, officials say.
The BRIC acronym was coined in 2001 by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill, who was searching for a catchy way to encapsulate the broader shift in global economic growth towards emerging markets. South Africa joined the grouping in 2010 so that it became BRICS.
The countries held their first summit in 2009 and have been criticised since as nothing more than an empty acronym as they struggle to find common cause from four different continents with radically different economies, systems of government and competing priorities.
The most relevant announcement from this week's meeting in India of the countries' leaders is likely to be plans for a joint development bank in the mold of the World Bank.
The initiative would allow the countries to pool resources for infrastructure improvements, and could also be used in the longer term as a vehicle for lending during global financial crises such as the one in Europe, officials say.
Brazilian Trade Minister Fernando Pimentel told reporters in Brasilia last week that the countries would sign a deal at the summit to study the creation of the bank.
Sudhir Vyas, a senior Indian foreign ministry official, told reporters on Monday that the BRICS would have to determine how the bank would be structured and capitalised. Such an ambitious project would take time, he said.
"We don't set up a bank every ordinary day," he said.
A benchmark equity index derivative shared by the stock exchanges of the five BRICS nations will be launched on Friday, the exchanges involved said earlier this month. They would be cross-listed, so can be bought in local currencies.
The leaders are also expected to sign agreements allowing their individual development banks to extend credit to other members in local currency, a step towards replacing the dollar as the main unit of trade between them.
A senior Indian government source said the Middle East and energy security will be high on the agenda, including Iran. The Russian ambassador in New Delhi said this week that a discussion on Syria would be among his country's top priorities.
While the plenary session on Thursday is likely to focus on common ground, bilateral meetings could touch on more sensitive issues.
The exchange rate of China's currency has sparked protests from countries, including Brazilian manufacturers, for being undervalued. Most member countries also face a slowdown in their economies.
"For different reasons, each of the (countries) has got some serious policy issues to deal with here that will determine whether they continue down the path we got everybody so excited about," O'Neill said.
Despite the problems, the growth outlook is still better than in most of the developed world, meaning the BRICS' clout will likely keep growing. O'Neill predicts the bloc's total GDP will be larger than the United States within three years and China's economy alone will overtake the United States by 2027.
Copyright@ Thomson Reuters 2012
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Washington: Global warming is leading to such severe storms, droughts and heat waves that nations should prepare for an unprecedented onslaught of deadly and costly weather disasters, an international panel of climate scientists says in a report issued on Wednesday.
The greatest danger from extreme weather is in highly populated, poor regions of the world, the report warns, but no corner of the globe - from Mumbai to Miami - is immune. The document by a Nobel Prize-winning panel of climate scientists forecasts stronger tropical cyclones and more frequent heat waves, deluges and droughts.
The 594-page report blames the scale of recent and future disasters on a combination of man-made climate change, population shifts and poverty.
In the past, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, founded in 1988 by the United Nations, has focused on the slow inexorable rise of temperatures and oceans as part of global warming. This report by the panel is the first to look at the less common but far more noticeable extreme weather changes, which recently have been costing on average about $80 billion a year in damage.
"We mostly experience weather and climate through the extreme," said Stanford University climate scientist Chris Field, who is one of the report's top editors. "That's where we have the losses. That's where we have the insurance payments. That's where things have the potential to fall apart.
"There are lots of places that are already marginal for one reason or another," Mr Field said. But it's not just poor areas: "There is disaster risk almost everywhere."
The scientists say that some places, particularly parts of Mumbai in India, could become uninhabitable from floods, storms and rising seas. In 2005, over 24 hours nearly 3 feet of rain fell on the city, killing more than 1,000 people and causing massive damage. Roughly 2.7 million people live in areas at risk of flooding.
Other cities at lesser risk include Miami, Shanghai, Bangkok, China's Guangzhou, Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City, Myanmar's Yangon (formerly known as Rangoon) and India's Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta). The people of small island nations, such as the Maldives, may also need to abandon their homes because of rising seas and fierce storms.
"The decision about whether or not to move is achingly difficult and I think it's one that the world community will have to face with increasing frequency in the future," Mr Field said in a telephone news conference on Wednesday.
This report - the summary of which was issued in November - is unique because it emphasizes managing risks and how taking precautions can work, Mr Field said. In fact, the panel's report uses the word "risk" 4,387 times.
Mr Field pointed to storm-and-flood-prone Bangladesh, an impoverished country that has learned from its past disasters. In 1970, a Category 3 tropical cyclone named Bhola killed more than 300,000 people. In 2007, a stronger cyclone killed only 4,200 people. Despite the loss of life, the country is considered a success story because it was better prepared and invested in warning and disaster prevention, Mr Field said.
A country that was not as prepared, Myanmar, was hit with a similar sized storm in 2008, which killed 138,000 people.
The study says forecasts that some tropical cyclones - which includes hurricanes in the United States - will be stronger because of global warming, but the number of storms should not increase and may drop slightly.
Some other specific changes in severe weather that the scientists said they had the most confidence in predicting include more heat waves and record hot temperatures worldwide, increased downpours in Alaska, Canada, northern and central Europe, East Africa and north Asia,
IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri told The Associated Press that while all countries are getting hurt by increased climate extremes, the overwhelming majority of deaths are happening in poorer less developed places. That, combined with the fact that richer countries are generating more greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels, makes the issue of weather extremes one of fairness.
However, extremes aren't always deadly. Sometimes, they are just strange.
Study co-author David Easterling of the National Climatic Data Center says this month's heat wave, while not deadly, fits the pattern of worsening extremes. The U.S. has set nearly 6,800 high temperature records in March. Last year, the United States set a record for billion-dollar weather disasters, though many were tornadoes, which can't be linked to global warming.
"When you start putting all these events together, the insurance claims, it's just amazing," Mr Easterling said. "It's pretty hard to deny the fact that there's got to be some climate signal."
Northeastern University engineering and environment professor Auroop Ganguly, who didn't take part in writing the IPCC report, praised it and said the extreme weather it highlights "is one of the major and important types of what we would call 'global weirding'." It's a phrase that some experts have been starting to use more to describe climate extremes.
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New Delhi: The pressure to stop the hanging of Babbar Khalsa terrorist Balwant Singh Rajoana is building up on the Punjab government. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal is expected to meet President Pratibha Patil in Delhi late in the evening today and is likely to appeal for clemency. This is after a Chandigarh court ruled on Tuesday that Rajoana, sentenced to death in the 1995 assassination of then Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, is to be hanged as scheduled on March 31.
A case seeking deferment of Rajoana's hanging would be taken up in the Punjab and Haryana High Court today.
Mr Badal's government along with Sikh body Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) have been leading a campaign for clemency to Rajoana.
"The main point here is that there is a law of the land. There are cases going on in the Supreme Court. If the appeal for the co-accused of any case is still going on, there can be no action until the decision has been taken. In this case itself, there are going on against two people. It's not like if the person appeals themselves, that their appeal is accepted," Mr Badal said on Tuesday.
The matter of two other terrorists, Jagtar Singh Hawara and Lakhwinder Singh, convicted in the same case, is pending before the Supreme Court. The CBI has approached the Supreme Court in Hawara's case as his death sentence, awarded by the CBI special court in 2007, was commuted by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2010 to life imprisonment. The appeal of Lakhwinder Singh against his conviction is also pending.
However, the High Court had upheld Rajoana's death sentence in the case as he had refused to defend himself.
Meanwhile, authorities in Punjab have beefed up security arrangements across the state in view of the latest orders of the court directing that Rajoana be hanged. Nearly 60,000 Punjab police personnel and 15 companies of para-military forces have been put on alert. The security forces have taken out flag marches in some cities and towns since Monday. Security has also been tightened around the jail to handle any untoward incident. Prohibitory orders are in place across Chandigarh to stop assembly of groups. However, several protest marches and rallies have been planned throughout Punjab by various Sikh groups for today and tomorrow.
As per the court's orders, Rajoana has to be hanged Saturday (March 31) at 9 a.m. in the Patiala jail premises. The court returned the warrant of death of Rajoana to the Patiala jail authorities. The court also issued a showcause notice for contempt of court to Patiala prison jail superintendent L.S. Jakhar for returning the warrant of death earlier.
The Patiala superintendent on Monday had moved a petition in the court of additional district and sessions judge Shalini Singh Nagpal in Chandigarh seeking deferment of Rajoana's hanging.
In the petition, the jail superintendent had said that the matter relating to two other terrorists, Jagtar Singh Hawara and Lakhwinder Singh, who were also convicted in the Beant Singh assassination case, was pending before the Supreme Court and Rajoana could not be hanged while this was pending.
Sources said that the Patiala jail superintendent, despite the contempt showcause notice from the court, has refused to accept the warrant of death citing legal issues.
A former Punjab Police constable, Rajoana has refused to defend himself in the Beant Singh assassination case saying that he was involved.
While the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal, the Punjab government and SGPC have come out openly to support the campaign to save him from the gallows, Rajoana has, through a letter, asked the Akali Dal to refrain from doing so.
Beant Singh, Punjab chief minister between 1992 and 1995 and largely credited with wiping out terrorism from the state, was assassinated by a human bomb, Dilawar Singh, at the high security Punjab civil secretariat in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995.
While Hawara was the mastermind of the assassination, Rajoana was the second human bomb to be used in case the first assassin failed. Rajoana, during the entire 11-year trial, had admitted that he alone was responsible for the killing of Beant Singh.
The family members of Beant Singh have also stated that they had forgiven Rajoana and that his death sentence be converted to life imprisonment.
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Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy is among the 12 "greatest entrepreneurs of our time" according to a Fortune magazine list that is topped by Apple's late chief Steve Jobs.
It includes Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for turning "concepts into companies" and changing the "face of business".
The US publication said as the "visionary founder" of Infosys, Murthy has built "one of the largest companies in India, helping to transform that economy and put it on the world stage".
Murthy, 65, proved that "India could compete with the world by taking on the software development work that had long been the province of the West.”
"As one of six co-founders of Infosys and the CEO for 21 years, Murthy helped spark the outsourcing revolution that has brought billions of dollars in wealth into the Indian economy and transformed his country into the world's back office," it said.
Fortune cited his lesson that an organisation starting from scratch must coalesce around a team of people with an enduring value system.
"It is all about sacrifice today, fulfilment tomorrow," it quotes Murthy, who is ranked 10th, as saying. "It is all about sacrifice, hardwork, lots of frustration, being away from your family, in the hope that someday you will get adequate returns from that."
The list is topped by Jobs, whom Fortune calls "our generation's quintessential entrepreneur. Visionary. Inspiring. Brilliant. Mercurial."
Fortune said the most astonishing fact about Jobs was his view that market research and focus groups only limited a person's ability to innovate.
Jobs used his own intuition, which was not merely a gut call, "radar-like" feel for emerging technologies and how they could be brought together to create "insanely great" products, Fortune said.
"It is a safe bet to assume that none of Apple's blockbuster products, from the Macintosh to the iPod and iTunes, from the iPhone to the iPad, would have come about if Jobs had relied heavily on consumer research," it added.
Fortune related an incident when a reporter had called Jobs on the day he launched the Macintosh, asking him what type of studies Apple had conducted to ensure there was a market for the computer.
"In a nearly offended tone, Jobs retorted, 'Did Alexander Graham Bell do any market research before he invented the telephone?'", according to the publication.
Gates comes next, who Fortune says is one of the very few extraordinary entrepreneurs who have had the opportunity to change the world twice in one lifetime.
"First, as the world's most influential geek, he helped usher in the personal computer revolution. "Now he is tackling the stubbornly difficult challenges of global health and public education as the world's most generous philanthropist," Fortune added.
Fortune said the similarity between how Gates-led Microsoft and the way he is leading the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as its co-chair is the focus on hiring very smart people and putting them to work in small teams to solve big issues.
"There is no way of getting around that," it quotes Gates as saying.
"In terms of IQ, you've got to be very elitist in picking the people who deserve to write software."
The list also includes founder, chairman and CEO of express delivery company FedEx Fred Smith, Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Walmart chief Sam Walton.
On Zuckerberg, Fortune said by the time he celebrates his 28th birthday this May, Facebook would have in all likelihood gone public and become the biggest IPO of all time.
"The long-anticipated IPO will create hundreds of millionaires, result in a valuation of an Internet company that will approach $100 billion, and make the geek who dropped out of Harvard University his generation's Bill Gates," it said.
Fortune said Facebook has become the world's dominant social network because of an "obsessive entrepreneurial genius" who has taken a page from another of Silicon Valley's legendary denizens, Intel's Andy Grove's dictum that only the paranoid survive.
"Zuckerberg is the Valley's most paranoid entrepreneur these days, taking nothing for granted.”
"It's why he has pushed out a constant flow of innovative changes to Facebook's platform, making it easier for developers to create applications for the community and ensuring that each new iteration keeps it ahead of the competition.”
"It's the single-most important explanation for why Facebook has yet to face any formidable rival in its space, including last year's challenge from heavyweight Google."
Also on the list is Bangladeshi economist and founder of the Grameen Bank Muhammad Yunus, who through his institution helped "pioneer and spread the concept of microcredit".
"While the bank could not eradicate poverty, it lifted many lives. No less critical, Yunus' idea inspired countless numbers of young people to devote themselves to social causes all over the world," Fortune said.
It said the people on its list have world-changing vision who have had social and economic impact.
"Great ideas are hard to come by. Putting them to work is even harder. Each of their companies sits at the nucleus of a thriving ecosystem that has cultivated and nurtured dozens if not hundreds of other enterprises," Fortune said.
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Mark Zuckerberg wants at least $5 billion from Wall Street investors, but those investors will not be getting much face time in return.
The Facebook co-founder and CEO made that clear when he skipped the social networking company's first major briefing for analysts and bankers last week. The meeting was the first of many that will take place in the run-up to an IPO that could value the company at close to $100 billion.
Zuckerberg's dismissive approach is hardly unique among elite Silicon Valley companies, but it could become an issue with investors because of the enormous control he exerts over Facebook via special shares.
"We don't think that he should be hiding from the investors," said Carin Zelenko, the director of the capital strategies department for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, whose pension and benefit funds have more than $100 billion invested in the capital markets.
"He wants investors to put their money behind him, with the confidence in him personally, as the person who built this company and who's going to lead it and control it. He should be accountable to those people who are investing."
According to Zelenko, the Teamsters will send a letter to the trustees of the various Teamster funds advising them to be wary of long-term risks associated with investing in Facebook as a result of its "anti-investor" corporate governance structure.
Two people who attended Facebook's March 19 meeting remarked on the young CEO's absence and privately said they expected at least a cursory appearance. One analyst asked how involved Zuckerberg would be in future. In response, the company said expectations should be set pretty low, according to one of the two who was at the meeting.
"Investors are crazy to want to get in bed with a company where the guy who controls it doesn't even pretend to care about the rest of the shareholders," said Greg Taxin of activist investment firm Spotlight Advisors, who will not buy shares. "That seems like a recipe for disaster."
The company has not yet publicly stated whether Zuckerberg will participate in the pre-IPO investor roadshow or on the quarterly earnings conference calls after the company becomes publicly listed. Facebook declined to comment on Zuckerberg's expected level of involvement with Wall Street.
Zuckerberg is hardly a recluse. He speaks regularly at events to unveil new products and participates in media interviews. But he has been less than impressive in some of his on-stage appearances and his perceived charisma will become more important as he takes on the role of leading one the largest and most high-profile public companies in the world.
Supporters of Zuckerberg point out that the recipient of Time Magazine's 2010 Person of the Year title has become increasingly comfortable in the spotlight, making appearances on television programs such as "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and "60 Minutes."
He is also backed by an experienced management team, including Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg. A former Google executive, Sandberg has a highly polished public style and is well-versed in financial matters. Many expect her to become Facebook's public face with investors as it enters the public markets.
That is fine with some on Wall Street.
"I would always like access to the CEO, but the best use of his time is in running the company," said Dan Niles, chief investment officer at AlphaOne Capital Partners. "I worry more about a CEO who seems to spend too much time talking to Wall Street and the media."
Setting expectations As a private company backed by mostly venture capital, Zuckerberg enjoyed great leeway in choosing how to spend his time. But Zuckerberg will control 56.9 percent of post-IPO voting shares thanks to a dual-class stock structure and voting agreements with some early investors, and may face pressure to be more available to investors.
For the moment, with investor enthusiasm for Facebook burning hot, the dual-class structure and Zuckerberg's lack of engagement are not likely to have a big impact on demand for the shares.
But some analysts and governance experts warn that investors may decide they need more face-time with Zuckerberg if the business hits a rough patch.
"The friction will grow between public investors and the company when the company is not able to meet earnings projections or growth projections," said Jim Post, a professor at the Boston University School of Management.
"Investors aren't going to be satisfied until they hear from Zuckerberg."
Companies with dual-class share structures perform worse on average than those with regular stock that give investors equal voting rights, according to studies of corporations from 1994 to 2002 by professors Paul Gompers, Joy Ishii and Andrew Metrick.
"The risk is that a controlling shareholder so believes in his own vision and control that he's going to be unwilling to take input from shareholders, or anyone else, or be much concerned about their well-being," Taxin said.
Some tech companies have special shares and others have CEOs that shun Wall Street. But few combine both like Facebook.
Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos and Apple's late Steve Jobs, both of whom had little interest interacting with investors, owned much smaller percentages of their companies and had no special shares. Groupon Inc and Zynga Inc have dual-class share structures that give founders Andrew Mason and Mark Pincus extra voting control. But both of those executives actively participated in pre-IPO road shows and post-IPO earnings calls.
Google may come closest. Special shares give founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin voting power of about 29 percent each, while executive chairman Eric Schmidt has almost 10 percent, according to the company's latest proxy filing.
When Page took over as CEO from Schmidt in 2011, he spoke for a few minutes on his first quarterly earnings conference call before signing off, provoking grumbles from investors.
On the earnings call three months later, Google Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette noted that Page would stick around to answer questions.
"I just wanted to make sure that everybody knows he's not going anywhere," Pichette said.
Page has been on every earnings conference call since.
New Delhi/Chandigarh: The Centre has stayed the hanging of Babbar Khalsa terrorist Balwant Singh Rajoana, who was sentenced to death for the assassination of then Punjab chief minister Beant Singh in 1995. The decision follows a mercy petition filed by Sikh body, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), that has been actively backed by the Punjab government and other political parties in the state.
A court in Chandigarh had ruled on Tuesday that Rajoana should be hanged as scheduled on March 31. The court was hearing a plea from the Patiala Jail Superintendent.
"Taking into consideration our appeal, the President had referred the matter to the Home Ministry, which has stayed the execution of Balwant Singh till the matter is clear in the Supreme Court or mercy plea is considered by the President," Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said after meeting with President Pratibha Patil today. Mr Badal, alongwith his son and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, also handed over a mercy petition on behalf of the state government seeking clemency for Rajoana. The President's office later forwarded his petition to the Union Home Ministry, which will decide on the matter in due course of time. As per law, the petition would then be sent to the Law Minsitry and the Punjab government for comments after which, it would be forwarded to the President with recommendations of the Home Ministry. The President's office already has 18 mercy petitions pending with it.
Mr Badal has been under immense pressure in the last few days with radical Sikh groups demanding clemency for Rajoana. Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is also the President of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), had said today, "We are not politicising the issue. We want clemency for Rajoana. We are meeting the President. We have also sought time from the Prime Minister." Mr Badal stressed that not just the Akalis but the Congress, and other political parties in Punjab, were also supporting the SGPC's demand.
The matter of two other terrorists, Jagtar Singh Hawara and Lakhwinder Singh, convicted in the same case, is pending before the Supreme Court. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has approached the Supreme Court in Hawara's case as his death sentence, awarded by the CBI special court in 2007, was commuted by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2010 to life imprisonment. The appeal of Lakhwinder Singh against his conviction is also pending.
However, the High Court had upheld Rajoana's death sentence in the case as he had refused to defend himself. Kamaljeet Kaur, Mr Rajoana's sister, who met him in jail earlier today reiterated that he is not interested in asking for mercy.
Meanwhile, a bandh in the state today, called by radical Sikh groups to protest against the scheduled hanging, threw normal life out of gear - forcing schools and shops to shut down. Saffron-coloured flags could be seen flying on buildings, houses and shops. In Patiala, Shiv Sainiks clashed with protesters, and National Highway 1 was blocked. Trains between Ferozepur and Jalandhar were also blocked with protesters sitting on the rail track near Ferozepur station.
Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Law and Order, S.K. Sharma told IANS there were no major incidents of violence during the shutdown.
Authorities in Punjab had beefed up security arrangements across the state in view of the latest orders of the court directing that Rajoana be hanged. Nearly 60,000 Punjab police personnel and 15 companies of para-military forces had been put on alert. The security forces had taken out flag marches in some cities and towns since Monday. Security has also been tightened around the jail to handle any untoward incident. Prohibitory orders are in place across Chandigarh to stop assembly of groups.
A former Punjab Police constable, Mr Rajoana has refused to defend himself in the Beant Singh assassination case saying that he was involved. Beant Singh, Punjab chief minister between 1992 and 1995 and largely credited with wiping out terrorism from the state, was assassinated by a human bomb, Dilawar Singh, at the high security Punjab civil secretariat in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995.
While Hawara was the mastermind of the assassination, Rajoana was the second human bomb to be used in case the first assassin failed. Rajoana, during the entire 11-year trial, had admitted that he alone was responsible for the killing of Beant Singh. The family members of Beant Singh have also stated that they had forgiven Rajoana and that his death sentence be converted to life imprisonment.
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New Delhi: The furore over Army chief General VK Singh's letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that has been leaked is just one among a series of incidents that have severely strained ties between the General and the government in this year.
Here is a timeline of the chain of events that has snowballed into an ugly confrontation between the two parties:
JANUARY 2012 This proved to be the near-climax of the simmering age row issue when General VK Singh dragged the government to the Supreme Court over his date of birth. He thus became the first serving Army chief to have taken this unprecedented step. The General contended that he was born in 1951 vis-a-vis 1950 which found mention in at least two Army records. He held his ID card, service record and promotion files to prove his stand. But the government though held that matters of promotion and seniority of General Singh were based on 1950 as his year of birth, citing two documents with the Military Secretary's branch.
The General had already applied to the Defence Ministry in December 2011 to accept his claim but without success. This was critical as it would decide when the General would retire - if the government had accepted his year of birth as 1951, he would get an additional 10 months to continue in office. General Singh is scheduled to retired in May this year.
The government tried its best to settle the matter outside courts but the row escalat6ed with several former Army officers backing the General's claim. The Centre too refused to budge as it worried that a change in stand would set an unhealthy precedent and affect its critical succession plan.
FEBRUARY 10, 2012
In the Supreme Court, it was Advantage Government as the judges indicated that they were not in favour of entertaining General Singh's petition. He withdrew it and was told to stick to the schedule and retire by May 31, 2012. FEBRUARY 28, 2012
Having already suffered a setback in the court, there was further humiliation in store for General Singh as the government cancelled his two-day official trip to Israel. The Ministry of Defence cited "critical situation in the Middle East" and advised him to go towards the end of the year, knowing fully well that the he would have retired by then.
MARCH 25, 2012 The Defence Ministry again tried to sideline General Singh after it refused to consider his proposal in the appointment of a top military official to the post of Director General of Assam Rifles.
MARCH 26, 2012 The bribe bomb that General Singh dropped this week on the government is being seen as a direct fallout of this acrimony. He alleged that he was offered a Rs. 14 crore bribe in 2011 to clear a deal for substandard trucks by a retired Army Officer. MARCH 27, 2012 In a further bid to corner the government, General Singh said that he had informed Defence Minister AK Antony about the bribery issue.
MARCH 28, 2012 The controversy was quickly followed by a confidential letter that General Singh had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on March 12 2012, detailing deficiencies in the military, which was leaked to the media.
The letter reveals highly-sensitive information including how the Indian Army's entire tank fleet does not have critical ammunition as also how its air defence is 97% obsolete. The letter also outlines how the Special Forces are short of essential weapons and the gaps in surveillance and night-fighting capabilities. MPs cutting across party lines hit out at General Singh for the leak, even as the source of the letter still remains unconfirmed.
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Chennai: The woman who served as J Jayalalithaa's closest confidante for decades has today spoken about their bitter falling-out. In December, Ms Sasikala, who lived with the Tamil Nadu chief minister in her home, was expelled by Ms Jayalalithaa from her party, the AIADMK.
"I've snapped ties with all those who betrayed Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa," Ms Sasikala said in a statement released today to Jaya TV, the official channel of the chief minister's party. "I can't forgive my relatives who worked against her," she added. Ms Sasikala's husband Natarajan and brother Diwakaran have been arrested for alleged land-grabbing.
Though Ms Jayalalithaa has not discussed the reasons for her estrangement with Ms Sasikala, party sources say that the chief minister was tired of her friend interfering with administrative issues, including the postings of bureaucrats. AIADMK sources said those close to the chief minister had warned her of a plan by Ms Sasikala's family to take over the party if Ms Jayalalithaa is convicted in a corruption case. She is on trial for allegedly misusing her earlier terms as chief minister for vast personal gains.
In her letter Ms Sasikala adds "I don't have any ambition to enter politics, nor to become an MLA or a Minister. I've dedicated my life to my sister, Jayalalithaa."
The statement hints strongly at a possible reconciliation . "I've not thought ill of Jayalalithaa even in my dream," said Ms Sasikala today. "I lived at Jayalalithaa's residence for 24 years. She too accepted me as her sister."
The main opposition party in Tamil Nadu, the DMK, had described Ms Sasikala's estrangement from the chief minister as a staged drama. The DMK alleges that Ms Jayalalithaa wanted to distance herself temporarily from Ms Sasikala so the latter could serve as scapegoat in the corruption case against the chief minister.
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The FIA could sanction F1's world champion Sebastian Vettel for his behaviour during Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix.
Before calling HRT's Narain Karthikeyan an "idiot" in the wake of their collision, Vettel was captured by his on-board camera twice displaying his middle-finger to the Indian driver.
Vettel has already courted controversy for his unsavoury remarks against Karthikeyan with drivers, experts and fans divided on the issue.
Vettel had told BBC after the race: "Like on normal roads, you have some idiots driving around. It seems there is also one driving here." His comment came after both their cars collided in the 46th lap of the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Karthikeyan on his part told NDTV that the pressure of not having the fastest car and being out-qualified by team-mate Mark Webber may be getting to the world champion.
Karthikeyan, in his HRT, contacted the rear left of Vettel's Red Bull in the dying moments of the rain-affected race on Sunday, which resulted in an 11th place finish for the German. Vettel was runing fourth at the time of the incident, meaning he lost out on 12 points in the drivers' standings.
But many from the F1 fraternity have backed Karthikeyan on the issue, shrugging it off as a racing incident that happens all the time.
Fellow Formula One drivers Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg of Force India also supported Karthikeyan on the incident.
"I heard about whatever happened and I also saw it on tv. From what I saw, it was not Narain's fault. So, I don't really understand why he (Vettel) said all of that," said Hulkenberg.
"I think Vettel was just emotional at that point of time. He lost out on points, it was frustrating for him and his team. At the end of the day, he is just human and sometimes you get emotional."
Di Resta concurred with his Force India teammate.
"Though I have not really seen the incident, I am sure a lot of was said in the heat of the moment. May be he (Vettel) used the wrong words. Emotions run high in Formula One and sometimes you tend to say what you don't really mean," said di Resta.
"Having said that, Narain is entitled to do as much on the track in comparison as someone like Vettel. Both are F1 drivers and are there to represent their teams, he added.
Applications for the much sought-after H-1B work visa – used extensively by Indian IT professionals – for the fiscal year beginning October 1, will be accepted beginning April 2, a US federal immigration agency announced Tuesday.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said H1-B applications will be considered accepted on the date it takes possession of a properly filed petition with the correct fee instead of the date on which it was sent.
India's software and services companies earn around 60 per cent of their revenues from the US and employ a large number of professionals there.
In a statement, USCIS listed out the details of the fees, which starts at $ 325 to $2,000 by a petitioner who employs 50 or more employees in the US, and where more than 50 per cent of its workers in the US are on H-1B or L-1 non- immigrant status.
This year, the USCIS is charging $750 for employers with 1 to 25 full-time equivalent employees, and $1,500 for employers with 26 or more full-time equivalent employees. Another $500 listed as fraud prevention and detection fee.
Employers seeking premium processing service, in which an application is processed within 15 days, need to submit an additional $1,225.
The Congressionally-mandated limitation on H-1B petitions for the fiscal year 2012-13 is 65,000, as in previous years. Additionally, the first 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of individuals who have earned a US master’s degree or higher are exempt from the fiscal year cap.
“If the number of applications received exceeds the numerical cap, USCIS will randomly select the number of petitions required to reach the numerical limit from the pool of petitions received on the final receipt date,” USCIS said in a statement, adding that it will reject cap-subject petitions that are not selected, as well as those received after the final receipt date.
Petitions for new H-1B employment are exempt from the annual cap if the beneficiaries will work at institutions of higher education or related or affiliated non-profit entities, non-profit research organisations or governmental research organisations, USCIS said.
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New Delhi: A Delhi court today put on trial top Naxal leader Kobad Gandhy for alleged cheating, forgery and impersonation while discharging him on charges under stringent anti-terror law.
Paving the way for the trial, Additional Sessions Judge Pawan Kumar Jain framed charges against 65-year-old Gandhy under various provisions of the IPC relating to cheating, forgery and impersonation in the case in which he is accused of trying to set up a base for banned outfit CPI (Maoist).
The court, however, discharged Gandhy of the charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention) Act due to improper sanction from the authorities.
"In my opinion, case is made out against Gandhy under the provisions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act but I am discharging (of the charges under UAP Act) him for want of proper sanction," the judge said.
The Maoist leader earlier had opposed filing of a supplementary charge sheet against him saying the police has filed the charge sheet despite there being no fresh material against him.
The Special Cell of Delhi Police, in its main charge sheet, had slapped charges under the UAP Act, besides booking him for various offences under the IPC relating to cheating, forgery and impersonation.
An alumni of the prestigious Doon School, Ghandy was said to be part of the top leadership of erstwhile CPI-ML (People's War Group) from 1981 and continued as a Central Committee member in CPI (Maoist). He was elected to its Politburo in 2007.
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Tehran: Long-stalled talks between Iran and world powers are to be revived on April 13 at a place yet to be agreed, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi announced on Wednesday. "The date has been set, but the negotiations for the venue are still ongoing," Salehi told AFP. "Turkey has announced its readiness to host the talks, and my personal priority is Istanbul," he added. The talks carry hopes of defusing a tense international showdown over Iran's nuclear activities that has sent oil prices soaring. Israel has brandished the threat of possible military action against Iran's nuclear sites, while the United States has put its energies into sanctions and diplomacy but has not ruled out the military option. Salehi made his announcement as he welcomed Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Tehran for a two-day visit focusing on Iran's nuclear programme and bilateral ties. On Erdogan's arrival, Salehi told the official Islamic Republic News Agency that the next round of the talks between Iran and the so-called P5+1 group comprising the United States, Russia, France, Britain, China and Germany would take place on April 13. Speaking to AFP, Salehi said that a "suggestion" from the P5+1 for a venue had been received and was being studied, and that the location "will be announced soon." He did not say what venue had been proposed by the world powers. The last round, held in Istanbul in 2011, ended in failure. The round before that, in 2010, was in Geneva. In Brussels, a European diplomat confirmed to AFP that the next round of negotiations would start on April 13 but that a location had not yet been agreed. Turkey's ambassador to Tehran was quoted by Iran's Press TV as saying: "Turkey stands ready to host the talks between Iran and the P5+1 group, but everything depends on an agreement between Iran and the P5+1." Erdogan arrived in Tehran from South Korea, where he had attended a nuclear security summit with other world leaders including US President Barack Obama. Salehi did not directly respond to an AFP question about whether Erdogan was carrying any message from Obama to Iran's leaders, saying: "So far we've only talked about bilateral issues." Obama on Monday warned in Seoul that "time is short" for a diplomatic solution to the standoff with Iran. "Iran must act with the seriousness and sense of urgency that this moment demands," he said. Erdogan, who was accompanied by several key ministers and intelligence and military officials, was to meet Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during his visit, Iranian officials said. Turkey relies on Iran for 30 per cent of its oil imports, and has refused to go along with sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe, saying it will observe only UN-mandated restrictions on Iran. However, Turkey is also a NATO member, and it has agreed to deploy parts of an anti-missile shield that could be used against Iran, a point that has generated friction in the past with its neighbour. The two countries are heavyweight players in the Middle East. They hold different positions on several issues, notably on Syria. Ankara wants to see Syrian President Bashar al-Assad step down as part of a solution to the crisis there, while Tehran is giving Assad political and material support. Salehi said Iran-Turkey trade currently amounted to $16 billion a year but could reach $30 billion by 2015.
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The BRICS group of emerging world powerhouses - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - is meeting Delhi for their fourth summit. The BRIC acronym was coined in 2001 by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill, who was searching for a catchy way to encapsulate the broader shift in global economic growth towards emerging markets. South Africa joined the grouping in 2010 so that it became BRICS.
1) The most relevant announcement at the summit is likely to be a plan for joint development bank modelled on the World Bank. This would allow the five countries to pool resources for infrastructure improvements, and could also be used in the longer term as a vehicle for lending during global financial crises such as the one in Europe, officials say. Most member countries are facing a slowdown in their economies.
2) BRICS accounts for 26 per cent of the world's landmass and 42 per cent of the global population and 40 percent of the global GDP ($18.486 trillion). Goldman Sachs predicts that "BRIC can become collectively bigger than the G-7 (the top industrial powers) by 2035".
3) BRICS countries have accounted for over 50 per cent global economic growth in the last decade.
4) Intra-BRICS trade is growing at an average of 28 percent annually and currently stands at about $230 billion.
5) The countries are also expected to sign agreements allowing their individual development banks to extend credit to other members in local currency, a step towards replacing the dollar as the main unit of trade between them.
6) The BRICS meet comes amid Western pressure to cut crude imports as part of sanctions designed to halt Tehran's suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons. China and India are the biggest buyers of Iran's crude. The BRICS group of countries has broadly agreed they are not bound by "unilateral" sanctions on Iran, measures that threaten higher global oil prices and could result in supply shortages.
7) While the plenary session on Thursday is likely to focus on common ground, bilateral meetings could touch on more sensitive issues.
8) Political developments will also be discussed, like the situation in Syria. At the UN recently, India took a very different position from China and Russia and supported a Western resolution that demanded the departure of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
9) BRICS held its first summit in 2009 and has been criticised as nothing more than an empty acronym as it struggles to find common cause from four different continents with radically different economies, systems of government and competing priorities.
10) Tibetan activists have been protesting the presence of Chinese President Hu Jintao in Delhi. Many Tibetans have been detained by the Delhi Police, provoking sharp criticism.
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Negotiations over unpaid salaries between an Air India pilots' union and the airline’s management in Mumbai on Wednesday have failed.
This could affect international flights as these pilots were earlier with Air India, when international and domestic flights operated separately. The domestic unit earlier flew under the Indian Airlines brand.
Representatives from eight other unions are scheduled to meet with the aviation secretary and Air India management in New Delhi on Thursday.
The group of eight unions says that employees have not been paid for four months and on Wednesday wrote to the Prime Minister seeking his “urgent intervention” in releasing salaries to employees, failing which they will strike work beginning April 2.
The strike will likely affect Air India's international flights.
“We … appeal to you for your kind and urgent intervention to resolve the situation and appeal to you for justice,” the Joint Forum of Guilds/Unions/Associations of Air India said in a letter sent to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday.
The Forum includes the Indian Pilots Guild, Air India Aircraft Engineers Association, Air India Engineers Association, All India Service Engineers Association, Air India Employees Union, Air Corporation Employees Union, Air India Officers Union and Air India Cabin Crew Association, representing almost all classes of Air India’s 33,000 employees.
A majority of employees have expressed their inability to work from April 2 due to non-payment of salaries over several months, the Forum claimed.
“Due to non-payment of wages for an extended time period, the employees are unable to meet their financial commitments and family responsibilities,” the letter said, pointing out that a significant number of them came from “humble background and modest means”.
The letter also pointedly said that “unlike Air India, which can turn to the central government for funds, employees have no such option”.
“The respective employees and their families alone have to suffer the humiliation of loan defaults and ensuing stress,” it added.
Noting that employees have been working and enduring hardship for the past year, the letter claimed that they are “no longer able to bear this agony, which has been thrust upon them for no fault of theirs”.
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Mumbai: Actor Shah Rukh Khan today visited award-winning animator Charu Khandal who is battling for her life in a Mumbai hospital after meeting with a horrific accident on Sunday. Ms Khandal had worked on the special effects for Shah Rukh's last release, Ra.One, that fetched her the National Award.
28-year-old Khandal, who works as an animator in a production house, suffered serious injuries to her spine after the auto rickshaw she was traveling in was hit by a speeding Honda City on the wee hours of Sunday. She was returning home after having dinner at Juhu with her sister Ritu Khandal, and friend Vikrant Goel, when the mishap occurred at an intersection in Oshiwara. Ms Khandal's sister escaped with minor injuries. Mr Goel, who was also injured, is under observation at the hospital.
Ms Khandal's condition is stated to be critical. Doctors have been unable to operate on her since her spine is swollen.
Meanwhile, the police have booked the driver of the car Manoj Kumar Gautam, a Lokhandwala resident, for rash driving and driving in a drunken state under Section 304A and 304-II of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). But the Holiday Court granted him bail on Sunday.
Angered over Mr Gautam's bail, family members and friends of Ms Khandal have begun a campaign on Facebook.
Ms Khandal was due to be engaged next month. Her sister is a sales manager in a four-star hotel while Mr Goel is a manager in a five-star hotel in the city.
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Kolkata: Mamata Banerjee's party today tried to distance her from the controversy that has erupted after all public libraries were ordered to drop all English dailies and most other newspapers including the Ananda Bazar Patrika, which is the state's most-read paper.
On Twitter this evening, her party's MP, Derek O'Brien said, "To drag the CM's name into this 'controversy' is unfair. Are we suggesting she starts micromanaging even library department lists?" He added, "Circular issued by small time library services dept." Last night, a circular signed by the Special Secretary, Library Services told 2500 public libraries what newspapers they can stock. All English dailies were to be removed, the notice said. Only eight papers made the cut - five five Bengali, one Hindi and two Urdu dailies. Of these eight publications, four have editors or senior journalists who have been elected to the Rajya Sabha on Trinamool Congress tickets. The circular states that public funds could not be spent on "any papers published or purported to be published by any political party." But the list of banned papers includes only one publication with direct links to a political party- the Ganashakti, which is a CPM mouthpiece. Mr O'Brien says that the Times of India will also be stocked at government-funded libraries. "This is worse than censorship; this has shades of fascism," said Sitaram Yechury from the Left, the main opposition party in West Bengal. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has appreciated the move, countered Library Services Minister Abdul Karim Chowdhury to local TV channels. "I have no idea why she has done this; she is trying to control what I read," said Pradeep Bhattacharjee, the president of the Congress, which is a partner in Ms Banerjee's government.
The issue was also brought up in the state Assembly yesterday by a Congress MLA who called the government circular undemocratic and urged the chief minister to have it withdrawn. Mamata Banerjee was not present in the Assembly at that time.
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New Delhi: China's president, Hu Jintao, has arrived in Delhi for the fourth BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit. Worried about protests, the police has been detaining Tibetan activists in the capital, provoking strong criticism.
Here are five new facts on the story: 1) A man who set himself on fire in Delhi on Monday at a rally died in hospital this morning. Jamphel Yeshi was 27. 2) Around 1200 cops have been posted around the hotels where The Chinese premier and the delegation will be staying. Earlier, the protesters had attempted to storm Hotel Oberoi in Delhi where Chinese premiere Hu Jintao is staying. Police have arrested the protesters. This morning, the police detained 100 activists who were protesting against Hu's visit at the United Nations office. Over 150 Tibetans have been taken in to preventive custody during the protests today. The Tibetan Youth Congress members were submitting a memorandum to embassies of all nations participating in the BRICS summit. Protests were also held at Khan Market and Jantar Mantar. There is heavy police presence in these areas. 3) The police removed activist-poet Tenzin Tsundue from a seminar yesterday at the India habitat Centre. The police is keeping a tight vigil in areas in Delhi with high Tibetan population to ensure that young Tibetans don't come out of their homes to protest. 4) China has accused the Dalai Lama of "masterminding" self-immolation bids earlier this week. At least 29 Tibetans, many of them Buddhist monks and nuns, have set themselves on fire in Tibet demanding freedom for their homeland. 5) The Chinese President will attend the BRICS summit which looks at encouraging trade among member-nations. He will also hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Manmohan. The Chinese president is accompanied by a high-profile delegation comprising Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, State Councillor Dai Bingguo, senior ministers and business leaders.
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New Delhi: The BRICS group of countries have broadly agreed they are not bound by "unilateral" sanctions on Iran, measures that threaten higher global oil prices and could result in supply shortages, South Africa's trade minister said on Wednesday.
The BRICS group of emerging world powerhouses -Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -are meeting in New Delhi amid Western pressure to cut crude imports as part of sanctions designed to halt Tehran's suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons.
China and India are the biggest buyers of Iran's crude, which they need to help sustain economic growth in two of the world's fastest-growing major economies. Trade ministers of both nations on Wednesday said they would maintain economic ties with Tehran, despite pressure from Washington.
China disapproves of tougher Western sanctions on Tehran but its refiners have cut purchases of Iranian crude, albeit because of a pricing dispute. India too, publicly, has said it will not abide by unilateral measures while privately telling oil companies to cut purchases by at least 15 per cent -- which they have done.
For its part, South Africa has cut its dependence on buying oil from Iran, the world's fifth-biggest oil exporter, and is "proactively" trying to diversify its purchases, Rob Davies told Reuters on the sidelines of the BRICS summit.
"I think that we all broadly agree with the proposal, the terminology that was made, that if there are U.N. Security Council sanctions then we are all bound by that, but if there are sanctions that are imposed by other countries unilaterally, they shouldn't have to apply to us," Mr Davies said, after a meeting of BRICS trade ministers.
"But I think the problem is that we've also got the power relations to contend with, and that whether we like it or not the decision will impact on us in the form of higher oil prices and possibly even shortages of supply. So those are all going to be big challenges that we're going to face," he added.
CANNOT CUT TIES
China and India have so far publicly resisted U.S. calls to cut imports of Iranian oil. The U.S. has exempted Japan and 10 EU nations from financial sanctions because they have slashed purchases, but China and India remain at risk of such steps.
At this week's BRICS summit, during which countries are expected to launch plans for a joint development bank, Indian Trade Minister Anand Sharma said his country could not "just rupture" ties with Iran. His Chinese counterpart, Chen Deming, said China was "not obliged to follow any domestic laws and rules of any particular countries."
"If the oil price continues to rise it will definitely not be good news for BRICS countries as well as countries in the rest of the world," he told reporters at the summit, adding that high oil prices were hurting the global economic recovery.
South Africa imported no oil from Iran in January, according to government trade and customs data, suggesting Africa's biggest economy has heeded U.S. calls.
Trade figures showed marked increases in January imports from Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, indicating they have replaced Iran, usually South Africa's biggest supplier of crude accounting for a quarter of its oil imports.
South Africa's deputy foreign minister, Ebrahim Ebrahim, told a news conference that almost all Iranian oil imports had been suspended, although officials later retracted his comments.
The country's energy minister said last week it would take until May to come up with a plan to replace Iranian supplies.
"We're having to make steps of that sort, because I think we realise the power relations," Davies told Reuters, when asked whether South Africa had cut its dependence on Iranian oil.
"It's not what we think ought to happen but the power relations and the decisions that oil companies may take are going to force us to diversify," he added. "So I think that's something which we're doing proactively."
Copyright@ Thomson Reuters 2012
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The Mumbai Indians have rubbished the reports that their skipper Sachin Tendulkar is doubtful for the fifth edition of the Indian Premier League.
The FIA could sanction F1's world champion Sebastian Vettel for his behaviour during Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix.
