Today's Hot Stories - April 25, 2013
10 Headlines for Today
(1) Green tribunal orders de-concretisation of trees in Delhi
(2) Police bank on forensic evidence in child rape case
(3) Abdul Hamid sworn in as Bangladesh President
(4) Archana Bhargava is new CMD of United Bank
(5) Maruti to consider merger of seven arms with itself
(6) Etihad to co-pilot Jet Airways
(7) Top athletes to compete in Jamaica meet
(8) Sunrisers aim to shine against CSK
(9) Indian squash players not to play in Pakistan
(10) Iconic work by Indian artists up for sale in New York
5 Stories for Today
(1) Chit fund scam accused blames Trinamool MPs
(2) Umayyad mosque, a Unesco world heritage site, falls amid battles in Syria
(3) RIL in cable pact with Bharti for 4G services
(4) UK to learn if it has entered 'triple-dip' recession
(5) Private life insurers join hands to fight phony investment fraud
(1) Chit fund scam accused blames Trinamool MPs
The promoter of a collapsed chit fund that has bankrupted small depositors in West Bengal and generated a swirling political controversy of potentially national proportions has alleged in a letter to the CBI that two Trinamool Congress MPs took vast sums from him on various occasions and later forced him to transfer the ownership of various media organisations at throwaway prices.
In an 18-page letter, dated April 6, Sudipta Sen, Chairman and Managing Director of the Saradha Group, accuses the two Trinamool leaders, Kunal Ghosh and Srinjay Bose, of approaching him, citing their close links to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. He also alleges that Nalini Chidambaram, wife of Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, who was Union Home Minister at the time, sought his help for the establishment of a television channel in north-east India. The letter accuses other businesspersons and politicians of putting pressure on the fund to lend money for various projects.
None of the individuals named in the letter was available for comment at the time of going to press.
Mr. Sen’s letter, written in rambling and ungrammatical prose, gives a detailed account of the activities of the Saradha Group, the setting up of some of its subsidiaries and its acquisition of television channels and newspapers. He states that he entered the media industry in order to combat “attacks” from the media against his company.
“…Kunal Ghosh [who later became Trinamool Congress MP] led the attack dangerously. He attended the meeting with the then Finance Minister, Asim Dasgupta, and started campaigning against Saradha as I found that very helpless to combat the media attack. I thought I must enter the media business,” Mr. Sen writes.
He then describes acquiring the Bengali news network Channel 10 for Rs. 24 crore, which got operational after he spent “not less than Rs. 50 crore” in branding, advertising, infrastructure and operational costs.
He also alleges that he met Mr. Ghosh and Mr. Bose (who is also now a Trinamool Congress MP) as representatives of the Bengali newspaper Pratidin, and it was agreed that the paper would be paid Rs. 60 lakh a month. Mr. Ghosh was appointed CEO of the channel at a salary of Rs. 15 lakh, he adds.
Assurance
The agreement assured him that “they will protect my business from the government [both State and Centre]” and “a smooth passage,” the letter states adding that “they assured me that they have close connection with the present Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee.”
In his letter, Mr. Sen threatens that he may commit suicide “because I am feeling helpless” and cannot refund the “entire public money which has been collected in my name” that was put at risk by “unscrupulous persons and cheats in society.”
“My overall business [failed] due to the media entry, extortion from the above named persons [the letter mentions several other names] and blackmailed my own staff and executives (sic),” it adds.
Source: The Hindu
(2) Umayyad mosque, a Unesco world heritage site, falls amid battles in Syria
The 11th-century minaret of a famed mosque that towered over the narrow stone alleyways of Aleppo's old quarter collapsed on Wednesday as rebels and government troops fought pitched battles in the streets around it, depriving the ancient Syrian city of one of its most important landmarks.
President Bashar Assad's government and the rebels trying to overthrow him traded blame over the destruction to the Umayyad Mosque, a UNESCO world heritage site and centerpiece of Aleppo's walled Old City.
"This is like blowing up the Taj Mahal or destroying the Acropolis in Athens. This mosque is a living sanctuary," said Helga Seeden, a professor of archaeology at the American University of Beirut. "This is a disaster. In terms of heritage, this is the worst I've seen in Syria. I'm horrified."
Aleppo, Syria's largest city and a commercial hub, emerged as a key battleground in the nation's civil war after rebels launched an offensive there last summer. Since then, the fighting has carved the city into rebel- and regime-held zones, killed thousands of people, forced thousands more to flee their homes and laid waste to entire neighborhoods.
The Umayyad Mosque complex, which dates mostly from the 12th century, suffered extensive damage in October as both sides fought to control the walled compound in the heart of the old city. The fighting left the mosque burned, scarred by bullets and trashed. Two weeks earlier, the nearby medieval covered market, or souk, was gutted by a fire sparked by fighting.
With thousands of years of written history, Syria is home to archaeological treasures that date back to biblical times, including the desert oasis of Palmyra, a cultural center of the ancient world. The nation's capital, Damascus, is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world.
At least five of Syria's six World Heritage sites have been damaged in the fighting, according to UNESCO, the U.N.'s cultural agency. Looters have broken into one of the world's best-preserved Crusader castles, Crac des Chevaliers, and ruins in the ancient city of Palmyra were damaged. Both rebel and regime forces have set up bases in some of Syria's significant historic sites, including citadels and Turkish bath houses, while thieves have stolen artifacts from museums.
The destruction of the minaret - which dated to 1090 and was the oldest surviving part of the Umayyad Mosque - brought outrage and grief.
"What is happening is a big shame," said Imad a-Khal, a 59-year-old Christian businessman in Aleppo. "Thousands of tourists used to visit this site. Every day is a black day for Syrians."
The main Western-backed opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, accused the government of intentionally committing "a crime against civilization and humanity" by destroying the minaret.
"The regime has done all it can to tear apart the Syrian social fabric," the Coalition said in a statement. "By its killings and destruction of heritage, it is planting bitterness in the hearts of the people that will be difficult to erase for a long time to come."
There were conflicting accounts about what leveled the minaret, leaving the once-soaring stone tower a pile of rubble and twisted metal scattered in the mosque's tiled courtyard.
Syria's state news agency said rebels from the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra group blew it up, while Aleppo-based activist Mohammed al-Khatib said a Syrian army tank fired a shell that "totally destroyed" the minaret.
The mosque fell into rebel hands earlier this year after heavy fighting but the area around the compound remains contested, with Syrian troops just some 200 yards (meters) away.
An amateur video posted online by the anti-government Aleppo Media Center showed the mosque's vaulted archways charred from earlier fighting and a pile of rubble where the minaret used to be.
Standing inside the mosque courtyard, a man who appeared to be a rebel fighter, said regime forces recently fired seven shells at the minaret but failed to knock it down. On Wednesday, the tank rounds struck their target, he said.
"We were standing here today and suddenly shells started hitting the minaret," the man said. The army "then tried to storm the mosque but we pushed them back."
The video appeared genuine and corresponded to other Associated Press reporting.
The destruction in Aleppo follows the collapse a week earlier of the minaret of the historic Omari Mosque in the southern city of Daraa. The Daraa mosque was built during the Islamic conquest of Syria in the days of Caliph Omar ibn al-Khattab in the seventh century.
In that instance as well, the opposition and regime blamed each other. The state news agency accused Jabhat al-Nusra of positioning cameras around the area to record the event.
Whether the destruction is targeted or not, the damage highlights the difficulties of protecting a nation's cultural heritage in wartime.
"Culture can only really be protected in peace time. When you have open warfare, it is impossible," said Seeden, the archaeology professor in Beirut. "When buildings are under fire, you cannot protect the buildings. You can't protect what's in it, if they are mosaics, wall paintings, architectural details that are part of the building - there's no way you can protect them."
After the Umayyad Mosque was first damaged last year, Assad issued a presidential decree to form a committee to repair it by the end of 2013, although it's not clear what such a body could do amid a raging civil war. The mosque's last renovations began about 20 years ago and were completed in 2006.
The damage in Aleppo is just part of the wider devastation caused by the country's conflict, which began more than two years ago with largely peaceful protests but morphed into a civil war as the opposition took up arms in the face of a withering government crackdown. The fighting has exacted a huge toll, killing more than 70,000 people, leaving cities, towns and villages in ruins and forcing more than a million people to flee their homes and seek refuge abroad.
Also Wednesday, Syrian church officials said the whereabouts of two bishops kidnapped in northern Syria remain unknown, a day after telling reporters the priests had been released.
Gunmen pulled Bishop Boulos Yazigi of the Greek Orthodox Church and Bishop John Ibrahim of the Assyrian Orthodox Church from their car and killed their driver on Monday while they were traveling outside Aleppo. It was not clear who abducted the priests.
But Bishop Tony Yazigi of the Damascus-based Greek Orthodox Church said the gunmen are believed to be Chechen fighters from Jabhat al-Nusra. Yazigi declined to say what made it appear that the Nusra Front was involved.
That account corresponded with one provided by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which said foreign fighters had abducted the bishops near a checkpoint outside Aleppo. Director Rami Abdul-Rahman said activists in the area said the gunmen were foreign fighters from the Caucuses.
However, the main opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, condemned the kidnapping and blamed Assad's regime.
In Rome, Pope Francis called for the rapid release of the two bishops. In his appeal Tuesday, the pontiff called the abduction "a dramatic confirmation of the tragic situation in which the Syrian population and its Christian community are living."
There has been a spike in kidnappings in northern Syria, much of which is controlled by the rebels, and around Damascus in recent months. Residents blame criminal groups that have ties to both the regime and the rebels for the abductions of wealthy residents traveling to Syria from neighboring Turkey and Lebanon.
Source: The Times of India
(3) RIL in cable pact with Bharti for 4G services
Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Tuesday signed a deal for using the 'i2i' undersea cable network of Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel between India and Singapore, for RIL's proposed 4G services.
Though the two companies did not announce the deal-size, sources said
it was worth about Rs. 110 crore.
Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJI), the subsidiary of RIL, had earlier this month signed an agreement with Reliance Communications (RCOM) for using the latter's optic fibre network for inter-city connectivity.
On Tuesday's deal, a statement by RJI said: "The high speed link will enable RJI to extend its network and service reach to customers across Asia Pacific region. It will connect RJI directly to the world's major business hubs and ISPs, thereby helping the operator meet bandwidth demand and provide ultra-fast data experience to customers."
The statement said the two companies are exploring other mutual areas of cooperation and development, indicating that more deals may emerge in the future.
The i2i cable's landing points are at Chennai in India and Tuas in Singapore. "Reliance Jio will utilise a dedicated fibre pair on i2i. The high speed link will enable Reliance Jio to extend its network and service reach to customers across Asia Pacific region," the statement said.
RJI is rolling out a pan-India 4G network, and plans to set up one of the largest optical fibre cable (OFC) telecom networks at about 1.5 lakh route kilometres. The company has has 20 MHz of spectrum in the 2300 MHz band.
RJI and RCOM are also likely to sign another deal for infrastructure in the telecom business within a fortnight. Sources say the two companies are in the final stages of negotiations for an agreement under which RIL will lease RCOM's towers for its 4G services.
Source: Hindustan Times
(4) UK to learn if it has entered 'triple-dip' recession
Britain finds out on Thursday if its stagnant economy has slipped back into recession, a week after the International Monetary Fund urged finance minister George Osborne to consider scaling back his austerity programme.
Economists estimate that Britain's $2.4 trillion economy eked out growth of 0.1 per cent in the first three months to March, according to a Reuters poll.
That would avoid a second quarter of contraction - the definition of a recession - after it shrank by 0.3 per cent in the last three months of 2012.
But with a margin this slim, the Office for National Statistics could easily report a negative number in its initial estimate of gross domestic product data at 0830 GMT, tipping the country into its third recession in under five years.
A "triple-dip recession" would come at an awkward time for Osborne, just days after ratings agency Fitch stripped Britain of its top-notch credit rating and plans to help homeowners in last month's budget came under fire from legislators.
Osborne has stuck to his commitment to eliminate Britain's underlying budget deficit in five years, despite consistently disappointing economic growth figures that have led to mounting calls for him to relent.
The IMF - previously supportive of Britain's approach to deficit reduction - thinks some cuts may need to be deferred given the weakness in demand. An IMF mission visits Britain next month for an assessment of the country's economy that could include recommendations for a change of course.
While the difference between growth or contraction of 0.1 per cent is statistically small, analysts warn of a broader problem of stagnation and a risk of a Japanese-style 'lost decade' of near-zero growth.
"The chance that you see a small contraction ... is pretty big," said Berenberg Bank economist Rob Wood, who forecasts zero growth on the quarter. "But I don't think this would change the underlying picture of an economy that has gone nowhere for 18 months and is struggling with some big headwinds," he added.
Britain has been much slower to recover from the financial crisis than most other big economies. At the end of 2012 its GDP was still nearly 3 per cent smaller than before the crisis.
Weak demand from a recession-hit euro zone, a drag from the government's deficit-reduction measures and high inflation eating into meagre wage rises are all to blame.
Furthermore, the global economy is weakening and there are signs of slowing growth in the United States and China.
Adding to the pressure on Osborne, influential academic research that helped underpin his case for the need for rapid deficit reduction has recently been challenged.
He has announced plans for mortgage guarantees and shared equity loans for homebuyers to jump start the housing market, but members of parliament's cross party Treasury Committee said on Saturday the proposals were vague, had unclear costs and might not succeed in increasing the supply of housing.
In another effort to boost the economy, the finance ministry and Bank of England expanded a scheme on Wednesday which aims to boost bank lending.
The performance of the economy in the first quarter hinges largely on whether Britain's dominant services sector - which had a strong January - was hit hard by rare March snow. Industrial output is expected to have been broadly flat, while the small construction sector is likely to have contracted.
Source: The Economic Times
(5) Private life insurers join hands to fight phony investment fraud
Amid a continuing Sebi probe into a phony investment syndicate active in the national capital region, six private life insurers have joined hands to fight the menace of mis-selling of insurance products through spurious calls made by fraudulent agents.
Capital markets regulator Sebi earlier this month unearthed a syndicate of fraudulent gents operating in the
national capital, wherein a large number of people could have been defrauded in the name of mutual fund and insurance products purchased by their deceased family members.
Sebi widened its probe after preliminary investigations, conducted with the assistance of the Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police, indicated an organized attempt by several people to defraud the gullible investors.
As Sebi is continuing its probe, six private insurers – Reliance Life Insurance, ICICI Prudential, HDFC Life, Birla Sun Life, SBI Life and Aegon Religare - have formally filed a complaint with the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), seeking its help to act against the spurious callers, sources said. Sensing a large-scale fraud, the insurers and their regulator IRDA have also begun sensitizing the public on the matter though emails and SMSes on a regular basis. According to Reliance Life Insurance CEO Anup Rau, there are strict compliance policy and processes to help identify and act against spurious callers trying to mislead customers.
"We have been regularly alerting our customers through SMS and emails against falling prey to any person or entity making superficial offers of high returns, loans, bonus or gains," he said.
In a recent public notice, IRDA also warned customers against fake entities calling on behalf of insurers. The country's biggest insurer, state-run LIC has also warned its customers and the general public about fraudulent agents, through newspapers and other channels.
In their complaints with the EOW, the private life insurance companies have sought action against offenders who make spurious calls to customers with false promises on loans or other investment products to dupe them.
Their modus operandi typically involves the customers being asked to surrender their existing insurance policies and shift to some new products for better returns. The agents, in the process, earn hefty commissions or at times dupe the investors of their entire investment values.
When contacted, Reliance Life Insurance confirmed the development and said that the insurance companies have given presentations to EOW about the modus operandi of fake callers. As per their presentations, these fraudsters are operating from make-shift call centres in the Delhi NCR.
The preliminary investigations by the insurers also found that some of these persons were previously associated with insurance companies, directly or indirectly. Typically, these persons use pre-paid mobile numbers or calling cards to contact gullible investors, while some people operate as field staff to collect documents and cheques.
Source: The Indian Express
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