| New world economic order takes shape at G20 25 Sep 2009, 1345 hrs IST, REUTERS | |||||||
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| PITTSBURGH: The Group of 20 is set to become the premier coordinating body on global economic issues, reflecting a new world economic order in which Leaders of the G20 developed and developing nations also agreed to make the International Monetary Fund more representative by increasing the voting power of countries that have long been under-represented in the world financial body, said the draft G20 communique obtained by Reuters. It called for a shift in IMF voting by at least 5 percent, although several G20 representatives said it was a 5 percentage point shift from developed to under-represented countries. Currently, the split in voting power is 57 percent for industrialized countries and 43 percent for developing countries. The shift would make the split nearly 50-50. The G20 was formed in 1999 for finance ministers and central bank chiefs following the Asian financial crisis. The idea was to help the G7 -- the United States, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Japan -- talk with the wider world. Following are some of the implications of the decisions: * The shifts reflect recognition by the United States and Europe of a new global economic reality in which emerging market economies play a bigger role, especially in the aftermath of the global financial crisis that hurt developed economies more than developing ones. * By making the G20 the new global economic coordinator, countries are committing to maintaining cooperation even after the global financial upheaval and recession recede. The G20 was upgraded from a ministerial to a leaders-level forum only last year as the crisis deepened. * Adopting the G20 as the new economic steering committee raises questions over the whether or not the Group of Eight, which makes up the world's industrial countries, will eventually be faded out. Diplomats said the G8 would continue to function but would focus on non-economic issues. * The agreements are big wins for U.S. President Barack Obama, hosting his first international summit. Since his election last year, he has pushed for changes in the global financial architecture to recognize the increasing economic clout of China and other emerging markets. The agreement to overhaul the IMF's voting structure is especially big for the new Obama administration, given that the United States proposed the 5 percentage point shift. The speed with which the G20 agreed to the change -- if the draft communique is eventually adopted -- is surprising because of the politically sensitive nature of the issue for Europe, which will see the biggest dilution in its voting power. * Giving developing nations more say at the IMF and a bigger say in global economic affairs could help Obama succeed in his push to get big exporters like China to increase domestic demand, helping slower-growing economies like the United States to find new markets. * The shift of at least 5 percentage points in voting power is the largest increase ever seen in the IMF's voting structure and is likely to see China overtake old European powers Britain and France which have long resisted the move. * The G20 decision on IMF voting reform will give momentum to a 2011 deadline for overhauling IMF governance which will then be voted on by the IMF's 186 member countries. * The G20 also agreed the head of the IMF should be selected based on qualifications and not nationality, according to the draft communique obtained by Reuters. The decision is significant because the head of the IMF has always been a European, while the president of the World Bank has always been an American. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international-business/New-world-economic-order-takes-shape-at-G20/articleshow/5055229.cms | |||||||
India's own probe also detected water on moon: ISRO
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Agencies
Posted: Sep 25, 2009 at 1241 hrs ISTBy establishing the presence of water signatures on moon, the country's maiden lunar mission made a "path- breaking" and "real discovery", Nair said at a press conference here.
The MIP while descending from Chandrayaan-I to moon, picked up strong signals of water particles, he said.
However, the signatures of waters are not in the form of sea, lake or even as a puddle or not even a drop. You cannot pick it up just like that," he said.
"It is embedded on the surface in the minerals and rocks and we have clear indication that the hydroxil (OH) as water molecules are present on the surface, may be at least for a few millimetres," he said.
According to Nair, the "quantity found is much larger than what was expected which is a real finding".
Apart from India's MIP, the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) of NASA on board Chandrayaan-I also confirmed the presence of water.
Nair said that he disagrees
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Senators unanimously approved the measure, which could go through the House of Representatives as early as tomorrow and from there to US President Barack Obama's desk to be signed into law.
Supporters of the legislation -- an updated version of a bill backed by President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, when they were senators -- say the measure aims to banish any doubts that Washington has made a long-term commitment to helping Pakistan.
The measure, which seeks to use economic development to battle the despair that can fuel extremism, comes at a time when Obama has vowed to overhaul US strategy for Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan.
The new aid would seek to foster economic growth and democratic reforms in Pakistan, notably by helping democratic institutions and the country's educational system flourish.
The measure also authorises military aid in such sums as are necessary to help Pakistan battle Al-Qaeda and other Islamist fighters, but requires that such assistance flow through Pakistan's democratically elected government.
It also requires that the government in Islamabad demonstrate a sustained effort to combat extremist groups and show progress towards defeating them.
The march turned chaotic at just about the same time that President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama arrived for a meeting with leaders of the world's major economies.
The clashes began after hundreds of protesters, many advocating against capitalism, tried to march from an outlying neighborhood toward the convention center where the summit is being held.
Police in riot gear stood guard near the protesters, who banged on drums and chanted ``Ain't no power like the power of the people, 'cause the power of the people don't stop.''
The hundreds of marchers included small groups of self-described anarchists, some wearing dark clothes and bandanas and carrying black flags. Others wore helmets and safety goggles.
Some held a banner that read, ``No borders, no thanks.'' Another banner read, ``No hope in capitalism.'' A few minutes into the march, protesters unfurled a large banner reading ``NO BAILOUT NO CAPITALISM'' with an encircled ``A,'' a recognized sign of anarchists.
The marchers did not have a permit and, after a few blocks, police declared it an unlawful assembly. They played an announcement over a loudspeaker telling people to leave or face arrest and then moved in to break it up.
Protesters split into smaller groups. Some rolled large metal trash bins toward police, and a man in a black hooded sweat shirt threw rocks at a police car, breaking the front windshield. Some protesters used pallets and corrugated steel to block a road. Police said the windows at one bank branch were broken.
Officers fired pepper spray and smoke at the protesters. Some of those exposed to the pepper spray coughed and complained that their eyes were watering and stinging.
About an hour after the clashes started, the police and protesters were at a standoff. Police sealed off main thoroughfares to downtown. Some of the protesters were seen ducking into alleyways to change out of their all-black clothing and then milling about in the street.
Twenty-one-year-old Stephon Boatwright, of Syracuse, New York, wore a mask of English anarchist Guy Fawkes and walked up and down in front of a line of riot police yelling at them. He then sat cross-legged about near the riot line, telling the police to let the protesters through and to join their cause.
``You're actively suppressing us. I know you want to move,'' Boatwright yelled, to applause from the protesters gathered around him.
Protesters complained that the march had been peaceful and that police were trampling on their right to assemble.
| G20 leaders agreed on bonuses, divided on IMF! | |||
Even before the US president and First Lady Michelle Obama sat down for a gala dinner to host their first major summit, tough new rules on limiting bonuses and executive pay were in the offing.
Disputes on the long-awaited reform of the International Monetary Fund, however, opened a rift between Europe and emerging nations as voting rights came to the fore at the Group of 20 summit.
The start of the gathering was marred by isolated incidents of violence as small groups of anti-capitalist protesters defied police warnings not to march on the summit venue.
Police fired pepper spray and non-lethal rounds and deployed loudspeakers blasting piercing sound waves to repel the mostly young protesters. Fifteen people were arrested, police said.
The G20 is a forum for the world's biggest developed and emerging economies and its meetings are a magnet for anti-capitalists opposed to what they see as an undemocratic body promoting globalization and free market policies.
| Also Read |
| → What is G20 success for Obama? |
| → What to expect from the G20 summit |
| → PM wants G20 to act against protectionism |
| → G20 should act for sustainable growth: IMF |
After a series of bilateral meetings ahead of the main summit with Japanese and Chinese officials, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner reaffirmed the US strong-dollar policy.
Following China-led calls to review its role as a reserve currency, he reminded Beijing that: "A strong dollar is very important to the United States."
But Geithner said Europe and the United States were close to agreeing tough new rules on limiting bankers' bonuses despite earlier differences.
In the run-up to the summit there was friction between Washington and some European capitals, with France and Germany in particular pushing for stricter caps on the pay-outs, which they say encourage excessive risks in trading.
"We actually are very close and I believe we are in the same place," Geithner told reporters. "We want to have very strong standards to limit the risk."
Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt of Sweden, who holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, took a similar line.
"I expect the G20 will make a clear statement about the need for global rules on bonuses and compensation, and I also expect broad agreement on how to strengthen supervision in general."
While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who arrived here on Thursday via Frankfurt, has already said India had much to offer in terms of finding a solution to the financial crisis, US President Barack Obama feels America alone cannot resolve all problems and there must be a global consensus.
"Leaders should recognise that developing countries are a key part of the solution," said World Bank President Robert Zoellick, ahead of the summit that will end late Friday.
"Pittsburgh can be a turning point in other ways. Developing countries are part of the solution," he said, adding: "If London was a summit for the financial sector, let Pittsburgh be a summit for the poor."
This comes after a high-level conference on disarmament here yesterday, addressed by UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon, asked India and eight other countries to ratify the agreement so that it comes into force.
"India has taken a position and we don't see any reason for changing our stand, Krishna told journalists.
"We have taken a principled stand and and so the question of India revisiting it stand depends on a number of other developments that would address our concerns," he added.
Earlier, Moon said that "the CTBT is a fundamental building block for a free world of nuclear weapons".
"By establishing a global norm against testing, the CTBT has made a significant contribution to the world community's efforts to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons and to promote nuclear disarmament," he added.
But Krishna responded by saying, "India's stand remains unchanged. We have spelt out why we our unable to sign the pact as it is".
During the occasion, the Moroccan Foreign Minister and chair of the conference Taib Fassi-Fihri said, "We will continue to work with very hard to convince others to join us".
Without directly referring to India and Pakistan, he noted, "I am sure that some countries living in some specific areas with some political problems will join us and we will ask them to join us because it is important for peace and security."
In a meeting chaired by US President Barack Obama, the Security Council has unanimously passed a nuclear non proliferation resolution.
It also calls upon all states to "refrain from conducting a nuclear test explosion and to sign and ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) to bring it into force early."
Russia and the United States have also committed to a new agreement to reduce nuclear war heads and launchers.
Reacting to media reports that the Sino-Indian joint army exercise had been "called off", spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Vishnu Prakash said the two countries had mutually decided to have the exercise next year.
"It was mutually decided during the last exercise that the next joint military exercise would be held in 2010. Therefore, no joint military exercise was planned in 2009," Prakash said in a statement in New Delhi.
He said India and China had conducted joint military exercises in 2007 and 2008.
In a path breaking move, the two armies held the first ever exercise, named 'Hand-in-Hand' in December 2007 in Kunming province of China, when a 100-strong Indian Army delegation took part in a counter-terrorism exercise.
This was followed up with the second exercise last year when India hosted the Chinese military personnel at Belgaum in Karnataka for a similar counter-terrorism exercise.
China had already informed India that this year it would be busy with its 60th National Day celebrations scheduled for October one and hence would not be able to host the Indian Army personnel for the exercise this year.
The two sides, then, decided to hold the exercise in China in 2010. Afzali, an imam at a mosque in Queens, is accused of lying about whether he warned the Zazis that federal investigators were asking about them. Afzali has reportedly served as a police informant.
"It is necessary for India to engage in the management of the world economy because we have a lot at stake, and a lot to contribute," Manmohan Singh said as he prepared for the summit.
At the same time he also expected some strong signals from the summit against protectionism, especially by rich nations, whether it concerned trade in goods, services, investment or financial flows.
The most significant remarks, nevertheless, came from the host Obama. "Power is no longer a zero sum game. No nation can or should try to dominate another nation. No world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will succeed," said the US president.
According to participating diplomats, the G20 leaders were also expected to issue a statement at the end of the summit committing themselves to a framework of sustainable and balanced growth.
Their first interaction is scheduled at the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, where Obama will host a welcome reception, following which they will meet at the sprawling David Lawrence Convention Centre Friday.
The city, meanwhile was geared to tackle any protest that turns ugly, with the federal government expected to spend some $10 million on security arrangements with another $4 million by the state of Pennsylvania.
The green banners put up in the city read: "Pittsburgh welcomes the world", even as police was patrolling the areas near the venue on foot, helicopters and even bicycles.
Here are some of the main talking points:
GLOBAL REBALANCE
- US President Barack Obama wants to iron out the massive trade and current account imbalances that were seen as contributing to the financial crisis, but he will meet with strong opposition from big exporters China and Germany.
INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND
- The US will call for a bigger financial policing role for the IMF, which will also come under pressure to reform its voting system to give more clout to the big emerging nations such as Brazil, China, India, and Russia.
STIMULUS 'EXIT STRATEGIES'
- As countries claw back from recession, led by growth in Asia, the onus on leaders gathering in Pittsburgh is to decide when to pull the plug on state stimulus packages and how to coordinate that move.
CLIMATE
- European heads of state will put pressure on Obama to take more of a lead on climate change three months ahead of a summit in Copenhagen to ink new targets for global emissions beyond 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires.
The EU wants to rich nations to provide major funding to developing nations to combat global warming and its impact.
The US is pushing key developing and developed nations to agree on a plan to phase out subsidies for fossil fuel industries blamed for global warming.
After new pledges from China and Japan at a climate meeting in New York earlier in the week UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the "political momentum" had moved towards sealing a deal in Copenhagen.
BANK BONUSES/EXECUTIVE PAY
- France and Germany have been pressing for caps on bankers' bonuses, amid opposition from Britain and the United States, but a watered-down compromise deal appears likely as well as a broader agreement to try and limit exorbitant salaries for banking executives.
BANK CAPITAL REQUIREMENTS
- Leaders will discuss new rules dictating how much banks must stash in their vaults versus the amount they are putting to work. Woefully inadequate reserves were blamed for the meltdown of banks like Lehman Brothers after a sharp drop in the value of their assets, in this case dodgy debt derivatives.
REGULATING DERIVATIVES
- Derivatives, the complex financial instruments believed to be a key element of the global financial crisis, will again come under the microscope.
| Group of 20 leaders will agree that economic stimulus measures following the financial crisis should be maintained "until "We'll avoid any premature withdrawal of stimulus," a G20 source said, quoting from the draft of a text expected to be adopted at the summit of developed and developing nations in Pittsburgh. Leaders will issue their final communique aimed at stabilising the world economy after last year's meltdown later on Friday. US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner had earlier told reporters that the world's largest economy is not yet ready to start winding down economic stimulus. Geithner said Thursday the US wanted to leave "programs in place until we are very confident we have a financial system that can provide the credit recovery needs." Countries including Japan, Germany and France have emerged from recession and US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said earlier this month that the US recession is "very likely over". But growth has partly been dependent on stimulus and there are long-term problems like large government deficits and the prospect of unemployment continuing to rise in many countries. The summit had been widely expected to discuss when and how to begin scaling back the multi-trillion dollar stimulus packages, cheered cheered on by China, which fears US deficits will destabilize the dollar. | |
Apart from the trade negotiations with the EU, the government is juggling with the possibility of entering into free trade agreements with quite a few countries and groupings. At present India is looking at the possibility of entering into FTA negotiations with Australia. Moving fast, a joint study group set up to look into the feasibility of such an agreement between India and Australia is almost ready with the study.
``We are in the process of concluding a feasibility study... a part of the feasibility study is to look at the scope of the agreement. We would be looking at a broad agreement covering goods and services,'' said Australian High Commissioner to India Peter Varghese after presenting his credentials to President Pratibha Patil on Thursday.
Anyway once the study is completed, the matter will go to the political leadership which will have to take a call on whether to go ahead with the FTA or not. Sources said that discussions at the political level between the two sides are also expected to take place soon. The FTA had came up for discussion during the visit of deputy prime minister Julia Gillard last month with both sides agreeing to move ahead on the matter.
The UPA government has not hidden the fact that it is all for free trade agreements especially in the backdrop of the current economic climate. In its early days, the Manmohan Singh government had quickly signed pending FTAs with Korea and the ASEAN countries. And the ASEAN FTA had gone through in spite of deep reservations being expressed from within the Cabinet and in Kerala.
All eyes are also on the India-EU FTA, which is unlikely to be ready before the EU-India Summit in New Delhi on November 6. Sources said that negotiations continue to take time as the EU countries have to go back to their governments at every stage of the negotiations. The negotiations have been stuck on major issues like the level of trade to be covered in the agreement. Around six rounds of negotiations have already taken place with more to come. Even as negotiations continue, the EU has expressed its interest in concluding the process by 2010.
Apart from the EU, India is also expected to begin a new round of FTA discussions with Japan later this month. The negotiations with Japan had come unstuck over a number of contentious issues but both sides are now ready to get back to the negotiating table. Yet another FTA which is in the works is the free trade agreement between India, the South American trade bloc Mercosur, and the Southern Africa Customs Union. At the recent IBSA (India Brazil South Africa) meeting, the three countries had agreed to back negotiations to seal the free trade agreement.
Citing excerpts from an interview given to a prestigious international daily, BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad claimed that Mr Krishna has said that ``there is no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan and that NATO combat operations should give way to a political settlement with Taliban.''
Condemning the purported remark as ``highly irresponsible,'' BJP spokesman asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to come clean on the government's position.
Mr Krishna, speaking to a news agency later, was quick to deny that he had made out any case for a political settlement in Afghanistan, and said that he had spoken about a ``political settlement among the people.''
India, the external affairs minister clarified, does not make any distinction between "a good Taliban and a bad Taliban," and considers the extremist group as a terrorist organisation.
"Taliban per se from the Indian point of view is a sheer terrorist organisation,'' Mr Krishna said. ``What the people of Afghanistan want is something that they have to decide for themselves,'' he added.
BJP, however, remained unconvinced, asserting that the foreign minister had, by speaking out in favour of negotiations with the Taliban, had gone ``against the well-recognised policy of India.''
``This is a very loaded statement and coming from the foreign minister of India, it has far-reaching
implications,'' the BJP spokesman contended, adding, ``Taliban today creates fear and it stands for massacre, murder, torture and the most extreme and brutal form of medieval violence. Women are the worst victims of their torture, which would put any civil society to shame.''
The Taliban, according to Mr Prasad, was also keen on extending its area of sphere to other parts of the world. ``Their agenda is distinctly also to destabilise India, and for this purpose various terrorist groups operating within and attacking our country also get overt and covert support from the Taliban,'' he said. ``We demand that the prime minister must immediately explain as to the government's position is on such an utterly irresponsible comment of the foreign minister,'' the BJP spokesman added.
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| CPM duo killed |
| OUR CORRESPONDENT |
| Midnapore, Sept. 24: Two villagers who refused to cough up money for Maoists and instead asked them to pay cash for Durga Puja were shot dead by the rebels last night in West Midnapore. Police said Samir Singh Mahapatra and Nimai Bishui, both residents of Harimara in Goaltore, were returning home from a puja committee meeting after 9pm when they were shot dead. Krishna Prasad Dule, the CPM MLA of Garbeta (West), said the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities in December told each family to pay Rs 20 and give 20kg of rice every month. "The two CPM supporters had all along refused to pay the committee, which imposed the diktat at the Maoists' behest," Dule said. "On September 22, eight armed Maoists came to our village and demanded Rs 50-100 from villagers. Some paid. But Samir babu and Nimai refused. Samir told them that instead they should pay money to villagers for Durga puja. 'You always take money from us. Now you pay money to us for a change' Samir said," said Aswini Saha, 50, a villager. Samir, 57, was a vegetable seller and Nimai, 42, was a meat seller. |
| WHODUNNIT - History has a habit of revising itself now and then | |
| ASHOK MITRA | |
Crying over spilt milk or over who had spilled it more than six decades after the event is, according to one view, a sure sign of decadence. To compare the partitioning of the country and the grisly, tragic consequences thereof with spilt milk, others will say, is offensive to the limit. Whatever that be, the ripples caused by Jaswant Singh's otherwise-pedestrianly-written book will not easily subside; the publishers are still minting money. Spice has been added to the proceedings by the happenstance of transferred zeal. It is the Congress, and not the Bharatiya Janata Party, which should have exploded with anger over Jaswant Singh's holding Jawaharlal Nehru primarily responsible for the creation of Pakistan. To Congressmen, the charge is nothing less than lése majestè. How unfair, they were not allowed the pleasure of expelling the blackguard, he was not a member of their party. The BJP, however, swung into action, but not because the Jodhpur princeling traduced Nehru. That was all right. He had no business though, the Hindutva school of thought will argue, to bracket, along with Nehru, the great Sardar from Karamsat. Public memory is short; political parties too go through mutation. Big chunks of the ideological descendants of Vallabhbhai Patel moved away from the Congress even as the Nehru-Gandhis were taking over the party, lock, stock and barrel. They now constitute Narendra Modi's hardcore constituency. There was actually no greater preacher of Hindu revivalism than Kanhaiya Lal Munshi, Patel's close mentor and immediate successor as Union home minister. Jaswant Singh was most indiscreet; he had to be sent to the gallows. Thanks to his indiscretion, an occasion has at least arisen to revisit some old myths. One such is that the Congress had all along envisaged free India as a federal entity where residual powers will repose with the federating units. In the party's early phase, its leaders, of course, used to gush along these lines. Even the 1942 Quit India resolution spoke of an India which, once rid of alien rulers, will emerge as an arcadia of a federation; the residual powers were to rest with the provinces, the Centre will only enjoy powers delegated to it. There is such a thing as appearance's sake. For, simultaneously, the Empire of India the British had set up, stretching from the borders of Burma at one end to those of Afghanistan at the other, bewitched the English-educated affluent gentlemen who led the Congress since it founding. The mystique and majesty of the imperium — the concentration of all authority in the hands of the viceroy and governor-general representing the Crown —bowled them over. They were determined to inherit that majesty, in toto; transfer of power by the British meant acquiring the prerogative to govern the country entirely according to their own lights. They had a further aspiration: the administrative system of post-independent India should be the mirror image of the Congress's organizational structure, where decision-making was concentrated in the hands of the cabal designated as the working committee. Members of this committee loved to call themselves the Congress high command; independent India, too, should be ruled by such a mightily high command. The 1940 Cabinet Mission's plan for a three-tier federation —provinces, groups and the Centre — was, therefore, a big letdown for the Congress leadership. This was not what it wanted. The proposal to have groups at the intermediate level of administration left Congress leaders cold. Besides, all subjects other than foreign affairs, defence and communications were to be vested with the provinces. It was explicitly stated that the provinces would retain all powers and jurisdictions other than those credited to the Union. While the details of the arrangements were to be worked out by a constituent assembly, it was understood that it must adhere to the broad scheme outlined in the Cabinet Mission plan. The provinces were to be arranged into three groups: A) consisting of the then existing provinces of Madras, Bombay, the United Provinces, the Central Provinces, Bihar and Orissa; B) tucking in Sind, Punjab and the North-West Frontier Province; and, finally, C) to consist of Bengal and Sind. Any province could, by a majority vote in its legislature, move out of the group it was assigned to, but only after an initial period of 10 years and at 10-yearly intervals thereafter. The Cabinet Mission did not concede Mohammad Ali Jinnah his Pakistan. But what he got was enough; he was sure of controlling Group B and reasonably confident about Group C. He accepted the plan; his sole reservation was regarding the composition of the interim government where he demanded parity of representation with the Congress. The Congress leadership, on the other hand, hemmed and hawed. Yes, formally the integrity of India was preserved. There was to be a Union government over which the Congress would presumably be able to establish command. But it would be in exclusive charge in only three spheres: foreign affairs, defence and communications, with powers to raise finances to the extent the compliance of responsibility in these spheres called for. The grandeur of the imperium was sadly missing. Apprehension overtook the Congress 'High Command': the chances were that Groups B and C would always be dominated by the Muslim League which was bound to create problems, one after another, for the Union. The prospects need not have been that bleak. The speculation was that Group C, comprising Bengal and Assam, consisted of almost the same number of non-Muslims as Muslims. That apart, given the class character of the League leadership and the nature of issues that were of central concern to the Muslim masses in both Bengal and Assam, the Muslim League could only hope to have a tenuous hold on Group C. Had the Congress not spurned in 1937 the invitation from A.K. Fazlul Huq to join the Krishak Praja Party and form a coalition government in Bengal, the League might have never gained a foothold in that province. But the Congress leaders had reached their decision. Over a period of 15-odd months they engaged in interminable sessions with British minister and the viceroy over the interpretation of this or that clause in the Cabinet Mission Plan. A great quantity of the discussions centred around the proviso which allowed a province to opt out of the group to which it originally belonged after a time span of 10 years. The Congress insisted on the option being made available from the very beginning; they were anxious, to rescue the North-West Frontier Province — then under Congress rule largely because of the charisma of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan — from the clutches of Jinnah. While the ping-pong game of talks and yet more talks was going on, a press interview by Jawaharlal Nehru put the fat in the fire: the Congress, he hinted, might use its clout in the constituent assembly to ignore the directive of the Cabinet Mission in the matter. The Muslim League was furious, Jinnah went back to his demand for Pakistan. The Direct Action resolution and the Great Calcutta Killings, followed by even more frightening mayhem, vitiated the air. Patience wore thin on all sides. An exhausted Wavell was replaced as viceroy by get-down-to-business Mountbatten. Nehru and Patel agreed that, notwithstanding Mahatma Gandhi, they would be satisfied with a truncated India if that would deliver them from Jinnah. They thereby reneged from their earlier pledge to stand by Frontier Gandhi and his khudai-khidmadgars. What was, at the moment, of immensely greater importance to them was the establishment of a free India with a firm central authority and no nuisance of groups challenging that authority. The Congress leaders got their imperium — even though reduced in scale — and Mohammed Ali Jinnah got his Pakistan, which coupled Groups B and C with some modifications. But Group C did not stay with Pakistan. It emerged as Bangladesh within a quarter of a century. History has, seemingly, a habit of now and then revising itself. |
According to the survey, over 84% of the respondents believe that last year's crisis had a very limited/short-term impact and the activity is expected to pick up in the next few months.
Interestingly, close to 85% of the respondents confirmed that the current environment is conducive to raise infrastructure-focused funds. Some of them believe that this is the right time to start investing as the stretched valuations of the recent past are becoming more realistic.
A majority of the respondents, however, cited inordinate delays in getting approvals and a complex regulatory environment as major factors hindering private equity (PE) flows in the infrastructure. While 73% of the respondents stated delay in getting approvals as the major factor hindering the PE flows, 68% pointed out the complex regulatory mechanism, 58% cited delay in financial closure of projects & long gestation period of infrastructure projects, while 53% pointed out non-transparent bidding process as the challenges faced by PE investors while investing in Indian infrastructure.
An Assocham spokesman said that infrastructure projects typically involve a long payback period, whereas the debt that is available for financing infrastructure projects matures in a period of 7–12 years. Meanwhile, regulatory procedures, delays in project implementation and several unplanned cost escalations create concerns regarding the financial viability of projects and disrupt the free flow of investments by PE houses.
The respondents also cited project or investment risks on account of contractual structures, aggressive bidding or incomplete traffic estimates as some of the key issues faced by them while investing in infrastructure projects. Some of the respondents viewed delays in completing land acquisitions as an additional factor that hinders PE investments.
Respondents primarily believe that an underdeveloped bond market in India impacts the financing of infrastructure projects. Unlike other developed nations, where a vibrant bond market serves as an alternative avenue for financing/refinancing, the bond market in India has not grown substantially. Thus, the underdevelopment of bond markets in the country poses hurdles in accessing funds for the sector.
Despite the credit crisis, however, PE investors remained positive about the returns expected from their investments in infrastructure projects. Around 50% of the respondents expect to achieve a targeted 20–25% IRR from their investments in infrastructure projects. Notably, another 31% of the respondents target more than 25% IRR on their investments.
The fundamental driver for high-return expectations is the underinvestment in the sector which calls for a rapid development in the infrastructure landscape, and hence higher returns. In addition, infrastructure assets are characterized with low-operating costs coupled with predictable cash flows, which provides for a relatively high and stable return on investment.
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Duration: 01:09
Posted: 25 Sep, 2009, 1222 hrs IST
Chidambaram visits homes of police officials killed by Maoists
Raipur: Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram Friday visited the homes of an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and a police constable who were killed in a Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon district.
Chidambaram made an unscheduled visit to the homes of Rajnandgaon superintendent of police V.K. Choubey in E.A.C. Colony and constable Sanjay Yadav in Tikrapara area with Chief Minister Raman Singh.
Choubey and Yadav were killed by Maoist guerrillas July 12 in Madanwara forest area of Rajnandgaon.
Choubey was on the hit-list of Maoist rebels for years and was the first IPS officer to have been killed by the guerrillas.
Chidambaram, who landed at Mana airport in state capital Raipur around 8 a.m., drove straight to Raj Bhawan and met Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan and Chief Minister Raman Singh.
After a brief meeting, he drove first to Choubey's home and consoled the bereaved family members.
IANS
Water on moon is something of a holy grail, says NASA
Washington: The confirmation of elevated water molecules in the moon's polar regions by India's maiden lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 raises new questions about its origin and effect on the mineralogy of the moon, US scientists say.
This NASA/JPL handout image recieved September 24, 2009 shows an image of Earth from the Moon, acquired by NASA's Discovery Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), that is a guest instrument onboard the ISRO Chandrayaan-1 Mission to the Moon. Water particles have been detected on the surface of the Moon by three missions, including an Indian probe.The evidence, disclosed in new scientific papers, overturns the long accepted view that lunar soil is dry and comes just two weeks before a NASA probe is to crash into the surface near the Moon's southern pole to see if water can be detected in the dust and debris released by the impact. Australia is visible in the lower center of the image. The image is presented as a false color composite with oceans dark blue, clouds white, and vegetation enhanced green.
"Water ice on the moon has been something of a holy grail for lunar scientists for a very long time," said Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
"This surprising finding has come about through the ingenuity, perseverance and international cooperation between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)."
NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper, or M3, instrument reported the observations. M3 was carried into space on Oct. 22, 2008, aboard the ISRO's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft.
From its perch in lunar orbit, M3's state-of-the-art spectrometer measured light reflecting off the moon's surface at infrared wavelengths, splitting the spectral colours of the lunar surface into small enough bits to reveal a new level of detail in surface composition.
When the M3 science team analysed data from the instrument, they found the wavelengths of light being absorbed were consistent with the absorption patterns for water molecules and hydroxyl.
"For silicate bodies, such features are typically attributed to water and hydroxyl-bearing materials," said Carle Pieters, M3's principal investigator from Brown University, Providence.
Statue of Liberty, Akshardham come together to propitiate Goddess Durga
Indian visitors walk past a makeshift Durga Worship place build by hay in Kolkata on late September 24, 2009. The five day period of worship of the Hindu Goddess Durga, who is reveered as the destroyer of evil, commenced on September 24 and will end on September 28, with the immersion of idols representing the Goddess in water body.
| Piggyback payload finds moon 'water' | |
| G.S. MUDUR | |
New Delhi, Sept. 24: A guest instrument on the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft detected signatures of water molecules on the moon, resolving a four-decades-old mystery, several months before the premature end of India's first lunar mission. The discovery, made earlier this year but announced today by American and Indian scientists, has altered existing ideas of a bone dry moon and kindled fresh hopes that humans might some day be able to harvest water from the lunar soil. The Nasa instrument, the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), developed by Brown University and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the US, observed characteristic signatures of water molecules in sunlight reflected from the lunar surface. M3 was among six foreign lunar observation payloads that piggybacked on Chandrayaan-1, which carried four Indian-made instruments. Two other Nasa spacecraft — Cassini and Deep Impact — have corroborated the findings made by M3 through an analysis of archived data and fresh observations of the lunar surface in June this year. The results from all three missions will appear in the journal Science on Friday. The studies indicate that the water molecules are present in tiny quantities in the top few millimetres of soil and rocks on the lunar surface. "We haven't found water either in its liquid or ice form. We have detected only water molecules in extremely minute quantities in surface soil," an Isro scientist said. The mission scientists estimate that about 1,000kg of soil will yield about a litre of water. "This is fantastic. We've found something we never thought we would see," said Lawrence Taylor, director of the Planetary Geosciences Institute at the University of Tennessee and member of the M3 team, who has studied hundreds of moon rocks brought back by the Apollo missions from 1969 to 1972. Traces of water found in one set of the Apollo boxes were, Taylor said, attributed to contamination from Earth because the seals on the boxes had been broken. The alleged absence of water on the moon had remained an enduring mystery. "This is like finding a renewable resource on the moon," Taylor told The Telegraph. The observations suggest that the solar wind — a stream of electrons and hydrogen ions ejected from the surface of the sun — helps produce water on the moon daily. The entire lunar surface is hydrated during at least some parts of the lunar day, according to a team led by Jessica Sunshine, senior scientist at the University of Maryland, who is a member of the M3 and Deep Impact missions. Nasa's Deep Impact is on a mission to explore comets. But scientists believe the intense solar heat also destroys the water molecules. "The concept is — the solar wind from the sun creates the molecules and the heat from the sun destroys them," said Jitendra Goswami, director of India's Physical Research Laboratory, who, along with S. Kumar from the National Remote Sensing Agency, had helped interpret some of the M3 data. Isro's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, launched in October 2008, had experienced instrument failures earlier this year, leading to loss of communication with the spacecraft and prompting the agency to end the mission in August. The M3 results are among the most significant to emerge from the mission, but scientists have said data from its other instruments continue to be analysed.There has been no direct observation of water on the moon so far. But a team at Brown University in the US had in July last year reported indirect evidence for water in the interior of the moon by examining pebble-like glasses returned to the Earth by the Apollo missions. Scientists say future research would be aimed at trying to understand better the water formation process and to determine whether the water molecules can accumulate near the poles where it is colder than at lower latitudes. "Harvesting water from the moon could significantly reduce the costs of long-term human activities on the moon. It takes $50,000 to carry a litre of water to the moon on a rocket," Taylor said. The action of the solar wind appears to be dominant in the mornings and evenings, said Tony Farnham, an astronomer at the University of Maryland who is a member of team that observed the moon using Deep Impact. "The heat from the sun either destroys the water molecules or ejects them into space from where they may fall back. The molecules that fall near the poles are more likely to survive and accumulate," Farnham told The Telegraph. |
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090925/jsp/frontpage/story_11540499.jsp
G20 behind the scenes: Dinner diplomacy, couple handshakes & photo ops
US First Lady Michelle Obama welcomes French President Nicolas Sarkozy's wife Carla Bruni to the G20 dinner at the Phipps Conservatory on September 24, 2009 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
G-20 taking on permanent coordinating role
Larger body will take over role of G-8 in matters of global economy
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PITTSBURGH - The Group of 20 nations will assume the role of a permanent council on global economic cooperation, the White House said Thursday.
The Group of Eight major industrial nations will continue to meet on matters of common importance such as national security, but the role of board of directors for the global economy will be taken over by the larger G-20. That group includes the biggest industrial countries, plus major emerging economies such as China, Brazil and India.
President Barack Obama initiated the move, the White House said.
Limits on banker's bonuses
Earlier Thursday, world leaders closed ranks on pay limits for bankers whose risky behavior contributed to the global financial meltdown. With economies on the mend, a summit mood of cautious optimism replaced last year's fear and uncertainty.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner cited progress on several fronts, predicting that summit partners would endorse the broad outlines of a proposal to deal with huge imbalances in the global economy — such as large trade surpluses in China and record budget deficits in the United States. He said other countries also seemed willing to scale back subsidies supporting fossil fuels that aggravate global warming.
At a news conference, Geithner also said the U.S. supports China's efforts to gain greater voting rights in the International Monetary Fund over the reservations of European nations, who would lose influence.
Given the rise of China's economic powers, "it's the right thing," and Europe recognizes that, Geithner said.
The leaders gathered with their spouses for a welcoming reception at a botanical reserve, and then they parted for separate banquets Thursday night.
A mile from the convention center where talks will be held on Friday, police fired canisters of pepper spray and smoke at marchers protesting the summit after the protesters responded to calls to disperse by rolling trash bins and throwing rocks. The clashes began after hundreds of protesters, many advocating against capitalism, tried to march from an outlying neighborhood toward the convention center.
The biggest clashes between police and demonstrators occurred at just about the time President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama arrived. The protesters banged on drums and chanted "Ain't no power like the power of the people, 'cause the power of the people don't stop."
Protests notwithstanding, the atmosphere is a lot more relaxed than at the fear-driven sessions in Washington last November and in London in April. Still, the global recovery remains fragile, with many big financial institutions under strain.
Throughout the day, world leaders descended on the comeback city of Pittsburgh to debate how to keep a fragile global recovery going. Nerves are still on edge, but this summit of the world's 20 top wealthy and developing economies seems free of the crisis atmosphere that hung over the past two — despite the clashes between protesters and police.
Geithner said the G-20 countries had reached a consensus on the "basic outline" of a proposal to limit bankers' compensation by the end of this year. He said it would involve setting separate standards in each of the countries and would be overseen by the Financial Stability Board, an international group of central bankers and regulators.
Until now, European countries had pressed harder than the U.S. for limits.
"Europeans are horrified by banks, some reliant on taxpayers' money, once again paying exorbitant bonuses," said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.
But Geithner predicted the proposed crackdown on bankers' bonuses would be in place by the end of the year.
United Nations
Netanyahu:
World must rally
against Iran
Israel's prime minister waves designs of the most infamous Nazi death camp from a U.N. podium. Full story
Amateur finds huge hoard of Anglo-Saxon treasure
Seventh-century trove includes gold and silver sword decorations. Full story
Life has become increasingly difficult for ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and his supporters since they took shelter Monday at the Brazilian Embassy in Honduras. Full story
A giant tent for the Libyan leader didn't stay up for long on Donald Trump's estate.
Oh, it's a case of NIMBYism all right. But can you blame the ritzy residents of Bedford, N.Y., for not wanting Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi as their neighbor?
The guy certainly doesn't have his timing down very well. He may have been on the docket to speak this week before the U.N. Security Council, but the demonstrators outside the U.N. headquarters should have clued him in that he probably wouldn't be getting the hero's welcome that the Lockerbie bomber received when he returned to Libya two months ago.
Not to mention that after stepping out of the limelight for years, Gadhafi is fresh on people's minds again because of that controversial release of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who was convicted in the 1988 bombing that killed 270 people.
So did he really think Donald Trump's neighbors weren't going to notice the giant Bedouin-style tent he erected on the palatial estate? Notice they did, writes The New York Post, and the tent was taken down after a building inspector noticed it was outfitted for "human habitation," which Bedford says violates its code.
More people are buying than a year ago, but distressed homes are still bringing prices down.
Is this the beginning of the end for the first-time homebuyer tax credit rush?
After steadily increasing for four months straight, the National Association of Realtors reports that existing-home sales in August fell 2.7%, compared with a huge 7.2% increase in July.
It's not a total loss. Sales in August, at a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.10 million units, are still 3.4% higher than the 4.93 million-unit level of August 2008. The pace in July topped the four-month streak with 5.24 million units, so maybe the rate is just leveling out after investors and first-time homebuyers alike rushed out to buy homes that were finally affordable again. The $8,000 tax credit for new homebuyers certainly didn't hurt, either.
Some homeowners are simply staying put, while others are putting up a fight, demanding that their mortgage servicer prove it has the right to take back the home.
The days when homeowners packed up their bags quietly after receiving their foreclosure notice seem to be fading away, as more borrowers realize putting up a fight might be worth it.
Marilyn Lewis writes about the most basic way to fight back in her article, Facing Foreclosure? Don't pack just yet, which recommends that borrowers stay in their homes while their name is still on the title, while also staying in close contact with their mortgage servicer to try to work out a loan modification or a short sale.
But some attorneys are taking the fight much further.
The Huffington Post writes of what it calls "a minor homeowner rebellion, alternately called 'produce the note' or 'show me the note.' " Basically, with the help of lawyers and other legal aid, borrowers facing foreclosure are simply asking their lenders to show them the original mortgage note, which is required by law before they can repossess the property. And apparently, that's not as easy to do as you'd think.
That new furniture won't look so nice if you end up not getting your loan.
Last week we wrote about a couple who used their $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit to buy new furniture, a wise investment that they argue is just what the government wants them to do: stimulate the economy.
They may have a point, and if you can spend that stimulus money on furniture instead of repairs, stimulate away. Just remember the lesson that is this economic recession: Don't spend money you don't have.
Namely, I'm talking about the $8,000 tax credit. Sure, you'll be tempted to buy a sofa and coffee-table set that resemble how the home was staged when you saw it at the open house. But can't it wait? At least until the deal on your home is closed?
Solar co-ops can save neighbors money and time -- and give them a reason to help one another.
We've all heard of neighborhood crime watches. Everybody on the block looks out for one another and it gives them a reason to get together and be neighborly.
Now you may have another reason to be neighborly, and this reason just may give you some cost rewards down the road.
The Washington Post writes about groups of neighbors who have banded together to form solar co-ops, which help members through the process of adding solar panels to their homes, and sometimes even take care of the details that can scare some homeowners away.
The Common Cents Solar Co-op in Chevy Chase, Md., does it all for its members. Not only does it take care of paperwork such as applying for rebates and bundling solar credit, but it also negotiates discounts from installers. This particular co-op even pays the bills, then members such as Helen Price pay it back for the services they've received. From The Post:
"I am not sure how all the finances work," she said. "All I know is I saved money and they really facilitated things, and it is a community thing."
More Americans than ever are delinquent on home loans as the rate rises to a record high in August.
The Obama administration may be pushing hard to get more loan modifications for U.S. homeowners, but the backlog is only going to grow if the number of Americans who can't pay their mortgages also keeps rising.
Reuters reports on CNBC.com that the rate of borrowers at least 30 days behind on their payments grew in August for the fourth month in a row, reaching a record 7.58% of homeowners with mortgages.
The data from Equifax say that rate is higher than the previous record in July of 7.32%, and just to show you how much it's grown lately, the rate was 4.89% in August 2008 and 3.44% in August 2007.
Desperate times drive plenty of people to desperate acts with dire consequences.
You know times are tough when people are so desperate to pay off their mortgages that they're willing to throw it all away.
Last week, Michael Casey Wilson, 69, of Santee, Calif., was accused of robbing a bank of $107,000. He is accused of handing a note to the bank manager that said he had a bomb and demanded the money, according to MSNBC.com.
"I was hoping to get $50,000 to pay off my mortgage," he said. "Just to get the money and get the hell out of there."
Ambani brothers open yet another front, rake up fresh dispute over gas
New Delhi/Mumbai: RIL issues notice to Reliance Infra to pay dues for supplies to its Andhra power plant.
The Ambani brothers have opened yet another front in their dispute over gas supplies from the Krishna-Godavari basin, with Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) issuing a notice to a power plant run by Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Infrastructure, threatening to stop gas supplies for non-payment of dues for the first fortnight of September.
Reliance Infrastructure (RelInfra) Ltd operates the 220 Mw Samalkot power plant in the East Godavari region . The plant requires 1.1 million standard cubic metre a day (mscmd) of gas of which RIL was supplying 0.52 mscmd on a fall-back basis in August though the agreement was for 0.19 mscmd at a price of $4.2 per million British thermal unit.
The two companies had signed a Gas Sale and Purchase Agreement (GSPA) on April 27 after an empowered group of ministers allocated the Andhra plant gas supplies.
Earlier this month, RelInfra wrote to RIL stating that it would not pay any marketing margins on the gas since the charge was illegal and unwarranted because it was not a result of any marketing undertaken by RIL or any other agency. RIL had claimed $0.135 per million British thermal unit as marketing margin from RelInfra over and above the base price of $4.2 a unit.
RelInfra had so far been paying RIL the marketing margins but now says the margin is illegal since it does not have government approval.
The two groups are already locked in an intense legal dispute over supply of gas from RIL's D6 field in the Krishna Godavari basin at a price of $2.34 per mBtu for Anil Ambani's impending plant at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh.
An RIL spokesman said the company's notice, issued on September 22, "has been issued in accordance with the terms of the Gas Sale and Purchase Agreement executed between RIL and RelInfra".
In response to RIL's notice, RelInfra said the marketing margin was in contempt of a Bombay High Court order of January 31, 2009, and was also in violation of a production sharing contract and a government executive order that approved the price. It said the court had permitted RIL to sell gas as an interim measure at a price of $4.2 a unit. "We are making due payment of the sale consideration ie $4.2 per million Btu for supply of gas under the GSPA. We are not liable to make payment of any illegal and unauthorised charge," said the RelInfra letter sent to RIL today.
The government has so far maintained that it has not fixed or approved the amount of marketing margin on natural gas sales by any contractor and the issue should be discussed by the buyer and the seller as part of GSPA.
Business Standard
| Top Stories | Updated 5 minutes ago |
Chandrayaan-I mission was a complete success, says ISRO chairmanEconomic Times - 18 minutes ago BANGALORE: Terming the finding of water on the Lunar surface a 'historic' one, ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair on Friday said that the Chandrayaan-I mission was a complete success. India hails Moon mission 'find' BBC News SNAP ANALYSIS: New world economic order takes shape at G20Reuters - - 1 hour ago PITTSBURGH (Reuters) - The Group of 20 is set to become the premier coordinating body on global economic issues, reflecting a new world economic order in which emerging market countries like China are much more relevant, ... US to Accuse Iran of Having Secret Nuclear Fuel FacilityNew York Times - - 33 minutes ago PITTSBURGH - President Obama and the leaders of Britain and France will accuse Iran Friday of building a secret underground plant to manufacture nuclear fuel, saying it has hidden the covert operation for years from international ... Queen Noor on nuclear disarmament Aljazeera.net | |
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Emerging economies 'get new role'
The G20 group of leading and emerging economies is to take on a new role as a permanent body co-ordinating the world economy, a White House statement said. The change will give more power to emerging economies, rather than to the developed powerhouses of the G8 group. The G20 is meeting in the US city of Pittsburgh for a two-day summit. EU officials also announced a deal to shift the balance of voting in the International Monetary Fund to benefit growing economies such as China. Currently, China wields 3.7% of IMF votes compared with France's 4.9%, although the Chinese economy is now 50% larger than that of France. BBC business editor Robert Peston said that the rich nations of North America and Europe formally acknowledging that they no longer have a monopoly of wisdom on what's good for the global economy would be the most important thing to come out of this summit. Near the venue, police fired rubber bullets at protesters on a march. The previous G20 meeting, in London in April, was also marred by clashes. The disturbances are thought to have begun after hundreds of protesters tried to march, without permission, towards the convention centre where the summit is being held.   Pledge by pledge Are the G20 leaders keeping their promises? LATEST NEWS BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS  New dawn Are we on the brink of a new world order? CRISIS ESSENTIALS  G20 map Stimuli and deficits: Who has spent the most? HAVE YOUR SAY  In three words... Tell us what you think the year ahead holds for you RELATED INTERNET LINKS The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites FROM OTHER NEWS SITES Business Report G20 becomes main world economic forum - 27 mins ago Times Online G20 to become world's main economic forum - 1 hr ago France24 USA: G20 begins in Pittsburgh amid protests - 3 hrs ago Yahoo! News China open to G-20 talks on new economic balance (Reuters) - 29 hrs ago   News feeds
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Clashes at G20 summit
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