Mamata breathes fire in Jangalmahal

MIDNAPORE: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday threatened to launch an agitation against the Centre and take it to New Delhi, if necessary, to demand an interest waiver on the state's over Rs 2 lakh crore debt. Mamata held out the threat while addressing youngsters from Jangalmahal at the Midnapore College Ground.

On April 21 last year, Mamata had served a 15-day ultimatum to the centre for a three-year moratorium on interest payable on debt. Though the Trinamool was in UPA II then, the centre refused to yield to that threat despite the chief minister's "enough is enough" warning. So the result of her latest threat, that too sans the three-year time-frame, isn't likely to be any different after Trinamool's exit from the alliance.

Mamata again gave the same justification for her demand—that the debt had been incurred by the Left Front government and passed on to her. "Bengal can't be ignored," said Mamata while giving a call for an anti-centre stir in Delhi. Mamata had earlier agitated in the capital on the FDI issue with NDA ally Sharad Yadav in tow.

Bengal's annual interest liability is Rs 22,000 crore and its revenue generation is 21,000 crore. Mamata has consistently raised the state's poor fiscal health since coming to power, citing that she had inherited an empty coffer from the Left. Debt and interest apart, Mamata reiterated that during Left Front rule, West Midnapore's villages were turned into killing fields by CPM harmads. "Even today, you just have to dig a little and you will find skeletons in different villages of Midnapore," the CM said from the dais of the Jangalmahal Vivek Chhatra Yuba Utsab.

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City Answers Gang-Rape Cover-Up Allegations












As Steubenville, Ohio, prepares for the high-profile rape trial of two high school football players, officials, battling allegations of a cover-up, announced the creation of a new website today to debunk rumors and create what they said would be a transparent resource for the community.


"This site is not designed to be a forum for how the Juvenile Court ought to rule in this matter," the website, called Steubenville Facts, said.


A timeline of the case, beginning with the alleged gang rape of a 16-year-old girl at a party on Aug. 11-12, 2012, is posted on the site. Summaries of Ohio law relating to the case and facts about the local police force including statistics on how many graduated from Steubenville schools, is included.


The case gained national attention last week when hacking collective Anonymous leaked a video of Steubenville high school athletes mocking the 16-year-old female victim and making crude references to the alleged rape.






Steubenville Herald-Star, Michael D. McElwain/AP Photo







"It's disgusting, and I've had people calling, numerous people call here, upset, they have seen it, one woman, two women were crying, because of what they witnessed," Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla said. "It really is disgusting to watch that video."


Anonymous has called for more arrests, however Steubenville Police have said their hands are tied.


"Steubenville Police investigators are caring humans who recoil and are repulsed by many of the things they observe during an investigation," the website said, addressing the video. "Like detectives in every part of America and the world, they are often frustrated when they emotionally want to hold people accountable for certain detestable behavior but realize that there is no statute that allows a criminal charge to be made."


Occupy Steubenville, a grassroots group, estimated 1,300 people attended a rally today outside the Jefferson County Courthouse, where rape victims and their loved ones gathered to share their stories.


The father of a teenage rape victim was met with applause when he shared his outrage.


"I've tried to show my girl that not all men are like this, but only a despicable few," he said. "And their mothers that ignore the truth that they gave birth to a monster."


Authorities investigated the case and charged two Steubenville high school athletes on Aug. 22, 2012.


The teenagers face trial on Feb. 13, 2013 in juvenile court before a visiting judge.


Attorneys for the boys have denied charges in court.



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White House weighs new ‘grand bargain’ on taxes, spending



As planning begins for the next phase of Washington’s fiscal wars, attention is turning to a strategy for avoiding deep automatic cuts to domestic and defense spending and averting a government default — which could all hit at the same moment.


Democratic and Republican officials say they could build on the “grand bargain” talks, which looked at raising new revenue through an overhaul of the tax code and reducing spending, including on Medicare, Social Security and other entitlement programs.

As in the earlier negotiations, however, there remain sticking points. How much new tax revenue would Republicans accept, especially now that tax rates on the wealthy are already climbing under the “fiscal cliff” agreement, and how far will President Obama go in meeting the GOP demand for deep spending cuts?

Obama and Boehner came tantalizingly close to a broad deal last month aimed at stabilizing the federal debt before the speaker abandoned the talks, saying that the White House offer was too heavy on taxes and too light on spending cuts. Instead, Democrats and Republicans reached a far more modest agreement to avoid the fiscal cliff.

Republicans say they have a stronger hand in future negotiations because of the federal government’s pressing need to increase its $16-4 trillion borrowing limit. The government hit the debt ceiling this week, and the Treasury Department warns it will be unable to pay its bills in about two months unless it can borrow more. Congressional Republicans say they will not vote to raise the debt ceiling unless there is a deal to make steep spending cuts.

White House officials insist that the government must meet its obligations and thus raising the debt ceiling is non-negotiable. Some Democrats, however, say that the bargaining advantage has shifted toward the GOP.

White House officials still believe that the framework previously discussed by Obama and Boehner offers ample scope for a deal to avoid the automatic spending cuts, known as a sequester, according to people familiar with the discussions. Such an agreement, they say, could yield legislation that would also raise the debt ceiling.

Privately, some Republicans are not opposed to the approach. The GOP is “generally open to the framework, but the devil is in the details,” said one Republican leadership aide. The aide noted that Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, already plans to seek tax-code reform this year.

Still, the GOP plans to press its case that the time to discuss increasing taxes is over and the focus now must be on cutting spending. At a closed-door meeting Friday, Boehner told House Republicans that any increase in the debt limit must be accompanied by spending cuts and reforms of a greater amount, according to a person in the room.

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Tennis: Tsonga withdraws from Sydney event with injury






SYDNEY: French tennis star Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has withdrawn from next week's Sydney International with a hamstring injury, tournament organisers said on Saturday.

The world number eight pulled out of the last major leadup event to this month's Australian Open after suffering the injury playing for France in the mixed teams Hopman Cup in Perth on Friday.

"Unfortunately Jo-Wilfried Tsonga sustained an injury in Perth and has been forced to pull out of the Apia International Sydney with a left hamstring injury," tournament director Craig Watson said.

"We wish him a speedy recovery and all the best for a successful Australian Open."

Tsonga, the 2008 Australian Open finalist, would have been top seed for the Sydney International and compatriot Richard Gasquet, the world number 10, is expected to become the top seed for the men's draw to be made later Saturday.

- AFP/jc



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Stop helping black money hoarders: Kejriwal to govt

NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal on Friday accused the government of protecting Indians who laundered black money asking it to take a cue from the United States. The renewed offensive comes after reports that a Swiss bank had been forced to shut down after it pleaded guilty to helping Amercians evade taxes. The US government has also charged the bank $57.8 million as fine.

News reports said that Wegelin & Co will pull down shutters permanently following its guilty plea to charges of helping wealthy Americans evade taxes of USD 1.2 billion for nearly a decade. Wegelin agreed to pay USD 57.8 million to the United States in restitution and fines.

AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal tweeted, "The Swiss bank, which allowed 100 American citizens to hide $1.2bn for 10 years, forced to close operations in US and pay heavy penalties. In contrast, India protects both the guilty Swiss bank and those who stashed their money abroad."

His colleague and AAP member Manish Sisodia added: "Oldest Swiss bank is to close permanently for allowing US black money, also fined $57.8m. Do we have any courageous leadership to Act?"

The political group had raised the issue of black money being laundered with the assistance of Swiss banks in November 2012. Kejriwal had alleged that HSBC helped several Indians including Ambanis with money stashed abroad. The allegations were denied by the Ambanis and the bank.

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Obama Poised to Name New Defense, Treasury Chiefs













With the "fiscal cliff" crisis behind him, President Obama is poised to name two new key players to his cabinet, with both announcements expected to come next week.


Obama will name the replacement for outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta as soon as Monday, sources told ABC News. Former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel is the likely nominee, they said.


Meanwhile, the president is also eyeing a replacement for outgoing Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the longest-serving member of Obama's first-term economic team and one-time lead negotiator for the administration in the "fiscal cliff" talks.


Current chief of staff Jack Lew is all but certain to get the nod for Treasury, according to people familiar with Obama's thinking.


A White House spokesman cautioned that the president has not yet made a final decision on either post, calling reports about Hagel and Lew "merely guessing."


Still, when Obama returns from his Hawaiian vacation on Sunday, he's expected to waste little time filling out his team for a second term.


Geithner has said he would remain at his post "until around the inauguration" Jan. 20, a Treasury spokesperson noted Thursday, putting the department potentially in transition just as the administration confronts the next "cliffs" over the automatic spending cuts and nation's debt limit.






Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images











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During an appearance on ABC's "This Week" in April, Geithner said the next Treasury secretary would need to be someone who is "willing to tell [Obama] the truth and, you know, help him do the tough things you need to do."


Lew, a former two-time Office of Management and Budget director and trusted Obama confidant who has held the chief of staff role since early 2012, is the front-runner for the job.


Meanwhile, Sen. John Kerry -- Obama's nominee to replace outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- has begun making more regular appearances at the U.S. State Department before his expected confirmation later this month.


His Senate hearings are set to begin shortly after Obama's inauguration, sources say. The administration still expects Clinton to testify about the Sept. 11 Benghazi, Libya, attacks before Kerry is confirmed.


But it is the potential nomination of Republican Hagel that has caused the most stir.


Critics from across the political spectrum have taken aim at the former senator from Nebraska's record toward Israel and what some have called a lack of experience necessary to lead the sprawling Pentagon bureaucracy or its operations. The controversy has set the stage for what would be a contentious confirmation process.


"A lot of Republicans and Democrats are very concerned about Chuck Hagel's position on Iran sanctions, his views toward Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah, and that there is wide and deep concern about his policies," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told "Fox News Sunday."


He would not say whether Republicans felt so strongly as to expect a filibuster of the nomination.


"I can tell you there would be very little Republican support for his nomination," Graham said. "At the end of the day, they will be very few votes."


Still, Hagel, 66, a former businessman and decorated veteran who served in the Vietnam War, has won praise and admiration from current and former diplomats for his work on Obama's Intelligence Advisory Board and Panetta's Policy Advisory Board.





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Federal agencies bracing for cuts after ‘fiscal cliff’ deal



The eleventh-hour agreement to avoid a “fiscal cliff” of higher taxes put off the major cuts known as a sequester until March 1, when another showdown is expected over the federal debt limit and how much to reduce the size of government.


Congress and the White House agreed to find $24 billion to pay for the delay, divided between spending cuts and a tax change that allows Americans holding traditional retirement plans to convert more of them to Roth IRAs, a process that requires tax payments up front.

The remaining $12 billion in cuts to domestic and defense agencies will not take effect until at least March 27, when the stopgap budget funding the government expires. The first $4 billion in cuts must come by Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, and the remaining $8 billion in fiscal 2014, which will start Oct. 1.

The cuts will be rolled into budget deliberations on Capitol Hill, and no one knows what agencies and programs they will affect. Out of a discretionary spending budget of $1.04 trillion, $12 billion is relatively small. But it’s not a rounding error.

“There will be a few select cuts that will be painful,” said Patrick Lester, fiscal policy director at the Center for Effective Philanthropy (formerly OMB Watch). “We won’t know for months what those cuts are, which makes them easy to do.”

William R. Dougan, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, said $12 billion “spread across the government doesn’t sound like a lot of money, but it depends on how it’s spread out.”

Even if each agency took a hit, some “will still be looking at furloughs and even [reductions in force] as a possible solution,” he said. Those are some of the near-certain actions many agencies have said they would take if they had to make the across-the-board cuts Congress imposed in 2011 to force itself to reckon with the federal deficit.

On Wednesday, government and union leaders said that threat, just two months away, is making them nervous.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Congress has “prevented the worst possible outcome by delaying sequestration for two months.”

But he warned that the “the specter of sequestration” threatens national security.

“We need to have stability in our future budgets,” Panetta said in a statement. “We need to have the resources to effectively execute our strategy, defend the nation, and meet our commitments to troops and their families after more than a decade of war.”

Several officials said they are still sorting out what the two-month delay means.

“We are working hard with [the Office of Management and Budget] to understand the impact, but we’re just not there yet,” said Army Lt. Col. Elizabeth Robbins, a Defense Department spokeswoman.

Defense consultant Jim McAleese said the deal to raise taxes on families with income above $450,000 and individuals earning more than $400,000 will bring in so much less revenue than the $250,000 threshold President Obama proposed that steep defense cuts are inevitable.

Instead of the $10 billion in cuts a year over 10 years that the Defense Department could have expected to see under Obama’s most recent deficit reduction plan, McAleese said the reductions could be more in the range of $15 billion to $20 billion a year over 10 years.

“People were talking before about defense cuts of $10 billion per year, but the sheer size of the disagreement is going to bring about an immediate, aggressive reaction that will impact the final outcome of the spending cuts,” he said.

Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said of the $12 billion in cuts, “I would hope agencies could find these savings without impacts on front-line employees and without impacts on services to the public. We have more questions than answers right now.”

Steve Vogel contributed to this report.

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Olympics 100m bottle-thrower 'wanted Bolt to lose'






LONDON: A man screamed abuse at Usain Bolt before throwing a plastic beer bottle on to the track shortly before the men's 100 metres final at the London Olympics, prosecutors said at his trial on Thursday.

Ashley Gill-Webb, 34, pushed his way to the front of an exclusive seating area without a ticket and shouted things like: "Usain, I want you to lose," Stratford Magistrates' Court in east London was told.

As the sprinters went up into the 'set' position on their starting blocks for the race on August 5, Gill-Webb threw the green Heineken bottle on to the track behind the athletes, prosecutors said.

Bolt went on to win the race in 9.63sec to retain his 100m title.

Gill-Webb, from South Milford, near Leeds in northern England, denies two charges of using threatening words or behaviour with intent to cause harassment.

He was confronted by Dutch judoka Edith Bosch then restrained by Olympic volunteers and arrested by police at the Olympic Stadium in east London, the court was told.

After the beer bottle was thrown, Bosch said she had confronted him saying "Dude, are you crazy?"

The judoka, who won a bronze medal at the Games, said in a statement read out in court that she had been "flabbergasted" because what Gill-Webb had done was "so disrespectful".

The court heard that Gill-Webb had suffered manic episodes in 1997 and 1999 and claimed he did not remember throwing the bottle. He was treated at a psychiatric hospital following his arrest.

Prosecutors said his DNA had been found on the bottle and that CCTV showed him throwing it "in a lobbing motion".

Opening the case, prosecutor Neil King said: "In the stadium, along with the many thousands who should have been there legitimately and were watching the race in hushed anticipation, was also Mr Gill-Webb who it is now accepted was unwell at the time.

"His conduct at the time however, the Crown (Prosecution Service) say, was one that was causing harassment, alarm and distress to those around him and his conduct was one that he intended to cause harassment, alarm and distress.

"He had somehow, without a ticket ever being found on him, made his way into very exclusive seats indeed.

"He was mingling with members of the Dutch Olympic team. Indeed he would be within striking distance of a bronze medallist Ms Edith Bosch.

"Whilst there he hurled abuse towards the athletes in the final, particularly towards the eventual winner Usain Bolt."

"This bottle landed extremely close to the athletes and it's probably luck rather than Mr Gill-Webb's judgment that it did not do anything far more serious."

Gill-Webb was granted bail providing that he stays at his home address or at hospital. The case was adjourned until January 11.

- AFP/jc



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