India : Sabotage suspected in train crash..[ 1314 ]

At least 70 killed in India train crash

By Harmeet Shah Singh, CNN

May 28, 2010 7:18 a.m. EDT

Sabotage suspected in Indian train crash

New Delhi, India (CNN) -- At least 70 bodies have been pulled out of the mangled wreckage where two trains crashed in eastern India early Friday in an incident authorities linked to Maoist rebels.
By Friday afternoon, hours after the massive collision, prospects were getting dim for anybody else left in the wreckage of crushed train cars, rescuers said.
Also about 115 passengers were injured when 13 cars of the Lokmanya Tilak Gyaneshwari Express derailed, capsized on a parallel track and were slammed by a cargo train, authorities said.
Indian officials gave different theories about the derailment.
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee said a bomb explosion caused the passenger train to jump rails.
"The blast was carefully timed," Banerjee said on television. "The tracks were sabotaged 15 minutes before the train passed over them."
However, India's Home Ministry said there was no immediate evidence suggesting a blast.
"It appears to be a case of sabotage where a portion of the railway track was removed. Whether explosives were used is not yet clear," Home Minister P. Chidambaram said in a statement.
Police say they have not found signs of explosives on the scene. Manoj Verma, the district police superintendent, said investigators were looking into the possibility that "fishplates" which secure rail joints were missing from the track. An investigation was under way to determine the cause of derailment.
But the role of Maoists "cannot be ruled out", Verma said.
West Bengal's police chief Bhupinder Singh told reporters that officers have found Maoist posters claiming responsibility for the attack.
The crash occurred at about 1:30 a.m. (4 p.m. ET), railway spokesman Anil Kumar Saxena said.
India regards Maoists as its gravest internal security threat.
More than 70 officers were killed in a suspected Maoist ambush in Chhattisgarh state last month in what was seen as one of the most daring attacks by the left-wing guerrillas on Indian security forces.
The insurgents, on the other hand, have claimed since the 1960s to be fighting for the dispossessed.
In February, Chidambaram said that more than 900 people, including almost 600 civilians, were killed in Maoist-related incidents in 2009.
About 200 suspected rebels were also slain as forces moved into areas under insurgent control, he said.
"I am confident that the state governments concerned will gradually gain the upper hand and re-establish the authority of the civil administration," Chidambaram told an internal security conference on February 7.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, however, conceded last year that the nation's fight with the Maoists had fallen short of objectives.

CNN's Sara Sidner contributed to this report.

UK,The Government planned to increase CGT on non-business assets [ 1213 ]

Capital gains tax rise to punish prudent savers

A rise in capital gains tax would cause "unfair financial hardship" for prudent long-term savers, one of the world's biggest investment firms has warned.

By Louise Armitstead, Robert Winnett and Myra Butterworth
Published: 9:49PM BST 27 May 2010

The brunt of the increase in CGT may be borne by middle-class Britons who have been saving over the long term for their retirementPhoto: GETTY

 

The Government confirmed in the Queen's Speech on Tuesday that it planned to increase CGT on non-business assets from its present rate of 18 per cent to "closer to income tax" levels, possibly to 40 or even 50 per cent.

But Fidelity International, which manages £150 billion of individual and company savings plans, said it had "serious concerns" about the proposed tax change and said it was "urging the Government to listen before it is too late".

The powerful investment house, which owns a big stake in most of the companies listed on the FTSE 100 index and rarely speaks out publicly, said CGT increases should be targeted at short-term speculators rather than being applied in a way that would cause "unfair financial hardship to long-term savers".
Today, The Daily Telegraph launches a campaign against the proposed tax increases and invites readers to lobby George Osborne, the Chancellor, to reverse his plans, which are due to be unveiled in the emergency Budget next month.
Fidelity's intervention will add to the pressure David Cameron is facing from senior Tories over the issue.

Fidelity argued that CGT rises should take into account inflation to avoid savers being taxed unfairly.
Gary Shaughnessy, the UK managing director at Fidelity International, said: "We are particularly interested in defending the interests of prudent individuals who invest for the long term. These investors deserve to be treated differently from speculators who are looking only for short-term gains."

The Liberal Democrats drew up the CGT plans following the introduction of the new 50p top rate of income tax for high earners.
They were intended to deter wealthy financiers, speculators and private equity executives from moving their income into savings assets, on which they would then only pay 18 per cent capital gains tax. However, it is feared that the brunt of the increase in CGT will be borne by middle-class Britons who have been saving over the long term for their retirement, rather than such high-earners.
Fidelity said its analysis showed that someone who invested £10,000 in the FTSE All Share in 1988 would currently face a tax bill of £9,910, based on the value of their shares having increased to £75,155.
However, if CGT were increased to 40 per cent without any indexation link to inflation, the tax bill would more than double to £22,022.
Mr Shaughnessy said: "If the Government does increase CGT across the board, taxable gains should be reduced by the amount due to inflation or by taper relief. This avoids investors being unfairly penalised by being taxed on increases in value solely due to inflation."
Fidelity said it was urging the Government to leave the CGT annual allowance at £10,100 in its emergency Budget on June 22.

Mr Shaughnessy said: "Reducing the annual limit would mean many prudent, everyday long-term savers would be penalised for simply trying to provide for their own futures. It might help towards reducing the deficit in the short term, but longer term, if we disincentivise savings, we'll simply end up with more people reliant on the State during their retirement years."
Other financial experts and politicians also urged Mr Cameron to abandon the "fundamentally unfair" CGT rise plans.

Mike Warburton, of the accountants Grant Thornton, said: "If someone has invested in shares or property over a long period of time, a significant part of that gain is going to be inflationary. It is inherently wrong to tax that gain at income tax rates.”
Economists have also warned that the Treasury’s overall CGT revenue could drop as a result of investors fleeing the new higher rate, meaning the recovery of the economy from the recession would be affected.

One in six families — a total of 3.75 million people — owns shares, while 250,000 families own a second home and there are a million buy-to-let properties. About 130,000 people pay CGT each year as they sell their assets to fund their retirement or other major expenditure.

Small investors and second-home owners currently pay capital gains tax at a rate of 18 per cent on the profits made on the sale of their assets. The first £10,000 of profits made each year are not taxed.
Last night there was a growing Tory rebellion against the CGT plans, with about 60 MPs preparing to publicly defy Mr Cameron to block the rise.

In a BBC Radio 4 interview, Mr Cameron said: “We will listen to all the arguments. The process is clear. The decision will be announced in the Budget.”
But Vince Cable, the Lib Dem Business Secretary who first plotted the CGT rise, rejected criticism of the plans from senior Tories, saying: “I’m not sure that reinventing the wheel is the best way forward.”

S.Korea is pointing the finger of blame at N.Korea ..[1212]

	Issue 4401. Last Updated: 05/28/2010

The Gambler of North Korea

27 May 2010

By Yoon Young-kwan

After a painstaking investigation, South Korea is pointing the finger of blame at North Korea for the sinking of its warship, the Cheonan, on March 26. The debate about how to respond is complicated by the fact that the Cheonan’s sinking does not seem to be a stand-alone event, but was, instead, part of a change in North Korea’s general pattern of behavior. Indeed, North Korea has become increasingly bold and impetuous ever since Kim Jong Il became ill — probably from a stroke — in August 2008.

In the past, top North Korean leaders tended to calculate carefully the costs and benefits when they acted to put pressure on the outside world. And they were inclined to play only one of their “threat” cards at a time. But in April and May 2009, they threw diplomatic caution to the wind, launching a long-range missile and conducting a second nuclear test — all in the space of several weeks.

As soon as the international community reacted, by adopting United Nations Security Council Resolution 1874, North Korea quickly shifted to a charm offensive aimed at the United States and South Korea. The authorities released two U.S. journalists and a South Korean worker whom they had seized in August 2009 on charges of violating North Korean law.
But when the North Korean regime realized that “smile diplomacy” did not achieve whatever it was they wanted, the country’s rulers shifted back to hostility. This time, the authorities froze South Korean real estate in the Geumgang Mountain tourist zone and, most seriously of all, attacked the Cheonan. The regime even dispatched two spies to Seoul to assassinate Hwang Jang-yop, the highest-level North Korean official ever to defect to South Korea.

I believe that this change in North Korea’s pattern of behavior is profoundly related to recent fundamental changes there. First, Kim and his third son, Kim Jong Un, may have become much more confident as a result of North Korea’s emergence as a de facto nuclear state. They seem to believe that possession of nuclear weapons provides them with far wider room for strategic and tactical boldness. After all, they achieved what they wanted in defiance of enormous international pressure and even succeeded in transferring nuclear technology to Syria several years ago without being punished. Given such a run of successful gambles, why be timid?

The second change concerns Kim Jong Il’s successor. North Korea’s new boldness may reflect Kim’s wish to polish the image of 26-year-old Kim Jong Un as a strong and decisive leader. Or, it may be that all of the provocations that have followed Kim Jong Il’s illness may be the work of Kim Jong Un himself. In other words, the process of power transfer may be progressing much faster than anyone outside of North Korea has guessed.

Finally, long-term mismanagement and international sanctions have pushed the North Korean economy to the brink of collapse. As a result, the regime may be trying to divert people’s attention from internal difficulties and push them to unite behind the emerging new leader.
The attack on the Cheonan may have been particularly useful in cementing the regime’s hold on the military, which felt disgraced by North Korea’s inept performance in a confrontation with the South Korean navy near the Northern Limit Line in the West Sea in November 2009. But, I believe that this is probably a secondary motive for the attack on the Cheonan.

The problem is that all three factors — nuclear-armed boldness, the succession and economic malaise — will continue to influence North Korea’s behavior for the time being. Without a strong and internationally coordinated response to the sinking of the Cheonan, such reckless provocations are not only likely to continue, but they may become more frequent.
Thus, South Korea and the international community must respond firmly. The planned joint South Korea-U.S. military exercise near the Demilitarized Zone and joint anti-submarine exercise at the Northern Limit Line should be carried out as soon as possible. The UN Security Council should remain firm in condemning North Korea’s brutal attack on the Cheonan. Making North Korea pay a high economic cost for its rash behavior should be considered as well.
All of these options are, however, short-term responses and will likely be insufficient to bringing about any serious change in North Korea. A more fundamental, long-term strategy is needed to face the new reality and achieve lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.

One of the messages that Chinese President Hu Jintao delivered to Kim Jong Il at their bilateral summit on May 5 — concerning North Korea’s need to launch serious economic reform and open up to the world — has provided a clue as to how to move forward. So far, the international community has focused mainly on the immediate concern of denuclearizing North Korea. But this merely addresses the symptom, not the disease. It is time for the international community — particularly China, Russia, the United States, Japan and South Korea — to devote similar diplomatic effort to persuading and pressuring North Korea to reform and open its economy.

The world must develop a more carefully calibrated policy toward North Korea, one aimed at simultaneously implementing denuclearization and economic reform. The added benefit of such an approach is that it is far more likely to gain Chinese support than today’s single-minded focus on denuclearization.

Yoon Young-kwan is a former foreign minister of South Korea. © Project Syndicate

Spanish ''cost - cutting plan "....[ 1211 ]

Spanish politicians approve 15bn-euro austerity plan

 

Refusal to approve the package would have been a blow to Prime Minister Zapatero

BBC Thursday, 27 May 2010 11:51 UK 

The Spanish parliament has backed a 15bn-euro ($18.4bn; £13bn) austerity package by one vote as the country strives to cut its budget deficit.

The vote saw 169 in favour of the Socialist government's austerity plan and 168 against, with 13 abstentions.

Spain announced the austerity package earlier this month. It includes wage cuts of 5% or more for civil servants and slashes public investment plans.

Spain hopes to rein in its deficit and ease fears of a Greek-style crisis.

'Calming'

A parliamentary defeat would have been a blow to the Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

Spain's programme is intended to reduce a deficit of 11% of GDP to 6% by 2011.

"The result is calming for the markets because a vote against would have been very worrying," said Jose Luis Martinez, a strategist at Citigroup.

"But the small margin is worrying considering what Spain is facing."

'Painful but inevitable' Many Spaniards fear the effect the cuts will have on the economy, where the unemployment rate exceeds 20% - twice the eurozone average.

SPANISH COST-CUTTING PLAN

Continue reading the main story

• 5% average pay cut for public workers in 2010
• Payout scrapped to parents for birth of children
• Automatic inflation-adjustments for pensions suspended
• Funding to regions cut by 1.2bn euros

The country moved out of recession in the first quarter of this year, with growth of 0.1%.

The European Union has been anxious to see more fragile European economies, including Spain, Portugal and Greece, impose tougher austerity measures.

Before the vote, finance minister Elena Salgado had asked politicians to vote in favour, saying the measures were "painful but inevitable".

Russian Navy plans Naval-exercise off N.Korea...[ 1210 ]

Russia plans big naval exercise off North Korea

Anti-North Korean Rally

VLADIVOSTOK, RUSSIA.., ( Reuters ) May 27, 2010 10:01 AM- 

Russia will hold large-scale naval exercises near North Korea next month that were planned before the current stand-off on the Korean peninsula, naval officials said on Thursday.

Tensions between the two Koreas are at their highest level in years, a week after international investigators accused the North of torpedoing a South Korean warship in March, killing 46 sailors.
Moscow, which maintains ties with North Korea, has issued repeated calls for calm and restraint from both sides to prevent tension from bubbling over into armed conflict.

The Kremlin says it wants more information about the accusations that a North Korea torpedo sank the warship.
A flotilla of warships will set off for the Sea of Japan from Vladivostok, the home port of Russia's Pacific fleet, its spokesman Roman Martov said. Vladivostok is in the Primorsky Krai, the only Russian region that borders North Korea.
For the first time, other fleets of Russia's navy will also join in the war games.

The Black Sea fleet's flagship Moskva missile cruiser, dubbed "the aircraft carrier killer" in the Russian media, will take part alongside the heavy nuclear-powered cruiser Peter the Great, flagship of the Northern fleet.
Martov did not say whether the planned show of force had any relation to the current precarious stand-off on the Korean peninsula.

The Pentagon has announced plans for a joint U.S.-South Korean anti-submarine drill "in the near future" and said talks are under way on joint maritime interdiction exercises.
"It is business as usual for the (Pacific) fleet," Martov said, without elaborating.
A navy spokeswoman in Moscow said "the exercises had long been planned." She gave no further details.

A permanent member of the UN Security Council, Russia like China has the right to veto any sanctions against North Korea over the sinking.

Next week Russian torpedo experts will fly to South Korea at Seoul's request "to examine material evidence" and say whether the South Korean warship was indeed sunk by a North Korean torpedo in March, Itar-Tass news agency quoted a navy source as saying.

The Kremlin said in a statement on Wednesday that "if there is veracious information on someone's complicity (in sinking the South Korean corvette), the culprits must be given punishment which is judged necessary and adequate by the international community".