Oil firms stop fuel supply to Air India, at least 5 flights grounded at Mumbai airport!

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NDTV Correspondent, Updated: August 10, 2011 18:36 IST.

New Delhi:  Public sector oil firms have stopped fuel supply to Air India saying that the airline has failed to clear its dues for Tuesday. The oil firms had given Air India time till 5:30 pm today for clearing its dues.

At least five flights were reportedly cancelled within an hour of the announcement at the Mumbai airport.

Since November 2010, the airline is dealing with these oil firms on a cash-and-carry basis.

01)  Only Last Week GoI has released Rs. 1,200/- Crores as a relief;

02)  Anyway, this kind of periodic Governmental Infusion serves no purpose;

03)  If it cannot become profitable on its own, it should be dissolved or handed over to a private airlines through open auction.

Full Story at,

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/oil-firms-stop-fuel-supply-to-air-india-at-least-5-flights-grounded-at-mumbai-airport-125782

MONSOON SESSION: Lok Sabha adjourned till tomorrow, uproar in RS!

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PTI / The Hindu / NEW DELHI, August 1, 2011.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh along with Parliamentary Affairs Ministers Pawan Kumar Bansal (left) and Harish Rawat (second left), arrive to address the media, prior to the monsoon session at the Parliament House on Monday. Photo: Shanker Chakravarty.

The Lok Sabha was on Monday adjourned for the day after paying tributes to former Haryana Chief Minister and sitting member Bhajan Lal, who died during the inter-session period. In the Rajaya Sabha uproarious scenes were witnessed over the government’s handling of the corruption issue.

As soon as the House met on the first day of the monsoon session of Parliament, Speaker Meira Kumar made obituary reference to Lal, a member from Hissar, who died on June 3.

She described him as an able administrator and champion of the causes of the masses and worked for the uplift of the weaker sections throughout his political career spanning over four decades.

The House also made obituary references to former members Dharmabhiksham, Sribatcha Digal, Sripal Singh Yadav, L S Tur and Chaturanan Mishra.

The House also mourned the loss of lives in twin attacks in Norway, the terrorist attack in Mumbai on July 13, train accidents at Thanagaon on July 7 and at Fatehpur, both in Uttar Pradesh, on July 10.

“I am sure the House would join me in expressing grief over these terrorist attacks and tragic accidents,” Ms. Kumar said.

The members observed silence for a while before the House was adjourned for the day.

Adjournment in RS

The BSP and the Opposition BJP forced adjournment of the Rajya Sabha protesting delay in introduction of new law on land acquisition and scams, including 2G spectrum.

Full Story at,

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2312962.ece

U.S. DEBT CRISIS: Framework for budget deal struck in the U.S.!

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Carl Hulse & Helene Cooper, The Hindu / WASHINGTON, August 1, 2011.

BACK FROM THE BRINK: U.S. President Barack Obama after making a statement on the debt crisis at the White House in Washington - AP.

“I think it’s important as a party to show Americans that we're serious about deficit reduction,” says a Obama administration official.

U.S. President Barack Obama and congressional leaders of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party late on Sunday (local time) agreed to a framework for a budget deal that would cut trillions of dollars in federal spending over the next decade and clear the way for an increase in the government's borrowing limit.

With the fragile economy poised precariously and financial markets watching closely, the leaders said they would present the compromise to their caucuses on Monday, hoping to enact it before a Tuesday deadline to avert default.

Even as the President was speaking from the White House on Sunday night, Speaker John A. Boehner was on a conference call with House Republicans, trying to sell them on the proposal he had signed off on only minutes before.

Since he is likely to lose the most conservative elements of the caucus, Mr. Boehner faces the task of framing the pact as friendly enough to Republican principles to win over a significant group of his rank-and-file without alienating Democrats who he will need to push it over the top.

Mr. Obama, in a hurriedly called appearance with the media that ended a day of uncertainty, said the compromise would “allow us to avoid default and end the crisis that Washington imposed on the rest of America.”

“It ensures also that we will not face this same kind of crisis again in six months, or eight months, or 12 months,” he said. “And it will begin to lift the cloud of debt and the cloud of uncertainty that hangs over our economy.”

Just before Mr. Obama spoke on television, Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell, the two Senate leaders, took the floor to endorse the pact as well. “I'm relieved to say that leaders from both parties have come together for the sake of our economy to reach a historic, bipartisan compromise that ends this dangerous standoff,” said Mr. Reid, the majority leader.

The tentative agreement calls for at least $2.4 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years, a new congressional committee to recommend a deficit-reduction proposal by Thanksgiving (November 24), and a two-step increase in the debt ceiling.

The announcement ended a tumultuous 24 hours that saw hopes rising on Saturday night over the prospects of a deal that might have concluded the budget stalemate. By Sunday, worry set in again as lawmakers and White House officials struggled to hammer out the fine points of an agreement that must clear a Senate controlled by Democrats as well as by the Republican House.

If the deal clears Congress, with its new special joint committee to explore deficit reduction, it will ensure that the size and scope of the federal government and the tension between spending and taxes will remain front and centre in the Washington debate headed into the 2012 election.

Markets up

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Full Story at,

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article2313919.ece?homepage=true

TELENGANA TANGLE: Crisis deepens as more Telangana lawmakers quit amid crippling strike in Hyderabad!

Have you read, “Mayhem of the Miserables!” available @ US$ 1/- with the Smashwords Summer/Winter promotion, ending July 31, 2011

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52075

• July 5, 2011 
• Agencies 
• Hyderabad / DC.

• 
  

• 

• Students demanding the creation of Telangana pelt stones and burn tires as they demonstrate in front of policemen at the Osmania University campus in Hyderabad - AFP.

• 
  

• Faced with the looming crisis in Andhra Pradesh in the wake of en masse resignations by its legislators, Congress on Tuesday intensified efforts to mollify them with senior leader Pranab meeting a delegation of lawmakers pressing for a separate Telangana.
  The delegation comprising three Ministers, few MPs, an MLA and an MLC, met Mukherjee at his residence and the discussions continued till late in the night. This is the second meeting of the delegation with senior Congress leaders on Tuesday.
  They had one round of discussion with Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, also party in-charge of Andhra Pradesh, and explained as to why they resigned from their positions. The leaders are also expected to meet Ahmed Patel, Political Advisor to the Congress President.
  The meetings are part of the Congress' strategy to engage with the lawmakers, who have put in their papers, and explain to them the position of the party and the Centre on the issue.
  The lawmakers are believed to have told Mukherjee that they are ready for discussions with the High Command on the Telangana statehood issue. They are understood to have told them that the resignations were basically to convey the sentiments of the people of Telangana to the Centre.
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  
  Telangana crisis deepens
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  'A sensitive issue'
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  Crippling numbers?
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  Pressure on Telangana 'traitors'
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  Hyderabad takes the hit
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  Full Story at,
  http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/nation/south/crisis-deepens-more-telangana-lawmakers-quit-amid-crippling-strike-hyderabad-8

Japan Nuclear Crisis: Decontamination system fails again at Japan nuclear plant!

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Have you read, “Mayhem of the Miserables!” available @ http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52075

DPA / The Hindu. 

File Photo of Hamaoka nuclear power plant of Chubu Electric Power Co., in Central Japan - AP/Kyodo News.

The operator of a damaged Japanese nuclear plant suspended another test run of a newly installed water-treatment system after its pump stopped on Tuesday.

Tokyo Electric Power Co said the pump was overburdened by excessive liquid flow, Kyodo News reported.

The system designed to decontaminate highly radioactive water stopped only five hours into full operation on Friday at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, 250 kilometres north-east of Tokyo.

The operator concluded on Monday that absorbent materials inside the decontamination equipment needed changing more frequently than previously estimated, public broadcaster NHK reported.

The company is trying to reduce radioactivity in water that has accumulated around the plant as a result of emergency measures to cool the reactor cores. Storage facilities for contaminated water were reaching capacity.

Full Story at,

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/article2122873.ece

Japan Nuclear Crisis: Contaminated water swells at Japan nuke plant!

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AP / The Hindu.

File photo shows the damaged reactor building of Unit 4, left, of the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan.

The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant is preparing to open a door of a reactor building to allow workers to install a cooling system and equipment to prevent an explosion.

Tokyo Electric Power says radiation that will be released by ventilating the Unit 2 reactor Sunday will be too small to threaten human health.

Hope technology is available to overcome this threat!

Full Story at,

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article2117919.ece

Japan Nuclear Crisis: Fukushima: It's much worse than you think!

Have you read, “Mayhem of the Miserables!” available @ http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52075

Dahr Jamail Last Modified: 16 Jun 2011 12:50.

Many Japanese citizens are now permanently displaced from their homes due to the Fukushima nuclear disaster [GALLO/GETTY]

"Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind," Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president, told Al Jazeera.


Japan's 9.0 earthquake on March 11 caused a massive tsunami that crippled the cooling systems at the Tokyo Electric Power Company's (TEPCO) nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan. It also led to hydrogen explosions and reactor meltdowns that forced evacuations of those living within a 20km radius of the plant.


Gundersen, a licensed reactor operator with 39 years of nuclear power engineering experience, managing and coordinating projects at 70 nuclear power plants around the US, says the Fukushima nuclear plant likely has more exposed reactor cores than commonly believed.


"Fukushima has three nuclear reactors exposed and four fuel cores exposed," he said, "You probably have the equivalent of 20 nuclear reactor cores because of the fuel cores, and they are all in desperate need of being cooled, and there is no means to cool them effectively."


TEPCO has been spraying water on several of the reactors and fuel cores, but this has led to even greater problems, such as radiation being emitted into the air in steam and evaporated sea water - as well as generating hundreds of thousands of tons of highly radioactive sea water that has to be disposed of.


Radiation monitors for children...................................................................................................................


Blame the US?...........................................................................................................................................


A problem of infinite proportions..............................................................................................................


This level of high secrecy surrounding Nuclear Disasters would boomerang on the Japanese Administration! 

Full Story at,

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/06/201161664828302638.html

Syrian Crisis! Yemen's power struggle!

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By Jeb Boone, / Correspondent / June 12, 2011.

Yemeni fighters loyal to rebel tribal leader Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar inspected damage to his house in Sanaa on June 7. The powerful Ahmar family has emerged as one of the primary challengers to Saleh's regime / Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Newscom.

With President Saleh convalescing abroad, there is an urgent need to establish a clear political order not only for Yemen's security but also its economy, which could collapse within months.

Sanaa, Yemen

In Yemen's capital, a dusty city of more than 2 million surrounded by rugged mountains, security forces roam the streets to keep a lid on the rebellion after President Ali Abdullah Saleh abruptly left the country.

All along Sanaa's major thoroughfares, they stare down the barrels of Russian DShK heavy machine guns mounted in the back of camouflage-painted pickup trucks. Meanwhile, protesters chant, "Stay away, Ali Saleh!"

Officials insist that the president, who was badly injured in a June 3 attack on his home and went to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment, will return to reassume the post he has held for 32 years. But how long that may take is uncertain. In the interim, an elite power struggle could profoundly shape the future of Yemen.

"There are a lot of people who stand to benefit from continued violence," says Yemeni political analyst Abdul-Ghani al-Iryani. "Saleh's boys won't hesitate to use violence to honor their father and, of course, the political opposition is always looking for a way to keep themselves relevant."

RECOMMENDED: Who's who in Yemen power struggle.......

Hope this will end up as a power struggle between two tribal war lords and the people of Yemen would fall from the pan into the fire.

Full Story at,

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/0612/Yemen-s-power-struggle