The Gulf states have become the most stable and influential force in the Arab world, with the decline of the Egyptian role, the spread of turmoil and chaos in Syria and Iraq and Algeria’s retreat on itself after the “black decade” of the 1990s. Because of political stability and increasing oil revenues, the Gulf states have accumulated financial wealth that has strengthened their political, economic and media influence in […]
By MATT APUZZO July 27, 2014 WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has gone to court to protect the files of an influential anti-Iran advocacy group, saying they likely contain information the government does not want disclosed. The highly unusual move by the Justice Department raises questions about the connections between the American government and the group, United Against Nuclear Iran, a hard-line voice seeking to prevent Iran from obtaining […]
NEW DELHI: In a big push to 31,000-MW of electricity generation plants stranded without fuel, the power ministry has proposed a Rs 5,700 crore subsidy to help operationalise idle gas-based capacity, a loan restructuring scheme for such plants and the supply of coal to projects that will be commissioned before March 2015.
The proposals will benefit 24,148 MW of gas-based projects and 7,230 MW of plants that run on coal, set up at a total investment of about Rs 1,50,000 crore.
An additional 10,930 MW of coal-based plants that will be commissioned before March are also likely to gain. The ministry will approach the Union cabinet with a proposal to pool prices of imported gas and coal with domestic fuels to help stran
BEIJING: In a sign of expanding military-to-military engagement between India and China, permanent representatives of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Navy have, for the first time, taken office in Beijing.
Group Captain Ashish Srivastava of the Indian Air Force and Captain Sushant Dam of the Indian Navy will begin their terms as the Air and Naval attachés in the Indian Embassy in Beijing on Friday.
Earlier, India only had a Defence attaché from the Indian Army, along with a Deputy Defence attaché, posted in Beijing.
The question of expanding India’s military representation had been discussed by both sides over several years, with China finally agreeing to the move this past year. Tr
New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Thursday cleared a Bill to raise the foreign investment ceiling in private insurance companies from 26 per cent to 49 per cent, but inserted a provision that the management and control of these companies must be with Indians. This cap will be composite — both foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign portfolio investment. Experts said this meant voting rights of foreign investors would not be capped at 26 per cent but they cannot have contractual agreements for control of insurance companies. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs this morning gave its approval to changes in the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, which will now be taken up in the current session of Parliament. “The Cabinet has cleared raising the for
New Delhi: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government plans to do away with the limit of one subsidized cooking gas cylinder per household.
The move comes before assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Jharkhand slated to happen later this year.
The issue is expected to be taken up soon by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA).
To reduce its subsidy bill and cut the fiscal deficit, the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had restricted the number of subsidized domestic cylinders per household to six every year in September 2012, revising it to nine the following January. The cap was revised in January 2014 to 12 cylinders pe
BANGALORE: Indigenous military projects such as missiles have shown consistently shorter development cycles over the years thanks to deft planning and handling of the projects, the former DRDO Director-General V.K. Saraswat said on Thursday.
Citing the bouquet of missiles that came out of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme through 2008, Dr. Saraswat said the later Agni III and V missiles had taken three to five years to develop compared to the earlier ones such as Prithvi that needed around a decade.
The former top military scientist was addressing members of the defence and aerospace industry at a conference organised by the SAE India and Project Management Institute.
NEW DELHI: Consumers of Tata’s ultra mega power project (UMPP) and Adani’s power plant at Mundra in Gujarat might not see a major escalation in their procurement price after the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL) gave its nod to include compensatory rate in the final rate of sale of power.
The beneficiary utilities in Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab and Maharashtra are already buying power for Rs 3.61 to Rs 3.7 a unit, according to the annual revenue requirement reports submitted to state regulators.
The levelised tarifforiginally offered by Tata’s imported coal-based UMPP is much lower at Rs 2.26, but after the compensatory tariff of 52 paise, it would work out to Rs 2.8. Power from
Vote winner: Thailand’s rulers attempt to ‘return happiness to the people’ in Bangkok Photo: AFP/Getty Images What to make of the Thai military junta offering free haircuts (in lieu of actual freedom) to the people? It’s an unconventional way to capture hearts and minds, but there’s a fine tradition in the corridors of power of generously providing bread and circuses and tax cuts and Qatari bank transfers to […]
WASHINGTON — Weeks before a Black Hawk helicopter lifted off in the dying light of eastern Afghanistan, carrying with it an American soldier who had spent five years in the hands of the Taliban, American officials grew increasingly worried that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s life might be in jeopardy. A video produced by his captors months earlier had shown him weak and dazed, and there was a growing […]
WASHINGTON — The White House argued on Tuesday that the “unique circumstances” presented by the opportunity to return Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl gave President Obama the authority to lawfully bypass a federal statute requiring the Pentagon to notify Congress a month before he transferred the five Taliban detainees necessary to complete the deal. But the White House was forced by turns to defend its decision not to notify Congress […]
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has won Egypt’s presidential elections by a huge majority, the country’s election commission has said. The former military chief, who last July overthrew Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, won 96.91 of legal votes cast in last week’s election. SISI 23,780,104 (96.91%) SABAHI 757,511 (3.09%) Accepting the result, Sisi urged Egyptians to work to restore stability and achieve “freedom” and “social justice”. “I look forward to your […]
Bassem Youssef, a heart surgeon who became a wildly popular political satirist following the 2011 revolt that felled the durable autocratic regime of Hosni Mubarak, announced on Monday that his show would not be returning to the airwaves following months of uncertainty. While the announcement stunned his fans, it did not come as a surprise: the program, called El Bernameg (The Program in Arabic), had been the […]
A Syrian activist group said government air raids have killed nearly 2,000 civilians this year in and around Aleppo, the country’s largest city. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday 567 children and 283 women were among those killed in the northern city, which is a stronghold for opposition fighters. The figure, which relies on the Britain-based group’s contacts with activists and others on the ground, amounts to […]
Early results in Egypt’s presidential election show former army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi heading for an overwhelming victory. The first results give Sissi about 93% of the vote while the only other candidate, leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi, has around 3 percent. Voter turnout was a low 44 percent even after voters were given an extra day Wednesday to cast ballots. Final official results are expected next week. The […]
Low voter turnout has been reported on the second and final day of Egyptian presidential elections, as former army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is expected to emerge as the country’s next president. While the Egyptian government declared a national holiday for Tuesday in an effort to get voters to cast their ballots, an official with international monitoring group Global Network for Rights and Development reported that voter turnout […]
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Forget the endless obsession with assigning blame for the attack in 2012 on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi. The United States has another large problem on its hands right now in Libya. Khalifa Hifter, a former Libyan general who is now an American citizen, is mounting what could be a de facto coup, with far-reaching consequences for Libya and the United States. […]
Millions of Egyptians are due to elect their third president in as many years, in a race largely expected to be won by the country’s former army chief. The two-day vote, which began on Monday, pits retired field marshal Abdel Fattah el-Sisi , who enjoys widespread popularity in the country of 90 million, against left-wing candidate Hamdeen Sabahi . A former legislator and long-term Nasserist activist, Sabahi […]
Egyptians head to the polls in a presidential election that ex-army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is expected to win easily. The two-day vote, which starts at 0600 GMT on Monday, follows more than three years of political turmoil that has seen two presidents overthrown, mass protests, thousands killed in clashes, deadly attacks and a battered economy. About 53 million people are registered to vote. Sisi is expected to trounce […]
CAIRO — Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the former army officer soon to be Egypt’s president, promises to remedy Egypt’s crippling fuel shortage by installing energy-efficient bulbs in every home socket, even if he has to send a government employee to screw in each one. “I’m not leaving a chance for people to act on their own,” Mr. Sisi said in his first and most extensive television interview. “My […]
Happier days: Nick Clegg and David Cameron in 2010 agree to form a coalition government Photo: Getty Images Just before the general election, the Conservatives released a party political broadcast warning that a coalition would bring disaster. “Under-the-table deals will be the order of the day,” we were told. The fate awaiting savers was depicted by a hammer smashing a piggy bank. The process of proper government would […]
The one-time White House intern whose affair with President Bill Clinton led to his impeachment in the US Senate has broken her long silence in the media. In Vanity Fair magazine, Monica Lewinsky, 40, writes that she deeply regrets the fling. The president “took advantage” of her, she writes, though she describes their relationship as consensual. In 1998, Republicans failed in their effort to oust him from […]
General Motors Co CEO Mary Barra came under withering attack for her company’s decade-long failure to deal with defective parts linked to fatal crashes, in a hearing where U.S. Senators accused the company of “criminal” behavior and “a culture of cover-up.” Democratic and Republican senators, including some former prosecutors and state attorneys general, challenged Barra’s assertion that GM had vastly improved its safety and management practices since […]
India’s two main political parties both broke laws barring foreign donations by accepting cash from local companies owned by London-listed mining group Vedanta Resources Plc between 2004 and 2012, the Delhi High Court said on Friday. The judgment was handed down 10 days before India holds a general election, in which the ruling Congress party and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will go head to head […]
