DMK decides to give outside support to UPA Thursday, May 21 2009

The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi called DMK chief M Karunanidhi on Thursday to stop him leaving Delhi in a huff with his MPs ahead of the swearing in. A day before Manmohan Singh’s new government is sworn in talks between the Congress and its key allies have broken down. The DMK has decided to support the UPA government from outside after the Congress refused to accept its demand for nine ministerial berths including plum Cabinet posts like Railways, Telecom & IT, Power, Surface Transport and Health.

The DMK with 18 MPs, the third largest constituent in the UPA coalition, wanted nine ministries while the Congress was willing to give only seven. “The Congress formula is not acceptable to us”, DMK leader T R Baalu told reporters after talks between the two sides.  Baalu announced the breakdown of talks after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called up DMK chief M Karunanidhi who conveyed his rejection of the Congress proposal. How ever Congress has said that everything is still a part of the discussion process and nothing untoward is going to happen.

Congress was ready for status quo in DMK’s ministries. It was also ready to release telecom ministry to DMK, which earlier it did not want to give it to its southern ally.  DMK chief Karunanidhi’s son M K Azhagiri, his grand nephew Dayanidhi Maran and T R Baalu are among the Cabinet probables from the party while his daughter Kanimozhi is among the likely candidates for the MoS slot.  Other UPA ally Trinamool Congress was also doing hard negotiations to get plum portfolios as Manmohan Singh gets ready to be sworn in on Friday for a second consecutive term as Prime Minister.

However, among the ‘big four’ portfolios Finance is likely to go to Pranab Mukherjee, while Home and Defence would be retained by P Chidambaram and A K Antony.  There is no finality about who will bag External Affairs for which names of Kamal Nath and Kapil Sibal are doing the rounds. A scheduled meeting of the Prime Minister with President Pratibha Patil on Thursday morning, which was later put off, fuelled speculation that there could be a deadlock over ministry formation. But sources said that the meeting had nothing to do with government formation.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee held third round of talks with Congress leaders but dismissed suggestions that she was bargaining hard for key ministries.
“There is no talk of bargaining (for ministerial posts). …. We have not discussed this. What they (Congress) want, they will do. Even if they don’t give us anything, we don’t mind,” Banerjee told reporters.

However, sources said the party is keen on Railways, Coal and Mines and Steel portfolios which, it feels, are critical to West Bengal economy. It was also eyeing the portfolios of Health and Home Affairs at the Minister of State level. Both Dinesh Trivedi and Mukul Roy are the front-

for Cabinet positions from the Trinamool Congress. The party is understood to be expecting at least two berths in Union Cabinet and three Ministers of State. While the Congress had suggested that the ministry formation could be done in two phases, the allies insisted that the exercise be completed in one go

One Response »

 

Four arrested in plot to bomb NYC targets 05-21-2009 Thursday, May 21 2009

Four men were arrested late on Wednesday over alleged plots to attack targets in and near New York.

The four planned to blow up synagogues and use Stinger missiles to bring down military planes, US prosecutors said. The men were seized after allegedly planting what they thought were bombs near two synagogues in the Bronx area. They earlier agreed to buy explosives from FBI agents posing as Islamic militants. New York has been on alert for a new terror attack since 9/11. The four are charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction within the US and conspiracy to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles, officials said.

The charges carry jail terms of between 25 years and life imprisonment. The four, all Muslims, are to appear in a federal court later. They were named as James Cromitie (also known as Abdul Rahman), David Williams (aka Daoud and DL), Onta Williams (aka Hamza) and Laguerre Payen (aka Amin and Almondo). A senior FBI official in New York said three were US citizens and one was from Haiti.

BBC defence and security correspondent Rob Watson says the case appears to be a classic sting operation against suspected home-grown militants rather than a plot with any links to known international terrorism. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the alleged plot showed “homeland security threats against New York City [were] sadly all too real”.

‘Sought weapons’

The arrests were the result of a year-long investigation, officials said. “The defendants wanted to engage in terrorist attacks,” said Lev Dassin, acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York.

“They selected targets and sought the weapons necessary to carry out their plans.”According to prosecutors, the men planned to detonate cars packed with C-4 plastic explosives outside the Riverdale Temple and the Riverdale Jewish Center in the Bronx district of the city. They also intended to target military planes at the New York Air National Guard base at Stewart Airport, 60 miles (85 km) north of New York City.

In their efforts to obtain weapons for the attack, the men dealt with an informant from the FBI, who provided the group “with an inactive missile and inert explosives.” “They had bags that were set up that they believed to be bombs, carrying about 30 pounds of explosives which they believed to be explosives,” FBI official Joseph Demarest told reporters.

‘Afghan war anger’

According to prosecutors, Mr Cromitie – whose parents are from Afghanistan – told an FBI informant in June 2008 that he was angry over the US-led war in Afghanistan. He “expressed an interest in ‘doing something to America”‘. From October 2008, the informant began meeting him regularly along with the four others at a house in which the FBI had concealed video and audio equipment. The group allegedly “expressed desire” to attack targets in New York and Mr Cromitie “asked the informant to supply surface-to-air guided missiles and explosives”, prosecutors say. In April 2009, the group agreed on the synagogues they intended to attack and proceeded to conduct surveillance, including taking photographs of the warplanes at the military base, prosecutors say. Mr Cromitie allegedly pointed out Jews in the street, saying “if he had a gun, he would shoot each one in the head”, according to the district attorney’s statement.

According to the statement, he told the informant that attacking the Jewish community centre would be a “piece of cake”. He also said he would be interested in joining Jaish-e-Mohammed – a Pakistan-based group considered a terrorist organisation by Washington – “to do jihad”.

One Response »

 

Tiger’s(prabhakaran) family found dead Thursday, May 21 2009

Bodies of slain LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakarans’ wife Mathivadhani, elder daughter Dwaraka and younger son Balachandran were also found and have been identified by the Sri Lankan army. The bodies were found in the Nandikadal lagoon where Prabhakaran’s body was found. Prabhakaran’s body was also found near the same site

4 Responses »