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Mumbai marks attacks anniversary

Indians light lamps near portraits of soldiers who were killed in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, on the banks of the River Tawi in Jammu, India, 25 Nov 2010. Mourners are expected to commemorate the day with prayers and marches

Residents of the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) are set to mark two years since gunmen launched co-ordinated attacks, killing 166 people.

Mourners are expected to commemorate the day with prayers, wreath-laying ceremonies and a peace march.

The 60-hour siege targeted luxury hotels, the main railway station and a Jewish cultural centre.

Meanwhile, India has rebuked Pakistan for not pressing ahead with charges against the alleged masterminds.

Security will be stepped up for the day, with anti-terrorist police among those deployed, Joint Police Commissioner Rajnish Seth said.

“The main purpose is to pay homage to the martyrs and to reassure the people that they are safe and secure,” Mr Seth told Bloomberg news agency.

On the city’s Chowpatty Beach, police officers are due to unveil a memorial to Tukaram Ombale, a constable killed during the attack.

Indian sand artist Sudarshan Pattnaik gives finishing touches to a sand sculpture ahead of the second anniversary of the Nov. 26, 2008 India wants Pakistan to press on with prosecutions against seven alleged masterminds

Security forces and police are also due to hold parades through the city.

Although tourism declined in the wake of the attacks, tour operators say visitors are returning to Mumbai in record numbers.

On his trip to India earlier in November, US President Barack Obama visited the city and stayed in one of the luxury hotels targeted by the gunmen, Taj Palace Hotel – now fully restored.

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said the American people stood in solidarity with the people of India and would honour those who lost their lives.

Nine of the gunmen were killed during battles with security forces as the siege wore on.

The sole survivor, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, was condemned to death by a Mumbai court in May.

Seven others, who are allegedly linked to the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, have been charged in Pakistan but have not gone on trial.

In a statement, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said that, despite reassurances by Pakistan, “substantive and verifiable progress has not been made on bringing all the perpetrators and masterminds of the heinous attacks to justice”.

Pakistan has said the legal case is continuing.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Rio police ‘in control of favela’

A navy armoured vehicle patrols during an operation at Vila Cruzeiro slum in Rio de Janeiro Police said they were acting to arrest those behind the wave of attacks
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Police in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro have deployed armoured vehicles in a shanty town as they continue operations to stem a wave of violence.

Six vehicles transporting heavily armed police rolled into Vila Cruzeiro, in the north of the city.

Clashes in Rio since the weekend have left more than 20 people dead.

“We’re acting to reassure the population”

Col Alvaro Garcia Military police commander

Drug gangs have been burning vehicles and opening fire in an attempt to halt police operations aimed at pacifying the favelas, officials say.

Some 150 members of the Special Police Operations Battalion (Bope) and the military police force, backed up by the navy’s armoured vehicles, began deploying in Vila Cruzeiro at lunchtime on Thursday, Brazilian media reported.

“The aim of the operation is to arrest the people behind the attacks in the city,” the head of Rio’s military police, Col Alvaro Garcia, said.

“We’re acting to reassure the population.”

Staffing was also stepped up at a nearby hospital ahead of the operation.

Burning car

Violence has steadily increased since the weekend

Officials said that drug traffickers had regrouped in Vila Cruzeiro after being expelled from other shanty towns in the city.

At least 23 people have been killed since the weekend when the latest wave of violence erupted.

Heavily armed men have been stopping cars and buses, robbing passengers and setting vehicles alight.

Some 17,500 police officers have been deployed to try to stop the violence.

Rio’s favelas have for years been controlled by heavily armed drug trafficking gangs.

The city’s pacification programme is aimed at improving security and the rule of law in the run-up to the football World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games two years later.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Merkel in eurozone bail-out vow

Protesters outside government buildings in DublinAusterity measures are proving deeply unpopular

The euro has continued its slide against the dollar as investors digest the Irish Republic’s austerity plan.

The currency fell by almost half a cent to $1.3325, and has now fallen by more than three cents this week.

The four-year Irish plan is designed to save 15bn euros ($20bn; £13bn) through spending cuts and tax rises, but investors remain unconvinced.

The government is also negotiating a bail-out package with the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

This is expected to be worth about 85bn euros.

The austerity measures are designed to reduce the Republic’s budget deficit, which is the highest in the eurozone.

However, there are doubts about the Irish government’s growth estimates, which directly impact its deficit forecasts – many investors see them as overly-optimistic.

EURO V US DOLLAR Last Updated at 25 Nov 2010, 02:40 ET *Chart shows local time EUR:USD intraday chart€1 buys change %1.3319–

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The government still expects the economy to average 2-2.5% growth in 2011, and 3.5-4.5% the year after, whereas rating agency Standard & Poor’s has said it expects virtually no growth over the next two years.

There also are also doubts about the whether the government will be able to push through its austerity measures when parliament votes on the budget on 7 December.

Compounding this uncertainty are fears that the Irish debt crisis will spread to other countries with high deficits, in particular Portugal and Spain.

All these factors are putting pressure on the euro.

In total, the spending cuts announced in the recovery plan will amount to 10bn euros, while tax rises will bring in a further 5bn euros.

The cuts include 2.8bn euros of savings in social welfare spending, 24,750 public sector jobs cuts and a 1 euro reduction in the minimum wage, to 7.65 euros an hour.

The tax rises include an extra 1.9bn euros from income tax changes, an increase in VAT from 21% to 22% in 2013, and to 24% in 2014, and a new “site value” property tax to raise 200 euros from most homeowners by 2014.

The government has already implemented 15bn euros of cuts in the last two years.

The measures have proved deeply unpopular with the electorate, and junior government partner, the Green Party, has called for a general election in January.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Peer sorry over ‘breeding’ remark

Howard FlightHoward Flight was sacked as a Tory candidate ahead of the 2005 election
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A new Conservative peer has been quoted as saying changes to the welfare system will encourage “breeding” among people on benefits.

Downing Street swiftly distanced itself from the comments, in a newspaper interview, by former MP Howard Flight.

But Labour called on Prime Minister David Cameron to make Mr Flight apologise for the “shameful” remarks.

Mr Flight was named by Mr Cameron last week as one of more than 20 new Conservative peers.

The former MP for Arundel and South Downs, who is yet to take his seat in the House of Lords, was commenting on the government’s plans to axe child benefit for top-rate taxpayers.

He told the London Evening Standard: “We’re going to have a system where the middle classes are discouraged from breeding because it’s jolly expensive.

“But for those on benefits, there is every incentive. Well, that’s not very sensible.”

A spokeswoman for the prime minister said: “Clearly we do not agree with those remarks”. She stressed that Mr Flight was not a member of the government.

But Labour seized on the comments, which come a week after Tory peer Lord Young was sacked by Mr Cameron as an unpaid business adviser after saying most Britons “had never had it so good” during the “so-called recession”.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Douglas Alexander said: “These shameful but revealing comments cast serious doubt over David Cameron’s judgement in personally appointing Howard Flight to the House of Lords only a few days ago.

“Last week one of the prime minister’s senior advisers told us we’d never had it so good and now his latest hand-picked peer comes out with these comments.

“Instead of dithering for hours as he did with Lord Young, David Cameron should take swift action and make Howard Flight apologise.”

Mr Flight was removed as a Conservative candidate in the 2005 general election by then leader Michael Howard, after he was recorded saying the party would make cuts if it returned to power. He is a former deputy Conservative chairman.

He told the Evening Standard that Mr Cameron had privately hinted his nomination for a peerage was a tacit admission that Mr Howard was wrong to have axed him as a candidate.

Mr Flight also told the newspaper he suspected Chancellor George Osborne’s decision to remove child benefit from people earning more than £43,000 had been influenced by the Liberal Democrats.

And he attacked the coalition’s plans to increase university tuition fees, saying: “Two of my nieces and nephews, both of them very bright, gave up university half way through because they didn’t want the financial burden.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Labour ‘failed on welfare reform’

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Labour did not do “enough” when it was in power to reform the welfare system, party leader Ed Miliband has said.

He told the BBC there was still a “minority” of able-bodied adults not in work, which “hacks people off”.

Tony Blair made welfare reform a top priority when he came to power in 1997.

But many of the party’s more radical ideas were shelved – and have only just resurfaced now as the coalition seeks to make work pay and shake-up what it says is a system in “crisis”.

Labour has said it will back welfare secretary Iain Duncan Smith’s plans to replace all existing benefits with a single, universal payment and tackle the culture of worklessness it says has taken hold in some communities.

In an interview with the BBC’s Nick Robinson, Mr Miliband said: “There is a minority in many communities who can work and aren’t doing so and we need to act on that.

“It is a minority in my view but it hacks people off and I understand why it hacks people off because they say, look, I’m working all the hours god sends, I’m working 50/60 hours a week… and I’m struggling to make ends meet and I feel the person next door isn’t doing their bit.”

Asked about Labour’s record, Mr Miliband said: “I don’t think we did enough on welfare reform, I agree.”

Labour MP Frank Field, Mr Blair’s welfare reform minister who was asked to “think the unthinkable”, before being forced out of his role by Mr Miliband’s former boss at the Treasury Gordon Brown, has been helping out with the coalition’s welfare reform plans.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Del Monte in $5.3bn sale to KKR

Crates of Del Monte pineapplesThe sale is going ahead despite Del Monte lowering its financial forecasts in September
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Del Monte is set to be bought up by private equity fund Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) for $5.3bn (£3.4bn).

The New York-listed food manufacturer is well known in the UK for “the man from Del Monte” adverts, and in the US for its pet food brands.

The long-rumoured sale values the firm at $19 per share – a 5.6% premium to its $17.99 closing price on Wednesday.

However, the sale terms allow Del Monte’s management to solicit higher bidders up until 8 January.

The deal – rumoured for the last three months – is set to go ahead despite Del Monte’s decision in September to lower its financial forecasts for the second quarter in a row.

“This transaction delivers substantial shareholder value and is a clear endorsement of Del Monte’s strategic success and effective execution,” said Del Monte’s chief executive, Richard G Wolford, in a press statement.

KKR is partnering with two other investment companies for the transaction, who will collectively take on the company’s $1.3bn in debts.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

‘No chance’ of eurozone collapse

Protesters outside government buildings in DublinAusterity measures are proving deeply unpopular

The euro has continued its slide against the dollar as investors digest the Irish Republic’s austerity plan.

The currency fell by almost half a cent to $1.3325, and has now fallen by more than three cents this week.

The four-year Irish plan is designed to save 15bn euros ($20bn; £13bn) through spending cuts and tax rises, but investors remain unconvinced.

The government is also negotiating a bail-out package with the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

This is expected to be worth about 85bn euros.

The austerity measures are designed to reduce the Republic’s budget deficit, which is the highest in the eurozone.

However, there are doubts about the Irish government’s growth estimates, which directly impact its deficit forecasts – many investors see them as overly-optimistic.

EURO V US DOLLAR Last Updated at 25 Nov 2010, 02:40 ET *Chart shows local time EUR:USD intraday chart€1 buys change %1.3319–

-0.00

–

-0.12

More data on this currency pair

The government still expects the economy to average 2-2.5% growth in 2011, and 3.5-4.5% the year after, whereas rating agency Standard & Poor’s has said it expects virtually no growth over the next two years.

There also are also doubts about the whether the government will be able to push through its austerity measures when parliament votes on the budget on 7 December.

Compounding this uncertainty are fears that the Irish debt crisis will spread to other countries with high deficits, in particular Portugal and Spain.

All these factors are putting pressure on the euro.

In total, the spending cuts announced in the recovery plan will amount to 10bn euros, while tax rises will bring in a further 5bn euros.

The cuts include 2.8bn euros of savings in social welfare spending, 24,750 public sector jobs cuts and a 1 euro reduction in the minimum wage, to 7.65 euros an hour.

The tax rises include an extra 1.9bn euros from income tax changes, an increase in VAT from 21% to 22% in 2013, and to 24% in 2014, and a new “site value” property tax to raise 200 euros from most homeowners by 2014.

The government has already implemented 15bn euros of cuts in the last two years.

The measures have proved deeply unpopular with the electorate, and junior government partner, the Green Party, has called for a general election in January.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.