Ex-NSG commando Surender Singh holds forth on 26/11 symbolism

NEW DELHI: Anti-graft crusader Arvind Kejriwal was not the only one to tug at the hearts of people gathered at his party launch on Monday. There was a soldier, who seemed to exemplify the popular slogan 'Jai Jawan Jai Kisan.' Ex-NSG commando Surender Singh made his public speaking debut at the gathering, but narrated his plight in an articulate manner.

Born in a poor farmer's family in Haryana's Chhara, Singh had seen action in the Kargil war in 1999, was a part of the United Nations Peace Mission to Congo and was later posted in strife-torn Jammu and Kashmir's Bandipore. He was also one of the 26/11 heroes, having gunned down two terrorists during the Mumbai carnage.

In spite of his rustic Haryanvi accent, Surender, who is left hearing impaired after a hand grenade explosion during the attack, said, "While the jawans are sacrificing so much, the funds meant for them are being spent on parties in five-star hotels."

He also drew people's attention to the symbolism of '26/11.' Surender cited that on the same day in 1949 the Indian constitution was unveiled, but ironically the nation faced a terrorist attack in Mumbai on the same date in 2008. "Today is also 26/11. It's a very important date and is symbolic of India's journey. I am glad that the AAP is being launched on this date," he said.

Surender, who along with former India Against Corruption activists, had earlier charged the government of not honoring him and non-payment of pension. On Monday, Surender retorted, "I have not received a single penny. Whatever is in my account is from my insurance and an amount of Rs 2 lakh that I had got earlier. Information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari's tweet that I have been paid is completely false," added Surender.

On being asked that he was being considered least experienced in politics, he said, "Indeed I don't have experience of corruption and crime record politicians have and I don't even wish to have such experiences."

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AP PHOTOS: Simple surgery heals blind Indonesians

PADANG SIDEMPUAN, Indonesia (AP) — They came from the remotest parts of Indonesia, taking crowded overnight ferries and riding for hours in cars or buses — all in the hope that a simple, and free, surgical procedure would restore their eyesight.

Many patients were elderly and needed help to reach two hospitals in Sumatra where mass eye camps were held earlier this month by Nepalese surgeon Dr. Sanduk Ruit. During eight days, more than 1,400 cataracts were removed.

The patients camped out, sleeping side-by-side on military cots, eating donated food while fire trucks supplied water for showers and toilets. Many who had given up hope of seeing again left smiling after their bandages were removed.

"I've been blind for three years, and it's really bad," said Arlita Tobing, 65, whose sight was restored after the surgery. "I worked on someone's farm, but I couldn't work anymore."

Indonesia has one of the highest rates of blindness in the world, making it a target country for Ruit who travels throughout the developing world holding free mass eye camps while training doctors to perform the simple, stitch-free procedure he pioneered. He often visits hard-to-reach remote areas where health care is scarce and patients are poor. He believes that by teaching doctors how to perform his method of cataract removal, the rate of blindness can be reduced worldwide.

Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness globally, affecting about 20 million people who mostly live in poor countries, according to the World Health Organization.

"We get only one life, and that life is very short. I am blessed by God to have this opportunity," said Ruit, who runs the Tilganga Eye Center in Katmandu, Nepal. "The most important of that is training, taking the idea to other people."

During the recent camps, Ruit trained six doctors from Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.

Here, in images, are scenes from the mobile eye camps:

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No Powerball Winner; Jackpot Grows to $425 Million

Nov 25, 2012 10:37am

                                                                (Image Credit: Charlie Neibergall/AP Photo)

The Powerball jackpot has swelled to $425 million, the largest in the lottery’s history, after no tickets matched the winning numbers in a drawing Saturday night.

The Powerball numbers for Saturday were 22-32-37-44-50, and the Powerball was 34.

Iowa Lottery spokeswoman Mary Neubauer said the jackpot could get even bigger before Wednesday, because sales tend to increase in the run-up to a big drawing.

The previous top windfall was $365 million. The jackpot was claimed by eight co-workers in Lincoln, Neb., in 2006.

PHOTOS: Biggest Lotto Jackpot Winners

While millions of Americans can have fun dreaming about how they’d spend the jackpot, the odds of winning are 1 in 175,000,000, according to lottery officials.

To put that in perspective, a ticket holder is 25 times less likely to win the jackpot then they are to win an Academy Award.

Even still, the old saying holds true: “You’ve got to be in it to win it.”

SHOWS: Good Morning America

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Egypt's Mursi to meet judges over power grab

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi will meet senior judges on Monday to try to ease a crisis over his seizure of new powers which has set off violent protests reminiscent of last year's revolution which brought him to power.

Egypt's stock market plunged on Sunday in its first day open since Mursi issued a decree late on Thursday temporarily widening his powers and shielding his decisions from judicial review, drawing accusations he was behaving like a new dictator.

More than 500 people have been injured in clashes between police and protesters worried Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood aims to dominate the post-Hosni Mubarak era after winning Egypt's first democratic parliamentary and presidential elections this year.

One Muslim Brotherhood member was killed and 60 people were hurt on Sunday in an attack on the main office of the Brotherhood in the Egyptian Nile Delta town of Damanhour, the website of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party said.

Egypt's highest judicial authority hinted at compromise to avert a further escalation, though Mursi's opponents want nothing less than the complete cancellation of a decree they see as a danger to democracy.

The Supreme Judicial Council said Mursi's decree should apply only to "sovereign matters", suggesting it did not reject the declaration outright, and called on judges and prosecutors, some of whom began a strike on Sunday, to return to work.

Mursi would meet the council on Monday, state media said.

Mursi's office repeated assurances that the measures would be temporary, and said he wanted dialogue with political groups to find "common ground" over what should go in Egypt's constitution, one of the issues at the heart of the crisis.

Hassan Nafaa, a professor of political science at Cairo University, saw an effort by the presidency and judiciary to resolve the crisis, but added their statements were "vague". "The situation is heading towards more trouble," he said.

Sunday's stock market fall of nearly 10 percent - halted only by automatic curbs - was the worst since the uprising that toppled Mubarak in February, 2011.

Images of protesters clashing with riot police and tear gas wafting through Cairo's Tahrir Square were an unsettling reminder of that uprising. Activists were camped in the square for a third day, blocking traffic with makeshift barricades. Nearby, riot police and protesters clashed intermittently.

"BACK TO SQUARE ONE"

Mursi's supporters and opponents plan big demonstrations on Tuesday that could be a trigger for more street violence.

"We are back to square one, politically, socially," said Mohamed Radwan of Pharos Securities, an Egyptian brokerage firm.

Mursi's decree marks an effort to consolidate his influence after he successfully sidelined Mubarak-era generals in August. It reflects his suspicions of a judiciary little reformed since the Mubarak era.

Issued just a day after Mursi received glowing tributes from Washington for his work brokering a deal to end eight days of violence between Israel and Hamas, the decree drew warnings from the West to uphold democracy. Washington has leverage because of billions of dollars it sends in annual military aid.

"The United States should be saying this is unacceptable," former presidential nominee John McCain, leading Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on Fox News.

"We thank Mr. Mursi for his efforts in brokering the ceasefire with Hamas ... But this is not what the United States of America's taxpayers expect. Our dollars will be directly related to progress toward democracy."

The Mursi administration has defended his decree as an effort to speed up reforms that will complete Egypt's democratic transformation. Yet leftists, liberals, socialists and others say it has exposed the autocratic impulses of a man once jailed by Mubarak.

"There is no room for dialogue when a dictator imposes the most oppressive, abhorrent measures and then says 'let us split the difference'," prominent opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei said on Saturday.

WARNINGS FROM WEST

Investors had grown more confident in recent months that a legitimately elected government would help Egypt put its economic and political problems behind it. The stock market's main index had risen 35 percent since Mursi's victory. It closed on Sunday at its lowest level since July 31.

Political turmoil also raised the cost of government borrowing at a treasury bill auction on Sunday.

"Investors know that Mursi's decisions will not be accepted and that there will be clashes on the street," said Osama Mourad of Arab Financial Brokerage.

Just last week, investor confidence was helped by a preliminary agreement with the International Monetary Fund over a $4.8 billion loan needed to shore up state finances.

Mursi's decree removes judicial review of decisions he takes until a new parliament is elected, expected early next year.

It also shields the Islamist-dominated assembly writing Egypt's new constitution from a raft of legal challenges that have threatened it with dissolution, and offers the same protection to the Islamist-controlled upper house of parliament.

"I am really afraid that the two camps are paving the way for violence," said Nafaa. "Mursi has misjudged this, very much so. But forcing him again to relinquish what he has done will appear a defeat."

Many of Mursi's political opponents share the view that Egypt's judiciary needs reform, though they disagree with his methods. Mursi's new powers allowed him to sack the prosecutor general who took his job during the Mubarak era and is unpopular among reformists of all stripes.

(Additional reporting by Yasmine Saleh and Marwa Awad in Cairo and Philip Barbara in Washington; Editing by Peter Graff and Philippa Fletcher)

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Bread-and-butter issues dominate forum on values

SINGAPORE: A forum for Singaporeans and Permanent Residents to share what societal values and qualities are important to them was dominated by bread-and-butter issues instead.

The discussion held at the Woodlands Galaxy Community Club on Sunday was organised as part of the Our Singapore Conversation national project. It was hosted by Sembawang Group Representation Constituency (GRC) grassroots advisers, National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan, Mr Hawazi Daipi, Ms Ellen Lee and Mr Ong Teng Koon, who are also Members of Parliament.

The 250 participants - residents who come from all walks of life - were broken up into groups of up to 12, with facilitators to lead the discussion. The participants, about a quarter of whom were new citizens or Permanent Residents, had been expected to provide input on the type of society and home they would like to have in 2030 as well as how they can work towards achieving their desired future.

However, the one-and-a-half-hour discussion was mostly spent on issues such as cost of living and housing, as well as municipal complaints like the low-frequency of bus services and the litter situation in the estate.

For example, a participant in her 60s cited worries about rising healthcare costs. When a facilitator asked her what could be done to alleviate the situation by 2030, she replied that she did not want to think so far ahead.

Other older participants said they were worried that their children or grandchildren may not be able to afford their own homes, while some wondered if there will be enough homes for everyone in the future.

Younger participants spoke about the challenge of balancing work and family while they try to keep up with the rising cost of living.

Among those who kept to the discussion's theme was Singapore Management University undergraduate Clarine Chai, who felt Singaporeans should have a sense of gratitude. Retiree Chong Weng Yoke suggested focusing on moral education from young to inculcate values such as respect, while Garry Luyun stressed the need for new citizens like himself to "integrate ourselves and work as a team, as a community".

At the end of the session, Mr Khaw noted that many of the participants used the opportunity to engage him on housing concerns, given his portfolio. He also assured the residents on the availability and affordability of flats.

Speaking to TODAY, Sembawang GRC MP Ellen Lee said that residents airing their grouses at the discussion was "not surprising at all".

On the challenge of getting residents to focus on the themes of the national project, Ms Lee said: "The value is not obvious but the process itself is important because the process itself shows that the Government wants to hear them ... even if they can't think so far ahead, it doesn't matter, at least we have approached them."

- TODAY

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Union govt cancels coal block allocated to Himachal Pradesh

SHIMLA: In a major setback to the ambitious plan of the Himachal Pradesh government to draw power through a thermal plant outside the state, the Union coal ministry has cancelled allocation of a coal block to the state. The state government, which wanted to create an additional source of power for winter months when electricity generation from hydro-power generation dips, will lodge a protest after ascertaining the details.

Sources said the Union coal ministry, in its letter dated November 23, intimated Himachal EMTA Power Corporation Limited and JSW Steel Limited about cancellation of the coal block. In June 2010, the Himachal Pradesh government decided to get a joint venture company to set up a thermal power plant in West Bengal to meet escalated power demand in the winter. The state government authorized Himachal EMTA Power Limited (HEPL) to set up a coal pithead at Raniganj in West Bengal.

Himachal Pradesh chief secretary Sudripta Roy said they are aware of the decision but a detailed order is yet to come. "On Monday we will ask for the detailed order to examine the reasons given by the ministry. We will protest," he said.

The chief secretary said thermal power would have helped the state overcome power deficit in the winter when hydro power generation goes down. "Now the union government is taking the plea that Himachal Pradesh has decided not to have thermal power plants so why would they need the coal block," he said, adding that they would check if this was the basis for the cancellation of the coal block.

In the summer, Himachal Pradesh supplies power to other states under the banking system and draws the same in winter when power generation in the state dips. With the onset of winter, power crisis has already hit the state. The situation will worsen with snowfall in the upper reaches. Officials said they would deal with the situation by using banked power in Haryana from next month.

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Sandy-Hit Stores Seek Small Business Saturday Boost

Nov 24, 2012 3:35pm

                                                                                      (Image Credit: Associated Press)

Superstorm Sandy delivered a one-two punch on small businesses, creating millions of dollars in damage and in turn, delivering a debilitating blow to their revenue.

But on Small Business Saturday, when  shoppers are encouraged to support local businesses,  those mom-and-pop stores are hoping for a rebound.

Donna Scofield and her family have sold toys at their Manhattan shop, called Stationery & Toy World, for the past 25 years. Although the store is located on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where the storm did little damage, $500,000 of Scofield’s inventory, which she kept in her home and three Staten Island warehouses, was destroyed.

“Some days are easier than others,” she told ABC New York station WABC-TV last week. “We’re taking each day at a time.”

PHOTOS: Superstorm Sandy’s Wide Swath of Destruction

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced today that more than $45 million in loans, grants and financial assistance would be made available to businesses like Scofield’s that were hurt by the storm.

“Getting New York City small businesses back on their feet is key to helping our economy recover from Sandy,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “The capital provided through this program will help businesses purchase supplies, make repairs, and get back up and running.”

Small Business Saturday, which is going on its third year, is being celebrated nationwide.

Andrea Evans, the owner of Pink Boutique in Phoenix, said stores like hers don’t stand a chance with shoppers on Black Friday.

“Everyone’s up so early, and they’re going more for, you know, appliances and TVs and stuff like that, and I think by the time noon hits, they’re done,” she told ABC News Radio.

Over the past two decades, small and new businesses have created two out of every three net new jobs in the United States, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.

It is estimated that half of all working Americans either own a small business or are employed by one.

SHOWS: World News

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Egypt's Mursi faces judicial revolt over decree

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi faced a rebellion from judges who accused him on Saturday of expanding his powers at their expense, deepening a crisis that has triggered violence in the street and exposed the country's deep divisions.

The Judges' Club, a body representing judges across Egypt, called for a strike during a meeting interrupted with chants demanding the "downfall of the regime" - the rallying cry in the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak last year.

Mursi's political opponents and supporters, representing the divide between newly empowered Islamists and their critics, called for rival demonstrations on Tuesday over a decree that has triggered concern in the West.

Issued late on Thursday, it marks an effort by Mursi to consolidate his influence after he successfully sidelined Mubarak-era generals in August. The decree defends from judicial review decisions taken by Mursi until a new parliament is elected in a vote expected early next year.

It also shields the Islamist-dominated assembly writing Egypt's new constitution from a raft of legal challenges that have threatened the body with dissolution, and offers the same protection to the Islamist-controlled upper house of parliament.

Egypt's highest judicial authority, the Supreme Judicial Council, said the decree was an "unprecedented attack" on the independence of the judiciary. The Judges' Club, meeting in Cairo, called on Mursi to rescind it.

That demand was echoed by prominent opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei. "There is no room for dialogue when a dictator imposes the most oppressive, abhorrent measures and then says 'let us split the difference'," he said.

"I am waiting to see, I hope soon, a very strong statement of condemnation by the U.S., by Europe and by everybody who really cares about human dignity," he said in an interview with Reuters and the Associated Press.

More than 300 people were injured on Friday as protests against the decree turned violent. There were attacks on at least three offices belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, the movement that propelled Mursi to power.

POLARISATION

Liberal, leftist and socialist parties called a big protest for Tuesday to force Mursi to row back on a move they say has exposed the autocratic impulses of a man once jailed by Mubarak.

In a sign of the polarization in the country, the Muslim Brotherhood called its own protests that day to support the president's decree.

Mursi also assigned himself new authority to sack the prosecutor general, who was appointed during the Mubarak era, and appoint a new one. The dismissed prosecutor general, Abdel Maguid Mahmoud, was given a hero's welcome at the Judges' Club.

In open defiance of Mursi, Ahmed al-Zind, head of the club, introduced Mahmoud by his old title.

The Mursi administration has defended the decree on the grounds that it aims to speed up a protracted transition from Mubarak's rule to a new system of democratic government.

Analysts say it reflects the Brotherhood's suspicion towards sections of a judiciary unreformed from Mubarak's days.

"It aims to sideline Mursi's enemies in the judiciary and ultimately to impose and head off any legal challenges to the constitution," said Elijah Zarwan, a fellow with The European Council on Foreign Relations.

"We are in a situation now where both sides are escalating and its getting harder and harder to see how either side can gracefully climb down."

ADVISOR TO MURSI QUITS

Following a day of violence in Cairo, Alexandria, Port Said and Suez, the smell of tear gas hung over the capital's Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the uprising that toppled Mubarak in 2011 and the stage for more protests on Friday.

Youths clashed sporadically with police near the square, where activists camped out for a second day on Saturday, setting up makeshift barricades to keep out traffic.

Al-Masry Al-Youm, one of Egypt's most widely read dailies, hailed Friday's protest as "The November 23 Intifada", invoking the Arabic word for uprising.

But the ultra-orthodox Salafi Islamist groups that have been pushing for tighter application of Islamic law in the new constitution have rallied behind Mursi's decree.

The Nour Party, one such group, stated its support for the Mursi decree. Al-Gama'a al-Islamiya, which carried arms against the state in the 1990s, said it would save the revolution from what it described as remnants of the Mubarak regime.

Samir Morkos, a Christian assistant to Mursi, had told the president he wanted to resign, said Yasser Ali, Mursi's spokesman. Speaking to the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Morkos said: "I refuse to continue in the shadow of republican decisions that obstruct the democratic transition".

Mursi's decree has been criticized by Western states that earlier this week were full of praise for his role in mediating an end to the eight-day war between Israel and Palestinians.

"The decisions and declarations announced on November 22 raise concerns for many Egyptians and for the international community," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

The European Union urged Mursi to respect the democratic process.

(Additional reporting by Omar Fahmy, Marwa Awad, Edmund Blair and Shaimaa Fayed and Reuters TV; Editing by Jon Hemming)

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British PM "open-minded" on press regulation

LONDON: British Prime Minister David Cameron is keeping an open mind about the regulation of the press, his office insisted Saturday, after a newspaper report claimed he would reject full-blown state regulation.

British newspapers are nervously awaiting the publication on Thursday of the first results from an extensive judge-led inquiry into press standards which could result in tougher regulation of the industry.

The Mail on Sunday reported that Cameron would beef up the current system of self-regulation and replace the Press Complaints Commission, which is staffed by newspaper editors.

The newspaper said Cameron would stop short of tougher measures, but would hold out the threat that a statutory system could be brought in later if the behaviour of the press fails to improve.

But Downing Street played down any suggestion that Cameron had already made up his mind on the Leveson report -- named after the judge who is leading the inquiry -- which is supposed to remain secret until Thursday.

Cameron and a handful of senior government figures will see it on Wednesday to allow them to prepare their response.

A Downing Street spokesman said: "The Prime Minister is open-minded about Lord Justice Leveson's report and will read it in full before he makes any decision about what to do."

Victims of press intrusion are calling for the introduction of an independent regulator, with the backing of the law, while editors have warned that statutory regulation would limit press freedom and hamper investigative reporting.

Cameron set up the inquiry in July last year in response to revelations that the Rupert Murdoch-owned News of the World hired a private investigator to hack the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler after she disappeared in 2002.

-AFP/ac

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Assam's ethnic violence: Relief camps are empty but people are not back home

KOKRAJHAR (ASSAM): The food is running out, children are falling ill, her only saree is fraying, and so is her spirit, rambles Zohra bewa, or Zohra the widow, as she introduces herself, stepping out of her makeshift home - a blue tarpaulin sheet propped up by bamboos.

Displaced on July 24, when her home in Sapkata village was burned down, the middle-aged woman and her children joined the human tide of more than 4.8 lakh refugees swept into hundreds of relief camps across three districts of western Assam - the largest displacement seen in the country in recent times.

Today, the number of people in relief camps has come down to 36,000-odd people. The emptying of the camps has led the outside world believe the worst is over. Even the government has showcased this as evidence of successful rehabilitation, downplaying the more revealing statistic - only 5,252 families have been given financial assistance by way of the official rehabilitation grant. Counting 10 members in each family, the number of beneficiaries comes to just 52,520 people, a fraction of those affected by the violence.

To start with, only those whose houses were burned or damaged have been considered eligible for rehab assistance - a cheque of Rs 20,700, three bundles with 7 tin sheets each, four tarpaulin sheets, eight poles of bamboo, and a month of food rations. It is bad enough that the grant is barely enough to rebuild homes and lives, say people. Worse, many who lost homes have had to go without it, since they do not own land, an additional eligibility criteria insisted by the Bodoland Territorial Council in the first round of rehabilitation. But what is the worst of all, they point out, several thousands who left the relief camps, keen to get back in time for the harvest season, haven't made it back and find themselves stranded in between.

Zohra is one of them. After nearly three months in Kathalguri relief camp, when she trekked back to her village in late October, she found her neighbours had propped up tents in a clearing outside the village. Their quarter of the village was not safe, they cautioned her, since it faced Bodo settlements. Better to live huddled with other Muslims. Soon, a hundred tents had sprung up in the clearing, a makeshift camp of sorts. In Horiyapet village, the makeshift settlement is even larger: a thousand tents scattered in the open, their blue and black plastic sheets glinting in the afternoon sun, sheltering people from as many as six villages.

Unlike the government relief camp they left behind, where supplies of food and medicines trickled in regularly, drinking water tanks were chlorinated, latrines were fumigated, and NGO's unloaded bundles of clothes every now and then, in the makeshift camps, the people have been left to fend for themselves. "We were given 10 days of ration but that's over," says Sobor Ali, who lives in Sapkata makeshift camp. "We are trying to make do by selling bamboo and wood, but that barely brings in any money."

District officials say they know of a large number of such makeshift camps in Gossaigaon division, the worst hit part of Kokrajhar district. They say they occasionally send food, but are wary of stepping up relief supplies to those who have returned home without going through the official process of rehabilitation, lest they be seen as aiding illegal immigrants. "We are trying to address the problem," is all that Jayant Narlikar, the deputy commissioner of Kokrajhar, is willing to say.

Meanwhile, as she wraps the pallu of her saree tighter around her shoulders, Zohra can sense the worst is not over -- with winter setting in, and no warm clothes available.

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