Damon Hill to be event ambassador for Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2014 8 01 2014 F1 World Champ Damon Hill to be event ambassador for Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2014 Mumbai, January 7, 2014: The 11th edition of the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon, to be run on January 19, 2014 will be graced by F1 World Champion Damon Hill. Promoters Procam International today announced Great Britain’s Damon Hill, 1996 World Champion and Michael Schumacher’s main rival for the Formula One Drivers’ Championship during the mid-90s as the International Event Ambassador of USD 360,000 prize money Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon. Damon Hill, son of late Graham Hill, and the only son of a World Champion to win the title, has had 122 Grand Prix entries, 22 Grand Prix wins, 42 Podiums, 20 Pole positions and 19 Fastest laps in his F1 racing career. Damon Graham Devereux Hill was born on September 17, 1960, two years before his father Graham won his first driver’s title, the second coming in 1968. The death of his father in a plane crash in 1975 left the 15-year-old in drastically reduced circumstances and Damon worked as a labourer and motorcycle courier to support his further education. Hill started his Grand Prix career during the 1991 season as a test driver with the championship-winning Williams team while still competing in the F3000 series. In 1996 the Williams car was clearly the quickest in Formula One and Hill went on to win the title ahead of his rookie teammate Jacques Villeneuve, becoming the only son of a Formula One champion to win the championship himself. Taking eight wins and never qualifying off the front row, Hill enjoyed by far his most successful season. At Monaco, where his father had won five times in the 1960s, he led until his engine failed, curtailing his race and allowing Olivier Panis to take his only Formula One win. Near the end of the season, Villeneuve began to mount a title challenge and took pole in the Japanese Grand Prix, the final race of the year. However, Hill took the lead at the start and won both the race and the championship after the Canadian retired. Hill equalled the record for starting all 16 races of the season from the front row, matching Ayrton Senna in 1989 and Alain Prost in 1993. Sebastian Vettel holds the record for the highest number of front row starts in a season, with 18 in 2011. Damon Hill will be in Mumbai from Thursday, January 16 till event day and hopes to inspire the younger generation of Indian sportsmen to work hard for glory. Overcoming adversities from early in life, Damon Hill climbed the pinnacle of success, following up his exploits on the F1 tack with sound business acumen. When Williams made Damon Hill a Formula One driver, despite his undistinguished racing record, Frank Williams said it was because he was “a tough bastard” and he admired his “fierce inner determination.” During his visit to Mumbai Haile will meet with the sponsors and partners, the elite athletes, encourage the amateur athletes and later on spread the message worldwide about the event and the running movement in the country. Damon Hill’s association with the event is in line with Procam International’s efforts to bring to India some the world’s most accomplished sportsmen to raise the profile of the sport of distance running. Some of the luminaries who have been event ambassadors in the past include names like haile Gebrselassie, Michael Johnson, Mike Powell, Linford Christie, Paul Tergat, Steve Ovett, Gail Devers, Dame Kelly Holmes, Dan O’Brien, Cathy Freeman, Kapil Dev and Vijay Amritraj to name a few. Edit : Edit Comments : Leave a Comment » Categories : sports -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rajat Tokas does a dabangg! 8 01 2014 Seen in a jovial mood on Jodha Akbar sets, Ekta’s Akbar Rajat Tokas mimicks Salman’s dabangg style While his onscreen image is one of imperial royalty, Rajat Tokas aka Akbar of Zee TV’s Jodha Akbar, was seen in a jovial mood on the sets and posed for the shutter-bugs in a Dabangg avatar. Sporting a hep moustache and wearing dabangg glares, Rajat looked quite unlike his historical avatar of Akbar onscreen. A la Salman Bhai, Rajat was seen doing the classic belt shuffle while he was strutting around in the Dabangg look. The no-nonsense man is known for sticking to strict shoot and exercise regimes and is rarely seen mingling with others on the sets. But looks like with passage of time, he seems to have broken ice with some of his co-stars and is having fun on the sets. Talking about his onscreen image of the Great Emperor and the contrast it bears to what he is like in real life, Rajat said, “I try and maintain a certain dignity when I am in the public glare so that my off screen persona blends in with the image of Akbar I portray on screen. I usually am seen in a calm, composed, no-nonsense demeanor because that is what comes naturally to me anyway. But, with the amount of time we spend on the sets, it would be unnatural not to get close and comfortable with some of the crew members that you begin to like over a period of time. So, yes … we are having more fun on the sets these days …it’s a natural process of getting to know each other better and becoming less inhibited and more playful as you go along!” With the current track of the show focusing on the temptress Benazir’s (Meghana Naidu) dubious plans to entice and manipulate Akbar, and Jodha in the bargain getting insecure and jealous, Akbar is caught in a flurry of emotions. Will Akbar be able to understand Benazir’s wicked intentions in time or will Benazir get the better of him? Do not miss Jodha Akbar, Every Monday – Friday, at 8:00 PM, Only on Zee TV! Edit : Edit Comments : Leave a Comment » Categories : TV Serial -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- International shots 8 01 2014 Iraq delays assault on militant Iraq is delaying its attack on the militant-held city of Fallujah due to the risk of civilian casualties after 29 people were killed in the nearby town of Ramadi, AFP cited an officer as saying. The government lost control of Fallujah and parts of Ramadi last week to militants. “It is not possible to assault (Fallujah) now” as civilian lives will be put in danger, said Defense Ministry spokesman Staff Lieutenant General Mohammed al-Askari. During the night, local security forces attempted to gain back the southern portion of Ramadi from Al-Qaeda linked groups, but failed. Cargo train transporting oil derails in eastern Canada A train carrying propane and crude oil derailed and caught fire in Canada’s eastern province of New Brunswick. Local residents have been evacuated and there are no reported injuries, local officials. Canadian National Railway train was carrying “dangerous goods” when it derailed near the village of Plaster Rock at about 7 p.m. local time (23:00 GMT), according to the Director of Public and Government Affairs at Canadian National Railway, Jim Feeny. Fatah members can return to Gaza – Hamas Hamas premier Ismail Haniya has addressed West Bank rivals Fatah, saying its members would be allowed back into Gaza, in efforts to promote Palestinian reconciliation, AFP reported. The leader also stressed that it would happen “without preconditions.” It comes about three months after Haniya spoke on the phone to Fatah leader and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, talking about the need for reconciliation and a “return to national unity.” Netherlands and Cuba begin political dialogue The Dutch foreign minister Frans Timmermans and his Cuban counterpart concluded a high-level visit in Havana by signing an agreement on Tuesday to begin a political dialogue, going against the EU’s current stance on Cuba. Timmermans expressed his desire for the EU to change its policy towards relations with the island nation, which currently limits high-level interactions. “Havana through the centuries has been a meeting point between Europe and the Americas and I believe it still has an important role to play in this regard,” he said. One of the topics discussed between Timmermans and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez included Cuba’s attempts to “bring an end to the last violent conflict in the region;” in reference to hosting peace talks between the Colombian government and the FARC. US to reduce submarine missile-launchers to comply with START accord Starting in 2015, the United States will begin reducing launch tubes on a certain class of ballistic missile submarines in fulfilment of its 2011 START accord with Russia, according to a new report. The US Navy will eliminate four launch tubes from each of its 14 Ohio submarines, marking the first substantial move to reduce strategic nuclear arms since the treaty was signed, a report published in the new edition of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reveals. The START pact requires Russia and the US to cut their respective stockpiles of strategic nuclear weapons to 1,550 and their fleets of long-range delivery vehicles to 700 each. US boosts military sales to Iraq to aid in fight against Al-Qaeda – White House The White House has said that the US is increasing its military sales and deliveries to Iraq to help the local authorities fight insurgent groups, many of them linked with Al-Qaeda. The US is to provide 10 ScanEagle surveillance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to Iraq in the upcoming weeks and 48 Raven surveillance UAVs later this year, White House spokesman Jay Carney said, as quoted by Reuters. Russian FM Lavrov, US State Secretary Kerry to discuss Iran’s role in solving the Syrian crisis – UN Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the US State Secretary John Kerry are to meet and discuss Iran’s role in finding a solution to the Syrian crisis, according to the UN, as quoted by Itar-Tass news agency. The meeting is set to take place on January 13. Janet Yellen confirmed as first female head of US Federal Reserve The US Senate confirmed Janet Yellen as the next head of the US Federal Reserve on Monday following her nomination by President Obama in October. Yellen, currently the vice chair of the Fed, now becomes the first woman to lead the institution in its 100-year history. The nomination had encountered some political infighting among Republicans and Democrats in the Senate as a result of wider GOP efforts to block Obama’s nominees to top executive and judicial branch positions. As a result, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid instituted a major procedural change eliminating the possibility of the minority party, the GOP, from filibustering nominees. Regardless of some Republican opposition, prior to its last break, Yellen cleared a key procedural vote in Congress by 59 to 34 1,500 Syrian refugees accepted into Britain Britain has taken in 1,500 Syrian asylum seekers since January 2013, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg stated on Tuesday. “Of course we should do that. We have accepted hundreds of asylum seekers who have sought and been provided with refuge in this country under our international obligations,” stated Clegg. Overall, Britain has granted some 2,000 Syrians asylum since March 2011 when the violence started in Syria. If asylum seekers arrive in the UK, having made their own way to the country it’s treated on a case-by-case basis, rather than the UK offering aid through a resettlement program, according to a Home Office spokeswoman, reported AFP. UK Independence Party leader, Nigel Farage has been openly critical of the UK government for its apparent refusal to resettle Syrian refugees, while Amnesty International has also slammed the ‘truly pitiful’ response to the situation in the country. UAE to free US man jailed over video mockumentary An American who was imprisoned in the United Arab Emirates after participating in the creation of a video mocking Dubai youth will be freed, according to a family spokesperson. Shezanne Cassimwill be flown back to the US on Thursday. He had been sentenced to a year in prison in December, along with a fine of approximately $2,700 after being accused of defaming the UAE’s image abroad along with five other foreigners. Condition of children hurt in Volgograd blasts improves There has been an improvement in the condition of children hurt in the Volgograd terrorist attacks and moved to Moscow for treatment, health minister, Veronika Skvortsova, said. A three-and-a-half month old girl, Vika Tolkunova, has come out of coma and is now able to breath with minimal assistance, while a nine-year-old girl, Olya, is recovering well. A 16-year-old boy also reports improvements, Skvortsova told RIA-Novosti. Thirty-four people were killed and over 70 others injured in two suicide blasts which rocked Russia’s southern city of Volgograd on December 29 and 30. Iraqi violence surge has Syrian links – Russia The Russian foreign ministry has expressed confidence that the current surge of violence in Iraq has religious roots, and is intrinsically linked with the developments in neighboring Syria, where civil war between the government and Islamist rebels has been raging for nearly three years. “Terrorists from Al Qaeda and other groups linked with it, who are active in Iraq and Syria, know no boundaries, they bring death and suffering to peaceful populations,” the ministry said in a statement. Russia condemned The ministry also condemned terrorism in all its manifestations and expressed support for the country’s counter-extremism measures as Iraqi government troops push Islamists from the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. Stability in the region may only be reached “through the soonest political settlement of the Syrian crisis, through reaching national accord in Iraq in the interests of all political forces and ethnic and religious groups,” the statement concluded. US Senate votes to advance jobless aid program The US senate has voted 60-37 to extend unemployment insurance benefits. The $6.4 billion plan cleared the hurdle on Tuesday morning with the exact number of votes required for the bill to avoid a filibuster. Senate Democrats only had the support of four Republicans on Monday, but seemingly managed to gain the support of a further member of the party. The bill is a Democrat priority and will extend long-term unemployment benefits to some 1.3 million Americans who lost them following the Christmas period. 25 militants killed in Iraq missile strike Twenty-five Iraqi militants have been killed in a missile assault in Ramadi, central Iraq. Forces conducted “missile strikes, resulting in the killing of 25,” according to defense ministry spokesman, Staff Lieutenant General Mohammed al-Askari, who spoke to AFP. China suspends 14-year video game console ban China has suspended its 14-year ban on the sale of video game consoles inside the country, allowing ‘foreign-invested enterprises’ consoles produced by Sony Corp, Microsoft Corp and Nintendo Co Ltd to enter the Chinese market. The ban, introduced in 2000, has left PC games with nearly two-thirds of the market. China is the third largest video game market in the world and revenues grew by over a third in 2012 to nearly $14 billion last year. Initially, the mental health of youth was cited as the reasoning behind the ban. South Sudan peace talks underway in Ethiopia South Sudan’s government delegation and rebels have started face-to-face talks in neighboring Ethiopia, aimed at ending the bloodshed that erupted in mid-December and quickly spread to different areas of the world’s newest country, the two sides said on Tuesday, according to Reuters. The tribal and political unrest that has lasted for three weeks so far has claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people and displaced more than 200,000 people, with the UN peacekeeping force in the country now doubled. Attacks in Iraq kill 4 as fight against Al-Qaeda-linked group continues Authorities say attacks in Iraq have killed at least four people as government troops continue to battle Al-Qaida-linked militants in western Anbar province. A suicide bomber crashed his explosives-laden truck into a police station in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing two people and wounding 55, according to Maj. Raid Emad Rasheed, AP quoted. In a separate incident, a roadside bomb hit an army patrol on the outskirts of Baghdad, killing one soldier and wounding another, police said. Another bomb struck a patrol of Sunni militiamen in a different part of Baghdad, killing one and wounding four. A medical official confirmed the figures. The comments were given anonymously. Spanish Princess Infanta Cristina suspect in fraud case The youngest daughter of King Juan Carlos has been summoned to appear in court over accusations of fraud and money-laundering. Infanta Cristina, 48, is married to Iñaki Urdangarín, who was accused in November 2011 of misappropriating public funds through the Instituto Nóos, a nonprofit organization Urdangarín headed. The princess has been named an official suspect and is scheduled to appear in court on 8 March. It is thought to be the first time a direct relative of the king will appear in court accused of misdeeds. ​Turkey fires 350 police officers amid political crisis Some 350 Turkish police officers have been sacked or reassigned overnight in Ankara in a massive shakeup of the police force, local media report. 250 of the vacant positions were filled with new officers, most of them from outside the Turkish capital. The move comes in the midst of an ongoing political crisis in Turkey, which was triggered in mid-December by arrests of businessmen close to the government, including relatives of some ministers, on allegations of corruption. The shakeup comes a day after PM Tayyip Erdogan suggested the retrial of hundreds of army officers convicted of plotting a coup against his government. Erdogan cracked down on the military with the help of the Hizmet movement of the US-based Islamic cleric, Fethullah Gulen, which has strong ties in the police and the judiciary. Now Erdogan’s followers accuse Gulen of using the same leverage against his government. Guinea-Bissau detains Senegal fishermen in Russian trawler row Guinea-Bissau has detained several fishing boats from Senegal in response to the detention of the Russian trawler, Oleg Naidenov, with a mixed Russian-Guinean-Bissau crew, reports Itar-Tass. Guinea-Bissau is hoping to put pressure on its northern neighbor to make it release the 23 sailors. Senegal detained the Russian ship on accusations of illegal fishing, but an inspection sent on board failed to find any violations. Russian diplomats are working to defuse the situation, which, according to the owner of the ship, arose from backstabbing competition for fishing resources in Western Africa. ‘Jihad Jane’ sentenced to 10 years for plot to kill Swedish cartoonist Colleen R. LaRose, who is perhaps better known as “Jihad Jane,” was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison for her involvement in a plot to kill Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who drew a picture of the prophet Muhammad atop the body of a dog. Using “Jihad Jane” as a screen name, LaRose travelled to Europe in order to murder Vilks but returned to her Pennsylvania home when her co-conspirators failed to meet with her. LaRose stands at 4-feet-9-inches and told the court Monday she was inspired to join the Islamic holy war upon seeing images of Palestinians “screaming and crying.” She explained she no longer desires to be a jihadist and was in a “trance” when she went to Europe in 2008. ​Federal judge rules Chicago’s prohibition on gun sales is unconstitutional Chicago’s law prohibiting gun sales was deemed unconstitutional Monday by a federal judge. “Chicago’s ordinance goes too far in outright banning legal buyers and legal dealers from engaging in lawful acquisitions and lawful sales of firearms,” US District Judge Edmond E. Chang wrote. He delayed the ruling to allow the city to either appeal the decision or to begin preparing new guidelines on sales “short of a complete ban.” The law was adopted in 2010 after the US Supreme Court struck down the city’s ban on gun possession. The ordinance allowed the transfer of firearms only through inheritance Edit : Edit Comments : Leave a Comment » Categories : Business, CSR, Education, election, Politics -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Obama didn’t believe in his own Afghanistan strategy 8 01 2014 Obama didn’t believe in his own Afghanistan strategy – former defense sec Despite an admirable intellect and dedicated support for US military personnel at war, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says President Barack Obama didn’t have sufficient faith in the troop-surge strategy he ordered in Afghanistan. Gates relays in a new memoir how frustrating it was for him, leading the US military at a time of two major wars, to have to battle a White House staff often intent on wresting control over war policy from the Pentagon. He says Obama’s inner-circle, most with only political or academic backgrounds, became “increasingly operational,” which resulted in “micromanagement of military matters – a combination that had proven disastrous in the past.” Gates has served eight United States presidents, Gates said, Obama’s White House staff was the most “centralized and controlling” about national security policy since the Richard Nixon administration. “I never confronted Obama directly over what I (as well as [then-Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton, [then-CIA Director Leon] Panetta, and others) saw as the president’s determination that the White House tightly control every aspect of national security policy and even operations. His White House was by far the most centralized and controlling in national security of any I had seen since Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger ruled the roost.” Obama’s inner sanctum annoyed Gates so much, that he writes he was compelled to deliver a “rant” to national security staff who were making decisions about Libyan intervention policy without Pentagon insight. A former CIA director under President George H.W. Bush, Gates said he admired Obama’s intellect and decision-making, adding that the President was not afraid to support positions “opposed by his political advisers or that would be unpopular with his fellow Democrats.” Yet Gates said there were times he questioned Obama’s commitment to advice from the Pentagon and to his own strategies once implemented. After months of debate with Gates and top advisers, Obama ordered a troop surge in Afghanistan in late 2009. Around 30,000 soldiers were to be the final push for stabilizing the war-torn country before a phased withdrawal starting in mid-2011. “I never doubted Obama’s support for the troops, only his support for their mission,” Gates writes in “Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War.” Gates writes that after Gen. David Petraeus, then the central commander for both major wars, made public remarks suggesting he was not comfortable to setting a fixed date for the US military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, Obama openly chided his military leadership for “popping off in the press” during a major National Security Council meeting. According to Gates, Obama said, “‘If I believe I am being gamed …’ and left the sentence hanging there with the clear implication the consequences would be dire.” Gates added: “I was pretty upset myself. I thought implicitly accusing” Petraeus, and possibly Chair of the Joints Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen and Gates himself, “of gaming him in front of thirty people in the Situation Room was inappropriate, not to mention highly disrespectful of Petraeus. As I sat there, I thought: the president doesn’t trust his commander, can’t stand [Afghanistan President Hamid] Karzai, doesn’t believe in his own strategy, and doesn’t consider the war to be his. For him, it’s all about getting out.” In addition, Gates said that during a contentious September 2009 meeting with White House staff on Afghanistan policy, he nearly stepped down. “I was deeply uneasy with the Obama White House’s lack of appreciation — from the top down – of the uncertainties and unpredictability of war,” he recalls. “I came closer to resigning that day than at any other time in my tenure, though no one knew it.” Gates was the lone holdover from Republican President George W. Bush’s Cabinet to serve in President Obama’s White House after the Democrat entered office in January 2009. He oversaw crucial moments of at least two major wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan, at the helm of the Pentagon, from December 2006 to July 2011. Gates said George W. Bush’s White House squandered success during the early phases of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Yet Gates writes that he is not sure how he would have answered if Bush had asked Gates in 2003 whether war in Iraq was the right decision. Gates praised Bush’s order for a troop surge in Iraq, which, with with the help of cash incentives, tampered down insurgent violence. He notes that he and Bush’s second Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were the only voices urging the President to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, with no success. Gates said Obama’s decision to send Navy SEALs to attack a housing compound in Pakistan targeting Osama bin Laden was “one of the most courageous decisions I had ever witnessed in the White House.” His memoir goes to great lengths to convey how much he was concerned for US troops’ safety amid so much conflict, saying he has “an overwhelming sense of personal responsibility” for the troops he ordered into combat. Gates said both Obama and Hillary Clinton admitted to him that their opposition to the Iraq war during their heated 2008 presidential primary campaign hinged on political calculations. “Hillary told the president that her opposition to the [2007] surge in Iraq had been political because she was facing him in the Iowa primary. … The president conceded vaguely that opposition to the Iraq surge had been political. To hear the two of them making these admissions, and in front of me, was as surprising as it was dismaying.” The former Defense secretary has glowing remarks for Cabinet colleague Clinton. He “found her smart, idealistic but pragmatic, tough-minded, indefatigable, funny, a very valuable colleague, and a superb representative of the United States all over the world.” Not unlike other tomes written by former Cabinet officials in the past, Gates’ memoir, reviewed Tuesday by The New York Times and The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward, is chock full of political drama and internecine intrigue. For instance, Gates calls Vice President Joe Biden a “man of integrity,” but nevertheless says Biden led the White House staff’s supposed suspicion of the Pentagon, “poisoning the well” against military leadership. “I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades,” Gates wrote of Biden. The White House released a statement Tuesday saying Obama stands behind Biden, a longtime US senator before joining the Obama administration. “The President disagrees with Secretary Gates’ assessment – from his leadership on the Balkans in the Senate, to his efforts to end the war in Iraq, Joe Biden has been one of the leading statesmen of his time, and has helped advance America’s leadership in the world. President Obama relies on his good counsel every day,” National Security Council Spokesperson Caitlin Hayden said in the statement. Gates also reveals that Obama nearly ordered a criminal investigation into disclosures on Iran policy published by The New York Times, and that once the White House pointed the blame at Pentagon officials, only Obama would “acknowledge to me he had problems with leaks in his own shop.”