World stocks fall on Europe debt crisis impasse

BANGKOK (AP) — World stock markets were mostly lower Friday after Germany continued to oppose a bigger role for the European Central Bank in managing the continent's debt crisis and Portugal'scredit rating was lowered to junk.

Benchmark crude clung just above $96 a barrel while the dollar rose against the euro and was steady against the yen.

European shares were mixed in early trading. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.4 percent to 5,106.36 while Germany's DAX was 0.2 percent higher at 5,434.49/ France's CAC-40 rose 0.1 percent to 2,825.28.

Wall Street was headed for a lower opening, with Dow Jones industrial futures falling 0.2 percent to 11,209 while S&P 500 futures lost 0.2 percent to 1,157.30.

In Asia, trading was sluggish following a public holiday that closed markets in the U.S. Japan's Nikkei 225 index closed marginally down at 8,160.01 while South Korea's Kospi lost 1 percent at 1,776.40.Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.4 percent to 17,689.48 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 1.5 percent at 3,984.30.

In mainland China, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.7 percent to 2,380.22, its lowest closing level in a month.

Investment sentiment waned after a meeting Thursday in Strasbourg, France of the leaders of the three biggest euro economies: Italian Premier Mario Monti, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The three leaders pledged to push for changes to European Union treaties to bring the fiscal policies of countries using the euro common currency more in line with each other.

But many investors were hoping Merkel might drop her steadfast opposition to a greater role for the European Central Bank or the creation of a eurobond that would pool the debts of all countries in the currency union. Some experts believe the ECB is the only institution capable of getting Europe past its debt crisis.

Piled onto the disappointment from the Strasbourg summit was a debt demotion for Portugal.

Fitch Ratings, citing Portugal's large fiscal imbalances, its high indebtedness across all sectors and an adverse macroeconomic outlook, reduced the country's credit rating to BB+. That means Portugal is considered non-investment grade by Fitch, making it even more difficult for the struggling country to return to the bond markets.

Adding to the pain was Hungary, which was downgraded to junk by Moody's Investors Service late Thursday.

Analysts said many investors have concluded that Europe is likely headed for a slowdown or recession — or even a breakup of the currency union — given the inability so far to map out a plan for saving countries that are at risk of default because of unsustainable debt levels.

Such an event could engulf major banks and freeze credit markets in a similar fashion to the global financial paralysis after Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008.

"Are we going to see a breakup of the euro or not? The comments and the downgrades overnight continue to worry investors," said Andrew Sullivan, principal sales trader at Piper Jaffray in Hong Kong.

"The inability to resolve the debt crisis and come out with a workable solution — people have the obvious worry of what that will do to bond yields," Sullivan said. "This is a debt problem, and this is going to cost money to resolve."

Chinese banking shares sank following a day of gains based on speculation — later denied by the government — that the central bank was aiming to ease its tight monetary policy. Hong Kong-listed Agricultural Bank of China fell 2.9 percent and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, the world's largest bank by market value, lost 1.4 percent.

Building materials and oil shares, which are closely tied to economic growth, fell as worries brewed about a global slowdown. Hong Kong-listed China National Building Material Co. fell 5.8 percent and China Coal Energy lost 5.3 percent. Australia's Woodside Petroleum Ltd. plunged 5.8 percent.

Tokyo-based camera and medical equipment company Olympus Corp. soared 8.6 percent. It earlier announced the resignations of three board members in an unfolding scandal involving a $687 million payment to an obscure Wall Street firm for financial advice and expensive acquisitions that were used to cover up investment losses dating to the 1990s.

In the U.S., where markets were closed for Thanksgiving on Thursday, traders were bracing for a crucial test of the world's No. 1 economy — so-called Black Friday, the day that kicks off the holiday shopping season. How well retailers do will have consequences for the still-fragile U.S. economic recovery.

The November-December period accounts for 25 percent to 40 percent of annual sales. About a quarter of jobs in the U.S. are directly or indirectly supported by the retail industry.

Benchmark crude for January delivery was down 2 cents at $96.11 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract last settled on Wednesday in New York at $96.17, down $1.84.

In currency trading, the euro fell to $1.3303 from $1.3326 late Wednesday in New York. The dollar was unchanged at 77.35 yen.

2G scam row: Swamy rebuts Salman Khurshid's claims

Chennai, Nov. 23 (ANI): Founder-President of the Janata Party (JP) and a key petitioner in 2G scam case, Subramanian Swamy, on Wednesday contradicted Union Law and Justice Minister Salman Khurshid's claims that no proof is available against Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram's involvement in the scam.

With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) deciding to boycottChidambaram in Parliament on the 2G issue, Khurshid had on Tuesday backed his cabinet colleague and said that there was no proof available against the former Finance Minister of the country.

He said the statement made by the Prime Minister along with the document released by him, held Chidambaram equally responsible in the scam as the former Telecom Minister, A. Raja.

"Prime Minister also said on February 24, 2011, in Rajya Sabha that I had no role to play in the determination of the price. This was a responsibility of the Finance Minister (P Chidambaram) and the Telecom Minister (Raja) and both came and told me that they have fixed the price at 2001. So, this is conclusive because Mr. Salman Khurshid has been saying that there is no letter from Chidambaram to Raja," Swamy told mediapersons here.

"I have produced one letter. If he wants another letter I'll be happy to produce that. I have already produced minutes to show that Chidambaram and Raja met. So therefore, Chidambaram and Raja together decided this letter is conclusive," he added.

Swamy further noted that the exposure proved Chidambaram's involvement in the scam and the decision of his boycott made by the opposition parties are justified.

"Parliament is saying that we are satisfied, I mean opposition parties are saying that we are satisfied based on the reports of the Public Account Committee (PAC) and other reports that Mr. Chidambaram is unfit to be the Home Minister of India. So, he must be made to resign and Parliament has an independent power. They don't have to wait for the court," he added.

Swamy, a key petitioner in the case, earlier in the day claimed that he has proof that Chidambaram and Raja acted together in fixing 2G spectrum prices.

"I am demolishing the idea that the price of spectrum was determined by A. Raja alone. I am showing that this document proves that it was decided jointly. And not only jointly, they (Raja and Chidambaram) met several times. Here it is two times but in the total they met four times," said Swamy.

"And therefore I think as far as this document is concerned, it completely demolishes the argument that Raja has acted alone. Raja and Chidambaram acted together to deprive the country of huge amount to revenue," he added.

Refusing to reveal the origin of this latest document, Swamy said that Chidambaram was the most crooked minister in the country, adding that he would urge the trial court in its next hearing on December 3, to make Chidambaram a co-accused in the case.

"December 3, the trial court is meeting to consider my arguments, whether Chidambaram should be made a co-accused with Raja. And I will be arguing that if Raja is accused, then Chidambaram is ten times more accused. He is more guilty; he is the most crooked minister in the country," he added.

Chidambaram has been at the centre of an extensive political storm ever since certain reports revealed of his alleged role in "deciding" the prices of 2G-spectrum during his earlier tenure as the Finance Minister, thus embroiling him in the telecom scam.

His name cropped up in a recent letter of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in which Mukherjee blamed his predecessor for not sticking to the established procedures in auctioning of the 2-G spectrum.

The letter stated that sufficient steps were not taken by Chidambaram to prevent the colossal scam from occurring in the first place, considering he could have "stuck to the stand" of auctioning of the precious spectrum instead of giving it at throwaway prices.

The telecom scam, one of India's biggest graft cases ever, may have cost 39.57 billion dollars in revenue to the public exchequer as per the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

A. Raja was sacked in November last year and later arrested after being charged with giving away telecom licences in 2008 for a pittance, at meagre prices of 2001 in the CAG report. Raja is presently facing trial along with a group of telecom executives and DMK lawmaker Kanimozhi. (ANI)

I-T crackdown on undisclosed Swiss account holders

NEW DELHI: In a first of its kind crackdown against those stashing unaccounted wealth overseas, the income tax department has launched an offensive against politicians and industrials who had parked money in HSBC Bank, Geneva.

Under pressure to act against black money andmoney laundering, the tax department has conducted at least 50 searches over the last two months. The move follows receipts of details regarding 700 bank accounts from the French government.

The list of those under the lens includes a top Mumbai-based industrialist who during questioning admitted to having family accounts in HSBC, Geneva with deposits totaling more than Rs 800 crore. Summons have also been issued to three Members of Parliament (MPs) from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala to appear for questioning at the Delhi office of I-T department's recently-set up Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI). The MPs would be asked to explain the source of funds in the Geneva accounts.

In addition, recovery of over Rs 300 crore has already been made from several evaders, although some of those whose names figured on the list have refused to admit to having Swiss bank accounts. But unwilling to give up in the face of mounting scrutiny from the courts, the tax department is also making enquiries overseas to get details of nearly 300 cases of undisclosed wealth.

A senior finance ministry official told TOI that looking at the gravity of the cases and their overall impact, the government has handed over the entire investigation to the Delhi office of DCI. This will also help prosecute those accused of parking black money in tax havens.

Unlike Liechtenstein, where the tax department levied penalties amounting to around around Rs 25 crore against some 18 persons whose names were shared by German authorities, this time the government intends to invoke stringent provisions of the I-T Act to set a precedent. This could mean that those found guilty of evasion could not just face monetary penalty but also end up spending between five and ten years behind bars.

As part of the assault on tax evasion and money laundering, the government has asked the Central Board of Direct Taxes ( CBDT) to disallow any compounding of penalty and instead go for prosecuting the accused, something the I-T department had fought shy of in the past.

So far, the accused were only tried under Prevention of Corruption Act, and even that was limited to public servants. The I-T Act was merely treated as civil law and tax evaders were let off after they coughed up penalty.

Besides these account details, the Income Tax is in possession of nearly 10,000 pieces of information on high-value suspicious transactions undertaken by Indians overseas. Investigations have started in all these cases and references have also been made to enforcement agencies abroad to seek more details.

England would have lost Test series too had there been one: Shastri

KOLKATA: Former Indian cricketer Ravi Shastri has made light of England's poor display in the recent one-day international series in India, saying that the hosts would have pounded them just as badly had there been aTest series as well.

Speaking to mediapersons, Shastri attributed India's drubbing on their England tour to fatigue.

"I'm not surprised one bit. When India were in England, they were a little under-prepared and they were tired. They were jaded. The World Cup took a lot out of them. (In) India, thank God there was no four Test match series. You might have had a 4-0 score and all Test matches would have got over in four days," he said.

The former India Test cricketer was upbeat about India's upcoming tour of Australia. He said that while the tour would be challenging, the prospect of facing the formidable ex-champions at home with a young team was exciting.

"It will be challenging. Traveling overseas (with) lots of youngsters, it will be challenging. Australia, at home are a strong side, but I'm sure India will do a lot better than they did in England," he added.

India face England in their only Twenty20 International on Saturday (October 29), having beaten the visitors 5-0 in the ODI series.

India's stellar performance comes very shortly after a dismal tour of England, where the injury-ridden team lost its top spot in Tests and slid down the one-day rankings after failing to secure a single victory.

Saudi Arabia names new crown prince

RIYADH: Saudi state TV says the kingdom has named a new crown prince.

Nayef bin Abdel-Aziz Al Saud, the kingdom's tough-talking interior minister, was named heir to the Saudi throne following the death of the previous crown prince late last week.

Prince Nayef has led crackdowns on Islamic militants but has also shown favor to ultraconservative traditions, such as keeping the ban on women voting.

He is set to assume the throne upon the death of King Abdullah, 87, who is recovering from his third operation to treat back problems in less than a year.

Prince Nayef, 78, was also named prime minister in addition to keeping his job as interior minister.

Post-26/11, Mukherjee's words rattled Pakistan: Condoleezza Rice

WASHINGTON: Tough talking by then external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, following the 26/11 attacks, rattled Pakistan so much that it pressed the panic button and called everyone from Chinese to the Americans saying that India has decided to go to war.
At one point, the then secretary of state,Condoleezza Rice also panicked temporarily after she could not get Mukherjee on line even after repeated attempts.
"The Pakistanis say the Indians have warned them that they've decided to go to war," a White House aide anxiously called Rice.
As a result of the wrong rumour coming out of Pakistan, the then US President George Bushasked her to travel to Islamabad and New Delhi to defuse the situation, Rice says in her latest book 'No High Honors' that is scheduled to hit the book stores next week.
"What?" Rice uttered after the White House aide told her about the message from Pakistan.
"That isn't what they're (India) telling me. In my many conversations with the Indians over the two days, they'd emphasised their desire to defuse the situation and their need for the Pakistanis to do something to show that they accepted responsibility for tracking down the terrorists," Rice wrote in her 766-page book.
Rice asked the operations centre to get Mukherjee on the phone, but they couldn't reach him.
Consequently she started getting nervous and she thought that Mukherjee was trying to avoid her as New Delhi was preparing for war.
"I called back again. No response. By now the international phone lines were buzzing with the news. The Pakistanis were calling everyone--the Saudis, the Emiratis, the Chinese. Finally Mukherjee called back. I told him what I'd heard," Rice wrote.
''What?' he said. 'I'm in my constituency. (The Indians were preparing for elections, and Mukherjee, who was a member of Parliament, was at home campaigning.) Would I be outside New Delhi if we were about to launch a war?'" Mukherjee asked.
Rice said Mukherjee explained that the Pakistani foreign minister ( Shah Mehmood Qureshi) had taken his stern words in their recent phone call the wrong way.
"'I said they were leaving us no choice but to go to war', he said," Rice recalled adding "This is getting dangerous, I thought."
On her emergency visit to New Delhi after the Mumbai attacks, Rice said Prime MinisterManmohan Singh and the foreign minister both categorically told her that they were against war, despite increasing public pressure, but wanted Pakistan to do something.
And when she arrived in Islamabad, the Pakistani leadership were still denying what the world knew by then that the attackers were from Pakistan.
"The Pakistanis were at once terrified and in the same breath dismissive of the Indian claims. President Zardari emphasised his desire to avoid war but couldn't bring himself to acknowledge Pakistan's likely role in the attacks," Rice writes.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani, in a long speech told her that terrorists who had launched the attack had nothing to do with Pakistan.
"Mr Prime Minister, I said, either you're lying to me or your people are lying to you. I then went on to tell him what we--the United States--knew about the origins of the attack," she wrote.
"I didn't accuse Pakistan's government of involvement; that wasn't the point. But rogues within the security services might have aided the terrorists. It was time to admit that and to investigate more seriously," she said.
"Finally, I went to meet the chief of staff, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani. Our military liked him and considered him honest and effective. He was the one person who, even if he couldn't admit responsibility, understood that Pakistan would have to give an accounting of what had happened. That was a start," she wrote.
In this separate chapter on Mumbai, Rice recollects receiving frantic calls from the American Ambassadors in New Delhi and Islamabad.
"Ambassador (David) Mulford's message was stark. 'There is war fever here. I don't know if the Prime Minister can hold out. Everyone knows that the terrorists came from Pakistan'.
"I then talked to Anne (Patterson). Her message was just as clear. 'They have their heads in the sand,' she said," Rice wrote in her book.

Indian-American gets job, USD 295,000 in discrimination case in US

WASHINGTON: Six years after he was denied prison guard's job in California as he refused to shave off his beard required by his Sikh religion, an Indian-American has finally been appointed as a correctional officer in the prison and won USD 295,000 in damages.

Trilochan Singh Oberoi, 63, has reached a settlement in this regard with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) as a result of which he would start his duty as a correctional officer from November 1.

"Oberoi's legal battle exemplifies the challenges many Sikhs face in the US in seeking private and government employment after 9/11, as widespread ignorance, prejudice and hate pose serious challenges to equal opportunity for South Asians, and particularly Sikh Americans, who are often mistaken for Middle Eastern terrorists," said attorney Harmeet K Dhillon, who represented Oberoi.

In 2005, Oberoi applied for a position as a correctional officer with the CDCR, according to a statement issued on Friday.

Oberoi advanced to the final stage of the application process, which involved being fit-tested with a particular model of tight-fitting respirator mask, and was told that he could not take the test unless he were to shave off his beard.

Oberoi requested that the CDCR accommodate his religiously mandated beard, but was not granted such an accommodation and was not hired by the CDCR in any capacity.

After making numerous attempts over the next year to ascertain the status of his accommodation request, in February 2007, he filed an appeal with the California State Personnel Board (SPB) concerning the CDCR's denial of his opportunity to complete the correctional officer application because of his religiously-mandated beard.