Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Sunday, December 9, 2012
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Sunday, December 9, 2012
hihru
South Africa's former President Nelson Mandela was admitted to a
military hospital on Saturday for medical tests, though the nation's
president told the public there was "no cause for alarm" over the
94-year-old icon's health.
The statement issued by President Jacob Zuma's spokesman said that Mandela was doing well and was receiving medical care "which is consistent for his age." The statement offered no other details.
Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison for fighting racist white rule, became South Africa's first black president in 1994 and served one five-year term. He later retired from public life to live in his village of Qunu, and last made a public appearance when his country hosted the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament.
"We wish Madiba all the best," Zuma said in a statement, using Mandela's clan name. "The medical team is assured of our support as they look after and ensure the comfort of our beloved founding president of a free and democratic South Africa."
In February, Mandela spent a night in a hospital for a minor diagnostic surgery to determine the cause of an abdominal complaint. He was hospitalized in January 2011 with a respiratory infection. While Zuma's statement offered no further details about who would provide medical attention for Mandela, the nation's military largely has taken over caring for the aging leader.
Mac Maharaj, a presidential spokesman, declined to say whether Mandela had been flown by the military to Pretoria. He also declined to say what the tests were for. "It's quite normal at his age to be going through those tests," Maharaj told The Associated Press.
Mandela's hospitalization comes just days after the crash of a military aircraft flying on an unknown mission near Mandela's rural home in which all 11 onboard were killed. The plane was flying to a military air base in Mthatha, which is about 30 kilometers (17 miles) north of Qunu. Military officials declined to say whether those on board had any part in caring for Mandela.
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Nelson Mandela Hospitalized
The statement issued by President Jacob Zuma's spokesman said that Mandela was doing well and was receiving medical care "which is consistent for his age." The statement offered no other details.
Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison for fighting racist white rule, became South Africa's first black president in 1994 and served one five-year term. He later retired from public life to live in his village of Qunu, and last made a public appearance when his country hosted the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament.
"We wish Madiba all the best," Zuma said in a statement, using Mandela's clan name. "The medical team is assured of our support as they look after and ensure the comfort of our beloved founding president of a free and democratic South Africa."
In February, Mandela spent a night in a hospital for a minor diagnostic surgery to determine the cause of an abdominal complaint. He was hospitalized in January 2011 with a respiratory infection. While Zuma's statement offered no further details about who would provide medical attention for Mandela, the nation's military largely has taken over caring for the aging leader.
Mac Maharaj, a presidential spokesman, declined to say whether Mandela had been flown by the military to Pretoria. He also declined to say what the tests were for. "It's quite normal at his age to be going through those tests," Maharaj told The Associated Press.
Mandela's hospitalization comes just days after the crash of a military aircraft flying on an unknown mission near Mandela's rural home in which all 11 onboard were killed. The plane was flying to a military air base in Mthatha, which is about 30 kilometers (17 miles) north of Qunu. Military officials declined to say whether those on board had any part in caring for Mandela.
0
hihru
President Barack Obama asked Congress to approve a $60.4 billion aid
package to help East Coast states rebuild after Superstorm Sandy, well
short of their initial requests.
Officials from storm-battered New York, New Jersey and Connecticut had said they needed at least $82 billion combined to make emergency repairs and upgrade infrastructure. New York and New Jersey lawmakers said they expect Obama will seek more aid as the extent of Sandy's damage becomes clearer. The two states were hit the hardest by the storm, which made landfall in New Jersey on Oct. 29.
"This supplemental is a very good start, and while $60 billion doesn't cover all of New York and New Jersey's needs, it covers a large percentage," said Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez of New Jersey. "This is the first good news New York has had in a while," New York governor Andrew Cuomo said.
Of the total, $15 billion would come in the form of community development block grants, a mechanism that gives local jurisdiction significant flexibility to provide aid and rebuild quickly. In addition, nearly $13 billion would go to an array of projects aimed at better protecting the New York-New Jersey coastal region and preventing damage from future storms. Another $6.2 billion would be reserved for public transportation infrastructure.
Officials said they could ask for more aid later on. There is precedent for multiple funding requests to cope with a disaster. Less than two weeks after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast in 2005, Congress had passed two appropriations totaling $62.3 billion. Within a year, two more packages were passed worth a combined $48 billion, which also covered damage from Hurricanes Rita and Wilma.
Multibillion-dollar supplemental appropriations for Katrina were still being made as late as 2010. The disaster funding request, on a scale not seen since Katrina, could complicate already tense negotiations between the White House and Congress on a deficit reduction deal.
Lawmakers are trying to avert the year-end "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts that amount to a total of $600 billion. "We have the request and will review it," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner. He did not elaborate.
House Appropriations Committee chairman Hal Rogers, whose panel will review the request, said Congress has a responsibility to help the region recover. "It is also our responsibility during these tight-budget times to make sure that the victims of this storm are getting the most of every single recovery dollar, and to ensure that disaster funds are timed and targeted in the most efficient and appropriate manner," the Republican lawmaker said in a statement.
Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Craig Fugate told lawmakers this week that the FEMA disaster relief fund was down to less than $5 billion and would run out by early spring at the current pace of disbursements. "We need a full recovery package to be voted on in this session of Congress," said New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg in a statement. "Any delay will impede our recovery."
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Obama Seeks $60bn for Sandy Repairs
Officials from storm-battered New York, New Jersey and Connecticut had said they needed at least $82 billion combined to make emergency repairs and upgrade infrastructure. New York and New Jersey lawmakers said they expect Obama will seek more aid as the extent of Sandy's damage becomes clearer. The two states were hit the hardest by the storm, which made landfall in New Jersey on Oct. 29.
"This supplemental is a very good start, and while $60 billion doesn't cover all of New York and New Jersey's needs, it covers a large percentage," said Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez of New Jersey. "This is the first good news New York has had in a while," New York governor Andrew Cuomo said.
Of the total, $15 billion would come in the form of community development block grants, a mechanism that gives local jurisdiction significant flexibility to provide aid and rebuild quickly. In addition, nearly $13 billion would go to an array of projects aimed at better protecting the New York-New Jersey coastal region and preventing damage from future storms. Another $6.2 billion would be reserved for public transportation infrastructure.
Officials said they could ask for more aid later on. There is precedent for multiple funding requests to cope with a disaster. Less than two weeks after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast in 2005, Congress had passed two appropriations totaling $62.3 billion. Within a year, two more packages were passed worth a combined $48 billion, which also covered damage from Hurricanes Rita and Wilma.
Multibillion-dollar supplemental appropriations for Katrina were still being made as late as 2010. The disaster funding request, on a scale not seen since Katrina, could complicate already tense negotiations between the White House and Congress on a deficit reduction deal.
Lawmakers are trying to avert the year-end "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts that amount to a total of $600 billion. "We have the request and will review it," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner. He did not elaborate.
House Appropriations Committee chairman Hal Rogers, whose panel will review the request, said Congress has a responsibility to help the region recover. "It is also our responsibility during these tight-budget times to make sure that the victims of this storm are getting the most of every single recovery dollar, and to ensure that disaster funds are timed and targeted in the most efficient and appropriate manner," the Republican lawmaker said in a statement.
Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Craig Fugate told lawmakers this week that the FEMA disaster relief fund was down to less than $5 billion and would run out by early spring at the current pace of disbursements. "We need a full recovery package to be voted on in this session of Congress," said New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg in a statement. "Any delay will impede our recovery."
Thursday, December 6, 2012
0
Thursday, December 6, 2012
hihru
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi
have been named among the top 20 most powerful persons in the world by
Forbes magazine in its annual power rankings which placed US President
Barack Obama as number one for a second year in a row.
India's richest businessman Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani and and Arcelor Mittal CEO Lakshmi Mittal also feature in the list that comprises 71 mighty heads of state, CEOs, entrepreneurs and philanthropists who "truly run and shape the world of 7.1 billion people."
Gandhi dropped a notch from last year's list and ranks at number 12 this year ahead of Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang and French President Francois Hollande. Forbes said the 65-year-old leader of India's ruling political party has the reins of the world's second-most-populous country and tenth-largest economy.
"Son Rahul is next in line to take over India's most famous political dynasty," it added. Coming in at the 20th spot is Singh, the Oxford and Cambridge-educated economist who is the architect of India's economic reforms.
Singh had ranked 19th in the list last year. "But Singh's quiet intellectualism is increasingly seen as timid and soft," Forbes added.
Ambani, owner of the world's most expensive private residence, ranks 37th in the list. Forbes said the petrochemical billionaire is India's richest and Reliance Industries is the nation's most valuable company.
It however described Ambani's support for disgraced former Goldman Sachs Director Rajat Gupta as a "low point" for him in 2012.
Mittal, ranked 47th in the most powerful people list, has a net worth of USD 16 billion but also has "lots of headaches, including S&P and Moody downgrades of his company's debt to junk status." A highlight for Mittal during the past year was carrying the Olympic flame in the 2012 Torch Relay.
Forbes said 51-year-old Obama emerged "unanimously" as the world's most powerful person for the second year running.
The decisive winner of the 2012 US presidential election, Obama now has four more years to push his agenda even as he faces major challenges, including an unresolved budget crisis, stubbornly high unemployment and renewed unrest in the Middle East.
"But Obama remains the commander-in-chief of the world's greatest military and head of the sole economic and cultural superpower--literally the leader of the free world," it said.
The second most powerful person in the world also happens to be the most powerful woman, German chancellor 58-year-old Angela Merkel. She jumped up from the number four position last year to take the runner-up spot on the 2012 list.
Forbes termed Merkel as the backbone of the 27-member European Union, one who carries the fate of the Euro on her shoulders.
The list also includes Russian President Vladimir Putin at number three, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (4), General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping (9), Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin (20), Iran's Supreme leader Ali Khamenei (21) UN chief Ban Ki-moon (30), North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (44) and former US President Bill Clinton (50).
Forbes dropped US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from the list this year. Clinton, who had ranked 16th last year, does not feature in 2012 rankings as she is not expected to return to her powerful post for Obama's second term.
It is for the same reason that US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner also does not feature in this year's list.
Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is ranked 28th in the list
"The most powerful man in an unstable country; Pakistan's de facto leader controls nuclear weapons and one of the world's largest standing armies. Despite tension over drone strikes, Kayani remains a key ally in the war on terror," Forbes said, adding that a lowpoint for Kayani this past year came when the country's Supreme Court issued a series of rulings holding the military accountable for human rights abuses and political meddling.
Zaheer ul-Islam, the head of Pakistan's notorious intelligence service ISI, has been ranked 52nd on the list.
"The ISI has played both sides in the war on terror and, as US troops draw out of Afghanistan, will be hugely influential in determining the region's future," Forbes said.
Islam's high point in 2012 was his first official visit to the US for talks with then counterpart in CIA General David Petraeus.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who came in at the 25th spot, is one of the youngest persons on the list at age 29. He dropped significantly from last year's top-ten ranking after Facebook's much-anticipated IPO turned out to be a flop.
Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff (18) is one of the list's biggest gainers. At the midpoint of her first term, Rousseff's emphasis on entrepreneurship has prompted a slew of new startups and energized Brazilian youths, Forbes said.
Apple CEO Tim Cook (35) made a big upward move too. A year after he succeeded iconic founder Steve Jobs, the company is the most valuable in the world and Apple stock hit an all-time high in September, reaching above USD 700 a share.
New members of the list include LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman who is ranked 71.
Forbes said Hoffman is the world's most powerful venture capitalist and the most-connected man in Silicon Valley.
Making his debut on the list at rank 66 is Elon Musk, the entrepreneur behind PayPal and Tesla Motors who is the most powerful man in space.
"His company SpaceX is a leader in the private space industry, and with that business set to boom, Musk stands to make out like a 19th-century railway tycoon," Forbes added.
A number of prominent people fell off the list entirely.
Chinese President Hu Jintao had ranked number two on the list last year and was the most powerful person in the world in 2010. With a new regime in place in China, Jintao is however on his way out of office, having already handed over some of his duties.
He would surrender the rest early next year.
In compiling the list, Forbes considered hundreds of candidates from various walks of life all around the globe.
It took into consideration factors including whether the candidate has power over lots of people, the financial resources controlled by each person, whether they are powerful in multiple spheres and the active use of the candidates' power.
read more
The Most Powerful People in the World
India's richest businessman Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani and and Arcelor Mittal CEO Lakshmi Mittal also feature in the list that comprises 71 mighty heads of state, CEOs, entrepreneurs and philanthropists who "truly run and shape the world of 7.1 billion people."
Gandhi dropped a notch from last year's list and ranks at number 12 this year ahead of Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang and French President Francois Hollande. Forbes said the 65-year-old leader of India's ruling political party has the reins of the world's second-most-populous country and tenth-largest economy.
"Son Rahul is next in line to take over India's most famous political dynasty," it added. Coming in at the 20th spot is Singh, the Oxford and Cambridge-educated economist who is the architect of India's economic reforms.
Singh had ranked 19th in the list last year. "But Singh's quiet intellectualism is increasingly seen as timid and soft," Forbes added.
Ambani, owner of the world's most expensive private residence, ranks 37th in the list. Forbes said the petrochemical billionaire is India's richest and Reliance Industries is the nation's most valuable company.
It however described Ambani's support for disgraced former Goldman Sachs Director Rajat Gupta as a "low point" for him in 2012.
Mittal, ranked 47th in the most powerful people list, has a net worth of USD 16 billion but also has "lots of headaches, including S&P and Moody downgrades of his company's debt to junk status." A highlight for Mittal during the past year was carrying the Olympic flame in the 2012 Torch Relay.
Forbes said 51-year-old Obama emerged "unanimously" as the world's most powerful person for the second year running.
The decisive winner of the 2012 US presidential election, Obama now has four more years to push his agenda even as he faces major challenges, including an unresolved budget crisis, stubbornly high unemployment and renewed unrest in the Middle East.
"But Obama remains the commander-in-chief of the world's greatest military and head of the sole economic and cultural superpower--literally the leader of the free world," it said.
The second most powerful person in the world also happens to be the most powerful woman, German chancellor 58-year-old Angela Merkel. She jumped up from the number four position last year to take the runner-up spot on the 2012 list.
Forbes termed Merkel as the backbone of the 27-member European Union, one who carries the fate of the Euro on her shoulders.
The list also includes Russian President Vladimir Putin at number three, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (4), General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping (9), Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin (20), Iran's Supreme leader Ali Khamenei (21) UN chief Ban Ki-moon (30), North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (44) and former US President Bill Clinton (50).
Forbes dropped US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from the list this year. Clinton, who had ranked 16th last year, does not feature in 2012 rankings as she is not expected to return to her powerful post for Obama's second term.
It is for the same reason that US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner also does not feature in this year's list.
Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is ranked 28th in the list
"The most powerful man in an unstable country; Pakistan's de facto leader controls nuclear weapons and one of the world's largest standing armies. Despite tension over drone strikes, Kayani remains a key ally in the war on terror," Forbes said, adding that a lowpoint for Kayani this past year came when the country's Supreme Court issued a series of rulings holding the military accountable for human rights abuses and political meddling.
Zaheer ul-Islam, the head of Pakistan's notorious intelligence service ISI, has been ranked 52nd on the list.
"The ISI has played both sides in the war on terror and, as US troops draw out of Afghanistan, will be hugely influential in determining the region's future," Forbes said.
Islam's high point in 2012 was his first official visit to the US for talks with then counterpart in CIA General David Petraeus.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who came in at the 25th spot, is one of the youngest persons on the list at age 29. He dropped significantly from last year's top-ten ranking after Facebook's much-anticipated IPO turned out to be a flop.
Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff (18) is one of the list's biggest gainers. At the midpoint of her first term, Rousseff's emphasis on entrepreneurship has prompted a slew of new startups and energized Brazilian youths, Forbes said.
Apple CEO Tim Cook (35) made a big upward move too. A year after he succeeded iconic founder Steve Jobs, the company is the most valuable in the world and Apple stock hit an all-time high in September, reaching above USD 700 a share.
New members of the list include LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman who is ranked 71.
Forbes said Hoffman is the world's most powerful venture capitalist and the most-connected man in Silicon Valley.
Making his debut on the list at rank 66 is Elon Musk, the entrepreneur behind PayPal and Tesla Motors who is the most powerful man in space.
"His company SpaceX is a leader in the private space industry, and with that business set to boom, Musk stands to make out like a 19th-century railway tycoon," Forbes added.
A number of prominent people fell off the list entirely.
Chinese President Hu Jintao had ranked number two on the list last year and was the most powerful person in the world in 2010. With a new regime in place in China, Jintao is however on his way out of office, having already handed over some of his duties.
He would surrender the rest early next year.
In compiling the list, Forbes considered hundreds of candidates from various walks of life all around the globe.
It took into consideration factors including whether the candidate has power over lots of people, the financial resources controlled by each person, whether they are powerful in multiple spheres and the active use of the candidates' power.
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