Author Archives: Gunjan Priya

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President Obama calls on business groups to improve US economy

Washington: President Barack Obama on Saturday asked U.S business and finance groups to improve on the economic status of the country by increasing the labour force and investments.

There is an increased responsibility of the Country to improve the rate at which business is done through improving education putting in place what will encourage creativity and framework  development.

He said the businesses have a responsibility also to increase their labor force if America is made a place suitable for businesses to operate.

Obama received much resentment from influential corporate business factions in his first two years against his plans to improve Wall Street operating guidelines and also to refurbish the healthcare sector. In a move to improve things, the white house sought out to make a former executive of JP Morgan Chase the new Chief of staff.

Obama would however make the challenge by giving his first statement to chamber members and promised to address the members of the chambers that both the government and business have joint obligations.

In his recent travels around the nation, he’s been trying to sell around initiatives to improve wireless access.

We want to move ahead and the best way is what we did by giving tax credits.

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US, Russia to implement START Treaty

Hillary Rodham Clinton, US Secretary of State finalizes deal with Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s Foreign Minister on Security Policy in Munich, Germany on Feb. 5.

The two nations will implement the new treaty– new Strategic arms reduction treaty (START)  to restrict the number of nuclear weapons they can possess.

Hillary Clinton and Sergei Lavrov traded authorization documents with each other in Germany during a ceremony to enact the treaty.

Clinton stated that the treaty would serve as a “clear-eyed cooperation” for everybody’s interest. The Russian diplomat called it a mean to enhance global stability.

US president Barack Obama signed START treaty in last April with Dmitry Medvedev, Russian President substituting the older arms control pact. The earlier deal was signed during cold war in 1991.

The new deal states that both the nations signing the treaty would limit their nuclear warheads to 1550—reducing 30 percent from the level set in 2002.

Ban Ki-Moon, U.N. chief welcomed the United States and Russia for the step and appreciated the two leaders for taking lead on the issue of reduction of nuclear weapons. The new nuclear weapons reduction deal or START treaty had been approved by the United States Senate earlier in December. Russian Parliament too passed the bill to go ahead with the treaty in the previous month.

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Egypt halts natural gas supply to Israel, Jordan after gas leakage

Egypt has stopped exporting natural-gas by pipeline to Israel and Jordan following a fire, revealed Egyptian Oil Ministry.

The ministry further stated that the halt was mad e to restrict further damage to the pipeline. The incident occurred due to gas leakage in El Arish in the northern Sinai desert where the authorities suspected foreign hands behind terrorist activities. The fire was however under control without any casualty despite flames and smoke billowing out into the sky, explained the ministry in its statement. This ignites tension amidst the huge mass protests going on in Egypt for the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak for last 12 days. Mubarak has warned people that if he leaves Egypt would be under chaos.

The activists made a human chain in Cairo at Tahrir Square to stop military tanks while demonstrating against President Hosni Mubarak. It is notable to remember that Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace deal with Israel in 1989.

Israel’s Ministry of National Infrastructure revealed that there was no fear of interruption in electric supply to the country from this incident of fire in the pipeline. Israel meets 40% of its gas consumption needs from gas imported from Egypt. The break in gas supply from Egypt will also hamper export to Jordan however they have ample backup fuel to run the normal activities, revealed Ghaleb al-Maabira, Jordan’s state electricity company’ general director.

Egypt possesses 77 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves and is the main supplier of fuel in the easter Mediterranean region.

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Verizon sets record in sales, stops taking orders

The iPhone 4 of Verizon has set new milestones of record sales last night-. The overwhelming response to the product is the most successful first day sale in company’s history so far. The counting was continued while morning press release was published and it did not mention the actual number of iPhone sales.

At the launch of iPhone 4 in June, Apple had announced that the company took 600,000 orders for the device on the first day.

The latest launch by Verizon before iPhone was Motorola Droid for which the company sold 250,000 units in the first week. It is a Android-based smartphone.

However, iPhone’s pre-orders are predicted to have reached in millions on the very first day. From Feb 10 both Apple and Verizon will start selling iPhones of Verizon flavor. You can opt for an online purchase for a quicker access as it will start on Feb 9 from 3:01 am.

The new price of  the 16-gigabyte model is $199.99  whereas for 32 GB model it is only $299.99 for the 32 GB model. However for those who have been the customers of Verizon for last 20 months can purchase the same models on a discounted price. There is no mention of such change in policies on the company website so far and this is creating lot of confusions among the customers.

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Egyptians demand immediate exit of President Hosni Mubarak

Thousands of people in Egypt are demonstrating in Alexandria demanding ouster of President Hosni Mubarak..

At Alexandria’s Qaed Ibrahim mosque, tens of thousands of people had assembled on Friday to demonstrate against the president.

Excluding a single dispute with a security official, the demonstrations were non violent and there was nobody hurt during the mass protest.

There were thousands of people from opposition Muslim Brotherhood movement.

Other major groups participating in the protests were Kefaya (Enough), 6th April movements and fans ofMohamed ElBaradei, who is an Egyptian Nobel Peace prize winner and a popular protester.

More than 25,000 protesters gathered at Raml near Alexandria before marching to Sidi Gaber square in the main port city.

There have been many huge rallies organized continuously everywhere in Egypt against Hosni Mubarak in last 11 days demanding his exit in Cairo and other main cities.

President Mubarak has however tried to compromise with the demonstrators offering some concession however the protesters are rigid over asking him to step down and end his 30-year long rule in Egypt. They also plead Mubarak for not standing in the September elections.

International community, the United Nations and major superpowers of the world are continuously pressurizing Mubarak to step down; however he has not shown any willingness to follow the same so far.

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Unemployment decreases without increase in jobs in US

No job growth in US despite decrease in Unemployment U.S. economy registers very low job creation in January, according to the report of the federal unemployment. Thus though there has been a reduction in percentage of unemployment the actual number of people who are unemployed, remained almost unchanged.

Bad weather was also cited a reason for slow hiring rates as per the report. Employers have not changed their defensive strategy despite a remarkable recovery of US economy.

However it is surprising how the calculation of unemployment rate on national level shows a dramatic reduction– decreasing to 9% in January, from its earlier level of 9.4% in December that was even greater one month before– 9.8% in November.

This might be however an indication of negative factors rather than increase in employment. Young working population fleeing away from US job market led to a proportional decrease in unemployment that clearly indicates that there is no expectation of increase in jobs among US people.

Bart van Ark , the chief economist of Conference Board called it a chilling start for this year as US labor market could not gain the same momentum with the economic recovery after depression.

Bureau of Labor Statistics however gave some optimistic notion as they registered 49000 jobs in manufacturing sector this month and there was in an increase of 27500 jobs in the retail section. However there was decrease in jobs in government, financial services, transportation, construction, and ad-hoc -help works last month.

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Egyptian premier expresses regret over military action against protesters

Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq claimed accountability for military attacks on protesters in Cairo and asked for forgiveness.

He stated that President Hosni Mubarak has ordered him to probe into the recent chaos in the country. Mr Shafiq assured to punish those who allowed this violence to occur.

He further stated that the attack was a blunder and he would be cautious not to let it happen again in Egypt.

There were violent clashes between President Hosni Mubarak’s supporters and opponents during which the Egyptian military remained restricted to Tahir Square in Cairo by Thursday.

The premiers along with the Vice President Omar Suleiman have invited the opposition for a meeting in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. However many of opposition groups have denied attending the meeting reportedly.

Wafd Party, Al-Ghad party and Muslim Brotherhood leaders stated that they would boycott the meeting and refused to sit with the premier. Clashes continue even on Thursday on both sides of the square, where demonstrators have gathered.

More than 836 people were injured in the clashes so far and five casualties were reported by a state-run television channel.

The demonstrators initially demanding peacefully for ouster of President Hosni Mubarak had suddenly taken into streets and broke the makeshift barricades in the square. Gradually supporters of Mubarak also joined in action that leads to complete chaos in the entire capital city.

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UN Shifts employees from Egypt to Cyprus for safety

The United Nations asked its members to move from Egypt seeing the mass unrest in the country. More than 5,000 passengers were besieged at Cairo airport following the violent protests in Cairo against President Hosni Mubarak.

The U.N. has sent two chartered aircraft to take back its 350 staffs and their families safely to Cyprus.

Rolando Gomez, spokesperson for the UN stated that the organization has shifted its 600 employees temporarily from Egypt to Cyprus due to security reasons. They would however, continue their usual service from Cyprus.

Around 1900 US citizens have left Egypt within three days and the United States is providing emergency supports for travel documents and flights to all its citizens for evacuating. Additional flights are being provided on Thursday to evacuate foreign nationals safely from Egypt. More than 150 US citizens were found waiting eagerly to board any available flight commercial or government-chartered flight.

There was a heavy congestion on the Cairo airport as more than 5000 passengers crowded there on Wednesday. The passengers had reached the airport fearing the bloody street brawl in the Egyptian capital city.

The mass unrest has engulfed Egypt since January end. Thousands of flights have been cancelled in the wake of violent protests. Tourism sector alone has suffered a loss of $1 billion so far in last 10 months.

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Washington court hears to challenges against Voting Rights Act 1965

Voting Rights Act has received a setback as an appeal has been made over its viability in the Washington federal court. In 2009, the Supreme Court allowed making challenges against the act to rectify racial discrimination in voting laws.

Today, Shelby County from Alabama stated that the 1965 Voting Rights Act has so far successfully served its purpose after its implementation however; it is not viable at present.

The law restricted black voters in Southern part of the United States from enjoying their basic voting rights, the county stated to support his demand to repeal the law. There have been tremendous changes made by the Senate in 1965 Voting Rights Act in last 45 years and there are many sections in the act which are quite illogical and lack justification and anybody’s electoral autonomy should not be judged upon such an obsolete act.

Eric Holder, Attorney General argues in his official statement that the Congress  had already heard to evidence of limiting voting rights  for the Blacks in 2006 and there was no need of another reauthorization. Many civil right activists and groups have come to support government against Shelby County’s challenge to the law.

Chief Justice John Roberts also acknowledged that despite being more than 40 years old, there was no evidence of violation of 1965 Voting Rights Act and it could not be established that the law was not viable at present.

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Clinton expresses concern over mass protests in Egypt

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warns diplomats against the situation in the Middle East considering it as a threat to the safety of America. She said this while addressing diplomats on Wednesday. Clinton mentioned the disclosure of confidential documents by WikiLeaks along with the difficulties in passing State Department budgets and reduction in foreign aids and called on Americans for taking up these challenges.

Clinton expressed her concern over mass protests and uprisings in Egypt against the President Hosni Mubarak and demand for his ouster. She stated that the development of means of communication has made all the nations more vulnerable these days and we are all in an “uncharted territory.”

She cited the leakage of information regarding a meeting she had called in to talk with all US ambassadors. She further added that the authorities had predicted to call on this Global Chief of Mission secretly however somehow the report was leaked and the meeting lost its importance.

The US Secretary also mentioned that due to unrest and uprising in Cairo, US envoy to Egypt missed a State Department meeting too. She said that there are cross complexities in the politics of theses countries which US needs to understand before taking any further action.