Author Archives: Gunjan Priya

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US Calls on Sudan to conduct fair elections

US warns Sudan to conduct fair elections. Obama stated that Sudanese voters should have full freedom to vote for candidates according to their choices.

US President called on Sudan to conduct a fair election free from coercion. He also revealed that if Sudanese administration follows 2005 peace agreement and conducts a fair poll, US might remove the country from its list of states sponsoring terrorism.

The president stated that the all nations are looking toward Sudan and expect it fulfills the obligations under the peace deal. He further added that Sudan must show a clean image by allowing voters full access to polling booths and cast their votes freely. The Khartoum administration must ensure there is no tension provoked by any factor that might lead to violence during elections.

Obama himself has put lot of efforts to ensure that Sudan follows the referendum peacefully. He called on all Sudanese leaders from North and South to cooperate with each other and work united to prevent violence.

The US president advises Sudanese to avoid any illegal mean to gain votes. Sudan is conducting its first poll after agreeing to Peace agreement following the 50-year-long civil war in the country. There were more than 2 million people killed during this period in North and South Sudan.

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Democrats follow aggressive strategy against Republicans

With the opening of new session of the Congress, Democrats attack Republicans. The ruling party now faults Republicans and warns against repeal of the healthcare law and their motives behind obstructing Obama’s way in running the administration.

Since the Democrats are in minority in House, despite being in power, they feel free to criticize Republicans and take avenge of their actions for last two years.

A Democrat leader stated that their new status as minority has made Democrats ruthless toward the opposition party who has been attacking them on every issue Democrats are now feeling free to criticize Republicans, who have gained majority after midterm polls in November.

Republicans are now obliged to justify their objections to make amendments in the repeal legislation and why are they allowing a change that would incur an extra burden of $100 billion to the tax payers.

However, the same was expected by the Republicans. They called it Democrats’ old strategies with which they had snatched power from the former in 2006.

A Republican diplomat– Representative Eric Cantor from Virginia– stated that, Democrats are however, unlikely to succeed this time as people are more aware of deteriorating financial condition of the country owing to Obama administration’s wrong decisions. Unemployment is another major reason to keep people unhappy with Democrats’ performance, he further added.

Democrats called their demonstrations as way to inform public about hypocrisy of Republicans and their vested interests.

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WikiLeaks chief faults US for asking Twitter, Google to divulge information

U.S. administration is trying to pressurize social networking sites to reveal information about WikiLeaks. Under their investigation, the US officials have asked court to order Twitter for disclosing details about WikiLeaks chief –Julian Assange–as he has illegally disclosed government’s secret documents.

The US administration is trying to constitute a criminal case against Assange. Assange stated that the government might also force other social networks and websites as Facebook and Google to divulge information about him. All these sites are owned by American companies.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has issued an order to Twitter Inc. to disclose all information about accounts related to Assange and his friends and colleagues exchanging messages on the website.

Pfc. Bradley Manning, an intelligence analyst is also under suspicion of providing important information to Twitter. The list of suspects includes parliamentarian Birgitta Jonsdottir, from Iceland and Rop Gonggrijp, WikiLeaks ex-collaborator; and Dutch hacker and Jacob Appelbaum, a U.S. programmer. The court has asked Twitter to give all information about these suspects.

The order was issued on Dec. 14 by Virginia District Court.

Assange severely criticized court’s order and stated that this was aimed to harass him. He has pledged to fight against violation of his right to privacy. He added that had it been Iranian government asking for somebody’s private information from social networks and websites, human right activists would have raised their voices against it, but everybody was silent over actions of the US administration to suppress him.

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Traffic disrupted in Chicago due to snowfall

Another blow of cold covers Chicago on Friday night with snowfall. Temperature decreased to minus 12 degree Celsius according to the report by National Weather Service.

The entire northern America has been experiencing severe cold, temperatures much below freezing point and blizzard in different parts of the country. Bad weather loomed over the celebrations of Christmas and New Year too and people were bound to take shelter in their houses in stead of enjoying festivals outside.

Temperature is decreasing in entire northeast  especially in parts of Illinois and Indiana and expected to dip more.

However there will be intermittent snowfall in Chicago. Traffic will be more disturbed due to decreased visibility as per the weather department. The commuters will face more problems due to slippery roads owing to moderate snowfall up to one inch.

The Chicago city administration has fastened its service on the roads for clearing snow and the main route to the city –174 had 40 trucks of Dept. of Streets & Sanitation for monitoring bridges and overpasses to control traffic.

Many vehicles and commuters needed emergency help due to crashes that was caused by minimum visibility. The Illinois police is investigating about around 20 crashes occurred by 8:45 pm on Friday.

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Obama pins hopes on economic advisors from Clinton’s team

US President chooses his new economic adviser, who had also served to the former president Bill Clinton.  Gene Sperling worked as a senior economic adviser in White House during Clinton’s rule.

Obama finished selecting his core economic team members on Friday and selected Gene Sperling as senior economic adviser.

Sperling will work as the director of Barack Obama’s National Economic Council, He has succeeded Lawrence Summers. Summers will resume teaching economics at Harvard.

Sperling has also assisted Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner as his counselor. Obama has retained many other members of Clinton era in his team. Ex- commerce secretary, William Daley, who also worked with Clinton, has been given a position in Obama’s West wing as the new White House chief of staff.

“Obama stated that Gene’s work during Clinton’s era was well acclaimed leading an economy suffering deficits to surpluses and thus he was the best choice for White House.

The president appreciated increase in employment as mentioned in Friday’s report by the government however added that unemployment was still high and needed more efforts to improve the situation. Jason Furman, who had served Clinton will remain in the National Economic Council and also get a higher rank this time as a deputy director.

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Microsoft redesigns Table Computer, reduces price

Microsoft Surface that had a hefty base with a large touch screen has shrunk now into a smaller version.

The new redesigned version of  the Surface is less costly and more convenient to use, to access applications that are interactive in nature and can also be used in shopping malls, banks and hotels.

The very first sample of the new Surface computer  has been demonstrated by the company on Wednesday.

The earlier version of Surface computers cost around $15,000.  Vodafone and Hard Rock Café were some Microsoft’s long term clients that used Surface computers however; it did not generate much income for the company.

The newer version of same model has been designed with a thickness of 4 inches and is very similar to a simple table commonly available. It is less costly than the larger model by $7600 and thus is expected to attract more customers. Microsoft has also added extra features in the new Surface computer that has a high definition screen of 40 inches.

Surface Computer’s new touch screen is like a camera that can be used to recognize, bar or inform passengers at airports or help in recognizing customers that visit regularly or very often to a particular shopping store.

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Social network giant Facebook plans to publish finance news

The most popular social network Facebook is all set to report financial results from 2012.

The company has informed its prospective shareholders regarding its proposed venture. However it would certainly make it public provided the network aims to get beyond 500 shareholders.

According to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules, any company which wants large number of investors needs to disclose its proposals in details in public.

Facebook has recently become a popular avenue for investors due to its increasing number of users and advertising income.

Facebook has already released data about its sales and profits. It earned $1.2 billion in total out of which net profit was of $355 million in the very first nine month period in  2010.Facebook earn its revenue mainly from ads displayed on its pages. Also affiliate marketing and game applications add a major part of the total earnings for Facebook.

Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, a client of Facebook alone invested $450 million in the network. The investing company expects to sell its shares of $75 million to other clients for its stakes in Facebook. A Russian firm Digital Sky Technologies has estimated Facebook as worth $50 billion and invested $50 million itself.

According to a report published in Wall Street Journal, Facebook has achieved highest quarterly earning recently.

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US calls for downsizing military troops to balance budget deficit

US Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has ordered a downsizing of the Army and navy. There will be a reduction of 47,000 troops following a call from White House to cut defense budget. T

he downsizing will reduce defense expenses by $78 billion, Gates stated However, he pointed out that the reduction in military troops will occur before 2015.

The defense secretary also revealed that the United States is withdrawing its forces from Iraq and Afghanistan.

For last four years the United States have expanded its military power so far to maximize troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The downsizing will therefore assure the fact that American soldiers are called back from these two nations and there would not be any need to expand the military.

However, even withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan is not going to take place very soon. Robert Gates and other top officials believe that there is a major risk involved in downsizing the forces and this is why they have only modestly reduced the number of troops in the Army and Navy.

Despite the call for withdrawal of forces, US strategy of military interference in other nation’s has not changed yet. Pentagon is ready to send off 1,000 marines troops in addition to the present number in Helmand Province in Afghanistan to pressurize Taliban.

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Experts say Repeal of healthcare law would cost $230 billion to US

Repealing health care law will be the first objective of Republicans in the House. However experts are saying that the revoke will endanger financial security of more than 32 million people of the USA due to lack of insurance coverage for them.

This would also cause to a larger financial deficit with a raise of $230 billion for the American economy. People will be forced to pay for private health insurance after the cancellation of Obama’s health care law.

Though the opposition has already initiated the process of repeal, they would need a majority in the House. The Republicans have also pledged to minimize financial deficit by introducing a better bill that would replace the health care law.

The experts predict a new trend in the changing political scenario, where the Republicans will control  the House. for Democrats President Obama’s healthcare law is one of their landmark achievements that they will try to retain any how. But even if they succeed in retaining the law, the opposition will create obstacle in its funding.

According to the financial analysis made by CBO [Congressional Budget Office], the repeal of health care law will cost around $145 billion in the initial stage and will reach $230 billion approximately by 2021. Thus, not only it would raise the burden of taxes on Americans but would also hamper many other activities due to shift of funds.

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Democrat Malloy joins as Connecticut’s 88th governor

Dan Malloy

Dan Malloy pledges to make Connecticut free from all financial crises. The 55 year old Democrat leader took oath on Wednesday as the 88th governor of the state.

Inauguration also included an inaugural ball followed by an afternoon parade, salute to the new governor with 19 guns and finally a flyover of aircraft.

Malloy has replaced Republican M. Jodi Rell, governing Connecticut for last 6 years. He  has been the mayor of Stamford and also worked as a prosecutor in New York City In his inaugural Malloy stress on fixing the fiscal crisis Connecticut is going through. He faulted lawmakers for aggravating the problems.

However, he did not mention what steps he plans to take to make up for the fiscal deficit of $3.5 as the plan will be disclosed in next month.

Malloy did not commit for not raising taxes even in the poll campaigns. This gives an edge to his political rivals. However he pointed out that there might be a balanced budget plan combining some tax hikes as well as cuts in services to minimize the deficit.

A senior leader from Republican Party– John McKinney– called Malloy’s plan to increase the taxes a wrong step. He stated that the new governor’s priority should be how to reduce the taxes and not raise them.