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| 2008/11/27-12/2 [Politics/Foreign/Asia/Others] UID:52120 Activity:nil |
11/27 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=a96.kD6rKZM0&refer=india http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,458270,00.html 101 dead in India. Word of advice: don't tell gunmen that you're an American/Britain. Say that you're a Canadian, and that you never supported Bush's war. Seriously, you didn't actually support his war right? It's aboot time that I practice my Canadian accent. \_ http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/oct/31bpo1.htm \- "They have grenades, they have AK47s...they have 100kg of chicken." \_ And some of them are ambiguously gay!!! \_ http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/11/26/king.chopra.mumbai \_ "C[anadians] die a thousand deaths. The valiant taste of death but once." -jcaesar |
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| www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=a96.kD6rKZM0&refer=india Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel and the Oberoi Trident complex at about 10 pm local time yesterday, saying they were targeting Americans and Britons, according to witnesses. Three US citizens were injured, the State Department said, adding it had no confirmed deaths of Americans. People were still barricaded in their rooms after the hostage situation at the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel ended today, Mumbai Police Chief AN Roy said. The Oberoi Group said as many as 200 people may be in its two buildings, based on estimates of occupancy and staff. A fire broke out on several floors at the Trident Hotel as Indian commandos engaged in an intense fight with terrorists, police official Hasan Gafoor said. "We came up against highly motivated terrorists," Vice- Admiral JS Bedi told the NDTV 24x7 television network. He said his commandos exchanged fire on the second floor of the Taj hotel with terrorists, and showed pictures of recovered hand grenades, tear gas shells, AK47 magazines, knives and credit cards. Targeting foreign nationals at key tourist hotels and restaurants adds a new dimension to a wave of bombings in India this year that has killed more than 300 people. Multiple attacks have rocked India's cities with bombs planted in markets, theaters and near mosques. The wife and two sons of the general manager of the Taj were killed, the Press Trust of India reported. His sons were aged five and 14, the news agency reported. Earlier, Mumbai police said 14 people were evacuated from the Trident hotel, where gunfire was heard, without saying whether they were hostages. And a new series of blasts was heard at the Taj, as commandos continued a sweep through the property. Ratan Tata, whose Tata Group owns the hotels, said the commandos had the Taj under control. A fire broke out on the fourth floor of the heritage wing of the hotel, with smoke seen billowing out of a window in television pictures. New York of India' "Mumbai is the New York of India and this is a clear attack on Westerners," said Clive Williams, a terrorism specialist at the Australian National University in Canberra. "The targeting of British and Americans means there is a new modus operandi." There may be as many as 12 terrorists at the Oberoi and there is no proposal to negotiate with them, said RR Patil, deputy chief minister of the western Maharashtra state, after reports the militants were demanding the release of all Mujahedeen fighters held in India. India will "go after" individuals and organizations behind the attacks, which were "well-planned with external linkages" Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a televised address to the nation. The government will take steps to ensure there is no repetition of the terrorist attacks, Singh said today. Television pictures showed people who had gathered outside the Trident complex shouting "Bharat Mata Ki Jai (Long live the Motherland)" as commandos stepped out of trucks and walked toward the buildings. Sheer Chaos' "It was sheer chaos," said Manuela Testolini, a Canadian businesswoman who was dining at the Oberoi when gunmen burst in hunting for foreign nationals. "Every time we heard gunshots they were right behind us," Testolini, who escaped through the kitchen with guests and hotel workers, told CNN television. "They told everybody to stop and put their hands up and asked if there were any British or Americans," businessman Alex Chamberlain told Sky Television. Gunmen may have come from Pakistan, the Times Now television channel said, citing an unidentified intelligence official. The Indian Navy captured a ship that is suspected to have dropped terrorists off the coast of Mumbai before attacking the city, IBN7 reported, citing unidentified intelligence officials. Karachi Link The Vietnam-registered ship, MV Alfa, allegedly came from Karachi and probably dropped the terrorists in speed boats in the Arabian Sea outside Indian territorial waters, the Hindi-language television channel said. Barack Obama led global condemnation of the attacks as his transition team said the US would work with "India and nations around the world to root out and destroy terrorist networks." President George W Bush telephoned Singh today and offered US support and assistance to India, his spokeswoman said. Ban Ki-moon called for the attackers to be "brought to justice swiftly," while Indian President Pratibha Devisingh Patil, on an official visit to Vietnam, condemned the attacks as the "mindless" act of people "pursuing a path of destruction." And Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari also condemned the attack, calling it "detestable." Six foreigners, 14 policemen, including the head of Mumbai's anti-terrorism unit, and 81 members of the public were killed, according to police. Western Deaths Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said an Australian was killed in the attacks. One Japanese citizen was killed and another injured, the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo said. An Italian was also killed, the country's Foreign Ministry said. And a Briton also died in the attack, the Foreign Office said. Seven Britons were hurt in the attacks, British High Commissioner Sir Richard Stagg said in televised comments, adding he had no information on the nationality of the hostages. Twenty- six policemen were also hurt, Police Sub-Inspector SD Tarwadkar said in a telephone interview from Mumbai. The attacks, the worst in the city since train blasts in July 2006 killed 187 people and injured more than 800, began with explosions and gunfire ringing out across the city. Armed with AK-47 rifles and grenades, two terrorists entered the passenger hall of Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and opened fire, PTI said. Images on television showed blood-spattered luggage strewn across the floor. Cafe Leopold Shootings occurred outside Cafe Leopold, in the Colaba district of south Mumbai where the Taj is located, CNN-IBN television reported. A rabbi and his wife were being held hostage in the Chabad- Lubavitch Center in Mumbai after gunmen attacked the Jewish facility, a spokesman for the group in Israel said in a telephone interview. Several Israelis were also being held in the building, said Menachem Brod, a spokesman for Chabad, a Brooklyn-based Hassidic group. Brod said that a woman who worked in the Chabad building, located in the Colaba neighborhood, had escaped along with the rabbi's two-year-old son and a cook. "She reported that the rabbi and his wife are alive but that they are unconscious," Brod said, adding he didn't know how many Israelis were being held hostage or how many gunmen were in the building. One of the militants asked for talks with the Indian government, offering release of the hostages, Sky News said. Taj Fire The Taj was damaged as a fire broke out overnight, forcing emergency workers to evacuate guests by ladders. All 26 South Koreans at the hotel were rescued, according to the Foreign Ministry in Seoul. The hotel overlooks the historic Gateway of India monument, the scene of a car bomb explosion in August 2003 when attacks in Mumbai killed at least 50 people. Like the Taj, the Oberoi is popular with international visitors to Mumbai. The Oberoi Group, founded in 1934, also operates the luxury Trident hotel brand. Security Across India Security was stepped up at other luxury hotels across India. In the capital, New Delhi, the Imperial Hotel posted extra guards and swung its gates half-closed to prevent cars from entering freely. Schools and colleges in Mumbai will be closed today, the PTI news agency reported. The attacks come as India accelerates efforts to prop up a slumping economy battered by the global financial crisis. Between January 2004 and March 2007 the death toll from terrorist attacks in India was 3,674, second only to Iraq during the same period, according to the National Counterterrorism Center in Washington. The government has previously blamed terrorist attacks on organizations linked to foreign powers, without offering evidence or making arrests. Local media often blame the attacks on groups backed by Pakistan or Bangladesh, without identifying the security officials who provided the information. India's capital, New Delhi, was rocked by five blasts... |
| www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,458270,00.html Police have taken at least seven people out of the two-hotel complex, one of three buildings where gunmen are still holding hostages in country's financial capital. The roof of the Oberoi hotel was ablaze as a result of explosions inside the building. Commandos reportedly were sweeping through the adjoining Trident hotel, checking to see if terrorists were using it as an escape route. com correspondent traveling in the region reports that some of the terrorists may have fled Mumbai in stolen government Jeeps, and that police and military forces were setting up checkpoints and roadblocks around the city, according to local media reports. The Associated Press reports one of the rescued hostages told reporters he had seen many bodies inside the hotel. Indian TV, meanwhile, reports government officials fear the death toll at the Taj Mahal hotel could be high, with as many as 80-90 bodies inside. Some of the dead appear to have been killed by the gunmen, while others may have died in subsequent explosions and fires. India Terror Attacks Among the bodies removed are those of Australian, Japanese and British nationals. A senior US State Department official told FOX News that it could not yet confirm whether any Americans are among the casualties. Meanwhile, Indian police reportedly are negotiating with gunmen holding hostages at the ultra-orthodox Jewish Chabad Lubavitch Center. There were unconfirmed reports that some of the hostages at the Oberoi hotel are Israeli nationals. Reuters reports a militant at the Lubavitch Center phoned an Indian TV station with an offer to talk with government officials about the release of hostages. The caller reportedly also complained about abuses in Indian Kashmir. "Are you aware how many people have been killed in Kashmir?" Are you aware how many of them have been killed in Kashmir this week?" A previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the attacks in e-mails to several media outlets. While there was no way to verify that claim, security experts in India and US speculated the group either is an Al Qaeda faction, or has the backing the Muslim terrorist group. Dozens of people are still trapped or held captive, nearly a day after teams of heavily armed gunmen invaded two five star hotels, a popular restaurant, a crowded train station and a Jewish center, killing at least 104 people in coordinated attacks on India's commercial center. Pradeep Indulkar, a senior official at the Maharashtra state Home Ministry said 101 people were killed and 314 injured. Officials said the bodies of nine militants were removed from the scene. The gunmen appeared to be part of coordinated attacks on at least 10 sites that began around 9:30 pm Wednesday local time. Gunmen also seized the Mumbai headquarters of the ultra-orthodox Jewish outreach group Chabad Lubavitch. Indian commandos surrounded the building Thursday morning and witnesses said gunfire was heard from the building. Click to view photos from the attack sites Police loudspeakers declared a curfew around Mumbai's landmark Taj Mahal hotel, and black-clad commandos ran into the building as fresh gunshots rang out from the area, apparently the beginning of an assault on gunmen who had taken hostages in the hotel. Soldiers outside the hotel said forces were moving slowly, from room to room, looking for gunmen and traps. At noon, two bodies covered with white cloth were wheeled out of the entrance and put in ambulances. A series of explosions rocked the Taj Mahal just after midnight. Screams were heard and black smoke and flames billowed from the century-old edifice on Mumbai's waterfront. Firefighters sprayed water at the blaze and plucked people from balconies with extension ladders. At the nearby upscale Oberoi hotel, soldiers could be seen on the roof of neighboring buildings. Officials at Bombay Hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a Japanese man had died there and nine Europeans had been admitted, three of them in critical condition with gunshots. At least three top Indian police officers -- including the chief of the anti-terror squad -- were among those killed, said and AN Roy, a top police official. The attackers specifically targeted Britons, Americans and Israelis at the hotels and restaurant, witnesses said. Alex Chamberlain, a British citizen who was dining at the Oberoi, told Sky News television that a gunman ushered 30 to 40 people from the restaurant into a stairway and, speaking in Hindi or Urdu, ordered everyone to put up their hands. Click to view photos from the attack sites "They were talking about British and Americans specifically. There was an Italian guy, who, you know, they said: 'Where are you from?" and he said he's from Italy and they said 'fine' and they left him alone. And I thought: 'Fine, they're going to shoot me if they ask me anything -- and thank God they didn't," he said. Chamberlain said he managed to slip away as the patrons were forced to walk up stairs, but he thought much of the group was being held hostage. The White House, meanwhile, said President Bush expressed condolences to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the attacks. Press secretary Dana Perino said the president had the conversation with the Indian leader while spending Thanksgiving Day with his family at the Camp David mountaintop retreat in Maryland. Perino said that Bush offered Singh "support and assistance" as he works to restore order in the populous and growing Southwest Asian nation. The president also wished Singh success as Indian officials investigate "these despicable acts" in Mumbai. The motive for the onslaught was not immediately clear, but Mumbai has frequently been targeted in terrorist attacks blamed on Islamic extremists, including a series of bombings in July 2006 that killed 187 people. Mumbai, on the western coast of India overlooking the Arabian Sea, is home to splendid Victorian architecture built during the British Raj and is one of the most populated cities in the world with some 18 million crammed into shantytowns, high rises and crumbling mansions. The Taj Mahal hotel, filled with Oriental carpets, Indian artifacts and alabaster ceilings, overlooks the fabled Gateway of India that commemorated the visit of King George V and Queen Mary. A spokesman for the Lubavitch movement in New York, Rabbi Zalman Shmotkin, said attackers "stormed the Chabad house" in Mumbai. "It seems that the terrorists commandeered a police vehicle which allowed them easy access to the area of the Chabad house and threw a grenade at a gas pump nearby," he said. Around 10:30 am, three people were led from the building and escorted away by police: a woman, a child and an Indian cook, said one witness, who also spoke on condition of anonymity. He said he did not know the status of occupants of the house, which serves as an educational center and a synagogue. Early Thursday, state Home Secretary Bipin Shrimali said four suspects had been killed in two incidents in Mumbai when they tried to flee in cars, and Roy said four more gunmen were killed at the Taj Mahal. State Home Minister RR Patil said nine more were arrested. "We're going to catch them dead or alive," Patil told reporters. "An attack on Mumbai is an attack on the rest of the country." Indian authorities ordered schools and colleges and the Bombay Stock Exchange closed Thursday. Blood smeared the grounds of the 19th century Chhatrapati Shivaji railroad station -- a beautiful example of Victorian Gothic architecture -- where attackers sprayed bullets into the crowded terminal. Photos in the Mumbai Mirror newspaper showed a young gunman -- dressed like a college student in cargo pants and a black T-shirt -- walking casually through the station, an assault rifle hanging from one hand and two knapsacks slung over a shoulder. Nasim Inam, a witness said four of the attackers gunned down scores of commuters. Other gunmen attacked Leopold's restaurant, a landmark popular with foreigners, and the police headquarters in southern Mumbai, the area where most of the attacks took place. The restaurant was riddled with bullet holes and there was blood on the flo... |
| www.rediff.com/money/2008/oct/31bpo1.htm Get latest news on your desktop UK trade union opposes job outsourcing to India October 31, 2008 16:57 IST Citing turbulence in the country's economy, British trade union GMB has opposed world's leading French fries supplier McCain Foods' proposal to outsource finance and administration-related jobs to India. GMB, reportedly having about six lakh people as members, said on Thursday it would ask McCain not to proceed with the proposal to offshore employments which would see '32 backroom jobs in five locations in England being outsourced to India'. Canada-headquartered McCain Foods is planning to export backroom jobs to India from five locations spread across England. According to GMB, the company had informed that it is looking at a proposal to outsource jobs of finance and administration workers to India "to take advantage of much cheaper wage rates there". The statement said McCain directly employs about 2,000 people at five manufacturing sites including Scarborough, Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire and Wombourne in South Staffordshire. Further, PAS Ltd, a subsidiary of McCain, has processing facilities at Grantham and Hull. "GMB are calling on McCain Foods not to go ahead with this proposal. The company admit that the only reason they are contemplating this outsourcing of our members jobs to India is to take advantage of cheap labour rates there," Rachelle Wilkins who represents GMB members in McCain Foods said. |
| www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/11/26/king.chopra.mumbai -> www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/11/26/king.chopra.mumbai/ Next Article in World Decrease font Decrease font Enlarge font Enlarge font (CNN) -- The Indian city of Mumbai exploded into chaos early Thursday morning as gunmen launched a series of attacks across the country's commercial capital, killing scores of people and taking hostages in two luxury hotels frequented by Westerners. Deepak Chopra says extremists could be reacting to Barack Obama's gestures toward Muslims. Deepak Chopra says extremists could be reacting to Barack Obama's gestures toward Muslims. CNN's Larry King spoke with author Deepak Chopra about the situation. Deepak Chopra: I was born in Delhi, but I have been in these hotels many, many times. I have been trying to get in touch with my friends and relatives, some of whom I have spoken to, some of whom I can't speak to. A friend of mine from Egypt was in the restaurant at the Taj hotel when the firing started, and somehow she managed to avoid the fray, hid in a basement and is now holed up in a room which is right next to the Taj hotel and is waiting to be told what to do. The situation is complex, Larry, because it could inflame to proportions that we cannot even imagine. We now recognize that this is a global problem, with only a global effort can solve this. Obama's gestures to the rest of the Muslim world may actually overturn the tables on them by alienating them from the rest of the Muslim world, so they're reacting to this. You know, this is Obama's opportunity to actually harness the help of the Muslims. Scores killed in Mumbai rampage You know, there's 18 billion Muslims in the world. We cannot, if we do not appease and actually recruit the help of this Muslim world, we're going to have a problem on our hands. And we cannot go after the wrong people, as we did after 9/11, because then the whole collateral damage that occurs actually aggravates the situation. In India, this is particularly inflammatory, because there's a rise of Hindu fundamentalism. We saw what that did in Gujarat, where, you know, Muslims were scorched and they were killed, and there was almost a genocide of the Muslims. So this is an opportunity right now for India and Pakistan to recognize this is their common problem. King: Do you think that this is just the beginning, that there's a potential impact, or more? Chopra: There is a potential impact of a lot more carnage. And right now, one of the questions, you know, after I heard Barbara Starr talking about how coordinated this is, that there are militant groups that cross international boundaries, is who is financing this? Are our petrodollars funding both sides of this war on terrorism? Why are we not asking the Saudis where that money is going that we give them? They should be part of the surgery that is going to happen. Indians should actually ask the Pakistanis to help them. And it's not enough for us to worry about Westerners being killed and Americans being killed. We have got to get rid of this idea that this is an American problem or a Western problem. It's a global problem, and we need a global solution, and we need the help of all the Muslims, 25 percent of the world's population, to help us uproot this problem. Chopra: India at this moment has to contain any reactive violence from the fundamentalist Hindus, which is very likely and possible. So India has to condemn that by not blaming local Muslims. And the world has to be very careful that they don't go after the wrong people. Because if you go after the wrong people, you convert moderates into extremists. It happens every time, and retribution against innocent people just because they have the same religion actually aggravates and perpetuates the problem. Chopra: I think Mr Obama has a real opportunity here, but a challenging opportunity, a creative opportunity. Ask for a creative solution in which we all participate. King: Is it because the war on terrorism really can never be won because the terrorists (inaudible)? It's an oxymoron, Larry, a war on war, a war on terrorism. You know, terrorists call mechanized death from 35,000 feet above sea level with a press of a button also terror. We don't call it that, because our soldiers are wearing uniforms. They don't see what is happening, and innocent people are being killed. So, you know, terror is a term that you apply to the other. King: Thanks, Deepak Chopra, as always, extraordinarily enlightening. |