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By Himangshu Watts and Manoj Kumar

NEW DELHI, Dec 5 (Reuters) – India cut fuel prices for the first time in nearly two years on Friday after crude oil’s fall of over $100 gave the government room to expand its planned economic stimulus package to lift sagging markets.

The 10 percent cut in gasoline prices and a near 6 percent decrease in diesel were announced by the oil minister, Murli Deora, ahead of an expected cut in short-term interest rates this weekend as New Delhi seeks to keep its economy growing.

The measures, well after Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia trimmed their own domestic prices, will also further reduce inflation that has fallen from a high of almost 13 percent in early August to just over 8 percent.

But lower prices will trim earnings for state-owned refiners like Indian Oil Corp and BPCL, which were just starting to enjoy profitability after years of mounting losses from selling heavily discounted fuel as crude prices surged.

‘On the inflation point of view, yes this is positive, but it is going to hit the profitability of the oil companies,’ said Sachchidanand Shukla, economist at Enam Securities in Mumbai.

‘They are now making profit of 12-14 rupees per litre for petrol and three rupees for diesel, which is going to be eroded.’



WASHINGTON: The US economy lost a stunning 533,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate jumped to a 15-year high of 6.7 percent, the Labor Department said on Friday.
The monthly report on non-farm payrolls, seen as one of the best indicators of economic momentum, highlighted the severe retrenchment by companies in the face of a struggling economy and tight credit.
The number of job losses was much higher than the 325,000 expected by private forecasters.
The report also included a sharp upward revision in the number of job losses in the prior two months: October saw a loss of 403,000 jobs (up from an earlier estimate of 240,00) and September job losses were revised up to 320,000 from 284,000.
“There is no sugar-coating this data,” analysts at Briefing.com. “It is bad news that will weigh heavily on consumer sentiment and will serve to increase concerns about the depth and length of the current slowdown.”
Sophia Koropeckyj at Economy.com said that the losses “were broad-based across both service-producing and goods-producing industries” and the worst single-month decline since 1974.
“The economy is in recession, and the severity will far surpass the depths of the last two recessions.”
The jobless rate, based on a separate survey of households, was the highest since October 1993 but slightly better than the consensus estimate of economists of 6.8 percent.
The Labor Department noted that since the official onset of recession in December 2007, some 2.7 million jobs have been lost, and the unemployment rate rose by 1.7 percentage points.
In November, the report showed a loss of 85,000 jobs in manufacturing, bringing the total in the sector to 604,000 over the past 12 months, despite a return of 27,000 aerospace workers from strike.
Employment in the retail sector fell by 91,000, and the leisure and hospitality sector shed 76,000 jobs.
The troubled financial sector shed 32,000 jobs in month, bringing the 12-month total losses to 142,000.
The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the panel recognized as the official arbiter of business cycles, said this week the US entered recession in December 2007.
Although a recession is generally defined as two consecutive quarters of declining activity, the panel has its own criteria for determining a downturn, including data on employment, income and industrial output. AFP



{December 5, 2008}   SHIVAMANI INSTRUMENTAL MP3 SONGS


{December 5, 2008}   India’s answer to Obama?

Who could be India’s Obama who could unite the country and march the nation forward at a traumatic time? US business magazine Forbes feels it is industry captain Ratan Tata.

“While it (India) has the sympathy of the world (after the recent attacks), India could have an Obama moment’one in which a leader, whose personal history epitomises the country’s principles, marches forward to unite the country during its very moment of trauma. India has a chance now to get it right, but it needs a strong, credible leader to step up,” Forbes said in a report.

“As an American, I don’t get a vote in India, but if I did, mine would go to Ratan Tata,” added the report written by Forbes magazine’ Senior Editor (Asia) Robyn Meredith.

“He is not a politician, but he is the country’s most respected business leader. His Tata Group owns the Taj hotel that was just attacked, but his family is just as connected to India’s proud history as its shell-shocked present,” Meredith wrote in a weekly column published online.

Posing the question whether should there be not a way to involve Tata at the highest level in the government, the report noted that “a fractured India” would immensely benefit from his acumen and constructive patriotism.

Meredith pointed out, “Should there not be a way to involve him in government at the highest level? A fractured India would benefit immeasurably from his acumen, his managerial skills, and his very obvious’but always constructive’patriotism.”

Wondering what if the nation leapfrogged America’s approach, the magazine pointed out that the political leap could be as successful as the country’s technology.



Women light candles during a vigil held for the victims of Mumbai's recent attacks, in... Enlarge Photo Women light candles during a vigil held for the victims of Mumbai’s recent attacks, in…

Fri, Dec 5 10:11 AM

Indian newspapers said on Friday the government had proof that Pakistan’s military spy agency was involved in the Mumbai attacks, including evidence supplied by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) connection was clear and evident,” the Times of India quoted Indian intelligence sources as saying. The ISI is Pakistan’s main spy agency.

The Hindu newspaper said investigations into the Mumbai attack had led to the names of handlers and trainers of the Islamist gunmen and the locations where the training was held. These were believed to be military or ISI men.

At least 171 people were killed in the attacks last week in Mumbai. Nine of the attackers were killed while one is being interrogated.

The detained man told investigators he had attended four training camps in Pakistan over the past 18 months, Mail Today newspaper said.

He has said he is a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based group blamed for previous attacks in India.

The attacks have increased tensions between India and Pakistan. New Delhi says militants based in Pakistan were involved in the attacks, and has demanded that Islamabad hand over 20 of its most wanted fugitives.

The prime suspect for the Mumbai attacks is Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamist group fighting Indian rule in disputed Kashmir, and which analysts say has had ties with Pakistani intelligence in the past



Admitting that he had been eased out as Chief Minister due to a public outcry after the terror attacks in Mumbai, Vilasrao Deshmukh said taking along his actor son and film maker Ram Gopal Varma with him to visit the scene of the attacks was “a mistake”.

He denied that pressure from the Congress’ coalition partner, the NCP, was responsible for his ouster. “In a democracy, it is necessary to respect the anguish, anger and insecurity of the people,” Deshmukh told mediapersons on Thursday before submitting his resignation to Governor S C Jamir. He added he was resigning after owning moral responsibility as the head of the state for the attacks.

Asked if his “love for Bollywood” (taking along actor son Riteish and Varma) had led to his ouster, a visibly crestfallen Deshmukh, who lacked his characteristic casualness, said it was an “unfortunate happening”. “It was a mistake, I feel sorry about it,” he said, adding he regretted the incident (attacks) which had led to a loss of life for many people and the feeling that he could not protect them would also lie at the “bottom of his heart”.

Deshmukh, who was accompanied by state Congress chief Manikrao Thakre and working president Jaywantrao Awale, said he “did not think” that NCP president and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar was responsible in pressurising the Congress to force his resignation.

“The Congress does not work under pressure,” he said, adding the Congress had not forced the resignation of Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister R R Patil.

Maintaining that there was a need for introspection, Deshmukh said there was a “lot of scope for improvement” in the security and intelligence systems. “These things will definitely affect the ruling party,” he added.

On questions being raised on Union Defence Minister and state Congress in-charge A K Antony announcing Deshmukh’s resignation as accepted after meeting Pawar on Wednesday, Deshmukh said the Congress president Sonia Gandhi had informed him about the decision even before Antony met Pawar.

Claiming it was a “matter of satisfaction” that he was not being forced out due to any “blots” on his political career like corruption, strictures and unpopularity, he said the decision to resign was a “personal one” and had not been forced by the party.

Asserting that his tenure had seen the state get the highest amount of FDI and SEZs, Deshmukh, however, admitted that they had been unable to make Maharashtra “self-reliant” in the power sector. The party was free to utilise him in any responsibility that they wanted to in the future, he said, evading direct queries to whether he would contest the next Lok Sabha elections.



Closed circuit television footage released on December 3, 2008 shows gunmen walking across a parking... Enlarge Photo Closed circuit television footage released on December 3, 2008 shows gunmen walking across a parking…

Several attackers may have survived the three-day siege of Mumbai that killed 171 people last week, analysts said on Thursday.

“I think there are more. My sources say (there were) at least 23 of the gunmen,” said Farhana Ali, a former CIA and Rand Corp counterterrorism analyst and expert on militant networks. Ali, who most recently visited India and Pakistan last month before the attacks, said her information came from Pakistan, but declined to further identify the source.

“If that’s true, that makes one wonder why we haven’t seen more attacks. Are they lying low?” she said “I think they (Indian authorities) are bracing themselves for more,” she said.

Ali spoke at a briefing for U.S. government counterterrorism and military officials, and others. It was sponsored by the Counterterrorism Foundation, which supports research and publication on terrorism issues.

A security scare at the New Delhi airport early on Friday New Delhi time, in which media reported a shootout after what India’s NDTV described as two sharp sounds, underscored the country’s raw nerves. NDTV said a police sweep turned up nothing unusual and a Reuters witness said operations appeared normal.

Indian authorities have said 10 gunmen took part in the Mumbai attacks last week. But reports early in the attacks cited police as estimating there were 25 gunmen.

‘WAIT AND SEE’

Authorities captured one, who was interrogated, and killed nine. Indian and U.S. officials blame the attacks on Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a Pakistan-based group that the United States in May designated a terrorist organization.

A U.S. counterterrorism official told Reuters, “Is there a possibility that some LeT terrorists are still out there? Yes, but we have to wait and see because all of the information is not in yet.”

David Kilcullen, who has served as a senior counterterrorism adviser to U.S. Gen. David Petraeus and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said he agreed that were probably more attackers.

They equipped themselves with fake identification and wore Western clothes with clean-shaven faces, indicating they probably did not view the attack as a suicide operation, Kilcullen said. “The fact that they lost nine out of 10 identified attackers killed doesn’t necessarily indicate that it was intended to have all those people dying,” he said.

“The Indians said there were 10 attackers, based on the fact that they captured one and killed nine — you have to assume there are more out there,” he said.

He noted, however, that there was no short-term follow-up attack on a target such as a hospital treating victims — a characteristic of some Iraqi insurgent strikes.

The fighters had high-level professional training, Kilcullen said. They entered the city by sea, launched diversionary strikes, and seized two hotels and a Jewish center, where they held off authorities and rampaged for three days.

“A Seal team would have had trouble mounting this operation,” Kilcullen said, referring to U.S. Navy commandos regarded as among the most skilled special forces.

(For the latest Reuters news on India, see http://in.reuters.com, for blogs see http://blogs.reuters.com/in/ and for videos see http://in.reuters.com/news/video)



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