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Monday, 3 December 2012
Murdoch’s British newspaper chief to leave
NEW YORK: Rupert Murdoch’s top newspaper lieutenant in Britain is to leave his post at the end
of the
year, it was announced, heralding the start of a major shake-up at
parent company News
Corporation.
The sudden departure of Tom
Mockridge, chief executive since July 2011 of News International, which
encompasses The Sun, The Times, and The Sunday Times in London, was made
public by Murdoch himself.
It sets the stage for a restructuring of
News Corporation into two separate divisions with a publishing arm
controlling newspapers and an entertainment business controlling the
company’s television and film interests.
That recently announced move came in the
wake of heavy criticism, including from shareholders, about the
company’s handling of a phone hacking scandal that erupted in Murdoch’s
media empire in Britain.
In the wake of the illegality, the News
of the World newspaper was closed and a major police investigation is
ongoing with court cases against two former Murdoch editors scheduled to
take place next year.
Mockridge’s decision to leave also comes
amid much speculation that he was to miss out on the top job at News
Corp’s new publishing division.
The favorite for that post is
reportedly Robert Thomson, the top executive at the Murdoch-owned Wall
Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, and a former editor of The Times
in London.
Murdoch, chairman and chief executive
of News Corp, said in a statement that it had been his pleasure to have
Mockridge as a colleague for 22 years.
”Tom has always been a skilled
executive and a trusted friend. His decision to step down is absolutely
and entirely his own,” the magnate said.
”I am sorry to see him leave us but I know he will be a great success wherever he goes.”
Murdoch, 81, added that Mockridge’s
long tenure encompassed “his early days with our newspaper group in
Australia, his incredible work building SKY Italia,” as well as “his
steadfast leadership of News International.”
News Corp, one of the world’s biggest
media-entertainment conglomerates, owns the 20th Century Fox film
studios and Fox broadcasting operations, along with cable television
assets, newspapers in the US, Britain and Australia.
It also owns the HarperCollins publishing house.
A company statement said Mockridge
joined News Ltd in Australia in 1991, was CEO of Foxtel from 1997 to
2000, and spent a year with Murdoch’s son James at Star TV.
He then transferred to New Zealand as
CEO of what was then the company’s newspaper operations and Chair of
SkyNZ, before moving to Italy in 2002 to create Sky Italia.
Mockridge then took the role of CEO
European Television, and serves on the boards of BSkyB and Sky
Deutschland and is Chair of Fox Turkey.
UN suspends operations in Syria
United Nations: The United Nations on Monday suspended operations in Syria and began
withdrawing non-essential staff as the brutal civil conflict raged and the regime of Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad was prompted to vow it would never use chemical weapons against its own
people.
UN spokesman Martin Nesirky told
reporters the organisation was suspending its Syria missions
indefinitely, amid fresh bloodshed in the war that has already claimed
an estimated 41,000 lives since starting in March 2011.
The UN pullout coincided with the United
States voicing concerns that Assad’s forces might be weighing the use
of chemical weapons.
US media reports earlier said the Syrian
military had been detected moving the weapons around, and US Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton warned Monday their deployment would cross a
“red line.”
“We are concerned that an increasingly
beleaguered regime … may be considering the use of chemical weapons
against the Syrian people,” White House spokesman Jay Carney added.
In televised remarks, a Syrian foreign
ministry official said Syria would “never, under any circumstances, use
chemical weapons against its own people, if such weapons exist.”
The latest developments at the United
Nations came after Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Turkey that
the NATO deployment of Patriot missiles along its border with Syria
could exacerbate tensions.
He met with Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan in an Istanbul summit that failed to yield a common
response to Syria’s conflict.
Russia vehemently objects to Turkey’s
NATO request for the deployment of Patriot missiles as Assad’s regime
clings to power and suppresses a rebellion.
Moscow has warned that such a
deployment could spark broader a conflict pulling in the Western
military alliance. Putin underscored the point Monday, the eve of a NATO
meeting in Brussels that is expected to decide on Ankara’s request.
“As they say, if a gun is hung on the
wall at the start of a play, then at the end of the play it will
definitely fire,” Putin said at a joint press conference with Erdogan.
“Why should we need extra shooting at the border? We are urging restraint.”
Though Turkey and Russia have growing trade and energy links, they remain at loggerheads over Syria.
Moscow is a staunch ally of Damascus,
routinely blocking resolutions against Assad’s regime at the UN Security
Council, while Ankara’s relationship with its neighbour has collapsed
over the conflict and a series of cross-border shellings and other
incidents.
Turkish tensions with Russia came to a
head in October when Turkey intercepted a Syrian plane flying from
Moscow to Damascus on suspicion that it had military cargo, drawing an
angry response from Russia, which said it was carrying non-restricted
radar equipment.
Some 120,000 refugees have streamed
across the border into Turkey, with many more seeking safety in other
neighbouring countries.
Putin said Russia is not necessarily a supporter of the Syrian regime but was concerned about how it would be replaced.
“We are not inveterate defenders of the current regime in Syria,” Putin was quoted as saying by Russian state television.
“Other things worry us, like what will happen in the future?”
In an exclusive interview with AFP,
meanwhile, Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said Assad’s regime was in
danger of collapse “anytime” as the opposition made political and
military headway.
“Facts on the ground indicate very
clearly now that the Syrian opposition is gaining, politically and
militarily. Every day they are gaining something,” Arabi said.
In another blow to the Assad regime,
foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdisi, a prominant advocate of the
president, was reported to have quit.
Arabi’s statement came as fighting continued to rock Damascus and other parts of Syria.
An air strike Monday killed at least 12
people — eight rebels and four civilians — and wounded more than 30 in
the rebel-held northeastern town of Ras al-Ain on the border with
Turkey, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The monitoring group, which relies on a
network of activists and medics in civilian and military hospitals, said
86 people — including 32 civilians, 32 rebels and 22 troops — were
killed Monday as Syrian troops battered rebel positions in and around
Damascus.
Analysts say Assad’s forces want to
secure Damascus to let the regime negotiate a way out of the conflict
that the Observatory says has cost more than 41,000 lives in almost 21
months.
In central Syria, the Britain-based
Observatory also reported clashes with rebels since Sunday in the
central city of Hama, prompting authorities to send in reinforcements.
Thursday, 15 November 2012
Tuesday, 13 November 2012
A Who's Who of the US military sex scandal Gen. John Allenand Jill Kelley affair
WASHINGTON — The sex scandal that downed CIA chief David Petraeus has ensnared another top US general and is becoming ever more complex as it reverberates around the corridors of power in Washington.
Here is a look at the main characters and the tangled web of intrigue that links them:
GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS
The reason this scandal is so explosive is that the man at the center of the storm is David Petraeus, the most celebrated US general of his generation.
Credited with turning around the war in Iraq in 2007, he became the commander of US forces in Afghanistan in 2010 and there was even talk of a tilt for the presidency before he became CIA chief in September 2011.
His stellar military and intelligence career came crashing to a halt on Friday when President Barack Obama accepted his resignation because of an affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell.
The 60-year-old married father of two grown children issued an apologetic message to CIA staff:
"After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair," he said. "Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours."
PAULA BROADWELL
The femme fatale of the drama is Paula Broadwell, a glamorous major in the Army reserve. The 40-year-old counter-terrorism expert lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with her radiologist husband and their two young sons.
Petraeus first met Broadwell when he spoke at Harvard University in 2006, handing her his card and offering his help when she told him about her research interests.
Two years later, Broadwell, who had made her dissertation topic a case study on Petraeus' leadership, was invited to join the general for a run along the Potomac River in Washington.
The keen triathlon runner later said this is when she "sealed the deal" with the general, sprinting past the renowned fitness freak to the finish.
In 2010 and 2011, Broadwell made multiple trips to Afghanistan, gaining unprecedented access to Petraeus and his command for her glowing biography: "All In: The Education of General David Petraeus."
Petraeus told friends their affair began in November 2011, two months after he became CIA chief. He says he ended it about four months ago.
JILL KELLEY
The affair may never have come to light if it wasn't for Jill Kelley and Broadwell's apparent fit of jealousy.
Kelley, who is married to an oncologist in Tampa, Florida volunteered as a "social liaison" organizing events at nearby MacDill Air Force Base, home to US Central Command (CENTCOM).
She and husband Scott and their three young children live in a mansion near the base that became a party hotspot for generals and politicians.
From October 2008 until the summer of 2010, Petraeus was head of CENTCOM and the Petraeus and the Kelley families became friends.
In May this year, Jill Kelley told a local FBI agent in Tampa, who was also a friend of hers, that she had received threatening emails from an anonymous sender warning her to keep her hands off Petraeus.
Friends of both Petraeus and Kelley have denied any sexual relationship.
THE ROLE OF 'AGENT SHIRTLESS'
The unidentified FBI agent who Kelley initially went to played a key part in how events unfolded and his actions may even have forced Petraeus' resignation.
He was sidelined as the FBI cybercrime division identified Broadwell as the sender of the threatening emails. Kelley reportedly told investigators she didn't know Broadwell.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the agent was removed from the case because his supervisors were concerned he was becoming "obsessed with the matter, and prohibited him from any role in the investigation."
The agent apparently grew concerned that the FBI was sweeping the matter under the carpet and expressed those concerns at the end of October to a Washington state congressman, Republican David Reichert.
Reichert relayed the information to Republican House majority leader, Eric Cantor, who contacted FBI chief
Robert Mueller on October 31.
The Washington Post has reported that Petraeus initially intended to ride out the storm.
The timeline suggests Petraeus may have changed his mind when he became aware that others in Congress knew, including Cantor, a bitter Obama opponent.
Eight days after the conversation between Cantor's office and Mueller's, and after the presidential election had wrapped up, Petraeus tendered his resignation to Obama.
The FBI operative has been dubbed "Agent Shirtless" after it emerged that he had sent shirtless photos of himself to Kelley, long before the email investigation began.
GENERAL JOHN ALLEN
The latest twist to the tale involves General John Allen, who succeeded Petraeus as US commander in Afghanistan and was deputy head of CENTCOM from July 2008 until June 2011.
Allen is being investigated for "inappropriate communication" with Kelley and the FBI is examining 20,000 to 30,000 pages of documents, many of them emails between the two.
Obama has put Allen's imminent nomination as NATO's supreme commander on hold until the matter is settled.
The Washington Post has reported that Allen also received at least one anonymous email traced back to Broadwell.
And in a further twist, the New York Daily Post revealed that Allen and Petraeus both intervened to try to help Kelley's twin sister Natalie win a bitter custody battle.
Despite Jill Kelly affair, Barack Obama expresses confidence over Gen John Allen
Washington: United States (US)
President Barack Obama has complete trust on Gen John Allen,
top
commander in Afghanistan and he will continue to lead the ISAF force in
the war-torn country,
White House spokesman said on Tuesday.
General John Allen is reportedly being
investigated for alleged “inappropriate communications” with Jill
Kelley, woman who is said to have received threatening emails from Paula
Broadwell.
An extramarital affair between
Broadwell, the author of David Petraeus’ biography, “All In”, and the
CIA chief led to his resignation on Friday.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the
spokesman Jay Carney rejected the view that President Obama was aware of
the scandal before the presidential elections and said that the
president came to know about the scandals of top US generals after
presidential race.
“President was surprised to know about
the scandals of the top military leaders,” Carney said adding that the
information regarding the scandals would soon be brought before the
nation.
Monday, 12 November 2012
Panetta on staying as Pentagon chief: ‘Who the hell knows?’
Washington: Pentagon chief Leon
Panetta, a longtime veteran of Washington politics, sidestepped
questions Monday about whether he would quit his post as expected and
retire.
“Who the hell knows?” Panetta joked when
asked if he would stay on for another four years through President
Barack Obama’s second term.
He acknowledged he was anxious after a decades-long career in Washington to retire to his native California.
But he suggested he would remain on the
job at least in the short-term with major budget issues and strategic
decisions on the war in Afghanistan pending.
“It’s no secret that at some point I’d
like to get back to California to my home and the institute,” he said,
referring to the think-tank he founded and currently led by his wife.
“But there are a lot of challenges right
now with regards to defense issues in Washington,” said Panetta, citing
planning for a troop drawdown in Afghanistan and a looming deadline on
the country’s budget and debt.
Panetta, 74, served as CIA director for
two years before moving over to the Pentagon in 2011. He was an
influential Democrat in Congress for years and then served as budget
czar and chief-of-staff under former president Bill Clinton
Friday, 9 November 2012
CIA chief allegedly had an affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, Obama prevented FBI from revealing affair
Washington: Resignation of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Director David Petreaus has become the talk of the town in
United States as new revelations have shocked people in the
country.
According to US media reports, Director of the Central Intelligence had an affair with one of his biographers, author Paula Broadwell. Ms. Broadwell co-authored a glowing portrait of Mr. Petraeus titled, All In: The Education of General David Petraeus.
According to the biography of Ms. Broadwell on the website of her book, she is a “a research associate at Harvard University’s Center for Public Leadership and a PhD candidate in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London” who spent most of a year in Afghanistan with Mr. Petraeus working on the book.
Her site described the book as having built on her two-year doctoral dissertation, which was “a study in transformational leadership and organizational innovation influenced by U.S. Army General David Petraeus.”
Ms. Broadwell’s book site also identifies her as being married to Scott Broadwell, an interventional radiologist with whom she has two children.
“They love to run, ski, and surf together,” the site says of the couple.
Broadwell is also under investigation by the FBI for trying to access Petraeus’ email and possibly gaining access to classified information.
It was also revealed by US media that Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was informed regarding the extramarital affair of CIA chief and it conveyed the information to US President Barack Obama.
The president prevented FBI from revealing the information and asked them to hold it until the US presidential election passes away.
Although, there were no reports that resignation of CIA chief was due to difference with President Obama over pulling-out of forces from Afghanistan in 2014 but certain elements were linking the resignation with the differences.
It is to be mentioned here that CIA director David Petraeus resigned from the spy agency, citing an extramarital affai
David Petraeus Resigns As CIA Director, Citing Extramarital Affair
Gen. David Petraeus has resigned as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, MSNBC reports.
MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell broke the news Friday afternoon, reading Petraeus' resignation letter on air.
Petraeus wrote in the letter to the CIA staff on Friday that he had gone to the White House on Thursday and asked the president "for personal reasons" to resign.
"After being married for more than 37 years I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair," Petraeus wrote in his letter. "Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as a leader of an organization such as ours."
Petraeus' wife is Holly Petraeus, whom he met when he was a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the AP reports. Click here for more on Holly Petraeus.
The retired four-star general led the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan. President Barack Obama appointed him to direct the CIA in September 2011.
Petraeus said that the president accepted his resignation on Thursday.
The full text of Petraeus' resignation letter is below, courtesy of CNN.
According to the New York Times,some senior members of Congress were told about Petraeus' resignation six hours before it was announced. White House officials said they knew he was considering resignation as early as Wednesday night.
The president also released a statement on Petraeus' resignation Friday. "David Petraeus has provided extraordinary service to the United States for decades. By any measure, he was one of the outstanding general officers of his generation, helping our military adapt to new challenges, and leading our men and women in uniform through a remarkable period of service in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he helped our nation put those wars on a path to a responsible end. As Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, he has continued to serve with characteristic intellectual rigor, dedication, and patriotism. By any measure, through his lifetime of service David Petraeus has made our country safer and stronger."
As for who will replace Petraeus in the longterm, a former senior intelligence official told AOL Defense that Mike Vickers is a leading candidate.
"The prevailing wisdom is that Mike Vickers wants this with all his heart and soul," the official told AOL Defense. Vickers, now the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, is the legendary former CIA operative who led the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan chronicled in the book, Charlie Wilson's War. Another candidate is Stephanie O'Sullivan, the principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence.
Petraeus's resignation came at a time when his office was under extraordinary pressure over its role in the attack in Benghazi, Libya, when four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador, were killed.
For many weeks the White House had come under intense pressure for the attack, before it finally emerged that the CIA had actually played a central role in the episode. Two of the Americans killed were identified as undercover agents for the CIA, and the vast majority of Americans on the ground that night turned out to be with the agency.
In a Wall Street Journal article a week before the election, several administration officials pointed to Petraeus specifically and accused him of mishandling the controversy, by appearing to be aloof and delivering misinformation to the White House in the early days after that attacks.
Congress intends to continue to investigate the incident, and Petraeus was expected to testify during a closed-door hearing next week before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee,released a statement responding to Petraeus' resignation. "I wish President Obama had not accepted this resignation," Feinstein said, "but I understand and respect the decision."
Speaking on CNN, former CIA operative Bob Baer noted that while resignations from extramarital affairs are not unheard of at the agency, they are almost never the announced reason for giving up the post.
Extramarital affair forces CIA Director David Petraeus to resign
Washington: United States (US) Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) director David Petraeus
has resigned from the spy agency, citing an
extramarital affair, US media reported on Friday.
“Yesterday afternoon, I went to the White House and asked the president to be allowed, for personal reasons, to resign from my position as D/CIA,” Petraeus said in a message to CIA staff.
“After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair. Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours. This afternoon, the president graciously accepted my resignation.”
Petraeus took over the helm of the Central Intelligence agency just over a year ago in September 2011 after heading US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. He said President Barack Obama had accepted his resignation.
“Dave’s decision to step down represents the loss of one of our nation’s most respected public servants,” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in a statement.
“Whether he was in uniform leading our nation’s troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, or at CIA headquarters leading the effort to generate intelligence used to keep our nation safe, Dave inspired people who had the privilege of working with him.”
CIA Deputy Director Michael. J. Morell has been appointed as the acting director of CIA.
It is to be mentioned here that resignations of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and CIA Director David Patraeus were talk of the town in United States after the re-election of President Barack Obama.
Sunday, 30 September 2012
World T20:Pak India match,Picture Story:India won by 8 wickets
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| World T20:pak india match |
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| T20: Afridi ki ........(out) |
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| T20: Tass between PAK & India |
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| IMran Nazeer out |
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| Veerat batting |
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| pak batting |
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| Indian player |
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| India won T20 Pak India |
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| Pak player match |
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| Yasir arfat out |
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| Pakistan |
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| Indian player celebrating out of akmal |
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| Pakitaani batsman |
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| Indian crowd celebrating in T20 match |
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