British PM to meet newspaper editors, owners next week

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LONDON: British Prime Minister David Cameron will meet national newspaper editors and owners next week to urge them to agree a timeframe for setting up a new press watchdog, a government spokesman said on Saturday.

The meeting follows proposals set out by judge Brian Leveson in a major report into press ethics in Britain, conducted in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World, which was published on Thursday.

The meeting, on Tuesday, will be hosted by Maria Miller, the culture minister who has responsibility for the media.

Miller will appeal to the powerful group not to "drag its feet" in establishing a new regulator, the culture ministry spokesman said. Cameron hopes the new body will help quash claims that a new law is needed to make it truly effective.

The main agenda will be trying to "set a timeframe for a response" from the newspaper industry to Leveson's recommendation for independent self-regulation of the press, the spokesman added.

Britain's press currently regulates itself through the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), a body staffed by editors.

Its critics say it is toothless and partly responsible for a failure to punish journalists for harassment, invasion of privacy and the hacking of voicemail messages.

Parliament will debate Leveson's proposals on Monday afternoon when Miller will make a statement to fellow lawmakers, the spokesman added.

Miller's special adviser Joanna Hindley told AFP that Miller would press the newspaper industry figures to come up with a timetable for setting up a new regulator "within a few weeks".

"She will be holding their feet to the fire," Hindley said, adding that Miller would tell the industry "that the status quo is not acceptable."

Hindley confirmed that Richard Desmond, proprietor of the mid-market Daily Express and Daily Star tabloid, would be at the meeting.

Desmond, one of Britain's most controversial media barons, owns a media empire that also includes celebrity magazine OK!, Channel 5 television and several adult channels.

Hindley said Miller will lead further cross-party talks on the Leveson recommendations on Monday and Tuesday mornings.

Cameron's government is divided on the future of the press. The Liberal Democrats, junior partners in the Conservative-led coalition, said they would join forces with the opposition Labour party and support a new law.

The rift was sparked by the publication of Leveson's report which proposed a new independent self-regulatory body backed by law.

Leveson proposes a beefed-up watchdog staffed by independent members, with the power to fine newspapers up to US$1.6 million.

While Cameron warned that legislation could threaten press freedom, his deputy Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader, insisted statutory oversight was essential to guarantee the independence of the new watchdog.

"Hacked Off", a group for victims of press intrusion, says over 89,000 people have signed its online petition which calls on Cameron, Clegg and opposition leader Ed Miliband to work together to implement Leveson's findings in full.

The petition was launched on Friday.

- AFP/xq



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FDI in retail to safeguard international market mafias' interest: BJP

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NEW DELHI: India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today said retail reform is a step taken by the Congress led-federal government to safeguard the interests of the international market mafias at the cost of national interest.

BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Saturday that voting inside the parliament would decide as to who is in favour of national interest and who is working for international interests.

"The government feels that their responsibility is to safeguard the interest of international market mafias instead of national interest and for saving the interest of international market mafias, the government is ready to compromise with national interests. Now, the parliament will decide as to who is in support of international market mafias and who are supporting national interests," said Naqvi.

The government's decision to allow foreign supermarket chains such as Wal-Mart had triggered protest not only from opposition parties but also from some of its allies.

BJP had sought debate on the issue of allowing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the retail sector, under the rule that entails voting after discussions.

Meanwhile, Minister in the Prime Minister Office (PMO), V Narayanaswamy said the government would answer all the queries raised by the opposition parties in the parliament and will explain the benefits of allowing FDI in retail sector.

The lower house of parliament has set December 04 and 05 as the date to vote and debate on FDI. The dates for the upper house are yet to be decided.

Narayanaswamy said the government is confident of becoming victorious in the debate.

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Photos: Kilauea Lava Reaches the Sea

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Police: KC Chiefs Player Killed Girlfriend, Self

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Jovan Belcher, a linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs, committed suicide today in front of his coaches and police officers outside the team's stadium, shortly after he fatally shot his girlfriend, police said.


"We heard that they had been arguing in the past [and] as far as recently, they'd been arguing before the shooting occurred this morning," Kansas City Police spokesman Darin Snapp told ABC News Radio.


The victim was identified Kasandra Perkins, 22. Snapp said the couple had lived together and had a 3-month-old daughter.


A woman first alerted police this morning that her daughter had been shot by her boyfriend, who was a Kansas City Chiefs player, Snapp said. Police initially believed the woman was Perkins' mother, but later learned she was Belcher's mother, who lived with the couple to help care for their daughter and according to family members felt extremely close to Perkins.


It is believed Belcher drove to Arrowhead Stadium shortly after the shooting and police were called.


"When the officers arrived, when they were pulling up, they actually observed a black male who had a gun to his head and he was talking to a couple of coaches out in the parking lot," Snapp said. "As officers pulled up, and began to park, that's when they heard the gunshot and it appears the individual took his own life."












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Snapp said the coaches told officers they didn't feel they were in any danger from Belcher.


"They said the player was actually thanking them for everything they'd done for him," he said. "They were just talking to him and he was thanking them and everything. That's when he walked away and shot himself."


Kansas City is scheduled to host the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, and the league has told the Panthers to go ahead with their travel plans because the game will be played as scheduled.


In a statement posted on their website, the Chiefs said they are "cooperating with authorities in their investigation" and did not mention Belcher by name.


The 6-foot-2, 228-pound linebacker joined the Kansas City Chiefs in 2009, and had spent all four seasons of his career with the team. He has played every in game since joining the team.


Originally from West Babylon, N.Y., where he was a three-time all-America wrestler in addition to playing on the football team, Belcher went undrafted out of the University of Maine, where he started all 45 games in which he played.


Maine Head Football Coach Jack Cosgrove described Jovan as a "tremendous student-athlete."


"His move to the NFL was in keeping with his dreams," Cosgrove said in a statement released by the university today. "This is an indescribably horrible tragedy. At this difficult time, our thoughts and prayers are with Jovan, Kasandra and their families."


Belcher signed with the Chiefs as a rookie free agent, started 15 of 16 games his second season and last year started all 16 games as left inside linebacker.


Belcher expressed gratitude for his NFL career in an article posted on Nov. 21 on the Chiefs' website that has since been taken down.


"First and foremost, God. Family and friends just keeping me focused, coaches and just everyone," he said.



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Sen. Ayotte offers GOP an influential new voice

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The three Republican senators emerged grim-faced from a basement meeting room in the Capitol on Tuesday and took turns before a bank of televisions cameras, blasting away at the Obama administration for its handling of the deadly attack on an American outpost in Benghazi, Libya.


The first two were prominent national security heavyweights, Arizona’s John McCain and Lindsey O. Graham of South Carolina. Then the third senator, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, stepped forward. A freshman in her second year and ranked 99th in seniority, Ayotte said she had not been swayed by the administration’s efforts to explain how and why U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice had initially suggested the attack was the result of a spontaneous street protest, instead of a coordinated terrorist attack.

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Israel settlement expansion "sets back" peace bid: Clinton

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WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday criticized Israel's decision to build 3,000 settler homes in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, in a speech attended by top Israeli officials.

"In light of today's announcement, let me reiterate that this administration -- like previous administrations -- has been very clear with Israel that these activities set back the cause of a negotiated peace," Clinton said.

Clinton was speaking at a forum in Washington hosted by the Saban Centre for Middle East Policy. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Defence Minister Ehud Barak were in the audience when she made her remarks.

In a wide-ranging speech also tackling the conflict in Syria and Iran's suspect nuclear program, Clinton highlighted the troubled Middle East peace process, calling on Israelis and Palestinians to get back to negotiations.

"The most lasting solution to the stalemate in Gaza would be a comprehensive peace between Israel and all Palestinians, led by their legitimate representative, the Palestinian Authority," Clinton said.

Israel revealed the settlement plans in response to a historic vote in the UN General Assembly on Thursday to recognize Palestine within the 1967 borders as a non-member observer state -- one which the United States opposed.

"This week's vote should give all of us pause. All sides need to consider carefully the path ahead," Clinton said.

"We all need to work together to find a path forward in negotiations that can deliver on the goal of a two-state solution. That remains our goal.

"If and when the parties are ready to enter into direct negotiations to solve the conflict, President (Barack) Obama will be a full partner to them."

- AFP/xq



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15,000 posts lying vacant in KEB, says KPTC MD

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MYSORE: Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd MD S Selva Kumar has said that Karnataka Electricity Board (KEB) is short of hands -- two persons perform the work of four.

Speaking at the 49th All-Member Convention organized by KEB Engineer's Association at JK grounds here on Friday, he said though the government has sanctioned 60,000 employees, there are 15,000 vacancies. "As many as 1,500 engineers' posts are vacant, which need to be filled at the earliest. KEB requires quality personnel," he said, and added: "Employees must be willing to work anywhere in the state, rather than sticking to a particular place."

In spite of implementing advanced technology, KEB has not been able to tackle certain situations, he said, adding that people continue to target it in cases of power failure and technical issues.

Speaking on power shortage in the state, Karnataka is passing through power shortage mainly due to sudden spurt in demand from the irrigation sector and reduction in power generation.

"KEB is trying to cut losses in transmission and distribution (T&D). Unlike neighbouring states, Karnataka has not been equipped with latest machineries," he claimed.

At present, the state is unable to meet the demand, which would rise in the coming days. KEB is unable to generate sufficient capital too, Selva Kumar said.

!KEB Engineer's Association president V Venkatasivareddy said the Association has rejected Shunglu committee report on power distribution which speaks of franchise system. The report has said that franchise model is a preferred mode for reduction in T&D losses given the issues in the sector. The committee does not see meaningful reduction in T&D losses in the foreseeable future. "Franchise system gradually leads to privatization of the power sector," he said.

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Parents Fight Back Against Deadly Discipline

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Parents of children who have died or been injured while being manhandled, held down or locked up in America's public schools are fighting back.


Dozens have filed lawsuits and many are speaking out publicly to end what they say is an epidemic of harsh measures being used in schools to subdue unruly or aggressive children – many of whom suffer from autism or other disabilities. They are mothers like Sheila Foster, whose 16-year-old son died after being restrained, allegedly for refusing to leave the basketball court at his school in Yonkers, just outside New York City.


"I know I won't feel him hug me anymore, or say, 'I love you, mommy,'" a tearful Sheila Foster, Corey's mother, told ABC News. "Someone has to be held accountable for this because my son is dead. And this shouldn't happen anymore to another child, to another family."


WATCH 'Nightline': Students Hurt, Dying After Being Restrained


Foster has sued Leake & Watts, a special needs facility for students with behavioral and learning disabilities. The school has defended the actions of its staff, despite the tragic outcome. Surveillance video made public earlier this month shows the teenager playing basketball in the school gym alongside other students and staff members. Minutes later he is surrounded by school staff in a corner of the gym where it appears he is pushed against the wall and then restrained face down by four staff members. Nearly 45 minutes later he was removed from the gym on a stretcher.






Courtesy of the Foster Family











Students Recall Harsh Discipline at Schools Watch Video











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PHOTOS: Kids Hurt, Killed by Restraints at School


"They circled him like thugs or a gang," said the family's lawyer Jacob Oresky in response to the surveillance video. "The staff members at Leake & Watts exercised a lot of force on Corey Foster and they killed him." An autopsy ruled Corey's death an accident, saying he suffered "cardiac arrest during an excited state while being subdued."


Steps taken in other schools to restrain misbehaving children, like the use of locked, padded cell-like rooms sometimes called "scream rooms," have also brought outcries. The mother of a seven-year-old boy in Phoenix, Arizona secretly videotaped the padded room in her son's school after he had been left there for the better part of a school day. She says she later learned he had been held in the room 17 times – though the school disputes that number, saying he was there three times.


"I was disgusted," said Leslie Noyes, the boy's mother. "There was one time that I know he was placed in the room a little after 10 a.m. He was there until the school day ended at 3:30 p.m. They brought him lunch in there. He ate it on the floor. He had urinated on the floor. They wouldn't let him out to use the bathroom."


Officials from the Deer Valley Unified School District said that, because of the pending lawsuit, they could not respond to questions about the case. But in general, spokeswoman Heidi Vega said, seclusion is "the last method of behavior management schools use with a student. Our staff is fully trained on non-violent crisis intervention and puts student safety first at all times. The safety of all students is important and remains a top priority."


In Kentucky, Sandra Baker said she was terrified when she showed up at school to find her son being restrained in what looked like a duffle bag. "Outside the room was the aide and [my son] was completely inside the bag, rolling around in it in the middle of the hallway with other kids around," she told ABC News. "I just kind of stopped and was stunned."


Baker brought her outrage to the local news media.






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Food prices easing but remain sky-high: World Bank

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WASHINGTON: Global food prices have eased from their July records but remain very high, putting more people in danger of hunger and malnutrition-related disease, the World Bank said on Thursday.

"A new norm of high prices seems to be consolidating," said Otaviano Canuto, the World Bank's Vice President for Poverty Reduction.

"The world cannot afford to be complacent to this trend while 870 million people still live in hunger and millions of children die every year from preventable diseases caused by malnutrition."

Drought and soaring temperatures in the United States and Eastern Europe in the spring and summer savaged some of the key grain crops that feed much of the world, sending prices for corn (maize) and soybeans to record levels.

Prices soared 10 per cent in July alone, as the US food belt drought intensified, causing heavier crop losses.

Prices have since eased from the peaks, slipping especially in October, the World Bank said,

But they are still seven percent higher than a year before, and key grains were much higher -- corn prices were 17 per cent more than they were in October 2011.

The World Bank said 870 million people around the world live with chronic hunger and nourishment deprivation.

"Although we haven't seen a food crisis as the one of 2008, food security should remain a priority," said Canuto.

"We need additional efforts to strengthen nutrition programs, safety nets, and sustainable agriculture, especially when the right actions can bring about exceptional benefits."

- AFP/xq



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