|
|
|
|
|
Russia suspended from G8 over Ukraine crisis
Ukraine defence minister sacked over Crimea
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Kremlin calls G8’s June summit snub ‘counterproductive’
Insider trading: US court upholds Rajat Gupta’s conviction
US mudslide toll climbs to 14, scores are missing
UN: Egypt court's decision breaches human rights law
|
|
Russia suspended from G8 over Ukraine crisis
Washington, March 25 The US and six other economic powers also scrapped the G8 summit to be hosted by Russia in Sochi in June to build pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin against his military action in Ukraine. At an emergency summit in The Hague yesterday, the leaders of the US, Britain, Canada, Germany, France, Italy and Japan, who met for the first time since Russia was admitted to their exclusive club 16 years ago, cancelled the planned G8 summit and decided to convene without Russia in Brussels. "We will suspend our participation in the G8 until Russia changes course and the environment comes back to where the G8 is able to have a meaningful discussion and will meet again in G7 format at the same time as planned, in June 2014, in Brussels, to discuss the broad agenda we have together," the G7 countries said in a joint statement. The G7 leaders also reaffirmed their support for Ukraine's sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence, and pledged to assist the country as it seeks to restore unity, democracy and political stability based on the interim government's reform agenda. They deplored the referendum held in Crimea on its future status and subsequent Russian annexation of the Ukrainian autonomous region a week ago as "illegal and in contravention of international law".
— AFP A senior Obama administration official described this as a strong statement from the G7 that Russia's actions will have significant consequences. "We've already imposed a cost on Russia in the sanctions that we've issued in coordination with Europe, Canada, and Japan as well. "In short, Russia is suspended from the G8 pending its current activities in Ukraine, and the necessity is now on Russia to de-escalate to avoid this continued isolation from the international community," the official said. If Russia "continues to escalate this situation", they will be prepared to expand a variety of sanctions slashed earlier on individuals and entities responsible for the crisis by taking "coordinated sectoral sanctions which will have an increasingly significant impact on the Russian economy," the statement said.
—
PTI
|
||||||
|
Ukraine defence minister sacked over Crimea
Kiev, March 25 Lawmakers initially rejected the offer but, after consultations between party faction leaders and Parliament speaker and acting Ukrainian president Oleksander Turchinov, voted to remove him. Critics said Tenyukh should have been quicker to order the pullout from Crimea, which began on Monday, to better safeguard Ukrainian servicemen, many of whom were trapped in their bases surrounded by Russian soldiers and local militiamen.
|
||||||
|
Kremlin calls G8’s June summit snub ‘counterproductive’
Moscow, March 25 "When it comes to contacts with the G8 countries, we are ready for them, we have an interest in them," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the ITAR-TASS news agency. "But the unwillingness of other countries to continue dialogue-we consider it counterproductive, both for us and for our partners themselves," President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said. At the G7 summit in the Netherlands, US President Barack Obama and the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada agreed that Russia's actions were "not consistent" with the group's shared beliefs and scrapped plans to attend Sochi. Shortly before their decision, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday said it would be "no great tragedy" if Russia were dropped from the G8. "If our Western partners think that this format (the G8) has outlived itself, then so be it," Lavrov told reporters.
— AFP Undeterred Russia said on Tuesday that its suspension from the G8 was counterproductive as Ukraine pulled more troops out of Crimea, effectively acknowledging defeat following Moscow's annexation of the Black Sea peninsula
|
||||||
|
Insider trading: US court upholds Rajat Gupta’s conviction
New York, March 25 Gupta (65) was found guilty in June 2012 of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud. He was charged with passing confidential boardroom information about Goldman Sachs to now jailed hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam. US regulator SEC has asked an appeals court to affirm a district court's decision that India-born former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta pay a $13.9 million penalty and be banned for life from serving as director of a public corporation. The federal regulator has filed a brief in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, saying the district court acted well within its discretion by permanently barring Gupta from associating with brokers, dealers, and investment advisors, permanently enjoining him from future violations of the securities laws and permanently barring him from serving as an officer or director of a public company. Gupta has been granted time till April 7 to file his reply to the SEC brief. Gupta had last year in November asked the appeals court to overturn the district court's decision that ordered him to pay the $13.9 million penalty in the civil insider trading case filed against him by the SEC. His lawyers had argued that the district court "abused" its discretion in imposing the statutory maximum civil penalty of $13.9 million, which is three times the $4.6 million in gains made by hedge-fund manager Raj Rajaratnam who traded on tips Gupta allegedly passed on to him. The lawyers said the penalty was excessive in light of Gupta already facing a five million dollar fine and two year prison sentence in the criminal insider trading case. The SEC said the district court was right in ordering that Gupta pay the maximum statutory civil penalty. "Contrary to Gupta's contentions, the district court did consider whether to reduce the civil penalty in light of penalties imposed in the prior criminal case, but exercised its discretion to decline such a reduction." SEC's lawyers argued that "specifically, the court found that Gupta had violated the securities laws with a high degree of scienter, that his violations were egregious, repeated, and resulted, in effect, in millions of dollars of losses to those who traded their stock without the benefit of Gupta's inside information, and that Gupta's current financial condition does not counsel against the imposition of a civil penalty of the level that the SEC seeks." — PTI
|
||||||
|
US mudslide toll climbs to 14, scores are missing
Arlington, March 25 As many as 176 people were reported missing in the massive landslide, and local emergency management officials expressed doubt anyone else would be plucked alive from the muck that engulfed dozens of homes when a rain-soaked hillside near Oso, Washington, collapsed on Saturday morning. Meanwhile, concern lingered about flooding from water backing up behind a crude dam of mud and rubble dumped into the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River by the slide in an area along State Route 530, about 90 km northeast of Seattle. "The situation is very grim," said Travis Hots, the local fire chief. "We're still holding out hope that we're going to be able to find people that may still be alive. But keep in mind we haven't found anybody alive on this pile since Saturday in the initial stages of our operation." President Barack Obama, who was in Europe on Monday for a meeting with world leaders, signed an emergency declaration ordering US government assistance to supplement state and local relief efforts in the aftermath of the mudslide and flooding, the White House said. Several dozen homes were believed to have sustained some damage from the slide, John Pennington, director of the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management, told reporters at a command post in the nearby town of Arlington. More than 100 properties were hit by the cascading mud, 49 of which had a house, cabin or mobile home on them, Pennington said. At least 25 of those homes were believed to have been occupied year round. "I'm pissed off I'm losing my house. I mean I hate to lose it. I've been working on it for 15 years," said 73-year-old Dennis Hargrave, who drove up from Kirkland, near Seattle, to learn what he could of his vacation home.
— Reuters |
||||||
|
A day after mass death sentence, Egypt puts another 683 on trial
Minya, March 25 Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, 70, and the others were being tried in the same court in Minya Province that condemned 529 members of the Islamist group to death, in what rights groups said was the biggest mass death sentence handed out in Egypt's modern history. Protests erupted after Tuesday's trial began, with police firing teargas to deter hundreds of demonstrators. The UN human rights office said the mass death sentences contravened international law. The European Union and the United States also criticised the ruling, as did rights groups. "Yesterday was ... a death sentence for the credibility and independence of Egypt's criminal justice system," said Nicholas Piachaud, a campaigner at Amnesty International. "There is little hope of the 683 people indicted in this latest trial of receiving fair proceedings before the same judge who yesterday handed down death sentences so readily." Justice Ministry official Abdel Atheem al-Ashari defended the death sentences, saying in a statement in response to the ruling that the separation between the state and the judiciary is one of the main principles of any democratic system. There are no signs that Western powers will back their dismay with action to push for greater democracy in Egypt, which is of strategic importance because of its peace treaty with Israel and contains the Suez Canal, a global shipping lane. Egypt has cracked down hard on the Brotherhood since army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi toppled Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president, in July, and installed a government.
— AFP |
||||||
Arrest warrants against Meera, hubby for sex tape
Pak-Taliban peace talks deferred Oz minister lashes out at gallery over stolen Shiva idol |
|
|
||
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
The G7 group of top economic powers have kicked out Russia from the powerful G8 over its annexation of Crimea and threatened to impose far-reaching sanctions if Moscow continued its incursion into Ukraine.
Russia today dismissed as counterproductive the decision of G8 member countries to snub a June summit in the Russian resort of Sochi following Moscow's annexation of Crimea.
A summit of the smaller Group of Seven agreed in The Hague yesterday to deepen Moscow's isolation over the crisis in Ukraine and meet without Russia in Brussels instead of gathering in
Sochi.
New York, March 25
