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New Jersey mayors, rabbis among dozens arrested for corruption |
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Written by Neena Sareen
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Thursday, 23 July 2009 18:32 |
 Washington - Police on Thursday arrested three mayors and dozens more politicians and Jewish clergymen in the US state of New Jersey as part of a massive corruption and money laundering scandal.
Federal investigators said the mass arrests were unprecedented and once again exposed a "culture of corruption" that New Jersey has become notorious for over the last decades. The investigation has been running for 10 years.
The arrests involved two cases tied together by a single witness.
In the first case, 29 politicians were arrested in a coordinated morning operation, "underscoring more than ever the pervasive nature of public corruption in this state," said Ralph Marra, acting US attorney in Newark, New Jersey.
Politicians throughout the state allegedly accepted bribes to push forward special projects.
"The politicians willingly put themselves up for sale," said Marra. "For these defendants, corruption was a way of life."
Another 15 people including five rabbis were arrested in a separate international money laundering ring that also involved Switzerland and Israel.
Both cases are based largely on one unnamed individual who is cooperating as a federal witness. This individual was involved in both the money laundering schemes and handing out bribes to government officials. The evidence was backed up with recordings and documents of the corruption, police said.
New Jersey became infamously notorious in the popular HBO fictionalized series, The Sopranos, about a mob family deep into corruption and violence.(dpa) |
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Obama on Harvard prof arrest - "Race still haunts us" |
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Written by Reetu Sharma
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Thursday, 23 July 2009 18:30 |
 Washington - US President Barack Obama has jumped into the growing storm over police and racism sparked by last week's wrongful arrest of a high-profile Harvard professor who is black.
Answering a question at the end of a news conference Wednesday night, the country's first black president said police "acted stupidly" and that the arrest showed that "race remains a factor in this society" and "still haunts us."
At issue was the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr, a leading scholar and one of the country's top authorities on African-American history.
Police responded to a call from a neighbour who reported that a black man was trying to break into Gates' home. In fact, it was Gates himself, arriving home late at night from China, where he had been filming a public television documentary.
His front door was stuck shut, and Gates enlisted help from his taxi driver to assist in prying it open. When police arrived, they demanded that Gates identify himself and an altercation ensued.
The white police officer, Sergeant James Crowley, arrested him for disorderly conduct and took him to the police station to book him. The charges were later dropped.
Gates has demanded an apology and launched a protest campaign, calling his arrest an "educational opportunity for America." In broadcast remarks Thursday, he called Crowley a "rogue policeman."
"If this can happen to me in in Harvard Square, this can happen to anybody in the United States," Gates said. "What it made me realize is how vulnerable black men are ... vulnerable to capricious forces like rogue policemen, and this man was a rogue policeman."
In his remarks Wednesday night, Obama admitted he may be "a little biased" because Gates is a personal friend. He joked that if he was "trying to jigger into (his) old house in Chicago" police would likely be called on him too.
"Here I'd get shot," he said of the White House.
Obama praised police for "doing what they should" by responding to the report and admitted he had not seen all the facts to know exactly "what role race played" in the incident.
"But I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge Police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and number three, what I think we know, separate and apart from this incident, is that there is a long history in this country of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That's just a fact."
Obama said that his presidency was "testimony to the progress that's been made," but that didn't change the fact that "race remains a factor in this society."
One of the most stark examples of police racism occurred in May in New York, when police shot a black off-duty police officer who was chasing someone who had broken into his car.
Obama said that racial profiling "still haunts us. And even when there are honest misunderstandings, the fact that blacks and Hispanics are picked up more frequently and oftentime for no cause casts suspicion even when there is good cause."
White police officer Crowley Thursday refused to criticize Obama for the "acted stupidly" remark, according to a Boston Globe report about a radio interview Crowley gave.
But Crowley said it was "regrettable" that anyone would speak without knowing the "whole story."
"The president has a lot of other daunting tasks ahead of him," Crowley was quoted as saying. "I wish for the good of the whole country that he is successful in efforts to do the many things that he has to."
Last year, the presidential candidates ran campaigns remarkably free of racial invective, despite Obama's historic candidacy.
In a speech in Philadelphia, where the US Constitution was drawn up - a document that originally gave only white property-owning males a voice - Obama appealed to Americans to get beyond divisions and tackle the country's major problems. He addressed black anger as well as white resentment in the March 2008 speech.
Obama proved on election day last November that he was a bridging, unifying force, attracting white voters in predominantly white Midwestern states as well as black voters in the deep South.(dpa) |
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Marlboro's PMI, Reynolds, ride better than expected on smoke |
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Written by Samrat Khanna
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Thursday, 23 July 2009 18:29 |
 Washington - Philip Morris International Inc (PMI), the worlds largest publicly traded tobacco company, and Reynolds American Inc, the second-largest US cigarette maker, Thursday reported second-quarter profits that topped expectations.
Phillip Morris, maker of Marlboro, said higher prices in Argentina, Germany, Russia and other markets helped prevent greater losses, as did the falling value of the dollar.
PMI reported earnings of 83 cents a share excluding some items, beating the average analyst estimate of 77 cents. Reynolds profit of 1.29 collars a share topped analysts expectations by 13 cents.
PMI's net income fell 8.6 per cent compared to the same period last year, to 1.55 billion dollars. Revenues were down 8.9 per cent to 15.2 billion dollars.(dpa) |
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Polls show US image on worldwide rise with Obama |
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Written by Sheetal Mehta
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Thursday, 23 July 2009 18:22 |
 Washington - The global image of the United States has sharply improved since President Barack Obama took office, a poll released Thursday showed.
The Pew Global Attitudes survey of 24 nations and the Palestinian territories concluded that the international view of the United States has returned to the positive levels that existed before Obama's predecessor, George W Bush, became president.
Pew said the outcome shows that Obama enjoys much of the world's confidence, particularly in Western Europe, where the biggest gains were made.
The largest increases took place in France and Germany, two countries where America's image plummeted during the Bush years. Seventy-five per cent of French and 64 per cent of Germans had a favourable view of the United States. A 33-per-cent increase took place in both countries from last year's survey.
There were also sharp increases in Argentina, Britain, Indonesia, Mexico and Spain.
The only country where the US image markedly fell was in Israel, where there is scepticism about Obama's push for peace with the Palestinians and his willingness to open direct talks with Iran. The Israeli favourable view of the United States fell from 78 per cent last year to 71 per cent.
There was a slight increase - 2 per cent - in the Palestinian territories, where the overall favourable view of the United States, at 15 per cent, remained poor. It was also poor in Pakistan at 16 per cent.
There were marginal gains in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon.
The poll was conducted from May 18 to June 16 and involved interviews with 27,000 people.(dpa) |
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United States
New York - Kurt Vonnegut, the author who died in 2007, will continue to surprise from the grave with the release of 14 previously unpublished short stories by Random House, the New York Times reported Thursday.