Saturday, May 26, 2012

Indian Issues

On the warpath.

"Tribes, government agree to $1 billion settlement; Mismanaged funds, lands, other assets" by Shannon Dininny  |  Associated Press, April 12, 2012

YAKIMA, Wash. - The federal government will pay more than $1 billion to settle a series of lawsuits brought by American Indian tribes over mismanagement of tribal money and trust lands, under a settlement announced Wednesday.

The agreement resolves claims brought by 41 tribes from across the country to reclaim money lost in mismanaged accounts and from royalties for oil, gas, grazing, and timber rights on tribal lands.

Negotiations continue on dozens of other cases....

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The other Indians:

"US pushes India’s leaders for more cuts in Iranian oil imports; Clinton agenda includes dealings with rival Pakistan" Associated Press, May 07, 2012

CALCUTTA, India - Hoping to wean India from Iranian oil imports, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is urging Indian leaders to explore alternative suppliers as she opens a three-day visit to the energy-starved South Asian nation that will also focus on regional security and easing trade restrictions.

Clinton arrived in the eastern city of Calcutta - the first secretary of state to visit the former colonial capital of 14 million - on Sunday after visits to China and Bangladesh.

Officials traveling with her said the Iranian oil imports would top an agenda that includes India’s relations with nuclear rival Pakistan and the future of Afghanistan. 

I'm so sick of the Israeli war agenda being at the top of the AmeriKan list of things to do.

India has huge energy needs to fuel its rapid growth and has made some progress in easing its dependence on Iranian oil, but the United States wants to see more.

Like other major consumers of Iranian oil, India could face US sanctions by the end of June if the Obama administration determines it has not made significant cuts in imports under a law aimed at squeezing Iran’s petroleum industry to press the country to comply with international demands over its nuclear program.

A dozen European nations and Japan have been spared from those sanctions after the administration determined they had substantially reduced their Iranian oil imports. India, China, South Korea, Turkey, and South Africa, have not received such waivers.

India imports around 70 percent of its oil, and about 9 percent of the imports are from Iran.

The US official said India had recently stepped up imports of oil from Saudi Arabia and that the United States was eager to see the Indians explore other alternatives to Iranian oil.

Iran is India’s second-largest crude oil supplier after Saudi Arabia, and according to media reports imports 550,000 barrels a day.

India has been pushing its oil companies to cut back their crude imports from Iran, but officials hope India will be exempted from the sanctions.

In her talks with Indian officials, Clinton will also be pressing for the country to continue economic reforms and trade liberalization, including dropping restrictions on foreign investment in the finance sector and allowing large western retailers to open, the US official said.

There she is repping for the banks again.

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Btw, you psychopathic, war-loving globe-kickers might want to reconsider a regional conflagration if India is going to be your front-line bulwark.

"Indian state OKs shooting tiger poachers on sight" May 23, 2012|Katy Daigle, Associated Press

A state in western India has declared war on animal poaching by allowing forest guards to shoot hunters on sight in an effort to curb rampant attacks on tigers and other wildlife.

The government in Maharashtra says injuring or killing suspected poachers will no longer be considered a crime.

Forest guards should not be “booked for human rights violations when they have taken action against poachers,’’ Maharashtra Forest Minister Patangrao Kadam said Tuesday. The state also will send more rangers and jeeps into the forest, and will offer secret payments to informers who give tips about poachers and animal smugglers, he said.  

That last one is never a good idea.
 
No tiger poachers have ever been shot in Maharashtra, though cases of illegal loggers and fishermen being shot have led to charges against forest guards, according to the state’s chief wildlife warden, S.W.H. Naqvi.
 
But the threat could act as a significant deterrent to wildlife criminals, conservationists said.
 
“These poachers have lost all fear. They just go in and poach what they want because they know the risks are low,’’ said Divyabhanusinh Chavda, who heads the World Wildlife Fund in India and is a key member of the National Wildlife Board, which advises the prime minister. In many of India’s reserves, guards are armed with little more than sticks....
 
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"Rescuers had recovered 103 bodies from a turbulent northeastern river on Tuesday after a heavily packed ferry capsized, saying they feared that dozens of others had been swept by the current to neighboring Bangladesh....

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"16 killed in fire on pilgrimage bus

LUCKNOW - An overloaded bus carrying pilgrims to a Muslim shrine rammed into a parked truck and burst into flames, killing 16 and injuring more than two dozen others in the north state of Uttar Pradesh, police said Saturday. Some of the 78 passengers aboard the 54-seat bus had kerosene and cooking gas cylinders that helped turn the bus “into a ball of fire,’’ officer Iqbal Mallik said (AP)."