By THE NEW YORK TIMES
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Stiff Sentence for Former Gujarat Minister
NEW DELHI, India â€" A top lieutenant of one India's most powerful politicians was sentenced to 28 years in prison Friday for her role in a deadly attack that killed at least 94 people during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Mayaben Kodnani, a state legislator and former state education minister, was given a 28-year prison term after being convicted of murder, arson and conspiracy. The other 31 defendants were given decades-long prison terms, including one who must remain in prison for the rest of his life.
Ms. Kodnani was a confidant of Narendra Modi, Gujarat's chief minister and a top contender to become the Bharatiya Janata Party's candidate for p rime minister in national elections scheduled for 2014. Mr. Modi has long been plagued by accusations that he discouraged police from protecting Muslims during the riots, accusations he has denied.
Ms. Kodnani's conviction and long prison sentence are a blow to Mr. Modi's efforts to distance himself from responsibility for the deaths and could derail his campaign to lead the Bharatiya Janata Party. Since Muslims represent nearly 15 percent of India's population, no political party can afford to alienate them entirely.
The judge in the case, Jyotsnaben Yagnik, said that Ms. Kodnani and Babu Bajrangi, a member of a Hindu hard-line organization, were the key conspirators in the massacre of mostly women and children in the Muslim neighborhood of Naroda Patia.
Akhil Desai, the prosecutor in the case, said that Judge Yagnik intended the long sentences to serve as a warning. “The judge observed that the riots were very brutal and the punishment should be such th at such offenses should never occur again,†Mr. Desai said.
The Gujarat riots, which claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people, are the first in India's history to be followed by significant prosecutions and convictions. Perhaps because of that response, there has been no communal violence on the scale of the Gujarat riots, although ethnic attacks in Assam in recent months have claimed at least 78 lives.
Protest Over Coal Spills Onto India\'s Streets
By HARI KUMAR
A political fight over one of India's most important natural resources, coal, spilled out of Parliament on Friday and onto the streets.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., the principal opposition to India's Congress-led government, held a protest in Delhi and said they will hold dozens more around the country on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Other opposition groups, including the leftist parties and the Samajwadi Party, had a sit-in at the gate of India's Parliament building on Friday.
The government's ruling coalition has been the target of fierce criticism over alleged irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks, which one investigation said cost the government nearly $34 billion in lost revenue. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other Congress Party leaders deny the accusations. Debate over the issue has paralyzed Parliament and brought law-making to a halt in New Delhi.
B.J.P. leaders are demanding the resignation of the prime minister and say they will not allow Parliament to function until then. Other opposition parties are calling for an investigation into the coal block allocation by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court or the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Parliament was disrupted Friday for the ninth day in a row and adjourned until Monday.
During the protest at the Parliament building gate, opposition politicians shouted slogans, demanding a judicial probe into the coal block allocation. Mulayam Singh Yadav, the president of the Samajwadi Party, protested for one hour, then announced, “Our demand is that a sitting judge of the Supreme Court should investigate the coal scam. If it is not done, we will protest throughout the country.â€
Mr. Yadav's party won a major victory in state polls earlier this year in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state. His party is expected to play a major role in the next national elec tion, due in 2014.
Leaders of the B.J.P. addressed a crowd of a few hundred people who had gathered at a separate protest venue in New Delhi. Leader after leader narrated a long list of corruption scandals and their estimated monetary value.
Protestors shouted slogans like “Koyala choro gaddi choro†(“Coal thieves, leave the chairâ€) and “Koyale ki dalali me pradhanmantri ka muh kala†(“The prime minister's face is blackened in the coal scamâ€).
Anurag Thakur, the head of the B.J.P.'s youth wing, promised that “the coal scam will be the last nail in the coffin of Congress.â€
Israeli Diplomat Will Ask Narendra Modi to Confront \'Hitler\' Store
By MALAVIKA VYAWAHARE
An Israeli official in India plans to ask Gujarat's chief minister, Narendra Modi, to pressure the owners of Hitler, a clothing store in Ahmedabad, to change the business's name.
Orna Sagiv, the Israeli consul general based in Mumbai said Friday, she would bring up the matter in a scheduled meeting with Mr. Modi next week in Gujarat.
“I am shocked that the owner of an apparel shop would name his shop after Hitler and have the swastika as one of the emblems on the shop banner,†she said, adding that it was “totally unacceptable†and “insulting†to the Jewish community, not just in India but across the world.
The clothing store is one of a handful of businesses in India named after the Nazi dictator. Recent news coverage in India Ink and other publications has brought the store international attention.
On Thursday, the Anti-Defamation League in New York, an organi zation that fights anti-Semitism, called on Mr. Shah to “heed the concerns of the local Jewish community and the voices of others from around the world by immediately changing the store's name from ‘Hitler.' â€
It called Mr. Shah's decision to use the name “an affront to the memory of the millions of Hitler's victims.â€
“It is a perverse abuse of the history of the Holocaust to name a business after one of the world's most notorious mass murderers and anti-Semites,†Abraham H. Foxman, the ADL's national director and a Holocaust survivor, said in a press release.
Hitler holds an unusual fascination for some in India. His manifesto, “Mein Kampf,†remains a strong seller at streetside book stalls, and various businesses named after the German leader have popped up over the years, including a Mumbai cafe called ‘Hitler's Cross.'
Ms. Sagiv said the attitude reflects “deep ignorance and insensitivity in an otherwise tolerant society,†one where the Jewish community had never suffered any discrimination, even when anti-Semitism was at its peak in the rest of the world.
The Anti-Defamation League also expressed concern Thursday about the name of the Nazi leader “seeping into India's popular culture without any appropriate context.â€
In an e-mail interview with The Times of India last year, the spokesman for the Israeli Embassy spoke of the need for greater awareness in India about the atrocities committed against Jews by the Nazi regime under Hitler, which led to the death of six million Jews during the second World War.
His comments were in regards to a pool parlor owner who had named his establishment Hitler's Den.
In the case of the Hitler's Cross cafe, the owners agreed to change the name to Cross Cafe and revamped the decor. The owners of the Ahmedabad clothing store have expressed no willingness to change the name unless they are compensated for it.
A Conversation With: Constitution Expert Madhav Khosla
By AAYUSH SONI
Madhav Khosla, a doctoral student of political theory at Harvard University, is the author of “The Indian Constitution,†a short introduction to the world's longest political text, which consists of 395 articles and 12 schedules. The book is a fascinating tour through the life of India's supreme law, analyzing its central features like federalism, fundamental rights and the separation of power. In an interview with India Ink, Mr. Khosla explained why he sees the Constitution as more than a political text and how his book isn't just for lawyers.
Do you think Indians should be (or can be) “introduced†to the Constitution?
I think it depends a lot on what you mean by introduction. I don't intend to make a flippant, semantic response, but I think what all of us ought to do is to, at some level, engage with some of the central debates in it. One of the interesting things is that in the U.S., it's amazing how muc h general knowledge about the Constitution is prevalent. Somebody will have some view of the First Amendment or free speech, and I think in India the basic knowledge is far less. So the aim was to make it more central to public discourse, and I think that's certainly possible.
One striking aspect of the book is its sophisticated yet accessible prose. Was that easy to do? What was the writing process like?
I was always trying to prevent two scenarios: one is that it'll just collapse into a pamphlet, a book for dummies. The second is that it will be inaccessible to people who aren't lawyers. So the aim was, at each stage, to see whether or not the point that I'm trying to make addresses a certain moment or scenario in Indian politics for people to grasp. Also, if somebody doesn't know anything about Indian politics or about Indian law, he probably won't get the book at all, and I think that's also fine. So the aim was to park it in the middle of these two.
As a doctoral student, I assume you're used to writing a lot of academic prose. Did that style ever creep into the writing process of this book?
I'm sure it did, and I kept going back at it to see if there are any other matters that are technical and showed drafts to friends. A huge challenge was also to synthesize all of this into a proper story because the book is shorter than the Constitution. You're talking about cases that have developed over 60 years, which is a huge amount. The standard treatise of a constitution is about three or four volumes; the largest one is 10 volumes. Each of these is like a 1,000 pages. So that's another challenge â€" to pick and choose what stories might be more relevant than others.
Your book is peppered with examples of such prominent cases as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and the J.M.M. [Jharkhand Mukti Morcha] bribery case of 1993. Did you cite these to make the book relatable to your audience or was their presence naturally born out of the aspects you were discussing in the book?
I think the most important factor in determining what examples to choose and what cases to emphasize is actually bench strength. The Indian Supreme Court sits across different courtrooms and the importance of a decision depends on the strength of the bench. So the most important thing was to respect the varying degrees of bench strength. So if I'm taking a case on parliamentary privileges - the 1993 case - my pool is typically limited to cases of five benches [where five judges of the Supreme Court decide the matter] or more, which are constitutional benches. Within it, I see whether one of them is raising particularly interesting issues, and then it's a judgment call to take a newer case or an older case.
I used the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in a very specific context of how legislative power is interpreted, and it struck me as a case that might resonate with people, w hich is why I used it even though it wasn't a five-bench case.
You also write about how the asymmetrical nature of our Constitution poses the risk of an identity crisis. Is there a way to avoid such a scenario?
What is crucial to any asymmetry is that it must have an internal logic of its own, and I think that was present in the Constitution's founding moments. So if we decided that Dalits were to asymmetrically treated, there was a certain logic to that. It was ground in coherent argument about discrimination and unequal starting positions.
My real fear is that normative arbitrariness is creeping into constitutional amendments, and there's no logic to the asymmetry anymore. I think the most glaring and recent example of that is the current debate of promotions and quotas. The argument was that people have unequal starting positions in society and so, at the entry level, you bring them to a level playing field. Now, I disagree with how the government identif ies backwardness. However rich you get, you'll still be of the same caste. I think you should use economic criterion.
On the equality doctrine, there was a clear argument for asymmetry. Now, the Constitution is amended to provide quotas and promotions on consequential seniority, which basically means you get your promotion and you then use it to say you're senior and you claim further promotions on that basis. It's like an indefinite double promotion. The court struck this down saying, look, you do what the hell you want with backwardness, we'll generously endorse your usage of caste, but it should fit into a more coherent structure. Our Constitution was routinely amended for that, and it's not clear to me now what division of equality rests on.
You seem to view the Constitution as more than just a political text. It seems you've sought to interpret it as a document that affects a much larger society than just those who are part of its political system.
I th ink it does impact all of us. The Constitution isn't simply about what the prime minister can do or the president can't do. It's fundamentally what gives us and what sustains our membership in this community. So part of my hope has been that each of us need to engage with it far more rigorously because it affects all of our daily lives in profound ways. We see that in some ways - like in politics you'll see a [Arvind] Kejriwal saying, How can you not let me protest?
But there's little emphasis on really what the text says. A lot of it is going at a level of generality that's unhelpful. I certainly believe that it's relevant to people more than just political actors. I think it's relevant to everybody who's in this political community.
So why do you think Indians have treated the Constitution only in terms of generalities?
That's a really tough thing to say. It could be a limited emphasis on legal education. It could be the fact that we haven't tried enough. There could be a range of reasons for it, but I think that that ought to change. It's very important to realize that this is about all of us. In some sense, this is the fundamental document that gives us our identity. We are who it says we are.
(This interview has been lightly edited and condensed.)
Aayush Soni is a New Delhi-based freelance journalist and a recent graduate of the Columbia Journalism School. Follow him on Twitter at @aayushsoni.
India\'s Economy Continues to Be Weak
By NEHA THIRANI
The Indian gross domestic product report released Friday for the April-June quarter showed that the economy was doing only marginally better than in the previous quarter. Growth was up 5.5 percent during the quarter from a year earlier, the lowest rise in three years, compared with 5.3 percent in the period ended in March, which was the weakest in nine years.
Analysts said high interest rates have dented investment, while the investor outlook continued to remain bleak. “High inflation, wide trade and current account deficits, bloated subsidies and a gaping fiscal deficit have all taken a toll on the real economy, while the rupee has plunged 25 percent since July 2011,†said Jyoti Narasimhan, senior principal economist at IHS Global Insight. “The investment environment remains toxic because of corruption scandals, policy inertia and fierce political opposition have stifled progress on reform.â€
The report showed that the manufacturing output in the April-June quarter rose only 0.2 percent from a year prior, dashing prospects for growth. The growth in agriculture, forestry and fishing was 2.9 percent, while mining and quarrying remained nearly flat at 0.1 percent. The sectors that showed significant growth in the quarter were construction with 10.9 percent growth, financing, insurance, real estate and business services at 10.8 percent and community, social and personal services, which registered a 7.9 percent growth.
Forecasts for the coming year are less than rosy. “Weak growth is likely to remain a strong overhang on the corporate sector, and in the near-term raises chances of a sovereign downgrade, particularly in the light of the stalemate on the policy front,†said Tirthankar Patnaik, the director of institutional research at Religare Capital Markets.
A rebound of the economy is expected to be a gradual process. “The pickup in growth was encouraging, but growth still suffers due to external headwinds and supply constraints,†said Leif Lybecker Eskesen, chief economist for India and Asean at HSBC Global Research. “We expect a gradual recovery from here on the back of structural reform progress and global economic stabilization, although there is a risk that it could prove more protracted.â€
All eyes are now on the Reserve Bank of India, the central bank, which meets Sept. 17 to review monetary policy. While there are expectations that a low growth rate would cause the R.B.I. to cut interest rates, just last week the central bank said that lower interest rates alone were not enough to jump-start the investment cycle. “Despite ever-worsening growth data, IHS Global Insight, expects the R.B.I. to wait until October to resume its rate cuts,†said Jyoti Narasimhan, senior principal economist at the firm. “We expect only a shallow recovery in manufacturing and investment, and only a mild uptur n is expected by year-end.â€
From Bihar, a New Approach to Flood Control
By RANU SINHA
The year was 2008, and I had just walked out of a meeting on flood management with the chief minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar. Mr. Kumar, fully aware of the challenges of annual floods in Bihar, had asked for assistance in building new flood defenses.
Unfortunately, this call for help came a little too late. Hours later, the eastern embankment of the Kosi barrage, a major flood protection infrastructure in Nepal, collapsed on its left side, resulting in one of the most devastating floods in the history of the state. In Bihar alone, over three million people were affected, with official sources reporting over 500 deaths and close to 3,500 missing.
However, this flood did not occur as a result of too much rain. In fact, the water levels in the river were much lower than expected. What caused the flooding was too little maintenance. Official reports state that much-needed repairs on the embankment s had been delayed for a number of years, severely weakening the effectiveness of the infrastructure. Eventually, the day came when the barriers of the embankment could not withstand the pressure of the river.
The business of flood management in India - the ability to predict, prepare, respond and recover from flood-related disasters - is the responsibility of state governments. Though non-state actors and the people affected can play a part in flood management, the lion's share of the formal responsibility generally lies with state-run irrigation or water resources departments. Other agencies, like state disaster management and local governments, also play a key role.
Though research is limited on this topic, it is clear that there is a significant gap in the quality, performance and ability of these institutions to manage the complexity of floods.
As one of India's most flood-prone states, Bihar faces enormous challenges. Bihar's river systems and its 16 river basins are some of the most complex in the world, with a heterogeneous set of rivers flowing into the state from the Himalayas. Excessive rainfall, bursting rivers and breaching embankments are a recurring phenomenon that tend to wreak havoc on the lives of millions, with the poor usually the worst affected.
The 2008 Kosi floods were a wake-up call for the government of Bihar. Its water resources department is now trying to make sure the disaster of 2008 doesn't happen again. I am leading a team of experts to study how the department institutionally manages floods. Our research, which is sponsored by the International Growth Center (I.G.C.) India-Bihar country program, a global research and policy center headquartered in Britain, has attempted to investigate the institutional factors that may be contributing to increased risks from floods to Bihar's 103 million people.
Our team conducted household surveys of affected communities and staff interviews of wate r resources department engineers, from junior officers to the leadership in the state capital of Patna.
The findings were eye-opening. The water resources department is in charge of both irrigation and the management of floods, but in most cases the supply of staff in the department does not match the demand of the dual responsibilities of irrigation provision and flood management. Staff shortages tend to lead to an overemphasis on the construction of new flood protection infrastructure and little time and manpower for ensuring the quality of what already exists.
Some staff members stressed the need for further training in modern-day flood management techniques, particularly the junior members who generally bear the responsibility of being the first to protect infrastructure and communities in the event of a flood. The staff also did not have sufficient hardware and software to adequately perform their duties. Tools like vehicles and computers, as well as flood-r elated technology, are in short supply. Inefficient systems monitor the performance of staff and the quality of the maintenance of flood infrastructure.
Engagement with communities, actively involving them in essential flood-fighting activities, seems to be ad hoc and underdeveloped, while coordination with other agencies at the local and state levels needs to be severely strengthened. Essentially, the problem boils down to too much to do in too little time, with too few resources.
Bihar is not alone in grappling with these challenges. In June, an embankment breach on the island of Majuli in Assam on the Brahmaputra River affected more than 200 villages and is being called one of the worst floods in the state in the last 14 years. Reports from the flood indicate that much of the early work of flood preparedness and embankment maintenance was largely nonexistent. This recent flood may have been less severe had the local irrigation department conducted high-quality maintenance work on the embankments.
It is not purely a coincidence that total flood damage in India, in terms of population affected and crops and assets destroyed, has risen from approximately 520 million rupees in 1953 to over 88 billion rupees in 2000. India, therefore, desperately needs to transform its water management agencies to address these concerns rather than pour money into more concrete.
Bihar is one of the few states in India to begin transforming its flood management practices. Data from firsthand experiences has convinced policy makers that reforms are necessary. This means hiring thousands of new staff, setting up world-class training institutes, improving the knowledge of field staff in state-of-the-art techniques of flood management and creating new quality procedures and inspection systems that can track how well an embankment is performing. It also means actively involving communities in disseminating warnings and sharing the burden of floo d protection alongside its engineers.
In Bihar's 2011-12 budget, the government estimated it would spend close to 77 billion rupees ($1.4 billion) on irrigation, flood control and energy. This is significantly higher than the amount budgeted in 2010-11, which was close to 56 billion rupees. The increase in funds will be critical to implement crucial changes.
What India has now is more like underpaid, poorly trained firefighters fighting blazes with leaky hoses and battered trucks, and this status quo cannot adequately protect the millions of lives at stake. Reform must happen even though these are not easy changes to make. They cannot happen overnight, but they will make a difference in the way state institutions plan, manage and respond to the inevitable flood. The changes under way in Bihar may soon lead the way for the rest of country.
Ranu Sinha is the former Deputy Director of the International Growth Center India Bihar Country Program. This article re presents the author's views and does not reflect the opinion of the International Growth Center as an organization.
BRICS in Space
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
“Let's send a mission to Mars, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced a couple of weeks ago, just as his government was fending off corruption charges and the country was still recovering from the biggest blackout since the invention of electricity,†Hartosh Singh Bal wrote in the New York Times's Latitude blog.
Mr. Singh's “$77 million plan did nothing to divert attention from his administration's failings,†Mr. Bal wrote, but “it did focus some unfortunate attention on India's space program.†It suggested, “what had been a fine endeavor to date has now been hitched to India's dream of becoming a great power.â€
But the ambition of a Mars mission “goes well beyond practical applications,†Mr. Bal wrote. “It's about basic science research and planetary exploration, as well as a very real, and ludicrous, race to space with China.â€
Read more '
Tata Motors Helps Jaguar and Land Rover Regain Luster
Four years after being bought by Tata Motors, the “well-known but somewhat faded British brands†Jaguar and Land Rover “are regaining some of their lost luster,†Vikas Bajaj wrote, and “racking up big sales from Shanghai to London.â€
“The success has stunned analysts and investors,†he wrote, many of whom had said that Tata Motors “was making an expensive mistake when it acquired Jaguar Land Rover from Ford Motor for $2.3 billion in June 2008.â€
At the time, Ford was raising money to ensure its own survival, and it sold the brands for several billion dollars less than it had paid to acquire them years earlier.
Analysts say Tata h as done what few companies from emerging markets have been able to do - turn around and successfully run a troubled Western company.
Read the full article.
Following Pussy Riot Verdict, Christian Culture Warriors Run Riot in Moscow
By ROBERT MACKEY
Apparently emboldened by the stiff prison sentences members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot received this month for performing a profane anthem inside a Moscow cathedral, a handful of conservative, Russian Orthodox activists staged a series of audacious attacks on liberal Muscovites this week, all of them amply documented online.
As the news site Gazeta.ru reported the young culture warriors barged into a sex museum in the Russian capital late Tuesday night and left a brick and a threatening message for the staff. Alexander Donskoi, the director of The G-Spot Museum of Erotic Art, said that he had identified the activists “through their accounts on social networks†and by viewing online video of the self-styled defenders of the Russian Orthodox faith harassing supporters of Pussy Riot in recent weeks.
One of the Christians, Dmitry Tsorionov, posted security camera footage of himself and six others, including a camera crew from state television, inside the G-Spot museum on the social network VKontakte, a Russian replica of Facebook, where he blogs as Dimitry Enteo.
Security camera footage of conservative Russian Orthodox activists after they barged into a sex museum in Moscow late Tuesday night, accompanied by a television crew.
In another post on the same social network, a second activist, Andrey Kaplin, drew attention to the report on the incident produced by the crew from state television which had accompanied the protesters. The Russian news agency Interfax reported that the sex museum's director is a former politician who “announced the creation of his Party of Love,†earlier this year “by holding a demonstration in support of Pussy Riot in which party activists swam in a fountain at the GUM shopping center next to Red Square.â€
The night before that stunt, Mr. Tsorionov and Mr. Kaplin had stormed into a Moscow theater during the performance of a “documentary†play about the Pussy Riot trial, shouting “Repent!†and “Why do you hate the Russian people?†at the band's lawyers, supporters and family who were gathered on stage. State television journalists, who arrived at the theater with the Orthodox activists, cameras blazing, captured Mr. Tsorionov turning towards the lens at the start of their video report.
A Russian state television report on Christian protesters disrupting the performance of a play about the Pussy Riot trial on Monday at Moscow's Teatr.doc.
The event took place at Moscow's Teatr.doc, which aims to produce “an intersection of art and actual social analysis concerning topical issues,†by crafting performances “based on authentic texts, interviews and the lives of real people.†The theater's artistic director, Mikhail Ugarov, suggested on hi s blog shortly after the protesters burst in that the whole event had been staged by the television crew which arrived with the Christians. “That is,†Mr. Ugarov wrote, “the TV people carry with them the group of extras and shoot the conflict.â€
Even without a crew from the state broadcaster, however, Mr. Tsorionov and his fellow activists are quite capable of documenting their own stunts. One video clip posted online this week shows Mr. Tsorionov running up to a man at a Moscow trains station and ripping a Pussy Riot T-shirt off his back.
Video of a Russian Orthodox activist ripping a Pussy Riot T-shirt off a man's back at a Moscow train station.
Mr. Tsorionov also stars in another, longer clip of a confrontation with Pussy Riot supporters which took place this month on the day that three members of the band were jailed for staging a protest inside a Moscow cathedral on the eve of Russia's preside ntial election in February. In that video, the Orthodox vigilantes can be seen demanding that a supporter of the band remove a T-shirt that quoted a lyric of the band's song, “Mother of God, drive Putin out!â€
Video of Russian Orthodox activists berating Pussy Riot supporters in a Moscow cafe.
Although the members of Pussy Riot insisted at their trial that the song they performed in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior - an obscenity-laced plea for the Virgin Mary to free Russia from Vladimir Putin's grip - was a political stunt, not an attack on believers, they were convicted this month of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.†Supporters of the group have accused the Russian government of portraying the protest as an anti-religious stunt both to dilute the content of the anti-Putin message and turn Orthodox Christians against the protest movement.
Responding late last week to widespread condemnation of the verdict against the three women as an assault on free speech, a Russian diplomat in Britain insisted that the cathedral performance was a “provocation against religion,†and even compared the stunt to the destruction of the ancient Bamiyan Buddhas by the Taliban in 2001.
After the Orthodox activists were given so much time to vent their rage on state television this week, Russia's federal investigative committee, which answers directly to Mr. Putin, claimed that a murderer in a Russian province had killed two women and painted the slogan “Free Pussy Riot†on a wall in the victims' blood. While supporters of the band condemned that crime, and cast some doubt on whether the state media report on the incident was reliable, the Russian news agency Interfax asked Mr. Tsorionov, the Orthodox activist, for his response. “The infernal force that drives them hates God, believers and humankind in general,†he said. “These people are capable of c ommitting any crime, and nothing but force and law can stop them.†A spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church told the news agency: “This blood is on the conscience of the so-called public, which supported the participants in the action in Christ the Savior Cathedral.â€
Later on Thursday, the author of the band's @pussy_riot Twitter feed accused the Kremlin of playing with fire by whipping religious activists into a frenzy. Referring to the fact that a senior Kremlin adviser, Vladislav Surkov, was just put in charge of the state's religious affairs office, the Pussy Riot blogger wrote: “Putin ignites the fires of revolution, and Vladislav Surkov starts religious wars.â€
Путин зажигает коÑтры революций, а Ð'ладиÑлав Сурков начинает религиозные войны.
- группа Pussy Riot (@pussy_riot) 30 Aug 12
Ilya Mouzykantskii contributed r eporting from Moscow.
Yale University President Is Stepping Down
By TANYA ABRAMS
Higher EducationThe Choice on India Ink
After 20 years at the helm, Richard C. Levin, the president of Yale University, announced on Thursday that he will be leaving the Ivy League school at the end of the academic year, our colleague Richard Pérez-Peña reports:
When Mr. Levin took office, Yale was being described as a university whose perch among the world's top schools had grown shaky. The administration often battled the faculty members and the troubled surrounding city, there were budget shortfalls and staff cuts, applications were down and facilities badly needed renovation and repair.
A search committee re peatedly postponed the deadline for naming a new president, reportedly settling unenthusiastically on the low-key Mr. Levin after being unable to find a more charismatic outsider. Almost two decades later, Yale's academic reputation and its finances are more secure, and Mr. Levin, commonly called Rick, is among the most respected university leaders in the country.
Under him, the university has built a new business school campus; greatly expanded its facilities, including its science center and medical school; overhauled its buildings, including all 12 undergraduate residential colleges; started construction of two new residential colleges to make room for the first major expansion in undergraduate enrollment in decades; and embarked on new programs overseas.
Yale's global initiatives grew under Mr. Levine's leadership. The student body became more internationally diverse. In 1999, the university announced that it wo uld offer need-blind admissions to international students and financial aid packages under the same terms as its American students. Yale's India Initiative also began during his tenure.
Mr. Levin, 65, who has served as the university's president since 1993, has had one of the longest tenures in Yale's history. He is also the most senior president among Ivy League leaders.
In a letter to the Yale community, Mr. Levin called his departure a “natural transition†after having accomplished many of the institution's goals.
“These years have been more rewarding and fulfilling than I ever could have imagined,†he wrote.
Mr. Levin, incidentally, is the second university president to leave the Ivy League this year. In July, Jim Yong Kim, the former president of Dartmouth College, became the new leader of the World Bank.
Mr. Levin intends to take a sabbatical next year, during which he plans to finish writing a book about higher education and econo mic policy.
Nine Killed in Midair Collision of Air Force Choppers
By HARI KUMAR
Two Indian Air Force helicopters collided midair during a training exercise in western Gujarat on Thursday, killing all nine people on board.
The MI-17 helicopters, which had taken off from Jamnagar Air Base, crashed at 12:05 p.m. in Sarmat, Gerard Galway, an air force spokesman, said by phone. The nine passengers included five officers.
The air force has formed “a court of inquiry†to determine the cause of accident, said Mr. Galway.
TV news footage showed rescuers among the wreckage of the two helicopters, one of which had broken into pieces.
India has used the MI-17, a Russian-built helicopter that was introduced in 1970s, for both military and civilian purposes. The medium twin-turbine helicopter can be used for transport and as a gunship.
In 2010, a MI-17 helicopter crashed in Tawang, in Arunachal Pradesh, killing 12 air force personnel, and in 2011, another MI-17 c rashed, again in Tawang, killing 17 people on a civilian flight.
In Kerala, Feasting, Splurging and Mollywood Usher in Onam
By T.P. SREENIVASAN
Visiting Kerala this week is like visiting New York during Christmas week, except for the scale. Both places have the festive atmosphere, illumination, feasting everywhere, high alcoholic consumption and crass commercialization, including a grand shopping festival. None of these have anything to do with the traditional Onam festival, but care is taken to do all these in the name of Mahabali, the legendary ruler of prehistoric times. His majestic and well-fed figure juts out of every hoarding like Santa Claus in the West.
Onam, whose festivities center around Thiru Onam, observed on Wednesday, is a combination of the Kerala new year and the harvesting festival, marking the end of torrential rain and misery associated with the previous months. But the Onam legend of Mahabali is the best excuse for the feasting and the splurging. Keralites believe that they have to appear as happy and prosperous as they were in the days of M ahabali, the benevolent king, who returns to Kerala once a year to see his subjects. This was a boon he received from the Supreme God himself, Vishnu, who sent him to the nether-world out of envy for his popularity.
As the story goes, Vishnu appears disguised as a Brahmin boy, who seeks three feet of land to do his prayers. Mahabali promises to provide that, but then Vishnu suddenly grows so large that he measures the earth with one foot, the heavens with another foot and demands that Mahabali find room for his third. Mahabali offers his own head as the third, and Vishnu pushes him down. However, Mahabali managed to negotiate a deal to visit Kerala once every year.
The fame of Mahabali made him a ruler par excellence, without any parallel in history before or after. The literature that describes his reign reads like the description of the Utopia, or the Promised Land: socialistic in concept but capitalist in terms of prosperity and plenty. Everyone was equal, no untruth or deceit, not even an iota of falsehood. No wonder the gods grew jealous as even in heaven, they did not have such a paradise.
The regime change that Vishnu brought about may have had to do with more than jealousy. It was a just regime, but there is no talk of the empowerment of women or faith in God. Some believe that these were the tragic flaws that transported Mahabali to the nether-world.
The legend of Mahabali and his kingdom may well be the primeval memory of a people, in jumbled up images of old times. But more likely, it is a vision, a dream that is difficult even to conceive of, not to speak of accomplishing. By portraying a dream as something that existed in the past, the creators of the legend gave it a touch of reality. The creation of the image of Mahabali was another master stroke to give form and content to the dream.
The Keralites do not see deception in pretending to be content on Onam day. It is a le gitimate way of pleasing their ruler. The deception gives the Keralites the license to indulge in luxuries. Even the sale of immovable property is permitted to celebrate the Onam festival. The government abets the splurging by giving salary advances, which will have to be repaid in subsequent months.
Onam, in the old days, meant 10 days of feasting, flower decorations and traditional dances for women and martial arts and sports for men. Like Thanksgiving, Onam brought families together, even if it meant travel over long distances. Onam used to be very private and unostentatious, but today, Onam is a street festival, with an eye on attracting tourists. Kerala is sold as a tourist and shopping package during Onam.
Today's Onam also revolves around Mollywood, the Malayalam movie scene, which has been exceptionally active in recent years. The supreme stars like Mammootty and Mohanlal still hold sway, and the dream of every television channel is to get them to talk ab out themselves on Onam day. If the networks can't get hold of them, every other star is lined up on Onam day. Meanwhile, Keralites are waiting breathlessly to hear the health bulletins on the popular character actor Thilakan, who is struggling for his life on a ventilator during the Onam week.
Onam is not about a legend anymore. It is a contemporary festival to rejoice, to feast, to shop and to ogle at film stars. Mahabali is just an excuse for Keralites to deceive themselves that they are well. As long as remittances come from the Keralite workers in the Gulf, Onam can have all the glitter it has acquired.
For menial work in Kerala, people from West Bengal and Odisha come in large numbers. For them, Kerala is the Gulf, with jobs in plenty and good wages. The chief minister of Kerala, Oommen Chandy, had to greet the migrant workers on Onam day in Hindi this time.
In the Onam season, everything is postponed till the long holidays are over. This year, the Ona m celebrations continue to Sunday, but the official holiday will close on Monday so that everyone gets an extended break. Once it emerges, bleary-eyed, from the Onam season, Kerala will return to its routine of hyper politics, high spending and Kerala model development, and Mahabali will return to his nether-world home in the belief that his subjects are happy today as they were in his times.
Mr. Sreenivasan, a former Indian diplomat, is the executive vice chairman of the Kerala State Higher Education Council. His views are personal and do not reflect the policy of his state.
Where Will Literature Go From Here?
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
“Considering the views and the hair color of the 50 writers who had assembled for a quaint conference in Edinburgh, the congregation could have been called '50 Shades of Grey,'†Manu Joseph wrote in The International Herald Tribune. “But most of the writers agreed,†at the World Writers' Conference, that “they were repulsed by the lowbrow book that has probably outsold all their works put together,†he wrote.
“Speaking on the subject ‘Should Literature Be Political?', the Egyptian writer Ahdaf Soueif, who writes in English, said of her own situation as a novelist from a nation in tumult: ‘Attempts at fiction right now would be too simple. The immediate truth is too glaring to allow a more subtle truth to take form,†Mr. Joseph wrote.
“For some reason,†Mr. Joseph wrote, “Indian English literature is far less political than Arab English literature.†He argu es:
Is it because the Arab region is more tumultuous than India? Or is it just that the Indian elite is a remote island within the republic that has protected itself from the country's realities, while the Arab elite has yet to destroy its bridges? Or is it because the Western literary market, the most powerful and lucrative market for novels in the world, demands Arab literature to be political, refusing to accept any other kind of stories emerging from the region, while sparing Indian novels such narrow expectations?
Read the full article.
In India, Businesses Named After Hitler Defend Their Decision
What's wrong with naming your business after Adolf Hitler?
So asks Rajesh Shah, the co-owner of Hitler, a menswear store in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, which opened earlier this month.
Mr. Shah said in a telephone interview that his shop is named after his business partner's grandfather, who was nicknamed Hitler after he acted the role in a college play. The name stuck, owing to the grandfather's strict disposition.
Now the name adorns the banner of his grandson's shop, complete with a tilted swastika sign. (An upright swastika is regularly used as a Hindu symbol, a practice that predates Nazi Germany by hundreds of years).
Members of Ahmedabad's tiny Jewish com munity, who number less than five hundred, have approached the store about renaming it, calling the German leader a monster, Mr. Shah said. But so far Mr. Shah and his co-owner have resisted a change.
“None of the other people are complaining, only a few Jewish families. I have not hurt any sentiments of the majority Hindu community. If he did something in Germany, is that our concern?†Mr. Shah asked.
He said he thought Hitler was a “good, catchy†name for his shop. In fact, his business plan seems to include cashing in on the name to attract customers. “We have not written anything below the sign or on our cards to indicate what we sell to generate mystery,†he said. “The customers who come in tell me they came in seeing the name.â€
So far, business is good, Mr. Shah said.
If the Jewish community really wants the name changed, they can pay for it, Mr. Shah said. “I have spent too much on branding for my shop,†he said.
The A hmedabad store is one of a handful of Indian businesses named after the Nazi dictator. Owners seem to have picked the name more for shock value than an embrace of or admiration for Nazism.
Baljit Singh Osan, the owner of a pool parlor called Hitler's Den in Nagpur, Maharashtra, said the name is what has made it famous all over town.
Mr. Osan, who opened the pool hall six years ago, said he settled on “Hitler's Den†because he was looking for a unique name, something that had recall value. He said he did not sympathize with the German dictator or his beliefs, but still he refused to change the name when the Jewish community in Nagpur protested.
“If I name my son ‘Hitler' and I wanted to start a business in his name, would they have a problem with that?†Mr. Osan said. “There are no laws like that in our country.â€
In an e-mail interview with The Times of India last year, David Goldfarb, the spokesman for the Israeli Embassy, said of Mr. Os an's business: “We can only assume that the owners of this new establishment are unaware of the horrendous meaning of the usage of Nazi themes and insignia for commercial gain.â€
A television serial on Zee TV about a dictatorial woman, which began in 2011, also uses the name of the German leader in the title: “Hitler Didi,†or “Hitler Sister.†It was renamed “General Didi†in December 2011, after the Anti-Defamation League in New York protested the original title. The name change affects only its broadcasts in the United States, though. In India, it is still called “Hitler Didi.â€
“We deeply regret any distress that this name may have caused, and it is our intention to change the name immediately,†The Hollywood Reporter quoted a Zee TV statement from 2011. “It was never our design to cause any grief and for that we deeply apologize.â€
An apology is not forthcoming from Prakash G., who goes by his first name, the manager of an Inter net advertising company that was first named Adolf Hitler Inc. when it started in May 2011. The Tamil Nadu-based company changed its name to AHI ADS in January, bowing to what he called “public pressure†and the huge amount of negativity it generated, Mr. Prakash said.
Asked about the usage of a variation of the swastika symbol on his current Web site, Mr. Prakash said that AHI ADS was an abbreviation of “Adolf Hitler Inc. Ads.†He added that he did not believe that Hitler was “such a bad person.â€
“I have read his autobiography and like some of his ideas,†Mr. Prakash said.
In Conversation With: Prosecutor Gopal Subramanium
India's highest court on Wednesday upheld the death penalty for Ajmal Kasab, the sole survivor among a group of militants who attacked Mumbai in 2008. Mr. Kasab, a Pakistani, confessed to the attacks and asked to be hanged while in custody. He later retracted his confession, saying he was framed by the police. Judges said the conspiracy behind the attack was “vicious,†the trauma and loss of life caused by the attacks made them the “the rarest of the rare†since the birth of India and the attackers attempt to pass off as Indian Muslims was “ominous and distressing.†(Read the full judgment here.)Â
 For Gopal Subramaniam, a former solicitor general and the prosecutor in this case, th e judgment was a moment of personal and national pride, he said. In the months of marathon arguments that tackled questions of constitutional and international laws, Mr. Subramaniam, who also prosecuted the case involving militant attacks on the Indian Parliament in 2001, faced Raju Ramachandran, an Indian lawyer appointed as amicus curiae, or friend of the court, to defend Mr. Kasab.
In a conversation with India Ink, Mr. Subramaniam talked about the trial, the public pressure for speedy judicial results and terrorism. Â
Many have called this judgment historic, but you have said the trial itself is historic for India. Why?
When the trial was under way, I was conscious that this was a case with international ramifications. The way in which Kasab would be dealt with, I knew, would be a benchmark. Our institutions and our performance as a country would be subject to international scrutiny. People do expect to see how the In dian judicial system works. That's why I wanted to make sure that our benchmarks were completely international.
I would say that the standards of rigid scrutiny which were employed in this case were stricter than would be observed in Europe or the United Kingdom.
This trial raised several questions about the rights of the accused in our criminal justice system. Do you believe Kasab received a fair trial?
Yes, I think every judge gave Kasab his fair chance. No judge allowed emotion to come in. There was no prejudice against Kasab.
The Indian government actually gave an opportunity to the Pakistan government to ask for a Pakistani lawyer for Kasab. But Pakistan disowned him. They didn't send him a lawyer.
An amicus curiae was appointed in this case. He maintained the high traditions of the bar, which postulate that no person can be left undefended. He took a few months off and studied the record in a meticulous way. And he came up with valid const itutional points.
As the prosecutors, we used a human rights liturgy. This was not a case where the prosecutor said ‘Hang him, hang him.' The prosecutor said, let's look at the evidence and come to conclusion A, then B, then C, then D. I used every standard which was the higher benchmark.
Kasab has been found guilty of waging war against the state. What were the arguments for and against this contention?
According to the lawyer for Kasab, this was not a case where there was any waging of war at all. They said that attacking a few buildings in Bombay is not waging war against India. So I then argued that if you make a wanton attack on the people of a country because they are citizens of that country, it constitutes waging war against the state. I borrowed a public international law definition of state, which is to be found in Israeli decisions, among others, and the court has accepted that decision.
What were the main questions of law considered by t he court?
Kasab's fundamental point was: My trial did not follow due process.
There were two important constitutional issues of due process which were urged by Kasab. This first was in reference to hisconfession. The court has accepted the confession, except some portions of it.
They said that if you think that in procedural compliance [while the confession was made] there has been adequate adherence to constitutional values, you can accept the confession. And a retracted confession in our jurisdiction can still be acted upon if you have corroboration.
The second argument was that Kasab should have had a lawyer from Day 1. The court has actually agreed to that. But they've said that the absence of a lawyer doesn't vitiate the trial. That's a very interesting development in our law.
What kind of evidence was presented before the court?
I want to point out that courts of appeal are not meant to be always appreciating evidence. So you had t o read the evidence afresh.
There was eyewitness evidence. Poor people, many of whom had lost close family members, took the trouble to be witnesses. Second, there was documentary evidence in the form of audio transcripts of terrorists in conversation with each other. The third was DNA evidence. The fourth was video evidence of a man shooting people and walking.
People feel disillusioned with the slow delivery of justice in India. In this case in particular, there was a lot of pressure from the media and the people for swift punishment. Did that weigh on your mind?
Public feeling is different from public justice. Public justice would require the rule of law to be followed. Many people thought we should send him to the gallows immediately, that he should be shot dead. But that's not the rule of law. That would really be the rule of law in a banana republic. We had to try him.
I think we did a completely professional job. I was unaffected by all the pub lic discourse.
How does the Indian judiciary look at terrorism? Do they treat it differently from other criminal cases?
Terrorism is a stronger kind of case than a mere murder. Terrorism's impact is much wider. Terrorism can make a country bleed. It can break asunder a country. This is the first judgment that gives the state or the prosecution the right to treat such crimes as an act against the people of India.
You have significant experience dealing with terrorism cases. What lessons do they hold for policy makers and society in general?
We must look at terrorism as a mental disease. We must view this in a very different way. This is a product of cognitive dissonance that happens in the psyche.
We must therefore find out the psychological cause which makes people vulnerable to suggestive behavior from people who slowly win over confidence and then push a person from a phase of rationality to a phase of irrationality.
Latest Updates on Hurricane Isaac
The Lede is following Hurricane Isaac on Wednesday, which is lashing the Gulf Coast with rain and high winds. Updates will mix breaking news from our correspondents in the region with eyewitness accounts, photos and videos of the storm posted online. Readers are invited to send us witness accounts, photographs or video by posting links in the comment thread or contacting us on Twitter @TheLede.
Convictions in Gujarat Riot Case Could Have Political Consequences
By GARDINER HARRIS and HARI KUMAR
NEW DELHI, India â€" A former state education minister and 31 others were convicted Wednesday for their roles in the deaths of 94 people during one of the most savage attacks of the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The convictions could have political consequences. Narendra Modi, Gujarat's chief minister and a possible candidate for prime minister for the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2014, has long denied any role in the riots despite witnesses who say he discouraged police from intervening. The conviction of the former state education minister, Mayaben Kodnani, who is also a state legislator, is the first among Mr. Modi's confidants. Cellphone records demonstrated that she was at the scene of the riot, contradicting her own testimony.
“This is the first Gujarat riot case which has links to the political conspiracy,†said Teesta Setalvad, a victim's advocate who has played crucial roles in many of the Gujarat cases. “I salute the decade-long fight by victims and witnesses.â€
Sentencing may occur as soon as tomorrow.
Jaynarayan Vyas, a cabinet minister for the Gujarat government, sought to distance the administration from Ms. Kodnani, saying she only became the state education minister after the riots. “Until we read the full judgment, we will not give our opinion,†he said. Prakash Javadekar, a spokesman for the Bharatiya Janata Party, said: “This is the judicial process. Whosoever is the culprit will be punished by the court. It is the first stage of judgment. This is a legal process.â€
A total of 327 witnesses testified in the case, and prosecutors presented 2,005 documents. Sixty-seven people were charged, of whom 32 were convicted and 29 acquitted. Six defendants died during the proceedings.
“More than 90 defenseless persons, mostly women and children of a minority community, were killed,†said Akhil D esai, the prosecutor on the case. “I pleaded with the court to give them the maximum punishment of a death sentence.â€
On the morning of Feb. 28, rioters broke through the stone walls encircling the Muslim neighborhood of Naroda Patiya and attacked families eating breakfast. They threw children and old women into burning pyres and knifed and bludgeoned others. Some who tried to escape said that the police refused to help.
The day before the attack, a train filled with Hindu pilgrims was attacked by a Muslim mob in the nearby city of Godhra. A fire started and at least 58 Hindu pilgrims burned to death. Mr. Modi and his party endorsed a strike, and the charred bodies of the pilgrims were brought to Ahmedabad and laid out in public, where thousands viewed them â€" an act almost guaranteed to incite violence. Sure enough, massacres began almost immediately.
Little was done to prosecute rioters until 2004, when the Supreme Court ordered that a special police team be created and some trials be transferred out of Gujarat. Another crucial turning point came when Dr. Mukul Sinha, a lawyer representing victims, was given records by a top police official of every cellphone call made during the worst of the rioting.
The court decision on Wednesday, Mr. Sinha said in an interview, “gives us a lot of satisfaction because Naroda Patiya was the biggest massacre during the riots.â€
Many political analysts believe that blanket coverage of the riots by India's newly vibrant TV news channels and the unprecedented prosecutions of hundreds may have helped to snap the country's long history of mass rioting.
Noor Bano, a former Naroda Patiya resident whose two teenage sons were seriously injured during the attacks, vowed in an interview to continue fighting for justice. “They killed our people, so they should also be given death sentences,†she said.
Convictions in Gujarat Riot Case Could Have Political Consequences
By GARDINER HARRIS and HARI KUMAR
NEW DELHI, India â€" A former state education minister and 31 others were convicted Wednesday for their roles in the deaths of 94 people during one of the most savage attacks of the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The convictions could have political consequences. Narendra Modi, Gujarat's chief minister and a possible candidate for prime minister for the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2014, has long denied any role in the riots despite witnesses who say he discouraged police from intervening. The conviction of the former state education minister, Mayaben Kodnani, who is also a state legislator, is the first among Mr. Modi's confidants. Cellphone records demonstrated that she was at the scene of the riot, contradicting her own testimony.
“This is the first Gujarat riot case which has links to the political conspiracy,†said Teesta Setalvad, a victim's advocate who has played crucial roles in many of the Gujarat cases. “I salute the decade-long fight by victims and witnesses.â€
Sentencing may occur as soon as tomorrow.
Jaynarayan Vyas, a cabinet minister for the Gujarat government, sought to distance the administration from Ms. Kodnani, saying she only became the state education minister after the riots. “Until we read the full judgment, we will not give our opinion,†he said. Prakash Javadekar, a spokesman for the Bharatiya Janata Party, said: “This is the judicial process. Whosoever is the culprit will be punished by the court. It is the first stage of judgment. This is a legal process.â€
A total of 327 witnesses testified in the case, and prosecutors presented 2,005 documents. Sixty-seven people were charged, of whom 32 were convicted and 29 acquitted. Six defendants died during the proceedings.
“More than 90 defenseless persons, mostly women and children of a minority community, were killed,†said Akhil D esai, the prosecutor on the case. “I pleaded with the court to give them the maximum punishment of a death sentence.â€
On the morning of Feb. 28, rioters broke through the stone walls encircling the Muslim neighborhood of Naroda Patiya and attacked families eating breakfast. They threw children and old women into burning pyres and knifed and bludgeoned others. Some who tried to escape said that the police refused to help.
The day before the attack, a train filled with Hindu pilgrims was attacked by a Muslim mob in the nearby city of Godhra. A fire started and at least 58 Hindu pilgrims burned to death. Mr. Modi and his party endorsed a strike, and the charred bodies of the pilgrims were brought to Ahmedabad and laid out in public, where thousands viewed them â€" an act almost guaranteed to incite violence. Sure enough, massacres began almost immediately.
Little was done to prosecute rioters until 2004, when the Supreme Court ordered that a special police team be created and some trials be transferred out of Gujarat. Another crucial turning point came when Dr. Mukul Sinha, a lawyer representing victims, was given records by a top police official of every cellphone call made during the worst of the rioting.
The court decision on Wednesday, Mr. Sinha said in an interview, “gives us a lot of satisfaction because Naroda Patiya was the biggest massacre during the riots.â€
Many political analysts believe that blanket coverage of the riots by India's newly vibrant TV news channels and the unprecedented prosecutions of hundreds may have helped to snap the country's long history of mass rioting.
Noor Bano, a former Naroda Patiya resident whose two teenage sons were seriously injured during the attacks, vowed in an interview to continue fighting for justice. “They killed our people, so they should also be given death sentences,†she said.
Death Sentence Upheld for Kasab
By HARI KUMAR
The Indian Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the death sentence of Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving gunman from the attacks that killed 166 people in Mumbai in November 2008.
Mr. Kasab, who is Pakistani, was convicted in May 2010 by a trial court in Mumbai of murder, conspiracy and waging war against India, and was sentenced to death. He appealed to the Maharashtra High Court, which upheld the sentence, and then to the Supreme Court. Mr. Kasab is on a list of more than 300 prisoners on death row in India.
Gopal Subramanium, the additional solicitor general of India, who argued the state's case, called the Supreme Court's ruling “a victory of the administration of justice.†Mr. Kasab was provided legal assistance by the government throughout the trial.
Mr. Kasab, along with nine other gunmen from Pakistan, entered Mumbai by sea and began killing people at several locations in the cit y, including the famous Taj Hotel. The attacks, which Indian officials say was directed from a control room in Karachi, Pakistan, continued for three days. Mr. Kasab was captured alive, but the nine other gunmen were killed.
The Mumbai attack worsened the always-tense diplomatic relations between India and Pakistan.Â
Ujjawal Nikam, who served as the special public prosecutor at the trial court level, said Wednesday, “This is a very good judgment and I am very satisfied by it. We have proved in the court that Ajmal Kasab and his nine colleagues were helped by Pakistan even during the actual crime.â€Â
Raju Ramachandran, the lawyer for Mr. Kasab, said “I bow to the verdict of court. We all take pride in a justice system which stands by due process.â€
In India, it can take many years for a death sentence to be carried out. Mr. Kasab has the right to appeal to the president of India for clemency, but that process, too, can be very slow â€" th ere are decades-old clemency petitions that have yet to be ruled on.
Continuing Coverage of Hurricane Isaac
By MARC SANTORA
The Lede is continuing to follow Hurricane Isaac, which is expected to continue pushing through Louisiana on Wednesday. Updates will mix breaking news from our correspondents in the region with eyewitness accounts, photos and videos of the storm posted online
Smoothing the Path From Foreign Lips to American Ears
Foreign graduate students at Ohio University “are spending up to two hours a day learning how to speak so that their American colleagues and students will understand them,†Richard Perez-Pena wrote in The New York Times.
“It is a complaint familiar to millions of alumni of research universities: the master's or doctoral candidate from overseas, employed as a teaching assistant, whose accent is too thick for undergraduate students to penetrate,†he wrote. “And it is an issue that many universities are addressing more seriously, using a better set of tools, than in years past.â€
At American universities, one in every six graduate students hail s from another country - about 300,000 of them, almost half from China and India, according to the Institute of International Education. In science and technology fields, foreigners make up nearly half of the graduate students.
Those from China and other East Asian countries are often like Xingbo Liu, a graduate student in nutrition here, who said she had taken English classes nearly all her life. “But we only learn how to write and read,†she said, “how to choose the right answer on a written test.†Many Indian or African students have done most of their formal education in English and are comfortable speaking it, but with accents that challenge American ears.
Read the full article.
Witness to Rachel Corrie\'s Death Responds to Israeli Court Ruling Absolving Soldier
By ROBERT MACKEY
As my colleagues Jodi Rudoren and Danielle Ziri report, an Israeli judge ruled on Tuesday that the state bore no responsibility for the death of Rachel Corrie, an American activist who was crushed to death by a military bulldozer in 2003 as she attempted to block the demolition of a Palestinian home in Gaza.
Ms. Corrie, who was a student at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., joined the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement in January, 2003, and was killed two months later in the Gazan town of Rafah, which straddles the border with Egypt.
Photographs published by The Electronic Intifada on March 16, 2003, the day she died, showed that Ms. Corrie confronted the heavily armored bulldozer wearing a bright orange vest and holding a bullhorn. The same Web site also published sworn affidavits recorded within days of the deadly incident by three other international activists who were present when Ms. Corrie was killed. One of those witnesses, a Briton named Tom Dale, sent the following statement to The Lede on Tuesday from Cairo, where he now works as a journalist:
The verdict in Rachel's case is saddening for all those who knew Rachel, and for all who believe in what she stood for. It should be disappointing for all those who want to see justice done in Israel and Palestine.
On March 16, 2003, Rachel could not have been more visible: standing, on a clear day, in the open ground, wearing a high visibility vest. On that day, she had been in the presence of the Caterpillar D9 bulldozers used by the Israeli army for some hours.
She was standing in front of the home of a young family which was under threat of demolition by a bulldozer. Many homes were demolished in such a way at that time, and Rachel was seeking to protect her friends, with whom she had lived.
Whatever one thinks about the visibility from a D9 b ulldozer, it is inconceivable that at some point the driver did not see her, given the distance from which he approached, while she stood, unmoving, in front of it. As I told the court, just before she was crushed, Rachel briefly stood on top of the rolling mound of earth which had gathered in front of the bulldozer: her head was above the level of the blade, and just a few meters from the driver.
Those of us who are familiar with events under occupation in Palestine are may not be surprised by this verdict, which reflects a long-standing culture of impunity for the Israeli military, but we should be outraged.
I didn't have a chance to get to know Rachel as well as I would have liked, since we spent just a few weeks together, but I do know that she is a tremendous loss to us all.
Later on Tuesday, Mr. Dale elaborated on his statement in a BBC radio interview and a Skype interview with The Telegraph in London.
A video interview with Tom Dale, a British journalist and activist, posted online by The Telegraph.
Mr. Dale, who is now the news editor of The Egypt Independent, the English edition of the Cairene daily Al-Masry Al-Youm, noted in an e-mail on Tuesday that video he recorded late last year, documenting in vivid detail the use of force against Egyptian protesters, helped draw global attention to the use of violence against activists in Tahrir Square. “I was behind the camera filming the Egyptian army as it rampaged across Tahrir Square in December,†he recalled. “None of us had a video camera when Rachel was killed. I can't help but wonder now how much difference it would have made to the court case.â€
While there is no footage of the moment Ms. Corrie was dealt a fatal blow by the bulldozer, the trailer for a documentary on her life and death does include Israeli military audio of the soldier who struck her reporting the incident, a nd images of her and other activists trying to prevent home demolitions on a previous day in 2003.
The trailer for “Rachel,†a documentary about Rachel Corrie.
The Israeli military's destruction of homes in Rafah was part of an effort to seal the border between Gaza and Egypt by destroying the tunnels underneath it used by smugglers to move goods and arms into the Palestinian territory.
Four months after Ms. Corrie was killed, the comic-book journalist Joe Sacco published “The Underground War in Gaza,†a New York Times Magazine report on the Israeli military's anti-tunnel operations in Rafah. That report from can be viewed elsewhere on this Web site as a slideshow or a .pdf.
In an interview with the Arab satellite network MBC, conducted just days before she was killed, Ms. Corrie herself spoke about the effort by international activists to prevent the demolition of Palestinian homes in Rafah .
A television interview with Rachel Corrie, an American activist, conducted by the Arab satellite network MBC in March, 2003, days before she was killed by an Israeli military bulldozer in Gaza.
Latest Updates on Hurricane Isaac
By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ
The Lede is following Hurricane Isaac on Tuesday, which is expected to make landfall along the Gulf Coast. Updates will mix breaking news from our correspondents in the region with eyewitness accounts, photos and videos of the storm posted online.
Latest Updates on Hurricane Isaac
By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ
The Lede is following Hurricane Isaac on Tuesday, which is expected to make landfall along the Gulf Coast. Updates will mix breaking news from our correspondents in the region with eyewitness accounts, photos and videos of the storm posted online.
Speaking Urdu or Bengali a Cause for Police Suspicion in NYC
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
“Earlier this summer, Thomas P. Galati, commanding officer of the New York Police Department's elite intelligence division, sat for an unusual legal interrogation, during which he talked of his keen interest in Urdu-speaking New Yorkers,†Michael Powell wrote in The New York Times.
“ ‘I'm seeing Urdu,' Assistant Chief Galati said of the data generated by his eight-person demographics unit,†Mr. Powell wrote, “which has eavesdropped on thousands of conversations between Muslims in restaurants and stores in New York City and New Jersey and on Long Island.†The officer told Mr. Powell: “I'm using that information for me to determine that this would be a kind of place that a terrorist would be comfortable in.â€
Assistant Chief Galati expressed similar sentiments about Bengali speakers:
“The fact that they are speaking Bengali is a factor I would want t o know,†he said, adding that the information was used solely to be able to determine where “I should face a threat of a terrorist and that terrorist is Bengali.â€
But here is the problem for those eager spies among us. Asked if all of this compiling of Urdu- and Bengali- and Arabic-language hangouts, and all of this listening in on the chatter, had resulted in tips about potential terrorist plots, Chief Galati conceded it had not.
Read the full article.
Sonia Gandhi Accuses Opposition of \'Blackmail\'
By JIM YARDLEY
With Parliament paralyzed for a sixth consecutive day, Sonia Gandhi, president of the Congress party, launched an attack Tuesday against the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, blaming it for holding Parliament to “ransom by blackmail,†even as she tried to rally her party to fight back against criticism over the coal scandal that is now shaking Indian politics.
Mrs. Gandhi's remarks were part of a coordinated public relations effort by Congress to put the B.J.P. on the defensive over its obstructionist tactics in Parliament. Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram and Coal Minister Prakash Jaiswal held news briefings on Monday night, hours after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was shouted down in Parliament by B.J.P. lawmakers as he submitted his official response on the coal scandal.
“It is a matter of regret, of even shame, that at a time when serious issues are affecting our people an d our country, Parliament is not being allowed to function and fulfill its proper constitutional role and duty,†Mrs. Gandhi said on Tuesday morning, according to a transcript of her remarks. “This is the handiwork of just one party â€" the B.J.P. This once again shows up the scant respect it has for democratic values.â€
Mrs. Gandhi, speaking to a gathering of Congress party lawmakers in New Delhi, accused the B.J.P. of “false propaganda†and characterized the attacks against the prime minister as “politically motivated.†Mr. Singh on Monday said he assumed full responsibility for the actions of the coal ministry and denied any wrongdoing â€" a position that was blistered by B.J.P. lawmakers.
“We don't need a certificate of responsibility from Congress,†the B.J.P. spokesman, Ravi Shankar Prasad, said Tuesday on NDTV. “We need conduct of accountability from them.â€
Earlier this month, India's comptroller and auditor general released a re port estimating that favorable government policies had led to sweetheart deals for power companies, enabling them to obtain rights to coal concessions at losses to the treasury estimated at $34 billion. B.J.P. lawmakers have called for Mr. Singh to resign.
For days, as the B.J.P. has hammered the prime minister over the scandal, opposition lawmakers have blocked any action in Parliament. In response, Congress lawmakers have offered to hold a full debate on the coal scandal in Parliament if the opposition will allow the body to function.
But the standoff seems to be hardening, and as yet there does not seem to be space for compromise. Some analysts say the situation could, in the most extreme case, lead to early elections. Or if the impasse continues, it may mean that the current “monsoon†session of Parliament will end without accomplishing anything.
Republican National Convention Enlists First Sikh Speaker
By HEATHER TIMMONS
An American Sikh is scheduled to speak Wednesday at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., the first time the party has invited a Sikh to speak at a national convention.
Ishwar Singh, head of the Sikh Society of Central Florida, will give the invocation on Wednesday evening, according to the most recent schedule available. Tropical Storm Isaac has disrupted some of the Republicans' convention plans.
“I want to educate the people, so they know about Sikhism,†Mr. Singh said Monday night by telephone. Mr. Singh said he was contacted by the party after the Aug. 5 shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin that killed six people. The gunman, who was killed by the police, was an Army veteran and white supremacist who some believe confused turban-wearing Sikhs with Muslims.
Mr. Singh said he thinks the Sikh vote in America is split. “I think you're going to see everyone has their own opinion,†he said. “I won't say we're all Republicans or Democrats, you will see individuals like everywhere else.â€
Mr. Singh moved to the United States in 1970 from Indian Punjab to study biomedical engineering, and he has worked as an engineer for much of his life. He runs a gurdwara, or Sikh temple, in Orlando, Fla., which has about 300 families as members. After the August shooting, the gurdwara held an open house for the local community that drew almost 600 people, he said.
Mr. Singh said that anti-immigration elements of the Republican Party receive outsized attention. “The majority of people who I deal with today who are Republican are open-minded about everything, but there are some people who are rigid, who are vocal, who try to control the whole thing,†Mr. Singh said. “That can happen with any party.â€
“There are a lot more diverse people in the United States who are open-minded then there used to be,†Mr. Singh said of the changes he has seen since he immigrated. Thanks to mixed marriages and other factors, “the dynamics of the whole thing is changing,†he said.
Still, some Sikhs had not been expecting such an invitation. “I remain surprised,†Rupinder Mohan Singh wrote on American Turban, a blog about Sikhs in America. “If this turns out to be the case, it would be a touching gesture in the wake of the Wisconsin shooting on behalf of the Republican Party to the country's Sikhs and other minorities.â€
At an Iowa fundraiser this month, Mitt Romney, who will formally receive the party's presidential nomination this week, mistakenly referred to Sikhs as “sheiks†when speaking about the shooting. A spokesman said he had “mispronounced similar-sounding words†and that the mistake came at the end of a long day of campaigning.
Mr. Singh is the first Sikh to speak at a Republican National Convention, according to available records of past speakers. He said th e party contacted Nikki Haley, the Republican governor of South Carolina whose family is Sikh, about enlisting a Sikh speaker for the convention, and that Ms. Haley's father referred the party to Mr. Singh.
Legislators Jeer India Prime Minister on Coal Deals
“India's Parliament became a noisy stage of political theater on Monday, as opposition lawmakers shouted down Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's attempt to rebut claims that his government had awarded sweetheart coal deals to power companies, the latest scandal to hit his administration,†Jim Yardley wrote in The New York Times.
“Resign! Resign!†some Bharatiya Janata lawmakers screamed, as Mr. Singh, almost inaudibly, moved for the house to accept his written statement.
“Manmohan Singh, leave the chair!†went another chant.
The confrontation on Monday suggested that the current “monsoon†session of Parliament was likely to be little different from several other sessions during the past three years, in which political tactics trumped substance. This session, which ends on Sept. 7, has an ambitious docket, with important bills pending on food security, corruption and land acquisition. So far, though, not a single one has been passed in the lower house. Last week, Bharatiya Janata lawmakers forced repeated adjournments, shouting and protesting over the coal scandal.
Read the full article.
Legislators Jeer India Prime Minister on Coal Deals
“India's Parliament became a noisy stage of political theater on Monday, as opposition lawmakers shouted down Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's attempt to rebut claims that his government had awarded sweetheart coal deals to power companies, the latest scandal to hit his administration,†Jim Yardley wrote in The New York Times.
“Resign! Resign!†some Bharatiya Janata lawmakers screamed, as Mr. Singh, almost inaudibly, moved for the house to accept his written statement.
“Manmohan Singh, leave the chair!†went another chant.
The confrontation on Monday suggested that the current “monsoon†session of Parliament was likely to be little different from several other sessions during the past three years, in which political tactics trumped substance. This session, which ends on Sept. 7, has an ambitious docket, with important bills pending on food security, corruption and land acquisition. So far, though, not a single one has been passed in the lower house. Last week, Bharatiya Janata lawmakers forced repeated adjournments, shouting and protesting over the coal scandal.
Read the full article.
Pankaj Mishra\'s New Book, \'Ruins of Empire\'
Pankaj Mishra's “flair for the grace note is matched by a sometimes ferocious instinct for the jugular,†Jennifer Schuessler wrote in a review of his newest book in The New York Times.
“Now Mr. Mishra seems poised for a fresh round of intellectual battle,†she wrote, with the publication of “From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia.â€
Some on the right have dismissed the book as a polemic, but Mr. Mishra brushes aside the term. “If your writing collides with the conventional wisdom, there's going to be some kind of friction,†he said in a telephone interview from his home in London. And when it comes to the mainstream m edia, he added, “there are still very few people presenting perspectives other than that of the West.â€
“From the Ruins of Empire,†to be published in the United States next Tuesday by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, is a richly detailed account of late 19th- and early-20th-century Asian intellectuals' often bitter responses to what one Japanese scholar quoted in the book called “the White Disaster.â€
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Morsi\'s Syria Plan Suggests Regional Approach to Foreign Affairs
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Did President Obama watch Egypt swing from pivotal ally to potential opponent? Versions of that question have hovered around the presidential campaign from the early Republican primary debates through Mitt Romney's comments on his recent trip to Israel about the Islamist electoral victories in the wake of the Arab spring.
@import url(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/projects/assets/agenda/agenda-inline.css);But the debate has taken on new intensity this month as President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood - Egypt's first elected president and first Islamist leader - has for the first time consolidated his power, pushing into the background his country's Western-friendly military leaders and taking his first steps into foreign affairs.
Mr. Morsi's willingness to visit Iran for a meeting of the so-called Non-Aligned Movement set off alarms from commentators in Washington and Tel Aviv that Mr. Morsi might seek cl oser ties to Iran, an enemy of the United States and Israel that Egypt under Hosni Mubarak helped keep in check.
But his first major initiative in foreign affairs - a bid to include Iran along with Saudi Arabia and Turkey in a four-nation regional contact group to help resolve the Syrian conflict - indicated that Egypt's future course may be more complicated than a simple win or loss for the West. (“Egyptian Leader Adds Rivals of West to Syria Plan,†Monday, Aug. 27)
Unlike Mr. Mubarak, Mr. Morsi displayed an appetite for regional leadership and regional solutions independent of the United States or any other great power. His success in such efforts would surely diminish American influence in the region.
But he also showed a pragmatic willingness to reach out across ideological lines: although some Westerners tend to think of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey as four Muslim states, the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood is also a longstanding opponent of the Saudi monarchy and the Iranian Shiite theocracy, which are both inimical to each other. And Mr. Morsi's move, accompanied by explanations from his spokesman, clarified that he sought conversations with Iran to obtain specific strategic objectives, not because he sought closer diplomatic ties with Tehran as a goal in itself. What's more, his aim - a regional solution that could end the Syrian bloodshed - is one that both the United States and Israel might welcome.
With the end of the Mubarak dictatorship, the United States has surely lost a reliable client. A more democratic Egypt will surely be more responsive to Egyptian public opinion, which is cynical at best about America's role in the region. But Mr. Morsi's Syrian gambit suggests that the loss of American influence may not be a gain for any rival, merely an Egypt with its eye on its own region instead of any global power.
Multiple Clips of Syrian Helicopter Crash
By ROBERT MACKEY
In video uploaded to YouTube Monday morning, activists and rebels could be heard rejoicing as a Syrian government helicopter crashed outside Damascus.
As my colleague Steven Erlanger reports, Syrian rebels claimed responsibility for shooting down a government helicopter during fighting in the eastern suburbs of Damascus on Monday.
At least eight video clips uploaded to opposition activist channels on YouTube appeared to show the craft exploding in flames and plunging to the ground in the neighborhood of Qaboun, where Syrian state television reported that a helicopter had crashed.
Video said to have been recorded on Monday on the outskirts of Damascus of a Syrian government helicopter exploding in flames before crashing.
Restrictions on independent reporting inside Syria imp osed by the government of President Bashar al-Assad make it difficult to verify the authenticity of images posted online by opposition activists, but the various clips do appear to show the same event.
Perhaps the clearest images of the helicopter plummeting down were posted by an activist from Saqba, an area about 20 minutes from central Damascus which reportedly slipped from government control some months ago.
Video of a helicopter crash from the SaqbaRavo0 YouTube channel, which documents the uprising against the Syrian government on the outskirts of the capital.
A very brief but dramatic clip of the craft coming down in flames was uploaded to the JobarRev YouTube channel.
Close images of a helicopter crash uploaded to a Syrian opposition activist YouTube channel on Monday.
Another clip, apparently recorded close to the scene of the crash , was posted on the FreeQabon channel.
One of five video clips showing a helicopter crash on Monday outside Damascus posted online by opposition activists.
Later on Monday, video was added to the same channel apparently showing a piece of the helicopter's fuselage on the ground, the smoking wreckage of the craft and gruesome images of what the activists identified as the hand of the dead pilot.
Video said to show the wreckage of a Syrian government helicopter after it crashed outside Damascus on Monday.
Three more distant views of the helicopter's crash, and a photograph of a Free Syrian Army fighter identified as the man who shot it down, were included in a post on the British blogger Eliot Higgins' Brown Moses blog.
ابو علاوي Ùرع #دمشق xD الله ÙŠØميك وينصرك يابطل #سور٠ŠØ§ البطل اللذي أسقط الطائره اليوم http://t.co/mLTgverS
- hebah alhomsi (@HebahAlhomsi) 27 Aug 12
Gulf Coast Braces for Tropical Storm Isaac
By CHRISTINE HAUSER and JENNIFER PRESTON
Tropical Storm Isaac churned toward the central Gulf Coast in the United States on Monday after a weekend of flooding in southern Florida and destruction in Haiti, where at least 19 people died, according to The Associated Press, from the effects of its violent winds and torrential rains. Another five died in the Dominican Republic, The A.P. said.
As our colleagues Randal C. Archibold and Lisa Armstrong reported, the storm in Haiti caused mudslides in rural areas, and in the camps housing about 400,000 survivors of the January 2010 earthquake, the storm downed trees and power lines and shredded tents.
The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti posted a slideshow of photographs highlighting the aftermath.
The United States Embassy also posted photos on Twitter from Port-au-Prince.
#AmbWhite with chi ldren at an evacuation shelter in Port-au-Prince, #Haiti, after the passage of Tropical Storm #Isaac. http://t.co/bjpsY3LA
- US Embassy Haiti (@USEmbassyHaiti) 27 Aug 12
By early Monday, Isaac was on the move headed toward New Orleans, where the deadly Hurricane Katrina struck seven years ago this week.
While the intensity forecast is still undetermined, we know that Isaac is coming this way http://t.co/5S49954m
- WWLTV Weather (@wwltvweather) 27 Aug 12
The storm spared Tampa, Fla., the site this week of the Republican National Convention. As Lizette Alvarez and Campbell Robertson report, hurricane forecasters said Isaac's winds and rain will hit an extensive area of southeast Mississippi, southwest Alabama and the western part of Florida's panhandle by Monday evening.
The governors of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama declared states of emergency. The Louisiana residents of Lafitte, Barataria and Grand Isle in Jefferson Parish were ordered to leave on Monday morning, as were all 50,000 residents of St. Charles Parish, and much of the population of Plaquemines Parish.
In New Orleans, Mayor Mitch Landrieu said the city was prepared and he urged residents to hunker down for the storm if they were not planning to leave. He and other officials outlined their emergency plans on YouTube, which is projected to reach hurricane force winds Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, according to the National Weather Service's latest forecast.
Emergency officials also turned to Twitter to deliver updates.
Our EOC is filling up. We have dozens of folks working on #Isaac response in Louisiana: http://t.co/oRVAjkWH
- Louisiana GOHSEP (@GOHSEP) 27 Aug 12
#NOLA City officials continued to monitor #Isaac overnight, & will continue to update citizens today. Fol low @nolaready for updates.
- NOLA Ready (@nolaready) 27 Aug 12
Hunkering down? @EntergyNOLA will text you with power outage, time and restore info login and click “Cell Phone Texting†on menu #isaac
- Ashley Bond (@nolaParent) 27 Aug 12
And people shared their own tips and reminders on preparations.
Ideal by American can has gas no lines #NOLA #Isaac #NOLAready http://t.co/aVTaQ7fg
- ⊙▲⊙small affair⊙▲⊙ (@small_affair) 27 Aug 12
State price gouging law now in effect. If you spot suspected gouging, get a picture and follow up with AG's office later. #isaac
- Gambit (@The_Gambit) 27 Aug 12
With Isaac coming, take many pics of your house's exterior and interior so the insurance company can't claim damage pre-existing.
< p>- Michael Homan (@mmhoman) 27 Aug 12
The city's beloved football team, the New Orleans Saints, offered advice before the team departed early for a scheduled preview game against the Bengals in Cincinnati, urging residents to sign up for alerts from the city.
Follow @NolaReady and sign up for email/text alerts on the city's storm preparations at http://t.co/6mYRSg3b #Isaac
- New Orleans Saints (@Saints) 27 Aug 12
The intensifying storm revived memories of Hurricane Katrina for many people, including vows the city had learned its lessons.
On the seventh anniversary of Katrina, we are preparing for a less intimidating but reality in Isaac. Crisis management in full display.
- Michael Guillot (@meguillot) 27 Aug 12
#Katrina flashback. Just saw national guards riding in hummers around city #Isaac< /p>
- Thecla Scott (@TheclaScott) 27 Aug 12
If hurricane Isaac hits New Orleans the same day Katrina did, I'd be convinced that the government has control on the weather
- Neno Calvin (@NENOCALVIN) 27 Aug 12
One of his followers replied, “They do.â€
Tips, sources, story ideas? Please leave a comment or find me on Twitter @nyt_jenpreston.
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