Thursday, November 20, 2008

firepower of indian navy proved in somali waters














An anti-piracy watchdog has welcomed the destruction of a suspected Somali pirate vessel in the Gulf of Aden by an Indian navy warship.
INS Tabar sank the pirate "mother ship" after it did not stop for investigation and instead opened fire, an Indian navy statement said on Wednesday.
There has been a surge in piracy incidents off the coast of Somalia.
The latest attack came days after the Saudi-owned Sirius Star supertanker and its 25 crew were seized by pirates.
The supertanker is now anchored off the Somali coast.On Wednesday, the Indian navy said the Tabar spotted the pirate vessel while patrolling 285 nautical miles (528km) south-west of Salalah in Oman on Tuesday evening.
The navy said the pirates on board were armed with guns and rocket propelled grenade launchers.
When it commanded the vessel stop for investigation, the pirate ship responded by threatening to "blow up the naval warship if it closed on her", the navy statement said.
Pirates then fired on the Tabar and the Indians retaliated. There was an explosion and the pirate vessel sank.
Some of the pirates tried to escape on two speedboats.
The Indian sailors gave chase and one boat was later found abandoned, while a second boat escaped.
INS Tabar has been patrolling the Gulf of Aden since 23 October, and has escorted 35 ships safely through the "pirate-infested waters", the statement said.

CITI NEVER SLEEPS EVEN ITS EMPLOYEES




Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit said the bank will eliminate 52,000 jobs over the next year, twice the target announced last month, as loan losses surge and the economy shrinks.

The reductions, disclosed at a meeting with employees in New York, include 9,100 positions the bank began eliminating in October and about 16,900 announced today. Citigroup will shed a further 26,000 positions through asset sales, 7,900 more than in the previous plan. The total represents 15 percent of Citigroup's workforce of about 352,000.

Pandit, 51, is accelerating cost cuts after the bank's stock price plunged 19 percent last week amid concern a global recession will curb new lending just as more home and credit- card loans are becoming delinquent.

nowUS banking giant Citigroup has been propped up with public loans and guarantees worth hundreds of billions of dollars to try to stabilise the ailing firm
The US Treasury will also pump in a further £13.4bn in return for more preference shares to shore up Citi's finances.
The move lifted London's leading stocks, which bounced back from Friday's five-year low.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008