GK UPDATE

Pakistan court orders release of JuD Chief Hafiz Saeed

The Lahore High Court ordered the release of banned terror group

JamaatudDawa

Chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, who had been

under house arrest since December last year.

Saeed, believed to be the mastermind of the Mumbai terror attacks,

is head of the JamaatudDawa,

a front for terrorist outfit LashkareTaiba.

"The court has ordered that the detention of Hafiz Saeed was a

violation of the constitution and the law of this country," A K

Dogar, the lawyer told reporters outside the Lahore High Court.

On December 10, 2008, the UN Security Council had imposed

sections on the JuD. Government sources in India have called Saeed's arrest by Pakistan

authorities 'an eyewash'.

Mauricio Funes is inaugurated as President of El

Salvador

Carlos Mauricio Funes is elected as the President of El Salvador. He

won the 2009 presidential election as the candidate of the leftwing

FMLN political party and took office on 1 June 2009.

Funes was nominated to be the FMLN candidate on 28 September

2007 and competed against the Nationalist Republican Alliance's

candidate Rodrigo Avila, a former deputy director of the National

Police. Funes won the 2009 presidential election, achieving an

absolute majority with 51.23% of the popular vote. He is the first

FMLN party leader not to have fought in the civil war. His

presidential campaign was highlighted by statements endorsing

moderate political policies. He has promised to increase taxes on the

rich to pay for programs such as health care in rural areas and crime prevention.

Another Indian student attacked in Australia

Even as the Australian government continues to promise strict

action against those who attack Indians in their backyard, a

television report suggests that another attack took place in

Melbourne on 20yearold

Nardeep Singh, who was on his

way to attend college.

The victim of the attack, who came to Australia just a month

back, hails from Ludhiana. He is a nursing student at the

Chisholm Technical Institute in the city and was attacked on

his way to college on 2 nd June morning.

 

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He was reportedly assaulted by at least 5 men, which included two Australians. He was

attacked at a car park, where these 5 men asked him for cigarettes. When he replied that he

was a nonsmoker,

the group asked him for money. When Nardeep refused to give them, one

of the attackers stabbed him in his chest.

Nardeep, however, escaped further assaults and reached the police station, where his

statement was recorded. Nardeep's roommate said that he was stabbed, which was followed

by excessive bleeding. Nardeep is currently under observation in a Melbourne hospital.

GM files for bankruptcy protection

General Motors Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday

as the iconic U.S. automaker moved to shrink its global operations

and shed thousands of jobs in a streamlining aided by massive help

from the Obama administration and US $9.5 billion from the

Canadian and Ontario governments.

General Motors' bankruptcy filing is the largest in history for a

U.S. industrial enterprise and puts the three governments firmly in

control of the company, although U.S. President Barrack Obama tried to ease concerns that

government bureaucrats will run the world's second biggest carmaker.

Obama said the U.S. government will own 60% of the new GM — much as it has taken part

ownership of Chrysler, banks and other corporations in recent months — while the two

Canadian governments will hold about 12% in return for their US$ 9.5 billion contribution.

General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson said the new company will be a leaner and quicker

automaker that's more focused on its customers and its products. It will be built from the

strongest parts of its business, including its best brands and best products.

The company plans to focus on four core brands — Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC —

and get rid of four others — Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer and Saab. It has also made a major

investment on a new electric car, the Volt, which it will build in the United States.

Henderson thanked the Canadian governments for their financing and the Canadian Auto

Workers union for concessions that helped secures the restructuring. He also said he doesn't

expect the Canadian operations will face any further cuts than the already significant

reductions announced last year.

In a joint statement, Obama and Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the governments had

reviewed and approved the restructuring plans of GM and its wholly owned Canadian

subsidiary.

'I want to thank the governments of Canada and Ontario for making this investment in GM

along with the United States," said Obama. "Our countries share a stake in this company's

future, and I look forward to our close partnership through this restructuring period."

GM's bankruptcy filing in the New York court is the fourthlargest

in U.S. history and the

largest for an industrial company. The company said it has US $172.81 billion in debt and US

$82.29 billion in assets.

 

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The fallen icon of American industrial might will rely on US $30 billion of additional

financial assistance from the Treasury Department as it reorganizes. That's on top of about

$20 billion in taxpayer money GM already has received in the form of lowinterest

loans.

Under the General Motors' plan, the automaker will permanently close nine more plants and

idle three others to trim production and labour costs under bankruptcy protection. The

closures will displace 18,000 to 20,000 GM employees, the company said.

In Canada, the company has already shut down its Oshawa (Ont. truck plant), affecting 2600

workers, and will close a transmission factory in Windsor next year, with the loss of another

1,400 jobs. GM Canada has already taken a huge hit in GM's earlier restructurings, losing

about half of its workforce.

The company plans to streamline its Canadian production to about 6,000 jobs from 20,000 in

2005, but no new plant closures are expected beyond what was announced last year.

Meanwhile, the two car assembly plants in Oshawa are expected to survive the restructuring.

GM will follow a similar course taken by Chrysler LLC, which filed for Chapter 11

protection in April and hopes to emerge from its governmentsponsored

bankruptcy this

week.

Under the GM plan, the United Auto Workers are getting a 17.5% stake in the company and

unsecured bondholders receiving 10%.

GM's U.S. filing comes 32 days after a Chapter 11 filing by Chrysler, which was also

hobbled by plunging sales of cars and trucks as the worst recession.

Trading of GM shares was halted early Monday after they plunged Friday as low as 74 cents,

the lowest price in the company's 100year

history. GM will be kicked out of the Dow Jones

industrial average because rules established by the News Corp. unit that oversees the index

prohibit it from including companies that have filed for bankruptcy.

Microsoft's search engine Bing is launched

Microsoft stepped up its efforts to cut into the search

dominance of Google, launching a public preview version

of its widely praised Bing search site.

The site offers several features that are not automatically

available on Google such as instant excerpts that allow

users to see the contents of a page without actually

clicking on it and a sidebar detailing related searches.

The Bing home page is also fancier than Google's famously spare design and shows a picture

of hot air balloons flying over a craggy desert landscape in Cappadocia, Turkey. Like

Google, the page offers links to specific search categories like news, video, shopping, maps

and travel, and also includes a link to Microsoft's cashback

search rewards programme.

Microsoft currently trails far behind Google in the search market, which is the most lucrative

advertising format on the internet. Google has 64 per cent of the US market, compared to 21

per cent for Yahoo and just eight per cent for Microsoft, according to recent figures from web

 

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tracking firm Comscore.

The Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, first unveiled Bing last Thursday at a California

technology conference and the early reactions have been very positive.

HPCL Q4 net profit increases by 13% at Rs 5104 crore

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation reported a 13fold

growth in net profit at Rs 5,104.04

crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2009. The

staterun

refining and marketing company had a net profit

of Rs 384.51 crore in the March quarter of FY'08, HPCL

said in a statement. The total income of the company

declined 16.91 per cent to Rs 24,875.02 crore during the

fourth quarter, from Rs 29,936.03 crore in the

corresponding period a yearago.

The gross refining margin for the financial year ended

March 31 stood at USD 3.97 per barrel, against USD 6.54

a barrel in the yearago

period.

The board has declared a dividend of 52.5 per cent at the rate of Rs 5.25 a piece on every

share of Rs 10 each held for the financial year ended March 31.

For the financial year ended March 31, HPCL posted a net profit of Rs 574.98 crore, a 49.33

per cent decline over the yearago

period. The company had a net profit of Rs 1,134.88 crore

in FY'08. Total income rose 12.13 per cent to Rs 1,16,427.83 crore during the fiscal ended

March 31, from Rs 1,03,837.43 crore in the previous fiscal. Shares of HPCL closed at Rs

349.40, down 3.12 per cent on the BSE.

Ratnagiri Gas inks 5year

deal with RIL

Ratnagiri Gas & Power (RGPPL) has signed a fiveyear

contract to buy gas from Reliance Industries (RIL). The

development will help the utility, formerly Dabhol Power

Project, to achieve full production capacity by March next year

and could augur well for Maharashtra's power consumers who

have been plagued by loadshedding.

"We have signed a gas agreement with RIL on Thursday," AK Ahuja, Managing Director of

RGPPL said. He said "We hope the Ratnagiri power plant will achieve its full capacity of

1,900 MW in March next year." The plant is running with a 950 MW capacity.

Under the agreement, RGPPL will receive 2.7 million metric standard cubic meters per day

(mmscmd) of gas from RIL's Krishna Godavari basin. The supply will be scaled up to 5.6

mmscmd by October and 8.5 mmscmd when it achieves full generation capacity, said a

RGPPL director. RGPPL will pay $4.2 million metric British thermal unit (mmBtu) for

purchasing gas from RIL and another $1 per unit for transportation.

The gas supply would help ease shortage of fuel to RGPPL — India's first gasbased

power

project which supplies power to Maharashtra. RGPPL is expected to reduce the daily shortfall

 

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in the state from its peakdemand

of 4,500 MW to nearly 2,500 MW after achieving full

capacity next year, said the director.

The company has planned to replace the gas it takes from Petronet LNG by RIL gas. It would

help RGPPL, buys 5 mmscmd has from Petronet LNG, to save nearly Re 1 per unit.

According to Mr Ahuja, RGPPL has sorted out issues with GE and National Insurance

Corporation. The US equipment firm GE has agreed to repair and maintain all six turbines

while the domestic insurance company would provide insurance cover for them.

Russian Revolution (19171923)

In 1917 there were actually two revolutions in Russia. One was the February Revolution in

which the Tsar abdicated his throne and the Provisional Government took power. The other

was the October Revolution in which the Provisional Government was overthrown by the

Bolsheviks.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 played a very important role in world history and also a

major role in the history of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania and led to the

creation of the Soviet Union.

Tsar Nicholas II

Tsar Nicholas II served as the last emperor of Russia from 1895 to 1917. He, his wife, and

their children were executed following the October Revolution.

Vladimir Lenin

V.I. Lenin or simply Lenin was a Russian revolutionary, Bolshevik leader, communist

politician, principal leader of the October Revolution and the first head of the Soviet Union.

In 1998, he was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the

20th century. His contributions to Marxist theory are commonly referred to as Leninism.

Tsar Nicholas II Leon Trotsky Vladimir Lenin

 

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Leon Trotsky

Russian Communist Leon Trotsky led his comrades during the Russian Revolution of 1917

and later served as a leader of the Soviet Union under Lenin. After Lenin's death, Trotsky was

exiled and later assassinated.

Consequences of World War I

By the end of 1915, there were manifold signs that the economy was breaking down under

the heightened strain of wartime demand. The main problems were food shortages and rising

prices. Inflation shoved real incomes down at an alarmingly rapid rate, and shortages made it

difficult to buy even what one could afford. These shortages were especially a problem in the

capital, Petrograd (formerly the City of Saint Petersburg), where distance from supplies and

poor transportation networks made matters particularly bad. Shops closed early or entirely for

lack of bread, sugar, meat and other provisions, and lines lengthened massively for what

remained. It became increasingly difficult both to afford and actually buy food.

By 1917, the growth of political consciousness, the impact of revolutionary ideas, and the

weak and inefficient system of government (which had been debilitated further by its

participation in World War I), should have convinced the emperor, Nicholas II, to take the

necessary steps towards reform. In January 1917, in fact, Sir George Buchanan, the British

Ambassador in Russia, advised the emperor to "break down the barrier that separates you

from your people to regain their confidence." In response to his advice, Nicholas effectively

disowned Buchanan.

Militarily inadequate supplies, logistics, and weaponry led to heavy losses that the Russians

suffered during World War I; this further strengthened Russia's view of Nicholas II as weak

and unfit to rule. Ultimately, these factors, coupled with the development of revolutionary

ideas and movements (particularly during the years following the 1905 Bloody Sunday

Massacre), led to the Russian Revolution.

February Revolution

This revolution broke out without definite leadership and formal plans, which may be seen as

indicative of the fact that the Russian people had quite enough of the existing system.

Petrograd, the capital, became the focus of attention, and, on 23 February people at the food

queues started a demonstration. They were soon joined by many thousands of women textile

workers, who walked out of their factories—partly in commemoration of International

Women's Day but mainly to protest against the severe shortages of bread. Already, large

numbers of men and women were on strike, and the women stopped at any stilloperating

factories to call on their workers to join them. The mobs marched through the streets, with

cries of "Bread!" and "Give us bread!" During the next two days, the strike, encouraged by

the efforts of hundreds of rankandfile

socialist activists, spread to factories and shops

throughout the capital. By 25 February, virtually every industrial enterprise in Petrograd had

been shut down, together with many commercial and service enterprises. Students, whitecollar

workers and teachers joined the workers in the streets and at public meetings, whilst, in

the stillactive

Duma (government institution), liberal and socialist deputies came to realise a

potentiallymassive

problem. They presently denounced the current government even more

 

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vehemently and demanded a responsible cabinet of ministers. The Duma, consisting

primarily of the bourgeoisie, pressed the Tsar to abdicate in order to avert a revolution.

On the Saturday evening the 25 th , with police having lost control of the situation, Nicholas II,

who refused to believe the warnings about the seriousness of these events, sent a fateful

telegram to the chief of the Petrograd military district, General Sergei Khabalov: "I command

you tomorrow to stop the disorders in the capital, which are unacceptable in the difficult time

of war with Germany and Austria." Most of the soldiers obeyed these orders on the 26 th , but

mutinies, often led by lowerranked

officers, spread overnight. On the morning of the 27 th ,

workers in the streets, many of them now armed, were joined by soldiers, sent in by the

government to quell the riots. Many of these soldiers were insurgents, and they joined the

crowd and fired on the police, in many cases little red ribbons tied to their bayonets. The

outnumbered police then proceeded to join the army and civilians in their rampage. Thus,

with this neartotal

disintegration of military power in the capital, effective civil authority

collapsed.

By nighttime on the 27 th , the cabinet submitted its resignation to the Czar and proposed a

temporary military dictatorship, but Russia's military leaders rejected this course. Nicholas,

meanwhile, had been on the front with the soldiers, where he had seen firsthand

Russia's

defeat at Tannenberg. He had become very frustrated and was conscious of the fact that the

demonstrations were on a massive scale; indeed, he feared for his life. The ill health of his

son (suffering from the blood disorder hemophilia) was causing him difficulties, too.

Nicholas accepted defeat at last and abdicated on 13 th March, hoping, by this last act of

service to his nation (as he stated in his manifesto), to end the disorders and bring unity to

Russia. In the wake of this collapse of the 300yearold

Romanov dynasty—Nicholas's

brother, to whom he subsequently offered the crown, refused to become Czar unless that was

the decision of an elected government; he wanted the people to want him as their leader—a

minority of the Duma's deputies declared themselves a Provisional Government, chaired by

Prince Lvov, a moderate reformist, although leadership moved gradually to Alexander

Kerensky of the Social Revolutionary Party.

October Revolution

The October Revolution also known as the Soviet Revolution or Bolshevik Revolution was

led by Vladimir Lenin and was based upon Lenin's writing on the ideas of Karl Marx, a

political ideology often known as MarxismLeninism.

It marked the beginning of the spread

of communism in the 20 th century. It was far less sporadic than the revolution of February

and came about as the result of deliberate planning and coordinated activity to that end.

Though Lenin was the leader of the Bolshevik Party, it has been argued that since Lenin

wasn't present during the actual takeover of the Winter Palace, it was really Trotsky's

organization and direction that led the revolution, spurred by the motivation Lenin instigated

within his party.

The revolution was led by the Bolsheviks, who used their influence in the Petrograd Soviet to

organize the armed forces. Bolshevik Red Guards forces under the Military Revolutionary

Committee began the takeover of government buildings on 24 October. On 25 October the

 

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Winter Palace (the seat of the Provisional government located in Petrograd, then capital of

Russia), was captured.

Russian Civil War

The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a multiparty

war that occurred within the former

Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed and the Soviets under the

domination of the Bolshevik party assumed power, first in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) and

then in other places.

The principal fighting occurred between the Bolshevik Red Army, often in temporary

alliance with other leftist prorevolutionary

groups, and the forces of the White Army, the

looselyallied

antiBolshevik

forces. Many foreign armies warred against the Red Army,

notably the Allied Forces, yet many volunteer foreigners fought in both sides of the Russian

Civil War. Other nationalist and regional political groups also participated in the war,

including the Ukrainian nationalist Green Army, the Ukrainian anarchist Black Army and

Black Guards, and warlords such as Ungern von Sternberg.

The most intense fighting took place from 1918 to 1920. Major military operations ended on

25 October 1922 when the Red Army occupied Vladivostok, previously held by the

Provisional Priamur Government. The last enclave of the White Forces was the AyanoMaysky

District on the Pacific coast, where General Anatoly Pepelyayev did not capitulate

until 17 June 1923.

Aftermath

Russia had been at war for seven years, during this time some 20,000,000 of its people had

lost their lives. The civil war had taken an estimated 15,000,000 of them, including at least

1,000,000 soldiers of the Russian Red Army and more than 500,000 White soldiers who died

in battle. Although Russia experienced extremely rapid economic growth in the 1930s, the

combined effect of World War I and the Civil War left a lasting scar in Russian society, and

had permanent effects on the development of the Soviet Union.