On Friday, Sepp Blatter stood before the 209 members of the “Fifa family” that have become his fiefdom and giddily beamed: “Let’s go Fifa! Let’s go!”

Just a few days later, he stood before a sparsely attended, hastily convened press conference in Fifa’s £150m HQ and gloomily announced he would step down, bringing down the curtain on four decades at world football’s scandal-hit governing body and 17 as president.

Less than a week ago, Blatter was touring the meetings of the various confederations in Zurich and appeared supremely confident of victory in an election that he had promised never to contest. On Wednesday morning at 6am, his world came crashing down as Swiss police raided the Baur au Lac hotel.

Sepp Blatter to resign as Fifa president after 17 years in role
Read more
Some of those close to him say that privately he was more concerned than he let on as rumours, fed by the networks of private investigators employed by Blatter and his rivals, swirled on the progress of the FBI investigation into alleged money laundering and tax evasion.

It is testament to his record of Machiavellian manoeuvring down the years that even as he delivered his shock resignation, senior figures in world football were starting to speculate on what his masterplan might be and whether he would work to shoehorn a favoured candidate into the role when he is replaced between December 2015 and March next year.

His closest advisers insisted that there was no single silver bullet that precipitated a change in mood from his bullish, predictable attacks on the British media and the US justice system on Saturday to the contrite, diminished figure standing on the dais on Tuesday.

They said that he had simply spent the weekend since a combative post-election press conference, at which he was forced to deny that he handled a $10m (£6.5m) bribe, being told by those closest to him that the walls were closing in and it was time to go.

Advertisement

In the face of a promise from US investigators that more indictments would follow and reading the scale and magnitude of the case being built up by the FBI and the US justice department, they say he finally listened.

In particular, his daughter Corinne is believed to have encouraged him to stand down.

Nor can he have been unaware of the fact that those closest to him over four decades at Fifa were being picked off one by one.

But something about that picture doesn’t quite ring true. Blatter has long been addicted to the power and prestige afforded him by his job and terrified of life beyond it.

US investigators have been cooperating with Swiss prosecutors for months and Blatter is sure to have been in their sights. He must have felt the noose tightening.

Existing in a bubble of private jets, five-star hotels and the endless, meaningless babble of Fifa – handshakes for peace, Nobel Foundation initiatives, Football for Hope and all – he clung on to power at all costs through a jaw-dropping succession of scandals revealed by dogged investigative reporters.

At times he appeared divorced from the reality of his organisation as the rest of the world sees it and the dark heart of corruption among its most senior figures, so vividly outlined last week in a Brooklyn address by the US attorney general, Loretta Lynch.

When he is not living the life of a head of state, Blatter has been salting away a salary never disclosed but which almost certainly totals more than $10m (£6.5m) a year.

To see the reasons for a dramatic U-turn in keeping with Blatter’s flair for the grand gesture, it is perhaps necessary to understand his desire to retain at least a modicum of control over the organisation he sees as his own.

Darjeeling- Madan Tamang, the chief of the Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League, was hacked to death in Darjeeling on while overseeing preparations of a meeting. When he was asThe CBI has indicted the entire top leadership of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), the ruling party in Darjeeling, for the murder of All India Gorkha League (AIGL) president Madan Tamang. The agency, which has been probing the murder since 2011, filed the final supplementary chargesheet in the case at a Kolkata civil court on Friday. GJM president and chief of Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA),

Bimal Gurung, and Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri — who have been charged with “criminal conspiracy for murder” — are among the nine top leaders named in the charge sheet.

Apart from Gurung and Giri, the chargesheet names GJM women’s wing chief and Gurung’s wife Asha Gurung, GTA chairman Pradip Pradhan, Morcha vice-president Benoy Tamang, MLA Harka Bahadur Chhetri, GTA deputy chief executive Ramesh Alley and Gurung’s two close associates — Dinesh Theeng and Devendra Sharma. Fourteen other Morcha members have also been charged. Significantly, Bimal Gurung, Asha Gurung and Roshan Giri were also named in the FIR lodged by Bharti Tamang — Madan Tamang’s wife after his murder on May 21, 2010. In all, CBI has chargesheeted 51 Morcha members in the case. While top leaders including Bimal Gurung, Roshan Giri, Benoy Tamang, Harkabahadur Chhetri, Pradip Pradhan and Ramesh Alley have been charged under Section 120b (criminal conspiracy), 302 ( murder), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 150 (hiring or conniving at hiring of persons to join unlawful assembly) of the IPC, Asha Gurung and 14 others have been charged for murder, rioting and for being armed with deadly weapon.

Now it is to be seen if the law will take its own course or political influence by GJM will have all the accused go Scot free.

Women now are gearing up or already in professions where they did not venture only a decade aga. Be it in the navy, air force or different engineering professions. But at the same time we have a section of the society where women still cannot dare to wear jeans openly. We even hear responsible politicians commenting on cases eve teasing, molestation or rape that women should not wear jeans or dresses which exposes their body.

In this matter the North East females could set an example to the rest of India to their freedom of speech, liberty to wear what they find suitable and also participating in major family decisions.

In this regard Real News of India was in Darjeeling. KFC restaurant in Darjeeling is a fully women empowered fast food restaurant maybe in the whole of India. From the cash counter to the kitchen staff every single staff is a female. The customers take pleasure in receiving such excellent hospitality surrounded by young ladies.

This should set an example to the rest of India. Cheers to the Darjeeling girls.

Even as police remains clueless about Aruna Shanbaug’s assailant, a local newspaper in Maharashtra claimed to have traced him to a village in Uttar Pradesh where he is working as a labourer and said he cannot recall what happened on that fateful day.

Walmiki, who throttled Aruna with a dog leash rendering her a cripple at the prime of youth, said he cannot recall anything about what had happened on that day. However, he asked the journalist “why are you people calling it as rape”. He claims that someone else raped Shanbaug.

Walmiki says that he and Shanbaug had a fight where he may have hit her, reports The Indian Express. He says that there was bad blood between the two. He claims that Shanbaug would ask only him of all the ward boys to feed the dogs and clean their cages despite his fear of the canines.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, son of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, died on Saturday after battling brain cancer, the vice president said. He was 46.

“The entire Biden family is saddened beyond words,” Vice President Biden said in a statement released by the White House.

“We know that Beau’s spirit will live on in all of us, especially through his brave wife, Hallie, and two remarkable children, Natalie and Hunter,” he said.

Beau Biden had announced last year he planned to run for governor of Delaware in 2016.

He was diagnosed with brain cancer in August 2013 and underwent surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. After getting a “a clean bill of health” in November of that year, his cancer recurred in the spring of 2015, the vice president’s office said.

He sought aggressive treatment and had been hospitalized this month at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center outside Washington. His family was with him when he died.

“Beau embodied my father’s saying that a parent knows success when his child turns out better than he did,” the vice president said. “In the words of the Biden family: Beau Biden was, quite simply, the finest man any of us have ever known.”

View galleryAttorney General Beau and Vice Presidential candidate …
Attorney General Beau Biden (D-DE) (L) and Vice Presidential candidate Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) gest …
Beau Biden was very close to his father and a familiar presence in his political campaigns.

After eight years as attorney general in Delaware, Beau Biden joined the investor law firm Grant & Eisenhofer in 2015.

He served a year-long tour in Iraq as a member of the Delaware Army National Guard. He suffered a mild stroke in 2010.

President Barack Obama said he and his wife, first lady Michelle Obama, were grieving. He paid warm tribute to Beau Biden, saying he took after his father.

“He studied the law, like his dad, even choosing the same law school. He chased a life of public service, like his dad, serving in Iraq and as Delaware’s Attorney General,” Obama said in a statement.

“Like his dad, Beau was a good, big-hearted, devoutly Catholic and deeply faithful man, who made a difference in the lives of all he touched, and he lives on in their hearts.”

The vice president has not publicly ruled out a run for president in 2016, but he would face tough odds to gain an advantage over his friend, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is far ahead in public opinion polls in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Clinton expressed condolences over Twitter on Saturday.

“My heart is broken for the family of Beau Biden – a wonderful man who served his country with devotion and lived his life with courage,” she wrote.

The vice president has faced family tragedy before.

Shortly after winning election to the U.S. Senate in 1972, his wife Neilia and three children were in a car crash. Neilia and their daughter were killed, while their two sons, Beau and Hunter, were injured.

Biden opted not to move to Washington, choosing instead to make the 2 1/2-hour daily round-trip train commute from Delaware to his Senate job so he could spend more time with his sons. He married Jill Jacobs some five years after his first wife died.

Biden took office as vice president when Obama entered the White House in January 2009. He has a deep knowledge of Washington politics after decades in Congress and a folksy, avuncular style that contrasts with what many consider Obama’s more aloof manner.

Biden regularly mentions his family in speeches and sometimes has his grandchildren accompany him on diplomatic trips abroad.

Mumbai, May 31 (PTI) Around 8.5 crore commuters have travelled by Metro during the past 11 months since beginning of commercial operation on 8 June last year, Mumbai Metro One Pvt Ltd (MMOPL) said here today.

During the past 11 months since beginning of commercial operation on 8 June, 2014, around 8.5 crore commuters travelled by Metro, which maintained 99 per cent service efficiency in 110,000 trips, an MMOPL, a subsidiary of Reliance Infrastructure, release said.

Meanwhile, MMOPL has tied up with several retailers in a bid to offer a unique shopping experience to its commuters.

The smart card users of Mumbai Metro, would be able to get into a shopping spree on the 11.4 km long metro corridor connecting Versova with Ghatkopar via Andheri from 1 June onwards.

They would be able to enjoy discounts and offers while shopping at several retail outlets along Versova- Andheri-Ghatopar (VAG) corridor just by displaying their smart travel cards at the retail counters, the release said.

New Delhi, May 31 (PTI) Budget carrier GoAir today named Austrian national and former Jet Airways official Wolfgang Prock-Shauer as its new chief executive officer, saying his 34 years of experience in the industry will add immense value to the airline’s business.

The airline also said that its operating revenue has surged by 21 per cent in the previous fiscal on the back of a 13.2 per cent rise in the passengers growth during the period.

Announcing Prock-Shauer’s appointment, GoAir managing director Jeh Wadia said in statement, “We are delighted to have Wolfgang Prock-Schauer on board. With his rich experience of 34 years in the industry, we are confident Wolfgang will add immense value to our business.”

Prock-Shauer would take the place of Giorgio De Roni, who quit GoAir as its chief executive on March 31 due to health reasons after serving the carrier for nearly four years.

His appointment as the new CEO is effective from June 15, the airline said.

This is the second time in last 12 years when Prock- Shauer will be serving an Indian carrier as earlier he worked with another Mumbai-based airline, Jet Airways, as its chief executive, a position which he held till October 15, 2009.

The Wadia Group-owned no-frills airline currently operates over 2,000 weekly flights across 21 domestic destinations with a fleet of 19 Airbus A320 planes.

“We are also pleased to inform that the company has made significant increase in the operating revenue by 21 per cent with EBITDA (earning before interests, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) reporting a substantial improvement of 76 per cent over FY-14,” Wadia said.

He said that the airline also clocked a substantial 13.2 per cent growth in the number of passengers flown in the financial year ended March 31, 2015 over the year-ago period.

Besides, gaining a nearly one per cent market share at 9.3 per cent in FY15 as against 8.5 per cent recorded in the fiscal 2013-14, the seat factor also surged by almost five per cent to 79.2 per cent in FY 15 as compared to 74.3 per cent in FY 14, he said.

Thiruvananthapuram: Monsoon will be delayed by two-three days this year, the weather office said on Saturday.

The Indian Metrological Department (IMD) further said that heat wave conditions in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana will prevail till the onset of the monsoon, and added that there had been a drop in temperature in the coastal regions of Andhra Pradesh.

“In next 2-3 days monsoon may enter Kerala,” ANI quoted Meteorological Department (IMD) official M Narsimha Rao as saying.

“In the last week of May and in the first week of June, before the onset of monsoon, the severe heat wave conditions will prevail. This is a normal trend, but this year, the heat wave conditions developed after May 20, particularly in Telangana, is continuing till now. The conditions are very severe in Hyderabad, Nizamabad, Karim Nagar, Warangal and Nalgonda districts,” he added.

Earlier, the weather office had predicted the arrival of the Monsoon by May 30.

Strong winds from north westerly direction having a speed of 45-55 kmph were likely to hit the Kerala coast and Lakshadweep during the next 24 hours commencing from 2 pm on Friday, another India Meteorological Department (IMD) official had said earlier.

The official also warned fishermen not to venture into the sea in view of the strong winds.

Scanty rainfall was recorded at most places over Lakshadweep, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka on Friday.

The IMD in its long range prediction, forecast a ‘below normal’ monsoon rainfall pattern over the entire south-west monsoon season this year.

Meanwhile, the death toll in Andhra Pradesh, due to intense heat wave, has reached 1636. The most affected districts in the state were Prakasam and Guntur with 333 and 233 deaths respectively.

Authorities in Andhra Pradesh have cancelled doctors’ leave and advised people not to head outside in the middle of the day to avoid the worst of the heat.

However for many people, staying indoors isn’t much better as the weather conditions have also resulted in frequent power cuts.

New Delhi/Chennai: The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) has sent a notice to IIT Madras over the controversial ban of a students group whose members are mainly Dalits even as DMK Chief M Karunanidhi on Sunday sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “direct intervention” for revocation of the order.

IIT-M is in the eye of a storm over derecognition of Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle(APSC) on Friday following a complaint that it was critical of Modi. The action had led to protests by political parties including Congress and AAP.

BJP, meanwhile, said the Union Government was not behind the decision as it was taken by the administration of the institute on grounds of misuse of privileges and violation of guidelines.

NCSC Chairman PL Punia told PTI today that a notice has been issued to IIT-M and a reply has been sought.

“I have issued a notice to the institute and sought its reply after taking note of the incident myself. We will take action in this regard,” Punia said, adding, “Youngsters must get freedom of speech on campuses. Imposing bans thus is like suppressing their voices. This is completely wrong.”

He further accused the Centre of being “insensitive” towards the marginalised sections and claimed that the number of anti-Dalit incidents had increased ever since the Modi government came to power.

“Such incidents have increased. These are not minor incidents, but serious ones,” said Punia, who is a Congress Rajya Sabha MP.

While seeking Modi’s intervention for revoking the order immediately to ensure that peace and a healthy atmosphere prevailed at the institute, Karunanidhi castigated Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani for “authoritarian” interference that allegedly led to the derecognition of the students group.

“Because of this incident, the otherwise peacefully functioning institute has turned into a war zone,” he said.

Without naming Irani, he said that “unilateral” and “authoritarian” interference by Modi’s ministers on such issues will impact both the youth of the country and the nation’s peace.

“Though it seems that Prime Minister Modi doesn’t place importance on needless issues like banning a democratic group, his ministers interfering unilaterally and in an authoritarian manner in such issues will impede youth’s thought process and affect the nation’s peace,” Karunanidhi said in a statement released in Chennai.

BJP National Secretary H Raja said the Union Government was not behind the ban on APSC.

“The decision to derecognise and ban the students’ group was taken by the IIT- Madras administration on grounds of misuse of privileges and violation of guidelines,” he told PTI.