Ivory Coast: 'Gbagbo weapons cache' uncovered

Several generals pledged their allegiance to Alassane Ouattara on Tuesday

French troops have discovered several large arms caches in Ivory Coast that they said would have been used by former Ivorian leader Laurent Gbagbo.

The weapons, stored at villas in the main city of Abidjan, included mortars, cannons and rockets.

Mr Gbagbo is reportedly being held under house arrest in Abidjan.

French forces led an assault against him on Monday to force him from power. He had refused to accept defeat in a November election.

His rival in last year's election, Alassane Ouattara, who was internationally recognised as winning the poll, has now taken power.

During the stand-off between Mr Gbagbo and Mr Ouattara about 1,500 people were killed and a million forced from their homes.

The BBC's Mark Doyle says the French army took journalists to three innocent-looking villas in central Abidjan where they had discovered the weapons.

He says there were enough arms there to launch a new war, more evidence that the dispute over last year's polls were leading the country into chaos.

The French troops documented the arms before handing them over to African UN soldiers for safe disposal.

Earlier, five generals who had remained loyal to Mr Gbagbo pledged allegiance to Mr Ouattara, though there are reports that some soldiers and militiamen have refused to surrender.Risk of reprisals

US President Barack Obama has called Mr Ouattara to congratulate him and offer support as Ivory Coast tries to recover from the recent conflict.

Mr Ouattara's government said Mr Gbagbo had been placed under house arrest, without saying where, AFP news agency reported.

"Pending the opening of a judicial inquiry, Mr Laurent Gbagbo and some of his companions have been placed under house arrest," said Justice Minister Jeannot Ahoussou-Kouadio.

There had been confusion about Mr Gbagbo's whereabouts, with the UN retracting an earlier claim that he had been moved out of Abidjan.

Immediately after his arrest Mr Gbagbo had been taken with his wife Simone to Mr Ouattara's headquarters at Abidjan's Golf Hotel.

Mr Ouattara has promised that Mr Gbagbo will not be harmed, but rather "treated with dignity".

He has appealed for calm, and announced that a truth and reconciliation commission will be set up to "shed light on all the massacres, crimes, and all cases of human rights violation".

Both sides have been accused of atrocities.

Troops loyal to Mr Ouattara also began patrolling the streets of the southern city on Tuesday in an attempt to restore order. Despite their presence, sporadic gun and mortar fire was heard.

International human rights group Amnesty International warned that those seen as supporters of Mr Gbagbo were at risk of violent reprisals, despite Mr Ouattara appeals.

"Today in Abidjan, armed men, some wearing military uniforms, have been conducting house-to-house searches in neighbourhoods where real or perceived supporters of Laurent Gbagbo are living," the group said.

It quoted one witness saying he had seen a policeman belonging to Mr Gbagbo's ethnic group being dragged from his house and shot at point blank range.

Until a 2002 rebellion split the country in two, Ivory Coast - the world's largest cocoa producer - was the most developed economy in West Africa.

source:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13058331

Rising coal, crude prices will hurt corporate earnings, profit margins: UBS

HONG KONG: Profit margins of Indian companies will be under pressure as rising coal prices force them to pass on the increase in cost to customers, according to commodity analysts present at the UBS APAC Journalist Forum in Hong Kong. UBS expects thermal coal's contract price to remain above $100 per tonne over the next one year.

"Domestic prices for coal in India is still 20-25% lower than international prices," Peter Hickson, global basic materials strategist, UBS, told ET on the sidelines of the conference. "But then, even a small increase will affect the bottom lines of cement, power and steel companies, which use coal in a big way."

Demand for coal in India has grown at 9% a year for the past five years. The country, along with China, will play an important role in driving up global coal prices. India expects power coal usage to rise from 400 million tonnes to 600 million tonnes by 2015. Apart from coal, crude prices will also play a major role in the corporate earnings of Indian companies. Analysts expect the effect of oil prices to start showing on the earnings from the April-June quarter.

"We're not sure where oil prices are headed," Mr Hickson said. "In normal circumstances, we expect crude prices to hover at $85-90 per barrel level but there are many concerns. The crisis in Gulf countries, tight supply environment and steady demand will keep crude prices firm."

Problems in Japan , volatile west Asia and "slower" economic activities in China could have an impact on the overall commodity prices. Crude oil, platinum, phosphate, lead and palladium are on the 'preferred commodity list' while nickel, steel, uranium and aluminium have fallen out of favour - at least in the short-term - for most commodity analysts.

"Cost curve will be up for most commodities over the next few years," said Andrew Ferguson, CEO of APAC Resources . "It'll not be excess liquidity alone that will keep commodity prices up; demand-supply gap and high cost of extraction will add to the overall prices. Raising interest rates to control commodity price inflation will not bring about a big change in prices."

Copper prices are likely to be governed by China's seasonal restocking, which should last till May. The recent spike in steel prices in US and Europe is largely driven by an increase in seasonal activity, low steel inventories and raw material cost-push. Analysts are worried that key-end markets like construction, infrastructure and real estate have not contributed much to the demand for steel.

Gold prices may benefit from lingering European Union sovereign debt concerns, rising inflation fears and the West Asian crisis. "Gold prices will be firm this year. We do not expect a sharp spike up, but a gradual rise in prices. I am bullish on gold as an asset class," said Mr Ferguson.

source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/analysis/rising-coal-crude-prices-will-hurt-corporate-earnings-profit-margins-ubs/articleshow/7840309.cms

Ajmer blast: CBI files report on Aseemanand statement's leak

 The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Tuesday filed a report before a Delhi court on how the confessional statement of Hindutva activist Swami Aseemanand - allegedly involved in the 2008 Ajmer blast - was made public.

The CBI submitted its report before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Bansal and said that it had been established that the statement was not leaked due to any act of its officials.

A journalist, who got this confessional statement published, stated during the enquiry that he had 'obtained the copy of the confessional statement from one of his advocate sources', the CBI said.

'However, he has refused to divulge the particulars of this source during the enquiry,' the CBI added.

The court said that the CBI has filed its report, but it had asked the director of CBI to file it. 'Why is he not here?'

The CBI earlier had filed a two-page report before the court refuting the claim by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activist Devender Gupta accusing the probe agency of leaking the confessional statement to the media.

A petitioner has sought registering a police complaint against a CBI officer and Tehelka magazine owner and editor for making public Aseemanand's confession to a court about his alleged role in the Ajmer blast case.

Gupta, arrested for his role in the 2008 Ajmer Dargah blast, contended that an offence of a serious nature had been committed with the leakage of the confession made by Aseemanand accepting that Hindu activists were to blame for a string of bombings in the country.

The confession was recorded in Delhi by a metropolitan magistrate Dec 18 last year.

Counsel for Gupta, Anupam Sharma and Satish said the CBI admitted that the leak is established.

'Therefore, investigation is now required in this case and FIR (first information report) should also be lodged against them as to how it happened,' said Sharma.

The matter would come up for hearing March 19.

source:news.yahoo.in