New York's Plaza Hotel sold to Sahara for USD 570m

Sahara Group has agreed to buy a controlling stake in New York's landmark Plaza Hotel for USD 570 million, Elad Properties, an Israeli-owned real estate company, said on Monday.

The 105-year-old luxury hotel overlooking New York's Central Park, is jointly owned by Elad Properties, an Israeli-owned real estate company, and Saudi-based Kingdom Holdings Co.

Elad, controlled by Israeli businessman Yitzhak Tshuva, said it would receive 1.6 billion shekels for its 60% stake, while Kingdom will receive the rest.

Kingdom, the investment vehicle of Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, will hold a 25% stake once the deal is completed, Elad said in a statement.

Elad said Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Inc, which has managed the hotel since 1999 and which is owned by the Saudi prince, will continue to operate the property.

Tshuva bought the hotel eight years ago for USD 675 million.

According to media reports, Elad had sold luxury apartments in the renovated hotel for USD 1.5 billion. The sale of the apartments alone netted Elad Group USD 500 million in profit.

USD 1=4.05 shekels

Heads roll after North India's worst blackout in 11 years

New Delhi:  Action has been taken against power officials in Uttar Pradesh for the massive blackout on Monday. Huge parts of North India spent Sunday night and much of Monday morning without any electricity. A fault near Agra, coupled with overdrawing of power by Uttar Pradesh, led to the blackout, which was the worst failure of the Northern Grid since 2001.

1. Following the massive power outage, over a dozen IAS officers have been transferred in Uttar Pradesh, including Avinash Awasthi, the chairman of the state-run Uttar Pradesh state Power Corporation. However, Mr Awasthi's future has been kept in abeyance; he has not been given a fresh posting. The power grid collapsed because some states apparently drew more power than they were authorised to do to meet the rising demand during the summer, Mr Awasthi had earlier said.
2. The crisis began at 2.30 am on Monday when the Northern power grid collapsed. Seven states including UP, Punjab, Haryana, and all of Delhi were plunged into darkness.  370 million people were affected - that's more than the population of the United States and Canada combined. 
3. By the afternoon, 80 per cent of the power had been restored in Delhi. Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said the last time the grid collapsed, in 2001, it took 16 hours to restore services. This time, he said, most services were back up within six hours. By the evening, the Northern Grid was completely restored.
4. The Northern grid was drawing power from the neighbouring Eastern and Western grids as well as getting hydroelectric power from the neighbouring mountain kingdom of Bhutan.
5. Around 1.5 lakh passengers in 300 trains suffered delays as the power grid failure crippled operations across eight divisions of the northern railway. 200 goods trains were cancelled. Rajdhanis and Shatabdis ran four to five hours late.  In Delhi, the metro could not run during the morning rush hour, causing huge traffic jams as desperate commuters hit the roads instead. By 9 am, metro officials said the services were back to normal. 
6. The Power Minister said a committee with three members will investigate what happened. 
7. The international airport in Delhi was not affected by the power outage. "All our essential services like flight arrival and departure, check-in, baggage handling, aerobridge services were shifted to our back-up system. So all these operations remained normal", an airport spokesperson said. He, however, conceded that non-essential services could be hit. 
8. The power deficit was worsened by a weak monsoon that lowered hydroelectric generation and kept temperatures higher, further increasing electricity usage as people seek to cool off.
9. Shivpal Singh Yadav, the power minister in the state of Uttar Pradesh, home to 200 million people, said that while demand during peak hours hits 11,000 megawatts, the state can only provide 9,000 megawatts.
10. Residents of Delhi are worried about their water supply being hit next. Delhi's six water treatment plants have been shut since power failed. All Delhi Jal Board water-pumping stations were affected. Power companies are giving priority to the Jal Board. Residents should be prepared for an erratic water supply till Tuesday morning. 

Fire on Tamil Nadu Express; 32 dead, several injured

Hyderabad: Coach S-11 of the Chennai-bound Tamil Nadu Express caught fire early this morning, near Nellore in Andhra Pradesh; 32 people have died and several others have been injured.

The injured have been taken to the Nellore civic hospital.

The fire started due to a short circuit near a toilet of the coach at about 4:28 am. The coach that seats 72, was full. The bodies of those who died are bring recovered now; most are charred beyond recognition and identification will be difficult. 


Early reports say the doors of the coach were jammed and so many people could not escape as the fire spread. Some were asphyxiated, fell unconscious and were burnt to death. Among those who did was a mother who in death still clutched her little baby. 

The burnt coach has been detached from the train.  The coach had 17 people from Delhi, 11 from Bhopal.

In the morning, an alert deputy station master spotted the fire as the train passed train passed Nellore station. The train was then brought to a halt. Passengers were evacuated immediately and no other coach was affected. 

A special train will leave for Nellore from Chennai at 9.30 am.

Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy has expressed shock and anguish at the fire accident. Mr Reddy will leave for Nellore to take stock of the situation.

Here are the helpline numbers:

Secunderabad: 040-27786723, 27700868; Vijayawada: 0866-2345863, 2345864 and Nellore: 0861-2331477, 2576924; New Delhi: 011-23342954, 23341072, 23341074; Hazrat Nizamuddin: 011-24359748

Massive power failure in northern India since 2:30 am

New Delhi:  There has been a massive power breakdown in northern India; it's the worst northern grid failure since 2001. The power failure has majorly hit metro services in Delhi along with the water and electricity supply across seven states in north India.

1. There has been no power in seven states - Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal - since 2.30 last night, when the northern grid collapsed.
2. Officials in the power ministry say that the situation will return to normal by noon. Power returned to parts of east, west and south Delhi by 9 am. 
3. Delhi's metro service was not running this morning, leaving thousands of rush-hour passengers scrambling. By 9:30 am, the situation returned to normal at all six lines on the Delhi Metro. 
4. Delhi's six water treatment plants were shut since power failed; five of them are now operational. All Delhi Jal Board water pumping stations have also been affected. Power companies are giving priority to the Jal Board.
5. Traffic signals in Delhi were also down. The Traffic Police says that the areas where power has not been restored will be physically manned till the situation is normal.
6. Essential services at the Delhi airport have been shifted to generator mode. There is back- up to last 48 hours. 
7. AIIMS and the Prime Minister's house are on hydel power.
8. Preliminary enquiry shows the collapse happened due to a fault near Agra.
9. All NTPC, state generator units tripped. The collapse led to an auto shut down of all power generation across seven north Indian states.
10. In Uttar Pradesh, none of the NTPC or state units are on stream till now.

Two women killed in blast on a tourist bus in Kashmir's Anantnag district

Anantnag: Two women died and six others were injured in a blast in a tourist bus in Anantnag district of South Kashmir today. Police said the bus was carrying tourists from Mumbai. 

The attack comes on a day when Defence Minister AK Antony is in the Kashmir valley to review the security situation there. 

During his two-day visit to the state beginning today he is expected to interact with troops deployed in the forward locations.


This is Mr Antony's first visit to the state in the last 18 months. He will also interact with the state Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. The Defence Minister is also expected to discuss the issue of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in the state with top commanders.

Normal life in the valley has also been affected today due to a strike called by hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani to protest the killing of a youth in army firing on Tuesday.

Mr Geelani had called for a strike to protest the killing of Hilal Ahmad Dar in Army firing at Ashtengoo Naar in Bandipora district on Tuesday night.

While the Army maintained that the victim was killed following an exchange of firing with militants, the family of the deceased claimed that he was taken into custody and later shot dead