How Things Changed After The Presidential Debate

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's stump speech notes sit on a podium during a campaign rally

Throughout much of September, polls showed the incumbent President with a clear lead, sometimes as much as eight points nationally. Then he lost the first debate, and things began to change. First, the national polls showed a tie, then a slight advantage for the challenger, albeit inside the margin of error. 

After the second debate, CNN reported that the challenger “appears to be holding the ground he gained against President Bush after the first presidential debate, according to a recent poll.” Of course, the challenger, John Kerry, went on to lose the 2004 election by 2 points. George W. Bush was reelected to a second term.

Century Fox Report: Top 10 Presidential debates

Now here we are, eight years later, in October of 2012. A first debate disaster for President Obama has eliminated his lead in national polls. Democrats are wringing their hands. Swing state polls show a similar narrowing. Romney is finally hitting his stride after months of a struggles. The suspense builds. So what happens next?

As Sasha Issenberg has pointed out, the best people to answer that question work for the Obama and Romney campaigns. They sit on an enormous amount of expensive and current data about where this race stands, and what may happen over the coming weeks. But they aren’t talking. So we are left with far less targeted public polls, which offer intermittent snapshots of the electorate, but cannot predict at this point the outcome of such a close race.

But for those who yearn for more certainty than that with less than 30 days to go, here are some other things to chew on as you click refresh on the Real Clear Politics polling page:

–The first debate was bad for Obama. Maybe even worse than if Obama had fallen “off the stage,” as his spokeswoman Jen Psaki had foreshadowed. But the first debate will not be the final word. Over the next 13 days, there will be three more debates, two presidential, and one vice presidential. All those images you have of the first debate are about to be replaced by new images. This is probably good for Obama, but only if he can fix his first debate performance.

Century Fox More: Why Romney won the first Debate

–Both campaigns have said from the beginning that this will be a close election. And neither campaign has ever suggested that this was spin. The electorate really is closely divided, and hardened, and the decision will come down to a handful of swing states. That’s one of the reasons that all the crowing about Obama’s advantage in September was what it seemed. When people answer pollsters they are expressing how they feel at the moment, not necessarily how they will feel on Election Day. 

So the polls tend to bounce around, but they are most likely to settle where they have been consistently all year, within the margin of error. Which is to say, Obama may be crashing on InTrade, but that crash says more about the wisdom of InTrade than any sharp shift in the fundamentals.

–Political reporting always errs on the side of overselling shifts in the race. If there is a media bias, this is it. How many times this year has one candidate or the other been on the ropes, in crisis, losing ground, gaining ground, failing, fumbling, etc. It’s not that mistakes didn’t happen. It’s just that their import was oversold so that the press had something to talk about. A stable race never sold many newspapers. But that is pretty much what we have had, despite hundreds of millions of spending and many sleepless nights. Don’t believe the day-to-day hype.

–In a close race, the ground game matters. For the most part, the ground operations of both campaigns are a black box. Reporters don’t have access to the real data. But judging simply from time, investment and historical patterns, Obama as the incumbent should have an advantage here.

–In a close race, enthusiasm matters. Given external headwinds, the enthusiasm should be on the challenger’s side. In the last week, polls have begun to reflect that. But Romney needs to sustain it. And Obama has a lot of time between now and Election Day to remind voters that he is not the guy who showed up (or didn’t) at the debate in Denver.

Century Fox News: Obama blasts Romney saying:"You owe American People the Truth.

–External events matter a great deal. The terrorist attack in Libya that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens clearly hurt Obama’s foreign policy rating. Another attack could hurt more, just as a special forces strike against the people who killed Stevens could give the president a boost. Economic confidence is up significantly from its August doldrums. Obama’s job approval has yet to dip from his debate failure. 

Americans’ views of whether the country is on the right track or the wrong track have dramatically improved since August. When all is said and done, it’s possible–but by no means certain–that the September jobs report had a bigger impact on the election than the first debate did. By the same token, any major economic swoon between now and November could undermine Obama’s chances.

–The Romney campaign is doing what it always said it would do: Turn the debates into the single most important moment of the campaign. The fact is that the Obama campaign is now playing on the Romney field. The future performance of both candidates will be crucial.

This may not be enough to settle anyone’s stomachs. But that’s how elections go. Democracy is not supposed to be predictable. Victory is supposed to be earned. And the people are allowed to change their minds right up until election day.

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‘Nashville’ : TV Review

 Hayden Panettiere, left, plays Juliette Barnes, a wildly popular country-pop princess, and Connie Britton stars as Rayna Jaymes, a humble wife, mom and country music superstar in ABC's ‘Nashville.

It’s important to note that on ABC’s new drama, “Nashville,” the series drives the music, not the other way around.

That’s a vital distinction to make upfront, because if you’ve heard about “Nashville,” it likely has been about how the show is simply another “Glee” or “Smash,” only with country music. That’s incorrect. On “Nashville,” the characters don’t randomly burst into song or put on a show for the viewers. Instead, the series is shaping up to be an intricate drama about people who work in one of the most cutthroat industries in the world, and the music expertly threaded through the scenes is a bonus.

At its core, “Nashville” is an intriguing story about accepting harsh realities but not settling for them. It’s a theme that drives the many story lines woven throughout the first episode, which centers on Rayna Jaymes (Connie Britton, riveting as usual), a humble wife, mom and country music superstar.

However, as the humorless new president of her record label says, she’s becoming increasingly irrelevant. It doesn’t matter that she’s won nine Grammy Awards, or has been with the same label for two decades, or is a beloved figure in Music City — her latest album isn’t selling. And if she doesn’t pair up for a tour with Juliette Barnes, a wildly popular and conniving 20-something country-pop princess (Hayden Panettiere), the label is going to stop promoting Rayna’s music altogether.

Rayna’s frustration over her situation — as the record label head patronizingly tells her, “you have to find your place in a new market” — is engrossing to watch because it reflects the current reality of the industry, as artists with a pop sound infiltrate the country music world and some veteran singers struggle to get songs on the charts.

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“Why do people listen to that adolescent [stuff]? It sounds like feral cats to me,” Rayna rages after learning that she’ll have to open for Juliette on tour and that her longtime producer is working on Juliette’s new album. “Why does everybody keep pretending she’s good?”

We learn that it’s because Juliette sells records. Vocally gifted or not — “Thank God for Auto-Tune,” someone mumbles during a Juliette recording session — she’s the No. 1 crossover artist in the country and acts like she deserves every bit of success. Juliette doesn’t hesitate to bark orders and trample over anything or anyone that stands in her way. Panettiere plays the character a little too mean, as Juliette is all seductive smiles to any man that comes along, spoken for or not, while terrorizing the women.

There are clues that Juliette isn’t as coldhearted she seems, including brief glimpses of her background — her mother was a drug addict — that could provide reasons for this nasty demeanor.

The pilot episode is visually striking, featuring lovely views of farmland, rich colors of the Tennessee skyline and menacing shots of giant buildings downtown. It also sets up countless future plots about the characters’ personal lives. There are so many story lines that it starts to feel overwhelming by the time Rayna’s father (Powers Boothe), a Nashville corporate kingpin, convinces Rayna’s husband (Eric Close) to run for mayor so he can control the city’s politics as well as its businesses.

As with any good drama, there’s a love triangle, and it turns out Rayna’s real soulmate is probably her lead guitarist, Deacon (Charles Esten). But Deacon’s niece, Scarlett (Clare Bowen), provides the most interesting side story. She works at the city’s famous Bluebird Cafe and thinks she’s just a wannabe poet until the sound guy, Gunnar (Sam Palladio), points out that she’s actually creating song lyrics.

A duet involving Scarlett and Gunnar provides both the music for the episode’s ending montage and the best example of how the show uses its soundtrack to fit the mood of every scene — no surprise, considering the show’s executive producer in charge of music is Academy Award-winning musician T Bone Burnett. (He’s married to the show’s creator, Academy Award-winning writer Callie Khouri.) That level of attention to detail is no doubt an agonizing process, though certainly worth it, already putting the show a step above its musical brethren.

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Al Qaeda-Linked Group Claims Responsibility For Syrian Blasts

Beirut, Lebanon — A jihadist insurgent group that Western intelligence officials have linked to Al Qaeda claimed responsibility on Tuesday for a multiple bombing by suicide attackers who struck an intelligence compound on the outskirts of Damascus overnight. It was the second major assault that the group has claimed to have carried out against a government facility in a Syrian urban center in about a week.

The group, Al Nusra Front for the People of the Levant, posted a statement on the Internet with details of what it called a three-stage attack on a compound run by a branch of the air force intelligence service in Harasta, on the edge of Damascus. It released a video showing nighttime blasts that it said were set off by vehicles packed with explosives.

The number of casualties from the attack was not known, and the Syrian state news media did not immediately report on it. On Oct. 3, the same group posted a statement on a Web site affiliated with Al Qaeda that claimed responsibility for explosions in the embattled northern city of Aleppo that killed dozens of people in areas held by the government, including an officers’ club.

The attacks have highlighted a worrisome theme in the Syrian conflict, in which Sunni extremist groups like the Nusra Front, some of which are suspected of having links to Al Qaeda, are claiming responsibility for deadly attacks on government targets, including suicide bombings, with increasing frequency. While the main opposition fighting force, the Free Syrian Army, has denied any ties to such groups, their presence has strengthened President Bashar al-Assad’s argument that the nearly 19-month-old uprising is being orchestrated by terrorists.

The Nusra Front gave details about the operation in the Damascus area, like the name of the man who drove the car laden with what it said was nine tons of explosives in the first stage of the operation. Twenty-five minutes later, another man drove an ambulance laden with explosives to the scene, to kill those remaining or coming to assist, the group said. Shelling followed.

Fighting was also reported on Tuesday in other areas, including Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, and Deir al-Zour, in eastern Syria. The Local Coordination Committees, an opposition group, said in its daily tally of violence that at least 115 people had been killed and that in Maaret al-Nouman, in Idlib Province, the Free Syrian Army had captured more than 40 government troops and seized weapons. Casualty claims by antagonists in the Syria conflict are often difficult to confirm because of restrictions on independent news reporting there.

The latest violence came as the Syrian military continued to divert some forces and firepower to face escalating tensions on its border with Turkey, a NATO member. On Monday, Syrian Army gunners exchanged artillery blasts with their Turkish counterparts across the frontier for the sixth consecutive day.

The exchange of fire has raised concerns that the conflict will ignite a broader crisis in the region. On Tuesday, the NATO secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, emphasized that NATO, which considers an attack on one member to be an attack on all, had “all necessary plans in place to protect and defend Turkey if necessary.”

But Mr. Rasmussen also made it clear that he had no desire to embroil NATO in the conflict.

While most Syrian insurgents are members of the country’s Sunni majority, many of them defectors from the military, much of the Alawite minority, which Mr. Assad belongs to, remains intensely loyal to him. Nonetheless, recent signs of fracturing have surfaced in his Alawite base, including unconfirmed reports of deadly clashes last weekend in his ancestral home, Qardaha, a village in Latakia Province, which borders Turkey.

In another possible signal of Alawite ambivalence about Mr. Assad’s political leadership, opposition figures in Syria and in neighboring Jordan said that as many as seven high-ranking Alawite military and intelligence officers had defected in recent days, with some saying they had entered Jordan.

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What Really Happened To Chris Stevens In Libya

On the last day of his life, U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens retired to his room in the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya at about 9 p.m. after a quiet day.

Forty minutes later, security agents heard gunfire and explosions near the front gate of the compound, which recently had been reinforced with nine-foot walls and concrete Jersey barriers, two State Department officials told reporters yesterday.

Their narrative of what happened on the night of Sept. 11 is the first detailed account of how Stevens died, and it contradicts the Obama administration’s initial contention that the attack began as a spontaneous protest over an anti-Islamic video clip. The officials also offered the first detailed description of the compound’s and Stevens’ security, which are the focus of a hearing today by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice told television news programs on Sept. 16 that intelligence at that point showed the attack started as “a spontaneous, not premeditated response” to demonstrations in Egypt over a “very offensive video.” Then it “seems to have been hijacked, let us say, by some individual clusters of extremists,” she said.

The officials who described the attack yesterday, though, said the State Department never concluded that it began as a protest over the video. There were no protests at or near the compound that day, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity while the incident remains under investigation.

Sudden Attack

While the account is certain to add fuel to the partisan battle over preparations for and response to the attack by President Barack Obama’s administration, it also is a vivid description of the final hours of one of the nation’s most highly regarded diplomats and three other Americans.

The attack came suddenly, the two officials said. The post’s security cameras showed a large number of armed men storming the compound, which is about three football fields long and 100 yards wide, said the officials, who’ve reviewed reports of the assault.

The attackers immediately set fire to the building known as the barracks, which housed the compound’s Libyan guards. Then they penetrated the building where Stevens was staying during a visit to Benghazi from Tripoli, the Libyan capital. It contained a protected “safe haven” walled off by a metal grill with locks, the officials said.

Safe Haven

The attackers looked through the grill and saw nothing. They couldn’t break the locks to enter the safe haven, and though no one got in, a security agent with Stevens was prepared to shoot anyone who did.

Instead, the attackers poured diesel fuel in and around the building and set it on fire, according to the two officials.

Stevens was trapped in the burning building as it quickly filled with smoke. By the time the intruders left, the officials said, it was difficult to see or breathe. The ambassador, along with Sean Smith, a foreign-service information officer, and the security agent moved to a bathroom with a window in an attempt to get air.

The three men were on the bathroom floor, desperate for air, when they decided they needed to leave the building. The security agent later told State Department officials that he wasn’t able to see three feet in front of him.

With dozens of armed attackers still at the compound, the agent led Stevens and Smith to a bedroom that had a window exit as more shooting and explosions could be heard outside and tracer bullets pierced the night.

Missing Persons

The agent, barely able to breathe, escaped through the bedroom window, only to discover that Stevens and Smith were no longer with him.

The agent re-entered the building several times in an attempt to find the two men. He never did. He finally staggered up a ladder to the roof, where he radioed other security agents for help, though he could barely speak, the two officials said.

The other agents, scattered at two different structures in the compound, drove to the ambassador’s building in an armored vehicle and made repeated attempts to feel their way through the smoke and fire to find Stevens and Smith.

When they found Smith, the information officer was dead. The ambassador was still missing.

Security at the compound consisted of five diplomatic security special agents and four Libyans who were members of the Feb. 17 Brigades, a militia assisting the Libyan government, the two officials said.

Reinforcements Arrive

Then a so-called quick reaction security team, housed in an annex about 1.2 miles (1.9 kilometers) from the compound, arrived.

As the additional agents tried to secure the building’s perimeter, they also made repeated attempts to find Stevens. One agent took off his shirt, dipped it into the compound’s swimming pool, and put it back on before heading into the smoke-filled building, the two officials said.

Century Fox Post : Official version of the Libyan attack by Obama administration.

Fearing for their safety, the agents decided they had to evacuate the compound and get to the annex. They piled into the armored vehicle with Smith’s corpse and made their way out the main gate, the two officials said.

With traffic clogging the road, the vehicle was going about 15 miles an hour when a group of men met them and signaled for them to turn. The armored vehicle then was attacked with AK-47 rifle fire and hand grenades. The vehicle kept rolling with two flat tires.

Firing Positions

It eventually reached the annex, where agents took up firing positions on the roof. The annex then took intermittent fire from AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades for several hours, the officials said.

Reinforcements from Tripoli, some 400 miles away, who had been called when the attack began, then arrived and made their way to the annex.

At about 4 a.m., the two officials said, the annex took mortar fire. Some rounds landed on the roof, killing two agents and severely wounding another. Tyrone S. Woods and Glen A. Doherty, two former Navy SEALs working as security personnel, were the other Americans killed in Benghazi.

The remaining agents then decided to evacuate the annex and made their way to the Benghazi airport, where they were evacuated on two flights.

The two officials said yesterday they still don’t know how Stevens, 52, made it to the Benghazi Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. He was brought to the city’s largest hospital in a private car driven by unknown Libyan civilians some time after 1 a.m. on Sept. 12, hospital director Dr. Fathi al Jehani said in an interview with Bloomberg.

Dialed Phone

Hospital staff members informed the embassy of his death after they picked his mobile phone out of his pocket and dialed numbers on it, the two State Department officials said.

The House committee, led by Republican Representative Darrell Issa of California, will examine the State Department’s account of the attack today. In an Oct. 2 letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, he said “the U.S. mission in Libya made repeated requests for increased security in Benghazi” and “were denied these resources by officials in Washington.”

The committee staff yesterday released a redacted e-mail message from Eric Nordstrom, a regional security officer who was based in Libya, who objected to what he described as a reduction in security personnel at the consulate.

In the e-mail, Nordstrom said the security situation in Libya was “not an environment where post should be directed to ‘normalize’ operations and reduce security resources in accordance with an artificial time table.”

‘Clear Disconnect’

The State Department, in an earlier statement, said it had “maintained a constant level of security capability” at the consulate.

“There was a clear disconnect between what security officials on the ground felt they needed and what officials in Washington would approve,” Issa said in a statement yesterday.

The State Department officials suggested yesterday that no amount of security typically provided for a consulate would have prevented the Benghazi attack, which they described as unprecedented in recent diplomatic history.

The administration has retreated from Rice’s initial description of the attack as a product of a demonstration against the anti-Muslim video clip, which was seconded by White House press secretary Jay Carney and State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

On Sept. 19, Matthew Olsen, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, called the assault “a terrorist attack,” and two days later Clinton and Carney said the same thing.

‘Organized Attack’

Finally, in an e-mailed statement on Sept. 28, Shawn Turner, director of public affairs for the Director of National Intelligence, said: “As we learned more about the attack, we revised our initial assessment to reflect new information indicating that it was a deliberate and organized terrorist attack carried out by extremists.”

The attack is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a separate State Department panel.

Speaking yesterday at Geoint, an annual conference of intelligence officials in Orlando, Florida, sponsored by the National Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said the U.S. had no specific tactical warning of the attack. American eavesdropping and reconnaissance agencies didn’t overhear or observe the attackers discussing their plans, he said.

The Libya attack and the shifting accounts of it have become fodder in the presidential campaign. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said in a foreign policy address on Oct. 8 that the incident “cannot be blamed on a reprehensible video insulting Islam, despite the administration’s attempts to convince us of that for so long.”

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Global Efforts To Tackle Mental Health Disorders

Experts around the globe are calling for a joint effort to tackle the world's leading cause of suffering and disability - mental health disorders.

Nearly 450 million people have mental health disorders and more than three-quarters live in developing countries.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), eight in every 10 of those living in developing nations receive no treatment at all.

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Many are the survivors of infectious diseases, natural disasters and war.

In Afghanistan, most families have lost one or more member during the country's 30 years of conflict.

And it's estimated about half of Afghanis over 15 years of age have mental health problems such as depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder.

Outside of the country's capital Kabul there is no mental healthcare system.

Neglect

Afghanistan is not alone - almost half of the world's population lives in a country where, on average, there is one psychiatrist or fewer to serve 200,000 people.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

There is very little funding for mental health innovations in low- and middle-income countries, where mental illness is the most neglected of many neglected diseases”

Dr Peter SingerGrand Challenges Canada

Many low-income countries have less than one mental health specialist per one million population, according to the WHO.

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In Nigeria, a quarter of patients seen in local health centres have significant depression symptoms yet few are diagnosed and only one in six of those who are diagnosed get treatment of any kind.

In other parts of Africa, like the Ghanaian capital Accra, patients in some mental health institutions are left hungry and naked.

Each country faces its own set of challenges.

In Ethiopia, a major cause of mental stress is domestic violence, which is thought to occur in more than two-thirds of rural families.

Meanwhile people living in Haiti are having to come to terms with the devastation of the 2010 earthquake that killed more than 300,000 people, injured another 300,000 and left 1.6 million homeless. Almost every person on the island was affected. Later that same year a cholera outbreak killed another 6,000 inhabitants.

In May 2012, health ministers from the member states of the World Health Assembly agreed to a resolution on mental health, making a commitment to promote greater awareness of mental health issues and improve care standards around the world.

Mobile help

A global mental health action plan is now being drawn up.

The Canadian government has said it will give nearly $20m (£12.5m) to support 15 new projects designed to improve mental health diagnosis and care in developing countries.

The projects, led by Grand Challenges Canada, will tackle issues that can lead to mental illness, such as alcohol and substance abuse, as well as delivering solutions like counselling and health promotion.

One project will use mobile phones to deliver instant and accessible support to Nigerian women suffering from postnatal depression.

Another will use local health networks and telemedicine to help Afghanis with mental health conditions.

Dr Peter Singer, of Grand Challenges Canada, said: "There is very little funding for mental health innovations in low- and middle-income countries, where mental illness is the most neglected of many neglected diseases.

"It's a terrible denial of human potential."

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US Drone Kills 5 In Northwest Pakistan

Peshawar, Pakistan — Pakistani intelligence officials say a suspected U.S. missile strike has killed five people in a northwestern militant haven near the Afghan border.

The officials say four missiles struck a house early Wednesday near Mir Ali town in North Waziristan. The area is home to several al-Qaida-linked and other militant groups. The three officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the media.

Century Fox reports: Imran Khan leads US Drone protests in Pakistan.

The U.S. says one of the area's groups — the Haqqani network, which focuses on attacks against U.S. troops and NATO allies — is among the biggest threats to peace in Afghanistan.

Washington relies on the drone strikes in the absence of a Pakistani military operation in the region. Pakistani residents view the drone program as an affront to their sovereignty.

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Microsoft CEO 'Steve Ballmer' Sees Company Becoming More Like Apple

Microsoft may eventually make its own phones to build on its forthcoming own-brand Surface tablet PC and market-leading Xbox gaming console.

SEATTLE: Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has signaled a new direction for the world's largest software company, pointing to hardware and online services as its future, taking a page from long-time rival Apple Inc.

Ballmer's comments in his annual letter to shareholders published on Tuesday suggested that Microsoft may eventually make its own phones to build on its forthcoming own-brand Surface tablet PC and market-leading Xbox gaming console.

"There will be times when we build specific devices for specific purposes, as we have chosen to do with Xbox and the recently announced Microsoft Surface," wrote Ballmer.

The new approach mimics Apple Inc, whose massively successful iPhone and iPad demonstrated tight integration of high-quality software and hardware and made Windows devices feel clunky in comparison.

Ballmer, who took over as CEO from co-founder Bill Gates in 2000, said the company would continue to work with its traditional hardware partners, such as Dell Inc, Samsung and HTC, but he made it clear that Microsoft's role in the so-called 'ecosystem' was changing.

"It impacts how we run the company, how we develop new experiences, and how we take products to market for both consumers and businesses," he wrote.

Microsoft already makes money from providing services online, such as access to servers to enable 'cloud computing', or Web versions of its Office applications, but Ballmer's new emphasis suggests an acceleration away from its traditional business model of selling installed software.

"This is a significant shift, both in what we do and how we see ourselves - as a devices and services company," he added.

BONUS CLIPPED

Alongside the shareholders' letter, Microsoft's annual proxy filing, which deals with the shareholders' meeting and other governance issues, showed that Ballmer, 56, got a lower bonus than he did last year, partly for flat sales of Windows and his failure to ensure that the company provided a choice of browser to some European customers.

He earned a bonus of $620,000 for Microsoft's 2012 fiscal year, which ended in June, down 9 percent from the year before, according to documents filed on Tuesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

His salary, which is low by U.S. standards for chief executives, remained essentially flat at $685,000.

Century Fox Report: Microsoft has launched a Mobile Phone, but will consumers buy?
It is the third year in a row that Ballmer has not earned his maximum bonus, set at twice his salary.

Microsoft's recent financial year was scarred by a $6.2 billion write-down for a failed acquisition and lower profit from its flagship Windows system as computer sales stood still.

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Cauvery Protests: Tamil Nadu To File Contempt Plea Against Karnataka

Chennai/New Delhi: The row between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the sharing of Cauvery water is set to escalate further on Wednesday, with the latter expected to file a contempt petition in the Supreme Court. 

The Jayalalithaa government yesterday decided to file a contempt petition “immediately” after the Karnataka government stopped the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu. The Jayalalithaa government said Karnataka’s action amounted to impeding country’s federal structure. 

“In order to ensure that Tamil Nadu gets its due share of water, the Chief Minister has directed to file a contempt petition against Karnataka government which has unilaterally stopped releasing water, amounting to dishonouring the Supreme Court verdict,” an official release said after a meeting of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa with senior Cabinet colleagues and officials. 

DMK chief M Karunanidhi has, meanwhile, asked the Prime Minister to invoke Article 356 and impose Governor’s rule in the BJP-ruled Karnataka. 

Karnataka had on Monday night stopped release of water from the Krishna Raja Sagar Dam citing low storage in the reservoir, hours after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made it clear that only the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) can review its order directing the state to release 9,000 cusecs to Tamil Nadu. 

Century Fox Report: Agitation will now turn violent say Cauvery Protestors.

The apex court had earlier endorsed the CRA ruling asking the upper riparian state to release 9000 cusecs from September 20-October 15, a decision contested by both states, locked in the decades-long Cauvery dispute. 

Karnataka has been requesting the CRA to stay its 19 September order asking the state to release 9,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu daily till 15 October and keep it in abeyance till the decision was subjected to review. 

The Cauvery Monitoring Committee is expected to meet in Delhi on October 11 during which the reports of the two central study teams that visited both the states are likely to be debated.


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