Month: May 2012

Protesters decry unity plans in Bahrain

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Bahrain — Protesters in Bahrain marched through the streets Friday to criticize government plans to boost cooperation between the island state and Saudi Arabia.

The proposed unity plans have heightened already tense relations between Manama and Riyadh, on one side, and Tehran on the other.

Though specifics of the proposals are not clear, Bahraini opposition groups are against them because they fear the plans are the latest in a string of attempts to crush dissent.

Al Qaeda’s al-Zawahiri calls on Saudis to rise up

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K.S.A, Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri urged people in Saudi Arabia to follow the example set by popular revolutions in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia and rise up.

“Why don’t you rise up, for you are the sons of the strong and proud tribes that look down upon death in order to lift up humiliation and oppression? Are you afraid of the forces of the Saudi regime and its security and army?” al-Zawahiri said in a video posted Thursday on jihadist forums, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.

Better look at your performance: Akhilesh to Mayawati

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Hitting back at BSP supremo Mayawati, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today said the former chief minister should take into account her own performance before levelling allegations.

“See whatever account is being taken… those levelling allegations should first take account of their own government,” Akhilesh told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

He was replying to allegations levelled against his government by BSP chief Mayawati.

Mayawati today in Delhi alleged around 800 murders, 270 rapes, 245 robberies, 256 kidnapping and 720 loots have

Woman in Kolkata alleges rape by tenants

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A woman was allegedly raped by two of her tenants in north Kolkata last month, police said Saturday, adding she complained that her attackers had also filmed the entire incident which deterred her from reporting the case to the police earlier.

“A woman today filed a complaint with us that she was allegedly raped by Sushovan Kundu and his brother Sudip Kundu who were her tenants in Shyampukur area. We have initiated investigation but no arrest has been so far,” said Shyampukur police station chief Shubendu Barik.

Woman in Kolkata alleges rape by tenants

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A woman was allegedly raped by two of her tenants in north Kolkata last month, police said Saturday, adding she complained that her attackers had also filmed the entire incident which deterred her from reporting the case to the police earlier.

“A woman today filed a complaint with us that she was allegedly raped by Sushovan Kundu and his brother Sudip Kundu who were her tenants in Shyampukur area. We have initiated investigation but no arrest has been so far,” said Shyampukur police station chief Shubendu Barik.

Father rapes daughter in west Delhi

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In a shocking incident, a 14-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted by her own father in west Delhi, police said Saturday.

The girl filed a complaint four days ago that she was raped by her father, Ramashre, around three months ago when she was alone at home.

“She was sexually assaulted by the accused several times. Four days ago she reported the incident to one of her neighbours, who approached the Crime Against Women (CAW) cell along with the victim, and a case was registered,” said a police official.

British minister Warsi slams Pakistani men’s mentality

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A British minister has hit out at the “small minority” of Pakistani men who view white girls as “fair game” for sexual abuse.

Baroness Warsi, who is a British cabinet minister of Pakistani-origin, has called on mosques to act following the Rochdale grooming gang scandal, Daily Mail reported.

Nine Muslim men, mainly of Pakistani-origin, were found guilty last week of plying girls as young as 13 with drink and drugs so that they could “pass them around” and use them for sex. They were found guilty of raping and abusing up to 47 girls.

New turmoil in Arab world: French PM’s name

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It is not France’s new president but Prime Minister Jean Marc Ayrault who is creating waves in the Arab world. And it is because of his name.

His surname, when pronounced, sounds like the word “penis” in Arabic.

Editors in major Arab media outlets have spent days pondering how to spell his name. The biggest challenge is for television anchors.

When she read aloud the name the day he was elected, a Lebanese TV anchor burst out laughing, reported the Australian Associated Press.

Not everyone is taking it as a joke though.

Briton makes hit-list of 1,000 girls for sex

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A 19-year-old man in Britain had sex with four girls whom he met on social networking website Facebook and prepared a hit-list of 1,000 potential victims, a court heard.

Ryan Chambers opened 11 accounts on the Facebook and would use four phones. He groomed girls aged 12 to 15 after commenting on their web photos, The Sun reported.

He was first held after a mother of 14-year-old girl reported him. While on bail, a missing girl, 14, was found at his flat in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire.

Six die in Afghan suicide bombing

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At least six people were killed Saturday when a suicide bomber exploded himself near a police checkpost in Afghanistan.

Five others were injured in the attack in Khost province, 155 km from here, an official said.

The terrorist, strapped with explosives, blew up in Ali Shir district, killing three policemen and two civilians, Xinhua reported. The bomber was also killed.

Officials blamed the attack on the Taliban.

Squeals of delight, ‘n’ screams of protests

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A man in Britain is fearful of a neighbourhood couple’s revenge afer recording their noise while making love at night, as he felt it was disturbing enough to let him sleep. He later posted the audio clip on internet.

Lee Moore’s 26-second clip of the woman’s ear-splitting ecstasy has had a million hits online, The Sun reported.

Moore had been trying to get to sleep when he used his mobile phone to record the noise coming from a flat two floors below his in Salford, Greater Manchester.

Anglo-Indian MP quits Congress posts after being ‘ignored’

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Ingrid Mcleod, a nominated member of the Lok Sabha representing the Anglo-Indian community, Saturday quit all posts of the Congress party peeved over the alleged insult meted out to her by senior Congress leaders at a party function here.

“Ms Mcleod violated party discipline as well as protocol and therefore her resignation has been accepted,” Congress General Secretary and Chhattisgarh in-charge B.K. Hariprasad said.

Indian woman hangs herself in UAE

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A 27-year-old woman from India’s Kerala state allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself in Al Ain city in Abu Dhabi.

Meera Mohan, from Kottayam, was living with her 20-year-old brother Midhun Mohan, and her six-year-old daughter Pavithra. She was working as a receptionist in a private company and has been living in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the past five years, the Gulf News reported.

Pavithra is a Grade two student at the Al Ain Indian High School. Meera’s ex-husband stays in India.

Daredevils thrash Kings XI by six wickets

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Delhi Daredevils defeated Kings XI Punjab by six wickets in their Indian Premier League match here Saturday.

Chasing 142, Daredevils got home in 18.4 overs.

David Warner smashed 79 off 44 balls while Venugopal Rao remained unbeaten on 21.

Earlier, Kings XI made 141 for eight in their 20 overs.

KJo confirms SRK-Priyanka affair?

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Well, well, well. Looks like there’s even more proof of that pesky affair between Shahrukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra, and it’s coming via (who else) Karan Johar.

The popular director is celebrating the big 4-0 this week and he’s invited everyone to celebrate with him. Everyone, that is, except Priyanka Chopra. And why might that be? It’s easy enough to guess considering who Karan’s best friend is (big hint: it’s Gauri Khan).

Kerala school girl secures 99 percent in ISC

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Kalyani Vishnu, a Class 12 student from here, was Saturday declared the top scorer in the Indian School Certificate (ISC) examination, which she passed with 99 percent marks.

“I owe this to my wonderful teachers at the Christnagar School where I studied and also to my parents and, above all, to God Almighty,” Kalyani told IANS.

She said she did not go for any private tuition and instead depended on her teachers who taught her at school.

Man loses health claim for wife after remarrying

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A man in Britain whose wife died in an ambulance staff blunder has lost 500,000 pounds of claim against the National Health Service (NHS) because he married his mistress months later, Daily Mail reported.

Nicolas Taaffe, 69, sought up to 500,000 pounds (over $790,000) in compensation from the NHS when his wife died of heart failure days after paramedics, who visited her, decided that she did not need hospital treatment.

Two schoolgirls killed in Italy bombing

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Two 16-year-old schoolgirls were killed and several others injured Saturday in a remote-controlled bomb blast outside a vocational training school in southern Italy, media reports said.

The bombing took place around 8 a.m. in Brindisi in Puglia region, as the students were entering the school building, Xinhua reported citing Rai television. At least seven students were injured.

Fabiano Amati, a regional minister, said the scene after the blast was “dramatic”.

“There were school back-packs and notebooks everywhere. Many windows of the nearby buildings were broken,” he told CNN.

Girls outclass boys in ICSE, ISC examinations

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Girls outclassed boys once again, grabbing both higher pass percentages as well as top marks in the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) for Classes 10 and 12, the results of which were declared Saturday.

According to a CICSE statement, the girls, with a pass percentage of 99.15 and 98.35 percent in Classes 10 and 12 respectively, beat the boys in both categories. The pass percentages for the boys were marginally lower at 98.19 and 96.36 percent respectively.

IPL player gets bail, American woman sends Mallya legal notice

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Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) team’s Australian player Luke Pomersbach, accused of molesting an American woman and beating up her fiance, Saturday got bail but RCB director Sidhartha Mallya seems set for some trouble for his tweets questioning the character of the woman.

Pomersbach, who was asked by Metropolitan Magistrate Navita Kumari Bagha not to leave the country and to surrender his passport, said he was disappointed with the allegations against him.

UK charges 4 Indians with trafficking Hyderabad woman

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Scotland Yard on Friday charged four Indian citizens and two Ghana citizens of Indian-origin, all based in London, for allegedly trafficking a woman from Hyderabad for sex.

The four Indians are: Aleemuddin Mohammed (34, supermarket manager from Harrow), Shamina Yousuf (32, secretary from Edgware), Shanaz Begum (56, shopworker from St John’s Wood), and Enkata Balapovi, (56, butcher from St John’s Wood).

The two Indian-origin Ghana nationals are Shashi Kala Obhrai (53, optician from Northwood) and Balram Kumar Obhrai (58, computer entrepreneur from Northwood).

Assad forces open fire on protesters

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Regime forces fired on protesters who took to the streets of Aleppo yesterday, wounding several people at the biggest rally seen in Syria’s second city since a revolt erupted last year, a watchdog said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said demonstrators also suffered gunshot wounds in Douma, a key protest hub near Damascus, but did not provide any casualty figures.

Naveen asks PM to modify mines Bill

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After opposing establishment of the NCTC, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today voiced his protest against certain provisions proposed in the MMDR (Mines and Mineral- Development and Regulation-Bill, 2011 on the ground that those would infringe into the federal rights of state governments.

“The proposed Bill, on the other hand, makes an attempt to transfer certain powers and functions now being exercised by states to the central government on its instrumentalities,” Patnaik wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Contradicting with Islamic laws: Gay Book Stirs Malaysia Uproar

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A new tour launched in Malaysia by a lesbian Canadian writer to promote her new gay book has stirred up controversy in the Muslim-majority country, rejecting the messages conveyed in the book as contradicting with Islamic laws.

The Canadian author “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender” (LGBT) ideology contradicts the laws of the Malaysia, Jamil Khir Baharom, the Islamic affairs minister, told the Malaysian Insider on Saturday, May 19.

Controversy started when Irshad Manji, an Ugandan-born Canadian author, launched a new tour in Malaysia to promote her book “Allah, Liberty and Love.”