Month: February 2013

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid has justified the government”s decision to issue an ordinance on sexual violence against women, saying views of the Justice J S Verma Committee and the public in general were that something needed to be done with a sense of urgency.

Speaking on the sidelines of an event here yesterday, Khurshid said: “All you can do is that when Parliament is not in session, we can promulgate an ordinance. It does not mean that widespread consultations cannot take place when the actual bill is brought in Parliament.”

The Indian Railways will host the 10th International Heavy Haul Association (IHHA) Conference here from February 4 to 6.

The conference is organised once every four years. The last conference was held in Shanghai China in 2009.

The conference is an excellent forum for railway researchers, practitioners, policy makers and industry leaders from all over the world to meet and share their knowledge and experience and perhaps open new frontiers in heavy haul railway operation.

After talks with Muslim groups Saturday, Kamal Haasan has agreed to cut some scenes from his controversial film “Vishwaroopam”.

The film will be released as soon as Tamil Nadu government withdraws its prohibitory order.

“I’ve arrived at a consensus with my Muslim brothers. We’ve agreed to cut some scenes from the film which they found to be objectionable,” Kamal Haasan, who produced the film and acted in it, told reporters here.

“I’ll announce the release date of the film soon. We’ve also withdrawn our written petition and expect the same from the government,” he added.

In the wake of controversy over sale of Mahatma Gandhi memorabilia, auction house Sotheby’s on Sunday said it would consider a range of factors while taking a decision to put such items under the hammer in future.

Asked whether it would take a particular stand on future auction of Gandhi items and hold consultations with the government, Sotheby’s worldwide head of sales publicity Matthew Weigman told a news agency, “While Sotheby’s wouldn’t respond to speculative questions, we can tell you we would consider a range of factors when taking a decision.”

A man, accused of raping and cheating a girl on the pretext of marrying her, has been acquitted by a Delhi court after the complainant said she had lodged the case as he did not return her money.

The special fast track court, constituted to try the cases of sexual offence against women, let off Mohit Kumar observing that the girl had not said anything incriminating against him during her deposition before it and instead said that the allegations levelled against him were wrong.

Opposition Peoples Democratic Party in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday alleged that the ruling National Conference has “stifled” all opposition to ensure a monopoly for itself.

The PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said people of the state alone can bring in a change in the system of governance and their lives through the process of public accountability.

“Change will start with the first vote cast in right direction that could make all political parties accountable to people for whatever good or bad they do,” Mehbooba said addressing a workers rally at Pahalgam, 100 kms from here.

It was a cloudy, pleasant Sunday morning in the capital with the minimum temperature settling at 9.5 degree Celsius, a notch above average for this time of the season. The Met office has forecast light rains later in the day.

“The skies will be clear in the morning and it will turn partly cloudy towards afternoon, with possibility of thundershowers later in the evening,” an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official said.

The maximum temperature is expected to hover around 22 degrees Celsius, the IMD official added.

Visibility at 8.30 a.m. was 800 metres and humidity 95 percent.

US Vice-President Joe Biden today said it was in the interest of China that the current tension in the Asia Pacific region, in particular the disputes over the South China Sea, does not result in a conflict.

“I am confident that it’s in the interests of China and the emerging Chinese leadership that it not results in conflict,” Biden said in response to a question at the Munich Security Conference.

Plan panel has asked states to furnish details of their success stories of plans and their executions, which could help the UPA government to showcase the efficacy of its central schemes and policies during state assembly polls and also the general elections due next year.

A bio-electric signal can identify cancer prone cells and potentially suppress their growth by the manipulation of the electrical charge across their membranes, says a study.

“The discovery helps establish “a bio-electric basis for the early detection of cancer,” said Brook Chernet, doctoral student who co-authored the study with Michael Levin, professor of biology and director of the Centre for Regenerative and Developmental Biology at the Tufts University.

Actress Liberty Ross, who has filed for divorce from director Rupert Sanders, stripped off for a saucy new magazine shoot.

The 34-year-old is seen wearing nothing but long necklaces in an editorial shoot for Love magazine, while another black-and-white shot shows just her toned stomach and hip bones, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

“It is very intense. I feel like recently I am finding out who I am,” said the mother-of-two.

She also maintains she has no regrets about moving from her native England to Los Angeles so Sanders could pursue his filmmaking dreams.

Police today claimed to have cracked a case in which Rs one crore was allegedly siphoned off through electronic transfer from the bank account of the director of a private company, leading to the arrest of one person.

One accused has been arrested and we are looking for some more people in the case. The accused has withdrawn some
cash from one of the accounts where Rs one crore was transferred,” Additional Commissioner of Police (East Region)
Quaiser Khalid told PTI.

However, the officer did not reveal the name of the accused as the entire amount was yet to be recovered and

The Delhi High Court has upheld the life sentence awarded to a man for killing his step- daughter seven years ago, saying his motive was “to sexually exploit” the victim.

Accepting the statement of victim’s mother and sister that the convict’s motive was “to sexually exploit” her, the bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Siddharth Mridul dismissed the appeal of Mehboob Ahmed.

“The appeal is accordingly dismissed. Conviction and sentence awarded are upheld and maintained,” the bench said.

Senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu today accused the ruling Congress of misusing Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and other agencies to malign its opponents.

The UPA government led by Congress has been misusing the institutions of CBI, Income Tax Department, Enforcement Directorate, CVC (Central Vigilance Commission) to tarnish the image of its political opponents,” Naidu alleged at a press conference.

The ruling party was using the Income Tax Department to harass former BJP president Nitin Gadkari, he alleged.

Formally tasked with the responsibility to form a new government, Israel’s hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that the “primary mission” of his next government would be to foil Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

We have many internal issues to deal with. But firstly, in the Middle East, we must ensure our security”, Netanyahu,
whose Likud party’s joint list with Yisrael Beteinu party emerged the single largest party in January 22 elections, said in his acceptance speech after being invited by President Shimon Peres to form the next government.

A youth has been given a seven-year jail term by a Delhi court for raping a 14-year-old girl in his house after spraying some anaesthetic substance on her.

Additional sessions judge Sanjeev Kumar held Rahim, 21, guilty and also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on him.

The court, however, acquitted him of charges of kidnapping and threatening the girl on the ground that there were contradictions in her statement regarding these two allegations.

In a case of an elopement gone wrong, two class X students were today assaulted and robbed of jewelry worth Rs. 1.5 lakh by friends who had promised to help them in running away from their homes, police said in Jaipur.

Police Commissioner B L Soni told PTI it was suspected that the boy died after being thrashed and over 100 policemen were searching for him in Saiwad area near Amer in the district.

With some of the most prestigious infrastructure projects slated for completion, the face of India’s commercial capital Mumbai will change in 2013, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said here Saturday.

Chavan has directed officials of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to ensure that a maximum number of the mega-infrastructure projects, currently under progress, are completed by December 2013 and “publicise them properly.”

Mumbai: One accused was arrested on Saturday and a hunt launched for 11 others in connection with a Rs 1 crore illegal transfer from a businessman’s bank account here, police said.

“We have arrested one person in this connection and are on the lookout for another 11 who are suspected to be involved in this fraud,” Additional Police Commissioner (East) Quaiser Khalid told a news agency.

The financial crime – considered to be among the biggest online banking and business fruads – took place on Thursday in Mulund in north Mumbai.

Two Pakistan Army soldiers, including an officer, were killed and three more injured when they were targeted with an improvised explosive device in the restive Orakzai tribal region on Saturday, a military official said.

The soldiers were conducting a search operation in a compound when they were attacked, said the official of the Inter-Services Public Relations.

The incident occurred in Ghunda Mela area of Orakzai Agency, one of Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.

The IED was planted within the compound.

Riot police clashed with protesters in Madrid and impromptu demonstrations broke out in several other Spanish cities following the Prime Minister’s televised denial that he had accepted under-the-table payments.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy promised to publicly disclose the amount of funds in all his personal bank accounts, denying recent media reports that allege he and members of his governing conservative Popular Party accepted or made under-the-table payments.

The son of the recently elected Zila Panchayat Chairman, who belongs to the Samajwadi Party, was arrested along with four of his friends for allegedly raping a girl, police said today.

Kaushal Yadav, son of the Zila Panchayat Chairman Ganesh Yadav, was among the five arrested in the case, they said.

According to the complaint, two girls claimed that their friend identified as Rahul Upadhaya took them to a restaurant on Thursday afternoon.

The girls claimed that Kaushal and his three friends met them at the restaurant.

Marital rape will also attract stringent punishment under the ordinance proposed by the Centre.

Sex by husband with his wife during separation without consent will lead upto seven years of imprisonment, according to the proposed ordinance on anti-rape law approved by the Union Cabinet yesterday.

Justice J S Verma Committee recommended deletion of IPC’s Section 376A (Intercourse by a man with his wife during separation) under which currently maximum punishment is two years. Implied in that was the view that marital rape should also be brought under the definition of rape.

Distict Excise department team today raided an illicit liquor godown in Garhi Chokhandi village here and seized 110 carton of smuggled liquor.

Acting on a tip-off, a district excise team raided the location and seized 110 cartons of Haryana made liquor which were to be supplied to Arunachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, Kuldeep Yadav, District Excise Officer said.

People involved in the illegal activity escaped before the raid, he said.

–_PTI

One person has been arrested in connection with the rape of a 15-year-old girl here.

Police said the incident happened two days ago when the minor went to a shop in her locality to buy some provisions.

Jugnu, along with an accomplice, allegedly forcibly took the girl on a motorcycle to an empty plot where they raped her.

The girl later told her parents of the crime, who lodged a complaint with the police.

The other accused remains absconding.

—PTI