Rape and gender-based violence are tools used to subjugate women, Justice Gita Mittal of the Delhi High Court said and called for effective ways, including reforms in laws, to address such crimes. The judge said the issue of gender-based violence is directly related to equality, dignity and status of women and priority attention should be given in order to address this social ill.
The Indian Air Force is planning to procure more Embraer business jets for its Delhi-based Communication Squadron for ferrying VIPS. The IAF plan to procure more VIP jets comes at a time when its purchase of 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers is under the scanner for alleged payments of kickbacks by its manufacturer AgustaWestland to secure the deal in its favour. The IAF already has a fleet of four Embraer jets procured from Brazil in 2004-05 in a multi-million dollar deal and the aircraft are used by the force to fly the Defence Minister and the Services Chiefs.
Unidentified gunmen killed at least 48 Syrian soldiers and government employees who were being taken to the Syrian border by Iraqi authorities on Monday after fleeing into Iraq from a Syrian rebel attack last week, Iraqi officials said.
A convoy carrying the Syrians was ambushed in Iraq’s western province of Anbar, where thousands of Iraqi Sunnis have been protesting daily for more than two months against the Shi’ite-led government and the perceived marginalisation of their sect.
Andhra Pradesh government today revoked the remission granted to Indian Mujahideen (IM) activist Syed Maqbool, who reportedly reckied for planting bomb blasts in Hyderabad city.
Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has approved the file cancelling the ‘remission’ granted to Maqbool and sent it to Governor ESL Narasimhan for approval, sources said.
A five-year-old tribal girl was allegedly raped by her neighbour at Kuluptanga bustee in Seraikela-Kharswan district, the police said today. The girl was alone at her home when the accused Durga Munda entered the house and committed the crime yesterday. The incident came to light when she narrated it to her mother when she returned home at night, they said. The police arrested the culprit after an FIR was lodged against the accused with the RIP police station this morning.
A US federal jury has convicted a 77-year-old Pakistan-origin Imam of a local mosque in Miami for providing material support to terrorists, including the banned Pakistani Taliban.
At sentencing, scheduled for May 30, cleric Hafiz Khan faces up to 15 years in prison on each count.
Khan was found guilty of two conspiracy counts and two counts of providing material support to terrorists.
Tightening the noose, UGC has come out with a notification making accreditation mandatory for all higher educational institutes, non-compliance of which can result in derecognition. All higher educational institutions should get accredited by the accreditation agency after passing out of two batches or six years, whichever is earlier, the notification said. It said every higher educational institution, which has completed six years of existence or two batches having passed out, whichever is earlier, shall apply within six months from the date of coming into force of these regulations.
Recent changes to surrogacy rules in India has sparked concerns amongst Australian couples who are awaiting their babies’ birth in India.
India’s amended surrogacy rules ban singles, gay couples and de facto heterosexual couples from commissioning surrogate babies.
The programme called ‘Babies in Limbo’ aired on ABC News on Monday said, Australians would require medical visas and Indian government is precise about issuing them to heterosexual couples who have been married for at least two years.
Ukraine is considering leasing out a carrier-deck pilot training site in the Crimea to other countries, and India and China are the “obvious potential candidates”.
Ukrainian First Deputy Defence Minister Oleksandr Oleinik said that under a 1997 bilateral agreement, Russia occasionally uses Ukraine’s Nitka Naval Pilot Training Center as the only training facility for its carrier-based fixed-wing pilots, but that could change.
United States has selected the 23-year-old Delhi braveheart for the International Women of Courage Award. The award to the braveheart would be presented posthumously by the First Lady Michelle Obama and the Secretary of State John Kerry, on March 8, an official announcement said on Monday.
Nearly a century after the Lady Harding Medical College was established for women in New Delhi, a medical college for women is being set up in the government sector in Haryana, a minister said here Tuesday.
“United Progressve Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi will dedicate the Bhagat Phool Singh Government Medical College for Women at Khanpur Kalan in Sonipat district (50 km from New Delhi) to the people of Haryana on March 8,” Haryana Health Minister Narender Singh said.
The shocking incident took place on Monday when the victim and her father approached the police with a complaint of sexual harassment by truck drivers in Tarn Taran district of Punjab.
SSP Kanwaljit Singh Dhillon told reporters yesterday that four policemen have been suspended in connection with the case and departmental has also begun.
The police action was initiated after the matter was reported to the higher authorities and the visuals of the victim being thrashed by policemen were aired on TV channels.
Nirbhaya or “Fearless,” the victim of a gang rape in a Delhi bus, who became the focus of women around India and their fight against gender-based violence, is among ten extraordinary women being honoured Friday with the Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Award.
First Lady Michelle Obama will join Secretary of State John Kerry as he presents the annual award recognizing women around the globe who have shown exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for women’s rights and empowerment, often at great personal risk.
A military court in Russia’s westernmost Kaliningrad exclave has ordered a border guard officer to pay a fine of 110,000 rubles (about $4,000) for running a prostitution business.
An Investigative Committee spokesman said that an ensign, whose name was not disclosed, solicited customers for a prostitute who operated out of an apartment he had rented for her in return for a share of the “business”.
He was charged with organising prostitution and running a brothel.
In the course of an investigation, the ensign completely admitted his guilt, the spokesman said.
National Investigative Agency (NIA) arrested former SIMI member Manzar Imam resident of Jharkhand in a case of Kerala.
According to NIA Manzar Imam son of Ali Imam is the resident of Ranchi, Jharkhand. Kerala police had registered a case against him in December 2007 for organising a secret camp of banned Students Islamic Moment of India SIMI. The case has been handed over to NIA. It is said that Manzar Imam is expert in preparing explosive material. NIA officials obtained Transit Remand Warrant from Ranchi court and shifted him to Kochi.
Siasat news
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today said he would not conclude that the decision to hang Afzal Guru was political or selective until he watches the decision taken in other cases which were as heinous as attack on Parliament. Wrapping up the discussion on Afzal, the 42-year-old Chief Minister attacked opposition PDP and separatist groups for shedding “crocodile tears” over the hanging of Afzal and said these people only believe in playing politics over blood and loss of human lives.
Over 200 pigeons were found dead today in and around the compound of a closed mill in Vatava Industrial Estate here, a doctor working with an NGO for animals said. “Over 200 pigeons were found dead in and around the compound of Maradia Steel Company in Vatava GIDC Estate 4. Apparently, it seems they died due to consumption of water laced with chemicals,” Harmesh Bhatt of Asha Foundation said. Over a dozen pigeons found lying in conscious state have been brought to the clinic and are being treated, he said. The company has been lying closed for over a decade now, locals said.
Investigators in Russia’s Buryatia region have launched a criminal investigation against a drunken woman who allegedly killed her equally drunken husband after he threatened her cat.
Investigators said the 56-year-old woman and her husband drank alcohol together, and then started arguing over the cat, which had moved to their livestock farm in Zakamensky district after its owner from a nearby farm died.
The woman wanted to take care of the cat, which her husband disliked and often tried to scare away.
Police arrested four cadres of the Praja Pratighatana Group of naxalites of the Mohananna Dalam (squad), including a woman and recovered explosive materials, gelatin sticks as well as a gun from their possession today, in Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh. Praja Pratighatana Group (PPG) is a splinter naxalite group led by one ‘Mohananna’, who is underground.
Former Zilla Parishad member and YSR Congress Party activist Padala Venkatarami Reddy and four others were arrested by the police today on alleged charges of attacking public servants during a public hearing on the proposed 100-MW coal-based thermal plant to be set up at Bikkovolu mandal. Reddy was arrested in Peddapuram of East Godavari district today, and produced before the Anaparthy magistrate’s court.
The Andhra Pradesh government tonight decided to cancel the remission of prison term granted to alleged Indian Mujahideen activist Syed Maqbool in the backdrop of his suspected involvement in the twin bomb blasts here last month. Maqbool, sentenced to life imprisonment in two separate murder cases, was granted remission and set free from jail here in October 2009 after having served nine-years-and-four- months of the jail term.
TV and film producer Ekta Kapoor is the queen of daily soaps but she considers herself as a “terrible actor” and does not intend to dabble into acting. Ekta is known for popular TV shows like ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Bahu Thi’, ‘Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki’, ‘Kaahi Kisi Roz’, ‘Kasauti Zindagi Ki’, ‘Kahii Toh Hoga’ among others. These shows made TV actors like Smriti Irani, Sakshi Tanwar, Aamna Sharif, Mauli Ganguly and Shweta Tiwari household names. “I am a terrible actor. Do not expect me to act ever.
This is a guest post by BIJU MATHEW: The story is always the same, isn’t it?
A day after Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi described Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a ‘night watchman’, the Congress, hitting back in the same coin, again called him a ‘scorpion’ today.
Talking to reporters outside Parliament, senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar called Mr Modi ”a scorpion and a snake”.
Mr Aiyar’s comment came a day after Mr Modi, addressing the BJP national executive here, equated the Congress with termite. He also described Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a ”night watchman”.
Congress on Monday hit out at BJP for its focus on Narendra Modi, saying it betrays a “leadership vacuum” in the main Opposition party as the Gujarat Chief Minister is “not a leader of stature”.
“Modi is speaking in a very foul language. He is not a leader of stature. He does not have a political culture. Modi is a state Chief Minister. BJP is totally blank on leadership …There is leadership vacuum in BJP. They have no other leader so they are banking on him,” Union Minister V Narayanasamy told reporters outside Parliament.