Month: May 2013

Girl loses vision after being attacked with acid-like liquid

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A 25-year-old girl lost her vision in one eye and her face was disfigured after an unidentified man threw an acid-like liquid on her face at the Bandra railway terminus platform here today, the police said. The accused targeted Preeti Rathi after she, along with her father Amarsingh (55), her uncle Vinodkumar Dahiya, and her aunt Sunita, got down from the Delhi-Bandra Garib Rath train at platform number three at around 8 am in the morning, the police said. The accused covered his face with a handkerchief, they said.

AP: Father kills minor daughter after suspecting wife’s ‘fidelity’

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A three-year-old girl was allegedly killed by her father on Thursday, after he “suspected” his wife’s ‘fidelity’ in the Mancherial town of Adilabad district, the police said. After allegedly throwing the baby girl Harini, into a water tank on Ashok Road in Mancherial, her father C Krishna, a painter, initially claimed that she had been “abducted”.

Stop shedding crocodile tears over Sarabjit’s death: BJP tells Rahul

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Rahul Gandhi and Congress leaders should stop shedding “crocodile tears” over Sarabjit Singh’s death, BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy said on Thursday and demanded that the government makes a statement about steps taken to

save the death row prisoner in Pakistan. “Today Congress crown prince Rahul Gandhi and other party leaders are shedding crocodile tears before the kin of Sarabjit Singh,” Rudy said.

Ishrat Jahan case: CBI Court orders top Gujarat IPS officer PP Pande’s arrest

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The 1980-batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre is currently Additional DGP (Crime) and he was Ahmedabad’s Joint Commissioner of Police at the time of the encounter.

A Special CBI Court ordered the issuance of arrest warrant against top Gujarat police officer PP Pande, an accused in the 2004 alleged fake encounter of Mumbai teenager Ishrat Jahan and three others.

The 1980-batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre is currently Additional DGP (Crime) and he was Ahmedabad’s Joint Commissioner of Police at the time of the encounter.

Obama travels to Mexico, Costa Rica

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US President Barack Obama Thursday kicked off a three-day visit to Mexico and Costa Rica, with focus expected to be on trade, energy, security and immigration issues.

On his trip, Obama earlier said, “A lot of the focus is going to be on economics.”

“We’ve spent so much time on security issues between the United States and Mexico that sometimes I think we forget this is a massive trading partner, responsible for huge amounts of commerce and huge numbers of jobs on both sides of the border,” Xinhua quoted the president as saying.

Russia insists on UN probe of Syria chemical weapons

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Moscow has urged the UN to respond to Syria’s request to probe the alleged use of chemical weapons on its territory in March, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

“We insist that the Syrian government’s request should receive a response,” Lavrov said in Budapest, where he met his Hungarian counterpart Janos Martonyi.

In March, the Syrian government and rebels traded accusations of the use of chemical weapons in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo that killed some 25 people.

Cousin held for trying to rape 14-year-old girl

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A 14-year-old girl here alleged that her cousin brother along with his friends attempted rape on her in Amber area, police said today.

The 14-year old girl had gone to a marriage in a nearby village where the accused Mukesh Sani and his friends Hanuman, Dinesh, Ramnath, Rizwan took her to an isolated area in a car on April 29 and attempted rape.

They however they could not rape her as she resisted and threatened her if she disclose this incident to anyone.

The girl reached the Amber police station with family members and lodged an FIR against the accused.

Minor girl raped in Bengal

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A ten-year-old girl was allegedly raped this evening by a middle-aged man at Muluk area at Bolpur in Birbhum district.

In a complaint lodged with the police, the parents of the girl alleged that the man, a next-door neighbour, raped the girl when they were away from home, the police said.

Prashanta Chowdhury, SDPO, Bolpur said, “The accused Sukumar Ghosh was arrested and the girl will be sent to Bolpur sub-divisional hospital for medical test.

—PTI

Body of minor girl exhumed, parents taken into custody

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Police today exhumed the body of a 4-year-old girl from a burial ground in Borabanda here, who was allegedly strangulated to death, while her parents have been taken into custody for questioning.

SR Nagar police took action after a tip off from an anonymous caller alleging that the girl might have been murdered by either of the parent. The minor was allegedly killed on Saturday last and buried on Sunday, sources said.

SR Nagar police, however, refused to divulge any details saying they were investigating the matter.

—PTI

British lawyer blames India for Sarabjit’s fate

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British lawyer of Indian origin Jas Uppal Thursday put the blame on the successive Indian governments for Sarabjit Singh’s fate in Pakistan, saying she has reported the death row prisoner’s case to global human rights groups.

Uppal, who has highlighted the case of human rights violation of a martyr of Kargil conflict, said Indian governments in the last over two decades should have confronted Pakistan authorities over the death-row prisoner’s arrest.

No evidence to link Sarabjit attack to Afzal hanging: Najam Sethi

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There was negligence in the case of murderous attack on Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh in a Lahore jail but no evidence to link it to parliament attack convict Afzal Guru’s hanging, Pakistan Punjab’s caretaker chief minister Najam Sethi said Thursday.

“I have not seen any evidence of this sort,” Sethi told CNN-IBN channel in response to a query if the murderous attack last week on Sarabjit was linked to the Feb 9 hanging of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru in Delhi’s Tihar Jail.

Punjab declares 3-day state mourning, Rs.1 crore for Sarabjit family

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Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal Thursday declared a three-day state mourning in Punjab following the death of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh in Pakistan.

“The chief minister declared a three-day state mourning in Punjab. Flags will fly at half mast on all government buildings and there will be no official ceremonial functions during this period,” a state government spokesman said here.

Badal, who spoke to Sarabjit’s sister Dalbir Kaur by phone, also announced a financial assistance of Rs.1 crore to Sarabjit’s family.

Khurshid to go ahead with Beijing visit: Official

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External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid is to go ahead with his May 9 Beijing visit amid the stand-off between the two countries over the incursion by Chinese troops in Depsang area of Ladakh.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said Thursday, in answer to a question, that Khurshid has said that “he intends to go and that is the last word”.

Bengal chit fund agent kills herself, toll rises to five

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The toll in the chit fund bust rose to five in West Bengal Thursday with an agent of a chit fund company allegedly committing suicide by consuming poison at her home in Murshidabad district’s Salar.

Family members of 28-year-old Pratima Das said she took the extreme step unable to return the money she had collected for the scheme from the depositors.

Das was crestfallen after she returned from a branch office of a chit fund company at Katwa in Burdwan district on finding it was locked.

Abbas expects US pressure on Israel to resume peace talks

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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas expects that the US would exercise pressure on Israel to accept resuming peace talks on the basis of a two-state solution, a Palestinian official said Thursday, reported Xinhua.

Abbas wants Washington to put “serious” pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to endorse the two-state solution based on the pre-1967 border lines, with the slight exchange of land, the official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Speaker rejects demand to remove 2G JPC chief

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Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar Thursday rejected the opposition demand for removal of P.C. Chacko as the head of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) looking into 2G spectrum allocation, a parliament source said.

The opposition had sought Chacko’s removal over a draft report which blamed former telecom minister A. Raja but cleared Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram of any wrongdoing in the allocation of spectrum.

NCP attacks Congress on costly government flats

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The ruling Democratic Front constituent Nationalist Congress Party Thursday attacked the senior alliance partner Congress over the high prices of flats to be allotted by the government later this month.

In a statement, NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said that the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) appeared to be in a race with private builders by charging exorbitant prices for its tenements, forgetting its primary objective of providing affordable housing to the masses.

Elderly Dalit woman raped, killed in Bihar

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A 60-year-old Dalit woman was raped and murdered in Bihar, police Thursday said.

The victim, a labourer, lived alone in her house in Nunnagar village in Saran district, about 50 km from here. She was raped and murdered late Wednesday night, Deputy Superintendent of Police Ravindra Kumar said.

“Her body was found when some labourers went to her house,” he said, adding that the post-mortem report confirmed rape before murder.

“We suspect a fellow labourer to be behind the incident,” he said.

—IANS

Beware of electing Congress, Modi cautions Karnataka voters

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Senior BJP leader and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi Thursday cautioned Karnataka’s electorate against voting for the Congress in the state legislative assembly poll May 5, as it had failed on all fronts at the national level.

“You have seen how the Congress-led UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government in Delhi has been faring during the last nine years, how it failed to control price rise, inflation and in how many scams it has been involved,” Modi said at a large public rally in the port city of Mangalore, about 350 km from Bangalore.

Shakira has no time for fitness

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Singer Shakira says she has no time for her fitness regime because of her work schedule and newborn son Milan.

The 36-year-old gave birth to Milan in January this year, and she has also been occupied judging the US singing reality show “The Voice”. Despite her schedules, she managed to shed some of her post pregnancy weight, but she says she has no time to devote to her fitness regime.

Etihad Airways, Air France strengthen ties

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Etihad Airways, the flag carrier of the UAE, and Air France have announced a number of new codeshare destinations in Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe for the summer of 2013.

Now placing its EY flight code on Air France flights between Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Oslo and Stockholm, Etihad Airways expects to build on the existing joint codeshare routes from Paris-CDG to Bordeaux, Copenhagen, Madrid, Nice and Toulouse.

Subject to further regulatory approvals, Etihad Airways expects to be able to place its EY code soon on Air France flights between Paris-CDG, Lisbon and Marseilles.

Two trains collide in Belgrade, 22 injured

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Two trains collided Thursday in a tunnel on the outskirts of the Serbian capital city, injuring at least 22 people, Xinhua reported.

The accident took place at 1.30 p.m., when a passenger train from Belgrade to Sid stopped inside the tunnel due to engine failure at 1.25 p.m.. Some five minutes later, another train travelling from Belgrade to Novi Sad smashed into it from the rear.

The driver of the second train was seriously injured in the collision, but most of the injured passengers were from the first train.

Sarabjit’s body arrives in India; state funeral Friday

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Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh’s body was brought to India after he died in a Pakistani hospital early Thursday, succumbing to his injuries six days after being attacked by his fellow inmates in a jail and pushing the India-Pakistan equation to a new low.

Authorities Thursday evening started a post-mortem examination of the body after it was brought from Lahore by a special Air India flight to Amritsar’s international airport and taken by helicopter to his native town Bhikhiwind, 50 km from Amritsar.

NASA invites public to send names, poems and messages to Mars

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Want to be a part of space exploration history? NASA is inviting public to submit their names, short poems and personal messages on-line for a DVD to be carried aboard a spacecraft that will study the Martian atmosphere.

The DVD will carry every name submitted. The public also is encouraged to submit a message in the form of a three-line poem, or haiku, NASA said.

However, only three haikus will be selected. The deadline for all submissions is July 1.
An on-line public vote to determine the top three messages to be placed on the DVD will begin on July 15.

Google Doodle honours Satyajit Ray on 92nd birth anniversary

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A black and white scene from Satyajit Ray’s iconic 1955 film “Pather Panchali” featured as the Google doodle Thursday as a tribute to the master craftsman on his 92nd birth anniversary.

Writer, poet, illustrator, director, lyricist and composer – Ray wore several hats, and won a lot of national and international acclaim. “Pather Panchali” was his first film, after which he went on to make over 30 films, winning several awards. He died in 1992.

To honour his memory and recognise his contribution, Google India has a special doodle as well as a ‘Knowledge Graph’ honouring the legend.