Delhi gang-rape victim dies in Singapore hospital

By Kevin Lim

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The gang-rape victim whose assault in New Delhi triggered nationwide protests died in hospital on Saturday of injuries suffered in the attack, a Singapore hospital treating her said.

The death of the 23-year-old medical student could spawn new protests and possibly fresh confrontations with the police, especially in the Indian capital, which has been the focus of the demonstrations.

"We are very sad to report that the patient passed away peacefully at 4:45 a.m. on Dec 29, 2012 (2:15 a.m. IST Saturday). Her family and officials from the High Commission of India were by her side," Mount Elizabeth Hospital Chief Executive Officer Kelvin Loh said in a statement.

The woman, who was severely beaten, raped and thrown out of a moving bus in New Delhi, was flown to Singapore by the Indian government on Wednesday for specialist treatment.

Most rapes and other sex crimes in India go unreported and offenders are rarely punished, women's rights activists say. But the brutality of the assault on December 16 triggered public outrage and demands for better policing and harsher punishment for rapists.

The case has received blanket coverage on cable television news channels. The woman has not been identified but some Indian media have called her "Amanat", an Urdu word meaning "treasure".

Earlier on Friday, the hospital had reported that the young woman's condition had taken a turn for the worse. It said that her family had been informed and were by her side.

T.C.A. Raghavan, the Indian High Commissioner to Singapore, said after her death that the family has expressed a desire for her body to be flown back to India.

At a briefing earlier on Saturday, Raghavan declined to comment on reports in India accusing the government of sending her to Singapore to minimise the possible backlash in the event of her death.

Some Indian medical experts had questioned the decision to airlift the woman to Singapore, calling it a risky manoeuvre given the seriousness of her injuries. They had said she was already receiving the best possible care in India.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government has been battling criticism that it was tone-deaf to the outcry and heavy-handed in its response to the protests in the Indian capital.

"It is deeply saddening and just beyond words. The police and government definitely have to do something more," said Sharanya Ramachandran, an Indian national who is working as an engineer in Singapore.

"They should bring in very severe punishment for such cases. They should start recognising that it is a big crime."

"SIGNIFICANT BRAIN INJURY"

The Singapore hospital said earlier that the woman had suffered "significant brain injury" and was surviving against the odds. She had already undergone three abdominal operations before being flown to Singapore.

Demonstrations over the lack of safety for women erupted across India after the attack, culminating last weekend in pitched battles between police and protesters in the heart of New Delhi.

New Delhi has been on edge since the weekend clashes. Hundreds of policemen have been deployed on the streets of the capital and streets leading to the main protest site, the India Gate war memorial, have been shut for long periods, causing commuter chaos in the city of 16 million.

Political commentators and sociologists say the rape has tapped into a deep well of frustration that many Indians feel over what they see as weak governance and poor leadership on social and economic issues.

Many protesters have complained that Singh's government has done little to curb the abuse of women in the country of 1.2 billion. A global poll by the Thomson Reuters Foundation in June found that India was the worst place to be a woman because of high rates of infanticide, child marriage and slavery.

New Delhi has the highest number of sex crimes among India's major cities, with a rape reported on average every 18 hours, according to police figures. Government data show the number of reported rape cases in the country rose by nearly 17 percent between 2007 and 2011.

(Reporting by Eveline Danubrata and Kevin Lim; Writing by Kevin Lim in Singapore and Ross Colvin in New Delhi; Editing by Michael Roddy)

08.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

U.S. Senate approves $60.4 billion Superstorm Sandy reconstruction bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Friday approved a $60.4 billion aid package to pay for reconstruction costs from Superstorm Sandy, after defeating Republican efforts to trim the bill's cost.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid urged the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to quickly take up the bill.

Both chambers have to agreed on a package by Jan 2, when the current term of Congress is expected to end, or restart the process of crafting legislation in 2013.

The bill's chance s in the next few days could depend on whether President Barack Obama and congressional leaders reach a deal to avert t he "fiscal cliff" of t ax in creases a nd spending cuts set to beg in kicking in the new year.

Republicans complain the $60.4 billion reconstruction package requested by Obama is more than the annual budgets for the departments of Interior, Labor, Treasury and Transportation combined. They have urged a slower relief approach based on a co ngressional assessment of needs.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated about $8.97 billion of the S enate bill would be spent in 2013, with another $12.66 billion spent in 2014 and $11.59 billion spent in 2015

(Reporting By Doug Palmer; editing by Todd Eastham)

08.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Yen extends fall, Asian shares capped by U.S. fiscal worry

By Chikako Mogi

TOKYO (Reuters) - The yen hit its lowest point in more than two years on Friday, on strong expectations of drastic monetary easing, underpinning Japanese equities, while Asian shares were capped by worries the United States may run out of time to avoid a fiscal crunch.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.2 percent. It has gained about 18 percent this year, a sharp turnaround from an 18 percent plunge in 2011.

Australian shares rose 0.6 percent and were on track to post their strongest annual gain since 2009, with resources supported by rising iron ore prices. South Korean shares opened 0.1 percent lower.

European shares were nearly flat overnight, and U.S. stocks marked a fourth straight session of losses.

"A U.S. fiscal deal is unlikely to be reached this year, but the stock markets will not fall sharply because a partial deal could be reached early next year," said Laurence Kim, an analyst at Woori Investment & Securities.

U.S. lawmakers on Thursday gave themselves a last chance to prevent the United States from plunging off a "fiscal cliff" by setting up a late session in Congress a day before taxes are due to rise for most working Americans.

The so-called fiscal cliff, a $600 billion combination of higher taxes and spending cuts, threatens to push the world's largest economy into recession, and stamp out fragile signs of recovery elsewhere.

As well as being deadline day for the fiscal cliff, December 31 is the date the federal government is set to reach its $16.4 trillion debt limit. The Treasury will have to take measures to buy time for the government to approve a rise in the debt ceiling.

A similar political stalemate over raising the federal debt limit in the summer of 2011 raised fears over a U.S. default, and prompted Standard & Poor's to strip the U.S. of its top-notch credit rating, causing a turmoil in financial markets.

U.S. crude futures rose 0.6 percent to $91.38 early on Friday after easing overnight on concerns that a failure to reach a budget compromise would hurt U.S. demand for oil.

Asian bond issuance jumped to $133.8 billion so far this year, eclipsing the previous year's tally of $76.34 billion, as retail investors stepped up purchases of the region's corporate bond. Those bonds have returned nearly 20 percent this year, outshining Asian equities.

USEFUL LINKS:

Asset returns in 2012: http://link.reuters.com/nyw85s

Asian 2012 bond issuance: http://r.reuters.com/xyz93t

JAPAN REMAINS IN FOCUS

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who took office earlier in the week, Japan is speeding up efforts to turn around its economy, battered for decades by its strong currency and deep-rooted deflation.

A survey on Friday showed Japanese manufacturing activity contracted in December at its fastest pace in more than three years.

Other data were also grim, with core consumer prices falling in November and industrial output plunging 1.7 percent in November from October.

Abe's repeated calls for "unlimited" monetary easing and policies aimed at reducing the yen's strength have bolstered expectations of a sustained period of yen weakness. This has lifted the mood in Japanese stocks as a weaker yen improves earnings prospects for the country's exporters.

The benchmark Nikkei average opened up 0.8 percent after closing at its highest since March 2011 on Thursday. It is on track to log its best yearly gain since 2005.

The dollar climbed to its highest since August 2010 of 86.64 yen on Friday. The yen is on track for a drop of 12 percent this year, its steepest since 2005. The yen also fell to a 17-month low against the euro at 114.66 yen on EBS on Thursday.

The Australian dollar hit a 20-month peak against the yen of around 89.83 yen, according to Reuters data.

The Japanese government will compile spending requests for a stimulus package on January 7 and finalise the proposal shortly thereafter as Abe tries to quickly enact his agenda of increased public works spending to boost the economy.

(Additional reporting by Umesh Desai in Hong Kong and Hyunjoo Jin in Seoul; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

08.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Beijing to enact strict new food safety laws - Xinhua

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Beijing will introduce tough new laws to punish firms that flout food safety laws, the official Xinhua news agency reported, a significant move in China's struggle to get its abysmal food safety record under control.

The announcement follows a similar declaration by the city of Shanghai on Wednesday saying it would blacklist firms that flout food safety laws.

Under the new Beijing regulations, to take effect in April, firms caught producing or selling unsafe foods will be banned from operating in Beijing for life, according to a municipal food safety regulation passed on Thursday, the report said.

Employees found responsible for food safety problems and the executives of companies that commit food safety problems will not be allowed to work in the industry for five years after their firms' licenses are revoked, the report said.

China's food safety problems have proven difficult to eradicate even after repeated government campaigns to enforce standing laws and change attitudes at Chinese companies.

Frequent media reports refer to cooking oil being recycled from drains, carcinogens in milk, and fake eggs. In 2008, milk laced with the industrial chemical melamine killed at least six children and sickened nearly 300,000.

On Monday, Shanghai's food safety authority said the level of antibiotics and steroids in Yum Brands Inc's KFC chicken was within official limits, but found a suspicious level of an antiviral drug in one of the eight samples tested.

Yum faced criticism last week from China's state-owned broadcaster, which said Yum's KFC chickens in China contained an excessive level of antibiotics.

(Reporting by Pete Sweeney; Editing by Chris Gallagher)

08.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Gold edges down, U.S. fiscal talks in focus

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Gold inched down on Thursday, giving up overnight gains in thin post-Christmas trade, with investors keeping a close eye on talks between the White House and Congress to prevent the U.S. economy from plunging into recession next year.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold had dropped $2.83 an ounce to $1,656.66 by 0025 GMT, but still off a 4-month low struck last week.

* U.S. gold for February slipped $3.10 an ounce to $1,657.60.

* In a sign that there may be a way through deadlock in Congress, Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner urged the Democrat-controlled Senate to act to pull back from the so-called fiscal cliff and offered to at least consider any bill the upper chamber produced.

MARKET NEWS

* Asian shares were capped on Thursday on investor edginess about the chances of U.S. lawmakers striking a deal to avoid a fiscal crunch by December 31, while the yen stayed under pressure on the prospect of drastic monetary easing and massive fiscal spending.

* U.S. crude futures remained close to $91 a barrel on Thursday.

(Reporting by Lewa Pardomuan; Editing by Joseph Radford)

08.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Amazon's Christmas faux pas shows risks in the cloud

By Jim Finkle

(Reuters) - A Christmas Eve glitch traced to Amazon.com Inc that shuttered Netflix for users from Canada to South America highlights the risks that companies take when they move their datacenter operations to the cloud.

While the high-profile failure - at least the third this year - may cause some Amazon Web Services customers to consider alternatives, it is unlikely to severely hurt a fast-growing business for the cloud-computing pioneer that got into the sector in 2006 and has historically experienced few outages.

"The benefits still outweigh the risks," said Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry.

"When it comes to the cloud, Amazon has got it right."

The latest service failure comes at a critical time for Amazon, which is betting that AWS can become a significant profit generator even if the economy continues to stagnate. Moreover, it is increasingly targeting larger corporate clients that have traditionally shied away from moving critical applications onto AWS.

AWS, which Amazon started more than six years ago, provides data storage, computing power and other technology services from remote locations that group thousands of servers across areas than can span whole football fields. Their early investment made it a pioneer in what is now known as cloud computing.

Executives said last month at an Amazon conference in Las Vegas they could envision the division, which lists Pinterest, Shazam and Spotify among its fast-growing clients, becoming its biggest business, outpacing even its online retail juggernaut.

Evercore analyst Ken Sena expects AWS revenue to jump 45 percent a year, from about $2 billion this year to $20 billion in 2018.

The service has boomed because it is cheap, relatively easy to use, and can be shut off, scaled back or ramped up quickly depending on companies' needs. As the longest-running player in the game, Amazon now boasts the widest array of datacenter products and services, plus a broader stable of clients than rivals like Google Inc , Rackspace Inc and Salesforce.com Inc .

Outages such as the one that took down Netflix and other websites on the eve of one of the biggest U.S. holidays are part and parcel of the nascent business, analysts say. Moreover, outages have been a problem long before the age of cloud computing, with glitches within corporate datacenters and telecommunications hubs triggering myriad service disruptions.

COMING SOON: POST-MORTEM

Amazon's latest service failure comes months after two high-profile outages that hit Netflix and other popular websites such as photo-sharing service Instagram and Pinterest. Industry executives, however, say its downtimes tend to attract more attention because of its outsized market footprint.

Netflix - which CEO Reed Hastings said relies on AWS for 95 percent of its datacenter needs - would not comment on whether they were pondering alternatives. Analysts say the video streaming giant is unlikely to try a large-scale switch, partly because all cloud providers experience outages.

"Despite a steady stream of these service outages, the demand for cloud services offered by AWS, Google, etc. continues to escalate because these services are still reliable enough to satisfy customer expectations," said Jeff Kaplan, managing director of consultancy ThinkStrategies Inc.

"They offer cost-savings and elasticities that are too attractive for companies to ignore."

But "Netflix and other organizations which rely on AWS will have to reexamine how they configure their services and allocate their service requirements across multiple providers to mitigate over-dependency and risks."

AWS spokeswoman Rena Lunak said the outage was traced to a problem affecting customers at its oldest data center, run out of northern Virginia, which was linked also to the June failure.

The latest glitch involved a service known as Elastic Load Balancing, which automatically allocates incoming Web traffic across multiple servers in order to boost the performance of a website. She declined to provide further details about the outage, saying the company would be publishing a full post-mortem within days.

AWS has traditionally been used by start-up tech companies and smaller businesses that anticipate rapid growth in online traffic but are unwilling or unable to shell out on IT equipment and management upfront.

The company has more recently started winning more and more business from larger corporations. It has also set up a unit that caters to government agencies.

Regardless, Amazon's clientele would do well not to put all their eggs in one basket, analysts say.

"Service outages do occur, but they are not common enough to cause users of these services to abandon today's Cloud service providers at significant rates. In fact, every major Cloud service provider has experienced outages," Kaplan said.

"Therefore, organizations that rely on these services are putting backup and recovery systems and protocols in place to mitigate the risks of future outages."

(Additional reporting; editing by Edwin Chan and Richard Chang)

08.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Yen falls as Japan forms new govt, supporting Nikkei

By Chikako Mogi

TOKYO (Reuters) - Expectations that Japan's incoming prime minister will pursue drastic stimulus policies to drive the country's economy out of deflation helped weaken the yen and underpinned the Nikkei on Wednesday, while Asian shares were capped in thin holiday trade.

Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and South Korea were closed on Tuesday for the Christmas holiday, reopening on Wednesday.

Hong Kong and Australia remain closed on Wednesday.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan inched up 0.1 percent, after rising 0.3 percent the previous day on the back of a surge in Shanghai shares to five-month highs and a jump in Taiwan shares.

Shinzo Abe, who won a landslide victory in an election earlier this month, will be sworn in as premier on Wednesday, when he is also expected to appoint his cabinet. He is prescribing a mix of aggressive monetary policy easing and big fiscal spending to beat deflation and rein in the strong yen.

He has kept up pressure on the Bank of Japan to deliver much stronger monetary easing policies and called for a 2 percent inflation target to beat deep-rooted deflation, pushing the yen to a 20-month low of 85.08 yen on trading platform EBS early on Wednesday.

Minutes of the BOJ's policy-setting meeting in November showed on Wednesday that some board members said the central bank must act decisively, without ruling out any policy options, if the outlook for the economy and prices worsens further.

Japan's Nikkei stock average opened up 0.5 percent, after recapturing the key 10,000 mark it ceded on Friday and ending up 1.4 percent.

"The market is overbought, so the Nikkei may not rise sharply, but 'Abe trades' may invite some buying," said Hiroichi Nishi, general manager at SMBC Nikko Securities, adding that if the dollar trades above 85 yen, investors are likely to chase the Nikkei higher to near 10,200.

Aside from the Japanese factor, the dollar was also expected to stay firm this week as investors repatriate dollars, and as the U.S. fiscal impasse is likely to continue to sap investor appetite for risky assets and raise the dollar's safe-haven appeal.

U.S. lawmakers and President Barack Obama were on Christmas holiday and talks were unlikely to resume until later in the week.

House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner failed to gain support for a tax plan at the end of last week, raising fears that the United States may face the "fiscal cliff" of some $600 billion in automatic spending cuts and tax increases set to start on January 1.

"With the exception of the U.S. fiscal talks, there is no particular issue that could dampen investor appetite to any great degree," said Lee Kyung-min, an analyst at Woori Investment & Securities.

Asset performance in 2012: http://link.reuters.com/muc46s

Activity is likely to remain subdued, with volume low and without major economic news.

Later in the session, Thailand will release trade data, which is expected to show exports in November posting very high annual growth as a result of low levels last year reflecting the damage from the flooding.

South Korea's key consumer sentiment index held steady in December from November and stood below the neutral point for a fifth consecutive month, the central bank said on Wednesday, diminishing hopes of a quick economic rebound.

(Additional reporting by Ayai Tomisawa in Tokyo and Joyce Lee in Seoul; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

08.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Japan's Abe set for second term, to tap allies for cabinet

By Linda Sieg

TOKYO (Reuters) - Shinzo Abe will be voted in as prime minister by parliament's lower house on Wednesday, giving the hawkish lawmaker a second chance at Japan's top job as the country battles deflation and confronts a rising China.

Abe, 58, whose party surged back to power in this month's election, has promised a two-pronged policy of aggressive monetary easing by the Bank of Japan and big fiscal spending by the debt-laden government to slay deflation and rein in the strong yen that makes Japanese exports more costly.

The grandson of a former prime minister, Abe has staged a stunning comeback five years after abruptly resigning as premier in the wake of a one-year term troubled by scandals in his cabinet, public outrage over lost pension records and a devastating defeat for his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in a 2007 upper house poll.

Abe looks set to pick a slate of close allies leavened by some LDP rivals to fend off the criticism of cronyism that dogged his first administration. Parliament meets from 1 p.m. (0400 GMT).

Japanese media have said Abe will name former prime minister Taro Aso, 72, as finance minister, ex-trade and industry minister Akira Amari as minister in charge of a new economic revival headquarters and policy veteran Toshimitsu Motegi as trade minister. Motegi will also be tasked with formulating energy policy in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster last year.

Loyal Abe backer Yoshihide Suga is expected to become chief cabinet secretary, a key post combining the job of top government spokesman with responsibility for coordinating among ministries.

Others who share Abe's agenda to revise the pacifist constitution and rewrite Japan's wartime history with a less apologetic tone have also been floated for posts.

"These are really LDP right-wingers and close friends of Abe," said Sophia University professor Koichi Nakano. "It really doesn't look very fresh at all."

CHINA TIES, JULY ELECTION

Abe promised during the election campaign to take a tough stance in territorial rows with China and South Korea over separate chains of tiny islands, while placing priority on strengthening Japan's alliance with the United States.

Japanese media said Abe would appoint two low-profile officials to the foreign and defence portfolios.

Itsunori Onodera, 52, who was senior vice foreign minister in Abe's first cabinet, will become defence minister while Fumio Kishida, 55, a former state minister for issues related to Okinawa island - host to the bulk of U.S. forces in Japan - will be appointed to the top diplomatic post, the reports said.

Abe, who hails from a wealthy political family, made his first overseas visit to China to repair chilly ties when he took office in 2006, but has said his first trip this time will be to the United States.

He may, however, put contentious issues that could upset key trade partner China and fellow-U.S. ally South Korea on the backburner to concentrate on boosting the economy, now in its fourth recession since 2000, ahead of an election for parliament's upper house in July.

The LDP and its small ally, the New Komeito party, won a two-thirds majority in the 480-seat lower house in the December 16 election. That allows the lower house to enact bills rejected by the upper house, where the LDP-led block lacks a majority.

But the process is cumbersome, so the LDP is keen to win a majority in the upper house to end the parliamentary deadlock that has plagued successive governments since 2007.

"It's the economy, the economy, the economy," an LDP source close to Abe told Reuters. The new government plans to submit an extra budget for the fiscal year to March 31 in late January.

Financial markets expect a budget worth about 10 trillion yen, but the source said no more than half of that would be spent on public works projects, a traditional staple of LDP economic stimulus packages.

(Editing by Dean Yates)

08.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Actor Jack Klugman, famed for U.S. TV role on "The Odd Couple," dead at 90

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Emmy-winning actor Jack Klugman, a versatile, raspy-voiced mainstay of U.S. television during the 1970s and early '80s through his starring roles in "The Odd Couple" and "Quincy, M.E.," died on Monday at the age of 90, his son said.

Klugman, whose pairing with Tony Randall on "The Odd Couple" created one of television's most memorable duos, died at his home in the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles following a period of declining health, according to his son, Adam Klugman.

"He went very suddenly and peacefully ... he was there one minute and gone the next," the actor's son told Reuters.

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Steve Gorman and Sandra Maler)

08.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Catholic Church urges Irish to oppose abortion law

DUBLIN (Reuters) - The head of Ireland's Catholic Church urged followers in his Christmas Day message to lobby against government plans to legalise abortion.

Ireland, the only EU member state that currently outlaws the procedure, is preparing legislation that would allow limited access to abortion after the European Court of Human Rights criticised the current regime.

The death last month of an Indian woman who was denied an abortion of her dying foetus and later died of blood poisoning has intensified the debate around abortion, which remains a hugely divisive subject in the predominantly Catholic country.

"I hope that everyone who believes that the right to life is fundamental will make their voice heard in a reasonable, but forthright, way to their representatives," Cardinal Sean Brady said in a Christmas message on Tuesday.

"No government has the right to remove that right from an innocent person."

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, a regular Mass goer, is bringing in legislation that would allow a woman to have an abortion if her life was at risk from pregnancy.

The country's Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that abortion was permitted when a woman's life was at risk but successive governments have avoided legislating for it because it is so divisive.

The death of Savita Halappanavar, who repeatedly asked for an abortion while she was miscarrying in an Irish hospital, highlighted the lack of clarity in Irish law that leaves doctors in a legally risky position.

Halappanavar's death re-ignited the abortion debate and prompted large protests by groups both in favour of and against abortion.

Kenny and his conservative Fine Gael party have been criticised for tackling the abortion issue and some party members have indicated that they may not be able to back the law.

Relations between the Irish government and the once dominant Catholic Church are at an all-time low in the wake of years of clerical sex abuse scandals.

Kenny told parliament last year that the Vatican's handling of the scandals had been dominated by "elitism and narcissism" and accused it of trying to cover up the abuse. The speech prompted the Vatican to recall its ambassador, or nuncio, to Ireland.

Brady, who has faced calls this year to resign over accusations he failed to warn parents their children were being sexually abused, said in his Christmas message that he wanted relations with government to improve.

"My hope is that the year ahead will see the relationship between faith and public life in our country move beyond the sometimes negative, exaggerated caricatures of the past."

(Reporting by Carmel Crimmins; Editing by Sandra Maler)

08.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Renuka Choudhury fails to pacify protesters at India Gate

New Delhi, Dec 23 (PTI) Congress leader Renuka Choudhury tonight went to India Gate to persuade protesters to leave the spot, but her efforts to convince them did not bear any result. This was the first time that a Congress leader came to India Gate to engage with protesters demanding justice for the Delhi gangrape victim. Choudhury tried to pacify the protesters for nearly an hour but the latter insisted on concrete action from the government to ensure safety of women. She told protesters to leave the spot for the day and come tomorrow. The Congress leader also asked them to form a committee to talk with the government on the issue. The protesters, however, did not relent. Earlier in the day, Choudhury was present at a meeting called by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi during which the party leaders met a group of protesters. PTI SOM SJY RAI

08.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

9 Metro stations near India Gate to remain closed

New Delhi, Dec 23 (PTI) Nine Metro stations in Central Delhi will remain closed tomorrow in the wake of the protests that has continued near India Gate over the gangrape of a paramedic student, the DMRC said tonight. Pragati Maidan, Mandi House, Patel Chowk, Central Secretariat, Udyog Bhawan, Khan Market, Race Course, Rajiv Chowk and Barakhamba stations will remain closed tomorrow. The closing of stations came following a direction from Delhi Police. "The stations will remain closed till DMRC gets further orders from the Delhi Police. However, interchange will be allowed at Central Secretariat station," a DMRC official said. The decision was taken after protests over the gangrape of a young girl erupted in Raisina Hill, the seat of power. PTI ETB RAI

08.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

RPF rescues Rajasthan woman from traffickers

Jalgaon, Dec 22 (PTI) The Railway Protection Force (RPF) today arrested a man and his wife, who hailed from Rajasthan, for allegedly trying to force a woman, also from the same state, into flesh trade. Pappu Karnawat and his wife Leela, both residents of Bundi, allegedly tricked the woman (25) who hailed from Shamgarh (Rajasthan) into accompanying them for a tour around Maharashtra, an RPF officer posted at Bhusawal railway station said. However, the accused duo dumped the woman at Vaitagwadi, a notorious red light area on the city outskirts, he said. According to RPF sources, the woman managed to escape from the area and rushed to the railway station today morning and narrated her plight to RPF staff following which they laid a trap and nabbed Lata when she arrived on one of the platforms in search of the victim. They later apprehended her husband Pappu from the area. The RPF has handed over the accused to Bhusawal police who are investigating the case. PTI CORR NSK HU SNK

08.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Spurned lover attacks girl, stabs himself to death

Mumbai, Dec 22 (PTI) A 22-year-old spurned lover stabbed himself to death after badly injuring his college mate in suburban Bandra today. The 19-year-old victim and the accused Nikhil (22) were studying management at a college here and recently had a break-up. According to police, Nikhil accosted the girl and her three friends while they were on their way to the classroom this morning. During a heated argument between the two, Nikhil whipped out a knife from his bag and slashed her several times. Nikhil then stabbed himself around 4-5 times and also slashed his neck. "Both were rushed to Guru Nanak hospital where Nikhil died during admission. The girl is critical but out of danger," said Deputy Police Commissioner N Chavan. PTI VM ABC HU SRE

08.10 | 0 komentar | Read More