North Korean parents 'eating their own children'

A starving man in North Korea has been executed after murdering his two children for food, reports from inside the secretive state claim.
A 'hidden famine' in the farming provinces of North and South Hwanghae is believed to have killed up to 10,000 people and there are fears that incidents of cannibalism have risen.
The grim story is just one to emerge as residents battle starvation after a drought hit farms and shortages were compounded by party officials confiscating food.

The informant said the father killed his eldest daughter while his wife was away on business and then killed his son because he had witnessed the murder.
When his wife returned the man told her they had 'meat' but she became suspicious and contacted officials who discovered part of the children's bodies.
Jiro Ishimaru, from Asia Press, which compiled a 12 page report, said: 'Particularly shocking were the numerous testimonies that hit us about cannibalism.'
Undercover reporters said food was confiscated from the two provinces and given to the residents of the capital Pyongyang.
A drought then left food supplies desperately short.

Indian politican wears shirt made of 3.5 kilograms gold

The new gold man, Datta Phuge, has stitched himself a shirt made out of the precious yellow metal weighing approximately 3.5 kilograms. The shirt is in addition to 6 to 6.5 kilograms of golden ornaments — including chains, bracelets and rings and necklaces — that he has been wearing for the past few years.

Apart from wearing so many golden ornaments, what made him to stitch himself a golden shirt?

“Unlike many, I have no passion for high-end luxury vehicles like Audi or purchasing something else that is fancy. I had money and wanted to invest in gold. Even while investing in gold, I wanted to do something that would earn me the title of being a gold man. Then the idea of stitching myself a golden shirt came to me when I visited a jewellery shop a month ago " Phuje said .

Indian women were given 21,000 knives to defend themselves from rapists

A radical Hindu nationalist party Shiv Sena in India has handed out kitchen knives and chili powder to women in the city of Mumbai following the gang rape that ignited a national debate on the best way to tackle sex crimes.
The Shiv Sena party, an ally of the main opposition BJP, said it had handed out 21,000 knives with three-inch blades to women in the city and surrounding areas and plans to distribute 100,000.
Mumbai police said they were examining the knives and considering legal action.

"This is a symbolic gesture," said Shiv Sena spokesman Rahul Narvekar, adding that a knife shorter than six inches in length does not fit the definition of a weapon. The party also handed out small bags of chili powder -- apparently to throw into an attacker's eyes.

"It's only to pass a signal to eve-teasers [men who molest women], anti-social elements and perpetrators of crime against women that women are empowered and they can take care of themselves," Narvekar said.

Rape continues in India : Nursery student raped on moving school bus In Mumbai

In a yet another shameful act, a four-year-old nursery student was sexually assaulted in a school bus that was taking her home. Police has arrested the bus conductor, a 35-year-old, in connection to the case.

As per the reports on Tuesday afternoon, Ramesh Rajput allegedly raped the young girl when the bus was dropping children home. She was the only student left in the vehicle when the conductor sexually assaulted her.

Sources say that the child was in the front row, waiting for her turn when Rajput threatened her to go with him to the backseat and allegedly raped her. Ramesh then warned the girl of dire consequences if she spoke about the incident to anyone.

According to the police officers, the school has broken state government policy as no woman attendant was present on the bus at the time of this horrendous crime. The school, however, insisted that a female attendant was at hand and it was she who confronted Rajput and stopped him.

Sources say that after the girl informed her parents about the incident, they immediately took up the matter with the school and filed a police complaint.

Ramesh was arrested on Thursday and booked for rape and molestation under the Indian Penal Code and invoked several sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.

Sources reveal that the driver's role in the crime too is suspect. He said that he neither noticed the girl being attacked nor heard her cries for help.

Deadly Bomb blast rocks Pakistan , death toll rises to 120

The death toll from a series of deadly bombings across Pakistan rose Friday to 120, police said, marking one of the deadliest days the country has seen in years.
Five people who were wounded in twin bombings on a billiards hall late Thursday died of their wounds overnight, senior police official Hamid Shakeel from the southern city of Quetta said, putting the death toll from that attack at 86.
The strike was the worst of three deadly bombings targeting Shiites and soldiers in Quetta, capital of the volatile Baluchistan province, and worshippers at a Sunni mosque in the northwest on the same day. Funerals are expected later Friday.
The billiards hall bombing, in a Shiite area of the city, started with a suicide attack but was followed by a car bomb minutes later in the same area. Militants often use such staggered bombings as a way to maximize the body count by targeting rescuers and others who rush to the scene after the first explosion to help.
Pakistan's minority Shiite Muslims have increasingly been targeted by radical Sunnis who consider them heretics. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni militant group with strong ties to the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack. Hazara Shiites, who migrated from Afghanistan more than a century ago, have been the targets of dozens of attacks by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in Quetta over the past year, but Thursday's attack was by far the bloodiest.
Another bomb, hidden in a bag, went off near a vehicle carrying paramilitary soldiers elsewhere in the city, killing 12 people and wounding more than 40 others. It had been spotted by a local resident but was detonated by remote control before soldiers could react.
The United Baluch Army, a separatist group, claimed responsibility for the attack in calls to local journalists. Pakistan has faced a violent insurgency in Baluchistan for years from nationalists who demand greater autonomy and a larger share of the country's natural resources.
The third blast Thursday targeted a mosque in the northwestern Pakistani city of Mingora, killing 22 people and wounding more than 70. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for that explosion.

Cold wave continues to sweep north India, kills 200 people . Lucknow shivers at -0.2 degree Celsius. Extreme Cold in Ukraine Kills 110 People, Closes Schools.

Cold wave continues to throw life out of gear in North India with the minimum temperature dipping to -0.2 degree Celsius in Lucknow on Tuesday.

There was no respite from the cold wave  across north India on Monday as the mercury dipped close to the freezing point at several places in the region and killed 29 more people, mounting the toll from it this season to around 200.

Officials said six people died in Ghazipur, three each in Azamgarh and Barabanki in Uttar Pradesh. Two deaths were reported from Fatehpur, Sultanpur and Chandauli besides one each in Jaunpur and Siddhartnagar in the state that had reported the maximum cold-related deaths - 175 - this season.

Three more people died in Amritsar that recorded a low of 1.8 degree C, while Patiala and Ludhiana shivered at 2.4 and 2.7. The cold snap has killed 13 people in Punjab and eight in Haryana so far.

Officials said four people died of cold in Uttarakhand's Haridwar, where the minimum temperature touched one degree C, and two in Rajasthan's Bundi.

Agra was the coldest place in Uttar Pradesh with a low of just 0.6 degree above the freezing point. Muzaffarnagar shivered with a minimum temperature of 0.7 degree C, seven notches below normal.

The dipping mercury forced the state government to order closure of all schools up to class VIII till January 12.

Narnaul in Haryana was the coldest place in the state with the mercury plunging three degrees below freezing point, the lowest in 15 years. Hisar shivered at a low of 0.8 degree C. The mercury in the town had slipped to a low of minus 1.1 degree C early on Sunday.
Meanwhile Siberian shivering weather conditions across Ukraine left 110 people dead and forced the government to shut schools across the country as temperatures plunged below minus 26 degrees Celsius,

Shot Pakistan Schoolgirl Malala Yusufzai Leaves Hospital

Pakistani teenager Malala Yusufzai has been discharged from Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.

The Pakistani teenager shot by the Taliban for campaigning for women's rights is discharged from hospital in Birmingham.

The 15-year-old was shot in the head by the Taliban in Pakistan in October and later flown to Britain for specialist treatment.
She will continue her rehabilitation at her family's temporary home in the West Midlands before having cranial reconstructive surgery in the next month, her doctors say.

Over the past couple of weeks she has been leaving the hospital on a regular basis on "home leave" to spend time with her father Ziauddin, mother Toorpekai and younger brothers, Khushal and Atul.
Malala was shot on a school bus in the Swat Valley area for campaigning for women's rights and their right to an education.
The bullet entered just above her left eye and ran along her jaw, "grazing" her brain. It was later removed by surgeons in Pakistan before she was flown to the UK.
She is now likely to secure permanent residence in the UK after her father was granted a job with the Pakistani consulate in Birmingham.
Mr Yusufzai has been appointed education attache for three years, with the option of an extension for a further two years afterwards.
Both he and his daughter have had threats made against their lives by the Taliban since the shooting.

 

Delhi horror continues , another minor girl gangraped in Delhi by Facebook met

Just after 2 days the Delhi gang-rape victim Damini  died  at Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital, another shocking incident of molestation took place in  Delhi ..
Another gangrape was reported from the India capital's Safdarjang area on 31st december 2012. The victim is a minor girl who is studying in one of the leading schools in Delhi. She met the accused via the social networking site Facebook. The two accused asked her to join them for New Year when the incident occurred. The two accused, Naveen and Vijay work at an IT company in Gurgaon.

New Year stampede :At least 60 people died in Ivory coast

At least 60 people have been crushed to death and some 250 injured during new year festivities in Ivory Coast's main city Abidjan, rescue officials say.

The incident occurred in the early hours of Tuesday near a stadium in the central Plateau area of the city where a fireworks display was held.
The cause of the stampede is not yet clear. It occurred as people were heading home after the event.
The victims included many children, and the death toll is expected to rise.
The site - near Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium - is littered with abandoned clothes and blood stains.
Relatives have gone there to get news of missing loved ones.
The distraught mother of a nine-year-old boy told local media: "I have just seen all those bodies, but I can't find my son."
The 65,000-capacity Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium was named after the founding president of Ivory Coast. The night before the tragedy, it hosted a concert by US performer Chris Brown.

Death does not allow her to fight . Indian gang rape girl died in Singapore

SINGAPORE: The 23-year-old victim of the brutal gang rape and assault in Delhi that had triggered an outrage across India died early this morning here after putting up a brave battle for life for nearly a fortnight.

The girl, who was admitted to the well-known multi-organ transplant facility Mount Elizabeth Hospital   in Singapore on 29th Dec 2012 Thursday morning in an extremely critical condition, breathed her last at 4:45 AM (2:15 AM India time). She was earlier treated at the Safdarjung Hospital  in Delhi.

"We are very sad to report that the patient passed away peacefully at 4.45am on 29 Dec 2012 (Singapore time)," the hospital's Chief Executive Officer Dr Kelvin Loh said in a statement.

"Her family and officials from the high commission of India were by her side. The Mount Elizabeth Hospital team of doctors, nurses and staff join her family in mourning her loss," the statement said.

The body has been moved to the mortuary in the Singapore General Hospital and will be flown back to India by a chartered plane. Accompanied by her family, the body is expected to arrive in Delhi in the night.

President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and a host of political leaders condoled the death of the girl and paid rich tributes to the victim of the sexual assault for her brave fight.

The girl was raped and brutally assaulted in a moving bus by six men in Delhi on December 16 and thrown out along with her companion.

Indian High Commissioner T C A Raghavan told reporters that the family was yet to decide on the plans for the last rites back home.

He said the girl fought a brave battle till the end. She was brought to Singapore for being provided good medical treatment.

The envoy "The family is shattered by this development. At the same time, they realised that best possible medical attention was given. And in the end it was the scale of injuries that proved too much for the medical attention provided to her".

He said the final few hours was a trying time for the girl's family and they bore the entire process with a great deal of fortitude and courage.

Raghavan said he has passed on the condolence message of the Prime Minister to the family in which he had spoken of the desire to make India a demonstrably better and safe place for women to live in.

Raghavan said the High Commission has received numerous messages from various quarters including the Singapore government deeply mourning the death.

He appreciated the help extended by the Singapore Foreign Ministry, the government and the Mount Elizabeth Hospital for all their support in the last two days.

Replying to questions on the shifting of the girl from Delhi to Singapore, he said consultations were held between doctors of Safdarjung hospital and Mount Elizabeth Hospital and they must have given full thought to it before taking it.

Delhi gang rape victim arrives in Singapore hospital

A female student who was gang-raped on a bus in India's capital Delhi has arrived in Singapore for better  treatment.

The 23-year-old victim - who remains on life support - is being treated at a specialised facility and may require an organ transplant.
The attack earlier this month triggered violent public protests, which left one police officer dead.
An inquiry into possible lapses by the authorities is now under way.
The investigation is being led by retired judge Usha Mehra.
Six men have been arrested and two police officers have been suspended following the 16 December attack.
An air ambulance carrying the woman landed at Singapore Changi International Airport early on Thursday, the Indian High Commission in Singapore told news agencies.
The victim - who has already had three operations in Delhi - was then taken to the city's Mount Elizabeth hospital.
The hospital said in a statement quoted by the Associated Press that she was admitted to the intensive care unit "in an extremely critical condition".
"She is being examined and the hospital is working with the Indian High Commission," the statement said.
'Prolonged treatment' Senior Delhi doctor BD Athani told the Press Trust of India that the hospital had "a state-of-art multi-organ transplant facility" to treat the victim's severe intestinal injuries.
The woman's family have accompanied her to Singapore because the treatment might take a long time, Dr Athani added.
Police in Delhi have opened roads and metro stations shut since Monday as protests against the incident eased.
The government has tried to halt the rising anger by announcing a series of measures intended to make Delhi safer for women.
These include more police night patrols, checks on bus drivers and their assistants, and the banning of buses with tinted windows or curtains.
The government has also said that it will post the photos, names and addresses of convicted rapists on official websites to shame them.
But the protesters say the government's pledge to seek life sentences for the attackers is not enough - many are calling for the death penalty.
The victim and her friend had been to see a film when they boarded the bus in the Munirka area, intending to travel to Dwarka in south-west Delhi.
Police said she was raped for nearly an hour, and both she and her companion were beaten with iron bars and thrown out of the moving bus into a Delhi street.