Man kills 4-year-old daughter to get government compensation

Srinagar: In a shocking incident in Kashmir, a man allegedly choked and slit the throat of his 4-year-old daughter, in order to get government compensation. The accused Altaf Ahmad from Rafiabad has been arrested.

Police are saying his main motive was to claim she was killed by militants and seek compensation from the government. Altaf's wife is the village sarpanch and he was hoping the police would believe his story considering the recent militant attacks on sarpanches and their families. On the day of the incident, Altaf allegedly sent his wife and son to the doctor and in their absence murdered the young girl.

"We believe that the motive could have been that his wife is the village sarpanch. He might have tried to pass the murder off as a militant act to claim compensation from the government," DIG north Kashmir JP Singh said.

Thechild, Muskan, was found dead with her throat slit in an orchard near Laiser village in Dangiwacha area of Rafiabad, a day after she was reported missing by her father on June 14, police said.

A sharp-edged knife, a ten rupee note and an empty jute bag used to contain animal fodder were recovered from the scene of the crime.

Four children die in wall collapse

ChandigarhJune 27 (PTI): Four children died when a wall collapsed on them in village Chaushala in Kalayat block of Kaithal district in Haryana, police said today.

       The children were identified as Ajay, Nutun, Sachin and Bhupinder, all aged between seven to eight years, an official spokesman said here.The four had gone missing last evening after they had left their houses for playing, villagers told the officials.

        The four were found buried under the debris of the wall,which had collpased due to the recent rains.Sub divisional Magistrate Nar Hari Bangar and District Development and Panchayat Officer Rajesh Khoth visited the

area on behalf of district administration and consoled the

families of the victims.

        After getting the post mortem done at local Indira Gandhi

MultiSpeciality Hospital today the bodies have been handed

over to the bereaved families.

        Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda sought the detail

report from Deputy Commissioner Chander Shekhar about the

incident.He directed that all help be assured to the families of

the victims.

Sri Lankan military officers return from India

Colombo, Jun 25 (PTI) :

Two Sri Lankan military officers, who were forced to abandon their training at a defense college in Tamil Nadu today returned home after the government declined India's offer to train them an another facility in AndraPradesh.
 
 Defence spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasuriya said that due to security concerns the Indian government had offered to transfer the two officers from Defence Service Staff College in Wellington to Higher Defence Management Course (HDMC) in the College of Defence Management in Secundrabad.

"The Sri Lankan authorities whilst appreciating this offer kindly declined as it was observed that the HDMC was not in line with the initial purpose of sending these two officer for training in India.

 "Moreover, a higher course with an entirely different scope would neither benefit the officers nor the Sri Lankan Armed Forces in immediate future employment of these officers. Hence, the Sri Lankan Government made a request to withdraw the two officers from DSSC course and accordingly they returned to the island this morning," Wanigasuriya said.

    "The Indian Armed Forces are key partners in professional career development of Officers, soldiers, sailors and airmen of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces. This valuable training engagement has a history of over 4 decades and has seen progressive improvement in the recent past. There have been difficulties in training Sri Lankan military personnel in some training facilities in India."

 Wing Commander M S Bandara Dassanayek and Major C S Harischandra Hettiarachchige were undergoing training in the College from May 27 despite objection from the State Government and protests from almost all the political parties and pro-Eelam Outfits.

 The Government and political parties were against providing training to the officials in Tamil Nadu even after assurance given by Defence Minister A K Antony earlier that no Sri Lankan officials will be trained in future on Tamil Nadu soil.

Political parties and like-minded organizations were blaming the Congress for this "injustice meted out to Tamil Nadu despite the killings of thousands of Tamils by Sri Lanka Government in the war against LTTE" and were mounting pressure on the Center to immediately recall the officials.

Ukhand:Work on to arrange 50 tonnes of wood, ghee for funerals

Gauchar (Uttarakhand), June 24 (PTI) Uttarakhand authorities are trying to arrange for as much as 50 tonnes of wood and as much volume of 'desi ghee' to conduct last rites of those who perished in the deluge at Kedarnath.

    Officials of the Garhwal administration have sounded authorities in the state 'Van Nigam' (Forest Corporation) and other agencies to gather as much fire wood and logs and pick
cans of 'ghee' from the open market.

    "We want to start the funerals today in Kedarnath provided the weather permits. All concerned authorities have been asked to make arrangements," a senior state government official told PTI.

    The official said that funerals have to start today in the temple town or else the bodies will begin rotting badly.    While close to thousands have been evacuated from the temple town, worst hit by rains and flash floods, there is no exact estimate as to how many people would have perished inthis area.

    Many parts of the state received rains last night and in the morning but helicopter operations are expected to be operational today.

Taliban offer to free US soldier in exchange of five senior operatives

 Islamabad: The Afghan Taliban say they are ready to hand over a US soldier held captive since 2009 in exchange for five of their senior operatives being held at the Guantanamo Bay prison.

A Taliban spokesman, Shaheen Suhail, says US Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl "is as far as I know in good condition."

Suhail spoke in an exclusive telephone interview with The Associated Press from the newly opened Taliban offices in Doha, Qatar.

Bergdahl disappeared in eastern Afghanistan on June 30, 2009.

Shaheen says "first has to be the release of detainees," and after that, the Taliban "want to build bridges of confidence."

He offered no details on Bergdahl's current whereabouts.

He spoke as the US is scrambling to save talks with the Taliban after angry complaints from President Hamid Karzai.

CBI registers 13th FIR in coal scam

New Delhi, Jun 19 (PTI): CBI has registered a fresh case in connection with its coal blocks allocation probe against a Delhi-based steel company and carried out searches at itspremises in the National Capital Region.

 CBI sources said a case has been lodged against Rathi Steel and Power Limited, its Director Udit Rathi and unknown others for alleged cheating and misrepresentation of facts while applying for a coal block.

 The sources said the company earlier known as Rathi Udyog Limited was allocated Kesla North coal block in Korba,Chhattisgarh for its sponge iron plant on August 5, 2008.

 They said the company has allegedly misrepresented facts
while applying for the coal block.This is the 13th FIR in connection with the coal blocks allocation scam probe.

 Soon after registering the FIR, CBI teams carried out searches at various residential and official premises of the company in Delhi and Ghaziabad.

 CBI is probing alleged irregularities in the allocation of 192 coal blocks which were made between 1993 to 2011. The agency has registered three preliminary enquiries in this connection-- related to allocation between 2006-09, allocation between 1993 to 2004 and allocations given to joint ventures.

 So far, the agency has registered FIRs arising out of its preliminary enquiry covering allocation between 2006-09. 

Assam blood bank accused of spreading HIV Virus

Guahathi : A government-run blood bank in Assam was on Friday accused of spreading the deadly HIV virus among recipients who got infected after a blood transfusion there. The magnitude of the allegations has led the Assam government to institute a probe.

The allegations came after one person, who was tested HIV positive recently, alleged that he got infected by the HIV virus after he was given blood by a professional blood donor a few months back. He alleged that the authorities at the blood bank of the Mangaldai civil hospital arranged the donor for him.

The person also brought to the fore three others, who also underwent blood transfusion in the hospital and accepted the blood of the same donor through the blood bank, and all of them had been tested HIV positive.

Although these four people braved the stigma and declared their HIV infection status, it is believed there might be more people who got the HIV infection through the blood of the same donor.

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Friday ordered Additional Chief Secretary P.P. Verma to carry out a detailed inquiry into the whole incident and asked him to submit the report within one month. Mr Gogoi also said that action would be taken against the guilty if the allegation proved to be true.

"I was having some problem and went to a lab for carrying out some pathological tests. However, the blood report indicated me to be a HIV positive. I got a shock of my life as I have not done anything through which I could contract the disease. Then I remembered taking blood from the professional donor through the blood bank of Mangaldai civil hospital," said one of the four victims.

"I immediately found out about the other three persons who had recently accepted blood of the donor through the same blood bank and also tested HIV positive. Later, we forced the donor to undergo HIV test and he tested positive. This proved that we all got the infection through his blood and the blood bank had not carried out the necessary tests while giving his blood to us," he said, while holding the blood bank responsible for the infection.

"Our lives have been ruined due to the blood bank authorities," he said.

The professional donor admitted giving blood to the four people but said that he was not aware that he is HIV positive.

"I have given blood only four times so far and every time the authorities of the blood bank conducted tests. They have never told me that I am HIV positive. I would have never given my blood if I had known about the disease," he said.

A team of officials of state health department will also leave for Mangaldai on Saturday to carry out an inquiry.

Dubai maid dies after being starved and beaten

A housemaid died after being locked in a room where she was beaten and starved for almost two months, a court heard yesterday.

Prosecutors told the Criminal Court that the incident leading to the death of Khadija Kamel was just one of a list of abuses against two maids working for RM, 45, an Emirati customer service officer.

They said she assaulted the maids regularly, banging their heads on walls and beating them with wooden sticks until they bled.

She watched them through surveillance cameras and found cruel ways to punish them for perceived failures, forcing one to drink a cup of detergent and the other to sniff dirty underwear.

She also forced them to strip and took pictures of them naked with her mobile phone.

The court heard matters came to a head when the woman locked the maids in an upstairs room in which her husband, the Emirati police officer AKH, 42, had installed metal bars across the windows.

She starved them for up to five days at a time, on other occasions giving one of them food and forcing the other to watch.

Both maids developed blood poisoning as a result of the abuse and malnourishment, and eventually Kamel became so weak she could no longer move.

She weighed only 38 kilograms when she died.

IN, 29, the Filipina maid who survived the almost two-month ordeal, arrived in the UAE on October 16 last year to work for the couple, who have four children between the ages of 3 and 11.

She told the Criminal Court that the abuse began as soon as she arrived in their house. She would be given only a cup of tea and a piece of bread for breakfast and lunch, and would be denied dinner.

The couple locked the kitchen door every evening to make sure the maids could not get any more food.

The Filipina said her first job was to accompany the three-year-old son on car journeys.

"She used to leave me and the boy locked in the car for four hours, but with the air-conditioning on, while she used to finish her errands," she recalled.

A week into the job her employer became even more abusive.

"She slapped me on the face for not separating the underwear from the rest of the clothes, and things only got worse … she started hitting me with her hands and feet and with a broom."

The woman told the maids that she and her husband were influential people so they should not dare to complain.

"I thought of running away many times but I could not find the opportunity as she used to lock me inside and never let me leave the house," the Filipina said.

She met Kamel about a month after she started work.

"The employer brought her and asked me to not talk to her," she said.

Shortly afterwards the pair were locked in a bare room on an upper level of the house.

"She used to allow Khadija to sleep on a mattress in the room while she locked me in the bathroom," said the Filipina."In the morning she used to bring in Khadija in the bathroom and lock us in."

One time Kamel was starved for more than five days.

"During this period she provided her only with sugar with water, onion and a small piece of bread," said the Filipina maid.

On another occasion Kamel was allowed to eat while the other maid, also starving, was forced to watch.

"She used to say she can eat because she is Muslim and you have to watch as a punishment because you are Christian," said the Filipina.

Kamel's condition deteriorated and she lost consciousness.

"They then started providing her with food and let me take care of her as she could not move," she said. "I begged them to take her to hospital but they refused."

The Criminal Court charged the woman with confining two people against their will and causing the death of one of them.

She was also charged with physically abusing a third woman - a maid employed by another woman who worked for her temporarily.

Her husband was charged with aiding and abetting her by preparing the room for confinement, and with refusing to offer medical help.

The couple denied the charges. The next hearing was scheduled for July 1

Chinese baby rescued from sewage pipe goes home

Beijing: A Chinese baby, who was rescued from a sewer pipe, was released from a hospital to his maternal grandparents late Wednesday.

In another development, the newborn’s mother will probably evade any criminal charge because authorities have reportedly concluded that he fell into the toilet after his birth accidentally.

The baby’s 22-year-old mother remains under medical care, the state-run Jinhua Evening News reported, in an account confirmed on Thursday by a local police official who declined to give his name.

The baby's stunning, two-hour rescue from a pipe underneath a squat toilet in Zhejiang province's Pujiang county captivated the world, prompting both horror and an outpouring of charity on his behalf.

The mother initially raised the alarm about the baby when he got stuck on Saturday in a pipe just below a squat toilet in a public restroom of a residential building, but she had cleaned the room of signs of a fresh birth and did not immediately come forward as the mother, officials have been quoted as saying.

She admitted she was the mother two days later when confronted by police who found baby toys and blood-stained tissues in her apartment, the reports said.

Police later concluded that the incident was an accident and that the woman did not initially come forward because she was frightened, but that she later started telling the truth, the Jinhua Evening News and a Pujiang county propaganda official said.

The police initially treated the case as a possible attempted homicide, but now are unlikely to file criminal charges, the newspaper and the official said.

A man tracked down by police who is believed to be the baby's father has requested a paternity test and — if the baby is his — is willing to help support the child, said the Pujiang official, who declined to give his name, as is customary among Chinese officials.

The case has raised discussion over China's lack of proper education about sex, birthing and contraception in many schools. Unwanted pregnancies have been on the rise because of an increasingly lax attitude toward premarital sex. The woman told police she got pregnant after a brief affair with the man, hid her pregnancy from family and neighbours, and secretly delivered the child on Saturday in a rental building's restroom. She said the infant accidentally slipped into the squat toilet and — after cleaning up the scene — raised the alarm.

Firefighters, who arrived at the rental building, found the infant trapped in an L-shaped section of sewage pipe just below the squat toilet in one of the building's shared restrooms.

In video footage, officials were shown removing the pipe from a ceiling that apparently was just below the restroom and then, at the hospital, using pliers and saws to gently pull apart the pipe, which was about 10 centimetres (3 inches) in diameter.

The baby, who weighed 2.8 kilograms (6 pounds, 3 ounces), had a low heart rate and some minor abrasions on his head and limbs, but was mostly uninjured, according to local reports. The placenta was still attached