NEW DELHI, India - A 34-year-old city based businessman lost his right eye after being hit by a drunk Delhi Police constable over a minor issue Sanjay Kumar Gaur was assaulted by constable Neeraj Kumar and his friend Sunil Kumar near Samaypur Badli railway crossing in northwest Delhi. Gaur was driving in his car with some friends, when he escaped colliding with Neeraj's motorcycle. Neeraj was allegedly in an inebriated state and was talking on the mobile phone while driving. Sunil was riding pillion to Neeraj.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The Pakistani Taliban leader has married for a second time a young girl from his tribe, around two weeks after several news channels claimed he had died following a prolonged ailment. According to The News daily, Baitullah Mehsud, the head of a united front of smaller Taliban groups called the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or Pakistan Taliban Movement, openly celebrated his wedding in Dwa Toi village, a tribal district along the Afghan border. Mehsud, in his mid 30s, suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney disease. Earlier this month CNN and Pakistani Geo news channel reported his death. He went for the second marriage because he had only four daughters but no son from his first wife, a close aide to the Taliban commander told the newspaper.
UTTAR PRADESH, India - A woman chopped the head off a man who allegedly tried to attack her and then paraded the head through a market in northern India, police said. Police arrested the woman late on Thursday after receiving calls from frightened witnesses, said police officer Ram Bharose. The woman, 35, told police she had gone to a nearby forest to cut grass for fodder for her cattle when a man attacked her from behind. ''In a bid to save her dignity she beheaded him with a sickle,'' Bharose said, adding that the woman had bite marks on her neck and cheek.
NEW DELHI, India - The Indian embassy in Kuwait issued emergency out-passes to 3,590 Indians in the course of a 45-day amnesty scheme there for illegal foreign residents. The amnesty scheme was launched Sep 1 by Kuwait's ruler Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah to mark the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Under the scheme, immigration departments across that Gulf city-state assisted all individuals to either adjust their illegal residency status or leave the country. There are around 550,000 expatriate Indians in Kuwait.
MUMBAI, India - Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan has cancelled three live song-and-dance shows, part of his Temptation Reloaded world tour, scheduled in Germany, leading to arguments between the tour's Indian sponsor and the agent in Germany. Tickets to the shows cost up to 150 Euros. Bollywood movies have developed a small but loyal fan following in Germany. After a successful Temptation world tour in 2005, Shah Rukh launched his Temptation Reloaded tour in June this year in Rotterdam, Holland. The star was joined by Arjun Rampal, Bipasha Basu, Deepika Padukone, Anushka Dandekar and Ganesh Hedge.
PANAJI, Goa - Goa Police said that Home Minister Ravi Naik's son Roy Naik was not involved in the murder of British teenager Scarlett Keeling. "We have investigated the case and Roy Naik does not figure in it," Superintendent of Police Bosco George told reporters. A complaint received by the police had sought its intervention into Roy's alleged involvement in two murders involving British citizens. The complaint filed by Anwar Shaikh of the Green Goa Foundation, quoting reports in Britain's Daily Mail, had claimed that Roy was involved in the murders of teenager Scarlett Keeling and Stephen Bennett.
PALANPUR, India - Mystery shrouds the recovery of four fetuses wrapped in plastic bags from a village canal in Gujarat's Banaskantha district. The police, who recovered the bags from a canal in Rasana village, 26 km from here and 140 km from Ahmedabad, were initially cagey about confirming the news until late Friday evening. If their gender is identified as female, this could be a major blow to the state government's much touted "Save Girl Child" campaign.
NEW DELHI, India - A Nigerian who posed as a senior diplomat and his Indian woman accomplice who masqueraded as a customs official have been arrested for cheating a Mumbai resident of nearly C$10,000, the police said. Sleuths of Delhi Police's Crime Branch arrested Chima John Kenneth alias Johnson Smith, 28, and his accomplice Nirupma Tiwari, 32, from Gandhi Vihar in Timarpur area of north Delhi. The scam involvedprize money of $850,000 for the New Year Season 2008 that was supposedly organised by Webmaster Inc.
DHAKA, Bangladesh - A British war hero was jailed for life for the racist killing of a Bangladeshi waiter in a Scottish restaurant, ending one of Britain's longest running murder cases. Sergeant Michael Ross, a 30-year-old Black Watch sniper who was decorated for bravery in Iraq, was told by the judge at Glasgow High Court that he had committed a “vicious, evil, unprovoked murder” and ordered to serve at least 25 years in jail. Ross denied shooting 26-year-old Shamsuddin Mahmood inside Mumtaz Restaurant in Kirkwall, the main town on the remote Orkney group of islands off the northern coast of Britain, but was found guilty in June after a six-week trial.
PATNA, India - A team of experts from Gujarat, helping the Bihar government prepare a strategy for rehabilitating flood victims, has advised against allowing anyone including Bollywood stars and voluntary organisations from adopting flood-hit villages. According to the experts, allowing adoption of flood-hit villages will create a sense of discrimination in the flood ravaged state. Several Bollywood stars and voluntary organisations have offered to adopt flood hit villages for rehabilitation and reconstruction. More than three million people were rendered homeless and over one million cattle were affected by floods as the Kosi river changed its course following a breach in an embankment upstream in Nepal Aug 18.
RAIPUR, India - At least six women workers were killed in Chhattisgarh and 12 others injured when a portion of an under-construction rice mill collapsed on them, the police said. The incident took place in Lodhima village in Surguja district, some 400 km from here. "Six women workers aged between 18-35 years were killed when a major portion of a wall of an under-construction rice mill came down on them," H.K. Rathore, Surguja district superintendent of police, told IANS.
BHOPAL, India - A police official's son who objected to molestation of a woman at a Garba (traditional dance) programme was burnt to death by a mob in Madhya Pradesh’s Dewas district, the police said.
The dispute arose Tuesday night when Vishal, 27, objected to the molestation of a woman from to his Balai community by people of the Patidar community. Vishal was son of Dashrath Singh, a town inspector attached with the Human Rights Commission at Bhopal. Members of Patidar community who had gathered for "Durga Visarjan" (Goddess Durga's idol immersion) programme went Vishal’s house in Karnawat village and started throwing stones. On this Vishal opened fire on the mob with a gun. But he was caught and set on fire which led to his death on the spot, said the police.
KOLKATA, India - An attempt to steal a goat took a fatal turn when a man paid with his life for trying to stop its theft in a West Bengal village. One of the thieves was lynched. Babulal Bhandari, 65, a security guard in saw three men trying to steal his goats "When Bhandari shouted at them and tried to chase them away, the thieves hit him on the head with a torch. He died on the spot. Some residents immediately reached the spot and caught hold of one of the thieves," said a police officer at Raidighi police station. "The thief, Hari Mondal, was then tied to a tree and lynched before police could reach the spot. His body bore marks of sharp weapons along wit signs of a heavy beating," the official said.
BHUBANESWAR, India - Spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has urged people in Orissa to maintain India's long history of peaceful coexistence, with anti-Christian violence claiming 36 lives and leaving thousands homeless in the state since late August. Communal tension flared up in Orissa's Kandhamal district in late August after the killing of a Hindu leader and attacks on Christians and their property have continued. Sri Sri urged all leaders to cooperate with civil society in uniting people so that those taking refuge in relief camps feel safe enough to return home.
