Nasheman

India's largest selling Urdu weekly, now also in English

You are here: Home / 2015 / Archives for January 2015

Archives for January 2015

High court refuses to dismiss rape case against Karthik Gowda

by

Karthik Gowda

Bengaluru: The single judge bench of the state high court (HC), which is hearing the petition filed by Kartik Gowda, son of union minister, D V Sadananda Gowda, seeking dismissal of rape and fraud case filed by actress, Mythriya Gowda, against him, refused to entertain his petition on Thursday January 29.

When the petition came up for hearing before the bench presided over by Justice R B Budhihal, the bench refused to uphold the petition. ‘As per the Supreme Court directives, cases relating to serious allegations like rape and fraud, can not be dismissed at the preliminary stage itself. Advocate representing the petitioner has claimed that there is no prima facie evidence to support Mythriya Gowda’s claim of rape. But verification of evidences and circumstances do not support this argument. The advocate has failed to convince the court about the veracity of his arguments and compelling reasons for dismissal of the complaint. Therefore, we are unable to uphold the petition and dismiss the case,’ the court observed.

It may be recalled that Mythriya Gowda had filed a complaint stating that Kartik had married her, but later defrauded her by getting engaged to another girl. He also raped her on the basis of promise of marriage, she had stated.

Kartik had approached the state high court seeking dismissal of the case.

Jayanthi Natarajan quits Congress, attacks Rahul Gandhi

by

Jayanthi Natarajan

New Delhi: Senior party leader Jayanthi quit Congress on Friday after launching a fierce attack on Rahul Gandhi.

In a letter to the Congress President Sonia Gandhi she said after she was unceremoniously removed as Minister of Environment in December 2013, Rahul Gandhi’s office planted negative stories about her.

Talking about her resignation, Natarajan wrote, “The next day my resignation was headlines in the media, and all the initial reports correctly reported that I had stepped down for party work. By the afternoon, to my shock, I received information that persons from the office of Shri Rahul Gandhi were calling the media and planting stories that my resignation was NOT for party work.”

She also stated that till date she has not be told the reason behind her dismissal from the post of Minister of Environment.

After accepting her resignation, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had praised her for her valuable contribution as a minister, she added.

“I was a victim of vicious, false and motivated media campaign,” Jayanthi Natarajan wrote in her letter to the Congress.

She stated that Rahul Gandhi’s decisions were dumped on her and she has proof to back her claims.

Natarajan also revealed that she was forced to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi on snoopgate.

The former UPA leader is scheduled to address a press conference at 12:30 pm today on her resignation.

(Agencies)

French police question 8-year-old on suspicion of “defending terrorism”

by

France is in a state of “collective hysteria,” says Sefen Guez Guez, the lawyer for a second grader questioned by police in France.

France is in a state of “collective hysteria,” says Sefen Guez Guez, the lawyer for a second grader questioned by police in France.

by Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada

Just when it seemed that the crackdown on free speech in France could not get worse, French police today questioned a second grader on suspicion of “defending terrorism.”

BFMTV says that administrators at a primary school in Nice reported the child to police on 21 January after the boy allegedly said that he “felt he was on the side of the terrorists.”

“A police station is absolutely no place for an eight-year-old child,” the boy’s lawyer Sefen Guez Guez told BFMTV. He said that the incident showed that France was going through a state of “collective hysteria.”

Guez Guez said that on 8 January, the day after two French gunmen attacked the offices of the magazine Charlie Hebdo, the boy, whose name has been reported as Ahmed, was in class when he was asked if he was “Charlie.”

“He answered, ‘I am on the side of the terrorists, because I am against the caricatures of the prophet,’” the lawyer said.

Since the murders of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists and the lethal attack by a third French gunman on a Jewish supermarket, French government officials and media have adopted the slogan “Je Suis Charlie” – I am Charlie – to indicate social conformity and support for official policies, all under the guise of supporting free speech.

The Collective Against Islamophobia in France, which has taken up Ahmed’s case, provided these additional details: “On 8 January, Ahmed, a second grader, was called on by his teacher who asked him if he was Charlie. Being of Muslim religion and aged only eight, he opposed Charlie Hebdo because of the caricatures of the prophet, and responded naively that he was on the side of the terrorists. Angered, the teacher sent him to the principal, who was in the class next door, and who asked him three times in front of the whole class, ‘Are you Charlie?’”

The child’s parents were called in and “played an educational role, explaining to him what terrorism really was and why one should be on the side of the Charlie Hebdo victims,” Guez Guez said.

Principal calls police

Instead of leaving the matter there, on 21 January, the school principal lodged two complaints with police, one against the child for “defending terrorism,” and another against the child’s father for trespassing.

According to the lawyer, the child had been deeply upset and isolated after what happened, so his father accompanied him to the school playground on three occasions after 8 January, before being told he was not allowed to do so.

Fabienne Lewandowski, a spokesperson for the Alpes-Maritimes regional police, confirmed to BFMTV that they received the complaints. Lewandowski revealed that the school principal claimed that the child had said “French people should be killed,” “I am on the side of the terrorists” and “the journalists deserved to die.” The child then allegedly refused to take part in a government-decreed minute of silence.

“During our interview, the child indicated that he had said some of these words, but did not really understand what they meant,” the police spokesperson said. “The purpose of this interview was to understand exactly what had happened, and what could have led him to say this.”

“We can regret that this took the form of an official police interview,” Lewandowski said, “but under the circumstances, we could have gone even further.”

According to the police spokesperson, the father “showed regret for his son’s words.”

The Collective Against Islamophobia in France said that his interview by police “was an additional trauma that illustrates the collective hysteria that has ensued since the beginning of January.”

Prosecutors in Nice have yet to decide how to proceed in the case.

Victim of bullying?

Ahmed has said that he was a victim of bullying by the school principal, according to his lawyer, BFMTV reported. On one occasion, the child was playing in a sandbox. According to the child’s account relayed by the lawyer, the principal told the boy, “stop digging in the sand, you won’t find a machine-gun in there.”

On another occasion, Ahmed, who is diabetic, alleges the principal deprived him of his insulin, saying, “Since you want us all to die, you will taste death.” The principal has denied the accusation.

Guez Guez said that Ahmed’s parents planned to lodge a complaint about the school’s behavior.

According to Le Figaro, the French education ministry confirmed that the school principal had also made a report about Ahmed to child protective services.

Government crackdown

While Ahmed’s case may seem extreme, the complaint against him is enabled by an atmosphere of intolerance and authoritarianism fostered by the French government.

Since the attacks in Paris, the government has launched an unprecedented crackdown, condemned by Amnesty International as well as French civil rights groups, in which it has jailed dozens of people for things they have said, under the vague charge of “defending terrorism.”

Previously, as The Electronic Intifada reported, one of those arrested was a sixteen-year-old high schooler, for allegedly posting a caricature mocking Charlie Hebdo.

Yesterday, French President François Hollande used an International Holocaust Memorial Day speech to confirm that his government plans to tighten its control over what people are allowed to say online and stiffen penalties for illegal speech.

Urdu newspaper editor in Mumbai arrested for reprinting Charlie Hebdo cartoon

by

A policeman stands guard outside the French satirical weekly 'Charlie Hebdo' in Paris in this February 9, 2006 file photo.

A policeman stands guard outside the French satirical weekly ‘Charlie Hebdo’ in Paris in this February 9, 2006 file photo.

Mumbai: Police have arrested and bailed the editor of an Urdu newspaper in Mumbai for reprinting a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) from satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo, police said Thursday.

Shirin Dalvi, editor of the Mumbai edition of the daily Avadhnama newspaper, was arrested by police in the town of Mumbra in Thane district.

The caricature was carried on the front page of the January 17 issue of the Urdu Daily Avadhnama published from Mumbai.

A resident of Mumbra complained to the Mumbra police after he reportedly saw the paper on the stands in Govandi. A complaint was also filed at Lower Parel police station, informed a police official.

Dalvi was booked for outraging religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion with malicious intent under Section 295 A of the Indian Penal Code. Dalvi was presented before the court that granted her bail.

“The section in the FIR registered against her is bailable, hence the court granted her bail,” informed a police official from Mumbra.

Dalvi, who later spoke to the media here, said she had made a mistake but had no intention of hurting religious sentiments.

Apart from the the Rashtriya Ulema Council activists, the Urdu Patrakar Sangh, an Urdu language journalists’ association, had also demanded the arrest of the editor and publisher.

Gaza war ‘unlawful’: Israeli rights group blames IDF for deliberately targeting residential areas

by

Palestine

by RT

An Israeli human rights group has accused the IDF of war crimes during last year’s Gaza invasion by launching airstrikes that intentionally targeted residential areas, killing women and children, while claiming that Hamas was hiding behind civilians.

As prosecutors at the International Criminal Court in The Hague are conducting a preliminary inquiry into possible war crimes committed by Israel in the Palestinian territories, the 49-page report by B’Tselem human rights group claims the allegations are true.

‘Black Flag: The legal and moral implications of the policy of attacking residential buildings in the Gaza Strip, summer 2014’ is the first major report on the Israel-Gaza 50-day conflict written by an Israeli rights group.

The report is based on research into 70 Israeli airstrikes in Gaza that affected residential buildings, killing 606 Palestinians in their homes, most of them evidently non-combatants: children, women and elderly men. About 70 percent of the victims were either under 18 or over 60 years old.

Like during previous conflicts with the Palestinian military group Hamas, Israeli officials have insisted that the Israel Defense Force (IDF) operated strictly according to international law. Casualties among the civilian population can be explained by the fact that Hamas fighters use their compatriots as human shields, placing “command and control centers” within residential buildings and bringing families to live inside “terrorist infrastructure” facilities, the officials say.

A Palestinian woman walks past buildings destroyed by what police said were Israeli air strikes and shelling in the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip August 3, 2014.(Reuters / Finbarr O’Reilly)

“It is true that Hamas and other organizations operating in the Gaza Strip do not abide by international humanitarian law,” the report acknowledged, not questioning the fact that Hamas does use civilian centers to stage rocket attacks on Israeli territory.

Yet the fact that Tel Aviv tends to put blame for all Palestinian civilian deaths on Hamas, makes the IDF totally unaccountable for its activities, with “no restrictions whatsoever on Israeli action…no matter how horrifying the consequences,” the report said.

“This policy is unlawful through and through,” the report says.

The concept of “collateral damage,” however legal it might seem during warfare, has been exploited by the IDF to the extreme, the report claims.

“Even if the leaders of the state and the army believed that implementing this policy would bring about the cessation of firing on Israeli communities, it should not have been implemented because of the expected and horrific consequences,” the report says.

People look at a crater on the ground and damaged buildings, that witnesses said was caused by an Israeli air strike, in the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City August 8, 2014.(Reuters / Siegfried Modola)

B’Tselem, which receives donations through the New Israel Fund, is generally associated with the Israeli left and focuses on human rights in Gaza and the West Bank.

The group’s research chief, Yael Stein, insists that the deaths of Palestinian civilians were by no means accidental, as the airstrikes against residential quarters continued all the way through the operation in Gaza.

“You can’t maybe [know] on the first day or the second day. But on the 10th day or the 20th day, when you see how many civilians are getting killed…these attacks shouldn’t have happened,” Stein said.

In December, human rights group Amnesty International accused Israel of the unjustified destruction of civilian buildings in Gaza during the conflict, branding it a symbolic form of “collective punishment.”Israel claims the buildings served as Hamas bases.

The report by B’Tselem is the third major human rights inquiry into the conflict in Gaza, after reports by Amnesty International and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel.

The Monitor, another Israeli NGO, claims that the report by B’Tselem is based only on testimony from residents who personally witnessed the airstrikes and data from the Hamas-run Gazan Health Ministry, a source not trusted by most Israelis.

“Once again, and regardless of the circumstances and available evidence, B’Tselem has contorted the facts in order to pronounce Israel guilty. Contrary to such claims, Hamas is morally and legally responsible for civilian deaths in Gaza,” Monitor’s legal adviser Anne Herzberg commented on the report.

Cuba demands Guantanamo Bay in return for US ties

by

Cuban President Raul Castro issues broad list of demands, saying that without them normal relations are unreachable.

Castro's call for an end to the US embargo drew support at the summit from several Latin American presidents [Reuters]

Castro’s call for an end to the US embargo drew support at the summit from several Latin American presidents [Reuters]

by Associated Press

Cuban President Raul Castro demanded that the United States return the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay before the two nations re-establish normal relations.

Castro also said the US should lift the half-century trade embargo on Cuba and compensate his country for damages in exchange for reconcilliation.

Castro told a summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States on Wednesday that Cuba and the US are working toward full diplomatic relations but “if these problems aren’t resolved, this diplomatic rapprochement wouldn’t make any sense”.

Castro and US President Barack Obama announced on December 17 that they would move toward renewing full diplomatic relations by reopening embassies in each other’s countries.

The two governments held negotiations in Havana last week to discuss both the reopening of embassies and the broader agenda of re-establishing normal relations.

Obama has loosened the trade embargo with a range of measures designed to increase economic ties with Cuba and increase the number of Cubans who don’t depend on the communist state for their livelihoods.

The Obama administration says removing barriers to US travel, remittances and exports to Cuba is a tactical change that supports the United States’ unaltered goal of reforming Cuba’s single-party political system and centrally planned economy.

Cuba has said it welcomes the measures but has no intention of changing its system.

List of Cuban demands

Castro emphasised an even broader list of Cuban demands, saying that while diplomatic ties may be re-established, normal relations with the US depend on a series of concessions that appear highly unlikely in the near future.

He demanded that the US end the transmission of anti-Castro radio and television broadcasts and deliver “just compensation to our people for the human and economic damage that they’re suffered.”

Demands also include an end to US support for Cuban dissidents and Cuba’s removal from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Castro also wants the US to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages for losses caused by the embargo.

“The re-establishment of diplomatic relations is the start of a process of normalizing bilateral relations, but this will not be possible while the blockade still exists, while they don’t give back the territory illegally occupied by the Guantanamo naval base,” Castro said.

Castro’s call for an end to the US embargo drew support at the summit from the presidents of Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff also praised the effort by the leaders of Cuba and the US to improve relations.

“The two heads of state deserve our recognition for the decision they made – beneficial for Cubans and Americans, but, most of all, for the entire continent,” she said.

ISIL sets sunset deadline for hostage swap

by

ISIL threatens to kill a Jordanian pilot if al-Qaeda-linked female prisoner is not released by sunset on Thursday.

ISIL threatened to killed pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh if death row prisoner Sajida al-Rishawi was not released by sunset on Thursday [EPA]

ISIL threatened to killed pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh if death row prisoner Sajida al-Rishawi was not released by sunset on Thursday [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group set a deadline for Jordan to release an al-Qaeda-linked female prisoner, saying the group would kill a Jordanian pilot it holds “immediately” if the women is not freed by sunset on Thursday.

In a new audio recording a voice identifying itself as Japanese freelancer Kenji Goto said his captors would kill pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh if Iraqi death row prisoner Sajida al-Rishawi is not handed over by the end of the day.

“If Sajida al-Rishawi is not ready for exchange for my life at the Turkish border by Thursday sunset, 29th of January, Mosul time, the Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh will be killed immediately,” Goto said, in an unverified audio message distributed by ISIL-linked Twitter accounts.

It was not clear from the message if either Goto or Kasasbeh would be freed.

The recording was reported by monitoring group SITE Intelligence.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told parliament: “We are aware of the new message…(and) are verifying (its authenticity).”

The apparent communication breaks an anxious silence from the group since their previous 24-hour deadline for Rishawi expired, around 14:00 GMT Wednesday.

Amman had offered to free the Iraqi woman, who was convicted for her part in 2005 triple-hotel bombings in the Jordanian capital that killed 60 people, if the ISIL released their airman.

“Jordan is ready to release the prisoner Sajida al-Rishawi if the Jordanian pilot is freed unharmed,” state television quoted a government spokesman as saying on Wednesday.

“From the start, the position of Jordan was to ensure the safety of our son, the pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh,” it added. The government spokesman made no mention of Japanese hostage Goto.

‘Save my son’

Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh wrote on Twitter shortly before 15:00 GMT that his country was still awaiting confirmation that the pilot was safe.

Wednesday passed in a maelstrom of conflicting reports on the fate of the three key players, complicated by linguistic and cultural misunderstandings, and by the high stakes on all sides.

The atmosphere was tense in Jordan, where the country’s involvement in the US-led air raids against ISIL positions is contentious.

The downing on December 24 of Kasasbeh’s F-16 fighter jet over northern Syria and his subsequent capture and humiliation by ISIL exacerbated the situation.

This week the pilot’s father begged the government to save his son “at any price”.

Japan, which plays no military part in the fight against ISIL, was thrust onto the front line last week when a video appeared in which Goto and Haruna Yukawa, a self-described contractor, were seen kneeling in the desert.

A masked knifeman said Tokyo had 72 hours to pay a $200m ransom if it wanted to spare their lives.

When that deadline expired, new pictures appeared to show Yukawa had been beheaded, and a voice identifying itself as Goto demanded the release of Rishawi.

That twist left Japan pleading with Jordan, whose trump card-high-value al-Qaeda operative Rishawi – in the battle to get back its own captured airman had now been compromised.

In their next communication, on Tuesday, ISIL demanded Rishawi be handed over in exchange for Goto within 24 hours or both he and Kasasbeh would be killed.

Japan, a large donor to Jordan, has thrown itself on Amman’s mercy, aware that they hold the key to Goto’s safety, but also knowing that intense domestic pressure means the Jordanians must prioritise Kasasbeh.

The Japanese public has rallied round Goto, a respected war reporter and humanitarian, and though they are largely supportive of Abe’s handling of the crisis thus far, may take a dim view if he does not come home alive.

Goto’s mother, Junko Ishido, was at Japan’s parliament on Wednesday in a failed bid to meet Abe. After being refused an appointment, she issued a plea for her son’s life through assembled media.

“Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,” Ishido said. “Please continue your utmost efforts in negotiating with the Jordanian government until the last minute. There is not much time left.”

India to host Twenty20 World Cup in March-April 2016: ICC

by

International Cricket Council

New Delhi: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Thursday released schedule for period 2015-19 thus confirming India as the venue for ICC World Twenty20 2016.

The ICC Board, which was meeting for the first time this year at it’s Dubai headquarters, also allotted the 11 March-3 April 2016 window to conduct the World Cup for this newest format of cricket.

India had already won the rights to host the 2016 edition and it’s expected that the next year, the tournament will follow the one used two years ago in Bangladesh.

Last April, the ICC announced that following the success of 2014 ICC World Twenty20 in Bangladesh, the same format will be used for the next edition too.

The tournament will have a group stage to be competed by the qualified Associate teams along with the two lowest-ranked Test sides. Each winner from the two groups will play in the tournament proper, Super 10.

Notably, it is the only ICC tournament allotted to India during this four year period.

The qualifiers for the ICC World Twenty20 2016 will be held in Ireland and Scotland from July 6-26.

Eight Vidarbha farmers have committed suicide in last four days: Activist

by

A farmer in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint

A farmer in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint

Nagpur: At least eight debt-ridden farmers in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region ended their lives in the past four days, including four who committed suicide Wednesday, an activist said.

“The bodies of two farmers were brought early today (Wednesday) from Bodadi and Sonegaon villages of Yavatmal district. As the autopsy was being carried out, two more bodies were received at the V.N. Government Medical College — all within a couple of hours,” Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) president Kishore Tiwari told IANS.

The farmers who died Wednesday were identified as Bansi Rathode of Bodadi, Devrao Bhagwat of Sonegaon, Prakash Kutarmare of Mohada and Tulsiram Rathode of Devnala, according to VJAS secretary Mohan Jadhav.

Tiwari said four farmers committed suicide earlier this week — two each Jan 25 and Jan 27 — in different parts of Vidarbha.

“We have no information if anyone committed suicide on Republic Day (Jan 26) as it was a public holiday, and the government was busy with celebrations,” Tiwari said.

He attributed the spate of suicides in Vidarbha and other farmlands of Maharashtra to the sudden fall in prices of cotton and pulses.

Claiming that 62 farmers have ended their lives since Jan 1, Tiwari said 2015 could create a new record after 2013 when Maharashtra topped the National Crime Records Bureau figure for maximum farmland suicides at 3,146.

Jadhav said he was informed by the relatives of the farmers that they committed suicide “due to immense distress and despair” among their debt-hit families .

The VJAS leaders said they apprehend the worst with the oncoming summer season when the farming community has to grapple with scorching heat coupled with acute shortage of water.

(IANS)

Delhi polls: BJP ropes in star campaigners, 70 MPs to prepare ground for Mission 60

by

BJP

New Delhi: With less than two weeks to go for the Delhi polls, BJP today distributed charge of the constituencies here among as many as 58 Union ministers and MPs as it eyes a win here after a gap of 16 years.

The charge of the constituencies was allotted by the BJP’s central leadership and the leaders were tasked with looking after the party’s campaign and garnering support among the people.

Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal has been asked to look after the campaign in the Model Town constituency while Shahnawaz Hussain will bolster its efforts for the poll in the minority-dominated constituencies of Matia Mahal and Okhla.

“Today, around 58 Union ministers and MPs took charge of Delhi constituencies. More than 70 MPs have been assigned to oversee preparations for the Feb. 7 polls to the 70-member Assembly,” said a senior BJP leader.

Most of the leaders were given charge of one constituency each.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who has been asked to look after the management of Delhi BJP, today visited the state unit’s office and took the stock of poll preparations.

Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Anant Kumar, too, has been asked to look after the overall management of the party in Delhi.

Senior BJP leader and MP Kirit Somaya will oversee the party’s campaign in New Delhi constituency where Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal is one of the contestants.

Union ministers Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Mahesh Sharma have been asked to push BJP’s cause in the Babarpur and Laxmi Nagar constituencies, respectively.

(PTI)

KNOW US

GET INVOLVED

PROMOTE

Archives