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Mumbai Indians peaking at right time: Skipper Rohit

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Mumbai Indians

Mumbai: Mumbai Indians’ (MI) skipper Rohit Sharma on Tuesday said with four back-to-back victories, the side has got the momentum and is peaking at the right time for the later part of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

After Yuvraj Singh’s late blitz helped Delhi Daredevils post 152/6, Ambati Rayudu and Rohit Sharma displayed excellent batting skills to help Mumbai reach 153/5 in 19.3 overs, registering a five-wicket win here.

“We are peaking at the right time. We are not thinking about the table right now as it’s very complicated and very tight. Every team is close to each other,” Rohit said at the post-match press conference.

“What happens at the end of May 17 is important. We are focusing and trying to take each game at a time. It is important we stay in the present and think about the next game.”

Mumbai have suffered a jolt ahead of their next match against Chennai Super Kings on Friday in Chennai as their Sri Lankan pace spearhead Lasith Malinga will not travel with the team. Sri Lankan players are barred from playing at the venue.

“We will surely miss him. He has been a crucial member of our team. His absence will be felt. This gives an opportunity to someone else to come and prove,” Rohit said.

For Mumbai, off-spinner Harbhajan Singh (2-11) and Sri Lankan pacer Lasith Malinga (2-33) were the main wicket-takers against Delhi.

Speaking on Harbhajan’s performance, the skipper said, “He has been bowling superbly right from the start of the season. He is an experienced player and knows how and when to bowl what.

“He is taking wickets, keeping runs in check, feels good as a captain.”

(IANS)

SC orders Bengaluru civic body polls in three months

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BBMP-BUILDING

Bengaluru: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Karnataka government to conduct elections to the Bengaluru civic body within three months.

Setting aside the Karnataka High Court’s April 24 ruling, which ordered that the civic polls be held in six months (by October), the apex court told the state election commission to conduct elections in 198 civic wards across the city by July 18, as the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) was superseded on April 18, four days before its five-year term was to lapse.

The top court’s ruling came on a bunch of petitions filed by the state election commission, NGO Namma Bengaluru Foundation, two former BJP corporators C.K. Ramamurthy and B. Somashekar and Rajya Sabha independent member Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

“The state government was using both its trifurcation proposal and dissolution of the civic body as a brazen excuse to delay the elections by six months,” Chandrasekhar said in a statement in Bengaluru.

The legislative assembly on April 20 passed by voice vote a bill to amend the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 2015 to bifurcate or trifurcate the BBMP.

Terming the apex court order a victory for democracy and the nine million denizens of Bengaluru, Chandrasekhar said the state government’s attempt to split the BBMP and delay its polls was against the constitutional provision of Article 243-U that mandates urban local bodies to conduct elections every five years.

The state government also assured the apex court of not splitting the BBMP till elections were held in the next three months.

The amended bill was, however, referred to a select committee of the state legislative council (upper house) by its chairman D.H. Shankaramurthy on April 27 as demanded by the opposition BJP and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) members.

The BBMP was expanded in 2007 by including seven city municipal councils and one town municipal council and 111 surrounding villages to increase civic wards to 198 from 100 earlier.

(With inputs from IANS)

Connect the world or capture It? Critics raise alarm over Facebook's spurious Internet.org

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Facebook service promises free web access for the developing world, while threatening the privacy and rights of hundreds of millions worldwide

Internet.org is already available to 800 million people in nine countries across Africa and Southeast Asia.

Internet.org is already available to 800 million people in nine countries across Africa and Southeast Asia.

by Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams

Privacy rights and open internet advocates are sounding the alarm after Facebook on Monday announced changes to its “free” Internet for the developing world, dubbed Internet.org, which critics say threatens to make the social networking company the de facto Internet “gatekeeper” for hundreds of millions worldwide.

Branded as an initiative to “connect the two thirds of the world that doesn’t have internet access,” Internet.org will reportedly work with local telecom providers to provide free Internet access to a handful of pre-selected websites—including Facebook—as well as others related to “health, education, communication, finance, jobs and local information.” The application has already launched in a number of African and Southeast Asian countries, as well as Colombia in South America.

Internet.org has previously come under fire for violating the principle of net neutrality because it only offers access to certain websites. In India, a number of major publications including the Times of India media group have withdrawn from the site in protest.

In response to that critique, in a video address on Monday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg announced a new platform model, under which Facebook will offer “an open program for developers” to create “very simple and data efficient” sites to be among those offered to Internet.org users.

“Giving people more choice over the services they use is incredibly important,” Facebook said.

However, this new platform is even worse, argues Josh Levy, advocacy director for the digital rights group Access.

The change, Levy writes at Wired on Tuesday, “sets Facebook up to serve as a quasi-internet service provider—except that unlike a local or national telco, all web traffic will be routed through Facebook’s servers. In other words, for people using Internet.org to connect to the internet, Facebook will be the de facto gatekeeper of the world’s information.”

Considering the market that Internet.org hopes to reach, that amounts to hundreds of millions of people worldwide. On April 17, Zuckerburg said that more than 800 million people in nine countries, including Kenya, Zambia, Tanzania, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines, already have access to the site.

In addition, Levy warns that by excluding commonly used security protocols, such as SSL and TLS, in their criteria for potential developers, Internet.org threatens to “undermine the security” of their users.

Further, Facebook’s new platform “lacks transparency,” as it has failed to disclose important policy details regarding the storage of and government requests for user data.

As Vice journalist Jordan Pearson points out, because Internet.org user access will be routed through Facebook’s servers, the company will “get a huge amount of insight into users’ online activity.” What’s more, Internet.org users will be subject to Facebook’s data policy, which leaves open the possibility for their information to be shared with advertisers as well as the Facebook’s partner organizations.

“However they may want to present Internet.org, Facebook are not in the business of philanthropy, they’re in the business of making money,” Paul Bernal, professor of technology law at the UK-based University of East Anglia, told Pearson. “With Internet.org that means two things: capturing a market, then using that market. They want people to be hooked in, and then their data is, effectively, controlled by Facebook. In the current era, if you can control someone’s data, you have a huge amount of control over them.”

Four sentenced to death over brutal Afghan mob killing

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Afghan court begins ruling on woman’s murder case, sentencing four men to death by hanging and eight others to jail.

Prosecutors alleged Farkhunda was beaten to death in an attack sparked by a bogus accusation she had burned a copy of the Quran [AP]

Prosecutors alleged Farkhunda was beaten to death in an attack sparked by a bogus accusation she had burned a copy of the Quran [AP]

by Al Jazeera

An Afghan court has sentenced four men to death by hanging for their roles in the mob killing of a woman in March.

The trial of 49 suspects, who were accused of taking part in the mob that killed the 27-year-old, known as Farkhunda, began on May 2. Nineteen police officers were among those facing charges in the trial.

Of the suspects sentenced on Wednesday, four were sentenced to death, eight were sentenced to 16 years in jail and 18 were set free due to a lack of evidence, Al Jazeera’s Jennifer Glasse reported.

The judge adjourned the case until Saturday, when the remaining 19 will be sentenced.

Prosecutors have alleged that Farkhunda was beaten to death in a frenzied attack sparked by a bogus accusation that she had burned a copy of the Quran.

Glasse said the remaing 19 suspects are policemen, but their fate is still unclear.

“The 19 men still to be sentenced are policemen and that will be the interesting part of this trial because the Afghan law number 354 makes failure to render assistance a crime here and they too could be sentenced to jail,” she said

“Earlier this week the police said in court that they tried to to do their job and called for reinforcements but reinforcements did not come. The prosecutor told the police it is their job to protect her.

“This is really a test for the justice system, this case that has captured the attention of the nation. The trial has been televised live everyday and Afghans have been watching very closely.”

The defendants have the right to appeal their sentences. The charges included assault, murder and encouraging others to participate in the assault. The police officers were charged with neglecting their duties and failing to prevent the attack.

Mujub Ullah Farkunda, Farkhunda’s brother, told Al Jazeera they were not happy with the outcome.

“They have wasted our time. The trial only happened because of pressure from the government. The real perpetrators were not there.

“The government didn’t arrest the real murderers. They arrested innocent people off the street and have hidden the real perpetrators. There were more than 100 people involved and they sentenced only 4 to death,” Mujub added.

Farkhunda’s brutal killing shocked many Afghans, though some public and religious figures said it would have been justified if she had in fact damaged a Quran. A presidential investigation later found that she had not damaged a copy of the Muslim holy book.

Her last agonising and brutal hours were captured on mobile phone cameras by witnesses and those in the mob that attacked her. The videos of the assault circulated widely on social media.

They showed Farkhunda – who, like many Afghans, went by only one name – being beaten, run over with a car and burned before her bloodied body was thrown into the river.

The incident sparked nationwide outrage and soul-searching, as well as a civil society movement seeking to limit the power of clerics, strengthen the rule of law and improve women’s rights.

Report: 38 million people are internally displaced throughout the world, Iraq hardest hit

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A photo taken on April 5, 2015 shows an internally displaced Iraqi girl at a camp for internally displaced people (IDP) in the northern city of Sammara. (AFP/Mohammed Sawaf)

A photo taken on April 5, 2015 shows an internally displaced Iraqi girl at a camp for internally displaced people (IDP) in the northern city of Sammara. (AFP/Mohammed Sawaf)

by Press TV

A record 38 million people across the globe are displaced inside their own homelands due to conflicts and violence, with Iraq being the hardest-hit nation, a watchdog group reveals.

The Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) released the data in a report titled Global Overview 2015 on Wednesday.

The report said nearly one third of the internally displaced persons (IDPs), or 11 million people, were forced from their homes last year alone, with an average of 30,000 people fleeing every day.

The IDMC said the total number of those displaced around the globe in 2014 increased by 14 percent compared to the figure reported in the year before.

“These are the worst figures for forced displacement in a generation, signaling our complete failure to protect innocent civilians,” said Jan Egeland (pictured above), the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, which oversees the IDMC.

“This report should be a tremendous wake-up call,” said Egeland, adding, “We must break this trend where millions of men, women and children are becoming trapped in conflict zones around the world.”

The data also showed that a staggering 60 percent of the newly displaced people last year were in just five countries, namely Iraq, South Sudan, Syria, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Iraqi people have been the hardest hit, with 2.2 million people forced to flee their homes to other parts of the country due to the violence by Daesh.

In Syria, some one million more people were forced from their homes last year, bringing the total number of the IDPs in the Middle Eastern countries to 7.6 million, or 40 percent of the population.

Ukraine also appeared in the IDMC’s report for the first time, with some 646,500 people internally displaced there in 2014 amid fighting between Kiev government troops and pro-Russia forces in the country’s eastern regions.

The watchdog group said the data also showed that there currently are nearly twice as many people who are internally displaced than refugees – those who flee their homeland – without giving an exact number of the refugees.

According to statistics from the United Nations, some 16.7 million people across the globe were living as refugees at the end of 2013.

Karnataka to hold two-phase panchayat polls

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Karnataka-poll

Bengaluru: Election to 5,844 rural local bodies (gram panchayats) will be held in two phases on May 29 and June 1 in Karnataka, an official said on Wednesday.

“As new rural local bodies have to be constituted following the expiry of their previous five-year tenure, polling will be held on May 29 and June 1 in 15 districts,” state election commission chief P.N. Srinivasachari told IANS.

Counting of votes for both phases will take place on June 5.

Ahead of notification for the first phase, the model code of conduct will come into force from May 10 and prevail till June 7 in all villages, taluks (sub-districts) and zilla (districts) including urban local bodies.

“Though the government has made voting in the local body poll compulsory by amending the Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act, the offenders will not be penalised,” Srinivasachari said.

As the rural local body election is held on a non-party basis, 28 million voters will be eligible to elect 94,458 members. Half the seats are reserved for women.

“Polling, however, will not be held in 229 local bodies as their tenure is up to August,” Srinivasachari added.

On a pilot basis, the poll panel will use electronic voting machines (EVMs) for the first time in the rural local bodies across Bidar district, about 690 km from here.

(IANS)

Salman Khan gets two days interim bail

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salman-khan

Mumbai: Supreme Court lawyer Harish Salve, who represented Salman, challenged the sessions court order of a five year sentence, in the High Court. “Have received only operative part of the order. You cannot put someone in jail without a proper court order,” Salve argues.

Bombay High has now granted a 2-day interim bail to Salman.

Salve argued that a convict cannot be put in jail without a proper order. Salve argued his client has not got the complete order yet. He argued that Salman had received only the operative part of the order.

This means Salman Khan can stay out of jail till Friday, May 8, which is also when the Bombay High Court goes on vacation.

Huge relief for Salman Khan, his family and friends. Salman is still at the sessions court. His sisters Alvira and Arpita are at the Bombay High Court.

Salman Khan gets 5-year rigorous imprisonment in hit-and-run case

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salman-khan-mumbai-court

Mumbai: Salman Khan was today sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment by a Mumbai sessions court, which convicted him of culpable homicide in the 2002 hit-and-run case, dealing a big blow to the Bollywood superstar.

Judge D W Deshpande, who held the 49-year-old actor guilty of “all charges”, including driving under influence of liquor and not possessing a driving licence, pronounced the sentence after a 45-minute adjournment of the proceedings.

A big crowd, mostly of Salman’s fans, thronged around the court located in Fort area of south Mumbai.

The actor, who had fought back tears after being convicted, looked calm and composed as the judgement was read out to him in the presence of his close family members.

The superstar’s brothers Arbaaz and Sohail and sister Arpita were present in the court on the judgement day, which came after a long drawn legal process.

Dressed in a white shirt and blue jeans, the actor arrived in the jam-packed courtroom minutes before the proceedings began in the morning.

Sessions court judge D W Deshpande ruled “all charges” against the actor have been proved, including the stringent charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, besides various other offences, including rash and negligent driving and driving under influence of liquor.

The judge held that the actor also did not have a driving licence. The prosecution had alleged that Khan was driving without holding a licence and, to buttress its charge, produced RTO records to show that the actor had procured a licence only in 2004, two years after the tragedy.

The court, while pronouncing the judgement, drew parallels with the Alistair Pereira and Sanjeev Nanda BMW cases.
Asked if he had to say anything about the verdict, Salman denied the charge that he was driving the vehicle at the time of the accident.

Salman had earlier been tried for the lesser offence of causing death by rash and negligent driving which attracts a lighter punishment of imprisonment upto two years.

After examining several witnesses, a Bandra Metropolitan Magistrate had called off the trial midway in 2012 and slapped the serious charge of culpable homicide against the actor before committing the matter to the sessions court.

The court, while convicting the hugely popular actor, upheld the prosecution’s contention that he was at the wheel when his Toyota Land Cruiser ran over five people sleeping on the pavement outside American Express bakery in suburban Bandra, killing one person and wounding four.

(PTI)

Greenpeace says it may shut India operations in a month

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Greenpeace says the government restrictions are an "attempt to silence criticism"

Greenpeace says the government restrictions are an “attempt to silence criticism”

The environmental group Greenpeace has said it may be forced to shut down in India in a month because the government has frozen its bank accounts.

The pressure group said it had only about 30 days’ worth of funds with which to pay office costs and salaries.

India blocked the group’s accounts last month, accusing it of violating tax laws and working against its economic interests.

Greenpeace says the restrictions are an “attempt to silence criticism”.

The group, which says it is being targeted because of its campaigns on issues such as pollution and harmful pesticides, is preparing a legal challenge.

“We have one month left to save Greenpeace India from complete shutdown, and to fight MHA’s [ministry of home affairs] indefensible decision to block our domestic accounts,” Greenpeace India official Samit Aich said in a press release on Tuesday.

The group has been present in India for 14 years and employs 340 people.

An official in India’s home ministry told the BBC they had not seen the Greenpeace release and hence could not comment on it.

In April, while freezing its bank accounts for six months, the government accused Greenpeace of not fully declaring the amount of foreign funds it brings into the country.

Greenpeace India rejected the charge – it said it had complied with the law governing foreign contributions.

In a long-running dispute India has accused the environmental group of “stalling development projects” by protesting against large infrastructure plans.

Since coming to power in May last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has pushed through a series of long-awaited reforms and new policies making it easier for companies to win approval for new projects.

Greenpeace activists have accused him of watering down environmental rules after the government allowed industries to operate closer to protected green zones.

(BBC)

'Forty migrants drown in Mediterranean': Save the Children

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Migrants wait to disembark from military ship "Bettica" following a rescue operation at sea on May 5, 2015 in the port of Salerno, southern Italy. (AFP/Mario Laporta)

Migrants wait to disembark from military ship “Bettica” following a rescue operation at sea on May 5, 2015 in the port of Salerno, southern Italy. (AFP/Mario Laporta)

by Al Bawaba

Forty migrants drowned off the coast of Italy when a boat trying to reach Europe either deflated or burst from the heat, survivors told the organization Save the Children.

According to Reuters, some of the 194 survivors told the activist group the deaths occurred on Sunday. The survivors came from several African countries including Gambia, Senegal, Ghana, Mali and the Ivory Coast. AFP said there were 137 people on board.

Human traffickers have increased their attempts to smuggle people out of conflict-torn countries to try to reach Europe as spring weather has calmed seas and provided good weather. The UN has estimated more than 1,700 migrants have died in the Mediterranean so far this year.

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