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370 die of drug clinical trials in India in 2 years

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Protesters outside the Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre. Photo: Sayeed Farooqui/Mint

Protesters outside the Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre. Photo: Sayeed Farooqui/Mint

New Delhi: At least 370 deaths have been reported during drug clinical trials in India since February 2013, while compensation has been paid in only 21 cases, said media Monday.

The Times of India quoted government data as saying of the 370 deaths, 222 or 60 percent cases have been examined so far by a regulatory panel on clinical trials, but only 21 were eligible for compensation as the drug under trial was found to have caused the deaths, said the report.

Pharmaceutical companies are targeting poor rural population for their drug trials, but there is a lack of government regulation to hold them responsible once the trial causes death, said experts.

Om Puri to get lifetime achievement award at IFFP

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Om Puri

New Delhi: Veteran actor Om Puri will be honoured with the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award at the debut edition of International FIlm Festival Of Prayag, Allahabad (IFFP).

‘The Hundred-Foot Journey’ star will be honoured with the award on Februray 28, 2015 at the function. Festival Director Abhishek Arun said it’s an honour for them to welcome Puri for their debut edition. “We are very fortunate to get Om Puri’s support. We will honour him with the Lifetime Achievement Award at this event as our respect towards him. I know we are just about to begin our journey and he is a legend, the whole world knows about his contribution to the cinema,” Arun said in a statement.

The founder of the festival Hasan Haider said the 64-year-old actor’s films continue to find relevance.

“Filmmaking professionals and students belonging to the northern region of our country will have a new platform. I am sure it will be a great opportunity for the students and professional filmmakers to get interact with Puriji during this festival,” Haider said.

The Patiala-born actor appeared in many mainstream commercial and independent films besides his appearances in British and American film in a career spanning over three decades.

(PTI)

Modi speaks to Sharif, says India stands firmly with Pakistan

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Pakistani parents react near the site of an attack by Taliban gunmen on a school in Peshawar on December 16, 2014. At least 130 people were killed in a Taliban attack on an army-run school in northwest Pakistan, officials said. AFP PHOTO/ A MAJEED

Pakistani parents react near the site of an attack by Taliban gunmen on a school in Peshawar on December 16, 2014. At least 130 people were killed in a Taliban attack on an army-run school in northwest Pakistan, officials said. AFP PHOTO/ A MAJEED

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday evening spoke with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif over phone and offered his deepest condolences for the dastardly terror attack on a school in Peshawar. He said India was ready to provide all assistance during this hour of grief.

The prime minister spoke to Sharif after the latter returned from a visit to the school where around 140 people, mostly children, were slaughtered by Taliban gunmen.

“India stands firmly with Pakistan in fight against terror. Told PM Sharif we are ready to provide all assistance during this hour of grief,” he tweeted.

External affairs spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin in a tweet posted the prime minister’s statement during his talk with Sharif, which said Modi condemned in the strongest terms the brutal terrorist attack in Peshawar.

Modi said the “savage killing of innocent children, who are the epitome of the finest human values, in a temple of learning was not only an attack against Pakistan, but an assault against the entire humanity”.

“At a time when the world is getting disturbingly accustomed to acts of terror, this terrible tragedy has shaken the conscience of the world,” he said.

“He said the people of India shared the heart rending pain and sorrow of the bereaved families and the people of Pakistan and stood with them in solidarity in this hour of immeasurable grief.

“He (Modi) also hoped that the children who had witnessed the horrific attack and loss of their friends would come through this trauma with counselling.”

Modi told Sharif that “this moment of shared pain and mourning is also a call for our two countries and all those who believe in humanity to join hands to decisively and comprehensively defeat terrorism, so that the children in Pakistan, India and elsewhere do not have to face a future darkened by the lengthening shadow of terrorism”.

Earlier in the day, Modi tweeted his condemnation, saying: “It is a senseless act of unspeakable brutality that has claimed lives of the most innocent of human beings – young children in their school. My heart goes out to everyone who lost their loved ones today. We share their pain & offer our deepest condolences,” he said.

(IANS)

IS banned in India, minority youths discouraged from joining: Rajnath

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Rajnath Singh

New Delhi: Home Minister Rajnath Singh Tuesday said the Islamic State (IS) terror group has been banned in India, and congratulated the Indian minorities for discouraging their youth from joining the outfit.

“We have banned the ISIS as a first step. I will like to inform (the house) that the group has been banned under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Amendment Act 62,” he told the Lok Sabha, referring to the terror outfit by its earlier name ISIS.

Rajnath Singh said the group has been proscribed under the provisions of the UAPA that relates to organisations listed in the schedule to the UN Prevention and Suppression of Terrorist (Implementation of Security Council Resolutions) Order, 2007 made under section 2 of the United Nations (Security Council) Act, 1947 and amended from time to time.

The home minister said the government had taken cognizance immediately after the IS activities began to spread in various parts of the world.

“There are only a handful or negligible number of people involved in ISIS activities in India. Their involvement too has not been direct. I congratulate the Indian minorities for discouraging their youth,” he said during question hour in the Lok Sabha.

In many developed countries like Britain and France, minority families were encouraging youth to join the IS, but Indian minorities were discouraging their children, he said.

“I congratulate the minority community for discouraging youth from getting radicalised,” Rajnath Singh said.

Responding to a supplementary question on steps taken by the government to prevent the spread of the IS, he said India has already banned the outfit and was monitoring the cyberspace to stop its propaganda.

“Cyberspace is a very serious issue. To monitor this system, it needs to be strengthened and I have asked for a committee to be constituted to monitor this.”

“We will ensure that it is properly monitored,” he added.

Mehdi Masroor Biswas, a pro-Islamic State (IS) tweeter, was arrested Saturday from Bengaluru after a British news channel Dec 11 unmasked the 24-year-old executive as a supporter of the outfit through social media and Twitter handle @ShamiWitness.

The home minister also assured the Lok Sabha that no innocent person from the minority community would be taken into custody with regard to suspected terror activities. If there were such instances, they could be brought to his notice.

Responding to another query on the IS, Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said the matter was “very, very sensitive and the details cannot be discussed”.

(IANS)

Pakistan Taliban storm Peshawar school, 130 killed

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The feet of a victim of a Taliban attack in a school are tied together at a local hospital in Peshawar — AP

The feet of a victim of a Taliban attack in a school are tied together at a local hospital in Peshawar — AP

by BBC

At least 126 people, mostly children, have been killed in a Taliban assault on an army-run school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, officials say.

Five or six militants are said to have entered the building. Five are reported to have been killed, at least one of them in a suicide blast.

The army says most of the school’s 500 students have been evacuated. It is not clear how many are being held hostage.

The attack is being seen as one of the worst yet in Pakistan.

The BBC’s Aamer Ahmed Khan in Islamabad says the killing of schoolchildren has caused unprecedented shock.

Thousands of Pakistanis have been killed in militant violence in recent years.

A spokesman for the militants says the school was targeted in response to army operations.

Hundreds of Taliban fighters are thought to have died in a recent military offensive in North Waziristan and the nearby Khyber area.

A student cries on a man’s shoulder, after he was rescued from the Army Public School – Reuters

Many of the casualties were reportedly caused by a suicide blast. At least 80 of the dead are said to be children.

The attack started at 10:00 local time (05:00 GMT). Mudassir Awan, a worker at the school, said he saw six people scaling the walls of the school.

“We thought it must be the children playing some game,” he told Reuters news agency. “But then we saw a lot of firearms with them.

“As soon as the firing started, we ran to our classrooms,” he said. “They were entering every class and they were killing the children.”

A school worker and a student interviewed by the local Geo TV station said the attackers had entered the Army Public School’s auditorium, where a military team was conducting first-aid training for students.

Locals said they also heard the screams of students and teachers. The dead are said to include teachers, as well as a paramilitary soldier.

Gunfire and loud explosions were heard as security forces hunted down the militants.

Ambulances have been carrying the injured to nearby hospitals. A helicopter is also in the area. Major roads in Peshawar in the city have been sealed off.

A doctor at the local Lady Reading hospital said many of the students were in “very bad condition”, with severe head wounds.

Frantic parents are gathering at hospitals to find out if their children are safe.

The school is at the edge of a military cantonment in Peshawar, which has seen some of the worst of the violence during a Taliban insurgency in recent years.

Many of the students were the children of military personnel. Most of them would have been aged 16 or under.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who has just arrived in Peshawar, described the attack as a “national tragedy”.

The Pakistani opposition politician and former cricket captain Imran Khan condemned the attack as “utter barbarism”.

Petrol, diesel rates cut by Rs 2 per litre

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petrol-price-oil

New Delhi: Petrol and diesel prices were today cut by Rs 2 per litre each as international oil prices slumped to five-year low.

This is the eighth straight reduction in petrol prices since August, and fourth in diesel since October. New rates will be effective midnight tonight, Indian Oil Corp, the nation’s largest fuel retailer, announced here.

In Delhi, petrol will cost Rs 61.33 a litre, the lowest in 44 months, as compared to current price of Rs 63.33. The price has been cut by Rs 2.09 a litre in Mumbai to Rs 68.86.

Rates differ from state to state because of varied rates of local sales tax or VAT.

Diesel will cost Rs 50.51 a litre in Delhi, the lowest since July 2013, as against Rs 52.51 currently. In Mumbai, it will cost Rs 57.91 per litre as compared to Rs 60.11.

The rate cut would have been steeper but for the government deciding to make hay out of the crude oil rate slump to USD 62.37 per barrel by raising excise duty on petrol by Rs 2.25 and by Re 1 a litre on diesel.

Crude oil price in June was USD 115 per barrel. The prices of petrol and diesel were last revised downwards on December 1 by 91 paisa a litre and 84 paisa per litre respectively (including state levies at Delhi) on the back of declining international oil prices.

After today’s reduction, petrol price has been cut by Rs 12.27 per litre cumulatively since August.

Diesel price was cut for the first time in more than five years on October 19 by Rs 3.37 a litre when the government decided to deregulate the fuel. This was followed by a Rs 2.25 a litre reduction on November 1 and 84 paisa per litre on December 1. Cumulatively, diesel prices have been cut by Rs 8.46 a litre in four reductions.

There would have been another reduction on November 15 but the government mopped up, raising excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 1.50 a litre each. In the two excise duty hikes, the government has raised its revenue by Rs 10,600 crore this fiscal.

IOC said in a statement: “The prices of petrol and diesel were last revised downwards with effect from December 1 by Rs 0.91 per litre and Rs 0.84 a litre respectively (including state levies at Delhi) on the back of declining international oil prices.

“Since the above price changes, the international prices of both petrol and diesel have continued to be on a downtrend. The Rupee-US Dollar exchange rate has however appreciated since the last price change. The combined impact of both these factors warrant a decrease in retail selling prices of both petrol and diesel.”

The movement of prices in international oil market and Rupee-USD exchange rate shall continue to be closely monitored and developing trends of the market will be reflected in future price changes, it added.

(PTI)

Sydney siege ends after 16 hrs, three dead

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Sydney siege

Sydney: Heavily armed police officers ended a hostage crisis at the Lindt Chocolate Cafe here around 2:45 am local time on Tuesday, storming its premises where an armed man — said to be a self-proclaimed Sheik — held employees and customers, including two Indians, captive for more than 16 hours.

The two Indians, Vishwakant Ankireddy and Pushpendra Ghosh, both employees of Infosys, are safe.

The number of casualties was not immediately clear, but agencies reported that three people were dead, including the gunman.

“Sydney siege is over. More details to follow,” the New South Wales Police said in a tweet.

Earlier, the police said that the hostage-taker was Man Haron Monis, an Iranian-born man in his 50s with a criminal record, who called himself Sheik Haron.

Monis was carrying a black flag with white Arabic script similar to those used by Islamic militants on other continents, and the flag was later displayed in the window of the cafe.

Five people, including two cafe employees, had fled by 7 pm local time, but it was not clear whether the assailant had allowed them to leave or they had escaped. Helicopters hovered over the city, the train network was temporarily stopped and buildings, including the nearby Sydney Opera House, were shut down.

According to “The Age”, Monis was out on bail in two separate criminal cases. He was charged in November 2013 for murdering his ex-wife, Noleen Hayson Pal, who was stabbed and set on fire in an apartment in Werrington.

In April 2014, Monis was charged for sexual assault. The police said that Monis held himself out as a spiritual healer and conducted business on Station Street, Wentworthville. A website apparently associated with Monis includes condemnation of the US and Australia for their military actions against Islamic militants in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A Muslim community leader in Sydney, Dr Jamal Rifi, said in a televised interview: “Everything he stands for is wrong. It has nothing to do with Islam.”

Prime Minister Tony Abbott, before Monis was publicly identified, referred to him as “an armed person claiming political motivation.” The US Consulate General in Sydney, about a block from the cafe, and the Consulate General of India in Sydney, barely 400 metres from the cafe, were evacuated.

An Islamic State spokesman, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, issued a statement in September asking Muslims in Australia to carry out attacks. On September 12, Abbott raised Australia’s terrorism alert level to high from medium. He gave the police broader powers to arrest terror suspects and tightened restrictions on the media’s reporting on national security matters. Two weeks later, police fatally shot a man who attacked them with a knife.

(Agencies)

Indian consulate in Sydney evacuated

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SYDNEY CAFE SIEGE

New Delhi: The Indian consulate in Australia’s Sydney city has been evacuated following a hostage taking at a nearby cafe, an official said.

Vinod Bahade, deputy consul general in Sydney, told IANS that though there was no confirmation regarding the nationality of the hostages, the officials were in constant touch with the security agencies.

The consulate is barely 400 metres from the cafe where a gunman took over three dozen people hostage.

“Minutes after we got to know that some people at a nearby cafe have been taken hostage by a gunman, the Indian consulate was evacuated. However, we have not shut it and the work will resume once the problem is solved,” Bahade told IANS over phone from Sydney.

The hostage-taking took place in Sydney’s bustling central business district.

Bahade said they have been constantly getting updates from the Australian authorities and trying to know if any Indian was among the hostages.

Surinder Datta, deputy high commissioner at the Indian High Commission at Canberra, told IANS that the incident is being constantly being monitored.

“We are taking reports from the Indian consulate in Sydney. This is a very critical issue and we do not want to take any decision in hurry,” he told IANS over phone from Canberra.

(IANS)

Fourth phase: 49% cast vote in J&K, 61% in Jharkhand

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Jharkhand polls

Ranchi: Ignoring the boycott call given by separatists and braving cold weather, over 49 per cent of 14.73 lakh voters exercised their franchise in the penultimate phase of Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir.

Barring minor clashes between supporters of rival parties at a dozen places, polling in all the 18 constituencies spread over three districts of Kashmir, including summer capital Srinagar, and one district in Jammu region was by and large peaceful.

Despite severe cold, long queues of voters were seen outside the polling stations to exercise their franchise at many polling stations.

The trends in voter turnout in eight constituencies of Srinagar city, which have witnessed low voter turnout in the past elections due to separatist boycott calls, pointed towards a higher poll percentage this time.

While four constituencies of Khanyar, Habbakadal, Amirakadal and Zadibal had already surpassed the turnout recorded in 2008 assembly elections, the polling was going on briskly in other segments.

Sonawar constituency, where Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is contesting, witnessed the highest 33.85 per cent turnout in Srinagar followed by Hazratbal constituency at 22.77 per cent.

Edigah, Zadibal, Khanyar, Amirakadal and Batmaloo constituencies witnessed over 21.51 per cent, 20.14, 21.02 and 18.73 per cent turnout, respectively, till 2 PM in the fourth of the five-phased Assembly polls.

Anantnag constituency in south Kashmir, where PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed is a candidate, saw 30.58 per cent of the electorate cast their votes in the first six hours.

Pahalgam constituency in Anantnag district was leading in the turnout in Kashmir with 54.63 per cent of electorate exercising their franchise till 2 PM.

Shangus constituency recorded 53.46 per cent turnout, followed by Dooru (52.63), Kokernag (51.95), Bijbehara (44.07), Shopian (39.78) and Wachi (36.30).

Stringent security arrangements have been put in place to ensure incident-free polling across the state, the officials said.

Women outnumber men in Jharkhand

Women voters Sunday outnumbered men in the fourth phase of the assembly elections in Jharkhand. Around 61 percent balloting was reported from across the 15 constituencies that went to the polls, officials said.

“The highest polling was reported from Chankayari with 71.28 percent, followed by 70.2 percent in Madhupur. Polling was by and large peaceful. The turnout in Maoist-affected areas was more than 60 percent,” a poll official said. Women voters scored over the male voters.

“In the fourth phase, women’s turnout was around two percent more than male voters,” an Election Commission official said.

Balloting for 15 of the 81 assembly constituencies began at 7 a.m. While voting for 13 seats ended at 3 p.m., it continued in Bokaro and Dhanbad till 5 p.m. Voting took place at 5,482 booths, including 36 auxiliary ones.

As many as 716 booths were declared ‘very sensitive’ and 2,007 declared ‘sensitive’.

The Election Commission declared 183 polling stations as model polling stations. Webcasting facility was available in 335 polling stations and 27,410 polling personnel were deployed in the fourth phase.

A total of 43,48,709 voters, including 20,03,516 females, were eligible to elect their representatives.

The fate of 217 candidates, including 16 females, was sealed in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) by the end of balloting for the day. Former chief minister Babulal Marandi contested from Giridih constituency.

Ministers Mannan Mallik of the Congress, Haji Hussain Ansari of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and Suresh Paswan of the Rashtriya Janata Dal were among the other prominent candidates in this phase.

In the 2005 assembly polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party and its then alliance partner Janata Dal-United won seven of these 15 seats together. The JMM won four seats.

(Agencies)

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