Woman gang-raped, killed in WB; gang-raped minor attempts suicide in Guj

A middle-aged woman was allegedly gang-raped and murdered in West Bengal while a minor girl in Gujarat was gang-raped which led her to attempt suicide, as a rash of rape cases were reported in the country today in which two village officials were among the arrested.
As the outrage over the death of the 23-year-old gang-rape victim in Delhi continued, there was a spurt in number of reported sexual assault cases in Punjab with many alleged victims coming forward with their complaints.
A man and his son were arrested for allegedly raping his teenaged daughter in Dombivili township of Thane district in Maharashtra while a 15-year-old dalit girl was allegedly raped and held captive for 15 days by three men in Dharauli village in Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh.
The two village officials were arrested in connection with two rape incidents in Andhra Pradesh and Chattisgarh.
In the incident at Jagannathpur in West Bengal's North 24-Parganas district, Police said the woman's son, Alafaz Ali, had filed an FIR last night at Barasat police station stating that his mother was gang-raped and murdered and his father was poisoned and seriously injured.
Additional Superintendent of Police Bhaskar Mukherjee said the body of the 45-year old woman was found near a brick kiln last evening bearing sharp wounds on the head.
The incident occured when the woman went to look for her husband, a brick-kiln worker last evening. Six persons allegedly assaulted her, Mukherjee said.
Meanwhile, her husband returned home and went to look for his wife when he heard her cry for help and was in turn assaulted and forcibly made to consume some poisonous substance, he said.
The victim and her husband were rushed to Barasat State General hospital where the woman died
Police arrested one person today and detained eight others for interrogation.
In Gujarat, a minor gang-rape victim allegedly attempted suicide by consuming poison at her residence today, police said. The 14-year-old girl's condition is critical and she has been put on ventilator, they said.
Police said the minor was kidnapped in a car from Dholka town in Ahmedabad district and raped by two persons on December 6, following which her family members registered FIR on December 14.
"The girl had been complaining to her father of acute stomach pain for the past two days. Unable to bear it any longer, she mixed pesticide with water and drank it early morning today. She was immediately taken to a private hospital in the village before being brought to VS Hospital in city," Dholka police inspector BD Thakkar told reporters.
He said the girl has been put on ventilator and kept in the Trauma Centre. "Her condition is critical because she is physically very weak," Thakkar said.
A search is on to trace the accused duo who are on the run since the incident, the officer said.
A Village Revenue Officer (VRO) of Nandivada in Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh has been arrested for allegedly raping his colleague, police said.
B Pandu was arrested after a rape case was registered against him last evening, it said.
The victim had joined his office as his assistant around four months back, it added.
According to police, Pandu once offered her a spiked soft drink, following which she fell unconscious. He then took her objectionable pictures and black-mailed her to have physical relationship with him.
The woman lodged a complaint with the police yesterday and a case under sections 376 and 506 of the IPC have been registered against the accused and the investigation is on.
At least five persons were arrested for allegedly raping a tribal woman in Chhattisgarh's Kanker district, police said.
"Five people have been booked under section 376(g) (gang rape) by Pakhanjur police station yesterday," Superintendent of Police Rahul Bhagat told PTI.
The accused include a village sarpanch. According to the woman, she was raped by the accused at Alor village (over 250km from Raipur) on December 23.
Two days later she went to the government hospital in Pakhanjur where the doctors informed the police that a woman, brutally assaulted, had been admitted.
However, the SP said, the medical report of the government hospital was silent on rape. Next day, the victim herself went to a private hospital, where she told the doctors about the rape.

Delhi gang-rape: Govt, other people in Punjab, Haryana cancel New Year plans

Following nation-wide grief and anger over the death of Delhi gang-rape victim, many people in Punjab and Haryana including both the state governments have decided to cancel or tone down their party plans for New Year.
Several prime hotels in the region and governments of both Punjab and Haryana have cancelled their programmes to be held to mark New Year celebrations, officials said in Chandigarh.
While Haryana government cancelled its lunch on the eve of New Year, several hotels and clubs in the region, including Press club of Chandigarh, too decided not to host any party.
Several business houses here have also decided to cancel events on New Year's eve, officials said.
Meanwhile, people across Chandigarh observed prayers for the victim. Various political outfits, cutting across party-lines, also joined in the mourning and demanded that the guilty be given the severest of the punishments.

Haryana: Student rapes Dalit classmate, arrested

An engineering student of a private college was arrested in this Haryana district for allegedly raping his Dalit classmate, police said Sunday.
The victim is a Bachelor of Technology student with her attacker. She alleged she was raped on Friday.
"We have arrested the youngster, Gagandeep, on the basis of the victim's complaint. The incident is being investigated," a police official said here.
The victim told the police that she was going for her tuition class on Friday when the accused came in his car and pulled her inside. She said the accused drove to an isolated area and raped her.
Police officials said the victim complained nearly 24 hours after the incident and a case was registered at the Pipli police station, 11 km from Kurukshetra.

Hurried morning cremation for rape victim

Amid an outpouring of anger and grief in the country, the body of the 23-year-old paramedical student who was gangraped and tortured in a moving bus in Delhi, was flown to the national capital from Singapore early this morning and cremated within hours.
The mortal remains of the victim, who lost her battle for life in a Singapore hospital on Saturday, were consigned to flames here early on Sunday, away from public glare, shortly after her body was received by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the early hours.
The funeral pyre was lit by her sobbing father at a crematorium in Dwarka after relatives and friends said their final prayers at a ritual at the house where the girl lived in Delhi.
The Prime Minister and Sonia waited in the Palam technical area of the IGI airport where a special Air India aircraft, AIC-380A, carrying the body of the girl, accompanied by her parents and two brothers, taxied down the tarmac in heavy fog in a sombre atmosphere, reflecting the national mood against the attack on her on the night of December 16. After the plane landed at around 3:30 am, the PM and Sonia met the disconsolate family members.
Amidst heavy deployment of Delhi Police, Border Security Force (BSF) and Rapid Action Force personnel in riot gear, the body was taken to the house where the girl lived, before being taken to the crematorium in Dwarka.
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Minister of State for Home Affairs R P N Singh, West Delhi MP Mahabal Mishra, Delhi BJP chief Vijender Gupta were among those present at the cremation.

... contd.

Police Charge Six Men With Murder as India Mourns Rape Victim's Death

Indian police charged six men with murder after a 23-year-old woman they are accused of raping died in a Singapore hospital, prompting thousands of citizens in the world’s second-most populous nation to mourn her death.

The trial of the six, who allegedly assaulted the physiotherapy student in the back of a bus on Dec. 16, will start after police file charge documents on Jan. 3, Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said by phone today.
An Air India plane brought the woman’s body back from Singapore and it was cremated today, the Press Trust of India reported. Demonstrators gathered at the Jantar Mantar, an 18th- century observatory and traditional rallying point, demanding speedy punishment for the alleged rapists while some held placards calling for them to receive the death penalty.
Thousands joined protests and candlelit vigils to mark the death yesterday. Some protesters held placards calling for the improved treatment of women in India as they congregated in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. Others braved the cold winter’s evening in New Delhi to carry candles or meet in quiet prayer.
The victim, attacked in a moving bus, “passed away peacefully” early on Dec. 29, with her family and officials from the High Commission of India at her side, according to a statement from Kelvin Loh, chief executive officer at Mount Elizabeth Hospital. She had suffered “serious injuries to her body and brain,” he said.

Protests Allowed

Some roads will continue to be barricaded and some subway stations in New Delhi remain shut to prevent demonstrations in the city’s central area, Bhagat said. Protests are permitted at Jantar Mantar, and the Ram Lila grounds, a site used for religious ceremonies and meetings outside the city’s Red Fort, Bhagat said.
“We have already seen the emotions and energies this incident has generated,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. “It would be a true homage to her memory if we are able to channel these emotions and energies into a constructive course of action,” he said. It’s up to all Indians to “ensure that her death will not have been in vain.”
Singh has appointed a retired Delhi High Court judge to investigate the crime and fix lapses in policing. He also pledged to consider tougher penalties for sex crimes after the assault prompted street demonstrations organized through social- media postings. The protesters, who fought water cannons and tear gas on Dec. 22 and Dec. 23, demanded more be done to protect women in the capital and across India.
“The need of the hour is a dispassionate debate and inquiry into the critical changes that are required in societal attitudes,” Singh said in his statement.

Unauthorized Bus

After tricking the woman and her 28-year-old male friend into boarding the unauthorized chartered bus with dark, tinted windows and heavy curtains, the crew of the vehicle and accomplices assaulted the two over a period of about 45 minutes, stripped them and then threw them out.
The woman, whose name can’t be revealed under Indian laws, was flown to Singapore for specialist treatment, paid for by the Indian government.
The increased public role of women “is accompanied by growing threats to their safety and security,” the prime minister said on Dec. 27. “We must reflect on this problem, which occurs in all states and regions of our country.”
Data provided by India’s National Crime Records Bureau show about 24,200 cases of rape and 228,650 cases of crimes against women were reported in 2011. United Nations figures show 1.8 cases of rape for every 100,000 in India, compared with 63 in Sweden, 29 in the U.K. and 27 in the U.S. Most instances of rape go unreported in India.

Swift Prosecution

Singh has vowed to hasten prosecution of the accused. The panel led by the former chief justice of the Supreme Court has been asked to rewrite criminal codes to allow harsher penalties to be imposed, including capital punishment in the “rarest of rare” rape cases.
It typically takes years for ordinary Indians to get justice because of a slow-moving legal process and overburdened courts. Long-running trials and lax enforcement of laws have also fueled protests in the nation’s capital. About 63,342 cases were pending in the Supreme Court as of July 31, of which 67 percent have been on the roll for more than a year, government data show.
Before last month’s execution of Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving Pakistani gunman involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, India last carried out the death penalty in 2004, when a convict was hanged 14 years after he raped and murdered a school girl.

India has about 15 judges for each million of its 1.2 billion people, according to UN data. In China, there are about 159 judges for each million people, while in the U.S. the figure is about 108.

add add Massive quakes may hit the Himalayas: scientists

Singapore, Dec 30 (PTI) In what can have huge implications for countries like India, scientists have warned of massive earthquakes of the magnitude 8 to 8.5 in the Himalayas, especially in areas with their surface yet to be broken by a temblor.

A research team led by Nanyang Technological University (NTU) here has discovered that powerful earthquakes in the range of 8 to 8.5 magnitudes on the Richter scale have left clear ground scars in the central Himalayas.

Probe into plane crash in Moscow which killed four crew

An investigation is under way into how a Russian passenger plane overshot a Moscow airport runway and crashed into a motorway.
Reports said between eight and 12 people were on board the Tupolev-204 which was landing at Vnukovo airport. Four of them died.
On Sunday people left flowers at the scene of the crash as emergency crews continued to clear wreckage from the motorway.

Obama Makes Last-Minute Fiscal Appeal as Time Grows Short

President Barack Obama made a last- minute appeal for congressional compromise as three senators said the chances were greater than 50-50 for a deal to avert more than $600 million in tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to take effect Jan. 1.
In an interview broadcast today on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Obama warned of “an adverse reaction in the markets” if Congress doesn’t act.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said the prospects for a deal before Jan. 1 are “exceedingly good” and will include tax increases on upper-income Americans and represent a “political victory to the president.”
“Hats off to the president, he won,” Graham said on Fox News Sunday. “He stood his ground. He’s going to get tax rate increases -- maybe not $250,000, but upper-income Americans.”
Graham said the “sad news for the country” is that any deal now won’t address debt and will guarantee a fresh fight over deficit reduction when the debt ceiling debate resurfaces early next year. He called on Republicans to have “courage of our convictions.”
Senators Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, and Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, assessed the odds of a deal before Jan. 1 at better than 50-50. “I think a little higher than that,” Schumer said on ABC’s “This Week,” while Kyl said, “I don’t disagree with Chuck.”

‘Significant Effort’

At the same time, Schumer said there are “no breakthroughs yet” by bipartisan negotiators in the Senate. Kyl said there is a “significant effort” by “responsible people on both sides of the aisle” because “if we are not able to reach an agreement, it will be dire.”
Schumer said there is bipartisan agreement to patch the alternative minimum tax, adjust the Medicare payment for doctors and extend some business and middle-class taxes. Disagreements remain over how far to extend tax cuts on incomes above $250,000, at what level tax inheritances, extending unemployment benefits and using revenue increases to pay down automatic spending cuts.
The president’s interview with NBC was taped yesterday at the White House. At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, Senate negotiators from both parties sought compromise legislation to prevent at least some of the tax increases and spending cuts from taking effect beginning with the new year.
“If all else fails,” Obama said, when a new Congress convenes on Jan. 3 “the first bill that will be introduced on the floor will be to cut taxes on middle-class families.”

Regular Updates

The president was updated throughout the day yesterday as White House aides were in touch with congressional negotiators, said a White House official who wasn’t authorized to make a statement and spoke on condition of anonymity. The official declined to detail any of the discussions.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, and Mitch McConnell, the chamber’s Republican leader, plan to brief party members in closed-door caucuses this afternoon on the status of private weekend talks between their staffs seeking an accord to avert the more than $600 billion in automatic tax increases and spending reductions set to start in January.
House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, has called his chamber into session later today to be ready for possible action on avoiding the so-called fiscal cliff. The Senate also is convening.
Whether to extend all tax cuts or only tax cuts on incomes up to $250,000 has been a key sticking point, with Republicans resisting raising wealthier earners’ taxes.

Bare-Bones Bill

In the event the Senate can’t reach a bipartisan compromise that deals with tax-cut extensions, Medicare payments for doctors, estate taxes, automatic spending cuts and other provisions, Obama has asked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, to ready a bare-bones bill for a vote by Dec. 31 that extends unemployment benefits and tax cuts on family incomes up to $250,000.
In that scenario, Obama said, “Republicans will have to decide if they’re going to block it, which will mean that middle-class taxes do go up.” Any compromise also needs approval by the House of Representatives.
Obama said if Republicans agree to raise taxes on wealthy Americans, the revenue would be “sufficient to turn off” the sequester provisions of the so-called fiscal cliff, stopping automatic military spending cuts from going into effect -- a sticking point for many Republicans.

Military Impact

Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on Fox that he had discussed the impact of the spending cuts on the U.S. military with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta last night and was told that it would mean 800,000 layoff notices at the beginning of the year. The result would be destroying “the finest military in the world at the time we need it the most,” he said.
Asked about the immediate economic impact of going over the fiscal cliff -- a term coined by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke in February -- Obama said, “It’s hard to speculate on the markets, but obviously I think business and investors are going to feel more negative about the economy next year.”
If Americans’ taxes rise and consumer spending is depressed, Obama said, “then obviously that’s going to have an adverse reaction in the markets.”

Tax Policy

Tax policy remains the most substantial divide in the dispute.
Republicans have resisted rate increases for any income level, maintaining that such a move would hurt the economy and hinder job creation -- especially by businesses that pay their taxes on their owners’ individual returns.
While the economy has shown resilience, politicians are wary of reactions by the public, employers and the markets if a deal isn’t reached by the Jan. 1 deadline.
Failure to address the expiring tax breaks, enacted under President George W. Bush, would mean heavier burdens on taxpayers during the coming filing season, on their regular paychecks and their 2013 tax bills. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center in Washington estimates the average effect per taxpayer at $3,446 for 2013 if Congress does nothing.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell for a fifth day on Dec. 28, by 1.1 percent to 1,402.45 at the 4 p.m. close in New York. The benchmark Treasury 10-year yield declined four basis points, or 0.04 percentage point, to 1.7 percent at 5 p.m. in New York, according to Bloomberg Bond Trader.
Any last-minute deal wasn’t expected to address a debt ceiling agreement, making the limit on U.S. borrowing authority the next major issue forcing a fiscal debate. The government will hit the $16.4 trillion limit tomorrow, and the Treasury Department will begin using so-called extraordinary measures to finance about $200 billion of deficits into 2013. That would typically be enough to last about two months.

India vs Pakistan 2012: MS Dhoni's century exceptional under pressure, feels Imran Khan

New Delhi: Dec 30, 2012
Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan on Sunday praised Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni for his heroic innings of 113 in the first ODI against Pakistan in Chennai and said it was one of best knocks under pressure.

Coming out in the 10th over when India were down in the dumps at 29 for five, Dhoni single-handedly took India's total to 227 for six with an unbeaten knock of 113 from 125 balls though his side lost the match by six wickets.

"I think he played really well and in fact it was an exceptional innings under pressure. But for his knock, this match would have been over in two-three hours," Imran said.

"Under the circumstances, this was one of the best innings," he added.

Imran also praised rookie Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar for his fine show on Sunday and in the earlier Twenty20 International series.

"I think he has the ability to swing the ball and he has done well. For a fast bowler to do well, you need to have speed in the air and ability to move the ball. Or you have to swing the ball and be able to extract extra bounce," he told NDTV.

Asked about Pakistan churning out fast bowler after another, Imran said, "It is because of the physique of the players. The players from North (Pakistan) Punjab and Frontier Province have physique which suited in becoming fast bowlers.

So we have to tap them and groom them."

Body of India rape victim cremated in New Delhi

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The body of a woman, whose gang rape provoked protests and rare national debate about violence against women in India, arrived back in New Delhi on Sunday and was cremated at a private ceremony.
Scuffles broke out in central Delhi between police and protesters who say the government is doing too little to protect women. But the 2,000-strong rally was confined to a single area, unlike last week when protests raged up throughout the capital.
Riot police manned barricades along streets leading to India Gate war memorial - a focal point for demonstrators - and, at another gathering point - the centuries-old Jantar Mantar - protesters held banners reading "We want justice!" and "Capital punishment".
Most sex crimes in India go unreported, many offenders go unpunished, and the wheels of justice turn slowly, according to social activists, who say that successive governments have done little to ensure the safety of women.
The unidentified 23-year-old victim of the December 16 gang rape died of her injuries on Saturday, prompting promises of action from a government that has struggled to respond to public outrage.
The medical student had suffered brain injuries and massive internal injuries in the attack and died in hospital in Singapore where she had been taken for treatment.
She and a male friend had been returning home from the cinema, media reports say, when six men on a bus beat them with metal rods and repeatedly raped the woman. The friend survived.
New Delhi has the highest number of sex crimes among India's major cities, with a rape reported on average every 18 hours, police figures show. Reported rape cases rose by nearly 17 percent between 2007 and 2011, according to government data.
Six suspects were charged with murder after her death and face the death penalty if convicted.
In Kolkata, one of India's four biggest cities, police said a man reported that his mother had been gang-raped and killed by a group of six men in a small town near the city on Saturday.
She was killed on her way home with her husband, a senior official said, and the attackers had thrown acid at the husband, raped and killed her, and dumped her body in a roadside pond.
Police declined to give any further details. One officer told Reuters no criminal investigation had yet been launched.
"MISOGYNY"
The leader of India's ruling Congress party, Sonia Gandhi, was seen arriving at the airport when the plane carrying the woman's body from Singapore landed and Prime Minister Mannmohan Singh's convoy was also there.
A Reuters correspondent saw family members who had been with her in Singapore take her body from the airport to their Delhi home in an ambulance with a police escort.
Her body was then taken to a crematorium and cremated. Media were kept away but a Reuters witness saw the woman's family, New Delhi's chief minister, Sheila Dikshit, and the junior home minister, R P N Singh, coming out of the crematorium.
The outcry over the attack caught the government off guard. It took a week for the prime minister to make a statement, infuriating many protesters. Last weekend they fought pitched battles with police. 
Issues such as rape, dowry-related deaths and female infanticide rarely enter mainstream political discourse.
Analysts say the death of the woman dubbed "Amanat", an Urdu word meaning "treasure", by some Indian media could change that, though it is too early to say whether the protesters can sustain their momentum through to national elections due in 2014.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon added his voice to those demanding change, calling for "further steps and reforms to deter such crimes and bring perpetrators to justice".
Commentators and sociologists say the incident earlier this month has tapped into a deep well of frustration many Indians feel over what they see as weak governance and poor leadership on social issues.
Newspapers raised doubts about the commitment of both male politicians and the police to protecting women.
"Would the Indian political system and class have been so indifferent to the problem of sexual violence if half or even one-third of all legislators were women?" the Hindu newspaper asked.
The Indian Express said it was more complicated than realizing that the police force was understaffed and underpaid.
"It is geared towards dominating citizens rather than working for them, not to mention being open to influential interests," the newspaper said. "It reflects the misogyny around us, rather than actively fighting for the rights of citizens who happen to be female."

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Putin backs ban on US adoptions of Russian children

Sydney: Russian President Vladimir Putin has backed pending parliamentary legislation that would make it illegal for Americans to adopt Russian children in reprisal for a new Washington human rights law.

"I understand that this was an emotional response by the State Duma, but I think that it was appropriate," Putin said in the first major press conference of his third term as president.

According to the Herald Sun, he complained bitterly that local US courts had found several Americans not guilty of manslaughter charges following the death of Russian children under their care.

The Russian legislation, awaiting final approval in the Duma lower house of parliament on Friday, is named in honour of a Russian child who suffocated in a locked car during the summer heat.

"The judges will not even let us attend (the US trials) as observers," Putin said.

Russia’s new legislation came about after US President Barack Obama last week signed into law the so-called Magnitsky Act, named in honour of a lawyer who died in 2009 after blowing the whistle on a 235 dollars police embezzlement scheme, the report said.

Magnitsky died under pre-trial arrest that his mother said had exposed him to ‘torture conditions’, the report added.

Putin said the United States had no moral right to pass judgement on Russia''s legal system.

"They themselves have plenty of problems," Putin said of the United States, adding: "I have already talked about this: listen, Abu Ghraib. Guantanamo”.

Putin said the US authorities ‘are holding people in jail for years without charging them. That is unbelievable’.

"And what''s more they don''t just hold them in prison without charge, they hold them in shackles, like in the mediaeval ages," Putin fumed.

ANI

Ailing Iraq president heads to Germany for treatment

BAGHDAD: Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a key figure who sought to bridge political and sectarian divides, left for Germany for treatment on Thursday after suffering a reported stroke, his office said.

Talabani departed "the Medical City hospital in Baghdad, heading to the Federal Republic of Germany, under the care of a specialised medical team," the presidency said on its website.

Talabani was hospitalized late on Monday after what state television reported was a stroke, but doctors have said his condition has improved.

His health has major political implications in Iraq, where he has sought to bring together various feuding politicians, Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and Arabs and Kurds.

"Jalal Talabani is a crucial joining-link between Iraqi Kurdistan and Baghdad," International Crisis Group analyst Maria Fantappie said of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq at odds with Baghdad over a number of issues.

"President Talabani has been crucial in mediating between the two sides and ensuring the continuation of dialogue between Kurds and the central government," Fantappie said.

John Drake, an analyst with AKE Group, said: "While on paper his role is somewhat limited, his influence and mediation skills have gone a long way in smoothing over the country's troubled political scene.

"Some may describe his position as 'ceremonial' but he has made it a lot more active, simply though dialogue and discussion, which play a strong role in Iraqi politics," said Drake.

Under Iraq's constitution, the vice president takes over if the post of president becomes vacant for any reason, and a new president must be elected by parliament within 30 days.

Vice-president Khudayr al-Khuzaie would apparently take charge temporarily if Talabani dies, both by virtue of being the senior of Iraq's two vice presidents, and because the other, Tareq al-Hashemi, is a fugitive who has been given multiple death sentences for charges including murder.

Talabani has had a series of health problems in recent years.

He underwent successful heart surgery in the United States in August 2008. The previous year, he was evacuated to neighbouring Jordan for treatment for dehydration and exhaustion.

He has also travelled to the United States and to Europe for treatment for a variety of ailments.

Talabani has been a key figure in Iraqi politics for decades, first as a Kurdish rebel and political leader, and as president since 2005.

Since becoming president, he has won praise for attempting to bridge divisions between Sunni and Shiite, and Arab and Kurdish factions.

During the past year, he has repeatedly sought to convene a national conference aimed at reconciling feuding Iraqi leaders.

Gujarat Election Results 2012 Live: BJP may better 2007 record

  Ahmedabad: Riding on a pro-incumbency wave amid talk of his moving to Delhi in 2014, Narendra Modi is set for third consecutive victory. As per Gujarat Election Results 2012 trends available at 1.35 pm, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is leading/has won in 120 seats of the total 182 seats, the Congress is doing well only in 56 seats.

Keshubhai Patel of Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP) is among the two candidates of the party who have won. Others are leading in four seats.

An emphatic victory for Narendra Modi will mean that the chorus within the BJP for a bigger role in the party’s national affairs will grow. Modi has also won his Maninagar seat beating Shweta Bhatt of the Congress. He will address the press at 5 pm.

As the BJP may cross its 2007 tally of 117 seats, Modi may very well become the face of the BJP for 2014 general elections.

However, officially, the BJP today parried questions on whether he will be the party's prime ministerial candidate in the next Lok Sabha elections.

"Modi bhai has always been an important leader in the BJP... We are not a dynastic party which is led by a Yuvaraj. We function in a pure democratic fashion," BJP chief Spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

He was asked whether the third straight victory in Gujarat has defined Modi as the prime ministerial candidate for the BJP in the next Lok Sabha election in 2014.

The party should be allowed to rejoice in its performance-led victory in the state, Prasad said, adding that Modi fought against all forms of vicious campaigns against himself at different levels in the state as well as internationally.

Key candidates

Leading/won

BJP: Amit Shah – Naranpura (won), Saurabh Patel – Akota (won), Jayrajsinh Jadeja – Gondal (won), Poonamben Maadam – Khambhalia, Anandiben Patel – Ghatlodi, Ganpat Vasava – Mangrol, Keshubhai Patel – Visavadar, Kashyap Shukla – Rajkot (East), Bhupendrasinh Chudasama – Dholka, Ranjitbhai Gilitwala - Surat (East), Mahendrabhai Mashru – Junagadh, Dushyant Patel - Bharuch, Jetha Bharwad – Shahera, Purushottam Solanki – Bhavnagar (Rural), Pravinsinh Chauhan - Godhra

Congress: Mahendrasinh Vaghela – Bayad (won), Paresh Dhanani – Amreli (won), Jayesh Radadiya – Jetpur (won), Jawahar Chavda - Manavdar (won)

Others: Keshubhai Patel (Visavadar)

Trailing/Lost

BJP: Dilip Sanghani – Amreli (lost), RC Faldu – Jamnagar (Rural), Jaynarayan Vyas – Sidhapur (lost), Ramesh Maheshwari – Gandhidham, Kama Rathod – Sanand, Praful Patel - Himatnagar

Congress: Kanubhai Balata- Visavadar, Indranil Rajyaguru- Rajkot (East) Jagrutiben Pandya – Eillisbridge, Tejash Chaudhary - Mangrol, Shaktisinh Gohil – Bhavnagar (Rural) (lost), Arjun Modhwadia – Porbander

Others: Gordhanbhai Zadafia – Gondal (lost), Dr Kanubhai Kalsariya –Gariyadhar (lost), Jagruti Pandya - Ellisbridge

The voting was spread across two phases – Dec 13 and 17 with record 71.32 percent voters casting their ballot.

Greece's treatment of migrants shameful, says Amnesty

   Greece faces a "humanitarian crisis" over its mistreatment of asylum-seekers and migrants, according to a report by Amnesty International.

The group accuses the government of detaining thousands of refugees, including many children, in "shameful [and] appalling" conditions.
Greece is a major gateway for migrants from Asian and African countries as they try to enter the European Union.
Attacks against foreigners have been on the rise in the debt-stricken nation.
The report claimed that Greece systematically fails to provide the most basic requirements of safety and shelter to the thousands of asylum-seekers passing through the country ever year.
"Greece is clearly failing very significantly to absorb and respect the rights of the many migrants that are crossing its land and sea borders with Turkey," Amnesty International spokesman John Dalhuisen said.
"It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the EU has a humanitarian crisis not beyond its borders, not on its borders, but within its borders."
'At mercy of violence' In particular, the report highlights the plight of unaccompanied children held in "very poor conditions" at the recently opened Corinth detention centre, calling it a breach of international standards.
The study also draws attention to the "dramatic increase" of racially motivated attacks, now reported on an almost daily basis.
Mr Dalhuisen said many migrants found themselves "at the mercy of violence" in the capital, Athens.
The BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens says there is growing pressure on Greece to develop an effective and fair asylum system and improve its policy towards migrants, and on Europe to step in with concrete solutions.
The far-right Golden Dawn party has recently seen a rise in its popularity and won 18 seats in parliament on a wave of public anger against austerity.
The party blames some of the country's economic problems on illegal immigration.
Observers see this as a key factor contributing to the growing climate of xenophobia in Greece.
In August, police in Athens arrested more than 1,100 immigrants without documents, and brought in another 4,900 for questioning as part of Operation Xenios Zeus.

Mayan apocalypse: End of the world, or a new beginning?

One in 10 of us is said to be anxious that 21 December marks the end of the world. The Ancient Mayans predicted this doomsday, and the press is eating it up. But where are all the believers?

That the world will end in 2012 is the most widely-disseminated doomsday tale in human history, thanks to the internet, Hollywood and an ever-eager press corps.
Recent hurricanes, unrest in the Middle East, solar flares, mystery planets about to collide with us - all "proof" of what the ancient Mayans knew would come to pass on 21 December 2012.
According to a Reuters global poll, one in 10 of us is feeling some anxiety about this date.
Russians have been so worried that the Minister of Emergency Situations issued a denial that the world would end.
Authorities in the village of Bugarach in the South of France have barred access to a mountain where some believe a UFO will rescue them.
And survivalists in America - many of whom use the term "prepper" - have been busy preparing for all manner of cataclysm.

So I set out to find people who believe 21/12/12 is D-Day.

It was harder than I imagined, despite seeking out preppers, bunker builders, and even a Mayan shaman.
Eventually I turned to Morandir Armson, a scholar of the New Age and Esoterica at the University of Sydney, Australia.
"If you told me there were more than 5,000 people who genuinely believed the end of the world was coming rather than just having vague fears about it, I'd be surprised," he says.
Armson adds that those people are probably "in the wilds of Idaho, heavily armed, and won't talk to journalists anyway".
The heightened fear around this date is, in his view and that of other experts, almost entirely due to the internet. More specifically they blame the blogosphere.
It is not how the whole 2012 phenomenon started.
In 1987, Jose Arguelles, a man who devoted much of his life to studying the Mayan Calendar, organised what was called the Harmonic Convergence, a sort of post-hippy Woodstock. It attracted tens of thousands around the globe.
The event was an attempt to "create a moment of meditation and connection to the sacred sites around the earth," says Daniel Pinchbeck, author of 2012: The Year of the Mayan Prophecy.
It was also the beginning of what many in the loosely-defined New Age movement regard as a process in the transformation of our consciousness - a transformation that goes into full effect at the end of this year.
Pinchbeck calls 21/12/12 the "hinge point" of the emergence of a new, more enlightened age - not an ending point for all civilisation.
"It is quite clear that the Mayan system envisages a new cycle of the calendar beginning on the 22 December 2012," says Graham Hancock, author of Fingerprints of the Gods, and something of a rock star in the world of ancient mysteries enthusiasts.

He says the ancient Mayan culture was a shamanic one. Those who left us the calendar were visionaries who were providing clues to this ending of one cycle and the beginning of another.

That is not to say that New Agers do not see catastrophic events as necessary in some way to this new birth.
In fact they tend to embrace eastern faiths and native cultures with their cyclical views of time. In these visions, the world has been and will be destroyed - to some degree - and we start anew.
Accordingly, some believe the Mayans were sending us a warning for 2012.
"We may see a lot of destruction," says Pinchbeck. He points to Hurricane Sandy, which recently hit his home city of New York.
Many, including the mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, linked that hurricane to global warming, which tends to be seen by New Agers as the main threat to our planet.
However the New Age movement is full of optimists. Crucially, they say we have a choice in how this story ends.

"We do not have to step over the edge of the abyss into darkness and destruction," Hancock says, calling this point in time a "cusp moment."

"It's up to us. It's totally up to us."
Morandir Armson, the Australian scholar, says the belief that 2012 marks a positive shift is one also shared by UFO groups, such as the Ashtar Command and the Ground Crew. These groups have no headquarters but for internet sites.
He says they refer to themselves as "lightworkers" who believe a fleet of alien space ships hover around our solar system.
"By doing good works on earth [they believe] you can speed up the consciousness of our humanity," says Armson.
In many ways, they emphasise the more positive aspects of the traditional Christian Apocalypse. The fire-and-brimstone part gets downplayed in favour of the glorious Kingdom to come.
Some 20% of Americans believe we are in the end times, and that they will see the return of Jesus Christ in their lifetime.
This month marks Advent in the Christian Calendar, during which Christians are encouraged to read from the Book of Revelation, the apocalyptic vision of St John the Divine.
"It's full of gory and grotesque detail of how the wicked are going to be punished," says Ted Harrison, author of Apocalypse When: Why We Want to Believe there Will Be No Tomorrow.
The twenty-first of December, however, is not on the biblical calendar and few, if any, believers in the traditional Book of Revelation are attached to this date.
The supposed date of the coming apocolypse, 21 December, also marks the Winter Solstice, symbolic in many cultures of the end of darkness and the renewal of the light.
It might, suggests Harrison, focus our minds on how we have been treating the planet and those on it, and how we could mend our ways.
In this respect, he says, "It might become a self-fulfilling prophecy. That's one hope. A remote one, but it is one hope."

Obama calls for 'action' on guns

US President Barack Obama has called for "concrete proposals" on gun control by the end of January, saying "words need to lead to action".
In remarks at the White House, Mr Obama said Vice-President Joe Biden would lead an exploration of options after a mass school shooting in Connecticut.
There have been calls for gun law reform after 26 children and teachers died at Sandy Hook School in Newtown.
Adam Brookes reports.

Google doodles for Grimm’s Fairy Tales

Google has marked the 200th anniversary of Grimm's Fairy Tales, which include classics like Cinderella, Rapunzel and Hansel and Gretel, with a doodle spread across 22 slides. The doodle shows the escapades of Red Riding Hood while going through a dark forest to meet her grandmother, who has been eaten by a wolf.

Grimm's Fairy Tales were written by two brothers, named Jacob and Wilhelm, today in 1812. Some of the other popular fairy tales by the Grimm brothers are Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Golden Goose, The Frog-Prince, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, among others.

Over 200 stories were written by Grimm brothers and published between 1812 and 1857. The works were split into two editions under the name Children's and Household Tales (Kinder und Hausmarchen in German).

Germany, the birthplace of the two authors, is hosting celebrations to mark the occasion as well. The city of Kassel, close to the place where the duo was born, has begun celebrations, including events like light shows, theatre shows as well as reading and operas.

Google's latest doodle illustrates story of Little Red Riding Hood and users can move forward or backwards between slides by clicking on the respective buttons. The last slide shows Google's logo made out of a purple-coloured scarf that Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother is knitting.

Benghazi attack: US security chief Eric Boswell quits

A senior US security official has quit and three others are suspended after a damning report into a deadly attack on a US mission in Benghazi.

The state department said diplomatic security chief Eric Boswell resigned and three other unnamed officials had been put on administrative leave.
US envoy to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other officials were killed in the attack on 11 September.
An internal report said "grossly inadequate" security led to the deaths.
However, the report did not suggest disciplinary action be taken against any individuals.
Political fallout "The Accountability Review Board identified the performance of four officials, three in the Bureau of the Diplomatic Security and one in the Bureau of Near East Asia Affairs," state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement.
"The secretary has accepted Eric Boswell's decision to resign... The other three individuals have been relieved of their current duties."

US media have named one of Mr Boswell's deputies, Charlene Lamb, and Raymond Maxwell, deputy assistant secretary for the Maghreb, among those relieved of their duties.

Mr Stevens died of smoke inhalation when he was trapped alone in the burning building after armed men had stormed the compound.
Days after the attack, US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said the attack seemed to have developed out of protests over an anti-Islamic film.
But later intelligence reports suggested it was a planned attack by Islamist gunmen.
Ms Rice was forced to pull out of the race to be the next secretary of state after being subjected to widespread criticism.
'Near-impossible situation' The board's report found "a lack of transparency, responsiveness, and leadership" among certain senior state department officials.
But the review found no "reasonable cause" that any specific individuals had "engaged in misconduct or wilfully ignored" their responsibilities.
It also said there had been "no immediate, specific" intelligence about the 11 September attack or threats to the consulate.
The probe concluded that the US personnel had "performed with courage and readiness to risk their lives to protect their colleagues in a near-impossible situation".
But the Benghazi mission had nevertheless been hampered by a lack of resources.
Its reliance on armed "but poorly skilled" local militiamen and contract guards was "misplaced", the report said.
In a letter to Congress, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she accepted all 29 of the recommendations put forward in the report.
She outlined some steps the agency would take, including sending hundreds of US Marines guards to missions abroad and assigning a state department official to oversee "high-threat posts".
In addition, she said the state department would request more funding from Congress to make improvements to security.

U.N. Halts Vaccine Work in Pakistan After 2 More Killings

LAHORE, Pakistan — The front-line heroes of Pakistan’s war on polio are its volunteers: young women who tread fearlessly from door to door, in slums and highland villages, administering precious drops of vaccine to children in places where their immunization campaign is often viewed with suspicion.

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Now, those workers have become quarry. After militants stalked and killed eight of them over the course of a three-day, nationwide vaccination drive, the United Nations suspended its anti-polio work in Pakistan on Wednesday, and one of Pakistan’s most crucial public health campaigns has been plunged into crisis.

The World Health Organization and Unicef ordered their staff members off the streets, while government officials reported that some polio volunteers — especially women — were afraid to show up for work.

At the ground level, it is those female health workers who are essential, allowed privileged entrance into private homes to meet and help children in situations denied to men because of conservative rural culture. “They are on the front line; they are the backbone,” said Imtiaz Ali Shah, a polio coordinator in Peshawar.

The killings started in the port city of Karachi on Monday, the first day of a vaccination drive aimed at the worst affected areas, with the shooting of a male health worker. On Tuesday four female polio workers were killed, all gunned down by men on motorcycles in what appeared to be closely coordinated attacks.

The hit jobs then moved to Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, which, along with the adjoining tribal belt, constitutes Pakistan’s main reservoir of new polio infections. The first victim there was one of two sisters who had volunteered as polio vaccinators. Men on motorcycles shadowed them as they walked from house to house. Once the sisters entered a quiet street, the gunmen opened fire. One of the sisters, Farzana, died instantly; the other was uninjured.

On Wednesday, a man working on the polio campaign was shot dead as he made a chalk mark on the door of a house in a suburb of Peshawar. Later, a female health supervisor in Charsadda, 15 miles to the north, was shot dead in a car she shared with her cousin.

Yet again, Pakistani militants are making a point of attacking women who stand for something larger. In October, it was Malala Yousafzai, a schoolgirl advocate for education who was gunned down by a Pakistani Taliban attacker in the Swat Valley. She was grievously wounded, and the militants vowed they would try again until they had killed her. The result was a tidal wave of public anger that clearly unsettled the Pakistani Taliban.

In singling out the core workers in one of Pakistan’s most crucial public health initiatives, militants seem to have resolved to harden their stance against immunization drives, and declared anew that they consider women to be legitimate targets. Until this week, vaccinators had never been targeted with such violence in such numbers.

Government officials in Peshawar said that they believe a Taliban faction in Mohmand, a tribal area near Peshawar, was behind at least some of the shootings. Still, the Pakistani Taliban have been uncharacteristically silent about the attacks, with no official claims of responsibility. In staying quiet, the militants may be trying to blunt any public backlash like the huge demonstrations over the attack on Ms. Yousafzai.

Female polio workers here make for easy targets. They wear no uniform but are readily recognizable, with clipboards and refrigerated vaccine boxes, walking door to door. They work in pairs — including at least one woman — and are paid just over $2.50 a day. Most days one team can vaccinate 150 to 200 children.

Faced with suspicious or recalcitrant parents, their only weapon is reassurance: a gentle pat on the hand, a shared cup of tea, an offer to seek religious assurances from a pro-vaccine cleric. “The whole program is dependent on them,” said Mr. Shah, in Peshawar. “If they do good work, and talk well to the parents, then they will vaccinate the children.”

That has happened with increasing frequency in Pakistan over the past year. A concerted immunization drive, involving up to 225,000 vaccination workers, drove the number of newly infected polio victims down to 52. Several high-profile groups shouldered the program forward — at the global level, donors like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the United Nations and Rotary International; and at the national level, President Asif Ali Zardari and his daughter Aseefa, who have made polio eradication a “personal mission.”

On a global scale, setbacks are not unusual in polio vaccination campaigns, which, by dint of their massive scale and need to reach deep inside conservative societies, end up grappling with more than just medical challenges. In other campaigns in Africa and South Asia, vaccinators have grappled with natural disaster, virulent opposition from conservative clerics and sudden outbreaks of mysterious strains of the disease. 

Their natural first reaction is frustration. But then, each time, vaccinators have optimistically predicted that, with enough donations and a redoubled effort, they would get the situation under control.  

“This isn’t over, not by a long shot,” Sarah Crowe, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Children’s Fund, said after the killings. “There’s still great energy in the campaign.”

Still, Pakistan needs all the help it can get. One of just three countries in the world where the disease is still endemic, Pakistan counted 198 new infections last year — the highest rate in the world.

Militant commanders have been criticizing polio vaccination campaigns — a prominent yet weakly protected sign of government presence in far-flung areas — since 2007 when Maulvi Fazlullah, a radical preacher on a white horse, strode through the northwestern Swat Valley.

Mr. Fazlullah claimed that polio vaccines were part of a plot to sterilize Muslim children, but in recent years Taliban commanders in the militant hub of North Waziristan have come up with a more political complaint: they say that immunization can resume only when American drones stop killing their comrades. Suspicion of vaccination has also intensified since the C.I.A. used a Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, to run a hepatitis B vaccination scheme in order to spy on Osama bin Laden’s house in Abbottabad in 2011.

Heidi Larson, an anthropologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who analyzes local support for vaccines in different countries, believes the C.I.A.’s use of Dr. Afridi has hurt the polio drive more than the Pakistan government or the eradication campaign itself will admit.

“We’re risking people’s lives here,” she said. “More people are dying as vaccinators than have from polio. There’s something wrong with that equation.”

But Oliver Rosenbauer, a spokesman for the W.H.O., said that only 1 to 2 percent of Pakistani families refuse polio vaccines, and that has not changed substantially since the C.I.A. ruse was exposed.

It may be too soon to accurately assess the impact of this week’s violence on eradication in Pakistan or globally. In any event, the rest of the world had a banner year — not a single case in India, which once had more than any other country, and no outbreaks outside the virus’s two persistent epicenters of northern Nigeria and the nearby Sahel regions of Niger and Chad, and the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region.

Where immunization has worked, it has often included the work of female volunteers — which can have other public health benefits, too.

Ms. Crowe, the Unicef spokeswoman, said that in Pakistan, “every encounter a vaccinator has with a mother delivers other messages about breast feeding, hand-washing or encouragement to take kids to health centers for other immunizations.”

The anti-polio drive has tried to integrate itself so deeply into the country’s faltering public health system that an attack on vaccinators is seen not as a blow against the West, but as a blow against the lives of local women and children.

“This is not about polio,” said Dr. Bruce Aylward, who heads polio eradication at the World Health Organization. “This is someone attacking health care workers who are delivering basic interventions.”