NDA willing to open doors to women
By IANS,
Khadakwasla (Maharashtra) : The National Defence Academy (NDA), that trains male cadets to eventually serve as officers in the Indian defence forces, has welcomed the idea of opening its doors to women.
"If asked, the NDA is ready for training women cadets. After a decision is taken by the authorities we will need some time to build the necessary infrastructure," NDA commandant Air Marshal T.S.Randhawa told reporters on the sidelines of the passing out parade of the 114th course that also marked the 60th anniversary of the institution.
Bihar woman refuses to marry groom from drunken family
By IANS,
Patna : A woman in a Bihar village refused to marry after the family members and relatives of the groom turned up drunk, caused trouble and abused her family members.
Savita Kumari, in her 20s, daughter of Ram Avatar Sah of Begusarai district's Char ke Gachi village, about 125 km from here, stunned everybody Friday when she refused to marry Amardip Sah after she saw his close family members and relatives, who were drunk, create trouble, misbehave, abuse her family members and even thrash some of them.
Meghalaya’s first woman MP vows to work for people
By Syed Zarir Hussain, IANS,
Tura (Meghalaya) : Meghalaya's first female MP Agatha Sangma says she will work for the empowerment of women and youth and describes her election to the Lok Sabha as a "good first step" to encourage the fairer sex from the hill state to enter active politics.
"Society in Meghalaya may be matrilineal but men are still at the forefront of decision-making. That holds good in the field of politics too. But my election as an MP is a good first step for women here to join active politics," Agatha told IANS in an interview.
12 female workers killed in road accident
By IANS,
Raipur : At least 12 female labourers were killed Friday and 20 others injured in Chhattisarh when a vehicle in which they were travelling overturned, the police said.
A Tata 407 truck crowded with about 45 industrial workers turned turtle in Akoli village in Durg district, some 60 km from here, when the driver lost control while negotiating a turn.
The injured, mostly male workers, were rushed to a government hospital at Durg town.
Women’s commission meets Nupur Talwar
By IANS,
New Delhi : Nupur Talwar, mother of murder victim Aarushi Talwar, Friday provided to the National Commission for Women (NCW) the sequence of events in the sensational crime in which the family's domestic help was also killed. The NCW will now forward this to the Noida police that is investigating the case.
"We spoke to her for 25 minutes alone in her home and she gave us the details about what happened on the fateful day. We will be providing her statement to the Noida police," NCW member Nirmala Venkatesh told IANS.
To the rescue of women in Thailand
By Shen Min, Ling Shuo, Xinhua,
Bangkok : Sitting at her house in Bangkok, Pavena Hongsakul, at her fifties, still keeps the feminine grace and soft-spoken manner that distance herself from the image of a well-known women's rights advocate in normal conception.
For the last decade, Ms. Pavena has been witnessing and dealing with the darkest side of the Thai modern country facing women -- rape, abuse, domestic violence, forced prostitution, sexual harassment and human trafficking.
Date set for court battle over fortune of Asia`s richest woman
By ANTARA News/DPA,
Hong Kong : A court date was set Wednesday for what is expected to be a spectacular and scandal-packed battle over the fortune of Asia's richest woman.
The hearing into the 4.2 billion US dollar fortune of Nina Wang, who died aged 69 last year, leaving her money to an unknown feng shui master, is due to begin on February 16, 2008.
At a hearing Wednesday, a High Court judge ruled that a further assessment could be made in October to decide if the case can proceed in February. It is expected to last eight weeks.
Two women figure in Kuwait’s new 15-member cabinet
By IANS,
Dubai : Two women are among a new 15-member cabinet formed in Kuwait following elections in the Gulf city-state earlier this month.
Kuwait's ruler Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah approved the new cabinet unveiled late Wednesday with Sheikh Nasser Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah being retained as prime minister.
The cabinet has seven new faces including a woman. In the last cabinet, there was only one woman.
Women who did not lose faith: tales of grit and fortitude
By Kanu Sarda, IANS
New Delhi : Neelam Katara, Neelam Krishnamurthy, Indu Jalali, Sabrina Lall... they are all stories of grit and fortitude. Women who have been moved by personal tragedy to step into India's courts day after day to bring the perpetrators of crime to book. And in the process they have inspired hundreds of others not to lose faith.
Indian-origin mathematician honoured in Australia
By Neena Bhandari, IANS,
Sydney : Nalini Joshi, an Australian of Indian origin, has become only the third woman in mathematics to be elected to the prestigious Australian Academy of Sciences (AAS), founded in 1954 by Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London.
Joshi, head of the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Sydney, was made a fellow of AAS in recognition of her life-long achievements in the field of mathematics.
Panties from Canadian women to frighten Myanmar junta
By Gurmukh Singh, IANS,
Toronto : Canadian women Tuesday launched a Panties for Peace! campaign to send their undergarments to the Myanmar military junta to frighten it into ending suppression.
At a press conference in Montreal, feminists and civil groups, working under the Rights & Democracy Student Network and the Quebec Women's Federation, urged Canadian women to inundate the Myanmar embassy in Ottawa with panties to unsettle the military rulers in the south-east Asian nation.
Survey: Work, family remain difficult choice for Indian women
By Xinhua,
New Delhi : Work and family life remain a difficult choice to be reckoned with for the Indian women, according to a recent survey released here.
The survey "Through the magnifying glass: women's work and labor force participation in urban Delhi" carried out by the Institute of Social Studies Trust (ISST), a non-profit non-governmental organization, took a representative sample of 700 households all over Delhi, Hindustan Times reported.
Verbal clashes in parliament panel meet on women’s bill
By IANS,
New Delhi : Political parties ranged for and against the contentious women's reservation bill in parliament clashed Tuesday at the first meeting of the standing committee on 33 percent quota for women in legislative bodies.
The meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice, which is expected to evolve a consensus on the legislation, began on a belligerent note with the Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Devendra Prasad Yadav asserting his party's opposition to the bill.
Kerala woman arrives from Dubai to testify against godman
By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : A Kerala woman settled in Dubai, who had filed charges of cheating against controversial godman Santosh Madhavan that led to his arrest earlier this month, arrived here Monday.
Serafin Edwin and her son landed here Monday morning and were greeted by a posse of policemen at the international airport. Both were taken in a convoy of police vehicles to their home in the city.
In a brief stop, Serafin told the media that she hoped the police would investigate her case of cheating against Madhavan.
Poll: 60 % women abused in Jordan
By Xinhua,
Amman : Six out of ten women in Jordan are abused, with one in four physically abused, a poll showed Monday.
Almost half of the women surveyed believed that physical violence is acceptable under certain conditions, said the poll.
The poll, conducted by the Jordan Center for Social Research, is about violence towards women in the kingdom, helping lift the veil slightly off the Arabian women.
Pakistani govt announces five-point programme for Women Development
By NNN-APP,
Islamabad : The Ministry of Women Development will launch a five-point programme named after Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed.
Under the programme the government will move the long overdue Domestic Violence Bill in the parliament and all government land allotment will be done in the name of the women of the house, Minister for Women Development Sherry Rehman said while reviewing the performance of the ministry.
Too few Indian women joining the army
By Ritu Sharma, IANS,
New Delhi : Not many women seem interested in joining the Indian Army. Only half the women candidates who qualified in the entrance exam and interview turned up for the Officers Training Academy (OTA) course in Tamil Nadu this year.
The course has 80 seats but only around 40 women candidates came as the course began in April this year. This comes even as the top army brass has agreed to give permanent commission to women officers in more branches.
All women have to undergo the OTA course to join the army.
Othello-reciting Tamil rapist jailed in Britain
By IANS,
London : An Oxford University-educated Tamil banker who quoted from a Shakespeare play as he raped a woman has been sentenced to over three years of imprisonment by a British court.
Paramasivan Sivasothy, an investment banker, recited lines from "Othello" to his terrified victim while raping her, Southwark Crown Court heard Friday.
The woman managed to call the police while his back was turned and officers recorded Sivasothy as he carried out the "brutal, ugly and repugnant" attack, the prosecution said.
A tape of the woman's ordeal was played in court.
Indonesian minister urges probe into May 1998 rapes
By Xinhua,
Jakarta : An Indonesian minister has delivered documents on the alleged May 1998 mass rape of mostly ethnic Chinese women to the Attorney General's Office (AGO), local press said Saturday.
State Minister for Women's Empowerment Meutia Farida Swasono handed over the documents to Attorney General Hendarman Supandji on Friday.
The documents contained results of research by psychology professor and women's activist Saparinah Sadli, major English daily The Jakarta Post reported.
Bangladeshi female lawyer calls for efforts to realize equal rights
By Huang Yanan, Xinhua,
Dhaka : A prominent female lawyer in Bangladesh holds that in a still male-dominated society, women should be encouraged to work hard to realize real equal rights with men.
Although progress has been achieved in the past years, Bangladesh is still a male-dominated country with less women government officials, journalists and entrepreneurs, Lawyer Tania Amir said in an interview with Xinhua recently.
"In the rural areas, girls are not treated equally with boys," she said.
Kerala women can apply to be police sub-inspectors
By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : There is good news for women in Kerala. They can now apply to become police sub-inspectors.
Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan Saturday announced that as the first step towards revamping the Kerala Police Act, women can now apply directly to be a sub inspector.
"Kerala is a state where there are more women than men and the leadership qualities of women have been proved beyond doubt. Hence, we decided that women also can apply," Balakrishnan told reporters here.
CRPF troopers gun down child, woman in Chhattisgarh camp
By IANS,
Raipur : A child and a woman were allegedly killed on the spot when dozens of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers lined up men and women and opened fire on them in a village deep in Chhattisgarh's forested Bijapur district, which is a Maoist hot-bed, official sources said Friday.
Raju, 2, and Ram Bai, 25, died on the spot in the CRPF troopers' gunfire. A six-year-old boy and a woman were critically injured when the CRPF men posted at Cherpal village assaulted the tribals.
The injured have been rushed to district hospital at Bijapur.
Women claim top spot for Nepal – on Everest
By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS,
Kathmandu : After unprecedented participation in the movement that helped bring down King Gyanendra's absolute regime and making their presence felt in last month's historic election, Nepal's women Thursday claimed the top spot for their country on Mt Everest.
An expedition by, for and of Nepali women saw five climbers, including first-timers, summit the world's highest peak with more members readying for a fresh push in the afternoon and Friday.
Orissa lawyer makes India stand tall on Everest
By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS,
Kathmandu : A 41-year-old lawyer from India's Orissa state has made her country proud by hoisting the Indian tricolour on Mt Everest in a year that mired the world's highest peak in murky politics.
It proved to be third-time lucky for feisty Orissa climber Kalpana Dash, whose dream of standing on the 8,848-metre summit finally came true Wednesday when she pulled off the feat as the leader of the five-member Friendship Mt Everest Expedition.
Traditional barriers put Indonesian women into improper position for progress
By Mulyanda Djohan, Xinhua,
Jakarta : Although some of the Indonesian women have exceeded or been equal with the position of men in many sectors of life, the social status of the nation's women as a whole is far behind the men, a woman leader said recently.
Rita Subowo, the first Indonesian woman taking up the post of the chairmanship of the country's top sport council known as KONI, told Xinhua in an interview that the traditional challenges of discrimination against women had hampered their progress.
Lawyer becomes first Orissa woman to scale Everest
By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : An Orissa lawyer has become the first woman from the state to scale Mount Everest, the world's highest peak.
Kalpana Dash, 38, a resident of Kumbhar Sahi in Dhenkanal district, about 100 km from here, achieved the feat at 11.30 a.m. Wednesday from the south side of the 8,848 m mountain, according to the Nepal-based Arun Treks & Expedition Pvt ltd.
Woman rescued after nine days under rubble in China quake
By Xinhua,
Shifang (China) : Chinese troops rescued a woman Wednesday, nine days after the killer May 12 earthquake in southwestern China buried her alive under the rubble of a hydropower plant tunnel.
Rescuers said the grievously injured woman, trapped under the debris of the water diversion tunnel since May 12, responded to their call.
Zeng Changhui, whose age was not immediately known, was airlifted by a military helicopter to a nearby hospital for emergency treatment.
Bhopal survivors chain themselves near PM’s residence
By IANS,
New Delhi : Thirty-seven Bhopal gas disaster survivors, including 22 women, were arrested Wednesday when they chained themselves near Prime Minister Manmohar Singh's residence here to demand that the government address their grievances.
The police said the people chained themselves to the railings opposite the heavily-guarded prime minister's residence.
“They were not allowed to go near the PM's house, so they chained themselves. We cut their chains and took them into custody,” Joint Commissioner of Police (New Delhi Range) Ajay Kashyap told IANS.
Woman Detained For Spreading Rumor Online About New Quake
By Bernama,
Hefei : Police detained a woman on Tuesday in east China's Anhui Province for spreading a rumor online that a series of powerful earthquakes will jolt the province.
The Provincial Department of Security monitored a posting on Monday from Baidu.com, a popular search portal, declaring Anhui was likely to be hit by a series of earthquakes at or above 7 on Richter scale, citing a forecast from the official website of the U.S. Geological Survey.
Seven beaten up in Jharkhand for suspected occult ritual
By IANS,
Ranchi : Seven people including a woman were brutally beaten near a Jharkhand village as local residents suspected them of carrying out an occult ritual.
According to local media reports Wednesday, about ten people reached Hundru waterfall Tuesday near Sikidiri village, around 70 km from Ranchi. Their luggage included two goats and three hens.
Sewa Helping War-affected Afghan Women
By Bernama,
New Delhi : Having transformed the lives of thousands of women artisans in the country, the self-help organisation Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) is now helping war-affected women of Afghanistan to rebuild their lives, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported Tuesday.
For the last one year, SEWA, with the support of the Government of India, is working with the Ministry of Women's Affairs, Kabul, on setting up a vocational training centre for women at Bagh-e-Zanana in the Afghan capital.
Miracle rescues in China quake as death toll tops 40,000
By AFP,
Chengdu, China : A woman who survived on rainwater and a man fed via a straw were Tuesday pulled out of the rubble eight days after China's earthquake but hopes faded for others as the death toll topped 40,000.
Amid fears of new aftershocks among a traumatised population, Beijing put out a fresh urgent appeal for tents as foreign medical teams began to arrive in southwestern Sichuan province.
Ethnic minority women grossly under-represented in UK
By IRNA,
London : Ethnic minority women are grossly under- represented in British politics by some 600 per cent, according to a new report by Simon Woolley, head of Operation Black Vote Black campaign group.
Black, Asian and minority ethnic women account for less than one percent of England's 20,000 local councilors, numbering only 168, when some 1,000 would be more representative, the report found.
Woman rescued 195 hours after China’s earthquake
By Xinhua,
Chengdu : A 60-year-old woman was rescued at 6:45 p.m. on Tuesday from rubble in Pengzhou, southwest China's Sichuan Province, more than 196 hours after the May 12 earthquake.
Wang Liqun, a retiree from the provincial capital of Chengdu, had lived on rainwater in the past days. She, still conscious when rescuers found her, was rushed to hospital.
Wang was inside a temple when the quake struck. She was hit by a falling girder in the head and had been in coma until last Tuesday, according to the rescue team from an air force regiment based in Chengdu.
Tamil Nadu minister’s resignation accepted
By IANS,
Chennai : Tamil Nadu minister A.A. Poongothai's resignation has been accepted by Governor Surjit Singh Barnala Tuesday.
Poongothai's social welfare portfolio has been allotted to P. Geetha Jeevan, another woman ministerm, a Raj Bhavan release said.
Poongothai submitted her resignation to Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi May 14 following an expose of an alleged telephone conversation between her and a senior police official during which she reportedly sought favour for a relative.
Police lock up rape victim for semi-nude protest
By IANS,
Moga (Punjab) : A semi-nude protest here by a woman against Punjab police inaction in registering a case against some men who allegedly raped her has landed her in a lock-up.
The victim took off her clothes on a busy crossing on the Ferozepore-Ludhiana highway here Monday and shouted that her pleas to the police for getting a rape case registered had fallen on deaf ears.
The protest shocked people moving along the highway.
‘Dead’ servant arrested for Chandigarh woman’s murder
By IANS,
Chandigarh : The murder of a property dealer's wife at her residence here saw yet another twist - the Chandigarh police Monday claimed to have arrested the domestic help whom it had declared as having been “killed” Sunday.
Chandigarh's Senior Superintendent of Police S.S. Srivastava announced that Vijay Pal alias Nikku, the domestic help of property dealer Baljinder Singh Sandhu and his murdered wife Anuradha, was arrested Monday from Himachal Pradesh.
Woman cop declared “dead”, found alive
By IANS,
Jammu : It could happen only in Jammu and Kashmir. A woman constable, declared dead two years ago, has been found alive in a migrant camp on the outskirts of Jammu -- living with her Hindu paramour.
Nelofar, a constable with the Jammu and Kashmir police, was reported missing March 2006 by her family which alleged that she had disappeared -- and, in all probability, had been killed by the police for she "knew some secrets about her superiors".
According to police records, Nelofar was sent to Badami Bagh cantonment in Srinagar for frisking duty from where she went missing.
CRPF officer cleared of molestation charges in Bengal
By IANS,
Kolkata : West Bengal has given a clean chit to Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Aloke Raj, who was slapped with molestation charges during the panchayat polls in Nandigram, officials said Monday.
Chandigarh police question husband over woman’s murder
By IANS,
Chandigarh : The Chandigarh police Sunday evening started questioning a property dealer after his young wife was found murdered in their home here late Saturday night.
The questioning of Anuradha's husband, Baljinder Singh, started after the servant whom the police earlier suspected for the murder was found dead near Ropar town in Punjab, 40 km from here.
The police were looking for Vijay Kumar alias Nikku, a domestic help working for the couple for over five years, as he was missing from the home after the murder. His motorcycle was also missing.
Woman denied entry into hospital, gives birth outside
BY IANS,
Hardoi (Uttar Pradesh) : The Uttar Pradesh government ordered a probe Saturday after a woman in the final stages of labour was denied entry into a hospital here and gave birth outside.
Kiran gave birth to a baby boy at the gate of the Hardoi district hospital Friday. After the delivery, Kiran's family members took her and the baby to a private nursing home for treatment, said the police.
India: topper among women in UPSC exam credits family for achievement
By NNN-PTI,
New Delhi : Delhi girl Ashmia Jain, the overall topper among women candidates in the Civil Services Examination, credits her achievement to her family's efforts.
Jain, who secured the seventh position in the 2007 exam, is a post-graduate from the Delhi School of Economics.
The 25-year-old told PTI that she had dreamt of the moment when she was in Class IX. "When I was in Class IX, I had told one of my friends that one day I would also make it to the civil services exam".
A topper from her school days, Jain toiled tediously for one and a half year to achieve her goal.
Inter-Korean women call for national reconciliation, reunification
By Xinhua,
Pyongyang : Representatives of women from the two Koreas met on Thursday and Friday at Mt. Kumgang Resort of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), vowing to implement two declarations on reunification.
The delegates called for promoting the national reconciliation and unity and boosting the desire for reunification, said the official news agency KCNA.
They vowed to uphold and implement the June 15 joint declaration and the Oct. 4 declaration, which were reached by the two Korea's leaders in 2000 and 2007 respectively, the KCNA added.
Woman travelling on fake passport arrested
By IANS,
Hyderabad : The police here Thursday arrested a woman who was trying to travel to Kuwait on a fake passport.
The woman was arrested at the international airport at Shamshabad near here when she was about to board an aircraft to Kuwait. The police have also arrested a travel agent, who was sending her abroad on fake documents.
Bayamma, a native of West Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh, had paid Rs.40,000 to the travel agent to arrange her a passport and other documents.
Mentally unstable woman jumps to death from AIIMS building
By IANS,
New Delhi : A mentally unstable woman jumped to her death Thursday from the fifth floor of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), hospital authorities said.
According to the AIIMS administration, 32-year-old Babita Goutam, a resident of Loni in Ghaziabad district on the outskirts of Delhi, jumped from the fifth floor of the main hospital building at around 12.30 p.m.
The hospital and police have informed the family.
Mystery over woman’s death in Ghaziabad
By IANS,
Ghaziabad : Police were Wednesday investigating the death of a former air hostess under mysterious circumstances at Ghaziabad.
Some passers-by noticed Jaya Kaushik, a 26-year-old who earlier worked with Deccan airlines, lying critically injured near railway tracks at 11.30 p.m. Tuesday. They rushed her to a hospital where she succumbed to her injuries.
Attending doctors said her left leg and right arm were found broken and there were multiple injuries in her abdomen.
Police hunt on for suspected woman bomber
By Sahil Makkar, IANS,
Jaipur : The police have launched a massive hunt for a woman who allegedly promised Rs.100,000 to a rickshaw puller to carry out the terror attacks that killed over 60 people.
"We are looking for a woman, identified as Meena, who tried to lure a rickshaw puller, Vijay, to carry out the attacks," a police officer told IANS on the condition of anonymity.
Vijay, a resident of Mumbai who suffered minor shrapnel injures, told the police that Meena lives near one of the blast sites. No further details of the woman's role in the bombings were available.
Yemen to appoint four women as district managers
By NNN-SABA,
Sana'a : Yemeni Local Administration Minister Abdul-Qater Hilal said that four women would be appointed in the positions of district managers in four provinces.
Hilal added that their appointment would be the first step to expand this policy in other provinces of the country, pointing that the appointments would be in the capital Sana'a and Aden, Taiz, Hodeidah and Ibb provinces.
He affirmed this experiment aims at strengthening the effective participation of women in political and administrative life and decision-making positions.
Women victims of abuse turn child abusers: study
By IANS,
Washington : Women who have faced abuse at the hands of elders and relatives as children can themselves turn into child molesters, according to an extensive new study.
Most people believe women are incapable of committing such acts and the abuse of boys by women is often dismissed as the boys sowing their wild oats, said Susan Strickland of University of Georgia and author of the study.
Army moots permanent commission for women officers
By IANS,
Chandigarh : Faced with a shortfall of 12,000 officers in the army, the central government considers giving permanent commission to women officers in various non-combat streams of the armed forces.
HIV-positive mother gets child custody
By IANS,
New Delhi : A smile lit up Sunita Verma's face as she got her two-year-old boy back after nearly a year thanks to the Delhi High Court which Tuesday ruled in her favour despite the fact that she is HIV-positive.
Justice Gita Mittal also appointed an activist who will look after the child on a regular basis. She also ordered that the child undergo a medical test Thursday at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
Sunita approached the court as her in-laws refused to give her the child after her husband Satish died of AIDS.
Eight killed in factory blast near Nagpur
By IANS,
Nagpur : Eight people, including a woman, were killed and 15 others injured in an accidental detonator explosion in a stone crusher at Umred near here Monday, the police said.
The blast occurred at noon when the workers of SMS Thresher Co were off-loading and checking detonators from a supply truck that just arrived with the goods, the police said.
Woman attemps to set herself ablaze near Rashtrapati Bhavan
By IANS,
New Delhi : Apparently depressed due to quarrels with her husband, a 30-year-old woman allegedly tried to commit suicide by setting herself ablaze near the heavily-guarded Rashtrapati Bhavan here Monday evening, officials said.
The woman, identified as Sangeeta, allegedly poured kerosene over her body and set herself afire around 5.30 p.m. on Dalhousie Road behind the presidential palace.
Security officials rushed towards her and put out the flames, before officials from Delhi Fire Service could reach the spot.
Women have different roles in Kuwait”s NA elections
By Wafa Ramadhan, KUNA,
Kuwait : In the process of the second National Assembly (NA) elections in which Kuwaiti women are participating, women have been playing an important role at various relevant levels.
Women are voters, candidates, supporters, managers of electoral campaigns, coordinators of electoral seminars, and honorary guests in events.
Former candidate Aisha Al-Rshaid told KUNA that although women are new to the elections, they "have proven themselves and have played a major role in various aspects" of the electoral process.
Malaysians gift Indian mother of seven home and warmth
By IANS,
Kuala Lumpur : Community leaders, a corporate group and newspaper readers in Malaysia have pooled in resources to help an Indian origin mother of seven who was thrown out of her house recently.
As a Mothers' Day gesture, the donors arranged not only a home, but also rent for the dwelling, household goods and food for the family that was evicted for non-payment of rent a month ago.
Woman makes large donation for Myanmar cyclone victims
By DPA,
Singapore : A woman eager to show her son how donations are made turned over 100,000 Singapore dollars ($74,000) for victims of the cyclone in Myanmar, the Sunday Times said.
In her 40s, the woman went to the Red Cross House and asked how she could help. She then took out of her handbag a wad of 1,000-Singapore-dollar ($740) notes, totaling 50,000 Singapore dollars ($37,000), tied together with a rubber band.
While the workers were thanking her, the woman took out another wad, saying: "Here's another 50,000."
Woman, child killed in anti-Al Qaeda attack in Iraq: US military
By DPA,
Baghdad : The US military said Sunday an operation targeting gunmen from the Al Qaeda terrorist network in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul left four people dead, including a woman and a child.
In the operation Saturday, Al Qaeda suspects riding in a vehicle refused to stop, after coalition troops fired warning shots, prompting the forces to engage them, a military statement said.
The woman and the child, who were also in the vehicle, were killed in the engagement along with two gunmen.
Bollywood goes moist-eyed on Mother’s Day
By Subhash K. Jha, IANS,
Mumbai : From old hats like Shabana Azmi, Hema Malini and Mahesh Bhatt to young actors like Sonam Kapoor, Celina Jaitley and Abhishek Bachchan - on Mother's Day they all talk about the contribution of their mothers in their lives and give them credit for their success.
Here is what the actors have to say on the special occasion:
Militants kill five in Jammu, gun battle continues
By IANS,
Samba (Jammu and Kashmir) : Five people, including a woman hostage and a photojournalist, were killed when militants struck in Jammu early Sunday. An intense gun battle is underway between the militants, holed up in a house, and security forces in the Samba sector.
The militant attack in the Jammu plains is the first since 2002.
According to the police, militants entered the house of Hoshiar Singh in Kali Mandi in Samba, 45 km from Jammu, and opened fire, killing him and his wife Shashi Bala. Their daughter Bindu and Singh's mother-in-law were injured in the firing.
New novel toasts Kashmiri woman spy
By IANS,
Mumbai : Perhaps she was our very own Mata Hari. A Kashmiri woman who saved the Indian Navy from disaster by spying for the country during its 1971 war with Pakistan is the heroine of a new novel released here.
Former commander of the navy Harinder S. Sikka's book "Calling Sehmat" was launched on board INS Vikrant by Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Sureesh Mehta.
Quota for women must respect social divide, say some MPs
By Rajeev Ranjan Roy, IANS,
New Delhi : The purpose of reserving seats for women in legislatures will be defeated if these are not earmarked for different social strata, say supporters of reservation along caste lines.
In support of their argument, they say there are only 11 woman Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) members in parliament now although the total seats reserved for these two groups is 120 and 79 respectively.
Five sleeping labourers crushed to death in Noida
By IANS,
Noida : Five sleeping labourers, including two women, were killed and two children injured when they were crushed under the wheels of a bus here at midnight Saturday.
The victims were asleep near a crossing under the Sector-24 police station of Noida.
According to Superintendent of Police City Mahesh Mishra, the driver of an Uttar Pradesh Roadways bus was trying to park his bus at 11.45 p.m. on the ground when he failed to spot the sleeping labourers.
Cynicism, casteism haunt women’s reservation bill
By Amulya Ganguli, IANS,
Since electoral considerations rather than a genuine desire for women's empowerment were behind the latest move to revive the 12-year-old legislation for reserving parliamentary and assembly seats for women, its fate may be no different from what happened earlier.
The very manner in which the measure was introduced in the Rajya Sabha, with several women MPs shielding the law minister from unruly critics when he tabled the bill, showed that its passage would not be easy.
US Citizens Protest War in Iraq
By Prensa Latina,
Washington : The Code Pink anti-war organization protested on Friday against occupation of Iraq in front of a Marine Corps recruitment center in California.
Activists held pink banners with the mottoes: "Bring Back the Troops Now" and "The war is Eating Our Children."
We will do anything in our power to stop that war, asserted Zanne Joi, a member of Code Pink, created in 2002 by one hundred women.
The meeting is part of the peaceful actions promoted by the group to celebrate Mothers' Day.
15 percent voting in first phase of Karnataka polls
By IANS,
Bangalore : About 15 percent voting was reported in the first three hours of polling Saturday in 89 constituencies across 11 southern districts of Karnataka in the first phase of assembly elections.
Around 17.3 million voters, including 8.4 million women, are eligible to pick their representatives from over 950 candidates. There are 17 women contestants. The Karnataka assembly has 224 seats.
Two released Japanese tourists depart Yemen
By NNN-SABA,
Sana'a : Well-informed sources said that the two Japanese women tourists Keiko Mishima, 41, of Suginami Ward, Tokyo, and Shizuko Endo, 44, of Fukuoka, left Yemen on Friday morning a day after they were freed from their kidnappers in Marib province, 170 kilometers east of the capital, Sana'a.
The sources said to Saba, that Keiko Mishima and Shizuko Endo enjoy good health after they were kidnapped last Wednesday by gunmen in Marib.
Mortar hits Israeli kibbutz, kills Israeli woman
By Xinhua,
Gaza : An Israeli woman was killed and three wounded on Friday afternoon by a mortar shell fired by Gaza militants at an Israeli kibbutz near the border between Gaza Strip and Israel.
An Israeli army spokesman told Israeli Radio Arabic service that Palestinian militants fired in the afternoon a mortar shell from Gaza at Kibbutz Kfar Azza, adding that a woman there was killed and three men wounded.
Haryana family kills lovers for honour
By IANS,
Karnal (Haryana) : A family in a village in Karnal district of Haryana is being interrogated by the police for strangulating a young couple, including a pregnant woman, in love to punish them for staying together.
Jasbir Singh, 27, and his companion Sunita, who was six months pregnant, were murdered in Ballah village, about 35 km from here. The woman's family was opposed to their daughter, a divorcee, living with Jasbir.
Voting begins in 89 constituencies in Karnataka
By IANS,
Bangalore : Voting began Saturday in 89 constituencies in 11 southern districts of Karnataka in the first of the three-phase elections to the 224-member state assembly whose outcome has assumed national importance as it could be a pointer to the timing of parliamentary polls.
Around 17.3 million voters, including 8.4 million women, are eligible to pick their representatives from over 950 candidates. There are 17 women contestants.
Indian held for Andhra student’s murder to appear in court
London, May 9 (IANS) A 24-year-old man from Andhra Pradesh was to appear before British magistrates Friday on charges of killing a woman from his native state in the city of Birmingham, 190 km from here.
Nagaraju Kumar Nalluri was arrested Wednesday - a day after police found the 23-year-old woman dead from head injuries in her rented house in the Birmingham suburb of Handsworth.
Reports: two Japanese women kidnapped in Yemen
By Xinhua,
Sana'a : Two female Japanese tourists were kidnapped near Yemen's major tourist attraction Marib on Wednesday, local officials told foreign media.
The Japanese women were seized by unknown armed men while visiting a historic dam in the town of Marib, some 180 kilometers east of the capital of Sanaa, said the media reports.
The armed men took the two women, members of a tourist group sightseeing near the old dam of Marib, in their vehicle and kicked away their Yemeni driver, a provincial government official was quoted as saying.