12 killed, 45 injured in train collision near Gorakhpur

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Gorakhpur: At least 12 persons were killed and 45 injured when a speeding passenger train allegedly jumped signal and collided with another train which was taking a turn on a loop line near here last night.

The Maduadeeh-Lucknow Krishak Express hit Barauni bound express train from Lucknow from the side while it was on the loop line at Nandanagar railway crossing, about seven kilometers from here, at around 11 PM, Chief Public Relation Officer of North- Eastern Railway Alok Kumar Singh told PTI today.

Three coaches of Barauni Express were badly damaged in the collision.

12 passengers have died in the accident, Singh said adding the Loco pilot of Krishak Express Ram Bahadur and assistant Loco pilot Satyajeet have been suspended for allegedly overshooting the signal.

"Prima facie it appears the Krishak Express was supposed to stop, but it overshot the signal," he said. The train was going towards Lucknow while Barauni express was coming from the state capital.

45 passengers were injured in the accident and condition of 12 was stated to be serious, the official said.

"An inquiry has been ordered by the railway under Commissioner Rail Safety P K Bajpai to ascertain the cause of the incident," another spokesman Anil Saxena said.

The CPRO said that Rapid Action Force, Gorkha Regiment and railway police have reached the spot and started the rescue work.

The injured have been admitted at different hospitals in Gorakhpur.

The railway has also set up helpline for inquiries for various cities -- Gorakhpur (05513303365, 09794846980), Lucknow (05222233042), Chhapra (09006693233) and Benares (09919041978), the spokesperson said.

Movement of trains on Gorakhpur-Varanasi track was disrupted following the incident and few trains have been diverted.

Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda has expressed "profound grief" over the loss of lives and announced compensation for the victims.

An enhanced ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh will be given to the families of the deceased, Rs one lakh for grievously injured and Rs 20,000 for those sustaining simple injuries, a railway official said.

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Thousands of children orphaned by Ebola: UNICEF

Wednesday 01 October 2014 08:38 AM IST

byAgencies

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A girl is taken to an ambulance after showing signs of Ebola infection in Liberia. Photo: AP

United Nations: At least 3,700 children in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have lost one or both parents to Ebola since the start of the outbreak in West Africa, according to preliminary estimates by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), which was released here Monday, and many are being rejected by their surviving relatives for fear of infection.

"Thousands of children are living through the deaths of their mother, father or family members from Ebola," said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF's regional director for West and Central Africa, who just returned from a two-week visit to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the three countries hardest hit by the Ebola crisis in West Africa, where more than 3,000 people have been killed since the outbreak early this year.

"These children urgently need special attention and support; yet many of them feel unwanted and even abandoned," he said. "Orphans are usually taken in by a member of the extended family, but in some communities, the fear surrounding Ebola is becoming stronger than family ties," Xinhua quoted Fontaine as saying.

As the death toll from Ebola continues to rise, preliminary reports from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone suggest that the number of children orphaned by Ebola has spiked in the past few weeks and is likely to double by mid-October, UNICEF said.

Ebola is also exacting a heavy emotional toll on children, especially when they or their parents have to be isolated for treatment. 

As it accelerates its Ebola response, UNICEF is looking at traditional and new ways to help provide children with the physical and emotional healing they need. 

In Liberia, UNICEF is helping the government train 400 additional mental health and social workers. UNICEF is also working with local authorities in the most affected counties to help strengthen family and community support to children affected by Ebola and provide care to those who have been rejected by their communities or whose families have died.

Over the next six months more than 2,500 Ebola survivors -- now immune to the disease -- will be trained in Sierra Leone to provide care and support to quarantined children in treatment centers.

UNICEF is also working with partners to reunite separated children with their families through an extensive family tracing network across the country which also provides children with psychosocial support.

In Guinea, UNICEF and partners will provide about 60,000 vulnerable children and families in Ebola-affected communities with psychosocial support.

UNICEF appealed for $200 million to provide emergency assistance to children and families affected by the Ebola outbreak across the region, including protection activities. So far, UNICEF has only received 25 percent of this amount. 

Jayalalithaa bail plea adjourned to Oct 6

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Bangalore: The criminal revision petition of jailed former Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa for suspension of her sentence and bail was Tuesday adjourned to Oct 6 by the judge of a vacation bench of the Karnataka High Court here.

427 subjected to sexual abuse over seven months

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KOTTAYAM: As many as 427 children were subjected to sexual abuse over the past seven months, according to Crime Records Bureau’s statistics. Most of these incidents lead to the murder of the victims.  

In the first three months of the current year, 184 cases of child abuse were reported in several police stations across the State. And now, the number of cases is 427.

In the period between 2008 and 2013, the maximum number of cases was noticed in 2013. In 791 cases of that year, the victims were minors.

This year, the total number of child related cases are 1336 and out of that 69 were kidnapping cases and 23 were murders.

Rajnath Singh Offers Prayers at Padmanabhaswamy Temple

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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today offered prayers at the famous Sree Padmanabha swamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram.

Singh spent about 45 minutes in the temple. He was accompanied by former BJP State President P K Krishnadas and local leaders.

Singh was received at the temple by Additional District Judge K Indira, who is heading the administrative set up of the temple, and senior officials.

Life span of Mangalyaan may be extended to 1 year

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Thiruvananthapuram: Expressing satisfaction over the success of the Mars Orbiter Mission, K.Sivan, director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre at Valiamala near Thiruvananthapuram said on Friday the life of the orbiter may be extended to one year from the planned six months.

“The life of the satellite was planned for six months. What we understand now is that it may go to one year,” he said while interacting with media during a felicitation ceremony organised by the Press Club in Thiruvananthapuram to honour a group of scientists of the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), which played a significant role in the Mars mission.

“We are not keen to keep the orbit in a precision mode and the aim is to keep the satellite active and make use of the last gram of propellant,” Sivan said. Regarding the criticism to the Mars Mission Project, he said it was not just for taking photographs of the red planet.

“It is a prospect given to the younger generation. It is an opportunity and challenge for them. When you have anything before you to challenge, then only you can go forward,” he said.

“The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) started with a rocket launch which has now become a pioneer and every citizen is now linked to one way or other to space applications”, Sivan said, adding, so the present Mars mission was also for future generation.

The contribution of LPSC, which built the crucial Liquid Apogee Motor for Mangalyaan, was more significant in the mission than the other centres of Isro, he said.

“Mangalyaan is a fully satisfied mission. The accuracy we achieved was very high. It placed India in the top of the map of world space science,” he added.

Sivan said the space agency was also working on a technology that can send man to the moon. “We are also developing capability and technology for manned mission to moon. We have a policy and we will do it when we mature on it,” he said.

The scientist said the most complex part of the mission was to keep an engine idle for 300 days and make it activate after a long gap. N.R. Vishnu Kartha, associate director, LPSC, said the centre was working on to develop a higher capacity payload.

“Though we have limitations, if required, we can send a man also to the space. But we should have a more reliable vehicle if we want to send a man. Life supporting system also should be developed,” he said.

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State suspends buses to Tamil Nadu fearing protests -

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Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has decided to suspend all its services to Tamil Nadu by terminating these close to the border.

The decision has been taken fearing protests and vandalism by people after a trial court held Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa guilty of amassing assets disproportionate to known sources of her income during 1991-96.

The nearest Kerala-Tamil Nadu border point is only 18 kms from the Thiruvananthapuram KSRTC bus stand in the capital city and a large number of the KSRTC buses are run for Nagercoil and Kanyakumari every day.

KSRTC operates buses to Tamil Nadu from the districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Idukki and Palakkad.

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Violence erupts in Tamil Nadu after Jaya's conviction -

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Chennai: Violence broke out in several parts of Tamil Nadu Saturday after Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was convicted in a graft case with angry AIADMK supporters indulging in stone pelting and arson and forcing closure of shops.

Tension prevailed as protesters burnt effigies of DMK President M Karunanidhi, his sons M K Stalin and M K Alagiri and tore party posters in various places including in Chennai and Madurai.

While some protesters pelted stones at the residence of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, DMK and AIADMK supporters clashed at Gopalapuram here.

A state-owned transport corporation bus was set on fire at Veppur village and some 20 buses damaged in stone-pelting in Cuddalore district, police said.

Stone pelting incidents were reported in Ambattur here, Edapadi in Salem district, Cuddalore and in Srirangam, Jayalalithaa's assembly constituency, police said.

Shops and commercial establishments downed shutters in various parts of the state.

Protesters also damaged two-wheelers parked alongside roads in Madurai, they said.

In Chennai, effigies of DMK leaders were burnt in Poes Garden area.

In Madurai, AIADMK men blocked traffic and asked the shops and business houses to close their units.

Police said some shops were ransacked and stones pelted in Tiruchirapalli and Dindigul.

Security personnel in large numbers have been posted to maintain law and order, police said.

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Jayalalithaa first CM to face disqualification

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New Delhi: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa Saturday became the third leading politician and the first sitting chief minister to face disqualification as a legislator after being convicted in a disproportionate assets case.

A trial court in Bangalore Saturday convicted her in a disproportionate assets case filed by the former DMK government in 1996.

Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad was disqualified from his seat in the Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rasheed Masood from the Rajya Sabha in the wake of the July 2013 judgment of the Supreme court that denied the three-month breathing period to MPs and MLAs for moving a higher court against their conviction.

The elected representatives, both in the parliament and the state assemblies, lost the shield of three months to appeal against their conviction after sub-section 4 of section 8 of the Representation of People Act, 1951 was declared ultra vires by the apex court.

Masood was convicted last year of diverting nine seats of the undergraduate medical course reserved for Tripura while Lalu Prasad was convicted in the fodder scam case last year.

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Jayalalithaa convicted in disproportionate assets case -

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Bangalore/Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa was convicted Saturday in a Rs.66 crore disproportionate asset case by a special court here.

Following this, Jayalalithaa, also known as Amma (mother) by her party cadres, is disqualified as a member of Tamil Nadu assembly.

After an 18-year court battle, judge John Michael Cunha convicted 66-year old Jayalalithaa, who is general secretary of the AIADMK.

He held Jayalalithaa and three others - Sasikala and her relatives V.N.Sudhakaran and J.Illavarasi guilty. Sasikala is the close aide of Jayalalithaa.

Jayalalithaa was charged with acquiring assets worth around Rs.66 crore which is disproportionate to her known sources of income.

During her first tenure (1991-1996) as the chief minister, Jayalalithaa had announced that she would take just Re.1 as her salary.

The charge against her was that her assets were around Rs.3 crore in 1991 and had grown to around Rs.66 crore between 1991-1996.

The AIADMK was voted out in 1996 as it was perceived to be corrupt.

Incidentally, DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy lost his Rajya Sabha seat this year after he was convicted in the cremation shed case by a CBI court. He was the local administration minister in Jayalalithaa's government when the scam broke. He later switched sides to the DMK.

The disproportionate assets case filed in 1996 by the then DMK government led by M. Karunanidhi saw several twists and turns during its course.

When the AIADMK returned to power in 2001 several witnesses turned hostile. On a petition filed by DMK leader K. Anbazhagan in the apex court, the case was transferred to Bangalore from Chennai.

Since then, the case meandered, with several petitions filed by the defence and several adjournments.

Over 255 prosecution witnesses and over 95 defence witnesses have been heard in the case.

Jayalalithaa was also summoned by the trial court in 2011 and answered over 1,300 questions posed to her by the judge.

This is not the first time in her political career that Jayalalithaa has been convicted by a court. In 2000, a trial court sentenced Jayalalithaa for three years and two years imprisonment in two cases.

The big question now is who will head the government in the absence of Jayalalithaa. Again this is not the first time such a question has cropped up.

In 2001, Jayalalithaa had to step down as a chief minister following a Supreme Court verdict which held that she cannot hold the office after being convicted for criminal offences.

However, she made O. Panneerselvam, a senior minister in her government, as the chief minister.

In 2002, Jayalalithaa again became the chief minister after being acquitted by the Madras High Court. She was later elected from Andipatti constituency.

AIADMK leaders do not rule out re-run of such an arrangement.

Friends and foes are in awe of Jayalalithaa, who is the tallest Brahmin politician in a state where anti-Brahminism is a part of political discourse.

Even her critics admit that Jayalalithaa is a fighter and has an iron grip over her party.

The judgment against her was delivered in a state where she was born.

Born in what was then known as Mysore on Feb 2, 1948, Jayalalithaa moved to Chennai with her mother, who started acting in movies.

Jayalalithaa studied at the Bishop Cotton Girl's High School in Bangalore and another Christian convent, Church Park, in Chennai. A bright student, Jayalalithaa ventured into acting and made her debut at the age of 16 in a Kannada movie.

Her first Tamil movie was the memorable "Vennira Aadai". But it was the grand success of "Aayirathil Oruvan" pairing with the legendary M.G. Ramachandran (MGR) that turned Jayalalithaa into a leading light of Tamil movie world.

She has paired with almost all the leading Tamil heroes. She has acted in over 100 movies, mostly in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada.

A charismatic leader who is at home in Tamil, English and Hindi (a rare quality in Tamil Nadu politics), Jayalalithaa has also sung many songs and written several stories. But when she entered politics, few could have predicted her meteoric rise.

AIADMK founder-leader MGR made Jayalalithaa the party's propaganda secretary in the early 1980s. In 1984, she entered the Rajya Sabha.

Jayalalithaa, who chose never to marry, was elected to the Tamil Nadu assembly for the first time in 1989. Just two years later, she became the chief minister, sweeping the election of 1991 held in the wake of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's assassination.

She lost her huge mandate within five years amid corruption charges.