300 stranded Indian workers going home

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Riyadh: At least 300 Indian workers, who were stranded after being duped by their recruitment agencies in India, are set to leave the Saudi Arabia for their home country, with their sponsor finally agreeing to pay for the return journey after the Indian EmbassyÂ's intervention.

An official at the community welfare department of the embassy said the workers were recruited in bulk from different places in India and contracted to join ongoing airport development work in Riyadh but on arrival they were directed to do odd jobs for various other companies in different parts of the Kingdom as the concerned company for which they were hired could not win the airport contract, Arab News reported.

Â'The contracted company here wanted to outsource the workers to other companies and send them for work in various parts of the Kingdom,Â' the official said.

He said that few of them went to some places to work but majority of the workers refused to go and remained stranded.

Later, they approached the embassy saying they have been duped by their recruiters in India as the job to be done here does not match with their work permit, he said.

He added that the workers were paid their wages, but all of them wanted to return home.

The embassy approached the company to find a solution and after pursuing the matter they agreed to repatriate them soon with the return tickets.

According to the workers, majority of whom are from Kerala (about 150) and Andhra Pradesh, they have paid about one lakh rupees to the recruitment agencies in India for their job and travel expenses.

Members of some social service organisations assisting the stranded workers said Wednesday that the local job agents who recruited them in India cheated the workers of their money, which led to their sufferings.

Thanks to the embassyÂ's intervention and the sponsor agreeing to repatriate them, they are going back home, one of them said.

He's the Devil Who Raped Me, Shouted Uber Rape Survivor: Police

 The woman who was allegedly raped by Uber taxi driver Shiv Kumar Yadav identified the man at a court where she had gone to record her statement, and shouted 'he is the devil who raped me', the Delhi Police said in its chargesheet, which outlines the evidence against the suspect.

The police says that the woman, after recording her statement before a magistrate, was coming out of the court and saw the accused driver who was being taken by the police for his custodial interrogation.

'The prosecutrix (woman)... Shiv Kumar Yadav ko dekhte huye pehchan liya aur shinakht karte hue chillai ki 'yahi woh darinda hai jisne mera rape kiya hai' (the woman identified Shiv Kumar Yadav after spotting him and shouted 'he is the devil who raped me'),' the chargesheet said.

She identified him on December 8.

Yadav, 32, was arrested on December 7 and was brought to the court with a muffler covering his face to conceal his identity on the next day.

He refused to undergo a test identification parade.

When he was coming out of the court room, he removed the muffler, saying he was feeling suffocated.

The woman, who was at the same time coming out from another court room, spotted him and identified him.

Yadav allegedly raped the woman on the night of December 5 when she was heading back home to North Delhi after a night out with friends. She works for a finance company in Gurgaon.PTI

50 killed in bomb attack at Yemen police academy

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Sanaa: At least 50 people were killed and dozens of others wounded early Wednesday when a car bomb went off outside the police academy in Yemen's capital Sanaa, security officials and medics said.

Hundreds of soldiers from the interior ministry were lining up in a long queue, waiting to be enlisted in the academy, around 7 a.m. when the explosion took place, security officials said, adding that at least 50 people were killed at the scene.

Witnesses told Xinhua that a mini-bus was being driven very fast on the street along the wall of the police academy in central Sanaa before it exploded at the academy's main gate. The explosion could be heard across the city. Gunshots were also heard in the area after the explosion.

'The explosion occurred around 7 in the morning. A bus came to the gate of the academy and a man blew it up here. More than 50 people were killed in attack,' a cadet of the police academy, Nabil Ali, said.

Ambulances were crowded and police forces cordoned off the whole area where dozens of bodies were scattered.

Medics said about 100 people were sent to three hospitals near the police academy, many of them in critical condition. The toll could rise in hours.

This is the most deadly attack in Sanaa since Oct 9, 2014, when an Al Qaeda suicide bomber blew himself up at a gathering of the Shia Houthi group, killing at least 47 people.

On June 11, 2012, an Al Qaeda suicide bomber attacked this police academy, killing at least 21 people.

The security situation in the impoverished Arab country has worsened since the Shia militia took control of Sanaa Sep 21, 2014, by force.

The Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), known locally as Ansar al-Sharia, has conducted several bomb attacks against the Houthi group, the government and the army, killing scores of people since 2009.

On Monday, an explosive device went off at an office of the Shia Houthi group in western Sanaa, wounding two people and damaging nearby houses.

On Sunday, a bomb attack targeted Houthi local headquarters in Dhamar province, some 100 km south of the Yemeni capital, killing four people and injuring 25 others.

Last week, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a Shia Houthi religious ceremony in the southern province of Ibb, killing 33 Houthi followers and injuring dozens.

On Dec 16, a car bombing attack against a Houthi office in the province of al-Bayda killed 40 people, including 20 children. Two days later, a suicide car bombing attack in the western port city of al-Hodayda left 18 dead, most of whom were Houthi followers.

Fierce fighting between the group and the AQAP in the central and southern regions has forced hundreds of people to flee to neighbouring provinces.

So far, the Houthi group has clashed with the AQAP several times in the provinces of Marib, al-Bayda, Ibb and Hadramout, that have left dozens of people dead on both sides.

IANS

Gunmen attack French satirical newspaper in Paris, 10 dead

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PARIS: At least 10 people were killed in a shooting at the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical newspaper firebombed in the past after publishing cartoons joking about Muslim leaders, French TV channel iTELE reported. France Info radio also said police had confirmed a toll of 10 dead and five injured. Reuters had no immediate official confirmation of deaths. The news channel quoted a witness as saying he saw the incident from a building nearby in the heart of the French capital. "About a half an hour ago two black-hooded men entered the building with Kalashnikovs (guns)," Benoit Bringer told the station. "A few minutes later we heard lots of shots," he said, adding that the men were then seen fleeing the building. A police official, Luc Poignant, said he was aware of one journalist dead and several injured, including three police officers. "It's carnage," Poignant told BFM TV. A firebomb attack gutted the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo in November 2011 after it put an image of the Prophet Mohammad on its cover. The satirical newspaper tweeted the following cartoon on Wednesday.

Attempt to implicate me in Sunanda death: Tharoor

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NEW DELHI: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has said that a Delhi Police official had attempted to implicate him and a domestic help in the murder of his wife Sunanda Pushkar. In a letter to Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi dated November 12 and accessed by the media Wednesday, Tharoor urged the police chief to take action against the concerned officer. Tharoor said that four Delhi Police officers interrogated his domestic help Narayan Singh for 16 hours on November 7 and for 14 hours on Nov 8. On both days, Tharoor alleged that Narayan Singh was "repeatedly physically assaulted by one of your officers. "Worse, that officer used the traumatic physical assault to try and intimidate Narayan into 'confessing' that he and I murdered my wife," the former central minister said. Tharoor recalled that he expressed his concerns to Bassi over telephone Nov 8 night. "As you graciously agreed, such conduct is completely unacceptable and illegal," Tharoor said in his letter. "It also amounts to the use of physical coercion in the attempt to frame an innocent man. "I would request you to take immediate and appropriate action against such unlawful misconduct of the officer concerned. "My staff and I have always made ourselves available for any kind of inquiry and investigation but the recent behaviour of the officers towards my staff is a matter of serious concern to any law abiding citizen. "Please look into the matter personally and ensure that the unvarnished truth comes out in this case." Tharoor said he had "complete trust and faith" in Delhi Police and that he was committed to "fully cooperating with the investigations to ensure the timely completion of the inquiry". The letter became public knowledge a day after Delhi Police announced that Pushkar, found dead in a hotel a year ago, was poisoned to death. Bassi said Tuesday that this was the conclusion of the final medical report of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, which had conducted Pushkar's autopsy. Pushkar, 52, died in mysterious circumstances on Jan 17 last year. Tharoor was then a minister in the government of the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Tharoor 'stunned' that Pushkar was poisoned

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Thiruvananthapuram: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said Tuesday that he was stunned to know that his wife Sunanda Pushkar was poisoned and that a murder case had now been filed.

In a statement here, Tharoor said: "Needless to say I am anxious to see that this case is investigated thoroughly, and (I) assure the police my full cooperation.

"Although we never thought of any foul play in the death of my wife, we all want that a comprehensive investigation be conducted and the unvarnished truth should come out," he said.

He added that he and all members of Pushkar's family wanted access to all the information on the basis of which Delhi Police had concluded that she was poisoned to death.

"We have not been provided copies of the post-mortem report and other reports of the inquiry like the CFSL report till date. We repeat our request for a copy of these reports to be provided to us immediately," said Tharoor.

Pushkar was found dead in mysterious circumstances in a luxury hotel in New Delhi in January last year. Delhi Police chief B.S. Bassi said Tuesday that she was poisoned to death.

- See more at: http://www.madhyamam.com/en/kerala/2015/jan/6/tharoor-stunned-pushkar-was-poisoned#sthash.jo8LmwGp.dpuf

Sunanda was poisoned, murder case filed: police

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New Delhi: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor's wife Sunanda Pushkar, found dead in mysterious circumstances here in January last year, was poisoned to death, Delhi Police chief B.S. Bassi said Tuesday.

"We have got the final medical report from AIIMS, and we have been told that it was an unnatural death... It was not a natural death," Bassi told the media.

"She died due to poisoning. Whether the poison was given orally or injected into her body is being investigated," he said, adding the report from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences was received Dec 29.

Bassi said the quantum of poison given to Pushkar, who was 52, had not yet been ascertained. "For that we will send her viscera abroad."

A murder case had now been registered, the police chief said.

A special team has been formed to probe the case. This will be overseen by Deputy Commissioner of Police Prem Nath.

Asked why it took almost a year for the final medical report to come, Bassi said the interim report spoke of poisoning but did not say it was an unnatural death. "Even overdose (of medicines) can be poisoning."

When IANS sought to know if Tharoor, a former central minister and now a Congress MP from Kerala, would be questioned again, he said: "We will do whatever is possible."

Bassi said Delhi Police had sought the final medical report from AIIMS several times. "Now that we have got it, we are registering a FIR."

Pushkar was found dead in a luxury hotel Jan 17, 2014, a day after she and Tharoor checked in because their house was allegedly getting painted. Both had been married twice earlier.

Tharoor was then the minister of state for human resource development in the Manmohan Singh government.

Tharoor was later named by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as one of the ambassadors of his Clean India campaign. After Tharoor praised the drive, a peeved Congress dropped him as one of its official spokespersons.

The medical investigation into Pushkar's death took twists and turns.

The first autopsy report, submitted to a magistrate Jan 20 last year, had said that Tharoor's wife died due to drug overdose. But it also reported a dozen injury marks on her body.

The final autopsy report that came out in July put the number of injury marks at 15. All the injuries were caused by blunt forces except one which was an injection mark.

Later, Sudhir Kumar Gupta, who headed the forensic team in AIIMS, alleged that he was pressured to show that Pushkar's death was natural.

The AIIMS denied the allegation, and Gupta was removed from the post.

A day before she was found dead, Tharoor and Pushkar had issued a joint statement saying they were distressed by a row over some unauthorized tweets posted from their twitter account and that both were "happily married and intend to remain that way".

The statement claimed that distorted accounts of comments allegedly made by Pushkar, alleging an affair between her husband and a Pakistani journalist, had led to some erroneous conclusions.

UN won't get involved with Italian marines facing trial in India

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UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman refused Monday to be drawn into the controversy surrounding the two Italian marines facing trial in India over the killing of two fisherman off the Kerala coast amid reports that the Italian prime minister has asserted that a "direct channel" had been opened with New Delhi raising hopes of a settlement. Asked by a reporter if Ban had recently taken any initiative in the issue or if he still considered it a bilateral matter between India and Italy, the spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said, tersely, "I have nothing to add to what he's already said on the issue." Despite several high-level requests by the Italians to intervene, Ban has maintained that "it's better for the question to be addressed bilaterally, rather than with the involvement of the UN," according to reports in the Italian media. Ban's statement made in February last year was similar to comments made on his behalf by spokesmen in 2013 and last year. Reports from Rome said Prime Minister Matteo Renzi told a year-end press conference last week that a "direct channel" had been opened with India and that it has raised the possibility of resolving the almost three-year-old issue. The Italian news agency, ANSA, reported that Italian Premier Matteo Renzi said, "India, a friend and ally of Italy, has in recent hours opened a direct channel of discussion, with statements that we've appreciated." ANSA added that according to Renzi India's statements about the case may indicate a new opening for resolution. Although he did not give further details about the statements, ANSA reported, "Diplomatic sources said that he was evidently (referring to) remarks by Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, who said shortly before Christmas that New Delhi was 'studying' an Italian proposal for a consensual solution to the dispute." The agency added that Italian Ambassador to India, Daniele Mancini, was recently in Italy for two weeks of consultations. The two marines, Chef Master Sgt. Massimiliano Latorre and Sgt.  Salvatore Girone are accused of killing two fisherman off the Kerala coast in February 2012 while they were guarding an Italian tanker, Enrica Lexie, traveling from Singapore to Egypt. The Marines said they thought the fishermen were pirates. Italy asserts that the incident took place in international waters and, therefore, the Marines should be tried in Italy or in an international court. India, however, maintains that it can try them because it says the killings happened in coastal waters under Indian jurisdiction and the victims were Indians. Latorre and Girone have been out on bail and allowed to stay in the Italian embassy in New Delhi while awaiting progress in their case. ANSA also reported that Latore, who was permitted by Indian Supreme Court to visit Italy for medical treatment, "was successfully operated on to plug a small hole in his heart, a condition that is quite common and easily fixed with non-invasive heart surgery" last week according to doctors at a Milan hospital. At his press conference, Renzi had urged Italian media and politicians to stay calm and not prvoke a confrontation. ANSA quoted him as saying, "In order to resolve this issue it will be useful to maintain the tone appropriate to legitimate diplomatic and legal channels, without unnecessary displays or useless political initiatives - like some I have seen (undertaken) by ministers of preceding governments, which beggared belief." Renzi of the Democratic Paty, who became prime minister last February has appealed directly to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help resolve the issue.

Kerala to launch own newspaper, webportal

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Thiruvananthapuram: The State Govt will be launching its own newspaper and web portal (kerelanews.in.) under the aegis of the Public Relations Department. In the first phase, the govt plans to bring out the newspaper on a weekly basis and later it would be made a daily. Preparations are on for the launch in February.

Govt has already registered the name of the newspaper as 'vikasana samanwayam'.

The Govt may consider other alternative names but since it demands too much of a time, it would be published under the same title till another well suited name is accepted.

PRD deputy director K Manojkumar has been assigned with the charge of both the newspaper and the web portal.

MInister K C Joseph said that the need for a Govt newspaper arose from the fact that the development news of the state and the plans of the government rarely get published and hence there is need to start its own newspaper.

Journalism graduates would be appointed as local reporters in all blocks and remuneration given according to the news value.

The newspaper distribution across the state would be done through various Govt establishments like kudumbasree units. Printing would be carried out in the Govt press. In the first phase, the newspaper would be published from Thiruvananthapuarm.

India needs to invest in cancer research: US scientist

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Kolkata: India needs to invest in research in emerging challenges such as diabetes, cancer and neurological disorders, Indian-origin US cancer biologist Inder Verma said here Monday.

Verma is a leading authority in gene therapy, retrovirology, and cancer, particularly glioblastomas (brain tumour).

Verma - who is originally from Punjab - is an American Cancer Society Professor of Molecular Biology in the Laboratory of Genetics at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the University of California, San Diego.

'We have had very large amount of investments in communicable diseases (in the past), which still remains a big deal.

'But now that the country is economically better, particularly for some middle class families, there is really an emerging need for (investments in) non-communicable diseases,' Verma told IANS on the sidelines of the Infosys Prize Award here.

Verma is the jury chair for the Infosys Prize 2014 for the discipline of life sciences.

He said the areas to think for the future were 'cancer, diabetes, neurological disorders, particularly diseases like Alzheimer's'.

'For example, diabetes which has become a real challenge now was not such a big deal before,' he said.

Verma said India has a long way to go compared to the US, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the country last year has spurred action in certain disciplines like cancer.

'We have a long way to go because our investments have been relatively small compared to the US.

'When Mr. Modi came to US not so long ago, there has been certain encouragement in working in certain areas such as cancer biology,' he said.

Collaborations between the two nations, according to Verma, will be 'helpful' in terms of technology transfer, ideas and exchange of scientists in the future.

'There has been very little research in basic sciences in cancer which Mr. Modi together with the National Cancer Institute in India has begun to make collaborative efforts. There are more efforts in vaccines,' he added.

IANS