Monday, February 8, 2010

Rathore stabbed in face outside court, attends hearing again

CHANDIGARH - Former Haryana police chief S.P.S. Rathore, convicted of molesting teenager Ruchika Girhotra in 1990, was stabbed thrice in the face by a youth wielding a pocket knife outside the district court complex here Monday.

An injured Rathore, however, returned for the hearing in a couple of hours.

As Rathore stepped out of the complex in Sector 17 and was headed towards his car, the young attacker caught him by the neck and in a split second stabbed him thrice. His wife and counsel Abha Rathore was with him at the time.

While lawyers immediately took a bleeding and stunned Rathore, who bled from his right cheek and neck, to the Government Multi-Specialty Hospital, police swooped down on the youth identified as Utsav Sharma from Varanasi. He told the police that he was studying film production in Ahmedabad. The knife was quickly seized from him.

Though shaken by the sudden attack, Rathore pulled out his handkerchief and put it on his bleeding cheek as he tried to regain composure.

Rathore’s other counsel, Narayan Dutt Sharma from Jaipur, was also injured in the attack and admitted to hospital. He received stab wounds on his arm.

Rathore returned for the post-lunch session of the court hearing in a couple of hours with a bandage on his cheek and neck, and wearing his fawn-coloured ‘bandgala’ jacket with blood stains on it. Though the judge offered to adjourn the ‘in-camera’ trial, Rathore said that it could continue. The hearing continued for nearly 30 minutes.

Senior Superintendent of Police S.S. Srivastava told IANS that the young man “seemed to be mentally unstable” and had been living in the city for about a month.

Utsav, 29, posed as a freelance journalist and mingled with mediapersons waiting outside for Rathore to cover the first day of the three-day hearing against his conviction which started Monday.

He was arrested after the incident and is likely to be charged with assault.

“We have spoken to his family in Varanasi and to his doctor with whom he was undergoing treatment for a psychological problem in Ahmedabad. He suffers from mood disorder syndrome,” Srivastava told reporters later.

“Investigations are in progress. There does not seem to be any motive behind the attack. He seemed angry and got a feeling that justice has not been done to this girl (Ruchika) and he carried out the attack under psychological imbalance,” Srivastava added.

Pankaj Bhardwaj, lawyer for Anand and Madhu Prakash, the parents of Ruchika’s friend Aradhana, who have been fighting the case for over 19 years, said that the judge has adjourned Tuesday’s hearing following the attack. The hearing will now be held Wednesday.

Anand later told reporters that the attack on Rathore was not justified.

“We have been fighting the case against Rathore for so many years. The legal system is working. The attack is not justified,” Anand said.

A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court had held Rathore guilty in December last year for molesting 15-year-old Ruchika in Panchkula town in August 1990. She committed suicide three years later.

He was sentenced to six months’ rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs.1,000 in the 19-year-old molestation case. Rathore was granted bail immediately after his conviction.

A three-day continuous hearing of the case started in-camera following Rathore’s appeal against his conviction.

The court is hearing two matters, one related to the appeal filed by Rathore against his conviction for molestation by the CBI special court and the second on the application moved by CBI seeking enhancement of his sentence from six months to two years of rigorous imprisonment.

Officer, 10 jawans killed in Kashmir avalanche

SRINAGAR - At least 11 Indian Army soldiers, including an officer, were killed and 12 injured Monday when a massive avalanche struck a high altitude warfare training camp in Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla district.

The officer killed is a Lieutenant, said a defence official, adding that rescue operations are on in the north Kashmir district.

“A massive avalanche rolled down the Khilanmarg mountain, engulfing a high altitude warfare camp set up by the army,” the official said.

The injured soldiers have been shifted to a hospital.

There were around 300 soldiers in the camp when the avalanche struck.

Brit schoolgirls as young as 10 getting pregnant

LONDON - A new survey has made a shocking discovery that schoolgirls as young as ten are getting pregnant.

A ‘Freedom of Information’ survey conducted by The Sun shows that in the last eight years, 15 girls of ten and 39 aged 11 were found to be expecting.

Also, around 300 aged 13 or under get pregnant every year in England and Wales.

And since 2002 there have been 63,487 pregnancies among under-15s - almost 23 every day.

Sociology Professor Frank Furedi, from the University of Kent, said the figures were “tragic”.

He said: “They show the consequences of the sexualisation of childhood.”

Also, Norman Wells, of the Family Education Trust, added: “There are far too many schools telling children they are entitled to become sexually active when it is ‘right for them’.”

Anastasia de Waal, of think tank Civitas, said: “We have kids behaving as adults, not realising the complications.

“Often the girls feel they have to have sex to please their older boyfriends.”

The youngest girl reported to be pregnant in the UK gave birth aged 12. (ANI)

China shuts down country’s largest hacker training site

BEIJING - China has shut down the country’s biggest hacker training site in Central Hubei province.

Local media and China Daily reported that three people, who ran the Black Hawk Safety Net, and were suspected of offering others online attacking programs and software, a crime recently added to the Criminal Law, had been arrested during the raid on the training site.

Chinese Police confirmed that 1.7 million Yuan (249,000 dollars) in assets had been seized and frozen.

The provincial public security department of Hubei said the closure of the website had its roots in a previous Web attack and virus dissemination case in the city of Macheng in 2007, when police found some of the suspects caught were members of Black Hawk Safety Net.

Hubei province named Black Hawk Safety Net as the largest hacker-training site in China, which openly recruited members and disseminated hacker techniques through lessons, Trojan software and online forum communications.

Since it was established in 2005, the site had recruited more than 12,000 VIP members and collected over seven million Yuan in membership fees. More than 170,000 people registered for free membership.

Police said more than 50 officers had been investigating the case.

According to a report released by the National Computer Network Emergency Response Coordination Center of China, China’s hacker industry caused losses of 7.6 billion Yuan in 2009. (ANI)

It’s official: Beer is good for your bones

LONDON - Beer can help strengthen the bones and prevent fractures in old age, a new study has confirmed.

Beer is a significant source of silicon, which is a key ingredient of the diet that helps to improve bone mineral density.

The best beers for silicon are the pale malted ales and lagers. Dark bitters and stouts contain lower levels because they are made with roasted barley, which has lower silicon content. Wheat contains less silicon than barley, so wheat beers are poorer sources of silicon.

Previous studies have suggested that a regular pint or two may help to prevent the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis.

In the new study, researchers at the University of California studied 100 commercial beers and found their silicon content ranged from 6.4 milligrams per litre to 56.5 mg/l. Paler beers have more silicon than darker ones because less heat is used in the malting process.

“Beer containing high levels of malted barley and hops are richest in silicon. It is the husk of the barley that is rich in this element. While most remains during brewing, significant quantities are none the less extracted into wort and survive into beer,” the Independent quoted Charles Bamforth, who led the study, as saying.

The study has been published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. (ANI)

Nokia 5233 Price in India, Availability

The Touchscreen mania, kick started by the Apple iPhone seems to be the buzzword of the mobile industry now. The mobile handset market is gradually getting flooded by a number of touchscreen handsets and the icing on the cake is that, a good number of them are in the sub-Rs 10,000 category.

Samsung commands a good market share in this category with their Corby and Star. Now the time has come for market leader Nokia to grab a larger pie in the affordable touchscreen segment. After its higher-end 5800 and 5230 getting good response, Nokia has now launched 5233.

Nokia 5233 is an affordable Touchscreen Mobile phone with only 2G and without Wi-Fi which makes it different from its 3G sibling, Nokia 5230.

Features of Nokia 5233 at a glance

* Responsive touchscreen with tactile feedback
* Accelerometer for auto-rotate
* Proximity sensor to save power and prevent inadvertent touches
* Handwriting recognition
* 3.2″ screen having resolution of 640 x 360 pixels (nHD), 16:9 aspect ratio and capable of supporting up to 16.7 million colours
* 2 megapixel camera
* 3x digital zoom
* Video recording at up to 640 x 480 pixels and up to 30 fps (TV high quality), up to 640 x 352 pixels and up to 30 fps (widescreen quality), up to 320 x 240 pixels and up to 30 fps/15 fps (email high/normal quality), up to 176 x 144 and up to 15 fps (sharing quality)
* Up to 4x digital zoom
* RealPlayer
* Video playback file formats: MPEG4-SP playback 30fps VGA, MPEG4-AVC playback 30fps QVGA, WMV9 playback 30fps QVGA, MPEG4-SP playback 30 fps nHD
* Music playback file formats: MP3, MP4, AAC, eAAC+, WMA
* Dedicated music keys
* FM radio with RDS
* 3.5 mm stereo headphone plug
* 2.5 mm Nokia AV connector

Availability and Pricing

The Nokia 5233 is already launched in India at a price tag of about Rs.7500

Rush to your nearest Nokia Priority Dealer/Store for details. If you have already purchased it, don’t forget to share your experience with us.




PM assures no more attack on NE students in Delhi

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has expressed concern over the recent attacks on girl students of the north eastern region in New Delhi and said stern action would be taken against the culprits to prevent such incidents.

The Prime Minister made the statement in a letter to the North East Students Organisation (NESO) Chairman, Samujjal Bhattacharya.

Replying to a complaint lodged to Singh by the NESO, the Prime Minister said he had directed the authorities to take stern action against the culprits.

"The North East people in Delhi is a peace loving community which is making valuable contributions to the academic and economic life of the city," Singh said in the letter.

Bhattacharya told reporters he was happy to receive such quick response to their complaint from the premier.

Bhattacharya, also advisor to the All Assam Students Union (AASU), said that the complaint had been filed after a girl from Nagaland was murdered in the national capital on October 25 last year.

He said there were at least nine incidents of attack on the students last year, particularly on girls, of the NE region in New Delhi following which the students organisation had approached Singh who represents Assam in Rajya Sabha.