Wife shoots hubby dead in front of their 9 kids

A jealous, pregnant woman shot her husband dead in front of their nine children in the central Philippine city of Lapu-Lapu, Cebu province, media reports said.

The 47-year-old Samuel Sollano succumbed to a bullet wound after being shot by wife Aida, 41, before their horrified children.

She is now locked up in jail facing homicide charges.

The tabloid ‘People’s Journal’, citing police reports, said the children have since been undergoing stress debriefing at the Region 7 office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, in the provincial capital of Cebu City.  

Police said that Aida got mad at Sollano when she discovered that he had several simcards that he used to communicate with the women he was having affairs with.

On the night of June 17, when the family gathered for dinner, Aida confronted Sollano, who denied his extra-marital affairs. The confrontation led to a heated argument, prompting Aidi to get a handgun and shoot her husband.

Mother a witness to daughter’s molestation

A drunk village watchman has been arrested by his colleagues after a mother caught him molesting her mentally-ill daughter inside a barangay hall in a Metro Manila suburb of Quezon City.

The 34-year-old Jericho Bellen, public safety officer of Barangay Amihan, was charged with rape before the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office, radio reports said.

Superintendent Richard Fiesta, commander of Anonas Police Station, said the victim’s 74-year-old mother alerted the other village watchmen when she saw her daughter being raped at the barangay hall.

Fiesta said the mother was supposed to ask for help from the barangay hall in looking for her 46-year-old daughter, who had gone missing on Friday night.

Police said Bellen was drunk when he saw his would-be victim passing by the vicinity of the barangay hall, and dragged her inside his quarters, where he started raping her.

Pregnant Filipina raped, murdered

Snatched off the street in Logan, Queensland on her way to work at McDonald’s.

A pregnant Filipina has been raped and killed by a still unidentified man in Logan Central, a suburb of Logan City in Queensland, Australia.
 
“My wife was eight weeks pregnant at the time she was taken,” Cory Ryther, husband of Joan Canino-Ryther, said in between sobs as he joined detectives at Logan police station on May 27. “I’d like to urge the public that anything they knew, anything … to come forward to get this guy.”
 
Quoted by the couriermail.com.au in a news report on Monday, he added: “Her family, my family, we want justice for my Joan.”
 
The article quoted the police as saying that Joan was sexually assaulted and suffered a blow to the head that brought her demise. It added that she must have been snatched off the street while walking to McDonald’s at Logan Central, where she worked, on May 21.
 
A local resident found her almost naked body at 7am the following day, Wednesday, in a yard on Leichhardt Street, about 900 metres away from her home on Mayes Avenue.
 
Police said they located on May 27 a man who went to a home on Mayes Avenue and asked to be let inside on the night Joan was murdered. But the man, described as wearing a yellow top on the night the crime was committed, has already been released.
 
Ryther, a Canadian-born chef, said his wife worked eight hours a day at McDonald’s and went to school in the daytime, a schedule she had maintained the past three years.
 
“Joan was a very determined woman,” he said. “She was the only one out of her brothers and sisters who finished their education.” Joan was the youngest in a brood of eight, he added.
 
“Nothing would stop her from doing what she wanted to do,” he said, revealing that Joan had wanted so much to be of help to her family back home, especially her brother who became the breadwinner when their father got murdered just before she was born. “In turn she promised her nephews she would put them through school.”
 
Armed with an ultrasound image of his unborn child, Ryther told the media in Logan Central that his wife had set up a Facebook page for the child, a girl, whom they had named Camille Gayle.
 
“What was taken from me was not just my wife but was also my child,” Ryther said.
 
Ryther and Joan got married in October 2011 in the Philippines, after meeting at Stones Corner, in Logan, while he was getting a coffee and she was on a lunch break from studying hairdressing in February 2011.

Anti-narcotics officials from Saudi Arabia are in Manila meeting with their counterparts to forge closer ties between the kingdom and the Philippines in their fight against drug trafficking.

Saudi Arabia, host to the largest number of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) at over 1.5 million, considers drug trafficking a heinous crime punishable by beheading.

“We are returning the favour,” Undersecretary Arturo Cacdac Jr, chairman of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), who recently visited Riyadh, told reporters on Monday.

Composed of officials from Saudi Arabia’s General Directorate for Drug Control, the kingdom’s delegation, headed by Major General Othman Nasser Al Mhrij, on Monday paid a courtesy call to Cacdac as part of their programme to build stronger bilateral ties against illegal drugs.

The delegation’s visit to the PDEA national headquarters in Metro Manila’s Quezon City, Cacdac said, “served as an avenue” for the Philippines “to showcase its operational capabilities in and facilities for dealing with crimes related to illegal drugs.

Cacdac, who spoke on May 1 at the “2nd Regional Symposium on Narcotics Control and Information Exchange” in Riyadh, said: “The symposium was an excellent opportunity to open lines of communication, share operational experiences and knowledge about international drug syndicates and the best possible practices in combatting them.”

AP

Indian Convicts Redefine ‘Business’ Behind Bars

The Holy Bible says, “Hear, O man; what does the Lord require of you but to love mercy, do justice, and walk humbly with your God?” Criminals are often judged as the unwanted part of the society. May be they have committed crimes for which they were convicted once, but government takes many corrective measures to inspire them to go out and live a respectful life after their conviction. Here we sum up few business initiatives taken by those who were punished and sent to jail once, but now are turning themselves to successful entrepreneurs.

1. Inmates Turned Fashion Designers- Tihar jail

A collection of clothes designed by women inmates of the Tihar Jail were displayed at a fashion show as part of Women’s Day celebrations. The Tihar Jail has for the past five to six months been running a fashion designing course with about 550 women inmates currently enrolled in the course. “The message that we want to give through this event is that we can manufacture quality products in the jail which can compete with any branded items in the market,” said Sunil Kumar, Chief PRO, Tihar Jail. The jail has a factory which has 1100 people employees and the turnover was 15 crore last year and this year it has been around 30 crore.

2. Bakers Behind the Bar- Kerala Jails

After netting a handsome revenue of 6.75 crore in nine months through food-making venture, prisons in Kerala are planning to diversify into more products like cakes, pepped and footwear with an aim of fruitfully engaging prisoners and selling these items to the common man at affordable prices. According to a top Prison Department official, the prison food business posted an impressive turnover of 6.75 crore in the first nine months of this year and is expected to touch about 10 crore by the end of March, 2013.

When Kerala Prison Department ventured into the food business, the sole model before it was the food-making unit of Tihar Jail in Delhi, which sold about of 1.5 crore chapatis and 20 lakh packets of chicken curry last year. While hotels charge 75-90 for a plate of chicken curry and 7-8 for one chapati, the jail chicken-chapati combine costs just 30. The prisoners also benefit from the initiative with cooks and helpers earning 117 as their daily wages so that they can send an average of 3500 to their families a month.

3. Convicts Take a Shine to Leather – Indore Jail

The Indore jail prisoners have a new passion. And the passion also involves fashion. With 40-50 kg of leather made accessible to them every month, the inmates are busy whipping out leather goods to be sold locally. The jail has also been planning to market the handbags and wallets Bhopal, and a national squash later. The training is imparted by the Tata International Ltd, ), engaged in the business of leather goods.

“At present, the leather products (bag, handbags and wallets) are sold locally by small retailers. This is because the quality is not up to the level of a TIL product. To help them achieve the required quality, a technical person will be sent to the jail to train one of the inmates, who will be the master trainer. He, in turn, will teach the others,” said a company spokesperson, stated Business Line.

Cakes costing below 100 and low-price rubber sandals are the next in line and the food business initiative would be extended to two more prisons soon.

4. Handicrafts in Cuff – Jagdalpur Jail

The prisoners at Jagdalpur Jail have set a very inspiring example for many who have been convicted. Inmates at Jagdalpur Central Jail make a wide range of eminent mats and bed sheets, which are in high demand in global markets. There are also around 351 convicts who make art work, handicraft and other designer materials worth 1 crore every year.  “Now, they are always busy in different kinds of activities. These prisoners were being trained in handicrafts and other works so that they could start their own business after being released from the jail”, an official said, stated dailypioneer.com.

The jail has also arranged short term courses that help the prisoners to utilize their free time as well as use their labor in a positive way. The also make other products apart from bed sheets and mats like, beds, sofas, dining-tables, chairs, office tables, steel furniture, cupboards, terracotta items, swings, foot mats, table mats, pen holders and items with cloth, like towels.

5. Penitentiary “Dabbas”  – Tihar Jail

The women prisoners in Tihar Jail are ready to launch their own Tiffin services, and Tihar will be the first prison to start such a business. The idea was that the inmates would prepare the meal and supply lunch to corporate houses and government offices athwart the city.

 Director General (Prisons) Vimla Mehra told Newline, “We are planning to start with the women’s jail first and expand the project to the other jails according to the demand. The number of tiffins, inmates to be engaged in the project, the cuisine and menu depends on the demand. Tihar will try its best to satisfy the customers and give them excellent quality and tasty food” Once instigated the service will be an add on to Tihar’s bakery and snacks business that sells ISO-certified biscuits, nut crackers, salty mixtures and other snack items.

Delhi is not safe, I am going back to Kolkata: Mamata Banerjee

A day after she along with her state finance minister Amit Mitra were heckled by Left student activists outside the Planning Commission office in New Delhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said that the national capital “is not safe.”

Banerjee, who will be flying back to Kolkata this afternoon, said Delhi is unsafe and that she “was manhandled like anything.

Alleging that the police did not co-operate with her, Banerjee said: “I think this is the first time such a thing has happened in New Delhi. I was also manhandled like anything. I requested the police to open the doors but they said that they don’t have the keys.

She further said she was advised by doctors to get hospitalised but she did not want to be hospitalised.

“I was given oxygen whole night on Tuesday, the doctor advised me to get hospitalised, but I don’t like to get hospitalised,” she added.

She also lashed out at the CPM for the attack on her and her Finance Minister.

“Our cadre are peaceful, all ruckus was created by the CPM. It’s a double standard game of CPM, they are hypocrites,” she said

She also apologised to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh for cancelling her meeting with him

Meanwhile, the TMC held a protest at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi against the heckling of Banerjee and Mitra.

The TMC workers are also staging rallies, holding protests in Kolkata and other parts of the state in condemnation of the incident

Banerjee and Mitra were heckled outside the Planning Commission office in the national capital by the SFI activists protesting a young comrade’s death in Kolkata allegedly in police custody.

Dozens of protestors from the SFI waited for the TMC leaders outside the Planning Commission office and raised slogans against Banerjee when she came with Mitra and other ministers to meet the commission’s Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

Sudipto, an MA student at Rabindra Bharati University, was among the hundreds of members of the SFI who were protesting against the government for postponing college union elections. They were arrested and put on a bus that was meant to take them to jail. According to the students, the SFI leader succumbed to injuries in baton charge by the police.

The police, however, claims that students were leaning out of the bus, shouting slogans, and that in the chaos, Gupta hit his head on an electricity pole as he was getting out of the bus.

Karunanidhi warns of pulling out of UPA over Sri Lanka

DMK chief M Karunanidhi on Friday warned his party will pull out of the UPA government if India does not press for an independent international probe against those responsible for the genocide in Sri Lanka in the US-sponsored resolution in the UNHRC against the island nation.

In a statement issued here late night, Karunanidhi, referring to the US sponsored resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), said: “India should take steps to amend the American resolution to include thatt those war criminals responsible for the genocide in Sri Lanka be identified, hold a free international enquiry against them and take time bound appropriate action.”

“If this request is not heeded, it will be meaningless for the DMK to continue in the central government,” he added.

DMK, with 18 members in the Lok Sabha, is a key constituent in the central United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

IANS

Related articles

• “Take forward resolution against Sri Lanka” (thehindu.com)
• DMK puts UPA on notice on Sri Lanka resolution (thehindu.com)

Kerala confirms Bitti Mohanty’s arrest

The Kerala Police has confirmed the arrest of Bitti Mohanty, son of a former top police officer, convicted for raping a German national in 2006 in Rajasthan and then jumping parole.

N. Shankar Reddy, additional director general of police told IANS that it would be the Rajasthan Police will have to confirm through finger printing that the arrested person is Mohanty.

“As far as Kerala Police is concerned we have arrested him for impersonation because his real identity was concealed. We expect the arrival of the Rajasthan Police any time,” said Reddy.

According to Rahul R. Nair, the Kannur district superintendent of police, Mohanty was picked up by the police and was questioned based on a complaint from the head office of State Bank of Travancore (SBT), who requested the police to confirm his identity.

He baffled the police by showing his passport and an electoral identity card with the name Raghava Rajan.

Mohanty, for the past seven months, has been working as a probationary officer with the SBT and early this week, the SBT officials, based on an anonymous letter, approached the police to ascertain the real identity of Raghava Rajan.

The police have done the customary medical check up on Mohanty and will produce him before a court here for his remanded. Mohanty is the son of a former top police officer from Odisha. He was convicted, along with a friend, of raping a German tourist in Rajasthan.

The trial was completed quickly and Mohanty was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment on rape charges. In November 2006, he secured parole to meet his ailing mother. Since then, his whereabouts are unknown.

His father, B.B. Mohanty, served as director general home guards and fire services, Odisha, at the Bitti Mohanty committed the crime, and was accused of aiding his son’s escape.

B.B. Mohanty was suspended from work for coming to his son’s aid, but later reinstated. He retired from service in 2012.

Sri Lanka opposes UN screening of critical film

Sri Lankan diplomats are working to block a British-made documentary about the Asian country’s civil war from being shown on the sidelines of a United Nations human rights meeting this week, arguing that it is part of a concerted campaign by the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels to destabilize the peace.

In a letter obtained Monday by The Associated Press the island nation’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva said the film contained a narrative that was “discredited, uncorroborated and unsubstantiated.”

The letter sent Sunday by Sri Lankan ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha to the head of the U.N. Human Rights Council, warns that the global body could be violating its own rules if the film is screened March 1 in Geneva at a meeting hosted by rights groups.

The 90-minute documentary, titled “No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka,” alleges government troops and Tamil Tiber rebels engaged in war crimes during the final stages of the conflict in 2009.

The film shows interviews with eyewitnesses and original footage of alleged atrocities against civilians including summary execution, sexual violence and torture. Its backers include the non-profit Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and Britain’s Channel 4 television, which aired two previous documentaries on the Sri Lanka’s civil war.

“The timing and the venue of this screening clearly demonstrates that it is aimed at influencing the debate in the council on Sri Lanka,” Aryasinha said in the letter, citing the two previous films that were also shown during meetings of the Geneva-based rights body.

He said the film contained “morphed and diabolical” material aimed at undermining the process of reconciliation between Tamils and the nation’s ethnic Sinhalese majority.

The film’s director Callum Macrae acknowledged that the documentary’s release had been timed to coincide with one of the council’s three regular annual meetings, but denied that it distorted the facts.

“We believe that our film contains very important evidence about the terrible events in the last few months of this war and we believe we have a duty to make that evidence available to the diplomats and country missions at the U.N. Human Rights Council who must make important decisions about how to ensure accountability and justice in Sri Lanka,” Macrae said.

Earlier this month the U.N.’s top human rights official faulted Sri Lanka for failing to properly investigate reports of atrocities during the war and said government opponents continue to be killed and abducted.

The United States has said it will introduce a resolution at the meeting urging a full accounting of what happened at the end of the war. A U.N. report says tens of thousands of civilians were killed in the final five months of the fighting.

By FRANK JORDANS
Associated Press

Parents Force Daughter to Have Sex With Creditor, Held

A couple allegedly forced their teenage daughter to have sex with a person as repayment of a loan of Rs 50,000 they had availed, police said today.

Three people, including the 16-year-old girl’s parents, have been booked by the police after the incident came to light on a complaint by the school administration to a local NGO which took the girl’s case to the police.

The father of the class VII student had taken a loan of Rs 50,000 some time ago, police said.

After the couple could not repay the loan, they asked the creditor to have sexual relations with their teenage daughter in lieu of the repayment of the loan.

Nisar Khan (40) readily accepted the offer and had sexual relations with the girl for two years.

The incident came to light when school authorities, on noting that the girl had become indifferent and depressed at school, initiated a probe, they said.

Fearing police action, the couple packed off their daughter to Uttar Pradesh from where she was brought back by the police, which nabbed her father and mother, though Khan is still at large, they said.

The girl will be sent for medical examination on Monday.

PTI

The Rape Report: Cases From Across the Country

Thane, Maharashtra

A 40-year-old man from powerloom town of Bhiwandi here was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment by a local court today for abducting and raping a 12-year-old girl in 2010.

Thane Additional Sessions Judge U B Shukla awarded the sentence to Arif Ahmed Memon. He was also slapped with a fine of Rs 10,000.

The girl, a fifth grade student, and the accused were residents of the same locality.

Chikmagalur, Karnataka

Five police personnel, including two women attached to Aldur police station in this district, were today placed under suspension following allegations by a woman that three policemen raped her while she was in their custody, police said.

Western Range IGP Pratap Reddy told reporters here that sub-inspector K R Shivakumar, constables Gururaj, K B Mahesh, woman constable Krithika and woman assistant sub-inspector Nandita Shetty have been suspended pending probe on the complaint filed by the victim.

The victim alleged that the three policemen sexually assaulted her on February 18 in Bangalore when they took her into custody in connection with a gold chain theft case.

The two women police personnel were present when the victim was taken into custody.

The woman and the policemen have been subjected to medical examination and the report is awaited, Reddy said.

Faridabad, Haryana

A nine-year-old girl was allegedly raped twice by her neighbour’s son at SGM Nagar area here.

“Rohit, son of Rita Sachdeva, raped twice the girl during the last eight-month period as the victim was staying with Sachdeva’s family with her mother’s consent,” police said today.

Earlier, Sachdeva had requested the victims’ mother to give the girl in her care.

The victim’s mother has a dispute with her husband and a case of divorce is pending in court, police said, adding, her mother had given consent to Sachdeva to take care of the girl.

About eight-month ago, the victim’s mother had gone to her village and returned three days back to meet her daughter when the girl narrated the incident.

The victim was sent for medical test and rape has been confirmed, police said.

Police have arrested Rohit after registering a case of rape.

Jhargram, West Bengal

A tribal girl was allegedly raped by a youth at Jhargram town, police said today.

Superintendent of Police of Jhargram Bharati Ghosh said the girl, a class X student was returning home from private tuition at around 9 pm last night when a youth forcibly took her to a field at Bachur doba area and allegedly raped her.

The girl narrated the incident to her family.

The girl’s mother lodged a rape complaint at the Jhargram police station, the SP said.

A medical test of the girl was conducted, the SP said adding investigations were on.

Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh

A 23-year-old girl who was subjected to eve teasing by a neighbour committed suicide by hanging herself at her home, police said today.

The incident took place at Chopda Mohalla yesterday when the victim was alone at her home, they said.

Her neighbour, one Manoj Kushwaha, allegedly used to tease her and upset with it, she hung herself from the ceiling fan in the room yesterday when she was alone, they said quoting girl’s mother Hemlata Sharma.

Hemlata was living with her only daughter as her husband and son had died earlier, police said.

A case has been registered against Manoj, who is absconding, they said, adding that efforts were on to nab him.

A tongue has No Bones

“A tongue has no bones,but it’s already strong enough to break a heart,and we can’t take back the words we’ve spoken or heal the wounds we’ve made, so be careful with your words.”

Triple Filter Test story. — One day the great philosopher came upon an acquaintance who ran up to him excitedly and said, “Socrates, do you know what I just heard about one of your students?”

“Wait a moment,” Socrates replied. “Before you tell me I’d like you to pass a little test. It’s called the Triple Filter Test.”

“Triple filter?” asked the man.

“That’s right,” Socrates continued. “Before you talk to me about my student let’s take a moment to filter what you’re going to say. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?”

“No,” the man said, “actually I just heard about it.”

“All right,” said Socrates. “So you don’t really know if it’s true or not. Now let’s try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my student something good?”

“No, on the contrary …”.

“So,” Socrates continued, “you want to tell me something bad about him, even though you’re not certain it’s true?”.

The man shrugged, a little embarrassed. Socrates continued.” You may still pass the test though, because there is a third filter – the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my student going to be useful to me?”

“No, not really…”

“Well,” concluded Socrates, “if what you want to tell me is neither True nor Good nor even Useful, why tell it to me at all?”
Have you ever tried living up to it? Do you believe people can?

Well.. Don’t just sit there! Share this lesson! this is a good one!