Two labourers were killed when the fire they lit to keep themselves warm from the biting cold spread and an elderly man died due to the chilly conditions which gripped Saurashtra and Kutch region.

AP reports:  A car bomb explosion tore through a crowd of Shiite pilgrims returning home today from a religious commemoration, killing at least 20 and reinforcing fears of renewed sectarian violence, according to Iraqi officials.

Kerala police's cyber wing has begun a probe into the uploading of the photograph of an engineering student from the state on a social networking site claiming it as the picture of the Delhi gang-rape victim. 

Even as the entire Nation was boiling over the gang rape incident in Delhi, a 38-year old man today set him ablaze on the premises of Court in Palladam in the nearby Tirupur district, protesting against the increasing rape incidents.

Three weeks after their school became a slaughterhouse, students from Sandy Hook 

Ri Sol-ju, the wife of the reclusive nation's leader was shown to be heavily pregnant by state TV in late December when attending a memorial service for former leader and Mr Kim's father, Kim Jong-il.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday held consultations with senior party leaders on the Telangana issue.

In view of intense cold wave conditions in the city, the Delhi government today ordered all schools under it to remain closed until January 12.               

India is under the grip of cyber attacks and there is an obvious peak in the growth of malware and their modifications on mobile devices, especially on the Android platform, according to a report.               

Two Pakistani fishing trawlers, which entered Indian waters through the disputed Sir Creek, have been seized by the Border Security Force, officials said today.

As controversy raged over the 'hate speech' of MIM MLA from Andhra Pradesh Akbaruddin Owaisi, Congress today advocated "strictest possible steps" against those indulging in the politics of hate.        

Accusing the Centre of being insensitive towards people's anger against the Delhi gang-rape incident, BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi today hit out at the UPA government for not convening a special session of Parliament to discuss the need for stringent anti-rape laws.        

The 30-year-old school teacher, who was attacked with acid by a youth in Srinagar, will be flying to New Delhi on Friday for plastic surgery at Indraprastha Appollo Hospital.       

The five accused, Ram Singh, his brother Mukesh and their accomplices Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur have been charge sheeted for the offences of murder, gangrape, attempt to murder, kidnapping, unnatural offences, dacoity, hurting in committing robbery, destruction of evidence, criminal conspiracy and common intention under the Indian Penal Code. The sixth accused is a juvenile and proceedings against him will be conducted by the Juvenile Justice Board.

In the 33-page charge sheet, the role of the juvenile offender is also elaborated. The police filed the charge sheet along with bulky documents, with many in sealed covers, in the court of Metropolitan Magistrate Surya Malik Grover who posted it for consideration on January 5.

The Delhi police has sought direction for not disclosing the content of the FIR and for keeping it and other documents in sealed covers to protect the identity of the victim.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who has been firing salvos at the Centre on different issues, today shared the dais with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the Science Congress in Kolkata.

The chief minister was seated next to the Prime Minister and the two briefly chatted and smiled in between speeches at the Congress which was attended by a host of foreign delegates and Indian scientists.

This was their first meeting since September last year after the Trinamool Congress walked out of the UPA over FDI multi brand retail. Also present on the dais was President Pranab Mukherjee who inaugurated the five-day meet.

It also apparently provided a good photo opportunity for television crew and photo journalists.

At one point, when there was a little commotion from the audience in the stadium balcony during Singh's address, Banerjee got up and sought to know the reason for it.

Later, she was seen instructing the organisers to set right the sound system as Singh's speech was barely audible to those seated in the balcony. People responded with applause as an SPG official adjusted the microphone after which the Prime Minister's speech was audible.

In her speech the chief minister urged the Manmohan Singh government "Please look at Bengal. If Bengal is developed, then India is developed."

The coverage of the Delhi gang rape case strikes a particularly ironic note following recent media controversy over a rape in Ohio. Read the report on the Guardian.

The Delhi gang rape victim's father says he is satisfied with the work done by the police. The chargesheet will come up for consideration on January 5.

On the Guardian: There's something uncomfortably neocolonial about the way the Delhi gang-rape and subsequent death of the woman now known as Damini is being handled in the UK and US media. While India's civil and political spheres are alight with protest and demands for changes to the country's culture of sexual violence, commentators here are using the event to simultaneously demonise Indian society, lionise our own, and minimise the enormity of western rape culture.
Read

The gang rape trial will be held in-camera, the public will not be allowed in court. The charges against the minor accused will be made later.

Read: A gang rape survivor writes about life after the horror.

Meanwhile, the Home Ministry has ordered deputing of two woman sub-inspectors and seven woman constables in every police station in Delhi.

At the Saket court, the chargesheet in email format was filed against five of the six accused in the December 16 brutal gang-rape and assault case of the girl, who died in a Singapore hospital on December 29.

The sixth person apprehended in the case has claimed that he is a minor and his case will be tried in Juvenile Justice Board. A separate police report will be sent to the Board after a bone test confirms that he is a minor.

The Delhi police have filed the 1000-page charge sheet at the Saket Court in the bus gang rape case. The case will then be moved to the fast track court to hear it on a day-to-day trial basis. The Delhi police, which had earlier invoked murder charges against the six men allegedly involved in the gang-rape, plans to submit a 1000-page charge sheet in connection with this case. More

There will be a mass fast on January 5 at Jantar Mantar over the Delhi gang rape. The protestors basically wants five demands met, which include:
Presence of CCTV cameras when the FIR is being lodged at a police station.

1 Time bound hearings at fast track courts

2 Eight innocent men who have been detained for raising their voices against affected women. Police have registered false cases against them. They must be withdrawn.

3 That Delhi police commissioner Neeraj Kumar be suspended.

4 Peoples representatives in Parliament or legislative assemblies who are sex offenders be suspended. And those who have cases against them for abusing women be barred from contesting elections.

5. Begin at home. If there are any sex offenders at home, bring them to justice.

Two students from Lucknow, Tanaya Thakur and her brother Aditya, have given an application for the filing of an FIR at the Gomti Nagar police station, against Hyderabad MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi for his provocative speech on December 24.

The siblings said that the station officer SK Gautam blatantly refused to lodge the complaint in this matter.

Since Owaisi's hate speech is being propagated through the use of Internet, Tanaya and Aditya have requested that the FIR be registered under sections 153A, 295A, 298, 504, 505, 506 IPC and 66A of the IT Act 2000.

However, the station officer said that he would register the FIR only if and when there was any law and order problem erupts and not otherwise. The siblings have now written a letter to the SSP, Lucknow, to register the case under section 154(3) CrPC, complaining about the SO's actions and behaviour.

A Kerala court has awarded the death sentence to Rajesh Kumar, an auto driver who raped and murdered a 10th standard student in March 2012. The incident occured on March 6, 2012 at  when the rapist on the pretext of asking for a screwdriver to repair his auto, approached the girl when she was studying for her exam at home. She was alone. Rajesh Kumar then raped and strangled her and fled with her  jewellery. She was found murdered only when her mother returned from work.

The girl's father says nobody should face what he has had to face.

Lamenting decline in polity, Trinamool Congress MP Dinesh Trivedi today demanded that cases against politicians be tried in fast-track courts and quick verdict be given "to clean up our own house".

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he also demanded that the government not allow anyone except President and Prime Minister to use 'power symbols' like the beacon lights or other privileges.

"The need of the hour is to recognize that somewhere we have failed to live up to the expectations of the founding fathers of our great democracy...We need to clean up our own house, the legislature. As per available information, there are many legislators with serious criminal records. "Their cases should be tried by fast-track courts so that either they are acquitted if proven not guilty, or convicted, as there is no place for a single legislator with a criminal record to be either in Assembly or Parliament," he said.

Referring to the recent gang rape and brutal assault of a 23-year-old girl, who died last month, he said such incidents appear to be just the tip of the iceberg, as there must be innumerable unreported incidences of sexual harassment be it at workplace, home or even in religious organisations.

"Crime is on the rise and I can say with a lot of concern that if this continues without immediate check, then we could lose the very essence of democracy. To my mind, these incidences are just the symptoms of a cancer which is taking deep roots in India," he said.

"We should come together and seriously introspect to find solutions rather than apportion blame," he said. Trivedi said it is of utmost importance that Parliament should function the way it is supposed to, without acrimony. Unfortunately, he said, Parliament is getting reduced to a "mockery and hooliganism" and the Speaker is "virtually terrorised".

"The politicians today appear to be serving their political parties first rather than the nation; their priority must be country first. I strongly feel a legislator must take an oath of allegiance first to the country along with the Constitution before entering Parliament or Legislative Assembly," the former Railway Minister said.

On the New York Times: According to the United States government, nearly 7 out of 10 American adults weigh too much. (In 2010, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention categorized 74 percent of men and 65 percent of women as either overweight or obese.)

But a new meta-analysis of the relationship between weight and mortality risk, involving nearly three million subjects from more than a dozen countries, illustrates just how exaggerated and unscientific that claim is. Read

Vladimir Putin prepares to shut out American parents, one mother recalls her adopted son's bleak Moscow orphanage, where helpless children pinned their hopes on US families. Read

Thirty years after its forces were evicted by a British expeditionary naval flotilla, Argentinian President Cristina Krichner has demanded that the disputed Falkland Islands be returned to them. In a stinging letter to Prime Minister David Cameron published in the British Press today, Krichner said that the South Atlantic islands were "forcibly stripped" from Argentina.

The refrain, "society has to change', has to be accompanied by another one: "society has changed'. It's the classic "everything you say about India, the opposite is also true'. Read Rama Bijapurkar's column for the Indian Express.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) today arrested a key accused in the Samjhauta blast, Dhan Singh, in the 2006 Malegaon blast case. Singh was earlier arrested in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.

Meanwhile, a key accused in the 2007 Samjhauta blast case, Rajender Chaudhary, was also produced today in the special NIA court in connection with the 2006 blast case. The court has remanded Singh and Chaudhary in NIA custody till January 17. The two accused told the court that their statements were taken "under duress." The NIA has also sought production warrant against another key Samjhauta blast accused - Lokesh Sharma - in connection with the 2006 Malegaon case.

After celebrating Christmas with their families, the two Italian Marines, facing murder charges in Kerala, are expected to reach the state tomorrow complying with the high court directive. Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, who were allowed to go home for two weeks by the court, will board a special flight for Kochi by around 9 pm tonight and arrive there by 8.30 am tomorrow, according to their counsel P Vijaybhanu. They will be leaving for Kollam court tomorrow soon after reaching here for surrendering their passports, he said.

This should put an end to quibbling naysayers who insist they wouldn't be back to face trial.

In a landmark ruling, a South Korean court today sentenced a 31-year-old pedophile to 15 years in jail and ordered the country's first ever chemical castration.

The ruling is the first since the country passed a law in 2011 that allows hormonal treatment or chemical castration for convicted child molesters, who are at risk of repeating their crimes.

The defendant, only known by his surname Pyo, was charged with having sex with five teenagers whom he met through a smartphone chat service six times between November 2011 and May 2012.

Also read Vicky Nanjappa's report on rediff.com: What is chemical castration and will it really stop rape?

Just in: A Delhi court takes cognisance of the defamation complaint against Navin Jindal and 16 officials of his firm by Zee News editor Sudhir Chaudhary. 

If you dabble in the stock market, sit up and read this. The BSE index Sensex, which started the New Year on a strong note, is likely to extend the bull- run and touch all time high of 21,700 by this year-end, says a research report by HSBC. Notwithstanding that the premium of Indian markets vis-a -vis other Asian markets have come down lately, HSBC is "overweight" on emerging markets within a global context.

The family of Paramjeet Kaur sat huddled in the dusty courtyard outside their house on Monday afternoon as a stream of senior police officers, politicians and villagers arrived to pay their condolences after Ms. Kaur killed herself on Dec. 26, nearly six weeks after she was raped by two men. Read

A scrum of television reporters and a handful of protesters gathered outside the District Court complex in Saket, Delhi, Thursday morning, awaiting a glimpse of the six men accused in a gang rape that ended in the death of a 23-year-old woman last month.Delhi police are expected to file charges against the accused today, including a charge of murder, which could carry the death penalty if the men are convicted. More

Our sources in Kolkata tell us that Nimai Bandyopadhyay, the astrologer who predicted West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee's ascent to power in 2011, is going to be the state representative for the executive committee of National University of Juridical Sciences.  

The Intelligence Bureau is probing a case involving a prayer meeting for Ajmal Kasab conducted by an imam at a mosque in Kerala, reports Vicky Nanjappa. Read

Just in: Finally, 10 after his hate speech in Adilabad, a FIR has been registered against All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi. The case has been filed under section 153 (a) of the IPC.

It may be recalled that there has been a long-drawn succession war between M Karunanidhi's two sons MK Alagiri and MK Stalin. In February last year, Karunanidhi wanted his party men to choose their new chief on their own.

The fact that Karunanidhi is set to retire from the helm of affairs of the DMK has caused tension among Alagiri and Stalin supporters. With Stalin supporters harping that he be made the next party chief, Alagiri's supporters wants the very same for their leader.

Finally, Karunanidhi has come out in the open to state that Stalin will head the party after his death.

Headlines Today: DMK chief M Karunanidhi has finally come out into the clear about his successor -- it's his son Stalin and not Alagiri. He says he will remain party chief till his last breath but till then Stalin will my successor," reports Headlines Today. 

Sonia Singh tweets: Dont understand why the govt hasnt asked Youtube to withdraw Owaisi speech ? Surely,this is what the IT act should be used for,not cartoons

The Supreme Court today slammed the Centre for its failure to stop illegal clinical trials of untested drugs by multinational companies, saying the drug trials are creating "havoc" in the country and causing death of many citizens. The apex court said that the government has gone into "deep slumber" on the issue and has failed to put in place proper mechanisms to stop "rackets" of multinational companies, which are conducting illegal clinical trials.

Jason Burke, the Guardian's correspondent in India, on the Delhi gang rape. The gang rape and murder of a young woman last month has sparked furious protests in India -- and given voice to an emerging political class. It has also highlighted the urban sprawl and violence that lie behind the country's booming economy. Read

Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, wrote his famous "one small step' speech long before flying to the Moon despite claiming he thought it up after landing on the surface, according to his family. Read

Andhra Pradesh chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy says strict action will be taken against All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi's brother Akbaruddin Owaisi over his hate speech against Hindus. "The law will take its own course. We will deal with anyone who hurts sentiments, strictly," promises Reddy.

Earlier, Abid R Khan, General Secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee said, "Our government has taken cognizance of speech and we are collecting evidence to build a strong FIR and a water-tight case where we can book the person causing hatred."

Former Pakistan captain Javed Miandad has been granted an Indian visa that will allow him to attend the final one-dayer of the ongoing limited-over cricket series between the two countries in New Delhi on January 6.

The Ministry of External Affairs, which has granted the visa, says the move was a diplomatic one.

Due to Miandad's family ties with Dawood Ibrahim (his son is married to Dawood's daughter), India's most wanted terrorist, there had been reports before a series in 2005 that any requests for a visa by the batting great could be turned down by the Indian government. Read

In stories, other than those on rape, read this: Violin maestro Padma Bhushan MS Gopalakrishnan whose career spanned over 75 years died at a Chennai hospital following complaints of breathlessness. 

Delhi has long been considered one of the most unsafe big city for women in India. And north India is often referred to as more violent, more patriarchal, and more crime-ridden than the south. To add some perspective to this debate, here is a look at statistics on reported rapes around the country. Read

India needs to invest in law enforcement, sounder laws, etc. Punishment for instant gratification won't work. Read

It may sound flippant but if I was to name the Indian of the Year for 2012, my choice would be Arnab Goswami of Times Now. The reason has nothing to do with the fact I am an occasional participant on his Newshour debates. Nor is it connected with his hectoring style which I find enthralling at times and quite exasperating on other occasions. Arnab's foremost contribution to the public discourse (at least the English language discourse which still sets the tone for others) is his unending search for what "the nation' wants to know.

Swapan Dasgupta on the Pioneer. Read

In other news: Three years after the Tamil Tiger's defeat, the underlying issues that caused Sri Lanka's civil war are once again coming to a head. Read

The father of the girl from Kerala whose picture is being circulated on Facebook as the Delhi gang rape victim has filed a police complaint with the cyber cell in Kerala. 

Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shashi Tharoor had said that the purported pictures of the victim on social media are apparently of a Kerala engineering student. "There's so much disinformation going around now. Purported pix of the victim on social media are apparently of a Kerala engineering student," Tharoor tweeted.  

There has been unequivocal condemnation of the heinous rape and murder of a girl in a Delhi bus two weeks ago. But I don't think it's safe yet to say that we are all clearly against rape. Read the blog.

The much-delayed Kudankulam project is set to be commissioned within the next two weeks as nuclear scientists have entered the final lap of a series of tests on its safety and efficacy.

"Within this month 100 per cent.It will take about two weeks," Ratan Kumar Sinha, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission said on the sidelines of the 100th Indian Science Congress when asked about the commissioning of the first 1,000 MW unit of the project. Sinha said all possible care was being taken to see that all the processes are followed precisely.

Inaugurating a fast track court in Saket in south Delhi that will try the accused in the case on Wednesday, Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir cautioned against lynch-mob mentality and promised swift justice in cases of sexual offences against women. Read

In life, Mir Amirul Islam was looked upon by friends and family as someone who never turned down a request for help. In death, he has left them a battle and they have pledged to carry it on, while the needy family pondered how they could make a living after spending all they had on his treatment. Read more

In 2012, total 1450 Shia Muslims killed by Deobandi militants in Pakistan. Read

NDTV: Congress leader in Chirang, Assam, has been detained for an attempt to rape a woman. The accused Bikram Singh Brahma allegedly raped a mother of two.

Also read: Mayawati against rape accused contesting elections, but fielded two in UP

Sexual crimes derive from social attitudes and no serious effort at lessening their occurrence can ever depend upon cosmetic measures such as greater policing and calls for the death penalty.

This is not to deny either the legitimacy of the anger over the terrible event that led to the recent rape and death of a young woman, or that the Indian justice system frequently subjects rape victims to as much trauma as the original act itself.
Read more

By coming out with a heady combination of concrete proposals and tough actions, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has put herself in the forefront of the national debate on dealing with rape, and the issues of prevention and punishment. Read the opinion piece on the Hindu.

The Supreme Court has agreed to take up tomorrow two PILs seeking a series of directives to the Centre and states to ensure the Delhi gang rape isn't repeated. "Yes, we know the matter is serious. You file your petition we will take it up for hearing tomorrow,' a bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir said after the petitioners' lawyers raised the matter immediately after court assembled this morning following a 15-day Christmas recess. Read more

Flight operations at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi remained largely normal today even as the airport witnessed fog.

"Operations are largely normal. However, three flights were cancelled and seven were delayed due to fog, bad weather at destination or operational reasons," airport sources said. Though there was shallow fog in the morning, it had no significant impact on airport operations. Dense fog descended on the airport around 1.30 am, leading to a drop in visibility to 75 metres at the third runway and hovered around 150 metres till 3 am.

During this period general visibility dropped to below 25 metres. The visibility at the main runway remained between 150 and 225 metres through the night and in the morning it increased to 1,200 metres, they said, adding so there was virtually no affect on flight movement. Yesterday, around 140 flights were affected after dense fog enveloped the airport. 

It was another chilly day in the capital with the mercury remaining below 5 degree Celsius in the morning hours. The minimum was recorded at 4.4 degrees as against the minimum of 4.8 degrees yesterday. Bone chilling cold and icy winds had yesterday left Delhiites shivering with the maximum temperature plummeting to 9.8 deg C, the lowest in 44 years. After being affected by dense fog for four consecutive days, flight operations at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi remained largely normal today even as airport witnessed fog.

Opinion is divided over a suggestion to name a proposed tougher law on sex crimes after the Delhi gang rape victim who died last week.While some lawyers said it was legally wrong to reveal the identity of the 23-year-old, sources in the Union home ministry said there were no provisions to name a law after an individual. Read more

The 17-year-old girl from a south Delhi public school, who was allegedly sexually assaulted by two MNC employees, was driven to desperation and attempted suicide twice in October and November last year. Her statement to the police reveals a sordid tale of exploitation by the two men who, she alleges, were working in tandem. It was a Facebook friendship with Naveen Singh Khetwal, 24, that began in September 2011, which pulled her into the quagmire.  Read more

Also read on rediff.com: Rape should be taken as seriously as a terrorist attack

Notwithstanding the impending measures or should we say promises taken by the government to make India safer for women, incidents of rape and crimes against women continue.

In yet another shocking incident of sexual assault of women, a minor girl was allegedly kidnapped and raped in Puducherry by two persons, including a bus conductor known to her, police said today.

Police have arrested the conductor and his accomplice within hours of the incident coming to their notice yesterday.

The girl, belonging to a poor family and studying higher secondary in a government school in Puducherry, has been admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Government Women and Child Hospital for medical examination, police said. The victim was reported missing since the afternoon of January 1 after she left for her nearby village Kothapurinatham after attending a tuition class here.

A fire broke out at a clothes godown at Jagannath Ghat, Barabazar in Kolkata, reports CNN-IBN.

Twenty four fire engines have been rushed to the spot. There have been no reports of casualties yet.

More details are awaited.

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been discharged from a New York hospital after treatment on blood clot in a vein of her brain, the state department said.

Clinton, 65, who has not been seen in the public since December 7 because of illness, was discharged on Wednesday evening. She was admitted to New York hospital on Sunday after doctors discovered a blood clot related to the concussion she suffered last month after she fainted and fell down while recovering from a stomach infection.

Almost 10 days after All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi's brother Akbaruddin Owaisi made an alleged hate speech against a community, the Congress has finally promised to take action against him, reports CNN-IBN.

"Our government has taken cognizance of speech and we are collecting evidence to build a strong FIR and a water-tight case where we can book the person causing hatred," said Abid R Khan, General Secretary of Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee.

Owaisi had made the incendiary speech, using inflammatory and derogatory words, in Adilabad on December 24, 2014.

"Yes there has been a criminal complaint filed. We will abide by whatever the court decides. (I) do not want to comment any further as it is now sub judice," Akbaruddin's brother Asaduddin Owaisi said.

The Delhi police will submit its 1000-page chargesheet in the brutal rape and murder case of a 23-year-old girl before a fast-track court in Saket in south Delhi today.

The chargesheet will be submitted in a sealed envelope, following which the court will hold an in-camera trial.

The statement of the braveheart given to the sub-divisional magistrate, while she was undergoing treatment at Safdarjung Hospital in the national capital, is slated to be one of the key evidence to nail the six accused in the barbaric case.

Today, a court in South Delhi is likely to start hearing the case of a 23-year-old student's gang-rape and murder, that has led to an outrage in the country, reports NDTV.

The court, which will hold daily hearings for this case, was inaugurated by the Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir yesterday.

Six people, one of them reportedly a minor -- have been accused of the rape and murder of the girl.

Read the full report here
 

Relatives of victims massacred by a gunman in a Colorado movie theater criticized an invitation to its re-opening as a "ridiculously offensive" publicity ploy.

AP reports: Patti Page, who made 'Tennessee Waltz' one of the best-selling recordings ever, has died. She was 85.

AP Hundreds of villagers in northwest Pakistan turned out today to bury five female teachers and two health workers who were gunned down a day earlier by militants in what may have been the latest in a series of attacks targeting anti-polio efforts in the country.

Three Rwandan students were arrested today for allegedly misbehaving with a girl in Ramamandi area here.

A special CBI court in Ghaziabad was today told that the two golf clubs, purportedly used in the murders of teenage girl Aarushi and domestic aid Hemraj, had negligible dirt in their cavities.

Venezuela's opposition today once again criticised the secrecy surrounding the condition of President Hugo Chavez more than three weeks after his cancer surgery in Cuba. Opposition coalition leader Ramon Guillermo Aveledo said at a news conference that the information provided by government officials 'continues to be insufficient'.