Five persons were arrested here today for allegedly pasting Pro-Khalistan posters,containing objectionable materials, police said.

An FIR was today lodged against rapper Honey Singh for offensive lyrics in some of his songs. The FIR was lodged by Gomti Nagar police on the complaint of IPS officer Amitabh Thakur, police sources said here.

A policeman was arrested today for allegedly trying to rape a girl in Mauranipur area here, police said. Om Tiwari, posted at Shivganj police outpost, entered the house of the girl when she was alone and allegedly tried to rape her, SSP K Angel Rasan said.

The driver of a firm associated with liquor baron late Ponty Chadha today escaped with an amount to the tune of Rs 10 lakh from Gurdaspur district, the police said. 

President Pranab Mukherjee, who is currently on his winter sojourn at Rashtrapati Nilayam at Bolarum here, has decided not to celebrate New Year's Day tomorrow in view of the death of the Delhi gangrape victim.

An all-religion prayer meeting was held in Parliament today to mourn the death of the Delhi gangrape victim.

The Delhi police today registered a case against two English dailies for publishing material which could lead to the identification of the 23-year-old gangrape victim who died two days ago.

In the first incident of its kind in Jammu and Kashmir, police has arrested an alleged 'cyber stalker' who was harassing a girl by putting objectionable contents about her on the Internet.

The usual buzz surrounding New Year was missing in Delhi today after the city witnessed the gruesome gangrape of a 23-year-old girl, who died two days ago, with lesser turnouts in hotspots like India Gate and Connaught Place.

Dense fog badly hit operations at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi today, disrupting schedule of around 60 flights. Fog started to descend over the airport last night but it became dense around 7 am, forcing the authorities to implement low visibility procedures. 

The toll from a wave of attacks across Iraq today has risen to 22 dead and at least 83 wounded, security and medical officials said. A total of 15 shootings and bombings struck 13 cities and towns in the north, central and south of Iraq, the officials said. 

An Indian businessman running a liquor store in the US, was shot dead by unidentified persons inside his shop. Venkat Reddy-Goli, 47, from Andhra Pradesh, was found dead by the police inside the Central Liquors store in Colerain Township of Ohio having a population of some 60,000. 

Delhi shivered at the season's lowest of 5.5 deg C today under a spell of intense chill and dense fog, which is likely to continue on New Year day. Denizens pulled out more woollen from their shelves as both maximum and minimum temperatures dipped to an all-time low this winter.

While the maximum temperature at 13.3 deg C was seven degree below normal, the minimum at 5.5 deg C is two degree below normal for this time of the season. Today's minimum, which is the highest in this season, is two degrees below yesterday's 7.7 deg C. MeT officials also said today's 13.3 deg C was the lowest maximum temperature recorded in this season.

Some reason to smile even as the year ends on a tragic note. The venerable Arnab Goswami takes on Abhijeet Mukherjee, President Pranab Mukherjee's son on the dented and painted women comment. Superb!

 

Think you can drink and drive and the cops won't get you. Read this report on the Sun and you can think again. Drink responsibly and don't drive. 

Are tweets, status updates and tagged photographs encouraging romance or ruining it? Read

Suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt was today conferred the Mother Teresa Memorial International Award for Social Justice for 2012. "We are today delivering the 5th Mother Teresa Award for social justice to Sanjiv Bhatt, who stood against communal forces to ensure the protection of the vulnerable and insecure minorities," Harmony Foundation president Dr Abraham Mathai said while delivering the award.

Khap Panchayats in Haryana have opposed the demand for death penalty for rapists, saying such laws can be misused.

Sube Singh, a Khap leader in Hisar district, said on Monday: "Amending the law and introducing death penalty for the rapists can also lead to negative consequences.

People think that rapists should be hanged but if such amendments are introduced in the act, then there are many fake cases of rape will come up and this law would be misused in those cases.

"But the incident that has happened in Delhi is very brutal, which led to the death of the girl, for such cases we have the provision of Section 302, under which all the accused rapists can be awarded death penalty," added Sube Singh.

Singh said they have seen the anti-dowry and the schedule casts and schedule tribes (SC/ST) laws being misused and any new law, which gives such harsh punishment, would also be vulnerable to misuse. He also mentioned that there are instances of consensual sex, which are later, framed as rape cases.

Heads up if you're in Delhi and use the metro. In view of security restrictions in the area, entry into and exit from the Rajiv Chowk, Barakhamba Road and Patel Chowk Metro stations will be closed from 7:30 p.m. on New Year's Eve today. Sale of tickets at the above three Metro stations will stop at 7.15 p.m. and shutters of all entry gates will be closed at 7:30 pm. 

However, interchange facility between Line-2 (HUDA City Centre - Jahangirpuri) and Line-3/4 (Dwarka Sec-21 - NOIDA City Centre/Vaishali) will remain operational at Rajiv Chowk Metro station till the end of revenue services, i.e, 11 p.m. Services at all other Metro corridors and stations will continue normally.

Amid demands by the opposition for convening of a special session of Parliament to pass stringent laws on crime against women, government today said the decision could be taken after Justice Verma Committee, set up for the purpose, submits its recommendations.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram said here that a special session will make sense after the government receives the report of the three-member committee, headed by Justice J S Verma, former Chief Justice of India.

"We have appointed the Justice Verma Committee to recommend to the government what changes should be made in the law. Therefore, a special session or a session of Parliament makes sense only when the report is received by the government... So let us first get the report and then we can examine when the session of Parliament should be," he said.

The list of MPs and MLAs who have declared rape cases and crimes against women in their names. Read

 If rapes are rising dramatically in India over the last 20 years, is it logical to blame traditional Indian culture? Sankrant Sanu has the answer. Read

The recent gang rape incident in Delhi would appear to have stirred the conscience of the nation. There have been demonstrations in Delhi and in several other towns of the country. The Delhi Police could not have imagined that an isolated incident of rape would snowball to such an extent and lead to a demand for the ouster of the police commissioner. The political class was also caught by surprise. Actually, what is happening in Delhi represents the cumulative dissatisfaction of people against poor governance of the country reflected, in the present context, in crimes against women. Read more

The Delhi government today announced financial aid of Rs 15 lakh for the next of the kin of the 23-year-old gangrape victim and offered a job to a family member of the girl, who died two days ago. The decisions were taken at a Cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.

A day after Delhi gangrape victim was cremated, BJP today demanded that there should be no provision for convicts, sentenced to death in rape-cum-murder cases, to file a mercy petition.

Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj raised the demand while attacking the UPA government for the "secrecy" in the cremation of the December 16 gangrape victim, who was raped in a moving bus.

"The culprits be hanged and the government should not accept any mercy petitions in such cases. If this can be done then this will be the only respect to that victim," she said while referring to five cases of rape-cum-murders in which the UPA government, she said, had granted pardon to convicts.

Taking its cue from an earlier generation of lawmakers who gave women the vote, abolished untouchability and reformed personal laws, Parliament must pass the Women's Reservation Bill. Read Ramachandra Guha's column on the Hindu on reserved seats in Parliament and a uniform civil code. Read

Finance minister P Chidambaram reacts to DMK chief M Karunanidhi's statement of the need for a dhoti-clad prime minister. Chidambaram said, "I know my limitation and I stay within those limitations. That's my serious answer [to what Karunanidhi said] and on a lighter note, I know some of you think I am foolish, but I am not so foolish."

Lavishing praise on Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, DMK chief M Karunanidhi at a function in Chennai a few days ago, said he was among the few who had a place in his heart as the senior Congress leader was virtually projected by some speakers at a function as a potential Prime Ministerial candidate.

The DMK patriarch himself made a reference in his speech to the loud applauses and cheers from the audience whenever speakers expressed their wish to see a ''dhoti-clad'' Tamilian occupying the Prime Minister''s post, an apparent reference to Chidambaram.

Calling Chidambaram one of the few who had a "place in my heart," Karunanidhi traced his political career starting as a Minister of State in the early 1980s till his present position. "What next? You (the audience) have expressed your aspirations through your applause and cheers.

Some speakers spoke about a dhoti-clad Tamilian becoming Prime Minister. So, that also answers the question regarding a saree-wearing Tamil becoming Prime Minister," he said in an apparent reference to Chief Minister Jayalalithaa
who has also set her eyes on a bigger role at the national level.

Chidambaram sat in the front row among the audience and did not speak at the function where Karunanidhi released the book titled "Chidambaram: Oru Paarvai", a compilation of speeches by various personalities about the Congress leader.

Another one of those studies where people have spent time and money finding out what is common knowledge. The study in London says that high heels make women look attractive despite causing blisters, bunions and occasional stumble, a new study has found. Researchers at the University of Portsmouth filmed a group of women as they walked on a treadmill, both in flats and high heels.

The women, in their 20s, each owned between four and 25 pairs of heels, which they wore at least once a week. A separate group of men and women were then shown 30-second clips of the film. Every one in the group rated the participants as more attractive when they wore the heels.

Duh.

Khushi knew it was cancer. Ankita thought she was injured. None of the girls knew why they were suddenly bleeding, why their stomachs were 'paining' as Indian English has it. They cried and were terrified and then they asked their mothers. And their mothers said, you are normal. You are menstruating. You are a woman now. Read: The taboo of menstruation.

Also read: The man who wore a sanitary napkin.

Former army chief VK Singh says he supports the ongoing anti-rape protests in Delhi and that the protests are justified. "I will hold a joint rally with Anna Hazare in Patna on January 30," he says. Singh and yoga guru Baba Ramdev had been booked by the Delhi Police for 'inciting a mob and provoking the crowd' at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on December 24. 

A paraglider came uncomfortably close to President Pranab Mukherjee's aircraft minutes after its take-off from Hyderabad on Friday, bringing to the fore the Indian Air Force's  IAF) concern about dangers posed by unregulated flying in the country. Read more

Researchers have finally solved the cryptic deathbed puzzle renowned Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan claimed came to him in dreams.

While on his death-bed in 1920, Ramanujan wrote a letter to his mentor, English mathematician GH Hardy, outlining several new mathematical functions never before heard of, along with a hunch about how they worked,Decades years later, researchers say they've proved he was right - and that the formula could explain the behaviour of black holes. Read more

The government and political class would like to have speedy closure by ensuring the "maximum punishment' for the men who grievously assaulted the woman inside a bus as it sped along one of Delhi's busiest roads. Punished they must be. But even if the six are hanged, and even if our legislators, in a fit of conveniently misplaced concern, prescribe the death penalty for rape, the pathology we are dealing with will not be so easily remedied.
That's the editorial on the Hindu. Read

Fresh facts have emerged in the case of a minor girl molested in a bus in New Delhi with police arresting her teenaged brother for allegedly raping her six months ago and molesting her thereafter.

The tragic story of the girl unfolded on Sunday, after the 16-year-old girl recorded her statement with police. Her brother Nazakkat Ali (19) was arrested following her complaint. Read more

Misogyny has long permeated our textbooks, our pedagogy and our parenting. In fact, it runs so deep that it reflects itself even in our linguistics. The Hindi phrase most commonly used to describe sexual violence or rape against women is "izzat lootna," which means "to steal the honor of."

 Another Hindi word used for rape, "balatkar" (or "bad act"), is considered so erudite and technical that it's barely ever used. (Its English equivalent would be "coitus" instead of "sex.")

Read actress Leeza Mangaldas's column on CNN.com.

In other news: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been admitted to hospital in New York with a blood clot, officials say. Clinton suffered a concussion earlier this month after fainting and falling down.At the time, she was reported to have had a stomach virus and to have passed out after becoming dehydrated. Read more

India's fiscal deficit during the April-November period was 4.13 trillion rupees, or 80.4 percent of the budgeted full fiscal year 2012/13 target, government data showed on Monday. During the same period in the previous fiscal year, the deficit was 85.6 percent of the budget target. Read more

Just in: Direct cash transfer scheme to be rolled out in only 20 districts from tomorrow, says the finance minister. Food, fertiliser, diesel and kerosene subsidies will not be transferred in cash to beneficiaries, says finance minister, P Chidambaram.

The Delhi government will launch the direct cash transfer scheme on the first day of the New Year with transfers for scholarships for students from disadvantaged groups and maternal health schemes.  Taking the Aadhaar number scheme to its logical conclusion, those individuals with the UID number will get direct cash as scholarship money and health schemes. Read more

Direct cash transfer will be rolled out in 11 more districts from February 1 and in 12 additional districts from March 1, says PC. 

In May, 1997, a 3-year-old boy was admitted to an ICU in Hong Kong after suffering from influenza for a week. Two days later, the boy died of pneumonia. His case would have been merely a curiosity if it weren't for 17 more patients who came down with the illness months later. In all, six people died from a strain of influenza that had never been seen in humans before, dubbed H5N1.
So, what did they die of? Click here to find out.

The Delhi government says that the women's helpline is operational from MTNL numbers. The helpline will be operational by 6 pm today. A helpline for women set up with great fanfare by beleaguered Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit through advertisement in newspapers this morning itself appeared to be "helpless" as it was not working. Calls to the number were greeted by a long beep sound. Dikshit had last week announced launch of the round- the-clock helpline for offering help to women in distress amid nationwide uproar over the December 16 brutal gangrape of the 23-year-old here.

Meanwhile, Odisha's Ganjam district seems to have become a graveyard for elephants. Altogether 17 elephants were killed in the district, the latest being at Sabalaya under Khallikote forest range where six were killed when they were hit by a train yesterday. Of the elephants killed, nine were females, three males and five calves.

Just in: The draft chargesheet in the Delhi gang-rape case is ready. The police have asked for the rapists to be hanged. The police say they will cite 30 witnesses for the case and will ensure a fast trail. The draft is also being vetted by legal experts.  

And there you have it -- the BJP has suggested maximum punishment to the accused in rape cases-- either death penalty or chemical castration. "There should be maximum punishment to the rapists, death penalty or emasculation (chemical castration of the rapist)," senior BJP leader Venkiah Naidu told reporters in Delhi. His suggestions come close on the heels of Congress proposing castration for rapists. In a draft bill for a tougher law to check crimes against women which could also include chemical castration in rare cases, the Congress has proposed imprisonment up to 30 years for rape convicts.

The overwhelming demand that the six gang-rape and murder accused be either given the death penalty or chemically castrated has drawn varied responses from the government and activists. But what is chemical castration? Read Vicky Nanjappa's report on rediff.com. 

In other news: For the first time in its history, the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) will have a special stand for the Pakistan fans during India's one-dayer against Pakistan which will be played at the Feroz Shah Kotla on January  6. Read

Every one of us shares in the crime as long as we continue to turn a blind eye or (worse) take it in our stride. Remember that rape is not really about sex '" it's more about the power that certain men (or animals?) want to wield over women. It's their way of "teaching us a lesson'.

Leading political voices, on the other hand, try to explain away the gruesomeness by laying the blame on victims themselves -- they wore jeans, they wore skirts, they went out late at night (9.30 pm -- late?), they work outside the home, they went out (horror of horrors!) in the company of a male friend. Read the blog

The 31-year-old woman accused of shoving an immigrant from India to his death in front of a subway train because she believed he was Muslim laughed and smiled during a court hearing where she was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
Read

Indian authorities may have promised harsher punishments for rapists. But they could start by looking at politicians themselves.According to the Association for Democratic Reforms, a nonprofit organization, authorities have charged at least six members of India's state legislatures with rape and 36 other local politicians for crimes against women including sexual abuse and assault.

Two members of India's national Parliament also have been charged for sexual abuse and assault, the association says. Read more

Any woman who has spent any time in India -- particularly as a teenager -- is familiar with the web of don't. 'Don't take a taxi by yourself. Don't walk there. Don't roll down the window. Don't be too friendly.  Read

The decision to remove Gen VK Singh's security cover was taken in October, in less than six months of his retirement on 31 May 2012. The removal of the cover became effective from 30 November, exactly six months after his retirement. Read

By the way, VKS will hold a press conference today at  the New Delhi Press Club at 3.30 pm "on an important national issue'.Given that the general has successfully been a thorn in the side of the government since his retirement and even before that, stay with us when it happens.

And of course, the rapes do not stop.

A 13-year-old school girl was allegedly raped by her neighbour at Kattaya village in Karnataka's Hassan district, police said today. Rangaraju, who took the eighth standard student on his motorcycle following her mother's request to drop her at school, allegedly raped the girl and threatened her not to disclose the incident, police said.

The incident happened on December 18 evening when the girl needed to go to school to go on a study tour, sources said. Police said a case was registered last night and efforts are on to nab Rangaraju,who is absconding.

Jolted by the extreme cruelty unleashed on Nirbhaya by the only juvenile among the six accused in the Delhi gang-rape case, the government may be looking at enhanced punishment for minors -- even a waiver of the delinquent's age by six months to a year -- keeping in view the severity of the crime. Read

"I learnt at the barricades today that the personal is the political. So I am culpable. Culpable of the gang rape and murder of a co-citizen.I am culpable because I am a man. Because I have encouraged lewd jokes, sexist jibes and dirty talk about women."
The full account on the Telegraph.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has expressed "deep sorrow' at the death of the Delhi gang rape victim and urged India to undertake "reforms to deter' crimes against women and "strengthen critical services for rape victims'.

"UN Women and other parts of the United Nations stand ready to support such reform efforts with technical expertise and other support,' a spokesperson for Ban said this morning at the UN headquarters in New York. Read

In what could come as a relief to Kingfisher Airlines chief Vijay Mallya, the DGCA is considering renewing its licence if it's revival plan is okayed. The DGCA says it wants an assurance and commitment from the UB Group on funding.

The DGCA has asked KFA to talk to stakeholders as well. Kingfisher Airlines had last week submitted revival plan to DGCA in a bid to revive the licence. However, the DGCA officials have sought additional details from the airlines on how it would fund its revival plan.

However, there was no word from the UB Group as to how it would commit the funding and from where it will raise the funds. Banks have been unwilling to fund the cash-strapped airline. Kingfisher Airlines has a debt of nearly Rs 8,000 crore and accumulated losses and liabilities of a similar amount. According to reports, United Breweries will be investing Rs 652 crore in the airline.

Against the backdrop of the death of the Delhi gang-rape victim, the Army has issued advisories to all its formations across the country against holding new year parties. Advisory has been issued to all formations that they should not organise new year parties, Army officials said here.

Army chief Gen Bikram Singh and his wife Bubbles Singh will visit patients in Army Research and Referral Hospital here and Base Hospital on the first day of the new year and distribute sweets. Congress president Sonia Gandhi too has announced that the party will not be celebrating the new year following the incident.

Amid outpouring of anger and grief in the country, the body of the 23-year-old victim was flown here from Singapore early yesterday morning and cremated within hours.

More on the debate to make India safer for women. Let's face it: There isn't a solution. Or, at any rate, there isn't any one solution. Certainly not one that can make a difference to how women in India live within the next week, month or year.
Read what the WSJ says.

Why there is little hope for women in this country. Read

The CPI(M) like every other party has demanded an agenda for change. The party's senior leader and Rajya Sabha member T N Seema today urged the Union government to declare 2013 as "Year of Women's Safety" as a homage to the Delhi gangrape victim, who braved the brutal assault and fought for life till her last breath.

In a statement here, Seema urged every citizen of the country, especially women, to skip New Year celebrations to express solidarity with the family of the victim and to support the cause of the innumerable rape victims in the country.

Be that as it may, there were other concrete suggestions from her including changing existing laws for rape and molestation and making punitive action stringent.

The Delhi government announced on December 24 that a helpline for women would be started in the capital from Monday. But after midday Monday the number -- 181 -- still is not working. Read

'What is most remarkable about the protests is the distance they mark between Delhi and the rest of India. Delhi is emphatically not the republic, whatever politicians and their antagonists on the streets of Delhi might think. 

The protests radiating across urban India are the early signs of an impending political earthquake. Either the country's politicians will wake up to the reality that they must represent aspiring physiotherapists as much as fatalistic farmers, or they will find themselves buried in the rubble, writes Sadanand Dhume in the Wall Street Journal, here.

Across the nation, official events are being cancelled as a mark of respect for and to mourn the 23-year-old Delhi girl who was brutalised in a bus on the night of December 16.

Activist Debayani Bose was in Delhi late February last year, and she boarded a bus at Munirka (the same bus-stop from where the gangrape victim took a Blueline bus on the night of December 16), and her horrific experience snuffed out the activist in her, she writes in The Telegraph, Calcutta. 

 I don't say nice things about people just because they have passed away, says Geoff Boycott, and goes on to sing paeans to the gentle giant of cricket, Tony Greig who fought cancer till the very end.

For all those who have had it till here with the explosive press conferences by  Arvind Kejriwal, here's a change of cast. 

'I have been described variously as a megalomaniac, a crank, a maverick, a publicity seeker, a wild man, a loose cannon, and even a dog (by a Chief Minister), who 'comments on everything under the Sun', writes Justice Markandeya Katju in his blog. But, 'What am I really ? What do I stand for ?'

Delhi gangrape: New Year plans dropped, toned down

Rape victim's mother collapses, doctors say now stable

Grief-stricken parents of rape accused lock themselves up

BJP questions 'hurried' cremation of gangrape victim 

Kohli doubtful starter for Kolkata ODI

Lampard double inspires Chelsea to 2-1 win at Everton