India ( Female politician said " Woman invite Rape " because of their clothes ) Oh brother ?

NEW DELHI: An Indian female politician and activist has said rape victims may have invited attacks by their clothes and behavior, fueling a national debate over a series of incidents of sexual violence against women.
Asha Mirje, a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader in western Maharashtra state, questioned at a meeting on Tuesday why a 23-year-old physiotherapy student who was gang-raped on a bus in Delhi in 2012 was out late at night.


The student died of her injuries and thousands of people took to the streets in nationwide protests against the prevalence of rape and sexual assault in the world’s largest democracy. Mirje, who is a member of the state women’s commission, said in reference to the Delhi assault: “Did Nirbhaya really have go to watch a movie at 11 in the night with her friend?”
“Nirbhaya,” a Hindi word meaning “fearless,” has been widely adopted by the Indian media as a name for the victim.
She also commented on the gang rape of a photojournalist who was on assignment at a disused mill in Mumbai last year, asking why the victim had gone to such an isolated place. “Rapes take place also because of a woman’s clothes, her behavior and her presence at inappropriate places,” she said.
Women must be “careful,” she said, and think if they are inviting assault. Sexual violence has become a huge social and political issue since the Delhi rape and India toughened laws on sex crimes in March last year. Public anger over the poor state of women’s safety in Delhi was one reason that the ruling Congress Party was wiped out in local elections in the city last month.
Mirje’s party belongs to the Congress-led national coalition government and her comments caused an immediate stir, with several television reports pouring scorn on her.
“Every time such a statement is made by a public figure it justifies rape,” Kavita Krishnan, secretary of the All India Progressive Women’s Association, a lobby group, told Reuters.
“It’s unconscionable that people in public posts make such remarks.”
While Mirje is thought to be the first senior female public figure to make such comments about the Delhi rape, other members of commissions looking after women’s affairs have made similar remarks about less high-profile attacks.
“Mirje is reflecting what is a much larger problem. There are many others who hold such views,” Krishnan said.
Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal, initially dismissed a gang rape in her state in 2012 as a fabricated incident aimed at tarnishing her government.
Assaults have tarnished the reputation of a country that has enjoyed growing prosperity in the past decade and is modernising fast. Still, Mirje’s comments were a reminder that conservative and traditional mores are still deeply held by many of its 1.2 billion people, women as well as men.
In the most recent case involving a foreigner, a 51-year-old Danish tourist was gang-raped in the back-packers’ district of Delhi last month by men she asked for directions to her hotel.

BEIRUT ( People are eating " Cats and Dogs " - Yarmuk Palestinian camp )

BEIRUT: Besieged since June, nearly 20,000 people in Damascus’ Yarmuk Palestinian camp are so desperate for food that many eat stray animals, and some women have resorted to prostitution, according to residents.
“Many here have slaughtered and eaten cats and dogs, and even a donkey,” said Yarmuk resident Ali, who was a university student when Syria’s revolt erupted in 2011. “One man who killed a dog couldn’t find any meat to eat on its body, because even the dogs are starving,” he told AFP. “What was unimaginable a few months ago is normal now.”
When war spread to areas of Damascus in the summer of 2012, thousands of people from other parts of the capital fled to Yarmuk, swelling its population further.
Yarmuk soon became a war zone too, as Syrians taking up arms against Bashar Assad’s regime moved into the camp. In June, the army imposed a total blockade on Yarmuk, which covers an area of just over 2 sq. km.
“The situation is so desperate that women are selling their bodies to men who stocked up food before the siege was imposed, for just a cup of rice or bulgur,” said Ali. “Imagine the feeling of a father unable to feed his children, as they wail from hunger,” he added.
Seventy-eight people, including 25 women and three children, have died as a result of the shortages. Of these, 61 died in the past three months.

China ( China has banned smoking in schools, state media reported ) Something wrong with this picture ?

 

China has banned smoking in schools, state media reported on Wednesday, the latest step in a government drive to kick the country’s pervasive tobacco habit.

Despite years of campaigning by health activists, China is the world’s largest consumer of cigarettes and smokers can be spotted everywhere, even in schools and hospitals.

But with a huge public health burden looming ever larger, China has recently intensified efforts to stamp out smoking.

The State Council, or cabinet, is aiming for a nationwide ban on smoking in public places this year, and several cities have already introduced anti-smoking regulations.

But critics say authorities only enforce bans sporadically, if at all, and it is common to see people puffing away in front of no smoking signs.

Thats what " Catch a tiger by it's tail means " Hmm

Afghanistan ( Six Afghan police were shot and killed Monday by another " Cop " )

KABUL – Six Afghan police were shot and killed Monday and another was wounded by one their comrades at a checkpoint in the eastern province of Herat, a police official told Efe.

The slaying occurred at mid-morning in the Gulran district, and after shooting his comrades the police officer escaped to join the Taliban, according to the official who preferred to remain anonymous.

Security forces are hunting the fugitive, the official said.

Such insider attacks have occurred with some frequency over the past two years – including more than 50 in 2012 – and the targets have often been international NATO troops deployed in Afghanistan.

Taliban rebels tend to claim responsibility for these attacks, which are launched by their combatants who have infiltrated the ranks of Afghan security forces.

The conflict in Afghanistan has entered one of its bloodiest phases since the U.S. invasion that brought down the fundamentalist Taliban regime in late 2001, and at a time when the complete withdrawal of NATO troops is scheduled for the end of 2014.

Mexico ( Mexican Government Signs Agreement with Vigilante Groups ) Wow

Mexican Government Signs Agreement with Vigilante Groups
The agreement calls for the “self-defense groups” to be incorporated into the Rural Defense Corps regulated by the Organic Law of the Mexican Army and Air Force

MEXICO CITY – The Mexican government has signed an agreement with the vigilante groups that spread across the western state of Michoacan to fight drug traffickers, opening the way for the organizations to gain legal status.

The agreement, which was signed in the city of Tepalcatepec on Monday, calls for the “self-defense groups” to be incorporated into the Rural Defense Corps regulated by the Organic Law of the Mexican Army and Air Force.

“These corps are temporary and will be under the command of the authority established under the applicable legal regulations,” the Government Secretariat said in a statement.

Self-defense group leaders will have to submit membership lists, which will be evaluated and registered by the Defense Secretariat, to join the corps.

Rural Defense Corps units are legally part of the army and air force, and they are made up of volunteers under the command of active-duty officers.

The units’ mission, according to the law, is to “cooperate with the troops in activities being carried out, when they are asked to by the military command.”

The agreement signed by the government and the vigilante groups opens the way for the organizations’ members to join municipal police forces so they can help protect their communities, “as long as they follow the law and are approved by the city council.”

The agreement requires self-defense group members to register their weapons with the Defense Secretariat, while security officials must provide the groups with the equipment and transportation needed to do their jobs.

Measures will be taken so that self-defense group members arrested on arms charges and placed on probation “can report in the state of Michoacan, without having to go to other federal entities,” the agreement says.

Commissioner for Security and Development in Michoacan Alfredo Castillo, who was recently named to his post, Michoacan Gov. Fausto Vallejo and the leaders of the different community self-defense groups operating in the state signed the agreement.

“We are all happy, all the leaders and all the members of the self-defense groups,” Hipolito Mora, leader of the self-defense group in La Ruana and founder of Michoacan’s vigilante movement, told Grupo Milenio.

The first community self-defense groups were formed in Michoacan in February 2013 to fight the Caballeros Templarios drug cartel.

Los Caballeros Templarios, which was founded in December 2010 by former members of the Familia Michoacana cartel, deals in both synthetic drugs and natural drugs.

The federal government deployed soldiers and police in Michoacan on Jan. 13 in an effort to end the wave of violence in the state.

India ( Man arrested for the Rape of " 4 yr old Iranian Girl " )

PANAJI: Indian police said Tuesday they had arrested a man in the tourist state of Goa for allegedly raping a four-year-old Iranian girl holidaying with her mother.
Goan police arrested the 32-year-old man on Monday after the alleged attack on the girl on Jan. 22 in the northern village of Arpora, where he lived and the Iranians were staying, police inspector Paresh Naik said.
The girl told her mother about the incident on Monday prompting her to lodge a police complaint. “Police began search operations immediately and nabbed him,” despite the man's attempts to escape on learning of the complaint, Naik said.