Page 21 - Social Issues
Chemical castration bill signed into law in USA's Alabama
Alabama's Governor, Kay Ivey, signed a chemical castration bill into law on Monday. The bill targets those who commit a sexual offence against children under 13 years of age in the US State.The new law requires the convict to start the medical process a month before being released from custody and continue until the court deems it unnecessary, CNN reported.The offenders are required to pay for their own treatment. They cannot be denied parole simply due to their inability to pay.Chemical castration is the administration of a drug to bring about a reduction in the body's production of androgens -- especially testosterone -- as per its medical definition by Merriam Webster. However, the effects can be reversed if the person stops taking the drugs."This bill is a step toward protecting children in Alabama," the Governor said.The document was introduced by state Republican Representative Steve Hurst and approved by both houses of the Alabama legislature.According to CNN, chemical ...
Botswana scraps anti-gay laws in landmark decision
Botswana's High Court ruled Tuesday in favour of decriminalising homosexuality, handing down a landmark verdict greeted with joy by gay rights campaigners. Under the country's 1965 penal code, homosexuality is punishable by a jail term of up to seven years. But Judge Michael Elburu declared it was time to "set aside" the "provisions of a Victorian era" and ordered the laws be amended. In a courtroom packed with activists, the judge declared that the current laws oppressed a minority of the population. "There's nothing reasonable in discriminating," he said. "We say the time has come that private, same sexuality must be decriminalised." "It is a variety of human sexuality," he said. Jubilation erupted in the courtroom as the decision was announced, and campaigners waved the rainbow flag of gay rights. In Geneva, the UN agency UNAIDS added to the applause. "This is a historic ruling for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Botswana," Gunilla Carlsson, UNAIDS' executive ...
Botswana High Court decriminalises homosexuality
In a major victory for gay rights campaigners in Africa, Botswana's High Court on Tuesday overruled a colonial-era law that criminalised homosexuality in the country.Under Section 164 of Botswana's Penal Code, homosexuality was an offence that carried a sentence of up to seven years imprisonment, until today, when a three-judge bench unanimously voted to revoke the laws, which, they said, conflicted with Botswana's Constitution, reported The New York Times."Human dignity is harmed when minority groups are marginalised," said Judge Michael Leburu before delivering the judgement. "Sexual orientation is not a fashion statement. It is an important attribute of one's personality."Hailing the judgement, Matlhogonolo Samsam, a spokesperson for gay rights group 'Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana', said, "It is a historical moment for us. We are proud of our justice system for seeing the need to safeguard the rights of the LGBT community."The case was brought to the court by an ...
Businessman's suicide note reveals he shot wife, daughter before killing himself: Police
Businessman Nitin Sarraf's suicide note has revealed that he first shot dead his wife Alka and then his daughter before ending his life, police said.Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Patna, Garima Malik on Tuesday told the media that "Prima facie, it seems that the man shot his wife and daughter from his pistol and then committed suicide. He had mentioned this in a suicide note without stating the reason behind this act.""investigation is underway," she added.Earlier today, police recovered three bodies from a house in Kidwaipuri area of the city. Businessman Sarraf, his wife Alka Sarraf and their daughter were found dead in house number 46 of the area.Their son was found severely injured. He was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment.Sarraf is a well-known businessman in Patna and owns multiple cloth showrooms across the city.
UP Cabinet okays raising pension amount for elderly
The Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Tuesday approved a proposal to raise the pension amount for the elderly by Rs 100 under a scheme in this regard. At a meeting presided by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the cabinet also approved increasing the age-limit for resident doctors of Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical sciences from 35 to 37 years. "The Cabinet has passed the proposal of increasing the amount of pension for senior citizens. Now they will receive Rs 500 (earlier Rs 400). Over 45 lakh elderly people of the state will benefit from this move," state Cabinet minister Shrikant Sharma told reporters here. The Cabinet gave its approval to demolish 76 houses that are in bad shape to pave the way for construction of the AIIMS in Rae Bareli by 2020. "A proposal to demolish the 47 shambles of type-1 and 29 of type-3 houses has been passed," state Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh said. Also, having a BEd degree along with BTC has been made mandatory to become an assistant ...
Cash-rich global giants unable to compete with homegrown payments leader Paytm
With 550 crore transactions in the financial year 2018-19 and a gross transaction value (GTV) of over $50 billion (around Rs 34,706 crore), homegrown digital payments company Paytm continues to dominate its global counterparts -- Google Pay, Whatsapp Pay and Walmart-Phonepe.
Three jihadists, 9 children expelled to France from Turkey: legal source
Three French jihadists and their nine children returned to France on Tuesday after being expelled by Turkey, a day after France took back 12 orphaned children of French jihadists from camps in northern Syria. The three adults -- a 35-year-old man and two women, one aged 36 -- were taken into custody by the French authorities and the children were placed under the protection of the state.
Modi government eradicated 'disease' of communalism: Naqvi
Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Tuesday that the Modi government has eradicated the "disease" of communalism and appeasement politics and by doing so it has created an atmosphere of healthy inclusive growth in the country.
Bengaluru: Two arrested for using abusive language against JD(S) leaders
Two persons have been arrested, on Tuesday, for allegedly using abusive language against Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, former Prime Minister HD Devegowda and Nikhil Kumaraswamy on a Facebook Live post.The High Grounds police have arrested the two men identified as Siddaraju and Jaumaraju based on a complaint filed by Lokesh. The post was broadcasted live on May 23.Siddaraju and Jaumaraju deleted the video on Facebook after drawing flak on the social media platform.The two are residents of Ramanagara district of Karnataka.
US judge rules Missouri's only abortion clinic can remain open
A US court here on Monday issued an order to keep Missouri's only abortion clinic open.Circuit Judge Michael Stelzer from St. Louis court granted non-profit organisation Planned Parenthood's request for a preliminary injunction, which extended his earlier order to temporarily block the state from allowing the abortion clinic's facility to lapse, Al Jazeera reported.The fight over the clinic's license comes when legislatures around the United States are passing new restrictions on the abortion rights of women.Missouri's health department last month declined to renew the clinic's licence to perform abortion procedures, citing concerns about patient safety, "failed surgical abortions" and legal violations.Stelzer's ruling on Monday ordered the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services to decide on Planned Parenthood's application to renew its license by June 21.In the order, the judge said that he was not determining whether the license should be approved or denied. But the judge
YouTube CEO apologises to LGBTQ community
After the LGBTQ community called out to YouTube for not considering homophobic remarks as violation of its platform's policies, company CEO Susan Wojcicki apologised to the community.
Telangana couple death case: Duo committed suicide, clarifies police
The police here on Tuesday clarified that the duo who were found dead at a lodge in Chandanagar police station limits earlier in the day committed suicide by consuming poison.The deceased have been identified as Mohan Lal and Swarnalatha. The officials suspect that the couple took the grave step as they were afraid of making their relationship public."Today evening we received information from a lodge in Chanda Nagar area stating that two members committed suicide by consuming poison. We immediately reached the spot and found two members committed suicide. The duo were in a relationship and it is suspected that they were scared if their relationship will be accepted by their parents or not," said Ravinder, Circle Inspector, Chandan Nagar.A case has been registered under Section 174 of the CrPC and the bodies have been shifted to Gandhi Hospital for Periodic Medical Examination (PME) .A thorough investigation into the matter is underway.
Hundreds more Indians confirmed as British under Windrush Scheme
UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid has issued another personal apology for the Windrush scandal, involving migrants being wrongly denied their British citizenship rights, as a latest official update revealed that hundreds more Indians were caught up in the row. The Windrush generation refers to citizens of former British colonies who arrived before 1973, when the rights of such Commonwealth citizens to live and work in Britain were substantially curtailed. While a large proportion of them were of Jamaican/Caribbean descent who came on the ship Windrush, Indians and other South Asians were also affected by the UK government's handling of their immigration status. According to the latest update by UK Home Secretary Javid on Monday, a total of 737 Indians have been able to confirm their status in the wake of the scandal involving Commonwealth nationals wrongly denied their citizenship rights in Britain. A majority of them (559) had arrived in the UK before 1973, when the immigration rules had
UP government hikes senior citizen pension, allows micro-breweries in state
A cabinet meeting of Uttar Pradesh government took place on Tuesday in which many key decisions including increasing pension of senior citizens and allowing microbreweries in the state were taken.Sharing details of the decisions, UP Minister Shrikant Sharma said, "The Senior Citizen pension has been increased from Rs 400 to Rs 500 per month for the citizens between the age of 60 to 79. The pension for people over 79 years of age is already Rs 500."He also stated that breweries will be allowed in the state and said, "Necessary amendment in the rule has been done to allow micro-breweries in the state. License fee has been increased and a capacity of 2.1 lakh litre of production will be allowed in a year."Speaking further, state health minister Siddharth Nath Singh said that the construction of AIIMS is ongoing in Raebareli and will be completed by 2020. "An Age limit of PGI doctors has been increased by two years and now it is raised to 37 from 35 years", he said.
Union Cabinet, Union Council of Ministers meetings to be held tomorrow
The Union Cabinet will meet on Wednesday evening followed by a meeting of the Union Council of Ministers.It will be the first meeting of the new Council of Ministers after the general elections.In the first Union Cabinet meeting held on May 31 after Narendra Modi assumed office as the Prime Minister for a second term, approval was done for all land holding eligible farmer families to avail benefits under PM-KISAN scheme, under which income support of Rs 6,000 is granted in three installments.The Union Cabinet had also approved, in its effort to provide to universal social security, a new scheme which assures all shopkeepers, retail traders and self-employed persons a monthly pension of Rs 3,000 after attaining the age of 60 years.All small shopkeepers and self-employed persons as well as the retail traders with Goods and Services Tax (GST) turnover below Rs 1.5 crore and aged between 18 and 40 years can enroll themselves for the scheme.
At least seven dead as migrant boat sinks off Greek island
At least seven people died on Tuesday when a boat carrying migrants sank near the Greek island of Lesbos, the coastguard said. Assisted by an EU border patrol boat, the coastguard said it had rescued 57 people and is continuing to search for survivors. No information was given on the nationalities of the migrants. But a coastguard source said the dead were four women, a man and two young girls. More than 300 refugees and migrants have died this year while trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, according to the International Organization for Migration. Greece is hosting some 70,000 mostly Syrian refugees and migrants who have fled their countries since 2015, and crossed over from neighbouring Turkey. Under an agreement reached with the European Union in 2016, Turkey has made greater efforts to limit departures towards the five Greek islands closest to its shores, including Lesbos. That has led to a dramatic drop in the number of arrivals on Greek islands -- from 875,000 in 2015 .
BJP MP Virendra Kumar to be the Protem Speaker of 17th Lok Sabha
Virendra Kumar, a seventh time BJP MP from Tikamgarh constituency in Madhya Pradesh and a former Union Minister, has been chosen to be the Protem Speaker of the Lok Sabha.Usually, the senior-most member of the House is chosen as protem Speaker whose job is to oversee the oath taking by the newly-elected members and the election of a regular Speaker of the house.Kumar is likely to be administered the oath of office at the Rashtapati Bhavan on April 17, the day the newly-elected Lok Sabha commences its first session. On the first two day, the new MPs will take oath. The Election for the Speaker of the 17th Lok Sabha is scheduled to be held on June 19.Kumar was elected to 11th Lok Sabha for the first time in 1996 and became the member of Standing Committee on Labour and Welfare. Later he was re-elected to the 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th Lok Sabha continuously. He had served as member and Chairmen of various committees.He was also the Union Minister of State for Women and ...
Trump renews tariff threat against Mexico
US President Donald Trump has said that tariffs on Mexican goods "will be reinstated" if Mexico's Congress does not approve an immigration deal between the US and Mexico.
Mexico immigration deal 'significant win' for US: Pompeo
Defending the immigration deal the United States reached with Mexico, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo on Monday termed the agreement as a "significant win" for Washington and reflects "diplomacy at its finest.""Frankly, it reflects diplomacy at its finest. It shows the enduring strength, too, of the relationship between our two countries. It's a significant win for the American people," Pompeo told reporters at a press briefing.Reiterating US' stand on tough immigration, Pompeo said that migrants who crossed the southern border would be "rapidly returned" to Mexico and Washington will now have the "full-throttle" capacity to send asylum seekers back to Mexico."Those crossing the US southern border to seek asylum will be rapidly returned to Mexico where they may await the adjudication of their asylum claims. We've seen this before. We were able to do this to the tune of a couple of hundred people per day," he said."We now have the capacity to do this full throttle and engage this in .
(For Early Tuesday) Agri and rural ministry officials to meet FM on Tuesday
The Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry officials who will be meeting the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for pre-Budget discussions on Tuesday are likely to seek more funds for Interest Subsidy for Short Term Credit to Farmers and for Market Intervention Schemes from what has been allocated to in the interim Budget.
