US man indicted for hate crime against Sikh
Washington, April 3
A US federal grand jury in Seattle has indicted a man from Washington on charges of hate crime against a 50-year-old Sikh.

Obama launches $100 mn brain mapping project
Washington, April 3
Pushing for job-creating discoveries to happen in the US rather than in India or China, President Barack Obama has unveiled an ambitious $100 million project to unlock the "enormous mystery" of the human brain.

Washington, April 3
Categorically ruling out the possibility of accepting North Korea as a nuclear power, the United States said that Pyongyang has the peaceful option to enter into negotiations for de-nuclearisation.

"They have an option, and that option is to enter into negotiations for denuclearisation, which is China's policy also, and to begin to focus on the needs of their people, which we also have made it clear we are prepared to help them with if they will bring their behaviour in line with the United Nations and global community requirements," US Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters yesterday.

North Korea needs to make it clear that they are prepared to have a serious discussion about de-nuclearisation, Kerry said at a joint press meet with his South Korean counterpart Yun Byung-se.

"We are prepared to enter into a dialogue if they are serious...if they stop the provocations and engage in a serious discussion. We have always said that we would like to try to resolve the problems of the entire peninsula. That means making peace. — PTI

Herat, April 3
Taliban militants stormed an Afghan court today, killing at least 53 people, including nine attackers, in a bid to free insurgents standing trial, officials said, in the deadliest attack for more than a year.

It was not immediately clear whether the accused men had escaped the court complex in the western town of Farah, although a hospital doctor said one prisoner was among those being treated for injuries.

The multiple bomb and gun assault will raise further questions about the Afghans' ability to secure the country as NATO winds down its combat mission in the war-torn country by the end of next year.

"I can confirm that 34 civilians, six army and four policemen have been killed and 91 people, the majority of them civilians, have been injured," Najib Danish, interior ministry deputy spokesman, told AFP.

"Nine attackers have also been killed." The death toll was the highest in Afghanistan from a single attack since a Shiite Muslim shrine was bombed in Kabul in December 2011, killing 80 people.

"The attack is over, but the casualties have unfortunately risen," Farah provincial governor Mohammad Akram Khpalwak told AFP, putting the final death toll as high as 46.

"In total, 34 civilians and 12 (Afghan) security forces have been killed in the attack. We have also discovered the bodies of eight attackers, more than 100 people have also been injured." The Governor added a group of Taliban had been brought for trial today, without giving further details.

Taliban militants fighting the US-backed central government claimed responsibility. — AFP

Former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf (retd) owns assets worth Rs 645 million in and outside Pakistan, but has not paid any tax at least for the past three years.

According to the nomination papers submitted to contest elections from NA-48 Islamabad, Musharraf’s income increased by Rs 129 million during 2012.

Media reports, however, claimed that the former dictator has not declared some of his known assets and cash deposits in foreign banks that run into billions. He has also not given the source of his huge assets which his detractors believe include commission on arms imports.

The former President did not pay a penny in tax during the past three years - his nomination papers showed the tax column as blank.

Jerusalem, April 3
Israel pressed Hamas on Wednesday to rein in rocket-firing militants in the Gaza Strip after the most serious outbreak of cross-border hostilities since the ceasefire that ended an eight-day war in November.

The flare-up, sparked by anger in Gaza over Tuesday’s death from cancer of a Palestinian prisoner held by Israel, included the first Israeli air strike in the Hamas-run enclave since the truce.

By afternoon, the frontier had fallen quiet, an indication that Israel and Hamas were weighing their moves carefully after four months of relative calm that has enabled Gaza residents to rebuild and Israelis near the border to live without the familiar blaring of sirens warning of incoming rockets.

The Israeli military said two rockets fired from Gaza had struck southern Israel in a morning attack on Wednesday, causing no casualties, hours after its planes targeted “two extensive terror sites” in the north of the territory.

Israel launched the air strike after three rockets hit its south on Tuesday. An Al-Qaida-linked group, Magles Shoura al-Mujahadeen, claimed responsibility for that attack and Wednesday’s salvo, saying it was responding to the death of the 64-year-old prisoner, Maysara Abu Hamdeya. Tuesday was the third time since the November truce that rockets from Gaza had struck Israel.

But with a new government and defence minister now in place after weeks of coalition-building since a January election, Israel seemed keen to show resolve, putting the onus on Hamas to prevent any rocket fire.

“(Israel’s armed forces) decided to attack overnight in order to signal to Hamas that we will not suffer any strike on the south. And any shooting will meet a response, in order to restore quiet for the south soon,” Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai, the chief military spokesman, said on Army Radio.

“I assess that Hamas has no interest in seeing the situation deteriorate,” he said. “Our goal is to maintain the quiet.” — Reuters

Washington, April 3
Three Indian brothers have been felicitated by US Vice-President Joe Biden in recognition of their work to end violence against women through an NGO.

At an awards ceremony held at the prestigious Kennedy Center here yesterday, Biden presented Kant brothers — Ravi, Rishi and Nishi — from New Delhi “Solidarity Award” of the Vital Voices, which was started by Hillary Clinton in 1997.

Pakistani teenage girl Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by Taliban militants for advocating girls’ education, was presented with the Global Trailblazer Award.

“For more than a decade it has been a leading voice in the debate about violence against women in India. For much of that time, the Kant brothers have fought hard to get the country to notice the plight of women who have been abused, trafficked, attacked, and enslaved,” Vital Voices said.

“The organisation has been a leading voice on policy and legal changes to combat violence against women and children in India,” Vital Voices said about NGO Shakti Vahini which was established by the three brothers in 2001. The organisation is headed by Ravi, its president, and has been strongly supported by Nishi, its executive director, and Rishi, who is a social activist.

“Shakti is the mother goddess, the goddess who has fought injustice,” says Ravi, explaining the name. “Vahini is a brigade. There are many of us, and we’re fighting together.”

For over a decade they have been proposing legislation, demanding that laws be enforced, improving access to services and empowering victims to take action, Vital Voices said, adding they have taken on violence against women, honor killings, human trafficking, child labour, slavery, a cluster of connected problems that are deeply entrenched.

Cindy Dyer, vice-president of human rights at Vital Voices, told The Washington Post that men’s silence is one of the greatest obstacles that women’s advocates must overcome. — PTI

New York, April 3
German-born screenwriter and novelist Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, the only person to win both an Oscar and a Booker prize and lived in Delhi for 25 years, died here today.

Ruth (85), married to Indian Parsi architect Cyrus H Jhabvala, had a long association with Merchant Ivory Productions which yielded her two Academy Awards for her work on the films 'A Room with a View' and 'Howards End', both adapted from Edwardian-era novels by E M Forster.

Born into a Jewish family in Cologne, she breathed her last at her home in Manhattan after a long illness.

According to James Ivory, the director with whom she collaborated, the cause of death was complications of a pulmonary condition.

Ruth is survived by her husband and daughters Renana, Ava and Firoza-Bibi. She made more than 20 films with producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory over a period of 40 years.

India was the inspiration for many of her stories, including her eight novel 'Heat and Dust', which won her the Booker in 1975. Merchant Ivory's 1983 film based on the novel and which starred Shashi Kapoor marked their breakthrough from arthouse exclusivity to popular success.

Ruth wrote 19 novels and short-story collections that reflected the cultures she absorbed on three continents during her half-century career.

She married Jhabwala in 1951 and moved with him to Delhi, where she spent the next quarter-century as a privileged, somewhat reclusive housewife raising three daughters and writing novels about the new culture in which she found herself. Many readers assumed she was Indian.

According to reports, her last short-story collection, "A Lovesong for India," was published in 2011, and her last story for The New Yorker appeared in its March 25 issue. — PTI

The Pyramid of Cestius covered with scaffolding in Rome. Japanese businessman Yuzo Yagi is investing $1.3 million to restore the 2,000-year-old Roman pyramid. — AFP

Yangon
Myanmar launches probe into school fire: Myanmar has launched an official inquiry into a blaze at a Muslim school that killed 13 boys, state media said, as authorities sought to dismiss fears the fire was linked to religious unrest. A seven-member commission is to set up a "probe into the death of the young boys" in the Yangon mosque complex, according to the English-language New Light of Myanmar, which said the group would present its findings by Friday. — AFP