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3 British-Asians jailed for killing white man
Quake kills 14, injures 400 in China
Lifetime Achievement Award for Lata
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DNA test to find original Santa Claus
One executed every 10 days in USA
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3 British-Asians jailed for killing white man
London, November 26 They will each serve a minimum sentence of 15 years, but managed to avoid 30-year sentences because the judge said a racial intent could not be proved. Christopher Yates, 30, died in a savage attack lasting less than a minute in November 2004. He was kicked so hard that every bone in his face was broken. One of his assailants was heard saying: “We have killed the white man. That will teach an Englishman not to interfere in Paki business.” The Yates family paid a tribute to a “much-loved son who was brutally and viciously killed with merciless ferocity”, but said outside the court that they were disappointed with the sentences. The three Asians are Sajid Zulfiqar, 26, Zahid Bashir, 24, and Imran Maqsood, 22. The police said that Yates, who was murdered on the campus of his former university, the University of East London, after walking a female friend to her bus stop, had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Reports say that the three defendants, all from Ilford, East London, showed no emotion as Judge Martin Stephens passed the sentence at the Old Bailey. The judge said they had been convicted of the “callous, brutal murder of a thoroughly decent man who was doing you no harm...You stamped on his face as he lay helpless on the ground... Witnesses thought from what they saw and heard that you were playing football with something.” After the murder in the university’s car park in Dagenham, the three men “left Mr Yates lying dead or dying” and went for a meal. They damaged cars, attacked staff in a curry house, racially abused one black man and assaulted another. The judge added: “Between you that morning you attacked people of all races — white, black and Asian. These, in my judgment, were random attacks carried out on property and people who had the misfortune to come across you in your drink-fuelled rampage.” The judge said he had considered whether the attack on Yates was racially motivated, but concluded: “I would have to be sure on cogent and unequivocal evidence...and I am not convinced that was the case. “The attack on Mr Yates was the start, and obviously the most serious part, of a series of attacks of indiscriminate violence committed that morning on people of all races.” Yates’s father Ivor read a statement while surrounded by nine members of his family. He said: “These men have robbed us of a precious son whose whole life lay ahead of him. Although the verdict has brought us some comfort, it will never replace the loss of our beloved son Christopher. “These are evil men and people like this shouldn’t be free to roam about our streets hurting innocent people. We are disappointed in the minimum sentence of 15 years.
— IANS |
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Quake kills 14, injures 400 in China
Beijing, November 26 The earthquake struck around 8:49 am (6:19 am IST) in a region between Jiujiang and Ruichang in Jiangxi province, the China National Seismic Observation Network said. The epicentre of the quake was located at 29.7° north latitude, 115.7° east longitude, Xinhua news agency reported. Information from the State Seismic Bureau said five of the death toll occurred in Ruichang City and seven in Jiujiang, where 20 persons were also seriously injured. Two deaths were reported in Wuxue, a city facing Jiujiang across the Yangtze River in central China’s Hubei Province.
— PTI |
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Lifetime Achievement Award for Lata
London, November 26 Seventy-six-year-old Mangeshkar was here in connection with Christie’s auction of diamond jewellery created by her and crafted by Adora which fetched £ 1,05,000. Part of the auction money would be donated for the relief of earthquake victims in occupied Kashmir and Jammu and Kashmir and children’s charity, “Pratham”, she said. Receiving the silver inlaid trophy from Adora chief M. Suresh last night, Mangeshkar said it was the responsibility of everyone to help alleviate the suffering of quake victims and she had volunteered to do whatever she could in that connection. Mangeshkar, winner of India’s highest civilian award Bharat Ratna and the Dada Saheb Phalke Award for her contribution to the Indian cinema, told PTI it would be good for people of India and Pakistan if relations between the two countries were normalised. “I feel that will happen but I can’t say when it will happen. But right now the victims of earthquake were in dire need of help and assistance and one and all should help them.” The fund-raising auction at Hotel Langham was attended among others by Lord Swraj Paul, NRI industrialist and British Ambassador for Overseas Business, Joginder Sanger, NRI hotelier and vice-chairman of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, and several other leading NRI industrialists. Mangeshkar, the supreme voice of popular Indian music who is the most recorded artist in the world, said “Swaranjali”, the diamond jewellery designed by her, was a reflection of her love for jewellery. She said her father Dinanath Mangeshkar, himself a reputed singer, had given her a lot of diamond jewellery and she thought of bringing out new designs of diamond jewellery based on her own collections. —
PTI |
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DNA test to find original Santa Claus
London, November 26 The Professor is trying to trace the original Father
Christmas, by proving that a link exists between the two families who share the surname, 'Christmas', from the counties of Essex and Sussex, reports The Scotsman. He is hoping, that volunteers will come forward so that their DNA can be checked to see if they belong to the same family, and to help in locating the DNA sequence of the common ancestor. It is widely believed that a connection does exist, but there are no existing records to prove it. A DNA test is expected to be the ultimate proof of a link.
— ANI |
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One executed every 10 days in USA
Washington, November 26 Next week will witness the execution of the 1000th person in the USA since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Since 1976, 58 per cent of those executed in the USA were white while 34 per cent were black. Death sentences nationwide have dropped by 50 per cent since the late 1990s, with executions carried out, down by 40 per cent — as many as 12 states do not have the death penalty, and at least two — Illinois and New Jersey — have formal moratoriums on capital punishment. A Gallup poll in October has shown that 64 per cent of Americans support death penalty, or the lowest level in 27 years, down from a high of 80 per cent in 1994. Yet at the same time there are lawmakers who are considering Bills that will speed up the execution process by refusing to have defendants in capital cases appeal to the federal courts.
— PTI |
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London, November 26
London, November 26
