New Delhi, October 6
Five incidents of fire were reported in the city in the past 24 hours, one of which claimed the life of a 10-year-old boy and left four injured.

The first incident was reported from Mahavir Enclave in the Dabri area of south-west Delhi this morning, where a house caught fire due to a cylinder blast.

According to fire department officials, they received a call about the incident around 10.25 am and two fire tenders were rushed to the house. When firefighters reached the spot, they found that five persons were trapped in the house. The victims were soon rescued and three of them were rushed to DDU Hospital while the rest were sent to Safdarjung Hospital, where 10-year-old Ajay succumbed to his burns. The other victims are battling for their lives.

A senior police official said that the ill-fated house belonged to Sitaram. "Today, while his wife was cooking, the cylinder exploded, leading to a major fire in the house. A passerby informed the fire department, but by the time help could reach, the house was completely engulfed by the fire," said the police.

The police has ruled out any foul play behind the incident, saying that investigations are underway to ascertain the reason of the fire.

In the second incident reported around midnight today, a large parcel box kept on the New Delhi railway station premises caught fire. The fire department was informed about it around 12.58 am. Eight fire tenders were sent to the spot.

"It was a minor fire and brought under control within an hour. No one was hurt, but assets worth lakhs of rupees were damaged," said a fire department official.

In the third incident, a minor fire broke out in a small plastic waste dumping area in Anand Parbat. The fire soon spread and caught two WagonR cars parked nearby. No one was injured.

"Though no one was trapped in the cars, both the vehicles were reduced to ashes," said the official.

According to the fire department, it was a minor incident and one fire tender took less than 15 minutes to control the flames.

The fourth incident was reported today night from Paharganj where a Maruti car caught fire and turned into ashes before fire tender could reach the spot.

The owner of the car has claimed that he had informed the fire department in time, but they reached very late. The police is investigating the matter.

The fifth case of fire was reported last night from the Mundka area where a plastic waste factory caught fire. No one was injured in the blaze.

Fire officials said that they received a call about the blaze around 10.40 pm. Twenty five fire tenders were rushed to the factory spread over 2 acres.

"It took us more than an hour to douse the fire completely," said fire officials.

Though no casualty has been reported, assets worth many lakhs of rupees may have been damaged as some adjoining shops also caught fire, according to fire department officials.

New Delhi, October 6
A minor girl was raped while another faced a rape attempt in two different places in Delhi yesterday.

In the first incident, an eight-year-old girl was allegedly raped by her 21-year-old neighbour in Fatehpur Beri, South Delhi, yesterday. “The victim, a resident of Aaya Nagar, along with her brother, went to the market to get some information about the mobile recharge coupons. On the way, she met her neighbour Naveen, who asked for help to search his rabbit,” said a senior police official.

Naveen took both the siblings in a nearby jungle where he allegedly raped the girl. When her brother intervened, the accused beat him and threatened him of dire consequences. “Later, he fled the spot.

The girl, along with her brother, reached the home and informed her parents about the incident. The family approached the police. Following the complaint of the family, Naveen was arrested from his residence, said the official.

The second incident reported from Mangolpuri, Outer Delhi, where a youth attempted to rape a girl. Eight-year-old victim, Radha (name changed) left her home to play in a nearby park. The accused, Aabid, who was roaming in the park, found the victim alone and allegedly abducted her and took her behind the bushes on the pretext of giving her eatable. While he was sexually assaulting her, some residents of the area reached there after they heard the girl screaming. They thrashed the accused and handed over to the police.

“The locals nabbed Aabid after the victim raised the alarm. Later, they handed over the accused to us,” said a police official.

An FIR under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was registered with the local police station, the official said.

New Delhi, October 6
The three-day workshop aimed at sensitisation towards the visually impaired at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) - Antarchakshu - today concluded successfully with over 700 participants tuning up to the event.

A total of 1,540 have participated in the three-day workshop that provided an opportunity to experience the world of the visually impaired through an extensive 20 minute workshop that the participants had to complete blindfolded.

Apart from general public, officials from the government agencies, Ministry of Social Empowerment and Justice, Delhi police, mess workers, construction workers and security agencies participated in the event," said Wafa Hamid, one of the organisers.

"Along with 1,540 participants, over 250 volunteers who closely worked with the visually impaired and participated in the workshop. Even if every participant sensitises their own family, at the end of the day, it is a huge achievement for us," Wafa added.

New Delhi, October 6
A first-of-its-kind course on Indian culture and heritage introduced by Delhi University's St Stephen's College this academic session has become immensely popular. The course-- Introduction to the arts and cultures of India-- has already got over 60 enrolments for the very first batch.

If the course gets a good response, it will be introduced in other colleges also over the next few years. Stephen's is running the course in collaboration with the Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT), an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Culture.

"The course involves lectures on various aspects of the Indian art and culture, ranging from architecture, music, theatre, cinema and painting to storytelling. Some of the notable lectures delivered till now are on ancient Buddhist art and architecture and ancient Indian temple architecture by Naman Ahuja from the JNU centre for arts and aesthetics; a lecture-demonstration on dhrupad, the oldest form of Indian classical music, by Ustad F. Wasifuddin Dagar; a lecture on Indian cinema by Mukul Kesavan; a lecture on Dastangoi, the art of storytelling, by Mahmoud Farooqi and a lecture on folk theatre in Punjab by Neelam Mansingh Choudhary," said Yashaswini Singh from CCRT.

"When we launched the course, the question facing us was that will just one lecture a week give students the understanding of the Indian arts and cultures? However, today, most students agree that if not an in-depth understanding, the course has definitely created an interest in the subject," Singh added.

Trisha Das, a scholar of liberal arts at St. Stephen's College and a student of the course, said, "The lectures by Naman Ahuja are my favourites as they were very informative."

Anjini Bist, a scholar of history at the college, added, "It has been a wonderful learning experience. Many of the topics were in congruence with my history course. As I am extremely interested in the Islamic architecture in India, the lecture by KK Muhammad of the Archaeological Survey of India on the topic from the doorway to the dome was a memorable one."

"The inaugural lecture of the course titled 'Why Culture?' was delivered by Ashok Vajpeyi, a Stephen's alumnus and the chairman of the Lalit Kala Akademi. There has been no looking back since then" said Stephen's prinicpal Valson Thampu.

New Delhi, October 6
With the sheer display of muscle and elegance by the numerous women and men participants of the Sheru Classic Professional Championship-2012 which is the world's third largest professional bodybuilding competition, was organised today among enthusiastic fitness addicts at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Delhi.

The championship witnessed tough competition between some of the world's top professional bodybuilders, such as Mr Olmpia's 2011 winner Phil Heath, Kai Greene, Ben White and Toney Freeman. Professional women figure athletes included Nicole Wilkins, Erin Stern and Heather Dees. The four categories of the competition were - Men's Professional Bodybuilding, Women's Professional Figure, Men's Professional 212 and Women's Professional Bikini.

A participant of the women's professional bikini championship was Nicole Nagrani, who is a full-time medical student and is a reigning championship of the Bikini Olympia. Some of the other female participants in the bikini category were Sonia Gonzales, a cosmetologist by profession, besides Jessica Paxson, a former cheerleader and Nathalia Melo, a former Brazalian law student.

Sheru Classic was started in Mumbai last year. It is the brainchild of Sheru Harmeet Aangrish, India's second professional bodybuilder.