Terror haunts India again as 12 killed in Hyderabad blasts

Hyderabad: India was once again at the receiving end of terror groups when two powerful blasts rocked Hyderabad's Dilsukh Nagar on Thursday evening, killing at least 12 people and injuring 57 others. The death toll is expected to rise considering the intensity of the blasts which were reportedly carried out using Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and aimed at causing maximum damage, Andhra Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) V Dinesh Reddy said.

The two explosions took place near Venkatadri and Konark movie theatres in one of the most crowded areas of the Andhra Pradesh capital. According to the police one bomb may have been placed on a cycle and the other was put inside a tiffin box.

Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said that the government received an attack alert two days ago, but there was no specific information. However, a police interrogation report, accessed by CNN-IBN said specific information was provided during the interrogation of a suspected Indian Mujahideen operative.

In the interrogation by the Special Cell of Delhi Police, which took place in October 2012, the Indian Mujahideen suspect had confessed doing reconnaissance of three areas, including Dilsukh Nagar, in Hyderabad. However, it is not known if the specific bit of information was passed on the Hyderabad police.

"IEDs were used in the two bomb blasts which were acts of terror and were aimed at causing maximum damage," said the Andhra Pradesh DGP. The seriously injured would be shifted to corporate super-speciality hospitals in the city for better treatment if needed, he said. Noting that the entire area has been sanitised after the blast, he appealed to the people not to panic and believe in rumours.

Meanwhile, personnel of National Investigation Agency (NIA), stationed in Hyderabad, visited the scene and picked up clues from burnt two-wheelers.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar, who visited the site shortly after the blasts, termed them as shocking. "What happened in Hyderabad is shocking...innocent people have been killed...the state government has reacted swiftly," he said. The Chief Minister announced a compensation of Rs 6 lakh each for the families of those killed in the blast, and assured that the government would bear the expense of the treatment of those who got injured. He termed the Hyderabad blasts as "an act of the coward", asserting that those responsible would soon be brought to book.

Referring to the serial blasts, Union Home Secretary RK Singh said IG NIA and probe team of NSG had been flown from Delhi by a special BSF plane. He said that high alert had been issued in Delhi, Mumbai and several other states, but maintained that there was no information on who carried out the explosions.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also condemned the blasts. The Prime Minister also sanctioned Rs 2 lakh each to the families of those killed in the incident, and Rs 50,000 each to those seriously injured. The Prime Minister also directed the central agencies to extend all possible help to the Andhra Pradesh state authorities in relief operations. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi also condemned the blasts and expressed her sorrow.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh termed the blasts as most unfortunate and expressed his grief for those who lost their lives and their loved ones in the terror attack. Expressing confidence into the government for providing all assistance to those hit by the terror attack, the BJP president said that a thorough inquiry should be conducted into the blasts. Former BJP president Venkaiah Naidu said that the blasts were unfortunate and condemnable.

Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader Kiran Rao said the situation in the Andhra Pradesh capital was very chaotic. "This is not a time to have political divisions...this is an attack on our country and democracy, we all are together," said Kiran Rao.

The United States also strongly condemned the blasts and offered assistance in investigation if requested by the Indian government. "We condemn the cowardly attack in Hyderabad, India, in the strongest possible terms, and we extend our deepest sympathies to those affected and to the people of India," the State Department spokesperson, Victoria Nuland, told reporters at her daily news conference.

Dilsukh Nagar, the area were the incident took place is a crowded area in Hyderabad, and one of the main commercial areas of the city. Gaddianaram market in Dilsukh Nagar is the biggest in Andhra Pradesh. The blast took place near the main bus stand near Hyderabad-Mumbai highway.

Helpline: 040-23235643, 040-27854771

Previous instances of blasts in Hyderabad:

2002: 2 killed in blast at Sai Baba Temple, Dilsukh Nagar

May 18, 2007: 14 killed in blast at Mecca Masjid

August 25,2007: 42 killed in two blasts at Gokul Chat shop

August 26, 2007: Police find 19 unexploded blasts

(With Additional Inputs from PTI)

Source: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/terror-haunts-india-again-as-12-killed-in-hyderabad-blasts-govt-says-it-had-info/374379-3.html

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India: Reject New Sexual Violence Ordinance

Legislators in India should substantially amend or replace the new criminal law on violence against women in the forthcoming budget session of the parliament, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today. On February 3, 2013, Indian President Pranab Mukherjee signed the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance 2013, amending criminal laws, over protests from human rights and women?s rights groups across the country.

Legislation addressing sexual violence should reflect international human rights law and standards, and incorporate key recommendations of the recently appointed Verma Committee, the rights groups said.

?The new ordinance at long last reforms India?s colonial-era laws on sexual violence, but fails to provide crucial human rights protections and redress for victims,? said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. ?Indian parliamentarians should insist on a law that deals with these critical issues.?

Criminal law reform to address sexual violence has been the subject of national debate in India since the gang rape and death of a 23-year-old woman in New Delhi in December 2012. The Indian government set up a three-member committee, headed by former Supreme Court chief justice J.S. Verma, to consider reforms to strengthen laws against sexual violence. The new ordinance unfortunately ignores the committee?s key recommendations, especially on police accountability and framing sexual violence as a violation of women?s rights to bodily integrity.?

?There should be a robust discussion in parliament before any law is enacted, and amendments should not ignore key recommendations of the Verma Committee or the views of women?s rights groups in the country,? said G. Ananthapadmanabhan, chief executive of Amnesty International India.

The ordinance falls short of international human rights standards in several ways, the rights groups said. It fails to criminalize the full range of sexual violence with appropriate punishments in accordance with international human rights law. It includes vague and discriminatory provisions, and introduces capital punishment in some cases of sexual assault. The ordinance also retains effective legal immunity for members of state security forces accused of sexual violence, harms rather than helps teenagers by increasing the age of consent to sex, and defines ?trafficking? in a way that might conflate it with adult consensual sex work.

Definitional Concerns
Some of the definitions incorporated in the ordinance do not appropriately protect women from sexual violence, the human rights groups said. The ordinance retains archaic and discriminatory concepts used to define criminal offenses as ?insults? or ?outrages? to women?s ?modesty? rather than crimes against their right to bodily integrity. This violates India?s international legal obligations to amend all laws containing gender discriminatory provisions.

The ordinance includes penetrative sexual offenses within the definition of ?sexual assault? and fails to draw a distinction between the harm caused by penetrative and non-penetrative offenses. For example, the act of touching another person?s breast is given the same punishment as penetrative sexual offenses.

Limited Recognition of Marital Rape
The ordinance discriminates against women based on their marital status and denies them equal protection before the law. Under section 375 of the amended Penal Code, wives cannot bring a charge of ?sexual assault? against husbands except under extremely narrow grounds: where she is ?living separately under a decree of separation or under any custom or usage.?

India has ratified treaties and supported declarations that uphold the right to sexual autonomy as a matter of women?s equality, including the right to decide freely whether to have sex free of coercion, discrimination and violence. Criminal law must provide protection from martial rape under all circumstances, the rights groups said.

Enhanced Punishment
The ordinance introduces the death penalty for sexual assault when it results in death or ?persistent vegetative state? for the victim and in cases of certain repeat offenders.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch oppose the death penalty under all circumstances as the ultimate cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment and a violation of the right to life. This irreversible form of punishment has been abolished by a majority of countries. ?

Rather than focusing on punishment, legislators should ensure that the law substantially reforms the system by which sexual violence is reported, investigated and prosecuted, the rights groups said.

Immunity for Police and Armed Forces
The ordinance leaves in place procedures that put police and armed forces above the law in cases of sexual violence. ?Under current criminal procedure and other special laws, police and security forces are not subject to prosecution ? including for sexual violence ? unless the government body overseeing the respective force approves prosecution. This seldom happens, resulting in effective immunity for police officers and soldiers who commit serious abuses. The Verma Committee recommended that these legal immunities, including in the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, be removed. Protracted legal procedures to prosecute police and armed forces have consistently caused injustice to rape survivors in India?s North East, Jammu and Kashmir, and Maoist-affected areas, the rights groups said.
?India?s laws should not give the police and armed forces special privileges to commit sexual violence and other human rights abuses,?Ganguly said. ?Requiring government permission to bring cases against public servants is an unacceptable barrier to justice for survivors of sexual violence.?

Age of Consent to Sex
The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, enacted in 2012, increased the age of consent to sexual intercourse from 16 to 18. The Verma Committee recommended that the age of consent in the Indian Penal Code should revert to 16.
Indian law should continue to acknowledge that below a certain age, sexual contact with a child or adolescent who is unable to give meaningful consent must be criminalized. But the law should also take into account adolescents? evolving capacity and maturity to make decisions about engaging in sexual conduct for themselves, age differentials between those engaging in sexual activity, and remove inappropriate penalties, the rights groups said. The legal framework should help adolescents deal with their sexuality in an informed and responsible way, and not punish the same population that it is designed to protect.

Potential for Conflating Adult, Consensual Sex Work with ?Trafficking?
The new ordinance conflates the crime of trafficking with adult, consensual sex work in section 370 of the amended penal code, the rights groups said.
The ordinance introduces a new definition of ?trafficking? by which a person ?recruits, transports, harbors, transfers or receives a person or persons? by using force, threats, fraud, abducting, inducing, or abusing one?s power for the purpose of ?exploitation.? But the ordinance states that ?exploitation shall include prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation? and adds that ?the consent of the victim is immaterial in a determination of the offence of trafficking.? While forced prostitution should be treated as a crime, and consent to a crime should not be a defense, the language of this provision risks conflating adult, voluntary sex work with trafficking into forced prostitution. ? ?

Criminalizing Consensual Same-Sex Relations
The ordinance fails to repeal section 377 of the Penal Code, which criminalizes consensual same-sex relations among adults. In 2009, the Delhi High Court ruled that criminalizing consensual same-sex relations among adults was a violation of their constitutionally guaranteed rights to equality, non-discrimination, and the right to life with dignity and privacy.
Given these serious flaws in the new ordinance, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called upon the Indian parliament to reject the ordinance in its present form and urged the Indian cabinet to introduce a revised bill to amend the criminal laws.

?Instead of passing a deeply flawed ordinance, the Indian cabinet should table a well-drafted comprehensive bill addressing gender-based violence, especially sexual violence, in its forthcoming budget session,? Ananthapadmanabhan said. ?The parliament should engage in meaningful consultations with civil society groups, and ensure that any new law complies with international standards.?

Source: http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/02/11/india-reject-new-sexual-violence-ordinance

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Data waves keep your wearable tech in tune

IF LAST month's Consumer Electronics Show is anything to go by, we will soon be covered in wearable technology, from health monitors to smart watches. But there's a problem: how do we get them to communicate?

Traditionally, devices talk to one another either using wires, which are inconvenient, or Bluetooth, which is prone to interference. Now a new wireless technique that uses a phenomenon known as Zenneck surface waves could be the answer.

This type of electromagnetic wave stays at the interface between the surface of an object and the air, rather than travelling through open space. Radar systems have used them to see around the curvature of the Earth, but communicating in this way is a first.

Janice Turner and colleagues at Roke Manor Research in Romsey, UK, have created a demonstration system that uses the waves to send high-definition video over a short length of material. It has a bandwidth of up to 1.5 gigabits per second, making it almost three times faster than Wi-Fi. The signal does not travel through the material but rather over its surface for a few centimetres.

Turner's team has worked with a fabric made of a dielectric-coated conducting material. This could be tailored into a jacket to enable worn devices to communicate in a personal network. For example, a lapel camera, a wrist display and a pulse-monitor bracelet could all communicate through the jacket via surface waves. Other devices such as smartphones could attach automatically simply by being placed in a pocket. Zenneck wave-enabled devices could be on the market within two years, says Turner. Sandy Black, who studies how fashion design and technology merge at the London College of Fashion, says the idea sounds "interesting if it could be proved reliable and robust".

Such devices are also being explored for use on aircraft, where they could link up sensors embedded in the wings without wires, or form the backbone of a passenger entertainment system.

This article appeared in print under the headline "Jacket to connect wearable tech using data waves"

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