ಮೈತ್ರಿಯಾ ಜೊತೆ ದೈಹಿಕ ಸಂಪರ್ಕ ಮಾಡಿದ್ದು ಯಾರು?

ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು, ಸೆ.1: ಕೇಂದ್ರ ರೈಲ್ವೆ ಸಚಿವ ಡಿವಿ ಸದಾನಂದ ಗೌಡ ಅವರ ಪುತ್ರ ಕಾರ್ತಿಕ್ ಗೌಡ ಮೇಲಿನ ಅತ್ಯಾಚಾರ ಹಾಗೂ ವಂಚನೆ ಪ್ರಕರಣಕ್ಕೆ ಸೋಮವಾರ ಮತ್ತೊಂದು ತಿರುವು ಸಿಕ್ಕಿದೆ. ಮೈತ್ರಿಯಾ ಮೇಲೆ ನಡೆದಿದೆ ಎನ್ನಲಾದ ಅತ್ಯಾಚಾರ ಸಾಬೀತುಪಡಿಸಲು ಪ್ರಮುಖ ಎನಿಸಿದ್ದ ವೈದ್ಯಕೀಯ ಪರೀಕ್ಷೆ ವರದಿ ಹೊರಬಿದ್ದಿದೆ.

ಆದರೆ, ಮೈತ್ರಿಯಾ ಗೌಡ ಬಿನ್ ವೆಂಕಟೇಶ ಗೌಡ ಅವರ ಮೇಲೆ ಯಾವುದೇ ಅತ್ಯಾಚಾರ ನಡೆದಿಲ್ಲ. ಎರಡು ತಿಂಗಳ ಹಿಂದೆ ಅವರು ದೈಹಿಕ ಸಂಪರ್ಕಕ್ಕೆ ಒಳಪಟ್ಟಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಅತ್ಯಾಚಾರ ನಡೆದಿರುವ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಯಾವುದೇ ಕುರುಹು ಸಿಕ್ಕಿಲ್ಲ ಎಂದು ಡಾ. ಅಂಬೇಡ್ಕರ್ ವೈದ್ಯಕೀಯ ಕಾಲೇಜು ಮತ್ತು ಆಸ್ಪತ್ರೆ ನೀಡಿದ ವರದಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಹೇಳಲಾಗಿದೆ.

ವಿಚಿತ್ರವೆಂದರೆ ಮೂರ್ನಾಲ್ಕು ದಿನಗಳ ಹಿಂದೆಯೇ ವೈದ್ಯಕೀಯ ಪರೀಕ್ಷೆ ವರದಿ ಬಹಿರಂಗವಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಮೈತ್ರಿಯಾ ಮೇಲೆ ರೇಪ್ ಆಗಿಲ್ಲ ಎಂಬ ಸುದ್ದಿ ಎಲ್ಲೆಡೆ ಹಬ್ಬಿತ್ತು. ಇಂದು ಅಧಿಕೃತವಾಗಿದೆ ಅಷ್ಟೇ.

ಇದೇ ವೇಳೆ ಮೈತ್ರಿಯಾ ಗೌಡ ನಗರದ 8ನೇ ಎಸಿಎಂಎಂ ನ್ಯಾಯಾಲಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಸೋಮವಾರ ಮತ್ತೊಮ್ಮೆ ಹಾಜರಾಗಿ ಹೇಳಿಕೆ ದಾಖಲಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ವಂಚನೆ ಮತ್ತು ಅತ್ಯಾಚಾರ ಆರೋಪ ಎದುರಿಸುತ್ತಿರುವ ಕೇಂದ್ರ ಸಚಿವ ಡಿ.ವಿ.ಸದಾನಂದ ಗೌಡ ಅವರ ಪುತ್ರ ಕಾರ್ತಿಕ್ ಗೌಡ ನಿರೀಕ್ಷಣಾ ಜಾಮೀನು ಕೋರಿ ನ್ಯಾಯಾಲಯದ ಮೊರೆ ಹೋಗಿದ್ದಾರೆ. [62 ಪುಟಗಳ ಹೇಳಿಕೆ ನೀಡಿದ ನಟಿ ಮೈತ್ರಿಯಾ ಗೌಡ]

ಕಾರ್ತಿಕ್ ಗೌಡ ಅವರ ಜಾಮೀನು ಅರ್ಜಿಯನ್ನು ಸೆಷನ್ಸ್ ನ್ಯಾಯಾಲಯದ ನ್ಯಾಯಾಧೀಶರಾದ ಜಿ.ಬಿ.ಮುದಿಗೌಡರ್ ಅವರಿದ್ದ ನ್ಯಾಯಪೀಠ ವಿಚಾರಣೆ ನಡೆಸಿ, ಕಾರ್ತಿಕ್ ಗೆ ನೋಟಿಸ್ ಜಾರಿ ಮಾಡುವಂತೆ ಆರ್.ಟಿ. ನಗರ ಪೊಲೀಸರಿಗೆ ನಿರ್ದೇಶನ ನೀಡಿದೆ. 

Islamic State Claims to Have Beheaded Captive American James Foley

The Islamic State posted a video on Tuesday that it said showed the beheading of James Foley, an American journalist who was kidnapped in Syria nearly two years ago, according to a transcript released by the SITE Intelligence Group.

The authenticity of the video, which was also posted on YouTube, could not be verified, and a telephone call placed to Foley's family was not immediately returned. YouTube later took down the 4-minute, 40-second video.

Titled "A Message to America," the video shows the journalist kneeling in a desert landscape, clad in an orange jumpsuit - an apparent reference to the uniforms worn by prisoners at the U.S. military detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Standing to his left is a masked Islamic State fighter, who begins speaking in English, with what sounds like an East London accent. Pulling out a knife, he says that Foley's execution is in retaliation for the recent U.S. airstrikes ordered by President Barack Obama against the extremist group in Iraq.

"I call on my friends, family and loved ones to rise up against my real killers - the U.S. government - for what will happen to me is only a result of their complacent criminality," Foley says in the video, which was uploaded to the online account of the al-Furqan Media Foundation, according to SITE, an organization that follows jihadist groups. He ends saying that when U.S. soldiers began dropping bombs on Iraq this month, "they signed my death certificate."

On Tuesday night, Foley's mother, Diane Foley, issued a statement on the Facebook page the family had created to publicize their son's disappearance: "We have never been prouder of our son Jim. He gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people. We implore the kidnappers to spare the lives of the remaining hostages. Like Jim, they are innocents. They have no control over American government policy in Iraq, Syria or anywhere in the world."

Two weeks ago, in the wake of American-led airstrikes against the terrorist group, which was fanning out across Iraq, jihadists had taken to social media to call for attacks on U.S. interests. In the three hours after the graphic video of Foley's beheading was uploaded on YouTube, jihadists using the hashtag "#NewMessageFromISIStoUS" surpassed 2,000 tweets, according to a survey by SITE, with many fighters gloating over his death, and calling it just retribution for the air raids.

Foley, 40, a freelance journalist who was working for GlobalPost, an online publication based in Boston, as well as for Agence France-Presse, disappeared in Syria on Nov. 22, 2012. He was held alongside several other Americans, whose families have asked for a news blackout.

The video concludes with the fighter threatening to kill Steven Sotloff, another American freelance journalist who was being held alongside Foley. Sotloff is seen kneeling in the same position, in the same landscape and wearing the same style of orange-colored jumpsuit. "The life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision," the fighter says.

Obama was briefed about the video by Benjamin J. Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser, on Air Force One as he returned to Martha's Vineyard, according to Eric Schultz, the deputy White House press secretary.

In Washington, a National Security Council spokeswoman, Caitlin Hayden, said in a statement: "We have seen a video that purports to be the murder of U.S. citizen James Foley by ISIL. The intelligence community is working as quickly as possible to determine its authenticity. If genuine, we are appalled by the brutal murder of an innocent American journalist," she said, using an alternative name for the Islamic State.

Reached by telephone, Philip Balboni, the chief executive and a founder of GlobalPost, said that the newsroom and Foley's family were also trying to establish the veracity of the footage. "We are still evaluating the video at this time," he said.

Foley, who was last seen in Binesh, Syria, was also abducted in Libya in 2011, where he was held for several weeks after running into troops loyal to Moammar Gadhafi's crumbling government.

He was among dozens of journalists - many of them freelancers without the formal backing of a news organization - who disappeared in 2012 and 2013 in Syria. 

What a US Judge Has Said About Dr Manmohan Singh

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is immune from claims that he supported the genocide of Sikhs during his decade leading the country, a federal judge has ruled in the US.

But. District Judge James Boasberg in the District of Columbia said on Tuesday that Dr Singh, who resigned in May, did not have "head-of-state immunity" from claims arising from his time as Finance Minister.

Inderjit Singh, a Sikh living in the US, claimed in the 2013 suit that as Finance Minister from 1991 to 1996, Dr Singh funded cash rewards for members of the military who murdered Sikhs. When he was Prime Minister, according to the suit, Dr Singh was complicit in the torture and killing of hundreds of thousands of members of the religious minority.

Boasberg said US law bars former heads of state from being sued for actions they took while in office, but not for private acts or those taken in prior government posts.

Thousands of Sikhs were killed in 1984 in the days following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards.

Inderjit Singh in his suit claimed Dr Singh authorized "counterinsurgency operations" across India in which hundreds of thousands of Sikhs were kidnapped, murdered and buried in mass graves. The prime minister also shielded and promoted political allies and members of the military who orchestrated massacres of Sikhs, Singh said. 

Pakistanis Protest in Capital, Seeking Prime Minister's Resignation

Islamabad:  Thousands of Pakistani opposition supporters, some armed with sticks and wire cutters, marched toward a fortified zone in the center of Islamabad on Tuesday to press their demands for the resignation of the prime minister. 

The protesters, who have been camped out in the capital since Friday, are led by Imran Khan, the former cricketer, and a charismatic cleric named Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, who run separate campaigns but are united in their opposition to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. 

The march on the city's "red zone" - an area that contains the Parliament, the prime minister's official residence and many Western embassies - was widely seen as a final effort by Khan to rally his support base after days of threats and political speech. (Buzz on Twitter)

Although Khan's crusade attracted a crowd in Islamabad that was smaller, it received a major lift on Tuesday when his supporters merged with Qadri's, forming a crowd that the police estimated at more than 40,000 people marching into the red zone. 

As participants started toward the Parliament building, television pictures showed a crane on the street that was apparently used to remove shipping containers impeding their way. (See Pics)

Sharif's government, which came to power in June 2013, has struggled to quell the escalating political crisis, partly as a result of Sharif's tense relationship with the Pakistani army leadership. (Pakistan Army Urges Dialogue to Resolve Political Crisis)

In recent days, Sharif's administration failed to engage Khan and Qadri in negotiations to end the standoff and appeared to be hoping that the protests would simply fade. 

But there was little sign of that Tuesday, as Khan and Qadri gave impassioned speeches before sending their followers toward the city's protected area, which was ringed by shipping containers and thousands of police and paramilitary officers. 

In his speech before a cheering crowd, Khan repeatedly attacked Sharif, whom he accuses of stealing the 2013 election through vote rigging, and challenged him to a "duel." 

Describing the prime minister as a thief and a corrupt politician, Khan vowed to turn the space outside the Parliament into "a Tahrir Square," a reference to the site of the 2011 uprising in Egypt. While instructing his jubilant supporters to remain peaceful, he repeatedly warned of the possibility of violence. 

"Nawaz Sharif," he told the crowd, directly addressing the prime minister. "If there is any violence, I will not leave you." Moments later, when a helicopter hovered nearby, Khan said it had come to "take away Sharif," drawing a roar of approval. 

The government said that 30,000 security forces had been deployed to protect the red zone, which included the U.S. Embassy. Witnesses said they could not see evidence of such a large contingent, but the army said in a statement that it had deployed 700 soldiers to protect the Parliament, the Supreme Court and other important buildings inside the zone. 

The decision to deploy army troops was taken after a meeting between Sharif and the army chief, Gen. Raheel Sharif, who is not related to the prime minister. 

"The army is not behind anyone," said Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, the Pakistani interior minister, during a press briefing earlier in the day. 

The military urged dialogue after thousands of protesters reached the front of the Parliament late Tuesday night. 

A military spokesman said all buildings in the red zone were a "symbol of state and being protected by army, therefore the sanctity of these national symbols must be respected." 

The statement came within minutes after Khan demanded that Nawaz Sharif resign by Wednesday evening. "Otherwise, I will storm into the prime minister's house," Khan said. 

By midnight, Qadri's supporters seemed to be the first to reach Constitution Avenue, which runs in front of the Parliament. Farther back, Khan exhorted his supporters to move forward from the top of a container. 

Aides to Sharif insisted Tuesday that he would not resign. "There is no question the prime minister will resign," a close aide to Sharif said. 

Sharif's officials have privately said they feared the opposition marches could provide a pretext for the military to intervene - much as it did in 1999 when his last stint in power came to an abrupt end with a military coup. 

Many suspect that Qadri, the cleric, has at least tacit backing from the military. Qadri denies any such links and is openly supported by the leaders of Barelvi and Shiite Islamic organizations, which has helped to galvanize his dedicated supporters. 

Whatever the outcome of the protests, analysts said they appeared to have opened a turbulent political period. 

In a reminder of the pressing security challenges facing Pakistanis, the military said Tuesday that it had killed 48 people during airstrikes against Taliban camps in the North Waziristan and Khyber tribal districts. 

Rattled S.Korea bans shorting stocks, c.bank to defer rate hikes

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean authorities banned short selling of shares on Tuesday in a bid to stem losses on a stock market that has lost 17 percent or almost $200 billion in value in the past six trading days amid a global market rout. The move came as state funds stepped in to try and shore up local share prices and after the Bank of Korea appeared to suggest that interest rate hikes were off the agenda when it meets on Aug. 11, as the market turmoil added a fresh threat to already sputtering global growth. Bans on short-selling - the sale of securities borrowed from a broker with the intent of buying them back later - have been frequent since the 2008 global financial crisis, but have been criticised for not achieving their aims and for reducing market liquidity. "Banning short-selling always smells of desperation and will not solve the underlying problems. Obviously one can understand the authorities worry, but I doubt that this will have any lasting positive impact on the markets," said Lars Christensen, head of emerging markets research at Danske Bank. Greece on Monday banned short-selling on the Athens bourse for two months as it tried to stem a stock market slump. Tuesday's announcement from South Korea's Financial Services Commission that short selling would be banned for three months came after it said short selling, mainly by foreign investors, hit a record high of 432.8 billion won on Aug. 3. "Short-selling triggered market instability," the regulator said in a statement after the stock market closed. Any further selloffs in the Korean stock market could feed directly into the real economy. Many ordinary investors have borrowed heavily to buy stocks and shares in a country where households are among the most heavily indebted of all major industrial nations by some measures. "It is kind of a double whammy on household debt and retail activity," said a Singapore-based analyst at an investment bank whose firm's policy does not allow him to be quoted by name. The main Seoul stock index finished down 3.6 percent at 1,801.35 points on Tuesday, its weakest close since Sept. 9, 2010, after tanking as much as 9.9 percent. In the past six trading days it has lost 209 trillion Korean won ($193 billion) in market value. BANK OF KOREA APPEARS TO RULE OUT RATE HIKE Bank of Korea Governor Kim Choong-soo told parliament on Tueday that the global market turmoil prompted by the U.S. debt downgrade and Europe's debt crisis meant that plans for "normalising" or raising interest rates had been put on ice. The central bank has been criticised for not raising interest rates fast enough to combat inflation, which surged to 4.7 percent year-on-year in July, well above 4 percent, the top end of its target range. "Before this situation, (the Bank of Korea) had been in a position towards normalising interest rates," Kim Choong-soo told a group of lawmakers in a parliamentary session. "Financial markets have changed rapidly since August 5. We will make an appropriate decision the day after tomorrow." The Bank of Korea has hiked its key rate five times since last July to 3.25 percent, still well below the headline rate of inflation, and has gone against market expectations in four out of six of its rate decisions. A Reuters poll of economists published on Tuesday showed the market expected the policy rate to remain on hold on Thursday. "Now financial markets are so volatile they cannot help but hold interest rates this Thursday," said Kim Yoon-gee, head of Daishin Economic Research Institute.

Subbarao gets 2-year extension as RBI chief

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has approved a two-year extension for the Reserve Bank of India chief Duvvuri Subbarao, a move seen by analysts as favouring continuity at a time of global economic uncertainty. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor was appointed for a three-year term in September 2008 and was immediately tasked with the mandate of protecting Asia's third-largest economy from the aftermath of the global financial crisis. For much of his term, the soft-spoken Subbarao has struggled to contain high inflation in India, triggered by factors which were not always under his control, and has often been criticised for being 'behind the curve'. But analysts said Subbarao's record in handling the global financial crisis that erupted in the latter half of 2008 may have gone in favour of his reappointment. "Perhaps he is best placed to deal with the current situation where there are lots of disturbances in the global economy", said N.Bhanumurthy, senior economist at National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, a Delhi-based policy think tank. Prior to taking over the reins of the RBI, Subbarao was India's finance secretary, the senior-most bureaucrat in the finance ministry. "There have been some criticism for his handling of inflation but to be fair to him, there were factors beyond his control and most major economies have been experiencing a high trend rate of inflation", said Bhanumurthy. The RBI has raised rates 11 times since March 2010 to battle high inflation, which quickened to 9.44 percent in June. "The Prime Minister has approved the extension of the term of Dr. D. Subbarao as Governor of Reserve Bank of India for a further period of two years with effect from Sept. 5, 2011 i.e. up to Sept. 4, 2013", a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office said. THE CONTENDERS The race for the top job at the Indian central bank had hotted up in recent months with some bureaucrats and economists throwing their hat into the ring. The chief economic adviser to the finance ministry, Kaushik Basu, a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, Raghuram Rajan, and a former adviser to the finance ministry, Ashok Lahiri, were believed to be in the fray, according to media reports. Subbarao had spoken out recently on the need for fiscal policy measures to complement monetary action to help fight inflation. Many market watchers saw the comments as a sign of a growing divergence between the finance ministry and the Indian central bank on key policy issues. However, sources say the prime minister wanted continuity in top regulatory positions, especially after Standard & Poor's ratings downgrade of the United States on Friday and a worsening of the euro zone's debt crisis sparked global market turmoil. That could have swung the balance in Subbarao's favour. "Currently in a possibility of another significant meltdown, this continuity (at RBI) will give some comfort to the general public and in particular in the financial sector," said Sujan Hajra, chief economist at Anand Rathi Securities. 

Govt not raising retirement age of its employees

New Delhi, Aug 9 (PTI) The government today said there is no proposal to raise the retirement age of its employees from 60 years at present. "At present there is no proposal to increase the age of retirement of Government servants," Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha. He said this in reply to a query on whether the government was considering increasing the retirement age of all central government employees by two years to 62 years, from the current 60. The government raised the retirement age of central government employees in 1998, when the age of superannuation was extended from 58 to 60 years. Meena said the total number of Central Government employees as on March 1, 2010, was 32.24 lakh. The total expenditure incurred by the government after the implementation of the recommendation of the 6th Pay Commission amounts to Rs 94,270.50 crore in the fiscal 2010-11. This was higher than Rs 78,111.20 crore incurred in 2009-10, Meena added. The total expenditure incurred by the government on salaries and allowances of central government employees before the implementation of the 6th Pay Commission for the fiscal 2008-09 was Rs 61,362 crore, he said.