RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Interior announced that an execution was carried out in Riyadh on July 22 bringing the total number of executions so far in 2016 to 100, according to the Saudi Press Agency. The number is more than by the same point in 2015, which was a record year with 158 sentences carried out. Fahad Abdulhadi al-Dusari was found guilty of shooting dead fellow Saudi Mubarak bin Mohammed al-Dusari following a dispute. He was executed in Riyadh province, the agency said. The ultra-conservative kingdom is the most prolific user of the death penalty after Iran and Pakistan, and beheads prisoners publicly.
Teens losing sleep over money worries
LONDON: A study published in journal Sleep Health has found teenagers are increasingly losing sleep over money worries, with fears about the climate change and war declining. The 28-year-old study found that in the 1980s, when the youth were asked what issues kept them awake at night, climate change and the threat of global conflict caused the most worry. But recent recessions have made their worries more prosaic, with youngsters more and more nervous about financial insecurity rather than the end of the world.
Indian American gets 55 years for strangling wife
SOMERVILLE, N.J. : Timma Kalidindi, a 50 year old Indian American who was found guilty of first-degree murder in the 2013 strangulation of his estranged wife, must serve 85 per cent of his sentence without parole eligibility. Sentenced to 55 years in prison, Kalidindi has 944 days of credit for time already served in jail. Kalidindi and wife Janaki Dantuluru had been married for 22 years, and were separated at the time of her murder. His attorney James Wronko argued for a lesser sentence citing diminished capacity because of a mental illness brought on by stress. The judge however, called the crime "heinous, cruel, and depraved". She said it "premeditated" and will have an "everlasting affect" on the couple's daughter who was at home when the incident occurred.
US court overturns Indian-origin woman's conviction
NEW YORK: An Indian-origin woman's 2015 foeticide conviction was overturned by a US court in lieu with her botched, self-induced abortion. Indiana Court of Appeals overturned the 20-year prison sentence of Purvi Patel in a 3-0 ruling, with the judges saying the state foeticide statue was not intended to apply to abortions. The court report said the decision relied on how prosecutors have applied the foeticide law in the past, noting that this case was an "abrupt departure" from its typical cases in which a pregnant woman and her unborn child are the victims of violence. "The state's about-face in this proceeding is unsettling, as well as untenable" under prior court precedent, said Judge Terry Crone in the ruling. Patel is however, not clear of any criminal responsibility and the court has upheld a lower-level felony neglect conviction against her for failing to provide medical care to the baby.
Bangladesh nabs four women terrorists
DHAKA: Bangladesh police have arrested four female members of a local militant group who were blamed for the bloody attack on a cafe that saw the death of 22 people, most of them foreigners. Authorities are said to have intensified a hunt for militants after the attack that took place on July 1. It is believed that Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, a banned group that has pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State, played an important role in organising the attack. "Acting on a tip-off, our force raided a rented house where a large amount of grenade-making materials, crude bombs, and jihadi books were also found," said district police superintendent Sirajuddin Ahmed.
Australia to return stolen Buddha statue to India
CANBERRA: 1800 year old Buddha statue displayed in the National Gallery of Australia is being prepared for its return to India, after it was found to have been purchased from an illegal antiquity trafficker. The second-century statue is 1.3 metres tall, and was purchased from Asian art specialist Nancy Wiener by billionaire Ros Packer, on behalf of the Gallery. Documents showed that the NGA staff accepted Wiener's story of how she came to possess the statue, and were unaware of the truth. NGA director Gerard Vaughan said the sculpture would likely be returned to the Indian government when their officials visit Australia for an Indian cultural festival in September. "The condition of the statue was so good that it was initially thought to be a fake, though when experts from the Archaelogical Survey of India examined the piece, it was revealed to be genuine. One of the reasons was because it's of great age and was in very good condition."
