London: The teachers union has called for an end to the ban on children being taken out of school for term-time breaks. The union says that the ban is unfair for working parents, especially those with lower incomes. The parents who defy the ban can be fined £60 each. If they refuse to pay, they face a criminal prosecution. The motion says that the head teachers should be more flexible in how they enforce the rules to allow some parents to take their children out of school for a week-long family holiday.
Extra students putting pressure on school budget
London: A think tank has warned that schools would face financial squeeze as they face extra pressure to cope with a large number of students caused by soaring immigration and higher birth rates. A projected 7 per cent increase in student numbers is set to put pressures on spending, according to Luke Sibieta, programme director at the Institute for Fiscal Studies and author of a new study.
Call to free grandparents from babysitting
London: Celia Imrie, actress and author, seeks to free grandparents from babysitting. Imrie, star of “Calendar Girls” and “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” said she was "shocked" by the demands placed on her retired friends, with an increasing pressure on the older generation to pick up childcare. The actress, who has just written her first novel, said she had been left upset by witnessing "exhausted" friends who felt obliged to help their adult children. Lamenting a new generation of "put-upon" grandparents, she disclosed she could "not believe her ears" at some of the conversations she had been party to, including - increasingly - discussions about future inheritance.
Condemning the trend as "absolutely revolting” she added: "In my day you never, ever talked about your inheritance and what you're going to get when your parents died. I'm not a grandmother yet, but it rather upsets me when I see dear friends of mine who are of an age and are absolutely exhausted. But they never say it because they are thrilled to help and they don't know how to say no. But they are exhausted."
Nairobi: Famous Kenyan conservationist Richard Leakey said that unless a bridge was built across Serengeti national park, “the greatest wildlife spectacles on the planet” could disappear within 20 years. He said that plans to bisect the park with a dual carriageway would jeopardise the annual migration of 1.5 million wildebeest from the Masai Mara in Kenya unless a 22-mile section was elevated. Leakey said it was sad to sacrifice the wilderness, but said that Tanzania needed to improve its infrastructure, and that a bridge was the only way for people and wildlife to live in harmony. “In 10 to 15 years there is a very real possibility that the wildlife won’t be able to cross the Mara,” he said. “We cannot afford to lose the greatest wildlife migration in the world because some fool doesn’t believe the Tanzanians don’t need to move traffic.” He said that the bridge would cost less than $1 billion, which was an acceptable price to save the migration.
Indian-American siblings get $9 mn compensation in assault case
New York: An Indian-American brother-sister duo has been awarded record $9 million in damages for severe injuries sustained when they were attacked with metal bats during a brawl with two men in a night club here in 2005. Anuj Sapra and Arti Sapra won the judgment in the Manhattan Supreme Court for the incident at the city club when the two men misbehaved with them and later beat them up with baseball bats. The siblings' Indian-American attorney Ravi Batra said that the case "represents the serious fallout of New York clubs regularly serving under-age children excessive amounts of liquor, and such drunken state coupled with immature judgment, becoming a violent trigger for serious injury, or worse, near-death." The court ruled against firm Ten's Cabaret, which owned the club, and awarded compensatory and punitive damages of over USD 8 million for Anuj Sapra and over USD 640,000 for his sister. Batra said the Sapras were harassed and assaulted by Mohammad Abdul-Shakoor and Mohammad Asif who were "under-age" but were still "illegally" served liquor by the club.
Number of Indian students in Oz rises
Sydney: There are 13,730 Indian students enrolled in Australian colleges in 2014 - an increase from 10,168 in 2013, according to the latest international student data released by the Australian Trade Commission. The numbers in 2014 made Indian students the third largest group of international student enrolments in New South Wales. A decade earlier, Indian students were the fourth largest group. In 2012, the number of Indian students who enrolled in an Australian university was 11,239.
The increase of nearly 3,562 students in just one year could be due to the dip in the numbers visiting Britain. Controversy over post work visa in Britain has seen a major dip. Data revealed by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) shows the number of Indian students fell from 18,535 in 2010-11 to 13,250 in 2011-12 and further to 10,235 in 2012-13.
3 Lankan navy personnel arrested over Tamil lawmaker's killing
Colombo: Sri Lankan police have arrested three navy personnel over an ethnic Tamil lawmaker's assassination that had been blamed on Tamil Tiger rebels. Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said that the three men are suspected in the killing of Nadaraja Raviraj, who was shot dead in his car in 2006 during the country's civil war. Raviraj was outspoken on greater self-rule for minority ethnic Tamils and explained the Tamil perspective of the conflict in Sinhala, the language of the majority. The government of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa blamed the killing on the now-defeated Tamil rebels, but Raviraj's supporters suspected a government hand. Rajapaksa's government was accused of operating paramilitary groups to kill and abduct rebel suspects and dissidents. The new government of President Maithripala Sirisena has promised accountability for wartime abuses.
Another blogger hacked to death in Bangladesh
Dhaka: Another blogger was hacked to death in the Bangladesh capital on Monday, in the latest brutal attack on the country's independent writers, a senior officer said. Police have arrested two people over the murder which comes just weeks after an American atheist blogger was also hacked to death in Dhaka, a crime that triggered international outrage, the officer said. Police said they were unsure whether the victim, Washiqur Rahman, 27, was also an atheist blogger but another social media writer said that he was known to write "against religious fundamentalism". "It appeared Rahman used to write using a pen name Kutshit Hasher Chhana (Ugly Duckling)," Imran Sarker, head of Blogger and Online Activists Network in Bangladesh, said. "He was a progressive free thinker and was against religious fundamentalism," he said. Police have also arrested a suspect over the killing in February of American atheist writer and blogger Avijit Roy.
Indian-origin banker jailed for voyeurism in Singapore
Singapore: A 32-year-old Indian banker in Singapore has been jailed for eight weeks on charges of voyeurism, including taking upskirt videos of women for over two years. Maha Vignesh Velippan, a former executive at State Bank of India, admitted to 19 charges of insulting modesty and one ofhaving 596 obscene films from last August. Another 75 charges were considered during sentencing. The court heard that during lunchtime on June 7, 2011, a 27-year old business relationship manager was on an escalator in the Standard Chartered Bank building in the central business district (CBD) when she felt something brush against her legs. She turned around and saw Maha standing beside her with a paper bag containing his phone whose camera lens was pointed at her. The woman asked for his phone and found an upskirt video of herself and then called the police. The offences took place between 2008 and 2011. Maha's lawyer said his client suffered from voyeurism and sex addiction but was making good progress in his psychiatric treatment.
Lanka orders release of 54 Indian fishermen
Colombo: Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena ordered the release of 54 Indian fishermen from Tamil Nadu arrested by its Navy for allegedly poaching in the country’s waters. Sirisena’s order to release the fishermen came just ahead of the two-day India-Sri Lanka fishermen-level talks being held in Chennai. Sri Lankan Navy had arrested the 54 fishermen along with their 10 boats on March 21 when they were allegedly poaching in island’s waters.
Over 100 Christians arrested for lynching 2 in Pakistan
Lahore: Over 100 Christians have been arrested for allegedly being part of a mob that lynched two men after Taliban suicide attacks on two churches in Pakistan’s biggest Christian colony that killed 17 people. Confirming the arrests, a senior investigation officer said that more than 100 Christian protesters were arrested. They are currently being investigated by the police to determine their role in the protests. “We first established identity of the suspects through TV footages, still cameras and other relevant sources before laying hand on them,” he said. The usual Sunday mass was underway on March 15 at the Christ Church and Catholic Church of Youhanabad Christian Colony that houses over 100,000 Christians, when two suicide bombers reached there and tried to break in. When the guards stopped them from entering the churches they blew themselves up at the gates. After the blasts the police had taken two suspects into custody from the site and shifted them to a vehicle when a group of charged youngsters got hold of them. The enraged mob started thrashing the two suspects and after beating them severely, the mob tied them with a rope and set them on fire.
Police official fired amid outcry over lynching in Kabul
Kabul: A prominent Afghan police official was sacked as hundreds of men and women marched in the capital to protest the lynching of a 27-year-old woman in central Kabul recently. The official, a spokesman for Kabul’s police chief, justified the killing on his Facebook page after she had been falsely accused of burning a copy of the Koran. The woman, named Farkhunda, was beaten to death with planks of wood and set on fire by a crowd in front of police officers close to the presidential palace, ministries and foreign embassies. Her death has triggered a public outcry in a country where mass demonstrations of support for women’s rights are rare. Protesters in Kabul painted their faces red to represent Farkhunda’s bloodied face as filmed by mobile phones as she was beaten to death.
“We have come here to tell the government of Afghanistan that we will no longer be satisfied with superficial narratives,” said Afghanistan’s former spy chief, Amrullah Saleh, who was at the protest.
