Hilton’s house burgled as she was a ‘dumb’ target

Hilton’s house burgled as she was a ‘dumb’ target

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Tags : paris hilton, Audrina Partridge, Rachel Bilson
 
Posted: Thursday , Feb 04, 2010 at 1547 hrs
London:
Hilton was burgled of over 1 million pounds worth of possessions by a gang after she left the key to her home under her doormat. 

US socialite Paris Hilton was burgled of over 1 million pounds worth of possessions by a gang after she left the key to her home under her doormat.

And surprisingly Hilton didn’t notice she had been burgled for two months, Daily Mail online reported.

The socialite was targeted by the ‘Bling Ring Gang’, a group of teenagers, who targeted the homes of the rich and famous, who stole her house keys from under her doormat outside her Los Angeles property but didn’t realise until much later when the gang made a return raid, and making off with 1.2million pounds worth of jewellery and valuables.

Nick Prugo, who has since been arrested for his involvement in robbing celebrities, said Hilton had been their first target because they felt she was “dumb”.

“Like, who would leave a door unlocked? Who would leave a lot of money lying around? Stupid,” Prugo said.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Hilton-s-house-burgled-as-she-was-a–dumb–target/575665/

Kite-surfer killed by shark in rare attack off the coast of Florida

Kite-surfer killed by shark in rare attack off the coast of Florida

Stephen Schafer kite-surfing. He was killed by a shark off the coast of Florida
Jacqui Goddard in Miami
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A kite-surfer has been killed by what may have been a great white shark in a rare attack off the coast of Florida.

Daniel Lund, a lifeguard who survived a shark attack 21 years ago, risked his life to try to save Stephen Schafer, 38, by swimming into the midst of a school of circling sharks.

He pulled the stricken surfer on to a rescue board after spotting him flailing a quarter of a mile from Stuart Beach.

“Upon nearing, Lund saw blood in the water and heard the male screaming that a shark had bit him,” said Detective Sergeant Drew Patterson, of Martin County Sheriff’s Office.

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Ignoring the risk from the predators Mr Lund, 46, cradled the dying man’s head in one arm and paddled his board back to shore with the other. At one point waves knocked them both back into the water before they could reach the beach.

“The victim was talking to Lund as they swam but eventually stopped,” Mr Patterson noted in his incident report. Paramedics tried to resuscitate Mr Schafer on the beach but he never regained consciousness and was certified dead at hospital.

“They did their best,” said an eyewitness, Jim Smith, who watched the frantic resuscitation attempts, adding: “The guy just wasn’t moving.”

Marine experts speculated that a juvenile white shark may have been behind the brutal assault. The fish have been known to make rare appearances in Florida waters, Surfers also reported having seen bull sharks, which are highly aggressive, gathering in the area, while spinners, lemon sharks, tiger sharks and hammerheads are also known visitors.

Pathologists were set to examine tooth marks on Mr Schafer’s body — which included a bite spanning eight to ten inches (20 to 25 centimetres) on his right thigh — to determine whether the species that gained notoriety in the 1975 film Jaws could have been behind the brutal assault.

“Could it have been a white? Well it’s possible,” said George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History, in Gainesville.

“The odds are pretty high in favour of it being one of the others. Whites are cold-water sharks that make periodic forays into Florida only during the coldest times and don’t get much beyond Cape Canaveral. They are generally juveniles, around two metres or so.”

It was the first fatal shark attack off Florida for five years, and only the 14th since 1882. However, the state is known as the shark bite capital of the world, recording 32 incidents in 2008, the majority classified as “bump and bite” encounters involving small sharks accidentally nipping swimmers while chasing bait-fish in the shallows.

Mr Lund had his leg shredded in 1989 during an encounter with a shark less than a mile from yesterday’s incident. His Achilles tendon was severed by a bite that also damaged his calf muscle. It took him four months to recover from his injuries.

“People should not be afraid to go back in the water,” Mr Burgess said yesterday. “But they should be cautious — and they should be every time anyway, the reason being that when you enter the sea you are engaging in a wilderness experience. It’s never guaranteed 100 per cent safe. It’s a wild world that we are entering and it’s no different than going to the Serengeti and walking out across there without thinking about the dangers you can face.

“At this time of year we have big aggregations of sharks in south Florida, you can almost set your clock by it.”

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In jail, Haldiram boss to earn Rs 21 a day as gardener

In jail, Haldiram boss to earn Rs 21 a day as gardener
Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey, TNN, 5 February 2010, 05:30am ISTText Size:|Topics:jail
 owner
 Haldiram
 
KOLKATA: Prabhu Shankar Agarwal, co-owner of the Rs 500 crore Haldiram chain, will spend his days in prison as a semi-skilled labourer for which he will get Rs 21 a day. He has been told to tend to a patch of garden near his solitary cell at Alipore Central Jail. Giving him company will be Rashid Khan, a dreaded gangster convicted for the 1993 Bowbazar blasts which killed 60 people.

Since the bhujia baron has been branded a ‘‘high profile’’ criminal — like Rashid who is also Kolkata’s one-time satta king — he will not be allowed to move freely inside the jail, unlike other convicts. ‘‘We have told him to look after the flower pots and grass outside some rows of cells. We’ll ensure that he doesn’t move out of that spot for security reasons. Such high profile prisoners have to be constantly watched,’’ said B D Sharma, assistant director-general of prisons. Agarwal has been sentenced to life imprisonment for plotting to kill a tea stall owner, and has appealed against the verdict in High Court. Half of the Rs 21 he earns daily will be deposited in his bank account. He can use the rest for his personal needs.

‘‘Agarwal has been sentenced to rigorous imprisonment by the court. This means we have to ensure that he puts in the specified number of working hours,’’ Sharma said.

Another high profile convict in the Bowbazar blasts, Rashid aide Pannalal Jaiswara, has been given a semi-skilled job. He spends his time weaving towels and carpets. Gunjan Ghosh, convicted for kidnapping collegegirl Roma Jhawar, has got a ‘‘skilled’’ job as a writer, and helps with drafting letters, etc., in the jail office. ‘‘That way he is under constant vigil, and he is also able to put his education to good use,’’ Sharma explained.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/In-jail-Haldiram-boss-to-earn-Rs-21-a-day-as-gardener/articleshow/5536914.cms

http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20100204/804/tnl-unskilled-haldiram-owner-to-work-in.html

Bitter reality check for Karan Johar

Bitter reality check for KJo
SUBHASH K JHA , 31 January 2010, 12:00am ISTText Size:|Topics:Karan Johar
 My name is Khan
 
For the first time in his mature years, Karan Johar is a depressed man. It’s to do with the efforts of people around him to cause a rift between him and his mentor Shah Rukh Khan. It’s also to do with the nature of his latest directorial venture My Name Is Khan and the talk show Lift Kara De, where Karan brings some of the unhappiest people on the show.

Now he needs an anti-depressant. “I need a break from grim happenings. I’m going to do another season of Koffee With Karan before I direct another film. Of course, I can’t go back to the gossipy, bitchy format. This time Koffee …will be more probing, sober, more about a reality check than the pay cheque.”

Like Ranbir Kapoor’s Wake Up Sid, Karan Johar has finally woken up. Hurt, wounded and for the first time openly resentful about the lack of solidarity, affability and a basic compassion in the film industry, Karan for the first time says he won’t go out of his way to praise his colleagues’ films.

This, coming from a filmmaker who has constantly gone out of his way to heap lavish praise on his contemporaries’ creations, is a tragic comment on Karan’s disenchantment with his fraternity.

“Why should I praise other people’s films when nobody praises mine? Maybe my films aren’t worth praising. Maybe others are dream directors and I’m just a director who dreams?” says Karan bitterly, directly referring to the way colleagues bitched about his films Wake Up Sid and Kurbaan released last year, so much that both his directors Ayan Mukerjee and Rensil D’Silva have gone underground.

Says Karan, “I’ve realised in our industry people can’t tolerate their own unhappiness and other people’s happiness. It’s useless to go out of my way to be good to people when they don’t reciprocate.”

Karan is dismayed by the way it is being insinuated that he is drifting apart from his friend and mentor Shah Rukh Khan. “That’s a laugh. Professionally, I can’t see myself ever making films with anyone else. When I close my eyes, Shah Rukh’s image is imposed on all my creativity. He has been integral to my cinema from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai to My Name Is Khan. On a personal level, he is family, a friend and that elder brother I never had. I need him more than he needs me. So, where’s the question of moving on?”

Apparently, Karan was very disturbed by the rift between Shah Rukh and director-choreographer Farah Khan and even tried to mend the bridge between them. Says Karan, “Whatever has transpired between Shah Rukh and Farah is none of my business. I’ve enough worries of my own. I’ve got a release coming up which has taken a lot out of me.”

So troubled is Karan by the theme and the execution of My Name Is Khan that he wants to make a lighter film now. “My Name Is Khan wasn’t easy. It’s the socio-political journey of Shah Rukh’s character Rizwan from the age of 4 to 40. In his journey, Shah Rukh encounters major political upheavals from a communal riot in India to 9/11 in the US. But my film is not about any specific political event. Nor is it about the Asperger’s Syndrome. My hero is autistic. He couldn’t be neuro-typical because he had to see l ife with a direct honesty and clarity denied to normal people.”

The buzz is that Karan is taking his passion for fashion designing to another level by designing clothes for actors other than Shah Rukh. Karan shoots back, “Are you referring to the outfit I’ve supposedly designed for Imran Khan’s engagement? It was not actually designed for the occasion. It was something Imran liked and selected from my collection with Varun Bahl.”

Karan is starting his new film with Shah Rukh, though not immediately after the release of My Name Is Khan. “But I want to direct another film this year. At 37, I fear for my future. I see people much younger than me acting really batty. Who knows what would happen to my mental faculties tomorrow given the crazy ways of this industry? No, it’s not wisdom, it’s age. I’ve woken up like Sid, not woken up with Sid!”

The lonely walk

The lonely walk
NONA WALIA , 31 January 2010, 12:00am ISTText Size:|Topics:Indira Gandhi
 nona walia
 
The road to the top is full of moments of complete isolation. Nona Walia explores how achievers cope.
It’s a lonely walk along the corridors of power and success! Power ushers in isolated moments and unfaithful friends, leading to loneliness at the top. Right now, golfer Tiger Woods is on the verge of an emotional breakdown because he’s gripped by sudden loneliness. The Sun reports how he changed his mobile number, making it impossible for friends to contact him. The lone golfer now watches cartoons, eats cereals and plays night golf.

History has been a witness to the loneliness of great men, who were geniuses. Almost every genius has a need for being alone. Says Kamini Mathai, biographer of AR Rahman, “There are long moments of loneliness that Rahman experiences. His confidants are his assistant and secretary, who have been with him since he began his career. One of his closest friends is Rajiv Menon. Musician Shivamani, who also lost his father early, strikes a chord with him.” Meanwhile, Vijay Iyer, one of Rahman’s closest aides says, “He needs to be alone for his creativity. In Los Angeles, he takes early morning walks.”

While in politics, great leaders and rulers led desperate lives of isolation. Hitler was known to be very lonely. In her letters to Nehru, Indira Gandhi once wrote about her loneliness, “The circumstances in which I passed my girlhood were not easy. The world is a cruel place for the best of us and especially for the sensitive.”
Kiran Bedi too knows the loneliness of a long-distance walker, “It’s very lonely at the top. One makes it to the top despite many other vicious contenders. People are constantly gunning for the person who has occupied what they were hungry for. I think family support anchors the person at the top.’’

Do people in power really have no true friends? Explains Bedi, “A position of power gets you only self-serving friends. Wise leaders know this and never sulk.” Nancy Gibbs writes in Time magazine about President Obama having the loneliest job in the world. She writes, “Lonely and frustrated is what being President means… It comes from the nature of the job…”

Yet, it’s the brave-hearted who have the courage to walk the long lonely road. Sonia Gandhi once told a regional paper, “Politics is a lonely road.” Says Indian-born Ruby Dhalla, MP in Canadian Parliament, “Being in power means you can’t really trust many people. So, you make yourself self-reliant. That’s the best safety-net.” That’s something veteran Congress leader Mohsina Kidwai agrees to. “Politics has changed over the years. It’s very difficult to take people at face value. But we’re prepared for making lonely decisions.”

Some prefer the lonely, isolated road, by choice. It’s their success formula, which makes them independent to make tough decisions like Jayalalitha and Mayawati. The former doesn’t trust many people but relies on Sasikala Natarajan. Being alone makes her hard. There’s also Mayawati, whose house is like a fortress, where no family member stays with her. Says Mayawati’s biographer Ajoy Bose, “Although Mayawati has many committed functionaries, these are certainly not friends. The fact that she is not particularly close to her family, nor does she have a husband or children, makes her all the more lonely.”

However, some opt for their moments of aloneness for decision-making. Says politician Louise Khurshid, wife of Union corporate affairs minister, Salman Khurshid, “When you’re in power there are some people who are hangers on. I’m happy that our guest list has never fluctuated with our political destinies.”

In his tribute to Michael Jackson, music critic Robert Hilburn writes, how Michael once confessed to him, “Even at home, I’m lonely. I sit in my room and cry. It is so hard to make friends and there are some things you can’t talk to your parents. I sometimes walk around the neighbourhood at night, just hoping to find someone to talk to. But I just end up coming home.” This loneliness is haunting, ultimately life-threatening.

Yet, if you don’t want to be lonely, don’t guard yourself too closely. Some lone crusaders have turned loneliness into their comfortable companion. Like green activist, Vandana Shiva, who says, “People have to be prepared to walk through lonely stretches. In Tagore’s words, ‘Jodi tomar sanghe koi na ache, ekla clalo re’. If no one is willing to walk with you, walk alone!”

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life/people/The-lonely-walk/articleshow/5512847.cms

Rising number of dowry deaths in India

By Amanda Hitchcock
4 July 2001

May 27: Young housewife burnt alive for dowry

LUCKNOW: For nineteen-year-old Rinki dreams of a happily married life was never to be. Barely a month after her marriage, she was allegedly tortured and then set ablaze by her in-laws for dowry in Indiranagar in the small hours of Saturday. Daughter of late Gyan Chand, a fish contractor who expired a year ago, Rinki was married to Anil on April 19… However, soon after the marriage, Balakram [Anil’s father] demanded a colour television instead of a black and white one and a motorcycle as well. When Rinki’s mother failed to meet their demands, the teenage housewife was subjected to severe physical torture, allegedly by her husband and mother-in-law… On Saturday morning she [her mother] was informed that Rinki was charred to death when a kerosene lamp accidentally fell on her and her clothes caught fire. However, prima-facie it appeared that the victim was first attacked as her teeth were found broken. Injuries were also apparent on her wrist and chest.

June 7: Woman ends life due to dowry harassment

HAVERI: Dowry harassment claimed yet another life here recently. Jyoti, daughter of Chandrashekhar Byadagi, married to Ajjappa Siddappa Kaginelle in Guttal village (Haveri taluk) had taken her life after being allegedly harassed by her husband Ajjappa, mother-in-law Kotravva, sister-in-law Nagavva and father-in-law Siddappa for more dowry, the police said. Police said that the harassment compelled her to consume poison… The Guttal police have arrested her husband and father-in-law.

June 7: Body found floating

HAVERI: The police said that a woman’s body was found floating in a well at Tilawalli (Hanagal taluk) near here… The deceased has been identified as Akhilabanu Yadawad (26). The police said that Akhilabanu was married to Abdul Razaksab Yadawad five years ago. In spite of dowry being given, her husband and his family tortured her to bring some more dowry. Her father, Abdulrope Pyati in his complaint, alleged that she was killed by them. Her husband and his two brothers have been arrested, the police added.

These three chilling reports from the Times of India are typical of the many accounts of dowry-related deaths that take place in the country every year. One cannot help but be struck by the offhand way in which a young woman’s life and death is summed up, matter of factly, without any undue cause for alarm or probing of the causes. It is much as one would report a traffic accident or the death of a cancer patient—tragic certainly, but such things are to be expected.

The character of the articles points to the fact that the harassment, beating and in some cases murder of women over dowry is both common and commonly ignored or even tacitly condoned in official circles—by the police, the courts, politicians and media. These crimes are not isolated to particular groups, social strata, geographical regions or even religions. Moreover, they appear to be on the rise.

According to an article in Time magazine, deaths in India related to dowry demands have increase 15-fold since the mid-1980s from 400 a year to around 5,800 a year by the middle of the 1990s. Some commentators claim that the rising number simply indicates that more cases are being reported as a result of increased activity of women’s organisations. Others, however, insist that the incidence of dowry-related deaths has increased.

An accurate picture is difficult to obtain, as statistics are varied and contradictory. In 1995, the National Crime Bureau of the Government of India reported about 6,000 dowry deaths every year. A more recent police report stated that dowry deaths had risen by 170 percent in the decade to 1997. All of these official figures are considered to be gross understatements of the real situation. Unofficial estimates cited in a 1999 article by Himendra Thakur “Are our sisters and daughters for sale?” put the number of deaths at 25,000 women a year, with many more left maimed and scarred as a result of attempts on their lives.

Some of the reasons for the under-reporting are obvious. As in other countries, women are reluctant to report threats and abuse to the police for fear of retaliation against themselves and their families. But in India there is an added disincentive. Any attempt to seek police involvement in disputes over dowry transactions may result in members of the woman’s own family being subject to criminal proceedings and potentially imprisoned. Moreover, police action is unlikely to stop the demands for dowry payments.

The anti-dowry laws in India were enacted in 1961 but both parties to the dowry—the families of the husband and wife—are criminalised. The laws themselves have done nothing to halt dowry transactions and the violence that is often associated with them. Police and the courts are notorious for turning a blind eye to cases of violence against women and dowry associated deaths. It was not until 1983 that domestic violence became punishable by law.

Many of the victims are burnt to death—they are doused in kerosene and set light to. Routinely the in-laws claim that what happened was simply an accident. The kerosene stoves used in many poorer households are dangerous. When evidence of foul play is too obvious to ignore, the story changes to suicide—the wife, it is said, could not adjust to new family life and subsequently killed herself.

Research done in the late 1990s by Vimochana, a women’s group in the southern city of Bangalore, revealed that many deaths are quickly written off by police. The police record of interview with the dying woman—often taken with her husband and relatives present—is often the sole consideration in determining whether an investigation should proceed or not. As Vimochana was able to demonstrate, what a victim will say in a state of shock and under threat from her husband’s relatives will often change markedly in later interviews.

Of the 1,133 cases of “unnatural deaths” of women in Bangalore in 1997, only 157 were treated as murder while 546 were categorised as “suicides” and 430 as “accidents”. But as Vimochana activist V. Gowramma explained: “We found that of 550 cases reported between January and September 1997, 71 percent were closed as ‘kitchen/cooking accidents’ and ‘stove-bursts’ after investigations under section 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedures.” The fact that a large proportion of the victims were daughters-in-law was either ignored or treated as a coincidence by police.

Figures cited in Frontline indicate what can be expected in court, even in cases where murder charges are laid. In August 1998, there were 1,600 cases pending in the only special court in Bangalore dealing with allegations of violence against women. In the same year three new courts were set up to deal with the large backlog but cases were still expected to take six to seven years to complete. Prosecution rates are low. Frontline reported the results of one court: “Of the 730 cases pending in his court at the end of 1998, 58 resulted in acquittals and only 11 in convictions. At the end of June 1999, out of 381 cases pending, 51 resulted in acquittals and only eight in convictions.”

Marriage as a financial transaction

Young married women are particularly vulnerable. By custom they go to live in the house of their husband’s family following the wedding. The marriage is frequently arranged, often in response to advertisements in newspapers. Issues of status, caste and religion may come into the decision, but money is nevertheless central to the transactions between the families of the bride and groom.

The wife is often seen as a servant, or if she works, a source of income, but has no special relationship with the members of her new household and therefore no base of support. Some 40 percent of women are married before the legal age of 18. Illiteracy among women is high, in some rural areas up to 63 percent. As a result they are isolated and often in no position to assert themselves.

Demands for dowry can go on for years. Religious ceremonies and the birth of children often become the occasions for further requests for money or goods. The inability of the bride’s family to comply with these demands often leads to the daughter-in-law being treated as a pariah and subject to abuse. In the worst cases, wives are simply killed to make way for a new financial transaction—that is, another marriage.

A recent survey of 10,000 Indian women conducted by India’s Health Ministry found that more than half of those interviewed considered violence to be a normal part of married life—the most common cause being the failure to perform domestic duties up to the expectations of their husband’s family.

The underlying causes for violence connected to dowry are undoubtedly complex. While the dowry has roots in traditional Indian society, the reasons for prevalence of dowry-associated deaths have comparatively recent origins.

Traditionally a dowry entitled a woman to be a full member of the husband’s family and allowed her to enter the marital home with her own wealth. It was seen as a substitute for inheritance, offering some security to the wife. But under the pressures of cash economy introduced under British colonial rule, the dowry like many of the structures of pre-capitalist India was profoundly transformed.

Historian Veena Oldenburg in an essay entitled “Dowry Murders in India: A Preliminary Examination of the Historical Evidence” commented that the old customs of dowry had been perverted “from a strongly spun safety net twist into a deadly noose”. Under the burden of heavy land taxes, peasant families were inevitably compelled to find cash where they could or lose their land. As a result the dowry increasingly came to be seen as a vital source of income for the husband’s family.

Oldenburg explains: “The will to obtain large dowries from the family of daughters-in-law, to demand more in cash, gold and other liquid assets, becomes vivid after leafing through pages of official reports that dutifully record the effects of indebtedness, foreclosures, barren plots and cattle dying for lack of fodder. The voluntary aspects of dowry, its meaning as a mark of love for the daughter, gradually evaporates. Dowry becomes dreaded payments on demand that accompany and follow the marriage of a daughter.”

What Oldenburg explains about the impact of money relations on dowry is underscored by the fact that dowry did not wither away in India in the 20th century but took on new forms. Dowry and dowry-related violence is not confined to rural areas or to the poor, or even just to adherents of the Hindu religion. Under the impact of capitalism, the old custom has been transformed into a vital source of income for families desperate to meet pressing social needs.

A number of studies have shown that the lower ranks of the middle class are particularly prone. According to the Institute of Development and Communication, “The quantum of dowry exchange may still be greater among the middle classes, but 85 percent of dowry death and 80 percent of dowry harassment occurs in the middle and lower stratas.” Statistics produced by Vimochana in Bangalore show that 90 percent of the cases of dowry violence involve women from poorer families, who are unable to meet dowry demands.

There is a definite market in India for brides and grooms. Newspapers are filled with pages of women seeking husbands and men advertising their eligibility and social prowess, usually using their caste as a bargaining chip. A “good” marriage is often seen by the wife’s family as a means to advance up the social ladder. But the catch is that there is a price to be paid in the form of a dowry. If for any reason that dowry arrangements cannot be met then it is the young woman who suffers.

One critic, Annuppa Caleekal, commented on the rising levels of dowry, particularly during the last decade. “The price of the Indian groom astronomically increased and was based on his qualifications, profession and income. Doctors, charted accountants and engineers even prior to graduation develop the divine right to expect a ‘fat’ dowry as they become the most sought after cream of the graduating and educated dowry league.”

The other side of the dowry equation is that daughters are inevitably regarded as an unwelcome burden, compounding the already oppressed position of women in Indian society. There is a high incidence of gender-based abortions—almost two million female babies a year. One article noted the particularly crass billboard advertisements in Bombay encouraging pregnant women to spend 500 rupees on a gender test to “save” a potential 50,000 rupees on dowry in the future. According to the UN Population Fund report for the year 2000, female infanticide has also increased dramatically over the past decade and infant mortality rates are 40 percent higher for girl babies than boys.

Critics of the dowry system point to the fact that the situation has worsened in the 1990s. As the Indian economy has been opened up for international investment, the gulf between rich and poor widened and so did the economic uncertainty facing the majority of people including the relatively well-off. It was a recipe for sharp tensions that have led to the worsening of a number of social problems.

One commentator Zenia Wadhwani noted: “At a time when India is enjoying unprecedented economic advances and boasts the world’s fastest growing middle class, the country is also experiencing a dramatic escalation in reported dowry deaths and bride burnings. Hindu tradition has been transformed as a means to escaping poverty, augmenting one’s wealth or acquiring the modern conveniences that are now advertised daily on television.”

Domestic violence against women is certainly not isolated to India. The official rate of domestic violence is significantly lower than in the US, for example, where, according to UN statistics, a woman is battered somewhere in the country on average once every 15 seconds. In all countries this violence is bound up with a mixture of cultural backwardness that relegates women to an inferior status combined with the tensions produced by the pressures growing economic uncertainty and want.

In India, however, where capitalism has fashioned out of the traditions of dowry a particularly naked nexus between marriage and money, and where the stresses of everyday life are being heightened by widening social polarisation, the violence takes correspondingly brutal and grotesque forms.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/jul2001/ind-j04.shtml

MBA student hangs self in hostel room

MBA student hangs self in hostel room

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: A 24-year-old MBA student from Jamshedpur hanged herself in her hostel room in Bangalore on Friday following cancellation of her admission six months after she joined the college.
Pushpanjali Poorthis admission was cancelled after she was found ineligible, having failed to score 50% in her graduation . Sources said Poorthi had joined Sambhram Institute of Technologys MBA course last year and was staying at the womens hostel on the campus. On January 18, the college told her she was not eligible for the MBA course from Visveswaraya Technological University.
Police said the college had given her provisional admission, but denied it after the authorities received her degree marks last week. Poorthi had packed her belongings and was set to leave for her hometown on Saturday morning. Her friends had told her she might get a seat after reappearing in the degree exams.
Police said she talked with her friends till midnight. Later, she went to her room and hanged herself from the ceiling fan. A student found her body around 8 am on Saturday. Police said: Weve informed her parents.Poorthi left a note addressing her sister Indu Poorthi. She wrote: Im sorry for the extreme step. Please take care of mother and console her.

Pushpanjali Poorthi

// null

Cash, jewellery looted from Howrah trader’s house

Cash, jewellery looted from Howrah trader’s house
TNN, 31 January 2010, 02:45am ISTText Size:|Topics:Howrah
 Golabari
 Golabari police station
 
HOWRAH: A gang of burglars broke into a businessman’s flat at Howrah’s Golabari in broad daylight on Saturday, looting cash and jewellery worth Rs 8 lakh. Police are yet to arrest anyone.

Businessman Joy Kishore Singh, his wife Renu and their five-year-old daughter Ankita left their 84/1, Geliapara Lane flat to watch a movie around 12.30 pm on Saturday. The family lives on the third floor of the four-storey building and has relatives staying in other flats of the same building.

During the interval at 3.30 pm, Singh’s relative Rajkumari called him on his cellphone and told him that his flat had been burgled. Word about the burglary spread among the building’s residents when one of them spotted a broken lock on the main door of Singh’s flat.

Singh hurriedly returned home and saw that miscreants had broken open the almirah in the bedroom, where the family had kept jewellery. About 10 bhoris of gold ornaments and Rs 5 lakh in cash were stolen from the room. The rest of the flat was left untouched. This led police to suspect that the burglars knew where the family had kept the valuables and had a specific target to loot. The local Golabari police station was informed about the matter and its officers reached the flat for a probe.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Cash-jewellery-looted-from-Howrah-traders-house/articleshow/5518661.cms

Daal-roti for dinner and don as neighbour in jail

Daal-roti for dinner and don as neighbour in jail
TNN, 31 January 2010, 02:46am ISTText Size:|Topics:Alipore central jail
 Prabhu Agarwal
 
KOLKATA: Abuse for his ears, daal-roti for dinner none of the namkeen snacks his company dishes out and a dreaded don as neighbour: bhujia baron  

 
Prabhu Agarwal had an eventful first 24 hours at Alipore central jail.

According to jail sources, Prabhuji has been kept in a solitary cell opposite that of dreaded don Aftab Ansari mastermind of the 2002 USIS attack and the abduction of Khadim boss Partha Roy Burman.

Agarwal, however, behaved normally and looked calm. He didn’t complain when jail staff took to the aamdani cell’, where new convicts and undertrials are kept, on Friday evening. He spent the night there with 150 prisoners. “Fellow inmates hurled abuse at Agarwal, who remained cool and behaved well with other inmates,” said a jail staff.

Just before dinner, he told jail staff that he was a vegetarian. He had daal-roti for dinner but refused to drink water served to others and asked for mineral water, which he was allowed to buy from the jail canteen. He slept well and early on Saturday morning, was allotted solitary room 6 in the number 14 cell block. This is where high-security prisoners are kept. “He didn’t look tense when we took him to the room,” said another jail official.

Inmates in high-security cells are monitored round the clock through CCTVs inside their cells. A jail official reportedly told Agarwal that notorious criminal Happy Singh had been kept in the cell allotted to him.

Till Saturday afternoon, none from Agarwal’s family visited the jail. Officers informed him that as per the jail code, his relatives were allowed to provide him dry food and fruits. “But he told us that he did not need it. He ate jail food on Saturday too,” said another jail official. Unlike other high-profile inmates, he did not say he was ill and ask to be shifted to the jail hospital.

“Most high-profile accused like Raj Kishore Modi of Vedic Realties and IT firm CEO Sanjay Kedia had spent a major part of their custody period in hospital after complaining of illness,” said a jail official. Agarwal has shown no sign of illness.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Daal-roti-for-dinner-and-don-as-neighbour-in-jail/articleshow/5518658.cms

Bhujia baron gets life for murder: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Bhujia-baron-gets-life-for-murder/articleshow/5515252.cms

Bernard Madoff Gets 150 Years in Jail for Epic Fraud

Bernard Madoff Gets 150 Years in Jail for Epic Fraud (Update7) Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
By David Glovin, Patricia Hurtado and Thom Weidlich

June 29 (Bloomberg) — Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in federal prison for masterminding the largest Ponzi scheme in history, a penalty six times longer than those meted out to the chief executives of WorldCom Inc. and Enron Corp.

Madoff appeared today before U.S. District Judge Denny Chin in New York for the first time since his March 12 guilty plea in an epic swindle that may have reached $65 billion in both real and phantom investments.

“I don’t ask for any forgiveness,” said Madoff, 71, wearing a single-breasted charcoal gray suit and navy blue tie as he stood before the judge. The money manager said he deceived his brothers, his two sons and his wife, none of whom was in the courtroom. The audience burst into applause as Chin imposed the maximum sentence. Madoff was then led off by U.S. marshals.

The judge cited Madoff’s failure to identify accomplices, which has made it harder for prosecutors to build cases against others. The receiver of his firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, has also said Madoff hasn’t substantially helped him, complicating efforts to locate assets.

“I made a terrible mistake,” Madoff said.

Madoff asked to be jailed at a federal prison in Otisville, New York, about 80 miles northwest of Manhattan. The Federal Bureau of Prisons will decide where he goes. Chin said Madoff should serve his term in the northeastern U.S.

Sat Silently

Madoff sat silently as nine former investors assailed him for a fraud that cost many their life savings.

The disgraced money manager has shown “no remorse,” said victim Carla Hirschhorn, of Manalapan, New Jersey. She told Chin her life is a “living hell,” her mother is dependent on Social Security and her daughter works two jobs to pay tuition.

“Don’t fail us,” Hirschhorn told the judge.

Sharon Lissauer, a model who lives in Manhattan, said Madoff “shattered my dreams” and lost her mother’s inheritance. Miriam Siegman, of Stamford, Connecticut, said Madoff “discarded me like road kill,” and that she now relies on food stamps, collecting recyclable cans and digging through Dumpsters.

Madoff apologized to his victims in his statement to the court, saying he “left a legacy of shame,” and that he lives “in a tormented state.” The financier said he couldn’t admit his error in judgment while the scheme grew, and thought he could “work his way out.”

Hundreds of Onlookers

Hundreds of onlookers and dozens of television cameras were outside the lower Manhattan courthouse where Madoff was sentenced. The courtroom, the largest in the building, was standing-room only.

Madoff’s wife, Ruth, said today in a statement that she was “devastated” by the fraud, as well as “embarrassed and ashamed.” It was her first statement since her husband’s arrest.

She will be left with $2.5 million under a settlement with federal prosecutors.

Defense lawyer Ira Sorkin told the court that his client is a “deeply flawed human being.” He declined to say after the proceeding whether Madoff would appeal the sentence.

Sorkin also challenged the government’s claim that his client’s fraud has so far led to $13.3 billion in disclosed losses. In a letter to Chin this weekend, he said the amount should be offset by $1.3 billion held by the trustee for Madoff Securities; by $1.3 billion already recovered by the trustee; and by letters sent by the trustee, Irving Picard, seeking to “clawback” $735 million from Madoff investors.

$10 Billion

Sorkin also cited the $10 billion demanded in various other lawsuits as an offset, according to a letter filed with Chin yesterday.

“The media hysteria that the Ponzi scheme was approximately $65 billion and that Mr. Madoff lined his pockets with billions is simply not correct,” Sorkin wrote.

Madoff sat silently as Chin said that no other fraud case was comparable to his. No letters were submitted to vouch for Madoff’s character, Chin said, adding that the “symbolism” of the 150-year sentence is “important.”

“Mr. Madoff’s crimes were extraordinarily evil,” Chin said.

Chin didn’t impose a fine because Madoff will be ordered to forfeit billions of dollars.

Madoff’s sentencing caps the downfall of an acclaimed investment adviser who told the world his fortune came through an eponymous firm that specialized in making markets, trading securities and advising wealthy clients.

Shattered Facade

Over three decades, he built a reputation as a brilliant stock picker who delivered steady returns through both bull and bear markets. He attracted an international client roster that included celebrities including filmmaker Steven Spielberg, fund managers J. Ezra Merkin, charities, universities, friends and European royalty.

His facade shattered on Dec. 11, when he confessed to authorities that Madoff Securities was “one big lie.” Under immense pressure from a rush of investor redemptions, he admitted he used money from new investors to pay old ones. Regulators later said his investment advisory business hadn’t made a trade in at least 13 years.

Some of his thousands of investors lost their life savings. Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet, chief executive officer of Access International Advisors, which managed $3 billion, was driven to suicide because of his firm’s Madoff-related losses, his brother, Bertrand Magon de la Villehuchet, said in January.

Madoff received the maximum sentence on the 11 fraud charges to which he pleaded guilty. He received 20 years each on counts of securities fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, two counts of international money laundering, and making a false statement to the SEC.

Ebbers, Rigas

He got 10 years for money laundering and five years each for investment-adviser fraud, making a false statement, perjury, and theft from an employee benefit plan. The sentences, which are the maximum on each count, are to be served consecutively, totaling 150 years.

Since being locked up in March, Madoff has been housed in the maximum security Metropolitan Correctional Center next to the Manhattan courthouse where he was sentenced.

Several aging white-collar convicts are in low-security prisons. Former WorldCom Chief Executive Officer Bernard Ebbers, 67, is housed at the Federal Correctional Institution in Oakdale, Louisiana. John Rigas, 84, the ex-CEO of Adelphia Communications Corp., is imprisoned at the Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, North Carolina. Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling is serving a 24-year sentence at a prison in Englewood, Colorado.

‘Compelled’ to Steal

When pleading guilty in March, Madoff said that in the early 1990s, with the U.S. in a recession, he felt “compelled” to provide the returns his investors expected and began stealing investor money. He said the proprietary trading and market- making units of his business, both run by his sons, were “legitimate,” and his U.K.-based affiliate, Madoff Securities International Ltd., was an “honestly run” business.

“I cannot offer you an excuse for my behavior,” Madoff said today. “Although I may not have intended any harm, I did a great deal of harm. I believed when I started this problem, this crime, that it would be something I would be able to work my way out of, but that became impossible. As hard as I tried, the deeper I dug myself into a hole.”

Madoff agreed last week to forfeit all his property to the U.S. government.

The case doesn’t end with the sentencing. Investigators have seized control of Madoff offices at the lipstick-shaped building at 885 Third Avenue in midtown Manhattan, where Madoff Securities operated out of three floors.

Probe Continues

Prosecutors are probing whether his subordinates helped him swindle investors. A central issue is whether employees knew of the fraud. Madoff’s accountant, David Friehling, was charged with lying to Madoff investors about whether he audited the firm.

No one else at the firm has been charged, and Madoff has not publicly implicated others. His sons, Andrew and Mark Madoff, ran the proprietary trading operations at Madoff’s firm. They turned their father in to authorities on Dec. 10 after he confessed to them, their attorney, Martin Flumenbaum, has said.

There has been a burst of civil litigation related to Madoff. Stephen Harbeck, president of the Securities Investor Protection Corp., which works with Picard and is liquidating Madoff Securities, said in May that it may take longer than 10 years to finish locating the company’s assets and paying back victims.

Investor Lawsuits

Investors have filed lawsuits against funds that invested with Madoff and were wiped out, including Fairfield Greenwich Group and Gabriel Capital LP. SIPC has also filed “clawback” suits against the feeder funds. Fairfield Greenwich is being sued for the $3.5 billion it withdrew before the fraud unraveled.

“The sentence imposed today recognizes the significance of Bernard Madoff’s crimes,” Acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin, whose office led the prosecution, said in a statement. “While today’s sentence is an important milestone, the investigation is continuing.”

The case is U.S. v. Madoff, 09-cr-00213, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aFpRIX.6MHZo