Dozens hurt as police battle protesters in Indian Kashmir

Security forces in Indian Kashmir fired tear gas and pellet guns at hundreds of rock-throwing protesters Friday who took to the streets after prayers for Eid, police and witnesses said. Police and paramilitary forces clashed with the protesters in several locations in the region's main city of Srinagar including at a major prayer ground, injuring at least 30 people. "We had to deal with intense clashes as soon as people finished their Eid prayers.

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Indian school head arrested over mass poisoning

Police yesterday arrested the head of a school in eastern India where 23 children died after eating a free meal laced with a lethal pesticide, an officer said.

The children, aged four to 12, fell ill within minutes of eating the lunch of lentils, potatoes and rice cooked at their primary school in a poverty-stricken village in Bihar state on July 16.

"The principal surrendered... and we have arrested her for questioning," said Sujeet Kumar, police chief of Saran district where the incident occurred.

"We need to talk to her first before framing charges," the official said by telephone.

Police have been searching for the teacher, Meena Devi, who apparently fled shortly after the tragedy in Gandaman village, which also left some 30 children ill in hospital and sparked angry street protests.

Saran district administrator Abhijit Sinha told AFP that the teacher was key to resolving the issue of just how the deadly chemicals ended up in the food.

Indian villagers carry the dead body of a child who died of food poisoning, after consuming a midday meal served in a government primary school, at the school in the state of Bihar in Saran district on July 18, 2013. - AFP

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Court again defers verdict in Delhi gang-rape case

An Indian court trying a teenager over the fatal gang-rape of a student last December on a bus in the capital delayed announcing the first verdict in the case today, lawyers said.

The juvenile court has finished hearing the case of the teenager, who was aged 17 at the time of the deadly assault which shocked India and sparked weeks of sometimes violent protests.

The verdict had been deferred from July 11 to July 25 and was again delayed today by principal magistrate Geetanjli Goel to August 5 because of a legal challenge.

"The reason is because there is a case pending in the Supreme Court," defence lawyer Rajesh Tiwari told reporters outside.

Politician Subramanian Swamy, the head of the Janata Party, has filed a petition arguing that suspects aged over 16 who are accused of serious offences should be tried in adult courts.

The crime, which saw the 23-year-old victim die of internal injuries inflicted during the savage attack on a moving bus, generated widespread anger about endemic sex crime in India.

Indian policemen escort the juvenile accused (C, in pink towel) in the December 2012 gang-rape of a student, into a police truck outside the juvenile court in New Delhi today. An Indian court was scheduled to deliver today the first verdict on one of five suspects on trial over the deadly gang-rape of a student in December which shocked the nation and sparked mass protests.

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British Couple open new hospital in india and get son murdered

British doctors' son, 8, kidnapped and murdered during opening ceremony of hospital they dreamed of running in India

Ishan Rawal, eight, was kidnapped and found strangled in Indore, India
His doctor parents had moved from East Yorkshire to open up a hospital
Ishan disappeared during the opening ceremony of his parents' clinic
An employee of the Rawals has admitted to the kidnap and murder of Ishan



Devastating: Ishan, pictured far right with his parents Drs Arvind and Nikita Rawal and brother Rusheek, was found murdered the day his parents opened their hospital in his new home country



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India monsoon floods leave 138 dead

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Military helicopters dropped emergency supplies Wednesday to thousands of tourists and pilgrims stranded by flash floods that tore through towns and temples in northern India, killing at least 138 people, officials said. Thousands of people have already been evacuated after floods and landslides caused by early monsoon rains wrought devastation through the region in the Himalayan foothills, they said. "As of now we know that over 65,000 people are stranded," Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde told reporters in New Delhi. "We are committed to rescuing everyone now that the rains have stopped," the minister said, adding that the army has evacuated 5,000 people cut off by the downpour. Torrential rains at least three times as heavy as usual have hit the state of Uttarakhand, often called the "Land of the Gods," where Hindu shrines and temples built high in the mountains attract many pilgrims. 

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