A family court here has “nullified” the triple talaq given by a man to his wife on the grounds that due procedure, as prescribed in Muslim religious texts, was not followed in the matter.

Additional principal judge of the family court, Omprakash Sharma on March 9 observed that the procedure adopted by Tousif Sheikh to divorce his wife was “illegal” and “ineffective” and nullified the same.

Arshi Khan got married to Tousif from Dewas on January 19, 2013 and after some time he (Tousif) started demanding money from her. When his demands were not fulfilled, he started troubling her, the victim's lawyer Arvind Gaud said.

After some time the woman left her husband's place and returned to her parents' home. She later filed a case under the Anti-Dowry Act against Tousif, said Gaud.

That case is still pending in the court, he said.

Meanwhile, on October 9, 2014, Tousif verbally divorced Arshi by stating talaq in Ujjain court premises, where they had come in connection with some other case.

Later, he informed her through a notice that he had divorced her by stating talaq thrice while coming out of the court premises on that date.

Arshi challenged divorce on the grounds that due procedure as prescribed in the Muslim religious text was not followed in the matter, Gaud said.

The court in its order found discrepancies in it and said that Tousif had failed to mention in his reply that through which method 'Talaq Ahsan or Talaq Hasan' he had divorced his wife.

The judge said that he failed to give credible evidence of the presence of Arshi in the court premises as mentioned by him when he had pronounced talaq thrice, while as per the religious law, the presence of the woman in question is mandatory.

The court also observed that no steps were taken by the parties concerned for any mediation on the issue as per religious law.

The court took into account various decisions given by other courts on the issue before declaring the talaq as “illegal”, “ineffective” and “nullified” it.

Tousif raised the issue of jurisdiction of the family court on the matter but the judge turned down his plea.

A statement issued by Gaud and his assistant Hafiz Qureshi said they highlighted provisions mentioned in various Muslim religious texts on the issue to convince the court that due procedures were not followed in the matter.

US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis arrived on Sunday for a short visit to Djibouti, a strategically important country on the Horn of Africa which hosts the United States' only permanent military base on the African continent.

Camp Lemonnier, home to some 4,000 US soldiers and contractors, is vital to US military operations in Somalia against militant groups like Al-Shabaab, and also provides support for US operations in Yemen, where special forces regularly carry out drone strikes against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

China is also in the process of establishing its first overseas military base in the small port country just a few miles from the US camp, which has raised concern in Washington.

Mattis is scheduled to meet with Djibouti's president, Ismael Omar Guelleh, during his trip as well as with General Thomas Waldhauser, commander of US troops in Africa.

“For (the defence department) Camp Lemonnier and Chabelley are critical in terms of logistics. They support multiple US combat command”, a senior defence official said, referring to an airfield close to the camp, from which the US military operates drones.

Another senior defence official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, also played down any concerns about China's base construction.

“At this point I don't see why we should not be able to comfortably coexist with the Chinese presence, the way we do with the Japanese, the French…” the official told reporters last week.

However, Waldhauser assured the US Senate's armed forces committee in March that he had spoken to Guelleh “and expressed our concerns about some of the things that are important to us about what the Chinese may or may not do”.
With a population of 875,000 people, Djibouti lies on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a gateway to the Suez Canal, one of the world's busiest shipping routes.

The former French colony has launched major infrastructure projects aimed at turning it into a regional hub for trade and services, using money largely borrowed from China.

China has said it wants the base to support its UN peacekeepers in Africa, allow it to evacuate its nationals in a crisis, and to support its anti-piracy activities off Somalia.

Leading NGO Amnesty International is lobbying with the US lawmakers to advocate for “protection of human rights defenders” in India among other countries, as also to seek “political pressure” on the American companies responsible for the Bhopal gas tragedy.

It also wants the top leaders of the US and India to demonstrate “the importance of making the respect and protection of human rights an integral part of a just society”.

In its latest quarterly lobbying disclosure report filed with the US Senate last week, Amnesty International has listed “protection of human rights defenders” in India and several other countries among the “specific lobbying issues” for the quarter ended March 31.

There are several other issues listed in the report, including the issues related to the Trump administration, on which it has lobbied with the Senate as well as various government departments in the US during this period.

While the lobbying report did not further explain the India-related lobbying issues, the global rights group told PTI, in reply to specific queries, that it raises human rights issues around the world at various levels of government to supplement its “research, campaigning and mobilisation to highlight various human rights issues and seek accountability”.

An analysis of previously disclosure reports filed by Amnesty shows that Amnesty has been lobbying on India-related issues in the past also, while in the year 2014 ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US, one of the “specific issues” included that visit itself.

Under the US laws, all entities engaging in lobbying activities with the lawmakers and the government departments need to file a 'lobbying disclosure report' on a quarterly basis, listing out the lobby issues, the departments and offices approached and the costs involved.

Incidentally, Modi is expected to visit the US later this year.

Asked about the points of advocacy regarding this, Amnesty International India's Executive Director Aakar Patel said the group has submitted “briefings to both governments on human rights concerns in each other's countries” ahead of the bilateral meetings between the Indian prime minister and the US president since 2014.

“We intend to submit similar briefings in 2017 as well. Amnesty International believes that the leaders of the US and India — the oldest and largest democracies in the world — have a great responsibility to demonstrate the importance of making the respect and protection of human rights an integral part of a just society,” Patel said.

With regard to India-related advocacy issues undertaken in the US, Amnesty said the primary focus has been the impunity for American companies for the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster.

“We have engaged the US government, including US Senate Committees, since 2014, consistently calling for the US government to apply political pressure to ensure that the US- based Dow Chemical Company and Union Carbide Corporation comply with Indian court orders, pay adequate compensation to the survivors and cover the costs of the clean-up of the Bhopal site.

“We have worked with Indian authorities and US authorities to try to ensure that Dow Chemicals responds to the many official summons of the Bhopal court hearing this issue,” Patel said.

The rights group further said it also works with individual governments and the UN (United Nations) mechanisms to promote the work of human rights defenders at risk.

“As HRDs come under sustained pressure and attacks across the world, Amnesty International considers their safety to be among the most important human rights issues at hand presently.

Some of the HRDs whose work we have highlighted in the US and elsewhere include Irom Sharmila and Santosh Yadav,” Patel said.

Explaining the advocacy issues ahead of Modi's visit to the US in 2014, he said Amnesty had sent to the Prime Minister's Office at that time an “advocacy brief”.

This “brief” constrained information on on US-related human rights issues including justice for the 1984 Bhopal disaster, impunity for US military forces in Afghanistan, attacks on civil liberties in Ferguson, unlawful killings in Pakistan through drone attacks, and NSA surveillance programmes.

“We also sent (the then) President Obama a briefing on human rights issues in India, including the Bhopal gas disaster, corporate accountability for US companies investing in India, violence against women, and justice for marginalised communities,” he added.

Amnesty further said it also made joint calls to the Indian prime minister and the US president in 2015 during the Obama's state visit to India to ask them to “work together on delivering justice on Bhopal”.

“In 2016, ahead of PM Modi's visit to the US, we submitted a briefing about the Bhopal issue, pointing out how it was deeply troubling that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) had in September 2015 questioned a legitimate request from a Bhopal court summoning Dow to explain why UCC had not appeared bef

Uttar Pradesh Navnirman Sena chief Amit Jani has been arrested in connection with the anti- Kashmiri hoardings that were put up in the city.

Partapur police station in-charge Dinesh Sharma said Jani was arrested from the Delhi-Doon highway near Partapur bypass when he was on his way to Dehradun from the capital last night.

Banners calling for boycott of Kashmiris and asking them to leave Uttar Pradesh had been put up by the organisation on NH-58 outside the colleges where students from the Valley study.

The outfit had said it was only the first step and it would launch a “halla bol” campaign from April 30 to “banish” the Kashmiris who do not leave the state on their own.

A case had been lodged against Jani following which he had gone missing.

On April 22, through his advocate, the organisation's chief submitted a surrender application before the special CJM court.

Upon being questioned, he told police that he had got the hoardings put up because soldiers were being martyred in Kashmir.

Jani had first shot into the limelight in 2012 when he damaged a statue of former chief minister Mayawati. Last year, he had been arrested for threatening to kill JNU Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma has filed an FIR over a fake Twitter account created in his name, a police official said here on Sunday.

Sangma lodged a formal complaint in the Sadar police station after he was informed of the fake account, Davies Marak, district police chief of East Khasi Hills, told IANS.

The message posted from the fake Twitter account stated: "If I win elections, I will legalise weed (marijuana) in Shillong…"

"We have written to Twitter seeking details about the user who created the account," Marak said. 

The police have already registered a case under various sections of the Information Technology Act and the Indian Penal Code, he added. 

Former One Direction star Harry Styles says he found shooting Dunkirk physically tough.

The 23-year-old singer makes his acting debut in director Christopher Nolan's upcoming wartime saga and loved working on the ambitious film, reported RollingStone.

“The movie is so ambitious. Some of the stuff they're doing in this movie is insane. And it was hard, man, physically really tough, but I love acting.

“I love playing someone else. I'd sleep really well at night, then get up and continue drowning,” Styles says.

Hashim Amla, who scored his maiden IPL century in his last match, continued consistent batting display on Monday as he scored 65 runs to take Kings XI Punjab to 188/7 in their innings against Gujarat Lions at the SCA Stadium in Rajkot.

Amla hit two sixes and nine boundaries in his 40-ball knock to excite the Rajkot spectators.

After losing the toss, Punjab struggled to start well as opener Manan Vohra lost his wicket cheaply for two runs.

However, Shaun Marsh (30) and Amla stabilised Punjab after early blow as the pair put 70-run stand for the second-wicket partnership.

Captain Glenn Maxwell and Axar Patel contributed 31 and 34 runs respectively to help KXIP heap a competitive total.

Gujarat pacer Andrew Tye claimed two wickets in the shape of Marsh and Marcus Stoinis (7).

Shubham Agarwal, Nathu Singh and Dwane Smith supported Tye in the pace attack after taking the scalp of Amla, Vohra and Patel respectively.

Tweaker Ravindra Jadeja trapped skipper Maxwell before wicket to join the party.

Filmmaker Ang Lee is in negotiations to direct clone assassin movie Gemini Man.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the story of the high-concept action thriller centers on an ageing assassin who tried to get out of the business but finds himself in the ultimate battle: fighting his own clone who is 25 years younger than him and at the peak of his abilities.

The project was first set up at Disney in 1997 as a pitch by Darren Lemke, with Don Murphy producing and Tony Scott directing. The makers wanted to use computer effects to have the same actor play both parts but the technology to have one actor realistically carry that off for an entire movie did not exist.

Curtis Hanson was also attached to direct at one point while Mel Gibson was supposed to star at another.

Skydance picked up the dormant project in October 2016 and Jerry Bruckheimer is now producing it.

A team of engineers has developed a process by which it is now possible to 3D print complex forms of glass.

The scientists at the Germany-based Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) mixed nanoparticles of high-purity quartz glass and a small quantity of liquid polymer and allow this mixture to be cured by light at specific points by means of stereolithography.

The material, which has remained liquid, is washed out in a solvent bath, leaving only the desired cured structure. The polymer still mixed in this glass structure is subsequently removed by heating.

"The shape initially resembles that of a pound cake; it is still unstable, and therefore the glass is sintered in a final step, that is, heated so that the glass particles are fused," said Bastian E. Rapp from KIT Institute of Microstructure Technology.

The scientists presented the method in the journal Nature.

"We present a new method, an innovation in materials processing, in which the material of the piece manufactured is high-purity quartz glass with the respective chemical and physical properties," added Rapp.

The glass structures made by the KIT scientists show resolutions in the range of a few micrometers — one micrometer corresponding to one thousandth of a millimeter.

3D-formed glass can be used in data technology.
 

Universities and higher education institutions across the country may soon implement a “common Hindi teaching scheme” with recommendations of a parliamentary panel in this regard getting the president's nod.

Also, universities without Hindi department may be asked to establish one. All educational institutions shall also be asked to fix a minimum level of Hindi education.

Besides, students in varsities and institutions in non- Hindi states, where they are not given the option of appearing in exams or interviews in Hindi, must be allowed the option of writing answers in their mother language.

The move may invite criticism and opposition from several state universities with various groups of students already petitioning President Pranab Mukherjee against “forceful Hindi imposition”.

“To give autonomy in the field of higher studies some laws have been framed by the Central government and state governments under which in some universities and higher educational institutions, English is the only medium of instruction,” the presidential order said.

A uniform policy should be followed in all parts of the country in this regard, it added.

“The HRD Ministry should work out an action plan for implementing Hindi teaching scheme in all universities/higher educational institutes and initiate the process of implementing a common law and table it before both the Houses of Parliament,” it added.

The HRD ministry has also been asked to take note of such universities and higher educational institutes where there are no Hindi departments.

“It should encourage them to establish Hindi Departments so that they can extend help in imparting education through Hindi medium,” the order said, adding, minimum level of Hindi education must also be fixed in all educational institutions.

The panel has also noted that the financial aid given to the voluntary Hindi institutes is only for “name sake” and the HRD ministry should take effective steps to increase this grant.

Southern California-based social media company Snap Inc., which highly publicised IPO in March with value at $24 billion, faced backfire as CEO Evan Spiegel was accused of claiming that Snapchat was an app "only for rich people".

Snapchat, which was labeled by business analysts as the strongest rival to Facebook, had to start damage control urgently, saying Spiegel never made such remarks and "these words were written by a disgruntled former employee", Xinhua n ews agency reported on Sunday.

The quote, which Snapchat called "ridiculous", came from a recently unredacted court complaint by Anthony Pompliano, who was hired away by Snapchat from Facebook then served as the company's growth lead for a few weeks in 2015.

Pompliano's lawsuit filed in redacted form in Los Angeles Superior Court in January. Snap Inc. dropped its efforts to keep the unredacted complaint under seal and released it in a public filing last week.

In the complaint, Pompliano recounted an exchange he said he had with Spiegel in a September 2015 meeting about the app's international growth plans. He said he presented methods to address the issue, but Spiegel abruptly cut him off.

"This app is only for rich people," Spiegel said, according to Pompliano. "I don't want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain."

These words sparked outrages from all around world, especially in India. 

Hundreds of thousands users voiced their disapproval via social-media posts and one-star reviews in Google and Apple's app stores.

"Mr. CEO of Snapchat, we may be poor but we have bigger hearts than you," a user named K.P. Naik said in a recent one-star review in Play store.

Another tweet posted by Shreyas Singh on April 15 said: "I am very poor so uninstalled #snapchat but thanks for entertaining for this many days. @evanspiegel @Snapchat don't mess with India."

"This is ridiculous," as statement released by Snap argued, saying those words were written by "a disgruntled former employee".

"We are grateful for our Snapchat community in India and around the world," the statement said.

However, Snapchat would face huge challenge in this lawsuit more than PR works as Pompliano also claimed that he learned the company had exaggerated its user data and that top executives were "completely misinformed" about key metrics.

According to report of Variety, in the lawsuit, Pompliano said that on his second day of the job he met with two data analysts, who confided to him that Snapchat had "an institutional aversion to looking at user data", and its efforts in that area were marked by "utter incompetence."

Pompliano said he found Snapchat's daily active users (DAUs) was much less than the company's boasted number, 100 million DAUs at the time, moreover, the user base increased only one to four per cent per quarter, far less than the double-digit month-over-month growth the company was claiming.

Pompliano also claimed that he was fired because Spiegel determined that he "presented a risk to Snapchat's IPO".

Rapper Kendrick Lamar, who has dropped his third album 'Damn' recently, is planning to release more music.

The chart-topping rap star has teased his fans that he will be releasing the music anytime soon, reported Contactmusic.

“I got more music. Ya hear what I'm saying,” Lamar said.

Damn, which features 14 songs including Loyalty with Rihanna and XXX with U2, released last week and has already received rave reviews.

It is now mandatory for the metro rail companies to procure minimum 75 per cent of train cars and 25 per cent of critical equipment from within the country, a norm made compulsory under the 'Make in India' campaign.

The Urban Development Ministry has incorporated these mandatory conditions in the metro companies' tender documents which have been circulated to them, making the new norms effective immediately.

At present, it is not mandatory for the companies to procure metro train cars manufactured in India.

Minimum 75 per cent of the tendered quantity of metro cars should be manufactured indigenously for which the suppliers may either establish independent manufacturing facility in India or partner with Indian manufacturers, provided the procurement is more than 100 cars, as per the new tender document.

The requirement of metro cars at the state level will be clubbed to enable applicability of local procurement norms.

As many as 1,912 metro coaches are operational in the country at present and there is an immediate requirement of 1,420 cars.

Over the next three years, more than 1,600 metro cars would be required and each coach is estimated to cost about Rs 10 crore.

The norms also make it mandatory for the metro companies to purchase 25 per cent of the “critical equipment and sub- systems” from within the country.

For this, a list of critical equipment and sub-systems for procurement from indigenous manufacturing will be included in the tender document.

It has also been made mandatory for the companies with large size fleet to undertake in-house maintenance.

Meanwhile, the ministry has also standardised norms for rolling stock (coaches) and signaling equipment norms, covering 90 per cent of the imports.

This will incentivise setting up of manufacturing facilities in the country due to increase in orders, an official release said.

To promote indigenous manufacturing, the Ministry has made it mandatory to procure nine types of signaling equipment manufactured in the country, it added.

The ministry will also soon evolve common eligibility criteria for the suppliers of rolling stock and other equipment doing away with the present variations across different metro companies.

In a discussion with the managing directors of metro companies on April 21, Urban Development Secretary Rajiv Gauba noted that such variations adversely impact competition.

He said that a broad uniform criteria in respect of net worth, financial and technical capacities and experience of supply of rolling stock and other equipment should be evolved in two weeks.

At present, metros are operational in seven cities – Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Jaipur, Gurgaon, Bengaluru and Chennai – with a total route length of 326 kms.

Metro projects with a total route length of 546 kms are under construction in 11 cities and projects with a total route length of 903 kms in 13 cities are under consideration.

Bombardier Corporation, which supplies coaches to the Delhi Metro, has welcomed the government's initiative on local procurement.

“We welcome the decision of the government for metro rail operators on indigenous and local content,” Bombardier Transportation, Chief Country Representative (India) Harsh Dhingra said.

He said the company already maintains the norm of 75 per cent of local procurement of metro cars for the DMRC.

Seven Yemeni soldiers were killed and 15 others wounded on Sunday when a shipment of landmines accidentally exploded in the southern port city of Aden, emergency and health officials said.

The blast occurred as a lorry was unloading the mines in the Jabal Hadid military camp in the centre of Aden, according to the officials.

A health worker at a local hospital confirmed the death toll.

Aden serves as Yemen's temporary capital since government forces backed by the Saudi-led Arab coalition pushed the rebels out of the port city along with four other southern provinces in the summer of 2015.

The capital Sanaa remains under the control of Huthi rebels since they overran it in September 2014.

Jihadists from Al-Qaeda and the rival Islamic State group have exploited the vacuum caused by the conflict between the government and the rebels to strengthen their control in southern and eastern Yemen.

Days after an error led to false iCloud cancellation emails sent to subscribers, Apple has followed up with another note apologising for the bug and reassuring them that their plan remains in good standing.

On Wednesday, a number of iCloud users received messages saying their subscription was discontinued. The bug appeared to mostly affect 50GB tier subscribers, a report on Appleinsider website said.

On Saturday, Apple followed up with the same users to issue an apology.

"You recently received an email incorrectly stating that your iCloud storage plan has been discontinued. Your 50GB iCloud storage plan is not affected and will continue to renew automatically," the tech titan was quoted as saying.

"We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. If you have any questions, please contact us," the note added.

While some users were mistakenly told their iCloud plan was cancelled, others found errors if they tried to change their plan or manage their iCloud data. 

Actress Freida Pinto says that speaking her mind can get her “into trouble” but she will still not shy away from sharing her views.

“I'm not afraid to speak my mind, and that can get me into trouble. For me (social and political activism) is the only thing that matters,” Pinto says.

The 32-year-old, who stars in the Showtime miniseries “Guerrilla”, says she jumped at the opportunity to play the role of Jas, reported People magazine.

“As a female actor it is a lot harder to come across roles that explore every aspect of the character, not just her beauty. But Jas and I are similar in our passion,” she says.

Pinto considers herself “really blessed” to have a career in Hollywood but is also aware of the fickleness of it all and how fleeting stardom can be. And despite any ups and downs she has had through her career, the actress says she would not go back and do anything differently.

“I'm just glad that I did everything I had to do in my 20s and got everything out of my system between 18 and 25. Now I know what I dont want. I wouldn't change anything. If you don't make mistakes, you never learn,” she says.

Heatwaves in the country are turning out to be particularly deadly with over 4,620 recorded deaths caused by the severe weather condition in the last four years.

Of that figure, a whopping 4,246 people died in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana alone.

According to the Ministry of Earth Sciences, in 2016, nearly 1,600 people died due to erratic weather conditions, of which 557 casualties were to severe heatwave.

2015 witnessed 2,081 deaths due to severe heatwave while 549 people died in 2014.

In 2013, the severe heatwave conditions killed 1,443 people, of which the unified Andhra Pradesh state registered 1,393 casualties.

The figures, however, are larger across the country as causes other than the direct reasons like heat stroke and dehydration are seldom accounted for, said Dileep Mavlankar, Director of Gandhinagar-based Indian Institute of Public Health that has been working with the Ahemdabad Municipal Corporation on a heatwave action plan.

“For instance, dehydration also leads to respiratory and renal failure, especially for those who are prone to heart and kidney ailments. Infants and the elderly top the list in casualties,” he said.

“In 2010, Ahemdabad recorded 65 deaths due to heatwave, but in the same period, there were 800 more deaths,” Malvalankar said.

Since last year IMD has started issuing heatwave alerts. A heat wave is declared when the temperature crosses 45 degrees Celsius.

If the temperature rises 4 to 5 degrees above normal, then the condition is termed as a 'heatwave'. If the variance is over 6 degrees above normal, then it is classified as a 'severe heatwave'.

With global temperatures on the rise, the instances of heat wave are increasing. MoES figures reveal that there were 74 days of severe heatwave on an average between 1961 and 1970. The figure declined to 34 between 1971-1980.

Between 1981-1990 and 1991-2000, 45 and 48 severe heatwave days were recorded respectively.

However, there was a sharp increase in figures in 2001- 2010 with the number of severe heatwave days peaking to 98.

The last decade is one of the warmest ever recorded.

With every year in the current decade registering warmer climates, it may be fast racing towards becoming the warmest 10-year period. The IMD has declared 2016 as the warmest year ever recorded since 1901.

Global warming is the obvious reason behind the severe heatwave, said Laxman Singh Rathore, former Director General of the India Meteorological Department, but local factors also aggravate the situation.

For instance, the case of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha that have seen maximum deaths due to heatwave.

“In summer season, there is an upper air anti-cyclone over Rajasthan and Gujarat. It sucks hot dry desert air which gets transported to Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha.

“Persistent advection of this hot dry air gives rise to heatwave conditions over these regions. Once this anti-cyclone moves to the Arabian sea, heatwave conditions subside,” said AK Jaswal, a former scientist with the IMD who has published a research paper on this topic.

The Centre as well as the states this year have come up with an action plan to minimise deaths related to heat waves.
In a seminar last month, attended by representatives of several states and NGOs, stakeholders resolved to restrict the death figures to double digits.

“Last year, states like Maharashtra, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana came up with a strategy to minimise deaths. This year, we have added states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Punjab, Delhi and Haryana and given them several Dos and Don'ts,” said M Rajeevan, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences.

The Haryana government has sent out an advisory through newspapers on how to take care onself during a heatwave.
Rajeevan said, the states have been told to follow the Ahmedabad pattern to reduce heatwave-related deaths.

The Ahmedabad pattern comprises measures like sending out warnings to hospitals about heatwaves and what kind of patients they can expect.

“This will help hospitals to stay alert and stock medicines accordingly. This will also help them minimise casualties,” Rajeevan said.