Kabul, May 21 (IANS) The Afghan government should take urgent steps to halt an alarming increase in women and girls imprisoned for “moral crimes,” Human Rights Watch said Tuesday. Statistics from Afghanistan’s interior ministry indicate that the number of women and girls imprisoned for “moral crimes” had risen to about [...]

Thiruvananthapuram, May 21 (IANS) State Labour Minister Shibu Baby John Tuesday said Kerala is almost free of child labour and that his ministry will launch an awareness campaign to educate people about the ills of child labour. “Through a massive awareness campaign, we want to ensure that no one will [...]

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh completes nine years in office Wednesday, the longest tenure of any prime minister outside the Nehru-Gandhi family. But his last year in office as head of the UPA-II government is likely to see him come under pressure over a spate of governance scandals as he [...]

Dhaka, May 21 (IANS) With a hoot and a honk, meandering through Dhaka’s famed traffic snarls, the legion of psychedelic rickshaws that are an essential part of Bangladesh’s capital have a new claim to fame – they ferried protestors for free from parts of the city to the site of [...]

New Delhi, May 21 (IANS) Hardly anyone doubts the power of prayer and almost everyone has a turnaround tale – maybe personal, or of someone else’s – that credits the “miracle” to a prayer. Now while science and spirituality may not always see eye to eye, holistic treatment is now [...]

Gurgaon: Residents of the posh DLF City here today staged a noisy protest against the developer, saying the area was getting very little water despite the scorching heat. People from DLF City Phase III, including women and the elderly, blocked the Moulsari Venue Road for more than two hours. Joginder Singh, [...]

New Delhi: The first-ever expedition of the NCC to Mount Everest created history when its two teams scaled the world’s highest peak May 19 and 20, an official said today. The first team was led by Subedar Jagat Singh, a non-commissioned officer (NCO), and five cadets from the National Cadet Corps [...]

New Delhi, May 20 (IANS) Daily public tours of Rashtrapati Bhavan, which began for the first time from Jan 1 this year at the initiative of President Pranab Mukherjee and have become very popular with tourists, will now cost Rs.25 per person. A Rashtrapati Bhavan press release said nominal registration [...]

Since childhood, being born in a North Indian Punjabi family, I have been fond of curries – spicy chicken curry or tangy vegetable tangy curry accompanied with rice or a crisp tandoori roti oozing with white butter. Then, there are a plethora of exotic curries such as Kerala’s raw mango [...]

Chicago, May 20 (IANS) A woman in her seventies takes the microphone to recite a short poem, which, she warned the men present, was on the hazards of flirting. “Cheda na karo ate jatein raston mein, pale pad gayi to mushkil hogi” (Do not flirt with every girl who crosses [...]