Jailed Afghan rape victim wins pardon after agreeing to marry attacker

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has pardoned a jailed rape victim, but only after she agreed to marry the man she says raped her.

The 19-year-old woman, whose name is Gulnaz, was one of the subjects of a documentary recently produced by the European Union, highlighting the phenomenon of rape victims being imprisoned for the "moral crime" of having sex outside marriage, even against their will.

Karzai's office said in a statement Thursday evening that the president had accepted a recommendation from a special judicial committee that the woman be pardoned and freed - "taking into consideration the consent of both sides for a conditional wedlock."

Gulnaz became pregnant as a result of the rape and gave birth in prison.

Hundreds of Afghan women are serving jail sentences in similar circumstances. But the documentary coverage of Gulnaz's case sparked a petition drive seeking her freedom, and as a result, judicial authorities reexamined her case.

The European Union said in a statement that it welcomed her release.

Reflecting the sensitivity of the issue, however, the EU had decided earlier not to release the documentary, citing concerns over danger to the women, even though those who were profiled had given the filmmakers permission to use their names.

The film was shown to news organizations and human rights groups, however.

The pardon came ahead of an international summit on Afghanistan to be held in Bonn, Germany, beginning this weekend. Women's activists are using the gathering as a forum for speaking out about fears of renewed repression in the country after the Western combat mission ends in the next two years.

During Taliban times, women were forbidden to leave their homes unescorted. Virtually none attended school or held jobs during the Islamic movement's five-year rule, which ended with the U.S.-led invasion of 2001.

Women's groups, however, say the gains of the last decade are threatened by the government's attempts to negotiate a peace settlement with the Taliban and bring the group into the political process.

Senior Addl AG Bhinder resigns

Chandigarh, December 2
Punjab’s Senior Additional Advocate-General Sukhdeep Singh Bhinder has resigned. Sources said Bhinder had submitted his resignation to the Advocate-General to be forwarded to the Home Department.

Bhinder, who hails from Bathinda, was appointed Additional Advocate-General by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal immediately after the formation of the SAD-BJP government in 2007. He had earlier resigned in 2009 to campaign for Harsimrat Kaur Badal for the Lok Sabha elections and was re-appointed as Senior Additional Advocate-General.

Bhinder, who remained in the Ludhiana jail with Badal in the early 1980s, is considered close to Manpreet Singh Badal, Sanjha Morcha chief.

Confirming the resignation, Bhinder said he had quit due to personal reasons.

Canada introduces new 'super visa' program to criticism for its processing time

A program that allows Canadians to apply for so-called super visas launches Thursday, but the NDP immigration critic is worried that the new 10-year visa for parents and grandparents may be hard to obtain.

The new visa is part of the Conservative government's plan to battle an enormous backlog of about 165,000 parents and grandparents who are trying to join family in Canada.

The so-called super visa will be good for 10 years, but will have to be renewed every two years.

People applying to sponsor a parent or grandparent will have to show they can support their visiting relatives. To be accepted, the visitors will be required to have private health insurance coverage during their stay in Canada.

NDP immigration critic Don Davies likes the new super visa for parents and grandparents, but he wants assurances that they will be easy to get, unlike a five-year visitor's visa that has been available for years.

"I have cases in my office in Vancouver where someone's sponsoring their parents, say from New Delhi, and their application is in the lineup for 10 years," Davies said.

"So they apply for a visitor visa to come and they're turned down because they have a permanent resident application in the queue and the officials think that they won't leave."

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says that won't be a problem — people who have applied for permanent residency will definitely be eligible for the visa.

"The department informs me that they're confident that the approval rate for these parent super visas will actually be very high," Kenney said last week at an appearance before a parliamentary committee.

Kenney said the new health insurance requirement may make it easier for visa officers to say "yes."

"One of the reasons we are requiring that people demonstrate they have health insurance when they come into Canada, is to add greater certainty for our visa officers that admitting people is not going to end up representing a net cost to Canadian taxpayers," he told the committee last week.

Debbie Douglas, the executive director of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, said that overall, the new program is a "really good way forward" in terms of serving parents and grandparents.

She also said the new program would give the government a chance to create a more transparent system.

"It also gives us a chance to ensure that our visa posts are being consistent and fair and transparent in terms of who it is that they're granting visas to," Douglas said.

But she noted that there are still concerns about how visas will be allocated, as well as the health insurance requirement.

"We really do have to pay attention to the fact that the requirement for private health insurance is not disproportionately affecting who we let into Canada," Douglas said.

The new super visa program was announced in early November as part of a broader plan to try and clear the backlog.

VHP opposes proposed anti-violence Bill

Dehradun, November 30
General secretary (organisation) of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) Dinesh said today that the proposed Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence Bill-2011 was anti-Hindu and aimed at appeasing the minority communities.

He said: “The Bill holds Hindus solely responsible for riots in the country.”

Dinesh further said the VHP would soon launch an awareness campaign across the country to make the public aware of the disastrous consequences of the Bill.

He further said: “The proposed Bill also gives right to the Centre to dismiss any state government without assigning any reason in the name of internal peace, which is in itself autocratic.”

Dinesh said the VHP would oppose the proposed Bill as those behind the preparation of its draft were biased.

Youth booked for abusing police on Facebook

Chandigarh, November 30
The police has booked a resident of Sector 19, Panchkula, for allegedly abusing the police on its Facebook page.

A case under Sections 66-A, 67 and 67-A of the Information Technology Act 2000 has been registered against the accused, Nitin Jindal, at the Industrial Area police station. The police said the accused was posting abusive comments on the Facebook page of the Chandigarh Traffic Police.

Jindal had been abusing the Chandigarh Police for the past two months on its Facebook account.

The police said Jindal had even created multiple accounts on Facebook.

The traffic police had created the page to obtain feedback from the general public on traffic violations.

No SIM sale sans identity proof: DCP

Ambala, November 30
The Ambala police has decided to take action against shopkeepers selling mobile phone SIM cards without getting valid identity proofs from customers. Shashank Anand, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), yesterday passed orders under Section 144 of the CrPC.

It was now mandatory for all retailers and dealers in the district engaged in the sale of mobile phone connections and SIM cards to submit daily sales reports with complete details to the nearest police station.

Anand further said it had been found that some retailers had sold mobile phone connections without ascertaining valid identities of subscribers, which posed serious danger to the security of the nation.

Any person found guilty of violation of the orders would be liable to be punished under Section 188 of the IPC and FIRs would be registered against such shopkeepers.

Hookah bars banned in Panchkula district

Panchkula, November 30
Hookah bars have been banned in Panchkula. Recently a team from the office of the state drug controller lifted samples of tobacco molasses containing nicotine from these bars and issued notices under Section 15-B of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. Nicotine is a prohibited drug under the Act.

Invoking Section 144 of the CrPC, Deputy Commissioner of Police Maneesh Chaudhary said hookah bars were serving tobacco molasses containing nicotine, which was injurious to health, especially of college students and the youth.

Taking the health hazards of tobacco and nicotine into account, the operation of hookah bars was prohibited in the entire district with immediate effect.

The orders have been sent to Assistant Commissioners of Police, police stations and health authorities for strict compliance. All subdivisional magistrates, tehsildars, block development and panchayat officers, the Haryana Roadways general manager and other officers of the district administration have been asked to enforce these orders in their respective areas. During the last couple of weeks, offcials of the state drug controller department took samples of tobacco molasses being served in the bars to clients.

The report of chemical analysis of these samples confirmed that these tobacco molasses contained nicotine. Following this, four of the hookah bars had been directed to shut their business. No record of sale and purchase were maintained.