Dubai pardons Norwegian woman who alleged rape
Dubai: A 24-year-old Norwegian woman, sentenced to prison after reporting that she was raped in Dubai, on Monday said she had been given a pardon by the emirate’s ruler. Qatar-based interior designer Marte Deborah Dalelv was on a business trip to Dubai in March when she alleged she was raped by a colleague at the hotel where she was staying. She reported the attack to police, but found herself detained and charged with having unlawful sex, making a false statement and illegal consumption of alcohol. Her passport was confiscated and her money seized by police. A court last week sentenced Dalelv to 16 months in prison. Her alleged attacker received a 13-month sentence for extra-marital sex and alcohol consumption.
Four killed in incidents of violence in Pak
Karachi: At least four people, including two members of the minority Shia community, were killed and several others injured in two incidents of violence in the troubled Balochistan province of southwest Pakistan on Monday. Two Hazara Shia men were killed and two passers-by injured in an attack by unidentified gunmen on the busy Iqbal Avenue in the provincial capital of Quetta. Two persons were killed and eight others injured in a bomb attack on a mosque close to a customs office in Chaman town near the border with Afghanistan.
Mandela shows ‘sustained improvement’
Johannesburg: Former South African President Nelson Mandela is showing “sustained improvement”, the presidency said on Monday, six weeks after the anti-apartheid hero was hospitalised with a life-threatening lung infection. “Former President Mandela is still in a critical condition in hospital but shows sustained improvement,” President Jacob Zuma said in a statement. Mandela, who turned 95 on July 18, was admitted to a Pretoria hospital on June 8. He has been hospitalised four times since December. Mandela, South Africa’s first black President, is regarded the founding father of the country’s multi-racial democracy.
‘Radioactive water leaked into sea at Fukushima’
Tokyo: The operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant on Monday admitted for the first time that radioactive groundwater has leaked out to sea, fuelling fears of ocean contamination. The admission came the day after Japanese voters went to the polls in an election for the upper house, handing the largely pro-nuclear party of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a handsome majority. Earlier this month Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) said groundwater samples taken at the battered plant showed levels of possibly cancer-causing caesium-134 had shot up more than 110 times in a few days.
Pak court adjourns Mumbai attacks case till Aug 31
Islamabad: A Pakistani court hearing the case of seven men, including leT commander Zakiur Rehman lakhvi, charged with involvement in the Mumbai attacks has adjourned the hearing for six weeks, a defence lawyer said on Monday. The anti-terrorism court in Islamabad recorded no progress during the last hearing on Saturday as the judge, Kausar Abbas Zaidi, was on leave. The next hearing was fixed for August 31. lawyer Riaz Akram Cheema, part of the team defending lakhvi and the other accused, said this was the first time that the trial of the accused has been deferred for six weeks.
Kuwait court acquits 3 ex-MPs of insulting emir
Kuwait City: Kuwait’s appeals court on Monday overturned a three-year jail term on three former opposition MPs and acquitted them from the charge of insulting the emir, a rights activist said. In February, a lower court handed the jail terms against Falah Al-Sawwagh, Bader Al-Dahum and Khaled Al-Tahus for making remarks at a public rally in October 2012 that were deemed offensive to Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah. "The appeals court acquitted the three former lawmakers," Mohammad al-Humaidi, director of the Kuwait Society for Human Rights wrote.