Death sentence for bus driver who killed 9

Police take Santosh Mane (second left) driver of the bus which went on a rampage, to court, Pune, India, Jan. 25, 2012. Source: AP

A ROGUE Indian bus driver who killed nine people in a rampage through the crowded streets of the western city of Pune last year was sentenced to death overnight, a report said.

Thirty-year-old Santosh Mane took the bus from a depot last January and then sped through the city, crashing into motorists, pedestrians and foodstalls during a terrifying half-hour wrecking spree in the morning rush-hour.

During the trial, the driver's lawyer and family pleaded that he was "mentally unstable", but the judge dismissed their arguments and found the crime justified the death penalty.

"The accused has committed the murder of nine persons by moving the bus dangerously with the intention and knowledge that the act was so eminently dangerous that it will cause death or bodily harm," the Press Trust of India agency quoted the judge as saying.

Mane, a licensed driver of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation, was convicted last week of murder, attempted murder and damage to property by the court in Pune.

The death penalty - handed down in India for the "rarest of rare" crimes - will have to be ratified by a higher court and defence counsel Dhananjay Mane said his client would appeal the sentence.

The driver ultimately has the option to appeal to the president for clemency.

Mane was caught when members of the public wrestled him from the controls after he rammed into another bus. Some 40 vehicles were left mangled, with cars damaged and autorickshaws overturned.

The Press Trust of India said that 37 people were injured by Mane, who had a history of reckless driving and had reportedly seen his demand for shorter working hours refused by his bosses the night before the rampage.

India rarely carries out executions but has recently put to death two men convicted for terror offences. There are more than 400 people on death row and the courts add to that every year.

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Topless protesters confront Putin

A topless demonstrator with a message on her back walks towards Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel during their visit to the Hanover industrial fair. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

TOPLESS protesters disrupted Russian President Vladimir Putin's tour of an industrial fair in Germany yesterday as he and Chancellor Angela Merkel clashed over Moscow's recent NGO crackdown.

Mr Putin and Ms Merkel were taking in a presentation of a new car model at the Volkswagen stand by the company's chief executive, Martin Winterkorn, when the four bare-breasted women started chanting "f*** dictator".

At least one of the women had the same words painted in black ink across her torso and "Go f*** yourself, Putin" in Russian on her back. The demonstrators were eventually overpowered by security personnel.

Ms Merkel and Mr Putin were attending the Hanover Messe in northern Germany where Russia is this year's guest country.

At a press conference later the two leaders, whose personal rapport is notoriously strained, crossed swords over recent Russian probes of a number of international NGOs including German think tanks.

"I noted that we support a vibrant civil society," Ms Merkel told reporters. "We spoke about the raids at the political foundations and I said that we are afraid that as a result the NGOs cannot thrive in the way we would like."

Mr Putin insisted the searches had been justified as Russia had a right to monitor the activities of foreign groups on its soil, and asked whether the organisations funding could not be put to better use.

"That money - a billion dollars is not small change - could have been sent to help problem countries, including Cyprus," he said.

"And then there would have been no need to fleece unfortunate depositors," he said, in a reference to a German-orchestrated bailout of the eurozone member with stipulations that saw major account-holders including Russian citizens lose a chunk of their assets.

He brushed off the topless protest, saying with a wolfish grin that he had "liked it" but remarked: "But it's better not to upset the order. If someone wants to have a discussion on some political issues then it's better to do it while you are dressed, and not take your clothes off."

He added: "You should take your clothes off in other places like nude beaches."

Last Thursday bare-breasted activists from the Ukrainian women's power group Femen staged rallies in front of mosques and Tunisian embassies across Europe against what they called Islamist attacks on Arab women's rights.

It was not clear whether the women in Hanover were Femen members.

The leaders also covered North Korea with Putin welcoming a US decision to delay the test of an international ballistic missile to avoid stoking tensions with North Korea.

"We should thank the United States for this important step," Mr Putin said, adding that any military conflict on the Korean peninsula had the potential to be worse than the 1986 nuclear disaster in Chernobyl.

"If something happens, God forbid, (then) Chernobyl which we all know about very well would simply seem like a children's fairy tale," he said.

Ms Merkel said they had also discussed Syria's vicious civil war and noted persistent differences between the European Union and Russia, which has continued to back the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

She underlined the German desire for a "political solution" to the conflict.

Mr Putin defended Moscow's stance ahead of a G8 foreign ministers meeting in London on Wednesday.

"In my opinion, what should we do - we should try to achieve a halt of arms supplies to all sides in the conflict," he said.

"That is the first thing. The second thing - when they say that Russia is supplying some sort of arms... we are supplying to a legitimate regime. This is not prohibited by any international decisions. But we are ready to get together and discuss with everyone how we can get out of this bloodbath.

"The fact that both sides have this will - this is a fact."
 

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Debate in UK on naming Aussie star

An Australian star has been arrested by police investigating allegations that BBC presenter the late Jimmy Savile, pictured, was a serial pedophile.  Source: AP

DEBATE is raging in Britain over the public's right to know who the police are arresting.

It comes after a prominent Australian entertainer was arrested last month on suspicion of historic sex offences but not identified.

The Australian has not been charged.

The 83-year-old Australian celebrity, arrested by the police task force investigating the Jimmy Savile abuse scandal, hasn't been named by police or the mainstream media.

He has been widely identified on the internet.

British tabloid the Daily Mail reported today the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) was considering implementing a recommendation by Lord Justice Leveson to ban all police from confirming the names of suspects to journalists.

The plan for a blanket ban is being opposed by the UK's Law Commission.

Trevor Sterling, the lawyer representing Savile's victims, said the publication of a suspect's name helped other potential victims come forward.

''It is difficult to strike a balance, but if someone like Savile's name is not published, victims of sexual abuse would not have the confidence to come forward,'' Mr Sterling told the newspaper.

Padraig Reidy, of civil liberties organisation Index On Censorship, said the proposal would allow for ''secret arrests''.

''What is being proposed is very scary because if you do not know who has been arrested or why, people can be taken off the streets without anyone knowing and the police would not be accountable or properly scrutinised,'' he said.

Members of the ACPO and Law Commission will meet in coming weeks to debate the proposal.

Some forces have effectively already introduced the practice in the aftermath of Lord Justice Leveson's recommendations following the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.

The Australian entertainer was the 11th person arrested as a result of Operation Yewtree, established after a TV documentary alleged former BBC disc jockey Savile, who died in 2011 aged 84, sexually abused countless children over decades.

Police have stressed the Australian's arrest was not connected to the specific allegations against Savile.

He's been bailed to reappear at a London police station in May and he won't be named by police unless charged at a later date. 

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North Korea withdrawing workers

North Korean men working for ShinWon, a South Korean clothing maker, prepare garments for production at a factory in Kaesong, North Korea, September 2012. Source: AP

NORTH Korea said overnight it was withdrawing all workers and suspending operations at a lucrative joint industrial zone with South Korea, blaming foreign "warmongers" at a time of acute tensions.

The announcement came amid reports of heightened activity at the North's nuclear test site, and at a missile battery, although the South Korean government denied suggestions that a fourth nuclear test was imminent.

North Korea "will withdraw all its employees" from the Kaesong industrial zone, Kim Yang-Gon, a senior ruling party official, said in a statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

Pyongyang will also "temporarily suspend the operations in the zone and examine the issue of whether it will allow its existence or close it", Kim said of Kaesong, which sits 10 kilometres inside North Korea.

Kaesong was built in 2004 as a rare symbol of cross-border economic cooperation. It is a crucial hard currency source for the impoverished North, through taxes and revenues, and from its cut of the 53,000 workers' wages.

Turnover in 2012 was reported at $US469.5 million ($450.90 million), with accumulated turnover since 2004 standing at $1.98 billion.

But Pyongyang has blocked South Korean access to Kaesong since Wednesday, forcing 13 of the 123 South Korean firms operating to halt production.

South Korean army soldiers on a military truck move during an exercise against possible attacks by North Korea in Pocheon, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, April 8, 2013.

South Korea's unification ministry said the unilateral withdrawal "cannot be justified in any way and North Korea will be held responsible for all the consequences".

"The (South) Korean government will calmly but firmly handle North Korea's indiscreet action and we will do our best to secure the safety of our people and the protection of our property," a ministry spokesman said.

More than 300 South Koreans have left Kaesong and returned to the South since North Korea banned access last week. The unification ministry said 475 South citizens were still staying at the complex as of Monday.

"How the situation will develop in the days ahead will entirely depend on the attitude of the South Korean authorities," said Mr Kim, who blamed the pull-out on "military warmongers" who had affronted the North's "dignity".

The Korean peninsula has been locked in a cycle of escalating military tensions since the North's third nuclear test in February, which drew toughened UN sanctions.

The South's defence ministry said Monday that activity detected at the North's Punggye-ri atomic test site was "routine" and should not be interpreted as final preparation for another detonation.

"There is no indication that a nuclear test is imminent," ministry spokesman Kim Min-Seok said, while adding that the North consistently maintained Punggye-ri at a state of test-readiness.

The South's unification minister had appeared to confirm a report by the JoongAng Ilbo daily, which cited intelligence reports of stepped-up activity at the site. But he then insisted his remarks had been misinterpreted.

North Korea's bellicose rhetoric has reached fever pitch in recent weeks, with near-daily threats of attacks on US military bases and South Korea in response to ongoing South Korea-US military exercises.

Cho Han-Bum, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, said the Kaesong withdrawal was consistent with North Korea's time-honoured brinkmanship.

"Politically it's a very dangerous decision to make for the North," he said, noting that tens of thousands of North Koreans depend on the wages earned in the zone.

"I still don't believe that the North is genuinely serious about shutting Kaesong permanently. By saying its future depends on the behaviour of South Korea, it's leaving room open for negotiation," he said.

Intelligence reports suggest Pyongyang has readied two mid-range missiles on mobile launchers on its east coast, and plans a test-firing before the April 15 birthday of late founding leader Kim Il-Sung.

A missile launch would be highly provocative, especially given the strong rebuke the North's sole ally China delivered on Sunday.

"No one should be allowed to throw a region, even the whole world, into chaos for selfish gains," President Xi Jinping told a high-powered business forum in southern China.

The United States, which has met the North's threats with some military muscle-flexing of its own, offered a calibrated concession Saturday by delaying a planned inter-continental ballistic missile test.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday welcomed the decision to postpone the Minuteman 3 test, which the US had said it feared could be misconstrued as an attempt to exacerbate the air of crisis.

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Court upholds Brit's death sentence

Lindsay June Sandiford (R) of Britain in a holding cell after her trial at a court in Denpasar, Bali on January 22, 2013. Source: AFP

AN Indonesian court upheld the death sentence against a British woman convicted of smuggling $US2.5 million ($2.4 million) worth of cocaine into the resort island of Bali, a court official said overnight.

The Bali High Court rejected an appeal from 56-year-old Lindsay June Sandiford, who was convicted in January by a district court and sentenced to face a firing squad, said court spokesman Makkasau.

The decision on her appeal came last week, and Sandiford has 14 days to appeal to the national Supreme Court, said Makkasau, who uses one name like many Indonesians.

Sandiford was arrested last May when 3.8 kilograms of cocaine was discovered stuffed inside the lining of her luggage at Bali's airport. During the trial, she said she was forced to carry the drugs by a gang that threatened to hurt her children.

Prosecutors had sought 15 years in prison for Sandiford, but the court surprised many by issuing the death sentence.

The British Embassy in Jakarta did not immediately respond to a written request for comment. Britain's Foreign Office in London has said it strongly opposes Sandiford's death sentence.

Four other defendants - three Britons and an Indian national - connected to the case were sentenced to jail terms ranging from one to six years.

Indonesia has very strict anti-drug laws and most of the more than 40 foreigners on its death row were convicted of drug charges.

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World reacts to Thatcher's death

Margaret Thatcher with U.S.S.R. President Mikhail Gorbachev (left) during an all-European top-level meeting. Source: Supplied

FORMER British prime minister Margaret Thatcher was a "great politician" who will go down in history, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev said.

Baroness Thatcher has died at the age of 87 following a stroke.

"Margaret Thatcher was a great politician and a bright individual. She will do down in our memory and in history," the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who held frequent meetings with Baroness Thatcher at the end of the Cold War, told Interfax.

"Thatcher was a politician whose words carried great weight," he added, calling her death "sad news".

"Our first meeting in 1984 gave the start to relations that were at times difficult, not always smooth, but which were serious and responsible for us both," he added.

Poland's former president and anti-communist freedom icon Lech Walesa also hailed the late former British leader.

"She was a great person. She did a great deal for the world, along with (late US president) Ronald Reagan, pope John Paul II and Solidarity, she contributed to the demise of communism in Poland and Central Europe," an emotional Mr Walesa said.

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher dies at age of 87 following a stroke, a spokesman for the family said. Rough Cut (no reporter narration)

"I'm praying for her," the founder of the anti-communist Solidarity trade union said.

European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso also paid tribute to Baroness Thatcher's "contributions" to the growth of the EU, despite her reservations about continental European integration.

Expressing his "deepest regrets" to the UK government, Mr Barroso said she had been "a circumspect yet engaged player in the European Union" who "will be remembered for both her contributions to and her reserves about our common project".

US President Barack Obama said America had lost a "true friend" and the world a champion of freedom and liberty.

"As an unapologetic supporter of our transatlantic alliance, she knew that with strength and resolve we could win the Cold War and extend freedom's promise," Mr Obama said in a written statement.

Mr Obama - who turned 29 and was elected editor of the Harvard Law Review in 1990, the year Baroness Thatcher lost power - said Britain's first woman leader was an example to girls that "there is no glass ceiling that can't be shattered."

"With the passing of Baroness Margaret Thatcher, the world has lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and America has lost a true friend," Mr Obama said.

Former US President George W Bush said Baroness Thatcher "was an inspirational leader who stood on principle and guided her nation with confidence and clarity".

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'Iron Lady' dies following stroke

Watch a typically feisty parliamentary performance from the late Margaret Thatcher.

FORMER British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has died of a stroke aged 87 years.

The leader dubbed the Iron Lady had been in poor health for a number of months and her spokesman Lord Bell said she died peacefully.

''It is with great sadness that Mark and Carol Thatcher announced that their mother Baroness Thatcher died peacefully after a long battle with poor health,'' Lord Bell shortly before 1pm local time.

Buckingham Palace was the first to call the Thatcher family with the Queen offering her sympathies for her former leader, Britain's first and only female prime minister who won three consecutive federal elections.

Prime Minister David Cameron said Britain had lost a great leader, a great prime minister and a great Briton. Other world leaders also paid tribute to Thatcher, including US President Barack Obama, who said America had "lost a true friend". Mr Obama also praised Thatcher as an example for his two daughters, joining former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell who hailed her as "the first lady of girl power."

Thatcher will receive a "ceremonial funeral" with military honours, but she will not get a state funeral.

Downing Street says the Queen has authorised a ceremonial funeral - a step short of a state funeral - to be held at St Paul's Cathedral. Mr Cameron cut short a trip to Europe following news of Thatcher's death.

Baroness Margaret Thatcher is dead after suffering a stroke.

Downing Street says the funeral will be attended by a "wide and diverse range of people," and the service will be followed by a private cremation.

It did not provide further details on the timing of the service, saying only that the arrangement are "in line with the wishes" of Thatcher's family.

Thatcher transformed the UK

Thatcher has been credited with single-handedly transforming the nation in the space of a decade, earning her as much admiration as bitter resentment from the British people.

Margaret Thatcher's best quotes

Quotes: what they said about her

Margaret Thatcher with U.S.S.R. President Mikhail Gorbachev (left) during an all-European top-level meeting.

But there has always been general consensus she lifted a strike-infested union-bound nation back among the world's industrial leaders.

Crucially she defeated Arthur Scargill's nationwide year-long strike that was threatening to ruin the whole British economy.

Thatcher was seen as tireless and unshakeable as she fought her own cabinet let alone half the workers in Britain to change the work ethnic and industrial landscape before resigning as prime minister in November 1990.

But she remained one of the most influential figures in British society and globally as an elder stateswoman courted by the western world.

Her crowning glory among her three stints as PM was her handling of the Falklands War.

Many in her government thought her mad when after Argentina invaded the Falklands Islands she dispatched a flotilla of war ships 8000 miles into the South Atlantic.

Margaret Thatcher in a line up of former PMs with the Queen in the 2000s

Thatcher worked her way to the top

Born Margaret Hilda Roberts in 1925 in the Lincolnshire town of Grantham, she gained the virtues of thrift, hard work, morality and patriotism as drilled into her by her beloved father Alderman Alfred Roberts, who ran two grocers' shops and a post-office, and became mayor of the town in 1943.

The devout Methodist father drilled into her ''You'll never get anywhere if you don't work girl'', a sentiment she would often quote herself.

She had few close friends growing up with many considering her to have an irritating sense of her own superiority.

It was that thinking that made her head of her school, lead at Oxford University, where she trained as a chemist, before she decided to enter politics.

It was her ability to answer any question thrown at her in Parliament that made her the obvious leader of the Conservatives.

Margaret Thatcher elected leader in 1975.

Timeline: The Life and Times of Margaret Thatcher

Gallery: Margaret Thatcher's life

Liberal Democrat leader and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg summed up the national mood saying love her or loath her, she changed Britain for the better.

''Margaret Thatcher was one of the defining figures in modern British politics,'' Mr Clegg said.

''Whatever side of the political debate you stand on, no-one can deny that as prime minister she left a unique and lasting imprint on the country she served.

''She may have divided opinion during her time in politics but everyone will be united today in acknowledging the strength of her personality and the radicalism of her politics.''

Margaret and Denis on their wedding day in 1951

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher dies at age of 87 following a stroke, a spokesman for the family said. Rough Cut (no reporter narration)

Gillard and Abbott pay respects

Prime Minister Julia Gillard paid tribute to Margaret Thatcher's strength of conviction and history making period as British PM.

''I learned this evening in Beijing of the death of Baroness Thatcher,'' Ms Gillard said from China.

''Her service as the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom was a history-making achievement.''

''Her strength of conviction was recognised by her closest supporters and her strongest opponents.

''I extend my sincere condolences and those of my fellow Australians to her family and friends.''

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said Baroness Thatcher was one of Britain's greatest leaders because of her impact on the world.

''Margaret Thatcher was one of the greatest British prime ministers and one of the most significant world leaders of our times,'' Mr Abbott said.

''She was the first female prime minister of Great Britain and ranks with the greatest of prime ministers because of the quality of her leadership and the impact she had on Britain and the wider world.''

''Margaret Thatcher arrested the decline of Britain and gave the British people renewed confidence. She ensured the British people no longer simply dwelt on the glories of the past but could enjoy a strong and prosperous future.

''The thoughts of the Coalition are with Baroness Thatcher's family and the British people at this time.''

Thatcher, made a baroness (life peer) after her 11 years in Downing Street, suffered several small strokes in 2002, and received medical advice against accepting any more public speaking engagements.

Her increasingly frail condition when she was seen - especially after the death of husband Denis in 2003 - led to frequent bouts of speculation about her health.

However, MPs and friends who saw her regularly said she remained alert and interested in politics, and she was not known to have deteriorated notably recently.

Among her greatest regrets was the IRA bombing attempt on her life in Brighton in 1984.

She could not understand why anyone hated her so much.

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'Everything wrong with UK is her fault'

Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone has said everything that's wrong with Modern Britain "is the legacy of the fact that she was fundamentally wrong", in an interview about Margaret Thatcher. Picture: AP Source: AP

EVERYTHING that is wrong with modern Britain can be traced back to Margaret Thatcher's policies, London's ex-Mayor has said.

The former Labour MP and ex-mayor of London, labelled "Red Ken" by the British press for his outspoken left-wing views, said the financial crisis, the collapse of Britain's manufacturing industry and widespread unemployment were all directly linked to Thatcher's economic reforms in the 1980s.

Mr Livingstone was Labour leader of the London Council when Thatcher's government abolished it, putting him out of a job, before he went on to become mayor.

"The trouble is that almost everything that's wrong with Britain today is her legacy," Mr Livingstone said, after first praising Thatcher's determined nature, strong beliefs and shunning of spin and focus groups.

Thatcher deregulated Britain's banks, "allowed manufacturing to wither" and stopped building council homes, Mr Livingstone told Sky News UK.

"The two million families still trying to get homes today, that's her legacy," Mr Livingstone said.

"She created today's housing crisis, she created the banking crisis, and she created the benefits crisis. It was her government that started putting people on incapacity benefit rather than register as unemployed because the Britain she inherited was at broadly full employment.

US President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at the White House in 1982. Picture: AP

"She decided when she wrote off our manufacturing industry, that she could live with two or three million unemployed, and the Benefits Bill, the legacy of that, we're still struggling with today.

"In actual fact, every real problem we face today is the legacy of the fact she was fundamentally wrong."

The Sky News interview was cut short when Mr Livingstone began talking about Thatcher's claim that ex-UK PM Tony Blair's "New Labour" was her biggest achievement, with some speculating on Twitter that he had been cut off before he could continue his criticism.
 

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