Delhi is home countless markets and bazaars selling everything imaginable. Here's a quick look at one of the most diverse food markets, INA market. Spices, sweets, veggies and meats. Enjoy!Delhi is home countless markets and bazaars selling everything imaginable. Here's a... more
Delhi Metro has connected nearby cities Delhi and Noida. This comes as a great milestone for the project that has been remarkably efficient under Delhi's Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. While many other large-scale government projects in India suffer from corruption and delays, the metro project has remained relatively corruption-free and on schedule. Its relative success so far may be linked its status as a private-public entity, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, which largely stays out of reach of the hands of corrupt politicians and government employees. Perhaps continued praise of successful and effective government undertakings will hold India to a higher standard, allowing it to reach its full potential for sustainable growth and a higher quality of life for all its citizens. Positive but honest media and publicity, such as the Discovery Channel's "24 Hours with the Delhi Metro," will hopefully garner support for effective management in Indian government undertakings, and for this project designed to reduce pollution and traffic. The metro project, however, has experienced at least two fatal accidents in the course of its construction. Continued press coverage of this project and others, alongside public demand for quality results, will decide how well the Indian government will tackle its many challenges going forward.
Indian authorities have put four Indian airports on high alert, reporting of an attempt to hijack one or more planes at Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore airports. The alerts come after a letter, which claimed terror groups might strike at the airports on December 6 and hijack a plane, was sent to an Indian news agency. The Defense Ministry reported that “credible intelligence” has indicated a plot to commandeer a jet at a provincial airport for an attack on a major city. Indian TV reported that the alert was issued after an email from Deccan Mujahedeen, the same group that claimed responsibility for the Mumbai attacks.Indian authorities have put four Indian airports on high alert, reporting of an... more
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian police have detained about a dozen people in connection with a deadly bomb blast in a crowded New Delhi market, officials said on Sunday, the second attack in the capital this month.
Police said they had witnesses who could identify the two men who dropped a plastic bag in the capital's busy Mehrauli market, before speeding away on a motorcycle on Saturday.
A boy picked up the bag and ran after the motorcyclists to return it when there was a huge explosion, killing him on the spot. A 60-year-old man died in hospital later. Twenty-two people were wounded in the blast.
"We are interrogating a lot of people for clues and should come up with some answers soon," Rajan Bhagat, the Delhi police spokesman said on Sunday.
In the neighboring state of Haryana, police detained two people in connection with a threat about possible bomb blasts made to Delhi police last Friday.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the attack and said India would tighten intelligence gathering, as well as the investigation and prosecution process, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said.
"We won't give up the war on terror and we will fight with all resoluteness to deal with the menace," PTI quoted him as having said on board an aircraft, while going to France.
Saturday's explosion followed a blast in the capital on September 13 that killed 23 people and wounded 100. Continued...NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian police have detained about a dozen people in connection... more
A bomb blast at a market in India's capital has killed one person and injured at least 15 others.
The market, in the Mehrauli area, was packed with shoppers when, according to eyewitnesses, two men drove up in a motorcycle and dropped a package. Police have described it as a low intensity explosive device. Two weeks ago, five bombs ripped through busy shopping areas in Delhi, killing at least 20 people. Nearly 50 were killed in Ahmadabad in July. Police say they have arrested the head of a group claiming the attacks. Mohammed Arif Sheikh, described as the founder of the Indian Mujahideen (IM), was arrested along with four others, Mumbai (Bombay) police said on Thursday.
(Continues at link)A bomb blast at a market in India's capital has killed one person and injured at least... more
A top Islamic militant suspected of involvement in the wave of bomb attacks on Indian cities has been killed in a shoot-out in Delhi, police say.
They say the man identified as Atif was killed with another man in a "fierce exchange" of gunfire at a house in the mainly Muslim Jamia Nagar district.
Two Indian policemen were injured in the operation and a third suspect was captured alive.
At least 20 people died in a multiple bomb attack on Delhi last week.
News channels showed an ambulance taking away a bloodied person from the crowded site of Friday's gun battle.
A large contingent of policemen had surrounded the four-storey home where the suspected militants were supposed to be hiding, witnesses told the BBC.
"The police were firing at the fourth and top storey of the building," one eyewitness said.
"A lot of people had gathered around the building."
Police arrived at the house after receiving information that some "suspected militants" were hiding there, senior Delhi police official Karnail Singh told reporters.
"They opened fire on the police when we approached the house," he said.
"Two of our men, including an inspector, were injured."
Two militants were killed during the ensuring gun battle and one was arrested, he added.
On Wednesday, Delhi police issued sketches of three men who they believe were involved in the attacks.
About 90 people were injured when the five devices went off in busy shopping areas within minutes of each other.
An e-mail purportedly from a group calling itself the "Indian Mujahideen" claimed it carried out the attacks.
On Thursday, India revealed plans to upgrade its intelligence-gathering ability following a spate of bombings.
A new centre will be established to research surveillance and preventative measures and become a focus for counter-terrorism strategies.
A top Islamic militant suspected of involvement in the wave of bomb attacks on Indian... more
A scandal has erupted in India after interrogators on a hjigh-profile murder case used so-called 'truth serum' sodium pentothal, yet failed to catch the killer, the Times reports.
India has been transfixed by the murder of Aarushi Talwar, 14, who was found with her throat slit in May at her home near Delhi. Police initially blamed the Talwars' domestic help, but were forced to rethink when his body was found on the terrace of the family house the next day.
After a series of embarrassing bungles, Indian police were under pressure to get results. So they turned to a practice long since banned in most democracies, but on the rise in India: they injected their prime suspects with a “truth serum”.
They detained Rajesh Talwar, the dead girl's dentist father, and drugged him with sodium pentothal — the “truth serum”. The Central Bureau of Investigation, India's equivalent of the FBI, took over and declared him innocent last week.
The CBI now says that the culprit was Krishna, an assistant in Dr Talwar's clinic, who was subjected to six hours of “narcoanalysis” at the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in Bangalore. A suspected accomplice is now receiving the same treatment.
The practice is illegal in Britain, the United States and most other Western democracies, although security officials have suggested that it should be used on suspected terrorists — and some allege that it already has been. India adopted the technique in 2000 when S.Malini, a doctor who is now assistant director of the FSL in Bangalore, used it to coax evidence from a witness in another murder case.
Prisoners are usually taken to a specialist forensic laboratory, where doctors give them sodium pentothal, a commonly used anaesthetic, through a drip to induce a trance-like state. A forensic psychologist then questions the prisoner during the trance, which typically lasts from 15 to 45 minutes.
Doctors often have to slap the prisoners to keep them awake, according to rights groups. “This is nothing but torture,” said Amar Jesani, a co-founder of the Forum for Medical Ethics Society.
Although any evidence gleaned is inadmissible in court, police say the technique is an invaluable and harmless way of establishing facts. “It helps the investigating officer to reach the depths of the crime so that justice and law can prevail,” Rajan Bhagat, a police spokesman, told The Times.
Some say that it is unethical for doctors to take part in narcoanalysis, since the drug tends to be administered against the prisoner's will and can cause respiratory or cardio-vascular complications.
Human rights groups accuse the police of using narcoanalysis as a substitute for proper criminal investigation, and say that it violates the Constitution, which prohibits anyone accused of an offence from being “compelled to be witness against himself”.
Did you know a 'truth serum' even existed!? It sounds like the stuff of science fiction. Should it be used on criminals, as is happening more often in India? Or should it continue to be banned, as it is in the UK. US and other nations? How do interrogators even know if what their captors are saying is reliable? If people can't tell the truth, should drugs like this be used to help them along...?
Did you know a 'truth serum' even existed!?
A scandal has erupted in India after... more
