SECOND INDIA RESTAURANT FIRE IN FORTNIGHT KILLS FIVE
Five workers were killed early on Monday when a bar and restaurant in southern India caught fire, police said, less than two weeks after a blaze at another eatery killed 14. Police said an electrical short- circuit probably caused the fire at the Kailash Bar & Restaurant in the southern technology hub of Bangalore. All five victims were employees who were sleeping at the premises, Bangalore Deputy Commissioner of Police M. N. Anucheth told reporters. Police in Bangalore have registered a case of criminal negligence amounting to culpable homicide against the owner of the bar, Anucheth said. The mayor of the city, which is known for its lively pubs and bars, said he had ordered an inquiry into why the victims were sleeping at the premises. In late December 14 people were killed in a fire at a rooftop restaurant in Mumbai, many of them young women at a birthday party. The incidents have raised concerns over lax enforcement of safety rules in India, where fires are common. Such disasters are particularly frequent in Mumbai, where millions live in cramped and dilapidated properties because of high rents.
JAILED AUSTRALIAN NURSE LOSES APPEAL IN CAMBODIA SURROGACY CASE
An Australian nurse jailed for 18 months for running a surrogacy clinic in Cambodia had her sentence upheld on Monday in a prominent case highlighting the country’s role in the lucrative trade. Tammy Davis- Charles, a nurse in her early 50s from Melbourne, was arrested in November 2016 with two Cambodian colleagues weeks after the country passed an edict forbidding commercial surrogacy. She was convicted of sourcing clients and falsifying documents, although she said in her trial that she simply provided medical care to the Cambodian mothers. Appeal Court Judge Kim Dany upheld the verdict during a brief hearing in Phnom Penh, saying the court had “already given a lenient sentence.” Dressed in a blue prisoner uniform, Davis- Charles did not react to the ruling or speak to reporters afterwards. She has a final chance to appeal the sentence in front of the Supreme Court. Cambodian authorities moved to curb the surrogacy trade after prospective parents— many from Australia— turned to the impoverished country in the wake of bans in Thailand and India.
INDIA’S TOP COURT TO REVIEW GAY SEX BAN
NEW DELHI: India’s Supreme Court on Monday announced a review of a hugely controversial ban on gay sex, saying no one should have to live in fear because of their sexuality. The court said it would take up a legal challenge by five high- profile Indians who said the colonial- era law created an atmosphere of intimidation. “A section of people... who exercise their choice should never live in a state of fear,” said the court in its ruling, adding that “societal morality” was subject to change over time. The announcement is the latest chapter in a long- running legal tussle between social and religious conservatives and the gay community over the law passed by the British in the 1860s. Section 377 of the Indian penal code bans homosexual acts as “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” and allows for life imprisonment, though prosecutions for same- sex activity have been rare. Gay sex was effectively decriminalized in India in 2009 when the Delhi High Court ruled that banning it violated a person’s fundamental rights.
8 CHILDREN AMONG 21 KILLED IN SYRIA IDLIB STRIKES – MONITOR
BEIRUT: Air strikes by regime and Russian aircraft on rebel positions in the northwestern province of Idlib killed at least 21 civilians, including eight children, a monitor said Monday. The strikes carried out on Sunday were the latest against jihadists and rebels in a week- old regime offensive on Idlib, the last province in Syria to escape government control. The raid left “at least 21 dead, including eight children and 11 members of the same family” west of the town of Sinjar in the southeast of the province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. “Regime and Russian strikes are continuing today on several parts of Idlib” province, Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Britain- based monitoring organisation, told Agence France- Presse.