(28 Nov) Police arrested a gunman who stormed a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Colorado Springs on Friday and opened fire with a rifle. According to latest reports, three people were killed, including one policeman in a burst of violence that left many civilians and policemen injured. Five hours after the siege began, the suspect was taken into custody, the city of Colorado Springs confirmed in a message posted on the municipal Twitter account. Two hospitals in the area reported receiving a total of nine patients from the shooting, but a police spokeswoman said not all of those injured could immediately be transported from the scene, suggesting some of the victims might still be trapped inside the clinic.

Police swarmed the area around the building after an emergency call reporting shots fired at about 11:30 a.m. Mountain Time (1830 GMT), and officers ultimately confronted the suspect inside the building, said Lieutenant Catherine Buckley, the police department spokeswoman. Shootout at Planned Parenthood clinic injures 9 including 4 officers “The officers inside the building have encountered the individual,” she said in a briefing to reporters carried live on CNN. “They were exchanging gunfire.” Buckley said four officers had been hurt in the shooting, as well as an unknown number of other people, but there was no immediate information on the nature or extent of their injuries. She also said police had so far confronted only one gunman in the clinic, which which lies on the northwest side of Colorado Springs, about 70 miles (112 km) south of Denver.

About an hour later, live television footage aired by CNN showed several people being escorted safely from the building into police vehicles. CBS News reported that a gunman fired shots upon entering the clinic, which was guarded by security, and that law enforcement officials were concerned about the possibility of explosives being involved. In an account published by the Colorado Springs Gazette newspaper, a local man told police on the scene that his daughter works at the clinic and was “in the line of fire,” to which officers replied, “We’re trying to get her out.” The suspect was armed with a high-powered rifle, the Gazette said police told the man. The FBI and agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were assisting local law enforcement investigators. President Barack Obama was notified of the shooting by his Homeland Security adviser, Lisa Monaco, and “will be updated on the situation as necessary, a White House official said. Penrose-St. Francis Medical Center in Colorado Springs confirmed receiving six patients from the scene. Memorial Hospital said three more were taken there.

The Planned Parenthood center provides abortions, screening for sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy testing and other services, according to its website. “We don’t yet know the full circumstances and motives behind this criminal action,” Vicki Cowart, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains, said in a statement. “We share the concerns of many Americans that extremists are creating a poisonous environment that feeds domestic terrorism in this country. We will never back away from providing care in a safe, supportive environment that millions of people rely on and trust.” Cowart said. As in much of the rest of the country, abortion is a divisive issue in Colorado, figuring prominently in attack ads during last year’s Senate race between incumbent Democrat Mark Udall and Republican challenger Cory Gardner, the winner of the election. The Colorado Springs clinic has been the target of repeated protests, and in recent years moved to its current location, which has been derided as a “fortress” by abortion foes. At least eight clinic workers have been killed in violent attacks on abortion providers since 1977, according to the National Abortion Federation – most recently in 2009, when abortion doctor George Tiller was shot to death at church in Wichita, Kansas. Clinics have reported nearly 7,000 incidents of trespassing, vandalism, arson, death threats, and other forms of violence since then, according to the abortion-rights group. Hundreds of protesters picketed in front of the Colorado Springs clinic in August as part of a push by abortion opponents to cut off public funding for Planned Parenthood, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette. One man was charged with trespassing in 2012 after flouting as many as 30 warnings to keep of clinic property, the paper said Early police reports painted a chaotic picture of the situation.

“The area is NOT secure. Media do not stage in the area,” the police department said in its tweet, adding that the area was “not secure” and urging members of the public in a nearby shopping center to “shelter in place.” Brigette Wolfe, who works across the street from the scene, told CNN she could see law enforcement officers including police SWAT teams deployed in the area. Colorado Springs was the scene of a mass shooting on Oct. 31 in which a gunman killed three people near downtown before dying in a shootout with police. The city, home to the U.S. Air Force Academy and the U.S. Olympic training center, is also a hub for conservative Christian groups such as Focus on the Family that strongly oppose abortion. The attack in Colorado sent jitters across the country. The New York City Police Department reported it had redeployed some of its “critical response” vehicles to Planned Parenthood locations throughout the city. However, it said there were no specific threats to those sites at this time.

Hyderabad, Nov 27 (IANS) A YSR Congress Party MP was booked on Friday for allegedly slapping an official of Air India at Tirupati airport, police said. The MP has denied the charge. A case for assaulting a public servant on duty was booked against P. Mithun Reddy and 15 others at Yerpedu police station at Renigunta near the temple town in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district. However, no arrests have been made. Police said they were investigating.

A police official said the case was registered on a complaint by Rajasekhar, Air India’s station manager at the airport. The incident took place on Thursday when Mithun Reddy allegedly entered into an argument with Rajasekhar, after getting angry when the latter declined to issue boarding passes for him and his relatives as the boarding was already closed for the Air India flight to Delhi. According to the complaint, the MP, who represents Rajampet constituency in Kadapa district, shouted at the Air India manager before slapping him. The official alleged that Mithun Reddy along with some others again barged into his cabin and misbehaved with him. He said the MP’s supporters also manhandled him

Patna, Nov 27 (IANS) In a bid to keep up another election promise, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has directed officials to provide free electricity connection to everyone in Bihar by November 2017. Providing free electricity connection to all the households was one of the seven promises Nitish Kumar made ahead of the assembly elections which his Grand Alliance won. The connections would be free, but users would be charged for the power consumed, officials said on Friday.

The government is expected to incur an expenditure of Rs.1,500-1,800 crore on this project. Free electricity connection was earlier promised only for Below Poverty Line families but now it will also cover 50-60 lakh families coming in the Above Poverty Line category. A total of 2,719 of the 39,073 villages remain to be electrified in Bihar. In November 2005, average availability of power was six to eight hours in urban areas and two to three hours in rural areas. But in 2015, the average availability of power in urban areas is 22-24 hours and 15-16 hours in rural areas

(27 Nov) Birgunj : The Nepali Congress headed by former prime minister Sushil Koirala is believed to join hands with the Madhesi Morcha, which has been protesting against the newly adopted Constitution. Sources close to Nepalese Congress leaders believe that staying away from the Madhesis would not help the party in the elections. While speaking to ANI, the sources from Nepali Congress said that Madhes region from southeast to southwest of Nepal is dominated by member of constitute assembly belonging to the Nepali Congress party. Nepali Congress party chief Koirala conceded defeat to UML chairman KP Sharma Oli, who was elected as the new Prime Minister in the recently held election. The growing protest and blockade at the Indo-Nepal border by Madhesi parties and protestors have cut down the supply line of Nepal which has hit the hilly areas as well as the Terai region. Nepal is facing a huge crisis of petroleum products due to the blockade at the borders. The attempt to import petroleum products from Nepal has not been successful in fulfilling the need of the government, said sources close to UML. Facing the crisis of basic amenities, the locals of the hill region have started raising voice against the existing communist government. The Nepali Congress party is forced to join the Madhes groups to sustain its politics in the country. Sources said that announcement of an alliance between Madhesi Morcha and the Congress would come in a week’s time. It can be a major setback for the ruling Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) due to the anti-government sentiment among the people.

The driver of a van transporting Rs 22.5 crore in hard cash for refilling Axis Bank ATMs across south-east Delhi disappeared with the booty on Thursday evening in one of the Capital’s biggest heists, police said.
A hunt was launched after SIS, the private security agency hired by Axis Bank to transport cash, rang up police control room around 5.30pm to inform that one of its drivers fled with a Mahindra pick-up van stashed with money on the way from Vikaspuri to Okhla.
An hour later, police traced the van fitted with a GPS tracker system near the Okhla industrial area. The bag inside a metal box containing the cash was missing.
South East district DCP MS Randhawa said several teams were working to catch driver Pradip Shukla, who is from Uttar Pradesh and had joined the agency recently.

Shukla had left the bank’s Vikaspuri office along with armed guard Vinay Patel around 3.30pm. When they reached Captain Gaur Marg near Govindpuri around 5pm, Patel asked the driver to stop as he wanted to go to the washroom.
As he got down, Shukla told him that he would keep driving and return because parking the vehicle there might cause a traffic jam. “Patel said the van never came back and he called the bank after waiting 10-15 minutes,” an officer said.
Police were scanning CCTV footage to check if Shukla got into another vehicle after abandoning the van in Okhla. They suspect the driver alone could not have pulled off such a crime. Or was he waylaid by robbers when the guard left him alone?
Axis Bank assured that the cash was “fully insured” and “neither the bank nor the customer would get affected”. It said the van didn’t belong to the bank and the driver was not its employee.

(25 Nov) As the year 2015 comes to an end, we decided to take you through a list of 10 Hollywood movies that made it really big worldwide and you must watch. No doubt, this year had some brilliant Hollywood movies for us. Among all the Hollywood movies made till date, some were too good to be watched just once, and the others weren’t even worth a watch. While the movies that fall in between acted as a mediocre factor and entertained us. A movie is either highly appreciated or highly criticized. Though, the opinions vary from one critic to the other, the storyline or plot remains the same. Isn’t that what actually matters? The kind of impact a movie has on us. A while ago, we told you about Hollywood romantic movies that are just too beautiful to ignore. The year 2015 witnessed Hollywood movies from varied categories. There was action, romance drama, comedy, thriller, science fiction and many more. Film-makers experimented with their movies.

Be it from choosing a different set of cast to re-creating the old movie stories with new twists. One such movie was ‘Boy Next Door’ starring the singer Jennifer Lopez. Jennifer Lopez’s acting in the movie was highly appreciated. The movie wasn’t a super hit though. But the story had a raw touch added to it that made the movie stand a little different from the usual mainstream Hollywood movies. Another movie with very high expectations was ‘Minions’. After the ‘Despicable Me’ series, people globally fell madly in love with the Minions. But the character seemed bright in ‘Despicable Me’. The movie ‘Minions’ failed to impress the viewers. Another movie that failed to keep up to viewers’ expectation was ‘Furious 7’. Maybe the loss of Paul Walker overpowered the success of the final series of ‘Fast & Furious’. The other not so great 2015 Hollywood movies include, ‘The Walk’ and ‘San Andreas’. But, don’t you feel bad. Below is a list of 10 brilliant Hollywood movies of 2015 you must watch:

News24 Bureau New Delhi:As per the directives of the Indian government, hand-written passport of Indian citizen will no longer be valid from today. Government’s decision to discontinue hand-written passports comes as a part of the recommendations of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to incorporate biometric data in the machine-readable travel documents. Earlier, the government had asked people with hand-written passports to get machine-readable ones, deadline for which had been set to November 24. The new machine-readable passports have been implemented as they offer greater protection against fraudulent practices and tampering.