Absconding Congress MLA surrenders before Panchkula court

CHANDIGARH: Newly-elected legislator from Himachal Pradesh, Ram Kumar Chaudhary, who was absconding for past few weeks in connection with the murder of a girl, on Tuesday surrendered before a Panchkula Court.

The Haryana police had announced a cash reward of Rs two lakh to anyone for providing information leading to his arrest.

"The MLA surrendered before CJM (Chief Judicial Magistrate's) Court in Panchkula today. We have taken him into custody and he will be produced before a Panchkula court later on," Haryana Police's Additional Director General (ADGP), KK Sharma said.

On Monday, the Haryana police also announced a cash reward of Rs 50,000 each for the three other accused in the case Paramjeet alias Pamma of village Haripur Sandoli, Baddi, HP, Dharampal alias Maddu of Haripur Sandoli, Baddi and Gurmeet Singh of Housing Board Colony, Baddi, district Solan, (HP).

A special police team headed by Ashok Kumar, DCP Ambala had been camping in Dharamsala, HP, to execute fresh warrants of arrest issued by Panchkula court on January 5 against the accused.

Haryana DGP SN Vashisht had also sent a request to his Himachal Pradesh counterpart with a copy of warrants of arrest for seeking help of Himachal police in arresting the fugitives.

The MLA was wanted by Haryana police in connection with the murder of a young girl, a native of Hoshiarpur in Punjab, who was found dead in Panchkula on November 22.

The post-mortem report of the girl confirmed that she died of head injuries. It was only after the investigation of the victim's cell phone details, the role of MLA came under scanner.

Butti Ram, father of Jyoti, had filed a complaint with Haryana police alleging that Chaudhary had close links with his daughter and he could be involved in the murder.

Ram also alleged that Chaudhary had visited his house during the marriage of his younger daughter in September 2009.

Ram Kumar, general secretary of Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee, recently won from Doon constituency in Baddi.

He is the son of four-time Congress MLA Lajja Ram.

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Report: Death rates from cancer still inching down

WASHINGTON (AP) — Death rates from cancer are continuing to inch down, researchers reported Monday.

Now the question is how to hold onto those gains, and do even better, even as the population gets older and fatter, both risks for developing cancer.

"There has been clear progress," said Dr. Otis Brawley of the American Cancer Society, which compiled the annual cancer report with government and cancer advocacy groups.

But bad diets, lack of physical activity and obesity together wield "incredible forces against this decline in mortality," Brawley said. He warned that over the next decade, that trio could surpass tobacco as the leading cause of cancer in the U.S.

Overall, deaths from cancer began slowly dropping in the 1990s, and Monday's report shows the trend holding. Among men, cancer death rates dropped by 1.8 percent a year between 2000 and 2009, and by 1.4 percent a year among women. The drops are thanks mostly to gains against some of the leading types — lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancers — because of treatment advances and better screening.

The news isn't all good. Deaths still are rising for certain cancer types including liver, pancreatic and, among men, melanoma, the most serious kind of skin cancer.

Preventing cancer is better than treating it, but when it comes to new cases of cancer, the picture is more complicated.

Cancer incidence is dropping slightly among men, by just over half a percent a year, said the report published by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Prostate, lung and colorectal cancers all saw declines.

But for women, earlier drops have leveled off, the report found. That may be due in part to breast cancer. There were decreases in new breast cancer cases about a decade ago, as many women quit using hormone therapy after menopause. Since then, overall breast cancer incidence has plateaued, and rates have increased among black women.

Another problem area: Oral and anal cancers caused by HPV, the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, are on the rise among both genders. HPV is better known for causing cervical cancer, and a protective vaccine is available. Government figures show just 32 percent of teen girls have received all three doses, fewer than in Canada, Britain and Australia. The vaccine was recommended for U.S. boys about a year ago.

Among children, overall cancer death rates are dropping by 1.8 percent a year, but incidence is continuing to increase by just over half a percent a year. Brawley said it's not clear why.

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Meet Obama's Defense Secretary Nominee

President Obama nominated former Senator Chuck Hagel as the next U.S. secretary of defense. To those who haven't followed the Senate closely in the past decade, he's probably not a household name.

Hagel is a former GOP senator from Nebraska and Purple-Heart-decorated Vietnam veteran, but he wouldn't necessarily be a popular pick with Republicans in Congress.

At age 21, Hagel and his brother Tom became the next in the family to serve in the United States Army. They joined the masses of Americans fighting an unfamiliar enemy in Vietnam.

In his book, he describes finding himself "pinned down by Viet Cong rifle fire, badly burned, with my wounded brother in my arms."

"Mr. President, I'm grateful for this opportunity to serve our country again," Hagel said after Obama announced his nomination Monday.

In 1971, Hagel took his first job in politics as chief of staff to Congressman John Y. McCollister, a position he held for six years. After that, he moved to Washington for the first time, where he went on to work for a tire company's government affairs office, the 1982 World's Fair and in 1981, as Ronald Reagan's Deputy Administrator of the Veterans Administration.

Obama Taps Sen. Chuck Hagel for Defense Secretary Watch Video

Sen. Chuck Hagel's Defense Nomination Draws Criticism Watch Video

Obama's Defense Nominee Chuck Hagel Stirs Washington Lawmakers Watch Video

He worked in the private sector for most of the 80s and 90s before his first election to the Senate in 1997.
Since the turn of the century, Hagel has followed a curvy path of political alliances that puts his endorsements all over the map. Hagel's record of picking politically unpopular positions could be a large part of why Obama is naming him for the job, as Slate's Fred Kaplan surmises the next Defense secretary will be faced with tough choices.

In 2000, he was one of few Republican senators to back Sen. John McCain over then-presidential-candidate George W. Bush.

After that election, Hagel fiercely criticized Bush for adding 30,000 surge troops to Iraq, in place of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group's proposal of a draw-down and regional diplomacy, which Hagel preferred. When Bush instead announced that more troops would go to Iraq, Hagel co-sponsored a nonbinding resolution to oppose it, along with then-Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del.

"The president says, 'I don't care.' He's not accountable anymore," Hagel told Esquire in June 2007. "He's not accountable anymore, which isn't totally true. You can impeach him, and before this is over, you might see calls for his impeachment. I don't know. It depends how this goes."

Hagel's fierce opposition to America's involvement in Iraq – he called it one of the five monumental blunders of history, on par with the Trojan War – will be of substantial importance as the Obama administration charts our course out of Afghanistan, deciding how to withdraw the last of the troops in 2014 and how much of a presence to leave behind.

Hagel's support for McCain, which was substantial in his competition against Bush, disappeared in the 2008 election. Hagel toured Iraq and Afghanistan with Obama during his first campaign for the presidency.

In October 2008, Hagel's wife, Lillibet, announced her support for the Obama team, after the Washington Post reported on her donations to his campaign. She donated again in 2012.

Before the 2008 election, Hagel wrote: "The next president of the United States will face one of the most difficult national security decisions of modern times: what to do about an Iran that may be at the threshold of acquiring nuclear weapons."

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Turmoil in Indian court as five accused of rape appear

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Five men accused of the gang rape and murder of an Indian student appeared in court on Monday to hear charges against them, after two of them offered evidence possibly in return for a lighter sentence in a case that has provoked widespread anger.

The five men, along with a teenager, are accused of raping the 23-year-old physiotherapy student when she boarded their bus after going to the cinema in New Delhi on December 16. She died two weeks later in a Singapore hospital.

The attack on the student has ignited protests against the government and anger towards the police for their perceived failure to protect women. It has also provoked a rare national debate about rising violence against women.

Reuters images showed the men stepping out of a blue police van that brought them from Tihar jail, and walking through a metal detector into the South Delhi court, across the street from the cinema where the victim watched a film before boarding the bus with a male friend on December 16.

Following rowdy scenes in the packed court, the magistrate, Namrita Aggarwal, closed the hearing to the media and the public. The court was cleared and police were posted at its doors before the accused were brought in.

"Keeping in view the sensitivity of this case that has risen, the proceedings including the inquiry and trial are to be held in camera," Aggarwal said, before ordering people not connected with the case out of the courtroom.

A police guard said the five men had their faces covered when they entered the court, where the magistrate was due to read charges against them. The five have already been charged with murder, rape and abduction along with other offences.

Aggarwal said the next hearing would be on January 10. She did not say when the case would go to trial in a separate, fast-track court, set up after the attack on the woman.

Earlier, an argument broke out in court when a lawyer offered to defend the men. He was shouted down by colleagues who said the accused did not deserve representation, given the brutality of the crime.

Two of the accused, Vinay Sharma and Pawan Gupta, moved an application on Saturday requesting they be made "approvers", or informers, against the other accused, Mukesh Kumar, Ram Singh and Akshay Thakura, public prosecutor Rajiv Mohan told Reuters.

Mohan told Reuters he was seeking the death sentence given the "heinous" crime.

"The five accused persons deserve not less than the death penalty," he said, echoing public sentiment and calls from the victim's family.

Members of the bar association in Saket district, where the case is being heard, have vowed not to represent the accused.

GROUNDS FOR APPEAL?

But on Monday, Supreme Court lawyer Manohar Lal Sharma stood up to offer representation to the men. He was booed by other lawyers in the court, where media and advocates had gathered before the men were due to appear.

"We are living in a modern society. We all are educated. Every accused, including those in brutal offences like this, has the legal right to represent his or her case to defend themselves," Lal Sharma said.

"I'm afraid they won't get justice, that's why I have decided to appear for them in the court," Sharma said, but added it was up for the court to decide.

Police have conducted extensive interrogations and say they have recorded confessions, even though the five have no lawyers.

Legal experts say their lack of representation could give grounds for appeal should they be found guilty. Similar cases have resulted in acquittals years after convictions.

Last week, chief justice Altamas Kabir inaugurated six fast-track courts to help reduce a backlog of sex crime cases in Delhi.

But some legal experts have warned that previous attempts to fast-track justice in India in some cases led to imperfect convictions that were later challenged.

The men, most of them from a slum neighborhood, will be offered legal aid by the court before the trial can begin.

The sixth member of the gang that lured the student and a male friend into the private bus is under 18 and will be tried in a separate juvenile court.

The government is aiming to lower the age teenagers can be tried as an adult, given widespread public anger that the boy will face a maximum three year sentence.

The victim, who died on December 29 in hospital in Singapore, where she had been taken for treatment, was identified by a British newspaper on the weekend but Reuters has opted not to name her.

Indian law generally prohibits the identification of victims of sex crimes. The law is intended to protect victims' privacy and keep them from the media glare in a country where the social stigma associated with rape can be devastating.

(Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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China fund mulls buying stake in Daimler: report

SHANGHAI: China's sovereign wealth fund is considering buying a four to 10 per cent stake in German automaker Daimler, the website of the official People's Daily newspaper said at the weekend.

The potential purchase comes as China Investment Corp. (CIC), which had more than US$480 billion from the wealth fund under management at the end of 2011, seeks bargains in Europe's weak economy, said the website, quoting unnamed sources.

But a source with knowledge of the matter dismissed the report, saying it was "not true". Chinese media reported nearly a year ago that Daimler had been in contact with CIC regarding a possible deal.

The Financial Times newspaper valued a purchase of four to 10 per cent of Daimler at 1.8 billion to 4.5 billion euros.

A spokeswoman for CIC, declining to be named, said: "Our consistent policy is that we do not comment on any particular project."

Daimler, which produces luxury Mercedes-Benz cars as well as trucks, plans to sell 300,000 cars in China in 2015, about two-thirds of which will be from local production, the company said last month.

In October last year, CIC bought a 10 per cent stake in the company that controls London's Heathrow airport, according to Spanish construction group Ferrovial, one of the vendors.

Last January CIC bought a stake in British utility company Thames Water.

CIC was established in 2007 to invest some of China's massive foreign exchange reserves, the world's largest at US$3.3 trillion at the end of September last year.

China's sovereign wealth fund suffered a 4.3 per cent loss on its overseas investments in 2011 due to the weak global economy. It was the first loss since 2008, when CIC was hit by the global financial crisis.

- AFP/xq

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Budget curtailment will affect IAF modernisation: Air Chief NAK Browne

PHALODI (RAJASTHAN): The decision to curtail the defence budget by Rs 10,000 crore will affect Air Force modernisation projects and the issue will be taken up with the government, Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne said on Monday.

Browne, who was on a visit to Phalodi Air Force Station near Jodhpur, told reporters that the IAF is on a modernisation spree on various fronts and this has been possible "due to generous sanctioning of the budget by the government and its full utilisation".

However, he said, the "curtailment (of budget) will affect modernisation of the Air Force. We will take up the issue with the government in order to work out some solution."

Government has imposed around five per cent cut in the Rs 1.93-lakh-crore defence budget in view of the economic slowdown following which key deals like procurement of 126 multi-role combat aircraft are likely to be pushed to the next fiscal.

The ministry of finance recently conveyed to the defence ministry that there would be a cut of around Rs 10,000 crore.

"We look forward to complete modernisation of the IAF by 2022," Browne said, adding that the pace will be affected by the curtailment of budget.

Browne was on a visit to Phalodi Air Force Station where he formally inducted the 5th helicopter unit of the upgraded MI-17 V5, a medium-lift chopper.

The 6th unit of this helicopter will be deployed in Eastern Command at Hashimara air force base in Assam.

"Contract has been signed for 59 more such helicopters," he said.

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Your medical chart could include exercise minutes

CHICAGO (AP) — Roll up a sleeve for the blood pressure cuff. Stick out a wrist for the pulse-taking. Lift your tongue for the thermometer. Report how many minutes you are active or getting exercise.

Wait, what?

If the last item isn't part of the usual drill at your doctor's office, a movement is afoot to change that. One recent national survey indicated only a third of Americans said their doctors asked about or prescribed physical activity.

Kaiser Permanente, one of the nation's largest nonprofit health insurance plans, made a big push a few years ago to get its southern California doctors to ask patients about exercise. Since then, Kaiser has expanded the program across California and to several other states. Now almost 9 million patients are asked at every visit, and some other medical systems are doing it, too.

Here's how it works: During any routine check of vital signs, a nurse or medical assistant asks how many days a week the patient exercises and for how long. The number of minutes per week is posted along with other vitals at the top the medical chart. So it's among the first things the doctor sees.

"All we ask our physicians to do is to make a comment on it, like, 'Hey, good job,' or 'I noticed today that your blood pressure is too high and you're not doing any exercise. There's a connection there. We really need to start you walking 30 minutes a day,'" said Dr. Robert Sallis, a Kaiser family doctor. He hatched the vital sign idea as part of a larger initiative by doctors groups.

He said Kaiser doctors generally prescribe exercise first, instead of medication, and for many patients who follow through that's often all it takes.

It's a challenge to make progress. A study looking at the first year of Kaiser's effort showed more than a third of patients said they never exercise.

Sallis said some patients may not be aware that research shows physical inactivity is riskier than high blood pressure, obesity and other health risks people know they should avoid. As recently as November a government-led study concluded that people who routinely exercise live longer than others, even if they're overweight.

Zendi Solano, who works for Kaiser as a research assistant in Pasadena, Calif., says she always knew exercise was a good thing. But until about a year ago, when her Kaiser doctor started routinely measuring it, she "really didn't take it seriously."

She was obese, and in a family of diabetics, had elevated blood sugar. She sometimes did push-ups and other strength training but not anything very sustained or strenuous.

Solano, 34, decided to take up running and after a couple of months she was doing three miles. Then she began training for a half marathon — and ran that 13-mile race in May in less than three hours. She formed a running club with co-workers and now runs several miles a week. She also started eating smaller portions and buying more fruits and vegetables.

She is still overweight but has lost 30 pounds and her blood sugar is normal.

Her doctor praised the improvement at her last physical in June and Solano says the routine exercise checks are "a great reminder."

Kaiser began the program about three years ago after 2008 government guidelines recommended at least 2 1/2 hours of moderately vigorous exercise each week. That includes brisk walking, cycling, lawn-mowing — anything that gets you breathing a little harder than normal for at least 10 minutes at a time.

A recently published study of nearly 2 million people in Kaiser's southern California network found that less than a third met physical activity guidelines during the program's first year ending in March 2011. That's worse than results from national studies. But promoters of the vital signs effort think Kaiser's numbers are more realistic because people are more likely to tell their own doctors the truth.

Dr. Elizabeth Joy of Salt Lake City has created a nearly identical program and she expects 300 physicians in her Intermountain Healthcare network to be involved early this year.

"There are some real opportunities there to kind of shift patients' expectations about the value of physical activity on health," Joy said.

NorthShore University HealthSystem in Chicago's northern suburbs plans to start an exercise vital sign program this month, eventually involving about 200 primary care doctors.

Dr. Carrie Jaworski, a NorthShore family and sports medicine specialist, already asks patients about exercise. She said some of her diabetic patients have been able to cut back on their medicines after getting active.

Dr. William Dietz, an obesity expert who retired last year from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said measuring a patient's exercise regardless of method is essential, but that "naming it as a vital sign kind of elevates it."

Figuring out how to get people to be more active is the important next step, he said, and could have a big effect in reducing medical costs.

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Online:

Exercise: http://1.usa.gov/b6AkMa

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AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

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Pastor Accused of Killing Wives Faces Trial

Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday for Pastor Arthur Schirmer, who is accused of killing his second wife and then staging a car accident to hide it.

Schirmer, 64, also faces a second trial at a later date for the death of his first wife. He has said he is innocent of all charges.

In 2008, the pastor and his wife, Betty, were involved in what appeared at the time to be a car crash. Schirmer told police at the time that he had been driving 55 mph and swerved to miss a deer, causing him to drive off the road, according to a police affidavit obtained by ABC News.

Schirmer also said at the time that his wife's head had come forward and struck the windshield, according to the affidavit. Betty died a day later and her body was cremated at the request of Schirmer.

It wasn't until a grisly suicide in 2010 inside Schirmer's office that authorities decided to revisit the case of Betty Schirmer's death and arrest the pastor.

The man who broke in and shot himself at the desk in Schirmer's office at the Reeders United Methodist Church, Joseph Mustante, was the husband of the pastor's secretary, Cynthia Mustante, Poconos Township Police Detective James Wagner said.

Pocono Record, David Kidwell/AP Photo

Mustante's suicide was prompted by the discovery that his wife and the pastor had apparently been having an affair, Wagner said. He was alone at the time of his death.

Investigators looking into the suicide say that several church parishioners had concerns about the deaths of Schirmer's two wives.

"That suicide eventually exposed the affair publicly and subsequent to that, questions arose about the loss of [Schirmer's] wives and his character became questionable," Wagner said.

Relaunching the investigation into the two deaths, Wagner said he quickly suspected that "foul play existed, and the car crash was staged," allegedly, by Schirmer. Wagner said investigators also believed there was something "suspicious" about the first wife's death, a marriage that investigators had not known about prior to the suicide.

Investigators Look Into Deaths of Rev. Arthur Schirmer's Wives

Schirmer's first wife, Jewel, died in April 1999 from a traumatic brain injury after she purportedly fell down a flight of stairs in Lebanon, Pa., Wagner said.

Lebanon is about 100 miles southwest of Reeders, where Schrimer later moved with his second wife.

At the time of Jewel's death, Wagner said, a relative told police that he suspected Schirmer may have had a hand in his wife's death but that the investigation was "never completed."

On Dec. 11, 2012 -- more than 13 years after Jewel died, a Lebanon County judge ruled Schirmer would be tried for her murder.

When investigators looked at the death of Betty Schirmer, they saw inconsistencies, Wagner said.

"There was no airbag deployment and it simply looked like a car that had driven off the road at a very low speed," Wagner said. "It didn't match the injuries to [Betty's head].

"I know there are people out there who probably know him and feel like there is absolutely no way he would be capable of doing this," Wagner of Schirmer. "But they clearly don't know him."

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Syria's Assad rejects dialogue with "puppet" opposition

DEAR ABBY: I'm the youngest of three children and I'll be graduating from high school in the spring. My parents always seemed happy with each other. They were obviously in love, and they told my brothers and me they would never get divorced. Although they had arguments, they always made up, and it never seemed to be serious.For the last few months, my dad has been acting weird. He spends a lot of time talking to and texting "a friend" on the phone. The problem is, although the friend has a male name ("George") in his contacts, the person has a female voice. ...

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13 killed in Philippine shootout: police

MANILA: Police in the Philippines killed 13 members of a criminal gang in a shootout on Sunday, the third violent incident within days amid widespread calls for stricter gun controls.

The battle erupted after the gunmen in two vehicles tried to smash through a police checkpoint near the town of Atimonan, according to the national police headquarters' operations centre.

A police statement said one senior police officer was wounded and taken to hospital. It said 10 firearms were recovered from the gang members, including an M16 assault rifle.

No other details of the incident in the town 173 km (108 miles) southeast of Manila were available.

The incident occurred two days after a drug-crazed former village official went on a shooting rampage, killing seven people and wounding 12 others, some of whom have life-treatening injuries.

Rolando Bae was himself killed in a subsequent shootout with police.

Also last week two children aged seven and four were killed by stray bullets fired during celebratory gunfire to welcome the New Year.

The incidents triggered public condemnation and calls for stricter controls on gun ownership, with official statistics estimating nearly 600,000 unlicensed guns across the Philippines.

Some 1.2 million licensed firearms were on the registry as of 2012.

Various civic groups as well as the influential Catholic church have called for a total ban on guns on the streets. President Benigno Aquino -- himself a gun aficionado -- has yet to respond to the demand.

Other groups called for the return of capital punishment, which the government banned in 2006.

- AFP/xq

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