Four including 3 women gunned down in Swat

SWAT: Four persons were killed when unknown culprits opened fire in a house in Buner District of Swat on Monday morning, Geo News reported.

According to police, the incident occurred in Palwari area of Buner where unknown armed assailants opened fire in a house that killed three women and a man.

The ferocious incident didn’t end here. The brutal murderers set the bodies along with the house on fire after killing their targets.

Police reached the incident site and initiated investigation.

Eight women locked in building die in Philippine fire

MANILA: Eight women died in the Philippine capital on Friday as a fire engulfed a building in which they had been locked in by their employer, police said.

Eight other women survived the blaze by climbing to the roof of the two-storey building and jumping off, said police officer Cris Gabutin, an investigator in the case.

"They said the gate was locked. It was dark and they could not find a way out. It was a lucky thing they were able to get out to the roof and jump," Gabutin said.

The bodies of the eight other women were found sprawled in one room, Gabutin said.

"It was like they were trapped. Maybe they panicked and could not find their way out," he said. Gabutin said six of the dead women identified so far were aged between 19 and 24.

A neighbourhood watchman in the middle-class residential area where the fire occurred, Jayvee Arizapa, said neighbours saw the women leaping from the roof.

"We could also hear people screaming for help inside but we could not help them because the wall was too high," he said.

The women were all from rural areas who had been brought to Manila to work in a warehouse storing electronic products and computer disks, according to Gabutin. He said they were sleeping in a building next to the warehouse when the fire started just after midnight.

He said the cause of the fire was unknown but police had arrested the owner of the building, charging him with human trafficking, negligence resulting in homicide and operating a business in the area without a license.

It is a common practice in the Philippines for low-paid employees to sleep in their place of work.

Employers typically do not provide enough safety measures for their staff, and some are known to lock them in to stop them stealing or prevent socialising.

Seventeen workers died in the southern Philippines in 2012 when a fire burnt down a department store in which they were sleeping. (AFP)

Women need to be smart, nobody will empower them: Sonam Kapoor

 

"Women need to be smart, nobody is going to empower them," said Sonam Kapoor, a talented and outspoken actor, while expressing her views on the safety of women improving after the national elections.

"Women need to be smart about themselves. Nobody is going to empower them," Sonam told IANS in an interview, responding to a query whether things will change for women in India in terms of safety and equality post-election.

"If we want change, we need to be the change. We can't expect to talk about it and do nothing about it," added the actress, who is the daughter of well-known actor-filmmaker Anil Kapoor.

The election will involve 814 million voters, who are hoping to see positive change in the country after the polls, but the 28-year-old, tagged as the Bollywood's style diva, begs to differ.

Known for her candour, she feels that in the battle of the ballot, there is no place for "dignity".

"Being extremely honest, I want to be optimistic about it (politics), but I am going to be realistic about it. I think changes will come very slowly. I hate to be not diplomatic, but that's what it is. That's how our country is working right now," she said.

"Who do we vote for? Who do we speak to? It's become a circus. It's obnoxious. The kind of fight that is happening in the political arena, I think it's dirty... there is no dignity left to it," said the actress.

A staggering 100 million first-time voters would be casting their ballot in the April-May polls, whose results would be declared May 16.

In the last few years crime against women has been on the rise and voters are hoping for a constructive change in this regard.

"Forget women, looking at the larger picture, if this is how they are going to fight, it's mud-slinging and it's extremely immature. It is like high school election. It's very silly," she said.

However, she feels "if more people will vote, may be slowly and steadily there will be a change".

In terms of equality, actresses are not on a par with their male counterparts when it comes to remuneration in showbiz.

"Things for actresses have not changed. To be very honest, people are trying, everybody is trying and that's the best thing," said the actress, who comes from an affluent film family.

She agrees that the remuneration bar should be upped, but feels that she is not the right person to talk about it.

"Like I said, we need to do it. It's easy for me to make these choices because I have got a comfortable background. So I am going to be the last person to be judgmental about anybody.

"I am not even trying to be modest about it. There are people who can do it. Those who are strong in this industry - like successful girls right now - Deepika Padukone, Anushka Sharma, Sonakshi Sinha - they can voice their opinion. I have a long way to go," she said.

However, she pointed out that filmmaking is a business and remuneration is directly linked to box-office profits.

"At the end of the day, the film industry is a business. If we are not going to make that kind of money for them (the filmmakers), they are not going to pay us that kind of money."

Is the profit margin shared with actors and actresses?

"You get the profit margin if you are the lead of the film and if the film is being sold on your name, then you do get it. It's that's up to you and your lawyers, agents, etc. So you can be smart about it. "

Aishwarya Rai, Katrina Kaif, Sonam Kapoor come together for women awards

The three divas of Bollywood — Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Katrina Kaif and Sonam Kapoor — came together for an awards show on Thursday (March 27).

L’oreal Paris Femina Women awards honoured women with extraordinary accomplishments in Mumbai.

  

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The fifteen recipients of awards, from diverse fields, included Usha Jadhav for films, Kiran Bedi for social impact, Rani Khanam for music and performing arts and Razia Sultana for education.

The show also saw performances by Isha Sharvani, Swanand Kirkire and Aditi Mittal.

Shahbaz stresses on women role in progress of Pakistan

LAHORE: Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif has stated that if the metro bus project could be launched in 11 months, the obsolete system could also be changed, Geo News reported.

Addressing the convocation of Lahore College of Women University here Monday, Shahbaz Sharif asked the girls to play their due role after completing their studies. He said the country could not progress if educated women spend time at home to drink coffee.

CM Punjab announced to open the doors of treasury for the university, which make its place in the first 500 universities of the world.

Shahbaz further said happiness could not be brought by playing drums, adding that hardworking was key to happiness.

 

WFP, Balochistan to assist over 100,000 malnourished children, women

ISLAMABAD: The World Food Programme (WFP) and Balochistan government jointly launched a project to assist around 108,271 malnourished children, pregnant and lactating women suffering to prevent stunting and micronutrient deficiencies.

The project would be implemented with collaboration of Balochistan Department of Health from 2013 to 2015 in nine districts of Balochistan including Zhob, Musakhel, Lora Lai, Qilla Saifullah, Pishin, Nushki, Kharan, Washuk, Chagai by providing them food supplements through Lady Health Workers (LHWs).

It would also prevent their intergenerational transmission using locally produced specialized nutritious products and promoting appropriate infant and young child feeding practices utilising effective behaviour change communication strategies.

Balochistan is the second most affected province, where only 36.5 percent of the population were food secure. About 33.9 percent people were food insecure without hunger, Nicole Carn, World Food Programme (WFP) Chief in Balochistan told APP. In response to the nutrition situation in Balochistan, WFP has been assisting the Health Department of Balochistan to address the issue of malnutrition through Community Based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM), she added.

This will also contribute to reducing the incidence of low birth weight as maternal nutritional status of pregnant and lactating women will be improved. Out of 32 districts in Balochistan, there are nine districts where Balochistan Nutrition Cell, along with WFP was working to address the issue of malnutrition.

Journalist body elects women leaders

The Indian Journalists' Association in London has elected a woman president and general secretary for the first time in its 67-year history.

Aditi Khanna, London correspondent for Press Trust of India becomes IJA president, and Rupanjana Dutta, Associate Editor of Asian Business Publications Ltd, its general secretary.

The IJA was set up in May 1947, with the active encouragement from V.K. Krishna Menon, who subsequently became the first High Commissioner of independent India in Britain. He allowed the IJA, whose members included K.S. Shelvankar (then correspondent for The Hindu), Tarapada Basu, and Sundar Kabadi, to use the India League office, located conveniently near Fleet Street and the Indian High Commission. He also located the India Club, which he founded, in the same premises.

Women voters not fully registered, says study

ISLAMABAD: The issue of under-registration of women voters continuously shadowed the constitutionally promised universality and equal representation of the electorate in the 2013 general elections, albeit with varying intensity across regions.

“Of the 86.2m voters, 43.6 % were females compared to the 80m voters in 2008 with 44 % women voters,” said an analysis of the Free & Fair Election Network (Fafen).It has prepared a voluminous report, containing Parallel Vote Tabulations (PVT), compared to turnout and party trends of all the National Assembly constituencies.

The report said that at the provincial level, the ratio of man-woman voters has skewed further towards the male side in Punjab and Balochistan—percentages of female voters changed from 45.9 % to 2008 to 42.6 % in 2013 in Balochistan and dropped from 45 % in 2008 to 43.8 % in 2013 in Punjab.

The percentages of female voters have increased from 2008 to 2013 in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) from 30.1 % to 34.2 %, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) from 40.7 % to 42.8%, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) from 45.8 % to 46.3 % and more marginally in Sindh from 44.2 % to 44.8 %.

The report said a key issue observed in the last parliamentary polls was the disproportionate and significant increase in the number of rejected votes—the number, while increasing from 775,720 in 2002 to 973,694 in 2008, recorded a substantial raise of 64 % to reach 1,502,717 in the 266 constituencies observed.

It said that the issue of rejected voters is critical not merely due to the numbers but also given the skewed distribution across constituencies and regions—the numbers range from zero in NA-53 to 25,908 in NA-266.

The report said the distribution of rejected votes paints a somber picture in that only 27 of the 266 constituencies have fewer than 2,000 rejected votes. Of the rest, 78 constituencies have rejected votes from 2,000-5,000, 148 ranged in 5,001-10,000, and 10 fell in the 10,001 to 15,000 category while three constituencies had rejected votes exceeding 15,000.

From the results’ perspective, the issue is highlighted further by the fact that the number of rejected votes exceeds the margin of victory in 35 of the 266 constituencies covered in this report. Of these, the rejected votes outnumber the margin of win by less than 1,000 votes in six, indicating an acquired importance of rejected votes due to close competition.

In the other 29 constituencies, the number of rejected votes outweighs the margin of victory by as little as 1,140 (NA-153) and as many as 19,701 (NA-266).

The report said that the PVT compares the observed vote count in a sample of polling stations with the compiled election result for that constituency in order to provide evidence that confirms or disputes the official poll result.

It said the PVT methodology was developed over 20 years ago and has been applied in many countries around the world by international and domestic election monitoring organizations as a proven analytical method for verifying the accuracy of government vote counts. The PVT is based on direct observation of vote counting in a scientifically verifiable, robust sample of the polling stations in each constituency.

The report noted that although the PVT cannot measure other election-related problems like vote buying, voter intimidation, ballot box stuffing or the use of ghost polling stations, the PVTs are designed to identify potential inaccuracies in the official count by comparing it with actual observed and verified vote counts at sampled polling stations.

The PVT can help detect centralized changes in vote counts if the percentage of vote in official count offers in a statistically significant way from the percentages calculated from the PVT sample.

In cases in which electoral commissions release polling station level results, the PVT counts for sampled polling station and the commission’s polling station data can be compared directly.

Kajol looks beyond women-centric roles for Bollywood comeback

Bollywood actress Kajol is excited to return to the silver screen in husband Ajay Devgn's next but doing only women-oriented roles is not her priority.

Kajol, 39, has green-lighted a film to be produced by Ajay Devgn's home production. Contrary to the trend of women being the protagonist in contemporary films, Kajol feels good script essentially makes a good movie.

"The script has to be good. I don't look whether (the film) is women-oriented or not because I believe everyone contributes for the film and not just one person. It is about everybody in the film. The script has to be fabulous," Kajol told in an exclusive interview here.

Kajol said the home venture may take-off by year-end.

She said to get married and have kids was her conscious decision.

"There was dream to be a mother. I think it was very well spent time with my kids. My kids are wonderful and I have a big hand in it," she said.

Kajol took a sabbatical when she was at the peak of her career.

"It was the right time for me and I don't regret it (the decision) at all. For me, all my decisions have been taken at the right time only. There is no ifs and buts for me," she said.

The film that Ajay would be producing is in news for quite some time but Kajol is in no mood to disclose details.

"I hope it will be both serious and entertaining. We have an idea on hand but it is too early to talk about it. When we start shooting the film then we can say a bit about it," the actress said.

When asked how heroines discontinue their Bollywood career after certain age but the male actors continue to work even after the age of 40, Kajol said things will change.

"I feel we have less ideas. And our audience wants to watch only certain kind of cinema, however this is changing now. This is the time for new age cinema. The audience is changing and our longevity will increase," she said.

Google commits $1mn to bring more women into technology sector

Google is challenging to increase the representation of women in their respective tech communities (AP photo)

Search engine giant Google has committed USD one million (over Rs 6 crore) to 40 startup-focused organisations, including Nasscom 10,000 Startups and Jagriti Yatra from India, to promote participation of women in the technology space.
The efforts, a part of ‘#40 Forward’ programme under Google for Entrepreneurs’, are aimed at finding new ways to advance female entrepreneurs, the Internet giant said ahead of International Women’s Day.
Google is committing USD 1 million in aggregate to 40 startup-focused organisations, challenging them to increase the representation of women in their respective tech communities, it added.
“From simply changing the times of events to accommodate busy moms to teaching young girls to see themselves as entrepreneurs, 40 of our partner communities will soon launch new programmes and outreach initiatives to encourage women founders,” it said.
Some of the selected organisations include 1871, American Underground and Galvanise (US), Campus for Moms (Israel), Club Kidrepreneur (Australia), Cc Hub (Nigeria), Jagriti Yatra and Nasscom 10,000 Startups (India) and Outbox (Uganda), among others.
“Along with our 40 partners, we hope to create more inclusive networks and to move the needle for entrepreneurs like my mom and young women like me who aspire to be like her,” Google Global Entrepreneurship Manager Bridgette Sexton Beam said in a Google Blogpost.
According to the National Association of Women Business Owners, women make up 30 per cent of US business owners and employ nearly 7.8 million workers.
Even though women-owned enterprises operate with far less capital, in the venture-backed tech industry, they produce 12 per cent higher returns.
“That means that not only is supporting women in business the right thing to do, it’s also the smart thing to do,” Beam said.

Ban calls for progress as UN commission on women opens

UNITED NATIONS: UN chief Ban Ki-moon said there is still much progress to be made to advance women's rights, despite recent strides, as he opened an annual conference on women Monday.

Among priorities are health needs, maternal and child health, sexual education, contraception and fighting violence against women, including female genital mutilation, Ban said at the opening of the UN's 58th session of the Commission on the Status of Women.

"We have come a long way, but there is much still to do and little time to do it," he said. "Gender gaps are particularly stark among rural populations and for persons with disabilities, indigenous people and other marginalized groups," Ban said.

"Women also remain scarce in corporate leadership, despite research that has consistently shown that companies with more women on board perform better," he added

"Globally, only about one in five parliamentarians is female despite evidence that parliaments with more women take up a wider range of issues, including health, education, anti-discrimination and child support," he said.

The commission, which brings together officials from the UN's 193 member states and several thousand representatives from non-government groups, meets until March 21.

Last year, the commission adopted a landmark declaration denouncing violence against women and established a code of conduct to fight it, despite the reluctance of countries such as Iran, Libya, Sudan, Russia and the Vatican.

The declaration emphasized that violence against women and girls could not be justified by "any custom, tradition or religious consideration.

PM pledges protection of women rights to make them valuable citizens

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has said that his government is committed to ensuring empowerment of women as their participation in all walks of life is necessary for sustainable development.
"This is our national duty to protect the interests of women and provide them equal opportunities without any discrimination. I reaffirm my pledge for protection of women's rights in the country to make them valuable citizens and productive members of the society," said the Prime Minister in his message on the occasion of International Women Day, observed on Saturday.
He expressed the pleasure that Pakistani nation also joined the international community in celebrating the International Women's Day.
He said being a state party to the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Pakistan was committed to implement its provisions in true spirit. The government has already taken concrete measures to ensure women's rights as envisaged in the CEDAW, he added.
The Prime Minister said being cognizant of the situation of women, the government was continuously undertaking reforms so as to enable women to participate in all walks of life.
He said Pakistan had enacted effective legislation to address women issues with a view to safeguard their rights.
"I am glad to note that the Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights is making all out efforts for protection and promotion of women's rights in collaboration with all the relevant stakeholders," he said.
Nawaz Sharif said he felt pride in stating that Pakistani women were participating in all sectors and many of them had excelled in their respective fields, not only in Pakistan, but also on the international level.
He urged all concerned to sincerely undertake legislative, administrative and social sector reforms to further create an enabling environment for women.
He also appreciated the UN agencies and non-governmental organizations for their efforts for continuously advocating and highlighting the women's rights and hoped that they would continue pursuing this important mission with the same zeal and vigour.