Monday, June 25, 2018

On Saturday, the plastic ban in the Indian state of Maharashtra came into force. In an attempt to minimise pollution, the state government has introduced a ban on single-use plastics.

The leader of the Yuya Sena political party, Aaditya Thackeray, said on Twitter, “The ban on single use disposable plastic cups, plastic bags, plastic straws, plastic plates and cutlery, styrofoam cutlery and non woven bags”. He added, “these are global issues now and we have taken a step to combat it”.

Plastic pollution has led to the choking of drains, marine pollution and a risk of animals consuming plastics. This year, India’s motto for World Environment Day — June 5 — was “Beat Plastic Pollution”. People violating the plastic ban are to face a fine of 5,000 Indian Rupees (INR) for the first offence. For the second offence, the fine is INR 10,000 and the third time offence is INR 25,000 and a three-month prison term. Deputy municipal commissioner Nidhi Choudhary said, “To weed out corruption, we plan to give inspectors payment gadgets for electronic receipts of the fines”.

The Maharashtra government has given a 90-day period for manufacturers to dispose of existing polyethylene terephthalate (PET/PETE) plastic spoons and plates, while shopkeepers and citizens in general have six months to dispose of plastics. However, the ban does not prohibit plastic usage for wrapping medicines or milk cartons thicker than 50 microns.

The state government had announced the decision for the plastic ban on March 23. According to NDTV’s report, Maharashtra is the eighteenth Indian state to enforce a state-wide plastic ban. Aaditya Thackeray also said, “I congratulate the citizens for making this into a movement, even before the ban was enforceable, giving up single use disposable plastic.”

Sunday, April 26, 2009

An attempted hijacking of an Italian cruise ship carrying 1,500 passengers by Somali pirates was thwarted on Sunday by the vessel’s security guards. Nobody was injured. The incident occurred about 290 kilometres north of Victoria, the Seychelles.

According to the captain of the ship, Ciro Pinto, six pirates in a speedboat approached the ship and started shooting, but were forced to flee after security started firing pistols and spraying water from hoses at them.

“One white small boat with six people on board approached the port side of the ship and started shooting,” Pinto said, saying that two hundred rounds were shot. He continued that “our security started shooting in the air […] and also we started spraying some water” in an effort to stop the pirates.

Witness reports say that there were many passengers on the ship’s deck when the incident happened, and some of them threw chairs at the attacking pirates.

The ship, which is named the Melody, is owned by the Italian MSC Cruises company. It had departed from South Africa and was en route to Italy.

Piracy is rampant in the waters off the eastern coast of Africa and the Gulf of Aden. Since the start of this month, pirates have attacked approximately a dozen ships, despite the presence of about a score of naval warships patrolling the vicinity.

Friday, December 30, 2005

The Australian Centre for Languages, a company which has a multi-million dollar contract with the Australian government to provide refugee services, has been accused of breaching its duty of care following the death of a chronically ill child and allegations of failing to provide three women in their care with food.

Monday, March 2, 2009

According to officials, João Bernardo Vieira, the president of Guinea-Bissau, was shot to death on Monday in his palace by renegade soldiers.

“President Vieira was killed by the army as he tried to flee his house which was being attacked by a group of soldiers close to the chief of staff Tagme Na Waie, early this morning,” Zamora Induta, a military spokesman, said to Agence France-Presse, insisting that “this was not a coup d’etat.”

“We reaffirmed our intention to respect the democratically elected power and the constitution of the republic,” he said. “The people who killed President Vieira have not been arrested, but we are pursuing them. They are an isolated group. The situation is under control.”

Induta also said that the president was “taken down by bullets fired by these soldiers,” and that afterwards they looted his home. “They were taking everything they could carry, his personal belongings, the furniture, everything,” Induta said.

The assassination is believed to be a revenge for a bomb blast that killed one of Vieira’s rivals, the army chief of staff General Batista Tagme Na Waie, just a few hours earlier.

The constitution says that the nation’s parliament chief, Raimundo Pereira, is to succeed Vieira in the case of his death.

Jean Ping, the chief executive of the African Union, said that the assassination of the president was a “criminal act”.

Guinea-Bissau, located on the western coast of Africa, has had a history of coups, and is one of the world’s poorest countries. It is notorious as being a transit point for the cocaine trade between Europe and South America.

João Bernardo Vieira, born in 1939, came to power in Guinea-Bissau during a coup in 1980, but was forced out in 1999 when a civil war started. In 2005, he returned from his exile in Portugal to participate in the nation’s elections, and won the vote.

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

On Wednesday, the Indian Supreme Court declared that preventing women of age 10–50 from entering the Sabarimala Temple in Kerala was “arbitrary” and unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court began on Tuesday the hearing for the public interest litigation filed by petitioners including the Indian Young Lawyers Association. A panel of five judges — Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice RF Nariman, Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice Indu Malhotra, and the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra — heard the case of traditional prohibition of the entry to the temple based on a woman’s age.

For centuries, women within the age range when females generally have monthly menstrual cycles were prevented from entering the Lord Ayyappan’s temple. Ayyappan was considered celibate. Earlier this year, the Travancore Devaswom Board made it compulsory for women to produce an age proof in order to enter the temple. Ravi Prakash Gupta, one of the representatives of the petitioners, said, “Mere sight of a woman does not affect anyone’s celibacy if one has take[n] the oath of it, otherwise, such oath has no meaning.” Menstruation has been considered taboo in Indian society, and women were barred from entering the kitchen or a temple during the menstruation cycle.

A number of fundamental rights, mentioned in the Indian Constitution; including the right against discrimination on the basis of gender or sex, per Article 15; right to freedom of practice of any religion per Article 25; and abolishment of untouchability in Article 17; were considered in this case.

Citing Article 25 (1) of the Indian constitution, Justice DY Chandrachud said, “All persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion.” Chandrachud went on to say, “This means your right as a woman to pray is not dependent on a legislation. It is a constitutional right. Nobody has an exclusionary right of entry to a temple”.

Chief Justice Dipak Misra said, “On what basis do you deny the entry. It is against the Constitutional mandate. Once you open it for public, anybody can go.” Misra also said, “In a public place of worship, a woman can enter, where a man can go. What applies to a man, applies to a woman.”

Saying the state government is “bound to obey” the Supreme Court’s verdict, Kerala’s Minister K Surendran said, “The state government’s stand is that women should be allowed to offer prayers in Sabarimala Temple […] Devaswom board now has the same opinion as that of government.”