Reports

French authorities have arrested in Paris the alleged leader of a Rwandan rebel group accused of mass rapes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the International Criminal Court (ICC) said on Monday. Callixte Mbarushimana, described as a leader of the rebel group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda, FDLR), was held after a sealed warrant was issued for his arrest on allegations the rebel group was involved in hundreds of rapes in DRC's...

Here comes another report that shames India. The World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2010 says India’s position is abysmal. Out of 134 countries surveyed, India is among the lowest ranked countries at the 112th position, with a score of 0.6155. The index ranks 134 economies according to the size of the gaps between men and women. India (112) occupies one of the last places in the regional rankings. India and Pakistan perform above average on the political empowerment of women...

It is not a very comforting to be told time and again how much of a hungry nation we are. The Global Hunger Index (GHI) does just that. Published by the International Food Policy Research Institute, it goes one up on The State of Food Insecurity in the World report released by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) by putting things in perspective. India stands 67th among 84 developing countries in this index – the lower rung you are on the ladder, the more hungry you...

Matt Damon is out of the next Bourne film. And so is ― believe it ― Jason Bourne himself. Director-screenwriter Tony Gilroy has said Damon’s character, Jason Bourne, will not feature in The Bourne Legacy, which is due to be released in 2012. Gilroy told Hollywood Elsewhere: "This is not a reboot or a recast or a prequel. No one's replacing Matt Damon. There will be a whole new hero, a whole new chapter … this is a stand-alone project. Jason Bourne will not be in this film, but he's very much...

A new carnivore species has been discovered in the marshes of the Lac Alaotra wetlands in central eastern Madagascar. The small, cat-sized, speckled brown mammal has been named Durrell’s vontsira (Salanoia durrelli) by scientists. The discovery, announced in the latest issue of the taxonomic journal Systematics and Biodiversity, was made by researchers from the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the Natural History Museum, London, Nature Heritage, Jersey, and Conservation International. The...

The son of a Baloch nationalist leader who was killed during Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf’s rule has offered a bounty of Rs 1 billion and 100 acres of land to any person who beheads the former dictator. The offer was made by Talal Akbar Bugti, the son of late leader Nawab Akbar Bugti and chief of the Jamhoori Watan Party, in the North West Frontier Province town of Quetta on Saturday. Nawab Bugti was killed in a cave, about 150 miles east of Quetta in August 2006. Musharraf, on the...

The film based on JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit is all set to become the most expensive film ever made. Sir Peter Jackson’s cinematic rendition, the two-part precursor to The Lord of the Rings biopic trilogy, will cost $500 million. The entire three-part The Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King – had cost $281 million in contrast. If all goes according to plan, the first part of The Hobbit will open in December 2012, with the second following a...

This should come as a farce – Egypt has become chair of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) governing body, while back home it shoots unarmed migrants and blocks UNHCR's access to detainees seeking the agency's protection. Egypt is notorious for shooting foreign nationals trying to cross into Israel. It also impedes the UN refugee agency's access to foreign nationals detained in Egypt who want to claim asylum. Since July 2007, Egypt has shot down 85 unarmed migrants as they...

A Montana woman drove 1,500 km from Montana to a museum in Loveland, Colorado so she could destroy a controversial piece of art featuring Jesus. Kathleen Folden has been arrested for damaging a print that portrays Christ engaged in a sex act. The woman entered the Loveland Museum Gallery on Wednesday, used a crowbar to break glass over the art and ripped the print, the Associated Press reported quoting the Loveland Reporter-Herald. Folden was reported to have been screaming, "How can you...

The former editor-in-chief of Playboy Indonesia Erwin Arnada has surrendered. His lawyer said Arnada complied with the law on Saturday and turned up at the prosecutor’s office. He has been convicted for violating the Islamic nation's indecency laws. “He was not taken to the prosecutor’s office by use of force. He would not escape, but he gave up himself,” Todung Mulya Lubis was quoted by Jakarta Post as saying. When asked why the journalist did not surrender earlier, Todung said his client...