Thursday, August 6, 2009

American film director John Hughes, noted for such movies as Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink and The Breakfast Club, died Thursday due to a heart attack.

A statement, released by his representative, said that he experienced the heart attack while on a morning stroll in Manhattan, New York. Hughes was born on February 18, 1950 in Michigan. He started his career as an advertising copywriter in Chicago. By the end of the 1970s he was a frequent contributor to the National Lampoon magazine.

In the 1990s, he made the Home Alone series, which became a box office sensation and turned Macaulay Culkin into a star.

In recent years, Hughes stepped back from the movie industry to spend more time with his family. He is survived by his wife of 39 years, Nancy, two sons and four grandchildren.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

In a press release today, California-based Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. indicated that it has voluntarily recalled just over 143 million pounds (65 million kilograms) of raw and frozen beef products, which is considered to be the largest single recall of beef products in U.S. history. The move follows an investigation by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) into allegations of animal cruelty and mishandling of cattle destined for the human food chain.

The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) had determined that beef products produced by the Chino, California company were unfit for human consumption as the cattle had not received “complete and proper inspection.”

The recall has been designated as Class II, which the USDA describes as “a health hazard situation where there is a remote probability of adverse health consequences from the use of the product.”

On Friday, Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer indicated that charges had been laid against employees of the plant alleged to have taken part in the mistreatment of cattle. “Today [Friday], the San Bernardino District Attorney filed felony animal cruelty charges against two employees who were terminated by Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company,” said Schafer. “It is regrettable that these animals were mistreated and I am encouraged and supportive of these actions by the San Bernardino District Attorney in response to this mistreatment.”

The USDA learned of the possible inhumane handling of non-ambulatory (disabled) cattle at the packing plant on January 30 and has since suspended activities at the plant. “We continue to conduct a thorough investigation into whether any violations of food safety or additional humane handling regulations have occurred,” said Secretary Schafer in a press release. “On February 8, our Office of the Inspector General took the lead on the investigation. At that time, USDA extended the administrative hold on Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company products for the National School Lunch Program, the Emergency Food Assistance Program and the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations while the investigation continues,” said Schafer.

The FSIS reported that Hallmark/Westland had not contacted the FSIS public health veterinarian, as required, when cattle became ill or disabled after undergoing ante-mortem (slaughter) inspection, putting the company out of compliance with FSIS regulations. “Because the cattle did not receive complete and proper inspection FSIS has determined them to be unfit for human food and the company is conducting a recall,” explained Secretary Schafer.

The cruelty charges stem from an undercover video that reportedly showed sick cattle being moved by crews using forklifts.

“Words cannot accurately express how shocked and horrified I was at the depictions contained on the video that was taken by an individual who worked at our facility from October 3 thru November 14, 2007,” said Steve Mendell, President, Westland Meat Co. and Hallmark Meat Packing. “We have taken swift action regarding the two employees identified on the video and have already implemented aggressive measures to ensure all employees follow our humane handling policies and procedures. We are also cooperating with the USDA investigators on the allegations of inhumane handling treatment which is a serious breech of our company’s policies and training.”

The USDA stressed that it is “extremely unlikely” that the cattle involved were at risk for Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad-cow disease due to the employment of multiple safeguards. The USDA felt the recall was required, however, as the plant had allegedly violated USDA regulations.

The recall involves raw and frozen beef products produced on various dates from February 1, 2006 to February 2, 2008. For further information about the recall, consumers, media, and distributors are encouraged to contact Hallmark/Westland’s Plant Manager Stan Mendell or Food Safety Consultant Steve Sayer at (909) 590-3340 or the FSIS website, www.fsis.usda.gov.

Monday, May 3, 2010

The British oil company BP has said it will pay the cleanup costs from a severe oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

In a statement on its website posted earlier today, BP pledged to take responsibility for cleaning up after the Deepwater Horizon oil well ruptured, adding it would pay what it called “legitimate and objectively verifiable” compensation for claims of damage or injury.

“We are responsible, not for the accident, but we are responsible for the oil and for dealing with it and cleaning the situation up,” said BP chief executive Tony Hayward on the TV show Good Morning America, claiming the company was not at fault for the collapse of the oil rig itself, whose equipment was provided by another company, Transocean.

Transocean spokesman Guy Cantwell responded by saying: “We will await all the facts before drawing conclusions and we will not speculate.”

The Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20 and killed eleven workers. The cause of the disaster is not known.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

The upcoming 2006 Mississauga municipal election, to be held November 13, features an array of candidates looking to represent their wards in city council.

Wikinews contributor Nicholas Moreau has contacted as many candidates as possible, including Sean Semper-Whyte, asking them to answer common questions sent in an email. There is no incumbent in the ward; also competing for the position are Matanat Khan, Olive Rose Steele, Terry Pierce, Jr., Ron Starr, and former MP Carolyn Parrish.

Monday, January 19, 2009

The Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals have won their respective conference championship games to advance to Super Bowl XLIII, the championship game of the National Football League. The game is scheduled to take place on February 1 in Tampa Bay at Raymond James Stadium. The Steelers were the American Football Conference champion, defeating the Baltimore Ravens by a score of 23 to 14. Meanwhile, the Cardinals became the National Football Conference champions by defeating the Philadelphia Eagles 32 to 25.

Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco was the first rookie quarterback in the history of the NFL to help lead his team to two straight playoff victories, defeating the number 3 seeded Miami Dolphins to win the Wild Card round, and the number 1 seeded Tennessee Titans in the divisional round. They came in to the game against a number 2 seeded Steelers team that had already defeated them twice during the regular season. Early in the game the Steelers defense dominated the field, forcing him to only complete 3 out of 14 pass attempts and end the half with a lowly 9.8 quarterback rating and his team losing 13 to 7. By the beginning of the second half, snow was beginning to fall. Early in the third quarter, Flacco threw a 16 yard pass to wide receiver Derrick Mason, only to be sacked by safety Troy Polamalu for an 8-yard loss on the next play, forcing a punt for the Ravens. The Steelers were held on their next possession, forcing another punt. After the Ravens got the ball back, Flacco led the team down the field in what ended as a 58-yard touchdown drive to put the team up 16 to 14. However, near the end of the game, Flacco threw an errant pass intended for Mason that was intercepted by Polamalu and returned for a 40-yard defensive touchdown. This made the score 23 to 14, and essentially knocked the Ravens out of the game.

With 3:19 remaining in the game and the Ravens in possession of the ball for one last chance, a passing play was called. Flacco dropped back into a throwing position, and threw a short pass to running back Willis McGahee, who caught the ball and turned upfield. Going full speed up the field, Steelers safety Ryan Clark collided with McGahee, also running at full speed. The two made helmet-to-helmet-contact, knocking both players to the ground and knocking the ball out of the hands of McGahee. Ray Rice, another running back, commented “It was tough to watch. He’s like a brother to me.” Clark was helped off of the field by the Steelers medical staff, but McGahee remained down on the field with movement in only his legs and arms. He told team doctors that he had significant pain in his neck, and was taken off the field on a cart and taken to a nearby hospital. It is unknown how severe the injuries are at this time.

After the game, Ravens coach John Harbaugh said in a statement “I’m not going to sit here and say Joe played a certain way. Joe went out there and competed and battled and fought and tried to find a way to win the football game. So I certainly have no complaints about that.” Flacco completed only 17 out of 30 pass attempts for 141 yards passing. He was also sacked 3 times and threw 3 interceptions. “I’m not blaming it on any rookie-wall stuff. I don’t believe in any of that stuff,” said Flacco.

In the NFC championship, the Arizona Cardinals had not made it to a Super Bowl in the past 60 years. They were matched up against the high-powered offense of the Philadelphia Eagles, who were the number 6 seed in the NFC. The Cardinals were the number 4 seed, defeating the number 5 seeded Atlanta Falcons on Wild Card weekend, and the number 2 seeded Carolina Panthers in the NFC Divisional playoff round. The Cardinals were led by quarterback Kurt Warner, who became the second quarterback in NFL history to lead two different teams to a Super Bowl, the other being the St. Louis Rams. During the first half, the Cardinals quickly took the lead. By halftime, their lead was extended to 18 points in what looked like an easy win for the team. However, in the third quarter, Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb threw three touchdown passes, two of them being to tight end Brent Celek. After kicker David Akers missed an extra point attempt after the third touchdown pass, the score was 25 to 24 in favor of the Eagles. After the Cardinals received the ball, they drove up the field. With just under 3 minutes remaining in the game, Kurt Warner completed a game-winning touchdown pass to running back Tim Hightower, making the score 32 to 25,. and sealing the game for the Cardinals.

Kurt Warner completed 21 passes out of 28 pass attempts, for a total of 279 passing yards. Wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald caught three touchdown passes of 9, 62, and 1 yard, building on his record-breaking playoff performance of 23 catches, 419 yards, and 5 receiving touchdowns over 3 games. “It really set in when I saw the confetti. I always dreamed of being in the confetti. This is beyond my wildest dreams,” said Cardinals linebacker Bertrand Berry after the game. On the other side, Donovan McNabb remarked on not making it to the Super Bowl again. “You never want anything to end. It’s tough when you’re that close to making it to the Super Bowl,” he commented.

Friday, September 28, 2007

Bat for Lashes is the doppelgänger band ego of one of the leading millennial lights in British music, Natasha Khan. Caroline Weeks, Abi Fry and Lizzy Carey comprise the aurora borealis that backs this haunting, shimmering zither and glockenspiel peacock, and the only complaint coming from the audience at the Bowery Ballroom last Tuesday was that they could not camp out all night underneath these celestial bodies.

We live in the age of the lazy tendency to categorize the work of one artist against another, and Khan has had endless exultations as the next Björk and Kate Bush; Sixousie Sioux, Stevie Nicks, Sinead O’Connor, the list goes on until it is almost meaningless as comparison does little justice to the sound and vision of the band. “I think Bat For Lashes are beyond a trend or fashion band,” said Jefferson Hack, publisher of Dazed & Confused magazine. “[Khan] has an ancient power…she is in part shamanic.” She describes her aesthetic as “powerful women with a cosmic edge” as seen in Jane Birkin, Nico and Cleopatra. And these women are being heard. “I love the harpsichord and the sexual ghost voices and bowed saws,” said Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke of the track Horse and I. “This song seems to come from the world of Grimm’s fairytales.”

Bat’s debut album, Fur And Gold, was nominated for the 2007 Mercury Prize, and they were seen as the dark horse favorite until it was announced Klaxons had won. Even Ladbrokes, the largest gambling company in the United Kingdom, had put their money on Bat for Lashes. “It was a surprise that Klaxons won,” said Khan, “but I think everyone up for the award is brilliant and would have deserved to win.”

Natasha recently spoke with David Shankbone about art, transvestism and drug use in the music business.

DS: Do you have any favorite books?

NK: [Laughs] I’m not the best about finishing books. What I usually do is I will get into a book for a period of time, and then I will dip into it and get the inspiration and transformation in my mind that I need, and then put it away and come back to it. But I have a select rotation of cool books, like Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés and Little Birds by Anaïs Nin. Recently, Catching the Big Fish by David Lynch.

DS: Lynch just came out with a movie last year called Inland Empire. I interviewed John Vanderslice last night at the Bowery Ballroom and he raved about it!

NK: I haven’t seen it yet!

DS: Do you notice a difference between playing in front of British and American audiences?

NK: The U.S. audiences are much more full of expression and noises and jubilation. They are like, “Welcome to New York, Baby!” “You’re Awesome!” and stuff like that. Whereas in England they tend to be a lot more reserved. Well, the English are, but it is such a diverse culture you will get the Spanish and Italian gay guys at the front who are going crazy. I definitely think in America they are much more open and there is more excitement, which is really cool.

DS: How many instruments do you play and, please, include the glockenspiel in that number.

NK: [Laughs] I think the number is limitless, hopefully. I try my hand at anything I can contribute; I only just picked up the bass, really—

DS: –I have a great photo of you playing the bass.

NK: I don’t think I’m very good…

DS: You look cool with it!

NK: [Laughs] Fine. The glockenspiel…piano, mainly, and also the harp. Guitar, I like playing percussion and drumming. I usually speak with all my drummers so that I write my songs with them in mind, and we’ll have bass sounds, choir sounds, and then you can multi-task with all these orchestral sounds. Through the magic medium of technology I can play all kinds of sounds, double bass and stuff.

DS: Do you design your own clothes?

NK: All four of us girls love vintage shopping and charity shops. We don’t have a stylist who tells us what to wear, it’s all very much our own natural styles coming through. And for me, personally, I like to wear jewelery. On the night of the New York show that top I was wearing was made especially for me as a gift by these New York designers called Pepper + Pistol. And there’s also my boyfriend, who is an amazing musician—

DS: —that’s Will Lemon from Moon and Moon, right? There is such good buzz about them here in New York.

NK: Yes! They have an album coming out in February and it will fucking blow your mind! I think you would love it, it’s an incredible masterpiece. It’s really exciting, I’m hoping we can do a crazy double unfolding caravan show, the Bat for Lashes album and the new Moon and Moon album: that would be really theatrical and amazing! Will prints a lot of my T-shirts because he does amazing tapestries and silkscreen printing on clothes. When we play there’s a velvety kind of tapestry on the keyboard table that he made. So I wear a lot of his things, thrift store stuff, old bits of jewelry and antique pieces.

DS: You are often compared to Björk and Kate Bush; do those constant comparisons tend to bother you as an artist who is trying to define herself on her own terms?

NK: No, I mean, I guess that in the past it bothered me, but now I just feel really confident and sure that as time goes on my musical style and my writing is taking a pace of its own, and I think in time the music will speak for itself and people will see that I’m obviously doing something different. Those women are fantastic, strong, risk-taking artists—

DS: —as are you—

NK: —thank you, and that’s a great tradition to be part of, and when I look at artists like Björk and Kate Bush, I think of them as being like older sisters that have come before; they are kind of like an amazing support network that comes with me.

DS: I’d imagine it’s preferable to be considered the next Björk or Kate Bush instead of the next Britney.

NK: [Laughs] Totally! Exactly! I mean, could you imagine—oh, no I’m not going to try to offend anyone now! [Laughs] Let’s leave it there.

DS: Does music feed your artwork, or does you artwork feed your music more? Or is the relationship completely symbiotic?

NK: I think it’s pretty back-and-forth. I think when I have blocks in either of those area, I tend to emphasize the other. If I’m finding it really difficult to write something I know that I need to go investigate it in a more visual way, and I’ll start to gather images and take photographs and make notes and make collages and start looking to photographers and filmmakers to give me a more grounded sense of the place that I’m writing about, whether it’s in my imagination or in the characters. Whenever I’m writing music it’s a very visual place in my mind. It has a location full of characters and colors and landscapes, so those two things really compliment each other, and they help the other one to blossom and support the other. They are like brother and sister.

DS: When you are composing music, do you see notes and words as colors and images in your mind, and then you put those down on paper?

NK: Yes. When I’m writing songs, especially lately because I think the next album has a fairly strong concept behind it and I’m writing the songs, really imagining them, so I’m very immersed into the concept of the album and the story that is there through the album. It’s the same as when I’m playing live, I will imagine I see a forest of pine trees and sky all around me and the audience, and it really helps me. Or I’ll just imagine midnight blue and emerald green, those kind of Eighties colors, and they help me.

DS: Is it always pine trees that you see?

NK: Yes, pine trees and sky, I guess.

DS: What things in nature inspire you?

NK: I feel drained thematically if I’m in the city too long. I think that when I’m in nature—for example, I went to Big Sur last year on a road trip and just looking up and seeing dark shadows of trees and starry skies really gets me and makes me feel happy. I would sit right by the sea, and any time I have been a bit stuck I will go for a long walk along the ocean and it’s just really good to see vast horizons, I think, and epic, huge, all-encompassing visions of nature really humble you and give you a good sense of perspective and the fact that you are just a small particle of energy that is vibrating along with everything else. That really helps.

DS: Are there man-made things that inspire you?

NK: Things that are more cultural, like open air cinemas, old Peruvian flats and the Chelsea Hotel. Funny old drag queen karaoke bars…

DS: I photographed some of the famous drag queens here in New York. They are just such great creatures to photograph; they will do just about anything for the camera. I photographed a famous drag queen named Miss Understood who is the emcee at a drag queen restaurant here named Lucky Cheng’s. We were out in front of Lucky Cheng’s taking photographs and a bus was coming down First Avenue, and I said, “Go out and stop that bus!” and she did! It’s an amazing shot.

NK: Oh. My. God.

DS: If you go on her Wikipedia article it’s there.

NK: That’s so cool. I’m really getting into that whole psychedelic sixties and seventies Paris Is Burning and Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis. Things like The Cockettes. There seems to be a bit of a revolution coming through that kind of psychedelic drag queen theater.

DS: There are just so few areas left where there is natural edge and art that is not contrived. It’s taking a contrived thing like changing your gender, but in the backdrop of how that is still so socially unacceptable.

NK: Yeah, the theatrics and creativity that go into that really get me. I’m thinking about The Fisher King…do you know that drag queen in The Fisher King? There’s this really bad and amazing drag queen guy in it who is so vulnerable and sensitive. He sings these amazing songs but he has this really terrible drug problem, I think, or maybe it’s a drink problem. It’s so bordering on the line between fabulous and those people you see who are so in love with the idea of beauty and elevation and the glitz and the glamor of love and beauty, but then there’s this really dark, tragic side. It’s presented together in this confusing and bewildering way, and it always just gets to me. I find it really intriguing.

DS: How are you received in the Pakistani community?

NK: [Laughs] I have absolutely no idea! You should probably ask another question, because I have no idea. I don’t have contact with that side of my family anymore.

DS: When you see artists like Pete Doherty or Amy Winehouse out on these suicidal binges of drug use, what do you think as a musician? What do you get from what you see them go through in their personal lives and with their music?

NK: It’s difficult. The drugs thing was never important to me, it was the music and expression and the way he delivered his music, and I think there’s a strange kind of romantic delusion in the media, and the music media especially, where they are obsessed with people who have terrible drug problems. I think that’s always been the way, though, since Billie Holiday. The thing that I’m questioning now is that it seems now the celebrity angle means that the lifestyle takes over from the actual music. In the past people who had musical genius, unfortunately their personal lives came into play, but maybe that added a level of romance, which I think is pretty uncool, but, whatever. I think that as long as the lifestyle doesn’t precede the talent and the music, that’s okay, but it always feels uncomfortable for me when people’s music goes really far and if you took away the hysteria and propaganda of it, would the music still stand up? That’s my question. Just for me, I’m just glad I don’t do heavy drugs and I don’t have that kind of problem, thank God. I feel that’s a responsibility you have, to present that there’s a power in integrity and strength and in the lifestyle that comes from self-love and assuredness and positivity. I think there’s a real big place for that, but it doesn’t really get as much of that “Rock n’ Roll” play or whatever.

DS: Is it difficult to come to the United States to play considering all the wars we start?

NK: As an English person I feel equally as responsible for that kind of shit. I think it is a collective consciousness that allows violence and those kinds of things to continue, and I think that our governments should be ashamed of themselves. But at the same time, it’s a responsibility of all of our countries, no matter where you are in the world to promote a peaceful lifestyle and not to consciously allow these conflicts to continue. At the same time, I find it difficult to judge because I think that the world is full of shades of light and dark, from spectrums of pure light and pure darkness, and that’s the way human nature and nature itself has always been. It’s difficult, but it’s just a process, and it’s the big creature that’s the world; humankind is a big creature that is learning all the time. And we have to go through these processes of learning to see what is right.

Wednesday, December 28, 2005Black American women living in communities with high poverty rates are significantly less likely to be screened for cervical cancer, a study finds.

The Harvard School of Public Health’s Geetanjali Dabral Datta investigated the relationship between individual characteristics and larger socioeconomic factors and cervical cancer screening rates. The Febreuary 1 issue of Cancer carries the study. More than 40,000 black women from across the United States participated in the Black Women’s Health Study.

“African-American women have twice the mortality rate from cervical cancer as white women,” said Elizabeth Ward, the director of the American Cancer Society. “Researchers need to investigate how those differences are related to socioeconomic status. One of the big factors that may account for this finding is access to high-quality medical care. Often communities that have high poverty rates either lack access to good quality care, or people have to travel longer distances to obtain high-quality care.”

David L. Katz at Yale University’s School of Medicine said; “While this finding is not surprising, it is noteworthy just the same. No one should die of cervical cancer, because a simple screening test reliably finds the condition in its earliest stages when cure is almost universally achievable. Yet, several thousand deaths from this cancer occur each year in the U.S.”

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck the South Island of New Zealand at 12:51 PM local time on Tuesday (Monday 23:51 UTC). At least 75 people have been killed by collapsing buildings in central Christchurch, with more feared. Mayor Bob Parker said 55 bodies had been identified and there were a further 20 unidentified bodies. The spire of the iconic Anglican ChristChurch Cathedral has fallen and rubble is strewn throughout the central business district. Roads and carparks have cracked and lifted, and two buses are reported to be crushed under the bus exchange. Pools of mud have erupted due to burst water mains and liquefaction. Boulders and falling cliff faces have destroyed buildings on hillside suburbs. Fears for the safety of nearby towns Lyttelton and Akaroa are exacerbated due to communication problems.

The earthquake was centred near Christchurch, at a depth of five kilometres, according to the United States Geological Survey. Unlike previous quakes in the region that caused no fatalities, Tuesday quake was shallower and closer to the central city and the damage was much worse. Condemned buildings, weakened by last year’s widespread earthquakes, were destroyed. Some aftershocks have occurred in the area after the earthquake. The largest so far was a magnitude 5.6 which occurred at 7:04 p.m. February 21 EDT (1:04:18 p.m. local time, February 22).

Mayor Bob Parker has stated that as many as 25 major buildings in the city are destroyed. Urban Search and Rescue efforts are focussed on people trapped in the remains of Canterbury Television and Pyne Gould Corporation office buildings. The historic Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Christchurch has half collapsed, while the old Canterbury Provincial Chambers building, Piko Wholefoods, and a church on Durham Street have been destroyed.

The earthquake also caused an estimated 30 million tons of ice to break off of the Tasman Glacier forming icebergs in a lake near its foot. Tourists on boats at the time of the quake say waves of 3.5 meters swept the lake for at least 30 minutes following the event. The glacier sits on the country’s west coast, approximately 120 miles (200km) from Christchurch. No injuries were reported.

Many people are trapped in damaged buildings or under rubble, but emergency services have been hampered by gridlock as motorists and pedestrians evacuated the CBD. The main hospital remains operational despite one damaged ward being closed, and three triage centres have been set up to provide medical aid. Several hundred delegates attending a medical conference in the city, the great majority from Australia, have been trapped in the city; some of these are assisting with tending to the injured.

Electricity, telephone services, and traffic lights suffered widespread outages. Orion and Telecom are attempting to assess the damage, and generators have been sent down from Auckland to replace the backup generators in the city. Civil Defence is mounting a response with all available national resources, and Cabinet is holding an emergency session. Speaking to Radio New Zealand, Mayor Bob Parker said he was “thrown quite a distance”, that there were scenes of “great confusion” on the streets, and that the quake was “as violent as the one that happened on the 4th of September”. The emergency telephone code, 111 was not working for the entire region of Southland, New Zealand but is apparently stable as of approx. 4 pm NZDT. Christchurch Airport is currently closed to all but emergency flights. Speaking after the earthquake, Bob Parker said at least 200 people are believed trapped under rubble, saying that New Zealand are “going to be presented with statistics that are going to be bleak”.

Monday, April 23, 2018

On Saturday, India’s Union Cabinet approved capital punishment in an ordinance for the rape of girls under the age of twelve. This comes after nationwide protests that took place in various cities after an eight-year-old girl was gang-raped and killed in Kathua city in Jammu and Kashmir.

“Government has taken serious note of incidents of rape in various parts of the country […] while expressing deep anguish over such incidents, it has been decided to devise a comprehensive response to deal with the solution”, the special emergency cabinet said. Earlier this month retired government official Sanji Ram and several others —including multiple police officers— were arrested for, or in relation to, the gang rape and murder of Asifa, an eight-year-old Muslim girl, who police said was held captive and sedated at a temple in Kathua. On April 13, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation arrested Kuldeep Singh Sengar, a Bharatiya Janta Party’s Minister of Legislative Assembly, who is accused of raping a teenage girl in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh. Another rape and murder of an eleven-year-old girl took place in Gujarat’s Surat district. According to the postmortem report, she was tortured, raped, strangled and smothered.

The ordinance, which was approved by India’s president Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday, prescribed National Crime Records Bureau to maintain nationwide database and profiles for sexual offenders, setting up new fast-track courts, special rape-case forensic kits in all police stations and hospitals, and setting up special forensic labs.

The cabinet also recommended mandatory completion of rape investigation within a period of two months, prison term for convicts of rape of girls under the age of sixteen has been raised to twenty years, extending up to life-long imprisonment. Previously, it was ten years. Prison term for convicts of rape of females above the age of sixteen has been increased from seven to ten years. The ordinance document had no mention of rape of boys and men, Reuters reported.

In 2016, about 40 thousand rape cases were reported across the union, and roughly 40% of the victims were children. A law ministry official said, “An ordinance today is the best was to deal with the issue. An amendment bill will have to wait when the monsoon session of parliament commences.” The monsoon session of the Parliament of India begins in July.

The Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure, Protection of Children from Sexual Offences and Evidence Act are affected by the ordinance.

Women’s right activist Kirti Singh told Al Jazeera, “Studies have shown that death penalty does not act as deterrent. Our experience shows the same. We are against death penalty.” She added, “Some people in India act in with impunity, thinking that they won’t be punished. The certainty of the punishment, rather than severity of it, should be made sure”.

The December 2012 gang rape case in India’s capital New Delhi led to the amendment of criminal laws, establishing a provision of the death penalty to the convict if a woman is killed or left in a “vegetative state” after rape. It came as an ordinance, originally. The adult convicts of that case were sentenced to death, but it has not been carried out. The last time a convict received capital punishment in India was in 2015.