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A teenager who witnessed the stabbing incident of Nitin Garg, was sentenced to 18 months probation by an Australian Court. Garg was killed earlier this year in January and this had strained the relations between India and Australia.

The 16-year-old boy, who has not been named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to being an accessory to the murder of 21-year-old Garg in Cruickshank Park on January 2, according to The Age.

The court heard Garg was on his way to work at a nearby Hungry Jack’s outlet when the two boys, both aged 15 at the time, noticed him walking past while speaking on his mobile phone.

The prosecution said the accused told his friend “that bloke’s phone looks nice,” which prompted him to allegedly approach Garg and stab him in the abdomen.

Days after Garg’s murder, police interviewed the boy who did not say anything about the incident.

However, later during another interview on April 26, the accused changed his story and told police he and his co-accused were in the Yarraville park on the night of the stabbing.

His co-accused, also a 16-year-old boy, has already been charged with murder and is due to face a committal hearing in February.

Phone records showed Garg tried to ring 000 for help immediately after he was stabbed but the accused yelled at him to “drop the phone” because he was scared he was calling the police.

In April, the boy told a friend’s father “he was going to tell him something he had never told anyone before” and admitted to being present during Garg’s stabbing.

The court heard that the man contacted police with the information.

Court documents reveal he was an accessory after the fact by demanding that Garg dispose of his own mobile phone.
 
The boy then agreed to wear a listening device to record a conversation with his co-accused in which the alleged murderer incriminated himself.

The prosecution described the boy’s co-operation as significant and said that a non-custodial sentence was an option for the court.

Justice Paul Coghlan said the crime was serious but the boy’s undertaking to give evidence against his co-accused meant the probation sentence was warranted.

Coghlan said if the teenager had not pleaded guilty and not agreed to assist the prosecution of his co-accused, the 16-year-old would have spent two years in a youth justice centre.

Ravi Matah

Melbourne. -  After a brief lull in racial attacks against Indians in Australia, an Indian, a 31-year old cookery student was stabbed in the stomach by two men after he finished work in a South Yarra bar early this month.

The student who did not wanted to be named underwent an emergency surgery and had a 26-stitches on his punctured bowel after the attack on November 5, according to AAP .

The Indian who was studying cookery in Melbourne has recalled the night he was stabbed in the stomach by two men after he finished work in a South Yarra bar. (more…)

People surf through the net during Dewali, Thanksgiving and Christmas festive season shopping  with a view to send gifts to their loved ones. And shockingly, a few criminals have sent down spammed messages on the net offering some attractive incentives on various pretexts.

This time round the spammers have taken the route via @twitter,  the world’s most popular social-media website awarding gift vouchers for attractive schemes. They are sending down tweets containing holiday theme attacks with shortened URLs repeatedly to lure innocent tweeples.

These URLs accompanying the tweets, when opened, will lead you to web-sites, which, supposedly will send you gift vouchers which one can pass on as gifts or use it themselves. (more…)

US President Barrack Obama has left an indelible mark on this nation and memories of his three day whistle-stop tour will remain etched in their hearts forever. Be it the politicians, the ordinary men women and children, all are talking about the Obamas. And they created this huge impact within 3 days of their tour to Mumbai and Delhi. Barrack Obama’s body language is such that he attracts one and all towards him coupled with his cool and calm attitude.

Michelle dances with children

The school children were thrilled when US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama arrived to celebrate the Dewali festival with them at Holy Name School, Colaba, Mumbai. The Obamas, who lit a lamp to mark the occasion, were greeted by the students here in their traditional Indian attire.

The school kids later performed the ‘Koli’ dance in honour of the Obamas’.  Both President Obama and Michelle Obama joined the kids for a foot-tapping Marathi folk number.

The school kids appeared all excited and geared up to celebrate the moment as the Obamas posed for a number of photographs with the children and gave autographs.

It’s not often someone can say they have had an opportunity to dance with the leader of the free world. And that’s exactly what happened for pupils at Holy Name High School, after U.S. President Barack Obama along with wife Michelle joined in with their Diwali celebrations.

Following in the footsteps of the First Lady, Obama joined her with some enthusiastic students and these dances were telecast live on television and the viewers went ecstatic.

The president and first lady greeted dancers before lighting candles on the second day of their visit to India.

Obamas with dancing children

But he didn’t appear to take to the moves on the floor as readily as his wife and White House aides doubled over in laughter at their boss’s efforts.

President Obama with wife Michelle later addressed the students of St Xavier’s College at Town Hall here, where he had a date with India’s Generation Next.

Obama wearing a white shirt and dark trousers, lightly kissed Michelle before taking on the students. He assured an informal atmosphere and spoke after Michelle had asked the young boys and girls to ask tough questions from him.

He began with ‘I don’t like speaking after Michelle but if you want to ask some easy questions that’s alright. He involved the students with phrases like ‘good question’,'terrific question’ and ‘I was expecting this question’.  Students asked him questions on subjects like Pakistan and terror also. The students were glad that they got the answers to their questions.

After the event was over, one student said, “He is the most powerful man in the world. Still he is able to connect with us, the youth”.

The smiling Obama has taken the level of ‘charm’ to new heights. But how does Obama manage to create such an impact on people? Is it his body language, his approach to the issues or is it his charisma, character and commitment to the cause of betterment of the society at large? I think all these factors jointly contribute in creating the ‘appeal’. Also, his upbringing in the path of his becoming of a world leader, has also contributed tremendously to his popularity.

 India has fallen in love with Barack Obama and India admires him. He has been surrounded and treated like royalty everywhere he has gone – from visits to India’s greatest monuments to a meeting with business leaders to his speech to the joint session of parliament.

Ravi Matah.

Pundit Octopus Paul, who had become a sensation after successfully predicting matches at the World Cup, died peacefully in his sleep at the age of two years. Stefan Porwoll, general manager of the Oberhausen Sea Life centre in Germany – where Paul made his predictions – confirmed the news. 

Paul the Octopus

“He died last night, a peaceful and natural death,” Porwoll said. 

“Management and staff at the Oberhausen Sea Life Center were devastated to discover that oracle octopus Paul, who achieved world-wide recognition during the recent World Cup, had passed away overnight,” the aquarium said in a statement. 

“We grew very fond of him,” said Sea Life general manager Stefan Porwoll. “He passed away during the night peacefully,” he said as the marine life centre flew flags at half mast and all employees wore black armbands.  (more…)

MELBOURNE: A 16-year-old boy from Melbourne on Friday pleaded guilty in a children’s court for his involvement in the stabbing of Indian student Nitin Garg, who died in January.

News of Nitin Garg’s death had shook the nation as this was the first racial related death reported in Australia.

The teenager, whose name has not been revealed, has been charged with committing a robbery by stealing Garg’s mobile phone and making a false statement to police in which he denied that his friend had killed the Indian.

The young boy pleaded guilty in a children’s court on Friday. (more…)

I had brought out in my earlier blog on CWG that the day these games are over the deals done by members and the OC of the Organising Committee of the Commonwealth Games will be probed.

Scintillating dances, laser show and a musical extravaganza on Thursday night marked the finale of the Commonwealth Games. The fourteen bands of the Indian Army gave a splendid display of music and their marching was excellently synchronised.

CWG Delhi 2010

The fireworks outside and the sounds of music inside the Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium had barely died down, when the Officials in the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Central Vigilance Commission began the assessment of the cases of corruption relating to the arrangements of the Commonwealth games.

India had stood second in the medals tally with a total of 101 medals in the Commonwealth ganes which their highest ever achieved. India’s gold medals tally stood at 38 medals which is the highest ever achieved by them and stood second behind Australia who have won a total of 177 medals.

A day after the Commonwealth Games came to an end Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met athletes at his residence on Friday. But Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi and the Organising panel members had simply not been invited.  Sports Minister MS Gill was present, sitting beside the Prime Minister during the photo shoot. (more…)

India has reacted sharply over news in the Australian media of a racist email scandal involving top Australian police officers. The Australian High Commissioner to India, Peter Verghese, was summoned by the Ministry of External Affairs on Saturday after top Victoria Police were caught circulating offensive mails on an Indian electrocuted on a train.

 A demarche was issued to him on this matter and it was conveyed to him that such an entrenched bias among sections of law enforcers towards the Indian community is a matter of serious concern.  We sincerely hope that apart from taking action against concerned officers, Australian authorities will also take necessary and effective measures to address concerns about safety of all people of Indian origin in Australia.

The officers in Victoria circulated video footage of the electrocution of a man who was travelling on the roof of a crowded train in India and suggested it could be a way to fix Melbourne’s Indian students’ problem, according to a report in the Herald Sun. (more…)

Mumbai: Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar was on Wednesday dropped from the Governing Council of the Indian Premier League as the BCCI met here for its 81st AGM, at which it was also decided to revoke the expulsion of its former chief Jagmohan Dalmiya.

The IPL governing council has been reconstituted and former India captain Sunil Gavaskar is not part of the new team, and as a consequence of an amendment to the constitution, the term of the  council has also been reduced from five years to one year.

The major overhaul of the IPL was on the cards for a long time and the Board also took the decision to withdraw their suit filed against Jagmohan Dalmiya in the Bombay High Court. Dalmiya had been expelled by the BCCI in 2006. (more…)

Melbourne:  After a lull in racial attacks against Indians in Australia, a 21-year-old man from the Indian community was brutally assaulted by a group of teenagers with baseball bats after they asked him “Buddy, are you Indian?”

The man, whose name has not yet been revealed,  was walking to Sandown Park rail station here when four teenage boys on bikes approached him, three with baseball bats, police were quoted as saying by local newspaper ‘Dandenong Leader’.

One of them asked him “Buddy, are you Indian?”

Police official Jo Hayden said the man was hit from behind, fell and was kicked while lying on the ground. Two passers-by took him home. (more…)