New York: The New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the New York Police Department over its surveillance of Muslim communities, accusing the police of trampling on religious freedoms and constitutional guarantees of equality.
The surveillance by the NYPD's intelligence division has extended beyond New York City's five boroughs into neighboring New Jersey and other nearby states. The police department says that surveillance of Muslims is legal under an earlier federal court order.
The lawsuit is the latest skirmish in an ongoing battle between the NYPD and civil liberties advocates over the department's aggressive policing tactics - including its stop-and-frisk practices, which are the subject of a separate federal lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed in US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, in Brooklyn, seeks to put an end to the NYPD's surveillance of Muslims, the destruction of all records on individuals created as a result of the program and the appointment of an independent monitor to oversee the department....
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06:55 AM, Jun 19, 2013
New Delhi: Although much is known about Mahatma Gandhi, there is always a new story waiting to be uncovered. In the book 'In The Shadow Of Freedom', Laxmi Tendulkar Dhaul narrates her parents' (Ayi Tendulkar and Indumati) love story, a story that features Mahatma Gandhi and a who's who of Indian freedom struggle. Even though Laxmi disapproved of her father's "much-married" status, her parents married on the condition that they...
11:42 AM, Jun 14, 2013
New Delhi: One reason we often give in support of banning the internet porn is that the step will be helpful in curbing the crime against women. Those who oppose the proposed ban see it as a devise to control the freedom of expression. Deshmukh, a Britain based businessman and the creator of Savita Bhabhi, is one of them and now, he has come up with a film which deals...
10:18 AM, May 28, 2013
Mumbai: Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting Manish Tewari on Saturday was called for a robust self-regulation in media to "keep out judicial intervention". "Content regulation in the media space is not going to come out of political executive, but will come out of the judicial process. Make self-regulation more inclusive and robust to keep out judicial intervention," he said while speaking at the Red Ink Awards function of the...
08:10 AM, May 26, 2013
London: A Sikh bus driver in Finland is fighting for his right to wear a turban while at work. Gill Sukhdarshan Singh, who works at the Veolia bus company at Vantaa near the Finnish capital of Helsinki, is trying to set a precedent by making the authorities allow him to wear a turban at work, a Finnish public broadcasting company reported on Tuesday. "I have a right to my turban,...
02:40 PM, May 21, 2013
Mumbai: Looking forward to his upcoming film 'Freedom', director Vivek Agnihotri says the movie is like 'Dil Chahta Hai' meeting 'Deewar'. 'Freedom', a political thriller, is set in different periods from 1984 to 2000. "It is a drama, not a satire. It is about the journey of youth, the journey post liberalisation. How the journey of talented, intelligent, gifted, the real cream of the country changed post liberalisation," Vivek, of...
01:51 PM, May 13, 2013
Washington: A panel in the United States has asked the government to continue its visa ban on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The same report has deemed Pakistan the world's worst violator of religious freedom. The report demanded that Pakistan be designated a country of particular concern. The report has also cited Afghanistan as being very poor for dissenting Sunni Muslims, Shias, Sikhs, Hindus and Christians. It also says that...
12:37 PM, May 01, 2013
Rome: Italian centre-left politician Enrico Letta said on Saturday he had won support of other parties to form a coalition government that will include one of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's closest allies as deputy prime minister. Letta met President Giorgio Napolitano after talks with Berlusconi and leaders of his centre-right People of Freedom (PDL) party to confirm that he had reached an accord which would clear the way for...
11:10 PM, Apr 27, 2013
Lahore: Eight decades after Bhagat Singh's execution by the British, a petition has been filed in a Pakistani court seeking the reopening of the freedom fighter's case so that he can be declared innocent. Imtiaz Rasheed Qureshi of the Save The Judiciary Committee filed the petition in the Lahore High Court. He said Bhagat Singh, who was sentenced to death by the British government and hanged in Lahore in March...
03:08 AM, Apr 11, 2013
Four private dailies hit the newsstands for the first time in almost 50 years in Myanmar on Monday, but many others failed to appear, hamstrung by poor financing, archaic equipment and a dearth of reporters. ...
06:45 AM, Apr 02, 2013
Four private daily newspapers started temporary publication on Monday, signifying the re-introduction of private daily newspapers in the Southeast Asian nation after a gap of five decades. ...
02:50 PM, Apr 01, 2013
A demand was made in the Rajya Sabha to set up a monument in Parliament House at the spot where Bhagat Singh had thrown bombs inside the Central Legislative Assembly in 1929. Making the demand during Zero Hour, KC Tyagi (JD-U) said there should be a monument in place to commemorate the bomb throwing incident by Bhagat Singh, which is an important event in India's freedom struggle. ...
10:08 AM, Mar 23, 2013
It is Martyrs' Day today and we remember Bhagat Singh on his 82nd death anniversary. ...
09:50 AM, Mar 23, 2013
On a cold winter's night in early 2011, some Syrian schoolboys drew a few slogans on a wall in a town the world had barely heard of. Two years on, more than 70,000 people have died in the bitter conflict that ensued, and calls for the West to give more help to the Syrian rebels are rising. ...
12:30 AM, Mar 18, 2013
A new government-funded smartphone app has been launched in Britain to protect potential victims at risk of being forced into marriage, including those of Indian-origin. ...
08:32 AM, Mar 06, 2013
Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri has shot an electro-classical rock song, a heady mix of classical tunes with rock sounds, for his film 'Freedom'. ...
05:36 PM, Mar 04, 2013
The Bengali film 'Kangal Malsat' is based on the anarchist novel of Nabarun Bhattacharya and explores the dark underbelly of a city which fights the state power. The part real, part surreal narrative has been made into a movie which has been denied clearance by the Kolkata chapter of Central Board of Film Certification for allegedly being disrespectful towards Stalin and Mamata Banerjee and containing expletives and abusive words. Is...
05:39 PM, Feb 27, 2013
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday slammed Press Council of India Chairman Markandey Katju for his 'unsubstantiated' remarks on curbs on press freedom in the state and trashed the PCI fact finding report. ...
03:37 AM, Feb 21, 2013
The counter argument to narrow mindedness is missing From the Grand Mufti's fatwa against the all-girl band in Kashmir, to the now lifted ban ...
09:56 AM, Feb 13, 2013
After three of its girls went missing, a village in Bihar's Siwan district has barred girls from using mobile phones and wearing jeans and T-shirts, an official said on February 11. The villagers also imposed heavy fines on girls if they violated the diktat. ...
03:08 PM, Feb 11, 2013
