London, Apr 28 (AFP) Britain’s economy grew far slower than expected in the first quarter of 2015, official data showed today, delivering a blow to the government just nine days before a general election.

Gross domestic product expanded by 0.3 per cent between January and March compared with GDP growth of 0.6 per cent in the final quarter of 2014, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in an initial estimate.

Analysts’ consensus had been for a slowdown in growth to only 0.5 per cent in the first quarter, according to Bloomberg News.

GDP, the main indicator of economic growth, is the last major piece of data on the British economy before Britain votes in a knife-edge general election on May 7.

The ONS said that while output increased in services by 0.5 per cent in the first quarter, the other three main industrial groupings in the economy decreased, with construction falling by 1.6 per cent, production by 0.1 per cent and agriculture by 0.2 per cent.

New Delhi, Apr 28 (PTI) Major food companies in India including ITC, Nestle and PepsiCo India have come forward to help earthquake victims in Nepal, even as Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal has asked others to join the relief operation.

The Food Processing Ministry is organising delivery of processed food articles for the earthquake victims of Nepal, an official statement said.

Nestle has donated two lakh packets of Maggi Noodles, while ITC has provided two lakh packets of Yippee noodles and CG group has donated 12,000 packets of YY noodles.

All India Food Processors Association are also sending 25,000 packets of namkeen by Haldiram, 5,000 packets of namkeen by Bikanerwala and 4,000 packets of namkeen by BTW.

PepsiCo India has also confirmed sending 60,000 one litre bottles of water contained in 5,000 cases, the statement said.

“Tragedy can happen on anybody any time, we all should rise to the occasion and contribute our bit,” Badal said.

She appealed to food processing units across the country to send ready-to-eat packaged food, bottled water, and other articles of daily use for Nepal earthquake victims.

“The food items are being airlifted by Air Force planes for earthquake victims,” the statement said.

The death toll in the devastating earthquake that has rocked Nepal climbed to over 4,350 today with more than 8,000 others injured.

Meanwhile, Fortis Charitable Foundation, in a separate statement, said it will send a team of 70 doctors, paramedics, nurses and support staff, and basic necessities to support the quake victims.

Patna, Apr 28 (PTI) The toll in the earthquake in Bihar has risen to 58 and around 100 people stranded at Pokhara in Nepal have been brought back safely to Raxaul on the India-Nepal border, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said today before leaving for Raxaul.

Kumar said arrangements are in place in relief camps at Raxaul in East Champaran district, which is witnessing maximum flow of people returning to the country from quake-devastated Nepal.

Adequate arrangements of blankets, linen, food packets, water and medicines have been made at relief camps in Raxual and elsewhere for those returning from Nepal.

He said senior state minister Vijay Chaudhary has been appointed as minister in-charge and the secretary to social justice department Arvind Chaudhary has been made secretary in-charge to oversee relief operation at Raxual.

“After transporting 100 persons from Pokhara it seems there are no Indians left there,” he said adding 32 Bihar government buses have been sent to Kathmandu to bring back people stranded in the Nepal capital.

The buses sent by Bihar government would not only carry back people from the state stranded in Nepal but also those of other states and even foreigners.

The chief minister appealed to citizens of Bihar to come forward to help the earthquake victims in Nepal.

Kumar said he had to leave for Raxaul by road instead of chopper due to inclement weather there as well as here.

The Nepalese Government is trying its level best to cover the overwhelming disaster from all over the country. Foreign help especially from India is pouring on. However many feel due to poor management many feel the action is quite slow. Tribhuvan International Airport is totally conjested with the heavy increase of foreign planes landing with relief materials. Yesterday an Indian Air force plane had to return back to India due inadequate space in landing.

India presses six more teams of NDRF personnel into its relief and rescue operations in Nepal. With the induction of the new teams on the fourth day of the disaster, the total number of National Disaster Response Force teams in Nepal has gone up to 16 with 10 already engaged in rescue operations there for the last few days. Each NDRF team has about 45 personnel.​
Food and water is very limited with people mostly depending on instant noodles. Nepal government says they presently have food just enough for two days.

The death toll from the 7.8-magnitude quake is now 4,356, but Mr Koirala said it could reach 10,000.”Eight million people in 39 districts have been affected, of which over two million people live in the 11 severely affected districts,” said the most recent report from the UN Office of the Resident Co-ordinator in Nepal.

Landslips and periodic bad weather in the remote mountainous region around the epicentre are adding to the challenge for rescue and relief teams.

Gorkha District which is close to the epic center has been affected severely with 90% houses flattened due to the quake.
Lainchour has an open ground just next to a high school. This ground has been home to many people since the quake happened. However very dirty conditions with empty water bottles and paper plates lottired around, chance of an epidemic cannot be ruled out.

The famous 5th century Pashupatinath Temple here has survived the massive 7.9 magnitude earthquake that flattened several World Heritages like iconic Dharhara tower and Darbar Square in Nepal.

“The Pashupatinath Temple is safe, we have checked the shrine many times and it has developed no cracks,” a devotee at the temple said.

The temple, one of the seven monument groups in UNESCO’s designation of Kathmandu Valley as a cultural heritage site, is the oldest Hindu temple in Kathmandu whose existence dates back to 400 AD.

New Delhi, Apr 27 (PTI) Consent to indulge in unnatural sex is “immaterial”, a Delhi court has held while convicting a man of raping and committing unnatural act with a woman on the false promise of marriage, despite he being already married.

Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Virender Bhat held Noida resident Prashant Kaushal guilty of the offences saying though the sexual relations between him and the woman were consensual but the victim’s consent was not free and voluntary as she was falsely assured by him that he was obtaining divorce from his wife and would marry her.

“The consent is immaterial so far as carnal intercourse against the order of nature between a man and a woman is concerned and therefore, every act of unnatural sex committed by the accused with the prosecutrix is an offence under section 377 (unnatural offences) of the IPC,” the court said.

The court, which is yet to pronounce order on quantum of sentence, agreed with the submissions of the defence counsel that instances of physical relations between Kaushal and the woman could not have been forcible all the time.

It, however, said that it does appear that the woman was having sexual encounters with the man voluntarily but having belief in her mind that he has filed petition for divorce against his wife and is going to marry her at any cost.

The court said it was not only the man but his parents also who deceived the woman and persuaded her to continue sexual relations with their son on the promise that he would marry her after he gets divorced from his wife.

“Kaushal also used to force her to consume alcohol before engaging in sex with her in order to ensure that she does not offer much resistance and he gets more pleasure and satisfaction from it,” the court noted, adding her consent was not free and voluntary.

According to the prosecution, Kaushal and the woman were working in the same office in Gurgaon and they became friends and used to go for outing. When she fell ill, the man came to his house and raped her and on her resistance, he assured her that he would marry her.

It said the man took the woman to several places outside Delhi since 2012 to 2014 and after making her consume alcohol, he forcibly established physical relations including unnatural with her.

It added that the woman took transfer to Hyderabad where the man followed on one pretext or other and later on she quit her job.

New Delhi, Apr 27 (PTI) Things appear to be going from bad to worse for Vijay Mallya, once known as ‘King of Good Times’, with the board of a company he nurtured into India’s largest liquor maker asking him to quit.

Mallya, already fighting on a number of other fronts including the ‘wilful defaulter’ charges, recently also saw one of the Kingfisher aircraft being sold to a scrap dealer in Mumbai, who sold it after tearning it apart into pieces.

This followed lenders taking possession of Kingfisher House near airport in Mumbai, on which tax department has also staked its claim to recover its own dues.

Mallya, however, continues to strike a defiant note and has refused to step down while taking refuse in “certain contractual obligations” that require United Spirits’ current owner Diageo to back his position as Chairman.

While Diageo is yet to make its position public, sources have said that the UK-based liquor giant, which spent USD three billion (about Rs 20,000 crore) to buy 55 per cent stake in USL, may invoke “certain defaults” on the part of Mallya and his UB Group to support the board resolution of his ouster if shareholders are required to vote on the same.

The board is already dominated by Diageo representatives with Mallya being the only one from his UB Group, which now owns just about 3 per cent stake in USL including a fractional 0.01 per cent in his name.

Mallya has been in the dock ever since his ambitious airline venture Kingfisher landed in financial troubles and got eventually grounded in October 2012.

Thereafter, Mallya had to sell some of his assets, including controlling stake in USL to Diageo.

The UB Group, where Mallya became chairman at the age of 28 after death of his father in 1983, was considered one of India’s largest conglomerates till a few years ago with turnover of over USD 4 billion and market value of USD 12 billion.

It had diverse interests in brewing, distilling, real estate, engineering, fertilizers, biotechnology, information technology and aviation, while it was also the largest Indian manufacturer of beverage alcohol — beer and spirit.

Now, the aviation venture is grounded since 2012, a takeover battle is on for fertilisers arm, while control or major stakes have passed away to new owners at some other entities including the group’s erstwhile flagship firm USL.

Prior to becoming UB Chairman, Mallya worked for the American Hoechst Corporation (now Sanofi-Aventis) in the US and with Jenson and Nicholson in the UK. In 1980, he began assisting his father in managing the Brewing and Spirits Divisions and in re-launching the Kingfisher Brand of Beer.

In aviation, he pegged Kingfisher as the country’s only luxurious airline and later acquired Air Deccan to foray into low-cost market. Emerging as one of the most flamboyant businessmen, he bought an IPL team (Royal Challengers Bangalore) and was also the first Indian ever to become the owner of a Formula One Team, where he later brought in Sahara group, another embattled corporate house, as a partner.

Kolkata, Apr 27 (PTI) Three persons – the manager and two employees of Aquatica, the city’s largest water park, have been arrested after a hidden CCTV camera was allegedly found installed in the ladies’ changing room.

South 24 Parganas additional superintendent of police Abhijit Sinha today said the arrests were made last night following complaints by some women who had visited the park during the day and used the changing room.

The CCTV camera in the changing room and several others from various areas of the park were also seized, he said.

Manshu Tandon, CEO of Aquatica, told PTI that police were investigating the case. “But we want to say that there has been no breach of privacy as was claimed because the CCTVs were not there in the ladies’ changing room.”

He said the park had two separate lockers and changing rooms for men and women. However, the park authorities had converted the men’s locker room as one for women as the ladies’ locker and changing rooms were being renovated.

The CCTV had been installed in the men’s locker room and it continued to be in operation in the converted women’s locker room as the staff had forgotten to switch it off.

“The CCTV ran for about one and half hours. After it came into light we switched it off immediately,” Tandon said.

The incident took place just weeks after Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani spotted a hidden CCTV camera in a changing room of a Fabindia outlet in Goa.