More than 30,000 suspects have been arrested in a two-month long crackdown on porn and gambling activities in China’s south Guangdong Province.
The province has so far arrested 3,014 people and more than 5,000 others were put under criminal detention in the campaign, the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department said.
In one case, police cracked down an online gambling gang in Huizhou City on November 24.
The gambling activities involved funds totalling 30 million yuan, (USD five million), state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.
Police said they will continue to crack down on the illegal activities to prevent them from rebounding.
Earlier this year, police in the province had captured 3,033 suspects in a prostitution crackdown launched after a February media exposure of sex services offered at hotels in the city of Dongguan, which is notorious for its illegal sex trade.

STANBUL: A Turkish court on Friday remanded in custody the head of a national TV network and three ex-police officers on terrorism charges, in a case linked with a top foe of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that has strained EU ties.

Prosecutors also asked an Istanbul court to issue an arrest warrant for Fethullah Gulen, a US-based Turkish cleric who Erdogan regards as his top enemy, also on terrorism charges.

Samanyolu TV chief Hidayet Karaca was placed under arrest on charges of forming a terrorist group, after being detained with over two dozen others in weekend raids on journalists, scriptwriters and police accused of plotting to overthrow Erdogan.

The court however ordered the release of Ekrem Dumanli, the editor-in-chief of the Zaman daily which has repeatedly accused Erdogan of running a corrupt regime and who was arrested in the same raids last Sunday.

Both the Zaman newspaper and the STV channel are linked to Gulen, a one-time ally of Erdogan whom the Turkish strongman has now vowed to crush without mercy.

Dumanli defiantly told hundreds of supporters outside the court after his release that “the press cannot be silenced, media will never succumb to intimidations”. Seven other suspects in the case were ordered released by the court in Istanbul while three more — all ex-police officers — were also remanded in custody.

Erdogan accuses Gulen of running a “parallel state” and being behind sensational corruption allegations against his inner circle that broke on December 17 last year.

According to Zaman’s website, Karaca raised his hands after the decision was announced and said: “No need to be worried, God helps”. “Just as this is an arrest order for a fictional scenario, this is a fictional ruling”.

Gulen, who is believed to have millions of followers in Turkey and runs private crammer schools around the world through his Hizmet (Service) group, has vehemently denied all the allegations against him.

The prosecutors asked the court for the warrant to arrest Gulen for leading a “criminal” group acting against the “rules and laws in media, economy and bureaucracy,” the state Anatolia news agency reported.

According to a copy of the request published in Turkish media, Gulen is charged with setting up and directing an “armed terrorist organisation” as well as using intimidation to deprive a person of their freedom.

The United States has so far paid little attention to repeated requests from Turkey for Gulen’s extradition from his secluded compound in the state of Pennsylvania.

LONDON: Mandy Rice-Davies, a model implicated in the Profumo affair that scandalised 1960s Britain and almost brought down the government, has died of cancer at the age of 70, a spokesman said on Friday.
Allegations by Rice-Davies, who became known by her married name Marilyn Foreman, were part of a wave of lurid disclosures that threatened Harold Macmillan’s Conservative administration in 1963.
“It is with deep sadness that the family of Marilyn Foreman, also known as Mandy Rice-Davies, have confirmed that she passed away yesterday evening,” a spokesman for the Hackford Jones PR agency said.
The nightclub dancer was friends with the main figure in the scandal Christine Keeler, who was alleged to be sleeping with British Secretary of State for War John Profumo and a Russian defence attache.

GUWAHATI, India (AP) — An explosion in the parking lot of a bus station early Sunday killed three people and wounded five others in India’s remote northeastern state, where several separatist groups operate, police said.

The homemade bomb went off in Imphal, the capital of Manipur state, killing three construction workers, said police Superintendent Ibomcha Singh.

Five other men were hospitalized.

No one has claimed responsibility for the blast.

Imphal is about 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Guwahati, the biggest city in the region.

At least 17 separatist groups are active in Manipur state and often stage hit-and-run attacks on government forces. Their demands range from greater autonomy for the state to an independent homeland for the people of Manipur.

An “alarming” number of pre-school children are being prescribed drugs to treat hyperactivity – contrary to medical guidelines that say they should not be used on children under six – because overstretched health workers go straight to medication rather than offering psychological interventions.

More than a fifth of educational psychologists say they know of preschool children who are being given medication such as Ritalin even though the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) recommends psychological interventions should be tried first.

The survey, which aimed to investigate the medicalisation of childhood behaviour, also found there was an “intolerance of difference”, so children not conforming to the norm were increasingly being seen as having something wrong with them.

One educational psychologist who took part in the study, which was carried out by the University College London Institute of Education (IoE) and the British Psychological Society, wrote: “Our biggest difficulty is that children’s and adolescent mental health services and paediatric teams are so short-staffed they go straight to medication and completely ignore Nice guidance.”

Ritalin, which is the most commonly used trade name for methylphenidate, is a central nervous system stimulant used to treat attention deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

The Nice guidelines, which were amended in 2013, state: “Parent-training/ education programmes are the first-line treatment for parents or carers of pre-school children … Drug treatment is not recommended for pre-school children with ADHD.”

The findings are part of a survey of 136 educational psychologists from 70 local authorities across the UK, seeking their views on the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of ADHD.

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The report found that medication was seen as the main solution in the treatment of ADHD. “Medication was felt to be the predominant form of treatment for ADHD despite Nice guidelines that psychological interventions should be implemented first,” the report said.

“Multiple systemic factors” were creating a “pressure for increasing rates of diagnosis and medication”.

The survey, which will be formally published next year, said there was an “urgent need to examine local policies regarding the effective prevention and intervention in cases of pre-school behavioural, emotional and social difficulties”.

Vivian Hill, director of professional educational psychology training at the IoE, who conducted the research with Horatio Turner of UCL, said: “It is very alarming to discover that terribly young children who often have not had access to alternative treatments are being put on medication.

“It is almost certainly to do with the fact that the whole of children’s mental health services is incredibly underfunded. It’s quick and easy – one off the waiting list, one intervention in place.

“To work with a child or a young person and their family over time is much more costly, but much safer and likely to have much better results. Medication has a short-term impact. It will not make the difference long-term.”

Educational psychologists who took part in the survey said “intolerance of difference” affected the way adults viewed children’s learning and behaviour. One wrote: “There is an increasingly prevalent view in society that people who do not fit a particular environment must have something wrong with them.”

The report said “within-child” factors were emphasised too often, rather than environmental factors, “due to families and schools wishing to abdicate responsibility for children’s behaviour and systemic failings in current diagnostic procedures”. One participant said: “It’s an easy explanation, which is convenient and comforting and absolves everyone of blame by locating the problem within the child.”

Educational psychologists said they were frustrated by factors that limited their ability to care effectively for children with ADHD. “Usually when [we] get involved the die is cast and is predominantly problem-focused, so much so that the only perceivable solution is medication,” one wrote.

The report concluded that educational psychologists should be involved in developing a broader understanding of contextual perspectives of ADHD among families and recommended establishing a multi-agency approach for its assessment and treatment.

One EP said: “My local authority has a behaviour pathway that includes ADHD.” Following its introduction one of the survey participants said that behavioural observation by an educational psychologist led to a significant fall in the diagnosis and medication of ADHD.

A Department of Health spokesman said: “Prescribing decisions are for doctors to make, but there are clear independent guidelines for the treatment of ADHD, which only recommend the use of drugs in severe cases and as part of a comprehensive treatment plan.

“Children’s mental health is a key priority, which is why we’ve formed a taskforce to look at how we can provide the best possible care and have invested £54m in improving access to psychological treatments.”

Private steel major Tata Steel was conferred the prestigious Certificate of Recognition by the Institute of Companies Secretaries of India (ICSI) for its excellence in corporate governance.

The steel giant, chosen among the top 5 companies in the country, was conferred the Certificate at a ceremony in New Delhi on Friday, a company release said on Saturday.

Chanakya Chaudhary, Group Director, Corporate Communications and Regulatory Affairs, Tata Steel, received the Certificate from Union Minister for Law and Justice Sadananda Gowda.

Earlier, Tata Steel had received the ‘2nd National Award for excellence in Corporate Governance’ issued by the Institute in year 2002.

It was such an honour to be at the St Elias School  Evolution Exhibition along with Principal Sister Philomena, Father Milton Gonsalves ,who were celebrating 175 glorious years . Amazing  creativity by the children of kindergarten, primary and secondary section was on display . The event was inaugurated by Shri Ashish Shelar  ,(MLA)Mrs Alka Kerkar (dy. Mayor of Mumbai),dignitaries and  guard of honour was given to the dignitaries .

Islamabad, Dec 20 (PTI) Pakistan forces have killed 28 militants in the restive north-western tribal region, intensifying the campaign against them after the Peshawar school massacre that left 148 people dead, mostly students.

A security official today said that jet fighters targeted militants in Tirah valley of Khyber, which killed 21 militants and destroyed their seven hideouts.

Private TV channels reported that Peshawar attack “mastermind” Umer Naray was also killed in the attack but it was not confirmed.

Separately, the security forces killed five terrorists in Darra Adam Khel near Peshawar in a targeted operation.

Also, the police and paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) attacked a Taliban facilitator Sayyar Khan in Machini area near Peshawar, leading to a gun battle with the militants.

Senior police officer Ijaz Ahmad told media that Khan and another militant were killed while a policemen and an FC soldier embraced martyrdom in the fight.

So far 152 militants have been killed in counter-terror operation since the Peshawar attack on Tuesday.

Army chief General Raheel Sharif last evening visited Khyber and met the troops on the front lines.

He also met with Special Services Group (SSG) soldiers or Commandos who are spearheading the targeted operations.

Army said Gen Sharif told the soldiers that fight against militants would continue till last of the rebel was eliminated.

The security forces have launched hunt for rebels after the Peshawar attack.

Army has vowed to take out Tehreek-e-Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah nicknamed the “Radio Mullah”, who is said to be in contact with the Peshawar school attackers during the assault.

Pakistani security forces yesterday killed at least 67 militants in a countrywide swoop.