Today's news articles

Today’s selection of articles are from “The Telegraph” (UK). Enjoy:

Delhi police to get lessons in manners

Delhi's notoriously rude, corrupt and unsympathetic police are to get lessons in manners because women victims are too afraid of them to report crimes.

Delhi's notoriously rude, corrupt and unsympathetic police are to get lessons in manners Photo: AFP/Getty Images

By Dean Nelson, New Delhi

12:45PM GMT 01 Nov 2012

The move follows a series of rape cases in the capital and a magazine expose which revealed how many senior police officers believe women are to blame for the rapes and sexual assaults they suffer because they were provocatively dressed or had in fact consented.

The sting, by Tehelka magazine, quoted Rajpal Yadav, a senior officer in Gurgaon, just outside Delhi, said: "Girls from Darjeeling and Nepal have come here for business purposes. They go with men for money, but if the money isn't enough, it becomes rape."

Delhi has one of the highest number of rape cases of large cities throughout the world.

In 2010, 414 cases were recorded, but barely one in three cases result in a conviction.

Against this background, local government officials have become increasingly concerned about the relationship between the police and the capital's women. Now they have appointed a women's charity to work with officers to change their attitudes and present a more sympathetic face to victims.

"Women have a right to enjoy all the freedom, the way men have and the men in uniform have to ensure that. So such initiatives shouldn't be only about politeness and courtesy, but also about response time. If a woman complains of being abused by her husband, police need to swing into action rather than being passive and calling it a family matter. Also, they can't take the complaint of a woman lightly because she's dressed in a particular way. You can't train people to be good. So, training alone won't help.

Incentives should be given to policemen who do the right thing. The police culture has to evolve above the ordinary culture," said Maja Daruwala, director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative.

Delhi Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said the training would initially focus on training women police officers who answer calls from distressed victims on the "sensitivities involved in cases pertaining to women."

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India's first Playboy club set to open in Goa

Playboy's iconic "bunnies" will make a demure Indian debut next month serving drinks at the brand's first club in the country, which will open despite a nationwide ban on the adult magazine.

Indian Bollywood film actress Sherlyn Chopra was the first Indian woman to pose nude for Playboy Photo: AFP/Getty Images

1:07PM GMT 01 Nov 2012

PB Lifestyle, the Indian firm with rights to the Playboy brand, will launch the club in the holiday state of Goa in December – the first of 120 clubs, hotels, fashion cafés and shops planned over the next ten years.

Sanjay Gupta, chief executive of PB Lifestyle, said the famous bunny costume of a skimpy corset with a fluffy rabbit tail and ears would be adapted to suit India's conservative values, and he stressed no nudity would be involved.

"Bunnies are an integral part of Playboy clubs," he told AFP. "For the obvious reasons of Indian morality and sensibilities, we can't follow the traditional costumes that Playboy bunnies are associated with."

The new outfits will be revealed at the club's launch at its 22,000-square-foot (2,050-square-metre) premises on Candolim beach in north Goa.

Playboy, along with a host of other foreign "adult" magazines, is not permitted in India owing to obscenity laws banning material deemed "lascivious or appealing to prurient interests".

Bollywood actress Sherlyn Chopra became the first Indian woman to pose naked for Playboy magazine this year, causing something of a stir in her home country.

"Super excited! It ain't about nudity ... (it is) about introducing a lifestyle of fun (and) glamour," Chopra told AFP via her Twitter account after plans for the new club were revealed.

Source: AFP