Obama seeks $75m for police body cameras

Spurred by the Ferguson, Missouri shooting, President Barack Obama is calling for $75m in federal spending to get 50,000 more police to wear body cameras that record their interactions with civilians.

However, Obama is not seeking to pull back federal programs that provide military-style equipment to local law enforcement.

The president was making the announcements on Monday from the White House during a series of meetings with his Cabinet, civil rights leaders, law enforcement officials and others.

At least for now, Obama is staying away from Ferguson in the wake of a racially charged uproar over a grand jury’s decision last week not to charge the police offer who fatally shot unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown.

Obama is proposing a three-year $263m spending package to increase use of body-worn cameras, expand training for law enforcement and add more resources for police department reform.

The White House has said the cameras could help bridge deep mistrust between law enforcement and the public.

Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett, reporting from Washington DC, said that it offers an opportunity for similar disputes with the police to be recorded.

“This would eliminate situations not just in Ferguson but around the United States,” she said.

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Republican aide resigns over criticism of Obama daughters

A senior Republican employee is resigning after her comments that the Obama daughters should “try showing a little class” caused a firestorm of criticism on social media this over the weekend.

Elizabeth Lauten, communications director for Tennessee Rep. Stephen Fincher, confirmed to CNN that she planned to resign onMonday.

She faced heavy backlash when she wrote a Thanksgiving-Day screed against the Obama daughters, as well as the President and first lady, on Facebook that quickly went viral across the web.

In it, she scolded Malia and Sasha Obama, 16 and 13 years old respectively, for what she said was their inappropriate outfits and their bored looks during Wednesday’s turkey pardoning ceremony, which they attended alongside their father.

“Dear Sasha and Malia: I get you’re both in those awful teen years, but you’re a part of the First Family, try showing a little class. At least respect the part you play,” Lauten wrote in the post.

“Then again, your mother and father don’t respect their positions very much, or the nation for that matter,” she added. “So I’m guessing you’re coming up a little short in the ‘good role model’ department.”

Lauten went on to tell them to “stretch yourself…rise to the occasion” and “act like being in the White House matters to you.”

“Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at a bar. And certainly don’t make faces during televised, public events,” she added.

Hours later, after her comments picked up steam on social media, Lauten deleted it and wrote another post apologising for her comments.

Neither chief of staff Jessica Carter nor Fincher responded to requests for comment via email.

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Terrorists behead Tunisian policeman

“Terrorists” in Tunisia have abducted and decapitated an off-duty policeman, media reports on Monday cited the interior ministry as saying.

The officer and his brother were in a car in the Kef area of the northwest when gunmen seeking to rob them immobilised the vehicle.

During the robbery, the attackers discovered that the man was in the police and they kidnapped and later killed him, radio stations Mosaique and Express-FM quoted a ministry spokesman as saying.

The man’s brother was not harmed in Sunday’s attack.

Security forces are now engaged in a mopping up operation in the mountainous area, which is close to the frontier with Algeria.

Farther south but still in the border area a soldier on another operation was killed when a mine exploded on Monday, the defence ministry spokesman told AFP.

“Today men in a terrorist group were tracked to Mount Sammama near Kasserine,” Belhassan Oueslati said.

“Aircraft were used and commando forces made a ground assault. A soldier on board a Hummer was killed when a mine exploded,” he said, adding that the operation was still under way.

Since the revolution of January 2011, Tunisia has seen a rise in Islamist extremism. For the past two years, the army has been hunting jihadists in the border area.

Deadly ambushes by gunmen on the police and army are common in the region, where cross-border smuggling of fuel and food is also rife

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Gadhimai: World's biggest ritual slaughter

Motilal Kushwaha had promised the Hindu goddess Gadhimai that he would offer her a male goat if one of his children found a job.
Last year his son was successful -- and on Saturday he was one of tens of thousands of people killing the animals at the temple of Gadhimai in southern Nepal as part of the biggest religious mass slaughter in the world.
"From my village everyone has made a vow [to offer animals]," says Kushwaha from Bariyarpur, a community in Bara district about 60 miles south of Kathmandu. Some, he explains, are glad they have got a son or a daughter, others that a different form of good fortune has befallen them.
The ritual sacrifice of goats, buffaloes and roosters in temples and at home is widespread in Nepal where 80 percent of the population are Hindu.
Some five million people from adjoining districts -- and also from the bordering Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh -- will attend the festival, according to local authorities, although only two days are dedicated to the sacrificial ritual itself.
The slaughter follows a set pattern: on Friday male water buffalo calves are killed while on Saturday attentions switches to goats.
Officials estimate that up to 10,000 buffalo calves and 150,000 goats will be offered to Gadhimai -- the goddess of power -- during the ritual. Watch a CNNi report on the ritual
But these numbers will be much lower than those of 2009, the last time the five-yearly Gadhimai festival took place, thanks to advocacy efforts by animal rights activists. In that year nearly 20,000 buffalo calves were killed, according to temple officials and more than 200,000 goats were slaughtered.
"We object to the cruelty with which animals are treated," says Pramada Shah of Animal Welfare Network Nepal. "There is random hacking of animals in open space. Not all animals have their heads chopped off. Some take up to 40 minutes to die."
The participants -- who hack the animals in an enclosed arena with large knives -- are licensed by the Gadhimai Festival Management and Development Committee. This year about 400 people will kill animals, according to Kushwaha, who is also the committee's secretary.

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two sisters beating up three men, who were allegedly sexually harassing

The incident was captured by a passenger on a mobile phone
A video of two sisters beating up three men, who were allegedly sexually harassing them on a moving bus in India, has gone viral on social media.
The men have been arrested and charged with assault, police said.
Friday's incident, recorded by a passenger on a mobile phone, took place in the northern state of Haryana.
Violence against Indian women has been in the spotlight since the gang rape and murder of a student on a bus in the capital, Delhi, in December 2012.
The attack caused outrage and prompted India to introduce stringent anti-rape laws.
The latest incident happened in Rohtak district when the two students, 22-year-old Aarti and 19-year-old Pooja, were on their way home.
Younger sister Pooja told BBC Hindi that the three young men "threatened us and abused us".
"The men started to abuse me and touch me. I told them 'if you touch me again, you'll get beaten up'. They called a friend on the phone and told him to 'come over because we have to beat up some girls'," Pooja said.
She said they decided to take on the attackers when other passengers did not come to their help.
"No one came forward in the bus to help us. So we took out our belts in self-defence [and hit the men]. If only the other passengers had helped us, we would not have needed to retaliate in this way," she said.
However, the video of the incident shows at least one male passenger repeatedly trying to separate one of the men from the women.
The sisters said the men pushed them out of the bus when it came to a halt after some distance and attacked them again.
They said they retaliated by throwing a brick at the men who then fled.
Police say they received a call from the women on Friday afternoon, and the three men were arrested on Sunday evening.
Senior police official S Anand told The Hindu newspaper that they were contemplating action against the bus driver and his helper.
"The driver was supposed to take the bus to the nearest police station. But he did not do so. The conductor also did not intervene. We are considering legal action against them," he said.
Correspondents say public abuse of women - called "Eve teasing" in India - is rampant in parts of the country.
"Eve teasing" often makes life miserable and even dangerous for women when they go out in public.
Meanwhile, the sisters have received much support on social media and many have been tweeting to praise the #RohtakBravehearts.
Deepti Kaul hoped others would follow the sisters' example:

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