-The Times of India KOLKATA: After months of being in denial mode over the rise in sexual crimes in Bengal, the Mamata Banerjee government has been forced to take action. Kolkata Police is setting up an exclusive unit by Independence Day to protect women, especially tourists. Women will make up half of this new squad. TOI has relentlessly campaigned to make the city safe for women and the activism has yielded results. The...

-The Indian Express A list containing details of those convicted of sexual offences in Delhi in the past three decades is now available online. Delhi Police officers said the move will help people identify the accused and prompt them to register complaints. This will help police track unreported sexual offences. The move is in line with the recommendations of the Justice Verma committee, constituted in the aftermath of the December 16 gangrape...

-The Hindu "Why this selective concern about encounter killings in Gujarat - these happen all over the country," pleaded Gujarat's lawyer at a Supreme Court hearing of veteran journalist B.G. Verghese's public interest petition on 22 unexplained police killings in that state. When a 13-year-old boy was abducted from a Delhi jhuggi by Gujarat police officials on a whim, the State government's defence was first that the boy was Bangladeshi, next that...

-Associated Press London: In the first major global review of violence against women, a series of reports released Thursday found that about a third of women have been physically or sexually assaulted by a former or current partner. The head of the World Health Organization, Dr. Margaret Chan, called it "a global health problem of epidemic proportions," and other experts said screening for domestic violence should be added to all levels of...

-Outlook Guwahati: Assam has reported the highest rate of incidence of crime against children in the Northeast, though compared at the national level the rate is pretty low at 1.03 per cent of the total number of crimes registered. Assam recorded a high of 392 cases and was followed by Manipur with 104, Mizoram with 95, Meghalaya with 91 and Arunachal Pradesh with 39, according to the latest report of the National...