Protesters attack MTV office in Mumbai, India
MUMBAI, India --
Police arrested 70 Sikh protesters after the MTV music channel's office in western India was vandalized over posters showing a Sikh girl massaging a man, officials said Tuesday.On Monday, protesters smashed windows with rocks, tore banners and damaged furniture in the MTV office in Mumbai, India's financial and entertainment capital, police inspector Raju More said.
The protesters said the posters, which promoted the reality show "On the Job2," offended Sikhs, More said. Sikhs comprise more than 2 percent of India's 1.1 billion people.
Police later released the protesters on bail, he said.
Satish Maneshinde, MTV's attorney in Mumbai, called it an unfortunate incident. He said no one was injured in the attack.
Maneshinde said MTV would consider the protesters' demands to remove the posters.
Item TWO:
3 charged with Molotov cocktails at cars
York County, S.C. Clover
Police say three juveniles have been charged with assault and battery for throwing Molotov cocktails at two cars on the same road.
The (Rock Hill) Herald reported that a woman said a flaming bottle was thrown out of woods near her house Friday and exploded near her car.
Just over an hour later, another firebomb was thrown out of woods near the home of the first woman's sister.
The York County Sheriff's Office said a canine unit searched the woods and tracked the boys to a nearby home. The police report said the boys – ages 12, 14 and 15 – admitted their parts in the attack.
Item THREE:
New chief's first day moves fast
Hustling from meeting to meeting, Monroe takes time to hint at putting more officers on the street.
Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department Chief Rodney Monroe held a Command Staff meeting today to address the media about some of his plans for the department and to meet his staff and discuss his plans further behind closed doors.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Chief Rodney Monroe spent his first day on the job in motion, hustling from meetings with the mayor to the city manager to his command staff – some of whose jobs might change.
Monroe, 51, has shaken up staff in cities where he previously took over as chief. He said he hasn't decided what changes he'll make, but hinted he might put more officers on patrol.
“Patrol is our backbone,” he said in a news conference Monday at CMPD headquarters.
Monroe reassigned veterans and dismantled specialty squads in Macon, Ga., and Richmond, Va., to put more officers on the street.
He takes over a department of 2,092 staff – including 1,627 sworn officers – and a budget of $174 million. He spoke to about 100 commanders and staff for the first time Monday, asking them to introduce themselves, then joking: “Now that you have told me all your names, trust me, I've forgotten them all.”
Monroe promised to continue his longstanding practice of showing up at crime scenes. “Oh, yeah,” he told reporters. “And so should the men and women in uniform expect to see me out on the street.”
Item FOUR:
Amy Winehouse still in London hospital for tests
Jazz Soul diva Amy Winehouse, from England, has a drink while performing to 90,000 spectators on the main stage of the Rock in Rio Lisboa music festival at the Bela Vista Park, Lisboa Portugal in this May 30, 2008 file photo. A spokesman for Winehouse says she was taken to the hospital after fainting spell Monday June 16 2008. Winehouse spokesman Chris Goodman said Winehouse fainted at her north London home on Monday afternoon. Her manager's assistant was there and caught her as she fell. Goodman says her father Mitch took her to hospital as a precaution. Winehouse's career is flourishing despite wild nights, missed concerts and stints in drug rehab.
A spokesman says soul diva Amy Winehouse is having more tests in a London hospital after fainting at home.
Spokesman Chris Goodman says initial tests were inconclusive and Winehouse will have more Tuesday while being kept under observation.
Goodman says the 24-year-old singer "seems to be fine in herself, but they are taking their time to be sure."
The spokesman said Winehouse collapsed at her north London home Monday after signing autographs for a group of fans. An assistant caught her before she hit the ground.
Winehouse's career has prospered despite wild nights, missed concerts and stints in drug rehab. The Sunday Times newspaper's annual Rich List has estimated her wealth at $20 million.
Item FIVE:Gay couples rush to get married in California
Phyllis Lyon, right, kisses her partner Del Martin after being married by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in a special ceremony at City Hall in San Francisco, Monday, June 16, 2008. Lyon and Martin became the first officially married same sex couple after California's Supreme Court declared gay marriage legal.
Hundreds of gay and lesbian couples had appointments to secure marriage licenses and exchange vows Tuesday, the first full day same-sex nuptials will be legal throughout California.
From San Diego to San Francisco, couples readied their formal wear, local licensing clerks expanded their staffs and conservative groups warned of a backlash as the nation's most populous state prepared to join Massachusetts in sanctioning gay unions.
Unlike Massachusetts, which legalized same-sex marriage in 2004, California has no residency requirement for marriage licenses, which is expected to encourage a large number of couples to head west to wed.
"We might wait a long time in Tennessee, so this is our chance," said Robert Blaudow, of Memphis. He and his partner, Derek Norman, 23, decided to get married at the Alameda County clerk's office late Monday while they were in the San Francisco Bay Area for a conference.
The May 15 California Supreme Court ruling that overturned the state's bans on same-sex marriage became final at 5:01 p.m. Monday, and clerks in at least five counties extended their hours to mark the historic occasion.
Already, dozens of same-sex couples have seized the opportunity to make their relationships official in the eyes of the law.
"We're glad that we're living in this time when history is being made," said Sandy Mills, an Oakland physician who was getting married to her partner of nine years, Mar Stevens, an employee of the county district attorney's office.
"I'm tired of checking the single box," said Danielle Lemay, 34, who picked up a marriage license in Woodland with her partner, Angie Hinrichs. "I feared I'd be checking that my whole life."
The big rush to the altar was expected Tuesday, when every county was required to start issuing new gender-neutral marriage licenses with spaces for "Party A" and "Party B" where "bride" and "groom" used to be.
On Monday, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who helped launch the series of lawsuits that led the court to strike down California's one-man-one-woman marriage laws, presided at the wedding of Del Martin, 87, and Phyllis Lyon, 83.
Newsom picked the couple for the only ceremony Monday in City Hall to recognize their 55-year relationship and their status as pioneers of the gay rights movement. More than 650 same-sex couples have made appointments to get marriage licenses in San Francisco before the end of the month.
Newsom called officiating the wedding "this extraordinary and humbling gift." After the mayor pronounced Martin and Lyon "spouses for life," the couple kissed, then emerged to a crowd of well-wishers who showered them with rose petals.
The celebrations are tempered by the reality that in a few months, Californians will go to the ballot box to vote on an initiative that would overturn the high court ruling and again ban gay marriage.
On Monday, three lawmakers and a small group of other same-sex opponents gathered outside the Capitol to criticize the Supreme Court decision. They urged voters to approve the ballot measure.
"This is an opportunity to take back a little bit of dignity ... for kids, for all of us in California," Republican Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa said. "It really disturbs me that the will of the people was overridden by four members of the Supreme Court."
In both San Francisco and Beverly Hills, where two women became the first same-sex couple in Los Angeles County to marry legally, small groups of protesters waved signs with sayings like "Repent or Perish," but they were outnumbered by supporters waving rainbow-striped flags.
Groups that oppose same-sex marriage have pursued several legal avenues to stop the weddings. On Monday, just hours before the ruling went into effect, a conservative legal group asked a Sacramento court to order the California agency that oversees marriages to stop issuing gender-neutral marriage licenses.
A hearing was set for Tuesday.
A UCLA study issued last week estimated that half of California's more than 100,000 same-sex couples will get married over the next three years, and 68,000 out-of-state couples will travel here to exchange vows.
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