Mumbai-Pune expressway mishap kills 27

Mumbai, May 28
Twenty seven members of a marriage party died and 26 others received serious injuries in a bizarre road accident on the Mumbai-Pune expressway at around 1 am today.

According to the state police control room, the victims hailing from Pune's Yerwada neighbourhood were travelling in two mini-buses to Pune after attending a wedding in the Mumbai suburb of Ghatkopar. The mishap happened when the tyres of one of the vehicles got punctured near Khalapur village after which both vehicles moved to the side of the road for carrying out repairs. Police said both vehicles were parked one behind the other when a loaded truck travelling at a high speed smashed into the second mini-bus.

Police said the impact of the crash was such that the mini-bus at the back rammed into the bus parked in the front. "Several passengers in both vehicles died on the spot due to the impact," an officer at the control room said. Police said a number of passengers, who had alighted from both buses and were standing between both the vehicles, were crushed to death.

According to the police, four children were among the dead. Till this afternoon three of the dead have been identified as Pooja Shinde (12), Om Sonavane (6) and Mangla Gaikwad (42).

The injured have been admitted to the MGM hospital at Panvel and the Sassoon Hospital in Pune. The truck driver has been detained at Khalapur in Raigad district.

According to police, the newly married couple was safe as they were travelling separately.

BIZARRE ACCIDENT

• The mishap took place when a loaded truck travelling at a high speed smashed into a mini-bus parked on the side of the road
• The impact of the crash was such that the mini-bus rammed into the bus parked in its front, crushing people seated on the road between both vehicles
• Both vehicles had moved to the side of the road after a tyre of one of the vehicles got punctured

Saudi woman defies religious police over nail polish

Riyadh - A YouTube video of a Saudi woman defying orders by the notorious religious police to leave a mall because she is wearing nail polish has gone viral, attracting more than a million hits in just five days.

The three and a half minute video posted on May 23 shows members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice telling the women to "get out of here (the mall)."

But she refuses to comply, saying: "I'm staying and I want to know what you're going to do about."

"It's none of your business if I wear nail polish," the unidentified woman, who is not seen on tape, is heard shouting at bearded men from the feared religious force.

"You are not in charge of me," she defiantly shouts back, referring to new constraints imposed earlier this year on the religious police banning them from harassing Saudi women over their behaviour and attire.

"The government has banned you from coming after us," she told the men, adding "you are only supposed to provide advice, and nothing more."

In January, Saudi King Abdullah appointed a moderate to head the religious police raising hopes that a more lenient force will ease draconian social constraints in the Islamic country.

Two weeks into his post, Sheikh Abdullatif Abdel Aziz al-Sheikh banned volunteers from serving in the commission which enforces the kingdom's strict Islamic rules.

And in April he went further prohibiting the religious police from "harassing people" and threatening "decisive measures against violators."

As of Monday, the video was viewed more than 1,142,000 times, with over 12,000 people posting comments online, most of them denouncing the woman's behaviour.

One posting said she had "no shame" and accused her of "prostituting" herself.

Another called her a "slut" and a "whore."

The clip earned only about 1800 "likes." The number of "dislikes" reached almost 7000.

The woman filmed the incident herself and posted it on YouTube. At one point during the video, she cautions the religious police that she has already posted the exchange online.

It is also not clear if the woman was eventually forced to leave the mall.

The religious police prevent women from driving, require them to be covered from head to foot in black, ban public entertainment, and force all commerce, from supermarkets to petrol stations, to come to a halt at prayer times, five times a day.