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December 14, 2013

Russian Actor: Gays Should Be Burned Alive in Ovens

The star of a popular Russian sitcom said that gay people in his country should be burned alive in ovens, to which the studio audience cheered.

Ivan Okhlobystin, star of a Russian show loosely based on the American show Scrubs, used gay slurs, and ranted about gay fascism in front of a crowd of fans during a spiritual event in Novosibirsk.

"I'd put them all alive in the oven…it's a living danger to my children,"Ria Novosti reports him saying. His additional comments that gay people are a danger to his six children, and should be stripped of their rights to vote garnered overwhelming applause, according to Buzzfeed.

Okhlobystin previously served as an Orthodox Christian priest until his priesthood was suspended in 2010. He also made a bid for the presidency in 2011.

After news of his statements grew, Okhlobystin tweeted that he received death threats from "sodomites," according to Buzzfeed.


http://www.advocate.com/news/world-news/2013/12/14/russian-actor-gays-should-be-burned-alive-ovens

AAP seeks 10 days from Lt Governor, sets terms for Cong, BJP


NEW DELHI, (TNP) - The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday sought 10 days time from Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung to take a decision regarding government formation in Delhi.

AAP chief along with party members Manish Sisodia and Kumar Vishwas met Najeeb Jung on Saturday.

“We have asked for 10 days time to take decision on the matter,” AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal told media persons outside the Lt Governor’s residence. “We have written a letter to Sonia Gandhi. We have also written a letter to Rajnath Singh,” said Kejriwal.

“We did not ask for your support. What is their intention? What is in their mind?” he said while referring to the BJP and Congress.

Kejriwal said that the Congress as well as the BJP should make their “stand clear” on 18 issues that they have raised. Earlier, Kejriwal had given to Jung the copies of the letters he had written to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and BJP president Rajnath Singh seeking their views on a list of 18 issues that included ending VIP culture in the Capital, audit of electricity companies and removal of the MLA local funds scheme.

Jung invited AAP after the BJP declined the offer to form the government in the state as they didn’t have a majority. The BJP secured 31 seats and fell short of a clear majority in the 70-member House.

AAP won 28 seats in the Delhi Assembly elections. The Congress, which bagged eight seats, said they are ready to give unconditional outside support to the AAP.

US hopes diplomat’s arrest won’t hit bilateral ties

WASHINGTON: The US has expressed hope that the diplomatic row over the arrest of Indian Deputy Consul-General in New York will not affect bilateral ties with India, which has strongly reacted to the treatment meted out to the senior diplomat terming it “absolutely unacceptable”.

After India took up the matter with the US Ambassador in New Delhi, the State Department said it was handling the issue.

“We are handling this incident through law enforcement channels. We have a long-standing partnership with India, and we expect that partnership will continue,” a US State Department spokesperson told PTI.

India’s Deputy Consul-General Devyani Khobragade, a 1999-batch IFS officer, was taken into custody on Thursday and handcuffed in public on visa fraud charges before being released on a $250,000 bond after pleading not guilty.

The State Department, however, refused to comment on the specifics of the case, describing it as a pending matter in the court.

The 39-year-old Khobragade’s arrest, only a day after Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh, accompanied by the Joint Secretary in charge of Americas division in External Affairs Ministry, concluded her highly successful Washington trip, has caused a major diplomatic crisis between India and the US.

Lodging a strong protest against the arrest of its Deputy Consul-General in New York, India has conveyed to the US that such kind of a treatment to its diplomat is “absolutely unacceptable”.

“It was conveyed in no uncertain terms that this kind of treatment to one of our diplomats is absolutely unacceptable,” the Indian Embassy said in a statement in Washington on Friday after the Charge d’Affaires Taranjit Singh Sandhu met senior officials of the State Department.

“It was emphasised that Dr Devyani Khobragade is a diplomat who is in the US in pursuance of her duties and hence is entitled to the courtesy due to a diplomat in the country of her work. She is also a young mother of two small children,” the statement said.

“The Government of India is shocked and appalled at the manner in which she has been humiliated by the US authorities,” it said.

Sandhu also asked the US officials to resolve the matter at the earliest during the meeting.

In Delhi, Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh summoned US Ambassador Nancy Powell on Friday to convey India’s “shock” over the “absolutely unacceptable” treatment meted out to the senior Indian diplomat.