An unemployed doctor was charged on Monday with fatally shooting a Yale University Indian-origin doctor Dr Vajinder Toor and firing at the victim's pregnant wife after a history of confrontations with the victim and other colleagues that led to his dismissal from a New York hospital.

Branford police said 44-year-old Lishan Wang is charged with murder, attempted murder and firearms offenses in the fatal shooting Monday of Vajinder Toor outside his home. Police say Wang, a Chinese citizen from Beijing who was last known to be living in Marietta, Ga., also fired at Toor's wife, but she was not struck. Vajinder has left behind a three-year-old baby and his pregnant wife.

Thirty four year-old Toor, went to the US five years ago and had worked with CRPF in India before he left for the States. Back home in Mohali, a shocked family says Vajinder was very soft spoken and brilliant in his studies. His father has left for the US.

"He was brilliant, we are shocked," said Tajinder Toor, younger brother.

Lishan Wang, 44, was arraigned Tuesday and held on $2 million bail in the killing of Vajinder Toor. The two had worked together at a hospital in New York City. Toor, originally from India, was shot five times Monday outside his Branford home.

Printouts on two other people directly involved in Wang's dismissal were found in his van when he was arrested nearby, police said. The names were not disclosed.

Police said directions were also in the van, but further details on the report were blacked out.

"Had we not captured him, I don't know what his future plans were," Branford Police Lt. Geoffrey Morgan told The Associated Press.

Wang's van had the words "May-08-10" handwritten on a temporary plate, police said. Wang was suspended from his job in May 2008 after a heated exchange with Toor at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center in New York.

A wig, a hammer and a knife were also found in the van, police said.

Wang was found with handguns matching shell casings from the slaying scene, loaded magazines, Google directions to the shooting location and a picture of the victim, authorities said.

Police say Wang also shot at Toor's pregnant wife, but missed. Wang is charged with murder, attempted murder and firearms offenses.

Wang had a history of confrontations with Toor and other colleagues at Kingsbrook that led to his dismissal, and he had a federal discrimination lawsuit pending against the hospital.

Wang hung his head throughout Tuesday's hearing and did not speak. No plea was entered. A Chinese citizen from Beijing, Wang was assisted by a Mandarin interpreter.

Wang's public defender, Scott Jones, requested his client be placed in protective custody. Jones declined to comment after the hearing.

Bail commissioner Sharon Moye-Johnson said Wang had declined to be interviewed but he has no previous criminal record.

Wang is a married father of three, and his last known address was in Marietta, Ga.
Toor was a postdoctoral fellow at the Yale School of Medicine who was working with the infectious disease section of Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Records show Wang's lawsuit against Kingsbrook had been heating up.

The hospital's attorneys asked a judge this month to dismiss the case, and they were wrangling with Wang over how much he had to disclose about his income and prescription history.

The parties were due for a conference call May 6 to discuss that impasse and his claim they were violating his privacy.

"I am deeply saddened by the tragic turn of events that took place yesterday near Yale," Wang's attorney, Christine Rodriguez, said in a statement Tuesday.

Wang worked from 2002 through 2005 at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, according to court records, before joining Kingsbrook for residency training in 2006.

His firing was the start of several setbacks, according to his lawsuit.

In May 2009, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rejected his discrimination claim, saying Kingsbrook showed he was fired for "multiple performance problems."

Toor was not a defendant in the lawsuit, though Wang cited alleged conflicts with Toor and other doctors several times in the claim.

Wang said in his court filings he was doing postdoctoral work from February 2009 through last February at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta on a $34,000 annual salary.

Morehouse medical school spokeswoman Cherie A. Richardson said in a statement Tuesday the college was "horrified" to hear that a former employee is charged in the killing.

Toor, who has been praised by colleagues as diligent and ambitious, left Kingsbrook not long after Wang.

Toor, who graduated from Guru Gobind Singh Medical College in India in 2001, moved to Texas after his Kingsbrook position and practiced at Austin Regional Clinic.

"I really have no doubt that he would have been, wherever he ended up, some kind of lead physician," said Tim Rye, the clinic's regional operations director. "For a physician his age, he was more motivated than most. He was a good solid doctor, a very energetic guy with a lot ahead of him."

Dawn Eisensmith, 42, who heard the gunshots and the screams of Toor's wife, said that her 12-year-old son is carrying a baseball bat with him since the incident.
He had walked past the Toors' home on his way to the bus stop shortly before the shooting.

"That's the scariest part from me, is that he was there just minutes before," she said. 

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An NRI woman solicitor was murdered in Britain by a hitman who was hired by her business partner in a plot to claim a 1.5 million pounds insurance payout.

Vina Patel, 51, died of asphyxiation and a broken neck in a deliberate and murderous contract killing arranged by her colleague John Cort, a court was told.

Despite earning more than 110,000 pounds a year, 54-year-old Cort had thousands of pounds of debts after splashing out on three homes and meals at celebrity haunts following an expensive divorce.

In the weeks before the alleged murder, he put around rumours that he was seriously ill.

This prompted him and Patel, the only partner in the firm Cort and Co Solicitors, to increase the business insurance cover taken out on her life from 500,000 to 1.5 million pounds, the jury heard.

Cort is then alleged to have hired Brian Farrell, 37, from Kensington, West London to murder Patel and make it look like an accident, Nottingham Crown Court was told.

Cort and Farrell deny murder.

Patel's husband and daughter discovered her bruised and with a broken neck at the bottom of a flight of stairs in her office in Leicester on January 15 last year.

There were sign that the lawyer had been suffocated with blue material.

She had then fallen or been pushed down the stairs, or attacked and her body arranged to look like it was an accident, it was alleged. 
 

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Team India is West-Indies-bound for the T20 World Cup, but the most successful batsmen of IPL Season 3 is not boarding that flight. Sachin Tendulkar will be missed by every Indian, but India Skipper MS Dhoni says, "we must respect Sachin's decision to retire from T20."
 
In an exclusive interview to NDTV, Dhoni, who also spoke about winning the IPL and lots more, said of course the team would miss Sachin, but "I respect his decision,  whatever he says because he has done well, given his services to Indian cricket for the last 20 years, if he decides something than we should just respect it."
 
The Captain is sure the presence of his Chennai Super Kings teammate, opener Murli Vijay, will stand the team in good stead. The in-form Murli has come in at the last minute for Virendra Sehwag, who has dropped out of the tournament.
 
Dhoni is also bullish about his bowlers and is happy with the inclusion in the squad of young Piyush Chawla. "Pragyan Ojha has done relatively well in all three seasons of IPL, same is the case with Amit Mishra who has done really well, but you have to see in this format of t20 cricket, if you have somebody like Harbhajan Singh or Yusuf Pathan, Ravinder Jadeja, who have been doing this job of bowling with batting, in this equation Piyush Chawla gets an edge and he is the best fielder among the lot. We need somebody who can do a bit of batting at the same time. Captains get greedy by saying that you don't need a batsman at number 8 but there is no harm."
 
And can Team India reprise the thrilling win of three years ago so soon after a hectic IPL season?  "This isn't the first time we are playing World Cup and not first time that we are playing so much. We should stop asking. We play throughout the year, five years before or after we will keep playing...the only factor is hopefully we don't have any major injuries to any players," says the man in command.
 

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Annoyed by the hype over his marriage with Indian tennis star Sania Mirza, Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik has appealed to the media to practice some restrain.

Malik said due to the continuous attention, he and Sania cannot live like a normal couple.

"I am pleased to know that people are happy with our marriage but I think now it is time to stop this hype and let us live like a normal couple. I would request the media to leave alone both the families," Shoaib said when he and Sania appeared together for the first time on a Pakistani channel last night.

"Two people from different countries got married and it should only be treated as a marriage nothing more," Malik told 'Ary News'.

Malik said he was happy at the celebrations in Pakistan but he was now tired of playing bodyguard to his wife.

"I would ask the media to reduce the hype let our families enjoy this occasion as any family would celebrate a marriage. Because of all this hype I couldn't even meet with my friends and relatives properly at the reception in Sialkot, it was a mad rush," he said.

Malik, who is presently serving a 12-month ban by the Pakistan Cricket Board, was also disappointed by the negative stories about them.

"I can only laugh at stories in the media that invitation cards for our wedding reception were sold. This thing about our wedding cards being sold it is laughable. Please don't turn wedding cards into credit cards," Malik said.

Sania Mirza said she was surprised by the hype in the media over their marriage.

"It is not like ours is a great big love story. 

Strangely we were introduced by a common friend from the media then I met him in Hobart and our families also met and we decided to get married," she said.

There are reports after unruly scenes at the reception in Sialkot on Sunday night, Sania's father Imran is personally supervising all security arrangements for the Valima reception in Lahore.
 

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A Delhi court accepts CBI's clean chit to former Union Minister and Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

Court says no further investigations required and there is no need to send the accused for trial.

Court agrees with CBI that testimonies of witnesses are unreliable

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Mayawati has bailed out the UPA government. She attacked the government for its economic policies, and for thinking "only of the rich" but said she cannot allow "communal forces" to take over at the Centre.

She has said that the 21 MPs of her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will vote with the government during the Opposition's cut motion on fuel price hike to be moved at 6 pm today on the Finance Bill.

Here's why that gives the government relief.

The half-way mark in the Lok Sabha is 272

The UPA has 274 MPs. With the BSP on its side, the government has 295 votes in its favour, and is home free.

Mayawati said the reason for her support is not, as widely suggested, quid pro quo for the CBI's recent indication to drop a major case of corruption against her in the Supreme Court. Last week, the CBI, which investigates cases on the orders of the central government, said it's willing to consider Mayawati's request to close a case that accuses her of disproportionate assets.

However, political analysts have said that the government is clearly on a please-Mayawati drive. The government has given Mayawati the thumbs-up in another crucial case against her in the Supreme Court - it has said her giant park in Noida, built as a memorial to Dalit leaders including herself, has not violated environmental guidelines by allowing construction in what's essentially reserved as a green area.

Recently, the Prime Minister also met with a BSP delegation that wanted the government to move faster on a proposed airport at the Greater Noida.

The BJP took no time in taking a pot shot at the new Congress-BSP camaraderie. Senior BJP leader Venkaih Naidu said: "Now CBI means Congress Bureau of India."

The Opposition suggests that it couldn't be more obvious that the government is trying to appease Mayawati into standing by it. "It's not surprising for this government to do this kind of wheeling dealing. But we would appeal to all parties to take a political stand on the cut motion and the demand for the fuel hike rollback," said CPM leader Sitaram Yechury.

Speaking to NDTV, Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan stressed reports of a tacit deal with Mayawati were incorrect. "This government does not indulge in such backroom maneuvers," she stated.

Meanwhile, Lalu Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Mulyam's Samajwadi Party (SP)  remained non-committal on the cut motion issue, with party leaders stating that they will focus for now on the 13-party Left-led bandh against price rise.

"Where is the motion today. Today the issue is the agitation over price rise that we are fighting from street to Parliament," senior RJD leader Prem Chand Gupta said.
 

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The reception party of the newly married couple Shoaib Malik and Sania Mirza at the Pakistani cricketer's hometown Sialkot was marred by mismanagement with some 2,000 people turning up as against 1,000 invitees.

In their efforts to stop the "uninvited guests" who arrived to attend the reception held at a hockey stadium on Sunday night, private security guards did not even allow some of Shoaib's relatives and friends to enter the venue.

Thousands of Sialkotees gathered outside Shoaib's house on Sunday and danced to the beat of drums through the day and the hockey stadium was specially decorated for the festive occasion.

Many residents of the city said yesterday was a special day for them as the people of Sialkot had been waiting for the arrival of the cricketer and his Indian bride.

But there was chaos soon after Sania, clad in a green sari with gold brocade, and Shoaib, in a white sherwani, entered the venue at 9 pm.

A local journalist said 1,000 guests were present at the stadium that can accommodate only some 700 people.

"The entry of so many people created mismanagement and even Sania was unhappy about it," the reporter said.

Some TV news channels beamed footage of what they described as an exchange of heated words between the couple over the issue. A clip showed an upset Shoaib and Sania being escorted by security guards as they tried to avoid a crowd of guests.

The guests were served chicken korma and rice in keeping with the government's ban on serving more than one dish at wedding receptions.

However, a petition was filed in the Lahore High Court alleging that more than one dish was served on that occasion.

After the reception, Shoaib and Sania returned to Lahore's Pearl Continental Hotel at around 3 am this on Monday morning.

The couple remained ensconced in their hotel room and was expected to tour Lahore later in the evening.

Sania's sister Anum said her sibling had come to Pakistan in 1991 to play a junior tennis tournament in Islamabad. She also described Lahore as a beautiful city that resembled Delhi.

The couple's "walima" or reception hosted by the groom's family will be held at the Pearl Continental Hotel tomorrow and some 1,000 people have been invited there.

Senior government functionaries are also expected to attend the reception party.

Pearl Continental official Aila Tariq told PTI that the hotel management will ensure that only one dish is served during the function in line with the government's directive.

Chicken korma will be served with rice and naans during the function, hotel officials said. 
 

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Bangalore girls say they would not mind wearing low necklines to support worldwide protests against the Tehran cleric who blames scantily clad women for causing earthquakes.

"Many women who dress inappropriately cause youths to go astray, taint their chastity and incite extramarital sex in society, which increases earthquakes," Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi had said at the last Friday prayer in Tehran.

In response to this comment, Jennifer McCreight, a postgraduate student from Purdue University, USA, organised Boobquake, an online campaign on popular social networking websites Facebook and Twitter.

 McCreight has urged women around the world to wear their 'most cleavage-showing shirt' on April 26, to scientifically test the Iranian cleric's claim. At present the campaign has received 47,766 positive responses.

"With the power of our scandalous bodies combined, we should surely produce an earthquake. If not, I'm sure Sedighi can come up with a rational explanation for why the ground didn't rumble," wrote McCreight on Facebook.

However, in India, there are dissenting voices that do not support this method of protest.

"It is like instead of being careful while cooking, you end up burning the entire house. Islam urges women to cover themselves. Why do they need to wear inappropriate clothes to protest?" asks Mahmood Dariabadi, general secretary of All India Ulema Council.

"The Iranian cleric could have meant that such immodesty leads to earthquakes in society."

Many Indian social activists were however not sure if the campaign would meet with any success.  "Such campaigns hardly help. However, such initiatives do help in underlining how today's women are ready to take on any challenges. They don't bow down to such absurd observations. They mock them instead," said Brinda Adige (30), who works for Global Consultants, a city based non-governmental organisation to support women and children rights.

Brinda was one of the organisers of the Pink Chaddi campaign held in Bangalore to protest Mangalore pub attack by Hindu hardliner Parmod Mutalik's supporters and his objection to Valentine's Day celebrations.

"I will definitely wear such a t-shirt tomorrow to show my support," Brinda added. Whereas, Sulakshana K (23), a fashion designer, said, "I don't know how effective it will be but why not do it anyway for the fun of it all?"
 

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CID sleuths interrogating Bangalore 'Sex Swami' Swami Nithyananda came close to realising what a dangerous thing half-knowledge can be.

When the officers were done with their questions for the day, they played the tape and found it did not have any sound. The tape ran like a silent movie in colour. Hours of effort had gone waste.

When the CID officers brought the Swami from Himachal Pradesh, after arresting him from his alleged hideout in Solan district on April 21, they took him to their new interrogation cell in Bangalore.

The Ramanagar local court had handed the Swami over to police custody for four days following his appearance in court on April 22.

 "It was very difficult to make him speak. And then our efforts went waste thanks to our poor technical knowledge. We had to repeat the entire exercise on Sunday," said a source in the CID.

When they decided to interrogate the Swami in the cell, the CID authorities called for local technicians to fit CCTV (close circuit TV) and the equipment was installed hurriedly, on Friday.

"There was a problem with the audio output of the recording. The video was just fine," explained a technician who fixed the problem. When the statement was recorded the sound was audible but the output on the computer was considerably muted."

The technicians had to be called in on Sunday and the same questions were asked again. The swami smiled at his interrogators as usual before getting into a trance-like state.

"He was either slipping into sleep every now and then or kept chanting mantras whenever we asked him an important question," said the source.

"It was horrible. Imagine having to repeat the entire exercise! It was like a punishment for us."

HS Hussain, the deputy superintendent of police, CID, who was in the team formed to arrest the swami, refused to comment. "I am not supposed to discuss the interrogation," Hussain said.

"You will come to know the details once the investigation is over and we present the case before court." 
 

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Phishing fiends struck again and this time their victim is Bangalore's M K Shankarlinge Gowda, Secretary, State Transport department.

Gowda's e-mail was hacked into and random mails were sent to his contact list seeking financial assistance.

Gowda filed a complaint with Vishana Soudha police asking them to trace the hacker, who not only indulged in cyber crime but also caused him embarrassment.

The Vidhana Soudha police have taken up the case and are seeking the help of cyber crime sleuths to track down the hackers.

"Gowda was using his Hotmail ID for personal and official purposes alike," the investigating officer in the case said.

The cops added that as a precautionary measure they asked him to change his password so further damage could be prevented.

The incident came to light on April 13 when some of Gowda's friends received a mail stating that he was on an outstation assignment, and was stranded without funds. The mail sought financial assistance to bail him out of trouble.

Some of Gowda's friends even called him to check.

Cyber Crime police officials said if anyone in the victim's contact list responds to the e-mail, they ask him or her to affect an online transfer of funds to a specific account number.

"So far we have only received complaints of phishing attacks. We have not come across anyone who has been cheated of any money in this way. We are trying to locate the Internet Protocol address from where the mail was generated," said a senior police officer.
 

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