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Indian Express
7 hours ago
- Business
- Indian Express
Now, Delhi's civic body can use CM & MLA funds to fast-track infra projects
To fast-track infrastructure projects, enhance transparency and eliminate financial hurdles, the Delhi government has introduced key reforms in schemes like the Chief Minister Development Fund (CMDF) and MLA Local Area Development (MLALAD) Fund, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said on Thursday. Now, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) can use the CMDF and MLALAD funds to carry out development works. Earlier, such projects could only be executed through the Irrigation and Flood Control Department (I&FC) or the Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC), she added. 'This often caused delays in completing smaller projects, as these departments prioritised larger works. With this change, minor development works will now be handled more swiftly by the municipal corporation,' Gupta said in a statement. She added that changes have also been introduced in releasing payments for these projects. 'The first instalment, amounting to 10% of the estimated cost, will be released to executing agencies at the time of project approval. The second instalment, which along with the first instalment, will make up 50% of the tender amount, will be released upon submission of the required documents.' The remaining 50% will be released on completion of work, said officials. Gupta emphasised that this reform will significantly reduce delays in payments to construction companies and contractors. 'From the day we assumed office, our priority has been to revive and accelerate development works. During our review, it became evident that certain procedural changes could significantly speed up project execution,' said Gupta.
Los Angeles Times
21 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Homicidal cousins and the Hillside Stranglers case: A trial that nearly did not happen
Angelo Buono was the elder of the killers. He was wiry and foul-mouthed, a swaggering 44-year-old high school dropout who ran a solo auto-upholstery business out of his Glendale garage. A sometime pimp, he fancied himself a ladies' man. He flew an Italian flag at his yellow house. His cousin, Kenneth Bianchi, was the more outwardly polished of their cruel partnership. Detectives would call him 'Slick Ken.' He was 27, an aspiring cop with a Hollywood apartment and a glib patter that reminded people of a used-car salesman. He had a closetful of bogus diplomas and liked to pose as a sex therapist. To lure girls and young women back to Buono's house, the cousins posed as vice officers and flashed fake badges. They raped, tortured and killed their victims between October 1977 and February 1978, and left them to be found in ways that seemed designed to taunt police and maximize public terror. Their targets included runaways and aspiring actresses. Some were waiting at bus stops. Some were working as prostitutes. Some were college students. The bodies, with cord marks on their necks and limbs, had been stripped of clothing and dumped — sometimes posed — on hillsides around Los Angeles County. The killings made the news, but did not elicit widespread panic until November 1977. That's when four victims were found during a one-week stretch, including two Highland Park girls, ages 12 and 14, who were last seen at the Eagle Rock Plaza. An Eagle Rock woman wrote in The Times that the killer 'has made us all wretched' with fear, and reported a conversation between a grocery store customer and a clerk: 'Where is everybody?' 'At home watching TV, to see if they know the girl who just got killed.' It's hard to trace the origins of the name, but it became official late that year, as the LAPD launched the Hillside Strangler Task Force. By early 1978, with at least ten known victims, the staff had grown to 162 cops, including Glendale officers and sheriff's deputies, with a 24-hour tip hotline. 'Inside Parker Center we were in disarray, choking on tips, leads, and clues,' Daryl Gates, the former LAPD chief, wrote in his memoir 'Chief.' 'We had, in time, more than 10,000 clues, 4,800 parolees to check out, and 120,000 fingerprint cards to run for comparison.' The LAPD had use of a relatively new weapon, a computer into which clues were inputted. But it was haphazardly managed, and investigators scattered among the agencies were not reliably sharing information with one another. 'There was really no coordination whatsoever,' Frank Salerno, one of the top sheriff's detectives on the case, told The Times in a recent interview. 'Investigation by committee doesn't work.' Since there was widespread suspicion the strangler might be a cop, the LAPD ordered its officers not to chase female suspects. 'If a woman runs from you, we said, don't chase her,' Gates would write. 'Understand that she may be panicking, thinking that you're him.' Some detectives thought the bodies had been carried to the dump sites by multiple people, since the scenes lacked drag marks. Serial killers almost always worked alone, but there might be 'one homicidal maniac or several,' The Times reported. An LAPD commander said, 'There may be as many as 4 or 5 sets of stranglers.' With panic pervasive and pressure to close the case mounting, the LAPD arrested a Beverly Hills handyman in connection with the murders — a jailhouse snitch had implicated him — but were forced to release him three days later, accompanied by a humiliating public apology from Gates. The L.A. killings inexplicably stopped in spring 1978; nearly a year passed without more bodies. Detectives rotated back to their old assignments. Reflecting on his reaction, Salerno said: 'Why did it stop, if there were two? Were both of them in custody? Did one kill the other? Who knows?' In mid-January 1979, the phone rang at the Sheriff's Department with a call from police in Bellingham, Wash., where 27-year-old Kenneth Bianchi was in custody for the rape and strangling of two local college students. He had been working as a rent-a-cop. The address on his driver's license was 1950 Tamarind Ave. in Hollywood. Alert L.A. detectives remembered that a Strangler victim, 18-year-old escort Kimberly Martin, had been abducted from that location. Another of Bianchi's former addresses, in Glendale, was an apartment complex where a second victim, a 20-year-old art student named Kristina Weckler, had lived. A third victim had lived across the street. Bianchi's name, it turned out, had surfaced multiple times during the investigation. At one point, he had even agreed to take a polygraph test. But no one had followed up. 'Our computer software could not collate all the information fed into it, and Bianchi's name was spelled differently each time,' Gates would write, lamenting that he had lacked the time and authority to supervise the case with more granular intensity. 'It continues to haunt me today that I didn't personally go over every detail.' One of Bianchi's former neighbors remembered him as 'a friendly, well-mannered, nice young man.' When reporters learned his cousin Buono was his suspected accomplice, they drove to Glendale but found him a surly subject. 'You guys blowed up the story too goddam much,' Buono said. 'Goodbye and get off my property.' A few months later, still free but under tight surveillance, he was ready to share a few bitter thoughts. 'The only thing I have to say is I haven't did nothing,' Buono told reporters. 'They won't find nothing 'cause I ain't did nothing.' He complained that the attention had dried up referrals to his auto upholstery business. 'The phone don't ring any more. Nobody comes in. As a businessman, I'm dead.' As for his younger cousin? He didn't even know him that well, he insisted. He had let him stay with him briefly as a favor to his aunt, and the association had meant nothing but grief. 'We didn't have nothing in common,' he said. 'Now I wouldn't do no more favors for anybody, even the Pope.' Up in Washington state, Bianchi had confessed to some of the L.A. murders and implicated his cousin as his partner. There was a bizarre catch, however. Bianchi did so under hypnosis, and convinced more than one psychiatrist that he suffered from multiple personality disorder. To take Bianchi's schtick seriously was to believe an alter ego named 'Steve Walker' had done the crimes, the basis for an insanity defense. 'We're looking at this going, 'Good God, hopefully nobody's believing this crap,'' Peter Finnigan, one of the sheriff's detectives on the case, told The Times recently. Finnigan said he and his partners soon discovered that Steve Walker was the name of a real psychologist whose credentials Bianchi had stolen to pass himself off as one. Bianchi had duped the psychologist into sending him his school transcripts by placing an ad in the L.A. Times pretending to seek an associate for a fake therapy practice. Detectives went hunting for the Help Wanted ad, hunkered over the microfiche machine at the newspaper's downtown office. 'We spent almost two weeks in your damn basement,' Finnigan told The Times. They found the ad and exposed Bianchi's ruse. 'Basically his multiple personality defense is destroyed,' Finnigan said. 'Because your primary multiple personality isn't yours, it's a real person.' In no time, Bianchi pleaded guilty to the two Washington murders and five of the L.A. murders. He agreed to testify against his cousin. (In a case with no shortage of weirdness, a woman who said she loved Bianchi, Veronica Compton, tried to strangle a cocktail waitress to make it appear the real Strangler was still loose; she went to prison for it.) At various times, more than a dozen L.A. murders were attributed to the Stranglers, some mistakenly. Los Angeles prosecutors prepared to try Buono for ten of them. But their star witness was increasingly capricious. Sometimes, Bianchi insisted he and Buono had taken turns strangling victims; other times, he claimed not to have been present at all, or to have watched Buono do it. It amounted to the 'self-immolation of his own credibility,' said Assistant Dist. Atty. Roger Kelly. He told the press it would be unethical to rely on a witness he considered a liar, bluntly conceding: 'The case is in trouble.' And so it was no surprise when he announced in July 1981 that his office, under Dist. Atty. John Van De Kamp, was dropping the murder charges against Buono. The office would pursue pimping charges, but even if convicted, at most Buono would get a few years. Cops were furious. 'Kelly was one of these guys who wanted eyewitnesses,' Finnigan recalled — an area in which the case was flimsy. 'He didn't like circumstantial evidence. He felt there were too many loose ends.' Gates, in his memoir, derided Kelly as a weak-kneed prosecutor who feared damage to his reputation if he lost on such a large stage, an attorney who preferred 'pat cases, sure things, with all the T's crossed and the I's dotted,' he wrote. 'Sometimes a prosecutor has to take a chance.' It was Superior Court Judge Ronald George who saved the case. He spent more than an hour reading aloud a scathing 36-page ruling, ordering the district attorney's office to 'vigorously and effectively resume' the prosecution, or else he'd give it to the attorney general's office. While Bianchi's account was a 'morass of contradictions,' there was nevertheless a great deal of evidence to corroborate his claims, which he said prosecutors had unaccountably 'glossed over.' For example, there was the account of Catherine Lorre, daughter of the late actor Peter Lorre, who said the cousins had posed as vice cops while trying to abduct her in Hollywood in 1977. And there were polyester fibers on two of the victims matching material found in Buono's shop. Prosecutors were stunned by George's ruling, and the defense flabbergasted. 'I've been practicing law for 15 years and I've never seen anything like this happen before,' said Gerald Chaleff, one of Buono's attorneys. It was a decision the judge was proud of, later telling a reporter: 'Ten bodies don't just get swept under the carpet!' In a recent interview, the retired judge — who went on to serve as chief justice of the California Supreme Court for 14 years — told The Times: 'Normally, like most judges, I would not second-guess a prosecutor's evaluation of his or her own case.' But 'I felt I had not only a right, but a duty' to do so. The attorney general's office prosecuted Buono, which became the longest murder trial in American history — a record that still holds. From jury selection in November 1981 to nine guilty verdicts in November 1983, it ran for 729 days, with 392 witnesses and 1,807 exhibits. Bianchi testified for months, and although his testimony was riddled with contradictions, he supplied details only one of the killers would have known — like the use of cleaning fluid to inject one of the victims. Sentenced to life, Buono died in prison in 2002, at age 67. For prosecutors who had tried to scuttle a winnable case against a serial killer, the notoriety was unkind. Kelly, a downtown veteran, was transferred against his will to the Compton branch. His former boss, Van De Kamp, carried a political albatross. 'It was an error,' he acknowledged, admitting he had wrongly assessed the strength of the evidence. But Democrat and Republican rivals cudgeled him with it during his failed run for governor in 1990. Bianchi, now 74, remains locked up and was recently denied parole. Finnigan, the retired detective, attended the virtual hearing and perceived no difference in the 'pathological lying sociopath' he began studying in 1979. 'He's exactly the same,' Finnigan said. 'His mannerisms and his speech patterns, exactly. He's double slick.'
Time of India
23-07-2025
- Science
- Time of India
Periyar University receives Rs 1.32 crore from CM's research grant scheme
Periyar University SALEM: Periyar University has secured a total funding of Rs 1.32 crore from the Chief Minister's Research Grant Scheme. "Five research proposals submitted by faculty members and a research scholar have been selected for the funding, each addressing critical areas in science, technology and environmental sustainability," said vice-chancellor R Subramani in a statement. A Vidyasagar, a professor in the geology department, has obtained Rs 31.92 lakh for a climate-focused study that evaluates the health effects of water pollutants released from south Indian landmasses into the ocean. P M Ayyasamy, a professor in the department of microbiology, has received Rs 31.82 lakh for creating a bio-extraction process to recover vital minerals. D Palanivel, an assistant professor in the department of physics, has been granted Rs 28.56 lakh for his research on the use of 2D nanomaterials in photocatalytic processes. T Elangovan, an assistant professor in the department of energy science and technology, has been awarded Rs 25.94 lakh for his project aimed at improving the long-term efficiency and operational performance of solid-state colour-sensitive solar cells. M Stanley Dinakar, a research scholar in the physics department, has received Rs 14.11 lakh for creating a next-generation water purification system.
CTV News
22-07-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
B.C. Coastal First Nations issue open letter to Carney opposing suggested pipeline
Chief Marilyn Slett speaks during a news conference in Vancouver, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns
Newsweek
19-07-2025
- Health
- Newsweek
Owner Goes on 5-Day Trip—Nothing Could Have Prepared Her for Dog's Reaction
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A dog owner has shared what happened the first time she left her dog for a vacation, and the things she would do differently next time. Jenny, 42, from Davao City in the Philippines, had been planning a five-day trip with her husband, their first in five years. To ease the separation, she made sure Chief, her 3-year-old Golden Retriever, stayed home in a familiar environment surrounded by family and their other dogs. "We thought leaving him with family would be fine," Jenny, who didn't give a surname, told Newsweek. "My son, brother, and sister-in-law were here—we all live in the same compound. We also thought that since he had his pack, Scout, our 11-month-old Shih Tzu, and Bruce, our 11-year-old senior mixed dog, he'd be okay. We left some sweaty clothes so he'd have our scent, scheduled video calls... We really thought he'd be fine." But just two days into their trip, Chief began vomiting repeatedly. After the seventh episode, Jenny's brother-in-law rushed him to the only 24-hour vet clinic available in the area. The vets initially suspected he had ingested a foreign object and began discussing potential surgery. Chief the dog, who recently spent time away from his owners for the first time. Chief the dog, who recently spent time away from his owners for the first time. halfglass-cat/Reddit Jenny recalled her concern and instinct that something wasn't right. She pushed to pause surgery and instead take Chief to his regular vet for a check up. The diagnosis from Chief's regular vet came as a shock: stress-induced gastroenteritis, likely triggered by separation anxiety. "After a battery of tests and meds, the standing diagnosis was gastroenteritis due to separation anxiety. I was so relieved that surgery was off the table. I knew chicken would coax him back to health, and true enough, he started eating once they gave him roasted chicken," Jenny said. What is Dog Separation Anxiety? Separation anxiety is a behavioral disorder where dogs experience significant distress when separated from their owner. Symptoms include excessive barking, whining, howling, destruction, house soiling and signs of psychological distress like panting, salivating and vomiting. While the causes of separation anxiety in dogs aren't always clear, there are factors believed to contribute. These include genetic and biological predispositions, environmental or life changes and hyper-attachment to the owner. There are ways to help prevent and deal with separation anxiety in dogs. Experts advise: Don't make a big deal about leaving. Don't make a big deal about returning home. Give the dog breaks throughout the day so it's away from you. Teach the dog the art of doing nothing and how to self-soothe. Spend quality time together, along with the breaks. Read more Woman feeds Dog common treat—then every owner's worst nightmare unfolds Woman feeds Dog common treat—then every owner's worst nightmare unfolds Thankfully, after being diagnosed and helped to settle down, Chief started feeling better, and the couple were able to start to enjoy their vacation 72 hours after it started. Looking back, Jenny recalled advice from a trainer that Chief might be overly attached to them. "One of his trainers once told us that Chief was 'extra' when we were around—that he might be too attached. He even suggested trying a day without us, just to help him adjust. But we never had the heart to leave him with strangers," she said. The incident cost the family around ₱28,000 ($489) in vet bills and travel to and from the hospital. But Jenny said that that the emotional toll, and the helplessness of not being there for Chief, was far worse. She shared their ordeal on Reddit, where she wanted to warn other pet owners about separation anxiety in pets. "He wasn't just missing us—his body literally couldn't handle the stress," Jenny wrote in the post, which amassed hundreds of upvotes since being shared last month. "If you're planning to leave your pet for the first time, especially if you're their whole world, please consider emotional prep as part of your planning." "I wanted to share our story because so many people love their pets deeply, and if our experience can help even one or two people avoid the stress, the panic, the expense, then that's enough," she said. Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@ with some details about your best friend, and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
