A fisherman fills his cupped palms with water from the algae-filled Chaohu Lake in Hefei, Anhui province, June 16, 2009. The country has invested 51 billion yuan towards the construction of 2,712 projects for the treatment of eight rivers and lakes including Huaihe River, Haihe River, Liaohe River, Chaohu Lake, Dianchi Lake, Songhua River, the Three Gorges region of the Yangtze River and its upstream area, Xinhua News Agency reported.
REUTERS/Stringer
Mexican naval officers stand guard after cutting open more than 20 shark carcasses filled with slabs of cocaine after checking a container ship in a container port in the southern Mexico state of Yucatan June 16, 2009. Mexico's navy seized more than a tonne of cocaine stuffed inside frozen sharks, as drug gangs under military pressure go to greater lengths to conceal narcotics bound for the United States.
REUTERS/Argely Salaza
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A Belgian teenager has told police how she emerged from a tattoo parlor with 56 stars over one side of her face, rather than the three she had asked for, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
"I said this part, the top, is ok, but not the rest," Kimberley Vlaeminck from the city of Kortrijk, 90 km (56 miles) northwest of Brussels, told Belgian broadcaster VRT.
The 18-year-old said she fell asleep during the procedure, and woke up in pain when her nose was being tattooed.
A spokesman for Kortrijk prosecutors' office said police were investigating after a complaint from the teenager.
The tattoo artist said Vlaeminck had agreed to 56 stars.
"She agreed, but when her father saw it, the trouble started," Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws quoted the man as saying.
Vlaeminck said she wanted to keep the tattoos on her forehead but would have the rest removed.
(Reporting by Antonia van de Velde)
LONDON (Reuters) - An ancient burial pit containing 45 severed skulls, that could be a mass war grave dating back to Roman times, has been found under a road being built for the 2012 British Olympics.
Archaeologists, who have only just begun excavating the site, say they do not yet know who the bones might belong to.
"We think that these dismembered bodies are likely to be native Iron Age Britons. The question is -- how did they die and who killed them," said dig head, David Score, of Oxford Archaeology.
"Were they fighting amongst themselves? Were they executed by the Romans? Did they die in a battle with the Romans?
"The exciting scenario for us possibly is that there were skirmishes with the invading Romans and that's how they ended up chopped up in a pit," he told Reuters.
When the main Roman invasion force landed in Britain in AD 43, Claudius' legions moved swiftly through western England to subdue fierce Celtic tribes.
The skulls and other bones were unearthed at a place called Ridgeway Hill, on the construction site of a new major relief road to Weymouth, on the Dorset coast in southwest England.
The seaside town -- in the heart of Thomas Hardy country -- is to host sailing events for the London Olympics.
The grave site is close to Maiden Castle -- Europe's largest Iron Age hill fort where local tribes are said to have staged a last stand against the Roman legions after the invasion.
Some historians believe the Romans sacked the site, butchering its population including women and children, before burning it to the ground.
Score said they had counted 45 skulls so far in the 6-meter wide pit, together with a tangle of torsos, arms and legs, More could be found in the coming weeks.
Most of the skulls were those of young men, supporting the theory they could have been killed in battle or executed en masse.
"One of the things that we will be looking for is do they have sword cut marks on the bones, and how were the heads dismembered: prior to or after death in an act of victory," Score said.
Archaeologists say they could also be Roman citizens or indigenous people who had died through disease or disaster.
Few artifacts have so far been found with the bones, though pottery shards dating to the late Iron Age and early Roman period have been found scattered around the pit."It is rare to find a burial site like this one," Score said. "There are lots of different types of burial where skeletons may be aligned along a compass axis or in a crouched position, but to find something like this is just incredible."
(Editing by Steve Addison)
Mon Jun 15, 2009 8:37am EDT
JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban fighters beat musicians, shaved their heads and left them tied to trees overnight because they performed at an Afghan wedding, a village tribal chief said Monday, a sign of the fighters' growing influence.
While in power from 1996-2001, the Taliban banned music as un-Islamic.
The militants have returned to areas in the east and south of the country, where violence has sharply spiked in recent years. They attack government officials, Afghan police, foreign troops and schools that teach girls, another practice they forbid.
"A party was going on when a group of Taliban grabbed five musicians and started beating them and smashing their musical instruments," said Rahmatullah Khan, a head of Merke Khel village in the east of the country.
"The musicians were tied up with rope to trees last night and villagers found them in the morning when going out for prayers," Khan said.
Khan said Taliban fighters shaved the heads of the musicians and made them take oaths in the presence of villagers that they would not sing or play music at weddings again.
Afghan weddings and engagement parties in rural areas are traditionally celebrated with hundreds of guests, music and singing that often continues until late at night.
(Reporting by Rafiq Sherzad; Writing by Hamid Shalizi)
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Job-seekers are using unusual gimmicks to grab the attention of potential employers, such as in one case sending a shoe along with a resume to get a "foot in the door," said a survey released on Wednesday.
Almost a fifth of hiring managers report seeing more unconventional tactics this year, compared with 12 percent who said so last year, according to the study by CareerBuilder.com, an online jobs site.
Faced with the highest unemployment in 25 years, candidates are trying a variety of tricks, including:
* handing out resumes at stoplights
* washing cars in a company parking lot
* staging a sit-in in a company lobby to demand a meeting with a director
* sending a cake designed as a business card with the candidate's picture
* handing out personalized coffee cups
* going to the same barber as the company chairman to have the barber speak on his behalf
One job-seeker attached a shoe to a resume as "a way to get my foot in the door," a respondent told the survey.
"The search for employment is taking longer and is more competitive than it has been in past years," said Jason Ferrara, senior career adviser at CareerBuilder, in a statement. "To compensate, some candidates have turned to extreme tactics."
But he cautioned: "While unusual job search antics may attract the attention of hiring managers, they need to be done with care and professionalism so that candidates are remembered for the right reasons."
The online survey was conducted for CareerBuilder by Harris Interactive among 2,543 full-time hiring managers and human resource professionals between February 20 and March 11, 2009. The overall results have a margin of error of plus or minus 1.94 percentage points.
CareerBuilder is owned by Gannett Co Inc, Tribune Co, McClatchy Co and Microsoft.
(Editing by Alan Elsner and Michelle Nichols)
GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Guatemala has banned motorcyclists from carrying passengers in an attempt to crack down on drive-by murders by gunmen perched on the back of moving bikes. The Central American country is terrorized by violent street gangs who rob car drivers at gunpoint and kill bus drivers, among others, for failing to pay extortion fees. Hitmen often shoot victims from the back of a motorcycle, which lets them make a speedy getaway if traffic is heavy.
The law implemented this month also requires motorcyclists to wear brightly colored jackets and helmets clearly marked with their vehicle registration number.
Flouting the law will mean a fine of up to $3,000. Police will start charging in May to give people time to comply.
"We're still seeing many bikes with two people. We make the passengers get off but we can't yet give out fines," police spokesman Marco Trejo told Reuters on Monday.
Authorities are struggling to contain youth gangs like the "Mara 18" and "Mara Salvatrucha," which have thousands of members from the United States to Central America and live off extortion, armed assault and drug dealing.
The country of 13 million people is also plagued by crime linked to Mexican drug cartels smuggling South American cocaine north.
More than 40 bus drivers have been killed this year in Guatemala City, many in bike attacks, for not paying off the gangs in an extortion racket worth an estimated $10,000 a day.
The signature technique has also been used recently to murder prominent Guatemalans including a television reporter and the former director of the national chamber of industry.
With over 6,000 murders last year, Guatemala is one of the most violent countries in Latin America.
The ban on pillion passengers is irking many motorbike drivers. "I use my motorcycle to take my children to school and my wife to work," courier Jorge Monterroso said.
"It's too dangerous for them to use the buses where all kinds of people can get on, take out a gun and start shooting."
(Reporting by Sarah Grainger, editing by Patricia Zengerle)
Wed Apr 22, 2009 1:43pm EDTDETROIT (Reuters) - A 57-year-old Detroit woman avoided serious injury when the underwire on her bra deflected a bullet shot at her from next door, police said.
The woman, who lives on the West side of Detroit, saw a group of men breaking into a neighbor's house on Tuesday morning. When the men spotted her, one of them fired a shot at her, a police spokesman said.
The bullet struck the underwire on the woman's bra and that saved her from a more serious injury, police said.
"It did slow the bullet down," said Detroit police spokesman Phillip Cook. "She sustained injuries but they're not life threatening."
The woman, who was not identified, was treated at a nearby hospital. The suspects in the shooting drove away.
(Writing by Kevin Krolicki; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:06pm EDTBy Erik Kirschbaum
BERLIN (Reuters) - It did not take long for the world financial crisis to affect the world's oldest profession in Germany.
In one of the few countries where prostitution is legal, and unusually transparent, the industry has responded with an economic stimulus package of its own: modern marketing tools, rebates and gimmicks to boost falling demand.
Some brothels have cut prices or added free promotions while others have introduced all-inclusive flat-rate fees. Free shuttle buses, discounts for seniors and taxi drivers, as well as "day passes" are among marketing strategies designed to keep business going.
"Times are tough for us too," said Karin Ahrens, who manages the "Yes, Sir" brothel in Hanover. She told Reuters revenue had dropped by 30 percent at her establishment while turnover had fallen by as much as 50 percent at other clubs.
"We're definitely feeling the crisis. Clients are being tight with their money. They're afraid. You can't charge for the extras any more and there is pressure to cut prices. Everyone wants a deal. Special promotions are essential these days."
Germany has about 400,000 professional prostitutes. Official figures do not distinguish between the sexes and the number of male prostitutes is not known, but they account for a small fraction of the total and are treated the same under the law.
In 2002, new legislation allowed prostitutes to advertise and to enter into formal labor contracts. It opened the way for them to obtain health insurance, previously refused if they listed their true profession.
Annual revenues are about 14 billion euros ($18 billion), according to an estimate by the Verdi services union. Taxes on prostitution are an important source of income for some cities.
Prostitution is also legal and regulated in the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, Greece, Turkey and in some parts of Australia, and the U.S. state of Nevada.
In other countries, such as Luxembourg, Latvia, Denmark, Belgium and Finland, it is legal but brothels and pimping are not.
"CREATIVE SOLUTIONS"
Berlin's "Pussy Club" has attracted media attention with its headline-grabbing "flat rate" -- a 70-euro admission charge for unlimited food, drink and sex between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
"You've got to come up with creative solutions these days," said club manager Stefan, who requested his surname not be published. "We're feeling the economic crisis, too, even though business has fortunately been more or less okay for us so far.
"Our offer might sound like it's too good to be true, but it's real. You can eat as much as you want, drink as much as you want and have as much sex as you want."
Stefan, who runs other establishments in Heidelberg and Wuppertal besides the Berlin club, said the flat rate had helped keep the 30 women working in each location fully employed.Other novel ideas used by brothels and prostitutes include loyalty cards, group sex parties and rebates for golf players. Hamburg's "GeizHaus" is especially proud of its discount 38.50 euro price. The city has Germany's most famous red-light district, the Reeperbahn, in the notorious St. Pauli district.
Anke Christiansen, manager of the "GeizHaus," said the effects of the economic crisis were clear. "The regular customers who used to come by two or three times a week are only coming by once or twice a week now."
A "GeizHaus" client, who gave his name as Pascal, said: "Naturally we're all feeling the effects of the crisis." He added that he could no longer afford his usual two or three visits a week.
Guenter Krull, manager of the "FKK Villa" in Hanover, concurred. "The girls are complaining, too, because business is bad and I worry that it's all going to get even worse.
CONTINGENCY PLANS
Ecki Krumeich, manager of upmarket Artemis Club in Berlin, said he resisted pressure to cut prices, although senior citizens and taxi drivers get a 50-percent discount on the 80-euro admission fee on Sundays and Mondays.
"Naturally, we're keeping an eye on the overall economic situation and making contingency plans," said Krumeich, who said his "wellness club" is one of the largest in Europe with about 70 prostitutes.
"Our philosophy is: we provide an important service and even in a recession there are some things people won't do without. Other downmarket places might cut prices but we decided we won't do that. In fact, we raised prices by 10 euros in January."
Stephanie Klee, a prostitute in Berlin and former leader of the German association of sex workers, said even if a few luxury brothels were weathering the storm because of their wealthy regular clientele, many were struggling.
"Just about everyone's turning to advertising in one form or another," she said. "If the consumer electronics shop and the optician come out with rebates and special promotions, why shouldn't we try the same thing?"
While she and her colleagues might have had five or six clients per day a year ago that had fallen to one or even none.
Klee worries, however, that the crisis has led to "price dumping" in some cities -- fees have fallen as low as 30 euros in some parts of Berlin and elsewhere, she said.
"You'll find a lot of customers trying to negotiate prices down now," said Klee. "A 30-year-old came up to me and said 'I lost my job so will you give me a discount?'."
She and others said they were alarmed that amateur prostitutes -- mostly women with low-paid careers -- were increasingly turning to prostitution to make ends meet.
"More and more women are moonlighting on the weekends," said Ahrens. "They're not able to get by with their main job and are in pretty dire straights. For some it works out okay but it's tough for some others and they often don't stay very long.
(Additional reporting by Bettina Borgfeld; editing by Andrew Dobbie)
Fri Apr 10, 2009 1:34pm EDTWARSAW (Reuters) - A Polish politician has criticized his local zoo for acquiring a "gay" elephant named Ninio who prefers male companions and will probably not procreate, local media reported Friday.
"We didn't pay 37 million zlotys ($11 million) for the largest elephant house in Europe to have a gay elephant live there," Michal Grzes, a conservative councilor in the city of Poznan in western Poland, was quoted as saying.
"We were supposed to have a herd, but as Ninio prefers male friends over females how will he produce offspring?" said Grzes, who is from the right-wing opposition Law and Justice party.
The head of the Poznan zoo said 10-year-old Ninio may be too young to decide whether he prefers males or females as elephants only reach sexual maturity at 14.
(Reporting by Chris Borowski; editing by Andrew Roche)
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian karate expert has been charged with beating to death a 61-year-old woman and her son, whom he accused of infecting his wife with lice, an investigator said Friday. The drunk 26-year-old burst into a neighboring room in his hostel Tuesday and used karate moves to kill the pair, state investigator Eduard Abdullin said by telephone from Kazan, a city 700 km (430 miles) east of Moscow.
"He literally beat them to death with his hands and feet," Abdullin said. "The family were poor and drank a lot. He blamed them for infecting his wife and the entire corridor with lice."
The 58-year-old husband of the dead woman was also badly beaten, but survived.
The suspect, who studied karate for seven years, faces life in prison if convicted, Abdullin added.
(Reporting by Conor Humphries)
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dog-crazy Americans will soon be able to buy a pet-friendly car with a cushioned dog bed in the trunk, fitted with a built-in water bowl and fan and a ramp to help less agile dogs climb in.
With the help of a rescue dog named Sammy, Japanese car maker Honda Motor Co unveiled the pet friendly version of its Element utility vehicle at the New York Auto Show.
It features easy-wash seat covers, a fitted dog bed with restraints to keep Sammy safe in the event of a crash, and a paw logo on the side. Honda said the car would go on sale across the United States from the fall of this year.
Honda spokesman Sage Marie said it was designed with both safety and comfort in mind. "(It's) a car we think is of interest to many of today's dog-crazy consumers," he said.
Senior product planner James Jenkins said Americans spend $41 billion a year on their pets, a figure forecast to rise to $52 billion in two years, indicating a big market for the car.
"Pets have become more like family, more important to households than ever before," Jenkins said.
The current model of the Element starts at a little over $20,000 and Honda has yet to determine how much the pet friendly features will add on to the price tag, Jenkins said.
Sammy's owner, Heather Cammisa of the Humane Society of the United States, said she had borrowed the car for two weeks and found the ramp especially useful.
"Sammy actually needs a ramp. Before I adopted him he ended up at a shelter having been hit by a car and he needs that ramp," she said. "Otherwise I lift him to get into my car."
(Reporting by Claudia Parsons, Editing by Sandra Maler)
BERLIN (Reuters) - The skeleton of a German retiree who tied himself to the top of a tree and shot himself to death nearly 30 years ago has been found by a hiker.
German police in the southern town of Landshut said on Monday the 69-year-old man disappeared in 1980 and had been classified as missing.
An 18-year-old hiker discovered a bone in the forest last week and brought it to police. They searched the area and spotted the skeleton hanging about 11 meters up, near the top of the spruce tree.
"After searching the area we found the skeleton up in the tree with the pistol hanging on a rope next to it," police spokesman Leonard Mayer said. Police were able to identify the man through DNA testing and an artificial hip.
(Reporting by Franziska Scheven; Editing by Farah Master) '
By Pascal Fletcher MIAMI (Reuters) - A "relaxing, calm, beautiful place" may not be everyone's description of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the United States holds about 240 prisoners in a detention center that has drawn condemnation from around the world.
But this was the opinion of reigning Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza of Venezuela, who visited the U.S. naval facility in eastern Cuba this month on a trip organized by the United Service Organizations (USO) which supports U.S. troops.
The Guantanamo Bay base, whose presence Cuba's government has contested as illegal for years, is used by U.S. authorities as a prison camp for foreign terrorism suspects. Critics have condemned it as a symbol of abuses in Washington's war on terrorism launched after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Caracas-born Mendoza, 22, who visited the facility March 20-25 along with Miss USA Crystle Stewart, 27, enthused about her Guantanamo trip as an "incredible experience" in a blog entry posted on the Miss Universe website dated March 27, 2009 (http://www.missuniverse.com/missuniverse/blog.php ).
"It was a loooot of fun!," Mendoza wrote, describing how she and Stewart met U.S. military personnel and took rides around the camp, which is encircled by a barbed-wire fenced, minefields and watchtowers. She said they also visited a bar on the base and the "unbelievable" beach there.
"We visited the Detainees camps and we saw the jails, where they shower, how the(y) recreate themselves with movies, classes of art, books. It was very interesting," she wrote.
"I didn't want to leave, it was such a relaxing place, so calm and beautiful," she added.
Former detainees and human rights groups have alleged the use of torture, including "waterboarding" (simulated drowning) and other physical abuses, at the Guantanamo prison.
Britain announced last week it would investigate whether members of its secret services were complicit in the torture of a British resident released from Guantanamo Bay last month.
Spanish prosecutors may decide this week whether to start an investigation of six former officials from George W. Bush's administration in connection with the torture of Guantanamo detainees.
In one of his first acts in office, U.S. President Barack Obama has set a one-year deadline for shutting the prison.
The Pentagon said last month it had received renewed reports of prisoner abuse during a recent review of conditions at Guantanamo, but had concluded that all prisoners were being kept in accordance with the Geneva Conventions.
Recounting her "memorable" trip, Mendoza, who was crowned Miss Universe 2008 in Vietnam, said: "We also met the Military dogs, and they did a very nice demonstration of their skills. All the guys from the Army were amazing with us."
Before the visit, USO had announced Mendoza and Stewart were being "deployed" to Guantanamo on an entertainment tour to visit U.S. troops abroad to "boost morale."
(Additional reporting by Jane Sutton, editing by Vicki Allen)
LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria's anti-narcotics agency confiscated 6.5 tones of marijuana Tuesday from the home of a man who claimed to be 114 years old.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said it had found 254 sacks of cannabis at the home of Sulaiman Adebayo in Ogun state, north of the commercial capital Lagos.
"The quantity of drugs suggests a large scale involvement ... There is more to the case than Pa Sulaiman," NDLEA chairman Ahmadu Giade said in a statement.
Adebayo, who said he had been a farmer all his life, told police he thought the sacks contained rice.
The agency said he claimed to have attended the inauguration of a famous hall in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun state, in 1895 as a small boy and said he was 114 years old. There was no independent confirmation of his age.
Marijuana is grown illegally on large-scale farms in many parts of Nigeria and is smuggled across its porous borders to neighboring countries.
Lax customs control and corruption have also made Africa's top oil and gas producer a conduit for hard drugs from Asia and Latin America into Western markets.
(Reporting by Tume Ahemba; Editing by Nick Tattersall)
LONDON (Reuters) - British media regulator Ofcom has fined Playboy TV 22,500 pounds ($32,990) for airing sexually explicit images in breach of broadcasting rules.
It said on Thursday the free-to-air channel Playboy One had broadcast unencrypted raunchy, and what the watchdog deemed offensive, material until September 2008.
Ofcom had received five complaints relating to seven late night programs broadcast between September and December 2007.
Shows investigated included: "Sexy Girls Next Door," "Sexy Urban Legends" and "Adult Stars Close-up."
"Depending on the individual breach, the explicitness, strength and, or, sustained nature of the sexual content and language was unacceptable for broadcast on an unencrypted free-to-air channel," Ofcom ruled.
It said Playboy TV UK/Benelux Ltd had failed to ensure adequate protection for viewers from "potentially harmful or offensive material."
(Reporting by Stefano Ambrogi; Editing by Steve Addison and Paul Casciato)
Reuters Oddly Enough Images
An elephant damages a vehicle after going on a rampage in the southern Indian city of Kochi February 27, 2009. The elephant was brought under control after a three-hour rescue operation by animal experts and the police.
Tue Mar 3, 2009 3:46pm EST
LONDON (Reuters) - A university in Liverpool has launched a Master of Arts degree in The Beatles, the city's most famous sons, and called the qualification the first of its kind.
Liverpool Hope University says on its website that the course entitled "The Beatles, Popular Music and Society" consists of four 12-week taught modules and a dissertation.
"There have been over 8,000 books about The Beatles but there has never been serious academic study and that is what we are going to address," said Mike Brocken, senior lecturer in popular music at Hope.
"Forty years on from their break-up, now is the right time and Liverpool is the right place to study The Beatles.
"This MA is expected to attract a great deal of attention, not just locally but nationally and we have already had inquiries from abroad, particularly the United States."
The university said it was the first postgraduate taught course on The Beatles in the United Kingdom, and possibly the world.
The Fab Four were born and raised in Liverpool and went on to become arguably the most successful pop band of all time.
(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)
Fri Mar 6, 2009 1:23pm ESTMADRID (Reuters) - A 66-year-old passenger who arrived at Barcelona airport in a wheelchair and with a leg cast made entirely of cocaine was arrested on Friday as he tried to get through customs.
The man, flying from Santiago, Chile, also had cocaine stashed in six cans of beer and two folding stools in his luggage, the Interior Ministry said. Police confiscated nearly 5 kilograms (11 pounds) of the drug in total.
Police believe the man, or his accomplices, may have broken the leg on purpose so as not to arouse the suspicions of customs officials. Spain is the primary entry point for cocaine into Europe and is the largest consumer of the drug in the European Union.
(Reporting by Sonya Dowsett; Editing by Phakamisa Ndzamela)
By Rina Chandran
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Thousands of Indians, many fuming over a recent assault on women in a pub, are vowing to fill bars on Valentine's Day and send cartons of pink panties to a radical Hindu group that has branded outgoing females immoral.
A "consortium of pub-going, loose and forward women," founded by four Indian women on social networking website Facebook has, in a matter of days, attracted more than 25,000 members with over 2,000 posts about the self-appointed moral police.
The women said their mission was to go bar-hopping on February 14 and send hundreds of pink knickers to Sri Ram Sena, the militant Hindu group that has said pubs are for men, and that women should stay at home and cook for their husbands.
The same Hindu group was blamed for attacking women in a bar in the southern city of Mangalore in January, an incident that sparked a national debate about women's freedoms in India.
Collection centers have sprung up in several cities, with volunteers calling for bright pink old-fashioned knickers as gifts to the Sri Ram Sena as a mark of defiance.
"Girl power! Go girls, go. Show Ram Sena... who's the boss," reads one post on Facebook from Larkins Dsouza.
There is a separate campaign to "Walk to the nearest pub and buy a drink (and) raise a toast," that has found supporters from Toronto to Bangkok to Sydney, with even teetotalers saying they will get a drink on Saturday to show solidarity.
"Though I don't promote smoking or drinking for both sexes, we definitely don't need hooligans telling us what to do and what not. Best of luck!," reads one post from Iftehar Ahsan.
There are more heated discussion threads as well that range from the limits of independence to religion and politics, reflecting the struggle facing a country that has long battled to balance its deep-rooted traditions with rapid modernization.
Growing numbers of young and independent urban women have become an easy target for religious fundamentalists and aging politicians trying to force traditional mores on an increasingly liberal, Western outlook.
Not to be outdone, the Sri Ram Sena, which has cautioned shops and pubs in southern Karnataka state against marking Valentine's Day, has promised to gift pink saris to women and marry off canoodling couples to make them "respectable."
(Reporting by Rina Chandran; Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Miral Fahmy)
