'Pocso Act amendment for boys victim before Cabinet soon'
New Delhi, July 22 : In an attempt to make gender neutral laws, the Women and Child Development Ministry has brought in amendments in the existing Pocso law to cover sexual abuse of the boy child and these will be sent for Cabinet approval very soon, a ministry official said.
"Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act has always striven to develop gender-neutral laws. While the Cabinet has already given its nod proposing death sentence for convicts raping girls below 12, the same has been proposed for boy victims," the official said.
The Law Ministry has cleared the amendments to enhance punishment in cases of sexual assault against young boys and it will be sent to the Cabinet in next 2-3 days, the official added.
Woman and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi has been pushing for bringing in the amendment and had earlier also written to the states batting for equal rights to male child victims of sexual abuse.
Gandhi earlier had also supported a petition on Change.org by film-maker-activist Insia Dariwala, who said, "male child sexual abuse is an ignored reality in India".
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US service member missing after Iran shot down fighter jet rescued
Washington (AP): A US service member who had been missing since Iran shot down a fighter jet has been rescued, President Donald Trump wrote in a social media post early Sunday.
The crew member had been missing since Friday, when Iran downed a US F-15E Strike Eagle. A second crew member was rescued earlier.
Trump wrote that the aviator is injured but “will be just fine,” adding that he took refuge “on the treacherous mountains of Iran.”
Trump added that the rescue involved “dozens of aircraft” and that US had been monitoring his location “24 hours a day, and diligently planning for his rescue.”
The war began with joint US-Israel strikes on February 28 and has killed thousands, shaken global markets, cut off key shipping routes and spiked fuel prices. Both sides have threatened, and hit, civilian targets, bringing warnings of possible war crimes.
The fighter jet was the first US aircraft to have crashed in Iranian territory since the conflict in late February.
Trump said last week that the US had “decimated” Iran and would finish the war “very fast.”
Two days later, Iran shot down two US military planes, showing the ongoing perils of the bombing campaign and the ability of a degraded Iranian military to continue to hit back.
The other jet to go down was a US A-10 attack aircraft. Neither the status of the crew nor exactly where it crashed was immediately known.
A frantic US search-and-rescue operation unfolded after the crash of the F-15E jet on Friday, focusing on a mountainous region in Iran's southwestern province of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad.
Iran also promised a reward for anyone who turned in the “enemy pilot.” Iran's joint military command on Saturday said that it also struck two US Black Hawk helicopters Friday, but The Associated Press couldn't independently verify that.
