LONDON: A woman was jailed for seven years on Friday for falsely imprisoning her three daughters-in-law from Pakistan who she treated as "slaves and dogs" and subjected to regular beatings. Naseebah Bibi, 63, would not allow them to leave the family home in Blackburn without her permission, One of her victims told detectives she was forced to work on an industrial sewing machine day and night for 13 years.Bibi was convicted last month of falsely imprisoning Nagina Akhtar between 1993 and 2006, Tazeem Akhtar from 2001 to 2003 and Nisbah Akhtar between 2005 and 2007.All three women were brought to Britain following arranged marriages to Bibi's three sons and had little contact with the outside world. The jury heard they were treated as "slaves and dogs" and subjected to beatings and abuse on arrival.Nagina told the court that Bibi struck her with a brush handle and slapped her across the face whenever she disobeyed her. Sisters Nisbah and Tazeem also gave evidence to the jury that Bibi made their lives "hell."They too said they were slapped across the face, hit with a brush handle and struck with shoes when they answered Bibi back. Sentencing her, Judge Robert Brown said it was evident that her victims were "traumatised by you both physically and psychologically and spent long periods living in fear."He ordered that Bibi serve three and a half years of her sentence in prison before she would be allowed out on licence. She will then be monitored for up to nine years from the start of her custodial sentence.
Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in
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