India Arrests Uber Taxi Driver After Rape Allegations

Indian police have arrested a driver with the international taxi-reservation service Uber, following allegations the man raped a female passenger.

Shiv Kumar Yadav, 32, is accused of assaulting a 26-year-old woman, who used the mobile phone application on Friday to hire a driver in New Delhi.

The woman, a female executive for a finance company, alleges she fell asleep in the car. When she awoke, she said Yadav had taken her to a secluded area, where he beat and raped her.

U.S.-based Uber touts itself as a safe option for door-to-door car service, in part because of its cashless, mobile payment system. It began serving New Delhi last December.

On Sunday, Uber said in a statement it had suspended the driver following the allegations, in line with company policy, and would assist the police.

Uber was founded in 2009 and is now present in more than 200 cities and in 45 countries. The firm has faced critical news coverage over its driver screening in the United States, and has apologized for comments by an executive who suggested "digging up dirt" on journalists investigating the firm.

Elsewhere, dozens of student demonstrators scuffled with law enforcement at police headquarters in the capital on Sunday to protest what they described as a system of impunity in how the state handles sexual assaults.

Delhi recorded the highest number of rapes in India in 2013, according to the latest National Crime Records Bureau data.

Police attribute the rise in reports to the fatal gang rape of a woman on a New Delhi bus in December 2012 that brought renewed attention to sexual violence in the country.

Some material for this report came from Reuters and AP.

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NASCAR driver Jason Leffler killed in New Jersey crash

By Dave Warner

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - NASCAR driver Jason Leffler died from injuries suffered when his car slammed into the wall of a dirt raceway in New Jersey, state police said.

The crash occurred during a race at the Bridgeport Speedway in Logan township in southern New Jersey, near Philadelphia, state police spokesman Sergeant Adam Grossman said.

Leffler, 37, of Huntersville, North Carolina, was rushed to the Crozier Hospital in Chester, Pennsylvania, where he was pronounced dead at 9:02 p.m., police said.

The raceway calls itself the "Fastest Dirt Track in the East." It consists of a spacious 5/8-mile high-banked dirt oval, where average speeds reach well over 100 miles per hour, according to the track's website.

Leffler was a two-time winner of the Nationwide Series. He had been racing for over a decade, with experience in so-called midget race cars as well as the Indianapolis 500, where he placed 17th in 2000, his website noted.

New Jersey State Police said in a Twitter posting that the accident was under investigation.

"NASCAR extends its thoughts, prayers and deepest sympathies to the family of Jason Leffler who passed away earlier this evening," the organization said in a Twitter posting. "For more than a decade, Jason was a fierce competitor in our sport and he will be missed."

(Additional reporting by David Bailey; Editing by Tim Gaynor and Peter Cooney)

View the original article here

NASCAR driver Jason Leffler killed in New Jersey crash

By Dave Warner

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - NASCAR driver Jason Leffler died from injuries suffered when his car slammed into the wall of a dirt raceway in New Jersey, state police said.

The crash occurred during a race at the Bridgeport Speedway in Logan township in southern New Jersey, near Philadelphia, state police spokesman Sergeant Adam Grossman said.

Leffler, 37, of Huntersville, North Carolina, was rushed to the Crozier Hospital in Chester, Pennsylvania, where he was pronounced dead at 9:02 p.m., police said.

The raceway calls itself the "Fastest Dirt Track in the East." It consists of a spacious 5/8-mile high-banked dirt oval, where average speeds reach well over 100 miles per hour, according to the track's website.

Leffler was a two-time winner of the Nationwide Series. He had been racing for over a decade, with experience in so-called midget race cars as well as the Indianapolis 500, where he placed 17th in 2000, his website noted.

New Jersey State Police said in a Twitter posting that the accident was under investigation.

"NASCAR extends its thoughts, prayers and deepest sympathies to the family of Jason Leffler who passed away earlier this evening," the organization said in a Twitter posting. "For more than a decade, Jason was a fierce competitor in our sport and he will be missed."

(Additional reporting by David Bailey; Editing by Tim Gaynor and Peter Cooney)

View the original article here