NRIs Corner

Kumar P Barve, the first Indian-American to be elected to a US state legislature, is set to lead a new House panel in Maryland.

Barve, 56, has served since 2003 as House majority leader. He has been sitting on the House Ways and Means Committee.

Barve was tapped to lead the new Environment and Transportation Committee, Speaker Michael E Busch said.

“Delegate Barve has demonstrated time and time again his command of complex issues and he is a natural choice of someone to guide State environment and transportation policy,” Busch said in a statement.

A top Indian-American scientist from Stanford University has been appointed as one of the Science Envoys of the US.

Arun Majumdar, a professor at the prestigious university, along with three others Peter Hotez, Jane Lubchenco and Geri Richmond would serve as US Envoys beginning January next year, the State Department said yesterday.

A 26-year-old Indian-origin man in the UK has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for trying to kill his ex-fiancee and her lover in a brutal knife attack after she broke off the engagement and eloped.

Bharat Soma, slashed the throats of Darshana Narotam, 17, and Prashant Govinde, 22, in a broad daylight on a busy street, out of “revenge” in Leicester city.

An Indian-origin man in Canada has been accused of hiding an unclaimed Canadian $50 million (about $44 million) lottery ticket which he allegedly bought with workplace pool money in March, media reported.

In a notice of civil claim filed in the British Columbia Supreme Court, Gayleen Elliott of Burnaby, British Columbia, is suing Dalbir Sidhu for breach of contract and fraud.

Elliott, Sidhu’s co-worker accused him of hiding an unclaimed Lotto Max Quick Pick ticket, she claims he bought with workplace pool money in March, CBC News reported Wednesday.

An Indian-origin man has been charged with the murder of another Indian-origin man in Britain, media reported Thursday.

Police have confirmed that Naunihal Singh, 53, who has no fixed address, has been charged with murder of Ujjal Singh, Manchester Evening News reported.

Ujjal Singh was found with fatal knife wounds on his 63rd birthday at a house in Crumpsall, north Manchester, Dec 1.

Police remanded Naunihal Singh in custody.

(IANS)

An Indian-origin man, spurned by the girl he loved as a teenager, has been jailed for 23 years after he tried to murder his ex-fiancee and her lover in a brutal knife attack, media reported.

Bharat Soma, 26, slashed the throats of Darshana Narotam, 17, and Prashant Govinde, 22, in broad daylight on a busy city street in Leicester, out of “revenge”, the Leicester Mercury reported Wednesday.

Soma was found guilty Tuesday by a Leicester crown court jury of attempting to murder the couple, who eloped from their homes in Wembley in London to live in Leicester.

Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) deputy prime minister and interior minister, announced Thursday that Abu Dhabi police have arrested the killer of a US woman teacher on Reem Island in Abu Dhabi.

Sheikh Saif told a press conference that the veiled suspect, an Emirati woman, had tried to plant a primitive bomb in front of the house of a resident US doctor, but the police dismantled it after one of the doctor’s sons discovered it, official WAM news agency reported.

An Indian-origin man in the UK who was stabbed in Manchester city this week succumbed to his injuries on his 63rd birthday.

Ujjal Singh died after being attacked in the city’s Crumpsall area on December 1. He was taken to Manchester Royal Infirmary after the knife attack but he died at the hospital, the Manchester Evening News reported.

“Ujjal Singh sadly passed away on December 1, the day of his 63rd Birthday,” Singh’s family said in a statement.

He is survived by his wife, four children, nine grandchildren and a great-grandson.

Sentencing has been delayed again for an Indian origin man convicted in Florida of supporting terrorism in a case in which an FBI employee posed online as a terror financing middleman.

US District Judge Ursula Ungaro today said she wants more information on the sentencing range faced by Gufran Mohammed, who could get up to 15 years in prison.

Mohammed pleaded guilty in July to conspiring to support terrorist groups, but his sentencing has been delayed several times.

Mohammed, a naturalised US citizen originally from India, is seeking a lesser sentence of about eight years.

Works of five Indian-American and one Indian author figure among 100 Notable Books of 2014 selected by the editors of The New York Times Book Review.

Delhi-born Indian-American author Akhil Sharma’s novel “Family Life” figures in the Fiction & Poetry section. “Sharma’s novel, deeply unnerving and tender at the core, charts a young man’s struggles to grow within a family shattered by tragedy and disoriented by its move from India,” Times said.

Police are considering approaching Interpol for tracing Paul Francis Meekins, the sacked principal of a school here who is facing charges of indulging in “inappropriate conversations” with a minor student, after reports surfaced of him fleeing to Kuwait.

“We are considering approaching Interpol on this issue,” Additional Commissioner of Police (Law & Order) Alok Kumar told PTI.

The first ACMM court had issued a non-bailable warrant against Meekins on September 9, 2014.

The body of a 65-year-old Indian man has been lying in the mortuary of a government hospital here in Saudi Arabia for more than five months awaiting repatriation, media reports said.

The body of Ali Hussain, an Indian carpenter who died in June this year following a heart attack, has been lying in a mortuary in Jeddah government hospital even as his son Saddam, who works in Jubail as a labourer, has been striving to fulfil his mother’s wish to see her husband one last time.

Despite the long delay, the family is still hopeful of receiving the mortal remains of the deceased man.

The body of an Indian national in Saudi Arabia has been lying in a mortuary for more than five months awaiting repatriation, media reported.

Ali Hussain, 65, an Indian carpenter, died following a massive heart attack in Hofuf in Eastern Province June 17, the Saudi Gazette reported Tuesday.

His son, Saddam, who works in Jubail as a labourer, has been striving to fulfill his 55-year-old mother’s wish to see her husband for one last time.

Saddam’s mother and six siblings have been desperately waiting for the mortal remains of the deceased man.

(Syed Mujeeb) Urdu Hindi Cultural Association of New Zealand (UHCANZ) organized a Mubarakbad Programme for honorable Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi, Dr.Paramjeet Pramar and Honu.Mahesh Bindra at 54a Roberton rd. Avondale, Auckland.

In a bid to woo non-resident Indians (NRIs) from Uttar Pradesh to invest in the state, the state government launched a website for them late Sunday, officials said.

The exclusive website aims to be a single window gateway for the NRIs native to UP and now settled overseas, an official told IANS.

Hillel Awaskar, an Indian-origin international umpire and former captain of Israel’s cricket team, has died after being hit in the neck by a ball during a league match in this coastal city, just two days after tragic death of an Australian player in similar circumstances.

“The batsman had struck hard. The fast ball first hit the stumps, got deflected and hit Awaskar on his neck yesterday. He collapsed on the ground,” one of the players, Yona, said.

A statue of Mahinder Singh Pujji, an Indian-origin fighter pilot who had served in Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War, was unveiled in Kent.

Pujji had died at the age of 92 in the Gravesend town of Britain’s Kent county in 2010, as the longest surviving fighter pilot from a group of 24 Indians who had arrived in Britain in 1940, BBC reported Friday.

The statue is intended to represent all the service personnel from across the world who have fought for Britain in conflicts since 1914.

Members of the Pujji family attended the unveiling in St Andrews Gardens.

NRIs have lots of surplus funds and want to invest in India but need the right infrastructure, a Dubai-based Indian-origin businessman has said, expressing hope that the new Indian government can provide that.

Paras Shahdadpuri, president of the Indian Business and Professional Council (IBPC) here, said the NRI community in Dubai was “ecstatic” about Prime Minister Narendra Modi being at the helm.

Murdered bride Anni Dewani’s family has pleaded with her husband, Shrien Dewani , who is accused of plotting her death on their honeymoon, to take the witness stand and speak the truth.

According to Daily Star, the 24-year old Bristol businessman however appears confident that he would be acquitted of all charges and is hoping he wouldn’t have to register a defence.

Speaking on behalf of the family, Anni’s uncle, Ashok Hindocha, said the family was desperate to hear his version of events.

Two Indian firms have won the Asia Corporate Excellence and Sustainability Awards (ACES) here for addressing issues impacting the environment .

Mumbai-based banking company IndusInd Bank and India’s foremost cement manufacturer ACC Limited won the award yesterday, which recognizes successful companies and individuals in Asia across two main domains: leadership and corporate social responsibility (CSR).

While the former won the CSR advocates in Asia award for its power management policies including the use of solar at ATMs, the ACC Ltd won the top green companies in Asia award.

The case of an Indian woman’s killing by her jilted NRI husband is being heard in Australia and the police report indicates that the incident was so well-planned that it could be viewed as nothing but a premeditated act.

Sargun Raji’s killing by her estranged husband Avjit Singh had been so well-planned that it could not be described as a “crime of passion” but a premeditated act by a selfish man, a court here has heard.

An Indian-origin student in the US took photos of a bear while hiking in a US preserve before it mauled him to death, media reported.

Darsh Patel, a Rutgers University student, and four others were being followed by the black bear in the West Milford Apshawa preserve, New Jersey. But moments after Patel used his mobile phone to capture images of the animal, it attacked and killed him, New York Daily News reported Tuesday.

Indian-American owned and other businesses in Ferguson, Missouri, Tuesday braced as the town erupted into violence after a grand jury declined to indict a white police officer in the fatal August shooting of an unarmed black teenager.

More than a dozen buildings, including locally-owned businesses, were set on fire and windows smashed in small town of 22,000, nearly 70 percent of them black, but all but four of its 53 strong police force white, after Monday night’s verdict.

Forty five Indian workers are languishing in a labour camp near Jeddah in Saudi Arabia without being paid for months, prompting the Indian mission here to raise the issue with authorities for its resolution.

“We have been in talks with the sponsoring company which is arranging for their final exit from Saudi Arabia. We are trying our best and by next week or the first week of December, the matter should be resolved,” Consul (Community) in Jeddah Raj Kumar told PTI.

A group of 25 Keralite nurses stranded in Benghazi in Libya have sought the help of Indian authorities for their evacuation from the strife-torn country.

The Kerala Government and its Non-Resident Keralite agency Norka have brought the plight of these women to the notice of the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian Embassy in Tripoli.