NRIs Corner

In a breakthrough, a team of Harvard scientists led by an Indian-American researcher has discovered a novel way to fight deadly brain cancer with toxin-resistant stem cells.

Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital led by Dr Khalid Shah, who hails from Kashmir, experimented on mice and used genetically engineered stem cells that released cancer-killing toxins while leaving healthy cells unaffected.

The modified cells, most importantly, were able to release the tumour killing poison without succumbing to its effects.

Two Indians and a technology firm they worked for have been accused by US authorities of making USD 2.5 million by fraudulently selling unrequired technical support services to computer users and selling software that was otherwise available for free.

The defendants in the case Pairsys and its officers Uttam Saha and Tiya Bhattacharya have been accused by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of violating telemarketing sales rule.

Ashwika Kapur, a 26-year-old science and natural history filmmaker from West Bengal, has won the Wildscreen Panda Awards also known as the Green Oscar for her film on a Kakapo parrot named Sirocco.

Kapur won the award at a ceremony in Britain’s Bristol city Friday in the Wildscreen Festival for her 15-minute film “Sirocco – How a Dud became a Stud”.

An Indian portfolio manager, who had pleaded guilty to insider trading and cooperated with the US government in its crackdown on securities fraud cases, avoided jail term and has instead been sentenced to two years’ probation and a $500,000 fine.

Reema Shah, 42, had pleaded guilty in 2012 to securities fraud in connection with an insider trading scheme in which an executive with internet company Yahoo! provided to her material, non-public information about the company’s quarterly earnings and potential business transactions.

A large number of Hindu-Americans joined the local Yezidis in a peaceful protest outside the White House here, asking the US government to take urgent steps to protect the minority community from the ISIS in Iraq.

Raising slogans ‘Bring Our Women Back!’ and ‘Save Mt Shingal’ the demonstrators urged President Barack Obama to take effective action in defense of the Yezidis fighting on Mt Shingal and to provide assistance in the rescue of the thousands of enslaved Yezidi women and girls.

A 33-year-old Indian man, who was seriously injured in a car crash that killed another ethnic Indian, crawled for three days in a Malaysian jungle before he finally found an isolated settlement to seek help.

In the accident that occurred last Sunday near Bidor in central Malaysia, the car driven by Nicholas Andrew lost control and landed in a 20m ravine. Andrew, who suffered a broken right arm and leg, was forced to crawl along the stream to get help. His friend R Thiyagarajan, 34, another ethnic Indian, was killed at the scene.

An Indian man who admitted that he groped a sleeping woman aboard a flight from Houston to New Jersey has been sentenced to eight months in prison.

Devender Singh, a 62-year-old Indian national who lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, pleaded guilty last month. Judge Stanley Chesler also sentenced Singh to two years of supervised release and ordered that he register as a sex offender.

He had faced up to two years in prison.

India today warned Malaysian employers that it will withdraw their privileges if there is evidence of abuse and ill-treatment of Indian employees.

Following complaints of ill-treatment of Indian workers, the Indian Mission asked employers to cooperate in ensuring the safety, security and well-being of their labourers.

President Barack Obama has nominated Indian-American investment banker and philanthropist Azita Raji to the coveted diplomatic post of US ambassador to Sweden.

Raji, a top bundler for Obama who raised more than $3 million for his 2012 re-election campaign, was earlier appointed to the president’s Commission on White House Fellowship last year.

She is the second Indian-American to be nominated to a top diplomatic post.

A Silicon Valley IT company in the US has been ordered to pay USD 40,000 in back wages to eight Indian workers who worked up to 122 hours a week and received as little as USD 1.21 an hour.

The Electronics for Imaging Inc (EFI) also paid a fine of USD 3,500 following a federal investigation into its wage and hour practices, which had included paying its workers in Indian Rupees and having them work up to 122 hours a week in the company’s IT department.

President Barack Obama has nominated a major fundraiser for his presidential campaign Indian-American Azita Raji as the US Ambassador to Sweden.

A former investment banker, California-based Raji served as national vice-chair of finance for Obama’s presidential campaign in 2012.

Considered as a top bundler, Raji had helped raise more than USD 500,000 for Obama’s 2012 campaign.

Raji’s nomination was announced along with several other key administrative positions by White House.

–PTI

An Indian man, who had disappeared from his hometown in Kerala nearly 40 years ago, has been found by his family at a hospital in Dubai in the UAE, a newspaper report said.

Now in his 60s, Abdulla Punathil Usman has been working as a cook in an Arab national’s house in Hor Al Anz since early 1970s, the Gulf News reported Wednesday.

Federation of Indian Associations – Chicago [FIA] hosted a welcome reception to visiting social & Peace activist Padmashri S.P.Verma at Mysore Woodland Banquets & Restaurant on Devon Ave in Chicago on Saturday October 11, 2014. This close-knit reception was joined by a host of FIA leaders, members of the media and key principals & functionaries from Gandhi Global Family group including Madam Helen & Mr. Wade .

Indian-American Anita M. Singh has been appointed to a key post in the Justice Department’s National Security Division (NSD) as part of a restructuring to counter state-sponsored economic espionage and proliferation, including through cyberspace.

The strategic changes are designed to put additional focus on the protection of national assets from such threats and to empower US attorneys as they conduct outreach on these issues, assistant attorney general for National Security John P. Carlin announced.

Sahil Doshi, a 14-year-old Indian-American student has won the 2014 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge for his innovative, eco-friendly battery design that could help lower harmful greenhouse gases.

A ninth grader from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Doshi was awarded the title of “America’s Top Young Scientist”, $25,000 and a student adventure trip to a destination such as Costa Rica, according to a media release.

An Indian in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has died, the latest in a series of deaths, after falling from the balcony of his 16th floor apartment.

Police said Tuesday this was the fourth incident of death after falling from high-rises in five days in the emirate of Sharjah, the Gulf News reported.

The apparent cause of the latest accident was not immediately available, police said.

They are investigating whether the fall was suicide-related.

Police identified the victim only with his initials – M.A.S.

IANS)

A 33-year-old Indian man has died after falling from the balcony of his 16th floor apartment in Sharjah, the fourth such accident in the past five days.

The incident took place yesterday morning. The police are investigating whether it was a suicide pact or the victim fell accidently from the skyscraper, Gulf News reported today.

The incident followed three separate cases in which three persons fell to death in the past five days including a four-year-old girl on Thursday, a housemaid on Sunday and a 12-year-old girl on Monday.

Anni Dewani was planning to get pregnant just days before she was shot dead on her honeymoon in South Africa.

Francois van Zyl, the lawyer representing Shrien Dewani, 34, produced medical notes in the Western Cape High Court showing she had visited the doctors on November 4 2010.

The medical notes shown in court revealed how Anni had told doctors she was not using contraception and was told to take tablets to improve her fertility, Daily Star reports.

Indian-American Anita M Singh, who previously worked at the White House on cyber-related issues, has been appointed the Chief of Staff and Counselor in the National Security Division of the US Justice Department.

As NSD’s Chief of Staff, Singh will focus on strategic management issues including the design of structural changes to support work in emerging threat areas, according to a statement from the Justice Department.

Two Indian-American cardiologists will pay USD 380,000 to resolve allegations that they entered into fraudulent management agreements with a local hospital in exchange for referral of cardiology procedures and other healthcare services.

Satyabrata Chatterjee and Ashwini Anand of Kentucky, who jointly owned a physician group that provided cardiology services, have agreed to pay the sum to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by entering into sham management agreements with Saint Joseph Hospital in exchange for the referral of cardiology procedures.

Anni Dewani’s cousin, Sneha Mashru, has reportedly revealed that newly married Anni was thinking of getting a divorce even as she arrived in Cape Town for her honeymoon. Text messages exchanged between Anni and Mashru were read out in court and showed that the victim was thinking of finding a way out of the marriage. Her cousin however, advised her to be with her husband and if she felt that she couldn’t be with him when she comes back then the two of them would think of options to leave, reported The Daily Star.

Mystery surrounds the death of a 12-year-old Indian girl in the emirate of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after she fell from a building, a media report said Tuesday.

The body of the girl, an eighth grade student of Sharjah Indian School who lived with her parents in the neighbouring emirate of Ajman, was found in a residential building behind a hotel in the Al Qasimiya area of Sharjah, the Khaleej Times reported.

According to the report, the girl’s parents informed her school that she had not reached home by 4 p.m.

Police in the emirate of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have arrested an Indian man for the alleged murder of a 28-year-old compatriot 24 hours after the crime, media reported.

Police said Monday that they received a call Sunday saying that the body of an Indian was lying on a chair in the guard’s room of a construction company in Al Dhaid area.

A team of forensic experts, patrol, ambulance and public prosecution officials, rushed to the scene and found the body in a pool of blood as the victim had been hit in the head with a blunt tool, Khaleej Times reported.

British Indian millionaire Shrien Dewani, on trial for allegedly planning his wife’s honeymoon murder in Cape Town in 2010, blamed her for causing her own death as she screamed when the couple were carjacked, a South African court heard today.

Sneha Mashru, a cousin of Dewani’s wife Anni, said he told her the attackers had promised him they would not harm his bride but suggested they changed their minds and shot her because she would not be quiet.

Anni Dewani’s cousin, Sneha Mashru , has reportedly revealed that newly married Anni was thinking of getting a divorce even as she arrived in Cape Town for her honeymoon.

Text messages exchanged between Anni and Mashru were read out in court and showed that the victim was thinking of finding a way out of the marriage. Her cousin however, advised her to be with her husband and if she felt that she couldn’t be with him when she comes back then the two of them would think of options to leave, reported The Daily Star.