NRIs Corner

Even as search continues for an Indian-American nursing student who went missing in New York 10 days ago another India native has mysteriously vanished on a spring break trip to Florida.

Reny Jose, who arrived in Panama City Beach, Florida Saturday disappeared Monday evening, the Houston Chronicle reported citing Florida’s Bay County Sheriff’s Office.

A police spokesperson said Jose’s clothing were found in a garbage can behind the house.

Rice University informed students of Jose’s disappearance Tuesday, said Rice spokesman B.J. Almond.

A 27-year-old Indian-origin woman, accused of killing her husband by setting him on fire two years ago, faces life sentence as her trial began in the US state of Texas.

Shriya Biman Patel’s trial began yesterday in Austin, Texas, with prosecutors accusing her of luring her husband into the bathtub for a massage, dousing him with gasoline and then setting him ablaze before shutting him in the bathroom.

Bimal Patel, 29, died at the burn center of the San Antonio Military Medical Center, nearly five months after the April 17, 2012, incident.

A 22-year-old Indian-origin student has been reported missing from New York for nearly 10 days and the police is seeking the public’s help to locate her.

Jasmine Joseph was last seen leaving her home in New York’s Syosset area home on February 24 in her car to go to the New York Institute of Technology’s (NYIT) campus.

Joseph had called her parents in the evening to say she was at the college library, and has not been seen or heard from since.

However, the NYIT issued a statement saying Joseph had not been enrolled at the school since May 2013.

An Indian man in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), who molested an eight-year-old Indian girl, was sentenced to three months in jail by a court in Dubai.

The man, identified only as MA, was in a drunken state when he dragged his neighbour’s daughter, who was playing with her friends, to an empty corridor of their apartment block and molested her, The National reported Tuesday.

The girl’s father, who is also an Indian, said his daughter came home crying and told him about the incident.

An influential body of Indian-American physicians is holding its annual legislative day on Capitol Hill March 26-27 to bring issues facing the community before US lawmakers.

Association of American Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), the largest ethnic organisation of physicians, representing over 100,000 physicians of Indian origin, wants to make their voices heard on Capitol Hill and around the nation, it said.

An Indian student in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) committed suicide after performing poorly in the CBSE examination, a media report said.

The boy, identified only as AS, was a talented grade 11 student of an Indian school in Dubai and lived in Sharjah.

He was reportedly upset over his poor showing on the first day of his examination conducted a few days ago by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). The boy’s family is from Kerala.

Saudi Telecom has no direct holding in Chennai-based telecom firm Aircel or its majority stakeholder Maxis Communications Berhad, an investigation into allegations of Saudi stake in the firm posing a security threat has concluded.

The investigation, launched following allegations by Subramanian Swamy, have concluded that Saudi Telecom holds a 25 per cent stake in Maxis Berhad and not in Maxis Communications Berhad, sources privy to the development said.

Maxix Berhad is a unit of Maxis Communications Berhad, which owns a 74 per cent stake in Aircel.

An Indian-origin boy, whose body was found two days after he mysteriously went missing from his home in Scotland’s capital Edinburgh, died from internal bleeding and inflammation, according to his death certificate.

Three-year-old Mikaeel Kular went missing from his home in Edinburgh Jan 15 and his body was found in Fife, 30 miles from Edinburgh, two days later.

The certificate issued by an authority of Scotland stated the cause of death as “peritonitis and intra-abdominal haemorrhage” and said an investigation of the facts of the case was pending, the Mirror reported Tuesday.

A 16-year-old Indian boy in Sharjah allegedly committed suicide as he was upset about his poor performance in a CBSE examination, a media report said today.

The boy, identified only as A S, was reportedly depressed after performing badly in the examination a few days ago.

The body of the boy, a grade 11 student of an Indian school here, was found hanging from the terrace of his apartment on Sunday afternoon, a few hours after he had left home on the pretext of going to school to sit for the second exam.

An Indian-origin businessman in Britain, accused of arranging the killing of his wife during a honeymoon trip to South Africa, has lost his appeal against extradition.

Shrien Dewani, 33, is now faced with extradition to South Africa within four weeks after he lost his last legal battle to block the move over the charges of killing his wife Anni in November 2010 in Cape Town, BBC reported Monday.

Dewani’s legal team wanted their appeal against extradition to be heard in the Supreme Court but a panel headed by the Chief Justice Lord Thomas refused to entertain the case.

A new school that follows the CBSE curriculum and has a strong focus on Indian culture and values in its pedagogy, has been launched here.

Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley shared the stage on Saturday, on the occasion of the launch of the Bilva Indian School, the newest entrant in Dubai’s academic horizon.

The School, spanning over 2,40,000 square feet, with a capacity to cater to more than 3,000 students, opened its state-of-the-art campus, it was announced yesterday.

An Indian-origin truck driver in Australia, who was charged for killing four members of a family in a road accident, appeared in a Melbourne court Sunday.

Jobandeep Gill, 27, who is accused of running through a stop sign and colliding his truck with a car in Catani area Friday, appeared in Melbourne magistrates court.

His lawyer Abdullah Altintop told the court that Gill was in shock following the accident, the ABC News reported.

The car in which five people were travelling, incinerated, killing both parents, who were in their 30s, as well as their two-year-old son and daughter.

An Indian-origin man was charged with raping a 13-year-old girl in the Australian state of New South Wales, a media report said Sunday.

Police told a court here Saturday that Surendra Chowdhry, 57, allegedly tied the girl’s hands behind her back and then raped her in Sydney on New Year’s day in 2013, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Sunday.

Chowdhry wanted to “resolve the matter within the family”, the report added.

Police said the victim’s father also expressed the desire to “bypass police and the judicial process”.

The magistrate refused him bail and remanded him in custody.

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The complete address and contact details of the new location are:

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The 11th International Trade. Exhibition for Printing and packaging Technologies opens today at Riyadh International. Convention Center. In the Saudi Print and Pack and Saudi Plastics and Petrochem 512 Companies and 27 Countries participated. 15-17 February 2014, timing from 4:00 PM – 10:00 PM.

An Indian business delegation consisting of 33 Indian exporters under ‘The Plastics Export Promotion Council (PLEXCONCIL)’, and Indian Printing, Packaging and Allied Machinery Manufacturers’ Association (IPAMA)’ are participating in the Saudi PPPP-2014.

A US federal judge in Washington has granted a Sikh rights group’s plea to serve summons on Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in India in a case of alleged violation of human rights during his tenure.

The 1965 Hague Service Convention allows the process of judicial documents from one signatory state to another without the use of consular and diplomatic channels.

President Barack Obama’s pick for surgeon general, Indian American Vivek Murthy, is one step closer to becoming “America’s doctor”, with a Senate panel approving his nomination despite opposition from the powerful gun lobby.

Democratic controlled Senate is set to hold a vote Tuesday to confirm Murthy, 36, an early supporter of Obama and his healthcare law. He would be the first Indian American and the youngest person to become the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the US.

Manmeet Bhullar, Indian origin human services minister of the Canadian province of Alberta, has announced a CAD100,000 (nearly $90,000) grant to help sexually abused Indo-Canadian children in the city of Calgary.

The money will be used by the Calgary Communities Against Sexual Abuse to remove barriers for members of the Indo-Canadian community seeking help, specifically around language and culture, along with improving awareness and increase prevention, the Calgary Sun reported Thursday.

A court in Nigeria indicted an Indian man for swindling a Nigerian man of six million Nigerian naira (around $36,324).

Thakkar Mitulkkma was charged with two counts of criminal breach of trust and cheating in the Karu Senior Magistrates’ Court in Nigeria’s capital Abuja Thursday, the Nigerian Bulletin reported.

Prosecutor Atteh Effiong told the court that Adigwe Lawrence, owner of an electronics shop, De-law Technology Computer Limited in the city, gave the accused the sum to supply laptops and some electronics but he never supplied them.

“An Indian with a British passport who works for a German bank”– this is how Deutsche Bank’s co-Chief Executive Officer Anshu Jain described himself.

Speaking at the Jewish Museum’s 28th Annual Purim Ball here, where he was honoured, Jain said a defining year for him was 1982 when he arrived in America as a 19-year-old student.

Increase in number of seats in flights between India and Dubai will allow for multiple choice of travel and cheap connections for Indian passengers, sectoral experts said Thursday.

“Enhancement of seat quotas with Dubai is a good thing for both countries. It will help enhance supply of seats, increase competition and help bring down fares,” said Amber Dubey, partner and India head of aerospace and defense at global consultancy KPMG.

“The winter of 2014 may see the arrival of Emirates’ A380s which will further reduce the airfares to India.”

An Indian-origin chartered accountant in Australia reportedly became victim of a ‘ racist’ email after he contacted a bedding company to make a complaint for a late delivery.

Soumen Dutta contacted The Sleeping Giant when his trundle bed hadn’t arrived after eight weeks, but instead he received a derogatory email from a manager at the store accidentally.

According to news.com.au, the email was sent by Dawn, store manager at The Sleeping Giant Auburn, who had managed the store for 15 years, and was intended for a colleague.

Two Indian-origin men are among this year’s prestigious Heinz Awards recipients in the US.

Abraham Verghese, a professor at Stanford University Medical School, and Sanjeev Arora, a computer scientist, of Albuquerque in the US state of New Mexico will be honoured in Pittsburgh April 3, the foundation announced on its website Tuesday.

The five recipients will receive a cash award of $250,000 each as well as a medallion inscribed with an image of late US senator John Heinz.

Dubai’s gold traders are reportedly unhappy with India’s new customs rules that requires passengers flying into India to declare any gold jewellery exceeding Rs10,000 (Dh592).

An Indian, whose body was found in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah, has been identified by his relatives.

Haneef Muhammad, 62, a mechanical engineer from Kerala, was found charred to death Feb 18 in Jeddah’s Sharafiyah district. His body was identified by his relatives Sunday, the Saudi Gazette reported Tuesday.

Muhammad’s sister and other relatives said that the body would be buried in Jeddah after completion of the the necessary procedures.

The police have apprehended some people in connection with Muhammad’s murder apparently due to a financial dispute.