NRIs Corner

The self-proclaimed Muslim hater who pushed an innocent man of Indian origin to his death in front of a subway train has been found fit for trial for a second time. Erika Menendez, 31, also fired her family-retained attorneys because she distrusts them and chose court-appointed attorney Joseph DeFelice to represent her, booting private attorney Thomas A. Kenniff, reports New York Post. Kenniff claimed that though Menendez was found fit to stand trial, she does suffer from severe psychiatric issues.

Kuala Lumpur, Feb 27 (ANI): Eighty-three per cent of Muslims interviewed in a recent poll agree that the practice of the word Allah is their absolute right, a survey here found. The results were part of the poll titled ”Public Opinion Survey No. 1/2013 Peninsular Malaysia Voter Survey”, which was conducted between Jan 23 and Feb 6, the Star reports. A total of 1,021 registered voters were interviewed via telephone for the survey, which was aimed at gauging voters” perceptions of issues in the lead-up to the general election, the paper reported.

Describing India as one of America’s “most trusted and valuable partners” in the Asia-Pacific region, a senior US official has said it would serve as the foundation for greater regional economic cooperation and expansion.

“Our relationship from our burgeoning trade, to defence sales and exercises, to our growing education and clean energy partnerships has never been stronger,” Robert Blake, Assistant Secretary of State, told a House panel Tuesday during a hearing on “The Rebalance to Asia: Why South Asia Matters.”

A Sikh man has been admitted to a hospital after being shot at several times by some unidentified attackers in the US state of Florida.

The victim Kanwaljit Singh, 46, was attacked by the truck-borne assailants near Daytona Beach last Saturday night.

Accompanied by his son who managed to escape unhurt, Kanwaljit received multiple injuries in his thigh and torso and is currently undergoing treatment at a local hospital.

London, Feb. 24 (ANI): Romanians preparing to swamp Britain next year are insulting British towns and cities and making racist comments about fellow immigrants on the internet. Many would-be settlers criticise Britain, targeting the likes of Scotland, London and Liverpool, while insisting they do not want to live near Indians, Arabs, Chinese or black people, reports Express.co.uk. The slurs were made on a popular Romanian chat forum in a discussion about the pros and cons of relocating to Britain when border rules are relaxed on January 1 next year.

A 13-year-old Indian-origin girl from Britain has died in an accident on a school ski trip in the Italian Alps.

Poonam Bhattal was with her schoolmates from Guru Nanak Sikh Academy in Hayes, west London, when she fell 20-feet from a chairlift at the resort of Claviere on Friday morning.

Emergency services attended to her but she died in an ambulance while being taken to hospital in Susa, about 40
kilometres from Claviere.

Italian police are investigating the accident and Skibound, which organised the trip, has also launched a probe
into the safety of the ski-lift at the resort.

The brightest primary students in Britain almost match their counterparts in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan in maths but fall back by nearly two years by the time they are 16, according to a new study.

The top 10 per cent of English children also appear to be losing ground to the most able pupils in other English-
speaking and European countries between the ages of 10 and 16, say researchers at the Institute of Education, University of London.

An 18-year-old Indian student has died in the UK after apparently taking “lethal” body-building pills to help him lose weight.

Sarmad Alladin, son of a millionaire from Hyderabad, was taken to hospital hours after taking tablet which contained the drug DNP, which has been linked to several deaths.

According to a report in The Sun, the student known as Mr Muscles has died after apparently taking “lethal” body-building pills to help him lose weight.

Fitness fanatic Alladin was taken to hospital just hours after praising the fat-burning tablets called DNP on Facebook.

In less than a week from now, thousands of charged up students will get together to develop apps for the Windows platform.

On Feb 26, more than 10,000 students from across the country will gear up to code applications for a whole day at more than 50 hub centres, which are currently holding training sessions for students who wish to brush up their coding skills as they register, a Microsoft statement said.

Boasting of having the highest per capita income among all the major ethnic groups, more than eight percent of the nearly three million Indian Americans are living below the poverty line in the US, a latest Census report revealed yesterday.

According to the 2007-2011 American Community Survey, 42.7 million people in the United States had income below the poverty level. The national poverty rate is 14.7 percent.

With 8.2 percent of poverty rate, Indian Americans are far less poor than other ethnic groups and the national average, the Census Bureau report said.

Sham-e-Ghazal, Kavi Sammelan and Mushaira in New Zealand

URDU HINDI CULTURAL ASSOCIATION OF NEW ZEALAND

PRESENTS

SECOND TIME IN NEW ZEALAND

Three in one

SHAM E GHAZAL, KAVI SAMMELAN, MUSHAIRA

Sydney, Feb 19 (ANI): Indian-origin Australian all rounder Lisa Sthalekar has announced her retirement from international cricket following their sixth World Cup in Mumbai on Sunday. 33-year old Sthalekar pulled the pin after eight Tests, 125 ODIs and 54 T20 internationals for the Southern Stars, News.com.au reports. Sthalekar took 2-20 in 10 typically frugal overs in the overnight final before taking a spectacular diving catch for the final West Indian wicket, a fitting way to go out for one of Australian cricket”s best-prepared athletes, the paper said.

Washington, Feb 18 (IANS) Louisiana’s Indian American Governor Bobby Jindal is laying the groundwork for a likely presidential bid and using his state as a testing ground for policies that play well with national conservatives, according to a media report.

He’s passed a sweeping school voucher plan, rejected the Medicaid expansion in Obamacare and proposed scrapping the state income tax, all intended to please the Republican party’s conservative base, Politico, an influential media site focusing on politics noted in a report Sunday.

Indian artifacts, handicraft, hand-crafted jewellery, sarees and other items promoting the country’s cultural diversity were on display at a festival in Kuwait city.

The Indian Embassy in Kuwait participated in the 14th Hala February Festival (HFF) 2013 this year in order to showcase Indian culture in the Gulf nation.

The festival is organised to celebrate the liberation of Kuwait from Iraq in 1991. Since its inception in 1999 the
festival is celebrated with a grand carnival and a fair to promote tourism in the war torn nation.

Kerala is home to some 2.5 million workers from other Indian states, and a minister said Friday: “We know little about them, care little for them and do little for them.”

According to the labour ministry, 75 percent of the migrant population is from West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha.

The study, carried out by the Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation (GIFT), said the workforce was almost entirely male, aged between 18 to 35 years and highly mobile within Kerala.

They work mostly up to seven days a week for contractors.

The family of a 28-year-old man from Andhra Pradesh who died following cardiac arrest in the United State has asked Indian authorities to help bring his body home.

H. Kranti Kumar, who was working in a pharma company in New York, died Saturday following cardiac arrest when he was clearing snow at his house during the blizzard, his family members said in Nandigama village in Warangal district, about 250 km from here.

The family has appealed to Andhra Pradesh’s IT Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah, who comes from the district, to help in bringing the body home.

In the worst accident in the history of the UAE, at least 22 people, including an Indian, were killed on-the-spot when a bus carrying Asian labourers collided with a truck carrying construction material during busy hours.

Ajbool Shaikh Hannan, a 24-year-old air conditioner mechanic, was one of the victims of the tragic accident on Monday, which occurred on the Abu Dhabi-Al Ain Truck Road near Al Rawdah Palace.

Hannan, who has two children, were unaware of their father’s death, and seeing his grandmother’s constant tears, three-year-old Asmaul Shaikh became very distressed.

Burma Task Force USA, (BTF) a national alliance of Muslim organizations of the US that includes Rohingya groups welcomes Aung San Suu Kyi to the US.

BTF is planning to hold solidarity rallies in 100 American cities and towns on the occasion of Ms. Suu Kyi’s visit.

The head of the Catholic community, Pope Benedict XVI, has appointed two Indians to the panel of 34 Synod Fathers for the Bishops’ Synod scheduled in Rome next month, an official said here Thursday.

Archbishop Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Mumbai and Fr. Jose Panthaplamthottiyil, Prior-General, Carmelites of Mary Immaculate, Kerala, will participate in the 14th Ordinary General Assembly of Synod of Bishops Oct 7-28. The theme of this synod will be ‘The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith’.

Five Indian-Americans, including Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod Khosla and founder of IT major Syntel, Bharat Desai, have been named among the richest people in the US by Forbes, a list of 400 billionaires topped by Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

Gates, 56, whose net worth grew seven billion dollars from a year earlier to USD 66 billion in 2012, topped the list for the 19th year in a row.

A top UAE official denied today reports that the Gulf state had toughened visa rules for tourists from labour-exporting South Asians nations banning low-income visitors.

General Nasser al-Menhali, assistant undersecretary for Nationality and Residency at the interior ministry said no changes have been made to the existing law for visas, WAM state news agency reported.

Any amendments or measures would be announced in advance,” he said.

There’s a new addition to the list of Indian schools in Qatar. The Scholar’s International, which will follow the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) curriculum, has opened it’s doors for students in Doha’s Muaither area.

In its inaugural year, the school will cater to Class I to IV students, Dr. Wandoor P. Aboobacker, chairman of the school, was quoted as saying in the Gulf Times.

The Scholar’s International will function from a 4,000-square metre building, owned by Qatar Charity, which used to house the Tunisian National School.

Over 35 overseas youth of Indian origin are on a three-week visit here to know about their parents’ and grandparents’ homeland, and spirituality of India has been the greatest attraction for them.

It is this “balance in materialistic pursuits and search for inner happiness” that they will take back to their present country and share it with their other diaspora friends and relatives.

India Monday expanded the scope of a key fund scheme, meant to aid distressed overseas Indians, to cover penalties in case of overstay or detention, apart from financial support to set up community centres in host countries.

Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi announced the revision in the Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF) scheme at the seventh heads of missions conference here.

Foreign investor purchases in freehold projects in Dubai are still dominated by Indians who have retained the number one spot since foreign ownership regulations were applied, a new research has revealed.

According to the Real Estate Investment Promotion and Management Centre at the Dubai Land Department (LD), Indian investors have bought a total of 2,153 properties valued at Rs 5,670 crore (3.751 billion dirhams).

Pakistanis are at the second spot for having bought a total of 1,814 properties at Rs 4,400 crore (1.713 billion dirhams).