Indian jailed in Singapore for prostitution

24 May 2013

Singapore–A 24-year-old Indian man has been jailed by a court in Singapore for managing a prostitution ring.

Kothandan Vinod has pleaded guilty to managing three Indian women after promising each of them a salary of Rs.30,000 (S$684) to work as prostitutes in Singapore, the Straits Times reported Monday.

Vinod was in Singapore on business for less than a week when he was caught.

Two of the women – Kasthuri Ramasamy, 21, and Fathimal Ali Srinivasan, 42 – had flown in from Chennai in India April 1 and started soliciting for clients at Lorong 22 Geylang area here.

The third, Padma Kadiya, 35, joined them April 6, the report said.—IANS

Hindu Immigration To The US Doubles; 70,000 Admitted In 2012

24 May 2013

NEW YORK: The number of Hindus becoming permanent residents in the US has more than doubled over the last two decades.

While in 1992, the Hindus accounted for 3 percent of all immigrants to the US, the figure jumped to 7 percent in 2012, says a study by the non-partisan Pew Research Center in Washington.

In terms of numbers, about 30,000 Hindu immigrants were admitted into the US each year in the 1990s. But their numbers jumped to 70,000 in 2012.

According to the study, nearly 1 million Hindu migrants have been admitted into the US during the past 20 years.

As of 2010, there were about 1.8 million Hindus in the US.

The great majority of Hindu immigrants to the US come from India, Nepal and Bhutan. But the share coming from the Caribbean (West Indies) has decreased significantly, dropping from an estimated 16 percent of all Hindu immigrants to the US in 1992 to 5 percent in 2012, says the study.

The number of immigrants from Sikh, Jain and Jewish (mostly from the former Soviet Union) faiths as well as other folk or traditional religions from China, Hong Kong and sub-Saharan Africa is estimated to be 30,000 each year.

Over 68 percent of the one million new immigrants that the US admits each year are Christians. From 1992 to 2012, the US admitted 12.7 million Christian immigrants.

Muslim immigration to the US has also doubled from 5 percent in 1992 to 10 percent in 2012.

The number of Muslims immigrants has increased from 50,000 in 1992 to 100,000 in 2012. From 1992 to 2012, 1.7 million Muslims entered the US as immigrants.

Indian American Girl Esha Khare Invents Device That Charges Cellphone In 20 Seconds

24 May 2013

NEW YORK: Google and other tech giants are wooing 18-year-old Indian-American whizkid Esha Khare who has revolutionized cellphone technology by creating a device that can charge a cellphone super fast in 20 seconds.

Called super-capacitor, the device can do up to 10,000 cycles, as against 1,000 that conventional battery chargers do.

Khare, who is from Saratoga in Santa Clara in California, has been conferred this year’s Young Scientist Award from the Intel Foundation for her invention. The award carries a cash of $50,000.
In an interview with NBC, she said she is ready to “set the world on fire” as she gets ready to study at Harvard.

Khare said she invented the device after she was frustrated by her cellphone battery dying quickly.

She said she started working on the energy-storage technology as a solution. Her specialization in nanochemistry, she said , helped her scale down the size of the device.

“It is also flexible, so it can be used in roll-up displays and clothing and fabric. It has a lot of different advantages over batteries in that sense,’’ the 19-year-old said. (News East West)

Indian-origin men in New Zealand face gang-rape charges

24 May 2013

A woman has given evidence in a court in New Zealand implicating four men of Indian origin of raping her in turns in April 2011.

Amir Chand, 25, Harvinder Singh, 22, Kamaljeet Singh, 27, and Sumit Vermani, 26, are defending the charges in the high court in Hamilton, Fairfax NZ News reported Tuesday.

The woman has claimed that the four men raped her in the course of an evening during the Hamilton 400 weekend, the V8 supercar racing event that took place on the streets of that New Zealand city.

While Amir Chand, Harvinder and Sumit are from Hamilton, Kamaljeet is from Kaitkati town in New Zealand’s North Island.

Prosecutor Philip Crayton said the woman, who was aged 19 at the time of the incident, was drinking with a friend near the Waikato Stadium near Hamilton where the ZZ Top group was performing.

The two then went to a Pak N Save shop on Mill Street where they met a 16-year-old girl from the US.

The duo then asked the 16-year-old to accompany them to the city and the three started walking across the Pak N Save parking space.

It was then that a car driven by Chand with Vermani in the passenger seat pulled up beside the trio.

The men then asked the trio to get in the car.

Giving evidence via video link from another room in the court premises, the victim said that she had initially declined to get in but since their 16-year-old friend knew the men, they eventually got in.

However, she said she got worried when the car, instead of heading towards the city, started taking the road to Lake Rotoroa.

She said she and her friends were taken to a house on Lake Road where she alleged she was raped first by Chand and then by the other three men.

She also stated that she initially tried to resist but eventually gave up “hoping that it would be over sooner” and later suffered an asthma attack.

When the prosecutor asked her about the ethnicity of the perpetrators, she said, “Indian”.—IANS

Gandhi blood sample fails to sell at UK auction of Indian leader’s personal items

24 May 2013

LONDON — Dozens of Mohandas Gandhi’s personal items have been sold at an auction, but a sample of blood purportedly from the Indian independence leader didn’t draw high enough bids, according to Associated Press.

The memorabilia offered by British auction house Mullock’s in Ludlow, England, included a handwritten will, a shawl, a pair of worn leather sandals and a rice bowl said to come from the house in India where Gandhi lived from 1917 to 1934.

One item was described as a bit of Gandhi’s blood on two glass microscope slides, said to be provided by the leader when he was recovering from an operation for appendicitis in 1924.
Spokesman Richard Westwood-Brookes said bidding for the blood didn’t meet the 10,000-pound ($15,155) reserve price. He said about 50 other items took in 287,000 pounds ($435,000) Tuesday.

Tendulkar out of IPL with hand injury

24 May 2013

New Delhi– Sachin Tendulkar will not take further part in the Indian Premier League owing to an injury on his left hand, his team Mumbai Indians said Wednesday.

Tendulkar, who did not play the Qualifier I against Chennai Super Kings here Tuesday, has been ruled out of action for three weeks, according to a Mumbai Indians statement.

“Sachin Tendulkar has injured his left wrist and hand while batting in the game against Sunrisers Hyderabad on 13th May. On investigation, we have found that there is some swelling in the wrist and around one of the tendons of his left hand,” said the statement.

“He is currently under rehab and is progressing well. The normal recovery time for this injury is around three weeks, however rehab results in the past nine days have shown reasonable improvements and we are hopeful to get him back in action as soon as possible.”

Mumbai Indians lost to Super Kings and now take on the winner of the Eliminator at the Eden Gardens Friday for a spot in the final.

Mumbai Indians pacer Dhawal Kulkarni also played his last match of IPL6.

“Dhawal has sustained a side-strain during the game against Kings XI Punjab in Dharamshala on 18th May. He will take about six weeks to recover completely and has been ruled out of the rest of the tournament,” the statement added.—IANS

Indian passport problem in Saudi Arabia resolved

24 May 2013

The problem of Saudi Arabian immigration authorities not accepting newly designed Indian passports has been resolved, according to the Indian embassy in Riyadh.

India’s Ambassador Hamid Ali Rao raised the issue during a meeting with Saudi Deputy Minister of Interior Ahmed Bin Mohammed Al-Salem Tuesday and the matter was clarified, local media reported Wednesday

“Some cases were reported in Jeddah where perhaps immigration authorities were not aware of the new format of the passport but it was resolved,” the Arab News quoted Sibi George, India’s deputy chief of mission in Riyadh, as saying.

“The issue has been clarified and the matter has been resolved.”

Stating that there is no need to be concerned over this, he said: “The Saudi side has acknowledged the matter and they are working to help Indian workers on all cases, including on the matter of the refusal of the passports.”

After Indian expatriates submitted their old passports, the Saudi authorities refused to transfer data from the old passports to the new ones, saying they were unaware of the change in design.

While the old passport had the holder’s photograph on the second page, the new one has it on the third page.

Even after the Indians obtained a letter from the Jeddah consulate confirming the validity of the new passport, the Saudis refused to relent, saying that the validity of the new passport should come from that Gulf nation’s foreign ministry.

Indian workers have been thronging the Indian embassy in Riyadh and the consulate in Jeddah ever since a new labour policy was implemented in that country.

The Nitaqat or Saudisation policy makes it mandatory for all Saudi companies to reserve 10 percent of jobs for Saudi nationals. —IANS

China welcomes ‘sensible advice’ on Tibet

24 May 2013

London– China welcomes “constructive and sensible advice” and suggestions on Tibet’s development, Chinese Tibetologists said here.

“There are many scholars studying Tibetan history and culture. We hope the scholars and political leaders from other countries, and all those who care about Tibet would participate in its development, and offer constructive, sensible, feasible advice,” said Zhaluo, a scholar from the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

A Chinese delegation of Tibetologists, headed by Zhaluo, visited Cambridge Monday and held academic exchanges with scholars from Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit on the protection of Tibetan language manuscripts, reports Xinhua.

China will stick to regional ethnic autonomy in Tibet, boost legal protection of Tibetan culture and religion and offer comprehensive support for the region, Zhaluo said.

He noted that China will also facilitate the development of social security system, education, housing projects and environmental protection in Tibet.

After a two-day tour in Britain, the Chinese Tibetologists will head to Ireland and Israel for a visit later this week. —IANS

Accept defeat with grace and humility: Badal to Congress

24 May 2013

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal advised the leaders of the Congress to accept their defeat in the Zila Parishad and Block Samiti poll with “grace, humility and democratic dignity.”

Badal said he was surprised at the Congress refusal to accept the people’s mandate with humility. “In democracy, only the people are sovereign. No sane and responsible political party or leader would ever question their wisdom or insult the popular mandate as the Congress is doing now. This is bad news for the party for future also,” said Badal in a statement released here this afternoon.

The Chief Minister said the Congress needed to do some soul searching on why their string of defeats was getting longer. The Chief Minister also advised the Congress not to be too disheartened by their rout and to draw the right lessons from it.

“The Congress has been losing consistently since 1997, with the sole exception of 2002 assembly poll, when they scraped through narrowly through divide and rule. Before and after that, they have faced total rout. Obviously, something is seriously wrong with their approach,” said the CM, adding: “It is time for serious and honest introspection for that party if they want to remain relevant on the political map of the state. But, unfortunately for them, they seem bent upon persisting with their suicidal path.”

Badal said such was the state of shock within the Congress that their leaders were issuing statements full of broad-daylight contradictions.

“The PPCC president Partap Singh Bajwa said that he and his party ensured maximum participation of the Punjabis in these elections and that they (the Congress) did not allow the ruling SAD-BJP alliance to stop anyone from voting freely. Ironically, he is speaking the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth – but without his knowing it. I agree with him that the people participated in these elections whole-heartedly and fearlessly. But the Congress was still routed. Why? Mr Bajwa and other Congress leaders must sit down and listen to the voice of conscience, especially in the light of his own unintended truthful statement. They will get the right answers on why their party had been rejected so comprehensively by the people,” said Badal.

The Chief Minister said the main reason for the Congress humiliation was their failure to focus on the people’s issues.

“The Congress must admit that it failed miserably to put its finger on the pulse of the people. People wanted peace, communal harmony and development to continue. But the Congress leaders kept on spitting fire and talking blood and iron whereas the mood of the people was in favour of moderation, peace, civility and constructive development-oriented policies, he said.

Apologize for using cheap language against Bajwa: Cong to Sukhbir

24 May 2013

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Congress while condemning use of unparliamentary, derogatory, cheap and arrogant idioms such as “that Congress is dead as party and Sh. Bajwa has been called merely to light the funeral pyre” by SAD chief and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal has demanded unconditional apology.

Congress spokesperson Sukhpal Singh Khaira said such language “exposes the feudal, arrogant and power drunken mind set of the junior Badal.”

“Needless to mention, the SAD-BJP has been successful in winning the Block Samiti and zila Parishad elections but the way they have achieved this blood laced questionable victory is a matter of shame, moral defeat and not pride. It is for the first time that four political killings have taken place in Punjab, booths captured and rigged in the CM’s constituency, vehicles torched with Akali ‘Goondas’ ruling the roost with the open support of police.”

Terming the entire election process ‘a farce, eyewash, hijack and murder of democracy’, Khaira alleged that the state election commission became a party to the Akali-Police conspiracy to rig elections, as SS BRar turned a complete blind eye to all the illegalities taking place under his nose.

Trashing Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and DGP Sumedh Saini’s claims that electopn process was ‘peaceful’, the Congress leader questioned that if four political murders besides other violence, torching of vehicles, rigging of booths, wrongful rejection of nominations and gross unconstitutional methodology is fairness, then what would be an unfair and violent elections?

“Does Sukhbir Badal want Punjab to turn into a chaotic Pakistan type democracy? This victory is nothing but an abuse of power, misuse of police force and polluting the electoral process with money, muscle power and drugs.”

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