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Karzai heading for outright victory
Indian maid levels abuse charges against diplomat
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Sikhs move court on French law
To love, honour and to pay: Britons say 'I do'
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Washington, October 19 Ms Deborah Clark, Supervisor of elections in Pinelass county of Florida State, told Indian and Pakistan journalists at a meeting in Tampa Florida that the main objective of introducing the system of early voting, which started yesterday 15 days before the November 2 elections, was to allow the voters to go to the election offices at any time for exercising their vote. She claimed that over 30 states had introduced the "early voting system’’ that would ease the rush at the polling stations on the day of elections. There was no holiday on the election day in the USA. It was reported that many people were going to the poll centres for registering their votes in a number of states, where the early voting system is in operations since yesterday. Both Republicans and Democrat supporters said early voting system would ensure that votes were counted properly. The volunteers of the two rival parties were urging the voters to vote early to avoid long lines amid heavy turnout on the polling day. Each voter needs three minutes to exercise his vote. Ms Clark said that "absentee ballot" system has also been put into practice. "Anyone can go for the absentee ballot but it is to be returned to the election office before 1900 hrs on November 2." These measures have been taken to create greater transparency in the election system as 2000 Presidential elections caused confusion and chaos and Mr Bush was declared elected after 36 days of recounting of votes. — UNI
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Karzai heading for outright victory
Kabul, October 19 Needing 51 per cent of the ballot to avoid a second-round run-off, Karzai’s share of the near two million votes checked by today morning stood at 61.8 per cent. His opponents have listed more than 100 complaints of cheating and voting violations which are being investigated by an independent three-member panel. But the panel’s findings probably won’t be known until after the count is completed, which may take until early November. “They can complain to that (panel), and God willing their problems will be solved,” Jawed
Ludin, a spokesman for Karzai, told a news conference. “It is too early to be talking of forming a government as we are still at the stage of counting the ballot,” he said, when asked whether some Cabinet posts were already decided. Karzai comes from the dominant Pashtuns but has developed some support among minority groups, helped partly by choosing a Tajik and a Hazara as vice-presidential running mates. The winner of the election will have a month to choose his Cabinet, and nominate governors to Afghanistan’s 34 provinces.
— Reuters |
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Indian maid levels abuse charges against diplomat
SHANTI came to New York City in 1996 on the promise of $ 2,000 a month. Instead, the Indian domestic worker says she was paid only a fraction of the agreed amount and was subjected to emotional and physical torture by her Kuwaiti diplomat employer.
Her case, pending in the court of Federal Magistrate In an interview with The Tribune, Shanthi (not her real name) asked that her true identity not be revealed in an Indian publication because she didn't want to alarm her two sons and three daughters, all of whom reside in India. Her husband died in 2002. Shanthi alleges that her employers forced her to work 18 hours a day and paid her only $ 200 a month. "They told me that $ 200 was more than big officers in A Mumbai-based agency first placed her in a job with Mr Al-Awadi's relatives in Kuwait. She says the diplomat lured her to New York with the promise of "a very good salary." The Kuwait Mission said Mr Al-Awadi was posted to Paris this summer. Shanthi worked with the diplomat for four years. "They would wake me at 6 in the morning and force me to work till midnight," she alleged. She claims the couple hid her passport and other travel documents to prevent her from escaping. A Christian, she says she was also not allowed to practice her religion by her Muslim employers. Shanthi finally made a dramatic escape from her situation in June, 2000 when she fled to a Sai Baba Temple in New York. She worked as a cook at the temple for over a year, before she told her story to a temple trustee. An abuse case was filed in 2001. The absence of a verdict in the case and stonewalling by the Kuwait Mission prompted Andolan, a community-based group that organises low-wage South Asian immigrant workers in New York City, to get involved. "Her case is part of a larger campaign to help people who are abused by diplomats," said Dipty Jain a volunteer at Andolan. Jain says the Kuwait Mission must provide compensation to Shanthi for the abuses she suffered during her employment in Al-Awadi's household. But, she concedes, there is no precedent in past cases where a diplomat had been ordered to compensate the worker. "There have been instances where the mission has transferred the diplomat, which is what seems to have happened in this case." According to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Andolan has handled 30 cases of abuse and exploitation of low-wage immigrant workers in the past 6 years. Eleven of these involved cases of abusive diplomat employers. "The law must be changed to hold diplomats accountable to the same human rights standards as everyone else," said Nahar Alam, Director of Andolan. "It is outrageous that the UN lets diplomats commit abuses with impunity." |
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Sikhs move court on French law
Paris, October 19 The Sikhs’ case is the first known court action over the law since it took effect in September. Education Minister Francois Filon said there remain about 70 cases of students defying the law — mainly involving girls refusing to remove their Islamic head scarves — since the measure took effect at the start of the school year on September 2. Some 600 cases were counted at the start of the year, but most have been resolved through dialogue — as called for in the law — avoiding expulsion, the minister said on France Inter radio. The law bans conspicuous religious signs and apparel, including Muslim head scarves, Jewish skull caps and large Christian crosses. Fillon made clear today that the turbans of Sikhs also fall under the law. “There is a Sikh community which is very small, which poses no problem, but the law applies to everyone,” the minister said. “Sikhs must respect the law like others.” France’s small Sikh community, an estimated 5,000-7,000 people, was forgotten during a marathon debate before the law was passed in March. However, Sikhs were the first to take their troubles to court.
— AP |
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To love, honour and to pay: Britons say 'I do'
"DO you, the party of the first part, take this, the party of the second part, for your lawful wedded spouse?" The age of the bride and groom appearing at the altar armed with a contract could soon be upon us.
So great is the demand for them by couples, and so prevalent is divorce in Britain, that the pressure for legally binding pre-nuptial agreements could be irresistible. Next month, the country's leading organisation for divorce lawyers will tell ministers that the number of British couples seeking a formal contract before they tie the knot is growing so fast that a change in the law is now required. Famously associated with the likes of Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, pre-nuptial agreements set out how a couple's assets are to be divided in the event of marital breakdown. US Presidential candidate John Kerry and his wife Teresa, heir to the Heinz fortune, have signed one. Even the Crown Prince of Denmark and his bride had one, after lawyers discovered that, under Danish law, a divorce could mean the Princess would have a claim on half the kingdom. "Pre-nups" have not been popular in Britain because for years judges here refused to recognise them, but that now seems set to change. Louisa Cross, a spokeswoman for the SFLA, which represents 5,000 family lawyers, said the influence of such agreements is already growing in the courts, despite their uncertain legal status. "Many family lawyers believe pre-nuptial agreements -with suitable safeguards - should be legally binding, to give people a sense of certainty when they enter marriage," she said. The SFLA are not the only ones to discover demand for pre-nups. Last month, family law website Divorce-online reported sales of its online pre-marital contracts had risen by 177 per cent in the first nine months of 2003. A survey by online bank Smile found that nearly half of all marrying couples wanted them. And many felt they should not be restricted to financial assets. Clauses covering staying faithful, sharing housework, limiting a partner's shopping sprees and "not letting appearances go" were also cited. The SFLA report, which took 12 months to compile, comes in response to a rising divorce rate. There were more than 1,53,000 divorces in England and Wales in 2003, the third successive annual increase. One-10th were between couples who had each been divorced previously, double the proportion in 1981. — By arrangement with The Independent ,London. |
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