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Indian store-owners in US being targeted
World leaders condemn Kadirgamar’s killing SAARC Foreign Secys meeting put off
Two London blasts were not linked: report
No intention to dissolve Parliament, says Musharraf
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New US drug shows promise of HIV cure
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Indian store-owners in US being targeted
Washington, Aug 13 The US department of justice has charged 49 people, including 43 Indian American convenience store-owners, in Georgia of selling ingredients that can be used to make the potent drug methamphetamine. But lawyers representing the accused are blaming it on a "cultural gap". "The targeted stores were in six counties in northwest Georgia. It appears they (federal agents) targeted only local stores and not the big chains or chain stores owned by rich people," McCracken Poston, a lawyer who represents some of the defendants, told
IANS. The case hit the headlines after a New York Times story pointed to the cultural gap between law enforcement and the defendants and quoted Poston as saying it may be a case of ethnic targeting. "...46 of the accused are foreign-born and I think that seems to bespeak of targeting of a certain group of people and most are Indian-born and many share the last name Patel", Poston said. Rajiv
Goyle, a Washington-based attorney who handles civil rights cases, said that dozens of South Asian lawyers were keen to provide assistance to the store-owners. "Operation Meth Merchant", as the sting operation was named, began in early 2004 and focused on convenience stores in six Georgia counties based on complaints received from the public through local law enforcement. In June this year, US Attorney for Northern Georgia David Nahmiah's office said it had indicted 49 individuals and 16 corporations after the sting operation in which paid informants were sent to the stores to buy over-the-counter medications and other material used to make methamphetamine. Said
Goyle: "The allegations seem troubling. Most of these people, if they understood the informant at all, thought he was talking about a barbeque. This raises very troubling concerns, and the community feels people are being targeted, maybe not consciously, but by being at the wrong place at the wrong time." The department of justice has denied allegations of racial bias. Lawyers representing the defendants maintain their clients did not knowingly sell medications and were not conversant with American slang such as "cooking", which the informants had sometimes used. The pre-trial hearings have been set for the week of Sep 12. Dilip Patel, a store-owner, told
IANS: "In our community, most of our employees don't speak good English, just enough to run a store. "In the cases that I have seen, he (informant) used slang that only people who use drugs would know - 'I need to finish a cook'. Only lawyers and policemen and drug dealers would know what that meant. "And I know many of the Indian-born clerks did not know what that meant and were just trying to be polite to the customer and indulge in conversation." Asked what the motivation would be for targeting Indian-owned stores, Poston said: "I think the motivation began with the confidential informants. I think the police just lacked the sensitivity and knowledge of the culture. "I think the informants, many of them convicted felons and drug users, in order to make money or to help themselves out of their own legal troubles, targeted the Indian stores because it's not a huge constituency to cry out if they are set up." Satya Shaw, president of the recently formed Asian Association of C-Store Owners, said the clerks probably misunderstood because of the language barrier. "So the association is educating store-owners," he said. According to Shaw, Indian American store-owners have a purchasing power of $80 billion, and make up 80,000 of the 1.3 million convenience store owners in the
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World leaders condemn Kadirgamar’s killing Colombo, August 13 Expressing shock at the slaying, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan hoped the tragedy would not weaken the resolve of the people to achieve a durable peace. Erik Solheim, the leading Norwegian mediator working for lasting peace between the government and the LTTE, said the killing was “completely insane, it is a major setback for the peace process”. In Crawford, Texas, where US President George W. Bush is vacationing, White House spokeswoman Dana Perion said, “We condemn this outrageous and barbaric act”. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, who recently met Kadirgamar, said she was shocked and saddened by his death. “This senseless murder was a vicious act of terror, which the United States strongly condemns,” she said in a statement while calling for re-dedication to peace and to the ceasefire between the government and the Tamil forces. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Kadirgamar’s death was a “great loss” for his country and the international community. “I strongly condemn the brutal killing,” he said. Terming the assassination as “an act of terror”, China said it would continue to support the island government’s efforts to safeguard sovereignty and territorial integrity. Russia described the assassination as a “barbarous act of terror as a result of which an outstanding statesman has perished, who had done a lot for strengthening the national unity of Sri Lanka.” — PTI
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SAARC Foreign Secys meeting put off
Islamabad, August 13 The Standing Committee meeting of the SAARC Foreign Secretaries in Islamabad was initially scheduled to be held from August 16 to 18. Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran, along with his counterparts of the other countries, was scheduled to take part in the meeting. Announcing the postponement, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Naeem Khan said new dates for the meetings would be announced in consultations with the member countries and SAARC Secretariat. Pakistan, currently the Chairman of the SAARC, had proposed to hold the meeting to finalise the schedule and agenda for the SAARC Chair. The meetings consisted of the 31st Session of the Standing Committee and 26th session of the Programming Committee. The decision of postponement has been taken out of respect for Kadirgamar who made a valuable contribution as a member of the SAARC Council of Ministers in strengthening the SAARC process, Khan said even as he condemned the killing. “The Government of Pakistan strongly condemn this dastardly act of terrorism. Kadirgamar will always be remembered as a leading statesman and as a good friend of Pakistan,” he said. Foreign Minister Khurshid M. Kasuri will represent Pakistan at the state funeral of late Lakshman Kadirgamar, he added.
— PTI
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Two London blasts were not linked: report
London, August 13 No evidence of an Al-Qaida “mastermind” have emerged from the initial probe into the July 21 attacks and the deadly suicide bombings preceding it, The Independent today quoted counter-terror officials involved in the investigations as saying. The inquiry involved MI5, MI6, the listening centre at the GCHQ and the police, it said. The alleged plotters behind the July 21 bomb incidents in London are thought to have been “copycats”, targeting tube trains and a bus, the paper said. “The key point is that the events are not connected,” the paper quoted a counter-terrorist source as saying. “It appears they were self-contained, rather than being organised by some kind of mastermind.”
— PTI |
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No intention to dissolve Parliament, says Musharraf
Islamabad, August 13 “As far as opposition’s threats are concerned, who ever wants to leave Parliament, he or she is most welcome to do so, we will not be cowed down by their threats of resignation,” he was quoted as telling a private TV channel. “I know I can use Article 58 2(b) to dissolve Parliament but I won’t do it,” he said claiming that he had introduced a strong democracy in the country along with political reforms. His comments were in response to a resolution passed by an all-party conference organised by the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, in which opposition parties while alleging “pre-poll rigging” by his government threatened to resign enmasse from the National Assembly to register their protests. Musharraf also refuted allegations that Pakistan was responsible for terrorist attacks in different countries. “It is very disheartening when people blame Pakistan for terrorist activities in any part of the world. We have broken the backbone of Al-Qaida’s network but still people blame us,” he said. Referring to the London bombings, he said “it is true that three were of Pakistani origin, and at least two had travelled to Pakistan on a number of occasions. But all four were brought up, educated and presumably radicalised in the UK.” “If the events of the last few years teach us anything about the terrorism it is that the extremist-terrorism such as occurred last month has nothing to do with an individual nation’s identity,” he said.
— PTI |
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New US drug shows promise of HIV cure
Washington, Aug 13 The drug developed by David Margolis and colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, US, will finish off the virus in its latent hiding stage among infected people, reports the online edition of New Scientist. HIV is already being kept in check by treatment with a powerful cocktail of drugs known as highly active antiretroviral therapy
(HAART). But the virus persists in a dormant state in infected people. The new drug will now eliminate that possibility. Four patients who had been on long-term HAART treatment were given a drug called enfurvitide twice daily for four to six weeks to intensify the effect of the HAART drugs. They were then given valproic acid, a drug which is usually used to treat epilepsy, twice daily for three months. Valproic acid inhibits an enzyme called histone
deacetylase, which is known to help HIV linger in its dormant, hidden state. In three of the four patients, levels of latent HIV fell by 75 percent, the report said. "Our findings suggest that eradication of established HIV infection may be achieved in a staged approach," said Margolis. "This finding, though not definitive, suggests that new approaches will allow the cure of HIV in the future." Around 40 million adults and children are believed to be infected with HIV worldwide. The life expectancy has fallen to below 33 years in some of the worst-hit countries in Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Swaziland due to the disease, according to a report in science portal EurekAlert.
— IANS |
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