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Hate crime against NRI family
British-Indian doctors challenge rules
Nepal court orders release of 3 ministers
Toddler from PoK reaches Srinagar
21 die in Iraq selective killing
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Hate crime against NRI family
Washington, June 4 The house of the family, which reportedly started receiving a steady stream of hate mails since January, was vandalised last Saturday with spray paint and the police had registered a case. According to New Jersey media reports, the family arrived home in Wayne last Saturday to find the house and walkways spray-painted with anti-Indian and anti-Hindu epithets. The reports said that a neighbour found two people in the victim family's backyard and when she saw the fluorescent paint she got suspicious and called the police. Police disclosed the incident on Wednesday and said the family had been targeted with hate mail and graffiti since January. The spray paint allegedly bore dire warnings like ''We kill you. We will fire your house. Watch yourkKids. We hate Indians''. Other profanities spray-painted on their two-story house in black, orange and green have terrorised the Wayne family of five, comprising a husband and wife and their three children, two boys of 16 and 11 and a girl of 13 who police say have been singled out for their Hindu beliefs and Asian Indian roots. The family is so frightened that they did not want the media to give out their names and identity. Police and the neighbours say they were stunned when they saw the painted words, including ''I Hate Indians'' and others ''targeting Hindus that were too vulgar to print''. Wayne is a residential area in Bergen County, which is very close New York City. The Wayne couple moved to Bergen when they bought their house in November last year. The husband is a 42-year-old businessman who was born and raised in Tanzania. He moved to Passaic County with his brother and father when he was 17 and married to a girl from Mumbai in 1988. Since settling down in Wayne, the couple say, according to media reports, that they have had no problems with the neighbours and that most had been friendly. The couple has a small ''Pooja room'' in their house where they offer prayers daily. But, the nearly two million-strong Indian-American community has come a long way from the 1980s scene of the ''Dotbusters'' hate crimes. This time when the Indian family was targeted, a deluge of support for the victimised family is growing every day indicating the networking aimed at helping Indian American victims of the crime. From 1990 to 2000, the number of people of Asian-Indian descent in Bergen, Passaic and Morris Counties rose from 20,436 to 37,280 (82 per cent increase). Hudson County's community increased 77 per cent, from 11,552 to 20,486. Since the discovery of the vandalism, several South Asian organisations have offered help to the family by putting out calls and e-mails. One of the leaders of such an organisation, Hemant Wadhwani, president of the Asian American Political Coalition, said expressing solidarity helps counter the feelings victims of hate crimes often have of being rejected and different. He felt seeing the surge of support would help the family gain more confidence. Due to the activism of the South Asian community leaders in New Jersey, state laws against hate crimes were subsequently strengthened since the 1980s. In 1990, the law was expanded with stiffer sentences for crimes such as assault or harassment that had a ''purpose to intimidate'' based on race, sex, ethnicity or religion. According to the latest figures available, New Jersey had 868 reported bias offences in 2004, up 32 per cent compared with 2003. Of these, 14 targeted residents because of their Asian-Indian roots and three others because of their Hindu faith, state records show. Generally, vandals are charged with third-degree criminal mischief if the damage is more than 500 dollar. If the offence is a hate crime, it also could result in a second-degree bias intimidation charge. For adults, second-degree crimes carry up to 10 years in prison. According to Himanshu Shukla, an Indian community leader, the ''Dotbusters'' emerged at a time when real estate prices had been rising but well-educated Indians, who were doing very well financially, bought homes and businesses in the Jersey City area. He said this provoked a lot of resentment among some working-class white neighbourhoods, resulting in hate crimes. Initially it was rude comments that later led to violence and vandalism by thugs. The ''Dotbusters'' is derived from the red dot or ''bindi'' some Hindu women place on their foreheads to symbolise their marital status. — UNI
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British-Indian doctors challenge rules
London, June 4 The legal action was initiated following advice to the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO) that it had a “good case”. The changes, the association believes, are unfair and have been implemented without proper consultation. “The letters of intent of legal action were sent to the Department of Health and the Home Office on May 23. After a two-week deadline, the case will be filed in the high court”, Ramesh Mehta, BAPIO president, told IANS. He added: “The department has been unwilling to respond to the many protests and has shown no signs of reviewing the ruling. Time is running out for many thousands of doctors whose visas will run out in August and will have to leave the country as they do not have another job.” The association has launched a drive from its members to raise funds to mount the legal action against the changes. The changes abolish permit free training under which thousands of Indian doctors worked in Britain’s National Health Service (NHS). Under the changes announced earlier this year, doctors from outside Britain and the EU would be employed on a work permit only if there were no suitable candidates from these regions. They would no longer be offered employment under the permit free training scheme. This has put the medical careers of thousands of doctors from India and elsewhere, who were already employed in the NHS, at risk. Moreover, it effectively barred newly qualified Indian doctors from gaining employment in Britain - unless they had specialised in a field in which there were no candidates in Britain and EU. Due to the changes, NHS job advertisements now make it clear that candidates from outside Britain and EU need not apply since they would not be considered. Several doctors believe that such advertisements are unfair. The British Medical Association’s (BMA) international committee chairman Edwin Borman said: “The NHS is rapidly losing its international reputation as a fair employer. Some trusts are effectively telling doctors not to bother applying for jobs if they’re not European, even if they’ve worked in Britain for years, or qualified from a British medical school.” “It is shabby, it is unfair and in some cases it is discriminatory.” BMA officials have appealed to the department of health to give a grace period of two years for overseas doctors to complete their training in Britain, but this too has been turned down. Mehta said: “The sudden implementation of this unjust ruling with no prior warning is causing immense distress to thousands of doctors and disrupting their careers.” — IANS
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Nepal court orders release of 3 ministers
Kathmandu, June 4 The full Bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Dilip Kumar Poudyal termed their detention as unconstitutional and ordered they be set free. The court said there not "enough and proper ground" to keep the former ministers under detention. The government formed after the reinstatement of the House of Representatives had detained five former ministers in the erstwhile royal cabinet for their alleged involvement in suppressing the joint peoples movement and misappropriating government fund. They were arrested on May 12 on the recommendations of a judicial commission. Following the detention, the trio had filed a petition challenging their arrest.
— PTI
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Toddler from PoK reaches Srinagar Islamabad, June 4 The Indian High Commission expressed shock over the claim and said it was yet to verify it. Two year-old Ishaq, whose Indian mother hailing from Batmaloo near Srinagar and Pakistani father died in the earthquake at Muzaffarabad in PoK, was taken to his mother's hometown by his grandfather Abdul Ahad through the Wagah border yesterday without travel documents, the boy's uncle Jamil Rahman said. Ahad came from Jammu and Kashmir a few months ago to take Ishaq. Rehman, who lives in Rawalpindi, said Ahad has been trying for the past two months to get travel documents from the High Commission but left for India along with Ishaq and his five-year-old Indian brother as he was not aware of the High Commission's decision to grant travel papers to the child. "Ahad is past 75 years and decided to go as he was not keeping well. He has no inkling about the High Commission's decision," Rehman said. Just armed with a no objection certificate issued by Pakistani authorities Ahad has managed to take the child through the Wagah border yesterday with some "difficulty", Rehman said. "Ahad along with Ishaq and his brother managed to reach their home town and he confirmed this to me over the phone," he said. "It is indeed shocking how the boy could be allowed to cross through the Wagah border by the Indian immigration officials without travel documents," an Indian official said adding that for its part the Commission was waiting for Ahad to collect the boy's travel papers. The High Commission officials said an application for the boy's travel papers was filed on May 18 and a decision has been taken to grant the papers by May 24. However, the passport for the child could not be issued as Ahad has not approached the High Commission.
— PTI
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21 die in Iraq selective killing
Sulaimaniyah (Iraq), June 4 He said the gunmen dragged 26 people from the
buses, separated four Sunni Arabs who were in the group, and shot all the rest. Shokir said 12 of the dead were high school students and of those killed, 19 Shiite Turkomen and two were Kurds. The students were headed to another town to take exams. According to the joint operations center in Baqouba, the incident apparently took place in Ain Laila. The town is between Qara Tappah and Baqouba, the capital of Diyala province - which in recent weeks has been transformed into a sectarian powder keg.
— AP
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US asks Iran to respond in weeks Washington, June 4
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