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Stranded Indian worker to return home
Canada confirms deportation of Sogi
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Indian American sues friends for “emotional distress”
Berlin school renamed after Tagore
42 killed in sectarian massacre
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150 die in Russian plane crash
Moscow, July 9 The Sibir Airbus A-310 plane with 192 passengers and eight crew members was on a flight from Moscow to Irkutsk when it slid off the runway and crashed into a concrete barrier at 8 am before breaking up and bursting into flames, officials were quoted as saying by Interfax news agency. It took three hours to bring the blaze under control. The agency reported that 43 persons were hospitalised with burn injuries. The passengers included many children travelling to the nearby popular holiday destination of Lake Baikal, another news agency, Itar-Tass, reported. The cabin was wrecked and passengers were evacuated through the rear of the aircraft, rescuers said. Russian aviation officials have flown to Siberia to investigate the crash. Irkutsk airport had witnessed another fatal crash in July, 2001, when a Tu-154 plane fell to the ground, killing all 145 persons on board. In May this year, an Armenian Airbus A-320 flying to Sochi in Russia crashed into the Black Sea, killing all 113 persons on board. Also, in August, 2004, 89 persons died when two aircraft — a Tu-134 and a Tu-154 - crashed about 800 km apart after leaving Moscow’s Domodedovo airport. —PTI
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Stranded Indian worker to return home
Dubai, July 9 Kunjukunju had arrived in Bahrain in 1980 to work for a construction company. Before he left for his last and only vacation to India in 1984 for his daughter’s wedding, the company he was working for shut down. Kunjukunju returned to Bahrain in January next year and began working as a labourer, but he lost all contact with his sponsor. It was only when he wanted to return to India in 1988 that he found that his sponsor had moved to Jordan. An Indian Embassy spokesman said Kunjukunju had been issued an emergency exit pass twice before - once in 1997 and again in 2000 - during an amnesty for illegal residents, but he did not leave the country. —PTI
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Canada confirms deportation of Sogi
Toronto, July 9 The Canada Border Security Services Agency (CBSSA) said Sogi was deported last week as he was a “a serious security risk.” In a statement, the Minister for Public Safety Stockwell Day said “We have a duty to enforce deportation orders issued against those who are deemed inadmissible to our country on security grounds.” “The Government of Canada stands firm in its commitment to maintaining the safety and security of all Canadians,” Day said. The minister said Sogi had the “benefit of many avenues of recourse”, as all individuals subject to deportation do, including a pre removal risk assessment, that he would not be at risk if removed. “Having made use of all avenues of recourse available to him in Canada, Sogi was deemed to be inadmissible to Canada and the CBSSA had an obligation to remove him. The Federal Court upheld Sogi’s deportation order,” Day said. The minister added that the ability to remove people was the key to maintaining the integrity of the immigration programme and ensuring fairness for those who come to this country lawfully. — PTI
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Indian American sues friends for “emotional distress”
AN Indian American doctor is suing longtime friends claiming that the bride they set his son up with is “ugly.”
In a suit filed in the Hampden Superior Court, Belchertown, Massachusetts-based Dr Vijai Pandey is claiming $ 200,000 in damages for an incident that he says caused him “emotional distress.” Dr Pandey's now terminated friendship with Lallan and Kanti Giri dates back to 1979 when the Giris, according to Dr Pandey, moved to Amherst, Massachusetts, and lived in “extremely humble” conditions. Dr Pandey, who boasts a “big house with in-ground pool, Lincoln car etc.,” says the Giris used to call him “Bhagwan” in reverence. He says during one of their frequent and uninvited visits to his home, the Giris proposed their niece Savita Giri as a match for his youngest son Pranjul. Dr Pandey and his wife, Lalita, told the couple that their 37-year-old son was “extremely handsome,” had “fair complexion with good personality,” and “spoke English.” Did Savita have similar qualities, they inquired? In an interview with the Tribune, Dr Pandey says the Giris assured him that she did. The Giris provided the Pandeys with a photograph of their niece but Dr Pandey says he was not able to discern the girl's complexion or beauty from it. Nevertheless, the Pandeys invested heavily in long distance phone calls to India where they spoke with Savita, her mother and sister, and sent money for Savita's passport so she could travel to the USA after her marriage, the suit claims. In August 2003, Pranjul, his mother and sister, Pramila, traveled to New Delhi to meet Savita and her family. “When Lalita, Pranjul and Pramila met and saw Savita for the first time in New Delhi they were extremely shocked to find out that Savita was ugly with dark complexion and protruded bad teeth and couldn't speak English to carry on conversation,” Dr Pandey says in his lawsuit. Claiming, among other things, intentional infliction of emotional distress, the suit says the “acts and practices and conduct of the defendants” have caused Dr Pandey to suffer “emotional distress resulting in mental anguish, pain, fear, sleeplessness, anxiety, depression, and other difficulties and injuries.” “Things like this happen all the time in India,” Dr Pandey complained in his interview with the Tribune. “We had known the family a long time and we really wanted to help them,” he said, adding that he filed the lawsuit “as a lesson to everyone else so they don't repeat this mistake.”Dr Pandey says the Giris, who now live in Maryland, have failed to respond in the case. “Default has been entered and the court will assess damages,” he said. Meanwhile, Pranjul Pandey hasn't given up his search for a bride. “My son is always looking but you have got to be careful. It is unbelievable what goes on,” said Dr Pandey.
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Berlin school renamed after Tagore
Berlin, July 9 Oberchule an der Weide, a gymnasium school offering education up to 13th grade, has nearly 1,000 students and 65 teachers. The story of renaming the school after Tagore began in 2004 when students came across his personality and work as part of a project on major international personalities. Impressed with Tagore, the students conducted further research and involved themselves in India Day celebrations organised by the Indian Embassy here on September 30, 2004. They presented a series of lectures, cultural programmes and presentations on Tagore. The school management later debated on the name for nearly one year. As per local custom, which gives discretion to students and teachers on the school’s name, the management decided to change the name of the school as Tagore School. The local authorities have ratified the decision. The formal inauguration of the school’s new incarnation was attended by Indian Ambassador Meera Shankar and several prominent Indians and Germans, including the mayor of borough Marzahn-Hellersdorf (in Berlin) and Ravindra Gujjula, Indo-German mayor of Altlandesberg. A Tagore bust, sculpted by Gautam Paul, was installed in the school’s premises, while German students presented songs, music and a mock interview with Tagore on the occasion. In February 2004, the Indian government had presented a Tagore bust made by Gautam Paul to the South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg, which stands prominently in the premier institute’s premises. Tagore had evoked much interest in Germany during his visits in 1921, 1926 and 1930. — IANS
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42 killed in sectarian massacre
Baghdad, July 9 A security source said the gunmen were wearing civilian clothes but were masked. Witnesses said black-clad gunmen they described as Shiite militiamen set up at least two checkpoints and began stopping vehicles, forcing people out of their cars and shooting them. “They also went into certain Sunni houses and killed everyone inside,” said one witness who declined to be named. The killings ended when US and Iraqi forces surrounded the area and began a search for the gunmen. — AFP
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