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Five more Indians charged with murder
Prayer room for Sikhs at
JFK airport
Points-based scheme for UK immigration
Panel to draft charter of demands meets
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US rights activists detained in Pak, to be deported
Hindu temple wins UK Pride of Place award
Suicide bomber kills 12 in Afghanistan
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Five more Indians charged with murder
Kuala Lumpur, December 5 The five men were produced in a sessions court along with the 26 others charged yesterday with attempted murder. Prosecutors accused the 31of causing a head injury to the policeman during the banned demonstration on November 25 near a Hindu Indian temple. Defence lawyers condemned the charge as a violation of the constitutional right to “worship and assemble” and urged the court to throw out the case against the 31 men, who face up to 20 years in jail, if convicted. “This is first time in the history of Malaysia that an unlawful assembly has been charged with attempted murder,” said defence lawyer V. K. Ganesan. “This is not healthy. The nature of the charge ... is an overt threat to any right thinking member of the society to their constitutional right to worship and assemble,” he said. They were also charged with damaging public property and illegal assembly, while some were charged with rioting. All pleaded not guilty to the charges. The November 25 rally was the largest protest in at least a decade involving Indians, who are 8 per cent of the population and the country’s second-largest minority after the ethnic Chinese. They are demanding equality and fair treatment, saying an affirmative action program that gives preferential treatment to the Muslim Malays is tantamount to racial discrimination. — AP
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Prayer room for Sikhs at
JFK airport
New York, December 5 The port authority, which manages the airport, has agreed to provide space for setting up a prayer room for Sikhs on the lines of the facility provided to people from other faiths. United Sikhs, an umbrella organisation of the community, said yesterday that Susan Baer, General Manager Aviation JFK, has agreed on the need for such a facility at the airport. The meeting was convened by Assemblyman Rory Lancaman and coordinated by United Sikhs Multi-Faith coordi-nator Amarjit Singh. The airport is located in New York’s suburbs, Queens, which has a large chunk of Indian population. “The Sikh community is a growing population in Queens. They travel regularly. Sikhs travellers deserve a place to worship at JFK airport alongside those currently set aside for other faiths. I am very pleased that the port authority has committed to work with the community to obtain this goal,” Lancman said. Community services director of United Sikhs Balbir Kaur said: “Most airports have ‘meditation rooms’, which the passengers use for praying. We are very pleased that the port authority recognises the need for prayer facilities for the Sikhs.”
— PTI
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Points-based scheme for UK immigration
London, December 5 The British government is soon going to introduce a new points-based system under which young entrepreneurs, doctors and financial high-fliers will get a fast track entry into the country, ‘The Daily Telegraph’ reported here today. The scheme will apply to the workers Britain is most keen to attract. Doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs and IT experts will get the most points and will be able to come to Britain without a job offer to look for work. Highly skilled workers with fluent English and top-drawer qualifications will be given priority. They will also be able to bring their families and to settle permanently within five years. However, the unskilled and low skilled will find it harder to obtain work and will have no rights to stay on or apply for citizenship. Under the scheme, a non-EU migrant will need at least 75 points to be considered for a work visa. Tier two workers, such as nurses, teachers and plumbers, will be able to come to Britain only if they were needed to fill gaps. People applying for low-skilled work in a restaurant or domestic service will be granted entry to fill specific job vacancies for fixed periods, but must then leave. To make sure they do, they may be required to have open return tickets, submit to having their biometrics taken, or post a refundable bond before coming.
— PTI
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Panel to draft charter of demands meets
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shahbaz Sharif has said his party has finalised the list of its candidates to contest elections if the All- Parties Democratic Movement (APDM)'s PPP fails to draft a unanimous charter of demands. The committee, which has been set up to draft the charter of demands held a second session on Wednesday.Former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif who agreed to form the panel to prepare the charter told reporters that they would boycott the poll if the charter is rejected by the government. PML-N spokesman Ahsan Iqbal told The Tribune that panel had set about working on the charter in right earnest and was likely to produce an agreed draft for consideration of top leadership. He acknowledged the existence of divergence on some issues like the reinstatement of deposed judges but hoped an agreed charter would be ready within next 24 hours. The committee has discussed a proposal that the government would be allowed up to December 15 to accept the demands or face boycott.
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US rights activists detained in Pak, to be deported
Islamabad, December 5 Medea Benjamin and Tighe Barry, who had from the US to campaign for the restoration of democracy in Pakistan, were detained by the Lahore police for over three hours last night. Benjamin and Barry were picked up from outside the Lahore Press Club, where they had joined a protest march by lawyers, students and civil society activists. The activists, who were told they would be deported today, were picked up by “armed men in plain clothes”. The activists, after their release, described their experience as “traumatic”. Elizabeth Colton, the spokesperson for the US embassy, confirmed that two Americans had been taken into police custody. “I received a call from them saying they had been detained and would be deported,” she said. The activists, who held a vigil outside Ahsan’s home, had also criticised US Ambassador Anne Patterson for not placing more pressure on the Pakistani government for his release. Ahsan, who was part of the team of lawyers that defended, deposed Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry when President Pervez Musharraf tried to suspend him in March, was arrested hours after the imposition of emergency on November 3. — PTI
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Hindu temple wins UK Pride of Place award
London, December 5 The BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Neasden, the first traditional Hindu temple constructed in Europe, not only took the most votes in London, but also topped in the national poll, with 2,344 persons going online to register their pride. The Pride of Place poll is part of the British government’s “Connect to your Council” campaign, which encourages citizens to access their local authority services online, anytime and anywhere. In all, 36,800 persons went online to vote for their favourite place in this first national council-led poll.
— PTI
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Suicide bomber kills 12 in Afghanistan
Kabul, December 5 Separately, the NATO-led force said one of its soldiers was killed and two others were wounded in an explosion in southern Afghanistan. Gen Mohammad Zahir Azimi, a defencee ministry spokesman, said that six soldiers and six civilians were killed in the suicide blast and seven other soldiers were wounded. An unknown number of civilians were also wounded in the attack, Azimi said. The bomber was in a Toyota Corolla that struck a minibus full of soldiers at Chihulsutoon here, said Aziz Ahmad, an Afghan Army officer at the site of the blast. The blast was the third suicide attack in the city in the last eight days.
— AP
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