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Alleging slavery, over 100 Indians quit US shipyard
Internet game ‘feeds’ hungry kids
Aitzaz barred from entering SC
Malaysia Polls
NRI doc surrenders
licence, pending probe
Pak national faces 4 yr in jail for cutting Sikh’s hair
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Alleging slavery, over 100 Indians quit US shipyard
New York, March 8 They are demanding a probe into the matter as firm even faced similar accusations last year. The workers, mostly welders and pipe-fitters, alleged they lived “like pigs in a cage” in a “work camp” run by Signal International in Pascagoula shipyard. Signal forced them to live in substandard housing with 24 men crammed into a small room for which they were charged more than $ 1,000 a month, the workers claimed. The Indians symbolically threw their hard hats at the company gates as they walked out alleging that it had brought them to the US by promising permanent residency in exchange for $ 20,000 fee. They said they were given 10-month work visa. Signal International, however, strongly denied the workers’ allegations. “Unfortunately, a few of the workers, whom Signal had sponsored for H2B visas and recruited, have made baseless and unfounded allegations against Signal concerning their employment and living conditions,” it said in a statement. The workers told local media that they plan to “report themselves to the department of justice as victims of trafficking, and demand federal prosecution of Signal.” “For more than one year, hundreds of Indian workers at Signal International have been living like slaves,” a former Signal worker Sabulal Vijayan was quoted as saying by ABC. “Today the workers are coming out to declare their freedom.This trafficking needs to end.” A similar protest was held by around 300 Indian workers at the shipyard in March 2007, local media reports said. — PTI
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Internet game ‘feeds’ hungry kids
New York, March 8 The interactive vocabulary game allows a player 20 grains of rice for each correct answer. The money raised through advertising is used to underwrite rice donations. Thus, it allows children simultaneously to bolster their vocabularies and help feed world’s hungry children. With between 3 lakh and 5 lakh people playing it daily, it has generated 21 billion grains of rice for the WFP. The first recipients of the website’s aid were refugees from Myanmar taking shelter in Bangladesh. Ugandan school children and pregnant and nursing mothers in Cambodia were among other beneficiaries. “I never imagined that things would move this fast or that it would be such a success,” said game’s creator John Breen, an online fundraising pioneer from the US. “Quite apart from the actual amount of rice generated, FreeRice is a fantastic way of spreading the message about world hunger.” — PTI
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Aitzaz barred from entering SC
The police stopped Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), and dozens of other lawyers from entering the Supreme Court premises to hold a meeting of the association here today. Ahsan said the meeting was called to discuss plans for observing the “black flag” seek from today to press for demand to reinstate judges deposed by President Musharraf on November 3. The gates of the Supreme Court building were locked and heavy contingent of the police was deployed to prevent the lawyers from entering the premises. March 9 marks the first anniversary of the cataclysmic day when Musharraf called Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftkhar Mohammad Chaudhry to the Army House and demanded his resignation. On refusal, Musharraf sacked Justice Iftikhar unleashing a crisis that has spanned the whole year. Aitzaz said the new elected government must not waste time to take a decision on reinstatement of judges. This is an executive and not constitutional issue, he said adding that the confinement of the deposed judges and their families without lawful authority was a Criminal Act for which Musharraf would be prosecuted. Musharraf denies
delaying session
President Pervez Musharraf has refuted allegation of delaying the session of the new Parliament saying he would convene it when he receives a summary from the Prime Minister. Musharraf warned politicians to devote to governance after Parliament meets and put politics on the back burner. He said the new governments must maintain peace and not allow any agitation. Inaugurating the Multan station of the PTV on Saturday, Musharraf accused a section of the media for spreading despondency and frustration among the people. He was for the freedom of media but the media should act responsibly, he added. In an oblique criticism of PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, Musharraf said certain politicians were misleading the people by making baseless propaganda that he was obstructing the political process and was also delaying Assembly sessions with ulterior motives.
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Malaysia Polls
Kuala Lumpur, March 8 S. Samy Vellu, leader of the Malaysian Indian Congress, a component party of the ruling coalition, lost the seat he had held for three decades. He was also the longest-serving government minister with almost 30 years Vellu was the target of anger within the minority Indian community over complaints that they faced discrimination by the coalition, which is dominated by politicians from the majority ethnic Malay community. More than 10,000 ethnic Indians took to the streets in an anti-government
protest last November. Meanwhile, detained ethnic Indian activist and lawyer M. Manoharan won a parliamentary seat despite being held under internal-security laws for organising a major anti-government protest last year.
— Agencies
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NRI doc surrenders
licence, pending probe
New York, March 8 This
follows a probe into allegations of unsafe medical practices, including reusing of syringes and vials, at a
centre. The Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners had requested Dipak K. Desai, owner of the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada, to voluntarily stop
practiing medicine, until the board’s investigation has been
completed. — PTI
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Pak national faces 4 yr in jail for cutting Sikh’s hair
New York, March 8 Umair Ahmed faces up to four years in prison for cutting 15-year-old Harpal Vacher's hair with a small pair of folding scissors after threatening him on May 24, 2007. Ahmed will be sentenced on April 11 by Queens Supreme Court Justice Joel
Blumenfeld. — PTI
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