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WORLD
www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 13th September 2014
Lottery to decide who will attend Modi's public reception in US
Washington: A lottery system would decide the participants who would get to attend the public reception of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 28 at the prestigious Madison Square Garden in New York City, organisers of the event have said. Indian-American Community Foundation, set up recently for the purpose, had received some 20,000 applications from people across the country, from as far as remote parts of Alaska and Hawaii. Last Monday was the deadline for on-line applications for members of the 407 Indian-American community organisations and religious institutions, who have joined hands to host Modi's public reception. On Tuesday, the Foundation opened the process for inviting online applications from the general public for the event. Madison Square Garden has the seating capacity of not more than
20,000. September 7 was the last day for online application for general admission, during which organisers were expecting several thousands to register for the event. As a result, several individuals associated with planning and organisation of the public reception said it has been decided that a lottery system would decide on who would be able to attend the high-profile event. "A random number lottery will be conducted to assign tickets to everyone registered," the dedicated website said as it opened up the general reg-
i s t r a t i o n process. "I was not there when S w a m i Vivekananda spoke in Chicago in 1893. I do not want to miss when a n o t h e r Narendra is about to deliver a historic speech in New York," said Anju Preet, a scientist from the prestigious Georgetown University here. Subject to availability of tickets, she plans to take both her sons to the event. Tickets for the programme are free. Organisers said, overwhelming response has not come as a surprise to them. "We were expecting this. Given Modi's popularity, even a stadium of the size of 60,000 to 70,000 would have been smaller. "We tried our best to get the two stadiums in New York, New Jersey area, but they were booked because of games. The Madison Square
Garden is the largest venue one that we can get for this day," one of the organisers said. The community leader requested anonymity, as they are not authorized to speak to the press. They said there is a huge media interest both in the US and also from India to cover the event. While preparations are in the full swing and final decision is yet to be taken, those involved in the preparations exuded confidence that it would be a "memorable event". In fact, more than 700 Indian American organisations had shown interest in being a partner to the reception. Following strict scrutiny, who met the basic criteria like the number of years, not-forprofit, religious institutions, or filing annual income tax returns, so far, 407 Indian-American organisations have been registered as "Welcome Partners for the Community Reception" for Modi.
Beverly Hills, Toronto, the Great Lakes and Florida, said that his wife of five years, Christy, was not at all troubled by his kiss. Bharti, who was privately
educated at The York School in Toronto, Canada, before leaving in 2004 and going to McGill University in Montreal, is the eldest son of billionaire founder of Forbes & Manhattan founder and CEO, Stan Bharti. After school he studied at M c G i l l University in Montreal for two years before dropping out. He went to work for his father before going it alone and setting up an investment banking business in 2008. Bharti said that he
was quite proud of his success at this age and admitted the contribution of his father for his achievements. Bharti's passionate kiss was the result of a charity auction at Sir Elton and David Furnish's annual Woodside Summer Ball. After dinner in a candlelit marquee, Hurley, the star of “Bedazzled,” sparked frenzied bidding when she put herself under the hammer. The pair then embraced in front of the celebrity crowd, with Hurley pulling a series of seductive poses as a slightly bewildered Bharti looked on. The money raised through the auction will go to the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
Father of 3 pays $ 80,000 to kiss Elizabeth Hurley
London: Julian Bharti, 27, the son of a billionaire banker Stan Bharti, has paid £50,000 on a passionate kiss with model and actress Elizabeth Hurley. He successfully bid for a kiss with the 49-yearold British actress at Elton John's annual ball near Windsor. The married father of three took to his task with gusto, clasping Hurley close to him and kissing her full on the mouth to the cheers of the watching celebrity crowd. Bharti, who runs his own mining investment business and has homes in
Anthology of ‘Diaspora Literature’ released
London: The lovers of ‘Gujarati literature’ through their spellbind genres don’t leg behind to enlivening its glory even in foreign lands. As part of a series of ‘Diaspora Literature’ about a dozen of literature works such as poems, essays and stories of local authors were released in Batley. This function was attended by many contemporary Gujarati poets, writers and critics that include Dr Adam Tankarvi, Gul Ahmed, Pankaj Vora, Dr Mahek Tankarvi and wellknown editor Dr Balvant Jani was also present on this occasion. It was organized as a part of Gujarati Writers Forum (Batley) and Gujarati Writers Guild
R-L: Pankaj Vora, Dr. Balvant Jani, Dr. Mahek Tankarvi, Bharti Pankaj, Gul Ahmed, Dr. Adam Tankarvi
(Bolton) wherein the chief Ismail Hazi and Siraj Patel gave detailed information about the activities of the these organizations. An experimental collection of ‘Gujarat Samachar’ was also released on this occasion.
A renowned poet from London, Pankaj Vora, felicitated Dr Balvant Jani by calling him, ‘Savaya Meghani’ and complemented him for his creation ‘Devdoot’ and described it as a historical piece. In a response to his appreciation, Dr Jani
added that, wherever there is a Gujarati, the light of Gujarati literature would be burning forever. Apart from 20 local poets, Beghar Lajpuri, Dilip Ganjir and Pankaj Vohra from London presented their respective creations and won the hearts of many during this occasion. An anthology of poems was released by poetess Bharti Pankaj, stories by Dr A I Rajpura while the essays were released by Ikbal Dhoriwala. Dr Adam Tankravi presented the poems of Brian Luis in complete Gujarati tones that truly mesmerized everyone. Dr Jani thanked everyone for making this occasion incredibly memorable.
In Brief
Waist measure can determine your lifespan
London: A new scientific study shows that your life span depends on the measurement of your waist. For a long life your waist should not be more than half of you height. The report is based on 20 years of British medical records and is the first to quantify how many years you will lose to obesity as measured by your waist-to-height ratio. Dr Margaret Ashwell, a co-author of the study, said the rule applied regardless of a person’s age, ethnicity or gender. She added that the evidence was so strong that it should provide the basis for a simple global health check, which anybody could perform with a piece of string if they did not have a tape measure.
Enjoy nature by getting naked: Kate Humble London: Kate Humble, who was presented with BBC Springwatch and Lambing Live, said being naked in the countryside was her eccentric way of being closer to nature. Humble owns a 117 acre farm she shares with her husband of 22 years.
2 Britons held for investigating conditions of migrant labour in Qatar
Doha: Qatar has arrested two British researchers who had been investigating the conditions of migrants workers who are building facilities for the 2022 World Cup. Qatar argued that these researchers "violated" the emirate's laws. Krishna Upadhyaya and Ghimire Gundev, who work for the Norway-based Global Network for Rights and Development (GNRD), were arrested in Doha on August 31. The Qatari foreign ministry said that the pair were "being interrogated for having violated provisions of the law" in Qatar, but it did not elaborate. "All of the actions that have been taken against the two Britons are consistent with principles of human rights enshrined in the constitution", said the statement. GNRD said that a British authority representative had transferred a message from Upadhyaya to his family saying: "I am well, I have been well looked after and I will be home soon." "We have been arrested due to problems with our paperwork," he was quoted as saying. Rights watchdog Amnesty International raised concerns about the pair's "enforced disappearance," saying they went missing after checking out of their hotel in Doha.
Obama is afraid of me, claims Robert Mugabe
Harare: Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe claimed that American President Barack Obama was afraid of him as he has the ability to expel the white people from his country. According to him that is the reason why he was not been invited to attend the summits attended by western leaders. Mugabe was not invited to attend a US-Africa summit in Washington last month. America joined Britain and the European Union in imposing a travel ban and asset freeze on him 12 years ago. But Mugabe, widely condemned for human rights abuses and rigged elections, said that fear lay behind these decisions. Addressing an audience of supporters, he said: "It's your support which enables me with my small frame to instil fear in the likes of Obama.”
Scottish independence supporters gain majority
London: The results of a poll shows that 51 per cent of the voters backed Scotland’s independence from United Kingdom. It is a reversal of Better Together campaign’s 22-point lead one month’s ago. As a result sterling suffered its biggest intra-day loss in over a year, sliding to $1.6150 against the dollar. A poll last year showed a 1-point lead for the "yes" camp, which led with 44 pc to the no-voters' 43 pc. “If the ‘Yes’ vote wins, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a 3 pc to 5 pc fall in sterling,” said Kit Juckes, head of foreign exchange research at Societe Generale. “The latest poll will only add to the pressure on sterling,” said Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight.
42,000 on the verge of developing dementia
London: A new study has found that 42,000 people are on the verge of developing dementia. This figure is more than double the earlier estimates of people developing the disease. This includes thousands of people in their 40s and more than 700 in their 30s, new figures show. Experts said doctors often missed the disease in younger people because of an assumption that dementia sufferers are frail and elderly.