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WORLD
Governor apologizes for police treatment of Indian man
Birmingham, Alabama: Govrnor Robert Bentley apologized to the Indian government for the treatment of an Indian man who was roughed-up by police, calling the case one of "excessive force" in a letter made public. Bentley's office released a letter to Indian general consul Ajit Kumar a day after the two men met to discuss the case involving 57-year-old Sureshbhai Patel, who was hurt in a confrontation with Madison police while visiting relatives earlier this month. Audio and video recordings released by police show Patel was slammed face-first to the ground by an officer responding to a call about someone walking in a sub-
www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 28th February 2015
expressed Bentley's "sincere apology for this tragic incident to your government, Mr. Patel, and the citizens of India who reside and work in our state." "I deeply regret the unfortunate use of excessive force by the Madison Police Department ... and for the injuries sustained by Mr. Patel," wrote Bentley. The Madison police chief apologized during a news conference last week. Bentley said the state would investigate the confrontation alongside the FBI. Bentley's letter came as officer Eric Parker pleaded not guilty to assaulting Patel during a confrontation in the north Alabama city on Feb. 6. Parker is being fired, and
he faces an April 29 trial. An attorney for Parker, Robert Tuten, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment about Bentley's letter. A lawyer for Patel, Hank Sherrod, said the man has left the hospital and is now in rehabilitation for injuries that include partial paralysis of his left leg. "He has a long, difficult, and uncertain rehabilitation process ahead of him, and he and his family deeply appreciate the outpouring of prayers and support he has received," Sherrod said in an email. Donors have given about $185,000 on a gofundme.com to pay medical expenses for Patel, who Sherrod said does not have insurance.
500 Indian men as guest workers to repair oil rigs and facilities damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, according to plaintiffs. The workers paid $10,000 apiece to recruiters and were promised good jobs and permanent US residency for their families, according to the suit. When the men arrived at Signal shipyards in Pascagoula, Mississippi, they discovered that they would not receive promised residency documents. Signal also charged the
men $1,050 per month to live in guarded labour camps where up to 24 men lived in single 1,800square-foot (167-squaremetre) units, according to the suit. An economist who reviewed Signal's records for the plaintiffs estimated the company saved more than $8 million by hiring the Indian workers. "The defendants exploited our clients, put their own profits over the lives of these honourable workers, and tried to deny
them their day in court," plaintiffs' attorney and Southern Poverty Law Center board chairman Alan Howard said in a statement. The centre identified plaintiffs as Jacob Joseph Kadakkarappally, Hemant Khuttan, Andrews Issac Padaveettiyl, Sony Vasudevan Sulekha and Palanyandi Thangamani. Most of them are from Kerala. Signal said in a statement that it is weighing an appeal. "Signal strongly disagrees with rulings from the court in the case which impacted its ability to present defences and is disappointed with the verdict," the company said. Separately, a suit brought by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging that Signal retaliated against its workers is slated for trial in June.
Sheikh Hasina. At least 87 people have died since early January when the leader of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) called on supporters to blockade roads, railways and waterways to force Hasina to call new polls. Justice Obaidul Hassan, head of the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), handed down the sentences, saying the 79-year-old leader would be "hanged by the neck until his death". "He was found guilty
of six out of nine charges. As a leader of Jamaat, he collaborated with Pakistan army and he carried out in the name of Islam," prosecutor Sultan Mahmud told reporters. Subhan is the 17th person and the 12th and the last Islamist to be convicted by the court, which is a domestic tribunal set up by Hasina's government without any international oversight. Prosecutors said Subhan was the head of Jamaat and a proPakistani militia in the northwestern district town of Pabna and he actively took part in the murder of hundreds of innocent villagers and minority Hindus in the 1971 conflict when the
then East Pakistan seceded from Islamabad. Defence lawyers said they would appeal the verdict as the charges against Subhan were "false and baseless". The war crimes court has mostly focused on the trials of the Jamaat leaders who opposed the break-up of Pakistan and saw the liberation war by Bengalis as a conspiracy by majority-Hindu India. Previous death sentences handed down against Jamaat leaders, including its supreme and spiritual leaders, plunged Bangladesh into its deadliest unrest in 2013. Thousands of Islamists clashed with police in nationwide protests over the verdicts and other issues and some 500 people were killed.
Suresh Patel
division in the town, a bedroom community of Huntsville. Patel suffered injuries including partial paralysis in his legs, and his attorney said he now is in rehabilitation after leaving a hospital. The man has filed a federal lawsuit over his treatment. The governor's letter
Indian workers win $14 mn in US labour trafficking case
New Orleans: A New Orleans jury awarded $14 million to five Indian men who were lured to the United States and forced to work under inhumane conditions after Hurricane Katrina by a US ship repair firm and its codefendants. After a four-week trial, the US District Court jury ruled that Alabama-based Signal International was guilty of labour trafficking, fraud, racketeering and discrimination and ordered it to pay $12 million. Its co-defendants, a New Orleans lawyer and an India-based recruiter, were also found guilty and ordered to pay an additional $915,000 each. The trial was the first in more than a dozen related lawsuits with over 200 plaintiffs that together comprise one of the largest labour trafficking cases in US history. Signal recruited about
Bangladesh orders death of another Islamist
Dhaka: Bangladesh's war crimes tribunal ordered the execution of a senior Islamist leader after convicting him of atrocities during the country's 1971 independence war, triggering violence outside the court. Three Molotov cocktails thrown by suspected anti-government activists exploded outside the courthouse in central Dhaka as Abdus Subhan, a vice president of Bangladesh's largest Islamist party, JamaatIslami, was found guilty of murder, genocide and torture. The verdict is expected to further inflame tensions in Bangladesh where an alliance of opposition parties, including Jamaat, is trying to topple the government of Prime Minister
In Brief
Religious groups warn animal rights lobby
London: Religious groups have warned animal rights groups that their repeated calls for a ban on the religious slaughter of animals would damage wider community relations. Jewish and Muslim leaders have accused animal welfare lobbyists of campaigning against the non-stun religious slaughter of animals to the exclusion of almost all other welfare issues.
British mum staging legal bid to become pregnant
London: A 59- year -old British woman is staging a desperate legal bid to become pregnant with her own grandchild – using her dead daughter’s eggs. The woman and her husband would claim it was their daughter’s dying wish that her eggs be fertilised by donor sperm and implanted into her own mother’s womb. It would be the couple’s only chance to become grandparents after their daughter, an only child, died of bowel cancer four years ago while still in her 20s. She chose to freeze her eggs in the hope that she could have children in the future, but tragically lost her battle with the disease. No UKbased clinic has agreed to treat the mother, who is now hoping to export the eggs to New York, where a clinic is lined up to provide fertility treatment.
Al-Shabaab calls for attacks on Oxford Street, Westfield centres
London: Somalia-based terror group Al-Shabaab has threatened to attack London’s Oxford Street and the Westfield shopping centres in the latest jihadist threat to the UK. A video released by the terror group called on its followers to “hasten to heaven” by attacking some of the country’s busiest shopping areas. It also threatened venues in America and Canada as well as “Jewish-owned” centres.
Sir Malcolm, Jack Straw suspended by Tories London: The Conservative Party has suspended Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Jack Straw, two former foreign secretaries, in the wake of the 'cash for access' scandal. They were accused of offering to use their positions as politicians on behalf of a fictitious Chinese company in return for payments of at least £5,000 a day. Shortly after the announcement that he had been suspended, Sir Malcolm said: "I do also want to have the standard of living that my previous professional life should entitle me to have."
Chanting 'Om' will soothe the brain, confirm scientists
Lucknow: scientists have now confirmed that chanting of “Om” really does soothe the brain. The finding emerged from a study in which 21 men listened to the mantra while lying in a scanner that monitors brain activity. Researchers found that, as the chanting progressed, the parts of the brain used in day-to-day activity slowed while those involved in emotional awareness took over. “Listening to the ‘Om’ sound . . . activates areas of the bilateral cerebellum, left middle frontal gyrus and right precuneus,” said Uttam Kumar of the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Lucknow, India. “Listening to ‘Om’ recruits neural systems implicated in emotional empathy,” Kumar said. To make sure “Om” was the key sound, the researchers also played recordings of people chanting “Tommmm” - and found this did nothing to relax the 21 men. Om is regarded as a a divine word by Hindus and Buddhists, who believe it can open the mind. Ideally, the subjects should have chanted it themselves but the vibration made it hard to scan their brains. Kumar said the next step was to repeat the research with people from other cultures to see if the sound is “universal and independent of culture or belief.”
Fire deaths suspect arrested after global manhunt
London: Shahid Mohammed, a suspect in the the murder of eight members of a family in a house fire in Birkby, Huddersfield, in May 2002, has been arrested after a global manhunt. Five children and three adults from the Chishti family died in the fire and one man was convicted of murder and two of manslaughter following the attack. However, Mohammed failed to answer bail and has been sought by police ever since - with numerous appeals made for his whereabouts. Reports say he has been arrested in Pakistan. Police said his re-arrest came after close work between authorities in the UK and those abroad and they are working on bringing him back to this country.