Voice of Asia E-paper June 22, 2018

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VOICE OF ASIA The Largest Asian-American Newsweekly in Texas

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Vol. 32 No. 24 • FRIDAY, June 22, 2018

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Trump orders halt to family separations

20 Pages (2 sections)

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June In FRIDAY, Section 222, 2018 l HEALTHLINE Medicare Prescription Plan l BUSINESS Anup Ghosh joins Accenture Security l YOUNG Teens' sleeping habits shown to affect cardiovascular health

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Haley slams rights groups after US quits UN council

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NITED NATIONS, United States | AFP | 6/20/2018 - US Ambassador Nikki Haley on Wednesday accused human rights groups of thwarting a US push for changes to the UN Human Rights Council and contributing to Washington's decision to quit the body. In a letter sent to non-governmental organizations, Haley complained that they had played a "deconstructive" role by refusing to support US efforts to take Israel off the council's agenda. Haley on Tuesday announced that the United States was quitting the rights council, condemning the "hypocrisy" of its members and its alleged "unrelenting bias" against Israel. "You should know that your efforts to block negotiations and thwart reform were a contributing factor in the US decision to withdraw from the council," said Haley in the letter seen by AFP. "You put yourself on the side of Russia and China, and opposite the United States, on a key human rights issue." US President Donald Trump -- flanked by Vice President Mike Pence -- signs an executive order to end family separations at the border by Paul Handley

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ASHINGTON | AFP | Wednesday 6/20/2018 President Donald Trump ordered an end to the separation of migrant children from their parents on the US border Wednesday, reversing a tough policy under heavy pressure from his fellow Republicans, Democrats and the international community.

The spectacular about-face comes after more than 2,300 children were stripped from their parents and adult relatives after illegally crossing the border since May 5 and placed in tent camps and other facilities, with no way to contact their relatives. Pictures and accounts of the separations sparked outrage and a rebellion Continued on next page 2

Suresh Iyer: Ekal USA’s new President

The rights groups had warned that the proposed changes could trigger "hostile amendments," possibly from China and Russia, to undermine the work of the council which monitors human rights crises worldwide. "Such hostile proposals could enjoy broad support and the US might not be able to stop them," said Human Rights Watch's UN director Louis Charbonneau. - Blaming NGOs In the end the United States did not push ahead with its proposals at the General Assembly because of lack of support from allies who warned that changes could have unwanted consequences or might fail to win adoption. HRW executive director Kenneth Roth argued that reforms were underway to improve the workings of the 47-nation Geneva-based council but that the United States "walked away from" that effort and chose instead to "theatrically" quit the council.

by Manu Shah

S

uresh Iyer’s introduction to Ekal was a strange coincidence. In 2002, he was asked by a friend to host its Founder Shyam Gupta in a last minute change of plans. The conversation between the two turned to Ekal, lasted well into the night and by morning, Suresh had become a donor. He gradually became more involved as a volunteer, then Chapter President, Chairman of the Board

Haley was referring to a letter by 18 rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International to United Nations member-states in May expressing concern that a US draft resolution at the General Assembly could weaken the rights council.

Suresh Iyer

until 6 months ago when he assumed the role of President of Ekal Vidyalaya USA. Continued on page 3

"By attacking and blaming NGOs for its own failure, the Trump administration is taking a page out of the book of some of the worst governments around the world," said Charbonneau. Haley had repeatedly threatened over the past year to quit the rights

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley accuses human rights groups of "unrelenting bias" against Israel (AFP Photo/Andrew Caballero-Reynolds) council unless there were reforms to its agenda and to the election of its members, which often run unopposed as a region's candidate, regardless of their rights record. Last year, the United States urged African nations to back away from supporting the candidacy of the Democratic Republic of Congo to the

rights council, but the appeal fell on deaf ears. Human rights groups had also raised concerns about giving the DRC a seat at the council, citing the violence in Kasai, the murder of two UN experts who were investigating mass graves there, and the arrests of scores of opposition demonstrators.

Indian government grounds Air India sale plans

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UMBAI, India | AFP | 6/20/2018 - India has shelved its plans to sell debt-stricken national carrier Air India after failing to attract any bidders, a senior official has told local media. Civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu said the government had dropped the idea for now because of next year's general election and rising oil prices, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. Prabhu said the decision to put on hold the proposal to sell a 76 percent stake in Air India had been made at a meeting headed by India's finance minister Arun Jaitley on Monday. "We will review it (the sale) later," PTI quoted Prabhu as telling reporters in New Delhi on Tuesday. India's government announced in March that it planned to privatise the ailing carrier but a May 31 deadline for bidders to express interest passed without any coming forward.

Local and international airlines were said to be put off by some of the terms, including the government's insistence that buyers take on both Air India's international and domestic operations. Air India, founded in 1932, was once the country's monopoly airline, known affectionately as the "Maharaja of the skies". But it has been haemorrhaging money for years and it has lost market share to low-cost rivals in one of the world's fastest-growing airline markets. Successive governments had spent billions of dollars to keep it flying before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet last year gave the go-ahead for a sell-off. Air India is about $8 billion in the red and reported losses of almost 58 billion rupees ($860 million) for the financial year ending March 2017. Earlier this month it sought an urgent loan of 10 billion rupees to maintain day-to-day operations.

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