hi INDiA | February 10, 2023 | The Community First

Online interviews, appointments outside India: US moves to cut visa backlog

Early Voting In Downtown Chicago Through February 28th

CHICAGO, IL – Early voting in Downtown Chicago for the February 28, 2023 Municipal Election started at two vote centers – the Voter Supersite at 191 N. Clark and Board Offices at 69 W. Washington, 6th Floor – on Thursday, January 26th.

The US State Department has quietly implemented recommendations of a presidential commission which has suggested steps like opening up American diplomatic missions outside India for visa appointments to reduce the visa backlog in the country. India was one of the very few countries where applications for US visas saw a major upswing after coronavirusrelated travel restrictions were lifted. Moved by a commission member, Ajay Jain Bhutoria from Silicon Valley, the presidential commission observed that inordinate visa appointment delays were causing huge problems for the students and visitors who have plans to come to study in the US and visit the country.

Twitter facing internal & external issues, up soon: Elon Musk

The State Department should allow virtual interviews where applicable and allow staff from embassies around the world and the US consular staff to help conduct the virtual interviews at embassies with high backlogs and help clear them, the commission recommended.

The recommendations included opening up American diplomatic missions outside India for visa appointments, having more counters and deploying additional resources to process visa applications.The US Embassy in India processed over 1 lakh applications just in January 2023, their highest total in a single month and the highest in any month since July 2019.

From January 26 through February 28 Supersite – 191 N. Clark St. Weekdays: 9:00am- 6:00pm

Saturday: 9:00am – 5:00pm

Sunday: 10:00am – 4:00pm

Election Day: 6:00am – 7:00pm (February 28)

*From February 20 through February 27

– Open Weekdays from 9:00am – 7:00pm

From January 26 through February 27 (not open on Election Day)

Board Offices – 69 W. Washington St., 6th Floor

Weekdays: 9:00am- 6:00pm

Saturday: 9:00am – 5:00pm

Sunday: 10:00am – 4:00pm

*From February 20 through February 27

– Open Weekdays from 9:00am – 7:00pm

Early Voting in all 50 Wards of Chicago

US Congress reintroduces Tibet-China conflict bill

will begin Monday, February 13 and run through February 28, 2023 (Election Day). All 50 Ward Early Voting sites and the Board Supersite (191 N. Clark) will be open as vote centers on Election Day. From February 13 through February 28

Weekdays: 9:00am- 6:00pm

Saturday: 9:00am – 5:00pm

Sunday: 10:00am – 4:00pm

Election Day: 6:00am – 7:00pm

(February 28)

Any voter in Chicago can vote at any Early Voting site, no matter where they live in the city. Voters can choose whatever voting site is most convenient for them, including on Election Day. Voter registration services (new voters, name changes and address updates) will be provided at all Early Voting sites. Two forms of ID, one of which shows the voter’s current address, are needed to register for the first time or to file a name change or an address update. Voters with questions may contact 312.269.7900 or email cboe@ chicagoelections.gov.

Ami Bera elected to House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee

New Delhi: (IANS) Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Thursday said that the micro-blogging platform is facing “multiple internal and external issues simultaneously” and will be “fully back on track later tonight.” The microblogging platform suffered a massive outage when several users globally, including in India, reported having issues while posting a tweet and sending direct messages (DMs).

Users likely scheduled their tweets for reporting the issues as they were not able to post it immediately.

When a user tweeted, “Twitter and a ton of other social media websites have been all jacked up today. My guess is there’s something wack with shared infrastructure.” Musk replied: “Multiple internal and external issues simultaneously today. Should be fully back on track later tonight.”According to the outage monitor website DownDetector, over 59 per cent of people had reported problems while using the application, 32 per cent while using the website, and 9 per cent with server connection.

Dharamsala: (IANS) As the legislative year begins, the US Congress is already demonstrating its bipartisan commitment to resolving China’s illegal occupation of Tibet by reintroducing a bill pressuring Beijing to resume dialogue with the Dalai Lama’s envoys. Massachusetts Representative Jim McGovern (Democrat), Texas Representative Michael McCaul (Republican), Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley (Democrat), and Indiana Senator Todd Young (Republican), announced the reintroduction of the Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Conflict Act on Wednesday.

The legislation was previously introduced in the House on July 13, 2022 and in the Senate on December 20 last year.

The announcement comes as Penpa Tsering, the Sikyong (President) of the Central Tibetan Administration, which

provides democratic governance for Tibetans in exile, is visiting Washington to meet with US lawmakers --including the main sponsors of the legislation -- and Biden administration officials. Known as the Resolve Tibet Act, the bill will make it official US policy that China must resume dialogue with the envoys of the Dalai Lama, as the conflict between Tibet and China is unresolved and Tibet’s legal status remains to be determined under international law. The two sides held 10 rounds of dialogue between 2002-2010, but since then, the dialogue process has remained stalled. China has illegally occupied Tibet for over 60 years, forcing the Dalai Lama into exile in 1959. As a result of the Chinese government’s decades of extreme human rights abuses, Tibet is now the least-free country on earth alongside South Sudan and Syria, according to the watchdog group Freedom House.

New York, Feb 9 (IANS) IndianAmerican Congressman Ami Bera has been elected to serve as Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Indo-Pacific for the 118th Congress.

He was also named to the influential House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence earlier this month.

“I am proud to continue my leadership on the House Foreign Affairs Committee as Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on the Indo-Pacific. The Indo-Pacific remains the most consequential region of the world for our national security, economic interests and values,” Bera said in a statement.

In this role, Bera said, he will work towards supporting a more free, open and prosperous Indo-Pacific. The Congressman has served on the House Foreign Affairs Committee since entering Congress in 2013.

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Bill Gates Has Found Love Again, Say Reports

US’s Blinken and NATO’s Stolenberg rebuke China over spy balloon

Antony Blinken said the balloon was part of a ‘broader program’ while Jens Stoltenberg spoke of a ‘pattern of behavior’

“We already shared information with dozens of countries around the world, both from Washington and through our embassies,” Blinken said. “We’re doing so because the United States was not the only target of this broader program, which has violated the sovereignty of countries across five continents.”

Bill Gates is in a relationship with Paula Hurd, the widow of Mark Hurd, the CEO of the software company Oracle, who died in 2019. According to a report by People, the 67-year-old Microsoft co-founder has been dating Paula Hurd,60, for more than a year.

A source told People, “It’s widely known that Bill Gates and Paula Hurd are dating, but she hasn’t met his kids yet.”

The duo was photographed together at the Australian Open last month. The alleged couple were seen sitting side-by-side as they watched the game. “They’re inseparable,” a friend of the rumoured couple told the news.com.au. “They’ve been together over a year, and she’s always described as a ‘mystery woman’, but it’s no mystery to their inner circle that they’re in a romantic relationship.” Ms Hurd’s husband died at the age of 62 in October 2019 after a long battle with cancer. Ms Hurd works as an event planner and philanthropist, she once worked as a tech executive. According to a Pagesix report, Paula Hurd and Bill Gates run in the same circles and had crossed paths before Mark’s death because of their love for tennis.

US Navy releases photos of Chinese spy balloon debris

The US and NATO on Wednesday both criticized China over the network of suspected spy balloons like the one shot down off the eastern coast of the US last week.

The White House described the balloon as part of a “fleet” that has spanned five continents and said it had been in contact with allies.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO SecretaryGeneral Jens Stoltenberg both raised the issue in a joint press conference in Washington D.C. on Wednesday.

This comes as teams scramble to recover the debris from the large balloon and its payload off the coast of South Carolina. Blinken said Washington was gaining more information “almost by the hour” and that the US would share relevant findings with Congress and allies around the world.

‘China continually undermines a rules-based order’ NATO’s Jens Stoltenberg said following his talks with Blinken that NATO had to be “vigilant,” and warned that China was drawing lessons from the war in Ukraine, saying “what happens in Europe today could happen in Asia tomorrow,” seemingly in reference to Taiwan or other potential Chinese aggression in the region.

US forces returning to Philippines to counter China threats

Joe Biden lays down economic challenge to House Republicans

Once-secret ammunition bunkers and barracks lay abandoned, empty and overrun by weeds — vestiges of American firepower in what used to be the United States’ largest overseas naval base at Subic Bay in the northern Philippines. But that may change in the near future. The US has been taking steps to rebuild its military might in the Philippines more than 30 years after the closure of its large bases in the country and reinforcing an arc of military alliances in Asia in a starkly different post-Cold War era when the perceived new regional

threat is an increasingly belligerent China. On February 2, the longtime allies announced that rotating batches of American forces would be granted access to four more Philippine military camps aside from five other local bases, where US-funded constructions have picked up pace to build barracks, warehouses and other buildings to accommodate a yetunspecified but expectedly considerable number of visiting troops under a 2014 defence pact.

Manila-based political scientist Andrea Chloe Wong said the location of the Philippine camps would give the US military the presence it would need to be a “strong deterrent against Chinese aggression” in the South China Sea, where China, the Philippines and four other governments have had increasingly tense territorial rifts — as well as a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, which Beijing views as its own territory to be brought under Chinese control, by force if necessary.

“If China Threatens Our Sovereignty, We Will Act”: Biden

Washington: (IANS) The US Navy has released photos of debris of the suspected Chinese spy balloon which was shot down by an American F-22 fighter jet over the Atlantic Ocean on February 4.

The photos were published on Tuesday by the US Fleet Forces Command on its social media handles. The balloon was retrieved off the coast of Myrtle Beach in South Carolina a day after it was shot down, the BBC reported.

According to the Navy, the balloon’s debris was spread over 11 km of the Atlantic Ocean, and two naval ships were sent to the area.

Washington: President Joe Biden vowed Tuesday he would not hesitate to defend US interests against China after he ordered the downing of a suspected surveillance balloon but, delivering his State of the Union address, kept the door open to cooperation.

In the annual speech to assembled

But Joe Biden steered clear of hawkish language as he mentioned by name his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, whom he met at length in November in Indonesia.

lawmakers, many of whom have pressed for a hard line on China, Biden called for US investment in the military, technology and alliances to take on the country widely viewed as the chief US competitor.

“I’m committed to work with China where it can advance American interests and benefit the world,” Biden said.

President Joe Biden challenged the new House Republican majority Tuesday night to work together with him to “finish the job” of repairing America’s unsettled economy and fragile democracy even as the emboldened opposition geared up to try to force him to change course.

In his first State of the Union address in this new era of divided government, Biden prepared to call on lawmakers to embrace his proposals to raise taxes on the wealthy and extend more social aid to the needy, citing the example of bipartisan legislation passed in his first two years in office when Democrats were in charge on Capitol Hill.

“To my Republican friends, if we could work together in the last Congress, there is no reason we can’t work together and find consensus on important things in this new Congress as well,” Biden said, boasting that he had signed more than 300 bipartisan laws. “The people sent us a clear message. Fighting for the sake of fighting, power for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict, gets us nowhere.

“That’s always been my vision for the country and I know it’s many of yours,” he added, “to restore the soul of the nation, to rebuild the backbone of America, America’s middle class, and unite the country. We’ve been sent here to finish the job, in my view.”

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China Slams Joe Biden’s “Extremely Irresponsible” Remarks On Xi Leadership

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Beijing: Beijing condemned on Thursday US President Joe Biden’s comments that Xi Jinping faced “enormous problems”, saying the remarks were “extremely irresponsible”.

The latest rhetorical salvo between the United States and China came after last week’s downing of a Chinese balloon that Washington said was part of a spy fleet spanning five continents.

Following a brief warming after a November G20 meeting between Biden and Xi, US-China relations have once again nosedived, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week calling off a visit to Beijing over the balloon fracas. The US has alleged the high-altitude device -- which crossed directly over at least one sensitive US military site -- was intended for espionage.

China has angrily denied the claims,

Norwegian minister apologises over TikTok on her work phone

“This type of rhetoric from the US is extremely irresponsible and runs counter to basic diplomatic etiquette,” China’s foreign ministry said.

arguing it was a weather observation craft that blew off course.

On Wednesday, Washington said the balloon was part of a “fleet”, adding they

had been spotted around the world for several years and urged allies to step up vigilance.

In an interview with PBS NewsHour the same day, Biden defended the decision to shoot it down and stressed that the US is not looking for conflict with China. He also said President Xi had “enormous problems”, including “an economy that is not functioning very well”.

“Can you think of any other world leader who’d trade places with Xi Jinping? I can’t think of one,” Mr Biden said. China hit back at the remarks Thursday, with foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning telling a regular briefing that Beijing was “strongly dissatisfied”.

“This type of rhetoric from the US is extremely irresponsible and runs counter to basic diplomatic etiquette,” Ms Mao said, adding that Beijing “firmly opposed this”.

Survivors stuck without water or heat as deaths top 17,000

management bureau, reported on Thursday that 12,873 people have died in Turkey alone from the quake.

Syria’s health ministry, meanwhile, has calculated the death toll in governmentcontrolled areas in the country at more than 1,200. The White Helmets responders group based in Syria’s rebelheld region in the northwest said at least 1,600 people had died.

New British Stamp With Image Of King Charles Unveiled

London: Britain’s Royal Mail on Wednesday unveiled the first postage stamps to feature the image of King Charles III, following his ascension to the throne last September.

The new so-called “definitive stamp” -intended for everyday use and consisting solely of the monarch’s head, the stamp’s value and a barcode -- will go on general sale from April 4. The image, which was approved by Charles himself, is adapted from the official effigy that appears on new UK coins after he succeeded his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un presides over big military parade

The popular video-sharing app is Chinese owned, which has raised fears in the West that Beijing could use it to scoop up user data or push pro-China narratives or misinformation.

Norway’s justice minister apologised on Wednesday for having failed to admit, when quizzed in Parliament, that she had installed and used TikTok on her government-issued phone.

The popular video-sharing app is Chinese owned, which has raised fears in the West that Beijing could use it to scoop up user data or push pro-China narratives or misinformation. Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl, 29, told lawmakers on Wednesday that she had installed TikTok on her government phone for about a month last fall and has since deleted it. Questioned by opposition lawmakers in the past, she had dodged the issue citing “security reasons.” “I could have been open about this earlier,” Enger Mehl said Wednesday. “I am sorry that the matter has developed in that way. … I see in retrospect that I should have been open about the fact that I had TikTok on a (government) phone earlier.”

The death toll from the earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria earlier this week rose to more than 17,000 on Thursday, as rescuers scrambled for survivors trapped beneath the rubble in freezing winter conditions.

Turkish state news agency Anadolu Agency, citing the country’s disaster

The Turkish government admitted on Wednesday that the country’s disaster response could have been better. Access to Twitter in the country — throttled following a flurry of online criticism of authorities — was restored early on Thursday after talks between the company and Turkish officials.

Pakistan Army not available for poll duties

seeking the deployment of troops of civil armed forces for the conduct of general and by-elections in various constituencies of the national and provincial assemblies.

The Interior Ministry said that Pakistan was going through a difficult security situation as evidenced by a recent spike in incidents of terrorism across the country.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un brought his young daughter to a huge military parade showing off the latest hardware of his fast-growing nuclear arsenal, including intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to reach the United States, state media said Thursday.

North Korean photos of Wednesday night’s parade in the capital, Pyongyang, showed Kim, wearing a black coat and fedora, attended the event with his wife and daughter, in the young girl’s latest recent public appearance. Kim was smiling and raising his hand from a balcony as thousands of troops lined up in a brightly illuminated Kim Il Sung Square, named after his grandfather and the nation’s founder.

Singapore to lift remaining Covid measures

Islamabad: (IANS) The Pakistan Interior Ministry has informed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) that the armed forces would not be able to perform security duties during the provincial assembly elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) as well as by-elections on 64 National Assembly seats as it was busy conducting census and counter-terror operations, media reported.

Earlier this week, the electoral body had written to the federal government,

It mentioned the multi-dimensional security concerns which include border security, internal security duties, maintenance of law and order and deployment at forward posts to counter the increased terrorist activities by miscreants and anti-state elements, Dawn reported.

The ministry noted that intelligence agencies and the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) have been issuing threat alerts regarding the security situation prevailing in the country, which have also been shared with the provincial governments.

Singapore: (IANS) Singapore will lift few of its remaining Covid-19 measures from February 13 as the country’s pandemic situation has remained stable in recent months, the Ministry of Health (MOH) announced on Thursday. The Ministry said that Singapore will adjust the current Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) level from the second lowest level Yellow to the lowest level Green, reports Xinhua news agency. The country will also lift a group of community measures related to maskwearing, health advisory, and public health measures for migrant workers living in dormitories.

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Norway’s Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl (Photo: WikimediaCommons)

News Breif

Jadeja’s Heroics Propel leads India to winning position vs Australia

Ravindra Jadeja untied his hairbun and waved his tresses wildly like a rockstar in mid-concert. His teammates would ruffle and pull the hair, but Jadeja would simply keep laughing at the frivolity around him, as he walked back in glee to the dressing room holding aloft the ragged red ball of love on his comeback to international cricket, in a moment of pure joy.

Rohit Sharma led with an unbeaten 56 after India bowled out Australia for 177 runs at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur on Thursday.

Rohit and KL Rahul stitched 76 runs for the opening wicket before the latter fell for 20 runs on the bowling of Todd Murphy. India were 77 for 1 at stumps on Day 1. Earlier, hosts India bowled out Australia for a below-par total, thanks to Ravindra Jadeja’s five-wicket haul and Ravichandran Ashwin’s three wickets. Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj had reduced Australia to 2 for 2 in 2.1 overs to provide India a terrific start before the duo of Jadeja and Ashwin ran through the spine of Australian batting line-up.

Marnus Labuschagne was the highest scorer for Australia with the score of 49.

HC grants bail to Chitra Ramkrishna

The Delhi High Court on Thursday granted bail to Chitra Ramkrishna in the money laundering case related to alleged illegal phone tapping and snooping of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) employees, saying prima facie there are reasonable grounds to believe she is not guilty. Justice Jasmeet Singh granted bail to the former NSE managing director on a personal bond of Rs one lakh and two sureties of the like amount.

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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a new attack on the Gandhis, questioned why none of them used the name “Nehru” after Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister.

“If we miss out on mentioning Nehru anywhere, they (Congress) get upset. Nehru was such a great person, then why does none of them use the Nehru surname. What is the shame in using the Nehru name,” PM Modi questioned in Rajya Sabha, replying to a debate on the President’s speech.

“This country is not the property of any family.” Jawaharlal Nehru is the greatgrandfather of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who has accused PM Modi

of crony capitalism amid allegations against billionaire Gautam Adani’s conglomerate, which is in the spotlight after US-based short-seller Hindenburg

In quake-hit Turkey, 10 Indian nationals stuck, one missing: MEA

safe, Sanjay Verma, Secretary (West) in MEA, said the missing Indian national was on a business visit to Turkey in Malatya.

“He has not been traced for the last two days. We have been in touch with his family and the company in Bengaluru which employs him,” Verma said.

Turkey-Syria Earthquake Deaths Top 9,500

“So Much About Nehru, Why Not Use His Surname?” PM’s Dig At Gandhis

“If we miss out on mentioning Nehru anywhere, they (Congress) get upset. Nehru was such a great person, then why does none of them use the Nehru surname,” PM Modi questioned in Rajya Sabha.

Research alleged stocks manipulation and accounting fraud by the group. PM Modi spoke amid loud and unrelenting “probe Adani” chants by the opposition. In a searing, direct attack on the Congress and its prime ministers, PM Modi accused the party of glossing over its own controversies.

NSA Doval meets Putin: Moscow

Ten Indian nationals are stuck in remote parts of earthquake-hit Turkey and one citizen is missing, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Wednesday while giving out details of ‘Operation Dost’, under which India has extended assistance to the devastated nation.

Stating that the 10 Indian nationals are

He said the MEA has set up a special help desk in Ankara to receive and anticipate such queries. “We have received calls from about 75 persons, asking the embassy for more information and assistance,” he said.

“Three other Indians who had approached us have moved to safer habitation and are doing alright. We have already deputed teams for rescue operations to the affected areas.”

Indian student in US battling for life after car accident

Doctors treating Pinnam said her condition is critical, and she is on a ventilator, adding that she is not responding to the treatment for the past few days

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Thursday called on Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and held wide-ranging discussions on bilateral and regional issues.

“NSA Ajit Doval called on HE President Putin. Wide-ranging discussion on bilateral and regional issues. Agreed to continue work towards implementing the India-Russia strategic partnership,” the Indian embassy in Russia tweeted.

Lucknow prepares for Global Investors Summit’23

New York (IANS) An Indian student is battling for life after a car in which she was travelling went out of control and flipped due to sleet on the road near the US state of Arkansas.

Sree Likitha Pinnam, a computer science student at Wichita State University in Kansas, was traveling with her friends on the night of January 30 when the accident took place on a highway, some 15 minutes away from Bentonville, Arkansas.

“The car flipped twice, and her head was severely injured. She became unconscious,” according to a GoFundMe Page set up for Pinnam by her sister. A driver on the road noticed Pinnam and her friends, who suffered minor injuries. He took them to the Mercy Hospital in Northwest Arkansas, where Pinnam was rushed to the emergency ward.

Pinnam is diagnosed with a very severe traumatic brain injury that includes diffuse axonal injury, anoxic brain injury and multiple small bleeds in her brain, according to the GoFundMe Page. Doctors treating Pinnam said her condition is critical, and she is on a ventilator, adding that she is not responding to the treatment for the past few days.

“Doctors are not able to predict when they can discharge her, as her condition depends on her response, but they estimate it can take months or even years to recover,” the fundraising page said, requesting support for Pinnam’s treatment.

So far, the page has raised $99,659 of the $150,000 goal.

Authorities cited icy conditions across the southern plains as a factor in a fatal crash in Arkansas.

Uttar Pradesh’s capital is being decked up for the three-day Global Investors Summit that would be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Friday.

The 10-12 February event is expected to be attended by several ministers of the union and the state government and a host of leading industrialists.

Besides PM Modi, President Droupadi Murmu and over 15 cabinet ministers including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari are expected to attend the event.

“We are hopeful that a maximum number of representatives from leading industries will attend the summit,” said Abhishek Prakash.

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Dramatic rise in Indian-American influence in US, says philanthropist M R Rangaswami

Responding to a question, Rangaswami said he is very pleased that the next generation of Indian Americans are paying more attention to public service.

Entrepreneur and venture capitalist M R Rangaswami has claimed that there has been a dramatic rise in the influence of Indian Americans in the US and stressed the need for the community to be “more high profile” about philanthropy.

The founder of Indiaspora — a nonprofit organisation which aims at transforming the success of the Indian diaspora into meaningful impact worldwide — Rangaswami said the Indian American community has grown in all spheres, including politics, government, entrepreneurship, the medical profession as well as academics.

“It (influence and impact of Indian

M R

Americans) has been dramatic. Even recently there was an article from a Jewish American author who said, the

Tamil-origin trio fined for trying to steal electric cables in Singapore

In the process of stealing, driver Murugan Kothalam, 27, who had accompanied the three, died of electrocution.

time has now come for Indians to take over from the Jews.

“So it was almost another community kind of saying, time is now for the Indian community,” he told PTI in an interview.

Rangaswami, however, said that the community needs to do more on the philanthropy, service, and charity fronts.

“We need to be more open about it. Our community tends to be very low profile. But we need to be more high profile because all Americans need to know that we are generous and we help,” he said in response to a question.

According to him, in 2012, the big news was that Indians were one per cent of

the population with Indian Americans being seven per cent of the doctors and 10 per cent of the IT workforce.

“But what we lacked at that time was any influence in politics. But in the past decade one of the things we have noticed, and this was an aspiration for Indiaspora was how to be 1 per cent of the political force. We have accomplished that pretty quickly. In three election cycles between 2012 and 2016, we were now 1 per cent of Congress,” he said.

The House of Representatives has five Indian Americans. They are Ami Bera, Ro Khanna, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Pramila Jayapal and Shri Thanedar.

Swati Dave named Chair of Centre for Australia-India Relations

Committee member for QIC Global Infrastructure.

Singapore, Feb 8 (IANS) Three Tamilorigin technicians have pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted theft of electric cables from a building they were sent to work at in Singapore.

Ezhilarasan Nagarajan, 26, and Radhakrishnan Elavarasan, 28, and Balasubramaniyan Nivas, 29, decided to steal electric cables from a building whose occupant was moving to another location the next day, The Straits Times reported.

South Asian man jailed for sexually assaulting minor in UK

London: (IANS) A 61-year-old South Asian man has been jailed for 30 months for sexually assaulting a 16 year-old girl in the UK. Anandarajah Bremakumar, of Colindale in London, was sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment following a hearing at Wood Green Crown Court last week, the Metropolitan Police said. He was found guilty of four counts of sexual activity with a child following the conclusion of a trial at the same court on December 6, 2022. The court heard how Bremakumar carried out the abuse in 2010, targeting a young girl under the age of 16 who was known to him.

Nagarajan and Elavarasan were fined S$1,000, while Nivas, who had another charge taken into consideration by the court, was fined S$1,500. Deputy Public Prosecutor V Jesudevan told the court that Elavarasan and Nivas arrived at the Police National Service Department (PNSD) building in Still Road on October 15, 2020. The duo were instructed by their supervisor to pass the other two men a wrench needed to remove the hose reel box. Nivas and Elavarsan had planned to cut loose the cables and sell them. Nagarajan and Elavarasan bundled the cables and went to the main building to remove the hose reel.

Later, Nivas heard a crashing sound and discovered Kothalam standing on a ladder which was shaking. Suspecting that Kothalam had been electrocuted, Nivas kicked the ladder and he fell on the ground, The Straits Times reported.

Melbourne: (IANS) Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Senator Penny Wong on Tuesday announced the appointment of Swati Dave as inaugural Chair of the Advisory Board to the Centre for Australia-India Relations.

Dave currently serves as Deputy Chair of Asia Society Australia and as a member of the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations’ Advisory Board. She is also an Investment

Sikh boy asked to remove Patka during football match in Spain

In her new role, Dave will promote stronger business and cultural understanding between India and Australia, while working in close coordination with the diaspora.

“Ms Dave brings valuable strategic, leadership and business experience to the role from her extensive senior executive and non-executive director roles across the public and private sectors,” Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Penny Wong, said in a statement.

“I look forward to working with Ms Dave on this important initiative as we seek to deepen our engagement with India, one of our most important regional partners,” Wong added. Dave was most recently Managing Director and CEO of Export Finance Australia, and has held senior positions at National Australia Bank, Deutsche Bank, AMP Henderson Global Investors, Bankers Trust and Westpac.

Aus Sikh temple to get new building as community grows

Madrid: (IANS) A 15-year-old Sikh boy was asked by a referee to remove his ‘Patka’ (under-turban) during a football match in Spain, saying that wearing “a hat” is prohibited according to game rules. In all previous matches, referees allowed Gurpreet Singh from Arratia C team to

wear his Patka, the Sikhexpo’s Instagram page said quoting La Vanguardia newspaper. “He has been playing normally for at least five years, even in his first year as cadets and so far this season. We have never had the slightest problem,” Pedro Ormazabal, president of Arratia, told the paper. “It has been something that has been carried out with absolute normality,” he said, adding that the whole situation was “humiliating” for Gurpreet.The Arratia players, who were to play against the local Padura de Arrigorriag team, interceded on Gurpreet’s behalf to explain that it is an element linked to his religion. But with the referee insisting on the rules, Gurpreet’s teammates decided to leave the field as a sign of solidarity.

Melbourne: (IANS) A Sikh temple in Australia will soon get a new and bigger building to accommodate the needs of the growing Sikh population in Canberra.

Construction of a two-storey building is underway in Gurdwara Sahib at Hickey Court in Canberra to accommodate 1,300 worshippers, SBS Punjabi, a multicultural and multilingual broadcaster, reported.

The already-existing gurdwara was built in 2012.

Australia’s Sikh population has burgeoned in recent years, with about 210,400 Sikhs now living in the country, according to the latest census data.

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Rangaswami

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Siddaramaiah: ‘I’m anti-Hindutva… it encourages murder, violence, discrimination’

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Former Karnataka chief minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah said Monday that he was not anti-Hindu but anti-Hindutva, as the latter encouraged “murder, violence and discrimination”.

“Hindutva and Hindu Dharma are different. I’m always projected as antiHindu and anti-Hindu Dharma. I’m not anti-Hindu Dharma. I’m also a Hindu, but I’m anti-Manuvada and Hindutva,” Siddaramaiah was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

“Does any religion encourage murder or violence? But Manuvada and Hindutva

Realtor murdered at Bowenpally

Hyderabad: A realtor was murdered at his house in Bowenpally in the city on Tuesday.

According to the police, Mohammed Siddiqui, a resident of Dilkushnagar in Bowenpally was allegedly having property related issues with some persons. On Tuesday evening, some persons came to the house of Siddiqui and killed him after attacking with lethal weapons. On information, Bowenpally reached the spot and shifted the body to Gandhi Hospital mortuary for post-mortem examination. A case is registered.

encourage murder, violence and discrimination. That’s the difference between Hindu Dharma and Hindutva,” he added while addressing a gathering in Karnataka’s Kalaburagi during a book launch.

Weeks ago, on January 8, Siddaramaiah had said he is a Hindu opposed to Hindutva. He had also said he never opposed the Ram temple in Ayodhya, but was against using it for political gains. Siddaramaiah claimed he had constructed many Ram temples in the rural areas of Karnataka.

“Were we ever opposed to the Ram temple? Our objection is only using the temple for political gain. It should not be used against people of other faiths. The BJP is using it for political gains,” he had said in answer to a question.

Double-decker buses return to Hyderabad after two decades

With the Formula E-prix scheduled in Hyderabad on February 11, these buses will be predominantly plying around the race track covering Tank Bund, Necklace Road, Paradise, and Nizam College stretch. After February 11, the buses are planned to be used along a heritage circuit to augment tourism for the city.

Rajnath Singh to host Defence Ministers’ Conclave at Aero India 2023

Defence minister Rajnath Singh will host Defence Ministers’ Conclave on February 14 on the sidelines of the 14th edition of Aero India being held at Bengaluru. The conclave will comprise defence ministers of foreign friendly countries who would also be attending Aero India 2023.

Hyderabad: After two decades, doubledecker buses returned on the roads of Hyderabad with the launch of three electric double-decker buses on Tuesday.

Double-decker buses have a historical relevance in Hyderabad. The conventional double decker buses were started by the Nizam and plied in the city up until 2003. The remaining three buses are also expected soon.

“The conclave would address aspects related to deepen cooperation for capacity building (through investments, R&D, joint venture, co-development, co-production and provisioning of defence equipment), training, space, AI and maritime security to grow together with the broad theme ‘Shared Prosperity through Enhanced Engagements in Defence (SPEED).The conclave is an opportunity for defence ministers of all foreign friendly countries and India to engage with each other to carry forward the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘Make in India, Make for the World’ for a secure and prosperous future for generations to come,” Ministry of Defence (MoD) in a release.

A Rs 179-crore project about to become the world’s largest seamless stainless steel structure

Telangana Martyrs’ Memorial:

A massive egg-shaped mirror-finished structure in Hyderabad with a giant reddish-yellow flame atop is all set to symbolise the essence of decades-long struggles that led to the creation of India’s youngest state. Touted as an upcoming major tourist attraction beside the historic Hussainsagar lake, the new Telangana Martyrs’ Memorial — a Rs 179 crore project that’s soon to be unveiled to the public — is deemed the world’s largest seamless stainless steel structure.

The polished and puffed exterior may evoke similarities to the ‘Cloud Gate’ or the Chicago ‘Bean’ and ‘The Bubble’ in the western Chinese city of Karamay. But this, the makers say, is a lit traditional earthen oil lamp conceived as a tribute to the martyrs of separate statehood agitation that culminated in today’s Telangana. Only that at a height of 161 feet and width of 158 feet, this is five to six times bigger than ‘Cloud Gate’.

Telangana was bifurcated from Andhra Pradesh on June 2, 2014 after over 2,000 people sacrificed their lives during the separate statehood agitation that started in the mid-sixties. The second phase of agitation that kicked off in 2001 saw K Chandrashekar Rao snap ties with the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) to form Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS, and now Bharat Rashtra Samithi) and the coming together of rally students, civil society, government employees and

political forces for the common cause. Thirteen years later, Rao emerged as the first Chief Minister of Telangana. Eminent sculptor M Venkata Ramana Reddy, who conceived the design and supervised the project, said it was the fifth design that was submitted to Chief Minister KCR for whom the memorial is a

flagship project. “All over the world, people light a candle or lamp to offer respect to the departed souls. It was around the festival time that this design occurred to me and four of the previous designs were already rejected for various reasons. A lit lamp as a tribute to the sacrifices of statehood martyrs got everyone on the same page,” he said.

Inside the building will be a museum, an audio-visual hall to accommodate 75 people, a convention centre with seating arrangements for 650 people, a restaurant and other amenities for tourists, including parking for 350 cars and 650 bikes. Spread across a sprawling 3.36-acre land opposite the new Telangana Secretariat complex, the stainless steel structure has

a built-up area of 2.85 lakh square feet. The kitchen and restaurant set up at two levels on the terrace floor give a full view of Hussainsagar and iconic monuments such as the Buddha statue, Birla Mandir, upcoming 128-foot-tall Dr B R Ambedkar statue, apart from the Secretariat and the NTR memorial.

According to Ghanta Chakrapani, a professor in Sociology and a veteran of the statehood movement, the aspirations of the people of Telangana to remain independent have roots in the ‘idli sambar go back’ or ‘ghair mulki go back’ movement of 1953 in Hyderabad.

The linguistic reorganisation of the states that saw the Telugu-speaking regions of Hyderabad state forcefully merge with Andhra to form Andhra Pradesh in 1956 led to a further influx of thousands of settlers from Andhra into Hyderabad. “It was a violent war that lasted a year. Though the movement was brutally suppressed by the then government, it matured intellectually and politically over the decades,” Prof Chakrapani added.

Siddaramaiah

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The polished and puffed exterior may evoke similarities to the ‘Cloud Gate’ or the Chicago ‘Bean’ and ‘The Bubble’ in the western Chinese city of Karamay

Varsha Bajaj

Texas based best-selling author Varsha Bajaj speaks to Hi India about researching the first ever Indian American doll and why it is so significant for young Indian origin girls growing up in America. It’s the stuff every brown little girl’s dreams are made of. Owning a doll that looks a bit like them or has a backstory that is similar to their own story growing up in an immigrant family in America, often holds a deeper socio-cultural connect than one may normally think.

While America continues to make great strides as a nation that welcomes all, for little girls and boys growing up in immigrant as well as multicultural households sometimes the differences on what they see and the lack of the same representation in the mainstream can be overwhelming. Perhaps, when American Girl decided to launch a brand-new doll – Kavi Sharma as their Doll of the Year for 2023, they had exactly this inclusion in mind.

The spunky looking new 18-inch doll has dark hair, medium skin, loves Indian dances and adores her dadima! --- sounds like a bit of every little Indian-origin girl in America. American Girl as a brand has always believed in showcasing their strong sentiment towards representing a range of backgrounds that make America what it is today. Their newest addition Kavi is an extension of their long tradition of cute characters representing various backgrounds and cultures that continue to not only form emotional connections with the kids but also inspire them.

The brand tied up with New York Times best-selling author Varsha Bajaj to come up with a journal that

American Girl Launches First Ever Indian American Girl Doll

Indian american author varsha bajaj helped the brand introduce kavi sharma to the world

or work. Bringing up her own kids in the US, she also shares the experiences of first and second generation Indian Americans. She tells Hi India more about her early years in America and the idea behind Kavi’s story

THE AMERICAN GIRL DOLL

By Zofeen Maqsood

On how the author researched to build up the story of the first-ever Indian American doll and how she was approached for the project, Bajaj says, “I was approached by Jennifer Hirsch, my editor at American Girl, in the fall of 2021. She and many on the editorial staff had read my middle grade novel, Count Me In (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2019). She shared that I’d made a reference to an American Girl doll on Page 122 of the hardcover edition. Serendipity at play? Maybe it was a sign that I should take this project? I think that Jennifer liked my voice and felt I would be the right choice for the project. As luck would have it, I had just finished copyedits on my novel Thirst (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2022) and was available. Kavi is the first South Asian Girl of the Year doll and the significance was not lost on me. I wanted to be a part of it for my daughter and all the desi girls.”

POWERFUL MEDIUM FOR KIDS

Books, for long, have helped bridge the gap for people across continents and now toys such as this doll may be doing the same. Sharing her thoughts on the same Bajaj says, “I’m thrilled that toys will help us bridge gaps, too. Kavi’s story will hopefully connect with all girls.” Bajaj also added that Kavi is a trailblazer as American Girl’s first Indian American doll. The story is important to all the young girls who will see parts of their lives represented. Stories can be both mirrors and windows, allowing readers to see themselves and others who are different from them, and I hope that Kavi’s story is a welcoming window for girls who might be unfamiliar with Kavi’s world.”

GLIMPSE OF INDIA

introduces Kavi to the world. Varsha who has written best-selling books for young readers such as Thirst, Count Me In and Abby Spencer Goes to Bollywood weaved around a beautiful, relatable story around the doll. So Kavi Sharma lives in Metuchen, New Jersey. She has Broadway dreams, loves to perform Indian classical dance and practices yoga. She also loves Bollywood and lives in a close-knit family.

Author Varsha Bajaj who herself came to the US as a young student relates with the sentiment of many young people who arrived in the US for study

By creating a doll and her background story, as Varsha says little girls from other cultures would also get to see a glimpse of India. About being chosen to tell Kavi’s story to the world, the author said at the time of release, “It was a privilege that I didn’t take lightly. I grew up reading stories written by Western authors, and this was my chance to invite readers into my world. One story cannot possibly depict the complexity of India or the Indian diaspora. That said, I took immense delight in showcasing slivers of Indian culture, including dance, yoga traditions, food, clothing, and the many languages and diversity of India’s

people. It was a gift to include Kavi and her family celebrating magical festivals like Diwali and Holi.”

AUTHOR IN AMERICA

Varsha herself travelled to the US as a student. Born and brought up in Mumbai, Varsha remembers growing up during the 60’s in a house surrounded by coconut, guava and betel nut trees. She grew up in a joint family and her father and grandfather were perfumers. As a kid she loved reading Amar Chitra Katha and watching Marathi theatre. She would also read a lot of Enid Blyton and Nancy Drew. Varsha first arrived in America in 1986 as a graduate student. She remembers landing at Lambert International Airport with her two suitcases, a few dollars and her dreams. She completed her Masters from America, got married and settled here and had two kids. Somewhere while parenting she fell in love with the idea of writing books and she continues to write engaging and inspiring stories.

HER BOOKS

Talking about her novels and the first picture book she wrote, Varsha says, “My first picture book was called, How Many Kisses Do You Want Tonight (Little Brown, 2004) and was illustrated by Ivan Bates. Since then, I have published several picture books, middle grade novels and contributed short stories to anthologies. My latest novel, Thirst, debuted on the New York Times bestseller list for middle grade hardcovers and was a Global Read Aloud selection for 2022. It was read aloud in 85 countries and is the story of a brave girl’s fight for water equity set in Mumbai. SCBWI (Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) has been extremely helpful in my writer’s journey. I met other writers and formed critique groups. I also attended workshops and read craft books. My favorite one is The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Voegler.

American girl’s 2023 girl of the year is kavi sharma – an indian american 12-year-old from nj who loves broadway, bollywood and yoga

Microsoft Adds ChatGPT AI Technology to Bing Search Engine

burst onto the scene two months ago. Google’s search engine holds 84 percent of the global market share, bringing in tens of billions of dollars in ad sales every quarter and making up more than two thirds of the tech giant’s total revenue. Bing’s market share stood at just nine percent last year.

- ‘Shot across the bow’ -

According to reports, Google declared ChatGPT’s massive success a “code red” threat to the company with teams reassigned to brainstorm a swift answer and accelerate ongoing research on AI. Spooked by the unexpected rivalry, Google on Monday preempted Microsoft’s announcement and said that it was about to deliver its own version of ChatGPT, a bot named Bard that would also provide near immediate answers upon request. Chinese search engine giant Baidu on Tuesday said it was preparing to put out an AI-powered chatbot, named “Ernie Bot,” though the launch date was unknown.

Redmond, US: Microsoft’s longstruggling Bing search engine will integrate the powerful capabilities of language-based artificial intelligence, CEO Satya Nadella said on Tuesday, declaring what he called a new era for online search.

“It’s a new day for search... The race starts today,” Nadella said at a launch event, marking the start of what it hoped would be an unprecedented challenge to Google’s two-decade dominance of the search engine market, using the technology created by the developers of AI bot ChatGPT.

Salman

ChatGPT has sparked a gold rush in artificial intelligence technology (AI) with more than 100 million users testing the bot’s capabilities, receiving essays, speeches, or law exam results within seconds to the consternation of educators and school authorities worried about cheating. Microsoft hopes that beefing up Bing with ChatGPT will radically update online search by providing ready-made answers using multiple sources instead of the familiar list of links to outside websites.

Rushdie counts himself

lucky, retains his sense of humour

people jumped on him. So that’s how much damage you can do in 27 seconds.”

“We applied the AI model to our core search ranking engine, and we saw the largest jump in relevance in two decades,” said Yusuf Mehdi, a Microsoft vice president. OpenAI, a California-based startup founded in 2015, developed ChatGPT. Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019 and just inked a new multibillion deal with the firm, with funding from Elon Musk, among others. Search is Google’s golden cash cow and any serious challenge to its dominance seemed unthinkable until ChatGPT

“We view this as the first shot across the bow in this Big Tech AI battle that is set to hit its next gear of investments over the coming months with Microsoft now leading the race,” said Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities.

Despite the new arms race in Big Tech, ChatGPT and similar bots continue to make mistakes and it remains unclear whether the technology, known as generative AI - will be able to completely supplant search as we currently know it. Google has already integrated more conversational techniques into its search engine, including by providing easy-toclick answers to questions most often linked to a search request.

Chinese Spy Balloons Targeted India, Several Other Countries: Report

Days before Sir Salman Rushdie was stabbed on stage at a literary festival, he dreamt that an attacker would hurt him with “a sharp object”.

In the nightmare, a figure “like a gladiator” came at him, the author revealed in his first interview since the near-fatal attack last August.

That day at the Chautauqua Institution in New York state, Rushdie was stabbed more than a dozen times.

“It was a colossal attack,” he told The New Yorker, speaking of his “overwhelming” gratitude to the people who saved his life — the doctors and emergency workers who staunched his wounds at the scene, and the team of surgeons who operated on him for eight hours in theatre.

“There is a lot that was just lucky because the amount of injuries were such that it was more probable that I would not survive. It was a very close thing. But fortunately I came out the right side of the close thing,” he said.

Asked how many wounds he received, Rushdie joked: “I wasn’t counting.”

He said of his attacker: “I only know this from reading the newspapers but apparently he had 27 seconds before

Rushdie was stabbed in the chest, liver, hand, face and neck, and has lost the sight in his right eye.But he has not lost his sense of humour, telling friends that the tinted lens he must now wear over one of his eyes makes him look like Johnny Depp.

The interview was accompanied by a striking black-and-white portrait of the author, in which the scars on his cheek and neck are clearly visible.

Rushdie then posted his own picture on social media with a tinted glass in the right lens of his spectacles. “The photo in The New Yorker is dramatic and powerful but this, more prosaically, is what I actually look like,” he wrote.

Alan Yentob, the BBC presenter and Rushdie’s friend of many decades, also shared a photograph — taken on Sunday over Zoom — in which the writer poses with a copy of Victory City, his latest novel that hits the US bookshops today.

Yentob told The Daily Telegraph: “When he was asked before the stabbing, who he would like to play him in some drama, he said Johnny Depp.

“That’s his sense of humour and he hasn’t lost it. “In the midst of this trauma he said to me very early on, when he knew he was going to be blind in one eye, ‘I’m going to look like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean.’

Washington: China has operated a fleet of spy balloons targeting several countries including India and Japan, a media report has said, days after the US military shot down a Chinese surveillance craft floating over sensitive installations in the country. US officials have briefed its friends and allies including India on the finds of the Chinese surveillance balloon that was shot down by a fighter jet off the coast of South Carolina in the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday.

On Monday, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman briefed officials from about 40 embassies in Washington about it.

“The surveillance balloon effort, which has operated for several years partly out of Hainan province off China’s south coast, has collected information on military assets in countries and areas of emerging strategic interest to China including Japan, India, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines,” The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

The Post’s report was based on interviews with several anonymous defence and intelligence officials.

Officials have said these surveillance airships, operated in part by the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) air force, have been spotted over five continents, the daily reported.

“These balloons are all part of a PRC (People’s Republic of China) fleet of balloons developed to conduct surveillance operations, which also violated the sovereignty of other countries,” a senior defence official was quoted as saying.

According to the daily, in recent years, at least four balloons have been spotted over Hawaii, Florida, Texas and Guam -in addition to the one tracked last week. Three of the four instances took place during the Trump administration but were only recently identified as Chinese surveillance airships, it said.

The Pentagon on Tuesday released a series of pictures recovering the highaltitude surveillance balloon.

Microsoft hopes that beefing up Bing with ChatGPT will radically update online search by providing readymade answers using multiple sources instead of the familiar list of links to outside websites.

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Asked how many wounds he received, author says ‘I wasn’t counting’

Over 16,800 Killed In Turkey, Syria Earthquake Earthquake

Turkey-Syria Earthquake: The latest toll showed 5,434 people killed in Turkey and at least 1,872 in Syria, for a combined total of 7,306 fatalities.

Sanliurfa, Turkey: Rescuers in Turkey and Syria battled bitter cold Tuesday in a race against time to find survivors under buildings flattened by an earthquake that killed more than 17,000 people. Tremors that inflicted more suffering on a border area, already plagued by conflict, left people on the streets burning debris to try to stay warm as international aid began to arrive. But some extraordinary survival tales have emerged, including a newborn baby pulled alive from rubble in Syria, still tied by her umbilical cord to her mother who died in Monday’s quake.

“We heard a voice while we were digging,” Khalil alSuwadi, a relative, told AFP. “We cleared the dust and found the baby with the umbilical cord (intact) so we cut it and my cousin took her to hospital.” The infant is the sole survivor of her immediate family, the rest of whom were killed in the rebel-held town of Jindayris.

The 7.8-magnitude quake struck Monday as people slept, flattening thousands of structures, trapping an unknown number of people and potentially impacting millions. Whole rows of buildings collapsed, leaving some of the heaviest devastation near the quake’s epicentre between the Turkish cities of Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras. The destruction led to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declaring Tuesday a three-month state of emergency in 10 southeastern provinces.

- ‘Children are freezing’ -

Dozens of nations including the United States, China and the Gulf States have pledged to help, and search teams as well as relief supplies have begun to arrive by air. Yet people in some of the hardest-hit areas said they felt they had been left to fend for themselves. “I can’t get

my brother back from the ruins. I can’t get my nephew back. Look around here. There is no state official here, for God’s sake,” said Ali Sagiroglu in the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras. “For two days we haven’t seen the state around here... Children are freezing from the cold,” he added. A winter storm has compounded the misery by rendering many roads -- some of them damaged by the quake -- almost impassable, resulting in traffic jams that stretch for kilometres in some regions. The cold rain and snow are a risk both for people forced from their homes -- who took refuge in mosques, schools or even bus shelters -- and survivors buried under debris. “It is now a race against time,” said World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “We have activated the WHO network of emergency medical teams to provide essential health care for the injured and most vulnerable,” he added.

- 23 million could be affected -

The latest toll showed 5,434 people killed in Turkey and at least 1,872 in Syria, for a combined total of 7,306 fatalities.There are fears that the toll will rise inexorably, with WHO officials estimating up to 20,000 may have died. WHO warned that up to 23 million people could be affected by the massive earthquake and urged nations to rush help to the disaster zone. The Syrian Red Crescent appealed to Western countries to lift sanctions and provide aid as President Bashar al-Assad’s government remains a pariah in the West, complicating international relief efforts.Washington and the European Commission said on Monday that humanitarian programmes supported by them were responding to the destruction in Syria.

The UN’s cultural agency UNESCO also said it was ready to provide assistance after two sites listed on its World Heritage list in Syria and Turkey sustained damage. In addition to the damage to Aleppo’s old city and the fortress in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir, UNESCO said at least three other World Heritage sites could be affected.Much of the quake-hit area of northern Syria has already been decimated by years of war and aerial bombardment by Syrian and Russian forces that destroyed homes, hospitals and clinics.

Residents in the quake-devastated town of Jandairis in northern Syria used their bare hands and pickaxes to search for survivors.

- ‘Hear their voices’ -

“My whole family is under there -- my sons, my daughter, my son-in-law... There’s no one else to get them out,” said Ali Battal, his face streaked with blood and head swathed in a wool shawl against the bitter cold.

“I hear their voices. I know they’re alive but there’s no one to rescue them,” added the man in his 60s.

The Syrian health ministry reported damage across the provinces of Aleppo, Latakia, Hama and Tartus, where Russia is leasing a naval facility.

Even before the tragedy, buildings in Aleppo -- Syria’s pre-war commercial hub -- often collapsed due to the dilapidated infrastructure.

Following the earthquake, prisoners mutinied at a jail holding mostly Islamic State group members in northwestern Syria, with at least 20 escaping, a source at the facility told AFP.

Turkey is in one of the world’s most active earthquake zones.

Kiara Advani penned a note on ‘truly special wedding’ moments

Marriage is a beautiful testament to love. And your wedding is a celebration of the new journey you are going to embark upon. I’ve seen my friends get married, and learned that ultimately, it’s the small moments you’ll cherish forever — your mother-in-law adorning you with floral jewellery, your friends applying haldi on you, the first look you exchange with your husband as you walk toward him to be his bride. Enjoy them, they will be precious memories for life.

You may be extremely busy during the preparations, but don’t lose track of what’s important. Spend quality time with your family and involve your loved ones in the decisionmaking.

I know some of you may worry about things you have no control over. Will everyone like the food? Will the weather be ideal? Will all the guests have fun? And so on. But don’t get upset if something doesn’t go as planned on your wedding day; it really is irrelevant. Just look in to your to-be husband‘s eyes and know that you’ll be sharing your forever with him. Celebrate that, most of all, and everything will come together

Nora Fatehi

Auditioning in India was ‘traumatic’

‘I was bullied, told to go back to my country’

Nora’s road to success was not a smooth one. In a 2019 interview with Pinkvilla, Nora candidly spoke about her struggles and her rough audition period in Mumbai. Stating that people were unforgiving and bullied her, the actor said, “Auditions were really traumatic because I was just learning Hindi, and I would make a fool out of myself. People were unforgiving, they would laugh in my face. I would sit in the rickshaw and I would be howling, and the driver would be like ‘are you okay?’ I remember one casting director, she just ripped me apart. She told me ‘why are you even here?’ And I was like ‘Because I wanna make it, you know. I have

Sushmita Sen returns in Aarya 3

a dream. I want to be a performer, I want to entertain people.’” Nora went on to add that she was even told to go back where she came from. For those who don’t know, Nora is of Moroccan descent, and grew up in Canada.

“She (the aforecited casting director) said, ‘No, no, no, go back to your country. We already have people like you, go back.’ And it hurt me, because we, and by we I mean the Moroccan people, we grew up watching Hindi cinema. We idolise it. Arab people are crazy about Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Kajol, Madhuri Dixit ma’am — they are obsessed with them,” Nora said. But as they say, all is well that ends well, and for quite a while now, Nora’s star has definitely been on the rise.

Sushmita Sen’s much talked about web series Aarya is all set to write a new chapter. On Monday, Disney+ Hotstar shared a video of the actor’s new power-packed avatar as she kickstarted shooting for season 3. The video opens with the actor setting her gun up while smoking a cigar. The words ‘Guess who’s back’ covers the screen before Sushmita looks at the camera ready to kill. Dressed in a green tee, she also wears oversized sunglasses and exudes a powerful aura. The caption of the video read, “She is back, and she means business #HotstarSpecials #Aarya3, Now shooting. Coming soon only on @ disneyplushotstar.”

Pathaan box office Day 12: Crosses Rs 850 cr mark globally

Class review

Poverty chic and a bangin’ soundtrack come together in Netflix’s Class, the streamer’s Indian remake of the hit Spanish-language series Élite. But this is probably not the description that anybody involved in the show would have preferred, because once it sheds its lurid outer layer — with almost the same eagerness as its characters shedding their clothes — Class reveals itself to be a more sensitive experience, in spite of itself.

Sidharth Sagar denies quitting The Kapil Sharma Show: ‘Fake news’

As fans continue to miss Krushna Abhishek from The Kapil Sharma Show, they were in for a shock when reports suggested Sidharth Sagar, too, has quit the comedy show. However, he denied the same in an exclusive conversation with indianexpress.com. “Aisa kuch nahi hai (There’s nothing like this). It’s all fake news,” Sidharth told us. When asked if he is shooting for the show, the actor said, “I did not shoot for the last few episodes. But team se abhi baat huyi hai meri (I just spoke to the team).”

Incredible cinematography

Vishal Bhardwaj’s short film Fursat shot on iPhone 14 Pro gets lauded by Apple CEO Tim Cook

Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone and John Abraham’s spy thriller, Pathaan, is still scoring big at the box office. After emerging as the highest grossing Bollywood film, it has now managed to collect an impressive Rs 28 crore on day 12 at the box office. The total collection of the film now stands at Rs 429 crore, according to Sacnilk (early estimates). The Siddharth Anand directorial has minted Rs 800 crore worldwide till now, according to trade analyst Ramesh Bala.

Apple has come up with a most ingenious way to highlight the capabilities of its flagship iPhones; the tech giant regularly produces short films, directed by world-famous filmmakers. These shorts are shot with the latest iPhones, and span a variety of filmmaking styles and genres. And now, Indian auteur Vishal Bhardwaj has joined an esteemed list of international filmmakers to direct a short film for Apple.

Titled Fursat, the 30-minute Bollywood-style musical was shot with the iPhone 14 Pro, and was released on YouTube on Friday. The film has been described as “a magical story about a man so

obsessed with controlling the future that he risks losing what he holds most precious in the present.” Fursat stars Wamiqa Gabbi and Ishaan Khatter, who these days is credited mononymously as Ishaan. The short features an original soundtrack by Bhardwaj and lyricist Gulzar, with featured vocalists such as Sukhwinder Singh and Kailash Kher. Fursat has been shot by cinematographer Swapnil Sonawane, and features choreography by Shiamak Davar. “A traditional film camera comes with 10 people, 3 attendants and 10 boxes of lenses… you can’t move around. You can’t be quick. iPhone liberated me in that sense,” Bhardwaj said.

I was called thunder thighs

Raveena Tandon on being body-shamed in Bollywood

Raveena spoke about issues ranging from body shaming to toxic gossip magazines which could ruin someone’s career. Asked about the gossip magazines of the bygone eras, Raveena said quite unambiguously, “90s gossip magazines were the worst. And some of those women, now I see roaming around carrying the women’s lib badge over their heads and hearts. They were the worst enemies of women. They body-shamed women, slut shamed women and would do everything possible to bring another woman down. Today they roam around as the biggest feminists. I wonder when did that happen? If I start telling stories about them….(chuckles).”

Raveena Tandon is celebrated for her charm and beauty till date. Common people don’t believe that she was ever body-shamed in the film industry. During her interaction with Smita Prakash, the Daman actor said, “No no. I was called a lot of

things. 90s ke kholo, TTs, thunder thighs…miss this and miss that…” The actor continued, “I was plump actually. Started at 16 and a half years, and I was full of baby fat yaar… which still hasn’t gone. Though I don’t care now.”

When told that she is exaggerating the facts, Raveena said, “I remember some of these titles. And not only me, but some other heroines were also called that. Instead of supporting women, what they did was…firstly all these women editors would fall in love with the heroes. And what the heroes said were the last words. If he wanted to pan a woman, the woman would be panned, shamed, literally, her career ruined in the magazines with nasty articles being put out about her. There were so many untrue articles put out because some hero went and said, “Acha, uske bare me aab aisa likh do…” and it would be the last word. And if there would be an apology, that would be on the last line of some other issue of the magazine. It would be written ‘The story carried earlier ultimately proved not to be true’. And who will read that then? The screaming headlines already made the news, right?”

Raveena Tandon concluded that she was utterly displeased with the ‘viciousness’ of ’90s journalism and decided to take a break after her marriage.

Sidharth

Theatres Have Again Had Houseful Signs Across India With Pathaan!

Siddharth Anand, who has directed YRF Spy Universe’s latest offering Pathaan, is ecstatic that the film has become the highest grossing film worldwide, thereby surpassing Dangal. Pathaan also breached 400 crore nett in India, the first Hindi film to do so in the history of Hindi cinema.

Siddharth says, “The fact that Pathaan is the highest worldwide grossing film in the history of Hindi cinema and the first Hindi film to breach 400 crore nett in India, means people have showered enormous amount of love on the film and have gotten entertained thoroughly!”

-He adds, “As a director, I’m most thrilled about this! The fact that so many single screens cinemas have reopened and have again had housefull signs across India, that people have danced, clapped, whistled, rooted at every song and so many scenes of the film, means that we have created a film that has genuinely entertained audiences globally, and

this is a rare feeling and currently I’m just enjoying that.”

Siddharth is also the record holder of an incredible feat in Hindi cinema! He is the

only Hindi film director to have delivered five 50+ crore nett box office days and also five 100+ crore worldwide gross box office days with War and Pathaan, with the SRK starrer delivering 4 out of 5!

He says, “The feeling has not sunk in yet because it is such a huge one. To have directed a film that has smashed all records, that has become the No. 1 hindi film of all time is very daunting.

I hope that I can entertain people to this level again. I will work just as hard and focus on my craft and try and keep making the cinema that appeals to all audience segments like War and now Pathaan has done.”

With War and now Pathaan, Siddharth has become the undisputed number one director of his genre in India. While War with Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff & Vaani Kapoor collected 477 crore gross worldwide, with Pathaan starring Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone & John Abraham, Siddharth has already given a film that has grossed 832.20 crore worldwide so far and delivered the highest grossing film of YRF’s Spy Franchise.

Actors Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani shared their first photos as a married couple after the duo tied the knot in an intimate ceremony in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan on Tuesday. Kiara shared three photos from the ceremony with the caption, “Ab humari permanent booking hogayi hai. We seek your blessings and love on our journey ahead” Sidharth shared the same on his social media handle.

Malhotra and Kiara Advani’s wedding at Jaisalmer’s posh Suryagarh Hotel was attended by their families and close friends from the industry, including Manish Malhotra, Karan Johar, Rohit Shetty among others.

FBI Warns Of Romance Scams Ahead Of Valentine’s Day

6 People Charged For Starting Fire On Multiple NJ Transit Buses

COLUMBIA, S.C. —The FBI Columbia field office issued a warning today to be cautious of potential romance scams ahead of Valentine’s Day.

As Valentine’s Day approaches, it is likely scammers will exploit individuals online who may be looking for companionship or romance this time of year.

Recent data reported in the 2021 Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) annual report showed that South Carolinians lost $6.8 million dollars to confidence fraud and romance scams that year. Although 2022 data has not been released, it is expected there will be increased reported losses due to recent upward trends.

“Cyber criminals use any information they can find about you to gain your trust, build a relationship, and ultimately steal your money or personal identifiable information (PII),” said Susan Ferensic, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Columbia Division. “We want the public to be well informed about how these scams occur and how they can better protect themselves.”

The following are examples of common red flags of romance scams, as well as tips to better protect yourself.

Common Romance Scam Red Flags:

The scammer makes promises to meet in person but gives excuses as to why they can’t.

The scammer will ask for money once

As Valentine’s Day approaches, it is likely scammers will exploit individuals online who may be looking for companionship or romance this time of year.

they gain your trust. Typically, they explain they have an owed debt, need financial assistance, or they ask for travel funds. The scammer will request money through methods that make it hard to be traced and hard to get back.

The scammer may ask to leave a dating service or social media site to communicate directly.

How to Protect Yourself:

Be careful what you post and make public online.

If you suspect a scam, stop communicating with the person immediately.

Conduct a reverse image search of the person’s photo(s). If it is associated with another name or profile, it is likely a scam.

Take things slow and ask a lot of questions.

Never send money to someone you have only communicated with online or by phone.

If you suspect you are involved in a romance scam or you have fallen victim, report the incident to the FBI’s IC3 by visiting www.ic3.gov.

EDISTON ,NJ- New Jersey Transit police say they have arrested six people – including four juveniles – related to a fire that destroyed multiple buses. Officials say that several NJ Transit buses were destroyed by fire in April 2022. They say that through the course of the investigation, they identified two adults and four juveniles linked to the fires. Each was charged by the end of 2022.

Roberto Garcia, 20, of Brooklyn, was charged with aggravated arson, burglary, trespass and using a minor in

commission of a crime, said Jim Smith, an NJ transit spokesman. A 16-year-old juvenile from New York City, who wasn’t identified because of his age, was also charged with aggravated arson, burglary, and two counts of trespass and criminal mischief.

“We share this update as a reminder to all; anyone who trespasses on NJ Transit property and anyone who threatens the safety of the system will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” NJ Transit police write in a statement. No one was hurt in the fires.

Human Smuggling Attempt In Arizona Ends In Rollover Crash

a Pinal County Sheriff’s deputy tried to pull over a car on I-10 near Picacho Peak State Park.

“At one point, the suspect vehicle crossed over into oncoming traffic. The vehicle ultimately rolled over near mile marker 213. Two of the four passengers (all undocumented) were ejected from the vehicle and were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries,” the sheriff’s office said.

PINAL COUNTY, AZ. – A human smuggling attempt in Arizona ended in a rollover crash, a sheriff’s office says. On Monday, Feb. 6 around 8:30 a.m.,

The driver, Timothy Bryoles, 32, was arrested and taken to the Pinal County Jail. He was booked on suspicion of unlawful flight and aggravated assault charges.“Possible drug impairment is also being investigated,” deputies said.

Human cost of US layoffs: H-1B workers without a job and racing against a 60-day deadline

Washington: Raj Thakur is stressed, anxious and, above all, angry. A Seattlebased IT engineer, Thakur was among the 18,000 employees Amazon laid off in what has been the largest single-shot cut by any company since Meta set off off the continuing spate of firings with 11,000 in November 2022.

But Thakur is not angry with Amazon— that’s just how private sector companies do business. He is “upset” about a US law that prevents him from bringing the same equities to his job search that is allowed to American workers in the same situation and with similar skill sets: chiefly, time.

Thakur has only 60 days from the date he was laid off to get re-employed in the US, by an employer to take him on on H-1B non-immigration short-term

visa for foreign workers and, hopefully, file the paperwork necessary for him to keep his place in the queue for permanent residency, Green Card. Thakur dreads the alternative. If he doesn’t find another job in these 60 days, he will fall out of status; his wife, who is working on a work authorisation for H-1B dependents, will also fall out of status and lose her job; and, worst of all, the family will have to uproot itself from

the US— sell home, cars and everything they have accumulated over the past 11 years they have been here— and return to India, with their two children who were born here and are American citizens and who have known no other country as home. Just 60 days— or what remains of that period— stand between him and that eventuality.

“I would not blame the tech companies, I think they’re just, you know, running their business,” Thakur said in an interview. Raj Thakur is not his real name but a pseudonym he chose for the interview because he did not want to be identified fearing any adverse impact on his job search. Also, H-1B visa holders are subjected to very strict confidentiality standards by their employers. He agreed to the interview only if his name and all other indicators

to his identity were kept confidential.

“I would definitely like to highlight this whole immigration process as well which has, sort of, put us in this quandary--because of being in this backlog because of country caps,” he added.

There is an annual cap on the number of people from any one country who can be issued Green Cards— 7 per cent. The US issues an estimated 1 million Green Cards every year, both related to work and family links. But applications from Indians are far in excess of that country cap of 7 per cent and those left behind are added to a rolling backlog that has built up so much over the years that there is a theoretical waiting period of over 100 years for new applicants, according to one study.

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US State Senate Passes Resolution Honouring Sikh Community

The Senate in the US state of Utah unanimously passed a resolution highlighting the history and significant contributions of the Sikh community.

and other parts of the world,” a tweet from the Utah Senate read. The resolution was moved by Representative Angela Romero and Senator Luz Escamilla from Salt Lake City.

It noted Sikhism as one of the largest religions in the world focused on “loving service to humanity,” but has for long faced “oppression and discrimination throughout the world”.

US State’s Senate Passes Bill To Allow Fireworks During Diwali

New York, Feb 6 (IANS) The Senate in the US state of Utah unanimously passed a resolution highlighting the history and significant contributions of the Sikh community. The resolution, which was passed last week, appreciated the Sikhs for their humanitarian services, despite receiving hate and facing oppression for their faith worldwide.

“The Senate unanimously passed H.J.R (House Joint Resolution) 4, a resolution highlighting the history and significant contributions of the Sikh community. We were joined by members of Utah’s Sikh community as well as those from India

Two Illinois Cities Are Among Top 10 ‘Safest Cities In America’

CHICAGO, IL- A new report shows the safest and most dangerous cities in America, based on the cost of crime in those areas, and two Illinois cities are at and near the top of the list. MoneyGeek looked at 263 cities that have populations of 100,000 or more residents.

They reviewed data from a number of sources, including FBI statistics from 2021 (which are the most recent crime statistics) — and the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks mass shootings across the country.

“The state of Utah seeks to further the diversity of its community and afford all residents the opportunity to better understand, recognise, and appreciate the rich history and shared experiences of Sikhs to enforce laws for access to equal opportunity of humans, irrespective of their caste, creed, colour, or appearance,” the resolution stated.

Before Utah, 15 other states, including New Jersey and Pennsylvania, have recognised the Sikh community for their service. In December, Utah became the 15th state in the US to include information about Sikhism, Sikh practices, and traditions in their schools’ social studies syllabi.

Sikhism is the fifth largest religion in the world and the community has contributed to American society for over 125 years in the fields of civil rights, politics, agriculture, engineering, and medicine.

Telangana Student Killed In US As Gun Goes Off Accidentally

New York, Feb 7 (IANS) Lawmakers at the Utah Senate in the US unanimously passed a bill that will make Diwali a state commemorative period, and allow discharge of fireworks during the Indian festival of lights.

Moved by Senator Lincoln Fillmore from South Jordan, the Senate Bill 46 was approved unanimously last week, ABC4 reported.

The bill would designate Diwali as a state commemorative period and will allow the sale and discharge of fireworks during the five days of Diwali, which is usually between late October and early November.

Hyderabad: (IANS) A student from Telangana was killed in the US when a gun he was holding went off accidentally, as per his family here.

Mahankali Akhil Sai, 25, from Khammam district lost his life in the incident that occurred at Auburn in

Alabama state on Monday night (local time). Sai had gone to the US about 13 months ago and was studying MS at Auburn University. He was also doing a part-time job at a nearby gas station. According to information reaching his family, he took the gun of a security guard and was having a close look by holding it in his hands when it went off accidentally. The bullet hit him in his head. The gas station staff rushed him to a hospital, where he succumbed. The youth was hailing from Madhira town in Khammam district. His family was shocked on receiving the information.

Fillmore said one of his constituents in Herriman reached out to him and gave him the idea for this bill, which needs just one more vote before heading to the House of Representatives.

“I appreciate Utah’s Indian community. Their collaborative efforts to organise events to include the neighbouring communities, as well as their efforts to increase education about Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism, have helped create a better sense of understanding in our state,” Senator Fillmore said in a statement.

“This bill recognises others’ cultures, contributing to the wonderful tapestry that is Utah.”

The bill will be scheduled for a third reading at the Utah Senate in the near future.

CBP Agriculture Specialist Working To Ensure Valentine’s Day Flowers Are Pest-Free

EL PASO, TX – U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists working at El Paso area ports of entry are busy this week tapping and shaking cut flower shipments to make sure that personal and commercial importations of Valentine’s Day flowers are free from insects, pests and diseases that could harm the agricultural and floral industries of the United States.

Valentine’s Day is Monday February 14.

“This is always one of the busiest weeks of the year for CBP agriculture specialists. Typically we note an increase in the number of floral imports arriving at area ports of entry including those being transported by individuals,” said Hector Mancha, CBP Director of Field Operations in El Paso. “Vigilant CBP agriculture specialists are hard at work making certain that any imported floral arrangements are free from insects, pests or disease. The public can help by

declaring all agricultural products they are importing.”

CBP strongly encourages the public to consult the CBP website before they import floral arrangements so they know which flowers are permissible and which are prohibited or restricted.

CBP suggests those who plan to import flowers and plants from Mexico to advise their florist that the arrangements are destined for U.S. delivery. Some flowers and plant materials commonly found in floral arrangements at southwest border ports of entry are prohibited. Those include chrysanthemums and choisya ternata (a floral filler) due to pest risk. While a relatively small number of harmful pests are found among the millions of stems inspected by CBP, a single dangerous pest could cause millions of dollars of damage to our nation’s crops. CBP recommends that people who wish to import flowers,

plant materials, and other agricultural items consult the CBP Info Center section on the CBP website before they travel or call (877) 227-5511.

Travelers should also declare all items acquired abroad to CBP officers to avoid civil or criminal penalties and reduce the risk of introducing pest and disease to the United States. CBP now offers the CBP One mobile app, which allows travelers to request a variety of CBP services, including inspection of agricultural products. The CBP One app can be downloaded for free from the Apple App Store or Google Play.

Traditionally, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and the Easter holiday weekend are the busiest times of the year for CBP agriculture specialists. CBP agriculture specialists are the last line in the fight against the introduction of insects, pests and diseases into the United States.

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CBP Agriculture Specialists inspect a shipment of flowers at El Paso’s Bridge of the Americas commercial cargo facility in February 2023.

Tell us in detail about your family background. When did your parents come to the US, your growing up years etc.

My parents immigrated to the US from Punjab, India in the early 1980s. They settled in the San Joaquin Valley due to family ties and began working as laborers at local farms. We grew up with very modest means but my parents prioritized education at an early age and I always had what I needed to succeed academically.

You have been involved with the community from a very young age. Was

Meet Mikey Hothi California’s First Sikh Mayor

California councilman Mikey Hothi created history when he was selected to become the mayor of Lodi – a city in Central California. With this, a young Hothi has become the first-ever Sikh mayor in the history of California. A rather impressive feat for the community which despite its contributions to America has often been victim of hate crimes and ignorance about their faith.

fight back against discrimination. As the first Sikh mayor in California how significant is the win for you and for the Sikh American community that has often been the target of racist attacks in the country I’m very proud of my background but also proud to represent a diverse region with a rich agricultural history. Sikh have had a long history in politics. The 1st Asian US Congressman was a Sikh by the name of Dalip Singh Saund. I’m very proud to represent the Sikh community and all of our diverse communities that we have here in California. You have mentioned that growing up as a Sikh in post 9/11 America was a challenging experience. Did you as a kid back then experience the backlash first hand?

Do you feel more young South Asians, immigrants of color are now getting involved in American politics. Has the political scene become more receptive now or do you feel that the young men and women are more confident now as opposed to their parents to venture into fields that they didn’t think would welcome them

there any reason or a motivation to be a part of the community you grew up in?

Sikhs in the US experienced very challenging times, especially after 9/11. My family faced harassment due to this as well and that emboldened me to want to become more involved and active to

After 9/11 I experienced a lot of hatred from kids in school. Lodi was much less diverse at the time and there were instances where I was spat on, called an Arab, etc. These experiences very much shaped my trajectory. As a result, I made it a point to highlight the Sikh community. I worked in the California State Legislature for almost a decade and organized Sikh awareness and appreciation events. I worked on a bill to recognize November as Sikh Awareness & Appreciation Month in California, hosted Langars on the Hill at the Capitol where guests ate Punjabi food and learned about Sikhi, and prioritized hiring Sikh staff and interns to increase our presence and awareness in the political arena.

Hindus Urge Pennsylvania Meadery To Withdraw Goddess Kali Alcoholic Drink & Apologize

RENO, NV- Upset Hindus are urging Erie (Pennsylvania) based Ironstone Meadery to apologize and withdraw alcoholic drink mead named after Hindu deity Kali and carrying her image, calling it highly inappropriate.

Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, said that inappropriate usage of sacred Hindu deities or concepts or symbols or icons for commercial or other agenda was not okay as it hurt the devotees.

Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, indicated that goddess Kali was highly revered in Hinduism and she was meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to be used in selling mead. Moreover, linking a deity with an alcoholic beverage was very disrespectful, Zed added.

Meaderies should not be in the business

of religious appropriation, sacrilege, and ridiculing entire communities. It was deeply trivializing of immensely venerated Hindu goddess Kali to be portrayed on a mead label, Rajan Zed emphasized. In Hinduism, Goddess Kali, who personifies Sakti or divine energy, is considered the goddess of time and change. Some Bengali poets described her as supreme deity. There are about three million Hindus in the USA. Kali’s Pleasure mead (13.8% abv, $39) was described as “an intriguing blend of hibiscus and ginger”, which gives an initial “tongue spanking” on the first sip.

Ironstone Meadery describes itself as “Erie Pennsylvania’s Oldest Meadery” and states that “many of our meads take 6 months to a year to make”. It explains: Mead is made by fermenting the sugars in honey. It is the oldest alcoholic drink man has created predating beer by thousands of years.

Sikhs are now involved in politics throughout the region. I’ve witnessed and supported a number of Sikh candidates for local office. The California Legislature just elected its first Sikh Assemblywoman. Things are trending in the right direction. After 9/11 the Sikh community really came forward and coalitions were formed to create awareness yet every now and then we keep hearing about hate crimes. In fact New York had a spate of hate crimes in the recent past, some against elderly. What would you say the community should do to combat it?

We have to continue and bring awareness to these issues of discrimination and violence against Sikhs. For Sikh children being bullied at school I recommend training martial arts and learning how to defend yourself. For the larger community I ask that we keep an eye out for each other. The hatred fueling these attacks won’t be rooted out by Sikhs alone. It takes a community wide effort. It takes education, it takes confronting hatred whenever it’s encountered, it takes reporting issues to law enforcement etc.

First Ever Indian American President Of Harvard Law Review

NEW YORK, NY- In a first ever, Apsara Iyer has been elected as the president of the Harvard Law Review. Iyer will be the 137th president in the 136-year history of the reputed publication. Iyer is a 29-year-old Harvard Law School student and has been investigating art crime and repatriation.

Iyer graduated from Yale in 2016 with a B.A. in Economics and Math, and Spanish. Her dedication to archaeology and indigenous communities led her to pursue an MPhil at Oxford as a Clarendon Scholar and, in 2018, to join the Manhattan District Attorney’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit (ATU).

Hothi took out time from his busy schedule as a newly elected mayor to speak to Hi India about trying to bring a change and being a Sikh in America.

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Zofeen Maqsood

In Hinduism, Goddess Kali, who personifies Sakti or divine energy, is considered the goddess of time and change.

Multi-faith Leaders Honor Homeless Nevadans with Candlelight Vigil

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RENO, NV- In a remarkable interfaith gesture; Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Baha’i, Pagan religious leaders of the area are joining together to remember homeless Nevadans who died in 2022.

Besides lighting candles in memory of Nevadans who lost their lives while homeless, some from exposure to the elements, religious leaders plan to offer prayers in their respective traditions in English, Spanish, Arabic, Sanskrit, Persian, Pali languages in Reno City Plaza, by the BELIEVE sign, on February 15; starting at 05:30 pm. A former homeless person, who recently spent years on the area streets, will also speak of her first-hand experiences. It is a solemn service of remembrance where the names of houseless people who died in 2022 in Washoe County will be read. This is the second such service, and this multi-faith group of area religious leaders plan to make this candlelight vigil an annual feature if these preventable homeless deaths continue to happen.

One of the coordinators of this vigil; Father Chuck Durante, Rector at Saint Thomas Aquinas Catholic Cathedral; points out: “In Washoe County alone, 96 homeless people died in 2022, which is almost double than the 54 homeless

deaths in 2021. These numbers have been rising over the years. There are too many people who fall through the cracks in the system. It is our moral responsibility to care for people in need. Each person is sacred and all faith traditions agree on the dignity of human beings.”

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, who is also one of the coordinators of this event, says: “Every life holds value. Human beings dying in our midst because of lack of basic necessities should not

Indian Cancer Patient Off-Loaded By American Airlines In Delhi

be acceptable to us as a community. Coordinated efforts are needed to protect lives; and saving lives should be the highest priority of various agendas.” This is a vigil of remembrance. Area religious leaders feel that if we did not remember them, who else would? All are welcome to attend, as an expression for love of our neighbors, and remembering those in our community who were neglected and silently left this world while having no safe and warm housing.

Indian-Origin Father Of 3 Dies After Being Hit By Car In PA

New York, Feb 6 (IANS) A 39 yearold Indian-origin father of three, who had gone to pick up insulin and Pokemon cards for his children from a convenience store in the US, died after being hit by a car.

Pritesh Patel, a resident of Dauphin County in Pennsylvania, was crossing a road after leaving a convenience store at the Mushroom Hill Road when an eastbound vehicle hit him around on January 27, Penn Live reported. Patel was flown to Hershey Medical Center, where he was kept alive by machines for a couple of days, before he died on January 30, police said. According to police, Patel was not in a crosswalk, and surveillance footage showed eastbound traffic had a green light at the time. Police were unable to say how fast the vehicle that hit Patel was going, the Penn Live reported.They said that the driver stayed at the scene afterward and is cooperating with the ongoing investigation.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Statue Goes Missing From California Park

Meenakshi Sengupta, a patient in the United States, has reported American Airlines to authorities for “mistreating her and wrongfully deboarding her from the aeroplane when she requested assistance carrying a bag weighing more than 5 pounds.”

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Indian-origin Meenakshi Sengupta who is based in the US was allegedly offloaded from a Delhi to New York on an American Airlines flight on January 30. According to reports, it has been alleged that she could not comply with the crew instructions to keep her bag in the overhead cabin. But according to Sengupta’s version, she had asked for assistance to help her lift her bag as she was wearing a cast due to a recent surgery she had undergone. According to the passenger, she was not only refused help but was also asked to leave the aircraft.

Sengupta has filed a report with the police against American Airlines for mistreating her by wrongfully de-boarding her off the aircraft when she asked for assistance for her bag. Meanwhile, American Airlines has released a statement saying: “On January 30, prior to the departure of American Airlines flight 293 from Delhi to New York a disruptive customer was removed from the aircraft for failure to follow crew member instructions. Our customer relations team has reached out to the customer to refund the unused portion of their ticket.

SAN JOSE, CA- Feb 7 (IANS) A statue of Maratha ruler Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj has been reported missing from a park in San Jose, California. The statue at the Guadalupe River Park was a gift from Pune, San Jose’s sister city, and it was the only statue of Shivaji Maharaj in North America.

“We regret to inform our community that the Shri Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue at Guadalupe River Park is missing,” The San Jose Department of Parks, Recreation and Neighbourhood Services tweeted on February 3. Park officials did not say when the statue was taken.

The Twitter post shared the photo of the statue depicting the leader on horseback along with a photo of the now-missing statue with just the base remaining. The Department of Parks, Recreation and Neighbourhood Services informed

A statue of Maratha ruler Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj has been reported missing from a park in San Jose, California.

that the authorities are investigating the theft.

“The City is deeply saddened that this landmark has been stolen. We are working with community leaders to find solutions and will provide updates as we receive them,” the Twitter post read.

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Religious leaders at last year’s multi-faith homeless candlelight vigil at Reno City Plaza

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PM in jacket from recycled plastic

Prime Minister Narendra Modi wore a sleeveless jacket made of material recycled from plastic bottles to Parliament on Wednesday. He was seen wearing the light blue “sadri” jacket as he sat in the Rajya Sabha in the morning.

Made out of recycled PET bottles, the jacket was presented from the India Oil Corporation to the Prime Minister during India Energy Week in Bengaluru on Monday. The event was inaugurated by PM Modi, where he launched the uniforms made out of recycled plastic as part of India Oil’s ‘Unbottled’ initiative. The drive is a part of the petroleum giant’s target to phase out single-use plastic.

Unemployment rising but govt putting money in private entities like Adani, says Kharge

‘Operation Dost’: India Goes All Out To Help Turkey, Syria

number of people and potentially impacting millions. The World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that time is running out for the thousands injured and those still feared trapped. The death count from the quake has risen to 9,500.

Turkey-Syria Earthquake Deaths Top 9,500

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, during a discussion over the President’s address in the House, launched an attack on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government. “There are 30 lakh vacancies in government and public sector… Why is the government not filling them?… You’re sending money to private sector…82,000 crores…

Instead invest in public sector. 10 lakh people work in public sector, but you send 82000 crore to private entities like Adani, where only 30,000 people work. Still he gets encouragement.” Speaking on unemployment and the widening gap between the rich and poor in the country, Kharge added, “PM Modi promised the country’s population of 2 crores jobs every year. (He said) youth, if I come, every year there will be 2 crore jobs. In these 9 years, where are the 18 crore jobs? Leave that, you’re not even filling 50 lakh vacancies.

India is sending a field hospital, medicines, rescue teams to earthquake-hit Turkey and Syria under “Operation Dost”, foreign minister S Jaishankar tweeted on Wednesday.

The 7.8-magnitude quake struck Monday as people slept, flattening thousands of structures, trapping an unknown

A fourth C17 plane of the Indian Air Force carrying relief assistance for Turkey’s earthquake victims landed in Adana on Wednesday.“The fourth @ IAF_MCC aircraft leaves for Turkiye with the remaining component of the field hospital. This includes 54 members of the Indian Army medical team as well as medical and other equipment to establish the facility,” Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted.

RBI Announces 6th Consecutive Interest Rate Hike, Loan EMIs Expected to Rise

Sanliurfa, Turkey: Rescuers in Turkey and Syria battled bitter cold Tuesday in a race against time to find survivors under buildings flattened by an earthquake that killed more than 9,500 people. Tremors that inflicted more suffering on a border area, already plagued by conflict, left people on the streets burning debris to try to stay warm as international aid began to arrive.

Aussie Experts Call for ICC Intervention on Nagpur Pitch Conditions

New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India hiked its key repo rate by 25 basis points on Wednesday as expected but surprised markets by leaving the door open to more tightening, saying core

inflation remained high. The central bank said that its policy stance remains focused on the withdrawal of accommodation. Most analysts had expected a hike on Wednesday to be the final increase in the RBI’s current tightening cycle, which has seen it raise rates by 250 bps since May last year. The monetary policy committee (MPC), comprising three members from the central bank and three external members, raised the key lending rate or the repo rate to 6.50% in a split decision. Four of the six members voted in favour of the decision.

a few Aussie ‘experts’ have accused India of ‘doctoring’ the pitch to suit their team. A few pictures of the pitch surfaced on social media on Tuesday, with Steve Smith suggesting that the wicket was ‘pretty dry’. The Australian batter also went into details, suggesting left-arm spinners are likely to extract extensive help. Back in Australia, some of the former cricketers and experts have called for the International Cricket Council’s intervention on the matter. As per a report in Fox Cricket, reporters on the ground claimed that only the center of the Nagpur wicket was watered and rolled, whereas the exact area which will be targeted by left-handers was left dry.

Adani probe dare to PM Modi in House

Microsoft Upgrades Bing & Edge with AI, Takes on Google in Search War

markets where it has fallen behind.

The maker of the Windows operating system is staking its future on AI through billions of dollars of investment as it directly challenges Alphabet Inc’s Google, which for years has outpaced Microsoft in search and browser technology.

Microsoft Corp is revamping its Bing search engine and Edge Web browser with artificial intelligence, the company said on Tuesday, signaling its ambition to retake the lead in consumer technology

Now, Microsoft is rolling out an intelligent chatbot to live alongside Bing’s search results, putting AI that can summarize web pages, synthesize disparate sources, even compose emails and translate them into more consumers’ hands.

The Congress on Tuesday dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Rajya Sabha to order a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the allegations made against the Adani Group by Hindenburg Research in its report.

Leading the Opposition charge, Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh said: “If the Prime Minister has the courage, let him announce a JPC probe.”

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The 7 year old girl who kept her hand on her little brother’s head to protect him while they were under the rubble for 17 hours has made it safely. I see no one sharing. If she were dead, everyone would share! Share positivity...

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Rahul Gandhi Accuses PM Modi of Avoiding Parliament Discussion on Adani Row

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday linked the massive rise in the business fortunes and personal wealth of businessman Gautam Adani to the Modi government coming to power in 2014, as he launched a sharp attack on the BJP dispensation over the Adani issue.

Ro Khanna Co-Chair of Congress’ India Panel

Indian American Democratic lawmaker Ro Khanna has been chosen as co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans in the 118th Congress along with Republican House colleague Mike Waltz.

Khanna is the second Indian American to be elected as co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans.

India Caucus is the largest countryspecific bipartisan coalition of lawmakers in the House of Representatives that is committed to strengthening the relationship between India and America.

Petition seeks H-1B Grace Period Extension

Gandhi also said that the country should know what power is behind Gautam Adani, the billionaire businessman whose fortunes have plummeted significantly following a report by USbased short-selling firm Hindenburg Research.

“Modi ji will do his best to avert a discussion on Adani ji in Parliament. There is a reason for it and you know that. I want there should be a discussion on Adani issue and the truth should come out. The lakhs and crores of corruption that has taken place should

Earthquake-Hit Turkey Thanks India

New Delhi: Terming India as “Dost” for its generosity for providing funds to the country after three devastating earthquakes struck Turkey in 24 hours, Ambassador of Turkey to India Firat Sunel thanked New Delhi and said, “a friend in need is a friend indeed.”

Taking to Twitter, Mr Sunel said, “Dost” is a common word in Turkish and Hindi... We have a Turkish proverb: “Dost kara gunde belli olur” (a friend in need is a friend indeed). Thank you very much India.”

A petition has been launched on Change. org seeking extension of laid-off H-1B holders’ grace period from 2 months to one year.

The petition is launched by Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies appeals for extension to President Joe Biden, Director of Department of Homeland Security and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). About 91,000 got laid off in the United States in Jan 2023 mostly from technology hubs, the petition notes.

The petition says, “On behalf of Indian Americans represented by organizations like Global IndianTechnology Professionals Association (GITPRO) and Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS), we are writing to bring to your attention the massive layoffs in the tech industry in Jan 2023 that have been tough for tech professionals.” The petition also reads, “The exodus of talent from the US is harmful for the long-term interests of the US specially in the modern age of Artificial Intelligence competition,”

Adani’s name was also frequently heard from people across states as they wondered how he is successful in every business he enters, says the Congress leader

come out. The country should know what is the power behind Adani,” Gandhi told reporters.

“For a number of years, I have been talking about the government and ‘Hum do, Humare do’. The government does not want and is scared of a discussion in Parliament on Adani ji. The government

Over 5,000 Dead In Turkey, Syria Quake

Hatay, Turkey: Rescuers in Turkey and Syria braved freezing darkness, aftershocks and collapsing buildings Tuesday, as they dug for survivors buried by a string of earthquakes that killed at least 5,000 people. Disaster agencies said several thousand buildings were flattened in cities across a vast border region -- pouring misery on an area already plagued by war, insurgency, refugee crises and a recent cholera outbreak.

Indian American couple gift $250,000 for Jain Studies

should allow a discussion in Parliament and there will be attempts to avoid it,” he added.

His charges in Lok Sabha drew a sharp response from the treasury benches, with Law Minister Kiren Rijiju asking him to not level “wild allegations” and furnish proof of his claims.

Google Announces

ChatGPT Rival Bard

Georgia College & State University (GCSU) will be establishing a professorship in Jain Studies by the Fall of this year. This has been possible by a generous gift of $250,000 from an Indian American couple, Dr Shailendra Palvia and Rajkumari Palvia.

The Philosophy Religion & Liberal

Studies (PALS) Department of GCSU announced the establishment of the “S & R Palvia Endowed Veetraag Vigyaan Professorship in Jain Studies.

The initial gift from the Palvia family is complemented by the commitment of an annual gift of $10,000 from the Jain Community of America.

Google-parent Alphabet is planning to launch a chatbot service and more artificial intelligence for its search engine as well as developers, marking a riposte to Microsoft in a rivalry to lead a new wave of technology.

In a blog post on Monday, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said the company is opening a conversational AI service called Bard to test users for feedback, followed by a public release in the coming weeks.

Indian American Teen in World’s Brightest List

A schoolgirl from NJ, Natasha Perianayagam has been named in the “world’s brightest” students list for the second consecutive year by the US-based Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth.

Perianayagam was among the 15,300 students from 76 countries who joined CTY in the 2021-22 Talent Search year. Her results in the verbal and quantitative sections levelled with the 90th percentile of advanced Grade 8 performance,

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Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s ex-president, dies aged 79

Pakistan’s former president General Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, has died aged 79.

The former leader - who was president between 2001 and 2008 - died in Dubai after a long illness, a statement from the country’s army said. He had survived numerous assassination attempts, and found himself on the front line of the struggle between militant Islamists and the West. He supported the US “war on terror” after 9/11 despite domestic opposition. In 2008 he suffered defeat in the polls and left the country six months later. When he returned in 2013 to try to contest the election, he was arrested and barred from standing. He was charged with high treason and was sentenced to death in absentia only for the decision to be overturned less than a month later.

Indian Cancer Patient off-loaded by American Airlines in Delhi

670 Dead After Powerful Quake In Turkey, Syria

Turkey’s AFAD emergencies service centre put the first quake’s magnitude at 7.4, adding that it was followed by more than 40 aftershocks.

Istanbul: A 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Turkey and Syria early on Monday, killing hundreds of people as they slept, levelling buildings, and sending tremors that were felt as far away as the island of Cyprus and Egypt.

At least 386 people were killed in Syria on Monday as buildings collapsed.

AFP correspondents in northern Syria said terrified residents ran out of their homes after the earthquake hit before dawn near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the Syrian border.

The quake killed at least 239 people and left at least another 648 injured in government-controlled parts of Syria,

Summary

• Dozens of people are dead and hundreds more are injured after a huge earthquake struck southeastern Turkey, near the Syrian border

• Early statements from officials in Turkey and Syria put the death toll at more than 100, but that is likely to rise

including the cities of Aleppo, Hama, Latakia and Tartus, state television said. In rebel-held parts of the northwest of the country, at least 147 people were killed and more than 340 were injured, rescue workers said.

One of the largest to strike Turkey in at least a century wiped out entire sections of major cities in a region filled with millions of people who have fled the civil war in Syria and other conflicts. The head of Syria’s National Earthquake Centre, Raed Ahmed, told pro-government radio that this was “historically, the biggest earthquake recorded in the history of the centre”

Adani Group To Pre-Pay $1,114 Million For Release Of Pledged Shares

This statement assumes significance in view of the allegations of fraud and stock manipulation by a short-seller against the Adani Group.

• Rescuers are racing to save people trapped beneath the rubble after hundreds of buildings collapsed in both countries

• Turkey declares a state of emergency and urges people not to use mobile phones to allow rescuers to coordinate

• The 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck in the early hours of Monday and dozens of aftershocks have been felt in the hours since

• Millions of people across Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus and Israel felt the earthquake - the epicentre was near the Turkish city of Gaziantep

Akshay Kumar shamed for walking on India’s map

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Indian-origin Meenakshi Sengupta

who is based in the US was allegedly offloaded from a Delhi to New York on an American Airlines flight on January 30. According to reports, it has been alleged that she could not comply with the crew instructions to keep her bag in the overhead cabin. But according to Sengupta’s version, she had asked for assistance to help her lift her bag as she was wearing a cast due to a recent surgery she had undergone. According to the passenger, she was not only refused help but was also asked to leave the aircraft.

Sengupta has filed a report with the police against American Airlines for mistreating her by wrongfully deboarding her off the aircraft when she asked for assistance for her bag. Meanwhile, American Airlines has released a statement saying: “On January 30, prior to the departure of American Airlines flight 293 from Delhi to New York a disruptive customer was removed from the aircraft for failure to follow crew member instructions. Our customer relations team has reached out to the customer to refund the unused portion of their ticket.

New Delhi: Adani Group on Monday said that the promoters will pre-pay $1,114 million for the release of pledged shares of its firms ahead of the maturity in September 2024.

These shares belong to Adani Ports & Special Economic Zones, Adani Green Energy and Adani Transmission, a statement said.

“This is in continuation of promoters’ assurance to pre-pay all share-backed financing,” it said.

This statement assumes significance in view of the allegations of fraud and stock manipulation by a short-seller against the Adani Group, which led to a steep fall in the share prices of group firms. On pre-payment, 168.27 million shares of Adani Ports & Special Economic Zones representing 12 per cent of the promoter’s holding will be released.

Dell To Cut About 6,600 Jobs, Battered By Plunging PC Sales

conditions that “continue to erode with an uncertain future,” Co-Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clarke wrote in a memo viewed by Bloomberg. The reductions amount to about 5% of Dell’s global workforce, according to a company spokesperson.

Dell Technologies Inc., facing plummeting demand for personal computers, will eliminate about 6,650 jobs, becoming the latest technology company to announce it will let thousands of employees go.

The company is experiencing market

After a pandemic-era PC boom, Dell and other hardware makers have seen cratering demand. Industry analyst IDC said preliminary data show personal computer shipments dropped sharply in the fourth quarter of 2022. Among major companies, Dell saw the largest decline — 37% compared with the same period in 2021, according to IDC. Dell generates about 55% of its revenue from PCs.

Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar is being slammed for a recent video he shared online to promote his North America tour. The clip shows Kumar walking on top of a globe. As soon as the video was posted, fans noticed that Kumar walked over the globe on top of a map of India and many found this gesture offensive. Soon, the social media erupted with comments about Kumar’s hurtful video. One user wrote: “A Canadian actor is walking over an Indian map and insulting Indians. How is this even acceptable? @akshaykumar you have to apologise to 150 crores Indians for this shameful act.”

While sharing the clip, Akshay wrote: “The Entertainers are all set to bring 100% shuddh desi entertainment to North America. Fasten your seat belts, we’re coming in March!”

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Qatari investors set to bid for Manchester United- Report

Qatari investors are planning to make a huge bid to buy Premier League club Manchester United, the Daily Mail newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources. The report described the investors as “a group of private, high-wealth individuals” from Qatar, which hosted the 2022 World Cup.

Reuters has contacted Manchester United for comment.

Jim Ratcliffe’s company INEOS formally entered the bidding process to buy United last month after the club’s U.S. owners, the Glazer family, said in November they had begun looking at options including new investment or a potential sale.

Bloomberg News reported last month that Qatar Sports Investments (QSI),

Hockey India announce dates for National Championships

New Delhi: (IANS) Budding hockey stars in the country vying to make their way into the national program will gear up for the marquee domestic championships, where national selectors will be present to find fresh talent. The domestic season for this year will begin with the all-important 13th Hockey India Senior Women National Championship 2023 scheduled to begin on February 15 in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh. Last year’s winners Odisha will be looking to defend their title, while runners up Karnataka will hope to avenge their 0-2 loss in the Final.A total of 29 teams will arrive in Kakinada to participate in the prestigious tournament.

which owns Paris St Germain, was considering either a total takeover or a stake in Manchester United or their rivals Liverpool. United fans have been clamouring for

a change of ownership and the Glazers have been the target of intense criticism as the team last won silverware back in 2017, lifting the Europa League and League Cup trophies.

Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay submit joint 2030 World Cup bid

South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL), who said that he hopes FIFA can show a “gesture of greatness” toward the region and allow it to organise the tournament.

“The 2030 World Cup is not just another World Cup, it deserves a celebration with recognition for 100 years,” Dominguez said.

Australia vice-captain Steve Smith may have done a week’s simulation of Ravichadran Ashwin’s doppleganger Mahesh Pithiya but he is not overthinking about the star India spinner’s impact in the Border Gavaskar Trophy beginning here on Thursday.

Australian batters have been focussed on tackling the spin threat and there is a team of Indian net bowlers who is helping the visitors prepare for the four Test series. Is Australia over-thinking about Ashwin? “There has been many off-spinners we played and Mahesh is one of them. He bowls a similar style (to that) of Ashwin. We are not overthinking things. Ash is a quality bowler but we have the tools in our kit bag to counter that,” Smith told reporters during a media conference.

Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay officially submitted a joint bid to host the 2030 World Cup on Tuesday, calling for the tournament to return “where football was born” 100 years after the first World Cup was held in Montevideo. During a ceremony at the Argentine Football Association (AFA), officials of the four countries were joined by Alejandro Dominguez, president of the

“We are convinced that FIFA has an obligation to honour the memory of those who came before us and believed in greatness and made the first World Cup.”

AFA president Claudio Tapia added: “As world champions, we carry out this launch which is the dream of all South Americans. Not only on the centenary of the first edition, but because of the passion with which we live football.”

‘Last year’s Thomas Cup win was like 1983 Cricket World Cup triumph’: Sunil Gavaskar

What left a remarkable impression on Sunil Gavaskar’s mind back in the day at Pune’s badminton courts, was hypnotically watching the non-marking shoes of Prakash Padukone and following his fellow legend’s footwork. A recent visit to Padukone’s academy in Bengaluru, saw the cricket legend shower another round of affection on badminton’s latest star, and Padukoneprotege, Lakshya Sen. Gavaskar, who played shuttle till a decade ago, recalled what left him mesmerized about the sport from back then.

“Prakash is the all time numero Uno for me. I will never forget the hammering he gave (twice world champion Chinese) Han Jian in Pune. When I saw his matches I only saw his feet, how the heel to toe move took place or the toes moving so swiftly to cover the court in just one or half stride. Or to jump high for the killer shot,” Gavaskar said. “The shuttle, the strokes and the opponent

Gavaskar on his fanboy moment with Lakshya Sen at the Padukone academy, and raves why Padukone is his No.1 Badminton player.

was in peripheral vision but my focus was only on his feet to learn how I could get my movements quicker for my game.” Well before cross-training became a buzzword in sport, Gavaskar had riffed from Padukone, though his school-time sport could always be dipped into, for inspiration. He described the ‘zone’ in badminton, thus: “It’s hard to compare but guess it would be where the player

sees only the shuttle, not the opponent nor the crowd just like in batting you only saw the ball and not the bowler or those in the stands. That was being in the zone.” Shuttle offered more while standing in cricket’s cordon. “Badminton certainly helped with the anticipation and reflexes for slip fielders and to be able to concentrate fiercely for a specific period of time.”

At the Dravid-Padukone facility, Gavaskar would once more turn into a fanboy, and promptly forget all questions he had mentally revised, to ask Sen. “I had been wanting to see Lakshya ever since Prakash told me about his precocious talent a few years back. He seemed a bit shy but I think I was more tongue-tied. I wanted to ask him about which shoes he uses and how many pairs he uses in a tournament, does he have any superstitions and all the fanboy questions but the words didn’t come out,” he recalled.

Siraj, Shubman nominated for ICC Player of the Month Award

New Zealand opener Devon Conway, who has had a fine start to the year with three hundreds and two fifties across formats, is the third contender for the award.

India pacer Mohammed Siraj and opener Shubman Gill were on Tuesday nominated for the ICC Player of the Month Award for their stellar show in January.

New Zealand opener Devon Conway, who has had a fine start to the year with three hundreds and two fifties across formats, is the third contender for the award.

Following a fruitful 2022, Gill displayed his batting prowess in both the white-ball formats last month while Siraj led India’s fast-bowling attack with distinction in ODIs in recent times, showcasing his brilliance consistently, especially with the new ball in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah. Gill was handed his maiden T20I cap in the first match against Sri Lanka in Mumbai, where he managed just seven, before another single-digit score in the second game. He made a steady 46 in the third T20I in Rajkot.

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Ashwin is a quality bowler but we have tools to counter him: Steve Smith

Common eye makeup mistakes to avoid during the wedding season

The wedding season is here, and many of us have at least one invitation we cannot ignore. As such, our wardrobe is already teeming with outfits — from a dazzling lehenga set to a stylish sari — to make a head-turning statement. Bt have you given a thought to your makeup yet? Don’t frown, because your makeup can elevate your look, but at the same time even the smallest mistake can break it.

• Don’t smoke out your lower waterline with kajal: If you have dark circles, it is advisable to not smoke out kajal under your eyes as it will cause shadows and darkness.

• Use a colour corrector: If you have dark circles, a colour corrector can give you an evenly-toned base.

• Use a correct concealer: To prevent your under eyes from looking yellow or green, it is a must to apply the correct concealer. A peachy-orange concealer works best and gives your under-eyes the perfect highlight it needs.

• Let eyelash glue set completely: Don’t rush to apply fake eyelashes right after adding the glue. You should always wait 30-40 seconds to let the eyelash glue dry before applying them to your eyelashes.

Aries

Ganesha says that the people of Aries will need to avoid excessive haste this week. Especially when all your things are going on the right side. Try keeping your goal in mind, you will definitely get successful. Chances of promotion for employed people are being created. Small businessmen will get profit as expected.

Taurus

Ganesha says that that the natives of the Taurus sign need to exercise extreme control over their anger and speech this week. At the beginning of the week, there can be a debate with relatives regarding something. As a result, the mind will remain upset and there will be irritability in nature.

Gemini

Ganesha says that the people of the Gemini zodiac may get to fulfill a big responsibility in the home, family, or workplace this week. The work done you diligently will be appreciated in society. Respect will increase in the workplace.

Cancer

Ganesha says that tthe hard work of Cancerians will pay off this week. Misunderstandings arising with relatives or in love relationships will be removed. In the middle of the week, the advice of a senior person will prove to be very beneficial for you.

Leo

Ganesha says that this week is going

Take inspiration from Aditi Rao Hydari’s impeccable ethnic style

Aditi Rao Hydari knows a trick or two when it comes to rocking traditional outfits. From salwar suits to saris and lehengas, she looks as pretty as a picture in ethnic attire. As such, it was not surprising that she looked absolutely dazzling when she wore her “Amma’s favourite colour” — yellow!

Lauded fashion designer Paco Rabanne dies at age 88

In her most recent set of pictures, the Padmaavat actor looked gorgeous in a sunshine yellow sari teamed with a bottle green blouse. Keeping it supremely simple, Aditi styled it with a pair of statement jhumkis, a hint of colour on her lips, a small bindi, and her million-dollar smile. If you have a day wedding to attend, this look will ensure you turn many heads. While the actor opted to keep her blow-dried hair open, you can always wear a bun and adorn a gajra! It is paired with ‘Hestia’ odhani featuring a border of floral wreath motifs punctuated with pearl detailing.”

Paco Rabanne, the Spanish-born designer known for perfumes sold worldwide and his metallic, spaceage fashions, has died, the group that owns his fashion house announced on its website Friday.

“The House of Paco Rabanne wishes to honor our visionary designer and founder who passed away today at the age of 88. Among the most seminal fashion figures of the 20th century, his legacy will remain,” the statement from beauty and fashion company Puig said.

Le Telegramme newspaper quoted the mayor of Vannes, David Robo, as saying that Rabanne died at his home in the Brittany region town of Portsall. Rabanne’s fashion house shows its collections in Paris and is scheduled to unveil the brand’s latest ready-to-wear designs during the upcoming Feb. 27-March 3 fashion week.

will be able to complete their stuck tasks with the help of friends this week. Economic matters are likely to improve at the beginning of the week. During this, the obstacles in the business will be removed.

Aquarius

3rd February to 9th February 2023

By Astro Friend Chirag

– Son of Astrologer Bejan Daruwalla

to be full of relief for the people of the Leo zodiac compared to the previous one. The obstacles coming in the career business will be seen to go away gradually. Health-related problems will also go away.

Virgo

Ganesha says that at the beginning of this week, some feelings of disappointment may arise in the minds of the people of Virgo. Do not get discouraged at all because of the difficulties in the particular work or the delay in the results.

Libra

Ganesha says that this week will prove to be better for the people of the Libra zodiac in the direction of furthering their careers and business. At the beginning of the week, you will be able to take advantage of occupation relationships. There will be opportunities for progress with the help of colleagues in the field of work.

Scorpio

Ganesha says that this week is coming to open new doors of life for the people of the Scorpio zodiac. This time is suitable for you, in such a situation, you will definitely get successful if you make efforts in the right direction. With the help of friends or a family member, long pending tasks will be completed. Subordinates will get full cooperation in the workplace.

Sagittarius

Ganesha says that the people of Sagittarius need to leave laziness this week and move forward by managing time. At the beginning of the week, meeting a special person will work to give a new direction to your life. During this, the scope of your social activism will increase. Be sure to think carefully before proceeding with a new plan or business with a person.

Capricorn

Ganesha says that people of Capricorn

Ganesha says that the people of Aquarius need to think about the special work this week. Fully fulfill the responsibility given in the workplace. People associated with politics need to be especially cautious of their opponents. Some of your work may get blocked due to hidden enemies

Pisces

Ganesha says that the beginning of the week, the people of Pisces will need to use their time and energy in the right direction. During this, try to fulfill your responsibility properly. Do not forget to consult your friends before investing money in any big scheme. During this, try to fulfill your responsibility properly.

Author Bio:

Celebrity Astrologer Chirag

Daruwalla is the son of famous astrologer Bejan Daruwalla. He is known for his detailed astrological predictions on career, health, love, finance, and business. You can visit their website bejandaruwalla.com for guidance on problems related to your life and solve your problem with the help of expert astrologer Chirag Daruwalla. For guidance on problems related to your life you can talk to Astrologer Chirag Daruwalla on Call/ Whatsapp: +91 9825470377 or also mail on: info@bejandaruwalla.com

Out of every 100 Indians over the age of 20, nine have diabetes. It may be insulin-dependent diabetes, maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY), non-insulin-dependent diabetes or gestational diabetes. How did India get to this state?

Our diets and lifestyles have changed. We have moved from an agriculture-based rural lifestyle to an office-going, inactive urban one. The genes and tendency to develop diabetes were always there in our bodies. However, now they are manifesting at a younger age.

Diabetes is partly genetic and partly environmental. You have a 70 per cent chance of developing diabetes after the age of 45 if both parents have diabetes. The inheritance is complex and also dependent on environmental factors. For example, families where many members have diabetes may not have the habit of regular exercise, their eating habits may be unhealthy (fast foods and fat-laden snacks) and they may be overweight or frankly obese. Diabetes can not only be inherited genetically but also via family habits.

People with maturity-onset type 2 noninsulin dependent diabetes do produce insulin in their bodies. It just may not be enough for the amount of food they eat, or the body does not efficiently use the insulin it secretes. Diabetes manifests around 45 years; the person usually has already produced children who carry the gene.

Type 1 diabetes, where the body does not produce insulin, can also be inherited but, more often, it is liable to appear suddenly. The pancreas, which produces insulin, may have been damaged by a

Mobile detox for concentration

Eat right to keep diabetes away

6.5 per cent or higher, a random blood sugar of 200 mg/dL, a fasting sugar of around 100 mg/dL and a level of 200 mg/dL two hours after food, it means you have diabetes.

Diabetes is not difficult to control. People feel that they do not eat sweets or sugar, so how did their blood sugar rise? Remember, whatever you eat gets digested and broken down in the body to eventually form sugar.

The first rule in diabetes is to control the diet. A 1,500 to 1,800 calorie diet (depending on your level of activity) should be followed. The calorific values of most foods are available online.

A simple way to diet is:

• Fill half the plate with vegetables and salad. Fill one-fourth with protein. Fill the rest with two dry chapatis, millets or rice

• Eat two fruits a day

• Eat all your meals on time

Do not fast. If you are on tablets for diabetes, your blood sugar levels will drop if you don’t eat on time. Sugars can be controlled faster and better if you incorporate regular exercise into your lifestyle. Walk, run, cycle, jog or swim for 30 minutes daily. This can be split into two segments.

viral infection, an accident or surgery. In type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes, symptoms may be slow to appear and could go unnoticed. However, there is likey to be increased urination, loss of weight, increased thirst, fatigue, tingling of hands and feet and frequent infections.

Since so many people have diabetes, it is

My son does not concentrate on his schoolwork at all. He spends a great deal of time on the mobile, playing games and chatting with friends, after which he is tired and sleeps.

Many children have started to spend a lot of time on mobile phones and social media. Part of the problem was due to the two years when education was online. Now many are addicted. The brain becomes fatigued with the constant use of social media. Their concentration is less, and they are easily distracted, irritable and tired. You must wean your son off by taking away the cellphone except for specified times decided by you. You also need to encourage an hour of physical activity in the fresh air daily. Initially, he may throw tantrums, but you have to handle these problems for his greater good.

Painful knee

I am 70 years old. I have pain in my left knee when I walk but the X-ray is normal. It may be mild osteoarthritis caused by degeneration of the joint. Try applications of capsaicin-containing ointment twice a day, followed by ice. Learn knee-strengthening exercises from a physiotherapist or online and do them regularly. Once the muscles around the knee become strong, they will hold your joint in place and prevent pain.

Step failure

important for everyone to start getting their blood sugar levels checked since the age of 35. Then, if the results are normal, the screening should be repeated every three years.

Regardless of age, people with high blood pressure, deranged lipids, PCOS or heart disease should be screened immediately.

If blood tests show an HbA1 c value of

I have been walking 10,000 steps a day every day for three months. Unfortunately, I have not lost any weight but actually seem to have put on half a kilo.

It is commendable that you have walked 10,000 steps a day. It will help you to maintain your cardiovascular fitness and control diabetes if you have it. To lose weight, however, you have to control your diet. Aim for a 500-calorie defcit a day. You can estimate your caloric consumption by calculating the calorie content of your food online.

Dementia genes

My mother is 65 and is becoming increasingly forgetful and unreasonable. The doctor said it is early dementia. I read that it is genetic, so I am scared. Genes do play a role in the early development of dementia. Still, you can lower your risk by maintaining ideal body weight, exercising for 30 minutes a day, controlling any diabetes, hypertension or high cholesterol, keeping yourself mentally active by learning new things and guarding against loneliness.

Muscle strengthening is essential. Muscles waste as we grow older. Muscles utilise sugar efficiently. Do dumbbell exercises. Women need a 2-kilo dumbbell, and men 5 kilos. Thirty repetitions are enough.

If you or your partner have diabetes, start your children on a regular structured exercise regimen by the age of three. An hour a day invested in encouraging them to exercise will prevent a lifetime of diabetes and its complications.

Joint pain

I have osteoarthritis, and all my joints hurt. I am on painkillers, and the doctors keep increasing the dose. Are there any supplements I can try?

There are lots of supplements, like chondroitin and glucosamine, which are often prescribed along with painkillers. They can help repair the cartilage in your joints, decrease the damage and reduce pain. Vitamin D3, turmeric and omega-3 fatty acids are others you can try. Before taking supplements, check with your physician.

Balance issues

I feel like I am losing my balance and that I will fall down. The neurologist said that I have some loss of sensation in both feet due to diabetes. He gave me multivitamin tablets, but they did not help.

Try to keep your diabetes under strict control. Also, you can try balance exercises, walking heel to toe 20 steps forwards and backwards every day.

Asthma niggle

I am an asthmatic on regular inhalers, but I feel wheezy now, even on maintenance therapy.

You can improve your lung performancewith regular steam inhalations, breathing exercises and reducing body weight, particularly stomach fat.

People with maturity-onset type 2 noninsulin dependent diabetes do produce insulin in their bodies

HOTEL OPERATIONS MANAGER

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COOK WANTED

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for Franchise Motel

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EYEBROWS THREADER WANTED

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Looking for a person to help my 80-year-old mother who lives in Glenview, IL. The job requires helping her with housework, cooking, doing groceries, laundry, and giving her company.A plus if the person can drive and speak Hindi, Punjabi or Urdu. 30+ hours a week. We need daytime hours but have some flexibility on timing. Hourly rate based on experience. Reference requested. If interested, or if you know someone, please contact Call: 847.477.7766 or

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Medicare Advantage PPO

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HIRING

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MATRIMONIAL