Voice of asia dec 27 2013

VOICE OF ASIA 1

VOICE OF ASIA Commemorating 25 years of dedicated service to the community

FRIDAY, December 27, 2013 Obama administration relaxes rules of healthcare law four days before deadline. Read more on Page 15 OR Call 832415-3180

Vol. 26 No. 52 Friday, December 27 , 2013 Published Weekly from Houston 713-774-5140 20 Pages ( 2 sections) 50 cents E-mail: voiceasia@aol.com

ISCA President, Attends India House Sareen Clinic Is President Obama’s Holiday Now A Full Time Clinic With Reception At The White House Major Expansions

Lalit Chinoy, president ISCA, Houston seen greeted by the First Lady Michelle Obama and US President Barack Obama on Dec. 20, 2013 while his son Mitren L. Chinoy looks on. Photo Credit: Austin Zhao, Pathway To China

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ASHINGTON, DC –Lalit Chinoy, President, Indian Senior Citizen’s Association (ISCA), Houston, was invited to attend the Holiday Reception hosted by the First Lady Michelle Obama and President Obama at the White House on Dec. 20, 2013. This is the first time in the 28 years of the ISCA’s history that it’s president had been invited y the US President.

“It was an unforgettable experience,” Chinoy says, “and a great honor for ISCA.” Chinoy described the elaborate and attractive decorations and the spectacular Christmas tree.

“After lots of security check

(but without any trouble) everyone that was invited and was allowed to enter the Holiday Celebration area where there were varieties of food with drinks.”

At about 4pm, President Obama and the First Lady Mrs. Obama descended the Grand Stairways graciously and went to podium to give their welcome address. “The President gave a speech for about 10 minutes in a very simple but serious tone and also joked in between. There were about 100 people and they all gave a tremendous applaud to his speech,” Chinoy reported. “He requested all community leaders that were invited to keep

up the good work that can help keep the people of various cultures united,” said Chinoy.

Chinoy and son Mitren Chinoy who accompanied him were in the first row and just a few feet away from the podium. “When Michelle Obama came to me, I just joked and told her that actually she was the president and she laughed and patted me on my shoulder.”

Humbled by the experience, Chinoy said, “I was lucky to shake hands with both of them.

One could feel impressed with their simplicity and down-toearth style, Mitren and I were very impressed with them . It is a life time memory,” Chinoy expressed.

Donors Bal and Rita Sareen (center) seen handing the check for the new India House Clinic to India House President Jugal Malani, and VP, Brig Agrawal.

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OUSTON - India House, a community center, the showcase of commitment of Indian Americans of Greater Houston, finally started operations in 2008 after nearly 40 years of dreaming that such a center can indeed become a reality. Several community service programs got started like, education of young children with daily after school program to reinforce Math, Science and English; and special full day summer school for children in need of special coaching, Senior citizen’s meeting place for recreation, socialization and entertainment; health and fitness program with Yoga, children’s introduction to Cricket (taped ball); spiritual program like Geeta education and meditation classes,

youngster’s cultural program like Dance classes, bringing children and seniors to digital era by computer classes; legal assistance for immigrants, new to the country and one of the special programs, very dear to my heart, the Charity Medical clinic.

India House started with a relatively small facility of approximately 800 sq. feet under the leadership of Dr. Manish Rungta, operating only on Saturdays, but with huge ambition of eventually expanding it to serve a larger number of Houstonians. The center has served not only the Indian-American community but the entire community, especially those who are financially challenged irrespective of color, race, reli-

gion, ethnicity, land of origin, immigration status or other factors. No one is asked about their health insurance policy or social security number or any other private information, just their contact information.

The idea and the spirit behind this was the opportunity to give back to the community and to this great nation.

The India House Charity clinic was possible due to the voluntary service of more than 24 physicians of IndianAmerican origin and more than 12 members of other communities. Each of them took out precious time from their weekends, family time to serve those who needed healthcare.

Continued on Page 5

Indian-American Nandita Berry appointed as Texas Secretary of State

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Attorney Nandita Berry.

ASHINGTON: Attorney Nandita Berry has been appointed as the Secretary of State for Texas by governor Rick Perry, making her the first Indian-American to occupy this top position in the Southern State. In this position, effective January 7 onwards, Berry will serve as the state’s chief elections officer, the governor’s liaison on border and Mexican affairs, and Texas’ chief protocol officer for state and international mat-

ters. “Nandita Berry personifies what is possible through hard work and dedication in the State of Texas,” Perry said in a statement.

“Arriving from India at the age of 21 with nothing but USD 200 to her name, she worked diligently to earn her law degree and has since become one of the most accomplished attorneys in the state,” he said.

The Secretary of State’s Office serves as the formal

repository for official and business records, publishes government rules and regulations, keeps the state seal and attests to the governor’s signature on official documents.

“Her work ethic, intelligence and wide array of experiences will serve her capably in her new duties as Secretary of State, and I look forward to working with her to keep Texas the best place in the country to live, work and raise a family,” Perry said.

Berry said that she is humbled to follow “ in the footsteps of Stephen F Austin, Texas’ first Secretary of State.” She replaces John Steen.

“Like him, I came to Texas in search of a better life and the limitless opportunities to be found across our great state,” she said.

“Every day, I see Austin’s pioneering spirit alive in Texas, and this great honour proves once again Texas is the land of opportunity, both in

the private sector and public service,” Berry said.

A senior counsel at Locke Lord LLP, Berry is a member of the State Bar of Texas and Houston Bar Association.

Berry received a Bachelor’s degree from Mount Carmel College in Bangalore, a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston, and a law degree from the University of Houston Law Centre. (PTI)

OP-ED/OPINIONS/COMMENTARY

VOICE OF ASIA 2

Diplomatic passport, immunity, and privileges in context of U.S. Laws

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D

iplomatic immunity is a form of legal immunity and a policy held between governments that ensures that diplomats are given safe passage and are considered not susceptible to lawsuit or prosecution under the host country’s laws (although they can be expelled).

Originally, these privileges and immunities were granted on a bilateral basis, which led to misunderstandings and pressure on weaker countries.

Various international agreements known as the Vienna Conventions codified the rules and agreements, providing standards and privileges to all countries. As an institution, Diplomatic immunity developed to allow for the maintenance of government relations.

At present, there are two separate and distinct international conventions, (Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961, and Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963) on this subject.

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Voice of Asia assumes no liability resulting from action taken based on the information included herein. Published weekly by Free Press LLC, 8303 SW Freeway, Suite # 325, Houston, TX 77074. Tel: 713-774-5140. Fax: 713-7745143. Email for editorial submissions: voiceasia@aol.com; Email for advertising inquiries and submissions: advertisingvoa@aol.com

Voice of Asia (USPS 010-215) (ISSN#10705058) is published every Friday (for a subscription rate of $30 per year) by Free Press LLC, 8303 SW Freeway, Suite # 325, Houston, TX 77074. Tel: 713-774-5140. Fax: 713774-5143. Periodical postage paid at Houston, Texas.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Voice of Asia, 8303 SW Freeway, Suite # 325, Houston, TX 77074 It is the policy of Voice of Asia to publish letters to the editor which evidence a variety of viewpoints. The opinions expressed in any particular letter to the editor are not necessarily those of the management. Voice of Asia welcomes letters in reply to issues raised in letters to editor. In as much letters to the editor are not articles written or researched by members of Voice of Asia, it is not the policy of the Voice of Asia to perform any investigation or confirmation of any facts or allegations contained in letters to the editor. Moreover, Voice of Asia reserves the right to edit letters to the editor as necessary to correct errors of fact, punctuation, spelling and to comply with space constraints.

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However, one does not enjoy diplomatic immunity just by virtue of his/her holding a diplomatic passport. Also, and it’s possible for the official’s home country to waive such immunity under certain circumstances. Alternatively,

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the home country may recall and prosecute the individual in individual’s home country.

For Example, Indian diplomat, Anil Verma who was India’s third most senior diplomat in London, was recalled by Government of India, in January 2011, when his wife Paromita Verma’s filed criminal charges against him alleging that he had slapped her. Similarly, during the same time, another Indian diplomat, Alok Jha, posted at UN mission, in New York, got into a serious fight at JFK, and Government of India was forced to recall him.

Mr. Jha was barely in his first week on his posting at India’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York, as a First Secretary.

Consular immunity privileges are described in the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963 (VCCR).

Consular immunity offers protections similar to diplomatic immunity, but these protections are not as extensive, given the functional differences between consular and diplomatic officers. For example, consular officers are not accorded absolute immunity from a host country’s criminal jurisdiction; they may be tried for certain local laws by a local court, and are immune from local jurisdiction only in cases directly relating to consular functions. Article 17 of Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963 (VCCR), specifically states that, “performance of diplomatic acts by the consulate officers does not confer any diplomatic privileges and immunities”.

The best example is of Raymond Davis, a United States national, who allegedly killed two Pakistanis in Lahore on January 27, 2011. Raymond Davis was not granted diplomatic immunity by the Court in Pakistan and had to go through the legal process there. Raymond Davis was a contractor with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Although claimed that he was protected by diplomatic immunity because of his employment with the U.S. Consulate in Lahore, Davis was jailed and criminally charged

by Pakistani authorities. The Pakistani officials disputed the claim of immunity from a murder charge, asserting that Davis was involved in clandestine operations, and questioned the scope of his activities in Pakistan even though President Barack Obama asked Pakistan not to prosecute Davis and recognize him as a diplomat.

Envoys posted to the United States, like their American counterparts posted abroad, enjoy full diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Convention. But this immunity is challenged when these diplomats commit crimes. For example, Strauss-Kahn (former IMF Chief) was handcuffed, taken out of his airplane, and put into the jail in New York, in May 2011, even though Kahn claimed his diplomatic immunity. Nowhere is that immunity challenged more apparently than in abuse of foreign nationals brought to the United States to work as servants in diplomatic households. Diplomats serving in the United States can bring domestic servants into the country on visas (A-3) available only to diplomatic personnel.

And while the diplomats sign contracts with the workers promising compliance with all U.S. labor laws, gross violations are not uncommon. (“Why are diplomats free to

abuse in America?” By Martina E. Vandenberg, Washington Post, June 03, 2011). The Freedom Network, a coalition of anti-trafficking organizations, reports that dozens of domestic workers employed by diplomats in the United States have made allegations of rape, sexual assault, forced labor, involuntary servitude, labor law violations and human trafficking against their employers. (“Why are diplomats free to abuse in America?” By Martina E. Vandenberg, Washington Post, June 03, 2011). The Government Accountability Office cited numerous cases of such abuse while acknowledging that the cases were probably underreported.

Take the case of Badar AlAwadi, formerly the third secretary at the Kuwaiti Mission to the United Nations. He and his wife brought an Indian domestic worker to the United States in 1996 to care for their children and serve as a housekeeper. In a civil complaint filed in federal court in New York, the domestic worker alleged that she ran away after enduring four years of forced labor, rape and mistreatment by her employers. In Alan S. Mzengi’s case, the former minister/consular and social affairs at the Tanzanian Embassy in Washington, a young woman, filed a lawsuit in federal court, and alleged that Mzengi trafficked her into the United States for forced labor. Upon arrival, her complaint stated, she was stripped of her passport, forbidden to leave the house and subjected to 16-hour days as a nanny /housekeeper without any payment. A federal judge, after hearing the victim testify, called the Mzengis’ conduct “heinous” and found that the victim was “a prisoner” in the defendants’ home.

In February 2012, Indian maid Shanti Gurung won a case against Indian Foreign Service officer Neena Malhotra, who served as a Press and Culture Counselor at the NYC Indian Consulate from 2006-2009.

When she came to New York City in 2006, Neena brought Shanti Gurung from India to serve as her house-maid. U.S. Judge Frank Maas’ in his order in Neena Malhotra’s case stated: “Gurung consequently often “went hungry as there were no leftovers to eat…..”

With feudal culture prevalent in India, it’s a normal affair to have domestic servant(s), at times more than one, in one’s household there. However, it’s the treatment to these servants that attracts media’s attention and Human Rights Watch organizations’ criticism, more particularly if these incidents happen with the Indian domestic servants outside India. With an estimated official figure of 90 million domestic workers in India, it is often the women and children who suffer the most.

The latest Global Slavery Index of 2013 that provides a ranking of 162 countries is an eyeopener and states India has the largest estimated number of people in modern slavery estimated between 13.3 and 14.7 million. According to Human Rights Watch, “domestic workers in countries like India face “horrific abuses”. As United States’ foundation is based upon equality, liberty, and justice for all, therefore, these workers enjoy a fairly good amount of legal protection here. For example in the USA, there is a federal law, known as Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) , which establishes minimum wage, overtime pay eligibility, recordkeeping,

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and child labor standards affecting full-time and part-time workers in the private sector and in federal, state, and local governments. Besides this federal law, different states, in the USA, have their own labor laws.

For example in the state of New York there is ‘Domestic Worker’s Bill of Rights’.

Among other rights, this law gives domestic workers the right to overtime pay, a day of rest every seven days, three paid days of rest each year (after one year of work for the same employer), protection under the state human rights law, and a special cause of action for domestic workers who suffer sexual or racial harassment.

Then there is ‘Wage Theft Prevention Act (WTPA)’, which took effect on April 9, 2011.

Also in the US, there are numerous Legal Aid Societies providing pro-bono representation to these victims. Not only are these victims (domestic servants) exposed to these various labors laws in the USA but also to immigration laws of this country.

Human trafficking, also known as trafficking in persons, is a form of modern-day slavery in which traffickers lure individuals with false promises of employment and a better life. Traffickers often take advantage of poor, unemployed individuals who lack access to social services. Therefore, in October 2000, Congress created the “T” nonimmigrant status by passing the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (VTVPA). The legislation strengthens the ability of law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute human trafficking, and also offer protection to victims. The T Nonimmigrant Status (T visa) is a set aside for those who are or have been victims of human trafficking, protects victims of human trafficking and allows victims to remain in the United States to assist in an investigation or prosecution of human trafficking.

U visa status (also known as U nonimmigrant status) was created by the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000. It is designed to provide lawful status to noncitizen crime victims who are assisting or are willing to assist the authorities in investigating crimes. The law enforcement authorities of the United States, under Vienna Conventions, are required to extend certain privileges and immunities to members of foreign diplomatic missions and consular posts. However, the purpose of these privileges and immunities is not to benefit individuals but to ensure the efficient and effective performance of their official missions they represent. These privileges and immunities are not absolute, and law enforcement agencies retain their fundamental responsibility to protect and police the orderly conduct of all persons, irrespective of their status and/or position in the United States.

Anand Ahuja, Attorney at Law is licensed to practice law in the States of New York, Connecticut, Virginia, United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, U.S. District Court; Southern District of NY, U.S. District Court; Eastern District of NY. He works as an attorney with Anand Ahuja Associates, Attorney at Law and International Business Consultants, 101-70 Suite 2, Lefferts Boulevard, Richmond Hill, NY 11419 [718] 8501952. Email: anandesq@hotmail.com

VOICE OF ASIA 3

COMMUNITY VOICE OF ASIA

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Sri Meenakshi Temple’s Ayyappa Mandala Pooja 2013

Tel: 713-774-5140

Bharathiar and Avvaiyar visit BKM Houston’s GB meeting

Artists Bharathiar and Avaaiyar far rt. with BKM members.

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Lord Ayyappa Uthsava murti was taken in procession around the temple. Photo Courtesy: RamGanesh Ganagasabai

by Raj Rentala

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eenakshi Temple Society, home to different Hindu cultures and customs celebrating 31st Anniversary of Ayyappa Mandala Pooja this year. As part of its celebration, Annadhanam was held on December 7th, 2013 as well as community food drive to support Houston Food Bank was initiated.

This year’s Irumudi Kattunera Pooja started on Friday, December 20th, 2013 in the Youth Center Hall. The frenzied devotees eager to visualize and feel the blessings of the lord started the preparations days ahead. As Sun was ready to wind up the rays for the day, young kids and swamis clad in black dhoti’s and their maaligaipuram (spouse) draped with bright gleam on their faces thronged the hall to perform all the austerities.

The pooja began with kids as young as 5 year old to 80 years old taking the mala from Guruswamy, followed by Sahasranamam (1000 names of Lord Ayyappa). The main event, Irumudi Kattu started with the Kanni swami’s (novice) doing their Kattu first by the Guruswamy, followed by the kids and then others. Kids did the Irumudi with the same zeal as their parents. Sweet melodies of the lord were rendered by the bhaktas throughout the event. The fasting swamis filled the coconut with ghee (coconut represents human body and ghee the soul) as per the traditions of Sabari Mala, located in Kerala, India. Their families of-

The drama opened with a conversation between Tamil literary giants, Bharathiar and Avvaiyar, both keen on knowing the current status of their beloved Tamil language.

Lord Ayyappa devotees carrying Irumudi Kattu fered rice and other Pooja items to take it in the Irumudi kattu. The Kattu was completed with Guruswamy doing his own Irumudi kattu. The day came to an end with padi pooja and aarthi. The devotees rested the night there before proceeding to the temple in the morning.

Devotees showed in large numbers in spite of the heavy rain in the forecast and the culmination day started with the devotees taking part in ganapathy homam. From there they proceed to the ayyappan Sannidi

carrying the Irumudi on their head chanting Saranam and songs. At the sanctum the coconuts are broken and the ghee is collected for the priest to perform the abhishekam. It is believed that when the ghee is poured on the deity the jeevathma becomes one with paramathma which signifies oneness of the Universe. Once the abhishekam is done, the pratima is adorned with sandal paste, crown, necklaces and garlands. After the aarthi was performed, the Uthsava murti was taken in procession around the temple where Thalapoli accompanied with girls

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harathi Kalai Manram, Houston’s own Tamil organization, celebrated the completion of the current year with the General Body Meeting at Sri Meenakshi Temple on Sunday December 15th, 2013. During the meeting, Partha Krishnaswamy was officially confirmed as President.

Partha thanked the outgoing board (led

by Raja Amrithalingam). The meeting was followed with a talent show comprising dance, music, a fashion shown.

A highlight of the show was the drama “Vazhgha Senthamizh” (Long Live the Tamil language!) written by Houston’s own script writer par excellence, Chandramouli.

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astounded at changes they see, initially impressed at the economic progress, but quickly disheartened with the anglicization of their beloved Tamil language.

The skit took the audience through a humorous conversation between the great poets, first with a Chennai auto driver and then a school teacher. In their search of a suitable place that fosters Tamil language learning, both then come to Houston and are pleasantly surprised to end the search in BKM Tamil School. The audience was captivated by all performers with Mala Gopal as Avvaiyar, G.N. Prasad as Bharathiar, Senthil Arcot as the Auto driver, Mani as the Chennai school teacher and Malar Narayan as BKM Tamil school teacher. That ‘language is the window to the culture’ resonated well with the audience. The drama can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=8d2J_zE8ek4.

In the drama, Bharathiar and Avaaiyar come to modern day Chennai and are

Following the drama, the current teachers of BKM Tamil School from various centers, with the respective coordinators from Pearland (Mala Gopal), Sugarland (Dr. Solayappa Chockalingam), Cypress (Kuzhali Arcot) and Durgabari center (Malar Narayanan) were felicitated by Bharathiar and Avvaiyar for their hard work and dedicated service in teaching Tamil to Houston children. All the teachers received trophies and the volunteers received certificates as recognition of their hard work. The event finished off with a lovely dinner catered by Annam Restaurant. For details visit www.bkmhouston.org

carrying decorated plate with lamp and flowers and traditional Chenda Melam from Panchari Arts of Stafford, TX. This year the lord of Panthala showered his blessings as rainfall right after the procession entered the sanctum. Final aarthi was done to Lord Ayyappa. MTS chairman Mr. Tupil Narasiman best described the event as the bhakthi at the peak was experienced by all the participants. Chairman addressed the crowd by thanking Guruswamy, Ayyappa devotees,

priests, volunteers and all the participants.

Houston’s own Udipi restaurant continued its tradition of providing Annadhanam to all the participants this year as well. This year’s Mandala Pooja will conclude with Kalabha Abishekam on the 25th December at 10:00 am followed by Pushpabhishekam on the 26th December at 7:00 pm in the Meenakshi Temple. All devotees are requested to participate in these upcoming events and get the blessings from Lord Ayyappa!

Known as ‘Mahakavi’ (Great Poet), Bharathiar lived at the dawn of the 20th century and was an Independence activist and reformer. The vigor of his verse was a forerunner to modern Tamil poetry that combined classical and contemporary elements with a prodigious output penning thousands of verses on diverse topics. Avvaiyar, a great 13th century female poet and scholar of Tamil literature is immortalized by her works mostly aimed at children that guide and explain the basic wisdoms that govern life.

25th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL

VOICE OF ASIA 4

FRIDAY, December 27, 2013

FROM OUR ARCHIVES

The People’s Lawyer www.peopleslawyer.net Richard M. Alderman Interim Dean of the Law Center

Host generally not liable for drunk partygoer who drives Q. We are having a New Year’s Eve party. I assume there will be lots of drinking, and plan on having a taxi on stand-by to take home anyone too drunk to drive. I am worried, however, about my potential liability if someone does leave drunk and has an accident. Can I be held responsible?

A. When you have a private party you are what the law calls a “social host,” and in Texas you generally have no liability if one of the people who attended the party leaves drunk and has an accident. Under Texas law, a bar or restaurant that allows a drunk patron to leave and drive can be liable under our “Dram Shop” law. An adult social host may also be liable if he or she serves alcohol to someone under the age of 18. In most other cases, a social host has no liability for merely letting a guest leave the party and drive drunk. A social host may be liable, however, if he or she engages in an affirmative act to empower the guest to drive drunk, for example, giving a car to an obviously drunk guest.

Although you may not have any liability if you allow a drunk guest to leave and drive, you are doing the right thing by thinking about this issue, and taking steps to ensure your guests don’t drive drunk. Whether you should allow someone to drive drunk is not just a legal issue.

Q. My neighbor is building a new house. The contractor’s backhoe banged into my fence and broke the fence and the support posts. Who is liable for the damage, the neighbor or the builder?

This article is reproduced from the Voice of Asia Archives in commemorating our 25th Anniversary:

T

he India Culture Center (ICC) ended the year with a Bang! India Bazaar, this year was held at Hyatt Regency Downtown.

As expected, the bazaar attracted a very large and enthusiastic crowd.

“We had a total of 4,500 people who attended the bazaar, a record breaker,” Paul Mehta, ICC president said.

Both, business and community members started arriving at the Regency basement promptly at 10 a.m. and by noon, the area was crowded.

The food stalls had queus with at least a 20 minute wait, but the other booths weren’t as bad. Travel, Legal, Medical, News Media, Bank, Cultural and Religious booths were all readily available with professionals to answer all the necessary questions.

The raffle arranged by the Voice of Asia was a hit and we would like to thank all the businesses, Fashion Arcade, Dual Electronics, Spicy Food, and

Maharaja, for their generous contribution towards the winners.

The highlight of the day was the cultural and musical program, especially of the Houston Orchestra accompanied by two star performers, Sudha Morolia and Munir, under the leadership of band leader Taufiq.

“I am so glad people enjoyed our show because we did it out of love towards the art of music,

not for the money,” Sudha said.

The performance was free and a big hit. The crowds could be heard screaming, “once more, once more.”

Overall, the ICC conducted a great show and ICC president Paul Mehta and his board members should be commended for the superb job in arranging for India Bazaar.

Date of Publication: December 1, 1988

A. The fact that your neighbor is building the house does not make the neighbor responsible for acts of the builder. Your neighbor did not engage in any wrongful conduct, and Texas law does not make an owner liable for acts of contractors. On the other hand, the builder owes you an obligation to act reasonably and not damage your property. If the builder was negligent and banged into the fence, my opinion is that the builder should be responsible for the cost of replacing the fence. I suggest you talk with the builder and ask for compensation.

Justice court may be the best option if you cannot work things out.

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ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ABOUT FIANCE (E) VISA (K-1 VISA):

A. As a general rule, agreements dealing with land, such as a sale or lease, must be in writing to be enforceable. There is an exception, however, for certain leases. A residential lease for a year or less is enforceable even if it is not in writing. If you and your landlord have an agreement from October until April, it is enforceable. Of course, you will have to prove that the agreement exists.

Q. My mother just died. About all she owned was her car. Is there an easy way to get her car put in my name?

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Answers to your Immigration Questions

by Sharlene Sharmila Richards, Immigration Lawyer: email at srichardslaw@aol.com Q: What is a fiancé or K-1 visa?

Sharlene Sharmila Richards

A: It is a non-immigrant visa which allows your foreign citizen fiancé(e) to legally come to the United States to marry you.

Q; I am a permanent resident. Can I petition for my fiancé? What are the requirements to apply for a fiancé visa?

A: Only US Citizens can petition for their fiancé or fiancée. You and your fiancé must have met in person at least one time in the last 2 years prior to filing the petition for the K-1 visa. You both must also be legally free to enter into the marriage and remain unmarried until your fiancé arrives here in the United States to marry you.

Q I am interested in filing for a K-1 visa for my fiancee. What is the process?

A: You will first file the petition using form I-129 F. Once the petition is approved, your fiancée will then need to file her non-immigrant visa application at the US consulate abroad. She will then be asked to attend an interview. After the interview, she will be issued the K-1 visa. Once she enters the United States with the K-1 visa, you and your fiancé must marry within the allotted 90 day period. After the marriage has taken place, she will then need to file her adjustment application with USCIS in order to become a permanent resident.

Q: My fiancé was previously married and he has a minor child. Can this child come with him to the United States? Can the child subsequently become a permanent resident?

A: Yes. Your fiancé will be the K-1 visa holder and his child will come on the K-2 visa. When you and the K-1 visa holder marry, the K-1 visa holder will apply for adjustment of status and his minor child, will also be eligible to adjust on the basis that you, the US citizen is now his or her step-parent and thus eligible to petition for that child.

Q: I came to the United States on a fiancé visa. However, after two months of being here, I changed my mind about the marriage to the K-1 visa Petitioner. I wish to marry someone else who is a US Citizen. Can I do that?

A: If you came to the United States on a fiancé visa, but end up not marrying the K-1 Petitioner, you cannot adjust your status by just marrying another person. Your K-1 status automatically expires after 90 days and you will need to leave the United States at the end of the 90 day period. The other person to whom you wish to marry can then Petition for a new K-1 visa for you to come to the United States.

Q Can my fiancé who has the K-1 visa work or study in the United States?

A: After admission to the United States on the K-1 visa, your fiancé can immediately apply for employment authorization which is valid for only 90 days after admission. After the marriage, your fiancé can then file for extended work authorization concurrently with the application to adjust status as a permanent resident. Your fiancé will also be permitted to attend school.

Q: When I petition for the K-1 visa for my fiancée, do I need to provide an affidavit of support?

A: Yes, you will need to file Form I-I34 and show that your income is 100% above the Federal Poverty Guidelines for the year. You will submit this Affidavit of Support to the US consulate at the time of the interview for the K-1 visa.

Disclaimer: Any advice provided in this article is general in nature and not intended to constitute legal advice for any specific case. Please consult with an immigration lawyer about the specific circumstances of your case.

Sharlene Sharmila Richards is a licensed Immigration Lawyer practicing in Houston, Texas. She is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. She was admitted to the New York State Bar in 2000 and is a member of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals and a member of the US Supreme Court. If you require advice or assistance, you may contact her at telephone number 713-623-8088 or by email at srichardslaw@aol.com to schedule a free consultation to discuss your case. Also you can visit www.houstonimmigrationattorney.com

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COMMUNITY

VOICE OF ASIA 5

FRIDAY, December 27, 2013

India House Sareen Clinic .... Are you ready to seek treatment for varicose veins?

Free varicose and spider vein seminar they can become varicose.

Q: How common are they?

Ulises Baltazar, M.D.

Continued from Page 1 India House pursued its goal towards the expansion and finally was rewarded when the opportunity came in the form of great help and commitment from the Harris County officials. India House members received inspiration, encouragement and guidance from Harris County Judge Mr. Ed Emmett, a great friend of India, Indians and Indian-Americans, Dr. Atul Varadhachary, former Chair of Strategic Planning Committee of Harris County Hospital District Board (now called Harris Health System) and former senior manager at McKinsey & Co., former President of Agennix Inc. and current President of Pratham, USA and many officials of Harris Health, specially Mr. George Masi, Senior Executive Vice President and C.O.O. and Mr. Brian Pitre, Director Facilities Management, at every step.

“The dream has now become a reality due to our partnership with Harris Health System and with a very generous donation by great friends of India House, philanthropists and trustees of India House, the Sareen Family, Rita and

Bal Sareen, to modify our facility and to accommodate the expanded clinic. We also received large special donations for this effort from Angela and Chowdary Yalamanchili and from family of Rajinder Soni,” the press release stated.

From approximately 800 sq. feet to 7500 sq. feet, close to 900 % expansion! India House awaits its inauguration and ribbon cutting on Friday, January 24th, 2014.

The new India House Sareen Clinic in partnership with Harris Health System will be able to provide complete health care to any and all Harris County residents. It will operate from Monday to Saturday, mostly all day and extended hours on some days, including 7.00 AM and 6.00 PM. Besides providing general health care that Family Practitioners and General Practitioners provide, all Laboratory Facilities will be available. In addition to this, if any special test or special procedure or surgical procedure or hospitalization is necessary, all patients will be eligible to receive care at the main facilities of Harris Health System like Ben Taub Hospital. No patient, insured or uninsured, will be refused

care and the charges will be according to the rules of Harris Health System based on insurance or family income of the uninsured people. Although prior appointment is preferred, the clinic will try to accommodate even the walkins if possible.

“In addition to the India House Sareen Harris Health Clinic, we will continue to operate our original clinic at India House, and we will try to make it a clinic of specialists, as so many physician friends are greatly qualified in their specialties and no specialty is out of our reach. This will allow patients to receive not only general care but also specialist’s opinion,” the release stated.

The next expansion is being planned for this spring and with the partnership with University of Houston and very generous donation of Dr. Dennis Golden, it will start an Eye Clinic where it will be able to provide not only eye glasses but also specialized eye care of all kind. India House is also working to establish partnership with M.D. Anderson Cancer Center to offer cancer screening like Mammograms and other tests.

SUGAR LAND—(December 20, 2013) — Varicose veins can be unsightly and may cause discomfort or pain. In some cases, they can even lead to serious health problems. Understanding more about varicose veins can help you decide how to better deal with them. Ulises Baltazar, M.D., board certified vascular surgeon with Houston Methodist Cardiovascular Surgery Associates, answers some commonly asked questions.

Q: What are varicose veins?

A: They are enlarged veins that may be blue, red or fleshcolored and occur most often in the legs. They may appear twisted and bulging and may be raised above the surface of the skin.

Q: What causes them?

A: Varicose veins may be caused by weak, damaged, deformed or missing valves in the veins. Your leg muscles push blood back to the heart against gravity. Normally, valves in your veins keep your blood flowing forward to return it to your heart. But if the valves aren’t working properly, blood can leak back into the veins and pool there. When backed-up blood makes the veins bigger,

A: Varicose veins affect half of people 50 years and older.

They are more common among older people, people who are overweight or obese, those who sit or stand for long periods, and women.

Q: When should I see a health care provider about varicose veins?

A: You should seek treatment if varicose veins cause pain or aching; a vein is red, swollen, very tender or warm to the touch; the skin on your calf and ankle becomes thick and changes color, or has sores; a varicose vein begins to bleed; or your symptoms interfere with your daily activities.

Q: How are varicose veins treated?

A: Varicose Veins are treated in the following ways: • Self-care— Getting regular exercise that uses the legs; eating a low-salt, high-fiber diet; maintaining a healthy weight; and elevating your legs when resting may help ease pain and keep varicose veins from getting worse.

• Compression stockings— Over-the-counter or prescription-strength compression stockings squeeze your legs, helping blood move more efficiently.

• Sclerotherapy— A doctor injects a solution into the veins that scars and closes them. In a few weeks, the veins should fade away, but addition-

al treatments may be required.

This procedure may be used for small or medium-size varicose veins.

• Laser treatment— Very strong bursts of light are sent through the skin to the veins, making them slowly fade and disappear. This is usually only effective for small veins.

• Catheter-assisted procedures— A doctor threads a tiny tube called a catheter into a vein, then uses either radiofrequency or laser energy (heat) at the tip of the catheter to close off and seal the vein as the catheter is removed. This treatment is effective for large varicose veins.

• Ambulatory phlebectomy— This is another surgical procedure that involves removing veins through small incisions, but only the parts of the leg that will be pricked are numbed with anesthesia.

• Vein stripping— A long vein is surgically removed through small incisions; general anesthesia is often required.

This procedure is usually reserved for very large veins.

You don’t have to live with the discomfort and embarrassment of varicose veins. For an appointment with Dr. Baltazar, call 281.240.8400.

FREE VEIN SEMINAR Join us on Tuesday, January 21 at 6 p.m. for a free vein seminar at Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital’s conference center. Seminar will be presented by Dr. Ulises Baltazar, who will be speaking about the causes, symptoms, who is at risk, treatments and prevention of varicose and spider veins. Registration required. Call 281.274.7500 or register online at houstonmethodist.org/events.

Jurors can now donate jury pay to survivors of fallen officers, firefighters

Chris Daniel, Harris County District Clerk

by Harris County District Clerk Chris Daniel When the roof collapsed during a massive fire at the Southwest Inn last spring, Houston Fire Department Capt. Bill Dowling became trapped inside and four HFD firefighters were killed. Capt.

Dowling’s comrades rescued him, but his legs later had to be amputated. Oxygen deprivation has left him with hampered skills.

His devoted wife, Jacki, faced the daunting task of helping her ailing husband in any way she could. But she also had to weigh how she would provide for herself and the couple’s three children.

The 100 Club , a non-profit that aids families of firefighters and law enforcement officers killed or severely injured in the line of duty, stepped in, informing her that she needn’t worry about paying the mortgage or college tuition bills.

Donations to such families as the Dowlings prompted the District Clerk’s Office, with the approval of Commissioners Court, to add The 100 Club recently to the list of non-profits to which jurors and prospective jurors may donate juror pay. Jurors and prospective jurors receive $6 the first day, and jurors are paid $40 a day thereafter.

I believe that our society owes it to the firefighters and police officers who die in the line of duty that we take care of their loved ones after they’re gone or severely disabled.

Rep. Ted Poe, a Republi-

can representing the Houston area’s 2nd Congressional District, said, “The 100 Club is the premier group for recognizing the importance of taking the lead in helping the families of slain first responders. No group anywhere does it better, more efficiently or compassionately than The 100 Club. Houston takes care of its own.”

There are seven other, equally worthy organizations to which jurors can donate jury pay: Children’s Protective Services Child Welfare Service Fund , Victims of Crime , Child Advocates, Crime Stoppers of Houston, Casa De Esperanza De Los Ninos, Tejano Center for Community Concerns and ESCAPE Family Resource Center.

Launched in 1953, The 100 club was the brainchild of Leopold Meyer, Ray Elliot, R.H. Abercrombie, William A. “Bill” Smith and Jim “Silver Dollar” West. They convinced 100 people to kick in $100 each for the familes of HPD officers killed in the line of duty.

It has grown enormously since then and now serves 31 southeast Texas counties.

In 2001, it began providing benefits to firefighters’ dependents.

Donations of juror pay will be used by The 100 Club in a number of ways. Over the years, The 100 Club has received $40.7 million in donations and disbursed as much.

Of that, $16.8 million went to help the dependents of more than 160 fallen and severely injured officers and firefighters. Another $11.8 million was donated to buy protective vests and other life-protecting equipment for law enforcement agencies. And another $7.5 million went for scholarships for officers pursuing criminal justice degrees.

The District Clerk’s Office

hopes that it can play a small part in aiding the widows and children of these firefighters and officers by allowing jurors to donate jury pay to The 100 Club.

Rick Hartley, executive director of The 100 Club, said, “We are extremely pleased that Chris and Commissioners Court have included The 100 Club on the list of organizations to which jurors can donate pay.”

HPD officers greatly appreciate The 100 Club’s work.

Ray Hunt, an HPD officer and president of the Houston Police Officers’ Union, said, “The 100 Club is supporting the widows and children of a fair number of fallen HPD officers. Their children are going to college because of The 100 Club. It’s an outstanding organization.”

But Jacki Dowling provides the best testimonial to The 100 Club’s effectiveness.

Soon after the deadly fire destroyed the hotel along the Southwest Freeway May 31, the non-profit rented an apartment for the family near the hospital where Capt. Dowling was being treated. The apartment allowed the family to spend time with him and not countless hours on the road.

And it did much more.

“With The 100 Club coming in and doing what they did,” Jacki said, “we have no worries right now. They have paid off our mortgage; they have paid off our cars. We have no bills. My only job is to take care of Bill and the kids.”

Capt. Dowling was released from the hospital the day before Thanksgiving, but faces a long recovery.

District Clerk Chris Daniel runs jury service in Harris County and oversees the record keeping and staffing of 76 courts.

For more Community Stories visit our website: www.voiceofasiatvnews.com

DIASPORA

VOICE OF ASIA 6

FRIDAY, December 27, 2013

Report Exposes Controversial 52 Indians deported from SinLinks of Radical Anti-India gapore for rioting Coalition S

W

ASHINGTON, D.C. (December 15, 2013) -- After a recent effort to promote an anti-India H. Res. 417 on Capitol Hill and a series of attacks against the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) by activists operating under the banner of an internet portal, the Coalition Against Genocide (CAG), HAF today released a comprehensive report entitled, Coalition Against Genocide: A Nexus of Hinduphobia Unveiled.

The report concludes that CAG is an unregistered group primarily composed of defunct or unregistered entities, many sharing the same leadership and IP addresses for their websites, whose focus is to malign Hindu advocacy groups while promoting radical revolution in India along narrow ideological grounds.

“After conducting basic research on the groups and leaders that compose the Coalition

Against Genocide, we found that the public had to be educated about who they really are - radical extremists” said Samir Kalra, HAF’s Director and Senior Fellow for Human Rights, “Our report deconstructs CAG, its main characters and reveals a pattern of consistent peddling focused on discrediting Hindu groups even while it espouses a radical, violent and confrontational agenda built on a revolutionary, Marxist paradigm.”

The HAF report surveys the history of CAG activism dating back to 2005, when CAG constituents opposed efforts of Hindu Americans to correct deeply flawed textbooks in California, to the most recent introduction of a resolution in the House of Representatives deeply critical of India after one of its constituent groups hired a well known lobbying firm.

HAF’s study found that

several CAG leaders are selfdescribed radicals and Marxists, even serving as apologists for Maoist violence considered one of India’s most serious existential threats, Kalra added.

The report also details how key spokespersons for CAG do nothing to conceal ties to openly Islamist and jehadi terror groups, even those banned by the Government of India.

“For too long, CAG has pushed an agenda that would leave most Americans aghast, while usurping public discourse with a malignant agenda against Hindu Americans,” said Suhag Shukla, Esq., HAF Executive Director and Legal Counsel. “We can only hope that those exposed to the radical propaganda put forth by CAG leaders can now examine its context and understand the primary motivations of those too committed to shutting out Hindu American voices from the public square.”

Suspected Babbar Khalsa member arrested in US

W

ASHINGTON: A 39-year-old Indian-American man, who received asylum in the US, has been arrested by the FBI on charges of providing material support to Sikh separatist groups planning terrorist attacks in India.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Balwinder Singh of Reno, Nevada, yesterday on charges of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to murder or otherwise harm persons in a foreign country and other lesser counts involving immigration records.

Singh, aka Jhajj, aka Happy, Possi, Baljit Singh, is allegedly linked to two terrorist organisations -- Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) and Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF).

“After an extensive investigation, the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) of Northern Nevada has disrupted an individual’s involvement in facilitation activities in support of a foreign terrorist organisation, targeting an ally of the US,” FBI Special Agent incharge Laura Bucheit said.

He is scheduled to appear before a US Magistrate Judge on December 20 for an initial appearance and arraignment.

Singh, a citizen of India who fled to the US and claimed asylum, is now a permanent US resident.

He has been charged in an indictment with one count of conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim persons in a foreign country, one count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, one count of making a false statement on an immigration document, two counts of use of an immigration document procured by fraud, and one count of unlawful production of an identification document.

If convicted, Singh faces up to life in prison and fines of up to $250,000 on each count.

In the indictment, the FBI alleged that the object of the conspiracy was to advance the goals of BKI and KZF by raising money and obtaining weapons to support acts of terrorism in India.

It is alleged that the conspiracy began around November 30, 1997 after which Singh used a false identity and obtained false identification documents in the United States so that he could travel back to India without being apprehended by the Indian authorities.

The indictment alleged that Singh communicated with other co-conspirators by telephone while he was in the US to discuss acts of terrorism to be carried out in India.

Singh, the indictment alleged, sent money to co-conspirators in India for the purchase of weapons that would be provided to members of the BKI and KZF to support acts of terrorism in India.

It is alleged that Singh travelled from the United States to Pakistan, India, and other countries to meet with co-

conspirator to assist in the planning of terrorism in India, and that Singh provided advice

to co-conspirators about how to carry out acts of terrorism.

(PTI).

INGAPORE — Singapore on Friday said it had deported 53 South Asian workers allegedly involved in the city-state’s first riot in four decades, while four others awaited repatriation later in the day.

Officials on Tuesday had said they were deporting the 53 men -- 52 Indians and one Bangladeshi -- and pursuing criminal charges against 28 others for their role in the December 8 rampage.

The rare riot left 39 people, including police officers, injured and 25 vehicles damaged or burnt.

It was triggered after an Indian construction worker was fatally hit by a bus in a district known as Little India, where tens of thousands of South Asian labourers converge on weekends.

In a statement on Friday evening, police commissioner Ng Joo Hee said the 53 men originally slated for deportation had already been sent to their home countries after receiving police warnings and immigration removal orders.

Four other Indian nationals who were released Tuesday after criminal charges were withdrawn will also be repatriated on Friday after being served with police warnings, Ng said.

No reasons were given for the decision to deport the four ad-

Two police cars flipped to their sides remain in the street after a riot in Singapore on December 9, 2013 (AFP/File, Roslan Rahman).

ditional men after their release from police custody.

were at the scene of the riot but were “relatively passive”.

“When the last of these four are removed, bringing the total number repatriated to 57, the repatriation operation arising from police investigations into the Little India riots will, more or less, come to an end,” Ng said.

The mass repatriation comes as international rights groups including Humans Rights Watch and Amnesty International accused the government this week of arbitrarily deporting people without due process, in its haste to punish the alleged rioters.

The Ministry of Home Affairs had earlier stated that the men being deported were deemed to have threatened public order for failing to disperse despite police orders.

The 28 Indian nationals currently remanded in police custody and facing rioting charges were judged to have been active participants in the riot.

About 200 others will be handed “police advisories” after investigations showed they

The government maintains that it has legal powers to repatriate foreigners deemed a threat to public security.

In December last year, 29 Chinese bus drivers were deported for their involvement in a work stoppage for better wages and living conditions -the first industrial strike in the city-state since 1986.

Five others served jail terms after the strike was declared illegal.

SOUTH ASIA

VOICE OF ASIA 7

FRIDAY, December 27, 2013

Devastating church bombing Arvind Kejriwal’s swearinghaunts Christmas in Pakistan in ceremony preparations to be decided today

A Pakistani Christian mourns the death of a relative who was killed in the September 22 bomb blast at the All Saint’s Church, after a service in Peshawar on December 22, 2013 (AFP, A Majeed)

by Damon Wake

P

ESHAWAR, (AFP)For Christians in Pakistan’s troubled, violent northwestern city Peshawar, Christmas this year will be dominated by absent faces.

Eighty-two people were killed when a devastating double suicide attack targeted their place of worship three months ago.

All Saints church still bears the physical scars of the September 22 bombing, believed to be the deadliest ever against Muslim-majority Pakistan’s small Christian community.

Two bombers blew themselves up in the courtyard of the church as worshippers exchanged greetings after a service in an attack that horrified even a country as hardened to violence as Pakistan.

The courtyard walls are still peppered with holes gouged by the hundreds of ragged metal ball bearings that were packed into the explosive vests to cause maximum carnage.

Inside the church, a clock is

stopped at 11:43 -- the time the bombers struck and for some worshippers the pain of that day is still fresh.

Anwar Khokhar, 53, lost six members of his family in the attack, including three of his brothers. For him, the season that for most Christians represents hope and happiness brings no joy but only a keener sense of the bitterness of his loss.

“As Christmas gets nearer I miss them more and more. I miss them as much as it is possible to miss anyone,” he told AFP after attending the last Sunday service before Christmas.

“I miss our relatives so sadly, one of my brothers especially.

It’s so hard that he’s not with us this Sunday and especially at Christmas.”

In his sermon the vicar, Reverend Ejaz Gill, tried to offer comfort, saying the victims are at peace and will join with their loved ones spiritually to celebrate Christmas.

But for some the wounds are still too fresh and after the ser-

vice a group of women gathered to weep in the courtyard, which is adorned with colour posters of the dead, stifling tears in their brightly-coloured “Sunday best” headscarves.

One woman in particular was inconsolable, burying her face in one of the posters showing a bright-eyed teenage girl, sobbing uncontrollably.

‘No happiness’ The seemingly senseless slaughter of so many innocent civilians shocked Pakistan and it is still not clear who carried out the attack.

After an initial claim by a militant outfit allied to the Pakistani Taliban, the group’s main spokesman denied any link.

Christians have suffered attacks and riots in recent years over allegations of blasphemy, often spurious, but bombings such as the All Saints blast are very rare.

They make up just two percent of Pakistan’s overwhelmingly Muslim population of 180 million and most are poor,

Arvind Kejriwal, AAP

N

EW DELHI (Tuesday, December 24, 2013,): Delhi Chief Secretary has called a meeting of senior officials on Tuesday to make preparations for the swearing-in ceremony of AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal after he conveyed his party’s readiness to the Lt Governor to form a government in the national capital.

oath-taking ceremony on December 26 as Kejriwal had conveyed to Lt Governor Najeeb Jung that he would like to have the event at the “historic venue” where anti-graft crusader Anna Hazare had held massive protests to demand passing of the Jan Lokpal Bill.

Sources in the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) said it has been asked to keep the Ramlila Ground in Central Delhi ready for the

“The chief secretary has called a meeting tomorrow morning to discuss the preparations for the swearing-in ceremony at Ramlila Maidan, where NDMC’s commissioner has also been asked to participate,” a senior NDMC official

relegated to dirty, undesirable jobs.

will be no happiness,” she told AFP.

Being a small community they are close-knit and as housewife Nasreen Anwar explained, almost no Christian in Peshawar was untouched by September’s carnage.

Anwar, 35, lost her 14-yearold daughter in the blast while her nine-year-old daughter was so badly wounded she now uses a colostomy bag and faces further surgery in the new year.

“In every family, one or two people were killed, so how can we celebrate Christmas? There

“But everyone shared our sorrow -- Christian, Muslim came to our homes and shared

told PTI. Officials said they will start formal preparations of the event only after getting communication from the President.

Sources also said that Kejriwal had told the Lt Governor that December 26 would be his preferred date for taking oath.

After meeting with Kejriwal, Jung had sent a report to President detailing him about AAP’s readiness to form a government with support from Congress. (PTI). our sorrows,” she said.

Gill agreed the tragedy had brought the community closer together.

“We are not fractured. After the blasts it united us, not only the Christians of Peshawar but Christians all over Pakistan and the world came and showed their support for us,” he told AFP.

ASIA

VOICE OF ASIA 8

FRIDAY, December 27, 2013

H.K’s history-making crick- China to require all journalists to pass exam on ‘Marxist eters vie for Chinese fans

by Issam AHMED HONG KONG - Hong Kong’s cricketers made history by qualifying for next year’s World Twenty20 in Bangladesh, but when the news reached the city’s Chinese population, it was greeted with a collective shrug.

The former British colony placed sixth out of 16 teams at recent qualifiers in the UAE, ensuring the city will be represented at a major international cricket tournament for the first time.

It’s a major leap forward for a territory that has been playing international cricket since 1866.

But all-rounder Roy Lamsam, the squad’s only current player of Chinese origin, says reaction in Hong Kong has been muted.

“Obviously, Hong Kong’s made history. But I don’t think we got the recognition that we deserved. I don’t know whether Hong Kongers are really happy or overjoyed at that,” he told AFP. The 33-year-old, who made his debut for the side in 1996 after making his way up through an all-Chinese school team, said the sport still struggles to make headway in a city where field space is hard to come by and football and basketball are far more popular.

Cricket was brought to Hong Kong when the British colonised the island in 1841. Once played in predominantly white clubs, it grew to depend on short-term, mainly Western expatriates passing through on work contracts.

That situation has changed over the past decade with the requirements that nearly all players be permanent residents or nationals, ending the cyclical nature of the squad and placing the team on firmer ground.

“We’ve reached a stage where people can’t pretend we’re not there. They have to take us seriously’” said chairman Mike Walsh, who oversaw the team’s transition from amateur to professional in April this year.

Today, the wealthy, semiautonomous southern Chinese city of 7 million receives generous government and ICC funding that pays for top-class facilities including ball-tracking technology Hawk Eye, outreach programmes into 50 schools and weekend leagues involving roughly 500 players.

However, it remains hard for cricket to gain traction in the Chinese community, Hong Kong’s dominant ethnic group.

‘Hong Kong is going to go big’ Samson Lam, a 33-year-old league cricketer who took up the sport three years ago and now plays in an all-Chinese team, blames a lack of local media interest but hopes Hong Kong’s recent success can change that.

“Cricket is the best sport of Hong Kong and being able to make a World Cup final is something unique,” said Lam. “Hopefully (qualifying) would attract more Chinese.

The problem from what I see is there isn’t enough coverage.

“Two days after Hong Kong qualified, we started seeing some news in local newspapers -- two or three sentences max.

It’s not enough to get local people to understand it.”

The team is led by Jamie Atkinson, a former Durham University player who finished the qualifier tournament in UAE with 241 runs at a strong average of 30.12, while slow leftarmer Munir Dar’s 17 wickets at 13.05 apiece placed him second

on the leading bowlers’ list.

Rather than Chinese players, the squad is made up mainly of South Asians like 23-year-old vice-captain Waqas Barkat, a hard-hitting middle order batsman.

Barkat, the son of Pakistani immigrants who is fluent in Cantonese, is optimistic about the team’s trajectory given the relative youth of its core players.

“In the coming four to five years Hong Kong is going to go big. Our age average is 22 or 23.

In the next five years guys are going to be very senior and will have more experience playing this group,” he says.

Atkinson, a qualified teacher whose father also played for Hong Kong, says the side has taken great strides, especially since the advent of professional contracts.

But if the team is to develop further, Walsh says Chinese involvement is crucial. He adds that the eventual aim is to help the sport grow across the border in mainland China.

“We have quite a few youngsters coming through. We have 100 percent Chinese teams playing in the leagues,” says Walsh.

“Our avowed aim is to grow the game and we say part of our onus is to grow it that way -- by that way I mean north over those hills into China,” he adds, gesturing beyond the verdant ground of the city’s historic Hong Kong Cricket Club.

This currently looks like a distant prospect, and with Lamsam aiming for retirement next year, there are no other Chinese players on the verge of selection.

But he hopes the team’s recent success can elevate its profile.

view of journalism

After a year in which Chinese media tested the government’s restrictions, the Party is now requiring journalists to pass a Marxism exam in order to keep working. (Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images) HONG KONG — Journalists across China are now boning up on Marxist terminology like the “labor theory of value” and “commodity fetishism.”

The United States “is bent on undermining China” — that’s a “fact” they’re committing to memory.

Their jobs depend on it.

Thanks to a new regulation promulgated last fall, all 250,000 of China’s journalists and editors will have to pass an exam on the “Marxist view of journalism” in January or February of 2014. In the several months leading up to the exam, the government has mandated that reporters take weekly classes to ensure “political consistency” with the Communist Party line.

“Some reporter[s] who lack ethics still have not surfaced,” one Marxist educator told the

state-run Global Times. “We urgently need to educate media circles with the Marxist view of journalism. Such education can’t be loosened and should be conducted in a long term.”

Other exam topics are said to include: education in “the leading role of the Party in publicity” and the nature of media as a “field and weapon to address the Party’s thinking and political ideas;” guidance on writing critically about Japan, especially the “right-leaning” administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe; instructions to critique those who advocate human rights, democracy, or the freedom of the press, as enemies “bent on attacking the teachings of the Communist Party;” precepts such as, “the relationship between the Party and the news media is one of leader and the led;” topics in “journalistic ethics” and techniques for “preventing rumors.”

Journalists wishing for more detail for the exam can buy a 700-page textbook compiled by the government’s propaganda office and offered for sale in bookstores across China.

The exam is another clear sign of Xi Jinping’s desire to bring the media to heel. Under Xi’s administration Beijing has increasingly tightened controls on social media and the press.

In October, the political commissar of China’s National Defense University declared that “the internet has become the main battlefield in the fight for public opinion,” and that “journalism and propaganda have greater responsibility” to help the government in that ideological fight.

Particularly in the more liberal south of China, some newspapers have gained a reputation for brave, independent reporting on everything from official corruption to public health scandals.

Reporters at Southern Weekend, one of the most famous such publications, went on strike in early 2013 after censors rewrote a New Year’s editorial calling for political reforms.

One reporter at a southern publication who spoke to Global

Post on condition of anonymity described the new mandatory Marxist training as “ridiculous” and “an absurd waste of resources.”

“Perhaps the basic purpose of the test is to ‘unify people’s thoughts,’ and avoid ‘muddled thinking.’ But using this means to do it absolutely cannot achieve their goal. That is because from the bottom to the top, from the experts to ordinary people, everybody knows that everything is muddled,” the journalist said.

“For example, we often use the phrases ‘primary stage of socialism,’ and ‘capitalism with Chinese characteristics.’ But where exactly do you limit the definition of ‘Chinese characteristics’? Or ‘primary stage’?

Everybody avoids these essential questions. Look at the style of the exam: it’s all force-fed cramming and rote memorization in order to produce standardized answers.”

The Marxist classes cap a year filled with new restrictions and setbacks for freedom of information in China.

In August, police arrested a prominent Chinese-American investor and social-media celebrity, Charles Xue, in what was widely seen as an attempt to intimidate and silence online critics of the government. Xue later made a confession on national TV saying that his online following made him feel like an “emperor of the internet.”

In September, China’s top court issued guidelines stating that anyone who posts information that is defamatory or “harms the national interest” could go to prison for up to three years.

In October, a reporter for Modern Express was arrested for “causing trouble” after he publicly demanded that a highranking official at the State Administration for Industry and Commerce be investigated for corruption.

By December 2013, more than 30 Chinese reporters were in jail for their work, according to a new report by the Committee to Protect Journalists. China ranks third in the world for the number of journalists held in prison.

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VOICE OF ASIA 9

Obamacare Sign-Up Extended as Customers Rush to Enroll

by Alex Wayne and Alex Nussbaum, Bloomberg. he Obama administration extended today’s deadline to sign up for health insurance by one day, as high traffic to its online enrollment system caused a queuing system to be activated.

The deadline to enroll in plans that begin Jan. 1 is midnight tomorrow for most of the U.S., Julie Bataille, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said in an e-mail. The extension was announced after customers to healthcare.gov today were routed to a queuing system deployed when the site approaches 50,000 simultaneous users.

Aetna Inc. (AET), Cigna Corp. (CI) and other insurers already agreed to begin coverage at the start of 2014 for at least 1 million people who selected a plan before today as long as they send their checks

by Jan. 10. With today’s extension, people who buy plans from Dec. 25 through Jan. 15 will get coverage Feb. 1. The last deadline to sign up in 2014 remains March 31.

“We recognize that many have chosen to make their final decisions on today’s deadline and we are committed to making sure they can do so,” Bataille said. “Anticipating high demand and the fact that consumers may be enrolling from multiple time zones, we have taken steps to make sure that those who select a plan through tomorrow will get coverage for Jan. 1.”

Insurers have grumbled about a series of last-minute delays and extensions during the rollout of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The success of the health overhaul relies on a diverse pool of customers where younger, healthier participants balance the costs of covering older, sicker people. Insurers say they can’t make more concessions without putting themselves at risk that patients will wait and sign up only when they need care.

Risk Pool “It’s hard to be nice when it comes to the risk pool,” Dan Mendelson, chief executive officer of the Washington-based consulting company Avalere Health, said in a phone interview. “If it’s just a matter of getting paid later, the companies have sufficient cash flow to cover that sort of thing.”

President Barack Obama has struggled to smooth the path into the law known as Obamacare, the biggest overhaul of the U.S. health-care system since the 1960s. His signature domestic initiative has been hamstrung by regulatory delays, website outages, political

T

This December 2, 2013 photo shows a woman reading the HealthCare.gov insurance marketplace internet site in Washington, DC (AFP/File, Karen Bleier) backlash and public apathy.

Enrollment had been sluggish, with just 365,000 people selecting private plans on the new state and federal government-run health exchanges through the end of November.

Enrollment accelerated in December, Obama said at a Dec. 20 news conference, with more than 500,000 people in the 36 states served by the federal exchange selecting plans in the first three weeks of the month.

Plans for ‘Millions’ “All told, millions of Americans -- despite the problems with the website -- are now poised to be covered by quality affordable health insurance come New Year’s Day,” Obama said.

Obama, in a symbolic move, signed up for a health-care plan this past weekend through the District of Columbia exchange, the White House said in an email. While the president receives his health care from the military, he enrolled “as a show of support” for the new marketplaces, the White House said.

At least 3.9 million people have been determined eligible for Medicaid, the state-run health program for the poor, or for state children’s health programs since the exchanges opened Oct. 1, CMS, the agency overseeing enrollment, said in a report. It’s not known how many of those people have actually signed up for the programs.

Industry Concessions Gaining concessions from the insurance industry would provide an additional boost, though the changes requested so far by Obama on retroactive enrollment and out-of-network coverage cut straight to the heart of how insurers manage costs.

“As it is, they’re dealing with a lot of uncertainty,” Ana Gupte, an industry analyst with Leerink Swann & Co. in New York, said in a phone in-

terview. “On top of that they have to also loosen their hold on their networks, which is the most important way for them to manage their medical costs for a likely sicker, less healthy population.”

Obama earlier pushed back a key application deadline, delayed a small-business health exchange and extended a program for “high-risk” pools of sick Americans. On Dec. 19, his administration said hundreds of thousands of people whose health plans are being canceled because their coverage doesn’t meet Obamacare rules will be exempt next year from the health law’s mandate that all Americans carry medical insurance.

Meeting Targets “They’re trying to do everything possible to generate more enrollment,” Mendelson said.

“They will be judged on enrollment at the end of the day. If they feel they can make these marginal modifications to enhance enrollment, they’re going to do it.”

The administration had set a goal of signing up 7 million people through the new federal and state insurance marketplaces by the March 31 end of the six-month enrollment period.

Most of the flaws in the enrollment system have been fixed, the administration said.

Officials said they sent more than 2 million reconciliation emails and made 600,000 phone calls to people who experienced difficulty signing up in October and November.

U.S. Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius urged the industry on Dec. 12 to be lenient with Obamacare customers who miss today’s deadline for enrolling in the program or are late with their initial payment.

The request included honoring late sign-ups with retroactive coverage, letting people pay only part of their premiums and covering treatments for patients who go to out-of-network doc-

tors and pharmacies.

Continued Care Insurers say that they’ll follow existing policies on what’s known as “continuity of care” -- allowances made to new members so they don’t have to change doctors or medicines while being treated for an illness. At Aetna, the third-biggest U.S. health insurer, new customers have as long as three months to transition to doctors and drugs included in the company’s networks and formularies, said Cynthia Michener, a spokeswoman for the Hartford, Connecticut-based company.

“The benefits and networks we offer on the exchanges were all filed and approved by the states where we participate,” Michener said in an e-mail. “To alter those plans would require approval by state regulators.

We would also need to make significant systems changes and/or increase service support, which are not viable.”

Serious Conditions Continuity-of-care allowances are usually made for serious or long-term conditions such as cancer, pregnancy, mental illness, transplants and multistage surgery.

Joe Mondy, a spokesman for Bloomfield, Connecticut-based Cigna, said the company will abide by the Jan. 10 payment deadline and that “we continue to review” the administration’s other requests. He didn’t say when a decision would be made.

WellPoint Inc. (WLP), which operates Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in 14 states, said its continuity-of-care policies will allow customers “to continue receiving care from an out-of-network provider for a specified period of time.” The policies vary by state, Kristin Binns, a company spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.

Kaiser Permanente, the Oakland, California-based nonprofit health-care company, agreed to allow late payment for exchange plans but isn’t changing other policies in response to the government’s requests, spokesmen said. Customers who sign up after today will have coverage beginning Feb. 1, John Nelson, a spokesman for the company, said in an e-mail.

Matt Stearns, a spokesman for UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH), the largest publicly traded U.S. insurer, declined to comment.

To contact the reporters on this story: Alex Wayne in Washington at awayne3@ bloomberg.net; Alex Nussbaum in New York at anussbaum1@ bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net

FRIDAY, December 27, 2013

Marks & Spencer in row over Muslim alcohol sales refusal

L

ONDON, December 23, 2013 (AFP) - British retailer Marks & Spencer faced criticism on Monday after it emerged that it allows Muslim staff to refuse to sell customers pork and alcohol.

More than 8,000 people have signed up to a Facebook page calling for a boycott of the chain after an “extremely apologetic” Muslim checkout worker told a customer they would have to wait for another employee to sell them a bottle of champagne.

M&S, which is Britain’s biggest clothing retailer as well as selling food and homeware, said that when employees have religious beliefs that restrict what foods or drinks they can handle it tries to place them in a “suitable role”.

“We regret that in the case highlighted we were not following our own internal policy,” a company spokeswoman said.

“As a secular business we have an inclusive policy that welcomes all religious beliefs whether across our customer or employee base.”

But the “Boycott Marks and Spencer” Facebook page said

the policy was an affront to “common sense”.

The issue emerged after an unnamed customer told the Daily Telegraph newspaper the worker had refused to sell them champagne at a London store and that they would have to wait for another till to become available.

“I was taken aback,” the customer told the newspaper. “I was a bit surprised. I’ve never come across that before.”

Drinking alcohol and pork consumption are forbidden in Islam.

The row highlighted differences among British retailers’ policies on whether staff should be allowed to refuse to sell certain products on religious grounds.

Like M&S, supermarket chains Asda, Morrisons and Tesco said Muslim staff would not have to work on the tills if they objected to handling specific products.

But the head of high street retailer John Lewis said staff should not have the right to refuse to serve customers.

“This is taking it one stage beyond common sense,” managing director Andy Street told BBC radio.

Devyani Khobragade get waiver from court appearance, UN papers under process

by Arun Kumar Devyani Khobragade, the former deputy consul general at the centre of an India-US diplomatic row, has got a waiver from a US court from personally appearing for pre-trial processes, but her UN accreditation is still in the works.

The order to exempt Khobragade, charged with visa fraud and underpaying her housekeeper, from weekly appearances in the pre-trial process was issued Friday by a New York court, according to her lawyer Daniel Arshack.

In a bid to get diplomatic immunity for Khobragade, who was deputy consul general when the charges were filed against her, India transferred her to its Permanent Mission to the UN, which is yet to forward her papers to the host government.

Once the State Department approves her appointment at the UN, she will get full “diplomatic immunity” as opposed to limited “consular immunity” for actions related to her official work, but the current

charges against her will remain on the book.

Contrary to media reports from India, there was no hearing scheduled for Monday and there was nothing scheduled for court till Jan 13, according to Arshack.

There was also a “strong chance” that the Jan 13 hearing too would be postponed amid intensified efforts to resolve the crisis sparked by Khobragade’s strip and cavity searches after her Dec 12 arrest when she was dropping her daughter at school.

Meanwhile, S. Jaishankar, India’s new envoy to the US, arrived in New York Monday and is on way to Washington to take charge of efforts to resolve the crisis.

Jaishankar, who is coming to the US after serving in China and played a key role in working out the landmark India-US nuclear deal, has broad contacts with Washington officials dealing with the crisis.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)

VOICE OF ASIA 10

FRIDAY, December 27, 2013

LIFESTYLE

VOICE OF ASIA 11

FRIDAY, December 27, 2013

Vol. 26

No. 52

Friday, December 27, 2013

Section 2

Email: voiceasia@aol.com

Tel: 713-774-5140

2013 is year of twerking, the e-cig and the selfie

by Helen ROWE ARIS - E-cigarettes replaced nicotine patches, grunge returned to the catwalk, Daft Punk swept dance floors and the “selfie” made it into the dictionary.

Here are some of the lifestyle trends of 2013: -- The scene at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service served as confirmation -if any were needed -- of the selfie’s newfound place in the English language.

As the ceremony for the anti-apartheid hero who died earlier in December dragged on, US President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt were captured posing for a self portrait like a group of excited teenagers.

Another of the year’s most memorable selfies was by Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano who photographed himself in space outside the International Space Station capturing the Earth’s reflection in his visor.

Originally a social media buzzword, “selfie” was named word of the year in November and admitted to the online version of the Oxford English dictionary.

It is defined as “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website”.

Its evolution into the mainstream combined with a “phenomenal upward trend” in its use warranted its inclusion in the dictionary, Oxford Dictionaries said.

-- Touted as “the real thing minus the tar, ash, smoke and most toxins”, ecigarettes took off as an alternative to tobacco.

The battery-powered devices come with tips that light up and glow with the aid of an LED. Smoke appears to waft from them but it is in fact water vapour.

Singer Robbie Williams and Twilight actor Robert Pattinson are among the famous names reported to have tried them out.

Like traditional cigarettes, they deliver nicotine but experts say there are only trace amounts of the other toxic chemicals to which smokers are habitually exposed.

The jury is still out on whether they pose other yet-to-emerge hazards to health. But their popularity is not in doubt.

Sales have doubled in the US each year since 2008 and were predicted to reach $1 billion (750,000 euros) in 2013.

Grunge is back

US President Barack Obama and British PM David Cameron pose for a selfie with Denmark PM Helle Thorning Schmidt (center) during memorial service for the late former South African President Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg on Tuesday, December 10. AFP/Roberto Schmidt

-- The moreish, absorbing Candy Crush Saga became an online gaming sensation with its brightly coloured exploding sweets.

Players attempt to line up three or more sweets such as yellow lemon drops, orange lozenges and red jelly beans before progressing to higher levels.

Each day, with some 700 million games of Candy Crush played, the game has been racking up sales of $850,000.

As online games grew in popularity, offline games were expected to record an irreversible decline in 2013.

-- Asian social networks emerged as rivals to American giants Facebook and Skype.

China’s WeChat and Japan’s Line, which let users make free calls, send instant messages, photos and short videos, roll together attributes from Facebook, Skype and messaging applications WhatsApp. Line which has 230 million users including 47 million in Japan and 15 million already in Spain signalled its determination to conquer Europe with a public relations offensive in France and Italy.

Line has hooked many users with its “stickers” -- funny, cartoon-like figures that express emotions in a way deemed far more original and fun than traditional

-- On the catwalk, Saint Laurent’s cult designer Hedi Slimane served up helpings of grunge, prompting a mixture of consternation and rave reviews.

Dismissed as nothing new by some critics, his creations, however, have a habit of taking off.

The designer, who helped give the world skinny jeans and was at the helm of Christian Dior menswear until 2007, is considered among the most influential of his generation.

His babydoll dresses teamed with sloppy cardigans, biker boots and heavy khol-lined eyes divided fashion watchers, many of whom feel Slimane’s designs are “just not Yves Saint Laurent”.

Betty Catroux, a muse of the late designer and founder of the fashion house, however, jumped to his defence.

“He has completely understood the spirit of Saint Laurent,” she said after what she conceded was a “very young” womenswear collection in March.

Others were not so sure, with industry journal Women’s Wear Daily calling the collection “interesting to the point of odd”.

-- “Twerking”, another new entry into the Oxford Dictionary online, exploded into the mainstream when former Disney child star Miley Cyrus did the dance at the MTV video music awards in Au-

emoticons.

WeChat, meanwhile allows users to post figures that move about dancing, blowing kisses or punching the air.

Both networks supply a selection of “stickers” that users have to pay for, representing 30 percent of Line’s overall turnover.

WeChat is already translated into 19 languages and has 500 million users including 100 million outside China.

P

ASIANET

gust.

Cyrus’s sexually suggestive performance at an event with a family audience outraged middle America.

Restricted to teenagers and performers for now, it was defined by Oxford Dictionaries as to “dance to popular music in a sexually provocative manner involving thrusting hip movements and a low, squatting stance”.

It is believed to have originated in US hip-hop music culture via the New Orleans bounce music scene.

‘Electronic music in its comfort zone’ -- In music, French electronic duo Daft Punk, made up of musicians GuyManuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter, made a triumphant return to the music charts.

“Random Access Memories”, the duo’s fourth album since 1997 in May went into the US Billboard 200 album chart at number one.

The first single from the album, “Get Lucky”, co-written by Chic’s Nile Rodgers and featuring vocals from US rapper Pharrell Williams, was a top 10 hit in over 30 countries.

Daft Punk fever even made it to the remote Australian town of Wee Waa, population just 1,653, which was chosen for the album launch.

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A woman smokes a “Blu” e-cigarette September 25, 2013 in Washington (AFP/ File, Jim Watson) Thousands of people, many in the duo’s trademark robot helmets, descended on the far-flung town where the local butchery entered into the spirit by crafting Daft Pork sausages and Random Access rissoles.

“Electronic music right now is in its comfort zone and it’s not moving one inch,” Bangalter told Rolling Stone magazine.

Move over Facebook

Young Life

VOICE OF ASIA 12

Friday, December 27, 2013

Section 2

Email: voiceasia@aol.com

Fewer US teens see harm in marijuana: survey

by Robert Macpherson

F

ewer American teenagers consider marijuana to be dangerous, an influential survey said Wednesday, a fresh sign of growing public acceptance of a substance that US federal law considers on a par with ecstasy.

Some 39.5 percent of highschool seniors view marijuana as harmful -- down from 44.1 percent just a year ago -- the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) said in its Monitoring the Future survey for 2013.

“That’s 60 percent who think marijuana is not harmful!” exclaimed NIDA, a federal agency, on its blog for teenagers.

gangs and sales to minors.

Wednesday’s findings alarmed White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske, who called increased pot use “a serious setback in our nation’s efforts to raise a healthy generation of young people.”

Under federal law, marijuana is considered a highly addictive Schedule One drug alongside heroin, LSD and ecstasy.

“Daily use today can have stronger effects on a developing teen brain than it did 10 or 20 years ago.”

But following referendums, the western states of Colorado and Washington are legalizing the sale of the substance for recreational use, while 19 states allow the sale for medicinal use.

The Marijuana Policy Project, which campaigns for more liberal marijuana laws, suggested that fewer teens would be smoking pot if it was regulated like alcohol and tobacco, whose use among young people it said has been declining.

In October, for the first time in a Gallup poll, a majority of Americans -- 58 percent -- said they favored the legalization of marijuana.

With public opinion shifting, the Obama administration in August told federal prosecutors to cease targeting individual marijuana users in states where legalization is in place.

Instead, it instructed them to focus their efforts on criminal

“Those selling marijuana in the underground market are not asking for ID” as shopkeepers and bars must do when selling liquor or cigarettes, said its spokesman Mason Tvert.

“By regulating marijuana like alcohol and cigarettes and enforcing similar age restrictions, we would very likely see a similar decrease in availability and use among teens.”

Undergraduate students of Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage who are United States citizens and possess a GPA of 3.0 and above are eligible for this fellowship.

Applications must be submitted by February 1, 2014.

Marijuana leaves. Under federal law, marijuana is considered a highly addictive...

NIDA’s survey, conducted

by University of Michigan researchers, has monitored highschool seniors since 1975. It expanded in 1991 to include younger students. For this year, more than 41,000 students at 389 public and private schools were questioned.

This year’s findings also found a drop among highschool seniors in the use of socalled synthetic cannabis such as K2 and Spice, which mimic the effects of THC, in favor of genuine marijuana.

Eight percent said they had

used such substances in the past year, compared with 11 percent in 2012.

Synthetic cannabis nevertheless remains the second most popular illicit drug among students in the 10th and 12th grades, after marijuana.

NIDA also said 7.4 percent of high-school seniors abuse Adderall, a prescription stimulant for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), to get high “or for other nonmedical reasons.”

Details of the survey are at www.drugabuse.gov.

Harvard student charged with bomb hoax

N

EW YORK) - A Harvard University student charged with masterminding a bomb hoax to get out of an exam will appear before a US court in Boston Wednesday, the district attorney’s office said.

Eldo Kim, 20, faces up to five years in prison, three years supervised release and a $250,000 fine if convicted under a bomb hoax statute in connection with Monday’s scare on campus.

He allegedly wasted the time of dozens of FBI, police and emergency workers after sending identical emails to Harvard University police, college officials and the student newspaper.

The email received Monday at 8:30 am, half an hour before Kim’s exam was to start, was entitled “bombs placed around campus” and warned shrapnel bombs had been put in four buildings.

The International Leadership Foundation (ILF) announces open application process for the 2014 Civic Fellowship Program

Students who accept the fellowship are known as Civic Fellows, will receive a stipend of 2,000 dollars, attend weekly leadership seminars on Capitol Hill and gain valuable, firsthand working knowledge of the American government system.

Fellows are responsible for their own travel, housing and living expenses.

Nora Volkow, director of NIDA, expressed concern not only at the number of teenage users in America, but also the kind of pot they are inhaling.

“It is important to remember that over the past two decades, levels of THC (the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana) have gone up a great deal, from 3.75 percent in 1995 to an average of 15 percent in today’s marijuana cigarettes,” she said.

Tel: 713-774-5140

Every year, ILF’s selection committee identifies approximately 30 outstanding Asian Pacific American college students who spend eight to ten weeks interning at a federal agency in Washington D.C. during the summer.

“Today’s news demands that all of us recommit to bolstering the vital role prevention and involved parenting play in keeping young people safe, strong, and ready to succeed,” he said in a statement.

Moreover, nearly 23 percent of school seniors, typically 18-year-olds, said they had smoked marijuana in the month prior to taking part in the survey -- and 36 percent said they had done so in the preceding year.

FRIDAY, December 27, 2013

The message added “be quick for they will go off soon.”

Police called in the FBI and the four buildings were swiftly evacuated, forcing the cancelation of a series of exams, but after hours of searching no explosive devices were found.

The emails were sent anonymously but an FBI affidavit said Kim confessed to officers that he did it to avoid a final exam scheduled that morning.

Kim will appear before a

Massachusetts district court in Boston on Wednesday, said US attorney Carmen Ortiz.

Harvard said in a statement that it was aware one of its students had been arrested in connection with the hoax.

“Yesterday was a day of significant disruption to our campus and a difficult time for many in our community,” it said.

“We are aware that a Harvard student has been arrested in relation to this matter, and would be saddened if these allegations are substantiated and a member of our community had been involved in causing yesterday’s disruption.”

The university said it would not comment further on an ongoing criminal investigation.

The Ivy League school is one of the most prestigious universities in the world. It has about 21,000 students and dominates the Massachusetts town of Cambridge, near Boston.

Last month Harvard’s great rival Yale went on a four-hour lockdown after a hoax caller claimed his roommate was planning to shoot people on campus.

To learn more or to submit an application, visit www.ileader. org.

About ILF

ILF promotes the civic awareness, public service and economic effectiveness of the APA community. Our mission is to develop young leaders in the United States, Asia and other Pacific Rim countries in the field of public service, entrepreneurship and the international arena through a network of business and community leaders. ILF has a network of national advisory boards and global advisory councils in 15 cities, comprised of professional, civic and business leaders. Since its founding in 2000, ILF has provided scholarships and leadership training for thousands of talented APA college students from across the country. In addition, ILF established the Young Ambassador Program to prepare the next generation of international young leaders to understand American democratic governance and to network with Fellows to address global issues in our changing world. Forwarded

by Indo-American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston.

Okinawan plant holds promise of elixir of youth

by Antoine BOUTHIER

N

ISHIHARA, December 20, 2013 (AFP) Sweet tropical smells drift through Shinkichi Tawada’s laboratory as he stirs an amber liquid that he believes could be the secret behind the historic longevity of people in southern Japan.

The elixir is an extract from a plant known locally as “getto”, and he says experiments show it can prolong life by as much as a fifth.

“Okinawa has for decades enjoyed one of the longest lifeexpectancy rates in the world and I think the reason for this must lie in the ingredients of the traditional diet,” said Tawada, a professor of agronomy at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa.

Tawada has been studying getto, part of the ginger family known variously as Alpinia zerumbet, pink porcelain lily or shell ginger, for the last 20 years and now believes his work is beginning to pay off.

In a recent experiment on worms, those fed on a daily diet of getto lived an average of 22.6 percent longer than the control group.

The plant, which has large green leaves, red berries and white flowers, has been a feature of Okinawan food for centuries and still grows in the wild.

And while the people of past centuries would not have known that it is rich in resveratrol -an anti-oxidant also found in grapes -- they knew that it was good for them, said Tawada.

“Traditionally, Okinawans have always felt that eating muchi -- a winter dish consisting of rice paste wrapped in a getto

leaf -- would protect us from colds and give us strength,” he said.

‘People eat too much fast food’ But things are changing in Okinawa and the traditional diet, which was rich in locallygrown vegetables, fish and seaweed, is losing ground to the steakhouses and burger chains that crowd the streets of Naha, the island chain’s capital city.

Those fast food joints originally sprouted to serve the 19,000 United States servicemen who are based on the island as part of a defence treaty between Washington and Tokyo, but are now popular among the locals -even if the soldiers, sailors and airmen are not.

Women in Okinawa still live a very long time -- 87 years on average, one of the highest rates in Japan. But men have tumbled down the rankings and, at 79.4 years, are now 30th among the country’s 47 prefectures, and below the national average.

The archipelago’s male obesity rate is now the highest in Japan.

“Today, people eat too much fast food,” said Tawada. “Life expectancy is going down. It’s time to reconnect with the culinary traditions of the region.”

The health benefits of getto are beginning to spread, and a small cottage industry is growing up around Tawada’s research.

Keiko Uehara, who looks considerably younger than her 64 years, swears by the stuff.

Her boutique in downtown Naha sells a whole range of beauty products with getto as the main ingredient.

“I drink an infusion of getto, which I always find rejuvenates me, and I use an extract of the plant in water to get rid of wrinkles,” she said.

Out of town, Isamu Kina stands in a field full of getto.

His company, Rich Green, is the main producer in the area and he has high hopes for the future.

“We don’t want to be limited to Okinawa; we want to be able to export this to countries around the world,” he said.

Back in his laboratory, Tawada said people are only just beginning to exploit the possibilities of the plant, which he thinks could prove transformative for the whole of Okinawa.

“Today, getto is used in cosmetics, but that’s only part of its potential -- I think it can also be used in the medical field and in other sectors,” he said.

“Hopefully one day it will give a facelift to the economy of the islands.”

VOICE OF ASIA 13

FRIDAY, December 27, 2013

VOICE OF ASIA 14

BOLLYWOOD MASALA

FRIDAY, December 27, 2013

Friday, December 27, 2013

Section 2

Email: voiceasia@aol.com

Tel: 713-774-5140

Big Boss: police to collect more evidence against Salman

P

olice will collect more evidence from the complainant in connection with a case against actor Salman Khan and producers of the reality TV show, ‘Big Boss 7’, for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.

“Before proceeding further with the investigations into the case, we have sought legal opinion with regard to the jurisdiction and culpability,” Police Commissioner Anurag Sharma said.

The Falaknuma Police, following a court order, had registered a case against the actor and the reality show producers under Section 295A (Deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage the religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the IPC. “We will seek more information from the complainant, Mohammed Fasihuddin, to corroborate his account,” Falaknuma Inspector M. Hussaini Naidu said. He added that Fasihuddin had filed a petition in a local court, seeking a direction to police to register a criminal case on the ground that the show had hurt the religious sentiments of a community. According to the petitioner, certain expressions used by Salman for describing the elimination and promotion of participants were “offensive” in nature.

The court, after hearing the petition, directed the Falaknuma Police to book a criminal case and investigate the charges.

A file photo of Salman Khan hosting the Big Boss show. - PHOTO: AFP

Saudi, Pakistani films out Venezuela seeks Bollywood of Oscar foreign award race help to tone up its own film

V

enezuela today sought the expertise of Bollywood to tone up its own film industry.

India and Venezuela today signed cultural exchange programme in bid to give a boost cooperation in the fields literature, art, film and media, image and space arts and stage and music arts.

The Indian delegation, led by Secretary of Culture Ravindra Singh and Venezuela’s Min-

ister of State for the Promotion of Cultural Economy and Ministry of People’s Power for Culture Javier Sarabia held delegation-level talks, an official statement said.

The exchange programme would remain valid for three years.

“We would like to borrow the expertise of Bollywood for our film industry,” said Sarabia, after signing the Programme.

Both the countries would promote the exchange of bilingual publications (traditional and contemporary stories), India’s participation in Venezuela’s International Book Fair on a reciprocal basis.

Also, they would facilitate, in accordance with their domestic legislation, the customs and tax conditions in order to provide assistance to the International Book Fairs in their respective countries.

Nice to hear I look younger every day: Rituparna Oscar statuettes are displayed at the ‘Meet the Oscars’ exhibit in New York . — Reuters Photo

L

OS ANGELES - Nine movies including works by Palestinian, Danish and Hong Kong filmmakers have been shortlisted for best foreign language Oscar, organizers announced Friday.

But films left out included Saudi Arabia’s first ever candidate and Pakistan’s first entry in five decades, while an Oscar-winning Iranian director also failed to make the cut.

Films by Belgian, Bosnian, Cambodian, German, Hungarian and Italian directors are also on the shortlist.

categories are announced on January 16. The 86th Academy Awards will be held on March 2.

The nine shortlisted foreign language films are: - “The Broken Circle Breakdown,” Belgium, director Felix van Groeningen.

- “An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker,” Bosnia and Herzegovina, director Danis Tanovic.

- “The Missing Picture,” Cambodia, director Rithy Panh.

The films were whittled down from a long list of 76 movies announced in October by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which organizes Hollywood’s biggest annual awards fest.

- “The Hunt,” Denmark, director Thomas Vinterberg.

They will be reduced to five nominees next month, before nominations in all Oscar

- “The Notebook,” Hungary, director Janos Szasz.

- “Two Lives,” Germany, director Georg Maas.

- “The Grandmaster,” Hong Kong, director Wong Kar-wai.

- “The Great Beauty,” Italy,

director Paolo Sorrentino.

- “Omar,” Palestine, director Hany Abu-Assad.

The Saudi long-list candidate, “Wadjda” by Haifaa al-Mansour, is an avowedly feminist movie about a young girl’s quest to own a bicycle in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom where women are deprived of many rights, among them driving.

Directed by Saudi Arabia’s first female filmmaker and shot entirely in the Gulf state, the film won best Arabic feature award at the Dubai Film Festival last year and picked up an award in Cannes in March.

For Pakistan, “Zinda Bhaag” (“Flee Alive”) was the first Oscar entry for over 50 years. It is a comedy-thriller about three young men trying to escape the drudgery of their everyday lives through unconventional means.

Pakistan court stops censor board clearance of ‘illegally’ imported Indian films LAHORE: A Pakistani court today stopped the Central Censor Board from issuing clearance certificates to “illegally” imported Indian movies.

Justice Khalid Mahmood of the Lahore High Court issued the direction to the Central Censor Board’s chairman in response to a petition filed by controversial TV talk show host Mubashir Lucman, a former film producer known for his anti-India stance, and a dozen others.

Mahmood also sought a reply from the federal government and the Censor Board’s chairman in two weeks.

Since the petition was filed by members of the Pakistani film industry last month, the High Court has imposed restrictions on the screening of Indian films and laid down conditions for their release.

The court earlier directed authorities to strictly implement a ban on screening “films

File photo of Tollywood actress Rituparna Sengupta.

A

sked behind the reason of her looking prettier every single day, as years pass by, Tollywood diva Rituparna Sengupta said she doesn’t think having resembled an ugly duckling at the start of her career.

Speaking at a Christmas Carnival, the ‘Shet Pathorer Thala’ actor smiled, “If people make passes about me as looking a 16-year old, well so be it, but please don’t say I was ugly when I debuted.”

Under Pakistani rules, only Bollywood films shot outside India can be imported into the country. However, these rules were rarely enforced earlier. made in India”.

During today’s hearing, the judge observed that films made in India could not be screened in Pakistan as they are on the “negative list” of the Import Policy 2013.

Under Pakistani rules, only Bollywood films shot outside India can be imported into the country.

However, these rules were

tier with age, “A far cry from the plain Jane look as she set off 16 years back.”

Letting her hair down at the premier Methodist School compound after day-long shoot for ‘Memories in March’ director Sanjoy Nag’s ‘Parapar’, Rituparna credited the audience and her beevy of fans and friends “Who are my mental strength and the secret behind looking happier.”

Rituprana was speaking at the carnival of Methodist School, Dankuni, when the emcee quipped about her turning pret-

Imploring the crowd to soak into yuletide spirit, the multitasker-supermom turned to her school days, the time of chanting Christmas carol, the time “Of prayer and togetherness.

rarely enforced and Indian movies were screened in Pakistan within days of their domestic release.

since 2006 after obtaining certificates from the Central Censor Board on the basis of “fake documents”.

The petitioners contended that under the Motion Picture Act, no film made in Indian territory can be exhibited in Pakistan.

The petitioners sought action against importers of these Indian films on charges of smuggling and asked the court to restrain the Censor Board from issuing certificates for such movies.

They claimed at least 213 Indian movies were exhibited

“For my two children, Christmas is becoming the most important occasion of the year.

My son knows about it already, more because of gifts,” the Alik Sukh star said before the crowd, comprising the children, their star-struck guardians besides teachers and school authorities.

Bishop Norton Emmanuel, Principal and Secretary, Methodist School, said by inducting Rituparna Sengupta, as the embodiment of feminine power, as part of its Christmas celebrations the leading institution in eastern region commemorated the true spirit of Christmas.

(PTI)

Indian movies have largely fuelled a boom at the Pakistani box office after former military ruler Pervez Musharraf eased restrictions on their import in 2006. The screening of Indian movies was banned

by Pakistan after the 1965 war but pirated copies of films were widely available across the country.

HEALTHY LIVING HEALTH

VOICE OF ASIA 15

Friday, December 27, 2013

Section 2

Email: voiceasia@aol.com

Cancer therapy is 2013 breakthrough: Science journal

by Kerry Sheridan

W

ASHINGTON, (AFP) - A way of fighting cancer that turns the body’s immune cells into targeted tumor killers was named the breakthrough of the year by the US journal Science on Thursday.

Immunotherapy has only worked for a small number of patients, and only in certain cancers, including melanoma and leukemia, but experts believe its promise is huge.

“Oncologists, a grounded-inreality bunch, say a corner has been turned and we won’t be going back,” said the journal Science.

Research began in the late 1980s when French scientists discovered a receptor on T-cells, called CTLA-4, a molecule that turned out to play an important role in regulating the immune system.

A decade later, a Texas researcher showed that blocking CTLA-4 in mice “could unleash T-cells against tumor cells in the animals, shrinking them dramatically,” the journal said.

More advances have followed. In the 1990s, a biologist in Japan discovered a molecule expressed in dying T-cells, called PD-1, which has also shown promise in the fight against cancer.

As many as five big pharmaceutical companies are now on board with immunotherapy.

A new drug made by Bristol Myers-Squibb was approved in 2011. Called ipilimumab, it costs $120,000 per treatment course.

It’s costly, and by no means a sure bet. Research in 2012 on a group of 300 people showed the drug shrunk tumors by half or more in 31 percent of patients

with melanoma, 29 percent with kidney cancer and 17 percent with lung cancer.

Research out this year on 1,800 people with melanoma who received ipilimumab, 22 percent were alive three years later.

A related treatment called chimeric antigen receptor therapy, which involves modifying a patient’s own T-cells to make them attack tumors, has succeeded in putting 45 of 75 people with leukemia in total remission, researchers said this year.

One of those success stories is Emily Whitehead, now age eight. Last year she became the first pediatric patient to receive the experimental therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

“She is doing great. She is almost 20 months cancer free now. Her health has just been wonderful. She is completely back to normal, back to school full time,” her mother, Kari, told AFP. Emily was at the brink of death, and after two relapses doctors admitted they had no options. Their hope was suddenly revived when her family learned about the experimental T-cell therapy and agreed to try it.

“There just wasn’t anything left for her,” her mother said.

“This treatment has just been amazing for Emily and for all the other families who were told the same thing.”

The journal Science and its publisher, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, pointed to other key achievements in its annual top 10 breakthroughs issue.

They included: - A new generation of cheap-

er solar cells called Perovskite cells, which are gaining efficiency and are cheaper than traditional silicon cells.

- Progress in growing lab versions of miniature human organs such as brains, kidneys and liver buds to better understand human disease.

- Stem cells derived from cloned human embryos.

- A better understanding of how sleep allows the brain to clean itself by expanding channels between neurons and allowing more cerebrospinal fluid to flow through.

- The importance of microbes in the understanding of the body’s overall health.

- A new way of designing a vaccine using the structure of an antibody, cheered for its potential against a common childhood illness, respiratory syncytial virus.

- The origin of cosmic rays was figured out after 100 years.

It turns out they come from debris clouds left by supernovae, or exploding stars.

The journal Nature also released its list of the top scientists of 2013.

They included Russian meteorite hunter Viktor Grokhovsky, whose 30 years of expertise helped advance the study of a massive Chelyabinsk meteor that took astronomers by surprise when it crashed to Earth in February.

Another was Chinese virologist Hualan Chen, who helped quell an outbreak of H7N9 bird flu in humans by rushing to collect samples, leading to the closure of risky poultry markets.

She also published controversial research on engineered H1N1 and H5N1 flu hybrids that could pass between mammals.

French firm starts human trials of artificial heart PARIS, December 20, 2013 (AFP) - French biomedical firm Carmat said on Friday it had begun the first human trial of an artificial heart aimed at overcoming shortages of organs available for transplant.

The operation, which took place on Wednesday at the Georges Pompidou Hospital in Paris, “went satisfactorily,” it said in a statement.

The patient, whom it did not name, “is conscious and speaking to relatives,” Carmat said, adding that it was too early to draw longer-term conclusions about the operation.

Artificial hearts have been in use for many years as a temporary fix for patients awaiting a transplant. But tens of thousands die each yer because of a lack of available organs.

The Carmat product aims at providing a longer-term solution to bridge the wait, using biological materials and sensors, rather than a pump, to mimick heart contractions.

The company was authorised in September by French health watchdogs to carry out four trials.

Read more health stories on our website: www. voiceofasiatvnews .com

Chicken still a high health risk, consumer groups say

by David Pierson

A

mericans eat more chicken than any other meat. Yet when it comes to food safety, poultry is fraught with risks that consumer groups say aren’t being fully addressed by producers and federal inspectors.

That’s the view of two reports released Thursday. The first, by the Pew Charitable Trusts, examines two recent salmonella outbreaks linked to Foster Farms chicken and concludes the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) lacks the authority to properly protect the public.

The second, released by Consumer Reports magazine, tested more than 300 storebought chicken breasts and found bacteria lurking in almost every one.

At the core of both findings are calls to strengthen government oversight in the $70-billion poultry industry.

Doing so would help reduce incidents of food-borne illness, which sickens 48 million people and kills 3,000 in the U.S every year.

“Making chicken safer to eat will require a revamping of the way that it’s raised and processed,” said Consumer Reports.

Coincidentally, the two studies arrive the same month the federal government outlined major new policies to tackle salmonella in poultry and address the over-use of antibiotics in raising meat.

On Dec. 5, the USDA said it would implement more stringent testing and sampling for salmonella in chicken plants and develop the first ever national standards for acceptable levels of salmonella contamination on cut chicken parts (currently, standards exist only for whole chickens).

Last week, the Food and Drug Administration moved to phase out many of the an-

tibiotics administered to animals used as food to promote faster growth – a practice blamed for increasing antibiotics resistance in people.

Federal officials say the measures address some of the concerns raised by the reports released Thursday.

“The Consumer Union and Pew reports confirm the need for measures already underway at FSIS to prevent food-borne illness,” a Food Safety and Inspection Service spokesman said.

But Pew argues poultry oversight is fundamentally flawed because inspectors lack broad powers to shut down problem processors like they can for other serious pathogens such as E. coli 0157:57.

That’s because salmonella is considered naturally occurring and nearly impossible to eradicate on poultry farms.

Still, consumer groups say industry and government can do better by allowing shutdowns and recalls when the source of an outbreak is known.

Pew uses the example of two Foster Farms salmonella outbreaks: one that started in June 2012 in Oregon and Washington state and the other in March of this year that began in California before spreading nationwide.

In both cases, Pew said, the links to Foster Farms were clear but the response was insufficient.

“In the first outbreak, the agency did not issue a public health alert although it had previously done so based on comparable evidence,” the group said. “In the second, FSIS did not immediately suspend production in the three Foster Farms plants while the company worked to implement changes in its slaughter and production process. In neither case did the agency request a recall.”

In response, FSIS said in a written statement that the “ev-

FRIDAY, December 27, 2013

idence did not provide support for a recall in either instance, and in the first instance it did not provide the basis for a public health alert. The agency responded aggressively within its existing authorities to ensure that the actions taken would be meaningful to consumers and effective in dealing with the problem.

The actions that we take need to be ones that we have legal authority to do.”

Foster Farms and FSIS maintained throughout the outbreak this year that the company’s poultry was safe to eat if handled properly and cooked to a minimum of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

Critics disagreed, noting the outbreak involved a virulent strain of Salmonella Heidelberg that displayed signs of antibiotics resistance and hospitalized twice the rate of people in a typical salmonella outbreak.

Salmonella isn’t the only bacterium regularly found on chicken.

Consumer Reports said it bought 316 chicken breasts from major national grocery chains and found 79.8% contained enterococcus, a sign of fecal contamination; 65.2% showed a common type of E. coli also consistent with fecal contamination; 43% had campylobacter, which can cause diarrhea, cramping, abdominal pain and fever; 13.6% contained klebsiella pneumonia, a potential respiratory illness; and 9.2% had signs of staphylococcus aureus, which can cause infections when exposed to broken skin.

Salmonella, which can attack the gastrointestinal system and cause nausea, vomiting and fever, was discovered on 10.8% of the sampled chicken breasts, Consumer Reports said.

The findings were consistent with the FDA’s national antimicrobial monitoring system, known as NARMS. Among

the major brands tested were Tyson, Pilgrim’s, Sanderson Farms and Perdue, according to Consumer Reports.

Consumer Reports said even products labeled “no antibiotics” or “organic” contained high levels of bacteria. About half the 316 samples contained at least one multidrug resistant bacterium and 11.5% had at least two, Consumer Reports said.

“Our tests show consumers who buy chicken breast at their local grocery stores are very likely to get a sample that is contaminated and likely to get a bug that is multidrug resistant,” said Urvashi Rangan, executive director of the Consumer Reports Food Safety and Sustainability

Tel: 713-774-5140

Obama administration relaxes rules of health-care law four days before deadline

T

he Obama administration on Thursday night significantly relaxed the rules of the federal health-care law for millions of consumers whose individual insurance policies have been canceled, saying they can buy bare-bones plans or entirely avoid a requirement that most Americans have health coverage.

Sudhir Mathuria

The surprise announce- Contact:: Sudhir Mathuria ment, days before the Dec. 23 Licensed Professional deadline for people to choose Health Life 360 plans that will begin Jan. 1, 6650 Southwest Freeway triggered an immediate back- Houston TX 77074 lash from the health insurance 713-771-2900 industry and raised fairness www.MyMedicarePlanning.com questions about a law intended to promote affordable and sumers with a canceled health plan to claim a compre“hardship exhensive emption” if they Review and coverage the plans on a wideEnroll in Right think sold through new spread baPlan Today. Call federal and state sis. marketplaces are The rule 713-771-2900 for too expensive. change guidance. Last The ability to was isAnnual Review get an exempsued in a tion means that bulletin Chance the administrafrom the tion is freeing Department of Health and Human these people from one of the Services. It is the second ma- central features of the law: a jor response by the Obama requirement that most Ameriadministration to a public and cans have health insurance as political furor that erupted in of Jan. 1 or risk a fine. The exthe fall when several million emption gives them the choice people who bought their own of having no insurance or of insurance began to receive buying skimpy “catastrophic” notices that their policies coverage. were being canceled because Until now, the law allowed they fell short of new benefit people younger than 30 to buy standards. The cancellations catastrophic coverage — an prompted complaints that exception to the law’s benPresident Obama had reneged efit rules in an effort to attract on an oft-repeated promise young adults who have been that, under the Affordable particularly prone to avoidCare Act, people who like ing coverage in the past. The their health plans could keep law also has allowed hardship them. exemptions for people 30 and At a news conference in older who could not afford the mid-November, an apolo- regular coverage. getic Obama relented to the It is unclear how many criticism, announcing that the people facing canceled polifederal government would let cies will choose no insurinsurance companies continue ance, bare-bones coverage or for another year to offer indi- a plan through the insurance viduals and small businesses exchanges that meet new fedhealth plans that do not meet eral standards. But the prosthe new requirements. The de- pect that healthy people with cision, however , is up to each canceled insurance might opt state’s insurance regulator, out of the new health plans set and not all have gone along. off immediate alarm among This second change, insurance industry leaders, prompted by a group of Dem- who already have been worocratic senators — most of ried whether enough people whom face tough reelection who are inexpensive to cover campaigns next year — goes will sign up. substantially further in acFor enrolling in any Health commodating people upset Care Insurance plan please about losing their policies. call 713-771-2900 The latest rule will allow con-

Center. “When people get sick from resistant bacteria, treatment may be getting harder to find.”

Like Pew, Consumer Reports called for the USDA to be given wider recall authori-

ties. It also recommended strains of salmonella resistant to antibiotics be handled like E. coli 0157:57, which allow for automatic plant closures and recalls from stores.

Source: Los Angeles Times, December 19, 2013.

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VOICE OF ASIA 16

Friday, December 27, 2013

Section 2

Email: voiceasia@aol.com

Asian markets higher after US growth data as banks and other investors scrambled for cash as they approach the end of the year, when they typically have to meet regulatory requirements and funding demands from companies.

However, Amy Lin, an analyst at Capital Securities told Dow Jones Newswires: “The market is clouded by concerns of a liquidity crunch. Sharp rises in stock indexes are unlikely in the coming month.

“All eyes are on the central bank now, with hopes it could continue to inject funds into the market.”

A man uses a mobile phone in front of an electronic screen displaying the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong on October 17, 2013 (AFP, Philippe Lopez)

H

ONG KONG - Asian markets climbed on Monday following a record lead from Wall Street after US economic growth figures came in well above expectations.

Chinese shares picked up after the mainland’s central bank last week injected funds into financial markets to calm fears of a cash crunch.

Sydney climbed 0.51 percent, or 26.7 points, to end at 5,291.9 and Seoul rose 0.68 percent, or 13.54 points, to close at 1,996.89.

Shanghai added 0.24 percent, or 4.91 points, to end at 2,089.71, the first positive close in 10 sessions. Hong Kong closed 0.48 percent, or 109.38 points, higher at 22,921.56.

Tokyo was closed for a public holiday.

US shares rallied on Friday after the Commerce Department said the economy grew 4.1 percent year-on-year in July-September, much faster than estimated and up from 2.5 percent in the previous three months.

It was the strongest growth in the world’s largest economy since the fourth quarter of 2011, when the pace hit 4.9 percent.

The news came after a decision by the Federal Reserve to trim its stimulus programme by $10 billion to $75 billion a month from January, citing a pick-up in the economy and falling unemployment.

On Wall Street Friday, the Dow added 0.26 percent and

Shahid Usmani, Sales Manager • 713-270-3900

FRIDAY, December 27, 2013

the S&P 500 rose 0.48 percent -- both ending at record highs -while the Nasdaq climbed 1.15 percent.

Chinese shares rose after suffering a sell-off Friday on concerns about a cash crunch similar to one that hit in June.

Dealers welcomed a huge injection of liquidity into financial markets last week by the central People’s Bank of China after interbank borrowing rates -- which lenders charge each other to borrow cash -- shot up.

The bank pumped 300 billion yuan ($49.4 billion) into the market, sending rates falling from 8.2 percent on Friday to 5.57 percent in early trade on Monday.

The turmoil last week came

In forex trade the dollar bought 104.00 yen compared with 104.06 yen in New York Friday. The euro bought $1.3670 against $1.3671, while it was at 142.30 yen from 142.31 yen.

Oil prices were lower. New York’s main contract, West Texas Intermediate for February delivery, was down 32 cents at $99.00 in afternoon trade, while Brent North Sea crude for February eased six cents to $111.71.

Gold fetched $1,201.50 at 0800 GMT compared with $1,195.25 late Friday.

In other markets: -- Taipei rose 0.57 percent, or 47.93 points, to 8,456.46.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. gained 1.96 percent to Tw$104.0 while Cathay Financial Holdings was 1.08 percent higher at Tw$47.0.

-- Wellington rose 0.89 percent, or 41.44 points, to 4,722.64.

Fletcher Building added 1.67 percent to NZ$8.54, Telecom added 1.30 percent to NZ$2.34

Tel: 713-774-5140

Target inevitably loses shoppers in wake of data breach

MIAMI, FL - DECEMBER 19: Carts are seen outside of a arget store on December 19, 2013 in Miami, Florida. Target announced that about 40 million credit and debit card accounts of customers who made purchases by swiping their cards at terminals in its U.S. stores between November 27 and December 15 may have been stolen. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) | Joe Raedle via Getty Images

I

n the wake of a massive data breach, Target Corp suffered reduced customer traffic over one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The number of transactions at Target fell 3 to 4 percent compared with last year’s final weekend before Christmas, while, transactions at other retailers were strong, the Journal said, citing estimates by retail consultancy Customer Growth Partners LLC. Target said on Thursday that hackers had stolen data from as many as 40 million credit and debit cards of shoppers who visited its stores during the first three weeks of the holiday season.

At least 2 million shoppers who used bank debit cards at Target stores during its recent and Air New Zealand was off 1.52 percent at NZ$1.62.

-- Manila rose 0.34 percent, or 19.75 points, to 5,854.88.

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data breach are facing lower limits on how much cash they can take out of teller machines and spend at stores.

“This is the worst possible time something like this could happen,” Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners told the Journal.

The consultancy firm estimates that U.S. retail sales on Saturday totaled $17 billion, exceeding those on Black Friday by $2 billion, according to the paper.

A Target spokeswoman declined to comment to the Journal specifically on this weekend’s results, saying the retailer reports sales on a quarterly basis.

Target could not immediately be reached for comment

by Reuters outside of regular U.S. business hours. Courtesy: Reuters.

SM Prime Holdings closed unchanged at 14.50 pesos while Union Bank rose 0.32 percent to 125.40 pesos.

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VOICE OF ASIA 17

Sex, drugs and beards: an afternoon in a Pakistani porn cinema

by Emmanuel Duparcq

T

For more than 30 years it has supplied erotic fantasies in Peshawar, the main city of northwestern Pakistan which borders the tribal districts that are a haven for Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants.

There are three X-rated shows a day in the Shama’s discreet back room, while the main hall is reserved for mainstream movies -the only ones advertised outside.

“Class X” customers pay 200 rupees ($1.90) and after a brief search by a Kalashnikov-toting guard, they are whisked through a courtyard and down a concrete passageway.

Inside the auditorium a thick cloud of cannabis smoke hangs over the 20-odd rows of tattered fake-leather seats.

During one showing, the hall was more than half full, populated by labourers, farmers, students and others who had come to escape the day-to-day claustrophobia of life in a deeply conservative Muslim region where family and neighbours keep a close eye on everything.

Most arrive alone and want to remain so, arranging themselves around the seats to avoid sitting next to anyone.

They are all soon gripped by the drama of the day’s offering, “Dostana” (“Friendship”), a semi-amateur production made for the Shama in the more liberal eastern city of Lahore.

The plot hinges on a romantic dilemma: the hero, Shah Sawar (“the Horseman” in the local language) cannot decide whether to marry his sweetheart Gulpana or his cousin Doa, chosen for him as a wife by his family.

He decides to “test” his wouldbe brides and much of the film’s two hours is taken up with long

Pakistani street vendors and pedestrians gathered outside the Shama cinema in Peshawar, on December 19, 2013 (AFP, A. Majeed)

and extremely graphic sex scenes between the Horseman and his paramours.

ish, with actors regularly turning to the camera quizzically, looking for direction for their next move.

A reverential hush reigns over the audience throughout, broken only by a few suspicious noises from certain rows, while at least half sneak out before the end.

The dialogue is dubbed in Pashto, the main language of the northwest, with an enthusiasm somewhat at odds with the bored, uninterested way the actors seem to be speaking in the original Punjabi.

Sex sells The formula has made the Shama one of Peshawar’s most successful cinemas at a time when many others have been forced to close.

The Islamisation that Pakistan witnessed in the 1980s persuaded many that the silver screen was a sinful depravation bad for the soul of a good Muslim.

The rise of videos, DVDs and the Internet accelerated the decline and now of around 15 cinemas in Peshawar 20 years ago, only seven remain.

Three of them show pornography, sometimes discreetly via clips hidden part way through mainstream action movies. The Shama, the best-known of the three, is regularly full, with tickets three or four times the price of normal films.

Key to its success is showing local-made pornography, which is much harder to find in Peshawar -- or on the Internet -- than Western adult films.

Coming to see “Dostana” for a second time, Khaliq Khan, 30, said: “Like a lot of people here I prefer films with Pakistani girls.

It’s better, it seems more amateur, more real.”

“Dostana” is certainly amateur-

But Janus Khan is quite happy.

After the screening the labourer, 22, admitted he regularly came to the Shama “to enjoy myself, alone or with one or two friends”.

“I’m not very pious but I’m not a rapist or unfaithful,” he told AFP. Powerful owners The Shama has provoked controversy in Pakistan, a constitutional Islamic republic with a very conservative attitude to sex and nudity.

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), one of the country’s leading religious political parties, has demanded the closure of the cinema.

But the cinema has powerful owners -- the Bilour family, one of the most influential in Peshawar and a pillar of the Pashtun nationalist ANP party.

Twice in the last 10 years Islamist activists including JI students have attacked the Shama, but both times the cinema has risen again.

Burned down in September 2012, it reopened a month later just in time for the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, which saw the Shama full.

Hardik Vyas, Astrologer Cell : 832-298-9950

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Emotional and personal situations will drain your energy. Refuse to get dragged into the middle of an argument. Don’t take sides. Get out and socialize with colleagues. If you can combine some work with pleasure, you will gain respect and help from those in a position to help you get ahead. If you made a promise to your family, you must not renege. Put everything else on hold. Emotional problems with family members will be disheartening. You must listen rather than offer your opinions. Visit with friends who may be able to shed some light on your situation.

Taurus (B,V,U) 21 April to 20 May You need to get out and meet some new people. You need to put some excitement back into your life. Emotional blackmail will get you into trouble. Don’t blame others for your own mistakes or unhappiness. New acquaintances will show interest in you if you are happy and positive about yourself. You need to make some personal changes in your life. Don’t be depressed. You need to concentrate on your creative projects and not worry so much about what other people are saying or doing.

Gemini (K,CHH,GH) 21 May to 20 June Go into new ventures with enthusiasm and an open mind. Stay put and work on the projects that don’t require a lot of travel or communication. Take things in stride. You are best to busy yourself with personal projects. You should be thinking about a career move. Someone you work for is probably trying to hold you back. Protect your reputation and prepare yourself for unexpected changes. It’s time to take a serious look at getting into shape before summer hits and you have to shed some of those layers of clothing you’ve been hiding under.

Cancer (D,H) 21 June to 22 July Use discretion when discussing personal matters. You can avoid emotional issues with loved ones by being affectionate, fun loving and active. You’ll be able to make money if you investment in yourself. Be discriminating when discussing work, You won’t be able to trust some of your colleagues or clients. Keep your ideas to yourself for the time being. Find out all you can about your present position and the changes going on around you. Work hard to complete projects that might make a real difference to your professional future.

Leo (M) 23 July to 22 August Keep continue your efforts to help others. It will be admired by onlookers. Someone you work with may be jealous of you. Keep your thoughts and intentions to yourself.

Outdoor activities will be invigorating. Take care of your family responsibilities first or include the ones you love in the events you attend. Don’t overspend on those unworthy of your generosity. You may want to look into the nature of an organization before you donate or join it. Your partner will not put up with your possessiveness. Expect to get into a heated discussion.

Virgo (P) 23 August to 22 September You need a change of scenery. Travel for business or pleasure and you’ll break up the monotony. Use your finesse to get what you want. You’ll be surprised by the response you receive.

Check out some of the courses offered in your community. You need to start learning new skills if you want to keep up with the never-ending technological changes at work. Don’t become involved in dubious financial schemes. Extravagance could be your downfall. Excessiveness will result in minor illness. You need to put some time aside for rest and relaxation.

Libra (R,T) 23 Sept to 22 Oct Concentrate on things you enjoy doing rather than just doing for others. You need a real break. Your colorful manner will attract attention. Use your energy in a constructive manner. The work you do around your home will be rewarding. Check out activities that offer a physical challenge. Now you’re ready to entertain. You must learn not to force your opinions on others. Participating in a challenging physical activity will help ease your tension and stress. You will be looking for a good fight if things don’t go your way.

Scorpio (N,Y)23 Oct to 21 Nov

Attorney and Counselor at Law

BUSINESS CORP LAW

(For week beginning Friday, December 27, 2013)

Aries (A,L,E) 21 March to 20 April

UMA MANTRAVADI

E-1 & E-2 Visas H-1B Visas H-1 Extensions L-1 Visas

Your Horoscope As per Indian Vedic Astrology the Moon sign is considered, in which every Rashi has control over certain letters, which are initials of your name. Whereas in Western system of Sun Sign, all the people born in one month belong to the same sign. For example, every year approximately around 21 of March to 20th April, the Sun is moving in the Aries Constellation. So all the people born in that month belong to the Sign of Aries. If you were born in between those two dates then you are a Aries born.

hree times a day dozens of men pack the auditorium, the air heavy with hashish smoke, to watch graphic sex movies: welcome to the Shama -- a pornographic cinema in Pakistan’s Taliban heartland.

Terrified of being recognised, the Shama’s customers hide their faces as they make their way to the cinema between a goat market and a bus station.

FRIDAY, December 27, 2013

Get your point across. Work diligently on projects requiring fine detail. Avoid peers who want to get you involved in their personal dilemmas. You may want to help them, however you may get blamed for the outcome. You will learn more if you listen. Someone you know well will reveal information pertinent to your professional future. New friendships will develop through activities that include large groups. Move quickly if you see an opportunity to advance. Your timing must be impeccable. Don’t hesitate to take that business trip you’ve been thinking about.

Sagittarius (BH,F,DH,TH) 22 Nov to 21 Dec Outmaneuver & overcome any obstacle that stands in your way. You’ll so fine, as long as you don’t get angry. Don’t give up just because you face opposition, turn on your charm and push ahead. You’ll be indecisive, your spouse will be confused by your actions. Take the initiative and go after your goals. Business ventures can earn you extra cash. You’ll have to be careful that you don’t make rash decisions you’ll regret later. Don’t promise your spouse that you’ll do something for him or her unless you have full intentions of following through.

Capricorn (KH,J) 22 Dec to 20 Jan Attain perfection, or your version of perfection. Just when you think you have the ability to cStick to your budget. Don’t bite off too much financially, losses will be evident if you aren’t stringent with your money. Someone is likely to misinterpret you if you aren’t perfectly clear about your intentions. Spend time pampering yourself and you’ll be glad you did. Don’t reveal secret information about others. Co-workers won’t be willing to cooperate with you, and you’ll have to accomplish projects on your own. Mingle with intellectual people to meet the type of companions.

Aquarius (G,S,SH) 21 Jan to 19 Feb Use your innovative ideas and your energetic nature. This force will help you to push your ideas into motion. You’ll be receptive to new ideas and concepts. Friendships could develop into serious partnerships. You must act quickly if you want to meet your deadlines. Don’t hesitate to ask others for favors owed. You have more allies than you think. Don’t let boredom stand in the way of doing a good job. Put some flair back into your work or move onto greater challenges. Attend motivational seminars that will help you to reach your potential.

Pisces (D,CH,Z) 20 Feb to 20 March You need to control your emotions. Finalize contracts as quickly as possible. Concentrate on key positions. Don’t be too quick to judge others. You may have invalid information that will cause you to make the wrong choices. Doors will open professionally if you send out your resume and go for interviews. Don’t allow children or entertainment to cost too much or you’ll have financial problems. Self-improvement projects are your best outlet.

You need an outlet. You’ll be sensitive to the comments made by loved ones. Try not to jump to conclusions.

Read your detailed horoscope on www.VoiceofAsiaOnline.com

COMMUNITY EVENTS

VOICE OF ASIA 18

FRIDAY, December 27, 2013

RELIGIOUS INSTITUTES & ORGANIZATIONS OF HOUSTON - call Voice of Asia 713-774-5140 Shri Radha Krishna Temple Prog Akhand Ramayan Path starting 11:00AM on Tuesday Dec. 31, 2013 continuing until 12:00 Noon New Year’s Day Wednesday January 01, 2014 Location:11625 Beechnut, Houston, TX 77072 Phone: 281-933-8100 Website: www.SRKT.org.

Shiridi Sai Durga Shiva Venkateswara Temple (Katy) Prog: Contact: 713-933-8821/ Udayakumar Gullapalli E-mail: gullapalliu@yahoo.com Website: www.sdsvt.org

Arsha Vidya Bharati Prog.:Sanskrit classes and special worship sessions for all ages Location: 2918 Renoir, Sugar Land, TX 77479 Contact: 281-606-5607 or AVB.Houston@gmail.com Web: https://sites.google.com/ site/avbtexas/classes

Arsha Vidya Satsanga Prog: Website: www.avshouston.org Contact: 713-412-2923 / Email: ArshaVidyaHou@gmail.com

Chinmaya Mission Prog: Location:10353 Synott Road, Sugar Land, TX77498.

Phone: 832.541.0059.

Website:www.chinmayahouston. org.

Sri Saumyakasi Sivalaya Temple Hrs: 9 am to noon and 5 to 9 pm.;Sri Astalaksmi puja: 7 pm. Sri Laksmi Archana will be performed on request all day.

Location:same as Chinmaya Mission.

Website: www.saumyakasi.org;

Hindu Temple of The Woodlands Location: 7601 S. Forest Gate Drive at Woodlands Parkway, Spring, TX 77382.

QR

Contact: info@woodlandshindutemple.org, 832-585-0001 Website: www. woodlandshindutemple.org.

VPSS Houston

Location VPSS Vallabh Hall, 11715 Belfort Village Dr. Houston 77031.

Contact:713-530-2900 Website:www.vpsshaveli.org

Sri Meenakshi Temple Prog: Sat. Dec. 7 - Ayyappa Mandala Pooja. Asstabhishekam 10am, followed by Annadhanam 12pm-2:30pm.

Location: 17130 McLean Road Pearland, TX 77584 Contact: (281) 489-0358 Web: www.meenakshi.org

Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Baitus Samee Mosque Prog: Friday Prayer - 1:30 PM Children’s Classes | Interfaith meeting | Location: 1333 Spears Rd, Houston, TX 77067 Imam - Mohammed Zafarullah Contact : Work: 281-875-3400 | Cell: 713-874-4363 Zafarullah_Hanjra@hotmail.com www.Alislam.org

Dr.Ambedkar International Mission Inc. U.S.A Prog: Location: India House 8888 West Bellfort Avenue Houston, Texas 77031

Hare Krishna Dham (ISKCON) Everyday, 7 Aratis and bhoga offerings daily. Sunday Festival: 5.30 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.

Location: 1320 West 34th St, Houston, TX 77018.

Contact:281-433-1635/E-mail harekrishnadham@gmail.com Website: www.iskconhouston.org

Vedanta Society of Greater Houston Prog: Vedanta teachings Sundays at 10:30 AM Location: at 14809 Lindita Dr. Houston, TX -77083.

Website: www.vedantahouston. org

details Website: www.jkphouston.org Weekly Radio Program-1460 AM Saturdays 10-11 a.m.

Divinity Website: www.godivinity.org

ISSO

Lakshmi Narayan Mandir

Prog: Darshan daily from 7.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 8.30 p.m.; Aarti daily from 7.45 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Location: 10080 Synott Road, Sugar Land, TX 77478 Phone: 281-530-2565 Web:

Prog: Every Friday Satsangh from 7:30 pm to 9 pm. Bhajans and Devi Puja, Discourses.

Location: 12530 Ann Louise Road, Houston, 77086.

Phone: Contact Vishnu at (832) 309- 7181.

Shri Satyanarayan Sai Puja Darshan Prog: Daily from 10:00 a.m. to 1:p.m. and 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Every Thursday Abhishek Location: 16338 Kensington Dr, Ste 110, Sugar Land 77479.

Phone: 713-933-8821 / 9359.

Gurdwara Sahib of SW Houston Prog: Sundays Dewan 10:00 11:00 a.m. 1:00 p.m. Langar Location:14811 Lindita Drive, Houston, TX 77083 Phone: 281-498-5200 Website: www.gurdwaraswh.com

Sri Ashtalakshmi Temple Prog: Sri Vishnu Sahasranama Stotra Parayanam: daily 6.30 p.m. Location:10098 Synott Road. Sugar Land, TX 77478 Phone: 281- 498-2344 Website: www.ashtalakshmi.org

Hindu Worship Society Prog: Open all days except Thursdays (by appt). Regular Puja and Prasad. Sunday Service 11:30 AM to 1:30 Location: 2223 Wirtcrest Lane Houston TX 77055.

Ashirwad - A Blessing Temple

Barsana Dham Houston Chapter

Prog: Regular prog :Sloka Classes for kids and teens.

Location: Katy, Hwy 249 & Sugar Land.

Contact: 281.995.0930/ 281.808.2159

Prog: Satsang every Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Location: India House, 8888 West Belfort 77031 Phone: (713) 855-9818 for

JVB Preksha Meditation Center Prog: Location: 14102 Schiller Road, Houston TX 77082 Phone: 281.596.9642 Website: www.jvbhouston.org

Patanjali Yogpeeth Center Prog: Free Yoga Classes every Sat/Sun from 8 am to 9:30 am Location: Arya Samaj @Schiller Road.

Contact: 281-579-9433.

Websites: www.pyptusa.org

Jain Center of Houston Location: 3905 Arc St. Houston, TX 77063 Contact: 281-606-JAIN; Email: ecjsh@jain-houston.org Website:www.jain-houston.org

Durga Bari Society Prog: Sandhya Arati at 6:30 p.m.; Sunday: 9:00 a.m.- 7:00 p.m.

Location: 13944 Schiller Road.

Contact: 281-597-8100 Website:www.houstondurgabari. org

Gayatri Pariwar of Houston Prog: Sundays Satsang, Bal-Sanskar Shala, from 11am to 1pm.

Location: 5645 Hillcroft, Suite # 307, Houston, TX 77036.

Website: http://www.gayatripariwarhouston.org/ “

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EGGLESS cakes Available

Computer Repair & Networking Home & Business, Microsoft & A+ certified, low flat rates, free estimates, pickup & delivery.

www.PCNetworkGuru.com Call Amit at 832-971-6807

Prog: Bhajans: Sat.7:00 -8:00 p.m.; Sundays 9:00 a.m.-1:00 a.m.Location: 1620 Ormandy Street, Houston, TX 77035 Contact: 713-729-8994

Govindaji Gaudiya Math Prog: Satsang every Sunday evening from 5 - 7 p.m. Vedic heritage classes for kids 5-14.

Location: 16628 Kieth Harrow blvd. Houston, TX 77084 Contact: 281-499-3347/281-4914114.

Sathya Sai Baba Centers Prog: Sundays from 3:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at two locations Locations: Contact: (North) 832-418-3842 or (South) 281-788-4786.

Website:www.saicenterofhouston.org

Telugu Christian Fellowship Prog; Every third Saturday 6:30 PM. Worship is in English Location: The Triumph Church, 10555 West Airport Boulevard, Stafford, TX 77477.

Contact:713-301-6444 Website:

Commercial & Residential

* Repair/ Remodeling * New Installation * Ceiling Fans * Light Fixtures * Electric Panel * Trouble Shooting * Services Upgrades

Prog: Sundays worship 4:30 pm.

Location: All Saints Lutheran Church 1211 West Belfort Avenue, Stafford, TX Contact: 281-686-4135 / Email: pastorvj@linchouston.org

Trinity Mar Thoma Church Prog: Sundays Malyalam service at 9:45 a.m. Every alternate weeks in English at 10:30a.m.

Sunday School at 9:15 a.m.

Location: 5810 Almeda Genoa Road.

Contact: 713-9771-1557/ 281261-4603.

Rekindle The Fire Ministries Prog: Houston Revival Meetings Every second Saturday of the Month. Location: New Song Christian Community Church near 59S and Wilcrest. Every fourth Saturday of the month join a lively youth revival meeting.

Website:www.rekindlethefire.org

Indian Catholics of Houston Prog: Location: Claridge Drive Houston, TX 77031 Contact:: (713) 995-6811

Brahma Kumaris Meditation Center

Islamic Society of Greater Houston

Prog: Daily classes in Raja Yoga Meditation To register call or email.

Contact:832-379-8888/ Email: houston@bktexas.com Website: bktexas.com

Location: Eastside Drive Houston, TX 77098 Contact: (713) 524-6615

Bethesda Houston Tamil Church Prog: Prog: Sundays Tamil Worship: 5 – 7pm Sunday school : in English. Bethesda Family Fellowship: in English 10.30 am-12.30 pm Free Tutorial for all children Mondays & Wednesdays 5-6 pm. Ladies Bible Study: Thur 9 am.

Location: 1092, Suite F&G, Stafford. Tex 77477 Tel:281-317-7331, 281-317-7331 Website:bethesdahoustontamilc hurch.org

GHNSS Nair Service Society of Greater Houston Prog. Monthly “Karayogam” every fourth Sat. 6:00 PM. Tel: 281-261-4950/ 281-7788341

Datta Yoga Center Houston Prog: Satsang on alternate Saturdays 5:30pm to 8:00pm.

Free Kriya Yoga classes.

Contact:713-854-7097 or 281205-0905 Website: dychouston.org

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CLASSIFIEDS

VOICE OF ASIA 19

FRIDAY, December 27, 2013

Have you been ABUSED, ATTACKED or INJURED?

JOB OPENING

Assessment Team Member - Healthcare

Have you experienced a traumatic event such as:

• Rape • Physical Assault • Child Abuse • A severe car accident • War • Natural distaster Does this continue to affect you with: • Upsetting memories • Irritability • Bad dreams or difficulty sleeping • Trouble concentrating • Lack of Interest in activities.

Location: Houston, TX.

We are a leading Healthcare provider of integrated supply chain execution software solutions with a focus on the markets of automatic identification and data collection (AIDC), radio frequency identification (RFID), and enterprise mobility. We offer best in class Benefits and Work Environment.

Essential Job Functions • Provide thought leadership, solution architecture, and design for hospital supply chain.

• Develop assessment methodology to ensure smooth performance of the assessments.

• Perform site assessments of multiple medical facilities to collect the POU (Point Of Use) information necessary for successful implementation, required integration and training.

• At the conclusion of each site assessment, report findings as prescribed in the project schedule, knowledge of POU products, not limited to Carefusion/Pyxis, Omnicell, Wavemark, Stanley, and Par Excellence.

• Ensures that the proposed POU supply chain solution is documented with up-to-date information that accurately reflects the latest functionality and technology.

• Ability to survey current POU equipment installed and make a determination if that equipment would be able to sustain a world class supply chain solution.

• Work with process teams, key stakeholders, leadership and 3rd party deployment partners to define processes and application requirements.

• Work with process teams, key stakeholders and deployment partners to define best practices, processes, and IT solutions to achieve a best in class capabilities.

• Ensures proper configuration, testing, and deployment management of the supply chain solution and related integration areas.

• Attends in-service presentations, and complete mandatory education week including, but not limited to, infection control, patient safety, quality improvements, MSDS and OSHA Standards.

• Serve as the key application expert in the POU supply chain area.

Requirements • Minimum 5 years’ experience on Large Hospital Supply Chain projects a major portion of which is on POU Systems.

• College or university degree equivalent, preferably in Supply Chain, Logistics Management and Healthcare Administration • Multitasking, excellent proposal and report writing skills, presentation skills.

• Six Sigma and Lean.

• In-depth knowledge of Hospital Operations.

• Extensive travel required across the country to Assessment Sites.

• PC skills - demonstrates proficiency in Microsoft Office applications and others as required Other Skills/Abilities APICS CPIM or CSPC National Certification desired Customer orientation - establishes and maintains long-term customer relationships, building trust and respect by consistently meeting and exceeding expectations

mood@bcm.edu

If you are a woman between the ages of 18 and 65, you may be eligible to participate in a study of an investigational medication for PTSD conducted by the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center and the Mood and Anxiety Program at the Baylor College of Medicine. There is no cost for participation.

CALL 1-877-96-BCM-MOOD (226-6663), Visit www.bcm.edu/psychiatry/mood, or email us at mood@bcm.edu if you are interested in participating.

A family needs a reliable Caretaker full time to take care of home, cook meals - breakfast, lunch and dinner, do some light house work, weekdays and weekends. Timings are: 7:30 AM - 5:30 PM daily, flexible some evenings. Must be able to cook South and North Indian dishes. Please have a few references.

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Reliable Caretaker Needed

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Vol. 26 No. 50 Friday, December 13 , 2013 Published Weekly from Houston 713-774-5140 24 Pages ( 2 sections) 50 cents E-mail: voiceasia@aol.com

Biting the bullet after the ballot Disarray in India’s ruling party after poll defeat

N

EW DELHI - Disarray within India’s ruling Congress party burst into the open on Tuesday after its stunning defeat in state elections, with a senior figure saying the party would lose a

and for allowing corruption to spin out of control since he was appointed to a second term in 2009.

Adding to the Congress party’s troubles, half a dozen of its own lawmakers called

gress party in elections held over the last month in three big states and the capital, Delhi.

“A break from governance would be a welcome break that could be used to refit the party as the nation’s natural party of governance in the 21st century,” the upper house lawmaker wrote in a column for the Indian Express newspaper.

Houston IIT 2013 Global Conference concludes successfully

by Jacob David

HOUSTON – Over 1750 attendees benefited immensely from the IIT 2013 Global conference held at Houston, Texas between

hosted a variety of guest speakers lasted for 2 days from December 6 – 8th. The conference focused on five areas – Sustainability, Technology, Education, Energy, and Life Sciences.

“The current and prospective electoral reverses for the Congress are thus Rahul’s golden opportunity,” he said, referring to the young scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and potential candidate for prime minister.

Aiyar’s opinion was personal and not the party’s view, said Congress spokesman Bhakta Charan Das, but agreed there was a need to analyse what went wrong.

Vicente Fox, Former President of Mexico, P.Harish, Consul General of India, Suresh and Dr. Renu Khator, President and Chancellor of Houston were among the chief guests for the evening at the Chairman’s Reception. Miss America 2014 Nina Davuluri could not make it to the closing ceremony due to bad weather in Dallas. She spoke to the participants in a live telephone conversation from Dallas. Dan Nainan, Comedian; Usha Uthup, Indian Jazz, pop and playback singer; and the FAB 5 Houston Rock band kept the conference lively and going forward.

At the Chairman’s reception, Pratish Kanani the Vice-chair and IIT alumnus, said, “The Indian Institutes of Technology alumni have proved to be strong innovators and highly successful executives and technologists in the corporate world, entrepreneurial ventures, academia and government among many others. In addition to our professional achievements, we feel enormously responsible to give back to our communities and help

to our weekly free online newspaper!

Sonia Gandhi, Congress party president and her son Rahul Gandhi who is the party’s vice president. (Photo: AFP)

general election and needed time in opposition to reinvent itself.

Mani Shankar Aiyar - a veteran of the party who is close to the Nehru-Gandhi family that has run the Congress for decades - predicted defeat in the national election due by next May.

for a parliamentary motion of no-confidence over a decision to split the southern state of Andhra Pradesh into two.

If at least 50 members of the lower house back their demand, the stage would be set for a trial of strength in which Congress

“The party will definitely introspect and we must come out with a very good approach to revitalise ourselves.”

The centre-left Congress party’s main opponent, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was the clear winner in three states that held assembly elections and left its

Kashinath Patil, Lubeena Bindra and Degh Bindra light the lamp at the conference. (Photo courtesy IIT)

Continued on pg 5

“Who can be even half-way realistic and expect the Congress to return to power?” Aiyar told Reuters.

In a further signal of uneasiness about Congress’ chances in the general election, the leader of a key party in the coalition government said on Monday the state polls amounted to a rejection of “weak rulers”.

“People do not want weak rulers,” National Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar said, according to domestic media reports. “They want decisive and result-oriented leaders who will formulate policies for (the) poor and implement them.”

Manmohan Singh, the taciturn 81-year-old prime minister, has been widely criticised for the government’s policy drift and a sharp economic slowdown,

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Witty Bindra giving final thanks for a successful conference with IIT 2013 team. (Photo courtesy IIT)

AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal shows victory sign with party members Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav and Kumar Vishwas in Delhi. (Photo: PTI) would need the support of several parties to survive.

Aiyar’s remarks follow a disastrous showing for the Con-

December 6th and 8th, 2013. The theme of the conference is ironically Inspiring Innovation for Tomorrow which fits the IIT acronym well. The conference was kicked off by the Chairman’s Reception which was held at the Asia Society Texas Center at 1370 Southmore Blvd, on Thursday, December 5th, 2013.

The conference opened to a grand gala night with select conThe BJP has been boosted temporary dance performances by by the energetic campaigning the Anjali Dance Company, Houston, choreographed by Dr. Rathna Continued on pg 11 Kumar. The programs which rival standing in the capital.

From L-R: Lubeena Bindra, Dr.Renu Khator, Suresh Khator and Witty Bindra, Chairman, IIT. (Photo: Jacob David)

VOICE OF ASIA 20

FRIDAY, December 27, 2013