Indians wishing to immigrate to America will have to pay an additional $50,000 for the EB-5 or the US investor visa from April 1. Although, this additional tax would impact all visa categories, it will predominantly create a barrier for people investing in the EB-5 visa programme, American Bazaar daily said. In 2019, the EB-5 investor visa programme, for the first time since the 1990’s, increased the minimum investment amount to $900,000. With this increase, the new 5% additional tax would mean that applicants would have to pay the extra $50,000, when they move money to an escrow account in the US to fulfil their application criterion. “The change is a reminder to Indians to carefully plan their tax position before making the move to the US,” Mark Davies of Davies & Associates LLC told American Bazaar.
Net giants protest against new Pak censorship rules
Internet giants, including Facebook, Google and Twitter, have threatened to suspend their services in Pakistan over new censorship rules, local media reported. To regulate social media activity, the government announced new rules under which social media firms will have to disclose information or data to a probe agency when sought. Failure to abide by the provisions within three months will entail a fine of up to Rs 500 million. In a letter to PM Imran Khan on February 15, the Asia Internet Coalition (AIC) comprising Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon, Apple and others called the new rules “vague and arbitrary in nature” and urged the government to revise them.
Former Pak PM Abbasi gets bail in corruption case
Former Pakistan prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi who has been in detention for months on graft charges has been granted bail the Islamabad High Court (IHC). Abbasi, who served as the prime minister from August 2017 to May 2018, was arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in July for allegedly violating rules and causing a loss to the national exchequer in the Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) case. The IHC granted bail to Abbasi, 61, and ordered him to submit a surety bond of Rs10 million. The court also heard separate bail application of former planning minister Ahsan Iqbal and also granted him bail. The NAB is probing alleged corruption in the award of contract to import LNG from Qatar by Abbasi when he was minister for petroleum and natural resources in the Cabinet of former premier Nawaz Sharif. The probe started in 2015 but made little progress. Iqbal was accused of corruption in the construction of the Narowal Sports City as minister for planning in Sharif’s government. Accepting their pleas, the IHC bench ordered that they should be released on submission of surety bonds.
China to send 'duck army' to help Pak fight locusts
China is planning to dispatch a 100,000-strong army of ducks to help Pakistan combat a massive locust infestation, a local newspaper said. The legion of lotus-eating waterfowl will be sent from the eastern province of Zhejiang following the earlier dispatch of a team of Chinese experts to Pakistan to advise on a response to the infestation that is being called the worst in 20 years, reports said. China deployed ducks, whose natural diet includes insects, to fight a similar infestation in its northwestern region of Xinjiang two decades ago, reportedly with considerable effectiveness. Their use is less expensive and environment friendly than the use of pesticides, the report quoted officials as saying.
19 killed as train crashes into bus in Pakistan
At least 19 people were killed and 28 others injured when a train crashed into a bus carrying passengers at an unmanned railway crossing in southern Pakistan. A police official said that the bus driver was at fault as he began crossing without assessing how close the train was. The dead and injured were on both the bus and the train, he said. The crash took place near the district of Rohri, about 470 km north of Karachi. The bus was torn into three pieces, and the police official said that the rescue workers faced difficulties throughout the night recovering bodies and rescuing the injured, who were strewn along a 400-meter stretch of the track. Women and children were among the dead and injured, and were transferred to two nearby hospitals, he said. Seven people had died in hospital, and some of the injured were in critical condition.
Bangla police kill suspected Rohingya robbers
Police in Bangladesh killed seven members of a gang of armed robbers during a raid on their hideout on a hillside overlooking a camp for Rohingya refugees in the southeast of the country, a police spokesman said. Crime and violence are rife in the squalid, sprawling camps around the coastal city of Cox's Bazar, where hundreds of thousands of ethnic Rohingya took shelter in recent years after fleeing persecution in neighbouring Myanmar. Police did not say what crime this gang had been engaged in, but some Rohingya gangs are involved in narcotics and human trafficking, and the raid was conducted by a special police unit known as the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).
Man arrested for hurling shoe at former Nepal PM
A man was arrested in Kathmandu for hurling a shoe at Nepal Communist Party (NCP) co-chairperson and country's former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal during the latter's address at an event in Kathmandu. The shoe fell a few metres away from the podium on which Dahal was making an address at an event marking the death anniversary of Communist Leader Bharat Mohan Adhikari. The person, identified as Ratan Tiruwa, told police he hurled the shoe at the leader as he could not tolerate his statement on 'class struggle'. "I was listening to his (Dahal) address. He talked about the class struggle which I didn't like and hurled shoes at him in twinge," Tiruwa told the Police in custody.
Compensation for downgrading flyers
United Airlines gave passengers $10,000 each to downgrade from business class to premium economy on a flight that was overbooked. The flight, between Newark, New Jersey, and Honolulu, Hawaii, was scheduled on a Boeing 777 aircraft. However, it was changed at the last minute to a Boeing 767-300 - a smaller jet. Due to the last-minute plane change, there were not enough business class seats for the number of passengers who had booked them. As a result, United needed nine passengers to be downgraded. The US carrier gave them all $10,000 each in travel vouchers as compensation.
US: Chinese ship fired laser at American plane
A Chinese Navy ship fired a laser at a US surveillance aircraft flying over the Philippine Sea west of Guam, the navy said, acknowledging the incident more than a week after it happened. The navy said the People’s Republic of China naval destroyer lased the American P-8A Poseidon aircraft in an act the US deemed unsafe and a violation of international codes and agreements. The US Pacific Fleet said the laser was detected by sensors on the aircraft, but was not visible to the naked eye. “Weapons-grade lasers could potentially cause serious harm to aircrew and mariners, as well as ship and aircraft systems,” the Navy said. The incident took place about 380 miles west of Guam.
Amal Clooney to Fight for Rohingya
The Maldives has hired prominent human rights lawyer Amal Clooney to represent it at the UN's highest court in seeking justice for Myanmar's persecuted Rohingya Muslims. The Maldivian government said it will formally join the mainly Muslim African state of The Gambia in challenging Myanmar's 2017 military crackdown that sent around 740,000 Rohingya fleeing into neighbouring Bangladesh. In a unanimous ruling last month, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Buddhist-majority Myanmar to implement emergency measures to prevent the genocide of Rohingya - pending a full case that could take years. Clooney successfully represented former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed and secured a UN decision that his 2015 jailing for 13 years was illegal.
33 Turkish soldiers killed in northeast Syria air strike
An air strike by Syrian government forces killed 33 Turkish soldiers in northeast Syria, a Turkish official said, marking the largest death toll for Turkey in a single day since it first intervened in Syria in 2016. The deaths were a serious escalation in the direct conflict between Turkish and Russia-backed Syrian forces that has been waged since early February. Rahmi Dogan, the governor of Turkey's Hatay province bordering Syria's Idlib region, said 33 soldiers were killed and others were seriously wounded in the attack. He said 39 injured were being treated in Turkish hospitals. Three Turkish soldiers were killed earlier in Idlib. At least 53 have now been killed in Idlib since the start of February. UN Secretary-General reiterated his call for an immediate cease-fire and expressed serious concern about the risk to civilians from escalating military actions,," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. “Without urgent action, the risk of even greater escalation grows by the hour," Dujarric said.
Woman trained parrot to harass her neighbours
An elderly woman has been taken to court for harassing her neighbours by making her parrot sing loudly, playing Toy Story back-to-back on full volume and throwing dog faeces at their home. Catherine Searle, 81, was also caught on CCTV rubbing grease on their cars and putting nails under their wheels. She has been given a suspended sentence and a restraining order by Maidstone Magistrates' Court. Paul and Lydia Appleton said they had endured 16 years of harassment and that it began after they asked Searle to keep the noise down in 2004, shortly after moving into their new home in Seal, a village in Kent.
Thief in California takes off with corpse inside vehicle
A thief in California got more than he bargained for after he stole an SUV outside a church with a dead body inside. The vehicle was parked outside a Greek Orthodox church in Pasadena, east of Los Angeles, and was left running as the driver dropped off one body, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy Grace Medrano said. She said another body was in the black Lincoln Navigator when it was stolen. In a message on Twitter, the sheriff’s department appealed to the suspect to at least return the corpse. “Out of all the bad decisions you have made, at least make one good one & bring back the deceased person & casket,” the message said. The suspect was finally arrested after a driver reported seeing the vehicle.
Israelis vote in 3rd election in a year
Israelis voted on Monday in the country's unprecedented third election in less than a year to decide whether longtime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stays in power despite his upcoming criminal trial on corruption charges. Netanyahu, the longest serving leader in Israeli history, has been the caretaker prime minister for more than a year as a divided Israel has weathered two inconclusive elections and a prolonged political paralysis. With opinion polls forecasting another deadlock, Netanyahu is seeking a late surge in support to score a parliamentary majority along with other nationalist parties that will deliver him a fourth consecutive term in office, and fifth overall. He faces a stiff challenge once again from retired military chief Benny Gantz, whose centrist Blue and White party is running even with Netanyahu's Likud on a campaign message that Israel's longtime prime minister is unfit to lead because of the serious charges against him.
