TEXAS: A Sikh man and a Pakistan-American met in a bus in the US and started to chat each other in Punjabi leading to them getting arrested at gunpoint and detained for 30 hours after fellow travellers claimed they were discussing a “bomb threat” in Arabic. Daljeet Singh and Mohammed Chotri struck a conversation while on the way to Indiana from Arizona, not realising their companionship will get them put into immigration detention centres. Both of them have been released, and Singh gave a statement saying he had been granted parole to live and work in the US pending a decision on his refugee application. The Sikh Coalition has filed a complaint against the woman who accused the two of discussing a bomb threat in Arabic and “acting weird”. Singh and Chotri were cleared of all criminal wrongdoing by the FBI and the local attorney’s office and released from detention.
Protesters storm Baghdad’s Green Zone, enter parliament
BAGHDAD: Hundreds of Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr supporters stomped parliament inside Baghdad's Green Zone, camping out nearby after Sadr denounced Politicians' failure to reform a political quota system blamed for rampant corruption. While the initial breach was quite peaceful, things took a turn for the worse by evening, with security forces resorting to teargas and shooting bullets in the air to stop more protesters from entering. A United Nations spokesman and Western diplomats said their compounds inside the Green Zone were locked down. Iraqi security and Sadr's militiamen formed a joint force to control the crowds. All entrances of Baghdad were temporarily shut “as a precautionary measure to maintain the capital's security”, an official said.
Air strikes kill 60 in Syrian city, including 27 at a hospital
BEIRUT: Air strikes and shelling lead to the death of more than 60 people in less than 24 hours in Aleppo, Syria. One of the main areas of the country's ongoing civil war, at least 27 people died as a hospital supported by Doctors Without Borders and the International Committee for the Red Cross and nearby buildings were hit overnight. UN envoy for Syria has appealed to the US and Russia to help revive the peace talks and a ceasefire, which he said “hangs by a thread”. Around 200 civilians have been killed in the past week in Syria with half of them around Aleppo. The ICRC said the war, including the destruction in air strikes, is putting millions at grave risk.
Number of Indian pupils in US jumps in a year
WASHINGTON: Official data released shows the number of Indian students in American universities and colleges have risen by over 32 per cent, number over 194,000 in one year. “The number of F&M students from India studying in the US grew from 148,360 in March 2015 to 194,438 in March 2016, an increase of 31.1 per cent,” as per the latest 'Sevis by the Numbers', a quarterly report on foreign student trends prepared by Student and Exchange Visitor Program. Based on data extracted from SEVIS March 7, international student enrolment at US schools increased 6.2 per cent as compared to March 2015.
In a first, Iranian House to have more women than clerics
TEHRAN: In a first, Iran's new parliament will have more women than clerics once its members are sworn in this month. Official results showed that reformist and moderate politicians allied with President Hassan Rouhani won a big victory in the second round parliamentary elections. A record 17 women will become lawmakers in the 290-seat parliament. Although the 17 women, almost all reformists, represent only 9 per cent of the total, it is definitely a high for the Islamic republic and almost double the nine conservative women in the outgoing chamber. Results reveal there will be 133 reformists in the new parliament.
Beijing begins to build biggest dam in Tibet
BEIJING: Construction of China's biggest hydropower project has taken off in Tibet, with a cost of over $3 billion. The Suwalong hydropower project at Mangkam county and Batang county, has a design capacity of 1.2 gigawatts, and will be generate about 5,400 gigawatt hours of electricity a year when completed in 2021, a media reported. This is more than double the capacity of the Zangmu hydropower plant on Brahmaputra, Tibet's largest existing hydro project.
