Page 116 - Social Issues
Dozens of migrants missing after boat capsizes off Libya
Dozens are missing and bodies have washed ashore after a boat carrying 44 migrants seeking a better life in Europe capsized off the coast of Libya, officials said Thursday. Jassim Ayoub, a spokesman for the Libyan navy, said the coast guard of the western city of Sabratha has rescued 17 migrants since the boat capsized Tuesday. Bodies, including those of children, have also been retrieved from the water. Most of the migrants were from African countries, he said. Thousands of migrants have perished trying to make the perilous Mediterranean crossing, often undertaking it in crowded wooden ships or inflatable rafts. In recent years, European countries have provided training and funds to Libyan authorities to reduce the crossings. But critics say those efforts leave the migrants trapped in Libya, where they face abuse and exploitation at the hands of smugglers and local militias. Doctors Without Borders said Thursday that dozens of migrants are suffering from hunger while being held in a .
Asian-Americans face barriers in workplace despite doing better at university
Asian Americans face additional barriers in their career despite doing well at university, new findings have suggested.According to the study published in Ethnic and Racial Studies, Asian Americans graduate from university at far higher rates than white Americans, but despite this are no more likely to hold professional or managerial jobs.They face discrimination when trying to climb the career ladder at work, a phenomenon known as the 'bamboo ceiling', an invisible barrier akin to the 'glass ceiling' faced by women.It has long been known that the US-born children of Asian immigrants, a population known as the "Asian second generation", are not only more likely to be college-educated than the US general population, but are also more likely to graduate from the nation's elite universities.While Asian Americans make up only 6.3 per cent of the US population, they account for about a quarter of all students in the Ivy League institutions in the US. However, until now, it has not been ...
Protests in Valley against teacher's custodial death
Protests were held on Thursday in Srinagar city and Awantipora town of Jammu and Kashmir against the custodial death of the private school teacher this week.
NC takes out march to protest custodial death of teacher
The National Conference (NC) Thursday took out a protest march here against the death of a teacher in police custody. Scores of NC activists, led by party general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar, assembled at the party's headquarters 'Nawai-Subah' here and took out the protest march. The activists shouted slogans and demanded stern punishment for those responsible for the death of 29-year-old Rizwan Asad Pandit. The protestors tried to march towards Lal Chowk at the city's centre, but were stopped by a large contingent of police personnel near the TRC crossing. Speaking to reporters, the party's provincial president, Kashmir, Nasir Aslam Wani, said the NC demands a time-bound probe into the incident. "We are back to the 1900s unfortunately. We are seeing a cycle of violence and death everyday now. We demand a time-bound inquiry into it and action against those responsible for the death of the teacher," Wani said. Pandit died in police custody days after he was picked up from his home in .
Italy driver hijacks, torches school bus carrying dozens of children
Italian police on Wednesday rescued 51 children taken hostage by their school bus driver, who doused the vehicle in petrol and set it alight apparently in protest at migrant deaths in the Mediterranean. Some of the children were tied up during the 30-minute ordeal, which saw the bus slam into a car but was brought to an end by police after one of the children was able to call for help. No one was seriously injured. "It is a miracle, it could have been carnage. The police were outstanding, blocking the bus and getting the children off," said Milan prosecutor Francesco Greco. Photos showed the burnt-out shell of the bus and the car, which were travelling on a road near Milan. Driver Ousseynou Sy -- a 47-year-old Italian citizen of Senegalese origin -- explained under questioning that he wanted "to draw attention to the consequences of migration policies", according to his lawyer. The 51 students in year two of secondary school in Crema were coming back from a sports outing accompanied ..
Older immigrants living in US more satisfied with life than native-born counterparts
A recent study suggests that people who immigrated to the United States are more satisfied with their lives in the "land of the free" than those who were born here.As part of the study, a team of researchers found immigrants from white, Hispanic and other racial groups have higher levels of happiness and overall life satisfaction than those born in the United States.Their findings were published in the February 2019 print edition of the Journal of Aging and Health."We discovered that people who are foreign-born and living in the United States do have higher levels of life satisfaction. We examined life satisfaction because it is a useful global measure for understanding how people are doing on the whole with regard to how they feel about their life. It's a good way of capturing their overall well-being," explained Dawn Carr, lead researcher of the study.Scholars found Hispanic immigrants in the United States had the highest overall life satisfaction of any other racial group. Study ..
Aussie media personality slammed for mocking NZ PM's accent
A leading Australian media personality faced a stinging backlash Thursday after mocking New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's accent during a moving speech in parliament about the Christchurch mosque attacks. Ardern has been widely praised for her handling of the tragedy that saw 50 lives lost when an Australian white supremacist rampaged through two mosques. During a speech on Tuesday she vowed never to use the name of the alleged shooter, Brenton Tarrant. "Thank heavens NZ prime minister said she will never mention the name of the terrorist," Sam Newman, an ex-Aussie Rules football player and former co-host of the popular "Footy Show" on commercial television, tweeted on Wednesday. "How grating is her accent?" The comment was widely condemned for its insensitivity, with more than 1,500 replies, overwhelmingly negative, on his Twitter feed. "Significantly better than any of the wind that comes out of your regressive racist sexist neck, Sam," said one user. Another posted: ...
LS polls: Over 35,000 wheelchairs, 52,000 magnifying glasses arranged for specially-abled voters
Over 35,000 wheelchairs, 52,000 magnifying glasses, and 2213 sign language interpreters have been arranged in Karnataka for voters belonging to the persons with disabilities (PwD) ahead of the Lok Sabha elections."Till February 28, we mapped 4,03,907 persons with disabilities (in the state) and are arranging whatever they require for assistance. We have arranged 35,739 wheelchairs, over 52,000 magnifying glasses, over 2213 sign language interpreters and over 31000 assistants," the state's Chief Electoral Officer, Sanjiv Kumar, told ANI on Wednesday.Besides this, Kumar said there will be a special queue for PwD voters."Sturdy ramps are being arranged in all 58,180 booths (in the state) and we are ensuring that they are all on ground floors. There will be a special queue for persons with disabilities and assistance of all kind will be provided," he added.Karnataka will vote to elect its members of Parliament during the second and third phases of polling on April 18 and April 23, ...
Driver hijacks school bus in Italy, sets it on fire
A bus carrying 51 schoolchildren has allegedly been hijacked by its driver and set alight near Milan in Italy.
Hundreds of hotel guests filmed secretly in South Korea
The South Korean police have uncovered a major illegal spy-cam scandal, with around 1,600 people being illegally filmed in their hotel rooms across the country and footage being live-streamed online.The scandal involves 42 rooms in 30 accommodations in 10 cities across South Korea, according to CNN. Two men have been arrested so far, while another pair is being investigated in connection with the illegal acts.Cameras were allegedly concealed inside digital TV boxes, wall sockets and hairdryer holders while the footage was streamed online, according to South Korea's National Police Agency.The police have until now stated that is no indication that the hotels were complicit in the scandal.Meanwhile, the site - where the footage was streamed live - had more than 4,000 members out of which 97 people paid USD 44.95 per month to gain access to features like replaying certain footage."There was a similar case in the past where illegal cameras were (secretly installed) and were consistently ..
Jindal varsity raises bar for quality education
Access, equity and excellence are key challenges for improving the quality of higher education in India and the institutions, both private and public, need introspection if these goals of diversity and inclusion are being met.
Undertrial who escaped from custody held in J&K
An undertrial, who had escaped from police custody here a day ago, was arrested in Jammu and Kashmir's Kulgam district on Wednesday. The accused, Ishfaq Ahmad Rah, who had escaped from police custody at the district court, has been arrested in the evening, a police officer said. Rah had escaped while he was being presented before a court in a militancy-related case, the officer added.
144 transgenders registered as voters in Haryana
As many as 144 transgenders were enrolled in the electoral list in Haryana,Joint Chief Electoral Officer, Inder Jeet said here Wednesday. At 24, the maximum transgenders were enrolled in Karnal district followed by 13 in Palwal district, 11 in Faridabad district and 10 each in Jind, Panipat and Sirsa districts, he said. The number of transgenders registered as voters in other districts included five each in Fatehabad, Rewari and Rohtak, four each in Narnaul, Sonipat and Yamunanagar, three each in Hisar and Kurukshetra, nine in Gurugram, eight in Mewat, seven in Kaithal and six in Panchkula. Jhajjar and Ambala districts had the lowest number of registrations at two and one respectively while Bhiwani district drew a blank, he said. The officer further said that there were a total of 1,73,55,247 voters in the state as on January 31, 2019. These included 93,06,532 males and 80,48,715 females. Polling for the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana will take place on May 12.
Stillborn baby's head dismembered during delivery
In a tragic incident, the head of a baby that had died in its mother's womb got separated during delivery at the primary health centre in Koovathur village in the Kancheepurm district, officials said on Wednesday.
Regulations barring persons with 80 pc disability from medical courses amended, MCI tells HC
The PG medical education regulations that bar people with more than 80 per cent disability from being admitted to medical courses have been amended, Medical Council of India (MCI) informed the Delhi High Court Wednesday. A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice A J Bhambhani was informed by the MCI counsel that those candidates who have a disability of over 80 per cent would be considered on a case to case basis after determining their functional competency with the aid of assistive devices. MCI said in an affidavit filed through advocate T Singhdev that with the prior approval of the central government it has amended the Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations, 2000. The amendments include that "persons with more than 80 per cent disability may be allowed, on case to case basis, after determining their functional competency with the aid of assistive devices, if the same are being used, so as to assess if the disability is brought below 80 per cent and also whether they .
Smoking reduces due to tobacco control policies
Increasing taxes on tobacco and smoke-free policies have resulted in the reduction of smoking among older adults, according to a recent study.This was noted in the European countries where the laws regarding tobacco usage have increased. Researchers examined data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) on adults aged 50 years and older in four waves from 2004 to 2013 from 10 countries and the study was later published in the journal Addiction.A negative association between tobacco control policies and smoking was observed especially among those between 50 and 65 years old, and among those with lower levels of education.By contrast, no relationship was found among those older than 65 years and among those with high education. Furthermore, the association was not found to be different between men and women."Among tobacco control policies, we found tax increases and smoke-free policies particularly associated with the reduction in smoking among the lower ...
Sign-language app for hearing-impaired voters in Punjab
A sign-language mobile application for hearing-impaired voters of Punjab will be developed to help them take informed decisions in the general election, state Chief Electoral Officer S Karuna Raju said. The office of the Punjab CEO has called for expression of interest for development of the application. It has also proposed video-calling facility for the speech/hearing-impaired community to interact with the authorities to clarify their queries or file complaints, an official said. "A sign language mobile app will be developed for the speech/hearing-impaired voters," Raju said here. With the help of this application, the speech-impaired voters will get information like polling booth number. The sign language, which they can easily understand, will be used, Raju said. The initiative is also intended to share information regarding voters' rights and responsibilities. It will help them to take informed decisions in choosing their representatives and leaders, an official said. According .
Transgender activist Gauri Sawant appointed as EC's ambassador
Transgender activist Gauri Sawant has been appointed as one of the goodwill ambassadors of the Election Commission in Maharashtra. This is for the first time a transgender has been appointed as a goodwill ambassador. Till 2014, there was no separate classification of transgenders as voters. In 2014, transgenders were first enrolled as voters along with males and females. While 918 voters had enrolled themselves as transgenders in Maharashtra in 2014, the number has now gone up to 2,086. According to the election officials, the highest enrolment of transgenders (324) is in Mumbai North Lok Sabha constituency. Then there are 113, 184 and 123 transgenders registered as voters in Bhiwandi, Kalyan and Mumbai North East constituencies respectively. As a goodwill ambassador, Sawant will visit the houses of transgenders and appeal to them to enrol themselves as voters and also explain to them the need to exercise their franchise, the officials said.
Transgenders get political space in poll season
The ensuing Lok Sabha polls have brought a ray of hope for transgenders with many from their community being roped in by several political parties for various posts.Sonali Dalvi, a transgender activist who was recently appointed general secretary of Congress women's wing, Pune, told ANI on Wednesday, "Our voices will get amplified if given a political platform. There is a dire need to get the transgender community inducted into the mainstream.""I will work hard to get things done for my community. It is sad that even now we do not have people who can resolve our problems which we face in the society," Dalvi said.Echoing similar sentiments, Chandni Gore, the newly inducted deputy president of the Nationalist Congress Party's (NCP) Pune women's wing, said that she aims at resolving issues faced by the community."I have chosen NCP because of Supriya Sule (NCP MP). She is the only MP who raised our issues in Parliament for getting us justice," Gore told ANI.Avinash Bagave, the city ...
In whose custody was Awantipora youth, clarify: NC to J-K admin
The National Conference said Wednesday that the Jammu and Kashmir administration should clarify whether the Awantipora youth was in the custody of NIA or state police at the time of his death. He said an FIR should be registered in the matter against the officials concerned. A 28-year-old school teacher, who was arrested in connection with a terror case, died in police custody here during the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday. Rizwan Pandit was a resident of Awantipora in Pulwama district. "Whether the youth was in the custody of NIA or police, the responsibility lies at the door of the governor. The young teacher was in the custody of the state," NC chief spokesman Aga Roohullah told reporters here. "Initial reports said he was in NIA custody but now the NIA is washing off its hands. Whether it was the NIA or state police, an FIR should be registered so that the culprits can be identified," he said. Roohullah alleged that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) was becoming an .