Governor Brian Kemp has appointed Samir Patel, an Indian American lawyer, as the district attorney of Bartow and Gordon counties, in the Cherokee Judicial Circuit. Patel fills a vacancy created when Kemp appointed former district attorney Rosemary Greene to the Superior Court in the circuit. Greene was named to the bench after Superior Court Judge David K Smith retired last year. Patel holds a Bachelor's Degree in Information Sciences and General Management from East Tennessee State University and a law degree from Georgia State University. Since 2010, Patel has served as Associate Attorney of White and Choate, in Cartersville. And since 2017, Patel has also served as Municipal Court Judge of Euharlee.
Senior posts for two Indian American profs
Two Indian American professors at Duke University have been appointed to senior posts in President Joe Biden’s administration. Professor and economist Ronnie Chatterji will serve as chief economist of the United States Department of Commerce, acting as the principal economic adviser to the Secretary of Commerce, while Duke Law professor Arti K Rai has been appointed to serve as a senior advisor in the Office of General Counsel in the US Department of Commerce. Chatterji earlier worked in President Obama’s administration as a senior economist in the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Rai is an internationally recognized expert in intellectual property law, innovation policy, administrative law, and health law.
Indian American couple sentenced
The United States Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Georgia announced that husband and wife Mehulkumar Manubhai Patel and Chaitali Dave have been sentenced for laundering over $500,000 on behalf of India-based phone scammers. According to Acting US Attorney Kurt R Erskine, the charges, and other information presented in court, India-based call centers defraud US residents, including the elderly, by misleading victims over the telephone utilizing scams such as Social Security and tech support scams. As part of their Social Security scam, India-based callers posed as federal agents in order to mislead victims into believing their Social Security numbers were involved in crimes. The callers then instructed the victims to mail cash to members of the fraud network, including the Indian American couple of Patel and Dave, the attorney’s office said.
Toronto sends 3,000 ventilators to India
Authorities in Canada's Ontario province dispatched 3,000 locally made ventilators to New Delhi, even as the Indian-dominated city of Brampton illuminated its city hall with the Tricolor in solidarity with the people of India. Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his economic development minister Victor Fedeli joined Indian Consul General Apoorva Srivastava and others in flagging off the shipment to India on May 6. The Indian Red Cross will receive the ventilators which have been manufactured by O-Two Medical Technologies based in Brampton. The ventilators have been donated in response to requests from the High Commissioner to Canada and the Consul General in Toronto.
Israelis chant 'Om Namah Shivay'
As India is fighting the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic, countries around the world have stepped forward to show support. Recently, hundreds of Israelis gathered together in one of the avenues in the mains of Tel Aviv to pray for India and the good health of Indians. They chanted 'Om Namah Shivay' to pray for the recovery of Indians suffering from the viral disease. Expressing solidarity with India, they conveyed a "get well soon" message. A video of the Israeli people chanting 'Om Namah Shivay' has gone viral on social media.
68 killed in Afghan school bombing
The death toll from an explosion outside a school in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul has risen to 68, Afghan officials said with doctors struggling to provide medical care to 165 injured and officials trying to identify bodies. Multiple blasts last week shook the neighbourhood of Dasht-e-Barchi, home to a large community of Shias from the Hazara ethnic minority which has been targeted in the past by Islamic State militants, a Sunni militant group. At first a car bomb was detonated in front of the Sayed Al-Shuhada school and when the students rushed out in panic, two more bombs exploded. Officials said most of those killed were school girls. Some families were still searching hospitals for their missing children. “The first blast was powerful and happened so close the children that some of them could not be found,” said an Afghan official.
Russia OKs 1-dose Sputnik V vaccine
Russian authorities gave regulatory approval to a single-dose version of the country’s Sputnik V vaccine, arguing that the move could accelerate the process of achieving herd immunity against the coronavirus. Named Sputnik Light, the new version is identical to the first dose of the two-dose Sputnik V and has yet to complete the advanced testing needed to ensure its safety and effectiveness in line with established scientific protocols. Russia started human trials of Sputnik Light in January, and the studies are still ongoing, according to official records. A study published in February in the British medical journal The Lancet said Sputnik V vaccine appeared safe and 91% effective against Covid-19 based on a trial involving about 20,000 people in Russia.
Taliban capture key Afghan dam
The Taliban have captured Afghanistan’s second-biggest dam after months of fierce fighting in their former bastion of Kandahar, the insurgents and officials said. Dahla Dam, which supplies water to farmers via a network of canals as well as drinking water for the provincial capital, is now under Taliban control, local officials said. “We have seized the Dahla Dam in Arghandab,” Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said. “Our security forces... asked for reinforcements but they failed to get it,” said Haji Gulbuddin, governor of an adjacent district. Kandahar water department chief said the Taliban recently warned Dahla employees not to go to work.
SL parliament defers debate on China-backed port
The Sri Lankan parliament postponed a debate on the Colombo Port City Economic Commission Bill which was scheduled for discussion last week. All party leaders agreed that the debate should be rescheduled as the Supreme Court’s determination on the constitutionality of the bill had not yet reached parliament, officials said. The $1.4-billion port project is part of China’s ambitious BRI. The SC has heard 18 petitions filed against the bill. Critics say the bill is a threat to Sri Lanka’s sovereignty.
UN releases $65 mn to aid Ethiopia
The United Nations has released $65 million for humanitarian aid in Ethiopia, including $40 million for the Tigray region where a military operation launched in November has escalated into a war in which widespread atrocities are reported and thousands have been killed. The UN humanitarian office said the remaining $25 million will fund aid operations in the rest of Ethiopia, including in response to drought in the Somali and Oromia regions. It said funds will be used to treat children with severe acute malnutrition, rehabilitate water systems and supply water to drought-affected communities and to pre-position humanitarian supplies. “Ethiopian lives and livelihoods are being destroyed by drought, and children are suffering from malnutrition,” UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock said.
US birth rate falls to its lowest since 1979
Americans had the lowest number of babies in more than four decades last year, mirroring a slump in European birth rates, as the Covid pandemic forced more people to take care of sick family members or deal with job losses. Birth rate in the US fell 4% in 2020 to about 3.6 million babies, its sixth consecutive annual decline and the lowest since 1979, according to data from the USCDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. The CDC did not attribute the overall decline to the pandemic, but experts have predicted that pandemic-led reasons including anxiety will hit the country’s birth rate. In general, US fertility rates have continued to fall over the years as women marry late and delay motherhood.
FB board upholds Trump account suspension
Former US President Donald Trump won’t return to Facebook - for now. The social network’s quasi-independent Oversight Board voted to uphold his ban from the platform after his account was suspended four months ago for inciting violence that led to the January 6 Capitol riot. While upholding the suspension, the board faulted FB for the way it made the decision. The board said the ongoing risk of serious violence justified FB’s suspension at the time, but said it “was not appropriate for FB to impose an ‘indefinite’ suspension”. It said FB has six months to reexamine the penalty and decide on another penalty.
Metro overpass collapse kills 23
A metro overpass collapsed in Mexico City, sending the cars of a train packed with passengers plunging to the ground and killing at least 23 people, including children, the city’s mayor said. Emergency workers scrambled to a scene where tilted train cars lay amid tangled wires and twisted metal, pulling dozens of people from the wreckage and transporting over 70 people to hospitals with injuries. In the aftermath, desperate relatives flocked to the scene for news of their loved ones, while others scoured hospitals. The crash occurred on one of the city’s newest stretches of track, Line 12, which was inaugurated in 2012. Locals had expressed concern about the structural integrity of the overpass, including cracks in the concrete, after a powerful earthquake devastated parts of the city in September 2017.
