Sikh Mayoral candidate labelled terrorist in flyers in US

Agencies
November 5, 2017

New York, Nov 5: A Sikh mayoral candidate in the US has been labelled a terrorist in slanderous flyers left on car windshields only days before the election, according to a media report.

The flyers targeting Ravinder Bhalla, the first Sikh to hold elected office in New Jersey, were placed on car windshields on Friday night, New York Daily News reported.

They have a photo of New Jersey Councilman Bhalla. In red letters above him, the flyers read: "Don't let terrorism take over our Town!", it added.

The report alleged that the leaflets appear to be a modified version of mailers sent out by another Hoboken mayoral candidate, Mike DeFusco. The original flyers accused Bhalla of having a potential conflict of interest.

Officials in New Jersey are condemning flyers that paint the Sikh politician running for the mayor of Hoboken as a terrorist.

DeFusco condemned the altered flyers in a statement.

"Today I spoke out not only against the racist, disgusting flyers targeting Ravi Bhalla that appeared last night and was made to look like it came from my campaign, but also against the rest of the hate that has been shamefully displayed throughout this race," DeFusco said.

DeFusco said he has also been the victim of hateful rhetoric accusing him of being a part of a "crime family" and attacking his sexuality, the report said. He would be Hoboken's first gay mayor, if elected.

Bhalla, in a statement, described the terrorism flyers "troubling." "We won't let hate win in Hoboken," he said.

"I want to use this incident as an opportunity to affirm to each other and our children the value of living in a diverse community where we are judged by the content of our character - not by the colour of our skin or how we worship," Bhalla said in the statement.

Senator Cory Booker posted a photo of the flyers to his Twitter account. He called it "vile" and "hateful" and said, "We all must condemn bigotry & hate!"

Six candidates are vying to replace outgoing Mayor Dawn Zimmer in the election on Tuesday.

The flyers appeared days after racist campaign mailers attacking two Asian school board candidates in Edison evoked the campaign slogan of President Donald Trump and claimed Chinese and Indian residents are "taking over" the town.

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News Network
February 6,2020

Beijing, Feb 6: The number of confirmed fatalities from China's coronavirus outbreak rose to at least 560, after authorities in hardest-hit Hubei province reported 70 new deaths on February 6.

In its daily update, the health commission in Hubei also confirmed the number of confirmed infections in the outbreak has reached 28,018 nationwide with 3,694 new cases reported.

The epidemic, which has spiralled into a global health emergency, is believed to have emerged in December from a market that sold wild game in Hubei's capital Wuhan.

Hu Lishan, an official in Wuhan, warned Wednesday that despite building a hospital from scratch and converting public buildings to accommodate thousands of extra patients, there was still a "severe" lack of beds in the region.

There was also a shortage of "equipment and materials," he told reporters, adding that officials were looking to convert other hotels and schools in the city into treatment centres.

Authorities in several other cities in China have placed restrictions on the number of people allowed to leave their homes.

Global concerns have also risen about the virus, with cases confirmed in more than 20 countries.

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News Network
June 13,2020

Mexico City, Jun 13: The number of people, who have died of COVID-19 in Mexico, has risen by 544 to 16,448 within the past 24 hours, Jose Luis Alomia, the director of epidemiology at the Health Ministry, said.

He also said on late Friday that the number of confirmed coronavirus cases had increased by 5,222 to 139,196 within the same period of time.

A day earlier, the Latin American nation has recorded 4,790 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus, with 587 fatalities.

The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11. To date, more than 7.6 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 425,000 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.

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News Network
June 11,2020

Beijing, Jun 11: Floods and mudslides in south China have uprooted hundreds of thousands of people and left dozens dead or missing, state media reported Thursday.

The bad weather has wreaked havoc on popular tourist areas that had already been battered by months of travel restrictions during the coronavirus outbreak.

Torrential downpours unleashed floods and mudslides that caused nearly 230,000 people to be relocated and destroyed more than 1,300 houses, official state news agency Xinhua reported, citing the Ministry of Emergency Management.

In southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, six people were reported dead and one missing, Xinhua said.

Streets were waterlogged in popular tourist destination Yangshuo, forcing residents and visitors to evacuate on bamboo rafts.

The local government said more than 1,000 hotels had been flooded and more than 30 tourist sites damaged.

One owner of a family-run hotel told Xinhua that the guest rooms were submerged in one metre (three feet) of rainwater.

The extreme weather has dealt a hefty blow to the region's tourism sector, which is still reeling from the COVID-19 epidemic.

The emergency management ministry said there were direct economic losses of over 4 billion yuan (more than $550 million) from the flooding, Xinhua reported.

In Hunan Province, at least 13 people were killed in rain-triggered disasters, and another eight people are missing or killed in southwestern Guizhou province, according to the local emergency response departments, Xinhua said.

The heavy downpours began at the beginning of June and have led to "dangerously high water levels" in 110 rivers, Xinhua reported.

Further rainstorms are expected in the next few days across the south.

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