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Indian Americans celebrate I-Day with colourful parades

[email protected] (IANS)
August 15, 2012

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Washington, August 15: Indian Americans from East to West coast celebrated India's 66th Independence Day with colourful parades, Bollywood stars and cultural performances but with a prayer in their hearts for the Wisconsin gurdwara attack victims.

Thousands of community members are expected to join Wednesday's official celebration in Washington with the Indian Ambassador Nirupama Rao hoisting the national flag at her residence.

Similar events are planned at Indian Consulates in New York, San Francisco, Houston, Atlanta and the Permanent Mission of India to the UN.

The Independence Day festivities kicked off Saturday with Bollywood actor Vinod Khanna leading the inaugural India Day Parade on Long Island in Hicksville, an upscale suburb of New York emerging as the newest 'Little India' in the US.

India's Consul General in New York, Prabhu Dayal, also joined the parade along with local officials.

Bollywood actress Prachi Desai Sunday led another India Day parade as grand marshal with music director Aadesh Shrivastava in Iselin, New Jersey, which has one of the largest concentrations of Indian-Americans in the US.

In Henderson, Nevada, Friends of India hosted their second annual parade Saturday featuring Miss Nevada 2012 Amanda Meagher and the national bird of India, a peacock.

In Boston, thousands gathered at the Hatch Memorial Shell Sunday for day-long festivities featuring a mix of classical, fusion, and Bollywood music and dance performances and a sampling of cuisine unique to various parts of India.

Organised by the India Association of Greater Boston, the event also featured sombre reflection and prayer for the victims of the Aug 5 shooting at a Sikh gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

The India Association of Los Angeles San Fernando Valley will have musician Bappi Lahiri and other Saregama singers at their celebration Aug 18 in Van Nuys, California.

The biggest parade in the US, hosted by the Federation of Indian Associations for the 32nd time this year, will take place in Manhattan Aug 19 and features Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan, cricketer Anil Kumble, 40 floats, and dance and song performances.

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News Network
February 10,2020

New Delhi, Feb 10: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah's sister on Monday moved the Supreme Court to challenge his detention under the Public Safety Act.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the petitioner, mentioned the matter for urgent listing before a bench headed by Justice N V Ramana.

Sibal told the bench that they have filed a habeas corpus petition challenging the detention of Abdullah under the PSA and the matter should be heard this week.

The bench agreed for urgent listing of the matter.

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News Network
June 30,2020

Beijing, June 30: China said on Tuesday it was concerned about India’s decision to ban Chinese mobile apps such as Bytedance’s TikTok and Tencent’s WeChat and was making checks to verify the situation.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters during a daily briefing that (the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government of) India has a responsibility to uphold the rights of Chinese businesses.

India on Monday banned 59, mostly Chinese, mobile apps in its strongest move yet targeting China in the online space since a border crisis erupted between the two countries this month.

The apps are “prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India, the defence of India, the security of state and public order", the ministry of information technology said in a statement, which came two weeks after 20 Indian Army personnel were killed in a violent clash on the India-China border in Ladakh.

The companies have been invited to offer clarifications before a government panel, which will decide whether the ban can be removed or will stay.

The move also came ahead of military and diplomatic talks between India and China scheduled this week.

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Agencies
August 7,2020

Colombo, Aug 7: Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's party and its allies won an overwhelming two-thirds majority in a parliament election, results showed on Friday, giving him the power to enact sweeping changes to the constitution.

The governing Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna and its allies had won 150 seats in the 225-member parliament, according to the tally published by the election commission from Wednesday's vote.

Rajapaksa had sought a two-thirds majority in parliament to be able to restore full executive powers to the presidency, which he says are necessary to implement his agenda to make the tiny island economically and militarily secure.

He is likely to install his older brother and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa as the next prime minister. The brothers are best known for crushing the Tamil Tiger rebels fighting for a separate homeland for minority Tamils during the elder Rajapaksa's presidency in 2009.

On a congratulatory phone call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, which is keen to check Chinese influence on its southern neighbour, Mahinda Rajapaksa vowed to deepen ties between the two countries.

"With the strong support of the people of Sri Lanka, I look forward to working with you closely to further enhance the long-standing cooperation between our two countries," he told Modi. "Sri Lanka and India are friends and relations."

The tourism-dependent nation of 21 million people has been struggling economically since deadly Islamist militant attacks on hotels and churches last year followed by lockdowns to slow the spread of the coronavirus. 

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