Roshni Albany Page 2 May 15 2014 Albany County Files Lawsuit Against DSS Vendors Support Roshni ALBANY, NY - Albany County Executive to serve DSS clients.” Support our Advertisers Daniel P. McCoy announced that the county County Executive McCoy also announced that www.RoshniOnline.com has filed a series of lawsuits against Albany the county has filed suit against two other furniture stores for illegal business practices vendors: AAA Furniture Outlet, 73 Central Ave. including selling mattresses infested with and City Discount Furniture, 278 Central Ave. bedbugs to clients of the Department of Social Roshni alleging that the vendors violated their Services. The lawsuit filed against Seraj contracts by illegally swapping household Subscription Form Enterprises, DBA 99 Cents and More, of 141 items listed by DSS. The suit also claims that S. Pearl St., Ahmad Ziauddin DBA City Name:........................................ items paid for by the county were not Discount Furniture, 278 Central Avenue, and delivered, were broken or dirty when delivered. Address:..................................... AAA Furniture Outlet, Virginia Spadaro, 73 City:............................................ Central Ave, alleges that the companies Since the county investigation began last year, engaged in fraud for violating the terms of its there have been at least 10 instances of illegal State.........................Zip............ contract with the county by illegally substituting swaps that took place. In several of those Subscriptions $20.00 for 6 Month household items included on vouchers cases, the vendor substituted less expensive Subscriptions $30.00 for 12 Month provided by DSS. items and kept money it was not entitled to. The loss to the county is nearly $3,000. The Please send your check to The department provides vouchers to those county is seeking to recover those damages clients who need household items. The and an additional $25,000 in punitive damages vouchers can be redeemed at businesses that Roshni from each vendor. In addition, the county is sign a contract with the county and agree to asking that the court order a pest inspection at 7-13 Oxford Drive specific guidelines and prices for items 99 Cents and More in order to protect Latham, NY 12110 provided to clients. In two cases, DSS clients consumers. have stated that their children were bitten by bed bugs from mattresses sold by 99 Cents The County Executive also announced a and More and that the infestation forced two change in policy as a result of this case. Going Publisher: Waleed Ahmed Khan clients to vacate their apartments. The county forward, DSS vendors will only be able to Editor: Afaq Ahmed Khan hired a pest control firm which found the provide clients with new mattresses. The presence of bedbugs and evidence that the county is asking clients to check the tags on Tel. (518) 596-6911 mattresses were unsanitary, defective and of their mattresses and to call their caseworkers poor quality. if there are questions. Address: 7-13 Oxford Drive “This egregious behavior will not be tolerated Latham, NY 12110 by my office,” said McCoy. “I was shocked to Boost your business, Telephone: (518) 596-6911 learn that a vendor would provide a mattress increase your clientele that was infested by bugs, of poor quality and E-mail: [email protected] unsanitary. It’s shameful really that they would advertise in Roshni. Web: www.roshnionline.com have such disregard for families in need. The The only Bilingual Magazine county will take all necessary remedies to from the Capital Region for the South For full file: make sure that these businesses are held Asian and Middle Eastern community. www.scribd.com/RoshniAlbany responsible for such practices. We are also seeking to void their contracts with the county Email: [email protected] Roshni Albany Page 3 May 15 2014 Egyptian court sentences 683 to death British Foreign Secretary William Hague urged a review of the sentences, saying they Egypt - An Egyptian court sentenced 682 charges along with Mursi and other “damage the reputation of Egypt’s judicial people including Muslim Brotherhood leader Brotherhood leaders. system.” Mohamed Badie to death on Monday, a lawyer Some female relatives waiting outside the and prosecutor said, after two brief sessions Amnesty International also condemned the courtroom fainted on hearing news of the the defence partly boycotted. sentences. verdict. The same court in the southern province of “Egypt’s judiciary risks becoming just another “Where is the justice?” others chanted. Minya also reversed 492 of 529 death part of the authorities’ repressive machinery, sentences it passed in March, commuting A fugitive from the trial, who only identified issuing sentences of death and life most of those to life in prison. himself as Gamal and said he was a member imprisonment on an industrial scale,” of the Brotherhood, lashed out at the court. Amnesty’s Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui said in a The court, presided over by judge Said statement. Youssef Sabry, had sparked an international “This is a political trial against those who outcry with its initial sentencing last month oppose the military,” said the 25-year-old, who Lawyer Elkomy claims 60 per cent of the 529 amid an extensive crackdown on supporters of was among the 683 sentenced on Monday but defendants sentenced in March, including ousted president Mohammed Mursi. who is in hiding. teachers and some doctors, have evidence proving they were not present during the The crackdown has extended to “My cousin has also been condemned, but we unrest in Minya, where a police station was secular-leaning dissidents who supported will continue our lives and this process will not attacked. Mursi’s overthrow but have since turned on the stop the youths” from demonstrating, he said. army-installed regime. Defence lawyers and relatives of defendants The Brotherhood urged the world to act said those sentenced to death in March also In Cairo, a court banned the April 6 youth against “gross human rights violations and included a man who was killed on August 14. movement that spearheaded the 2011 revolt injustice committed by the military junta in which toppled strongman Hosni Mubarak, Egypt against its own people”. The government has defended the court’s following a complaint accusing it of defaming handling of the first mass death sentences, It said in a statement it would “continue to use Egypt and colluding with foreign parties. insisting they were issued only “after careful all peaceful means to end military rule and study” and were subject to appeal. In Minya, judge Sabry is set to confirm the achieve justice”. death sentences on June 21. Prosecutor Abdel Malek defended the charges Those sentenced on Monday were accused of against the 529, saying the prosecution Under Egyptian law, death sentences are involvement in the murder and attempted compiled videos and witness testimony. referred to the country’s top Islamic scholar for murder of policemen in Minya province on an advisory opinion before being ratified. A August 14, the day police killed hundreds of Last month’s death sentences sent a chill court may choose to commute the sentences, Morsi supporters during clashes in Cairo. through opponents of the military-installed which can later be challenged at an appeals regime, which has held mass trials of Defence lawyers boycotted the last session, court. thousands of alleged Islamists since Mursi’s branding it “farcical” after the mass death ouster. Of the 683 sentenced on Monday 29 April, sentencing, which the United Nations only 73 are in custody, prosecutor Abdel denounced as a breach of international human Boost your business, increase your clientele Rahim Abdel Malek said. The others have a rights law. advertise in Roshni. right to a retrial if they turn themselves in. The only Bi ingual Magazine The United States said it was “deeply troubled” l The verdict was the first against Badie, by the mass trials and death sentences, and from the Capital Region for the South Asian spiritual head of Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood, urged Egypt to reverse Monday’s verdict. and Middle Eastern community. in the several trials he faces on various Email: [email protected] Roshni Albany Page 4 May 15 2014 Opening a bank account in 2016 The next day, I am there again, brimming with confidence and boyish anticipation. After a half P.G. Bhaskar name and ‘create’ a middle name. But my hour wait, the guard escorts me into a room for form gets rejected because in this process, my A slightly futuristic account of one of an ‘interview’. There is no one there. Eerily, a own ‘family name’ doesn’t match my father’s. voice booms out instructing me to look into a life’s simplest things (supposedly) So I change my village name to my family camera. A series of questions follows; why I Ever since I worked with an American name so that my father and I would both have want to open an account, why I chose this organisation many years ago, it has been my the village name in common, to use as ‘family bank, where I earned my money from, how I ambition to save enough money to open a name’. Phew! earned it, my tax status, whether I have done large account with a large American bank. anything illegal, how I propose to invest the I am asked for my father’s place and state of Since that doesn’t look like happening any money and what my name meant. They throw birth and the ZIP code. I call my dad. He tells time soon, I decide to open a small account some ‘foreign’ phrases at me and ask me to me the name of the village of his birth but adds with a large American bank.