Wednesday 12 July to 18 July , 2017 1 A NUWAY MEDIA GROUP PUBLICATION IIFA Rings in The Bell STORY ON page 20 Voice of South Asian Community Since March 2002 Vol. 14 Issue 43 Wednesday 12 July to 18 July , 2017 $1 www.thesouthasian.info Sixth Mass Extinction The era of ‘biological annihilation’ (sai Bureau) Many scientists say it’s even the full picture of the “biological de México, and his co-authors, abundantly clear that Earth is entering annihilation” people are inflicting on the including well-known Stanford its sixth mass-extinction event, meaning natural world, according to a study University biologist Paul Ehrlich, cite three-quarters of all species could published Monday in the Proceedings striking new evidence that populations disappear in the coming centuries.That’s of the National Academy of Sciences. of species we thought were common terrifying, especially since humans are Gerardo Ceballos, an ecology professor are suffering in unseen ways. contributing to this shift. But that’s not at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma (Contd on page 21) Wednesday 12 July to 18 July , 2017 COMMUNITY 2 12-year waiting period for Indians applying for Green Card ? status to permanent to H-1B visa holders. research report said. status than to new arrivals. residency while 27,798 Green Card, is the According to the study, in Since 2004, a total of 7.4 Indians are new arrivals immigration status of a every fiscal year since million people who adjusted who received lawful person authorised to live 2004, the US has issued their status and 5.5 million permanent residency in and work in the US more Green Cards to new arrivals have received the form of a Green Card, permanently. A Green immigrants living in the lawful permanent Pew Research said. “In Card holder can apply for country on another visa residency in the form of a one employment-related US citizenship after five who adjust their legal status Green Card, the study category, people from years of residency. This than to new arrivals. In said. Employment-related India applying for period is shortened to 2015, there were 508,716 categories (including permanent residence as three years if married to a new arrivals who received workers’ family members) (sai Bureau) In 2015, about applying for permanent skilled employees US citizen lawful permanent accounted for 14 per cent 36,318 Indians adjusted residency also known as currently have a 12-year Green Card holders who residency in the form of a of 2015 Green Cards. their status to permanent Green Card in the US as waiting list. In other words, adjusted their status are Green Card and 542,315 Refugees (11 per cent) residency while 27,798 skilled employees, the government currently is more likely than new people adjusted their and people granted asylum Indians are new arrivals according to a new report. processing applications arrivals to be in their prime status, it said. (3 per cent) together made who received lawful However, India is also filed in May of 2005,” the working years of 25 to 64. In every fiscal year since up a similar share, it said. permanent residency in the among the top countries report said. Pew said from Among those who adjusted 2004, the US has issued There is also a “diversity” form of a Green Card, Pew whose residents get fiscal 2010 to 2014, about their status, 72 per cent more Green Cards to category for people from Research said. Green Cards every year. 36% of employment- were of ages 25 to 64, immigrants living in the countries with historically There is a lengthy 12-year In 2015, about 36,318 related Green cards more compared with 55 per cent country on another visa low rates of US waiting period for Indians Indians adjusted their than 222,000 were granted of new arrivals, the who adjusted their legal immigration (5 per cent). Indian-origin man arrested for lying on US army applications statements on his The charge carries a arrested and eventually On one occasion, he applications to join the US maximum sentence of five deported. had talked about wanting military. years in prison. His parents spoke with to become a martyr but Shivam Patel, 27, of According to the the FBI about their son suggested his “jihad” Norfolk was charged for affidavit, Patel - who after learning he was in might not be violent. He not disclosing on his converted to Islam several Jordanian custody and had also praised the application to join the Army years ago - had travelled said he had become terrorist attacks in that he had travelled to to China in July 2016 to “obsessed with Islam.” Paris, Nice and Orlando China or Jordan. teach English. While there, An investigation of and expressed an He claimed he had not he had expressed Patel’s room and admiration for Anwar al- gone anywhere outside displeasure to his father computers disclosed Awlaki, a slain leader of the US in the past seven about how that country evidence that he had the al-Qaida in the years, except for a family treated Muslims, it said. downloaded three copies Arabian Peninsula. (sai Bureau) NEW had searched online for trip to India in 2011-’12, a Patel was sent back to of an online magazine On another occasion, YORK: An Indian-origin ways to join the terror report in The Virginian the US by his employer but produced by the Islamic speaking to an Muslim convert, who had group, has been arrested Pilot said, quoting a court he travelled to Jordan State and searched for undercover agent, Patel voiced support for ISIS and for making false affidavit. instead where he was how to join the group. expressed desire to do something “bigger, better and more Indian-origin fugitive arrested after being on run for 26 years purposeful,” like dying (sai Bureau) New York: A prison after warranting his actions.” for Allah, the report 63-year-old Indian-origin on his guilty plea to first- If not for a casual added. fugitive has been degree assault. He had inquiry made by a family He told the agent about arrested and jailed in the been on the lam for 26 member of the victim his desire to see a holy US more than 26 years years. fortuitously making its war between Muslims and after he was sentenced He had been arrested in way to the Queens non-Muslims. for driving in an December 1989 and District Attorney’s “He sang an Islamic inebriated state and pleaded guilty to first Office, the defendant State fight song to the causing an accident that degree assault. When might very well have source and recalled severely injured a Maharaj, then 36, failed escaped punishment for making a replica of the woman. to appear at his crime,” Brown said. group’s flag, which he Jaipaul Maharaj of New sentencing, a bench Maharaj, who as Abdool wanted to replace his Jersey was arrested on warrant was issued for Persaud is on five neighbour’s American flag Friday and brought his arrest. He was years’ probation for an with,” the report said. Patel before the court where sentenced in absentia October 2015 then applied for jobs with he was remanded to the to a term of 4 to 12 conviction, appeared on Robert Kohm, who 1989 morning and local police and fire state Department of years in prison. Friday for a scheduled executed the long- struck another car in departments, correctional Corrections to begin his “It took 26 years but the meeting with the overdue sentence. which Grace Schachnu facilities and even the US sentence, Queens victim’s family finally Sullivan County According to the was a passenger. Army and Air Force. district attorney Richard has achieved justice in Department of criminal charges, As a result of the collision, “He wanted to blend into Brown said. knowing that the Probation and was Maharaj was driving Schachnu suffered society and do something Maharaj, who also went individual responsible promptly arrested. He without a driver’s fractured ribs, a fractured ‘glorious’,” FBI Special Agent by the name of Abdool for causing serious was returned on the license and in an cervical, collapsed lungs Thomas Pembroke wrote in Persaud, was sentenced physical injury to their warrant and appeared intoxicated state when and hemorrhaging of the an affidavit unsealed on in absentia in 1990 to loved one is now being before Queens he went through a red brain. Schachnu passed Thursday in US District four to 12 years in held accountable for Supreme Court Justice light on a December away in 1994. Court. Wednesday 12 July to 18 July , 2017 COMMUNITY 3 Two Indian-Americans plead guilty in US call centre scam Patel, 34, from Illinois Rajubhai Patel, Viraj from the IRS and US pay alleged monies owed pleaded guilty to Patel, Dilipkumar A Patel Citizenship and to the government. conspiracy to commit and Fahad Ali previously Immigration Services Victims who agreed to fraud and money pleaded guilty on various (USCIS), and engaged in pay the scammers were laundering offenses, the dates between April and other telephone call instructed how to provide Department of Justice June. According to scams, in a ruse payment, including by said. admissions made in designed to defraud purchasing stored value Sentencing dates are connection with their victims located cards or wiring money. pending. respective pleas, throughout the US. Using Upon payment, the call A total of eleven Bhavesh, Asmitaben and information obtained from centres would defendants have pleaded their co-conspirators data brokers and other immediately turn to a (Agencies) Washington : fraud and money guilty thus far in this case.