Dubai: The Indian community is planning a grand reception for Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is set to visit the UAE later this month in the first trip by an Indian premier to the country in 34 years.

According to a statement released here, the Indian Community Welfare Community (ICWC) is organising a public reception at the Dubai Cricket Stadium.

"An organising committee has been formed to make this a grand success. Transport arrangements are being made to make this a grand success," ICWC said in the statement.

A website and a Facebook page have also been set up to facilitate people's visit to the site of the reception.

It was earlier learnt that PM Modi is likely to visit the UAE on August 16 and 17, making him the first Indian prime minister to visit the country in 34 years. The last visit by then prime minister Indira Gandhi was in 1981.

According to sources here, an official announcement confirming the visit's details is expected within days from New Delhi. PM Modi will kick off his visit in Abu Dhabi and address the Indian community the next day in Dubai.

New Delhi: In a startling acknowledgement, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) has for the first time reported that a total of 11 Indians, including the four youths from Kalyan in Maharashtra, have joined the global terror group, Islamic State (IS). 

The secret report has also identified five Indians who have died in the Iraq-Syria warzone fighting for the jihadi group as it attempts to establish a caliphate.

While Areeb Majeed, one of the Kalyan youth, returned to India and was taken into custody by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), five Indians are still fighting the ‘holy war’, according to the intelligence inputs gathered. 

Those identified as dead include Faiz Masood from Bangalore, Sahim Farooq Tanki from Kalyan and Abdul Qadir Sultan Armar, a former SIMI leader from Bhatkal in Karnataka. 

Last month Haneef Waseem, a student from Hyderabad who had gone to London for higher studies, had also reportedly died while fighting in Syria. 

The Sunni militant group has unleashed a reign of terror in Iraq and Syria in its attempts to establish a caliphate and make its commander the supreme Muslim leader the world-over. 

The information gathered by the Intelligence Bureau and mentioned in its secret report states that five of the 11 men had been living in the Gulf countries for some time and originally belonged to South India. 

Kalyan youth

So far, intelligence agencies had officially identified the four Kalyan youth as Areeb Majeed, Aman Naeem Tandel, Fahad Tanvir Shaikh, and Sahim Farooq Tanki, saying they had travelled to Iraq and joined the IS last year. 

Majeed was injured three times while fighting for the terror group. He survived bullet injuries and air strikes before approaching the Indian Embassy in Turkey and pleaded to return to India. 

New Delhi: Seventeen bodies have been recovered on Mount Everest base camp after a severe earthquake on Saturday set off an avalanche, making it the deadliest disaster in the history of mountaineering on the world's highest peak.

Sixty-one people were injured when part of the base camp was engulfed by the snowslide, Ang Tshering Sherpa, president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, said.

A first helicopter took off from Kathmandu on Sunday morning to airlift the injured after flights were delayed by cloudy weather, Sherpa said.

 
Google executive killed on Everest after Nepal quake

A Google executive and self-described adventurer was among the killed at a Mount Everest base camp in an avalanche triggered by a major Nepal earthquake on Saturday, the company and his family said.

Dan Fredinburg was killed in the avalanche that buried parts of the base camp where hundreds of mountaineers were gathered for the start of the climbing season.

He was with several colleagues who survived the tragedy, Lawrence You, director of privacy at Google, said in a blog post.

"Sadly, we lost one of our own in this tragedy. Dan Fredinburg, a long-time member of the Privacy organisation...was in Nepal with three other Googlers, hiking Mount Everest.He has passed away," You wrote.

"The other three Googlers with him are safe and we are working to get them home quickly." You said Google.org was contributing 1 million to the response efforts.

Fredinburg's sister Megan said he died of a head trauma.

"We appreciate all of the love that has been sent our way thus far and know his soul and his spirit will live on in so many of us," she posted on his Instagram feed, along with a photo of him scaling a snowy slope.

"All our love and thanks to those who shared this life with our favourite hilarious strong-willed man. He was and is everything to us," she posted.

Fredinburg described himself as an "Adventurer, Inventor, and Energetic Engineer @Google" on his Twitter page.

Photos on his Twitter and Instagram accounts in recent days show him preparing for his trek on the snowy slopes of Everest with colleagues.

"Ice training with @micbattelli means frequent stops for morning cappuccino, regardless of danger. #Everest2015," his last post on Friday read.

His Twitter feed said he arrived in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu on March 31.

Fredinburg's LinkedIn profile said he was head of privacy at Google X and had previously worked as an engineer for Boeing.

Officials have confirmed more than 1,200 deaths after the massive earthquake that tore through Nepal, making it the worst disaster in more than 80 years in the quake-prone nation.

New Delhi: The Indian military has mounted a massive relief operation in quake-hit Nepal, using its fleet of transport aircraft to rush in rescue teams and relief materials and ferry back stranded Indians.
 
The operation was launched shortly after the 7.9-magnitude quake hit Nepal at 11.56 am on Saturday, and the first military plane carrying relief materials and Indian experts landed in Kathmandu before 6pm.
 
The quick response again highlighted India’s emergence as a country capable of a rapid response to natural disasters and emergencies in the region, an offshoot of its drive to ramp up the strategic lift capabilities of its air force and navy.

The Indian Air Force has mobilised its Il-76, C-130J Hercules and C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft and Mi-17 helicopters for Operation Maitri, the name for the relief efforts in Nepal.

The Indian Army has sent a major general to Nepal to oversee the rescue and relief efforts, in which the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) too is playing a key role. The NDRF has dispatched 10 teams to Nepal for its first major operation on foreign soil.
 
Defence ministry spokesman Sitanshu Kar said 10 flights by military aircraft were planned for Sunday. The aircraft will carry water, food, army forward hospitals, engineering task forces, NDRF teams, medical personnel and equipment, blankets and tents.
 
“India is moving in massive amount of rescue and relief material, equipment and specialists today,” Kar said.
 
Five Mi-17 helicopters landed at Kathmandu on Sunday and three more were expected to take off from Gorakhpur airbase later in the day. These helicopters will be used for missions such as air-dropping relief materials.
 
The defence ministry has put assets of the army, air force and Border Roads Organisation on standby for relief operations. Officials said these assets can be ferried at short notice to Nepal from airbases such as Hindon and Gorakhpur.
 
The air force’s heavy lift aircraft have also been used for surveillance missions and to bring back Indian nationals stranded in Nepal. A C-130J Hercules that airlifted an NDRF team conducted aerial reconnaissance of roads damaged by the quake in Pokhara region, which is located close to the temblor’s epicentre.
 
So far, the heavy lift aircraft have ferried back 546 Indian nationals in four flights from Kathmandu since Saturday night.

Kathmandu: Fourteen Indian pilgrims were killed and more than two dozen others injured when the bus they were travelling in plunged into a gorge on the outskirts of the Nepalese capital on Wednesday morning.

The victims, all from Gujarat, were returning to India after visiting Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu when the driver of the bus lost control and the vehicle went off the highway. The bus plunged nearly 300 metres before coming to a halt on the banks of a river.

"The incident happened at 7:20 am (7:05 IST) between Nagdhunga and Naubise, barely five kilometers from the Kathmandu city limits," said Basudev Ghimire, the chief development officer of Dhading district.

The dead included eight women and six men. Twelve people were killed instantly while two more died while being taken to hospital in Kathmandu, police said.

"The bus bearing number GJ-14-X-990 had two tiers and was carrying 45 passengers. Twenty-five of the injured have been admitted to various hospitals in Kathmandu. Some passengers may still be missing," said a duty officer at the Nepal Police control room.

Sana: Nearly 350 Indians were evacuated from Yemen's southern port city of Aden late on Tuesday, sources said.

Those evacuated included, 220 men, 101 women and 28 children. They were taken to the Indian Navy ship INS Sumitra.

Defence ministry sources said that the ship left Yemen late on Tuesday night. 

The evacuated people will now be taken to Djibouti, a country neighbouring Yemen, and will be brought to India by air.

An official said that the ship "sailed into a barrage of bombs" to evacuate Indians
stranded there.

Under an operation named  "Op Raahat", two warships -- destroyer INS Mumbai and stealth frigate INS Tarkash -- are on their way to Djibouti, a country located on the Horn of Africa in the Gulf of Aden.

The two warships and two passenger liners Kavaratti and Corals, which left from Kochi on Monday, will join course in the Arabian Sea and move as a composite group to Djibouti. 

According to the external affairs ministry, nearly 4,000 Indians are stranded in Yemen.

New Delhi: Saudi Arabia has assured India full assistance in safe evacuation of Indians stranded in strife-hit Yemen as Minister of State for External Affairs V.K. Singh flew to Djibouti on Tuesday to oversee evacuation efforts.

Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday night and assured him of his "full attention to the safety of Indians in Yemen and all possible assistance for their early and safe evacuation".

The Saudi monarch called up Modi at 9.30 p.m. The prime minister shared his "deep concern about the safety and welfare of approximately 4,000 Indians in Yemen". He also briefed King Salman on India's evacuation plan and requested him for support and cooperation in it. 

The Saudi monarch "recalled the strong and close relations between India and Saudi Arabia and assured the prime minister of his full attention to the safety of Indians".

Modi expressed his gratitude "and conveyed his best wishes to His Majesty for a quick resolution of the challenges in the region and early restoration of peace and stability under his leadership. The prime minister also reaffirmed his commitment to further strengthening India's close relations with Saudi Arabia," said a statement.

On Monday, India evacuated 400 Indians from Aden through sea route by a local craft which took them to Djibouti. In Djibouti, India has stationed five diplomats, including three senior officials of the external affairs ministry, to assist in the efforts.

V.K. Singh is to oversee the evacuation operations at Djibouti from where Indians are to be flown back home.

The Indian Air Force has been asked to deploy two Globemaster aircraft to ferry those in Djibouti to India. The Air India has stationed two flights in Muscat.

An Indian Navy ship INS Sumitra is also in the region. The navy is pressing into service two more ships -- INS Mumbai and INS Tarkash. Two passenger liners with a total capacity of 1,100 are travelling towards Yemen and would reach there in four-five days, external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said on Monday.

India is also in touch with regional leaders and will seek their assistance in this difficult situation, he said.

The Saudi Arabia-led aerial bombing campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen continued for the fifth day on Monday. The air strikes are aimed at forcing Houthi rebels to hand power back to President Abed Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

Around 40 people were killed on Monday and 200 wounded in an air strike at al-Mazraq camp.

Washington: After seven long years, five Indian 'guest' or temporary workers who were allegedly defrauded and exploited in a labour trafficking scheme have won $14 million in compensatory and punitive damages by a US court.

The workers were allegedly exploited by Signal International, an immigration lawyer and an Indian labour recruiter who lured hundreds of workers to a Mississippi shipyard with false promises of permanent US residency.

The "historic verdict" by a federal jury came Wednesday after a four-week trial before US District Judge Susie Morgan in New Orleans, according to the workers lawyers.

The jury ruled that Signal International, New Orleans lawyer Malvern C. Burnett and India-based recruiter Sachin Dewan engaged in labour trafficking, fraud, racketeering and discrimination.

The jury also found that one of the five plaintiffs-Jacob Joseph Kadakkarappally, Hemant Khuttan, Andrews Issac Padaveettiyl, Sony Vasudevan Sulekha and Palanyandi Thangamani-was a victim of false imprisonment and retaliation.

"The defendants exploited our clients, put their own profits over the lives of these honourable workers, and tried to deny them their day in court," said lead attorney Alan Howard of Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC).

"But they persevered and after seven long years have received the justice they so well deserve."

"This historic verdict puts American companies on notice that if they exploit the flaws in our temporary worker programme, they will be held accountable and punished," said Chandra Bhatnagar, co-counsel in the case and staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union Human Rights programme.

According to SPLC, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Signal used the US government's H-2B guest worker programme to import nearly 500 men from India to work as welders, pipefitters and in other positions to repair damaged oil rigs and related facilities.

The workers each paid the labour recruiters and a lawyer between $10,000 and $20,000 or more in recruitment fees and other costs after recruiters promised good jobs, green cards and permanent US residency for them and their families.

Most sold property or plunged their families deeply into debt to pay the fees.

When the men arrived at Signal shipyards in Pascagoula, Mississippi, beginning in 2006, they discovered that they wouldn't receive the green cards or permanent residency that had been promised.

Signal also forced them each to pay $1,050 a month to live in isolated, guarded labour camps where as many as 24 men shared a space the size of a double-wide trailer.

None of Signal's non-Indian workers were required to live in the company housing.

Together, the H-2B visa status, the high debt, the poor conditions at the labour camp and the discriminatory treatment and disparagement based on their race or nationality led the men to feel trapped, SPLC said.

In March 2007, some of the SPLC's clients were illegally detained by Signal's private security guards during a pre-dawn raid of their quarters in Pascagoula.

Two were detained for the purpose of deporting them to India in retaliation for complaining about the abuses and meeting with workers' rights advocates.

One worker who is a plaintiff in a separate suit was so distraught he attempted suicide, SPLC said.

Source: IANS