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The shooting death of an Indian engineer and the wounding of another man in a possible hate crime at a Kansas bar has raised fears among members of the area's fast-growing Indian-American community. The suspected gunman, US Navy veteran Adam Purinton, 51, has been charged with the premeditated murder in Olathe, just outside Kansas City, of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, and the attempted murder of Alok Madasani, also 32, as well as an American who tried to intervene, reports Reuters. Before opening fire, Purinton is accused of shouting "get out of my country," a bystander told the Kansas City Star. Several members of the Kansas City area's Indian-American community said the attack had forced them to think about their safety. "The main reaction is shock, because this is home," said Samarpita Bajpai, 45, who lives in suburban Overland Park and runs a non-profit Indian dance company. Going forward, Bajpai said that for the first time in her nearly 20 years living in the Kansas City area she will try to refrain from being out late at night. She said the local area had always been very welcoming. Through her Gurukul Dance Company, Bajpai tours US cities with a troupe of 10 dancers, all of whom except her are white people with an affinity for Indian culture, she said. The shooting comes as some members of US minority groups have expressed unease with the political and social climate in the United States. The Southern Poverty Law Center said in a report this month hate groups proliferated in 2016 as Donald Trump's bid for the US presidency energised the radical right. A number of Jewish leaders called on Trump to speak out against anti-Semitism following a spate of bomb threats to Jewish community centres. Trump this week called the threats horrible and he has said he rejects violence and harassment. The greater Kansas City area, which straddles the border between the states of Missouri and Kansas, is home to about 2 million people with an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 Indian-Americans, although exact figures are not available, said Vijay Ainapurapu, 45, the former president of the India Association of Kansas City. Ainapurapu, who works in software at Sprint Corp, said by telephone that the local Indian-American community has grown about tenfold since he arrived in the Kansas City area in 2001. Due to the shooting, he added, safety precautions are a major talking point for his group. Ainapurapu, who came to the United States in 1998 and previously lived in Texas and California, said Kansas City had been "as welcoming as any other place in America." Akshay Anand, 34, the owner of the Karats jewellery store in Overland Park who is involved with the India Association of Kansas City, said he will avoid areas where he might feel at risk, including what he called neighbourhoods with low education levels. "Everybody's going to be extremely cautious," said Anand, who lives a short drive from where the shooting occurred. "I think it's going to take time for this to settle in." Kansas City resident Ajay Sood, 50, who teaches courses in Indian culture and ran as a write-in candidate for US president last year, said he often finds native-born Americans are ignorant of his background. Mistaking the ethnicity of Indian Americans was a hot topic after the Kansas City Star reported that the suspect said after fleeing that he had shot two Middle Eastern men. "Most of the Americans who have never travelled outside the US cannot identify who's a Pakistani, who's an Indian, who's an Afghani and who's a Sikh," Sood said by phone.  ....

Published at: 2017-02-26 00:00:06

Bayern Munich boss Carlo Ancelotti celebrated his 1,000th match as a manager with an 8-0 thrashing of Hamburg, including a Robert Lewandowski hat-trick, reports BBC. Bayern during Saturday’s clash led 3-0 at the break, as Arturo Vidal drilled in Thomas Muller's lay-off, and Lewandowski converted a penalty before prodding in a third. The Poland striker struck again after the break, with David Alaba tapping in and Kingsley Coman scoring twice. The final nail in the Hamburg coffin came from Arjen Robben. Bayern remain five points clear at the top. RB Leipzig, in second place, beat Cologne 3-1. Lewandowski's three goals took him joint-top of the Bundesliga scoring charts - he now has 19 for the season, along with Borussia Dortmund's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who scored twice in a 3-0 win at Freiburg. All three of Lewandowski's goals were clinically taken. He rolled in his first with nonchalance from the penalty spot after being fouled by Lewis Holtby, and was cool from close range for his second before steering in a third from Robben's pass after the break. He might wonder, though, how he did not score even more - heading wide two clear first-half chances and hitting the bar.....

Published at: 2017-02-26 00:00:06

A group of robbers looted huge amount of gold ornaments and cash from a jewellery shop at Kundupatti Road in Bauphal municipality of Patuakhali on Saturday evening, reports UNB. Krishna Saha, manager of Bina Jewllers, said a group of 7-8 men entered his shop in the disguise of buyers. Soon after entering the shop, they put on masks and blasted 5-6 hand grenades in and around the shop, leaving four staffs of the shop including Saha injured. Later, the hoodlums looted a huge amount of gold ornaments and cash from the shop keeping the manager and other staffs at gunpoint and fled the scene by blasting hand grenades. On information, police rushed to the spot and recovered four crude bombs in front of the shop, said Officer-in-Charge of Bauphal Police Station Azam Faruki.....

Published at: 2017-02-26 00:00:06

Mr Perez, who served in the Obama administration, won the second round of voting at the Democratic National Committee meeting in Atlanta after a tightly-fought contest. He is the first Latino in the post. He told his party they faced a crisis of confidence after the election of Donald Trump, whom he said was the worst president in US history, reports BBC. Mr Perez will face the tough task of trying to unite a party beset with lingering frictions between young progressive liberals who were sceptical of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party establishment, correspondents say. "I am confident that when we lead with our values and lead with our actions we succeed. That is what the Democratic Party has always been about and that is what we will continue to be about", Mr Perez told party delegates. He said that while the 20 January inauguration of Mr Trump "was an undeniably important day", the mass protests that followed were "far more important for America". Nevertheless he acknowledged that the Democratic party was "suffering from a crisis of confidence, a crisis of relevance". Mr Perez defeated Keith Ellison, a US representative from Minnesota, in a 235-200 second round vote. Mr Ellison, the first Muslim elected to the US Congress, was backed by Senator Bernie Sanders. He was swiftly made deputy chairman and urged party members to unite behind Mr Perez. It was billed as a proxy battle between progressives and moderates in the Democratic Party. The political revolutionaries who supported Bernie Sanders in the 2016 primaries largely lined up behind Congressman Keith Ellison. The establishment insiders who backed Hillary Clinton favoured former Labour Secretary Tom Perez. There were even some fireworks reminiscent of that recently concluded nomination fight, with prominent voices on both sides threatening to leave the party if the opposition won. In the end the establishment-backed candidate prevailed again. Despite the drama, the Democratic committee chair is more behind-the-scenes organiser than ideological figurehead. With the party still stinging from its presidential defeat and extended drubbing at the state level in much of the US, Mr Perez faces a long, arduous job largely out of the spotlight. He must kick-start the party's fund-raising and recruit competent candidates for the 2018 midterm elections. He also has to lay the groundwork for the 2020 presidential nomination contest, which seems certain to be as contentious as it is wide-open. If he succeeds, the winning candidates will receive the credit. If he fails, the axe will fall quickly on his neck. The stakes are high for Democrats, and the pressure on Perez to perform starts now.  ....

Published at: 2017-02-26 00:00:05

At least three people were killed and a dozen others injured when a picnic bus fell into a marsh in Chanpainawabganj Municipality. The incident occurred at Mohadanga of the municipality on Friday afternoon, Sadar Police Station OC Mazharul Islam confirmed. The deceased were identified as Emdadul Haque, 65, Abdul Karim, 35, and Hashim Uddin, 62, from Nayadiarhi village of Gomostapur Upazila. The injured, who could not be identified immediately, were admitted to Chanpainawabganj Sadar Hospital. OC Mazharul said at least 20 people from Nayadiarhi village were in the picnic party that were returning from Babu Dyeing area. "The driver lost control of the bus in Mohadanga around 4:30pm. Three died on the spot when the bus tumbled into the marsh," he said. Fire Service and police salvaged the bus and sent the injured to the hospital later, he added. -    bdnews24.com  ....

Published at: 2017-02-25 00:00:05