A life-size statue of Mahatma Gandhi was inaugurated on Wednesday in the Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg.
Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba province, is about 1,500 kilometres away from here. The local Indian-origin cardiologist Naranjan Dhalla of Friends of the Canadian Museum of Human Rights had requested the Indian government to donate the statue to the museum in 2004.
The 500-kg bronze statue was jointly unveiled by Indian high commissioner Shashshekhar Gavai, Dr Dhalla and Gail Asper of the museum. Lauding Gandhi as the great advocate of human rights, Mr Gavai recalled the Mahatma’s commitment to non-violence when he withdrew his civil disobedience movement after a mob killed 22 policemen in Chauri Chaura in 1922.
Gail Asper praised Gandhi for his commitment to non-violence.
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Swiss nod to data deal with US
Geneva : The Swiss Parliament formally adopted on Thursday a deal with Washington settling US tax evasion litigation against Swiss banking giant UBS, foreseeing the transfer of secret client data.
The Swiss Parliament’s two chambers had on Thursday accepted in principle the accord, agreed between the government and the United States in August 2009.
However, the Lower House gave its backing on condition that the deal be put to voters in referendum, which the Upper House rejected on Wednesday.
The two houses overcame their differences on Thursday with the idea of a referendum being dropped. Switzerland’s largest party, the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, shifted position at the eleventh hour, allowing the lower house to back the deal.
Failure to hand over the client accounts in time would have broken the terms of the tax treaty and could have led to retaliation from the US government.
Switzerland, the United States and UBS agreed in August 2009 that the bank would identify 4,450 US clients suspected of tax evasion in an attempt to settle lawsuits by US authorities.
—AFP, Reuters