Amir Khan and Nighat Arif collect Asian Achievers Awards

Amir Khan and Nighat Arif collect Asian Achievers Awards
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Amir Khan and Pratik Dattani. (Supplied)
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Updated 26 September 2024
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Amir Khan and Nighat Arif collect Asian Achievers Awards

Amir Khan and Nighat Arif collect Asian Achievers Awards
  • Evening was a testament to the exceptional achievements within the British Asian community
  • Lifetime Achievement Award went to former Member of Parliament Virendra Sharma

LONDON: Former boxer Amir Khan and TV doctor Nighat Arif were amongst the winners of Asian Achievers Awards in London.

The 22nd Asian Achievers Awards brought together over 500 distinguished guests from around the world to celebrate the outstanding contributions of leading South Asians in the UK. Hosted by former Eastenders star Nitin Ganatra and ITV newsreader Anila Dhami, the evening was a testament to the exceptional achievements within the British Asian community.

Amongst the night’s winners were fusion sound duo Abi Sampa and Rushil Ranjan, Leicester City footballer Hamza Choudhury, GP specializing in women’s health Dr. Nighat Arif, the founder of the Indian street food chain Chaiiwalas, and the founder of the largest distributor of car parts in Europe Sukhpal Singh Ahluwalia.

For his over 50 years in public service, the Lifetime Achievement Award went to former Member of Parliament Virendra Sharma.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “British Asians are a driving force behind much of the social, cultural and economic innovation we see in Britain today. You represent so many of the values that help our communities thrive — ambition, hard work and inclusivity, to name just a few. This is why it is wonderful so see so many British Asian change-makers being recognized tonight by the team at EPG.”

Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also sent his congratulations to the winners and the EPG team.

Boxer Amir Khan was awarded a Special Award for Philanthropy and said: “It’s a privilege to be recognized for the work I’ve always felt deeply passionate about. The real champions are those working every day to improve the lives of others, and I’m proud to play my part in that. This award is recognition for all those who have supported my foundation in the last decade and the brilliant team who work tirelessly on the ground.”

Organizer of the Awards, Pratik Dattani, said: “The British Asian community adds so much to Britain today. Tonight was testament to the longevity of our Awards – after 22 years, they still matter and they still are able to unearth the most exceptional people from across the country.”

Host Ganatra said: “Every year I come to these Awards and am impressed by the standard of nominations and the quality of the shortlist. Just look back at the last two decades of winners and you’ll see the event has tracked the growth of our community for more than a generation.”

The evening saw electric performances from Brit Asian music pioneer Juggy D and Edinburgh Fringe Festival winner, stand-up comedian Ahir Shah.

The event raised a large sum of money for the charity partner The Leprosy Mission’s efforts at helping marginalized communities across South Asia prosper.

The event was supported by pioneers of financial inclusivity Andaria, Dubai-based real estate innovators Aries Global, pioneer in luxury ayurveda Forest Essentials, India’s largest bank State Bank of India, solar panel installer Solar4Good, the home of zafran tea FiLLi Cafe, AI-driven legal solutions provider LexLegis.ai, Indian single malt whisky Indri, the world’s most famous cornershop Fortnum & Mason and others, as well as media partners Asian Voice, Gujarat Samachar and LycaRadio.

Full List of Winners:

Special Award for Philanthropy: Amir Khan

Art and Culture Award: Abi Sampa and Rushil Ranjan

Business Person of the Year: Sukhpal Singh Ahluwalia

Community Service Award: Iftikhar Chaudhri

Entrepreneur of the Year: Muhammad Ibrahim (Chaiiwala)

Lifetime Achievement Award: Virendra Sharma

Media Person of the Year Award: Tasnim Nasser

Professional of the Year: Dr. Kesar Singh Sadhra

Sports Personality of the Year: Hamza Choudhury

Woman of the Year: Dr. Nighat Arif

Special Award for Entrepreneurship: Irshad Akhtar

Special Award for Young Business Person of the Year: Krishan and Shyam Sedani

Special Award for International Business Person of the Year: Bipen Sharma

Special Award for Professional Impact: Navita Yadav


Turkiye says Ukraine-Russia talks should involve ‘both sides’

Turkiye says Ukraine-Russia talks should involve ‘both sides’
Updated 11 sec ago
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Turkiye says Ukraine-Russia talks should involve ‘both sides’

Turkiye says Ukraine-Russia talks should involve ‘both sides’
  • Moscow and Washington have begun a direct dialogue in recent weeks
  • Russian and US officials held talks in Saudi Arabia in a meeting denounced by Volodymyr Zelensky
ANKARA: Turkiye’s foreign minister on Monday said Ankara backed a US initiative to end the Ukraine-Russia conflict but stressed that talks should involve both warring sides.
Moscow and Washington have begun a direct dialogue in recent weeks, against a backdrop of rapprochement between new US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
“We attach great importance to the new US initiative as a result-oriented approach. We believe that a solution can be reached through negotiations in which both sides participate,” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told a news conference with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Ankara.
Lavrov’s visit comes on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a week after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to the Turkish capital.
Lavrov said Russia is ready for negotiations on the Ukraine war but will only stop fighting when a peace settlement “suits” Moscow.
“We will stop hostilities only when these negotiations produce a firm and sustainable result that suits the Russian Federation,” he said.
Russian and US officials held talks in Saudi Arabia in a meeting denounced by Zelensky, who fears an agreement reached without him.
Fidan, whose country hosted talks between Ukraine and Russia during the start of the war, said Turkiye was ready to take any step that would help bring peace.
“Turkiye is always prepared to assume any facilitating or accelerating role... Our goal is to end this devastating war as soon as possible and to heal the wounds in the region,” he said.
NATO member Turkiye has sought to maintain good relations with its warring Black Sea neighbors, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pitching himself as a key go-between and possible peacemaker between the two.
Ankara has provided drones for Ukraine but shied away from Western-led sanctions on Moscow.
Lavrov is due to meet with Erdogan later in the day.

Russia says blasts at Marseille consulate look like terrorism, TASS reports

Russia says blasts at Marseille consulate look like terrorism, TASS reports
Updated 27 min 22 sec ago
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Russia says blasts at Marseille consulate look like terrorism, TASS reports

Russia says blasts at Marseille consulate look like terrorism, TASS reports
  • There was no word on any casualties, and no immediate information on the extent of any damage

MOSCOW: Russia on Monday demanded a full French investigation into explosions at its consulate in Marseille which it said looked like an act of terrorism, state news agency TASS said.
There was no word on any casualties, and no immediate information on the extent of any damage.
“The explosions on the territory of the Russian Consulate General in Marseille have all the hallmarks of a terrorist attack,” TASS quoted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying.
“We demand (from France) exhaustive and prompt measures to investigate, as well as steps to strengthen the security of Russian foreign missions.”
The incident in the southern French city took place on the third anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war.
French media earlier reported that a blast was heard near the consulate and firemen were at the site.


Thousands in limbo on Thai-Myanmar border after scam center crackdown

Thousands in limbo on Thai-Myanmar border after scam center crackdown
Updated 34 min 44 sec ago
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Thousands in limbo on Thai-Myanmar border after scam center crackdown

Thousands in limbo on Thai-Myanmar border after scam center crackdown
  • Authorities from China, Thailand and Myanmar have attempted to dismantle scam centers and illegal online operations on the border
  • Thai and Cambodian police raided a building in a border town and freed 215 foreigners, a senior Thai official said on Sunday

BANGKOK: Thousands of foreigners freed from online scam-operating centers in Myanmar are stuck in limbo on the border with Thailand after a multinational crackdown on the compounds run by criminal gangs, three sources told Reuters on Monday.
In recent weeks, authorities from China, Thailand and Myanmar have attempted to dismantle scam centers and illegal online operations on the border, part of a network of illegal compounds across Southeast Asia where hundreds of thousands have been trafficked by gangs, according to the United Nations.
Thai and Cambodian police raided a building in a border town and freed 215 foreigners, a senior Thai official said on Sunday.
Two Myanmar armed groups – the Karen National Army (KNA) and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) – are currently holding around 7,000 former scam center workers but are unable to send them to Thailand, a Thai security official and two aid workers said.
“Many are stuck in limbo and Thailand’s lack of response is causing great harm,” said one of aid workers, currently on the Thai side of the border. “It is like these victims are being revictimized again.”
Thailand’s foreign ministry said that agencies are currently planning for future handovers of those freed, which would “proceed based on the readiness of the embassies or the countries of origin.”
KNA and DKBA officials did not respond to calls from Reuters.
The majority of these workers are Chinese, with about 1,000 from other foreign countries, according to the aid workers.
Many of the former scam center workers are being held in dire conditions and local authorities are concerned about the lack of sanitation and health facilities, they said.
Thai Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said last Thursday that Thailand doesn’t have the capacity to accept more people unless foreign embassies repatriate those crossing over.
Thailand this month accepted 260 scam center workers, more than half of whom were from Ethiopia, which has no embassy in the country.
Thai authorities also allowed China to repatriate 621 of its nationals via a series of flights from a border town last week.
Scam centers have been operating in the region for years, but face renewed scrutiny after the rescue of Chinese actor, Wang Xing, who was lured to Thailand with the promise of a job, and then abducted and taken to one such center in Myanmar.
Southeast Asian countries have since stepped up efforts to tackle scam centers, including Thailand cutting power, fuel and Internet supply to areas linked with scam centers.
Since March 2022, financial losses incurred by victims of telecom scams in Thailand alone stand at 80 billion Thai baht ($2.4 billion), Thai Police Col. Kreangkrai Puttaisong told reporters on Monday.


Russian veteran haunted by ‘terrible’ memories of Ukraine front

Russian veteran haunted by ‘terrible’ memories of Ukraine front
Updated 24 February 2025
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Russian veteran haunted by ‘terrible’ memories of Ukraine front

Russian veteran haunted by ‘terrible’ memories of Ukraine front
  • In October 2023, Yury signed up with a private paramilitary company as a radio operator in an artillery brigade
  • Yury took part in an assault on the town of Chasiv Yar and on Bogdanivka, which fell to Russia in April 2024

ISTRA, Russia: In his kitchen in a Russian town near Moscow, Yury stirs his tea and tries to settle into a normal routine after months on the front line in Ukraine.
But the memories of a conflict that he says is “more terrible” than anything shown on Russian television still haunt the 39-year-old school employee.
“My wife says I came back bitter,” says Yury, 39, whose military call sign is “Lokomotiv” — a reference to his favorite Moscow football club.
He also brought back reflexes like scanning the sky for drones or not wearing a seat belt in order to evacuate quickly from the car in case of enemy fire.
This last habit has earned him several fines in Istra, 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of Moscow, where he lives with his wife and their four-year-old son.
When Russia announced partial mobilization in September 2022, Yury, who already had combat experience from the Russian Caucasus, was sure he would be one of the first to be called up.
“But it was my friends without any experience who were mobilized instead. Why them and not me? I felt then that I should go,” he said.
“My friends told me I was an idiot. ‘Why do you want to go? You have a family, a child, a good job’.”
In October 2023, he signed up with a private paramilitary company as a radio operator in an artillery brigade.
The brigade was based in Bakhmut, a city in eastern Ukraine that was captured by Russian forces in May 2023 after one of the bloodiest battles of the offensive launched by Moscow in February 2022.
Yury took part in an assault on the town of Chasiv Yar, where Ukraine’s troops are still clinging to the outskirts, and on Bogdanivka, which fell to Russia in April 2024.
Since returning, Yury is bored with “daily routine.”
On the front line “there was always something new — you are afraid for the first two weeks and after that it is an adventure,” he said.
His wife Albina, 40, said she had made “a huge fuss” when she found out he was planning to go to Ukraine.
“It was tough. I was afraid of losing him,” she said, sitting on a sofa in their modest apartment.
She said his nine-month deployment felt “like five years.”
“I rushed to my phone every time I received a notification. I was afraid of reading or hearing some bad news. Every morning started with this fear. It was terrible,” she said, crying.
“In reality it was more frightening more terrible than anything they show on television,” Yury said.
“If they showed everything that happens there on television, people might change their mind” about the conflict, he said.
In Istra cemetery there are around 30 graves with Russian flags and pictures of men in military uniform who died in Ukraine.
The area is known as an “Alley of Glory,” like similar corners of cemeteries across Russia, where thousands have died on the front.
The overall toll is a state secret.
Yury points to the grave of a school friend and says in total five of his friends have died on the front.
“The majority die or are injured by shrapnel, from artillery fire or from explosive drones,” he said.
“I think every Russian understands that this war is against the West,” he said, repeating the official rhetoric which portrays the conflict as a wider confrontation initiated by Western countries.
Yury said he was skeptical about the outcome of possible truce talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump.
“It would be good if they could agree, if the war ended, but it will not finish immediately,” he said.
“A ceasefire will only make the situation worse. We have to get to the end of this!” he said. “If it’s not over by the New Year, I’ll go back.”


New Zealand foreign minister to question Chinese naval activity in Beijing visit

New Zealand foreign minister to question Chinese naval activity in Beijing visit
Updated 24 February 2025
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New Zealand foreign minister to question Chinese naval activity in Beijing visit

New Zealand foreign minister to question Chinese naval activity in Beijing visit
  • New Zealand and Australia officials said that China had conducted live-fire exercises in international waters between the two nations

WELLINGTON: New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters will touch down in Beijing on Tuesday for a three-day visit as relations between the two countries are strained after Chinese Navy vessels conducted live firing exercises in the Tasman Sea.
New Zealand and Australia officials said that China had conducted live-fire exercises in international waters between the two nations, giving little notice and forcing commercial airlines to divert flights. The three ships are currently around 280 nautical miles (519 km) east of Tasmania, outside of Australia’s exclusive economic zone, the New Zealand Defense Force said on Monday.
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on Monday the limited notice that China had given that it would undertake live firing exercise would be raised in Beijing.
“There is nothing illegal here in terms of they are compliant with international law,” said Luxon. “The issue for us is ... we’d appreciate a little bit more advance notice particularly on what is a busy air route.”
China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Peters’ visit to China is part of a trip that includes stops in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, Mongolia and South Korea. In Beijing he will hold talks with senior Chinese leaders, including Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Peters said last week in a statement he would discuss with Chinese officials the bilateral relationship, as well as Pacific, regional, and global issues that are of interest to both countries.
“China is one of New Zealand’s most significant and complex relationships, encompassing important trade, people-to-people, and cultural connections. We intend to maintain regular high-level political dialogue with China,” Peters said.
Peters has also voiced concerns that the Cook Islands, an independent country in free association with New Zealand, had signed a comprehensive strategic partnership and other agreements with China, without satisfactorily consulting with New Zealand.
Jason Young, Director of the New Zealand Contemporary China Research Center at Victoria University in Wellington, said while questions around challenging issues such as the Cook Islands deal and the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s activities in the Tasman Sea would be asked, there would also be discussion around further high-level visits and trade.