Amritsar, May 6
NRI Raghbir Singh Bains has been honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award-2007 by the Parvasi media group for his contribution to society. Bains, who is the author of the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism and the brain behind the multimedia Sikh museum at Khadoor Sahib, near Amritsar, received the award from former IPS officer Kiran Bedi at a function held at Rexdale, Ontario, last month.

Every year thousands of Punjabis fly to foreign lands for employment and better future. But for some, this dream turns sour as they are cheated by travel agents and given false assurances.

It is now getting even uglier, as some girls have alleged that they were sexually exploited in foreign land.

CHANDIGARH: That Punjab has exported its cold-blooded, anti-girl child bias to the Punjabi communities settled abroad came home cruelly, when a Canadian NRI slit the throat of his two-year-old daughter just because she happened to be the third girl child in his house. But, after Canada, where the sex ratio in Punjabi communities is dipping heavily against the girl child, there are finally some glad tidings from foreign shores.

Ludhiana, December 28
Like thousands of NRIs, he too coolly abandoned his bride in 2004 after her family could not pay the dowry of Rs 30 lakh. But when she checkmated him by reaching Canada in August this year and sought her rights, he sent a friend to contract a gang of killers and supervise the murder of her father in Mundiya village, near here.

But for timely police intervention based on the information provided by a dhaba owner, who overheard the plan, Mundiya village resident Harphool Singh, father of the abandoned bride Pawanjot Kaur, would not have been alive today.

AMRITSAR: An NRI lady, who arrived in the city to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple, was killed when she fell from a rickshaw after robbers attacked her.

The incident occurred when Kalpana Walia, along with her husband Paramjit Singh Walia, was going in a rickshaw on the Lawrence road in the city on Sunday night.

In his report to the police, her husband said two motorcycle-borne youths attacked them and tried to snatch the purse of the woman, who fell from the rickshaw during a scuffle and was declared brought dead when rushed to a hospital.

Panchkula, December 15 Chain Singh Sandhu, a successful NRI who set up the $400 million automobile giant -NYX Inc in the USA by sheer dint of hard work, is set to return to his roots to replicate his success story in India. "In fact, cashing in on the automobile boom in India, our company plans to set up a manufacturing base in Chandigarh's periphery.

PATIALA: The Punjabis here have totally changed on cultural front, but those in North America still seem to be living in the past. This specific part of the community is still not ready to give freedom to the daughters. After the murder of an 11th standard Muslim schoolgirl Aksa Pravez (16) by her father in Toronto, the role of the Asian parents is under scanner in North America.

LONDON: Leading NRI industrialist and philanthropist, Prof Nathu Puri has been honoured with a doctorate degree in engineering by the London South Bank University.

"It is a great honour for me. Coming here in 1966 with very few resources, I could have never dreamt of this day," Puri said after receiving the degree.

Prof Deian Hopkin, Vice Chancellor of the University described Puri as "a successful industrialist and entrepreneur, renowned philanthropist and devoted supporter of education - not to mention Indian cricket".

Ludhiana, November 29
In a changed tack, non -resident Indians(NRIs) "flooding" Punjab during marriage season, this time, are looking for brides who can guarantee a complimentary marriage of an Indian brother or cousin with an NRI bride. Besides the talk in the air, the newspapers, particularly the vernacular ones, are flooded with advertisements saying "the groom was ready for the marriage only in case the girl’s parents could ensure an NRI relation for his brother".

LONDON: An NRI detective was victimised by his bosses when he was refused promotion in 2005 as he had earlier won a race discrimination case against them, an employment tribunal has found.

Detective Gurpal Virdi sued the Met in 2005 after being passed over for promotion.

Virdi was arrested in 1998 for sending racist hate mail to his colleagues. The Met's actions in that investigation led to the force paying out 2,40,000 pounds after being found to have racially discriminated against the detective. He later joined work.