Sukhi Chahal was arrested for being declared a proclaimed offender in a case registered against him in Ludhiana for demanding a ransom from Congress leader Malkit Singh Birmi, posing as an extremist from Babbar Khalsa in 1992, during assembly elections.

Chahal was recently sent to jail after he was given judicial remand by the duty magistrate. However he will have to cool his heels in jail and wait to get bail as his application could not be filed because his case file is an old one and has gone missing.

For his part Chahal has being pleading innocence, alleging foul play in his arrest.

The US embassy has been informed and his family is now seeking their help. The North American Punjabi Association has also expressed its concern.

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During the recent Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas in Jaipur, a number of NRI doctors expressed a willingness to serve in their places of origin. Consequently the Health Ministry is setting up a website where such doctors can register and an NRI cell has been set up to coordinate with them.

After Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad urged people of Indian origin living abroad to make concrete contributions in developing healthcare in the country, many people expressed their desire to contribute and the idea emerged to allow the health department to prepare to recruit some NRI doctors for short stints.

Officials conceded that the lack of facilities at district hospitals may be a problem for complicated surgeries but are looking at how best it can work.

Though existing rules do not allow Overseas Indians to practise in India without registration or screening tests, the Health draft Bill hopes to change that by allowing practitioners to work in India for limited periods of time.

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In his late night talk show TV host Jay Leno remarked that the Golden Temple, the Sikhs' holiest shrine, was a summer home for wealthy Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Leno used a photograph of the Golden Temple in a segment on vacation homes of Republican presidential candidates during his The Tonight Show.

The Indian external affairs ministry is to take up the matter with the US Indian ambassador who will be asked to take it up with US authorities. Sikhs in the US are also annoyed by Leno's unsavoury joke.

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During her visit to India to attend the Jaipur literary festival, Oprah Winfrey called the country "the greatest show on earth'. She said India is so complex, she has never seen anything like it.

Winfrey also said she wants to interview author Deepak Chopra in his own country. Dr.Chopra popularised the idea of combining traditional Indian Ayurveda with Western medicine in America.

Dressed in traditional Indian garb, Winfrey awed the crowd one of whom called her the most powerful woman in the world.

Winfrey said she decided to go to India in part to interview Chopra and attend the festival and to see India. After this experience she promised to return again and again.

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The family of Kevalkumar Kalidas Rajput 23, who died in a terrorist attack in Kano, Nigeria, are inconsolable. He was the youngest, has four sisters, one of whom is handicapped, and one brother.

His father said young Kevalkumar worked for a chemical company in Kano. He and a few colleagues were killed when their car entered a zone of hostilities. Some 162 people died in the terror attack by a group of militants of an Islamic sect.

The family have now approached the Indian Embasy and the Gujarat government to have the body of Kevalkumar brought back to his home town in Dahod, Gujarat.

Six other Indians including two small children received injuries from shrapnel and debris and are being treated in Kano hospitals.

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