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- Passenger plane crashes in Kyrgyzstan, injuring 12 people
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- Israel approves construction of 130 homes in east Jerusalem
- Volcanic mudflow kills three in eastern Indonesia
- Wages Theft Shatters American Dream for Many Low-wage Immigrants
| Passenger plane crashes in Kyrgyzstan, injuring 12 people Posted: 28 Dec 2011 09:15 PM PST OSH, KYRGYZSTAN (BNO NEWS) -- Twelve people were injured on early Wednesday afternoon when a passenger plane crashed while landing at an airport in Kyrgyzstan, government officials said. There were no fatalities. The accident happened at around 12:48 p.m. local time when Kyrgyzstan Airlines Flight 3 was attempting to land during bad weather at an airport in Osh, the second largest city in the Central Asian country. The plane, a Tupolev Tu-134, was en-route from the capital of Bishkek. A spokesman for the Emergencies Ministry said the aircraft, which was carrying 73 passengers and 6 crew members, skidded off the runway and overturned before coming to a stop. The aircraft sustained heavy damage and both the right wing and the landing gear were broken off, according to officials. The Kyrgyz Health Ministry confirmed twelve people were injured, including nine people who were treated at the scene by ambulances. A 7-month-old girl and a 19-year-old man were among those hospitalized, both suffering from a concussion and other injuries. It was not immediately known what caused the accident, but officials said heavy fog and possible icing are being investigated as possible causes. The aircraft was manufactured in 1979 and its airworthiness certificate was to expire on January 19. In August 2008, Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 6895 crashed after taking off from Manas International Airport in Bishkek, killing 68 people and injuring 18 others. It remains the deadliest aviation accident in the country's history. (Copyright 2012 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: sales@bnonews.com.)
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| Posted: 28 Dec 2011 09:00 PM PST
Sources: Statistical Abstract of the United States 2012, t. 1249
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| Israel approves construction of 130 homes in east Jerusalem Posted: 28 Dec 2011 07:46 PM PST JERUSALEM (BNO NEWS) -- The Jerusalem municipality on Wednesday approved a plan for the construction of 130 housing units in the east of the city, officials said. The homes are to be built in the neighborhood of Gilo, which is regarded by the international community as a settlement. The plan still needs to be approved by the Interior Ministry and Regional Planning Committee, Ynet news reported. Pepe Alalu of the left-wing Meretz party said the new homes will be built in three 12-story tower blocks in the neighborhood near the northern West Bank city of Bethlehem. He said that a large tourist complex will also be built in the heart of the Silwan, a neighborhood in East Jerusalem. Palestinian Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh condemned the Israeli municipality's decision. He told the Palestine News and Information Agency (WAFA) that peace negotiations cannot be resumed without a complete halt of all settlement activities. The move comes about two weeks after the Construction and Housing Ministry and the Israel Land Administration announced that hundreds of housing units will be marketed beyond the Green Line. According to the announcement, 348 of the units will be built in the town of Beitar illit, 500 in Har Homa in south Jerusalem and 180 in Givat Ze'ev in the northern part of the capital. The four European Union members of the United Nation Security Council strongly criticized Israel's plan to expand its settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Britain, France, Germany and Portugal issued a joint statement, saying the Israeli settlements in Palestinian occupied territories and East Jerusalem are illegal under international law. Last year, Israel and the Palestinian Authority stalled the peace negotiations, which were supported by the United States and the United Nations, after the Jewish nation refused to extend a moratorium on settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territory in September. In response, Palestinian President Abbas broke off direct talks as recommended by Hamas, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the European Union and countries such as the United States and Israel. Israel has since resumed settlement construction even though they have been labeled as a violation of international law by the international community. Palestine has demanded a stop to settlement construction in the disputed East Jerusalem and West Bank area as a key element for continuing peace talks, aimed at reaching a two-state solution based on the 1967 Green Line. However, Israeli authorities have rejected the Palestinian solution based on the 1967 borders as that measure would leave a large population of Israelis in Judea and Samaria outside Israel's borders. (Copyright 2012 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: sales@bnonews.com.)
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| Volcanic mudflow kills three in eastern Indonesia Posted: 28 Dec 2011 07:37 PM PST TERNATE, INDONESIA (BNO NEWS) -- At least three people were killed on late Tuesday evening when mudflows streaming from Mount Gamalama in eastern Indonesia hit several nearby villages, officials said on Wednesday. The flood of volcanic material hit several villages which are situated on the slopes of the volcano, which is located on the island of Ternate in the Maluku Islands, off the west coast of Halmahera. Provincial spokesman Andi Arief told the Jakarta Post that the floods destroyed several houses in Tubo and Tofure villages. Andi said the flooding also hit the Togorara and Marikurubu rivers, destroying several houses along the riverbanks. "Initial data cited that three people died, while many other residents were evacuated to a school building and the former North Maluku governor's office," he added. Mt. Gamalama last erupted on December 4, spewing ash up to 2,000 meters (6,560 feet) high and resulting in the evacuation of thousands of people living in the region. Tuesday's flooding was the result of heavy rains which washed the volcanic debris down. In addition to the fatalities, who were aged 50, 10 and 5, one person has been reported missing and is believed to have been killed. Two other people were being treated at Chasan Boesoerie hospital for various injuries. As a result of the incident, the alert level at the volcano has been raised to level 3, the second highest. The country's Volcanology and Geology Disaster Mitigation Center (PVMBG) uses a warning system with four levels of alerts, with level 1 being the lowest and level 4 being the highest. (Copyright 2012 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: sales@bnonews.com.)
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| Wages Theft Shatters American Dream for Many Low-wage Immigrants Posted: 28 Dec 2011 06:44 PM PST Eight years ago, "Mrs. Kim" came to the United States from China "to pursue her American Dream," but thanks to unscrupulous business practices familiar to many Asian immigrants working in low-wage industries, things went horribly wrong. Kim, who did not want to use her real name because she is still involved in litigation, began life in the U.S. preparing dumplings and side dishes at a Korean restaurant in Bergen County, New Jersey. The job went well for a few years. It was hard, but Kim was getting paid for her efforts. Though she worked as many as 17 hours a day, when the restaurant's business started to decline, the owner began paying employees late or not paying them at all. Kim is suing her former boss for more than $40,000 in minimum and overtime wages that have been withheld and additional liquidated damages. "Wage and labor laws are designed to cover every worker. Immigration doesn't come into it. But that's not what we've seen in Asian-American communities," said Shirley Lin, an attorney with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), who has taken Kim's case. "We've seen employers push them to the extreme with long hours and abusive practices." Easy Targets Lin said that employers in these kinds of situations often threaten to report the employee to immigration authorities if they challenge the abuse. She said Asian immigrant workers in low-wage industries, like their Latino, African-American and Caucasian counterparts, are susceptible to wage theft for a variety of reasons, including language barriers, fear of deportation and a lack of education about their rights. Wage theft in the United States has reached near epidemic levels among low-wage workers, according to a landmark 2008 national survey of nearly 4,400 low-wage workers in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. Seventy percent of the workers surveyed were foreign-born. The survey, which was conducted by the Center for Urban Economic Development, the National Employment Law Project, and the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, found over two-thirds of low-wage workers experienced "at least one pay-related violation" in the work week reported. Furthermore, 26 percent of workers were paid less than the legal minimum wage; 76 percent of employees who worked overtime were not paid the legally required overtime rate; 70 percent of workers who performed work outside of their regular shifts did not receive any pay for this work; and 30 percent of tipped workers were not paid the tipped minimum wage. Lacking an income, Kim said she was forced to borrow money from friends and not pay bills just to survive. "They're making employees suffer," Kim said. "If you can't run a business and pay your employees, you shouldn't run a business. You shouldn't take advantage of workers like this." She is now working at another restaurant and said she's extremely stressed and tired from her experience with her former employer. "I can't sleep at night. It's affecting my future employment because I'm not as strong. I've cried many tears over this employer." Paying the Boss There is an added dimension to Kim's struggles. Her stress grew when her previous boss began pressuring employees to lend their money to support the business, another manifestation of wage theft, said Lin. Kim submitted, giving up around $55,000. She said her boss would appear to pay her back by giving her postdated checks, but she was often told not to deposit them and when she did, the checks bounced. "At the time I lent her money, I trusted her," Kim said. "I thought she would share her success with her employees, but that's not how it turned out. I helped her open a second restaurant. The owner became very greedy, borrowed money from employees and delayed paying our wages." Conning workers into giving loans is not the most common type of theft, which usually comes in the form of failure to pay, not paying required overtime wages, not paying for work required before and after a shift, or paying less than the minimum wage. Kim, who has a husband and son back in China who she has not seen for eight years, said she sometimes regrets coming to the U.S. because of the stress caused by failing victim to, and fighting, wage theft. "My husband has threatened to divorce me because of this," she said. "My family wants me close to them, but because this is so important to me, I don't want to give up." Kim's is not an isolated case. According to the survey by the Center for Urban Economic Development, Asians immigrants were the most susceptible to overtime abuse and off-the-clock violations compared to other racial groups studied. Cracking Down The problem has spurred a number of groups to try to help, including Adhikaar, which assists Nepalese, and the Chinese Staff and Workers' Association, which aims to protect Chinese immigrants from exploitation. Lin said workers like Kim are in a "vacuum of oversight and enforcement of our labor laws." According to Nancy J. Leppink, deputy administrator of the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division (WHD), the division has increased its number of investigators. They help to enforce minimum wage, overtime pay, record-keeping, child labor and other labor laws. "Since 2009, the WHD has hired more than 300 investigators, bringing the agency's total to more than 1,000 investigators," Leppink wrote in an email. "In 2011, WHD collected a record number of back wages, which totaled $224.8 million, and helped over 275,000 workers. These additional resources, coupled with WHD's changes to how it prioritizes its work to be more strategic, have clearly revived WHD's enforcement program on behalf of the workers in this country." She added that more than 600 of WHD's investigators speak a language other than English, including Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese. Room for Improvement While Lin called these developments "laudable," she'd said she would like to see the specifics of how these resources are allocated. "Navigating a wage claim is extremely complex, and in some cases takes more than a year," she said. "Telephonic access is a good step, but the critical stage of the investigation is [done] onsite and typically includes interviewing an employer who might be monolingual and employees who speak many different languages. The DOL should take proactive steps to figure out what communities are in more need of language access among its staff investigators." There still may be hope for wage theft victims like Kim. Some of these cases do have happy endings. Earlier this month, three Korean chefs were able to recover nearly $40,000 in unpaid wages from a sushi restaurant after one, who had worked with AALDEF before, organized them to take action.
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