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Vol. 29 No. 27 Friday, July 1, 2016 • Published Weekly from Houston • 713-774-5140 20 Pages ( 2 sections) 50 cents E-mail: voiceasia@aol.com

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New York’s Empire State Building to go dark for TurkeyNEW YORK,

| AFP | 6 /29/2016

- New York’s famed Empire State Build-ing will go dark on Wednesday in tribute to the 41 people killed and 239 wounded in a suicide attack at Istanbul’s main inter-national airport.

The tribute has be-come a somber ritual following a string of high-profile attacks, including bombings in Paris last Novem-ber, in Belgium in March and the Orlan-do nightclub shooting earlier this month.

The landmark building said it would darken its world-fa-mous lights in sym-pathy for the victims and those affected by Tuesday’s attack.

Turkey and the CIA have pointed the fin-ger of blame at the Is-lamic State extremist group based in Iraq and Syria. There has been no claim of responsibility.

Witnesses described scenes of ter-ror and panic as the attackers began shooting indiscriminately and then blew themselves up at the entrance to Ataturk airport, one of Europe’s busi-est aviation hubs.

IACF Aids 21 Houston’s Charities

by Shobana Muratee

HOUSTON-(June 28, 2016) - Houston’s newly appoint-ed Mayor Sylvester Turner

invited members of the local media to lunch at the City Hall’s Legacy Room to brief them on the City of Houston’s status as to “where we are, where we are going and how we are going to get there.”

There were about 50 media rep-resentatives from mainstream and ethnic media outlets who attended and chatted over lunch for an hour and a half. This was the first time a mayor has met with this many mem-bers of the media at one time. Mayor Turner said he wants to maximize on Houston’s diversity. “This is one attempt to showcase that diversity,” he stated. Mayor Turner was joined by his staff Janice Evans, Director of Communications, Darian Ward, Press Secretary and Melissa Rags-dale, Social Media Director.

After brief introductory remarks, Mayor Turner had a Q & A round with the media members. While most of them touched on the cur-rent issues like the potholes, jobs, and the budget, some were curious to know about the Astrodome, what

Mayor Turner hosts “Meet the Press” Lunch

Continued on Page 8

by Shobana Muratee

SUGAR LAND - The Indo-American Charity Foundation (IACF) took a humble bow at

the overwhelming appreciation it re-ceived at its funds distribution event held on Thursday, June 23rd, at Ma-dras Pavilion in Sugar Land, where 21 local charities were presented with donation checks. This was a hat trick for IACF, a feat it was striving to ac-complish after two successful earlier

IACF president Nanda Vura, (far left), Board of Directors, Charity Partners and supporters at the 2016 Fund Distribution event on June 23, 2016 held at Madras Pavilion, Sugar Land. Photo credit: Roy Photography.

events this year: Walkathon “I Walk I Care’ and Scholarship Awards where 30 outstanding Fort Bend ISD high school students received scholarships.

Welcoming the guests and repre-sentatives of the recipient charities, Dr. Vanitha Pothuri, IACF President Elect and Emcee briefly introduced the names of the charities and pre-senters. IACF’s 2016 Charity Partners included: Indian American Cancer Network, Literacy Advance, Indian

Doctors Charity Clinic, PEACE (Par-ent Engagement for Active Child Enrichment), KNOW Autism Foun-dation, Indian Senior Citizens As-sociation, AVANCE Houston Inc., Youth Leadership Development Pro-gram (YLDP), Houston, iEducate USA, SEARCH (in kind), Asians Against Domestic Abuse, Richmond State School, REACH Unlimited,

Continued on Page 3

New York’s famed Empire State Building will go dark on Wednesday in tribute to the 41 people killed and 239 wounded in a suicide attack at Istanbul’s main interna-tional airport.

HOUSTON - Following the recent terror attack in Tur-key, the American Turkish

Community in Houston called the community join its members in a Prayer Vigil and Press Conference on Thursday, June 30, 2016 at 11:00 am at the Istanbul Conference Center at Turquoise Community Center, Hous-ton, and to recognize and pay tribute to those who have lost their lives in this tragic and heartbreaking incident on Tuesday June 28, 2016 in Istanbul Turkey . “It is time to show our soli-darity”, Mehmet Okumus , President/CEO American Turkish Community in Houston stated in his message

“As with the rest of the world, we bear witness to this mournful attack that have hit our homeland, with a heavy heart and believe we must gath-er together to reflect and remember the innocent lives that were lost. We must stand united to resolve the issue of ter-rorism in order to safeguard our liber-ties and countries.”

Houston’s Turkish community calls for Prayer Vigil and Press Conference to stand against terrorism

Houston’s Mayor Sylvester Turner, staff members Janice Evans, Director of Communications, Darian Ward, Press Sec-retary, and Melissa Ragsdale, Social Media Director with members of local media at the “Meet the Press” luncheon at the City Hall on June 28, 2016. Photo credit; Mayor’s office.