Terror trail leads Aussie cops to Bangalore

New Delhi:

In the wake of the alleged involvement of three youths from Bangalore in the foiled UK terror plot, the Karnataka government is holding a high-level meeting on Tuesday(10/07/2007) to take stock of the situation.

Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy will chair the meeting of senior police and home department officials.

It is believed that they would debate vital leads gathered by police and intelligence wings on the links of suspects Kafeel Ahmed, his brother Dr Sabeel Ahmed and cousin Dr Mohammed Haneef, who is in detention in Brisbane.

On Monday, the Chief Minister had said that the intelligence wings have gathered several pieces of information and that these cannot be disclosed now.

High-capacity computer hard disks were seized from the Bangalore residence of Kafeel and Sabeel Ahmed. The disk, which contains huge volumes of data, has been sent to a Thiruvananthapuram-based research centre for decoding.

Taj on list of world's seven wonders

Sunday, July 8, 2007 (Lisbon)

Always counted among the man-made marvels of the world by its admirers, the Taj Mahal found pride of place in a new list of seven wonders polled by people around the globe.

The most photographed monument is accompanied by The Great Wall of China, Petra in Jordan, Statue of Christ Redeemer in Brazil, Machu Picchu in Peru, Pyramid of Chichen Itza in Mexico and the Roman Colosseum in the list announced at a gala ceremony in the Portuguese capital Lisbon to coincide with the date 07.07.07.

In a colourful ceremony amid songs and dance, Bollywood star Bipasha Basu announced Taj Mahal as one of the wonders.

Agra Mayor Anjula Singh received the award.

Indians voted overwhelmingly in the polls cast by over a million people. The polling picked up drastically over the last one month, to see the ''monument of love'' through to the final seven.

The worldwide poll, in which people could vote for their favourite monument either on-line or through SMS, was conducted by the New 7 Wonders Foundation, a Swiss non-profit group.

The one-and-a-half-hour-long ceremony at Portugal's largest venue, the Estadio da Luz, saw award-presentation appearances by celebrities like Hillary Swank, Ben Kingsley, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neil Armstrong.

The celebrity-studded event also saw performances by Jennifer Lopez, Chaka Khan and Dulce Pontes.

Global poll

The voting picked up last month and in the latter half of June, eight per cent of all votes came from India, which then further increased to 13 per cent.

According to the voting percentage, India was in the fourth place, while Peru, rooting for the Inca city of Machu Picchu, led with 20 per cent votes towards June-end.

The publicity campaign gathered steam as the deadline drew closer, with many organisations and individuals appealing to vote for the Taj.

Union Culture Minister Ambika Soni cast her vote in favour of the monument of love on June 22 and appealed to Indians to do the same.

While there has been huge media hype surrounding the campaign launched in 2000, the brainchild of Swiss author-filmmaker Bernerd Weber has also drawn criticism, with the UNESCO distancing itself from the campaign and some experts flaying it as a commercial gimmick.

After the launch of the voting campaign in 2000, the nominations were whittled down by public votes to 77 last year, which was shortened to 21 by a panel of architectural experts chaired by former UNESCO chief F M Zaragoza. (With PTI inputs)

Mahatma's Letter

Tuesday, July 3, 2007 (New Delhi)

The Indian government gets possession of a letter written by Mahatma Gandhi, which was originally due for auction in London on Tuesday.

British auction house Christie's called of the auction after the letter was withdrawn by its owner.

The move followed when it was established that the actual ownership of the letter was with the Navjiwan Trust in Ahmedabad.

Gandhi wrote the letter 19 days before he was assassinated by a Hindu activist in Delhi in 1948.

In the handwritten letter published in the journal Harijan, Gandhi pleaded for tolerance towards Muslims and also advocated the importance of Urdu.

Passports and VISA's stolen

A recent report says that 34 Indian Passports and VISA's have been stolen from the Canadian High Commission in India. The Embassy did not report to the Government regarding this case. The facts were disclosed when it was observed that four people with faulty VISA's and passports were caught in Canada.

Following the investigation it was seen that not just 4, but in all 34 VISA's and Passports have been stolen. Citizens with such faulty Passports and VISA's are moving around freely in the Canadian territory.

The question arises that, why didn't the Canadian Embassy report the police about such a scenario. Are the Canadian representatives so irresponsible. Investigations have started for the search of faulty Passports and VISA's.