A small plane crashed into a residential area near the New Delhi late Wednesday, killing nine people. The single-propeller aircraft went down in Faridabad, damaging several houses and sparking a fire. “We have so far removed nine bodies, seven of them seem to be from the plane and two on the ground,” deputy police chief in Faridabad Praveen Mehta told.
The plane was travelling from the eastern city of Patna to New Delhi carrying a patient in a critical condition to a private hospital in the capital. It also said seven people were on the plane when it crashed, but it put the total death toll at 10, including three victims on the ground.
The Pentagon said on Wednesday that it plans to cut back the number of American troops in Pakistan after Pakistan made a formal request, amid tensions over a US raid against Osama bin Laden.
“We were recently (within past 2 weeks) notified in writing that the government of Pakistan wished for the US to reduce its footprint in Pakistan. Accordingly, we have begun those reductions,” spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan said in an email to reporters.
China has officially put the United States on notice that Washington’s planned attack on Pakistan will be interpreted as an act of aggression against Beijing. This blunt warning represents the first known strategic ultimatum received by the United States in half a century, going back to Soviet warnings during the Berlin crisis of 1958-1961, and indicates the grave danger of general war growing out of the US-Pakistan confrontation.
Responding to reports that China has asked the US to respect Pakistan’s sovereignty in the aftermath of the Bin Laden operation, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu used a May 19 press briefing to state Beijing’s categorical demand that the “sovereignty and territorial integrity of Pakistan must be respected.”
According to Pakistani diplomatic sources, China has “warned in unequivocal terms that any attack on Pakistan would be construed as an attack on China.” This ultimatum was reportedly delivered at the May 9 China-US strategic dialogue and economic talks in Washington, where the Chinese delegation was led by Vice Prime Minister Wang Qishan and State Councilor Dai Bingguo.1 Chinese warnings are implicitly backed up by that nation’s nuclear missiles, including an estimated 66 ICBMs, some capable of striking the United States, plus 118 intermediate-range missiles, 36 submarine-launched missiles, and numerous shorter-range systems.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said that Britain and the United States must continue to work with Pakistan as their countries seek to stamp out terrorism. “Far from from walking away we’ve got to work even more closely with them,” said Cameron at a news conference with visiting US President Barack Obama.
“Pakistan has suffered more from terrorism than any other country. Their enemy is our enemy. We need to work with them,” Cameron said. Obama and Cameron both extended their support to Pakistan in its fight against terrorism, making it clear that they don’t intend to abandon Pakistan while it is reeling from terror attacks.
NEPRA Announced Increase in Electricity Prices by 1.07 Paisa per unit. NEPRA allows increasing electricity prices up to Rs.1.07 per unit. On behalf of Central Power purchasing agency submit application of increasing electricity rates in ratio of monthly fuel adjustment. Hearing carried out today in leadership of acting chairman NEPRA after which electricity distribution companies are permitted to increase electricity prices to rs.1.07 per unit, increase is implemented in next month bills but this increase will not be implemented on Karachi Electric Supply Corporation however monthly unit usage up to 50 units unsets are also out of it.
Pakistan Seized Largest Ever Heroin Consignment Worth $44 million in international market, impounding 375 kilograms (825 pounds) of the narcotic worth an estimated $44 million on the international market. About 108 kilograms hidden in matchboxes was seized late Monday from a container at the Karachi port and another 267 kilograms of heroin in a follow up raid in Quaid Abad neighbourhood, officials said.
“We have arrested five people and during investigations they have confessed that they were involved in drugs smuggling for a long time,”. The official said the heroin was smuggled from neighbouring country Afghanistanthrough Pakistan’s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Hiran Minar is an interesting and a popular tourist attraction as it has several historical sites. It is lamentable that the authorities had not preserved the sites including the Hiran Minar. During the reign of Emperor Salim from 1605 to 1627, Sheikhupura had the status of a royal hunting ground. Mughal Emperor Jahangir ordered to build a tower and a grave for his deer, Mansraj, in Sheikhupura.
He hunted in the area where Hiran Minar was later built with his friends and spotted a deer he tried to kill, but accidentally killed his own favourite, Mansraj. The emperor became so sad that he ordered to bury the deer in the ground where it died and also build a tower called Hiran Minar.
Visitors to the 17th Century “Emperor Jehangir’s hunting resort” – popularly known as “Hiran Minar” – have complained of lack of facilities. With only one and a half hour from Lahore, this monument in the outskirts of Sheikhupura has always drawn a crowd of picnickers, especially during spring and winter.
On Sundays and public holidays, families from nearby areas and towns come to the resort for recreation. But lack of quality food and public toilets has posed problems for the regular visitors, especially women and children. From a shabby looking battered tin cabin one gets overly priced foodstuff – a highly discouraging factor for tourism. The toilets include a “roofless” structure stinking with a foul smell due to choked filth that turns away the visitors.
Some 40 odd kilometres west of Lahore and past the city of Sheikhupura amid lush green countryside stands the historical Hiran Minar flanked by a water pool and a baradari. This was the hunting site where Prince Saleem, later to become Emperor Jahangir, came for shikar. The city of Sheikhupura was named after the prince by his father Akbar who addressed him as Sheikhu. Details appearing in the Tuzuk-Jahangiri say that on March 31, 1607, an antelope was caught alive here by Jahangir’s entourage. When brought before the emperor, the animal showed instant affection, seating itself down at Jahangir’s feet, as if pleading to be spared and adopted. Jahangir liked the gesture, and naming it Mansraj, also issued a royal decree banning the shikar of deer at the hunting site.
When Mansraj finally died of old age in 1620, a minaret was ordered to be built at his grave, hence the name Hiran Minar. Measuring 110 feet in height, as it stands today after the collapse of its canopy on the top, 108 steps on a spiral staircase lead to the summit of the minaret where rest the remains of Mansraj. The cost incurred in those times on the construction of the minaret was Rs150, 000. Later, in 1634, when Emperor Shahjahan stayed at his father’s favourite hunting site for three days, he ordered the construction of a baradari surrounded by a water pool. It was built in the classical Safavid Isfahan style, and the pool measures 890 by 750 feet. Water for the pool was arranged to be provided by a canal, linking Hiran Minar with River Chenab that flowed several miles further west of the site. Dried up, old water channels line the western sides of the monument, while a stream coming in from the opposite direction now fills the pool.
The baradari located in the middle of the pool and connected with the minaret through a passageway is reminiscent of the several octagonal tomb structures dating back to the period of Shahjahan and found in and around Lahore. While the wall paintings have long perished from inside the structure, a few faded frescos still remain on the ceiling of the main building. Winding spiral steps lead down to the boat bays located at the water level at the base of the baradari.
A thick keekar-jungle flanks the northern side of the pool, with winding footpaths zigzagging their way over the raised mounds. On the opposite side of the pool a tree-lined garden, with a canteen and some swings and slides await picnickers, but few are tempted to come here. The reason: a total lack of promotion of the retreat by the Punjab tourism department.
The much-mocked hat worn by Princess Beatrice to the royal wedding last month — widely described as looking like a toilet seat – sold for 81,100 pounds on eBay, charities which will benefit from the sale said.
The money will be equally split between UNICEF and Children in Crisis, which posted the auction results on their websites. The fuss over the hat worn to the royal wedding of her cousin Prince William to longtime girlfriend Kate Middleton seemed to have taken Beatrice – who is the daughter of William’s uncle Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson – by surprise. “I’ve been amazed by the amount of attention the hat has attracted,” Beatrice said on the auction site.
James Cameron’s 1997 hit movie ‘Titanic’, which received a record 11 Academy Awards, is all set to hit movie theatres worldwide in a 3D version next year. Watch the trailer here.
A small plane crashed into a residential area near the New Delhi late Wednesday, killing nine people. The single-propeller aircraft went down in Faridabad, damaging several houses and sparking a fire. “We have so far removed nine bodies, seven of them seem to be from the plane and two on the ground,” deputy police chief in Faridabad Praveen Mehta told.
