UAE plane held with arms for China

A UAE Air Force plane has been grounded at Kolkata airport from Sunday evening following the discovery of a large cache of undeclared arms and ammunition on board, and was not allowed to resume its flight even 24 hours later. The interrogation of the pilot and eight crew members continued, both at the airport and the hotel where they have been put up.

The military transport Hercules C-130 aircraft, flying from Abu Dhabi to Hanyang in China, landed at Kolkata airport to refuel on Sunday evening. The customs authorities refused to give it clearance after finding discrepancies in the declarations filed by the aircraft captain and the UAE Air Force.

In an earlier declaration filed with Air Headquarters in New Delhi, the UAE Air Force had said that the aircraft, flying through Indian airspace on its way to Hanyang, would not carry any arms or ammunition, said Wing Commander Mahesh Upasani, defence ministry spokesman in Kolkata.

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China puts off Internet filter, activists happy

China’s ambitions to strengthen control of the Internet with filtering software became a show of the limits of its power on Wednesday, as activists and industry groups welcomed AN abrupt delay of the contentious plan.

The surprise climbdown was reported late on Tuesday by Xinhua news agency, which said the ministry of industry and information technology would "delay the mandatory installation of the controversial ‘Green Dam-Youth Escort’ filtering software on new computers".

Officials said the software was intended to stamp out Internet pornography, and computer companies had originally been told that from Wednesday they had to bundle "Green Dam" with any personal computers heading to stores for sale in the country.

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Dalai: China made Tibet ‘hell on earth’

Fifty years after Tibet’s failed uprising against the annexation by China, the Dalai Lama has said the five decades of Communist rule has turned his Himalayan homeland into a “hell on Earth,” brought on by “death” and “destruction.” The Tibetan spiritual leader told a congregation of thousands at the Tsuglag Khang (main temple) in Dharamsala, his home in exile, that his patience with the Chinese leadership was beginning to wear thin.

Accusing China of deliberately building a climate of fear through its violent campaigns since 1959, he said: “These thrust Tibetans into such depths of suffering and hardship that they literally experienced hell on earth.” He added: “The immediate result of these campaigns was the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Tibetans.”

“The past 50 years,” the Dalai Lama told his captivated listeners from around the world, “have brought untold suffering and destruction to the land and people of Tibet. Even today, Tibetans in Tibet live in constant fear and the Chinese authorities remain constantly suspicious of them.

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Poisoning kills 11 girls at school

Eleven girls died of carbon monoxide poisoning at a school in northern China’s Shaanxi province, an education official said on Tuesday evening.

A news report said the girls had lit a fire to keep warm. A dozen girls were found poisoned on Tuesday morning at the Duiziliang Middle School in Yulin city, said an official with the Yulin Education Bureau, who gave her family name as Fan.

She said 11 girls were confirmed dead, with another being treated at a hospital.

Fan, reached by phone, said she had no further details. Telephone calls to Yulin’s Public Security Bureau rang unanswered on Tuesday evening.

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Gold : One in Billion

Abhinav Bindra won India’s first-ever individual Olympic gold medal when he claimed the men’s 10m air rifle shooting title in Beijing Monday.

Athens champion Zhu Qinan of China won silver and Henri Hakkinen of Finland took bronze. Bindra, 25, a businessman from Chandigarh, followed his world championship title two years ago to finally win a landmark gold medal for India.

In one of the most thrilling shooting finals in Olympic history, Bindra overcame a two-point deficit against Hakkinen and one point against Zhu after the qualification rounds to annexe the title.

The Indian trumped his rivals with the best finish of 104.5 in the 10-shot final as he went into the last shot level with Hakkinen on 689.7 points. While Bindra secured his best score of 10.8 in the deciding shot, Hakkinen managed only 9.7 to concede the silver to Zhu, whose last shot was 10.5.

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Online tax payment huge hit with NRIs

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has claimed to have received overwhelming response to its online property tax payment system.

Within few months of its implementation, the MCD has declared that more than 5,000 NRIs have paid taxes for their properties in India. “Till June 30, 2008, the number of online property tax-payers have increased to 2,46,725 from 96,890 in 2007. Thus, there is a substantial increase of 154.46 per cent,” said Vijender Gupta, standing committee chairman.

According to MCD leaders, this year online tax has been received from 97 countries, including countries like the USA, Canada, Aus tralia, the UK, France, Germany, China and Russia. From USA, a total of 3,000 NRIs made online payments, from the UK (466), Australia (227), Singapore (277), Canada (1,189) and Germany (100).

“In India, nearly 20,000 people living in various cities and having properties in Delhi have paid their property tax online.

Of these, 7,000 paid tax from Mumbai, 2,000 from Bengaluru, 2,000 from Chandigarh, 1,500 from Gurgaon and 100 from Faridabad. The civic body has also claimed to have increased the ambit of number of property tax payers by more than 50,000.

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Mansarovar yatra put off 2 weeks, to start June 13

India has can celled the first two batches of the Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrimage this year after China cited "domestic reasons" to suggest it would not be in a position to receive pilgrims from India before June 21.

The external affairs ministry spokesman said on Tuesday that the pilgrimage will now commence from Batch Number 3, which is scheduled to depart New Delhi on June 13.

The annual Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrimage for 2008 was earlier scheduled to commence from June 1.

"The ministry is continuing its efforts with the Government of the People's Republic of China to accommodate the pilgrims of Batch Numbers 1 and 2 in later batches," the spokesman said.

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17 Indians on WEF's list of young global leaders

The World Economic Forum has named 17 Indians, including budget carrier Go Air managing director Jeh Wadia and market regulator Sebi's executive director Sandeep Parekh, in its annual list of Young Global Leaders for 2008.

India, however, has scored below China in terms of total presence in the list of 245 leaders from across the world.There are as many as 31 Chinese individuals on the list, against the 17 from India. The chosen ones are from all walks of life, including business and politics.

WEF said in a statement that the honour is bestowed each year to recognise the top 200300 young leaders from around the world for their professional accomplishments, commitment to society and potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world.

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