Al-Qaida email threatens terror at Delhi HC, Taj

The Delhi High Court on Thursday said it received a threatening email from terrorist outfit al-Qaida a few days after the serial blasts in Uttar Pradesh district courts last month.
According to court sources, the email was forwarded to the Home Ministry following which the security in the High Court was beefed up.
Delhi Police, which has taken the threat seriously and intensified security, has launched an investigation to trace the culprits and check the authenticity of the email.
According to court sources, the Delhi High Court's security department received the email about 10 days ago.
Refusing to disclose the contents of the email, the sources said it had issued threats to the High Court, Parliament and the Taj Mahal in Agra.

Denying the receipt of any fresh threat mail, they said a meeting of the Delhi Police officers as well as court officials has been convened on Thursday.
Delhi Joint Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Karnal Singh and senior police officials reviewed security arrangements at both the courts.
Staff in the court complexes was asked to remain in uniform and wear identity cards. Directions were issued to allow nobody inside the premises without the necessary passes and a mandatory security check-up. Metal detectors were also put in place.
"We have taken unprecedented security measures and are fully prepared. Bomb disposal squads and dog squads have been put on high alert. Additional police personnel have been deployed around the Supreme Court and high court premises," a police official told IANS on the condition of anonymity.

One-film-old Gemma bags next 007 girl role

London: Actress Gemma Arterton of the show St. Trinian will be the next Bond girl. It will be her second film.
Thesun.co.uk reports that the 22-year old beat 1,500 other women to co-star with Daniel Craig in the movie is tentatively titled Bond 22. Filming starts in January.
After getting the confirmation, Arterton sent an SMS to her mom saying, "I got Bond!"
An insider at the Bond studios Eon Productions said, "She has the modern look."

Cyclone Sidr damaged 40% of Sundarbans: UNESCO

Cyclone Sidr that left more than 3,000 people dead as it raged through Bangladesh in November has devastated the Sundarbans World Heritage Site, UNESCO has said.
A report prepared by the UN body found "serious damage" after its experts visited the mangrove forest on the delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers, spread between Bangladesh and India.
"The experts found that 40 per cent of the site has been seriously damaged by Cyclone Sidr. It struck at the heart of the East Sundarbans, the biologically richest part of the Bangladeshi World Heritage property," UNESCO said.
"Foliage has been stripped from the branches of trees in over 30 per cent of the property. Large trees have been felled by the wind and the crowns of many others have been severely damaged," it added.
A complex network of tidal waterways, mudflats and small islands intersects the 140,000-hectare Sundarbans, one of the largest mangrove ecosystems in the world.
It is home to a wide range of fauna, including 260 species of birds, the Bengal tiger and other threatened species such as the estuarine crocodile and the Indian python.
UNESCO experts who visited the world heritage expressed their concern that this development would help poachers do further damage to the ecosystem.
"Poaching and other intrusions could jeopardise the regeneration of the Sundarbans ecosystem, which should normally take 10 to 15 years," the report stated.
The November 15 cyclone that left Orissa and West Bengal untouched - contrary to meteorological predictions - damaged field stations and many boats in Bangladesh.
Several pieces of equipment of the Bangladeshi forest department in the area have been washed out to sea by the storm, severely compromising the authority's capacity to manage the site, which was inscribed in UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1997.
The Sundarbans are breeding grounds for fish, shrimp and crab, which migrate to areas beyond the site boundary, providing livelihood for 300,000 people in the area, the UN body explained.

Touching one to Stop Abortion

Dear Mommy,
I am in Heaven now... I so wanted to be your little girl. I don't quite understand what has happened. I was so excited when I beganrealizing my existence. I was in a dark, yet comfortable place. I sawI had fingers and toes. I was pretty far along in my developing, yetnot near ready to leave my surroundings. I spent most of my time thinking or sleeping. Even from my earliest days, I felt a specialbonding between you and me.

Sometimes I heard you crying and I cried with you. Sometimes you wouldyell or scream, then cry. I heard Daddy yelling back. I was sad, and hoped you would be better soon. I wondered why you cried so much. Oneday you cried almost all of the day. I hurt for you. I couldn'timagine why you were so unhappy.

That same day, the most horrible thing happened. A very mean monster came into that warm, comfortable place I was in. I was so scared, Ibegan screaming, but you never once tried to help me. Maybe you neverheard me. The monster got closer and closer as I was screaming andscreaming, "Mommy, Mommy, help me please; Mommy, help me." Complete terror is all I felt. I screamed and screamed until I thought Icouldn't anymore. Then the monster started ripping my arms off. Ithurt so bad; the pain I can never explain. It didn't stop.Oh, how I begged it to stop. I screamed in horror as it ripped my leg off. Though I was in such complete pain, I was dying. I knew I would neversee your face or hear you say how much you love me. I wanted to makeall your tears go away. I had so many plans to make you happy. Now I couldn't; all my dreams were shattered. Though I was in utter pain andhorror, I felt the pain of my heart breaking, above all. I wanted morethan anything to be your daughter. No use now, for I was dying apainful death. I could only imagine the terrible things that they haddone to you. I wanted to tell you that I love you before I was gone,but I didn't know the words you could understand.And soon, I no longer had the breath to say them; I was dead. I felt myself rising. I was being carried by a huge angel into a bigbeautiful place. I was still crying, but the physical pain was gone.The angel took me away to a wonderful place... Then I was happy. Iasked the angel what was the thing was that killed me. He answered, "Abortion". I am sorry, for I know how it feels." I don't know whatabortion is; I guess that's the name of the monster. I'm writing tosay that I love you and to tell you how much I wanted to be your little girl. I tried very hard to live. I wanted to live. I had thewill, but I couldn't; the monster was too powerful. It sucked my armsand legs off and finally got all of me. It was impossible to live. Ijust wanted you to know I tried to stay with you. I didn't want todie. Also, Mommy, please watch out for that abortion monster. Mommy, Ilove you and I would hate for you to go through the kind of pain Idid. Please be careful. Love,Your Baby Girl

John, Bips shoot to prove the affair ain't over

Bollwood's most talked about couple make it to the cover pages of the latest issue of Filmfare and finally all the doubts about their rocky relationship are put to rest.
John and Bipasha launched the latest edition of the Filmfare magazine that shows the couple in some cozy moments caught on camera by Jatin Kampani. The shoot needless to say was John and Bipasha’s way of mixing business with pleasure.
Bipasha says that they were their natural self and that is the way they usually are. "It was good to shoot with John after a really long time," she adds.
And it is not just John’s fans who lust over his six-pack, but it is Bipasha too who goes crazy over his hot looks. “I think John is hot and yes he is getting better with every passing year. Ask the girls here in Mumbai who drool over his looks."
The couple seems to be all praises for each other. John too is all praises for his lady. “She is Asia's sexiest woman, so that’s more than enough a reason for me to go gaga over her," says John.

Cars flash mails before breaking down

Bangalore:Breakdowns in the middle of a busy street due to engine trouble would become a thing of past as future technologies would enable a car flash ‘health report’ well in advance indicating ‘all was not well with it’.
“Your car could send an e-mail telling you that it’s time to drop in for a health check-up at your nearest service centre,” said Alan Taub, executive director, General Motors Research and Development in Warren Michigan, while tracing the future technology in the automotive industry.
“It could warn you well in advance that it was having an engine problem or that the brake pads were getting worn out or that the battery has not been charged enough,” he said. The component of electrification and electronification of value-added software in vehicles, especially in the high-end segment will go up to 40% by 2015, said Allan. The vehicle would have sophisticated software that could be serviced by just downloading a patch of software.
GM, which has already made available parts of this sophisticated technology in the US, is working on increasing the content of sophisticated software that could be addressed through remote applications, Nady Boules, director, Electrical and Controls Integration Research Lab said.
The technology, which will be made in India in future, would enable the driver to receive a ‘once-in-a-month’ report from the vehicle telling you its health status. The technology would help monitor the critical systems in the car from time to time and send indications if it was going to face some trouble, said Boules.
“The indicators could be available in various ways, you could have a green saying that it is time for a check up, a yellow that could indicate that you need to hurry and red which meant that you swerve immediately to your service centre,” said Boules. GM is working on software at two ends, one that could be made available on the driver’s panel and another that could be availed through remote control, he said.
“Next time you find you have locked your car and left the keys inside, you could call the back office of the company, inform them and they could in turn ‘break in’ the software and unlock the car. Or if you find there is some problem that needs to be immediately attended to, they could through remote application attend to it immediately,” he said.
In the US, currently, a driver whose vehicle has been stolen could intimate the company back office, which, through GPS system, would track the location of the car.
The software, which could be remotely controlled could actually “slow down the car and prevent the thief from running away. It would take out the control of the car from the thief’s hands,” he said with a chuckle.
Such a technology could help immensely in preventing vehicle thefts and free the owner from worries about the car being parked in dim-lit corners of a road. These back-office services could be availed of even during other crises with regard to the car. “The person driving the car could simply call up the back office of the company, inform them of the specific problem, which could be attended to immediately with the help of the advanced software,” he said.
In the US, in case of an accident, the back office is immediately alerted through an automatic system which then calls the driver to understand the gravity of the situation. Help is immediately deployed to the site of the accident. Such accident alerts could be extremely beneficial for India too where the driver in a serious situation could get help immediately, he said. The bursting of the airbags could send out the alert signals to the office.
“Currently, GM is working on components like engine control, steering, safety controls in the process of introducing more electronification of the vehicles,” he said. Once the sophisticated software is in place, it would mean that a car breakdown would have to be struck off from the list of ‘most common excuses’ dished out for showing up late.