I warned Benazir of terror threat, she ignored it: Mush

New Delhi: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has denied all involvement of the military and intelligence agencies in the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
Musharraf said he had, in fact, warned Benazir about the threat to her life but she had ignored his warning.
"She was informed of the threat weeks back," said Musharraf. "She wanted to go back to Liaqat Bagh. The intelligence agencies knew that there is a threat. "
Musharraf said that Benazir took the decision to go there even though the government tried to stop her.
"We stopped her from going. This time, she again decided to go and she went on her own. She went, ignoring the threat."
The President added that foreign intelligence had also known of threats to Benazir.
"Our own intelligence and a foreign Intelligence warned us about a threat to Bhutto. We advised her not to take chances. During my last telecon with Bhutto, I warned her about the security threats," Musharraf insisted.
Speaking about the probable assassins, he said, "Anyone who wants to assassinate must weigh the pros and cons. Who is the maximum gainer from doing this? Would the government be the maximum gainer or somebody else who will gain more?"
Musharraf was vehement in his denials of reports that the military was involved in the assassination, in any capacity.
"No intelligence agency in Pakistan is capable of inducting a man for a suicide attack," he asserted.
"In the last three months, there have been 19 suicide bombings, most of them against the military and the Intelligence. If the same military and Intelligence use the same people, it's a joke!" he snapped.
Musharraf said he knew he, too, was under threat.
"I have lived like this over the years," he said, adding, "I cannot say that I am very secure. I know how to protect myself."
"We have to face things boldly. We have to defeat those who are causing this threat," he said.

Rs 91-lakh tax slapped on Rani for Shirdi plot

Actor Rani Mukherji who had purchased 11,000 sq ft of land in Shirdi back in 2005, has now been told by the district administration to pay Rs 91 lakh tax if she wants the property transferred in her name.
When Rani had bought the land in 2005, she was unaware that it was farmland and could not be sold.
Though the actress paid Rs 1 lakh and 32 thousand for the registration, she was told that the ownership could not be transferred in her name as it was government land leased out to a farmer.
According to Rani’s lawyers, they will not be paying the required amount for the transfer.
The original owner of the land was a farmer who with the permission of the government had started a brick kiln in 1981. However, property prices of the area appreciated tremendously since then, so the original owner started to sell the land in bits and pieces, reports IANS.
Sampat More was also one of the buyers but he did not have his name registered in the documents and sold the land to the actress, who purchased it without verifying the document, according to IANS.

Amazing Sudy:Mobile users to blame for clogged traffic

If you're late for work, a driver using a cell phone may be to blame. US researchers said on Wednesday that people who use cell phones while behind the wheel impede the flow of traffic, clog highways and extend commute times.
"It's a bit like breaking wind in the elevator. Everyone suffers," Peter Martin of the University of Utah's Traffic Lab said in a telephone interview.
Prior studies have equated the risk of driving while talking on a cell phone with driving while drunk. Some 50 countries have banned use of hand-held phones while driving.
The latest study shows the impact of cell phone use on traffic patterns. "It has to do with the reaction to changes in speed," said Martin, who teaches civil and environmental engineering.
"When a driver who is not distracted is in a traffic stream and the vehicle in front slows down, the driver will brake in response. When a vehicle speeds up in front, the driver will respond and speed up," he said.
Martin and a team of researchers devised a study involving 36 university students, each of whom drove through six 9.2 mile-long (15 km) freeway scenarios in low- to high-density traffic at speeds that resembled driving on an interstate highway.
The drivers used a hands-free phone during half their trips and no phone in the other half. They were told to obey posted speed limits and use turn signals but the rest of the driving decisions were up to them.
What they found is that when the drivers were distracted by a phone conversation, they made fewer lane changes, drove slower and took longer to get where they are going. In medium- and high-density traffic, drivers were about 20 percent less likely to change lanes.
They also spent about 25 to 50 seconds longer following slow-moving vehicles before changing to an open lane. And they drove about 2 mph (3.2 kmh) slower than the undistracted drivers and took 15 to 19 seconds longer to complete the 9.2 mile (15 km) trip.
For an undistracted driver, these accommodations might make driving safer. "But if you are doing that so you can take your mind off the road and talk on the phone, that isn't safer," said University of Utah psychology professor Dave Strayer, who led the team.
Those delays can add up, especially in light of studies that suggest as many as 10 per cent of US drivers are using a cell phone at any one time. "Delays in traffic streams of very small amounts grow into massive numbers when you project it across a highway and across a nation," Martin said.
The next step is to use computer models to determine just how much those delays are costing drivers in time and extra fuel costs that result from traffic delays. "What we've done here indicates already that those numbers are likely to be significant," Martin said.