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.

Amazing Brand Bangalore gets bigger, IT will get only better

Brand Bangalore has not lost its sheen yet - that's what the Information Technology Department has to say. While the state government has cleared the path for investments worth Rs 60,000 crore in August, September and October had over 40 projects worth over Rs 38,000 crore cleared.
The state IT secretary Vidyashankar says the numbers for November and December will be just as encouraging and proves that Bangalore has not suffered because of the state's political instability.
"We are seeing, on the contrary, an increase in participation not only from IT but also from telecom, biotech and nano industries. Bangalore is acting more,” he says.
The reason? Brand Bangalore is still synonymous with outsourcing, making it easier to market to client overseas.
"Bangalore is a global entity and is top of the mind recall for it honchos all over the world. If the country is going to continue to grow, Bangalore will grow as well,” says Vidyashankar.
Other senior government officials tell CNN-IBN that the absence of an elected government may have made the state more business friendly. This is because the governor's executive committee is not making decisions that are purely based on merit and there is very little room for vested interests.
The city's infrastructure continues to be the bone of contention. But officials say changes are being made.
"The kind of initiatives we are putting in will take care of infrastructure for the next 20 years. Be it water, roads or metro, it's all being taken care of," says Vidyashankar.
While the city exported Rs 49,000 crore worth software in 2006-07, its nearest competitor Chennai managed just about Rs 21,000 crore. This year, the exports are estimated to touch a record Rs 70,000 crore.
The I-T secretary says the target of Rs 100,000 crore in exports for the year 2010-11 is more than achievable

Diwali in jail was saddest moment of my life: Dutt

Sanjay Dutt, in his first one-to-one interview after being released from Pune's Yerwada Jail has spoken out candidly about his experience in jail. Spending Diwali in jail, he says, was one of the saddest moments of his life.
“Diwali was a really sad moment of my life, that I couldn't be with the family and I was locked up and I could see crackers bursting. I prayed and I meditated. I thought of Dad and I thought of Mom,” Dutt recounted.
“Freedom is something everyone takes for granted. But it’s something which you can't buy, as much of money as you may have. So it’s great to be free,” he said.
On being in jail, he said it’s not a good place to be in, but if one looks at the positive side, that’s the only connection with God that is direct.
“When I first went there, you know you don’t feel hungry and they sat there and said 'You got to eat', and I said 'Is it because I am an actor?' They said, 'No, we do it with all the prisoners, everybody is the same here.' It really made me feel good,” he said.
“There is a good part and there is a bad part. The bad part is that you have to be locked up at a certain hour, so I mean you are locked up at 6 whether it is Diwali or Independence day - that time you are locked up at 3 in the afternoon till the next day. I mean I used to wonder 'It’s Independence Day, why have you locked us up, I'm an Indian you know’,” Dutt said.

Wikipedia faces Google-y, rival Knol launched

Web search leader Google Inc is testing an Internet site for sharing knowledge about any subject under the sun, one that could eventually compete with the popular user-edited encyclopedia Wikipedia.
Google's "knol" project started earlier this week and is working with a group of writers by invitation only, Google vice president of engineering Udi Manber wrote in a company blog post.
"There are millions of people who possess useful knowledge that they would love to share, and there are billions of people who can benefit from it," Manber said in the post.
"The goal is for knols to cover all topics, from scientific concepts, to medical information ... to how-to-fix-it instructions."
The word "knol" is used to refer to the project and to an entry on the shared website.
Google's site will identify the authors posting the information. It will not serve as an editor of the information or endorse what is written on the site.
The site will eventually be opened to the general public and allow users to submit comments, questions or edits, as well as rate posts.
Knol writers will be able to include ads in their posts, sharing the revenue with Google.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is working on a community- developed Web search service that would compete with search engines such as Google and Yahoo Inc.

Sania bows, apologises for ad shoot at mosque

Tennis star Sania Mirza bowed before public sentiment on Thursday and tendered an 'unequivocal' apology for shooting a commercial at the historic Mecca Mosque in Hyderabad and hurting religious sentiments.
Sania's public apology came barely hours after a case had been registered against the tennis star and the advertising agency, charging them with trespassing on the Mecca Masjid.
The tennis star later sent an e-mail to Hyderabad's Police Commissioner, apologising for the ad shoot "with a deep sense of remorse".
Sania also sent a letter to the Imam of the Masjid, saying: "I would like to apologise to all my brothers and sisters and respected elders who are anguished by my unwittingly entering a portion of the land belonging to Mecca Masjid."
"While I am fully aware that a woman must not enter the sanctity of the mosque, I was unaware that even entering the outside gates of a mosque was seriously objectionable, specially without permission, which I was assured by the agency they possessed."

tender my apology to all my brothers and sisters for hurting their sentiments," she said.
She, however, maintained that the commercial was aimed at promoting the heritage monument of Charminar, which is a symbol of Hyderabad.
Sania and the ad agency had upset local groups by shooting for an ad at the mosque without taking the requisite permission from the authorities concerned. The shoot evoked strong protest from the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen.
Mosque employees had alleged that the attitude of some of the members of the shooting unit was objectionable. They were reportedly wearing shoes when they entered the mosque and pushed away a watchman who tried to stop them.
The complaint was filed by the District Minority Welfare Officer Kareemullah, who said: "Sania has hurt the religious sentiments of people visiting the mosque."
Assistant Commissioner of Police (Charminar), B Reddenna, however, said it was a "petty case" involving unauthorised entry and photography. He, however, insisted that "the law will take its course in the matter."
The superintendent of the mosque, Khaja Nayeemuddin, had earlier claimed that he had no information about the shooting and that the advertisement had already been shot before he or other custodians could reach the mosque.
Reddanna says that the unit had obtained permission to shoot in and around Charminar, but not inside the Mecca Masjid.
The ad shoot has also evoked strong protest from the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), a powerful Muslim political party in the Muslim-majority old Hyderabad city. The MIM also objected to Sania Mirza's participation in it.

Love chatting? Your online suitor could be a comp

Internet chatroom romantics beware: your next chat may be with a clinical computer, not a passionate person, trying to win your personal data and not your heart, an online security firm says.
A Russian website called CyberLover.ru is advertising a software tool that, it says, can simulate flirtatious chatroom exchanges. It boasts that it can chat up as many as 10 women at the same time and persuade them to hand over phone numbers.
An Australian anti-virus software firm, PC Tools, has warned that the software could be abused by identity fraudsters trying to harvest people's personal details online. The Russian site denied it was intended for identity fraud.
The program, so far available only in Russian, will go on sale around February 15, just after St Valentine's Day, said the CyberLover.ru website.
"Not a single girl has yet realized that she was communicating with a program!" it said, adding that the program could also simulate virtual sex online.
"It's happened - a program to tempt girls over the internet!" said the site. "Within half an hour the CyberLover program will introduce you to ... girls, exchange photos and perhaps even a contact phone number," it states.
Chatrooms have developed into a popular social networking section of the internet, where people can converse anonymously by keyboard on any topic, from flirting to fishing.
CyberLover's website explains that the settings on its program can be changed to attract men, persuade people to visit a website or encourage them to top up mobile telephone credit, and that all the data collected will be stored.
CAN FOOL USERS
A spokesman for PC Tools said the program had a "terrifyingly well-organized" interaction that could fool users into giving up personal details and could easily be converted to work in other languages.
"As a tool that can be used by hackers to conduct identity fraud, CyberLover demonstrates an unprecedented level of social engineering," Sergei Shevchenko, Senior Malware Analyst at PC Tools, said in a statement.
"It employs highly intelligent and customized dialogue to target users of social networking systems."
He said the program "can monitor Internet browser activity, automatically recognize and fill in the fields in the web pages, generate keystrokes and mouse clicks, and post messages, URLs, files and photos."
"It can do exactly what users normally do when they are online, only in an automated pre-programmed way."
The CyberLover.ru site denied the program did anything wrong, saying it only gathered information that chatroom users themselves were volunteering.
"The program can find no more information than the user is prepared to provide," one of the site's employees, who gave his name only as Alexander, said in an emailed reply to Reuters questions.
"It maintains a dialogue with a person, but is not engaged in hacking or any other such schemes, I think this should be obvious," he said.
If you have someone who is ready to hand over secret information to the person they are chatting to after having known them for all of five minutes, then in that case a leak of information is possible."

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