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India, Pak link to Qaida bomb plot
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Indus in spate, displaces 300,000 more in Sindh
Lanka to ban visa on arrival
narrow escape?
3 Indians in MIT honour list
UK scientists crack wheat genome code
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India, Pak link to Qaida bomb plot
Toronto, August 27 The three suspected homegrown terrorists were arrested over the past two days — two in Ottawa and one in London — and have been charged in connection with a plot with links to the senior Al-Qaida figures in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. Misbahuddin Ahmed, believed to be born in India, and Hiva Mohammad Alizadeh — both from Ottawa — and Khurram Syed Sher, of London, were accused of conspiring with three others — James Lara, Rizgar Alizadeh and Zakaria Mamosta — in a terror plot the police traced back to Pakistan, Iran and Dubai. Hiva Alizadeh, 30, and Ahmed, 26, appeared in court yesterday after their arrests on Wednesday in Ottawa under the project named “Operation Samosa”.
The trio were charged with conspiring to build bombs for attacks in Canada and raise money to fund the IED attacks on Canadian troops in Afghanistan. The police refused to identify the targets of the alleged terrorists, saying that information would come out in court. “The arrests have prevented the gathering of bombs and the execution of one or many terrorist attacks,” said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Chief Superintendent Serge Therriault. “This group posed a real and serious threat to the citizens of the national capital region and Canada's national security,” Therriault said. The police said the accused had the IED parts, including more than 50 circuit boards that could be used to remotely detonate bombs, but wouldn't say if the group had explosives. Robert Farrell, a former Canadian diplomat who had rented his house to Ahmed, was quoted as saying that Ahmed was born in India, but had lived for a time in Saudi Arabia. Ahmed, who works as an X-ray technician at the Ottawa Hospital, rented the home about a year ago, after responding to an ad Farrell had placed on an online rental site. — PTI
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Indus in spate, displaces 300,000 more in Sindh
Karachi, August 27 Besides, Thatta, residents of four other major towns, Shahdadkot, Mirput Bathoro, Sujawal and Daro and the surrounding villages, have also been ordered to leave their homes for safety, as UN warned that the country's humanitarian crisis was getting worse. "We have ordered the people of Thatta and other threatened towns to evacuate and move to safer places as the rising Indus has breached embankments of three major points," Sindh Home Minister Zulfiqar Ali Mirza said. After the alarm was sounded around midnight, hundreds of thousands of people were shown on Television footage leaving their homes in panic and hurry. People left in cars, trucks, buses and even bullock carts with their personal belongings. Authorities said at least 900,000 would be evacuated from the region. "The torrential monsoon rains and rising floods have not it easy to carry out rescue operations while making it difficult to ensure relief and aid reached all the affected people," officials said. The evacuation of fresh towns in the Southern Sindh province comes as torrential rains have caused massive flooding from the North of the country to the South, affecting 17 million people. The chief administrator of the area, Manzoor Sheikh, said army engineers were working to try to plug the beaches few kilometres from the Thatta town to stop floodwaters from entering the town. — PTI
‘Relief workers safe’
Interior Minister Rehman Malik has allayed apprehensions that militants could target workers of international humanitarian agencies involved in relief efforts in flood-affected Pakistan. US aid touches 200 mn
The US flood relief assistance to Pakistan has touched $ 200 million figure, after USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah announced diverting of $ 50 million from its long-term aid package to the country.
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Lanka to ban visa on arrival
Colombo, August 27 "Sri Lanka has decided to suspend the on-arrival visa facility for all countries except Singapore and Maldives with effect from 30th of September 2010," Controller General of Immigration and Emigration W A C Perera said today. "Under the move tourists arriving to Sri Lanka from nearly 70 countries will be required to obtain visas from the department of immigration and emigration in Colombo or from the Sri Lankan missions abroad before their arrival in Sri Lanka," the Daily Mirror online quoted Perera as saying. Sri Lanka, however, is willing to offer visas on arrival to citizens of any country if those countries also reciprocate in the same manner, Perera said. So far, only Singapore and the Maldives offer visas on arrival for Sri Lankan citizens.
— PTI
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narrow escape?
London, August 27 According to the sources, they knew which helicopter to target when the Prime Minister visited a British base in southern Helmand province. Intercepted communications by militants referred to the desire to shoot down the Chinook carrying the 'Big Commander', the Daily Mail reports. The trip was aborted after NATO spies overheard a Taliban unit near the base talking about shooting down the helicopter; with a second call shortly afterwards that referred to a VIP in the area. Now an urgent review has been launched into the Prime Minister's security on visits to war zones. Downing Street officials have played down the incident. Senior army officers want to prevent Cameron from putting his life at risk by conducting photo opportunities in the war zone. The generals want to impose a news blackout on trips by the PM to Afghanistan until they have ended — a move resisted by Downing Street aides. —
ANI
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Boston, August 27 “This year's winners have created innovations over a wide variety of fields, including energy, biomedicine, communications, the IT, transportation and web. “Their groundbreaking work is liberating patients from sleep clinics, shaping the rules for social networks and helping populations cope with crisis. The 2010 TR35 are transforming technology and tackling problems in a way that is likely to benefit society and business,” Jason Pontin, Editor-in-Chief and publisher of the Technology Review, said. Since 1999, the editors of the Technology Review have honoured young innovators whose inventions and research they find most exciting. The TR35 is a list of technologists and scientists, all under the age of 35. — PTI
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UK scientists crack wheat genome code London, August 27 Wheat production worldwide is under threat from climate change at a time when there is an increase in demand from a growing human population. Scientists at the University of Liverpool, in collaboration with the University of Bristol and the John Innes Centre, have sequenced the entire wheat genome and will make the DNA data available to crop breeders to help them select key agricultural traits for breeding. Bread wheat, with an estimated world harvest of more than 550 million tonnes, is one of the most important food crops in the world and is worth more than £2 pounds to the UK's agricultural industry. Now, scientists have analysed the wheat genome, which is five times larger than the human genome and the largest genome to be sequenced till date, to give breeders the tools required to select traits for a healthy yield.
— PTI
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London, August 27
