Now cuckoos come calling on cellphones

          London, July 7: The 50 million mobiles in Britain will be able to reproduce the song of a cuckoo, a greenfinch, a house martin or a nightingale, instead of playing regular chart hits and television and film theme tunes. According to a report in the Telegraph, the first 40 sounds have already been sold to iTouch and Mobiletones, who are providing 40 bird and animal sounds that can be downloaded from the internet on to the new generation of mobiles for between 1.50 pounds and 4 pounds. Mobile ringtones, which are already big business, will now generate revenue up to 2.5 billion pounds from the downloading of tones of all types. The British Library Sound Archive was thrilled to discover that its vast collection now has a new commercial application. It is offering mobile telephone companies and service providers the pick of its 100,000 recordings of animal noises made in the wild. The freedom to allocate a particular wildlife ringtone to a specific caller has captured the imagination of many mobile phone users who set different tones for their spouses, family, friends and bosses.

Muslim Board offers to study fresh proposals

          Lucknow, July 7: A day after it rejected Kanchi Sankaracharya's proposal, the Muslim Personal Law Board said on Moday that it could consider fresh proposals by the seer to solve the Ayodhya issue. But the board declined to take any initiative in this regard. The peace move has to come from the other side as it did before, a Board member said, adding if Sankaracharya deems it fit he could pave way for an amicable settlement of the dispute.

Cong prepared to face polls any time, Sonia tells NDA (Go To Top)

          Shimla, July 7: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday gave an open challenge to the BJP-led NDA to conduct polls any time they want as her party was ready to face elections. She expressed the confidence that the people would reject the NDA and her party will return to power in the next general elections. Speaking here at a party conclave, she said, "we are ready to face the elections either this year or next year, whenever they are held. I am confident that the people will reject the incompetent NDA government led by the BJP." Flaying the government's policies, she said the Centre failed on security issues, and on economic and foreign policy fronts. She alleged that the government was exploiting the issue of terrorism and using it to divide the people. "The time was up for it (government) and the Congress have to reclaim its rightful place," she added.

Acquittal of Hinduja brothers set aside (Go To Top)

          New Delhi, July 7: The Supreme Court on Monday set aside the acquittal of three Hinduja brothers in the Bofors pay-off case. A bench comprising Justice S Rajendra Babu and Justice G P Mathur admitted the appeal filed by the CBI and set aside a Delhi High Court order dated May 10, 2002. The apex court also allowed the appeal filed by CVC challenging the HC order. The CBI appeal had challenged the HC order by which the chargesheet filed against the Hinduja brothers was quashed on the ground that the investigating agency had not taken prior permission of CVC before filing the charges against them. The bench termed the High Court order as "self-contradictory and confusing." Earlier, on May 6 the court had reserved its order on the appeal filed by CBI challenging the HC order quashing the chargesheet against the Hinduja brothers in the Rs 64-crore Bofors pay-off case.

MiG-23 crashes near Ferozepur, pilot safe (Go To Top)

         Ferozepur, July 7: An MiG-23 fighter jet crashed on a farmland near Talwandi in Ferozepur district at 11:30 am on Monday. The lone pilot, Flying Lt. N Gupta, however, bailed out safely. Official sources said there was no casualty on the ground. Senior Indian Air Force personnel said a technical snag might have caused the accident. The site was being inspected. The fighter-aircraft, which reportedly took off from Halwara airbase in Ludhiana, was on a routine sortie when it crashed. The Russia-made MiGs have had a poor history. More than 150 fighter planes have crashed in the past 10 years with experts blaming lack of training facilities and poor maintenance for the mishaps.

17 Indian women detained by Malaysian police (Go To Top)

          Kuala Lumpur, July 7: The police here have detained, as part of a country-wide crackdown on prostitution, 17 Indian women suspecting they were indulging in flesh trade. Ten men, of them seven Indian nationals, were also detained on Sunday night. The women, aged between 25 and 38, and the seven men were being held for allegedly violating their "social visit" passes, according to reports in Bernama.

Iran tests ballistic missile (Go To Top)

          Teheran, July 7: Iran has test-fired its Shahab-3 ballistic missile which has a range of 1,300 km. It can hit Israel, American forces in the Gulf or the Indian subcontinent, said foreign ministry sources. The test conducted over a week ago was confirmed on Monday by a foreign ministry spokesman. The missile was inducted into the Iranian army, the spokesman added.

7 Pak businessmen visited Israel to test the waters (Go To Top)

          Islamabad, July 7: President Pervez Musharraf's call for a "serious national debate" on the question of Pakistan recognizing Israel has apparently been responded to. According to the News, at least seven unnamed Pakistani businessmen visited Israel last month "to test the waters" for Musharraf, who had voiced the idea in two exclusive interviews with Geo Television before and after his visit to the United States in the last week of June. Sources at the Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Karachi and Islamabad said that instead of one, "seven business-persons from Pakistan had recently visited Israel." They were responding to a Pakistan Foreign Office claim that confirmed that an "influential Pakistani had visited Israel in mid-June."

          Yossi Melman, a special correspondent of Israel's leading English daily 'Haaretz' was earlier quoted as saying that Musharraf's Israel-friendly remarks at the end of his U.S. visit was "preceded by the visit to Israel last week of a Pakistani businessman, who is considered one of the close associates of the President." Concerned Israeli officials believed that the businessman was "apparently sent to test the waters as to whether Israel, which has close ties with Pakistan's traditional foe, India, would be interested in relations with Pakistan as well."

          Islamabad-based diplomats were quoted as saying that they suspected that New York-based Pakistani American Mansoor Ejaz, a high-profile Wall Street investor, might have been that person. Ejaz emerged in the last decade as a "delivering" freelance diplomat of the Track-II variety. Through a series of lengthy interviews, mostly to Indian media in the first six months of 2001, he had claimed that Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had announced cessation of hostilities against alleged Kashmiri extremists on his advice. He had also admitted that his aim for facilitating a dialogue between Pakistan and India on the Kashmir issue was being hampered by hawkish elements from within Pakistan's "establishment". His opponents, however, dismiss him as a "self-promoting operator actually working for the powerful Jewish lobby in the USA."

Delhi-Lahore bus service from July 11, confirms Pak (Go To Top)

          Islamabad, July 7: Pakistan has officially confirmed that the suspended bus service between Lahore and Delhi will restart from July 11 (Friday). The news was confirmed by the Pakistan Foreign Office which said that a bus each from Lahore and Delhi would leave simultaneously. "I can confirm that the bus service will be resumed from July 11 and all the modalities and arrangements for this were completed," Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan was quoted as saying by Online News. In Delhi, passengers interested in travelling to Lahore started queuing up the Inter-State Bus Terminus (ISBT) on Monday, to book their tickets for the historic journey.

          The cost of each ticket on Indian side is Rs.800, Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) officials said, adding that those wanting to travel would have to produce their passports and visa. They confirmed that two 34-seat buses would ply between the two destinations, a distance of 527 km, stopping at Pipli (Haryana), Sirhand and Kartarpur(Punjab) for food and rest and finally cross the Wagah border enroute to Lahore after officials carried out required checks. Buses from India will ply on Tuesdays and Fridays while the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) will ply a bus each on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

          The historic bus service was initially launched in February 1999 when Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was greeted in Lahore by his then Pakistani counterpart Mian Nawaz Sharif. A month later, 29 passengers boarded the first bus to travel officially from Delhi to Lahore. The bus service was suspended by the Indian government on December 31, 2001, 18 days after 8 alleged Pakistan-backed extremists stormed the premises of the Indian Parliament. Twelve people, including five extremists and five security personnel, were killed and 18 were injured. The resumption of the bus service after 18 months is being seen both in Islamabad and in New Delhi as being the outcome of recent initiatives taken by both Pakistan Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and Prime Minister Vajpayee to resume talks.

-ANI