PETA has filed a case in the Supreme Court against the substandard and inhumane state of zoos across the country after conducting investigations of more than 30 zoos. The court has accepted the case and ordered notice to be served to all 37 respondents

In its investigations, amongst other points, PETA has found zoo officials are almost always not properly trained in the care of animals, veterinary doctors do not have adequate wildlife training and some zoos do not have veterinary doctors. In many zoos, animals are treated as objects rather than the living, breathing, feeling beings they are and are left to breed with no regard for the space and care which are available to them. Elephants are kept chained and shackled all the time; bears have gone mad in captivity; animals are stolen from their enclosures by the very people responsible for their well-being; there are no education measures undertaken by the zoo and no animals from zoos have been released in the wild...

via: www.petaindia.com/newsnew/newsItem.asp?id=2998

Gay men, who constitute 7.3 percent of the total HIV/AIDS sufferers in China, or an estimated 650,000 in 2005, will be the first group asked to the join the effort.

There are 117 anti-HIV/AIDS grassroots organizations for gay men, said the health ministry. Fifty percent are headed by gay volunteers

Mayor of NAGASAKI of southwestern JAPAN ICCHO ITO shot outside of train station...
police says he is still struggling for his life...

A 59-year-old man with links to Japan’s largest organized crime group, the Yamaguchi-gumi, was arrested on the spot for the shooting, which took place shortly before 8 p.m. (1100 GMT) Tuesday, according to Nagasaki prefectural (state) police official Rumi Tsujimoto.

VIA: http://www.iht.com

Total fraud loss to Indian banks in year 2005-06 was Rs.1381 crores according to the Report published by Reserve Bank of India

Existence of the internal controls is still the methodology in India to catch the frauds

Collusion of the borrowers and the employees is the biggest cause of the bank frauds

At least Rs.690 crores worth of frauds are known to the banks but are not reported to various authorities for reasons like unclear definition of word frauds, damage to the bank’s image etc.

Technology related frauds like (ATM Card, Debit card, Credit card) are expected to be going un-exposed on the vast proportion.

Estimated minimum loss to the banking industry because of the unknown frauds could be more than Rs.828 crores.

Total impact of frauds on banking revenues = 1.7% of the total consolidated revenues of the banks are lost to frauds.

Money laundering is considered to be the risk of frauds in future

Educating the bank employees is the most effective way to prevent the bank frauds.

VIA : RESERVE BANK OF INDIA

THIS EXPLOSIVE LETTER HAD WRITTEN BY A DEVOTEE TO PRAMUKH SWAMI MAHARAJ THE ALMIGHTY OF BAPS ORGANISATION. THIS LETTER FOR THE DISPUTE OF GADHDA-GUJARAT.
HERE IS THE TRANSLATION OF THE LETTER SO PLS CONSIDER CAREFULLY AND FORGIVE FOR MISTAKE IF ANY...

‘H’BLE PRAMUKHSWAMI MAHARAJ,
THE DISPUTE OF ‘GADHDA-GUJARAT’ PAINED ME TOO MUCH. I INSPIRED TO WRITE THIS LETTER TO YOU AFTER A LOT OF UNSUCCEED ATTEMPTS TO REACH TO YOUR FOOTTHUMB.
YOU ARE THE OWNER OF MORE THAN 600 TEMPLES ALLOVER THE WORLD, BUT I CAN’T UNDERSTAND THAT WHY YOU ARE NOT EXPAND THE RANGE OF YOUR HEART FOR THE ROAD OF ONLY SIX FEETS...5 CR. PEOPLE OF ALL GUJARAT SINCERELY KNOW THAT IT IS NOT A BIG MATTER FOR YOU TO TAKE ORDER IN FAVOUR OF YOU FROM THE SMALL MUNICIPALITY.
A MINISTER OF FORMER MINISTRY ELEGATED YOU THAT YOU HAD RECOMMENDED FOR A PERSON WHO CHARGED FOR ELECTRICITY POWER THEFT..AND ONCE YOU RECOMMENDED FOR A PROMOTION OF A CORRUPTED OFFICER IN ELECTRICITY BOARD. I REMEMBER THE PRINCIPAL OF ‘CLEARING OWN SOUL’ OF MAHATMA GANDHI AT THIS TIME.

HOW WE RELEASE FROM THE SIN OF COLLECTING MONEY OF THIS KIND? THE TEMPLES YOU ESTABLISHED WILL REMAIN YOU ALIVE TILL 1000 UPCOMING YEARS. BUT I WRITE YOU MY FEELINGS BECAUSE THE DISPUTE OF 6 FEETS ARE A MASSIVE BURDEN ON MY HEART.

THE HOLLY NAME OF SWAMINARAYAN TOLD THAT HE WILL LIVE ON EVERY LEAF. EVENTHOUGH YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO ENCOURAGE THE SWAMINARAYAN MISSION IS NOT NEGLIGIBLE, WHY ANY OF THE LAND WHERE THE TEMPLES ESTABLISHED ARE NOT WITHOUT DISUPUTE?

I FEEL VERY HURT WHEN AN M.L.A. OF GANDHINAGAR REMINDS ME WITH THE SMILE ON HIS FACE THAT HOW MUCH THE ‘PRASAD OF LADDU’ WILL EXPENSIVE FOR HIM.

I REMEMBER THAT FORMER MINISTER CHIMANBHAI PATEL ARRANGED THE LAND FOR ‘AKSHARDHAM TEMPLE-GANDHINAGAR’ AND THAT TIME WE HAD NOT INVITED THE BJP LEADERS. THE CHIEF SECRETERY OF BJP AND THE BODY OF MUNICIPAL CORPORATION OF AHMEDABAD UNDER BJP HAD OPPOSE STRONGLY AT THAT TIME. AFTER THAT STRONG ENMITY WE HAD INVITED L. K. ADVANI AND OTHER BJP LEADERS.

RECENTLY ONE MORE DISPUTE HELD AT THE TEMPLE IN AMERICA THAT THE FUND PROVIDED FOR THE INSURANCE OF THE DEVOTEES OF OLD AGE... AND THE AMOUNT OF INSURANCE AFTER DEATH OF THEM WILL BE DEPOSITED AS A DONATION FOR THE TEMPLE. THE SCHEME HAD BEEN POSTPONED AFTER THE MASSIVE DISPUTE. BUT I CAN’T IMAGINE AS A COMMON DEVOTEE OF SWAMINARAYAN THAT ‘WHY SHOULD THE ORGANISATION LIKE US NEED TO COLLECT THE CURRENCY THROUGH THESE WAYS???’

THE LAND OF DELHI AKSHARDHAM ALSO COULD NOT SAVE ITSELF FROM THE DISPUTES. ‘CAN OUR SAINTS PRESERVE PURITY OF OUR RELIGION WHILE THEY ALL BUSY EVER TO SOLVE THE DISPUTES OF THIS KINDS?’

OUR ORGANISATION CAN DO MUCH BETTER THEN THE CURRENT ACTIVITIES FOR THE LIFELONG QUESTIONS OF GUJARAT LIKE WATER, HEALTH AND EDUCATION. THE FAVOUR OF GOD SWAMINARAYAN HAVE FULLY SPREAD OVER US SO WE SHOULD ATTEND THE LONGLIFE QUESTIONS OF OUR SOCIETY INSTEAD OF WASTE MONEY IN ESTABLISHMENT OF TEMPLES.

‘BAPS’ WAS WELL KNOWN AS UNDISPUTED RELIGIONS ORGANISATION OF THE WORLD TILL NOW. I REQUEST YOU TO INTEREFERE IN DISPUTE OF GADHDA-GUJARAT. ONLY THIS WAY WE CAN PROVE THAT WE ARE THE FOLLOWERS OF GOD SWAMINARAYAN...OTHERWISE THE COURT WILL DO ITS OWN WAY. YOU ARE THE HOLLY SAINT, AND I PRAY TO GOD SWAMINARAYAN TO INSPIRE YOU TO TAKE PROPER DECISION.

I AM TRYING TO CONTACT BRAHMVIHARI SWAMI SINCE LAST THREE DAYS BUT I FAILED TO CONTACT HIM SO I INSPIRE TO WRITE THIS LETTER IN FAVOUR OF YOU.
YOURS,

A DEVOTEE OF GOD SAMINARAYANA

Russian opposition leader Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion, was detained by police Saturday with the blame of to support the “United Civil Front opposition organization” which tried to hold an anti-kremlin protest march in central Moscow in alliance with other opposition groups who come together under the rubric of Other Russia to protest.

Opposition forces make a wide array of complaints against the Kremlin on political and economic issues, with particular emphasis on complaints that the Kremlin is suppressing democracy.

Thousands of police, many of them in helmets and wielding nightsticks, were at the square and scores of people were detained. Many of those detained went quietly, but some struggled and were forced into police vehicles by officers holding nightsticks around the detainees’ necks.

The weekend marches could be a key test of the Russian opposition’s determination before parliamentary and presidential elections — and a test of how harshly police may move to block their actions

Some 9,000 police were on duty for the march in Moscow. Authorities gave Other Russia permission to hold a rally on Turgenev Square, but denied their request to gather at Pushkin Square, which is one of Moscow’s most well-known and visible public places.

‘’Let them beat me, it won’t change a thing,’’ said German Severtsev, a 72-year-old retiree who said he planned to take part in the march because his pension is inadequate and he can’t find work to supplement his income.

Russia’s mainstream liberal parties, which some critics say have been co-opted by the Kremlin, have largely kept their distance.

Grigory Yavlinsky, who heads the Yabloko party, refused to participate in the Moscow march, saying in a statement that ‘’the ideological and political composition of the these actions are unacceptable for Yabloko.’’

In the run-up to the demonstrations, Moscow’s city council passed strict new regulations on rallies — including a rule limiting the density of protesters to no more than two people per 10 square feet.

This week, prosecutors seized recordings of an Ekho Moskvy radio interview with Limonov, whose National Bolshevik Party is known for its street theater and political pranks targeting Putin.

Since President Vladimir Putin took office in 2000, the Kremlin has moved to centralize power in Russia, created an obedient parliament, abolished direct gubernatorial elections and tightened restrictions on civic groups.

Kremlin critics are now rarely heard on major TV networks.

The Russian girl looking at the strike and the eyes of photographer catch the exclusive scene