Free Republic

The much-awaited Mumbai monorail was inaugurated by Maharashtra's Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Saturday. The service will be open to the public on Sunday, making Mumbai the first Indian city to ever use such a transport facility. The monorail service that will link the city to major stations will begin its first phase of 8.93 km between Wadala and Chembur in the eastern fringes of the Commercial Capital. The second phase (to be completed in 2015) will cover a distance of 11.2 km and will include the following 11 stations: Chinchpokli, Chembur Naka, Wadala...

MUMBAI: It is a rite of passage for many young journalists and filmmakers in Mumbai. You enter the Irani cafe, take in the atmosphere of peeling walls, old calendars and dusty cabinets, the bentwood chairs and glass-topped tables, the screened-off sections that no one seems to have entered in years and the few people sipping tea or bun-maska. Then you pluck up courage, approach the aging owner at the counter and ask if you can speak to him for a story on vanishing Irani cafes. It is some measure of the kindness usually lurking under the owners' gruff exteriors that,...

Report: On 14 August 2013 an explosion took place on the INS Sindhurakshak while the submarine was docked at Mumbai. The blast followed by a fire occurred shortly after midnight. Many sailors on board the submarine reportedly jumped off to safety. "However, there is likelihood of some personnel being trapped inside.." an official defence ministry statement ... said.

Simple marble gravestones lie flat in the grounds of St Andrew's Church in Bandra, one of the oldest Roman Catholic places of worship in the Indian city of Mumbai.The names on the tombs bear witness to the city's Portuguese heritage, as a groundsman sweeps wet leaves from generations of Da Silvas, D'Souzas, Pintos, Pereiras, Furtados and Fonsecas.Behind the white-washed church, are newer, much smaller memorials, stacked on top of one another like drawers in a high perimeter wall bordering the sea.Inside these "niches" are the mortal remains of the more recently deceased, whose bones have been disinterred and replaced by...

Panic and shock gripped the food bazaars of South Mumbai and the busy weekday market of Dadar as a series of explosions rocked the crowded locations on Wednesday evening. At Zaveri Bazar as well as Opera House, it was the peak-hour rush at the two khau gallis that became the target. Dadar Market, on any day, is a sitting duck.From the scenes of crime to the halls of healing , ordinary citizens sidestepped glass shards and pools of blood to cart corpses, injured persons and severed body parts to hospital. Volunteers diverted traffic and gave right of way to ambulances...

Two men from Pakistan and Sri Lanka were held without bail Friday on charges that they smuggled Middle Easterners into the United States through third countries for $20,000 each. Iqbal Munawar and Chelliah Sri Kajamukam were arrested late Thursday at Miami International Airport on charges filed in New York, federal authorities said.They made federal court appearances Friday and were ordered to return to court for bond hearings Thursday.An Indian businessman led the smuggling ring, which illegally flew people to Miami and New York and carried them to the United States by boat, FBI agent Timothy Ryan wrote in a court...

Which is preferable; 1. The advantages of easily climbing the social ladder in a poor nation (like cab drivers of India do) 2. The disadvantages of being poor and sticking to the device of "Dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope" (like certain Mexican Americans do) 3. The predictability of being an average citizen going to an average mall in an average PC corner of the World (like most Stockholmers enjoy doing) I, sincerely, recommend viewing the clips linked to below.

SNIPPET: "Dr. Zakir Naik is a 44 year-old Muslim preacher born in India. He has gained a significant international following by establishing a satellite television network, Peace TV, which promotes Wahhabi Islam; it is based in Mumbai/Bombay, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai, and has a supporting organization, the Islamic Research Foundation. Naik has mainly broadcast his message in English as well as Urdu. But Peace TV is an ambitious enterprise that now aims at Albanian Muslims, among others. Zakir Naik is distinguished by one characteristic: incitement of provocative disdain for any other Muslims than Wahhabis and Pakistani jihadists, as well as...

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Protests by India's small Jewish community have prompted a leading actor to pull out of a film on the last days of Adolf Hitler , a rare subject for a movie in the Bollywood film industry. Anupam Kher, who was supposed to play the role of Hitler, told Reuters he had decided to withdraw from the film after an outpouring of messages on social networking sites and protests. "Considering the ill-will that the project is generating among my fans, I wish to withdraw from it as I respect their sentiments," Kher said in a statement released to...

The lone terrorist captured alive in the horrendous "26/11" Mumbai (Bombay) Pakistani-led Islamofascist mega-massacre (in which some American tourists also were gunned down)-- Ajmal Kasab, was found guilty two days ago in India. He will be sentenced in the next few hours or minutes and the atmosphere is one of extreme suspense (4 a.m. Eastern time Thursday).Under Indian law, Kasab will get either Life without Parole, or DEATH BY HANGING.One of the charges was "Crimes Against the Nation", in addition to seven direct murder charges, and conspiracy in the deaths of over 100 others who were in the wrong place...

MUMBAI – Chennai Super Kings outthought and outmanoeuvered high-flying Mumbai Indians to beat them by 22 runs and emerge champions in the third Indian Premier League here Sunday. Electing to bat, Chennai posted 168 for five, thanks to Suresh Raina’s unbeaten 57 and then restricted Mumbai to 146 for nine in a grand finale at the packed D. Y. Patil Stadium. MS Dhoni has added another feather to his captaincy hat. With Chennai struggling at 68 for 3 after 12 overs Dhoni got into the act: 100 runs were added in the last eight, and Raina scored 44 at a...

Thanks to a special emailer for pointing to this article: “He” Josy Joseph / DNASunday, November 8, 2009 2:38 IST SNIPPET: “New Delhi: The two terror suspects arrested in the US for plotting to strike targets in Denmark and India spent significant time in Mumbai before the 26/11 attacks, authoritative sources have told DNA. While one of them operated a visa agency in Mumbai for almost two years until the latter part of 2008, the other suspect spent 10 days in the city just days before the terror strike last November.” SNIPPET: “According to available information, David Coleman Headley, the...

For at the hospital, a doctor was paid to amputate one of his healthy legs. Now speaking in the third person, as if to pretend it didn’t happen to him, Aamir tells me ‘the child’ was in ‘great pain’ after the operation. ‘The leg is removed here,’ he says, pointing to his own stump and grimacing. His limb had been severed mid-calf, leaving him without a foot. Now in hiding after being rescued from the hospital by a charity, Aamir is one of hundreds of Indian children deliberately crippled by gangs so they can earn extra money begging. He still...

The obvious is sometimes the most difficult thing to discern, and few things are more amusing than the efforts of our journals of record to keep "open" minds about the self-evident, and thus to create mysteries when the real task of reportage is to dispel them. An all-time achiever in this category is Fernanda Santos of the New York Times, who managed to write from Bombay on Nov. 27 that the Chabad Jewish center in that city was "an unlikely target of the terrorist gunmen who unleashed a series of bloody coordinated attacks at locations in and around Mumbai's commercial...

Pakistan moves on Mumbai accused Hafiz Mohammad Saeed founded Lashkar-e-Taiba Pakistan has put the founder of an Islamic militant group accused of having links to the Mumbai attacks under house arrest.Cleric Hafiz Mohammad Saeed set up the group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which India says planned and carried out the attacks. Pakistan is also closing offices of Mr Saeed's Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity, after it was put on a UN blacklist. Pakistan has denied any involvement in the attacks, which killed at least 170 in Mumbai (Bombay) last month. Pakistan's Interior Ministry told the BBC that Jamaat-ud-Dawa buildings would be shut across the country immediately....

The obvious is sometimes the most difficult thing to discern, and few things are more amusing than the efforts of our journals of record to keep "open" minds about the self-evident, and thus to create mysteries when the real task of reportage is to dispel them. An all-time achiever in this category is Fernanda Santos of the New York Times, who managed to write from Bombay on Nov. 27 that the Chabad Jewish center in that city was "an unlikely target of the terrorist gunmen who unleashed a series of bloody coordinated attacks at locations in and around Mumbai's commercial...

Since the terrorist attacks in Mumbai 10 days ago, speculation has been rife about the birthplace of the lone surviving gunman, Ajmal Amir Kasab. India and Pakistan have clashed over reports that he came from the Punjab. Saeed Shah, after spending days travelling throughout the region, tracked down the killer's home - and his grandfather - and found conclusive proof of his identity. The little house was certainly that of a poor family, with a courtyard to one side and a small cart propped up in one corner. The old man and middle-aged woman who answered the door were not...

Kolkata, Dec 6 (IANS) The tremors of the terror attacks in Mumbai were felt across India, with live television coverage of the 60-hour carnage. The terrorists have been vanquished but the imprints that the horrific scenes left on people's minds have led to a sharp rise in cases of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, say psychiatrists. 'I got my first case on Nov 28, when security forces were still battling terrorists in Mumbai. Professional ethics don't allow me to name her so all I can say is she was having frequent panic attacks and was emotionally numb,' city-based psychiatrist...

WASHINGTON: Several attackers may have survived the three-day siege of Mumbai that killed 171 people last week, analysts said on Thursday. "I think there are more. My sources say (there were) at least 23 of the gunmen," said Farhana Ali, a former CIA and Rand Corp counterterrorism analyst and expert on militant networks. Ali, who most recently visited India and Pakistan last month before the attacks, said her information came from Pakistan, but declined to further identify the source. "If that's true, that makes one wonder why we haven't seen more attacks. Are they lying low?" she said "I think...

Tonight (Friday a.m. US time) Pakistan gave its official answer to India on the request to turn over to India ASAP Islamic terrorists based on Pakistan soil and operating out in the open. Our friend and good ally India has ramped up the pressure and now banned the entry of Pakistani nationals into it's country by land, sea or air.The massive terrorist attack in Mumbai had a strong element of not only India being targeted, but the United States as well. Our fellow Americans were sought out, and some were killed.All intelligence points to Pakistan as the base for these...