Deggendorf, Germany  - German police said Wednesday they had seized five luxury cars and confiscated the owners' driving licences to halt an illegal cannonball run across Europe.

The five men, from Britain and Spain, were believed to be racing from the German city of Cologne on a criss-cross route to Croatia with stops at Munich, Salzburg and Vienna.

The 3-D games are in latest trend. The gizmo freaks always have an eye for such games and look forward for any new introduced in market. There is good news for all those who love playing 3-D games.

Recently 7seas, a Hyderabad-based gaming company, launched not just one, but seven 3D mobile games across the globe.

The names of the games are - 3D Sudoku, Planets of Sudoku 3D, Neetu The Alien Killer, Great Elude, Treasure Trove, Derby3D and Kraze.

Kraze and Derby3D are the ones which come as both single as well as multi-player. On the other hand Planets of Soduku 3D, Great Elude and Derby 3D come as multi-lingual. The languages are English, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and German.

Despite the fear of economic slowdown as a result of continuous rise in the crude oil prices, the net direct tax collections increased by 38.61 per cent in the first quarter.

According to a statement released by the Finance Ministry, the growth in direct tax collections in Nagpur and Kochi witnessed as high as 74.08 % and 68.98% respectively, in the direct tax collection, whereas, it was less than 50% in cities like Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata. In the capital city Delhi, the direct tax collection increased to 53.57%.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Thursday that the flow of credit from scheduled commercial banks has increased between April and June 20 this year. The credit flow has increased by 25.4% during this period. The growth is slower than the corresponding period of last year.

The rise in credit is due to high demand from public sector oil firms. The oil firms are under-recovery due to subsidy on oil products. They are forced to sell petroleum products at the rate below the prevailing global rates.

For the week ended June 21, inflation rate climbed up to 11.63 percent, as against 11.42% during the last week.

The inflation rate is presently at the highest since May 6, 1995, when it was 11.11%.

Fueled by increasing food and commodity prices, this will be the 19th straight week that inflation rate has been rising above 5.5%, RBI’s target by the end of the fiscal year in March 2009.

The economic growth rate of India may moderate to 8% during the current (2008-09) fiscal year.

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said that the 13-year high inflation rate of 11.42 percent may result into a little lower growth rate but if necessary steps to control inflation are taken, the growth objective of 9% will not be difficult to achieve.

On the other hand the central bank expects the economy to clock a 8-8.5 percent growth in 2008/09.