Cyclone Nargis took life of 1,40,000 people and rendered 8,00,000 homeless. International agencies are helping people to Myanmar to rebuild their lives.

The U.S. first lady Laura Bush said on Wednesday that Washington plans to provide $5 million more in disaster relief in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis. The United States had already sent about $75 million in relief.

34 complaints have been received by the railway officials that say that many ATVMs- 20 machines in the Western Railway (WR) and 14 in the Central Railway (CR) - were damaged by angry commuters and miscreants. Another complaint was also received by the officials two weeks ago, which informed that a commuter damaged an ATVM screen with a sharp weapon at Mumbra station. Railway officials said that the damaged machine was in such a bad condition that it could not be repaired.

Five ATVM machines at Nalasopara station too were vandalized a few months ago by the commuters.

The company that provided the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service, used by the 26/11 terrorists to keep in touch with their bosses has been traced by the Crime Branch of the Mumbai police. Apparently, it has been confirmed by the US-based company, Call Phoenix that the terrorists interacted to someone located in Pakistan.

The Crime Branch has also informed that approximately 60 hours of the conversation that occurred between the terrorists and someone in Pakistan during the terror attacks has been taped by the investigators.

The Bangladesh government has announced that it would lift the state of emergency in the country, promulgated nearly two years ago, from Dec 17.

It will be lifted before the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for Dec 29.

The cabinet-level Commerce Adviser to the Bangladesh caretaker government Hossain Zillur Rahman made the announcement at a press conference in Dhaka on Wednesday.

He said the government also decided to lift restrictions on meetings and rallies from Dec 12 to enable conduct of election campaigns.

Orissa Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Manmohan Samal resigned on Wednesday evening in the wake of a controversy generated by his alleged involvement in a sex scandal.

Mr. Samal, who has been under pressure from various quarters for the past several days, met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at his residence and handed over his resignation letter.

The CM has accepted his resignation and forwarded it to the Governor, said Govt. soures.

Indian Govt. has dismissed reports that it had put its Air Force on a state of "high alert" and said nothing unusual or extraordinary has been done.

"It is normal for the armed forces to remain on alert even in normal times," Defence Ministry spokesperson Sitanshu Kar said in New Delhi.

However, on the basis of intelligence inputs that there could be a 9/11-type of aerial terror threats pointed out by Defence Minister A K Antony last week, the IAF was prepared to counter any such attacks, he said.