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Mall culture catches up in Meerut

Meerut, Oct. 29 : With the metro cities like Delhi increasingly adapting to shopping at malls, a sleepy town like Meerut is also catching up.

The growing charm to take to the mall culture is indicated by the proposal to establish two dozen shopping complexes during the next two years.

The exclusive shopping malls and multiplexes coming up in the heart of the city is a common sight, attracting the youngsters to hope to choose from a wide range of products under a single roof.

Pakistan summons US envoy over airstrikes

Islamabad - Pakistan summoned US Ambassador Anne Patterson Wednesday to lodge a protest over recent missile strikes by US drones in the country's tribal region along the border with Afghanistan.

"It was underscored to the ambassador that the government of Pakistan strongly condemns the missile attacks which resulted in the loss of precious lives and property," a statement from the country's Foreign Ministry said.

"It was emphasized that such attacks were a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty and should be stopped immediately," it added.

Radio Pakistan terms Hindus as ‘fundamentalists’

Amritsar, Oct. 29 : People living in the border areas in Punjab are perplexed to hear Radio Pakistan making allegations that Hindus are ‘fundamentalists’ in nature.

People, including prominent Hindu seers, in Amritsar have taken offence to such allegations.

“One should not forget that Hindus in India have existed as an open-minded community. This is the reason why there could be three Muslim Presidents in the country, one Muslim Chief Justice of India, Home minister, and Chief Ministers in the past. If Hindus were not liberal, this wouldn’t have been possible,” said Swami Neeschalananda Saraswathi, Shankaracharya of Puri Goverdhan Peeth.

Hypo Real Estate applies for government aid

Munich - Hypo Real Estate (HRE), the German finance company which nearly collapsed last month, applied Wednesday for additional equity funds from the German government's new bail-out plan.

Germany's first big casualty of the current crisis, HRE won 50 billion euros in guarantees earlier this month from the government and German banks.

It said at its head office in Munich it had now applied for a cash injection of 15 billion euros (19 billion dollars) from new federal fund.

It is the first German commercial bank to see help from Soffin, a new government agency created by parliament on October 17.

Previously, three state-owned banks had said they would seek help from Soffin.

V K Malhotra looking for ''scams'' in Delhi government

New Delhi, Oct 29 : The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Chief Ministerial candidate for Delhi, V K Malhotra has alleged that a number of "scandals” had taken place during the Congress rule in the national capital and said these needed to be probed.

Malhotra, who is the deputy Leader of BJP in the Lok Sabha, said that during campaigning the BJP would highlight these "scams" and "failures" of the Shiela Dikshit Government, besides raising the issue of terrorism for the November 29 elections.

However, he ruled out any witch-hunting.

Malhotra identified the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) corridor project in Delhi as one of the cases requiring inquiry and promised to review the scheme.

Khajuraho temples marred by rogue tourist guides

Khajuraho (Madhya Pradesh), Oct. 29 : Visiting the world famous Khajuraho temples in Madhya Pradesh is a charm not many people around the world can avoid.

One of the most popular tourist destinations in India, Khajuraho has the largest group of medieval Hindu and Jain temples, famous for their erotic sculpture.

But over the years, a number of unlicensed and rogue tourist guides, locally referred as ‘Lapkas’ in Khajuraho, have affected the temples’ fascination among tourists.

These individuals are today looked upon as a major nuisance and have become a reason of tourists’ disappointment here.

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