London, Oct. 21 : A former American pilot has revealed that more than 50 years ago, he was ordered to shoot down a UFO in British airspace.

Recalling the event, 77-year-old Lieutenant Milton Torres told The Times that on May 20, 1957, he received an order to fly his Sabre jet from the Royal Air Force base in Kent and fire on sight at an unidentified object that his superiors had judged to be hostile and probably Russian.

The dot indicated an object about the size of a B52 bomber about 24 kilometres away and Torres set a course, rockets at the ready, to catch it. But thereafter, the aircraft vanished. The blip on the radar was gone too.

Torres spoke about his top secret mission following the declassification of Ministry of Defence files.

India is all set to create history by launching its first unmanned moon mission on Monday, Chandrayaan-1, which had been making news from quite sometime now.

From past few days, the rehearsals for the launch of this mission had been ongoing at Sriharikota and finally the 49-hour countdown has initiated that will end in the launch on Wednesday.

New Delhi, Oct 21 : Before embarking on his Japan and China visit, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh today said that a strong India-Japan relationship would play a significant role in the emerging Asian security architecture, and added that it will contribute to "peace, stability and prosperity" of Asia and the world.

In his departure statement, he said, "I consider our bilateral relations with Japan to be one of the most important bilateral relationships we have. India and Japan are two major countries in Asia, sharing many similar interests and subscribing to common values."

Mumbai, Oct 21: Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh today said that the decision to arrest Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray was not a sudden decision, and that nobody was above the law.

"This is not a sudden decision. We took this decision because nobody is above law. Law is same for everyone,” said Deshmukh while talking to reporters here last night.

Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh), Oct 21 : Chandrayaan-1, India''s spacecraft mission to moon will be launched tomorrow from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikotta.

Presently, Chandrayan-1, is undergoing final checks, prior to its launch at 6.20 a. m on Wednesday.

The spacecraft would be carrying 11 payloads (scientific instruments) and weigh about 1,380 kg at the time of its launch, according to reports.

Chandrayaan-1 satellite would orbit the Moon at an altitude of 100 km mapping the topography and the mineralogical content of the lunar soil.

It was a proud moment for Mahesh Bhupathi and his Bahamian partner Mark Knowles, when they had a straight-set win over Swede-Zimbabwean pair of Jonas Bjorkman and Kevin Ullyett in Madrid, and thus made in the finals of ATP Madrid Masters.

It took little more than an hour for the fourth seeded Indo-Bahamian pair to beat the fifth seeded Swede-Zimbabwean pair by 6-2 6-4 to make it into the finals.

Now Bhupahti and Knowles will compted with seventh seeds Marcin Matkoswki and Mariusz Fyrstenberg of Poland.