A disturbing pattern of anti-Islamic acts is coinciding with the debate about building an Islamic center near Ground Zero.

On Tuesday, police in Carlton in Western New York charged five teens with disrupting a religious service. The teens are accused of honking car horns and yelling obscenities outside the World Sufi Foundation Mosque. One of the teens is accused of firing a shotgun near the mosque.

PATNA: The state tourism department is all set to develop the ghats of the city, like Varanasi, to increase tourist flow. For starters, four socio-cultural spots have been identified---------Collectorate ghat, Kali ghat, Mahendru ghat and Bhadra ghat.

"The idea is to give the banks an aesthetic makeover so that they can be a huge draw with tourists," said Rashmi Verma, principal secretary, Bihar Tourism.

She added, "During my recent interaction with East Asian tour operators in New Delhi, they said Asian tourists have shown a keen desire to visit the river ghats of Patna."

VARANASI: Colourful decorations, special puja and aarti at prominent temples marked the Janmashtami celebrations in different parts of the city on Wednesday.

While traditional religious fervour and fanfare marked the celebrations, exhibitions and cultural programmes were also held. They displayed episodes from the life of Lord Krishna and were accompanied by devotional songs, bhajans and 'keertan'. A number of devotees also took a holy dip in the Ganga on prominent ghats while fasting during the day.

Train schedules to and from Howrah went haywire for several hours on Monday following the derailment of the Rajdhani Express in Baruipara.

Ten long-distance trains had to be diverted and three local trains cancelled. Six local trains were delayed by an hour on an average.

“More trains would have been delayed or cancelled had the Rajdhani been running on the Down track. The train was on the middle track, which left the two pairs of main tracks free,” an official said.

Two local trains between Howrah and Chandanpore and another between Burdwan and Howrah were cancelled.

Kanpur : Taking a serious note of the high-level of industrial pollution in River Ganga between Kannauj and Varanasi, Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has instructed Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to issue showcause notice to 165 industries of the region found guilty of violating pollution control norms.

Following this, the pollution control board will start issuing showcause notices to the identified 165 units from Monday. The units will be given 15 days’ time to upgrade their effluent treatment system as per the norms, failing which the units would be sealed by the CPCB.

VARANASI: The US ambassador to India, Timothy J Roemer, will discuss the future prospects on the US- India relations during his presence at the annual day celebration of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC) in the city on Monday. The visit would also be a testimony to the importance being assigned to Varanasi as a commercial and spiritual centre of India.

VARANASI: District officials have no idea of the whereabouts of two of their Padma awardees. Asked by the home department to provide the latest details of the recipients of country's top honour, the officials are now in frantic search of the two 'missing' awardees. The two are Kapildeo Dwivedi and Maharaj Krishna Kumar.

VARANASI: The security in and around various prisons in the region is being beefed up as several high-profile dons and gangsters are lodged in them.

It is worth mentioning here that on August 27, the authorities of Gyanpur jail in Bhadohi district had blown the siren as part of the security drill without informing the district officials. This incident had brought the senior district officials on their toes.

After it was found that the jailor had overlooked the prescribed norms, Bhadohi district magistrate Kanchan Verma had asked the government to take action against him.

The government on Saturday warned factories and tanneries, which discharge waste without treatment into the Ganga, and said action to shut them would be initiated if they continue to do the same.

“Ganga is getting polluted day-by-day. Nearly 170 factories and tanneries located between Kannauj and Varanasi, covering an area of 450 km, were found responsible for polluting the river by discharging wastes into it without treatment,” Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh told reporters here.

VARANASI: Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) is going to launch a state-wide agitation in protest against the commercialisation of education.

According to ABVP office-bearer Umesh Shukla, a demonstration of students would be organised in Lucknow on October 27. Various activities like dharna would also be held at the district level in September.

New chief mechanical engineer: Rakesh Vatash has taken over the charge of new chief mechanical engineer of the Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW). Before, coming to DLW, he was working as SDGM in Central Railways, Mumbai.