Five suspects arrested in London on suspicion of terror related offences

London police have arrested a total of five persons in connection with terror related activities. Four of them were arrested in Birmingham - they were three men aged 26, 40 and 59 and a 29-year-old woman. The fifth, a 26-year-old man, was held at Gatwick Airport on suspicion of terror offenses.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 15 April 2016.

It is understood that these are the first arrests in the UK that has links with the atrocities in Paris and Brussels. Assistant Chief Constable who leads on counter-terrorism for the West Midlands, has indicated that the investigation involved MI5 and Belgian and French authorities and that the arrests were pre-planned. There was "no risk to the public at any time". Moreover, there is no information that would tend to suggest that an attack was being planned in the UK.
The five suspects are being held in the West Midlands, where they are being questioned by specialist officers. The police are, simultaneously, searching several properties in Birmingham as a part of the investigation.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

Some more interesting links -

Moody’s policy – love thy neighbor (satire)

Lord Shiva wants to be the King of good times (satire)

Narad queers the pitch for Didi & Co (satire)


France continues to attract tourists despite the terror attacks

Summer sees high occupancy rates in Kanpur cinema halls

Five killed in sightseeing helicopter crash near Great Smokey Mountains National Park


ISIS still holding 30 workers out of 300 kidnapped from cement factory in Dumeir

Another Bangladeshi blogger killed in Dhaka because of his views on religion

Florida hunters bag a 15-foot 800-pound massive alligator


Indonesian pop star dies after being bitten by a cobra on stage

Tom Hiddleston denies that he would be next James Bond

“Sicario 2” - Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro will team up again

Nazis had developed candy bars to kill Winston Churchill in World War II

During World War II, the Nazis had drawn up a macabre plan to kill the British – the plan was to force the British to endure food shortages and then make them eat exploding candy bars.
The chocolate bar was designed to detonate seven seconds after the chocolate was broken and the Nazis wanted to assassinate Winston Churchill using such a bar. They intended to place it in the middle of items going into the War Cabinet's dining room.
This has been reported in foxnewsw.com dated 6 October 2015.

This has come light from a letter of 1943 discovered in 2009. The letter had been written by Lord Rothschild to artist Laurence Fish, who also made the drawings of various Nazi booby-traps.
Lord Rothschild was a larger-than-life character. He was a scientist and self-appointed expert on many things and was also one third of MI5's counter-espionage unit, along with his secretary (and future wife) and police inspector Donald Fish.
Rothschild apparently was in need of someone to draw sketches of the devices he was finding. His intention was to create a sort of manual for any Brits who might encounter them. It was then that Fish recommended his son, Laurence who was a self-taught draughtsman.
That drawings had been presumed to have been lost but they turned up in the home of Rothschild's daughter only recently.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

Some more interesting 'must reads'-
Skywalk planned by UP tourism department to connect Taj Mahal with Agra Fort

Undaunted by a target of 200, South Africa romp home in Dharamsala with two balls to spare

After yoga, central government promotes outdoor sports like jungle safari, rafting


Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan to promote tourism in Bengal

Sunny Leone is a guest at the PETA US’ 35th anniversary gala at the Hollywood Palladium

X-Files, Scully and Mulder to return on January 24th after a 13-year-break


ISIS harvesting organs of healthy individuals to treat the injured jihadists

US airstrike targets a hospital in Kunduz instead of Taliban outposts – 9 Doctors Without Borders members killed

Russia carries out airstrikes in Syria – targets CIA-backed rebels instead of ISIS


Durga Puja is the busiest time of the year for Kumortuli

Puja Special issues of Bengali magazines

Durga Puja today is a commercial venture

MI5 warns – extremists on the prowl in the streets of Britain

MI5 has made no bones about the fact that jihadists trained in extremist activities in Iraq and Syria have returned to Britain and the country is facing an 'unprecedented' threat from these Islamists who have been trained in terrorism overseas.
These jihadists include half of the nearly 700 Britons who have travelled to Iraq and Syria – they have returned back in the UK and could be plotting attacks.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 12 June 2015.

An inquiry has revealed that the number of extremists who had visited a training camp or fought alongside jihadists was higher than at any point before or after 9/11 and, there are also a large number of fanatics in the UK who were trained in other countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, East Africa and Yemen.
In the opinion of officers of Scotland Yard, troubled teenagers are being groomed online by the flood of Islamic State propaganda and street gang members who used to earlier be involved in crimes like knifing and muggings are forming Islamist cells. They are even trying to co-ordinate international plots.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

A few more must reads -

Nashik Kumbhmela 2015 – a once in 12-years pilgrimage

Trip to Nashik should take in Shirdi and the Ajanta and Ellora caves

Nashik, a tourist center with links to the epic Ramayana

Nashik, a tourist center with links to the Mahabharata

Kumbhmela 2015 in Nashik – guided tours to wineries and vineyards

Nashik transforms from a place of pilgrimage to an industrial hub


Kolkata Police to send cake with birthday greetings to 12000 senior citizens of Pronam

Maggi 2-minute noodle – Madhuri Dixit, Amitabh Bachhan and Preity Zinta had endorsed the product

Bogus tour operator charged out-of-towners $200 each way for a trip that is free

WHO says cigarette smuggling into India has increased fourfold

Marvels of technology – robotic cheetah created by MIT, it can jump over obstacles

The power of tulsi leaves – it keeps at bay the pacemaker

US admits - there is no way to monitor online encrypted messages of ISIS

US Police have killed two persons daily in first 5-months of the year

MI5 bans cold gel packs because its chemicals can be used to make bombs

Cold gel packs are used by sportsmen to reduce swellings in muscle injuries but the chemicals that they contain can also be used to make bombs. Hence, it is being banned and a high street retailer was asked told to stop selling these cold gel packs by British security chiefs.

It seems a terrorist plot to use them to make bombs has been reported and, the Office of Security and Counter Terrorism, along with MI5, have informed the sport store chain to stop sale of the cold gel.
As the Home Office has indicated – the intention is to detect and disrupt terrorist threats and work closely with retailers to improve security in the supply chain because it is vital that plans of would-be terrorists to buy such chemicals be nipped in the bud.
Incidentally, one chemical commonly found in gel packs was used by Timothy McVeigh in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing in which 168 people were killed and another 680 others were injured. Moreover, it was used in the 2011 Delhi bombings that killed 17 and also in the car bomb that went off in Oslo before Anders Breivik went on his killing spree.

It is difficult to detect the gel using security scans, hence there are fears that it could be smuggled onto planes or into buildings that are terror targets.