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Seven men including six Americans have been arrested in the state of North Carolina on charges they conspired to “engage in violent jihad,” said the Justice Department.

The defendants, who include a father and his two sons, were formally indicted by a grand jury last Wednesday and were arrested by federal police on Monday, according to a statement from the department.

The men, who range in age from 20 to 39, went before a federal judge in Raleigh, North Carolina, where they live, immediately after their arrest. They face a complex set of charges, with all being accused of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons abroad. They face life sentences if convicted.

“These charges hammer home the point that terrorists and their supporters are not confined to the remote regions of some far away land but can grow and fester right here at home”, said U.S. Attorney George Holding.

The oldest member of the group, Daniel Boyd, is accused of traveling to Afghanistan and Pakistan between 1989 and 1992 for “military style training in terrorist training camps for the purpose of engaging in violent jihad,”

Between 2006 and July 2009, prosecutors allege, Boyd and the other defendants tried to raise funds for terror attacks and underwent assault weapons training.

The indictment does not describe any plans to carry out specific attacks inside the United States, but alleges the group did plan to target Israel, “In June 2007, Daniel Boyd and several other defendants departed the United States for Israel in an effort to engage in violent jihad but ultimately returned to the United States after failing in their efforts,” the statement said.

Remains of a tool bag dropped by a NASA astronaut during a space walk last year are expected to reach the Earth surface later on Tuesday. The bag was expected to reach the Earth on July 25, but then scientists recalculated the date. However, specialists still cannot say where exactly this can happen.

“Tools for work in outer space are made of special high-alloy steel, that is why it is quite probable that some fragments will not burn in Earth atmosphere, but will reach the Earth surface,” said an expert. However, the over whelming majority of debris and space garbage burn as they enter the atmosphere.

Endeavour’s Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper lost her grip on the tool bag during a space walk on November 18, 2008. NASA reported then that the backpack-sized bag was one of the biggest objects ever lost by astronauts.

Despite being heard by special courts with fast-track procedures, cases relating to terrorist crimes have generally proceeded at an achingly slow pace. It took 13 seemingly interminable years for a TADA designated court in Mumbai to convict 100 people in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case, even though the primary charge sheet was filed about eight months after the outrage. In comparison, the trial in the 2003 Mumbai twin blasts case in which a special POTA court handed out convictions earlier this week was much shorter. Even so, six years is a very long time, given the nature of the case. All the six accused (of whom two were acquitted and one turned approver) were arrested within two months of the outrage. Although allegedly hatched in Dubai, there was no Byzantine conspiracy to unravel. The prosecution’s evidence relied heavily on the testimony of a taxi driver, who ferried two of the convicted in his vehicle before the bombs were triggered. It is believed that the statement of the approver, a Lashkar-e-Taibaoperative who was pardoned by the POTA court, further bolstered the prosecution’s case.

The Mumbai twin blasts case, which killed 52 people and injured 184, was one of the worst terrorist attacks on the city, exceeded in its dreadfulness only by such tragedies as the multiple explosions in 1993 and last year’s 26/11 outrage. The bombs, which were placed in the boots of two vehicles parked at Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazar, were aimed at causing random deaths and creating panic. If the 26/11 conspiracy was unravelled quickly owing to the capture of Mohammed Ajmal Amir ‘Kasab’, the one behind the 2003 blasts was speedily exposed when the taxi driver, who survived due to a stroke of luck, was able to, provide enough leads for the police to track down his passengers on that fateful day- the convicted couple Haneef Sayeed and his wife Fahmeeda. There will be an appeal against the POTA court verdict, which must be decided-irrespective of the outcome-expeditiously. Prosecuting terrorist crimes need not be a painful protracted affair and the judiciary has shown it is capable of disposing matters quickly when there is an overall sense of urgency. It look only a little more than a year from the date of the attack on Parliament in 2001 for a POTA court to arrive at a judgment – a case that involved many witnesses and a mass of documents. And it is unlikely that the 26/11 attack case, which is being heard now, will be allowed to drag on for many years. The 2003 twin blasts case is a reminder that the commitment to speeding up the delivery of justice should apply to all cases and not merely those considered high profile and in which there is a grater degree of official interest.

The Neyveli Lignite Corporation has set up a fully automated Rs.23-crore plant for the production of explosives. The facility was inaugurated by A.R.Ansari, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, on the NLC premises on Sunday.

So far, NLC was sourcing its explosives requirements from other States as well as from Tamil Nadu. However, with the commissioning of the “site mixed emulsion plant” the NLC could meet its requirements from in-house production.

A statement from the NLC stated that plant set up by the Premier Explosive Ltd. (PEL) could produce 2.5 tonnes of chemical mixtures an hour.

After the mixture was put in the blast holes another substance would be added to infuse the explosive characteristics.

The substance would explode after certain time period. Hence, stocking and transportation of the material would be quite safe. Unlike in the conventional system the blast induced under the controlled environment would be quite muted and area-specific and hence, it would release optimum energy without causing ecological damage.

Security forces have rescued several children forcibly recruited by the Taliban, allegedly to be used as fighters or suicide bombers, and there could be hundreds more like them, an army officials said Tuesday.

The claim came as suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into a checkpoint in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal region, causing an explosion that killed two police and wounded five security of ficials, authorities said.

Pakistani troops are engaged in offensives against the Taliban in various areas along the lawless border with Afghanistan, fighting militants often drawn from among the local communities.

Lt. Gen. Nadeem Ahmed, who heads a special support group tasked with handling the return of people displaced by three months of fighting in the Swat Valley and surroundings areas, said he had met nine boys rescued from the Taliban.

“They have been brainwashed and trained as suicide bombers, but the nine who I met seemed willing to get back to normal life,” he told Pakistani state-run television. He said the children had told him there were many more, possibly hundreds, like them.

“It seems that there are some 300 to 400 such children who the Taliban had taken forcibly or who they were training,” said Lt. Gen. Ahmed.

He did not say how then nine boys he had met had been rescued. A psychiatrist would examine the children to recommend how they should be reintegrated into society, he said. “It will be a big challenge” to reverse the indoctrination they received, Lt. Gen. Ahmed noted.

He said the boys had some times been lured by offers of food, but that they had been underfed and some had fallen ill.

Late on Monday, North West Frontier Province Senior Minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour said security forces had rescued dozens of children aged 6 to 15 who the Taliban were allegedly training as suicide bombers.

“They are prepared mentally. They say that Islam is everything for them. They say they are doing it for Islam. They say they have to carry suicide attacks for the sake of Islam,” Mr. Bilour told Private Geo TV. He said he did not have a specific number, but that there were dozens and that the government would do its best to help the youths.

“Around 15 of them are already in the process of rehabilitation in an army school in Mardan,” he said, referring to a northwestern town. “They are brainwashed to such an extreme that they are ready to kill their parents who they call infidels.”

On Sunday, authorities in Swat’s main town of Mingora presented several teenagers alleged to have been forcibly recruited by the Taliban. Seven boys, their lower faces covered to prevent them being recognized, were shown to reporters.

One, a 16-year-old Shaukat Ali, said the militants abducted him while he was playing cricket. He said they told him they wanted him to be “a warrior” and offered to pay his family for his services.

The latest suicide attack targeted a checkpoint some two miles (three kilometers) north of Milran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan, local government official Rehmat Ullah said.

North Waziristan is proving to be a trouble spot for the Army just as it is in the initial phases of an offensive against Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in neighboring South Waziristan.

A, Chandramothan assumed office as field publicity officer on Monday. Prior to his transfer to Madurai, he was working in New Delhi and Chennai. The field publicity office, Madurai, has jurisdiction over Madurai, virudhunagar, dindigul and theni districts.

Members of viswa Hindu parishad staged a demonstration on the north-west masi street junction here on Saturday, urging the corporation to demolish all those building structure the height of which violated building rules. The rule stipulating a height for buildings should be enforced in a heritage city such as Madurai, they said. Chinmaya somasundaran, district president, parankundram, state president, and moovender panpattu man dram, led the demonstration.

Aspiring parents who intend to adopt children, without being inhibited by their personal laws, are entitled to do so in terms of the Juvenile Justice (care and protection of children) act, the Madras High Court ruled on Tuesday. As seen from its preamble, the JJ Act itself was enacted to fulfill international obligations as well as the constitutional goal, the court said.

R.R George Christopher and Kristy Chandra, Christians, moved the court seeking to be guardians of a female child, Gwyneth Dhanya (aged two-and-a-half). They prayed for the legal custody of the child for adoption, fostering, bringing up and maintenance by them. The court granted them permission in September 2007. The applicants started that after getting guardianship, they adopted the child as per Christian rites and customs, since the canon law permitted such adoption.

Mr. Christopher, an employee of air India, approached his employer to get due benefits for the child. The company informed him that since the child was not legally adopted and the petitioners were only accrue to it. Hence, the present application for a direction that the child was entitled to all legal rights, including the right of inheritance, as if it was a biological child.

Air India, in its counter, submitted that the directorate of social welfare had stated on the subject of child adoption that Christian law did not recognize complete adoption. As non-Hindus did not have an enabling law to adopt a child legally, those desirous of adopting a child could only take the child in guardianship under the Guardian and Wards Act.

Allowing the application, justice K.Chandru said the stand taken by the company was not in consonance with the constitution and various judicial pronouncements. The canon Law, applicable to applicants, provided for adoption if the civil law of the country permitted the same the applicants had got the guardianship order and subsequently performed the necessary rites for adopting the child. Instead of encouraging people to adopt children to rehabilitate and reintegrate them, Air India had come up with an argument that was spurious. “It further shows their insensitiveness and development of law in this country”.Mr. Justice Chandru directed Air India to recognize the child as that of the applicants and confer all benefits available to a child of Air India staff forthwith.

Microsoft corporation co-founder and chairman bill gates on Friday warned the Indian information technology industry that U.S. immigration laws could get tougher. Addressing a CEOs forum here, Mr. Gates said: “the U.S. congress is very tough on immigration in general that’s unfortunate. What about making an exception for a few smart people? Free exchange of talent is very important. “He, however, pointed out that the U.S. immigration policy might get stricter. “It would be a great mistake,” he said, while adding that Microsoft always supported exchange of talent and was against tougher immigration laws.

Referring to India’s unique identification cards project, Mr. Gates said Microsoft wanted to be a part of it. He plans to meet the unique identification authority of India chairman nandan M.Nilekani to discuss the issue. Lauding the success of the Indian IT industry, Mr. Gates said it was high time the country focused on high-end research and development to maintain the competitive edge. The government should strive to add value by focusing on research and design and by increasing the number of its Ph.D.students.

“At first some of the IT boom was built on low-cost labour.and, of course, as time goes on, you don’t want to have that as the only differentiator and it’s not a sustainable thing, because others can come along with that as well,” Mr. Gates said, pointing to competition from other nations. Talking about challenges being posed by rival Google, Mr. Gates said it was “fun competition” and praised Google for its “great work” in the field of IT and internet.

He hoped that Microsoft’s recently launched search engine-bing-would soon make its presence felt. “The future of search is bing. In the next 1-3 years search should be dramatically better. Microsoft has hired some great people to do innovative work to make it more competitive. When you are a distant two, you have to try harder,” Mr. Gates said. “Who knows we can make it better and faster than any body else.”

A boy from erode district, who had tested positive for A (H1N1) flu, was discharged from the quarantine ward of the coimbatore medical college hospital on Tuesday after a week’s treatment. The hospital said he was cured of the disease. He had contracted the flu virus from a relative while on a visit to Chennai and became the first human-to-human transmission case in the state. Hospital authorities said the boy became asymptomatic on Saturday. He was given on Tami flu capsules from July 21, when he was admitted. He has to take the capsules for two more days and continue the quarantine at home for a week-special correspondent.