Gold dipped a touch in Europe on Wednesday as easing oil and industrial metals prices weighed on prices, but the softer dollar limited losses.Traders are awaiting data on U.S. crude inventories due on Thursday for fresh direction.

Spot gold was at $730.30/732.30 at 1028 GMT against $731.70 an ounce late in New York on Tuesday. The metal fell 2 percent in that session as the dollar firmed against the euro.

A stronger dollar tends to dent interest in gold, which is often bought as an alternative investment to the U.S. currency.

“A lot of people are standing on the sidelines and are not wanting to get involved until they have some kind of confirmation of direction,” said Afshin Nabavi, head of trading at MKS Finance.

“All the hints we are getting from the physical market are positive,” he said. “Demand is still very, very strong.”

Crude oil futures shed more than $1 a barrel in early trade as fears the economic slowdown will knock demand offset news of supply reductions.

Traders are awaiting fresh direction from U.S. oil stockpiles data, due out on Thursday at 1535 GMT.

“We will have a better idea about oil after the inventories come out,” Nabavi said.

Base metals prices were also generally soft on demand fears. Softer commodity prices usually pressure gold, as they dent interest in the asset class as a whole and reduce fears over inflation, against which bullion is often bought as a hedge.

Equities recovered some ground in Europe on Wednesday after a slide in the previous session, despite losses on Wall Street and overnight in Asia.

“Equity index futures are pricing gains in the U.S. and Asian markets today,” Standard Bank analyst Manquoba Madinane said. “This, amid increasing oil price weakness, could draw more funds from commodity markets.”

DOLLAR SUPPORTS

The dollar provided some support to gold in early trade, however, as it retreated from two-week highs against the euro. The U.S. currency managed to pare some losses as risk aversion took to the fore.

Physical demand for gold jewellery, coins and bars was also underpinning prices at lower levels, with dealers reporting strong buying in major bullion market India as the wedding season gets underway.

In Europe, refiners are struggling to keep up with demand for certain products, according to traders.

“Gold and silver should continue to be supported by strong physical offtake, although the strength of the U.S. dollar is hampering attempts by the metals to trade up towards our one and three month forecasts,” said UBS strategist John Reade.

Chinese investment demand is gathering pace this year, with investment reaching 38.4 tonnes in the first nine months of 2008 against 24 tonnes for the whole of 2007, the China National Gold Corp said at a conference.

Among other precious metals, platinum rose 3 percent to a high of $840 an ounce, recovering some of Tuesday’s $34 an ounce dip, but quickly shed gains in later trade as oil and other commodities softened.

Spot platinum was later quoted at $821.50/841.40 an ounce against $812.50 an ounce late in New York on Tuesday. Spot palladium was at $213/221 an ounce against $212.

Spot silver was at $9.73/9.81 an ounce against $9.74.

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Phoenix Mars lander is not working anymore

By Santosh Mishra on Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Filed Under: Science News

Phoenix Mars lander is not working anymore. According to NASA the the vehicle is no longer available for use.

The project manager Barry Goldstein, told “We’re actually ceasing operations, declaring an end to mission operations at this point.”

According to the reports, on Oct. 27, just after Phoenix finished its last major experiment analyzing Martian soil, an unexpected dust storm hit. The batteries, already low from running the experiment, ran out of energy.

With the onset of winter and declining power generated by the Phoenix’s solar panels, managers knew the lander would succumb soon, but had hoped to squeeze out a few more weeks of weather data.

The spacecraft first put itself into a low-energy “safe mode,” then fell silent.

The U.N. ordered children of its international staff to leave the Pakistani capital and other areas it considered unsafe, raising its security level following the bombing of the Marriott Hotel, officials said Thursday.

The move, which came a day after Britain decided to repatriate diplomats’ children, underlines the deteriorating situation in Pakistan, which is under intense U.S. pressure to combat Islamic militants responsible for rising attacks at home and in neighboring Afghanistan.

In the latest incident, a suicide bomber blew himself up near the house of a leading secular politician in Pakistan’s restive northwest, killing at least four people, police said.

Pakistan has suffered a surge in attacks by Taliban and al-Qaida-linked militants on government, military and Western targets over the last two years that has fanned fears about the nuclear-armed nation’s stability.

Thursday’s attack occurred as the politician, Asfandyar Wali Khan, was receiving guests to mark the end of the Islamic fasting month at his home in Charsadda.

Earlier this week, Pakistan’s military reported that suicide attacks have killed nearly 1,200 people — most of them civilians — since the July 2007 army assault on militants holed up in Islamabad’s radical Red Mosque.

The Sept. 20 Marriott bombing was among the worst, killing at least 54 people, including three Americans and the Czech ambassador. Since then, foreign missions have been reviewing their security.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon approved the latest move after the world body’s agencies in Islamabad recommended it earlier this week, said spokeswoman Amena Kamaal.

The order also applied to the neighboring city of Rawalpindi and areas near the Afghan border.

Under the decision, U.N. international staff will no longer be allowed to live with their children in the capital, the neighboring city of Rawalpindi or in Quetta, on the Afghan frontier.

Much of the border region, including the city of Peshawar is already off-limits for U.N. families. Some of those affected can relocate to areas deemed safer, such as Lahore or Karachi.

But others are expected to leave Pakistan, which could disrupt to a limited degree U.N. operations in the country as it faces severe economic difficulties and a crumbling of basic public services in militancy-torn areas.

About 100 of the world body’s more than 2,000 staff in Pakistan are foreigners, and only 20 had children who would be affected, Kamaal said.

Luc Chauvin, deputy representative in Pakistan for the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF, said seven of its 33 international staff would have to relocate or send children away.

He said UNICEF was buying laptops and installing Internet connections in staffers’ homes to enable them to work without coming into the office — a potential target for attack.

“Of course there is a bit of an impact, but I think we can cope,” Chauvin said of the extra precautions.

Khalif Bile, country representative for the World Health Organization, said the effect on its activities would be “insignificant.” WHO works with the government on a campaign to eradicate polio that has been opposed by some Islamic hard-liners.

Britain announced Wednesday that about 60 children of its diplomats in Pakistan will return home. Pakistan has long been a non-family posting for U.S. and Canadian diplomatic staff.

Pakistani officials have blamed the Marriott blast on extremists holed up in tribal areas along the Afghan border who are suspected of mounting a wave of suicide attacks stretching back more than a year.

Several have taken place in the capital, including a suicide car bomb claimed by al-Qaida that killed six outside the Danish Embassy in June. A blast killed a Turkish aid worker and injured 12 people, including four FBI agents, at a restaurant in March.

Pakistani authorities have sought to reassure the expatriate community here by ramping up security in the capital, mounting extra checkpoints and posting paramilitary troops with machine guns at the entrance to the diplomatic quarter — apparently to little avail.

A missile strike by a suspected U.S. drone killed at least six people in a Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border, two Pakistani intelligence officials said Wednesday.

American forces recently ramped up cross-border operations against Taliban and al-Qaida militants in Pakistan’s wild border zone, a possible hiding place for Osama bin Laden.

The attacks have drawn stiff protests from Islamabad, an uneasy ally in Washington’s seven-year war on terror, particularly since a highly unusual Sept. 3 raid by U.S. ground troops in the South Waziristan region.

The two intelligence officials said the missiles struck the home of a local Taliban commander before midnight Tuesday near Mir Ali, a town in the North Waziristan region.

The officials, citing reports from their field agents, said six people were killed. Both officials asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. They said a U.S. drone aircraft — not Pakistani forces — fired the missiles. They did not identify any of the victims.

Pakistani leaders insist only their forces are allowed to carry out operations inside Pakistan, and its troops recently fired warning shots at U.S. helicopters flying over the ill-marked frontier.

American officials have expressed frustration at Pakistan’s failure to kill or capture militant leaders whom they accuse of sending fighters and arms into Afghanistan, where foreign troop casualties are escalating.

In Spain, a radio station reported that a document marked confidential and bearing the official seal of Spain’s Defense Ministry charges that Pakistan’s spy service was helping arm Taliban insurgents in 2005 for assassination plots against the Afghan government.

The report, which was obtained by Cadena Ser radio and posted on the station’s Web site on Wednesday, also says Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency, or ISI, helped the Taliban procure explosives to use in attacks against vehicles.

It alleges that Pakistan may have provided training and intelligence to the Taliban in camps set up on Pakistani soil.

There have long been suspicions that members of Pakistan’s shadowy spy agency have aided the Taliban, a charge that Pakistan has vehemently denied. In the 1990s, however, the ISI’s agents helped build up the Taliban.

Pakistan’s chief army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said the report was “baseless, unfounded and part of a malicious, well-orchestrated propaganda campaign to malign the ISI.”

Spain’s Defense Ministry and the Spanish prime minister’s office said it had no comment. Cadena Ser did not say how it obtained the report.

Meanwhile, a physician for the Taliban and a spokesman for the group denied reports that the movement’s top leader in Pakistan, Baitullah Mehsud, had fallen ill and died.

“I spoke to him today at 9 a.m. on the telephone and he told me that he is surprised over rumors about his death,” physician Eisa Khan told The Associated Press. Khan said Mehsud had an unspecified kidney problem but gave no more details.

Mehsud’s spokesman, Maulvi Umar, was cited on Geo television station as saying he was healthy.

Officials have accused Mehsud of being behind a wave of suicide attacks washing over Pakistan since the middle of last year, including the slaying of opposition leaders Benazir Bhutto in December.

Thousands of pilgrims panicked by false rumors of a bomb stampeded at a Hindu temple in western India on Tuesday, killing at least 168 people in the crush to escape, officials said.

More than 12,000 people gathered at the temple at dawn to celebrate a Hindu festival in the historic city of Jodhpur when the stampede occurred early Tuesday morning.

The temple floors were slick with coconut milk as thousands of devotees broke coconuts as religious offerings, causing pilgrims to slip and fall as they scrambled to escape, said Ramesh Vyas, a pilgrim who was standing in line.

Vyas said it was the false rumors of a bomb that sparked the chaos, and that tensions were high because India has been hit by a spate of recent bomb attacks. The latest was on Monday night in the western city of Malegaon, killing six people and wounding 45.

At least 168 people were killed in the stampede, said Naresh Pal Gangwar, the district collector.

Television footage from Jodhpur showed dozens of bodies lying on the sidewalk, while nearby frantic people tried to revive unconscious devotees, slapping their faces and pressing on their chests.

Others dragged people by their arms and legs, running down a ramp that leads to the temple inside the massive 15th century Mehrangarh fort that overlooks the town.

One child sat on the ground next to the body of a woman, rubbing her forehead and crying “mother, mother.”

The injured have been admitted to half a dozen hospitals in Jodhpur.

Tuesday marked the first day of Navratra, a nine-day Hindu festival to honor the Mother Goddess.

Jodhpur is some 180 miles (290 kilometers) southwest of the Rajasthan state capital of Jaipur.

The Mehrangarh fort is one of the town’s biggest tourist attractions with its huge walls, ornate interiors and views overlooking Jodhpur’s “blue city.”

Deadly stampedes are a relatively common occurrence at temples in India, where large crowds — sometimes hundreds of thousands of people — congregate in small areas lacking facilities to control big gatherings.

In August, 145 people were killed when rumors of an avalanche sparked a stampede at a hilltop temple in northern India.

Bomb threats and a flurry of menacing mobile phone messages sparked panic Thursday among students in Finland, as fears grew that copycat attacks would follow the nation’s second school massacre in 10 months.

At least one school was evacuated, police questioned two young men about violent Internet postings and a 15-year-old boy was reportedly detained for sending threats to another school.

In neighboring Sweden, police arrested a 16-year-old-boy after viewing a suspicious clip he had posted on YouTube and urged residents to report any threatening Internet postings to police.

Finnish police said text message threats were being spread around the western town of Kauhajoki, where a masked gunman killed 10 people and himself in a fiery rampage on Tuesday.

“The text messages are threatening in nature and are causing fear and hysteria among young people, and we must stop them,” police spokesman Urpo Lintula said.

He declined to give details on the content of messages, but said Finland saw a similar wave of threats after the previous school shooting at Jokela high school near Helsinki last year.

National Police Commissioner Mikko Paatero told Finnish MTV3 that Finland could face more copycat school shootings. “I really fear it’s possible,” he said.

Finnish media said several schools across the nation had received bomb threats. A school with 500 students in the southern town of Keuruu was evacuated due to suspicious text messages and Internet postings, the STT news agency reported.

In the west coast town of Turku, a 15-year-old boy was arrested for sending threatening messages to a school, STT said, while police in the central town of Kajaani detained two men aged 18 and 23 for over menacing messages they had posted on the Internet.

“They were fairly vague but they mentioned shootings in schools and bomb explosions,” Kajaani police spokesman Arto Lumikari said, adding the men were not believed to be planning any attacks.

Investigators were probing possible links between the Kauhajoki gunman, Matti Saari, 22, and 18-year-old Pekka-Eric Auvinen, who fatally shot eight people and himself at a high school in southern Finland in November.

They said Auvinen and Saari likely bought their guns at the same place and could even have been in contact with each other.

“The cases were similar. They were the same type of person, so it could be possible,” investigation leader Jari Neulaniemi told The Associated Press. “They had the same style of hair, same kind of clothing, same interests and ideals — and their deeds were the same.”

Both gunmen posted violent clips on YouTube before the shootings, both were fascinated by the 1999 Columbine school shootings in Colorado, both attacked their own schools and both died after shooting themselves in the head.

But Neulaniemi stressed that police had not been able to confirm a link between the shooters.

“We have (Saari’s) computer in our possession, but the Jokela case was almost a year ago, and we don’t yet know how far back the data go. We haven’t examined the computer or the telephone records,” he said.

Saari killed eight female students, one male teacher and one male student. A 21-year-old woman that Saari shot in the head is still hospitalized after having two operations.

Sanna Orpana, a Kauhajoki student, said she was in the classroom next door when the shooting started Tuesday at the Kauhajoki School of Hospitality, 180 miles (290 kilometers) northwest of Helsinki.

“We started to hear shooting and a kind of a rumble like tables falling down. We thought someone is playing around, fooling with toy guns,” Orpana told AP Television News. “A couple of us went to have a look in the other room through the door. The guy was there with a gun, and tried to shoot them.”

She said students hid under a table, then grew frightened that the shooter might come into their room and ran upstairs.

The government pledged to tighten Finland’s gun laws and keep mentally unstable people from obtaining firearms after Saari’s rampage. Interior Minister Anne Holmlund said a new proposal would give police greater powers to examine gun applicants’ health records.

But Finland has deeply held hunting traditions and many homes have guns. After the previous massacre, the government had pledged to raise the age for buying a gun from 15 to 18 but never did so.

The government also called for an investigation into police handling of the case. Police on Monday had questioned Saari about YouTube clips showing him firing a handgun, but said they found no reason to hold him.

Police were also searching for a person who appeared to have filmed some of Saari’s YouTube clips but said there was no indication Saari had an accomplice.

In Sweden, police raided the teen’s home in Koping, central Sweden, after seeing the YouTube clip, according to police spokesman Borje Stromberg. The boy was arrested for illegal weapon possession.

In a message Thursday on its Web site, Swedish police urged people to report any Internet postings that could be seen as “warning signals of planned crimes.”

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said on Friday he supported efforts by the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve to shore up confidence in the financial markets and said he would hold off from presenting his own economic recovery plan.”The events of the last few days have made it clear that we must take further bold and decisive action to shore up confidence in our financial markets and avoid a deepening economic crisis that could jeopardize the life savings and well-being of millions of Americans,” Obama said in a statement.

Obama said he supported efforts by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to work with the Congressional leadership to find a solution to the deepening crisis.

As Wall Street grapples with the worst crisis since the Great Depression, the financial turmoil has become the top theme on the campaign trail where Obama is locked in a tight race with his Republican rival John McCain.

The Illinois senator said he would be discussing the Fed-Treasury proposal with his top economic advisers on Friday morning. Among those who have been advising Obama on his response to the financial crisis are former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and former U.S. Treasury secretaries Lawrence Summers and Robert Rubin.

“Given the gravity of this situation, and based on conversations I have had with both Secretary Paulson and Chairman Bernanke, I have asked my economic team to refrain from presenting a more detailed blue-print of how an immediate plan might be structured until the Treasury and the Federal Reserve have had an opportunity to present their proposal.”

Obama said it was critical that the markets and public have confidence in the Fed and Treasury’s efforts and that their work be “unimpeded by partisan wrangling.”

On Thursday Obama urged the Federal Reserve and the Treasury to take emergency steps to keep credit flowing to the troubled housing market, saying it would help stem the crisis sweeping financial markets.

In his statement on Friday, Obama said the government needed to also take action to create jobs and help support distressed homeowners and communities.

He also said any taxpayer-funded support plan by the U.S. government needed to have a long-term goal of creating a stable financial market and a growing economy.

“This plan must be temporary and coupled with tough new oversight and regulations of our financial institutions,” he said. “There must be a clear process to wind down this plan and restore private sector assets into private sector hands after restoring stability to the system.”

Obama also urged that the plan be part of a globally coordinated effort.

Hundreds of thousands of people fled coastal areas in the path of Hurricane Ike on Thursday as the storm gathered strength on a collision course with the Texas Gulf Coast, threatening to swamp populous areas around Houston under a massive wave of water.Ike was a Category 2 storm with 160 kph winds and likely will come ashore late on Friday or early on Saturday as a dangerous Category 3 storm on the five-step intensity scale with winds of more than 111 mph (178 kph), the National Hurricane Center said.

The storm menaced Houston, the fourth-most populous U.S. city and hub of the oil industry. Many remembered the chaotic highway evacuation of 2 million residents during Hurricane Rita in 2005, which ended up sparing the city.

Though the city could see hurricane-force winds, officials called for most residents to “shelter in place.” “They are in a safer, better position if they stay where they are,” Houston Mayor Bill White said.

Because of Ike’s wide scope — it is larger geographically than Hurricane Katrina was in 2005 — it could bring a storm surge of up to 20 feet (6 metres), normally associated with larger storms.

Ike arrives just 10 days after Hurricane Gustav forced 2 million people to flee the Louisiana coast and threatened a New Orleans still reeling from Katrina’s devastation.

“The most important message I can send is, do not take this storm lightly,” U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in Washington. “This is not a storm to gamble with.”

OIL PLATFORMS SPARED

With the storm’s track taking it away from the bulk of 4,000 offshore platforms that produce about a quarter of U.S. oil supply, U.S. crude oil futures dipped as low as $100.10 a barrel, the lowest level since early April.

Residents of Galveston — an island city of 280,000 about 50 miles (80 km) south of Houston — were ordered to evacuate, along with other low-lying counties. Some 600,000 people had left, the state said.

“We’re getting up out of here,” said Nykera Allen, a student who was loading up her car to drive to San Antonio in central Texas. “They’re going to shut the lights and the water off and that’s not a good situation.”

The hurricane’s current track would see it hit the Texas coast near Freeport in Brazoria County, just south of Galveston. It could be the worst storm to hit the Texas coast since Hurricane Carla came ashore near Corpus Christi in 1961.

The coastal areas under threat from Ike are lined with oil refineries that process about 25 percent of the nation’s fuel. Some stretches boast resorts and million-dollar beachfront homes.

‘A SURGE TSUNAMI’

New Orleans, where Katrina’s storm surge flattened levees and flooded 80 percent of the city, appeared to be out of Ike’s path, but is still under a tropical storm warning.

President George W. Bush declared an emergency exists in Louisiana due to the storm, ordering federal aid to help disaster relief in the state, the White House said.

While New Orleans is below sea level, downtown Houston is about 50 feet (15 metres) above sea level, but the city’s flat, expansive terrain still leaves it vulnerable to flooding.

One Texas official likened the potential wall of water to a tidal wave, not just a storm surge.

“This is a surge tsunami,” said Jack Colley, of the state emergency management team. “This is not rising water.”

At 8 p.m. EDT (2400 GMT on) Thursday, the hurricane center said Ike was 475 miles (760 km) east-southeast of Corpus Christi, and about 370 miles (595 km) southeast of Galveston. It was moving west-northwest at 12 mph (19 kph).

In Galveston — site of a 1900 hurricane that was the deadliest weather disaster in U.S. history — lines of cars, buses and trucks crowded onto a bridge to leave the island. Others without transportation waited for buses to carry them to shelters.

And, as always, hold-outs hunkered down to weather the storm.

“I’m just going to batten down and not worry about it,” said Keith Andrews, a shipyard worker. “If the Lord wants you, he’s going to take you anyway.”

Tropical Storm Fay continued its erratic path Wednesday reaching the coast and headed for the Atlantic Ocean, where it could strengthen and curve back toward Florida — possibly as a hurricane.

Meanwhile, as Florida and Georgia prepared for what could be another hit from the storm in the coming days, some farmers in the region hoped a soaking would boost crops hurt by a lingering drought.

The storm first hit the Florida Keys, veered out to sea and then traversed east across the state on a path that would take it over the ocean before it curves toward the Florida-Georgia border.

Forecasters expected the storm to get a dose of energy Wednesday when it moves over the Atlantic Ocean, where it should linger until Thursday, possibly reaching hurricane strength. It’s expected to then veer back toward the mainland, and a hurricane watch was posted for parts of north Florida and Georgia.

“This storm is going to be with us for a while. That’s obvious now. It looks like it could be a boomerang storm,” said Gov. Charlie Crist, urging residents to be vigilant for what could be the storm’s third hit to the state.

The storm was on Florida’s east coast at 2 a.m. EDT Wednesday, about 15 miles south-southeast of Melbourne. Its maximum sustained winds remained near 50 mph. The storm was moving toward the north-northeast near 7 mph.

And while forecasters warned rainfall from the storm could just as easily be catastrophic as benign, farmers in drought-plagued areas were cautiously optimistic.

“It’s very seldom we’re hoping for a hurricane, but we are,” said Randy Branch, a farmer in southeast Georgia where lingering drought has left about a third of his cotton and peanut crops bare this summer.

“We need some rain pretty bad.”

National Weather Service meteorologist Steve Letro said it’s possible southern Georgia could receive 10 to 20 inches of rain — enough to cause severe flooding — if it makes a second landfall.

“I know people hate drought, but when you’re talking about a tropical cyclone relieving drought conditions, be careful what you wish for,” said Letro, the chief meteorologist in Jacksonville, Fla.

In Duval County, which surrounds Jacksonville, officials prepared shelters, cleared drainage areas that could flood and readied emergency response teams. Public schools canceled Wednesday and Thursday classes, and mobile home residents were encouraged to find sturdier shelter.

“Our biggest concern is complacency. Jacksonville has a history of being shielded from storm systems. While we don’t want anyone to panic, we want everyone in the area to take this storm seriously,” said Misty Skipper, a county spokeswoman.

In Georgia’s southeastern corner, Camden County had public works crews cleaning out storm drains and ditches in preparation for possible flooding. The Georgia Emergency Management Agency also began 24-hour operations Tuesday afternoon to monitor the storm.

A National Hurricane Center forecast late Tuesday projected that the storm’s path would take it through Alabama over the weekend. However, projections varied widely, prompting some in South Carolina to hope for crop-sating rain.

“I just came in from the fields. Everything is burning up,” said Belton, S.C., farmer Charles Campbell. “If a storm is brewing down there, just send it up I-26.”

Fay formed over the weekend in the Atlantic and was blamed for 20 deaths in the Caribbean before hitting Florida’s southwest coast, where it fell short of predictions it could be a Category 1 hurricane when it came ashore.

Though it flooded streets in Naples, downed trees and plunged some 95,000 homes and businesses in the dark, most Floridians thought they had dodged a bullet. The worst of the storm’s wrath appeared to be 51 homes hit by a tornado in Brevard County, southeast of Orlando. Nine of the homes were totaled, said Brevard County Emergency Operations Center spokesman David Waters.

Brevard County sheriff’s deputies arrested three men for looting in the mobile home park, and a trapper was called to remove an alligator discovered wandering there.

Two injuries were reported in the Brevard County tornado, and a kitesurfer who was caught in a gust of wind Monday was critically injured when he slammed into a building in front of the beach near Fort Lauderdale. Kevin Kearney, 28, was still in critical condition Tuesday, Broward General Medical Center officials and his family said.

Flooding remained a concern as Fay heads up the Florida peninsula, with rainfall amounts forecast between 5 and 15 inches. The storm could also push tides 1 to 3 feet above normal and spawn tornadoes. Counties in the storm’s path called off school for Wednesday and opened shelters.

The mastermind of the Ahmedabad serial blasts Mufti Abu Bashir has reportedly admitted of plotting the Ahmedabad blasts. His interrogation has given specific details about home grown terror networks in the country, the crime branch sources have revealed.

As per unconfirmed reports, Bashir, while admitting his involvement, calmly claimed that mere 75,000 were required for killing 57 people and that the amount was arranged by a SIMI activist by selling his house in Kutch.

Police has seized the house and the hunt is on for the original owner, the alleged SIMI donor.

Bashar has also revealed that he was the chief motivator behind the Ahmedabad blasts. Giving details, the former Mufti told his interrogators that he used to motivate Muslim youths by his fiery speeches. He also admitted of attending training camps in Dharwad, Khalol, Khandwa and Vagamon.

Meanwhile, the officials also are looking at the possibility of the same team of men being behind the attacks in Jaipur and Ahmedabad. Bashar, a native of Azamgarh was arrested by the Anti Terrorist Squad of the Uttar Pradesh police was brought to the city on Saturday night on a three-day transit remand.

On Sunday, the city metropolitan court here granted the police 14-day custody of the nine accused arrested in connection with the Ahmedabad serial blasts case.

The nine activists of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), were arrested on July 26, were produced in the court under tight security. They were arrested along with Mufti Abu Bashir, the alleged mastermind in the Ahmedabad serial blasts.

Metropolitan Magistrate J K Pandya passed the remand order after police sought custody of the activists for interrogation to unravel the conspiracy behind the blasts which claimed 55 lives.

Those remanded in custody are Zahid Sheikh, Imran Sheikh, Sajid Mansuri, Iqbal Sheikh, Samsudin Sheikh, Yunus Mansuri, Gyasuddin Ansari, Arif Kadri and Usman Agarbattiwala, all in the age group of 20-25 years.

The police in their submission had asked remand of the accused under various provisions of the IPC which include sections 120(1A) (Waging war against the state), 153(A) (creating rift between two communities), 302 (murder) and 307(attempt to murder).

The accused were also booked under the Explosive Substance Act (sections 3 & 7), Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (sections 16, 18, 20) and Damage to Public Property Act (sections 3 & 4).

The police conducted a raid on Imran’s house and have taken his wife in custody.

SIMI activist Mufti Abu Bashir, the alleged mastermind of the blasts, was present in the city on the day of the blasts, crime branch officials found out during his interrogation.

Bashir had made his base in Ahmedabad for two months and had stayed at a rented house in Vatva from where he controlled the entire operations, police said.

Blasts meticulously planned

The July 26 serial blasts here were a result of meticulous planning with specific roles cut out for every individual, Gujarat Police have said.

Sajid Mansuri, another key accused in the case arrested by the police, had played a significant role of conduct between the masterminds of the serial blasts and its executors.

Mansuri, who was the Gujarat zonal secretary of SIMI before it was banned, had stayed in Vadodara for the past couple of years before shifting to Bharuch from where he was arrested.

Zahid Sheikh of Ahmedabad, a staunch follower of SIMI ideology and an expert driver, was given the task of handling cars and purchases of cycles used in the blasts, police sources said.

Zahid had received training in camps organised by SIMI leader Nagori in Kerala and Halol in the state.

3 detained in Jaipur

Meanwhile, the Rajasthan police have detained three persons, including two SIMI activists, for questioning in connection with the Jaipur explosions in May.

Riaz and Vasim Kabadi from Talabpara area and Abid Bhai Kapdewala from Shoepurian Masjid area were detained by the police in Baran, about 100 kms from Kota, last evening, a police officer said.

All the three have been taken to Jaipur for further investigation, he said.