New Zealander of British ancestry sponsors Bhagat Singh memorial

October 12th, 2009 LONDON - An Indian green campaigner was perched on the roof of the British parliament along with other activists for the second day Monday in a protest against Western climate change policies. Brikesh Singh of Greenpeace India spent a very cold night Sunday along with 32 activists atop the Palaces of Westminster, a Greenpeace spokesman said.

October 11th, 2009 LONDON - An Indian was among some 60 environmental campaigners who climbed on to the roof of the British parliament Sunday evening to urge rich nations to take the lead on climate change action. We are here on the roof because we want to tell British MPs that it is the rich countries who must lead by example and announce binding cuts on their carbon emissions, Brikesh Singh of Greenpeace India told IANS on mobile telephone.

September 28th, 2009 MELBOURNE - Explorer and mountain climber Sir Edmund Hillary might have died more than 18 months ago, but he has still topped a list of the greatest living New Zealander. Officially, according to the Research New Zealand poll, former prime minister Helen Clark topped the list of 500 people, followed by All Black legend Sir Colin Meads and Olympic triple gold medallist Sir Peter Snell.

September 25th, 2009 PITTSBURGH - Starting his day early, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held bilateral meetings with his counterparts from three countries on the margins of the G20 Summit here Friday. His first meeting was with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at 7.30 a.m.

September 11th, 2009 NEW YORK - The proposed 9/11 memorial at Ground Zero is going to have 400 oak trees on the outside and disturbing graphic images of people jumping and planes hitting the towers inside the museum. The New York Post quoted Joseph Daniels, president of the 9/11 Memorial Foundation, as saying that construction of the museum is moving forward.

September 2nd, 2009 HAMILTON - Use of handheld mobile phone while driving will be banned here in the next two months due to a rise in the number of accidents, with a New Zealand official stressing that "using a mobile phone while driving is dangerous". The ban comes into effect from Nov 1.

August 27th, 2009 NEW YORK - Families of those killed in the World Trade Center terror attacks got a closeup look Wednesday at the memorial and museum that will forever remember their loved ones - and that tragic day. The 9/11 Memorial Preview Site opened to the public, giving hope to the families that progress is being made.

July 29th, 2009 LONDON - Britain's reigning monarch has her first Sikh bodyguards, a newspaper reported. Queen Elizabeth II will be guarded by Signaler Simranjit Singh, 26, and Lance Corporal Sarvjit Singh, 28, the paper said.

July 29th, 2009 LONDON - Two years after the British army abandoned a proposal to raise a Sikh regiment, the country's reining monarch has got her first Sikh bodyguards. Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's 83-year-old sovereign, will be guarded by two turbaned and bearded men in their 20s.

July 9th, 2009 L'AQUILA - Prime MInister Manmohan Singh briefly met with US President Barack Obama during the outreach meeting of G8 and G5 leaders at their summit here Thursday. Both leaders shook hands and exchanged pleasantries, Indian officials said here.

July 8th, 2009 L'AQUILA - India's bid to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council got a boost when British Prime Minister Gordon Brown expressed his support for New Delhi's demand to restructure the UNSC. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held a bilateral meeting with his British counterpart in this Italian mountain town.

June 6th, 2009 TORONTO - Though they still carry the emotional trauma of the Indian Army's Operation Bluestar at the Golden Temple in Amrtisar, the Sikh community in Canada says it has moved on since the tragic events of 1984. Canada was the worst affected by the militancy in Punjab, with radicals targeting moderate Sikhs, including former British Columbia premier Ujjal Dosanjh.

May 26th, 2009 LONDON - A Sikh group from Slough has written to Queen Elizabeth requesting her to return property and items belonging to the family of Punjab's last king Ranjit Singh. The Telegraph quoted Jagdeesh Singh, from the Sikh Community Action Network, as saying: "We have written to the Queen asking for access rights and the eventual return of items such as historic copies of the Sikh national sacred writings, together with swords and weapons of the Sikh gurus." According to Singh, letters, diaries and writings of Maharaja Duleep Singh, the Sikh ruler exiled to Britain in the 19th century, are also part of the collection, some of which is housed at Windsor Castle.

April 28th, 2009 Nathan Astle to sign with American leagueWELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealander Nathan Astle is negotiating a contract to play in an unsanctioned Twenty20 cricket competition in the United States. Astle, who retired from international cricket in 2007 after playing 81 tests and 223 one-day internationals, said in a radio inteview Tuesday that he expected to sign "within days" to play in the American Premier League.

January 29th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A memorial in honour of revolutionary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh will come up in his native village in Punjab, officials said Friday. The memorial, which would be built at a cost of Rs.168 million in Khatkar Kalan village in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, was given the go ahead in December 2008 by the National Implementation Committee set up by the central government in 2007, an official at the ministry of culture said.