Rock Garden gets Rs.17.4 mn for facelift

September 7th, 2009 SRINAGAR - Kashmir's heritage Emporium Garden is all set to get a facelift with the state government planning to spend rupees 15 million to restore the garden to its lost glory. Located in Srinagar, the garden used to be under the British residency during the state's erstwhile Dogra era, and the Britishers had planted many exquisite plants and flowers in this garden, which used to be a major tourist attraction before insurgency broke out in the valley.

August 13th, 2009 JALPAIGURI - Wildlife officials rescued a male leopard from a tea garden in Jalpaiguri of West Bengal. Locals from in and around the tea garden crowded the cage to have a glimpse of the wounded animal that had unleashed fear in the area.

July 9th, 2009 CHANDIGARH - The Zakir Hussain Rose Garden here, which the union territory administration says is Asia's largest rose garden, will soon have a new, refurbished look with new varieties of flowers and more amenities to attract tourists, officials said. The Chandigarh administration has prepared an exhaustive roadmap to upgrade the garden, to attract more foreign and domestic tourists.

June 19th, 2009 DOARS - Forest officials trapped and tranquilized a leopard in West Bengal on Thursday as their rising population is creating a menace in the region. The 7-year-old leopard was trapped from a tea garden in the Doars region of the state.

June 7th, 2009 CHANDIGARH - Nek Chand Saini, who created the artistic marvel of Rock Garden in Chandigarh with bits of broken ceramic, glass pieces, old tyres and other rubbish, is worried that a proposed multi-level park adjoining the garden will spoil the aesthetic ambience of the major tourist attraction. "As per the plan for the multi-level parking, the entrance gate of the third phase of the Rock Garden and a portion of the wall would be demolished.

May 11th, 2009 Seminole Hard Rock celebrates 5th anniversaryHOLLYWOOD, Fla. — The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino is celebrating its fifth anniversary.

April 22nd, 2009 Ark. man digging in garden unearths cannonballFORT SMITH, Ark. — Officials say a Fort Smith man digging in his garden unearthed a Civil War-era cannonball that's possibly still explosive.

April 21st, 2009 CHANDIGARH - Pictures of popular destinations like Sukhna Lake and Rock Garden will be displayed on public transport buses here to promote tourism, an official said Tuesday. 'Chandigarh is famous all across the country for its tourist spots.

April 11th, 2009 AGRA - Fifteen sandalwood trees in the Shah Jahan garden near the Taj Mahal have been found axed here. Two employees of the garden have been accused of the act.

March 29th, 2009 LONDON - A short poem written by rock and roll legend Elvis Presley about a dead bird has sold at an auction for a staggering $20,000 (14,000 pounds). The King of Rock scrawled the rhyme on a piece of paper after apparently killing a robin that perched on his window ledge, reports contactmusic.com.

March 23rd, 2009 SRINAGAR - The sprawling tulip garden in Jammu and Kashmir's summer capital is being thrown open to visitors Tuesday as thousands of flowers impart a mesmerising ambience to this 90-acre tourist attraction in the Valley. Nearly 1.3 million tulip bulbs comprising 70 varieties of various colours have been grown in the garden, inaugurated by United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi March 2008, and one more terrace has been added to the already multi-terraced garden.

February 24th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A record 95,537 people visited the Mughal Gardens at Rashtrapati Bhavan Sunday, an official statement said. 'The Mughal Gardens of Rashtrapati Bhavan including the Musical Garden, Spiritual Garden, the Herbal Garden and the Biodiversity Park saw a record number of visitors on Sunday.

February 16th, 2009 CHANDIGARH - The tourism industry in Chandigarh is booming, apparently untouched by global recession, and officials say they expect tourist arrivals to the 'city beautiful’ to cross the one million mark in 2009. According to tourism officials here, 960,912 tourists visited the centrally administered city in 2008.

February 9th, 2009 LONDON - Rocker Kid Rock slammed Jennifer Hudson's performance at the Grammy awards and criticised British band Coldplay too. Mirror.co.uk quotes Rock as saying: 'Who's Jennifer Hudson? The fat girl?' Hudson, who won the Grammy for best R&B album for her self-titled release 'Jennifer Hudson', Sunday performed for the first time since the death of her mother, brother and nephew.

January 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Singer-turned-actress Jennifer Lopez, who was swept away by the charismatic presence of Barack Obama at the inaugural gala here, feels that he is the biggest rock star right now. 'He is the biggest rock star here, even though it is chock-full of celebrities.