‘World’s largest budgie smuggler’ parade to be held Down Under

November 2nd, 2009 YUBA CITY - Over a million Sikhs from across the United States took part in the 30th annual Sikh Parade at Yuba City in California on Sunday. The nearly five-mile religious parade was taken out to mark the tercentenary celebrations of Guruship of Guru Granth Sahib, the holy scripture of Sikhs.

October 24th, 2009 LONDON - At five years of age, Romanian bodybuilding lad Giuliano Stroe has landed himself in record books after leaving Guinness judges stunned with his incredible stunts. The muscle boy lives with his family in Italy where he has been training since the age of two.

October 21st, 2009 YUBA CITY - Yuba City, known as the first Punjabi village in the US, is all set for the annual Sikh Parade next week. Home to the descendants of the earliest Indian immigrants to the US, Yuba City, near the California capital of Sacramento, is famous for its annual Sikh Parade.

September 28th, 2009 DUSHANBE - Tajikistan is planning to build the world's largest mosque here by 2014 with help from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a presidential spokesman said Monday. UAE firm Adnan Saffarini will construct the mosque, while Qatar will finance the project.

September 22nd, 2009 TEHRAN - An Iranian military aircraft crashed in the south of Tehran Tuesday in a military parade marking the anniversary of the start of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. The military plane, which was taking part in air manoeuvres during the parade, crashed in a village just outside Tehran, IRNA news agency said, without specifying the type of the crashed plane and casualties.

August 23rd, 2009 ABU DHABI - Emirates Aluminium (Emal) and Abu Dhabi Gas Industries (Gasco) opened the natural gas pipeline at the world's largest single site aluminium smelter here, WAM news agency reported Sunday. The pipeline, connected to the Emal power plant, will provide it with reliable and uninterrupted supply of natural gas.

August 4th, 2009 NEW YORK - Representatives of Pakistan's mainstream political parties came together for the first time at a colourful parade held by Pakistani-Americans living in and around New York to mark the country's 62nd Independence Anniversary. Rainy spells did not dampen the enthusiasm of the participants, who came in large numbers on Sunday to renew their dedication to their homeland and its founding father - Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

July 15th, 2009 PARIS - Others may have wilted but not India's 77-year-old Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who valiantly stood next to French President Nicolas Sarkozy through much of the two-hour Bastille Day parade and then after it was over decided to abandon his carcade to walk to his hotel. After the rains of the previous week, Paris was warm as it celebrated its National Day Tuesday and many people lined up on either side of the Champs Elysees were seen looking for shade and a place to rest their legs.

July 14th, 2009 PARIS - Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh arrived in Paris late on Monday night to participate in the National Day celebrations of the Republic of France.

July 13th, 2009 PARIS - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in Paris Monday night to attend the French National Day parade as chief guest, the first foreign leader to be accorded the honour. The honour reciprocates India's gesture of inviting French President Nicolas Sarkozy as chief guest for its Republic Day parade in January this year, said French envoy to India Jerome Bonnanfont.

July 5th, 2009 COLOGNE - Around half-a-million people thronged the centre of Cologne Sunday for the annual gay pride parade known as Christopher Street Day. More than 90 brightly coloured floats snaked their way through the streets in pleasant summer temperatures accompanied by gay, lesbian and transsexual people dressed in fancy or revealing costumes.

June 25th, 2009 ZHUHAI - China has given the go ahead to the development and production of the world's largest amphibious aircraft, the Dragon 600, the manufacturing company has said. The aircraft, which would be as large as an Airbus 320, could be used for tasks such as emergency rescue, fighting forest fires and sea patrols, Hu Haiyin, deputy general manager of AVIC General Aircraft Company, said Wednesday.

June 3rd, 2009 COLOMBO - Sri Lanka would hold a national victory parade Wednesday to mark the crushing of the rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), officials said. A military parade will be held in a ceremony attended by President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the Galle Face Green, a sea front ground in Colombo, Wednesday morning.

May 2nd, 2009 SYDNEY - An Aussie town in Queensland is holding its fifth pub-crawl hoping to earn a place in the Guinness world record for being the world's largest. Maryborough in Queensland had in 2005 taken the "honour" and then lost it to London in 2006, then reclaimed it again in 2007 and 2008 with a record-breaking 3000 crawlers, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

April 21st, 2009 NEW DELHI - China will display its nuclear-powered submarines for the first time in history during a fleet parade to mark the 60th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army Navy. The Chinese navy's missile destroyer 115 Shenyang is docked at Qingdao Port for an international fleet review.