Jagan Mahal: 60 rooms across 42000sqft

Hyderabad, July 19: A palatial house that Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy is building in Hyderabad is under the scanner of the CBI, which has been asked by Andhra Pradesh High Court to probe the politician's assets.
Two days ago, CBI sleuths visited a 52,263sqft site (well over an acre) in Hyderabad's upscale Banjara Hills where Jagan's five-storey mansion, valued at Rs 300 crore by local real estate players, is nearing completion.
According to real estate sources, the building plan shows several escalators, lifts, a 200-seat mini-theatre, a library, a gym, and squash, tennis and volleyball courts, apart from a three-floor underground car park.

A local contractor said he had been commissioned to supply 24 train wagonloads of marble from Rajasthan so that about 60 rooms and bathrooms, each the size of a single-bedroom flat, could be floored with marble.
Lotus Mahal, which local people have begun referring to as "Jagan Mahal", will sprawl over a 10,000sqft area. The total floor area across the five storeys is estimated at 42,000 sqft.
CBI officials said the plot had been bought by Jagan's front companies. It is made up of six original plots ' numbered 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 ' at HUDA Heights in Banjara Hills' Lotus Pond locality, they added.

Jagan owns about two-thirds of the property while his sister Sharmila Reddy owns the rest, the sources said. Going by current property rates, the price of the entire plot should be over Rs 30 crore.
Real estate sources said Lotus Mahal would have nearly 30 bedrooms apart from an office complex, 20 servants' quarters and a two-storey outhouse in the backyard.
A builder said that but for the Telangana agitation, the mansion's price would have been Rs 700 crore. "Even at the downswing rates, it is roughly valued at Rs 300 crore."
On July 13, the high court gave the CBI two weeks to probe charges that Jagan had amassed huge wealth by laundering money during his late father Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy's term as chief minister between 2004 and 2009.

The complaint was filed by a Congress minister from the state.
Sources in Jagan's party, the YSR Congress, said their leader had taken time off his Odarpu Yatra for a month to concentrate on the construction.

A bureaucrat who visits Jagan almost every day said the mansion was modelled on the chief minister's residence at Begumpet. Jagan has set up his party headquarters at a rented bungalow in Jubilee Hills' Road No. 45.
"Jagan is confident that the new house will bring him good luck and also the goodwill of Congress workers," a party source said, indicating that Jagan hopes that many more Congress MLAs and MPs would join him by the time the house is completed.

Woman Dies of Allergic Reaction to the Dog She Had Sex With
By Brian Moylan, Jul 8, 2011 3:34 PM
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Facebook TwitterStumbleUpon Tumblr Close After reading this weird news story, you will never have to read another weird news story ever again. It has everything: an insane premise, crazy people, crushing irony, sex, crime, and sex crime. It seems an Irish woman died after an allergic reaction to a dog—a dog she had sex with. Yes. Really.

From Ireland, the land of geniuses like James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and Bono, comes this story of a 43-year-old woman who encountered a man in a bestiality chat room and then met him at his house in Limerick. She had sex with his Alsatian dog and then had a severe allergic reaction shortly afterwards, possibly from the dog's semen. She later died at the hospital. The incident apparently took place in 2008, but medical experts just confirmed the cause of death, because the case is finally making its way to court, not because it took them this long to get over the shock of how she died. The dog owner, Sean McDonnell, is charged with "buggery" for ordering the dog to commit the act. Buggery is apparently still a crime on the books in Ireland, so thank God for that. McDonnell is thought to be the first person charged with it since it was enacted in 1861.

So, next time you hear about a man biting a dog or a delivery driver run over by his own truck, just remember this story and remind yourself it's best to stay away from the weird news.

[Image of a woman and a dog that did not have sex via Shutterstock]

make corpses beautiful

A BEAUTY firm is offering luxury makeovers - for CORPSES.

People who have died can now wear false eyelashes, hair highlights or metallic make-up when they meet their maker.

The slap is applied by specially-trained artists - with prices starting at £450. Cosmetics company Illamasqua calls it The Final Act of Self-Expression and is offering the service through a chain of London undertakers.

Joe Corre, joint managing director of Leverton and Sons, said: "Some people really want to express themselves even as they make the final journey into the afterlife.

"It can be very beautiful and touching for everyone involved."

Yesterday fans of the Illamasqua brand aired their views online about the service. One wrote: "It rocks my boat!" But another said: "This seems in rather bad taste."

Foreign buyers lifting U.S. home sales

Foreign buyers are helping to stoke home sales in U.S. vacation hot spots decimated by the real estate crash, especially in southern Florida.

For the 12 months ending in March, 31% of Florida's home sales were to foreign buyers, up from 10% in 2007, according to a survey by the National Association of Realtors.

In Arizona, 6% of sales in the same period were to foreigners. That was down from 11% last year but still up from 5% in 2007, the data show.

Foreign buyers are being enticed by low U.S. home prices, down 30% nationwide since peaking in 2006, and the weakened dollar, which makes their money go further. Since the start of 2006, the Canadian dollar has soared 18% against the U.S. dollar, while the euro has gained 22%, says data tracker Oanda.
U.S. home prices, meanwhile, have fallen far more than the national average in some places — down 55% from their peaks in Miami-Fort Lauderdale and Phoenix and 36% in Los Angeles, says Zillow.com. Those are three of the most popular areas for foreigners searching for real estate on Trulia's website, that company says.
The number of U.S. homes sold to foreigners dropped to 288,000 in the 12 months ending in March, from 224,000 a year earlier, the Realtors survey shows. But certain cities are seeing increases.
Sales are so brisk in the Miami region now that more houses and condominiums could sell this year than in 2005, the peak year, says Ronald Shuffield, president of Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell Realtors in Coral Gables, Fla.

"International buyers have been the fuel for the Miami recovery," Shuffield says. About 40% of buyers are international vs. less than 35% before the bust, he estimates. In downtown Miami, the percentage of foreign buyers has risen even more, Shuffield says. Many buyers are South American investors snapping up condominiums to rent out, says Peter Zalewski of market researcher Condo Vultures.

In the Phoenix region, there are at least 20% more foreigners in the market now than usual, says Don Hammer, manager of Realty Executives in Paradise Valley, Ariz.

One of those shoppers is retired hedge fund manager Peter Duerr of Austria. He's planning to buy a home in Scottsdale, having sold one there in 2005. "The U.S. is a great buy right now," Duerr says.

The largest share of foreign buyers, 23%, come from Canada, the Realtors' survey found. China followed at 9%. The survey includes foreigners living abroad, those in the U.S. with long-term visas and new immigrants.

Chicago-based Harris Bank is on pace to make 25% more loans to Canadians buying U.S. homes this year than last, says Randall Raup, head of retail lending for Harris. Its top buying locations are Florida, California and Arizona, he adds.

Of the 20 most popular U.S. cities searched by foreigners on real estate website Trulia, eight are in Florida,