INDIA: The Indian army has moved out of Delhi's sprawling 17th-century Red Fort, ending a 146-year military association with the monument that began after the 1857 Mutiny against colonial rule was crushed.
The former symbol of Mughal and British power was handed over to the federal tourism ministry that wants it declared as a World Heritage Site.
"The armed forces have been here since independence (in 1947). The history of the armed forces is interlinked with the fort. Now it is time to show to the world an aspect of our history and heritage," defence minister Mr George Fernandes said at a ceremony inside the red sandstone building replete with India's turbulent history.
"There are lots of memories and that's why everyone loves it, but this is in the interest of the nation and will also help increase tourism," Mr Fernandes added.
Occupied by the British military after the Mutiny - that is also known as the First War of Independence - the massive Fort was taken over by the Indian army in 1947 and housed at least one infantry battalion in the ungainly barracks built by the colonial administration unmindful of the building's architecture and symmetry.
Completed after nine years in 1638 on the banks of the Jumna river by Mughal emperor Shah Jehan - around the time he began building the Taj Mahal in nearby Agra in memory of his dead wife - the Red Fort is shaped like an irregular octagon and stretches for around 1.25 miles.
It houses elaborate marble palaces, once inlaid with precious stones, intricately carved domes, mosques, hammams (royal baths) and elaborate gardens which the tourism ministry now wants to develops.
The Harrow-educated Jawaharlal Nehru, who became independent India's first prime minister, began the tradition of raising the Indian flag and addressing the country every August 15 to celebrate independence from the Fort's ramparts and his successors continue with that tradition.