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Bizarre Bazaar: Jul 16 08
Bhopal, India Police officials here said that the body of the child, Puneet Pal Singh, was recovered last Sunday from the Kanjali rivulet near here. Kapurthala is about 200 km from Chandigarh.
A final decision is expected this year on what to do about hundreds of tons of toxic waste on the grounds of a pesticide factory in Bhopal, India. The Union Carbide factory was the site of a poison gas leak in 1984 that killed at least 3,000 area residents and is also blamed for affecting the health of 500,000 others. No one examined the soil or determined to what extent toxic chemicals seeped into area water until 12 years after the gas leak. Advocates insist that Michigan’s Dow Chemical, which purchased Union Carbide in 2001, should pay for the cleanup.
KAPURTHALA, India
The seven-year-old son of a non-resident Indian (NRI), allegedly kidnapped by a Punjab police official, was found dead near this Punjab town.
Special police officer (SPO) Manvir Singh of Punjab Police, a friend of the child’s father was arrested for kidnapping the child and later murdering him. The suspect is believed to have had an affair with the child’s mother.
Ranchi, India
A rare medicinal tree, which is over 150 years old, was uprooted for the second time in 13 months due to heavy rainfall in Jharkhand’s capital Ranchi. Baobab, also known as Kalpataru, is a rare medicinal tree. In India, there are only nine such trees. Of the nine, five are found in Ranchi’s Doranda area. The tree, which is worshipped by people, was uprooted last week. Having a diameter of three meters, the same baobab tree was earlier uprooted in April last year and remained on the ground for three months. Forest officials re-planted the baobab tree in July last year. The tree showed signs of life as it started responding with seasonal change. Leaves started sprouting on the branches of the tree.
BHUBANESWAR, India
At least 800,000 devotees witnessed the return of Lord Jagannath and two other deities at Orissa’s Puri city last weekend. Bahuda yatra or the return festival is held nine days after the annual ratha yatra or chariot festival. Ratha yatra festival marks the annual journey of three deities from twelfth century Jagannath temple in three splendidly decorated chariots. Thousands of devotees pull the chariot and take the deities to the Gundicha temple, which is about five km from the main temple. The deities return to the main temple the same way nine days later. Devotees pull the chariots hoping that the exercise will help them get rid of their sins.
Colombo, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka has asked mobile phone users to carry a certificate of ownership of the cellphone and barred them from using phones belonging to others. The government has taken this step to minimizing threats to national security created by the irresponsible use of telephones, the government information department said. The ministry of defence, public security, law and order was making arrangements to issue directions to armed forces, police and other security institutions to carry out the inspections on cell phone users.
New Delhi, India
An Indian American former official has been sentenced to 15 years in jail by a court in New York for stealing almost $9 million of government money, most of which was intended to help identify victims of 9/11 terror attacks, and stashing it away in India. Natarajan Venkataram, 43, who served as a director in the office of chief medical examiner for 13 years, was arrested in 2005 for giving out lucrative contracts to computer companies, including some in India, who were given the job of identifying victims through forensic analysis of body parts collected at Ground Zero.
Orissa, India
A 32-year-old man in Orissa adopted a unique way to make his wedding memorable. He jumped from a height of about 6,000 feet to reach the bride’s place. Shishir Mishra, of Odagaon village in Nayagarh district, went up in a private helicopter along with three other skydivers and jumped from a height of about 6,000 feet to reach his fiancée’s house in the state capital Bhubaneswar.
Dhaka, Bangladesh
A wild elephant straying into a village trampled four people to death and injured another in southeastern Bangladesh. The elephant attacked the villagers in the Bandarban hill district’s Lama area, 350km from Dhaka and fled back into the forest. In recent years, elephants, an endangered species in Bangladesh, have killed 15 people on average annually as their forest habitats have shrunk due to encroachment by the rising human population. There are around 400 elephants in the country.
Lucknow, India
Two people were arrested and a large quantity of fake herbal medicines seized after police raided an office of a private company, allegedly run by an inter-state gang, in Uttar Pradesh’s Gonda district. "Those arrested are employees of a private company, GSA Marketing, and revealed that the company operates in other states including Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and Punjab," said a police officer.
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