Whacky names of candidates in Meghalaya have always been the highpoint in any election in this Indian northeastern state. With a population of 2.3 million, Meghalaya is predominantly Christian with Garo, Khasi and Jaintia being the main languages spoken and English used as the link language. Most tribal people in Meghalaya prefer names of famous people although they know very little about their background. Candidates include Adolf Hitler,  Frankenstein Momin, Boniface Bamon, Britianwar Dan, Romeo Rani, Darling Lamare, Moonlight Pariat, Boldness Nongum and Budshell Marbaniang. Kennedy, Adiver, Chamberlaine, Livingstone and Newton are also among 331 candidates contesting the polls for the 60-member legislature.

 

Police have arrested four people accused of carrying out the largest bank heist in the state on New Year’s Eve and recovered 57kg of gold and 551,000 rupees in cash.  A total of 80kg of gold and Rs2.5mn in cash were stolen from the South Malabar Gramin Bank’s branch in Chelambra in Malappuram district, 180km north of Kochi. The robbers drilled a hole from a restaurant on the ground floor to enter the bank on the floor above. The main accused told police that he got the idea for the theft from the Hindi film Dhoom.

 

Muslim survivors of one of India’s worst religious riots are planning to convert the burnt buildings where their relatives were killed into a museum.
More than 2,500 people, most of them Muslims, were burned and hacked to death in a month of violence in Gujarat six years ago, according to human rights groups. Officials put the death toll at about 1,000.  Twenty-six deserted and charred houses standing in the Gulbarg Society, a Muslim-dominated housing project in Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s main city, are a reminder of one of the riot’s more infamous episodes.

 

Hundreds of rare Himalayan goats whose wool is used to make Kashmir’s famed pashmina shawls have died due to heavy snow and lack of fodder, officials said yesterday.  The goats pastures, spread over the mountains of the Ladakh region bordering China, have been blanketed by exceptionally deep snow and farmers have run out of fodder. Bad weather has played havoc with these goats this year. Most of the newly born failed to survive.

 

A Kerala expatriate facing death in Kuwait for murder appears to have escaped the noose as the victim’s widow pardoned him after accepting Rs1.5mn in blood money. Rema Devi, wife of Suresh Ambati, signed the papers to be presented to a Kuwaiti court to pardon Simil, 26. Simil accidentally killed his friend Suresh during a scuffle after a cricket match between expatriate workers.

 

NEW DELHI, India

An elderly man was mowed down by a speeding Blueline bus after being hit from behind in south Delhi.

The 'killer' Blueline buses have already claimed more than 15 lives this year. At least 120 people were killed last year in accidents involving the private buses. The 4,000-odd Blueline buses, a crucial part of Delhi's public transport system, have earned public ire for the recklessness of its drivers and owners but officials say they are helpless to check the menace.

 

A man who planned to walk from Bristol to India without any money has quit, after getting as far as Calais, France.  Mark Boyle, 28, who set out four weeks ago with only T-shirts, a bandage and sandals, hoped to rely on the kindness of strangers for food and lodging.  But, because he could not speak French, people thought he was free-loading or an asylum seeker.  He now plans to walk around the coast of Britain instead, learning French as he goes, so he can try again next year to make his journey to journey to Porbander, Gandhi's birthplace.

 

A crane lowered around 3,000 kg of vegetables and then 3,000 kg of rice into a gigantic vessel with 1,200 litres of simmering oil to create a new record for cooking biryani.  Lalitt Gattani said the aim of cooking such a humongous amount of biryani was to break the last record created by them and maintain India's position in the category. Holding long ladles and wearing masks and gloves, 60 cooks stirred the pot from a high pedestal, while the crowd salivated.

 

Call it mass hysteria or the belief that they can see Virgin Mary by looking directly at the blazing sun. The attempt has left around 50 people with blurred vision in Kerala. The incident took place at Erumely, around 50 km from here, when hundreds of enthusiastic Catholics reportedly sun-gazed after hearing about the 'miracle'.
K.E. Eapen, a retina specialist who is currently treating the affected at Kottayam, said the first case came to him Feb 15.  Reports from Erumely indicate that in their eagerness to sight Virgin Mary, a large number of people gathered at a place called Manjalaruvi Feb 13, offered prayers and started sun-gazing.

 

The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to ban Bollywood blockbuster "Jodhaa Akbar" fearing "breach of peace".  The Hrithik Roshan-Aishwarya Rai starrer, released Feb 15, has run into trouble in neighbouring Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh following protests by a section of the Rajput community alleging that it has distorted history.

 

 

 

 

Tourists are dumping an increasing amount of non-biodegradable plastic waste on the Himalayan glaciers, and environmental scientists have expressed concern this could damage the fragile mountain eco-system. A survey of several glaciers in Himachal Pradesh's Kullu Valley, carried out by the G.B. Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development, Kullu, found that non-biodegradable plastic waste had grown in the countryside in recent years.