Missing precious ornaments and jewelry donated by devotees to the Bodh Gaya Mahabodhi temple — one the holiest Buddhist sites in the world — have been recovered from the room of a former chief priest. Bhadant Bodhipal is one of the three former temple officials who were named and accused forallegedly chopping off a branch of the revered Bodhi tree, believed to be the one under which the Buddha attained enlightenment 2,550 years ago. Buddhist monks alleged they chopped off a branch for selling it abroad. The 1,500-year-old temple at Bodh Gaya was declared a World Heritage Site in 2002 by UNESCO.

 

 

CHENNAI, India

Two people were killed in an accident during the shooting of a film in the busy Gemini area of this city in Tamil Nadu. The crew were putting up a set of a hospital for a Trisha-Arya Tamil film entitled Sarvam. The accident occurred when the crew went up to the top floor of a partially constructed 11-storey building near the Gemini fly-over. On the ninth floor, the overloaded temporary lift they were riding, collapsed and crashed down. One member of the crew, Udaykumar, 25, died on the spot while one person died on the way to the hospital, police said.

 

 

 

 

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka

Malaysia has freed a Sri Lankan businessman who was jailed four years ago for allegedly supplying nuclear weapon components to Libya. Buhary Seyed Abu Tahir, who was alleged to have deceived a company partly owned by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s son to buy the components, was reported to have been released from detention June 6. Tahir’s alleged activity came to light when authorities found five Libya-bound containers of components related to uranium enrichment in 2003.

 

 

A 30-year-old Maldivian woman was kept confined in her room for 12 years by her family and was discovered only last week after a complaint. The case was reported on Kinbidhoo island of the Thaa atoll. The 30-year-old woman is the daughter of one of the Island Chiefs of Kinbidhoo, according to the Haveeru Daily. Ministry officials observed that the room where she was kept hadn’t been cleaned for a long time and even her clothes were filthy. Her bed was covered with a sheet of linoleum, which was torn in several places.

 

A Sikh devotee who had come to pray at the Golden Temple drowned in the sacred pond of the Sikh holy shrine here while taking a dip. The victim, Satnam Singh Randhawa from a village in Gurdaspur district in Punjab, was accompanied by his wife while visiting the shrine. His wife later told authorities that Randhawa was mentally disturbed.

 

 

 

 

 

SHIMLA, India

Monkeys which were sterilized by the Himachal Pradesh wildlife department last year are reproducing again, officials said. To control the monkey menace in areas like Shimla, Kufri and Rampur, the wildlife department sterilized about 1,300 simians last year. The males were sterilized using laser technology and tubectomies were performed on females using the laparoscopic technique. "Most of the monkeys sterilized by the wildlife department are pregnant again," said a wildlife official.