TOKYO - Millions of Asians turned their protected eyes skyward yesterday as dawn suddenly turned to darkness across the continent in the longest total solar eclipse of this century. Millions of others, fearing a bad omen, shuttered themselves indoors.
Chinese launched fireworks and danced in Shanghai. On a remote Japanese island, bewildered cattle went to their feeding troughs as though night had fallen. And in India, a woman was crushed as thousands of viewers crowded the banks of the Ganges for a glimpse....
The event was met by a mixture of awe, excitement, and fear. Cloudy skies and rain damped the show in many areas, but villagers in the town of Varanasi, on the banks of the Ganges in India, got one of the best views. Thousands of Hindus entered the waters to cleanse their sins.
The gathering was marred when a 65-year-old woman was killed and six people injured in a stampede at a site where about 2,500 people had gathered, said police spokesman Surendra Srivastava. He said it is not clear how the stampede started.
Seems to happen all too often in India.
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