"2 charged in school lunch poisoning case in India" by Gardiner Harris and Hari Kumar | New York Times Syndicate, October 23, 2013
NEW DELHI — Police in India have charged a school principal and her husband with killing 23 children after feeding them lunches laced with insecticide, officials said Tuesday, in a case that shocked the country.
The principal, Meena Kumari, and her husband, Arjun Rai, went into hiding almost as soon as the young children fell ill at the school in the village of Gandaman in the Saran district of Bihar, a state in India’s northeast.
Police arrested Kumari a week after the deaths, in July, while Rai absconded for nearly two months.
Murder charges were filed against the couple Sunday night.
Investigators have determined that Kumari provided the school’s cook with cooking oil laced with the same kind of insecticide that Rai sold to local farmers. Of the 52 children attending school July 16, 47 ate the poisoned food — although many objected to the foul smell. Kumari scolded the complaining children and insisted they eat the meal of rice, soybeans, and potato curry.
All 47 children became seriously ill and 23 died, according to Raj Kaushal, a police officer who investigated the case. The children were between 6 and 12 years old, Kaushal said.
India’s midday meal program is one of the most important antipoverty programs in the world and is a vital source of nutrition for India’s children, nearly half of whom suffer some form of malnutrition. The program has also helped boost school attendance in India, where literacy rates remain woefully low.
But food quality and safety standards in the program have long been poor, and the deaths in Bihar have led to a spate of stories about less deadly food-poisoning incidents at other schools.
Not in the Globe!
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Related: School Principal Served Up to Indian People
Eat 'em up because their is a hunger crisis in India.
Time for a nap:
"Dream inspires search for treasure in India" by Biswajeet Banerjee | Associated Press, October 19, 2013
UNNAO, India — Archeologists began digging for treasure beneath a 19th-century fort in northern India on Friday, after a Hindu holy man said a former king appeared to him in a dream and told him of a nearly $50 billion cache.
The treasure hunt began after Hindu swami Shobhan Sarkar relayed his dream to an Indian government minister.
The swami said the spirit of King Rao Ram Baksh Singh, who was hanged in 1858 after rising up against British colonial forces, told him to take care of the 1,000-ton treasure hidden under the late king’s fort in Uttar Pradesh.
Geological and archeological officials surveyed the area Sunday and found evidence of metal 66 feet underground.
A host of interested parties have lined up to stake a claim to the treasure, believed to be in gold and silver.
A descendent of the king, Navchandi Veer Pratap Singh, said, “If gold is really found there, we should get our share.”
I imagine private bankers will want theirs, too.
State authorities and local officials said they had a right to the wealth. “The treasure trove should be used for the development of the state,” lawmaker Kuldeep Senger said.
You $ee the mind-$et of lawmakers the world over?
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"Bus inferno in southern India kills 45 passengers" Associated Press, October 31, 2013
HYDERABAD, India — A packed bus crashed into a highway barrier and burst into flames Wednesday in southern India, killing 45 passengers who were locked inside the cabin after the driver escaped, officials said.
The driver, a bus cleaner, and five passengers managed to escape through a window in the front of the overnight bus, according to the transportation minister of southern Andhra Pradesh state.
The other passengers were trapped inside the sleeper bus, which had an automatic locking system that could be controlled by the driver, said local police official Pradeep, who goes by one name.
Only three of the 45 charred bodies could be identified, state Information Minister D.K. Aruna said.
Police detained the driver and the bus cleaner for questioning, and filed charges including negligence against the bus operator, Jabbar Travels, the transportation minister said.
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Maybe you would be better taking a boat:
"India detains crew of US ship carrying weapons" Associated Press, October 15, 2013
NEW DELHI — Indian police on Monday questioned the crew of a ship accused of illegally transporting weapons and ammunition in Indian waters.
Police in the port of Tuticorin filed a complaint against the crew and 25 armed security guards aboard the Seaman Ohio after they failed to produce documents allowing them to carry the weapons, coast guard officials said.
A coast guard official said the ship is owned by a Virginia-based security company, AdvanFort. Police said the ship’s captain told investigators that AdvanFort provides armed escorts to merchant vessels traveling in pirate-infested waters in the Indian Ocean. The ship had 10 crew members and 25 armed security guards from India, Britain, Estonia, and Ukraine, officials said.
What it looks like we have here is a U.S. WEAPONS SMUGGLING OPERATION that the Indians busted!
In a separate ship seizure off Venezuela, authorities charged Igor Bekirov, the Ukrainian captain of an oil research ship, with illegally sailing in Venezuela’s maritime economic zone, waters that are disputed with neighboring Guyana. The other 35 crew members, including five US citizens, remain in custody. The vessel was conducting a seismic study for Texas-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp. under a concession from Guyana.
Isn't that George W. Bush's company?
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Related:
"Venezuela escorts US-chartered ship
GEORGETOWN — A ship carrying five American oil workers was taken to shore after Venezuela intercepted the US-chartered vessel in disputed waters off the coast of Guyana, a move that threatens to revive a decades-old territorial dispute between two Latin American countries. The 285-foot survey research vessel was conducting a seismic study when it was detained by an armed Venezuelan navy vessel and ordered to sail under escort to Margarita Island (AP)."
Also see: Sunday Globe Special: Sounding Off
