MONTH THAT WAS

Uruguay prez wealth: 23-year-old VW Beetle

Montevideo (Uruguay): Uruguay’s new president may be one of the world’s poorest sitting leaders: Jose Mujica formally declared that his entire wealth amounts to a 1987 Volkswagen Beetle. The 23-year-old car is valued at about USD 1,900. Since the former leftist guerilla leader has no bank accounts or other assets and put his small flower farm in his wife’s name, the car is all he owns, according to his sworn declaration, which appeared in official bulletin. Mujica’s only reported income is his presidential salary, about USD 11,000 a month. He gives 20 per cent of this to his political movement. At 75, Mujica is used to an austere lifestyle. Not so his vice president, Danilo Astori, whose declared wealth of USD 250,000 includes a house and car worth nearly 10 times Mujica’s Beetle.

Brit boy hasn’t missed school for 12 years

Melbourne: English schoolboy Stephen Booth has never missed a day in 12 years of education. The Herald Sun reports, the teen has battled through coughs and colds for the past 12 years without taking a single day off school. The 16-year-old boy told The Stoke Sentinel: "I was about four when I last had a day off. I had something contagious so stayed at home. I generally only get ill during school holidays. It’s just been a stroke of luck. My friends have had a laugh and joke with me about my attendance being so good. But the attendance was helped. I feel confident that I’ve learned a lot in lessons. I’m not going to miss any knowledge when it comes to the exams."

Former Haryana IG booked

Yamunanagar: Another former top policeman of Haryana has been booked for allegedly molesting and intimidating a woman lawyer eight years back when he was superintendent of police. Yamunanagar–based lawyer Arvinder Kaur had lodged a complaint against M S Ahlawat for sexually harassing her when he was the SP. She claimed to have come into Ahlawat’s contact when she had approached the Yamunanagar police in May 2002 to lodge a case of dowry harassment against her husband. The victim alleged that Ahlawat had insisted on meeting her in his camp office and allegedly tried to establish illicit relations with her. Kaur said Rathore was the DGP of Haryana then. "If Rathore was not in office, Ahlawat would not have dared to do such a thing. Ahlawat would not have had the guts to harass a lady who had gone to him for help in a dowry base," Kaur claimed.

Lead poisoning kills 163 in Nigeria

Abuja: As many as 163 persons, most of them children, have died in recent weeks due to health hazards caused by inhalation of lead emanating from illegal mines in northern Nigeria, a senior health official has said. Henry Akpan, the chief epidemiologist at the Oil rich African country’s ministry of health said some residents of northern state of Zamfara became victims of poisoning after illegal mining operations commenced in the area in March.
According to the ministry, 111 of the victims were children, mostly those who played in contaminated water flowing near the illegal mining sites. "The children played near the leaching process or took part in it, swallowing the lead by inhaling it or putting their contaminated hands in their mouths," the health ministry said.

Taliban execute 7-year-old boy

Kabul: Suspected Taliban militants executed a seven-year-old boy in southern Afghanistan after accusing him of spying for the government, a provincial official said. The Taliban had not yet commented on the reported incident.

Second RTI activist murdered in Maharashtra

Mumbai: In less than six months killing of RTI activist Sathish Shetty, yet another activist, Datta Patil, an activist from Ichalkaranji in the Kolhapur district, was found dead on May 22. In what might bedescribed as the increasing number of attacks against activists in Maharashtra, Patil was targeted for taking on administrators via the RTI act and attacked with a sword. Friend and activist Appa Patil said, "He was involved in a lot of social causes and had exposed corruption amongst several politicians and bureaucrats." Patil, who had petitioned the local court against horse-trading during municipal Council elections, had made several enemies due to his activism. He had also demanded an enquiry into the assets of 2 former police inspectors apart from lodging several complaints against a prominent builder. Six persons have now been arrested for Patil’s murder but many insist they are not the main perpetrators.