ABRACADABRA

Witch craft gone crazy

Doctors in eastern Indonesia have removed the last of 28 nails found embedded in a three-year-old girl’s legs and back in a horrific case some residents and officials blamed on witchcraft. Doctors in Makassar on Sulawesi island had already removed more than two dozen 10-centimetere (four-inch) rusty nails, broken syringe needles and aluminium rods from the girl’s legs before removing a nail lodged dangerously close to her spine. "The girl is recovering from the operation and is generally in good condition. She is already playing again," the girl’s surgeon Kamaruddin said. X-rays in September revealed the foreign objects in the girl’s legs and back, prompting suspicions among local residents that they had been inserted magically. The governor of South Sulawesi province, Syahrul Yasin Limpo, visited the victim and said he believed witchcraft was to blame. "Believe it or not, in South Sulawesi it is possible for these sorts of things to happen," Syahrul was quoted as saying by local news portal Okezone.com. "We have often heard about people whose heads suddenly go soft, and medics have no idea what the cause is. It’s called magic and it’s explained in the Koran." Doctors said that scars on the girl’s legs showed the nails had been inserted by a person over a six-month period.

Rail travels for 16 km without driver

Islamabad: A railway locomotive travelled 16 km without a driver in Pakistan’s Punjab province, going past four level crossings, though there were no reports of any loss of life or property. The freight train locomotive was at Kundian railway shed for repairs when it suddenly began moving without a driver on board due to a fault in its electrical system, Assistant Traffic Officer Naseer Ahmed Khan told the media. Staff at the railway shed tried to board the engine and stop it but were unable to do so. The locomotive covered 16 km from kundain to Mianwali railway station in an hour at speeds of up 5to 40 km an hour. The engine crossed four level crossings in Mianwali city but there were no reports of loss of life or property, officials said. The locomotive finally came to a halt after staff at Mianwali railway station put it on a dead-end line.

Mother of all scams - Mothers 52 times

Her name: Durgavathi. Her address: Karanpur village, Gussainganj block in Lucknow district.
She figures 52 times on the list of beneficiaries of the Janani Suraksha Yojana, under which each institutional delivery fetches a mother Rs 1,400.
So, whoever thought up the caper has pocketed Rs 72,800 in the name of Durgavathi and her family with 52 kids.
The Centre had launched the programme in 2005 for reducing maternal and neonatal deaths by encouraging women to give birth in a healthy environment.
The official list, oblivious to the biological impossibility, records faithfully that Durgavati, aged 34, gave birth to her first male baby on January 2, 2009, and three other female babies on January 9, January 16 and January 27 and so on. The records also show her husband Mohan Ram as the proud father of the 52 children.
The racketeers lived up to the liar’s motto - stick to half- truths as far as possible. So, they introduced an auxiliary nurse called Sujata Yadav, on whom fell the noble, albeit exhausting, task of bringing Durgavathi over to the community health centre and get rewarded for the labour. Sujata Yadav turned out to be a fictitious name but only by half. The Gussainganj centre does have a health worker called Sujata but her surname is Sachan, not Yadav.
Durgavati is not alone in rewriting biology, as we know it. Neelam, 26, a resident of Tarwa Mahant village of Shravasti district was shown as having delivered babies on three days in a row – October 27, 28 and 29, 2010. The same woman was shown to have delivered a baby earlier on May 18, 2010, as well. The only difference was that her husband’s name was Rajendra in one record and Dinesh in another.
Within a span of 15 days, Ameerun Nisha delivered two children in Bargadhai village, Ikauna block in Shravasti.
Such were the stakes in the racket that the death of at least two senior doctors had been linked to those running the scam. Former director- general (family welfare) SP Ram, during whose tenure the irregularities occurred, said a probe was already under way and at least six officials had been suspended.

And now a shit pot bike

London: A Japanese company has come up with a motorbike, dubbed Toilet Bike Neo, which will leave nothing to waste, as it will be powered by excrement. Japan’s leading toilet manufacturer Tato, is the brainchild behind this curious creation, which uses a modified lavatory and a mobile laboratory for processing. This bizarre invention encourages the rider to use the portaloo as much as possible on every journey as the waste is turned into biofuel , which powers the machine, the Daily Mail reported. The company hopes the travelling toilet, which can reach a maximum speed of 50mp, will help reduce CO2 emissions by 50 per cent in the next six years.

Yeti exists, claim Russian officials

London: Yeti, an ape-like cryptid said to inhabit the Himalayan region of Nepal, India and Tibet, has long been regarded as a legend, given the lack of conclusive evidence of its existence, reports PTI.
But, Russian officials at the Kemerovo region have now claimed that they have found "indisputable evidence" that yetis exist-and are even living in Siberia. They say that an expedition to track down the Abominable Snowman in the Mount Shoria area came closer to catching one of the creatures, and also found coarse hair of Yetis in a remote cave, the ‘Daily Mail’ reported. During the expedition to the Azasskaya cave, indisputable proof was gathered by the expedition members that the Shoria mountains are inhabited by the Snow Man, the Kemerovo region administration has claimed. "They (researchers) found his footprints, his supposed bed and various markers with which the Yeti uses to denote his territory," the administration said. However, doubt has already been cast on the "find"– as – the team has no convincing photographic or DNA evidence. Their claim appears to be based on bent branches, a single unclear footprint and a small sample of grey "hair", found in a cave.