More than 60 survivors and victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas leak began a trek to New Delhi on Wednesday to press for a clean-up of the toxic waste still surrounding the plant, activists said.
Forty more people are expected to join the 800km march from Bhopal in central India to the capital, a statement issued by the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal said.
In 2006, the survivors went home after camping on New Delhi's sidewalks for weeks following assurances by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that he would look into their demands for compensation and clean-up of the toxic waste.
"Two years after his promise, the lot of the Bhopalis has gone from bad to worse," survivor Rashida Bee said in a statement. "Our effort this year would be far more difficult for the government to ignore."
The disaster occurred on Dec. 3, 1984 when a storage tank at the Union Carbide India pesticide plant in Bhopal spewed cyanide gas into the air, killing more than 3,500 people immediately. The toll has since climbed to more than 15,000, the government says.
TIT-FOR-TAT: The arrest of Filipinos that Manila said were in China as part of a scholarship program follows the Philippines’ detention of at least a dozen Chinese The Philippines yesterday expressed alarm over the arrest of three Filipinos in China on suspicion of espionage, saying they were ordinary citizens and the arrests could be retaliation for Manila’s crackdown against alleged Chinese spies. Chinese authorities arrested the Filipinos and accused them of working for the Philippine National Security Council to gather classified information on its military, the state-run China Daily reported earlier this week, citing state security officials. It said the three had confessed to the crime. The National Security Council disputed Beijing’s accusations, saying the three were former recipients of a government scholarship program created under an agreement between the
Sitting around a wrestling ring, churchgoers roared as local hero Billy O’Keeffe body-slammed a fighter named Disciple. Beneath stained-glass windows, they whooped and cheered as burly, tattooed wresters tumbled into the aisle during a six-man tag-team battle. This is Wrestling Church, which brings blood, sweat and tears — mostly sweat — to St Peter’s Anglican church in the northern England town of Shipley. It is the creation of Gareth Thompson, a charismatic 37-year-old who said he was saved by pro wrestling and Jesus — and wants others to have the same experience. The outsized characters and scripted morality battles of pro wrestling fit
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