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Blacklisted
Baa Baa Black Sheep The government in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh has removed nursery rhymes such as Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Baa, Baa, Black Sheep from its primary school syllabus because they are ‘too Western’. Children will now learn English-language rhymes written by Indian poets. ‘We want our children to have value education in local colour,’ the Hindustan Times quoted the state’s school education minister as saying. |
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Costing a
Buffalo and a Pig An indigenous man in Malaysia’s Sabah state on Borneo Island was fined a buffalo and a pig for breaking a tribal custom by secretly marrying a second wife, even though he agreed to dissolve the second marriage and return to his first wife and family, according to Kota Kinabalu Native Court chief. Native Courts in Sabah’s 21 districts function alongside the civil and Islamic Shariah courts, and are presided over by districts chiefs assisted by tribe leaders. The court handles cases only relating to laws of the native indigenous people in Sabah and allows the state’s indigenous Kadazan natives and other smaller tribes to seek redress under ancient tribal customs, which stress more on reconciling fighting parties than meting out punishment. |
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Landing in Hot Soup
A father in Atlanta accused of poisoning his children’s soup in a scheme to sue the Campbell Soup Co was indicted on tampering and fraud charges, according to authorities. The children, a three-year-old boy and his 18-month-old sister, were taken to hospital emergency rooms three times in a month.
Investigations show that their father fed them tainted soup each time. On the third occasion, he used the prescription drugs used to treat depression – making his young daughter so ill she was flown by helicopter to an Atlanta hospital. He has been charged with tampering with consumer products with reckless disregard for the risk that another person would be placed in danger of death or serious bodily injury. He apparently wanted to get money from the manufacturer by claiming its soup caused his children’s illnesses. If convicted, he may face up to 75 years in jail. The children are now in their mother’s custody. |
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A Taxing Death It has often been said that people would rather die than pay taxes. Now, the opposite appears to be true. Two Australian economists who scoured the death records of 1979, when the government abolished federal inheritance tax, have found a large blip in the data. Rather than being taxed on up to 28 per cent of the value of their estate, a significant number of rich people put off drawing their final breath until after midnight on 1 July, when they were free to die untaxed. |
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