Tuesday, November 24, 2009

A 'princely' Rs.400 or $8 - for winning two golds, one bronze at Ipoh

When constable and sportswoman Anita Yadav went to meet a top Agra police official with her prized possessions - two golds and one bronze medal won at the November athletics championships in Malaysia - she could scarcely imagine what lay in store.

A 'princely' Rs.400 had been sanctioned as her reward by the police, says a bitter Anita. This was the response to her application informing the police department of the laurels she had won.

'No compliments, bouquets or encouraging words from any quarters. Even the media took no notice of my achievements,' Anita told IANS in an interview. 'Cricketers would have been honoured and recognised by everyone but athletes like us are cold shouldered.'

Anita's kitty of medals weighs several kilograms, having won them at state, national and international meets at regular intervals. But the cold indifference and lack of encouragement from people in general and her own department in particular has begun to hurt.

'When I returned after 15 days of hard gruelling competitions at the international level in Malaysia and applied for three days' leave, my boss said you have already had such a long outing and rest. Get back to work.

'With this kind of attitude how can sports flourish here?' Anita wonders.

At the Malaysian International Open Masters Athletics Championship held at Ipoh Nov 7 and 8, she was given the best woman athlete award.

She touched 5 m 40 cm in long jump, winning a gold. She clinched a gold in javelin throw and a bronze in the Medley relay race. She was the lone representative from Uttar Pradesh.

'At 35 plus, I had to compete with a 23-year-old girl,' she said.

As a constable attached to the Sadar police station in Agra, she finds it hard to combine her duties with sports.

'But I manage because my husband, Shanti Swarup, who is also in the police, takes care of my 11-year-old daughter and six-year-old son. He has never let me feel burdened with domestic chores and has been a great source of encouragement.

'I come from a very conservative background in Etawah and when I go to my in-laws, I still have to hide my face behind a veil despite my long international exposure.

'Even with 80 odd medals I have no future in sports. They give me nothing extra, no facilities, no allowances. My own salary is spent on my diet. I eat 85 almonds daily, two litres of milk and a very rich vegetarian diet of dal roti, plus lots of desi ghee and at least five glasses of fruit juice.

'I could win medals at Malaysia because I am fit and practise regularly, come what may.'

A post graduate in sociology from Jeevaji University, Gwalior, Anita is totally devoted to sports and has won medals not only in athletics but also judo, table tennis, weight-lifting.

She keeps a low profile. 'At the international meets I stay alone, don't mix around with people, keep a low profile and concentrate on my work because I am a fitness freak,' she says.

In fact, the poor efficiency and performance levels of the police she attributes to lack of interest in sports.

'Speaking for myself and my family, let me put it in bold letters: we do not accept a single penny from corrupt sources or as bribery. The whole department knows that. You know how difficult it is to stay away from the corrupting influences of the system you are part of, but I am proud of this fact,' Anita said.

'I have won all the shields and honours in police games for Agra and Uttar Pradesh in the past 12 years. But no one is proud of me. I feel so frustrated and feel like giving up because I cannot give anything to my family.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Trapped thief drops trousers in bungled burglary

He wiggled, jiggled and even dropped his trousers, but a thief trying to break into a supermarket in Portugal stayed stuck fast in a tiny window until he was rescued by police and the fire brigade.

"Apparently he dropped his trousers as he was trying to free himself by wiggling," Capt. Santos, local police chief in Loule in southern Portugal, told Reuters on Monday.

He said the slim 22-year-old Romanian man had spent about 11 hours stuck in the window, including the two hours it took police and the fire brigade to get him out on Sunday morning.

"Once he got his upper body inside, there was nothing there to find support on, so he was stuck at his waist ... It's not uncommon for thieves to get inside and then not be able to get out after a burglary, but this was quite unusual," Santos said.

Lost driver finds himself in wrong state

Victorian police have helped an elderly NSW man find his way home after an epic nine-hour road trip that took him more than 600km off course and far into the wrong state.

The 80-year-old identified as Eric, from Pambula, near Merimbula on the NSW south coast, set off from a friend's house at Yass, on the Hume Highway southwest of Sydney, about 7.15am on Monday for the 613km trip home.

Police believe Eric took a wrong turn and stayed on the Hume Highway, taking him across the Victorian border at Albury-Wodonga and on towards Melbourne.

Constable Tom Windlow and Leading Senior Constable Clayton Smith of the police drug and alcohol section found Eric when they pulled into a roadhouse on the Princes Freeway at Lara, near Geelong, about 3.45pm (AEDT).

Eric was 630km west of Pambula, and 654km away from Yass, when his adventure ended.

"I was stretching my legs, waiting for Tom to come back to the car when this little old man came up to me saying he was lost," Sen Const Smith said.

"He handed me his mobile and asked if I could speak to his wife."

The man's wife was frantic with worry, telling police he had been on the road for nine hours.

"Believe me, we never expected for her to say he had driven from Yass," Sen Const Smith said.

The members took Eric to Sunshine police station to meet family friends, who drove from Mount Eliza to meet him.

"He was such nice gentleman, full of stories and very grateful for our help," Sen Const Smith said.

"Although we had to laugh. When we asked him why he hadn't stopped earlier he replied, "I just like to drive."

Eric, who suffers slight dementia, and his wife were reunited on Tuesday afternoon, police said.

Man killed wife 'during a dream'

Christine Thomas, 57, was killed in Aberporth, Ceredigion, in July 2008.

Swansea Crown Court heard Brian Thomas, 59, of Neath, accepts he killed her but says he has a sleep disorder which had been triggered by "boy racer activity".

Jurors have been told they can reach a verdict of not guilty or of not guilty by reason of insanity.

Prosecuting barrister Paul Thomas QC, in his opening words to the jury on Tuesday morning, described the case as "highly unusual".

He described how Mr Thomas killed his wife, his childhood sweetheart, because he had dreamt she was a man who had broken into their motor home.

The court was told Mr Thomas's disorder meant he was not in control of his actions when he strangled his partner of 40 years.

After commissioning evidence from sleep experts, the prosecution agreed his actions were involuntary and he could not be held responsible.

Prosecuting, Mr Thomas said the defendant was charged with the murder of his wife, whose death he accepted causing.

Act strangely

But the barrister said the prosecution did not seek a murder or manslaughter conviction.

Instead, he said the prosecution would be arguing for the "special verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity".

The alternative, the jury was told, would be "a simple verdict of not guilty".

The jury was told that the couple, who have two grown-up daughters, enjoyed holidaying together in their camper van.

Ceredigion map

The daughters said their father had been prone to episodes of sleepwalking, during which he had been known sometimes to act strangely.

The court heard how Mr and Mrs Thomas had gone on holiday in their camper van in July 2008 and stayed the night at a vehicle park in Aberporth.

A group of younger people turned up at the car park after they had gone to bed, and the screeching of brakes and tyres - described in court as "boy racer activity" - disturbed the couple, who moved from the site's lower to its higher car park.

'Highly sceptical'

The prosecution said that at 0349 the next morning, Mr Thomas made a 999 call, which was later played to the court, in which he said he had killed his wife because he had mistaken her for an intruder in a dream.

He said he had dreamt he was fighting one of the boy racers.

The prosecution said the defendant had told the 999 operator: "I woke up fighting one of those boys but it wasn't a boy, it was Christine."

In police interviews, Mr Thomas repeated what he had told the 999 operator - that he had dreamt of a man crawling across the bed, putting him in a headlock, then waking to find his wife dead.

The prosecution told the jury that the police and CPS had been "highly sceptical" of his explanation and charged him with murder.

But because the defendant had raised the matter of his sleep disorder, both defence and prosecution commissioned experts to investigate it.

Tests were carried out on Mr Thomas as he slept and both sleep experts agreed he had killed his wife while affected by a sleep disorder, meaning his behaviour was "involuntary."

Spoke through tears

The barrister told the court Mr Thomas's behaviour was consistent with automatism, which meant at the time he killed his wife, his mind had no control over what his body was doing.

The jury was told that neither sleep expert would go into details about the condition because they did not want details of it made public in case of "copycat killings".

Later, the court was played a 10-minute excerpt of the call Mr Thomas had made to emergency services.

As it was played, the defendant broke down in tears, sobbing loudly and burying his face in his hands.

In the recording, Mr Thomas spoke through tears in a panicked-sounding voice: "I think I killed my wife. I killed her. Oh my God."

He explained he thought he had been fighting but then told the operator: "There was no boys, it was me. I must have been dreaming or something."

Later he was heard saying: "I love her. What have I done? She's my world."

The court also heard the couple had been sleeping together in the camper van in a change to their sleeping arrangements at home where they slept separately.

Mr Thomas said it was the prosecution's case that the defendant had suffered insane automatism caused by an internal condition.

He said the defence would argue it was non-insane automatism caused by external factors, particularly the stress caused by the boy racers.

The case was adjourned until Wednesday.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Choclate Theif

A 12-year-old Aboriginal boy has been charged with receiving a 70 cent Freddo Frog chocolate allegedly stolen from a supermarket in regional Western Australia.

Fairfax newspapers say the boy has no prior convictions.

He's been charged with receiving the chocolate, allegedly stolen by a friend, and faces a second charge involving the receipt of a novelty sign from another shop.

The boy will face Northam Children's Court, about 100km from Perth, on Monday.

His lawyer, Aboriginal Legal Service chief Peter Collins, has asked police to withdraw the charges but has not received a response.

"It's scandalous that a 12-year-old child should be subject to prosecution for a case of this type," he told Fairfax.

Mr Collins said the boy had missed an earlier court date because of a family misunderstanding and was apprehended at 8am on a school day and locked in a cell in "appalling" conditions for several hours.

A WA police spokesman said it's appropriate to have the court deal with the boy, because police have been forced to speak to him about other matters previously.