A jinxed Bulgarian mobile phone number — +359 888 888 888 — has been suspended after three users died in the last 10 years, the last owner being gunned down outside an Indian eatery in Sofia, a media report said.
The first owner, Vladimir Grashnov, the former chief executive officer of Bulgarian mobile phone company Mobitel — which issued the number — died of cancer in 2001, aged 48. There were rumours that his cancer was caused by a trade rival using radioactive poisoning, the Daily Mail reported. The jinxed number then passed to Bulgarian mafia boss Konstantin Dimitrov. He was gunned down in 2003 by a assassin in the Netherlands.
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Britain’s new foreign secy to visit India
London: New British foreign secretary William Hague plans to visit India — an emerging superpower with which his government is trying to build a “genuinely special relationship” — within the next few months. Although no dates are finalised, it is expected that the foreign secretary will visit India before the Commonwealth Games are held in Delhi in October.
A trip by Prime Minister David Cameron is also thought to be under consideration, the Times daily reported on Wednesday.
The priority given to relations with Delhi was mentioned in the Queen’s speech on Tuesday which stressed on the need for “an enhanced partnership with India”. —PTI
The foreign secretary’s aides said later that the country was considered vital to forging a “distinctive British foreign policy”.
Before the May 6 parliamentary elections, Mr Hague said Britain needed to reach out beyond traditional allies in the US and Europe and that has remained a priority for the coalition government.
An aide to Mr Hague suggested that relations with India had lagged behind those with China by about five to ten years. —PTI
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Activist vows to protest till he dies
London: Anti-war campaigner Brian Haw, who has been protesting in Parliament Square opposite the Palace of Westminster since 2001, has vowed to continue to live and protest there till he dies, reports our London correspondent.
The Metropolitan Police, which is facing criticism for using 78 police officers for its security sweep in the Square before the state opening of Parliament on Tuesday morning, had arrested 61-year-old peace activist during the search and had charged him with obstructing the police.
Mr Haw has been protesting in Parliament Square since June 2, 2001 and initially started campaigning against the economic sanctions on Iraq and “the bombing of the country by the US and UK.”
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Woman loses breast to spider bite
New York: A woman survived a poisonous spider bite but lost a breast.
Victoria Franklin, a resident of Georgia, said that she is happy to have lost a breast instead of a limb.
She does not have any memory of the incident that cost her a breast.
Victoria is a 51-year-old grandmother. Her right breast has become gangrenous.
According to ABC News, she was on a respirator in coma for two weeks after the surgery. Doctors said that Victoria was stung by a brown recluse spider. The spider may bite when a person rolls over onto it in bed.
Her breast was swollen to the size of loaf bread till the time her twin sister took her to an Atlanta hospital.
—ANI