He lost his hand for a petty theftKABUL: Hameedullah sat on the cold, wet ground of a high school football field on Thursday surrounded by 10,000 people who had come to watch a doctor amputate his right hand - the punishment in Taliban-run territory for theft. Taliban soldiers with automatic rifles dragged Hameedullah, barely 18-years old, from the back of an ambulance. Behind him a doctor followed. Sobbing Hameedullah fell to the ground, while over a loudspeaker a mullah or Islamic cleric condemned Hameedullah's crime of theft. He had apparently stolen some items from a small shop in Kabul's Karte Parwan district. The authorities didn't say what he had stolen or what it was worth.A guard stood next to Hameedullah, while the doctor crouched to administer an injection of anesthetic. Within two minutes Hameedullah slumped to the ground, witnesses said. Using a knife, the doctor amputated his right hand.After the operation, the soldiers moved quickly, picking up a bleeding Hameedullah andcarrying him into the ambulance. As it roared off to a nearby hospital, the mullah yelled God is great and extolled the virtues of the Taliban and its brand of Islamic law.Stable arrestBELGRADE: Two brothers kept their sister shut in a stable for three years, the Yugoslav daily Blic reported today. Milivoje and Velimir Bosnjakovic told police they wanted to stop their sister Vinka, 46, from going away. They had locked her in the stable because she liked being with cows. When found by police after an anonymous tip-off, Vinka Bosnjakovic weighed just 30 kilos. She was hospitalised while her brothers, who face up to eight years in jail, were arrested, the paper said.Reena Virk trialOTTAWA: Trial proceedings in the sensational Reena Virk murder case, which had sent shock waves throughout Canada, got underway with three teenaged girls pleading guilty to the assault charges. Reena Virk (14), a resident of Victoria in British Columbia, was beaten to death by her schoolmates on November 14 last year. However, three teenagers, also involved in the brutal murder, pleaded not guilty to the charge of assault causing bodily harm.The highlight of the opening day trial proceeding was testimony by a 15-year-old boy, charged with second degree murder standing trial as an adult. His friend, present at the scene of assault told the jury that a boy kicked Reena in the head from side to side while the girls beat her from the other side as she pleaded to be left alone.Saviour parrotBRYN MAWR: Rupert knew enough to start squawking when the house fire started. The parrot is talking again - faintly - now that he's been saved from the rubble. He said "hi-ya rup," said Lynn Norley, still shaken after the fire that destroyed her historic home in suburban Philadelphia. The fire would have destroyed Norley, too, if Rupert hadn't noticed Monday's fire. The gray African parrot woke Norley just in time for her to drop her two dogs out a second-floor bathroom window, thenjump to safety herself.Norley thought her pet of 12 years had died. She had left him wrapped in a towel in the bathroom. Hours later, firefighters found Rupert in the tub under fallen layers of insulation and bathroom tiles. He was wet, black from soot and weak from smoke inhalation.Rupert's voice isn't what it was, but the bird is doing fine. Norley said that she's had calls from bird specialists all over the country who can't believe Rupert survived.
