Free Republic

Separated by geography and language, there's not much that might seem to connect India's five dwindling Jewish communities – except praying in Hebrew, and food. ...Kolkata is home to the Baghdadi Jews, who were once abundant enough to warrant five synagogues; now there aren't enough for a minyan (minimum [10] male Jews required for liturgical purposes). Magen David and the smaller Beth El Synagogue were both classified as protected monuments and renovated by the Archaeological Survey of India in 2017. ...The story of disappearing Jewish populations finds echoes elsewhere in India. Jews are believed to have first arrived in India...

KOLKATA, India — When Sonali Mehrotra realized that a hulking overpass would come within arm’s length of her third-floor balcony, she took refuge in black humor, telling relatives to look at the bright side: Instead of lugging suitcases up the stairs when they came to visit, they could toss them into a bedroom as they drove in from the airport. Anyway, work on the overpass occurred so sporadically — generally, when elections were coming — that a project originally promised in 18 months was unfinished after seven years. At this rate, she joked, the project might not be completed in...

Rescue teams in Kolkata, India, scrambled on Thursday to retrieve scores of people believed to be trapped under a partly constructed vehicle overpass that collapsed with a deafening blast around midday.

As I walked into the department this bright brisk morning, coffee cheerily in hand, the live global seismogram display in the atrium caught my eye with an alarming event that had just happened during my bike ride into work. *gasp* that looks bad *gasp* that looks bad BIG earthquake, somewhere in the vicinity of Central/Southern Asia. Indeed, an earthquake deep (>200 km) beneath the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan had shaken a huge swath of Central and South Asia. The great depth of the earthquake meant less extreme shaking at the epicenter (nobody lives closer than 212 km from the...

Which is preferable; 1. The advantages of easily climbing the social ladder in a poor nation (like cab drivers of India do) 2. The disadvantages of being poor and sticking to the device of "Dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope" (like certain Mexican Americans do) 3. The predictability of being an average citizen going to an average mall in an average PC corner of the World (like most Stockholmers enjoy doing) I, sincerely, recommend viewing the clips linked to below.

Don’t Ask Department London : Police are searching for a man who – wearing just a diaper – approaches women late at night , and asks them if there are any baby changing facilities nearby. ( Don’t ask ! We don’t want to know why !! ) Canberra: If you were to watch this Australian gentleman perform, you might conclude he was fishing : surf-casting to be exact. Well…..not exactly . It seems he has taught three mice : Harry, Chopsticks, and Bunsen - how to surf , using tiny, mouse-sized surfboards. He employs a rigorous training program ,involving months...

New Delhi, April 26. (PTI): With three more persons testing positive for the SARS virus in the country, the number of such cases has gone up to seven, Health Ministry officials said here today. Of the three freshly confirmed cases, one is being treated in Kasturba Hospital, Mumbai and the other two in Apollo Hospital, Kolkata and Naidu Hospital, Pune, officials added.