Small Bits of News

Indian trader loses life savings to termites
A trader in the Indian state of Bihar has lost his life savings after termites infesting his bank's safe deposit boxes ate them up. Dwarika Prasad had deposited currency notes and investment papers worth hundreds of thousands of rupees in a bank safe in the state capital Patna. The bank says it put up a notice warning customers of the termites.
Mr Prasad says he did not see it in time as he did not go to the bank for months after the notice went up. Bank officials admit they did not inform the customers individually about the termite problem. Bank manager YP Saha says the customer cannot blame the bank because he did not find his locker broken or damaged. "The bank is not liable for the deposits kept inside the safe as it is only when a locker is found broken that the bank is answerable," he said.
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Aliens are out to get me
A Bosnian man whose home has been hit an incredible five times by meteorites believes he is being targeted by aliens. Experts at Belgrade University have confirmed that all the rocks Radivoje Lajic has handed over were meteorites. They are now investigating local magnetic fields to try and work out what makes the property so attractive to the heavenly bodies. But Mr Lajic, who has had a steel girder reinforced roof put on the house he owns in the northern village of Gornja Lamovite, has an alternative explanation. The first meteorite fell on his house in November last year and since then a further four have smashed into his home. The strikes always happen when it is raining heavily, never when there are clear skies. He said: "I am obviously being targeted by extraterrestrials. I don't know what I have done to annoy them but there is no other explanation that makes sense. The chance of being hit by a meteorite is so small that getting hit five times has to be deliberate."
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Teacher's complaint over pupil's farting
Schoolboy Keith Hawley’s parents received a letter from one of his teachers – complaining that he breaks wind too much. The 15-year-old had no idea he had been causing a stink until he came home to find his parents in stitches over the note. The letter said his “excessive flatulence” caused “discomfort” to students and staff. Teacher Lynne Powell suggested Keith visit a GP or change his diet.
The teenager, a pupil at Woodlands Education Centre in Waterlooville, Hants, said: “I was so embarrassed when I got home and saw what the letter was about. It’s not exactly the kind of thing you want your parents to see.”
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Texas Girl to Have Half Her Brain Removed to Combat Rare Disease
A 6-year-old girl from Aledo, Texas, is set to have half of her brain removed to combat a life-threatening disorder. Jessie Hall suffers from Rasmussen's encephalitis, a rare illness that has plagued her for the past year, according to the report. Though she walks, runs and plays T-ball, Jessie has suffered multiple seizures, lost the use of her left arm and may lose her vision, her father Cris Hall told The Dallas Morning News. Jessie is expected to undergo a hemispherectomy — a procedure in which one cerebral hemisphere (half of the brain) is removed or disabled