Witchcraft may be outlawed in India

The Indian home ministry is now drafting a proposal to declare all forms of witchcraft illegal. The reason - to cut down on the number of women branded as witches and killed (after the UN expressed concern at the number of murders ascribed to witch-hunting).

The article (New Kerala, reporting an IANS story) is here.

According to official figures, 2,556 women were branded as witches and killed in India between 1987 and 2003.

The figure was around 4,000 collectively for Britain, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Australia between 1999 and 2003.

While the first figure is alarming, have I been missing the obviously massive witch hunts in Britain, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Australia?

(EDIT: yes, I'm poking at the last half of the quote (I think we'd have noticed it), though the first part does seem to be backed up by other sources. The are serious issues with folks identified as "witches" being put to death in several rural areas in India. Some of it may also be the translators - I'm not at all certain what 'witchcraft' in this article means in the particular.)

Whelpday and PotW

Happy Whelpday to Latin Vixen!

The new picture of the week is up :)

25 Jul 2004 This statue of Thutmosis III stands at one corner of the Rosicrucian Museum complex in San Jose. The museum houses the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts on exhibit in California.

There is no statue of Anubis on display.

We've had burrwolf and lance_foxx visiting this weekend; we didn't make it out to the Gilroy Garlic Festival but managed to see I, Robot, which was better than expected.