Ever since he turned a teenager, it had been Pierre Gagne's dream to visit Kerala. He had read it all: in National Geographic Traveller, Conde Nast and countless other magazines about the place that was described as among "50 must see destinations of a lifetime".

A ban against the use of polythene bags in Uganda and a raise in duties on plastic bags in Kenya this month has evoked strong criticism from people. The ban and duty was to check the piles of

on march 9, 2007, a fire in a scrap godown in an unauthorised colony in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh (up), killed a young boy and left many injured. The cause of fire is still unknown. The godown is