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Despite horror being often deemed inappropriate for children, it can be an important genre in portraying the terrors of the real world to young readers. Horror, Jessica McCort argues, \"offers young readers...a dreamscape that parallels their reality, sometimes making it easier to cope with the monsters they must face in the real world\" (22). Within children's literature, horror allows young readers to face and experience the negative elements of reality through the grotesque in an entertaining fashion. An example of this is Ranjit Lal's Faces in the Water, an Indian children's novel addressing female infanticide through protagonist Gurmi's encounter with the ghosts of his sisters who were killed at birth. The ghosts can be seen as a reference to the 1994 introduction of an Indian government program, the \"Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, which made it illegal to determine the sex of a foetus unless it was necessary for urgent medical reasons\" (Vaze). Despite this act, female infanticide and feticide remain a serious concern in Indian society. Comparing India's male/female ratio to the worldwide natural ratio, around sixty million women are assumed missing in India (Hundal). Allie Dichiara informs us that, in India, \"[t]he concept of daughters as 'more expensive' has been normalised throughout history.\" Lal's novel addresses this issue directly when Surinder Aunty tells Gurmi that girls \"are quite useless and then you have to get them married and all that nakhra and expense... And who will look after us when we're old? Our fine, sturdy sons of course!\" (88). The Diwanchands, Gurmi's family, commit female infanticide for economical reasons. Through the Diwanchands, Lal shows that when feticide becomes unavailable, this leads to female infanticide, signaling that the issue of child murder due to sex bias remains an issue in India despite the 1994 act.

In this scenario, [Shikha Saini] could have easily become a self-pitying, whining, little orphan. But [Ranjit Lal] has triumphed in the creation of a character full of ebullience, wit and steely resolution, all of which are needed to foil the nefarious intentions of Snail Snot, a.k.a. Veena Aunty, a revoltingly hypocritical woman given to good works, who has an unhealthy influence over the children's uncle.

All the accused in the case relating to the fashion model's murder in 1999 were acquitted last week for lack of evidence after witnesses turned hostile. The main accused, Manu Sharma alias Siddharth Vashishtha, is the son of Haryana Excise Minister Vinod Sharma.

BOMBAY, India -- A powerful explosive favored by Islamic guerrillas in Kashmir was used in the twin bombings in Bombay this week, police said Wednesday, bolstering India's assertion that Muslim militants carried out the terrorist attack. RDX was last known to have been used in Bombay in March 1993 serial bombings that killed more than 250 people. RDX is a white crystalline solid usually used in mixtures with other explosives, oils or waxes, and is rarely used alone. Relations between India and Pakistan have been improving in recent months. A peace process was back on track after being broken off when the two nations nearly went to war over an attack on the Indian Parliament in late 2001. Since then, diplomatic ties have been restored, buses are crossing the border and officials are talking about resuming air links.