Boy's tale of heaven is publishing phenomenon

New York:  Just two months shy of his fourth birthday, Colton Burpo, the son of an evangelical pastor in Imperial, Neb., was rushed into emergency surgery with a burst appendix.

He woke up with an astonishing story: He had died and gone to heaven, where he met his great-grandfather; the biblical figure Samson; John the Baptist; and Jesus, who had eyes that "were just sort of a sea-blue and they seemed to sparkle," Colton, now 11 years old, recalled.

Colton's father, Todd, has turned the boy's experience into a 163-page book, "Heaven Is for Real," which has become a sleeper paperback hit of the winter, dominating best-seller lists and selling hundreds of thousands of copies.

Thomas Nelson, the book's publisher, said it had broken company sales records. The publisher, based in Nashville, began with an initial print run of 40,000 copies. Since the book came out in November, it has gone back to press 22 times, with more than 1.5 million copies in print. On the New York Times best-seller list for paperback nonfiction last Sunday, "Heaven Is for Real" was No. 1. The book remains in the top spot this coming Sunday.

Much of the book's success has been fueled by word of mouth, since it did not begin with the usual best-seller channels: there has been no elaborate book tour, big-name publisher or brand-name author. But it has gained traction with a few well-placed appearances on the morning show "Fox & Friends," "The 700 Club" and CNN.

The book has sold just as strongly in national chain bookstores like Barnes & Noble as it has in Christian specialty shops, said Matt Baugher, the vice president and publisher of Thomas Nelson. Mass merchants like Wal-Mart have pushed the book heavily in their stores, and large orders from churches and ministry groups are growing steadily.

"We all are perhaps desperate to know what is on the other side of the veil after we die," Mr. Baugher said, adding that his initial skepticism about the Burpo family's story was short-lived. "This was a very down-to-earth, conservative, quote-unquote normal Midwestern family. We became fully convinced that this story was valid. And also that it was a great story that would just take off."

The book was an instant hit in Barnes & Noble outlets and was near the top of the best-seller list on its bn.com. The chain's religion buyer was an early advocate for the book, ordering copies for every store, said Patricia Bostelman, the vice president for marketing at Barnes & Noble.

"When you buy the religion subject, you are presented with many stories about heaven, personal experiences about near-death and the afterlife," Ms. Bostelman said, noting that several other books with "heaven" in the title have sold well recently. "But what was unusual about this book was that it was the story of a little boy. It deactivated some of the cynicism that can go along with adults capitalizing on their experiences."

Todd Burpo wrote the book with Lynn Vincent, who collaborated with Sarah Palin on "Going Rogue." Mr. Burpo, the pastor of Crossroads Wesleyan Church in Imperial, a farming community in southwest Nebraska, said in an interview that he had shouldered some criticism over it.

"People say we just did this to make money, and it's not the truth," Mr. Burpo said, referring to anonymous online comments about the book. "We were expecting nothing. We were just hoping the publisher would break even." (He said he planned to give away much of the royalty income and spend some of it on home improvements.)

At first, he and his wife, Sonja, were not sure if they could believe their son's story, which came out slowly, months and years after his sudden illness and operation in 2003. The details persuaded them, Mr. Burpo said. Colton told his parents that he had met his younger sister in heaven, describing her as a dark-haired girl who resembled his older sister, Cassie. When the Burpos questioned him, he asked his mother, "You had a baby die in your tummy, didn't you?" While his wife had suffered a miscarriage years before, Mr. Burpo said, they had not told Colton about it. "There's just no way he could have known," Mr. Burpo said.

And the Burpos said that Colton painstakingly described images that he said he saw in heaven -- like the bloody wounds on Jesus' palms -- that he had not been shown before.

Eventually the Burpos decided to tell their story beyond their town. Mr. Burpo, in his Sunday sermons, had already introduced some anecdotes to his congregation. Through a pastor friend, they met Joel Kneedler, an agent with Alive Communications, a Christian literary agency in Colorado Springs. Mr. Kneedler sold the book to Thomas Nelson, a publisher known for Christian titles like "40 Days With Jesus" by Sarah Young. The advance was in the low five figures.

The book's list price is $16.99, but that is discounted to $9.34 on amazon.com.

At the outlets of Barbara's Bookstore, an independent chain mostly in the Chicago area, the book is No. 1 on the store's nonfiction best-seller list. Interest in it began to perk up around mid-February, said Greg Sato, a store manager.

"Of the nonfiction books lately that seems to be the one that people are asking about the most," Mr. Sato said. "I have pegged it in the same vein as 'The Five People You Meet in Heaven' or 'The Shack.' Like an Oprah book, but a little more religious or spiritual."

Colton, who appears as a blond, round-faced little boy on the cover of the book, now plays the piano and trumpet, is fascinated by Greek mythology, listens to Christian rock and loves Nebraska football.

Telling his story matter-of-factly, Colton said he was pleased that people were finding the story inspirational.

"People are getting blessed, and they're going to have healing from their hurts," he said. "I'm happy for that."

Radhika Tanwar's killer is a man named Vijay

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New Delhi:  Delhi Police have identified the man they accuse of murdering 20-year-old Radhika Tanwar as Vijay alias Ram Singh, a "mentally unstable" man who might have been involved in such an incident before.

Radhika Tanwar was shot on Tuesday morning as she was crossing a pedestrian bridge outside Ram Lal Anand College in South Delhi's Dhaula Kuan. For 10 minutes, not one passerby volunteered to take her to hospital. The man who fired at her managed to run away. He is still absconding.

The police said they believe this man is Vijay, who changed his name after coming to Delhi. They said he is 25 or 26-years-old, has four brothers, could have been involved in another such violent incident in his family and that he does not go back home often.

Radhika's family had earlier identified a police sketch as that of a man who stalked her for three years.    

This morning, the police detained two men - Ashraf and Tabrez - who they said had confessed to helping Vijay escape two days after he allegedly killed Radhika. The men have reportedly told the police that Radhika had slapped Vijay a few weeks ago and he wanted to take revenge for his public humiliation. The police say the version of these men corroborates with their investigations so far.

The family had not filed a complaint against the stalker, but had informally warned him to stay away from Radhika, say sources.

Dara Singh encounter: 4 Rajasthan cops arrested by CBI

Jaipur:  The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested four officials of the Rajasthan police in the much talked-about Dara Singh encounter case.

The encounter happened in October 2006, when Dara Singh, a criminal from Churu district, was gunned down by a team of the Special Operations - of the Rajasthan Police on the outskirts of Jaipur.

Later, a petition was filed by Dara Singh's family who called it a fake encounter.

The Supreme Court had handed over this case to the CBI.

Two senior IPS officers of Rajasthan and a Minister of the former Vasundhara Raje government were also allegedly involved in this case.

Those arrested are Inspectors Nisar Khan and Naresh Sharma, ASI Surendra Singh, all posted in Jaipur, and SI Satyanarayan Godara, posted in Bikaner.

Fake woman pilot is now 'zero-risk': Court

New Delhi:  Indigo Airline's woman pilot Parminder Kaur Gulati, arrested for securing commercial flying licence on the basis of forged mark sheets, was granted bail today by a Delhi court.
   
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Rakesh Pandit granted bail to Gulati saying there is "zero possibility" now of risking the lives of innocent passengers as she cannot fly an aircraft again.
    
"The nature of the offence is such that even if the accused desires, she cannot repeat it. As she cannot be permitted to fly the aircraft again without having license and due to that reason, there is zero possibility of risking the lives of innocent passengers," the court said, granting her bail on a personal bond of Rs. 50,000 with one surety of the same amount.
    
Advocate Vijay Aggarwal, appearing for Gualti, told the court that her client had already suffered the consequences of the alleged crime and she is entitled to bail as she is an estranged woman having a 7-year-old child.

    
The bail plea was opposed by the Additional Public Prosecutor on the ground that she had tried to obtain the license from Directorate General of Civil Aviation on fake documents.
    
The court, however, took into account the fact that Gulati had already suffered the "social consequence" and had to look after her minor child. 

Who is Shrikant Purohit?

New Delhi:  His arrest two-and-a-half years ago shook the foundation of what has been one of India's most secular institutions. The Indian Army. Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit was accused of conspiracy for terror and murder, the first time that an Armyman had been booked for a terror act.

An aberration, said Armymen. Others shook their heads in disbelief.

Neighbours said they knew Prasad Purohit as a soft-spoken man and superiors in the Army remembered a bright, hard-working recruit. In all conversations with people who knew or had interacted with Purohit, a common picture drawn was of a zealous young man with a marked patriotic fervor.

Purohit belongs to a cultured, middle-class Maharashtrian Brahmin family. The son of a bank officer, he was born in Pune and got his education from the Abhinav Vidyalaya and Garware College there.

In 1994, Purohit was commissioned into the Maratha Light Infantry after passing out of the Officers' Training Academy at Chennai. He was serving in Jammu and Kashmir when he fell ill and was medically downgraded. At that time he was shifted to Military Intelligence.

Between 2002 and early 2005, Purohit was part of very important counter-terrorism operations in Jammu and Kashmir as part of MI-25 or the Intelligence Field Security Unit. The MI-25 is tasked with looking at the enemy along the border.

It was when Purohit was posted at Deolali near Nashik in Maharashtra as a liaison unit officer when he allegedly came in contact with Ramesh Upadhyay, a retired Major. Upadhyay allegedly set up Abhinav Bharat, an extreme Hindutva group, that Purohit reportedly became a part of. Upadhyay too is in jail in the Malegaon case.

Purohit was later accused of having stolen 60 kg of RDX from the Army - some of which was allegedly used in the Malegaon blast. He was also charged with funding and training Hindu extremist groups like Abhinav Bharat, which was believed to have planned and executed the Malegaon blast.

The Lt Col was stationed at the Army Education Corps Training College and Centre at Panchmarhi, Madhya Pradesh, where he was learning Arabic, when the police allegedly found and decoded some SMSes that he sent out to Upadyay after the Malegaon blasts. He was interrogated, arrested in the Malegaon blast case in late 2008 and has been in jail since.

Six people died and many were injured in the September 29, 2008 in the communally-sensitive textile town of Malegaon. A bomb placed on a motorcycle exploded after Friday prayers had ended at a mosque.

Soon after Purohit's arrest, the Army ordered a Court of Inquiry that later recommended Purohit's dismissal from service. Last year, Purohit filed an appeal in the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) seeking that the Court of Inquiry proceedings be quashed as the Army Act 180 had been violated. Purohit contended that some key witnesses had been examined without him being present or being given the chance of cross-examining them.

He says he has been victimized by military intelligence officials. In a statutory complaint sent to the then Army chief in 2009, Purohit had claimed that he was never involved with Hindu extremists and that he was falsely implicated by a fellow officer, illegally detained and tortured.

Purohit has drawn the AFT's attention to the fact that almost a fortnight before his arrest, he had alerted Military Intelligence about the activities of Hindu radicals in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, on the basis of information he had gathered during his tenure Deolali.

Malegaon blasts: Army to reconvene Court of Inquiry against Lt Col Purohit

New Delhi:  The investigations into some of India's biggest terror attacks hinge upon what happens next to Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Shrikanth Purohit.
The intelligence officer, who is 39 years old, was arrested in November 2008 for murder and conspiracy in the terror attack that saw six people die in September that year in the communally-sensitive town of Malegaon. A bomb placed on a motorcycle exploded after Friday prayers had ended at a mosque.

As Maharashtra's Anti-Terror Squad began investigating Purohit's links to Hindu radical groups, the Army convened a Court of Inquiry. It was the first time that a serving officer had been arrested for a terror attack. However, the Court of Inquiry was incomplete since. Lt Col Purohit had not been given the mandatory opportunity to cross-examination of the witnesses.

When the Army denied him the chance to cross question, Purohit moved the Principal bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), which is now deemed equivalent to a High Court, seeking redressal.

In his application to the AFT, Purohit listed out the bias, illegal detention, torture and physical abuse by a fellow military intelligence official bent on implicating him in the saffron terror cases.

Purohit also drew the AFT's attention to the fact that almost a fortnight before his arrest, he had alerted Military Intelligence about the activities of Hindu radicals in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, on the basis of information he had gathered during his tenure as an intelligence officer posted in Deolali near Malegaon and Nasik

Now, the Armed Forces Tribunal has ruled that the Court of Inquiry has to be reconvened because it did not allow Purohit the opportunity to cross-question some witnesses.

Purohit had petitioned the Tribunal in August 2009, alleging that he was not being given a fair trial by the Army. He said that he had been denied basic rights - like cross-examination - and that he was being victimised.

When Purohit was arrested, he was accused of having stolen 60 kg of RDX from the Army - some of which was used in the Malegaon blast. He was also charged with funding and training Hindu extremist groups like Abhinav Bharat, which was believed to have planned and executed the Malegaon blasts.

Purohit's version of events is very different. He has told the Army that 15 days before he was arrested, while he was based at Panchmarhi Madhya Pradesh, he had written to another intelligence official named Major B Dey, who was stationed nearby in Jabalpur. In that letter, he drew Major Dey's attention to the activities of RSS leader Indresh Kumar and Sadhvi Pragnya Singh Thakur, who led a right-wing organization named Jai Vandeu Mataram. The Sadhvi would end up being arrested a few days before Purohit for her alleged involvement in the Malegaon blast. Purohit provided the Army Tribunal with a copy of this letter.

Purohit has claimed all along that at postings in Nashik in Maharashtra and later at Panchmarhi, he mingled with radical outfits because that was his job - to collect intelligence.

Four days before he was arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad, Purohit claims a fellow officer, Colonel RK Shrivastav, conned him into travelling to Mumbai with him. Purohit claims he was illegally detained there by Shrivastav, Intelligence Bureau officers, and the Anti-Terror Squad, who tortured him. Purohit believes Shrivastav hoped to earn recognition and promotion for handing over a prized suspect to the police.

The evidence by then had begun piling up against him. The Anti-Terror Squad said that others who had been arrested had implicated Purohit, and that there was evidence that he had supplied the RDX for the Malegaon attack. It also claimed to have recovered incriminating SMSes sent by Purohit immediately after the blast.

Purohit's version has been reinforced partly by the arrest of Swami Aseemanand in November last year for his alleged involvement in a blast at Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid in 2007 in which nine people were killed.

In December last year, Aseemanand told a Delhi court that Hindu radical groups that he worked with were also responsible for other terror attacks in 2007 like a blast at the Ajmer Dargah in Rajasthan and the Samjhauta Express explosion where 68 people were killed on a train headed from Delhi to Lahore. 

Aseemanand said Malegaon had been targeted twice by his associates and him - once in 2008 and before that in 2006, when 31 people had died. And like Purohit, Aseemanand implicated RSS leader Indresh Kumar.

Given the fact that the Army is now re-evaluating Purohit's innocence, the investigations into the series of attacks associated with "saffron terror" may have to be reconfigured. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has been asking that it be placed in charge of all the inquiries - currently being coordinated by the CBI, the police in the states where the attacks took place, and in the case of the Samjhauta Express, the NIA.

Japan official: Meltdown at nuclear plant possible

Sendai, Japan:  A nuclear power plant affected by a massive earthquake is facing a possible meltdown, an official with Japan's nuclear safety commission said Saturday.

Ryohei Shiomi said that officials were checking whether a meltdown had taken place at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant's Unit 1, which had lost cooling ability in the aftermath of Friday's powerful earthquake.

Shiomi said that even if there was a meltdown, it wouldn't affect humans beyond a six-mile (10-kilometer) radius.

Most of the 51,000 residents living within that radius have been evacuated, he said.

Earlier Saturday, Japan declared states of emergency for five nuclear reactors at two power plants after the units lost cooling ability.

Operators at the Fukushima Daiichi plant's Unit 1 scrambled to tamp down heat and pressure inside the reactor after the 8.9-magnitude quake and the tsunami that followed cut off electricity to the site and disabled emergency generators, knocking out the main cooling system.

Some 3,000 people within two miles (three kilometers) of the plant were urged to leave their homes, but the evacuation zone was more than tripled to 6 miles (10 kilometers) after authorities detected eight times the normal radiation levels outside the facility and 1,000 times normal inside Unit 1's control room.

The government declared a state of emergency at the Daiichi unit -- the first at a nuclear plant in Japan's history. But hours later, the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the six-reactor Daiichi site in northeastern Japan, announced that it had lost cooling ability at a second reactor there and three units at its nearby Fukushima Daini site.

The government quickly declared states of emergency for those units, too.

Japan's nuclear safety agency said the situation was most dire at Fukushima Daiichi's Unit 1, where pressure had risen to twice what is consider the normal level. The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement that diesel generators that normally would have kept cooling systems running at Fukushima Daiichi had been disabled by tsunami flooding.