Tuesday, November 24, 2009 RANCHI: A young man named Pilu Sahay of Bansjhal village in India’s Chhattisgarh Jashpur district has a bizarre addiction of consuming snake venom.To fulfill his need for venom, Sahay first catches a snake from the forests or other open fields in the vicinity of his village, extracts venom and stores it for his use.Sahay, now in his thirties, claims to have been consuming venom for the past two decades, 21 years to be precise.He also catches poisonous snakes from the adjoining villages and later frees them in the forests for the safety of fellow villagers."I have an addiction for snakes, I get myself bitten from the snakes. I eat the venom by mixing it with uncooked rice. The bites do not scare me, in fact, I love being bitten by the snakes. For me, consuming snake venom is like consuming any other food like pulses," Sahay said.Sahay further mentioned that he learnt this skill from his master whose name was not disclosed and who also had a habit of consuming venom.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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