Thirty million cases are believed to be going through India’s courts, from those given their first hearing yesterday to others which have been in progress for so long that most of the litigants are dead.It is not just country courts that are haunted by the ghosts of Jarndyce and Jarndyce (of Dickens’ Bleak House). If, as expected, it continues into the new year, it will have been going through a Calcutta court for three years.Mr Bleach is one of tens of thousands of victims of a justice system which is so swamped in cases that it is barely able to function. His trial, in which he is defending himself, enters its final stage next week. Mr Bleach, an arms trader from Yorkshire, was arrested in Bombay in December 1995 and has been in custody ever since. Shortly before his arrest, he was on board a plane which dropped a large consignment of arms in West Bengal. He was charged with “abetting the waging of war against India”, a charge comparable to treason, carrying only two sentences: life imprisonment or death.
Mr Bleach has never denied that he was on board the plane, but claims that he was a fall-guy for the real organiser of the operation who has disappeared.

PETER BLEACH is unlikely to benefit, but after more than 50 years the Indian justice system is beginning to work out ways to become more efficient. Hausas were reported to be returning to the north with the bodies of those who were killed.. The mosque is to be built close to the Basilica of the Annunciation.. Nigeria fears spread of violence

HUNDREDS OF Nigerians were reported to be on the move yesterday amid fears that ethnic violence between southern Yorubas and northern Hausas, which claimed at least 50 lives in Lagos last week, would spread to other parts of the country. The group charged that President Yasser Arafat has allowed graft.. Anger over Nazareth mosque

ISRAEL TRIED yesterday to deflect Vatican criticism over a decision to allow a mosque to be built in Nazareth, saying it agreed with a Vatican statement that Islamic extremists were engaged in anti-Christian activity. Two bodies recovered from ferry

RESCUERS FOUND the wreck of a high-speed ferry yesterday, two days after it sank off the Norwegian coast, killing up to 19 people.

The wreckage of the catamaran Sleipner was found in 300 feet of water near Haugesund, and two bodies were recovered by mini-submarine.. Palestinian dissidents arrested

INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS yesterday arrested seven signatories to a leaflet that urged the public to combat “tyranny, corruption and political deceit” in the Palestinian administration. About 36 per cent of the 2.3 million registered electors cast their ballots, according to government figures.. Low voter turn-out in Hong Kong

MANY VOTERs stayed at home yesterday as Hong Kong held its first local elections under Chinese rule, saying the councils do not represent them.

St Elmo’s is part of a chain of Cape Town-owned restaurants.. Giant panda dies, at 28

HSING-HSING, a giant panda given to the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington in 1972 to commemorate the historic trip to China by the President, Richard Nixon, died yesterday from kidney failure and old age He was 28.. The rest have been sent home,” she said.Another hospital, the N1 City Clinic, said it was treating a 21-year- old St Elmo’s employee for shrapnel injuries to both legs.Camps Bay, an upmarket area south of Cape Town, has one of the city’s most beautiful beaches, visited at weekends by people of all backgrounds. All the windows were blown out,” he said.A police spokesman said: “It was a pipe bomb hidden in a plastic bag under one of the tables in the middle of the restaurant.” He said police could not be certain about the motive for the attack, and added that there had been no credible claim of responsibility or any sort of warning.A spokeswoman for City Park Hospital, which 15 months ago dealt with most of the victims of the Planet Hollywood bomb, said 20 people from the Camps Bay blast had been brought in for treatment “We have taken five patients in overnight. Others were running around shouting that there were some seriously injured in the restaurant I went in using a torch The ceiling was hanging down. He said at least seven children were among the injured.”There were six people lying on the pavement, one was critical, she had had her leg blown off. There were reports that another establishment in the precinct had received a threatening call.The blast comes as the summer tourist season in the Western Cape is about to reach its peak, with numerous high-profile events planned for the millennium.