Weird news - Man kills his own children after estrangement with his wife

In today's world, marriages are made easily, but can also get broken far more easily. This is a far cry from medieval times where the church refused to let divorces happen, and a bad marriage still meant an existing marriage. With the number of broken marriages increasing, there are more tensions due to children and the issues related to who gets to keep the children as part of divorce proceedings.
However nasty such divorce proceedings go, it is in the very rare case that such proceedings lead to violence, and even less so that the father actually kills his own children and that too in such a brutal manner, by knifing them to death (link to article):

A jilted man in Britain killed his daughter and son by slitting their throats to hurt his estranged wife as he was about to be evicted from their flat. Jean Francis Say, 62, murdered his eight-year-old daughter Regina and son Rolls, ten, when he had custody of them for the weekend, the Sun reported Thursday.
He carried out the killings shortly after receiving a letter confirming that he was being kicked out of the family's three-bedroom property where he lived alone. His estranged wife Adjoua had moved out with the children six months earlier. So, Say wasn't entitled to the flat any longer.

Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce [Paperback]	He's History, You're Not: Surviving Divorce After 40 [Paperback]	The Breakup Bible: The Smart Woman's Guide to Healing from a Breakup or Divorce [Paperback]

Cutting a house in 2 as part of a divorce - husband takes separation of assets too far

Divorce proceedings sometimes can get too heated, when earlier close spouses can get bitter, especially when all attempts to save the marriage have failed. At that time, it is difficult for them to go ahead with separation of assets, many of these assets have very strong memories. But, the action this husband took was unprecedented; living in a village in Cambodia, the husband was angry that his wife would not take care of him when he was ill, and they decided to separate (link to article):

The husband and wife had been living together in the house in a village in the Prey Veng province of southern Cambodia, roughly 50 miles (80 km) from the capital. The couple would not talk to the newspaper, but the village chief told May Titthara that the husband was angry because his wife wouldn't tend to him when he was ill.
Last week, the husband and his friends moved his belongings to one side of the house -- and sawed and chiseled it off, said the reporter, who interviewed the village chief and neighbors. The couple also divided their property into four sections: for themselves and their two children.

However, this was not a legal divorce through the courts, more an action by them themselves.

Girl forced to choose between parents and country

In a reflection of how law does not take into account human factors, or emotions, a teenage girl was placed in the horrendous position of having to choose between the country where she was born, and her parents (whom she may not be able to physically meet for 5 more years). In a case in Japan, a girl (Noriko Calderon), born to illegal immigrants, was given a choice of staying on in Japan, or returning on with her parents who were getting deported back to the Philippines. Her parents, Filipinos Arlan and Sarah Calderon, were illegal immigrants to Japan in the early 1990's, who then married in Japan and settled down there, and Noriko was born in Japan, and lived there for all of her young life. She is for all purposes a Japanese citizen (but not legally so, being granted a one year visa that will need to be extended annually), speaking only Japanese, and getting educated in Japan's schooling system.
However, her life (and that of her parents) was totally turned upside down one day in 2006 when Noriko's mother (Sarah Calderon) was arrested by authorities and accused of being an illegal immigrant. Her parents fought the legal battle till the end, but Japan is very strict about immigration controls and Noriko's parents lost in the end, finally being deported. And the decision for Noriko was hers to take (stay or go with her parents) (link to article):

Arlan found a stable job working for a construction company. Noriko grew up Japanese, attending school and never learning her parents' native language. Noriko, like many Tokyo girls her age, loves hip-hop and hopes to be a dancer or a teacher at a dance school someday. But her future in the only country she's ever known went into limbo when Japanese immigration authorities arrested her mother in 2006.
Japan's Immigration Bureau in a statement to CNN said the couple's illegal presence in the country as an "extremely malicious" violation that "shakes the foundation of Japan's immigration control." But when it came to 13 year old Noriko, the government gave the girl a choice: Her country or her parents. "Japan is my homeland," says Noriko, when asked why she is choosing to stay behind. She will move in with an aunt, allowed to stay in Japan under a visa that the government will reassess yearly. Her life, say her parents, will be better in Japan. She'll have schooling and the dreams a big city like Tokyo can offer her, versus the impoverished farm community her parents will move back to in the Philippines.

However heart-breaking the story, this is not a story that happens rarely. Such scenes are repeated in Japan and many other countries on a regular basis. Some countries are more liberal, allowing people to see a path for becoming citizens when they have been in the country for a long time; in other cases, it is equally traumatic when the child gets automatic citizenship due to having been born there, while the parents get no such benefit and are deported back to their original countries.
One slight twist happens in some such cases when the families do not retain any papers of their original country's citizenship, and their original country refuses to take them, asking for proof that these people were indeed their citizens in the first place.

Husband wants his kidney back

Divorce cases can be smooth, or they can be very messy. In many divorce cases, the settlement process can be very tension filled and full of acrimony. People have emotional attachment to many items, and will fight tooth and nail for each item. However, the demand from the estranged man in this divorce case was totally out of the ordinary - he had donated his kidney to her when she needed it. After that, he found out that he was cheating on her, and now he wants his kidney back, or he wants the value of the kidney back:

GARDEN CITY, New York: A New York doctor is demanding his estranged wife pay him $US1.5 million ($2.1 million) to compensate him for the kidney he gave her while they were still on good terms. Richard Batista, 49, said he gave his kidney to Dawnell Batista in June 2001, and she filed for divorce in July 2005.
Dominic Barbara, a lawyer for Dr Batista, was quoted as saying: "The main reason the doctor is doing this is because of how he's been treated in this case." Dr Batista, a vascular surgeon for Nassau University Medical Centre, has demanded the $US1.5 million as part of the distribution of assets in the divorce. A medical expert estimated the value of the kidney for the legal team.

An interesting case, and one does not know how the judge will react in this case.

Coming home after 44 years

One has heard of separation in the past, but this particular event takes the cake. This is a story of separation not causing the relationship to break apart, with the relationship resuming after a gap of 44 years. There are still many hidden stories in this, but given that the man seems to be suffering from amnesia, those stories are not likely to be fully told. The surprising part in this whole story is that the lady was willing to be a faithful wife and support her husband (although he had been given up for dead and his last rites performed):

A 92-year-old man, who was believed to be dead for the last 44 years, has now returned to his home in Kolkata and remarried his wife, the couple's son said Monday. Panchkari Hazra left his residence in Behala in south Kolkata in 1964 and was missing since then. He didn't inform his wife Annapurna and two sons - Arun and Tarun - why and where he was going.
"When my father didn't return home for 12 years or send us any information about his whereabouts, my mother performed his last rites under social pressure and started living the life of a widow," Tarun said. "On Wednesday, a friend at Behala informed me that a very old man had been living in our old home for the last few days and was claiming to be Panchkari. "I rushed to Behala and brought him to Jagatdal on Saturday. I was only three years old when he left home so don't remember his face clearly. But my mother recognised him at once," Tarun said. However, Hazra seemed to be suffering from loss of memory.

44 years is an extremely long time, but when the family recognized him and was willing to re-establish relationships, all ends well.