Hollywood star Kate Winslet says she was overwhelmed when an old man in the Himalayas recognised her as Rose from Titanic during her trip to India. The 44-year-old actor, who starred alongside Leonardo DiCaprio (Jack Dawson) in the 1997 blockbuster as Rose DeWitt Bukater, said the moment made her emotional. “‘Titanic’ was everywhere. A couple of years after it come out, I went to India.I was walking in the foothills of the Himalayas, just me with my backpack on my back and a man came towards me with a walking stick – he must have been 85 and was blind…
Author: Our Correspondent
The Supreme Court heard 593 matters via video-conferencing and delivered judgement in 215 of them in a month during the unprecedented nationwide lockdown. As COVID-19 infections spread in the country, the Supreme Court shut its doors to litigants and lawyers on March 23, two days before the lockdown came into force, but opened up to a virtual new way of functioning, albeit with a reduced strength. In normal times, the apex court dispose of nearly 3,500 cases on an average a month. Two-three benches have been taking up “urgent” matters in virtual courtrooms daily during the lockdown period as compared…
Filmmaker Karan Johar on Sunday said he is apologetic for his social media posts, many of which may have come off as “insensitive”, at a time when the world is fighting the coronavirus outbreak. Johar’s post came as a reaction to Australian comedian Greta Lee Jackson’s parody video of “normal” people — two round-the-clock working doctors, an unemployed person to a man who was rendered homeless after his landlord refused to decrease the rent — taking a jibe at celebrities posting videos from the comfort of their homes about their day. The video called out American popular host Ellen DeGeneres…
With the Centre allowing reopening of neighbourhood and standalone shops, traders on Saturday sought more clarity for easier implementation of the order and urged states to issue necessary guidelines, without which shop owners would not be able to resume work. The Retailers Association of India (RAI) said the government’s order to allow reopening of shops is open to interpretation as terms like “market complexes” are not easily understood. The retail industry body said keeping in mind the current environment and lessons learnt by keeping essential retail open through the lockout, “we would recommend that the government open up all channels…
In a bid to ease liquidity pressures on mutual funds (MFs), the Reserve Bank of India on Monday announced Rs. 50,000 crore Special Liquidity Facility (SLF) for mutual funds. The move comes after Franklin Templeton rounded up 6 funds last week. The RBI stated that the coronavirus lockdown has “heightened volatility in capital markets” and has “imposed liquidity strains on mutual funds (MFs)”. The central bank said that redemption pressures related to closure of some debt mutual funds intensified liquidity strains. However, the RBI added that the stress at this stage is confined only to the high-risk debt mutual fund…
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is “alive and well”, a top security adviser to the South’s President Moon Jae-in said, downplaying rumours over Kim’s health following his absence from a key anniversary. “Our government position is firm,” said Moon’s special adviser on national security Moon Chung-in, in an interview with CNN on Sunday. “Kim Jong Un is alive and well.” The adviser said that Kim had been staying in Wonsan — a resort town in the country’s east — since April 13, adding: “No suspicious movements have so far been detected.” Conjecture about Kim’s health has grown since his…
The controversial FORCE document of Income Tax officers which triggered a controversy with the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) promising action has given credits to 47 officers. The 43 page booklet called FORCE in which a proposal was prepared for raising taxes to meet the COVID-19 challenges was quashed by the Finance Ministry and the CBDT as “ill-conceived” and “irresponsible”. Finance Ministry sources termed it as prima-facie an act of indiscipline and violation of conduct rules which specifically prohibits officers to go to media with their personal views on official matters without taking prior sanction or the permission of…
The Jerusalem Post, Facebook’s legal brief said “it was exposing a massive NSO attack infrastructure operating in the US, in direct contradiction of NSO’s defenses, under the guise of third parties”. According to Facebook, its attacks on WhatsApp users “were hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the US and by the Californian company QuadraNet (with a German provider)”. Facebook asserted that NSO had a contract with QuadraNet, using its server “more than 700 times during the attack to direct NSO’s malware to WhatsApp user devices in April and May 2019.” Moreover, the legal brief listed “subdomains which were all…
Israel’s Labor party voted on Sunday to join a government headed by its long-time rival, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Members of the left-wing Labor’s central committee approved to join the unity government being formed by Netanyahu and his right-wing Likud party and Benny Gantz and his centrist Blue and White party. Some 64.2 percent of members of the central committee voted in favor of joining the government, the party said in a statement. Labor’s leader Amir Peretz announced last week that he agrees to join the new government. Local media reported that Peretz is planned to serve as the economy…