Mid Day International News |
- Finnair's Republic Day surprise: Bollywood jig by crew
- Twitter 'to selectively censor tweets'
- Military action against Iran premature: Dempsey
- 2.5 mn Mexicans at risk of going hungry due to drought
- Indian Railway Finance Corporation offers tax-free bonds Home
- India open to all mechanisms to buy Iranian oil
- Eight suicide bombers in Islamabad: Rehman Malik
| Finnair's Republic Day surprise: Bollywood jig by crew Posted: This is something an air passenger will least expect on a flight even of an Indian carrier -- a Bollywood jig by a foreign crew, all dressed in dazzling salwar kameez and traditional Indian attires! That's the surprise Finnair had in store for its passengers bound for New Delhi from its headquarters Helsinki on the Repubic Day Jan 26 when some 50 crew members danced to the tune of the title song of Bollywood film "Om Shanti Om" directed and choreographed by Farah Khan. "Finnair congratulates India on Republic Day January 26 -- clap your hands", read the message on the in-flight video screens, followed by a stream of crew frolicking in, as the song 'Deewangi Deewangi' started playing. The crew shook its leg, waved hands and gyrated in that all-familiar style that people are used to seeing in Indian films. The sequence lasted some 2:30 minutes, with passengers -- somewhat surprised, but seen enjoying every moment of it -- also joining in by clapping their hands, taking pictures and some even tapping their own feet. According to Finnair officials, the jig inside the aircraft was choreographed by one of the airline's flight attendants, Helena Kaartinen. "Really wonderful and an awesome performance to honour Indian Republic Day. We have to appreciate the universal love and friendship that Finnair extended," wrote Rajendran Krishnan on the airline's blog. "Just enjoy! Don't look for a meaning in everything," added V. Iyer, obviously referring to some other bloggers who were not quite impressed. The crew also had something to say: "It is kind of adorable when blond flight attendants sing and dance to Bollywood tunes. The brand not only wins some brownie points by way of cultural bonding but also positions itself as a fun brand." For those who did not fly Helsinki-New Delhi on Jan 26, the jig is also on Youtube.
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| Twitter 'to selectively censor tweets' Posted: Twitter has announced that it can now selectively censor tweets on a country-by-country basis, a move that may augur well for India, which reportedly urged social media websites to remove offensive contents. In its blog post, titled 'Tweets Must Flow', the San Francisco-based micro-blogging company has said that it could "reactively withhold content from users in a specific country" if legally required to do so. The proposed move came amid reports of a legal clash between India and global Internet giants, including Google, Yahoo, Twitter and Facebook, over pre-screening user contents and removal of offensive materials from their websites. A Delhi court had last month asked 21 social networking websites to remove derogatory content by February 6 this year. In its blog, citing France or Germany which ban pro-Nazi content as examples, Twitter said yesterday, "As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression. Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country -- while keeping it available in the rest of the world. We haven't yet used this ability, but if and when we are required to withhold a tweet in a specific country, we will attempt to let the user know, and we will clearly mark when the content has been withheld." However, the micro-blogging service with over 100 million active users, said the removed content would be available to the rest of the world. Earlier when it used to delete a tweet, it would disappear worldwide, media reports said. Along with social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, which is currently banned in China, is said to have played a pivotal role in uprisings that swept the Middle East region, particularly in countries like Egypt and Tunisia.
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| Military action against Iran premature: Dempsey Posted: US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Martin Dempsey has said that it is "premature" to use military force against Iran over its nuclear program. A conflict with Iran now will be "economically destabilizing", he said. "I do think the path we're on -- the economic sanctions and the diplomatic pressure -- does seem to me to be having an effect," Dempsey said, adding "I just think that it's premature to be deciding that the economic and diplomatic approach is inadequate." "A conflict with Iran would be really destabilizing, and I'm not just talking from the security perspective," he said. "It would be economically destabilizing," he said in an interview with the National Journal. The US and its allies are pressuring Iran to engage in talks over its nuclear program. They say it is a cover for making nuclear weapons. Iran has denied the claim. Dempsey's remarks came two days after President Barack Obama vowed to keep all options on the table to force Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions, Xinhua reported Thursday. "America is determined to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and I will take no options off the table to achieve that goal," the president said in his annual State of the Union address Tuesday night.
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| 2.5 mn Mexicans at risk of going hungry due to drought Posted: Some 2.5 million people are at risk of going hungry due to the severe drought plaguing more than half of Mexico's 32 states, a leading expert said Thursday. "Fifty percent of the municipalities are affected and it's estimated that 1.4 million hectares (3.5 million acres) of crops suffered," said Emilio Romero, a scholar with the Economic Research Institute at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. The shortage of rain has already led to the loss of 3.2 million tonnes of maize, 600,000 tonnes of beans and 60,000 head of cattle, he noted. Without measures to counteract the agricultural losses, "this population runs the risk of suffering hunger", Romero said, calling it "paradoxical" that the government delayed so long in tapping some of Mexico's $147 billion in international reserves to address the problems caused by the drought. President Felipe Calderon announced this week the appropriation of 33.83 billion pesos ($2.5 billion) for drought relief. One of the hardest-hit states is Chihuahua, which borders Texas. Several other northern states, such as Coahuila, Zacatecas, Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosi, are also feeling the impact of the drought. The head of Mexico's National Water Commission, Jose Luis Luege, said this week that while the drought is harming agriculture, supplies of drinking water are not in jeopardy. --IANS/EFE
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| Indian Railway Finance Corporation offers tax-free bonds Home Posted: Indian Railway Finance Corporation Limited (IRFC), the financing arm of Indian Railways, is proposing to issue tax free, secured, redeemable, non-convertible bonds of face value of Rs. 1,000 each in the nature of debentures, having benefits under Section 10(15)(iv)(h) of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
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| India open to all mechanisms to buy Iranian oil Posted: Unfazed by the US and EU sanctions, India Thursday said it is open to all mechanisms for payment, "whatever it takes," to buy Iranian oil as it contributes around 12 percent of New Delhi's oil imports and it's difficult to find replacement on this scale. It could include a mix of options that will enable India to buy Iranian oil without violating the UN sanctions, highly-placed government sources told IANS a day after an Israeli website suggested that India has agreed to pay Iran in gold for oil purchases. Sources added that India is confident of finding "a way out" to buy Iranian oil without being seen as breaker of UN sanctions. All options are open, said sources involved with decision-making on this sensitive issue. They neither confirmed nor rejected the option of paying for Iranian oil in gold. There was, however, no official reaction to the Israeli website's disclosure. Aware of the sensitivity of the issue, some Indian authorities have chosen to play it safe, calling the report "speculative". Indian officials, who did not want to be identified, pointed out that they were working out with their Iranian counterparts on the options they have to make payments toward oil imports. "We have time till June end to decide on our options and to exercise them," an official told IANS. In an "exclusive report" on Jan 23, the website, debka.com, quoted Iranian sources as saying that "India is the first buyer of Iranian oil to agree to pay for its purchases in gold instead of US dollars". The report, which went online soon after an Indian official team visited Iran last week, also claimed that China may follow suit, noting that India and China buy about one million barrels a day from Iran, which amounts to 40 percent of that nation's total exports of 2.5 million barrels per day. "By trading in gold, New Delhi and Beijing enable Tehran to bypass the upcoming freeze on its central bank's assets and the oil embargo which the European Union's foreign ministers agreed to impose Jan 23," it claimed. On Monday, European Union foreign ministers had agreed to ban oil imports from Iran from July 1, 2012, in an effort to force Tehran from developing its nuclear arsenal. Oil imports, particularly from Iran, are critical for India's energy security, as over 70 percent of oil requirements come from outside the country. Iran accounts for about 12 percent of India's total oil imports. India's Petroleum Minister S. Jaipal Reddy Wednesday reacted to the European Union's sanctions against Iran, saying New Delhi would continue to explore "options" for paying Tehran for its oil imports. He also noted that India would only abide by the sanctioned imposed by the UN. Among the options India is considering for paying Iran is to do business using Indian currency on the lines of the arrangement with Russia in the past. A few days ago, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai made it clear that India follows the UN sanctions, but is not bound by unilateral sanctions imposed by other countries. "We continue to buy oil from Iran," he replied when asked whether India was seeking waiver from the US sanctions, cleared on December 31 which seeks to penalise any financial institutions dealing with Iran's central bank. India has been in a fix for over an year on finding a viable mechanism to pay for Iranian oil after the Reserve Bank of India scrapped the Asian Clearing Union, which served as a clearing house for trading with Iran. For some time, India routed its payments through a German bank and later a Turkish bank, but the US sanctions have made these options unviable.
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| Eight suicide bombers in Islamabad: Rehman Malik Posted: As many as eight suicide bombers may have entered the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, said Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik Thursday citing intelligence inputs. Following reports of possible terrorist activities, the security has been further tightened across the country and especially in the capital to foil nefarious designs of the anti-state elements, Malik was quoted as saying by Geo News.
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