Fort resurrection

TUMBARUMBA, Australia: Tears come to Adrian Brayne’s eyes as he talks about what little he managed to save when flames engulfed his rural property.  His dog is safe and so is a small jar of soil, collected from his grandfather’s vineyards. “It’s a bit silly. But these are the things that matter,” he says. The winemaker in the Snowy Valley of New South Wales has lost a lot over the past few weeks. The region has been punished by a devastating bushfire season that has had local communities on edge, and under siege, for weeks. Tumbarumba, a historic timber town, found itself wedged between two large fire fronts that slowly but destructively merged together into a mega fire that on Monday (Jan 20) was still more than 332,100 hectares in size and uncontrolled. Brayne’s 10-hectare vineyards are just a small fraction of the vast swathes of bushland and forest - as well as more than local 100 homes - that have burned since the blaze ignited last month. But for the 35-year-old, … [Read more...] about ‘A long road back from here’: Small winemakers feel the pain of Australian bushfires

Describing the contentious farm laws as “death warrants” for farmers, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal made Aam Admi Party’s political ambition to cross over Yamuna into Uttar Pradesh clear at a kisan panchayat in Meerut on Sunday. Promising to control erring sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh on the lines of power distribution companies in Delhi, Mr Kejriwal asked the gathering to vote for a party with the right intent. He said farmers were in pain for 70 years because they have been cheated by different governments and parties. Now the three farm laws have made it a matter of life and death. “All that the farmer has been asking for is the right price of his produce,” he said. Party manifestoes, he said, promise the right price of their crops but when these parties come to power, they forget about their commitment. Also read: Farmers’ protest | Ready for talks, says Tomar after Tikait’s threat Mr Kejriwal said farmers were sitting on the road in the cold because “these laws … [Read more...] about Farm laws are death warrants for farmers, says Arvind Kejriwal

By calling on social media platforms operating in India to follow the law of the land, as it did last week in Parliament, the government has not just stated the seemingly obvious but also delivered a warning to Twitter that it ought not to defy its orders again, the way it did in early February, when the government wanted certain handles blocked for spreading incendiary content. “We respect criticism… you can criticise even the Prime Minister,” said Minister of IT and Communications Ravi Shankar Prasad in Parliament on Thursday. “But if social media is used to propagate hate, then action will be taken.” Further, he asked, why “when police act in Washington’s Capitol Hill ransacking, a micro blogging site stands in their support, but when a similar action is taken at Red Fort, our national pride, the platform opposes it?” That the government wanted problematic hashtags blocked is understandable, given the tense situation on the ground on the day of the farmer protests, but what is … [Read more...] about Freedom and security: On social media platforms operating in India

Challenging Star Darshan has revealed that the shoot of the historical film Rajaveera Madakari Nayaka which is based on the life of king Madakari Nyaak who is the last ruler Chitradurga. The movie will be directed by Rajendra Singh Babu . Speaking to a television channel, Darshan has said, “Rajaveera Madakri Nayaka is a huge project. Most of my fans are autorickshaw drivers and cab drivers and their life has been severely affected due to the lockdown which was imposed to contain Coronavirus . I want their life to return to normalcy so I have requested the producer Rockline Venkatesh to delay the project. In between, I will be doing another commercial film which will take off after a month and it will be released by Dasara or Deepavali festival.” The film team which was scouting for locations had visited Mirjan fort in Uttara Kannada district in the last year. Sumalatha Ambareesh and Doddana will be seen in pivotal roles in the movie. The movie is based on the works … [Read more...] about Raja Veera Madakari Nayaka will be delayed due to COVID-19, says Darshan

DISNEY+ has added hundreds of new TV shows and movies today. Some of the biggest additions include Lost, Borat , Pretty Woman and Desperate Housewives. The service launched back in 2019 and has quickly become one of the world's biggest platforms, rivalling even Netflix . It's got household franchises from Disney, Star Wars , Marvel , Nat Geo and more. But much of the content is child-friendly, so Disney+ is hoping to change that with Star. Star arrived on Tuesday, February 23, and adds a huge selection of more adult-oriented content. You'll get TV shows and movies like Scrubs , The Grand Budapest Hotel, 24 and Modern Family . There are several Star Originals making their way to the platform to. One is a crime thriller about missing women called Big Sky. Excitingly, it's created by David E. Kelly, who was behind Big Little Lies and The Undoing. All of this Star content will only become accessible once you enter your account password. And … [Read more...] about Disney+ Star: Full list of TV shows & movies added to service including Lost and Borat

ROME: Napoli president and owner Aurelio De Laurentiis has tested positive for COVID-19, the Serie A club said in a statement on Thursday. The club said he returned a positive result in a test carried out on Wednesday, but gave no further details. De Laurentiis took part in a Serie A assembly on Wednesday alongside officials from other leading Italian clubs. The charismatic 71-year-old has resurrected Napoli since buying them in 2004 after they had been declared bankrupt and relegated to the third tier of Italian football. They have not finished outside the top 10 of Serie A for more than a decade and have been runners-up four times during that period and third on three occasions. They also won the Coppa Italia last season. However, he also has a tendency for making incendiary declarations, for falling out with his coaches - such as Maurizio Sarri - and a reputation for interfering in team selection. Napoli are due to start the new season at Parma on Sept. 20. … [Read more...] about Napoli president De Laurentiis tests positive for COVID-19

SINGAPORE - It has been nearly 70 years since Ms Lu Lizhu, 80, last saw an eclipse, and that was "a very different experience". "I was in my teens then. When the eclipse happened, my dad told me to bring out the drums into the street so we could make as much noise as possible to save the Moon. It was what we believed in the kampung," she told The Straits Times at the amphitheatre in front of Block 134 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3. About 800 people gathered there to view the annular eclipse on Thursday (Dec 26). The mood was convivial as people shared tips on how to best capture the rare phenomenon on camera, exchanged sunglasses, and pointed excitedly at the Sun. Some had laid out picnic mats in the carpark and on a grassy slope outside the designated viewing area. In the amphitheatre, a queue snaked round as people waited for a turn to use a telescope that the People's Association (PA) had set up. Expecting a smaller crowd, the PA had prepared 300 pairs of paper solar glasses that … [Read more...] about A ‘very different experience’ than in the kampung days: Grandma at Ang Mo Kio eclipse viewing party

Two-Michelin-starred Chef Mok Kit Keung’s signature dishes are many – deep-fried whole boneless chicken filled with fried glutinous rice, for instance; or coddled sliced Soon Hock fillet and young coconut in fish broth – but at the end of a resplendent meal at Shang Palace, it’s the deceptively simple dessert of 20-year tangerine peel in red bean soup that lingers bittersweetly in your heart. Not only are the subtle flavours perfectly balanced, the chef’s emotions also come through cleanly: The dish is a tribute of sorts to his late mother, who would preserve batches of her own orange peel each year. “When my mother passed away in January, I found that she had left me boxes and boxes of orange peel. She hadn’t labelled the jars with their years, but when we opened one, it was incredibly fragrant, so it must have been 20 or 30 years old,” he said. READ: The heartland boy with the Italian hotspots: 'You can learn anything from YouTube' It’s a dish that has much emotional … [Read more...] about The old family recipes that let Shang Palace’s chef take fine Chinese cuisine into the future

SYDNEY: In 2017, the last car Australia built rolled out of a General Motors' plant in the city of Adelaide, ending seven decades of local automotive history and the belief that the country's factories could ever compete globally. Three years later, policymakers are once again looking to manufacturing to generate some growth as they scramble to drive the economy through the coronavirus and out of its deepest slump on record. While Australians are unlikely to buy millions of locally made cars, refrigerators and toasters as they did in the 20th century, a government push that puts manufacturing at the centre of its longer-term recovery plan has strong industry support and has kindled ventures that would have seemed far-fetched half a year earlier. Behind the pivot is a realisation that Australia has been too reliant on Asia for the supply of essential goods. A recent worsening in relations with China, Australia's biggest trading partner, has only strengthened that view. "If you … [Read more...] about Australia turns to idled factories to pull it out of COVID-19 slump

close Video NTSB chief: Metal fatigue played role in United engine explosion Robert Sumwalt discusses whether Boeing 777 engine failure was an isolated case on 'Your World' Some passengers on a flight from Florida to New Jersey were left feeling salty after their flight was delayed by a man discharging pepper spray onboard the plane. The plane for United Flight 1061 from Fort Myers to Newark on Monday was taxiing and preparing to take off when a passenger said he accidentally hit the pepper spray on his keychain, FOX 4 in Southwest Florida reported. Joseph Grande, a fellow passenger on the plane, told FOX 4 that he could feel burning in his throat. Some passengers on a flight from Florida to New Jersey were left feeling salty after their flight was delayed by a man discharging pepper spray onboard the plane. (iStock) FLORIDA OFFICIALS CRACKING DOWN ON SPRING-BREAKERS OVER COVID SAFETY CONCERNS "Everybody started … [Read more...] about Passenger uses pepper spray on airplane preparing to take off: ‘Everybody started coughing’