Author: Rahul M

Day One of Kerala SIR: BLO has task cut out – queries, confusion to assurances

As the high-stakes Bihar Assembly election campaign nears its first major milestone, political drama unfolded on Monday with a surprise move by Mukesh Sahani, chief of the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) and the opposition Grand Alliance’s deputy chief ministerial face. In a dramatic turn, Sahani withdrew his brother Santosh Sahani’s nomination from the Gaura Bauram constituency in Darbhanga and announced unconditional support for the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate, Afzal Ali. Seat-Sharing Tensions and a Strategic Retreat The decision came amid tensions within the Grand Alliance over seat-sharing arrangements, which had set the stage for a “friendly contest” between allies…

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Typhoon Kalmaegi has left at least 52 people dead with 13 others missing in the central Philippines, mostly in widespread flooding that trapped people on their roofs and swept away scores of cars in a hard-hit province still recovering from a deadly earthquake, officials said Wednesday.Six people were killed in a separate incident when a Philippine air force helicopter crashed in the southern province of Agusan del Sur on Tuesday while en route to help provide humanitarian help to provinces battered by Kalmaegi, the military said without providing other details, including what could have caused the…

Columbia Pictures Netflix is home to an ever-changing rotation of great legacy movies, but one of the best may be “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” a Gothic horror masterpiece and one of the best vampire movies ever made. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gary Oldman, Anthony Hopkins, Winona Ryder, and, yes, Keanu Reeves, the 1992 film doesn’t exactly adhere to the structure of Stoker’s 1897 novel, weaving in a plot about Mina Harker (Ryder) as the reincarnation of Dracula’s long-dead wife Elisabeta. But its sets, costumes, props, and even its acting…

Disney The “Witch Mountain” film series struck a cord with Gen Xers who either saw them on the big screen, VHS, or Disney Channel replays. Now, everyone can relive the nostalgic magic of not only “Escape to Witch Mountain,” but its sequel, “Return from Witch Mountain,” on Disney+. “Escape to Witch Mountain” follows siblings Tia (future “Real Housewife” Kim Richards) and Tony Malone (Ike Eisenmann), orphaned twins who are blessed with psychic powers but don’t know their biological parents. Attorney Lucas Deranian (Donald Pleasence), working under his boss, Aristotle Bolt (Ray…

The Karnataka High Court on Monday sought a response from the state government with regard to permission and other legalities regarding burials while hearing a petition about the alleged unauthorised burial of a woman’s body on a man’s residential premises. A bench of Justice Suraj Govindaraj heard a petition filed by Gopala Gowda, a resident of Thurandahally in Kolar, stating that his son and daughter-in-law had had altercations and several legal proceedings between them since their marriage in 2022. They had been living apart from each other for close to two years when she died by suicide in 2024 at…

BELEM, Brazil (AP) — Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday put forward his vision for how the Amazon rainforest should be protected, a future that didn’t depend on donations from wealthy nations and large philanthropies but instead included a major fund that paid countries to keep forests standing. “I don’t want to say the word donation any longer,” Lula told reporters ahead of the United Nations’ climate summit, known as COP30, which begins this week in Belem, a Brazilian city in the edge of the Amazon. “Someone gives us $50 million. It is nice, but that’s nothing,”…

MUBI RATING : 5 / 10 Pros Good Jennifer Lawrence performance Interesting use of music Cons Supporting cast gets wasted Grows dull without much character development Lynne Ramsay’s new movie “Die My Love” exists because producer Martin Scorsese read the 2017 novel by Ariana Harwicz in his book club and couldn’t stop thinking that the main character was a perfect role for Jennifer Lawrence. The inspiration for that casting choice was Lawrence’s performance as the unnamed title character in Darren Aronofsky’s divisive allegory “mother!,” which infamously got…

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — A fire at a boarding house for retirees Tuesday in the northeastern Bosnian town of Tuzla has killed several people, an official and Bosnian media said. The Dnevni Avaz daily reported that at least 10 people were killed when the fire erupted on one of the higher floors of the building.The same source said that at least 20 people have been hospitalized so far but that many more people are likely injured. Cantonal leader Irfan Halilagic confirmed in a comment to Daily Avaz that there have been fatalities but did not specify how many people died.…

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haiti’s government said Tuesday that the death toll from Hurricane Melissa rose to 43, with 13 others still missing.Crews were still trying to reach people in the country’s southwest region, where landslides and floodwaters devastated more than 30 communities.At least 25 deaths occurred in the southwestern coastal town of Petit-Goâve, one of the hardest hit communities.The Category 5 storm, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record, flooded nearly 12,000 homes and destroyed nearly 200 others after its outer bands battered Haiti last week. Numerous roads remain inaccessible.The government warned there’s a drinking water shortage in…