437 items in this section. Displaying page 43 of 44
Where: Detroit, Michigan, USA July 10, 2009 : The USA’s biggest carmaker, General Motors, had declared bankruptcy on June 1, 2009. When a company is unable to repay its debts to creditors, it can seek legal protection by filing a bankruptcy plea. The action also ensures that all creditors are repaid in equal measure. The case of General Motors (GM) is the largest bankruptcy filing by an industrial company in the USA’s history. The corporation won a second chance to prove itself profitable as it came out of bankruptcy at lightning speed....
Where: Beijing, China February 9, 2009 : Beijing’s nearly completed Mandarin Oriental hotel, in the heart of the city’s business district, caught fire on the day of the Lantern Festival. It was the last day of the Chinese Lunar New Year Festivities, and officials from the state owned China Central Television (CCTV ) were using the new building as the backdrop for a fireworks display. According to Beijing’s fire chief, the broadcaster did not have permission to hold such a large-scale display....
Where: Chennai, India January 11, 2009 : At the 2009 Chennai Open tennis meet, the first ATP* tournament of the season, India’s Somdev Devvarman established himself as the country’s top singles tennis player. He reached the finals of the tournament, beating two-time Chennai Open former champion and world number 42, Spain’s Carlos Moya, and world number 25 Ivo Karlovic of Croatia. Rainer Schuettler of Germany, whom he was to have played in the semi-final, pulled out of the tournament due to injury....
November 18: Making a head count of the number of people in the most populous country in the world, is no easy task. The government of China knows this for a fact. So it sent six million people across the length and breadth of the country, to count its population. The Grand Head Hunt [Illustration by Anup Singh] These people will take 10 days to collect data from 360 million households, says Reuters in a report in ‘The Asian Age’....
October 28: The recent flooding of West Bengal might have been a tragic affair in all but one respect. In a time of crisis, the animals of the region are bonding like never before. Be it the hunter or the hunted, the carnivores or the herbivores, they are all living in harmony at seven flood relief camps set up in the Bongaon region of the state. A few weeks ago, floods hit the state of West Bengal, threw life completely out of gear and led to a large scale loss of life and property....
June 24: In a country like India, the lives of people are often lost because there is no help at hand. Many people think of it as fate and do nothing. But a group of poor village women have shown the way to the people of the southern state of Kerala, says a report in ‘The Indian Express’.. Sometime ago, a woman from Parappa village became seriously ill. She started bleeding heavily. The villagers frantically hunted for a vehicle to take her to the hospital, which was 40 km away....
Where: Melbourne, Australia February 1, 2009 : Yuki Bhambhri beat Alexandros-Ferdinandos Georgoudas of Germany 6-3, 6-1 in the junior boys final of the Australian Open Tennis championships in Melbourne. He is the first Indian to win this title. India’s tennis legend Ramanathan Krishnan, his son Ramesh, and later Leander Paes have all won the junior singles title at Wimbledon. Ramesh repeated the feat at the French Open, and Leander at the U.S.Open. Yuki, aged sixteen, entered the tournament ranked Numer One, as he had reached the semi-finals last year....
May 11: From the kitchen floor of the house to the Floor of the House or State Legislative Assembly – that is the distance Lakshmi Parui is hoping to cover. A widow in her late 50s, who supported herself by working as a domestic help in semi-urban Balagarh till a few weeks ago, she contested the West Bengal state elections on May 10. She has contested the elections as an ally of Mamta ‘Di’, leader of the Trinamool Congress....
Where: The Hague, Netherlands March 18, 2009 : The International Criminal Court (ICC)* issued a warrant for the arrest of Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir on March 4, 2009 and charged him with committing war crimes and humanitarian crimes resulting in thousands of deaths. The victims of this genocide are the tribal minorities of Sudan’s Darfur region. Omar al-Bashir, a military dictator, has been supplying funds and arms to the militia group that is actually carrying out the brutal war....
September 9: Lately, newly-weds in Iran have been facing an unusual problem. They just can’t find homes to live in after they get married. This is because there is a shortage of housing in Iran. To help solve this housing crisis, Iran’s government is planning to turn military centres and prisons into housing units for newly weds. A housing ministry official was quoted in a news item in the Times of India as saying, “A plan has been drafted for turning military centers and prisons into economical 50 square metre housing units for newly married couples....
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