Greenpeace protests against Russian offshore Arctic drilling
Greenpeace accused Russia on Monday of trying to block its protest against offshore drilling in the mineral-rich but ecologically fragile Arctic after Russian coastguards boarded its vessel.
The environmental lobby group said Russian officials boarded its icebreaker after activists with banners reading "Save the Arctic" piloted motor boats toward an oil exploration vessel working for Russia's top oil producer, the state-controlled Rosneft, and global major ExxonMobil.
Russia has made tapping the Arctic's oil and gas a priority to develop a $2.1 trillion economy that is reliant on exports of energy resources. Ecologists fear drilling in the virgin region risks destroying the Arctic's unique wildlife and causing damaging changes to the global climate.
The Northern Sea Route mostly hugs Russia's northern coastline and is a primary Arctic shipping route, with experts expecting traffic to increase significantly in the coming years as warmer temperatures melt the ice and make it more accessible.
Arctic Ocean, which is estimated to hold about 20 percent of the world's as-yet undiscovered oil and gas.
Ramya, Karnataka's first actress in Lok
Sabha
Ramya, who was Saturday elected to Lok Sabha from
Mandya constituency in Karnataka, is the first female actor from the state to
enter parliament.
Fielded by the ruling Congress, she defeated C. S.
Puttaraju of Janata Dal-Secular in the bypoll held Aug 21. Mandya is about 80
kms from Bangalore. This was her maiden electoral foray.
Glamorous Ramya is considered the "golden
girl" of Kannada cinema as she has given several hits.
Born in November 1982, she was named Divya Spandana but
adopted Ramya as her screen name. She made her film debut with Kannda movie
"Abhi" in 2003.
Ramya joined the Youth Congress in 2011 in Bangalore and
had campaigned for the party in the assembly elections held May 5 which the
party won defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Pandit Raghunath Panigrahi, the Eminent
Indian Classical Singer Passed Away
The Indian classical singer and music director, Pandit
Raghunath Panigrahi passed away on 25 August 2013 in Bhubaneswar. He was 80
years of age. He is known as the vocalist of Jayadeva’s Gita Govind.
He died
because of cardiac arrest.
He was the first Odiya singer to be honoured by the
French government for compositions of Gita Govinda.
He was also conferred with the Padmashri award in the
year 2010.
Other awards won by him include Sangeet Natak Akademi
Award, Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship as well as Jayadeva Samman in the year
2008.
MV Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller is the world's largest container
ship
The Danish oil and shipping group, A.P. Moller-Maersk is the
parent company of the world's largest container, MV Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller,
named after the son of the company's founder.
The vessel, that was built by the South Korean Daewoo
Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering shipyard, has a cargo capacity of 18,270
containers, the largest of any ship yet constructed. The 55,000 tonne ship, has
a length of 400 meters.
The ship carries the first Triple-E Standard (Economy of
Scale, Energy Efficiency, Environmentally-improved) and is the most efficient
and energy saving container ship in the world.
The ship is capable of
delivering more goods than ever, while using less fuel consumption and lower
CO2 emissions.
Taukelina Finikaso, the Foreign
Minister of Tuvalu visited India
Taukelina Finikaso, the Foreign Minister of Tuvalu was on
an official visit to India from 21 to 25 August 2013.
This was the first visit of Finikaso to India after
taking charge as the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Trade, Tourism, Environment,
and Labour, Govt. of Tuvalu.
During his visit, Finikaso discussed issues of mutual
interest related to bilateral, regional and international importance with
Preneet Kaur, Minister of State for External Affairs of India.
He also inaugurated the newly constituted Honorary
Consulate of Tuvalu, which will provide both the countries, an opportunity to
expand the bilateral relations of mutual benefits.
US judge approves Facebook privacy settlement on ads
US judge on Monday granted final approval to Facebook's $20 million settlement of a lawsuit over targeted advertising despite objections that the deal did not go far enough to protect children's privacy.
Five plaintiffs filed a class action against Facebook in 2011, saying the social networking giant's "Sponsored Stories" program shared users' "likes" of certain advertisers with friends without paying them or allowing them to opt out.
Under the terms of the settlement, Facebook will pay $20 million to compensate class members, and promised to give users more control over how their content is shared - changes which plaintiff lawyers estimate to have a value of up to $145 million.
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