20.12.09 / News / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
One of the worst US blizzards in decades is continuing north, with parts of New England likely to record up to 16in (41cm) of snow.
Long Island has suffered whiteout conditions and New York City saw nearly 11in of snow by Sunday.
The slow-moving monster – known as a nor’easter – has sprawled 500 miles (800km) over a dozen states, affecting about a quarter of the US population.
It has sparked emergencies in a number of states and cities.
Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky and Delaware, along with Washington and Philadelphia, at some stage all declared them.
Stranded train
Blizzard warnings are still in place in some parts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Washington DC earlier saw the largest snowfall ever recorded in a single December day and southern New Jersey its highest single-storm snow in almost four years.
Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty expressed confidence that most city streets would be cleared by Monday.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said thousands of workers were out clearing streets on Sunday.
He remained upbeat, saying the snow fell too late on Saturday to affect Christmas trading severely.
“Hopefully, we’ll have a little bit of a white Christmas,” he said.
Some tourists were happy. Briton Kevin Sanders said: “We just came off the Statue of Liberty when it came down last night, and look this morning. It’s amazing. It gives it the Christmas feel as well.”
Others suffered more difficulties – about 150 people were stranded for five hours on a Long Island train.
Hundreds of flights were cancelled into New York airports but they are now trying to return to normal.
Airports in Washington, Baltimore and Boston were also still experiencing severe problems.
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Snowstorm blankets US East Coast
The storm has also brought wind gusts of up to 60mph (96km/h).
Hundreds of thousands of householders earlier lost power in West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia and North Carolina.
The Greyhound bus firm cancelled services on nearly 300 routes across the eastern seaboard, while Amtrak trains experienced major delays.
In Virginia, several hundred motorists were earlier stranded in their vehicles and had to be rescued by the National Guard. Some 500 people sought refuge in emergency shelters.
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The people who were driving small cars were slipping and sliding and crashing into parked cars
Steve, Arlington, Virginia
Three people died in Virginia. One was killed when a car hit a tree, a second died of exposure and a third was also apparently killed in a road traffic accident.
In Ohio, two people died in accidents on snow-covered roads hit by the same storm system.
The system originated over the Gulf of Mexico, unleashing flash floods in much of the US south-east.
The rain turned to snow as the storm tracked north-eastward into sub-freezing temperatures.
Have you been affected by the snowstorm in the US? Send us your comments.
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20.12.09 / Bollywood / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
Indians are passionate about cricket. Am also sure you must’ve encountered a number of cricket fanatics over the years. Most film-makers dread to release their films during crucial matches, fearing that a sizable chunk of moviegoers would prefer to watch a match than a movie.
This year, we’ve had VICTORY [Harman Baweja, Amrita Rao] and DIL BOLE HADIPPA [Rani Mukherji, Shahid Kapoor] focusing on this popular sport. Prior to that LAGAAN, IQBAL and JANNAT. Now WORLD CUPP 2011. Unfortunately, WORLD CUPP 2011 neither excites you as a cinematic experience, nor does it whip up those passions.
Ravi Kapoor essays the captain of the Indian cricket team, who tanks a match with the help of his team-mates against arch rivals Pakistan in World Cup. They are banned for four years when exposed by the media. His girl-friend Soha [Manisha Chatterjee] dumps him and his family disowns him.
Cut to 2011. Ravi is given one more chance to prove his patriotism by the coach [Suresh Oberoi]. Ravi is again approached by the same bookie [Zakir Hussain] to repeat the same performance once again, but this time he turns the offer down. His girl-friend is kidnapped. Ravi goes through a crisis before he wins the World Cup trophy.
WORLD CUPP 2011 falls flat due to a weak script. The film tries to explore the unholy nexus between cricketers-bookies-underworld, besides the rise-fall-rise of a cricketer, but the writing is so amateurish that it doesn’t hold your attention. Perhaps the intentions were right, but not the final output.
Debutante writer-director Ravi Kapoor may’ve borrowed from real-life, but several portions seem unpalatable. Like, for instance, the ease with which the captain of the Indian cricket team and even the umpire interact with underworld dons while the final match is in progress seems bizarre.
Talking of acting, Ravi Kapoor has screen presence, but needs to work on his acting skills. Prem Chopra, Suresh Oberoi and Zakir Hussain are passable.
On the whole, WORLD CUPP 2011 is a weak fare.
20.12.09 / Bollywood / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
2009 is a year A.R.Rahman won’t forget for a long time to come. After all, this year the music maestro won 2 Academy Awards for his score in Slumdog Millionaire. Later in the year, he even received 2 Grammy nominations for the soundtrack of Slumdog Millionaire. Surely it has been a memorable year for A.R.Rahman.
The laurels however continue for Rahman even as the year comes to a close. On December 16th, A.R.Rahman was made a fellow of the world famous Trinity College of Music at a function in UK. This is yet another honour for the musical genius.
That’s not all, Rahman has even been nominated for the ‘Person of the Year’ award by Forbes India business magazine. The talented composer finds himself in august company of personalities such as Nandan Nilekani, Chetan Bhagat, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Rahul Gandhi all of whom would be vying for Forbes India’s ‘Person of the Year’ award. The final winner will be selected on the basis of public voting.
Whether Rahman eventually wins or not, this is surely yet another feather in the already impressive cap of the musical genius.
20.12.09 / Cricket / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
CENTURION: Last man Graham Onions
played out a tense final over from Makhaya Ntini as England escaped with a draw
on the fifth and final day of the first Test against South Africa at SuperSport
Park on Sunday.
The match seemed to be heading for a routine draw
when Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen batted together for more than three
hours but South African new cap Friedel de Wet produced an inspired spell with
the second new ball to leave England hanging on.
De Wet dismissed
Trott in the second over with the new ball and had a spell of three for three in
five overs. Five wickets fell in the final 15 overs but Paul Collingwood and
Onions survived the last 20 balls .
It was a tense finish
reminiscent of the first Ashes Test against Australia in Cardiff earlier this
year when England were also nine down at the end.
England, set 364
to win, finished on 228 for nine on Sunday.
Trott, who came to the
wicket after the dismissal of nightwatchman James Anderson in the third over of
the day, defied the South African bowlers for 317 minutes and faced 212 balls in
making 69.
Pietersen was more aggressive in making 81 off 143
deliveries as the pair put on 145 for the fourth wicket.
The
partnership was only broken two overs after tea when Pietersen pushed the ball
into the covers and set off for a suicidal run. Trott did not respond and bowler
De Wet had plenty of time to pick up the ball and trot to the batsman’s end to
break the wicket.
Trott batted through until the second new ball,
taken when just over an hour’s play remained.
Until then, remarkably
few deliveries had behaved unusually off the pitch, in contrast to the previous
two days.
But De Wet made the hard new ball fly off a length and it
ripped into Trott’s right glove and deflected to third slip where AB de Villiers
made a diving catch.
De Wet had Ian Bell caught behind four overs
later and England were six down with a maximum of 10.4 overs remaining.
Matt Prior also fell to a catch behind off De Wet before Stuart
Broad was caught behind off left-arm spinner Paul Harris and Graeme Swann was
leg before to Morne Morkel.
South African hopes were raised early in
the day when Anderson gloved De Wet down the legside to wicketkeeper Mark
Boucher.
Alastair Cook defended resolutely for 79 minutes and 56
balls, scoring 12 runs, before he too was caught off a glove, when a ball from
left-arm spinner Paul Harris went to Graeme Smith at leg gully off his glove and
pad.
But Trott and Pietersen dug in on a pitch which did not provide
as much unpredictable bounce as it had on the previous two days.
Only one delivery truly misbehaved before the dramatic closing
stages, a ball from De Wet which shot through low and trapped Pietersen, on 39,
plumb in front of his stumps.
But umpire Steve Davis no-balled De
Wet for overstepping.
20.12.09 / News / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
Snowstorms and sub-zero temperatures have killed at least 19 people across Europe as well as severely disrupting air, rail and road transport.
At least 15 people froze to death overnight in Poland as temperatures dipped way below freezing. In parts of Germany a figure of -33C was recorded.
Flights have been cancelled, train services have been severely affected and roads made impassable.
Eurostar passenger trains are still not running after electrical failures.
More than 2,000 people were trapped on the trains in the Channel Tunnel for up to 16 hours after condensation caused a series of electrical failures on Friday night.
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EUROSTAR ADVICE
If your journey is not essential, do not travel
A full refund will be offered to those whose journeys have been affected
Passengers whose journeys were severely disrupted on Friday or Saturday will also be given £150 compensation and a free return ticket
Hotels will be offered for those who had wanted to travel on Sunday
All updates will be posted on the
Eurostar website
and given out to news outlets
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It is currently unclear when services will resume. Eurostar is running tests on the line on Sunday.
Two people were reported dead in Austria’s southern province of Styria as they tried to get home after nights out.
In France, 40% of flights out of Paris’s Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports were cancelled as a second wave of snowstorms hit northern France.
Germany’s third largest airport – in Duesseldorf – was also closed because of heavy snow, authorities said.
In Belgium, the three biggest airports – Brussels, Charleroi and Liege – were completely shut. Severe delays and cancellations were reported at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport.
In Britain, officials at Manchester Airport – the busiest outside the London area – suspended flights for 90 minutes as staff moved snow and de-iced a runway.
Rail traffic has been affected from Belgium to Italy.
Have you been affected? Tell us your experiences and send us your comments.
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At no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws.
The BBC may edit your comments and not all emails will be published. Your comments may be published on any BBC media worldwide.
