Home » Catch Wire » Your wire on 12 December
 

Cyclone Vardah: NDRF, Indian Navy on high alert; Schools, colleges shut in Tamil Nadu

Cyclonic storm 'Vardah' will make landfall between north Tamil Nadu and south Andhra Pradesh on 12 December. Since the MeT's annoucement, prompting rescue and armed forces, including the Navy, are on high alert.

Tamil Nadu has announced a holiday for schools and colleges in Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur, and parts of Villupuram. According to MeT director S Balachandran, "During the next 36 hours, rainfall would occur at many places over north coastal Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Chennai,Tiruvallur."

According to media reports, Cyclone Vardah, is likely to make landfall near Pulicat, around 60 km away from the Tamil Nadu capital with wind speeds of around 80 to 100 km an hour.

Know why Cyclone 'Vardah' is named by Pakistan; 5 interesting facts

Cyclone Vardah with an expected speed 90kmph is expected to make a landfall in Tamil Nadu, Chennai on 12 December. As the storm approaches the coast, NDRF and Indian Navy have been put on high alert.

As Cyclone Vardah is all set to hit the Tamil Nadu coasts, here are some interesting facts bout Cyclone Vardah:

1. Cyclone 'Vardah has been named by Pakistan.

2. Vardah means 'Red Rose.'

Chennai: 20 men thrash two students, a man for not standing during national anthem at Kasi theatre

A group of 20 men thrashed a young man and two woman students in a movie theatre for not standing up for the national anthem before the screening of 'Chennai 28-II.'

The incident occurred at Kasi theatre in Chennai's Ashok Nagar during the interval at 11:30am.

According to a report in Times of India, witnesses said that while the anthem played, around nine people remained seated.

According to a report in a leading daily, one of the accused Vijayakumar grabbed Viji - the victim - by the collar and asked him why he did not stand up for the anthem. Following an argument, a group of 20 beat Viji and two students, Sabaritha and Shreela.

Jayalalithaa was a leader with golden-heart: Rajinikanth

Tamil 'Superstar' Rajinikanth on 11 December paid rich tributes to late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, describing her as a 'kohinoor diamond' who had made her way up through difficulties in a male-dominated society.

At a condolence meeting, organised by the South Indian Artistes' Association or the Nadigar Sangam for Jayalalithaa and actor-journalist Cho S Ramaswami, Rajinikanth also recalled his strong statements against her during the 1996 Assembly polls, which had "hurt" her.

"I had hurt her. I was a key reason for her (party's) defeat," he said, referring to his criticism of the then AIADMK government.

Pakistan's army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa appoints new ISI head

Pakistan's new army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa on 12 December removed the head of the country's spy agency ISI and made several other significant changes in the army's top brass, as part of a major reshuffle.

Gen Bajwa, who took over from Gen Raheel Sharif two weeks ago, however, did not name Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar's successor at the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Lt Gen Akhtar has been appointed President of the National Defence University (NDU), the army said in a statement.

Amazon's Grand Tour grabs title of most pirated show ever

Move over Game of Thrones, we have a new winner on our hands. Amazon's 'Grand Tour', a reboot of BBC's famous Top Gear show has been a runaway hit.

The first episode was downloaded 9.7 million times, the second episode 6.4 million times and the third 4.6 million times according to data from industry analyst Muso.

Al Gore to release a sequel to An Inconvenient Truth in 2017

Al Gore's hit climate change documentary, An Inconvenient Truth is getting a sequel. Released in 2006, the sequel is set to premiere a the Sundance Film Festival on 19 January and release in theatres sometime later in the year.

The film follows the efforts during the past decade to bring awareness to the ever changing climate.

Scandinavian country Sweden has run out of garbage; now imports from other countries

Sweden has officially run out of government! This has forced the Scandinavian country to importy rubbish from other countries so that it's 'state-of-the-art' recycling plants can keep on running.

Sweden gets half of its electricity from renewables. It's also one of the only countries to implement a heave tax on fossil fuels.