Rajinikanth’s story is well known, but let’s refresh some memories. He started out as a bus conductor and was discovered and mentored by the now-deceased K. Balachander, a prominent film director who in his time was known for writing strong female characters and tackling major social issues in his work.
Rajini was certainly not a hero, at first anyway. His first few roles in films were that of the antagonist’s; the first being the abusive husband of the main character. He was crowned with the title ‘Superstar’ in his 1978 film Bairavi; a title he has been known by ever since. Read more.
Missing fishermen: DMK stages protest
DMK working president and Opposition leader M.K. Stalin addresses a gathering, in Chennai on Tuesday.
DMK members staged a protest near the Chennai collectorate urging the Centre and the State to expedite rescue operation to find the missing fishermen post Cyclone Ockhi. A total of 462 fishermen from Kanyakumari district are missing in the aftermath of cyclone Ockhi, Kanyakumari District Collector Sajjan Singh R. Chavan said on Monday. “As per particulars collected 35 fishermen who put out to sea in country boats and 427 fishermen in trawlers are missing in the aftermath of the cyclone,” he said, days after Ochki struck the Tamil Nadu coast, wrecking damage, particularly in this district.
Singapore's electric car-sharing programme
BlueSG electric car-sharing vehicles are charged at a charging station during their launch in Singapore.
Singapore launched on Tuesday its first large-scale electric car-sharing programme through which the land-scarce city-state hopes to provide commuters with more transport options and steer them away from the need to buy their own cars. The service, which will be run for a decade by BlueSG, a unit of France's Bollore Group, is a part of Singapore's plans to reduce the number of vehicles on its roads and encourage the use of public transport. The city-state, one of the world's most expensive places to own a car, said in October it would not allow any net growth in its car population from February next year citing the scarcity of land and the push to develop its public transport system.
Fire at major Austrian gas hub
Emergency crews are seen attending to a fire after reports of a gas explosion in Baumgarten, Austria in this picture obtained from social media.
A fire broke out at Austria's main gas transfer hub on Tuesday, with police reporting an explosion and several injured. “There was an explosion around 8:45 a.m. (0745 GMT) and a fire,” a police spokesman said, adding that he could not confirm media reports of 60 injured. “A wide area has been sealed off and there are expected to be several injured.” A spokesman for oil company OMV, which holds a minority stake in the company that operates the Baumgarten site, said the cause of the blast and the effect on gas deliveries were not yet clear. He said there was a fire but could not confirm there had been an explosion.
ROC supports athletes to attend Winter Olympics - draft
Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov and President of the national Olympic Committee Alexander Zhukov attend a meeting on the country's participation at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, in Moscow, Russia on Tuesday.
The Russian Olympic Committee proposes supporting Russian athletes to attend the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea, according to a draft document seen by Reuters on Tuesday. Most Russian athletes want to go to the Games even though they would have to compete as neutrals, an official of the country's Olympic committee said on Monday. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) last week banned Russia from the Games due to take place in Pyeongchang in February, citing evidence of an “unprecedented systematic manipulation” of the anti-doping system.
Paris climate summit
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, left, Sir Richard Branson, right, and special envoy to the U.N. for climate change Michael Bloomberg, second right, arrive for a meeting of philanthropists funding climate projects as part of the Climate Summit, at the Elysee Palace, in Paris.
More than 50 world leaders are gathering in Paris for a summit that President Emmanuel Macron hopes will give new momentum to the fight against global warming, despite U.S. President Donald Trump's rejection of the Paris climate accord. Some 3,100 security personnel are fanned out around Paris for Tuesday's event, including extra patrol boats along the Seine River. Mr. Macron will accompany the visiting leaders to the summit site on a river island by boat.
Environmental activists stage protest in support of the Paris climate accord during the One Planet Summit in Paris, France.
Sean Penn, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Elon Musk are among prominent figures joining the world leaders at the summit, which marks the second anniversary of the Paris accord. Participants are expected to announce billions of dollars' worth of projects to help poor countries and industries reduce emissions. Mr. Macron, who's also using the event to raise his international profile, did not invite Mr. Trump.
Environmental activists display placards as they protest at Pantheon monument in support of the Paris climate accord, in Paris, France. Placard reads: Free Ocean.
U.K. banker back in Hong Kong court
Police officers stand guard next to prison bus which carries British banker Rurik Jutting upon his arrival at the High Court in Hong Kong.
British banker, Cambridge University-educated Rurik Jutting serving a life sentence in Hong Kong for murdering two Indonesian women, including one he spent days torturing while on cocaine, is seeking to appeal his conviction at the Court of Appeal. Lawyers for Rurik Jutting presented their arguments in the semi-autonomous Chinese city’s Court of Appeal. They were requesting the court’s permission for an appeal, on the basis that the trial judge gave incorrect instructions to the jury on deciding their verdict. The nine-person jury last year convicted the Cambridge University-educated Jutting of the 2014 killings of Seneng Mujiasih, 26, and Sumarti Ningsih, 23.
PM to travel by seaplane from Sabarmati river
A sea-plane is ready at Sabarmati riverfront for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to board, on Tuesday.
For the first time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be travelling on a seaplane that would take off from the Sabarmati river. Though seaplanes were tested in Kochi, Mumbai, Lakshadweep and the Andamans, this is for the first time it will be used in Gujarat.
WTO unlikely to reach final fishery deal
Alibaba Group Executive Chairman Jack Ma and Director-General of the World Trade Organization Roberto Azevedo at the 11th WTO's ministerial conference in Buenos Aires.
World Trade Organization (WTO) members are unlikely to reach a final deal to curb fishery subsidies during the ministerial conference underway this week in Buenos Aires.
The United States and 12 other countries said last year they would begin WTO negotiations to ban harmful fishery subsidies, which they said contributed to over fishing and over capacity in the sector or were linked to illegal fishing.
The success of any deal is widely seen to rest on the willingness of China, which has resisted pressure to curb its vast fleet, to accept restrictions. China presented a plan last month to ban subsidies to IUU fishing vessels, but with exemptions for developing countries and areas subject to territorial disputes.
U.S. move on Jerusalem 'destabilises' West Asia
A Palestinian youth throws stones at Israeli Defence Forces in the streets of Ramallah, West-Bank. Protest continues into the sixth day in an already divided city, U.S. President Donald Trump pushed relations in the city to breaking point after making the announcement to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin warned that the US move on Jerusalem destabilizes the Middle East and will not help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took his case to Europe to ask allies to join the United States in recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital, but met a firm rebuff from EU foreign ministers who saw the move as a blow against the peace process.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, meanwhile, took his own case to Egypt on Monday and was expected to fly to Turkey for a meeting of Muslim countries this week, cementing support from leaders who say the U.S. move was a dire error.
Trump wants to send man back to moon
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a space astronaut toy as he participates in a signing ceremony for Space Policy Directive at the White House in Washington D.C.
US President Donald Trump wants to send man back to the moon and on to Mars.
Mr. Trump is signing a space policy directive, directing NASA “to lead an innovative space exploration program to send American astronauts back to the moon, and eventually Mars,” according to White House spokesman Hogan Gidley.
Alabama foes make final push before big Senate vote
Supporters of Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Judge Roy Moore hold signs before a campaign rally in Midland City.
Facing voters at last after the year’s most bitter U.S. campaign, Alabama Republican Roy Moore cast himself Monday as the victim of a national barrage of unjust allegations of sexual misconduct with teenagers. Rival Doug Jones, hoping to become the state’s first Democratic senator in two decades, declared their race was Alabama’s referendum on “who we are and what we’re going to tell our daughters.”
Alabama has been a solidly Republican state for years, and Moore said he is much more in tune with the issues that matter to voters and to the president.
Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Doug Jones speaks during a rally in Birmingham, Alabama.
For Alabama Democrats, the special election is viewed as a chance to renounce a history littered with politicians whose race-baiting, bombast and other baggage have long soiled the state’s reputation.
Nobel for Peace
John Legend plays a Hibaku "Atomic" Piano at the traditional Nobel Peace Prize concert honouring the laureates, at Telenor Arena in Fornebu, .
The winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), today warned mankind’s destruction is just one “impulsive tantrum away” as the United States and North Korea exchange warlike threats over the nation’s nuclear tests.
“Will it be the end of nuclear weapons, or will it be the end of us?” ICAN head Beatrice Fihn said in a speech after receiving the peace prize on behalf of the anti-nuclear group.
