India joined a growing list of countries suspending flights to and from the UK amid concerns of an “out of control” new variant of fast-spreading coronavirus. All flights from the UK to India will be suspended until December 31. The new variant is said to be 70 per cent more transmissible, though health experts say there is no evidence that it is more deadly or would react differently to vaccines.
Nehal Modi, the younger brother of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, has been indicted in New York for fraudulently obtaining diamonds worth over US$ 2.6 million from one of the world’s biggest diamond companies in Manhattan. Nehal, 41, is charged with grand larceny—between March 2015 and August 2015, he made false representations to obtain the diamonds from LLD Diamonds USA.
Filmmaker Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy, which was Canada’s Oscar entry for best international film, has been rejected by the Academy because it contains too many English dialogues. The film, an adaptation of Shyam Selvadurai’s 1994 novel of the same, is in Tamil and Sinhalese but also contains English dialogue. A feature cannot contain more than 50 per cent English to be eligible in the category.
