Category: Life & Style

For the first time since the pandemic, people in Japan can have picnics under cherry blossom trees. Japan’s cherry blossom season draws huge crowds of residents and tourists. The peak season of the blossom is from late March to early April.

In 2020, the Tokyo government asked people to refrain from eating and drinking alcohol in metropolitan parks due to concerns that this could add to COVID-19 infections. Now, city parks such as Ueno Park and Inokashira Park are open to welcome visitors to enjoy the full floral glory of the sakura (cherry blossom) after four years.

Since March, the COVID-19 situation in the country has calmed, but local governments will continue taking measures to avoid crowding to prevent the spread of the virus. Curbs are still in place at famous cherry blossom spots like Ueno Park’s Sakura-dori street, which has been kept a one-way thoroughfare to avoid crowding during the sakura season.

The cherry blossom season could help boost Japan’s bid to recover from the pandemic. A JTB Corp travel trend forecast says that the country will see a 450 percent year-on-year increase in inbound tourism in 2023. Since October 2022, when the Japanese government eased COVID-19 border control measures, visitor numbers in the country have climbed rapidly and about 21.1 million tourists – 66 percent of 2019 levels – are expected in 2023.

Centuries-old cultural artifacts of Cambodia that had been unlawfully smuggled out from the country returned home on March 18. The artifacts were welcomed at a celebration led by Prime Minister of Cambodia Hun Sen, who appealed for further efforts to retrieve other stolen treasures.

The returned items included important Hindu and Buddhist statues, apart from ancient jewelry from the empire of Angkor. Most of the returned items had been looted during periods of war and instability, including in the 1970s when Cambodia was under the rule of the communist Khmer Rouge. The artifacts, through corrupt art dealers, made their way into the hands of private collectors and museums around the world.

The Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, in a statement, credited the items’ return to “tremendous cooperation and support” from public and private institutions, national and international experts, and close relations with other countries through bilateral, multilateral and international institutions, such as UNESCO. The ministry especially thanked the cooperation from the US government, as many of the items returned so far have come from the United States.

Hun Sen appealed for the return of Cambodian sculptures in the spirit of goodwill. He said his government is determined to use all means at its disposal to secure those stolen artifacts, including negotiations and legal action.

India’s Mayurbhanj and Ladakh are among the 50 locations featured in the TIME Magazine’s list of World’s Greatest Places in 2023.

Mayurbhanj in Odisha and the union territory of Ladakh have been selected for their rare tigers and ancient temples, and adventures and food, respectively.

“With its astonishing alpine landscapes and Tibetan Buddhist culture, Ladakh—in the farthest-flung part of North India—has enough wonders to warrant multiple visits,” the international magazine said. In 2023, India designated its first Dark Sky Reserve, in Hanle village, about 168 miles southeast of Leh, Ladakh’s capital. The village has roughly 270 clear nights a year, making it ideal for astronomical splendour, it added.

Renowned for its green landscape, rich cultural legacy and ancient temples, Odisha’s Mayurbhanj is the second Indian site on the list. It is the only place on earth to spot the exceedingly rare black tiger. “Stunning biodiversity and interminable heritage continue throughout the state. In the capital Bhubaneswar, a new guided walking tour series, Odisha Walks, explores ancient cultural sites, monolithic rock edicts, and remarkable temple architecture,” it added.

Last year, Kerala and Ahmedabad were the Indian destinations in the list. This year, the list reflects a couple of big trends in travel right now, such as sustainability, and authenticity, said the selectors.

The full list of 50 ‘extraordinary destinations to explore’ in 2023 include Tampa, Florida; Willamette Valley, Oregon; Rio Grande, P. R.; Tucson, Arizona; Yosemite National Park, California; Bozeman, Montana; Washington, D.C.; Vancouver; Churchill, Manitoba; Dijon, France; and Pantelleria and Naples, Italy.

The East African Rift Valley is causing Africa to split into two continents. While the process will take millions of years, it will eventually split the African plate into two – the Somali and Nubian plates. This would lead part of East Africa to chip off, and a new ocean would form between the two land masses, a study stated.

The East African Rift is a crack that stretches 56 kilometres and appeared in the desert of Ethiopia in 2005, triggering the formation of a new sea, according to a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Geophysical Research Letters. This geological process will inevitably divide the continent, leading the landlocked countries, such as Uganda and Zambia, to obtain their own coastlines in due time. This natural phenomenon will take five to 10 million years and will not be without necessary evacuation of people and the potential loss of lives. On the upside, the emergence of new coastlines will unlock a myriad of opportunities for economic growth through new ports for trade, fishing grounds and sub-sea internet infrastructure.

The new, smaller continent to be created from the rift will include present-day Somalia and parts of Kenya, Ethiopia, and Tanzania. The Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea will eventually flood into the Afar region in Ethiopia and the East African Rift Valley, leading to the formation of a new ocean. This new ocean will result in East Africa becoming a separate small continent with its own unique geographic and ecological characteristics.

The United States military organised the first-ever maritime exercise to bolster the skills of West African forces. The drill, held in Ghana’s Volta River on March 11, was carried out under the US’ long-running Flintlock programme. Around 350 troops participated in the sea-based training, including servicemen from the Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Nigeria on the Gulf of Guinea.

Admiral Milton Sands, commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command for Africa (SOCAF), said the programme had expanded to help coastal nations in the region cope with maritime threats such as piracy and illegal fishing. Unauthorised fishing “is a significant one that we’re really trying to work with our partners to get our arms around slowing down,” he said in an interview. He said illegal fishing robbed the region of a key food source and fuelled other criminal activity, including drugs and human trafficking.

The West African region has become a global piracy hotspot in recent years, although cases have fallen since 2021, according to the UN Security Council. Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing has spread along its coasts, draining an estimated $9.4 billion per year through illicit financial flows, said a 2022 report by the financial transparency coalition of non-governmental organisations. Of the top 10 companies they found involved in IUU fishing in the region, eight were Chinese, and a third of all vessels sported Chinese flags, it said.

Singapore’s Changi Airport has recovered its title as the world’s best airport from Qatar, which held the crown for two years during the peak of pandemic travel restrictions, in the latest ranking by the Skytrax World Airport Awards 2023.

Determined by a customer satisfaction survey, the airports awards ranked Doha’s Hamad International Airport at second place and Tokyo’s Haneda Airport at the third place. The US was not present in the top 10 airports.

Paris Charles de Gaulle was Europe’s top performer, up one spot to fifth place, while Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was the highest ranked North American airport, at the 18th position, but better from 27th place in 2022. New York’s JFK fell three spots to 88th place; China’s Shenzhen leaped 26 places to 31 — two above Hong Kong; Melbourne was the top Australian airport in 19th place, up from 26 last year; London Heathrow dropped nine places to 22^nd.

The other airports in the Top 10 Airports were Seoul Incheon, Istanbul, Munich, Zurich, Tokyo Narita, and Madrid Barajas.

“Changi Airport is honoured to be named World’s Best Airport for the twelfth time,” said Lee Seow Hiang, Chief Executive Officer for Changi Airport Group. “This recognition is great encouragement to our airport community, who stood firmly together to battle the challenges of COVID-19 over the past two years.”

Finding the origin of the deadly COVID-19 virus is a moral imperative and all hypotheses must be explored, insisted the World Health Organization Head, affirming that the United Nations’ body is committed to finding how the virus occurred.

“Understanding #COVID19’s origins and exploring all hypotheses remains: a scientific imperative, to help us prevent future outbreaks (and) a moral imperative, for the sake of the millions of people who died and those who live with #LongCOVID,” tweeted WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on March 12, marking three years since the world health body began using the word “pandemic” to describe the outbreak of COVID-19.

Earlier, a US agency assessed that the COVID-19 pandemic had likely been caused by an unintended Chinese laboratory leak, which built pressure on the world health body to look into the origins. However, China denied the assessment. Last weekend, activists, politicians and academics in an open letter said that the focus of the anniversary should be on preventing a repeat of the unequal COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

In 2021, a WHO-led team spent weeks in and around Wuhan in China where the first human cases were reported. The team said in a joint report that the virus had probably been transmitted from bats to humans through another animal, but called for further research.

India has restored the e-visa services for the nationals of Saudi Arabia keen to visit the country with immediate effect. In 2019, India had introduced the Saudi nationals’ e-Visa service, which was later cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Embassy of India in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in a tweet said, “The Embassy is happy to announce that the facility of e-visa has been restored for the nationals of Saudi Arabia with immediate effect in all five sub-categories, i.e. e-tourist visa, e-business visa, e-medical visa, e-medical attendant visa & e-conference visa.”

India offers e-Visa services to 166 nations at present. The application and payment of fees are required to be made a minimum of 4 days in advance from the date of travel and wait for the approval.

Earlier, owing to strong ties and strategic partnership with India, Saudi Arabia announced the exemption of Indian nationals from submitting a Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) to obtain a visa for travelling to Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi Embassy in New Delhi said that the PCC will no longer be a requirement for Indian citizens and the decision has been taken as a part of the efforts of the two countries to boost their relations. India-Saudi Arabia relations have strengthened considerably over the past few years including in political, security, energy, trade, investment, health, food security, cultural and defence fields.

India shone at the 95th Academy Awards in Los Angeles with two Oscar trophies, as The Elephant Whisperers won the Best Documentary Short Subject, and “Naatu Naatu” song from Telugu film RRR won for Best Original Song, becoming the first Indian song to win an Oscar.

Directed by Kartiki Gonsalves and produced by Guneet Monga, The Elephant Whisperers is a heartwarming film on the deep bond between a pair of elephants and their humans. The 40-minute film on Netflix features, as Gonsalves said, the ‘sacred bond between us and the natural world and respect for indigenous communities’.

The Oscars for Naatu Naatu were awarded to composer MM Keeravaani, who sang a version of The Carpenters’ hit “Top of the World” as his acceptance speech, and lyricist Chandrabose. The famous track is directed by SS Rajamouli and features actors Ram Charan and Jr NTR. The Telugu song beat heavy-weight competitors – Lady Gaga’s “Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick, Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, “This Is a Life” from Everything Everywhere All At Once, and “Applause” from Tell It Like A Woman. The song, “Naatu Naatu” had won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song in January. It was also performed live during the Oscar ceremony by singers Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava, and danced by Lauren Gottlieb. Deepika Padukone – the third Indian to attend as a presenter after Persis Khambatta and Priyanka Chopra – introduced the performance.

Union Minister for Labour & Employment and Environment, Forest & Climate Change Bhupender Yadav on March 11 inaugurated the NDMC G20 Flower Festival at Central Park, Connaught Place, New Delhi. New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) had organised the two-day G20-themed flower festival to showcase the vibrant and colourful display of G20 members and guest countries. China, Japan, Singapore and the Netherlands participated in the G20 Flower Festival.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) also participated in the G20 Flower Festival, where a large variety of seasonal and exclusive flora was on display, said officials. Flower plants of different colours and varieties were on display in different forms and installations at the flower festival. It also showcased paintings or photographs of flowers such as national flowers or major flower gardens of G20 members and guest countries. The public could also purchase their favourite plants from various stalls set up in the event.

The Connaught Place in New Delhi, which is a major tourist and commercial spot, attracted a large number of visitors to the flower show. Horticulture enthusiasts could walk in to enjoy vibrant flowers such as dahlias, bougainvillea, foliage plants, bonsai, cacti and succulents in pots, and hanging baskets and can purchase their favourite plants, and flowers, etc., from the stalls. Floral figures, tray garden, and floral arrangements were also displayed. The visitors also enjoyed the musical and cultural programmes organised at the Central Park Amphitheatre.