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Tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain passes away at 73: His life and legacy

Tabla maestro Zakir Hussain passes away at 73, fused music to make magic

His fingers flew, fluttered and floated in quicksilver changes of raga and rhythm, drumming up music and magic. Zakir Hussain was the maestro of tabla, percussionist, composer and even actor a legend who was India's very own and yet belonged to the world. Hussain died from 'idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis', a lung disease, in a San Francisco hospital early Monday. He was 73. The artiste, a marquee name in India and abroad, leaves behind more than 60 years of music. He played on the stage alongside some of the greatest Indian and international musicians in a fusion of Indian classical and world music, giving the tabla a whole new identity. The great percussionist created music across genres and styles, including in his repertoire jazz and concertos, naturally developing an all-inclusive musical creativity after learning and playing under the tutelage of his father and renowned tabla player, Alla Rakha. The mindset as I was growing up tuned itself to the idea that music is music, it's

Who is Luigi Mangione, the suspect in killing of UnitedHealth executive

Such posts by a Luigi Mangione, the name New York police have announced as the 26-year-old suspect in last week's killing of a health insurance executive in New York

Live from SF: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg tapes podcast with 6,000 friends

Engineers, venture capitalists, and other Silicon Valley digerati chatted as they found their seats, with Modelos and slices of pizza in hand. The anticipation was high

Tamil Nadu CM visits San Francisco, inks pact with Microchip, Nokia, PayPal

The Tamil Nadu government has inked pacts with leading companies including Nokia, PayPal, Yield Engineering Systems, Microchip, Infinx, and Applied Materials for an investment commitment of Rs 900 crore and employment of 4,100 people in Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai, the government said on Friday. Six companies signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) in the presence of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin and officials during the investors' meeting in San Francisco, an official release here said. The chief minister, who is leading a high-level official delegation, is currently on a tour to the US till September 14 to attract investments into Tamil Nadu, as part of an ambitious goal to transform the state into a USD one trillion economy by 2030. He left for the US on August 27. He participated in a meeting with potential investors in San Francisco on Thursday. An MoU was signed with Nokia, represented by Chief Strategy and Technology Officer Nishant Batra and President - Fixe

26 pro-Palestinian demonstrators charged for blocking Golden Gate Bridge

San Francisco prosecutors have charged 26 protesters who blocked the Golden Gate Bridge for hours in April to demand a cease-fire in Gaza. The protest on April 15 was one of many held by pro-Palestinian demonstrators who blocked roadways around the country, causing traffic jams and temporarily shutting down travel into some of the nation's most heavily used airports. The protesters were charged with felony conspiracy, false imprisonment, trespassing to interfere with a business, obstruction of a thoroughfare, unlawful assembly, refusal to disperse at a riot, and failure to obey the lawful order of a uniformed officer, the San Francisco District Attorney's Office announced Saturday. Traffic snarled for hours after demonstrators blocked lanes with vehicles, shutting down all vehicle, pedestrian and bike traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge. The demonstration was part of coordinated protests across the country to demand an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and an end to military aid to ...

Elon Musk's X to shut San Francisco office, workers to be relocated

Musk, who acquired the company in 2022, has been vocal about his disdain for San Francisco and previously blamed the city's left-leaning culture for making Twitter too liberal

AI aircraft leaves for US with passengers of flight diverted to Russia

An Air India relief aircraft for passengers of its Delhi-San Francisco flight stranded at Russia's Krasnoyarsk Airport has now departed from there for the US city, the airline has said. "The flight AI 1179 departed Krasnoyarsk (KJA) at 0002 hours local time (20 July) for San Francisco (SFO), carrying all passengers and crew of AI183 that was diverted to Krasnoyarsk," Air India said in a statement. The airline had to divert its Delhi-San Francisco flight with 225 passengers and 19 crew members to the Russian city on Thursday after the cockpit crew detected a potential issue in the cargo hold area of the Boeing 777 aircraft. The relief flight with an Air India team, including crew and security personnel, took off from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport here at 12.52 pm for the Russian city of Krasnoyarsk. The ferry flight also carried on board essentials in addition to sufficient food for all passengers. The airline said it has mobilised additional on-ground suppo

Air India's Delhi to San Francisco flight diverted to Russia due to glitch

According to the information, the aircraft has landed safely and airline officials are working with relevant authorities to ensure guests are taken care of until the next course of action is decided

Early blast of heat & humidity leaves millions sweltering across US

A blast of heat and humidity in the Midwest and Northeast days before the official start of summer put a wet blanket on outdoor activities from festivals to sports camps as officials urged people to take precautions. Cities that opened cooling centers this week advised that Wednesday's Juneteenth holiday means some public libraries, senior centers and pools where residents could beat the heat will be closed. The dangerous temperatures were expected to peak in the eastern Great Lakes and New England on Wednesday and Thursday, and in the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic on Friday and Saturday, the National Weather Service said. Heat index readings were expected to reach 100 to 105 degrees (37.7 C to 40.5 C) in many locations. People and even zoo animals were forced to find ways to thwart the muggy weather. An organization that provides produce to areas with limited access to fresh food in Columbus, Ohio, prepared frozen towels and packed cold water for their workers. Hydration is the ke

San Francisco police arrest 70 protesters for trespassing Israeli consulate

Police led protesters out of the building one by one and loaded them into police vehicles, their hands bound by zip ties

California firefighters continue to battle wildfires east of San Francisco

California firefighters expected to gain ground on Sunday on a wind-driven wildfire that scorched thousands of acres 97 kilometres east of San Francisco, burned down a home and forced residents to flee the area near the central California city of Tracy. The fire erupted on Saturday afternoon in the grassy hills managed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, one of the country's key centres for nuclear weapons science and technology. The cause was under investigation. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the research centre was not under immediate threat from the blaze, dubbed the Corral Fire, which had devoured some 52 square kilometres by Sunday afternoon and was 30 per cent contained. Thousands of people in the area, including parts of the city of Tracy with a population of 1,00,000, were ordered to leave for evacuation centres. Tracy is about 112 kilometres south of California's capital in Sacramento. CalFire Battalion Chief Josh Silveira said o

Delhi-San Francisco flight delay: A-I apologises, offers $350 voucher

Air India has apologised and offered a travel voucher of USD 350 each to the passengers of the San Francisco flight that took off from the national capital after a delay of more than 30 hours. There were 199 passengers in the flight, according to a source. After a delay of over 30 hours, the flight took off from the national capital at 2155 hours on Friday and landed at San Francisco at 1245 hours (IST) on Saturday. The flight duration was around 16 hours. "Please allow me to sincerely apologise, on behalf of Air India, for the extended delay in bringing you to San Francisco, which was caused by several technical delays and other operational constraints," Air India Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Klaus Goersch said in a letter to the flight's passengers. As a gesture of apology, Air India has offered a "travel voucher worth USD 350" for future travel with the airline, the letter dated May 31 said. The passengers will also have the option to credit the amount .

Air India's Mumbai-San Francisco flight takes off after inordinate delay

Air India's flight to San Francisco from the city took off on Saturday evening after an inordinate delay due to multiple reasons. The flight, which was originally scheduled to take off at 1600 hours on Friday, was delayed by over 25 hours, due to multiple reasons and rescheduled for Saturday. Again on Saturday, the flight was initially expected to fly out in the morning but finally took off for San Francisco around 1730 hours, according to an official. Details about the number of passengers could not be ascertained. On Friday, passengers had to wait inside the aircraft for more than five hours before the flight was rescheduled for Saturday. An airline official had said the Boeing 777 plane, which was scheduled to take off at 1600 hours, was first delayed due to a technical glitch, then some passengers deboarded and subsequently, another passenger fell ill. After deboarding the passenger who started feeling unwell around 1917 hours, it was noticed that by the time the flight would

First-ever India pavilion inaugurated at Game Developers Conference in US

The first-ever India pavilion has been inaugurated at the prestigious Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, reflecting a new dimension of the bilateral relationship between India and the US. The inauguration on Wednesday also saw the launch of the 'India Gaming Market Report'. It was done in collaboration with the US India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF) and its member WinZO. According to the report, India's gaming market is expected to grow from USD 3.1 billion in 2023 to USD 6 billion in 2028. The inauguration of the India pavilion marks a significant milestone in the Indo-US relationship, said USISPF president and CEO Mukesh Aghi. "The online gaming sector in India is burgeoning and initiatives such as these would go a long way in fostering collaboration between the two nations, including investment, innovation and content. We envision a future where our combined creativity fuels the next wave of gaming excellence," he said. The event witnessed the participation

Musk agreed ChatGPT maker should become for-profit company, says OpenAI

Elon Musk supported making OpenAI a for-profit company, the ChatGPT maker said, attacking a lawsuit from the wealthy investor who has accused the artificial intelligence business of betraying its founding goal to benefit humanity as it pursued profits instead. In its first response since the Tesla CEO sued last week, OpenAI vowed to get the claim thrown out and released emails from Musk, escalating the feud between the San Francisco-based company and the billionaire that bankrolled its creation years ago. The mission of OpenAI is to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity, which means both building safe and beneficial AGI and helping create broadly distributed benefits, OpenAI said in a blog post late Tuesday from five company executives and computer scientists, including CEO Sam Altman. We intend to move to dismiss all of Elon's claims." AGI refers to artificial general intelligence, which are general purpose AI systems that can perform just as well as or even better than humans in a

AT&T cellular outage in US disrupts vital services in major cities

Downdetector showed users of Verizon, T-Mobile and UScellular also faced disruptions

Moderna sales beat estimates at $6.7 bn last year on rising vaccine share

The company said Monday it still expects revenue to fall sharply this year to about $4 billion. It forecasts a return to sales growth in 2025 and to break even the following year

Climate concert in Dubai to highlight 'urgency of a planet in dissonance'

An upcoming climate concert, named Resonance, will bring together multiple voices from across the globe to raise awareness about the "urgency of a planet in dissonance - that must be healed for humanity". Hosted by San Francisco based non-profit BayEcotarium jointly with United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the musical event will take place on December 6 in Dubai Opera, during the United Nations COP28 Climate Summit scheduled to be held in UAE from November 30 - December 12. "Music transcends geopolitical and linguistic boundaries and is the soul of civil societies. The Climate Concert is the coming together of multiple voices from around the world during the historic UNCOP28, in solidarity with combating climate change. Aptly named Resonance- its intent is to bring awareness to the urgency of a planet in dissonance - that must be healed for humanity," George Jacob, president and CEO of BayEcotarium, told PTI. The event will see live performances by multiple

14 places in Punjab, Haryana raided over attacks on Indian Consulate in US

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday carried out raids at 14 locations in Punjab and Haryana in connection with its probe into attacks on the Indian Consulate in San Francisco in the US earlier this year, an official spokesperson said. The spokesperson said these places located in north India were raided to unravel the complete conspiracy behind the attacks on March 19 and July 2, involving criminal trespass, vandalism, damage to public property and attempts to cause hurt to the consulate officials and set the building on fire through acts of arson. The locations raided by the NIA were spread across the districts of Moga, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Gurdaspur, Mohali and Patiala in Punjab and Kurukshetra and Yamunanagar in Haryana. The crackdown led to the seizure of digital data containing information related to the accused persons, along with other incriminating documents, the spokesperson said. The NIA has been probing the case with the aim to identify and prosecute the