Romania: 2 Canadians survive a night at Dracula's Castle

November 2, 2016

Bucharest, Nov 2: All night long, a cold wind howled around the gothic castle that inspired the Dracula legend, as a Canadian brother and sister became the first people to pass the night there in 70 years.

Romania

But it wasn't the wind that kept Robin Varma, a PhD student in political science, awake at Bran Castle in Transylvania. Rather it was the incessant chattering of his sister.

"He put the lid on his coffin so he could sleep. ... He was sick of hearing me talk," Tami Varma, an events manager from Ottawa, told The Associated Press today.

The pair outdid 88,000 people who entered a competition hosted by Airbnb to get the chance to dine and sleep at the castle in Romania, by describing how their grandfather Devendra P. Varma, a scholar of English gothic tales and an expert in vampire lore had visited the medieval fortress in 1971.

They arrived at dusk yesterday in a stagecoach, and were welcomed by Dacre Stoker the great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker who wrote the 1897 horror novel. They later dined on chicken paprikash and red wine, serenaded by a string quartet, before curling up for the night in red-velvet-lined coffins but sleep eluded them.

It wasn't just the talking, or the wind howling, though. Another mysterious sound spooked the pair.

"We have a strong feeling there were invisible guests walking along the castle corridors last night, " Tami Varma said, hinting that Count Dracula may have paid a fleeting visit. "But we did live to see sunrise."

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Agencies
March 3,2020

Facebook on Monday launched a new consumer marketing campaign in India titled 'More Together'. India is the first country in the Asia Pacific region where such a campaign is being rolled out.

It is also the first time that Facebook is rolling out a 'high decibel campaign of this stature in India', the company said in a statement.

It is also the first time that Facebook is rolling out a 'high decibel campaign of this stature in India', the company said in a statement.

"India is at the heart of Facebook and one of our focus areas this year is to tell the exciting story of a service that is deeply embedded in the fabric of India," said Ajit Mohan, Vice President and Managing Director, Facebook India.

The campaign would have multiple campaigns over the next few weeks in eight languages and the one will be set in the context of Holi.

Facebook in 2019 introduced a new company logo to further distinguish the company from the Facebook app.

The company recently announced the appointment of Avinash Pant as the Marketing Director for India operations, to drive the consumer marketing efforts across the family of apps.

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News Network
June 30,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 30: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Monday launched 'Skill Connect Forum' and said that the government is committed to provide impetuous to creating jobs by reviving economic and industrial activities.

The 'Skill Connect Forum' portal connects both private entrepreneurs and job seekers on the same platform.

After launching the forum, the Chief Minister said that the portal provides information on jobs available and who needs a job. "Under this forum, an unemployed will be imparted skills and then enabled to get a job," Yediyurappa said.
Besides providing jobs via registration, the portal also provides a skilled pool of people for those looking to hire, he added.

Deputy Chief Minister Dr CN Ashwath Narayan, who is also the Skill Development Minister said that portal will be a boon to the youth seeking jobs and it will avoid unemployment issue to a great extent.

"All these years, there was no information and communication between job seekers and recruiters. The portal will solve that problem," he said.

Narayan said that there was no proper information on skilled workers and job market. Moreover, skill development was not in sync with the market. All these issues have been addressed by the portal, he added.

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News Network
February 21,2020

London, Feb 21: Scientists have discovered a new species of land snail, and have named it Craspedotropis Greta Thunberg in honour of the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg for her efforts to raise awareness about climate change.

According to the study, published in the Biodiversity Data Journal, the newly discovered species belongs to the so-called caenogastropods -- a group of land snails known to be sensitive to drought, temperature extremes, and forest degradation.

The scientists, including evolutionary ecologist Menno Schilthuizen from Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands, said the snails were found very close to the research field station at Kuala Belalong Field Studies Centre in Brunei.

They added that the snails were discovered at the foot of a steep hill-slope, next to a river bank, foraging at night on the green leaves of understorey plants.

The effort aided by amateur scientist J.P. Lim, who found the first individual of the snail said, "Naming this snail after Greta Thunberg is our way of acknowledging that her generation will be responsible for fixing problems that they did not create."

"And it's a promise that people from all generations will join her to help," Lim said.

The researchers said they approached Thunberg who said that she would be "delighted" to have this species named after her.

The study work including, fieldwork, morphological study, and classification of identified specimen was carried out in a field centre with basic equipment and no internet access, the scientists said.

According to the study, the work was done by untrained ‘citizen scientists’ guided by experts, on a 10-day taxon expedition.

"While we are aware that this way of working has its limitations in terms of the quality of the output (for example, we were unable to perform dissections or to do extensive literature searches), the benefits include rapid species discovery and on-site processing of materials," the researchers wrote in the study.

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