The United States will not stand by while Iran provides support to Shia rebels who have seized much of Yemen, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday.
“There have been – there are, obviously – flights coming from Iran. Every single week there are flights from Iran and we’ve traced it and know this,” Kerry told PBS television in an interview.

“Iran needs to recognise that the United States is not going to stand by while the region is destabilised or while people engage in overt warfare across lines, international boundaries in other countries.”
A US-backed coalition of largely Sunni Muslim countries led by Saudi Arabia has been waging an air campaign against the Huthi rebels in a bid to restore the authority of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, who was forced to flee the country.

The Huthis have seized control of large parts of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, and joined forces with security forces who have remained loyal to longtime strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh, forced from power in 2012 after a year-long, Arab Spring-inspired uprising.

Riyadh accuses Tehran, the major Shiite power, of backing the Huthis. But Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif insisted his government wanted a swift end to the fighting, which has cost more than 640 lives since March 19, according to the World Health Organization.
Kerry said Washington was not looking for confrontation with Tehran.
“But we’re not going to step away from our alliances and our friendships and the need to stand with those who feel threatened as a consequence of the choices that Iran might be making.”

It was Kerry’s first television interview since his return to Washington after negotiating a framework agreement with Iran last week reining in its controversial nuclear program.

In a bid to bring North-eastern India closer to the rest of the country, a day-long Northeast festival, featuring food, costumes, music and dance among other features is being organised at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium on April 11 here.

Hosted by the Meghalaya government and sponsored by the North East Council, the festival titled “Songs and Dances of the North-East” is scheduled to be inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee, organisers said here today.

Mukul Sangma, Chief Minister of Meghalaya along with members of North East Council and other dignitaries will also be present at the occasion .

“The purpose of the festival is to connect the unique way of life of North eastern people with the rest of the country,” M War Nongbri, Director Art and Culture, Meghalaya government said.

Failing to encompass the vast North-East culture in a day’s time, Nongbri said, they settled to focus on the music and dances of the region in this first edition of the festival.

“North East is known for its diverse music, richness of cultures, colours of traditions and the sweet melodies of folklores,” Nongbri said.

Both budding and eminent bands and artistes from across the eight states will showcase their rich, vibrant, cultural ethnicity and diversity through an array of music and dance performances.

Among the popular names are bands like Shillong Chamber Choir (Meghalaya), Imphal talkies (Aizawl), Tetseo Sisters (Nagaland) and the acclaimed “Indian Idol” winner Amit Paul.

Extending a warm welcome to the rest of India to visit Nort-East, Nongri said they hope that the festival will also act as a catalyst to take up important issues associated with the region.

A baby elephant, kept in Jhargram Mini Zoo for the past one-and-a-half-months, was today taken to the Jaldapara National Park by forest department.

Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Rabindranath Sahu said, the three-and-a-half-year-old pachyderm had been brought to the Jhargram Mini Zoo on February 21 and named ‘Durga’.

The little jumbo, of 4-5 feet height, was separated from its herd and rescued by wildlife personnel from Sankrail forest in West Midnapore district, Sahu said.

The baby elephant, which became popular among the people here, was doing fine after the journey.

MUMBAI: In a climb down from its earlier stand, the Maharashtra government has decided to allow theatre and multiplex owners to screen Marathi movies between noon and 9 pm, instead of its earlier order for 6 pm to 11.30 pm.

The decision came after Minister of School Education and Culture Vinod Tawde held a meeting with representatives of theatre and multiplex owners and Marathi producers. During the meeting, representatives of multiplex operators InoxBSE -0.49 % and PVR said they would be willing to show Marathi movies from noon to 9 pm.

Actor-producer Mahesh Kothari and Vijay Patkar, president of the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Chitrapat Mahamandal, who were present at the meeting, didn’t oppose the proposal.

Speaking later to ET, Patkar said, “We are very happy with this new formula as now Marathi films will not be shown in the morning. This arrangement will suit us perfectly.”

Professional social network operator LinkedIn Corp said it would buy privately held online education company lynda.com in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $1.5 billion.

LinkedIn said it would pay about 52 percent in cash and about 48 percent in stock.

NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today said his government would ‘very soon’ announce a relief package for the Delhi farmers whose crops were damaged due to untimely rain and hailstorm in March.

Meeting a delegation of AAP MLAs from rural Delhi, Kejriwal directed them to assure the farmers that the government was with them and would compensate their crop losses, said an AAP statement.

In the third case of an ‘insider’ involvement in gold smuggling at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) this year, Mumbai Airport Customs officials on Wednesday morning arrested two employees of Sky Gourmet Flight kitchen as they were attempting a series of gold retrievals from flights. Both the accused have admitted that they smuggled gold at least 30 times in the past, said Customs officials.

Based on the employees’ confession and inspection of their WhatsApp messages, 6.79 kg of gold worth Rs 1.65 crore was seized from four Jet Airways flights on Wednesday morning,” officials said.
The seizures included seven gold bars worth Rs19.18 lakh from a Dubai-Mumbai flight,12 gold bars worth Rs 34.85 lakh from an Abu Dhabi-Mumbai flight, 11 gold bars worth Rs 31.1 lakh from a Kuwait-Mumbai flight and 2 kg bars and 12 tola bars worth Rs 78.83 lakh from a Muscat-Mumbai flight.
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In all the cases, gold was concealed beneath the seat cushion and seat number was sent to the accused via Whatsapp.
“Abdul Razak Shaikh and Siraj Mohammed Sayed are employees of Sky Gourmet Flight Kitchen. Further, a search conducted at Sayed’s residence in Jari Mari also resulted in recovery of Rs 5.8 lakh,” said a Customs official.
After a short car chase, the receivers of the gold consignment were also arrested on Wednesday. Vijay Tamhanekar, was apprehended outside Hotel Hyatt, Sahar, and further receiver Shahabuddin CA was apprehended outside McDonalds restaurant, Andheri (East), officials said.
Customs’ driver stopped the vehicle of one of the fleeing accused in Andheri. “Our driver Allaudin tried to stop Tamhanekar’s car when he tried to flee and had to crash out official Tavera into the accused’s car to stop him,” said one of the Customs officials.
Last month, a Jet Airways attendant on a Dubai-Mumbai flight was caught trying to smuggle gold and diamonds worth Rs 1.06 crore at the Mumbai airport. While in February, Customs officials caught a passenger service assistant of Celebi Nas for acting as a carrier for gold worth Rs 1.5 crore.
In the past one year, around 13 ‘insiders’ were nabbed smuggling gold. “In the last six months, a lot of insiders were caught, but these rackets are tough to crack because not all of them go through Customs areas of the airport,” said Milind Lanjewar, Additional Commissioner of Customs.

Mumbai: Screening of Marathi films during the prime time slots of 6pm to 9pm in multiplexes has been made mandatory by Maharashtra government.
“We are in the process of enacting a law to make it mandatory for multiplexes to screen Marathi films during prime time,” Culture Minister Vinod Tawde said in his reply to a debate on preservation of historical forts, Marathi language and culture.
The Government is also preparing a short film on Dadasaheb Phalke, the father of Indian cinema, for screening in theatres, Tawde said, adding that it will be shown after national anthem.

Screening of the film on Phalke, too, will be made compulsory in the theatres, he said.
This will enable people to know that a Marathi-speaking person laid the foundation stone for Indian cinema, the Minister added.
Veteran author Shobha De said that the government should have been consulted stakeholders before making screening of Marathi movies mandatory and asked if the government is willing to give subsidy to multiplexes.
Mumbai being the financial capital of India has a mixed population and a good proportion of people are non-Marathi speaking. Bollywood actor Ritesh Deshmukh said, “In Mumbai the first choice is Hindi film, for a Marathi film it becomes difficult to compete.”
Earlier in 2015, the Maharashtra government had made billboards in Marathi mandatory in the state.