ITV

Tag: Tsunami relief

  • Golden Globe attendees urged to donate clothes for Tsunami relief

    MUMBAI: Hollywood stars are all set to do their bit in helping victims of the Tsunami natural disaster.

    In exactly a week’s time the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) will organise the Golden Globe Awards. In conjunction with the prestigious event Unicef has announced the Clothes Off Our Back Golden Globe Auction.

    Film, television stars and other celebrities will auction their clothes worn on the event’s Red Carpet. Proceeds raised from will benefit the Unicef Tsunami Relief Fund. Championing the initiative are two of American television’s leading lights: Jane Kaczmarek who stars in the sitcom Malcolm In The Middle and her
    husband, Bradley Whitford who can be sen in The West Wing which airs in India on Zee English. In India the Golden Globe Awards will air live on Star World on 17 January at 6:30 am with a repeat at 8 pm.

    Kaczmarek said, “With a disaster of this magnitude that has affected so many children everyone wants to help. The Hollywood community has a great opportunity with the upcoming Golden Globe. We are calling on all current and past Golden Globe nominees and winners to donate their clothing and accessories that from the red carpet to help raise money for Unicef to care for the children who have survived this disaster.”

    Celebrities, designers and stylists are encouraged to donate gowns, tuxedos, shoes, watches, handbags, and sunglasses, anything that has been worn to a previous ceremony or will be worn to the upcoming Golden Globes.

    For further information check the site www.clothesoffourback.org. Meanwhile the HFPA and In Style Magazine will treat this year’s Golden Globe presenters to an array of lavish items. Each presenter will get gifts worth a total of $38,000.

    Selected items for the presenter boxes include a VIP travel package including luxury accommodations in Hunter Valley near Sydney. The package has been created by Rosemount Estates vineyard of Australia and has guided tours and tastings at their winery. Quantas Airlines will provide the air transportation for this package to Australia in their new international luxury class Skybed. Also another goodie for presenters is a bi-coastal six-month membership to Sports Club LA.

  • Isro volunteers services for tsunami relief

    BANGALORE: The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), in its efforts to help the tsunami relief measures, has provided telecommunications and telemedicine facilities in the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

    Isro has sent a fly-away mini aperture terminal, 10 Inmarsat telephones and four mobile satellite service phones to Portblair for augmentation of telecommunication links in the affected areas. Inasat-3E satellite has been earmarked for supporting large capacity telephone links from Andaman & Nicobar Islands to Kolkata which is connected to Delhi. Telephone links from one place in Andaman & Nicobar Islands to any other place through transportable VSATs are also being arranged.

    The administration is using the Vsat facilities at Diglipur, Mayabanda, Rangat, Port Blair, Hut Bay, Car Nicobar, Camorta and Cambel Bay where Video conferencing links, satellite based telephone connectivity as well as ISDN telephone connectivity have been established and enabled between the mainland and the islands for carrying out relief and rehabilitation work.

    Also, Isro’s telemedicine network has been connected to two hospitals – one at Port Blair (GB Pant Hospital) and the other at Car Nicobar Islands (Indira Gandhi Hospital) to enable communication and consultation with specialists at Apollo Hospital (Chennai) and Amruta Institute of Medical Sciences (Cochin), informs an Isro release.

    Data from Indian Remote Sensing satellites (IRS-1C, 1D, OCEANSAT-1 and RESOURCESAT) over affected areas are being used for analysis and damage assessment. Information is also being provided to Crisis Management Group of the Ministry of Home Affairs and State agencies. Satellite data for Car Nicobar, Chennai and Kakinada, Tamil Nadu coast (especially Nagapattinam), Andhra Pradesh and Kerala have been acquired.

    For damage assessment, Isro has been using its Aerial Photography Survey system. Chennai-Nagapattinam, Andhra Pradesh coast and Port Blair have already been covered and other islands are also being covered. The satellite imageries clearly indicate large-scale damage to the southern tip of Great Nicobar Island and the Indira Point. The Trinkat Island of the Nancowri Group has been separated into two parts due to the water impoundment in the central part, adds the release.
     

  • Murdoch, Schumacher pitch in for Tsunami relief

    MUMBAI: Media moghul Rupert Murdoch has joined a list of high profile people that are donating millions of dollars to help the victims of the Tsunami natural disaster which struck South Asia. He has donated $1million.

    Race legend Michael Schumacher has topped that by donating $10 million. This amounts to about an eight of what he earned last year.

    Schumacher said, “It’s impossible not to keep thinking about it. Our thoughts are with them and we hope that they will be spared further disastrous events.”

    Murdoch meanwhile has called upon media companies to do their bit. He said, “More than 150,000 dead, thousands missing, 5 million homeless, millions more vulnerable to diseases. While the world has already responded with great compassion, we can do more – and should do more.”

    Murdoch added that his move was a response to an appeal for funds by US President George Bush. Murdoch said, “In announcing this effort, the president placed his faith in what he called ‘the good heart of the American people. I have also asked all of our US-based media to support the president’s call by devoting as much space and airtime as practicable to encourage Americans to open their pocket books to this great humanitarian enterprise.”

    In the US, Walt Disney set up a fund with the International Red Cross with an initial donation of $1 million. Time Warner has donated $300,000 and will match employee donations up to $500,000. Individual Time Warner companies in Europe and Asia are also making donations.

    Other high profile donors include American actress Sandra Bullock who donated $ 1 million to the Red Cross. Meanwhile Fifa and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) have created a solidarity fund for the Tsunami victims. Fifa’s emergency committee has decided to donate $ 2 million towards rehabilitation and relief work. The AFC has pledged $1 million.