Drivers of Mumbai’s black and yellow taxis, a distinctive feature of city life for nearly a century, are up in arms after the state government unveiled plans to change their colour to beige and brown.
Maharashtra state transport minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil said all new taxis coming into service in India’s financial and entertainment capital would be painted beige with a nut-brown trim.
But the largest union representing drivers hit out at the proposal, saying they had not been consulted. Quadros, whose union represents 40,000 of the 55,000 taxi drivers plying Mumbai’s streets, said the tinkering made no sense, as the vehicles were as synonymous with the city as black cabs in London or yellow taxis in New York. (AFP)
Curbing leaders’ perks
Slovak politicians may have to swap classy limos for cheaper cars and lose other perks including immunity from prosecution after today’s referendum initiated by the junior coalition party SaS.
SaS initiated the plebiscite to make good on a promise given before Slovakia’s general election this June. Before the election, SaS had promised voters the opportunity to cut the number of lawmakers from 150 to 100 and to make Cabinet members drive cheaper cars, among other things.
Slovakia’s new Cabinet ministers have pledged to slash their salaries by 10 per cent to help boost public finances battered by the global economic downturn, but that promise jars with their Audi, BMW and Mercedes limos. (AFP)
Killer swan
A swan nicknamed “Hannibal” after he killed 15 other birds and injured dozens more could be removed from a pond to end his reign of terror.
Hannibal has lived with his mate, “Mrs Hannibal”, and their cygnet alone on Castle Pond by Pembroke Castle in West Wales since February.
When other swans accidentally end up in his territory after straying from the nearby safety of Mill Pond he attacks them, volunteer rescuer Maria Evans said. She has applied for an official licence to remove the family to carry out tests and protect the other swans. (PA)
Fruit furore
Campaigners have defended the quality of under-sized and oddly-shaped apples after the prisons minister said serving them in jails could lead to riots.
The National Farmers’ Union insisted odd-shaped fruit and vegetables “tastes just as good, eliminates waste and makes economic sense”.
The row came after Prisons Minister Crispin Blunt told MPs that serving undersize apples in jail canteens “will create issues of order and control”. (PA)
Limbless man bids to swim Channel
A Frenchman who lost all his limbs in an electrical accident is attempting to swim the English Channel today, a challenge he has been preparing for two years.
Philippe Croizon, 42, is setting off from Folkestone in southern England at around 6 a.m. and expects to take around 24 hours to swim back to France propelled by his specially designed prosthetic legs.
He hopes to swim at around three kilometres per hour, slightly slower than the four or five kilometres per hour that an able-bodied athlete might achieve.
In 1994 the metalworker was hit by a 20,000 volt charge as he attempted to remove a TV aerial from a house roof and an arc of current surged through him from a nearby powerline. Doctors were forced to amputate his limbs. (AFP)
Riding high on plane ‘saddle’
A new design for economy class airline seating gives a new meaning to the term “cattle class” – as passengers would sit on saddle-type seats, even closer to the person in front than now.
The SkyRider design, unveiled at a trade fair in Long Beach, California, may appeal to budget airlines around the world eager to save valuable extra inches in the back end of planes.
The new seats would decrease the pitch, or distance, between seats to 58 cm or less, compared to an average of 70 cm, said Italian company Aviointeriors. The SkyRider “is intended as a new basic class. The passenger’s seating position is similar to that of a touring motor-scooter rider,” said the company.
Irish budget airline Ryanair’s publicity-friendly boss Michael O’Leary has suggested he would even be prepared to introduce standing-room only sections in his planes, although this would likely be banned by European safety rules. (AFP)
Pearly grail
Supermarket chiefs have claimed to have reached “the holy grail” for Britain’s pear industry by making them commercially available all year round for the first time.
A breakthrough in storage technology has resulted in home-grown pears being kept in prime condition for longer than the UK season, which lasts from September until May, Tesco said.
It said that the achievement by Tesco’s biggest pear supplier, Kent-based Adrian Scripps Ltd, will allow UK retailers to cut down on importing out-of-season pears from countries such as Holland and Spain. (PA)