NEW DELHI – An Indian court on Tuesday imposed a fine of 4.5 million rupees (S$94,150) on Nestle India in a 2015 case for selling substandard instant noodles after a laboratory test found high ash content in its popular Maggi brand.

The court also slapped a 2.6 million rupee fine on the distributors of Nestle India, a unit of packaged food giant Nestle SA, said Ranjan Singh, a legal officer at the Shahjahanpur district court in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday.

The case against the Swiss food firm’s India unit is one of several filed by regulators after they found excess lead, ash, and monosodium glutamate (MSG), a flavour enhancer, in different samples of Maggi noodles seized in Uttar Pradesh between 2015 and 2016.

A spokesman for Nestle India said the company will appeal against the order.

“This appears to be a case of application of incorrect standards, and we will file an appeal urgently once we receive the order,” said the spokesman, who did not wish to be named citing company policy.

Maggi, Nestle India’s single-largest revenue earner, was banned in June 2015 for six months across India on allegations that it contained chemicals beyond prescribed limits.

The company had to recall 38,000 tonnes of Maggi noodles from millions of retail shelves and destroy them. The ban was relaxed in November 2015.

A five-year-old Malaysian child was injured after falling off the stairs of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) terminal 1 on Wednesday.

According to a news report by Inquirer Radyo, the child, identified as Muhammad Alif Bin Azizan, fell at the east concourse of the terminal 1’s arrival area at about 8:22 a.m.

Airport Ramp Clinic personnel immediately responded to the accident and transferred the child, accompanied by his father, to the San Juan de Dios Hospital at 8:51 a.m. after implementing first aid procedures.

Azizan obtained slight physical injuries such as minor cuts on his upper and lower lip, and bruises on his chin and forehead.

Azizan was listed as one of the passengers of flight PR 662 going to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, when the incident happened.

DENPASAR, Indonesia – Bali’s international airport reopened Wednesday afternoon after a nearly three-day shutdown as towering columns of volcanic ash and smoke shifted direction on the Indonesian resort island.

The move raised hope for some of the more than 120,000 tourists stranded after a surge in activity at Mount Agung had grounded hundreds of flights since Monday, sparking travel chaos.

It was not immediately clear when flights would resume.

Singapore Airlines Ltd said it would resume flights between Singapore and Bali on Wednesday. Australia’s Qantas Airways Ltd said it and budget arm Jetstar would run 16 flights to Australia on Thursday to ferry home 3,800 stranded customers.

Airport officials cautioned that the airport could shut again if winds change direction once more and endanger flights.

Ash is dangerous for planes as it makes runways slippery and can be sucked into their engines.

“We are going to constantly monitor the situation on the ground,” Ngurah Rai airport spokesman Arie Ahsanurrohim told AFP.

Australian visitor Ebra Syllivan was overjoyed at the news.

“I didn’t know it was going to reopen today – we just came here because our flight was (originally scheduled for) tonight and we’ve booked out of our motel,” she said at the airport.

“It’s fabulous because we need to get back. We’ve got to get back to work.” Mount Agung could produce a major eruption at any moment, officials have warned.

‘BIGGER, EXPLOSIVE ERUPTION’

Tens of thousands have already fled their homes around the volcano – which last erupted in 1963, killing around 1,600 people – but as many as 100,000 will likely be forced to leave in case of a full eruption, disaster agency officials have said.

Experts said Agung’s recent activity matches the build-up to the earlier disaster, which ejected enough debris – about a billion tonnes – to lower global average temperatures by around 0.3 degrees Celsius for roughly a year.

“Small eruptions have been happening continuously but there’s still the possibility of a bigger, explosive eruption,” said I Gede Suantika, a senior volcanologist at Indonesia’s volcanology agency.

“Activity remains high and we are still on the highest alert level.” Roadside signs that read “Volcanic danger zone. No entry!” underscored the potential risks of staying behind.

There is a 10 kilometre exclusion zone around Agung, which is 75 kilometres from the beachside tourist hub of Kuta.

As of Wednesday around 440 flights had been cancelled since the start of the week.

The airport on nearby Lombok island – also a popular tourist destination – has opened and closed several times in the past few days. It is currently open.

‘VERY NERVOUS’

Some 100 buses are taking visitors to several destinations including Indonesia’s second-biggest city Surabaya on Java island – 13 hours’ drive and a ferry ride away – and the capital Jakarta, as torrential rain lashed the island.

“We decided to take the bus because in this island we are very nervous and we want to stay in another island, we want to be in Java,” said Sofia Maria, a 24-year-old Russian tourist on her way to Jakarta.

The majority of Bali’s tourists are Chinese, followed by Australians, Indians, Britons and Japanese, according to the immigration office, which added that nearly 25,000 foreigners live on the small Hindu-dominated island.

Foreigners whose visitor visas are expiring will be given a special permit to stay longer due to the eruption, the agency said Agung rumbled back to life in September, forcing the evacuation of 140,000 people living nearby. Its activity decreased in late October and many returned to their homes.

However, on Saturday the mountain sent smoke into the air for the second time in a week in what volcanologists call a phreatic eruption – caused by the heating and expansion of groundwater.

So-called cold lava flows have also appeared – similar to mud flows and often a prelude to the blazing orange lava of popular imagination.

Indonesia, the world’s most active volcanic region, lies on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” where tectonic plates collide, causing frequent volcanic and seismic activities.

Last year seven people were killed after Mount Sinabung on the western island of Sumatra erupted. A 2014 eruption at Sinabung killed 16.

MUMBAI – Mumbai cafe owner Boman Kohinoor, arguably India’s biggest fan of the British royal family, wants Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to honeymoon in India and have lots of children.

The 95-year-old, who met Harry’s older brother William and wife Catherine when the royal couple visited India’s commercial capital last year, said he was delighted to hear news of the engagement.

“I wish them a very long and happy married life. And may all their troubles be little ones,” the sprightly nonagenarian told AFP at Mumbai’s famous Britannia & Company restaurant where his love of British royalty is plain to see.

On one wall hangs a large framed photograph of Queen Elizabeth II, next to a portrait of Indian independence hero Mahatma Gandhi.

Attached to a banister on the second floor of the cafe, which dishes up lip-smacking Parsi and Irani cuisine, is a giant cardboard cut-out of a grinning William and Kate, their arms linked.

Kohinoor spent around 10 minutes with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Palace hotel in April 2016 after they became aware of a social media campaign encouraging them to meet him.

Kohinoor, clutching a photo of the three of them from that meeting, said he now hoped to meet Harry, 33, and American actress Markle, 36, after they get married at Windsor Castle next spring.

“I hope they will visit me or I will invite them to visit me. My invitation is open for all of the royal family,” he explained, adding that he would serve them Britannia’s famous berry pulao, a popular Parsi dish.

Mumbai’s Parsi settlers were Zoroastrians from Persia. In Britannia, which was opened by Kohinoor’s father in 1923, the Union Jack hangs alongside the Indian tricolour and the flag of Iran.

Kohinoor, who has written regular letters to Queen Elizabeth over the years and would like the return of British colonial rule in India, encouraged Harry and Meghan to spend their honeymoon there.

“There are many places they can visit. We have got one of the wonders of the world, the Taj Mahal,” he said, adding he was “very excited” about the prospect of watching the wedding on television.

Kohinoor, who makes no attempt to hide his dislike of Harry’s father and heir to the throne Prince Charles, said he was not overly familiar with Markle’s work but was aware she is American and divorced.

He said he was convinced she would “make a good wife”.

“Mrs Simpson was American and she was also a divorcee but it doesn’t matter. What matters is that they should be happy together,” he said, referring to Wallis Simpson who married King Edward VIII after he abdicated in 1936.

Kohinoor, who has a granddaughter named after Harry’s mother Princess Diana, advised the prince and Markle to have several children. “It will be cheaper by the dozen!” he laughed.

BANGKOK – Two American tourists have been held for “inappropriate behaviour” after sharing photos of them baring their buttocks at a famous Bangkok temple, Thai police said Wednesday, as the ruling junta cracks down on insults to Buddhism.

The pair, Joseph and Travis Dasilva, both 38, uploaded pictures on November 24 of their bared backsides at Wat Arun (The Temple of Dawn) to Instagram.

It was not immediatley clear if the men were related. But their asinine antics could land them in more serious trouble after police sought to charge them under a draconian computer crime law – an offence that can carry jail time.

The riverside temple, whose ancient ‘prang’ – tower – is the one of Bangkok’s best known landmarks, features on the logo of the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

The men were detained at a Bangkok airport late Tueday and fined US$150 (S$201.73) each.

“They were detained as they were about to leave Thailand,” Colonel Cherngron Rimpadee, an Immigration Police spokesman said, adding they were on a ‘watch list’ after their social media posts caught authorities’ attention.

Colonel Jarupat Thongkomol, from the police station near the temple which is managing the case, said the men now faced more serious charges.

“We are now seeking court approval to prosecute them on Computer Crime Act for uploading pornographic pictures,” he said.

The act carries up to five years jail per charge and is routinely slapped on political dissidents or people deemed to have insulted Thailand’s monarchy.

Junta-run Thailand takes a hardline on disrespectful gestures towards Buddhism, the dominant religion in Thailand.

Tourists are told not buy and sell Buddha sculptures or get sacred tattoos or of images of the Buddha for fashion purposes.

People visiting temples are also expected to dress modestly, covering their shoulders and legs – with advice signs common at Bangkok’s religious landmarks.

In 2015 neighbouring Malaysia deported four western tourists after charging them with obscenity for taking nude photos on a mountain on Borneo island.