Author: Our Correspondent
Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC) media coordinator Safoora Zargar was sent to two-day police custody by a Delhi court, days after she was arrested in connection with anti-CAA protest in northeast Delhi’s Jaffrabad in February. The Special Cell of Delhi Police arrested her on Saturday, for allegedly hatching a conspiracy leading to riots. Zargar, who is an MPhil student of Jamia Millia Islamia University, is now in the custody of Delhi Police Special Cell. A senior police officer told PTI that during investigation by the local police (who arrested her on Saturday) some facts emerged and they have to be corroborated…
Caught between raining bombs and high-risk COVID-19 zones, the fleeing villagers in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara had nowhere to go when heavy artillery shells from Pakistan hit their villages on Sunday. When the shelling stopped and people started returning to their damaged homes on Monday, they found themselves at a crossroads. Many houses hit by shells have been damaged. People are unsure when shells will land again in the villages. It was the first time that heavy artillery shells hit villages so deep inside Kupwara district. Three people including a child were killed in Pakistani shelling and five others were…
Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ”Nishank” on Monday held a meeting with students and teachers of colleges, universities and schools through video conferencing and discussed the prevailing situation in the academic world after the lockdown in the country. The Union Minister assured the teachers and students of all possible help if someone falls ill due to coronavirus. “Contact your Vice-Chancellor or Principal if any of you catches coronavirus,” said Pokhriyal. He listened to their problems and appreciated their efforts in creating awareness about the steps taken by the government to fight Covid-19. “I thank 1000 universities, 46000 colleges,…
Antiviral drug remdesivir may be effective in stopping replication of coronavirus, says ICMR The Indian Council of Medical Research on Monday said antiviral drug remdesivir, which was used during the Ebola outbreak, may be highly effective in stopping the replication mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19. The ICMR said research on its efficacy in the treatment of COVID-19 is a part of WHO’s “Solidarity Trial”. According to a recently published study in the New England Journal of Medicine, two out of three critically ill coronavirus infected patients who were on oxygen support or on ventilators showed signs of improvement when…
Delhi registered 356 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours on Monday, the sharpest single-day spike that took the capital’s tally to 1,510. Four more people have died, taking the total to 28, health officials said. The number of containment zones in the national capital has now increased to 47 after the inclusion of new areas including Sant Nagar and Burari among others, news agency ANI reported. The Delhi government on Monday launched a massive sanitisation drive in the city’s COVID-19 containment areas, declared as red zones, and high-risk zones, identified as orange zones, to prevent the spread of coronavirus. The…
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi thanks coronavirus warriors in video message ahead of PM Modi’s address to the nation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to address the nation at 10 AM today, as the nation enters the last day of 21-day lockdown period which was earlier announced by the prime minister, to contain the spread of COVID-19. In his address, the prime minister is expected to make major announcements regarding the lockdown. Several states in the country have already extended their lockdown period for 15 days – till April 30, in order to control the spread of coronavirus outbreak. Earlier,…
The iconic statue of Christ the Redeemer in Brazil’s Rio De Janeiro lit up to honour the healthcare staff working in hospitals across the country amid the coronavirus pandemic. With churches closed due to the restrictions on the movement of people imposed by the local authorities to contain the spread of the virus, Archbishop Orani Tempesta on Sunday carried out an Easter ceremony alone at the foot of the statue, some 709 metres above sea level, reports Efe news. Flags from countries affected by the coronavirus pandemic, including China, the US, Spain, Italy and Brazil, were projected onto the 38-meter-high…
West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday urged the state government to pay heed to the Centre’s warnings against “gradual dilution” of lockdown, and said officials should be held accountable for their lapses, if any. The Ministry of Home Affairs had last week flagged concerns over “gradual dilution” of the shutdown order in West Bengal, and asked the state to take necessary action to ensure strict adherence of social distancing norms, following reports of alleged violation in Murshidabad and Siliguri. Taking to twitter, Dhankhar, who had earlier expressed dissatisfaction over the fact that the “government was not keeping him in…
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea seeking quashing of the decision to set up the PM CARES Fund, where people can donate money, to deal with the situation arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic. A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde described the PIL filed by lawyer M L Sharma as “misconceived” and dismissed it in a hearing conducted through video conferencing. The bench, which also comprised justices L Nageswara Rao and M M Shantanagoudar, did not agree to the contention of the lawyer that the fund has been created without following the schemes…