Dubai, May 10 () The first batch of 88 nurses from India arrived in the UAE to help the country's stretched healthcare professionals amid a surge in the number of COVID-19 infections in the Gulf nation that has crossed 17,000, according to media reports.The Ministry of Health and Prevention said the UAE reported 624 new cases on Saturday, taking the total number of infections to 17,417.The number of fatalities reached 185 after 11 deaths were reported on the day.The nurses, who are from Aster DM Healthcare hospitals in the states of Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra, will be put under quarantine for 14 days after which they will be assigned to various field hospitals as per requirement, the Khaleej Times reported.They arrived on a special flight at the Dubai airport on Saturday.India's Ambassador

Shimla, May 10 () Himachal Pradesh reported two fresh cases of COVID-19, taking the total virus count in the state to 55, officials said on Sunday.Two people quarantined at Swarghat in Bilaspur district along the HP-Punjab border have tested positive, Bilaspur deputy commissioner Rajeswar Goel said. The two are taxi drivers and had recently ferried two families from Gujarat's Ahmedabad and Haryana's Gurgaon to their native places in Mandi and Kangra districts respectively.As the two showed symptoms during screening at the border, the two were quarantined and their samples were taken, he added.One of them is from Gujarat. They are being shifted to Nerchowk's Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Government Medical College and Hospital (SLBSGMC) in Mandi, he added.Samples of their contacts will also be taken

New Delhi, May 10 () Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said 75 per cent of COVID-19 cases in the city are asymptomatic or with mild symptoms.The chief minister said the government has also issued an order for requisition of ambulances of private hospitals, adding that the decision has been taken in the wake of shortage of state-run ambulances."They (private ambulances) will have to be pressed into service when the government requires their service," Kejriwal said while addressing an online media briefing.The government has made arrangements for treatment of those at their homes with mild COVID-19 symptoms in accordance with the Centre's guidelines."Out of 6,923 COVID-19 patients, only 1,476 are admitted at hospitals, rest getting treatment at their homes and COVID-19 centres,"

South Korea's capital closed down more than 2,100 bars and other nightspots Saturday because of a new cluster of coronavirus infections, Germany scrambled to contain fresh outbreaks at slaughterhouses, and Italian authorities worried that people were getting too friendly at cocktail hour during the country's first weekend of eased restrictions. The new flareups and fears of a second wave of contagion underscored the dilemma authorities face as they try to reopen their economies. Around the world, the US and other hard-hit countries are wrestling with how to ease curbs on business and public activity without causing the virus to come surging back. In New York, the deadliest hot spot in the US, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said three children died from a possible complication of the coronavirus involving swollen blood vessels and heart problems. At least 73 children statewide have been diagnosed with symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease a rare inflammatory condition and toxic shock syndrome. ..

South Korea reported 34 additional cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours as a spate of transmissions linked to clubgoers threatens the country's hard-won gains in its fight against the virus. Figures released Sunday by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention increased national totals to 10,874 with 256 deaths. The agency said 9,610 have recovered and 10,128 others were undergoing tests to determine whether they've contracted the virus. The agency said a tentative assessment showed 26 of the 34 new patients were locally transmitted cases, while the rest were imported. South Korean media reported it was the first time that South Korea's daily jump has marked above 30 in about a month. The agency didn't immediately provide further details. But most of the new cases in the past few days were linked to nightclubs in Seoul's Itaewon entertainment neighborhood. Officials on Friday said they detected at least 15 infections linked to a 29-year-old man who had visited three ...

China has reported 14 new coronavirus cases including one from the first COVID-19 epicentre of Hubei province, taking the number of infections in the country to 82,901, while over 4,630 people have succumbed to the disease, health officials said on Sunday. According to China's National Health Commission (NHC), 12 cases were domestically transmitted, with 11 reported from Jilin Province and one in Hubei Province, the first COVID-19 epicentre which has remained free from coronavirus infections for the last 35 days. A total of 14 new confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported in the country on Saturday. Also on Saturday, 20 new asymptomatic cases were reported. As of Saturday, 794 asymptomatic cases, including 48 from overseas, were still under medical observation, the NHC said. Hubei province has 628 asymptomatic cases, the highest in the country. Asymptomatic cases refer to people who are tested COVID-19 positive but develop no symptoms such as fever, cough or sore throat. However, they ...

Pakistan batsman Umar Akmal has refused to divulge details of his two meetings with suspected bookies before the Disciplinary Panel which handed him a three-year ban after a hearing, according to Board sources. According to the source, Akmal had a meeting with two unidentified men in Defence Housing Society in Lahore. "Umar claims both these gentlemen met him at parties thrown by friends in DHA. But he has refused to even tell the Anti-Corruption officials what was discussed at these meetings," a reliable source in the Pakistan Cricket Board told PTI. "Even when the Anti-Corruption officials first presented their report to him on the night between 19th and 20th February in Karachi, Akmal admitted he committed a mistake by not reporting the meetings to them but refrained from giving any details, the source said. Akmal was found guilty of two charges under the PCB Anti-Corruption Code and on April 27, he was banned from cricket activities till February 19, 2023. The 29-year-old has 14 ..

The first batch of 88 nurses from India arrived in the UAE to help the country's stretched healthcare professionals amid a surge in the number of COVID-19 infections in the Gulf nation that has crossed 17,000, according to media reports. The Ministry of Health and Prevention said the UAE reported 624 new cases on Saturday, taking the total number of infections to 17,417. The number of fatalities reached 185 after 11 deaths were reported on the day. The nurses, who are from Aster DM Healthcare hospitals in the states of Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra, will be put under quarantine for 14 days after which they will be assigned to various field hospitals as per requirement, the Khaleej Times reported. They arrived on a special flight at the Dubai airport on Saturday. India's Ambassador to UAE Pavan Kapoor said that this would further strengthen the long-standing friendship between the two countries. "India and the UAE are showing how a strategic partnership translates into concrete ...

Pakistan reported a record number of 1,991 coronavirus cases in a single day, taking the total number of infections to over 29,000, the health ministry said on Sunday as the country began easing the month-long lockdown imposed to curb the spread of the deadly disease. Despite a surge in the number of COVID-19 infections, the first phase of the easing of the lockdown began on Saturday. The government announced removing restrictions by allowing more businesses to open and operate from dawn to 5pm. However, doctors have warned against easing the restrictions. The Representative of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) have demanded that the government observe the World Health Organization protocols and implement a strict lockdown. The Ministry of National Health Services said that 21 new deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of fatalities to 639. A total of 8,023 people have recovered so far. Punjab registered 11,093 cases, Sindh 10,771, ...

Sixteen more people including two minors from nine districts tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday, taking the total number of cases to 595 in Bihar, a top health department official said. Seven of the 16 fresh cases are migrant people from other states, Health Departments Principal Secretary Sanjay Kumar said in a tweet. "We are ascertaining their further infection trail," Kumar said. Of the 16 new cases, three each are from Muzaffarpur and Arwal, two each from Begusarai, Munger, Nalanda and one each from Vaishali, Bhojpur, Siwan, Sheikhpura districts, the Principal Secretary said. Five people have died of the disease so far in Bihar which is now left with 272 active cases while 318 have recovered. The number of samples tested so far at seven facilities in Patna, Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga is 32,767.

Twenty-three Surat returnees were among 24 people who tested positive for COVID-19 in Odisha on Saturday, taking the total cases in the state to 294, the Health and Family Welfare department said. Of the 24 fresh Covid cases, Ganjam reported 18, while three came from Mayurbhanj and one each from Nayagarh, Bhadrak and Sundergarh. Nayagarh district reported its first novel coronavirus case when a 40-year-old Surat returnee tested positive to the disease. With this, the COVID-19 has now spread to19 of the 30 districts of Odisha. At present, there are 224 active cases in the state and 68 people have recovered. Two people from Bhubaneswar have succumbed to the disease, an official said adding that 343 persons are in hospital isolation. The state health department had on Friday conducted 3,348 tests for COVID-19, he said, adding that Odisha has so far tested 56,322 samples. As per an analysis by the department, 246 of the state's total 294 cases have been reported from five ...

Three persons were rescued after the wall of a house in northern Mumbai suburb Kandivali collapsed on Sunday morning, an official said. Four to five people are possibly trapped after the wall of the house behind Sabria Masjid in Dalji Pada area collapsed and rescue operation is underway, a National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) official said.

Ganjam district in Odisha reported its first COVID-19 death after a man succumbed to the virus on Sunday, taking the death toll in the state to three, an official of the health department said. The total number of coronavirus cases in the state has climbed to 352, with 58 more testing positive for the disease, the official said. At least 41 of them are those who returned from Surat in Gujarat recently, he said. Last month, Odisha had reported two COVID-19 deaths - both in state capital Bhubaneswar. Of the 58 new cases, 29 are from Ganjam district, 15 from Balasore, and 1 from Mayurbhanj. Angul district registered coronavirus cases for the first time, with 13 people there contracting the virus. Twenty of the 30 districts in the state have so far reported COVID-19 cases. The number of active cases in the state has climbed to 281. At least 68 people have recovered from the disease. On Saturday, 3,458 samples were examined in the state. A total of 59,780 samples have been tested so ..

The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 2,109 and the number of cases climbed to 62,939 in the country on Sunday, registering an increase of 128 deaths and 3,277 cases in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry. The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 41,472, while 19,357 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, the ministry said. The total number of cases also include 111 foreign nationals. Of the 2,109 fatalities, Maharashtra tops the tally with 779 deaths. Gujarat comes second with 472 deaths, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 215, West Bengal at 171, Rajasthan at 106, Uttar Pradesh at 74, Delhi at 73, and Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu at 44. The death toll is 31 in Punjab, 30 each in Karnataka and Telangana. Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana each have registered nine COVID-19 deaths, Bihar five and Kerala four. Jharkhand has recorded three COVID-19 fatalities. Odisha, Chandigarh, Assam and Himachal Pradesh have reported two deaths each. Meghalaya and ...

Fourteen people were rescued after the wall of a house collapsed in suburban Kandivali on Sunday morning, an official said. Two of those rescued received minor injuries and were admitted to a hospital, he said. The wall of the ground-plus-two-floor structure, known as Dipjyoti chawl, located in Lalji Pada area collapsed early morning, an official at the disaster control room said. Some locals said the incident took place when residents were asleep and they were unable to come out. Seven persons stranded on the upper floors were rescued after firefighters cut the grill and brought them down with the help of a ladder, the official said, adding that total 14 people brought out to safety from the structure. Four fire engines, a rescue van and an ambulance were pressed into service. Two persons, aged 45 and 48, received minor injuries and were admitted to Oscar Hospital, he said. Rescue operation was still underway at the site, he said.

Azaan is an integral part of the faith, not the gadget, says veteran writer-lyricist Javed Akhtar, asking that the Islamic call to prayer on loudspeakers should be stopped as it causes "discomfort" to others. In a tweet on Saturday, Akhtar wondered why the practice was 'halaal' (allowed) when it was, for nearly half a century in the country, considered 'haraam' or forbidden. "In India for almost 50 years Azaan on the loud speak was Haraam. Then it became Halaal and so halaal that there is no end to it, but there should be an end to it. Azaan is fine but loud speaker does cause of discomfort for others. I hope that atleast this time they will do it themselves (sic)," Akhtar tweeted. When a user asked his opinion on loudspeakers being used in temples, the 75-year-old writer said everyday use of speakers is a cause of concern. "Whether it's a temple or a mosque, if you're using loudspeakers during a festival, it's fine. But it shouldn't be used everyday in either temples or mosques. "For

Himachal Pradesh reported two fresh cases of COVID-19, taking the total virus count in the state to 55, officials said on Sunday. Two people quarantined at Swarghat in Bilaspur district along the HP-Punjab border have tested positive, Bilaspur deputy commissioner Rajeswar Goel said. The two are taxi drivers and had recently ferried two families from Gujarat's Ahmedabad and Haryana's Gurgaon to their native places in Mandi and Kangra districts respectively. As the two showed symptoms during screening at the border, the two were quarantined and their samples were taken, he added. One of them is from Gujarat. They are being shifted to Nerchowk's Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Government Medical College and Hospital (SLBSGMC) in Mandi, he added. Samples of their contacts will also be taken for testing. The number of active cases in Himachal Pradesh now stands at 13 three each in Chamba and Kangra, two in Hamirpur, Bilaspur each and one each in Mandi, Una and Shimla districts. While 35 patients

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said 75 per cent of COVID-19 cases in the city are asymptomatic or with mild symptoms. The chief minister said the government has also issued an order for requisition of ambulances of private hospitals, adding that the decision has been taken in the wake of shortage of state-run ambulances. "They (private ambulances) will have to be pressed into service when the government requires their service," Kejriwal said while addressing an online media briefing. The government has made arrangements for treatment of those at their homes with mild COVID-19 symptoms in accordance with the Centre's guidelines. "Out of 6,923 COVID-19 patients, only 1,476 are admitted at hospitals, rest getting treatment at their homes and COVID-19 centres," Kejriwal added.

A wide range of programmes and strong financial support have helped Tripura raise access to education for its tribal population. Ratna Bharali Talukdar on the many incentives that anchor the state's efforts to bridge the learning gap between tribals and non-tribals.

How will the progressive agenda fare in Parliament this Budget session in the face of mounting incoherence in the ruling coalition? An encore of past failed alliances is in nobody's interest, but brinkmanship is deeply infused into coalition calculus. Only political parties themselves can change that. The India Together editorial.

In our system of government, elected representatives of the people make laws, as well as administer them. Although the constitution separates these roles well, in practice, we find that the lawmaking role is nearly always superceded by administrative preferences, and only limited benefits result from the legislative discourse. The India Together editorial.

The K N Panikkar committee recommended a change in a controversial chapter of a social sciences textbook that triggered violent agitation on the grounds that it promoted atheism and communism. P N Venugopal has more.

An ongoing study of school textbooks in four states has found stereotypes and biases in Gujarat's textbooks. The Social Studies textbook for standard five has nine stories on mythology masquerading as history. Deepa A reports.

The terror attacks have raised numerous questions of media ethics, values and news-gathering methods. While the government and politicians faced the wrath of the public, the media too was under the lens. Ramesh Menon reports.

Eleven years after journalist Rina Mukherjee was fired following her allegations of sexual harassment against a senior, the West Bengal Industrial Tribunal passes an order against The Statesman, offering hope of redress for other victims. Navya P K reports.

Violence during college union elections, the death of a protesting 22-year-old student in police custody and a resultant chain of events have led to earnest debates in West Bengal over whether students should stay away from active politics. Promona Sengupta explores the reality underlying prevailing sentiments.

Umar Akmal, who was found guilty of two charges under the PCB Anti-Corruption Code has refused to divulge details of his two meetings with suspected bookies. According to the source, Akmal had a meeting with two unidentified men in Defence Housing Society in Lahore. The PCB source said Akmal also gave conflicting statements before the Disciplinary Panel hearing on April 27.

The epistolary novel, which consists of letters exchanged between two or more people, is one of the earliest novel forms and is successful for two main reasons.

Three persons, including the owner of the well, died and two others were injured, after the mound of earth collapsed on them while they were repairing the old well at Kodoli village of Panhala taluka in Kolhapur district on Saturday night.

(This story originally appeared in PuneMirror on May 10, 2020)

Desperate times call for desperate measures goes the adage. Ten migrant workers in the city just did that.

Western Odisha Development Council (WODC) chairman, Subash Chauhan died of cancer at a private hospital here on Sunday.

Fifty-eight more tested positive for Covid-19 and another person died in Odisha, the health department updated on its Covid-19 dashboard on Sunday. With this, the total number of positive cases in Odisha mounted to 352 while the number of deaths rose to 3.

Worldwide, the virus is confirmed to have infected nearly 4 million people and killed more than 276,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University based on data reported by governments.

The number of coronavirus cases worldwide topped four million as some of the hardest-hit countries readied Sunday to lift lockdown restrictions, despite concerns about the second wave of infections. Governments around the world are trying to stop the spread of the disease while scrambling for ways to relieve pressure on their economies with millions unemployed.

Although a significant increase, Android Marshmallow still lies below Android Lollipop, and Kitkat on the list. As per the latest distribution numbers, Android Lollipop 5.0 and v5.1 together run on 35% Android devices, followed by Android Kitkat 4.4 with a 27.7% share.

iOS 10 reached 14.45% of eligible devices in the first 24 hours of its release. In comparison, iOS 9 was on 12.60% of eligible device within 24 hours of it being released for all users.

The US is the country with the most deaths at 77,280, following by Britain on 31,241, Italy 30,201, Spain 26,478 and France 26,230.

Initial evidence shows the suspects, a nurse and a municipal market worker in their 20s, planned to rob the women

The total death toll since the outbreak came to light on Feb. 21 now stands at 30,395 the agency said, the third highest in the world after those of the United States and Britain.