The NSE Nifty 50 index advanced 3.11 per cent to 9,850.3 by 0455 GMT, while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was up 3.1 per cent at 33,734.26. Both indexes were on course for their fourth straight session of gains in a holiday shortened week.

After surging 1,167 points during the day, the 30-share index settled 997.46 points or 3.05 per cent higher at 33,717.62. It hit an intra-day high of 33,887.25.

The social networking giant also said it counts 2.99 billion monthly users across its family of apps, compared to 2.89 billion in the previous quarter.

Reliance Jio now has over 388 million subscribers on its network, and looks set to grow stronger with a new investment from Facebook.

Afghanistan's government began distributing free bread to hundreds of thousands of people across the country this week as supplies have been disrupted during the coronavirus shutdown and prices have soared, officials and experts said.

The stress and anxiety bred by weeks of restrictions on public life have made uncertainty, separation, and fear part of daily life for many, WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge said.

The number of deaths from the coronavirus in Mexico's best-known border city, Tijuana, has soared and the COVID-19 mortality rate is twice the national average, the health ministry says, after medical staff quickly fell ill as the outbreak rampaged through hospital wards.

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Dewey Library - HF6161.A38 N55 2016

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has seen many places on the planet. One of the most interesting is one of the great canyon systems on Mars.

The albatross has an 11-foot wingspan and a serious wanderlust, flying thousands of miles nonstop.

An alternative college admissions test, used by some Christian schools, draws a record 50,000 students.

The Classic Learning Test (CLT), a niche college entrance exam aspiring to bring a sense of virtue to standardized tests, saw a 1,000 percent increase in registrations over its short history when the SAT and ACT canceled testing for the remainder of the school year due to COVID-19.

“Because we are able to administer the test remotely, we’re kind of the only game in town,” said Jeremy Tate, who created the CLT four years ago amid a renaissance in Classical education, including among Christians.

At its first administration in June 2016, 47 students took the CLT. With the bump in registration, 50,000 students will take its suite of tests—the CLT, and the CLT-8 and CLT-10, designed for lower grades—during the 2019-2020 academic year. That’s more than double last year’s total.

Though not a Christian company, CLT references figures including John Henry Newman and C. S. Lewis in its promotional materials and stresses the moral, formational dimension to education. The exam has been popular among classical Christian schools, which educate over 40,000 students in the US, and homeschoolers, who make up about 40 percent of CLT test-takers.

So far, 178 colleges and universities in the US accept the exam, mostly Catholic and Protestant schools. For other institutions, the CLT can serve as a supplemental assessment.

The College Board and ACT Inc., the companies that administer the SAT and ACT, respectively, have canceled or postponed in-person testing until the fall, leading many colleges to make the admissions exams an optional part of their applications. In 2018, around 2 million students took the SAT and 1.9 million took the ACT.

While some registrants may turn to the CLT this year for the convenience ...

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The economic catastrophe caused by the viral outbreak likely sent the US unemployment rate in April to its highest level since the Great Depression and caused a record-shattering loss of jobs. The unemployment rate likely jumped to at least 16% — from just 4.4% in March — and employers cut a stunning 21 million or more jobs in April.

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Midday Science Series continues Oct. 10.

Some large dairies across the country have reported 50-100% jump in monthly sales of cheese, butter, paneer, cream and dairy whitener in April — the month that saw offices adopting the work-from-home model to align with the government’s lockdown order and help contain the spread of coronavirus.

A witty novel that inspires us to soar over earthbound strife

The rate of unemployment was the highest in the urban areas, which constitute the most number of red zones due to the COVID-19 cases, at 29.22 per cent, as against 26.69 per cent for the rural areas.

Indians are using this down time to connect with their friends and family.As film theatres shut down and eating out becomes a non-option due to social distancing requirements, people are turning to video-on-demand services