Sunday, December 22, 2024 | 03:28 PM ISTEN Hindi

Covid LIVE: TN schools to re-open on Feb 1; Kerala logs 51,739 new cases

Tamil Nadu govt announces reopening of physical classes for students of standard 1 to 12 from Feb 1, decides to lift night curfew from Jan 28

BS Web Team New delhi

A crowded market in Thiruvananthapuram (Photo: PTI)

12:40 PM

Delhi expects less than 5,000 cases on Thursday: Minister

Delhi has the coronavirus under control and the city expects to report less than 5,000 cases on Thursday, said state health minister Satyendar Jain. Speaking to news agency ANI, he also said the positivity rate in the national capital will also decline from the current 10 per cent.

12:34 PM

Pakistan crosses 90,000 COVID-19 cases mark

Amid the spread of the Omicron variant, Pakistan's active COVID-19 case count crossed the 90,000 mark, local media reported citing National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) on Thursday.

Geo tv reported that the coronavirus positivity rate, meanwhile, is still over 10 per cent for the eighth day in a row despite a slight decline recorded in daily numbers during the last few days, data by the NCOC showed.

12:34 PM

Air India's control to be handed over, Tata Group Chairman in Delhi

The management control of national carrier Air India is set to be handed over to a subsidiary of Tata Sons.

According to highly placed sources, the Chairman of Tata Group N. Chandrasekaran is in national capital to meet key Central government officials before the formal handing over ceremony.

Notably, the process would entail constitution of a new Air India Board with Tata nominees.

Earlier this week, in a communication to the airlines employees, a senior Air India official wrote: "The disinvestment of Air India is now decided to be on January 27, 2022.

12:22 PM

Nearly 30K Bitcoin millionaires wiped out in last 3 months

Almost 30,000 Bitcoin millionaires have been wiped out in the last three months as the volatile cryptocurrency is witnessing a free fall -- from $69,000 in November to nearly $36,000 (as of Thursday) -- owing to regulatory scrutiny and geopolitical unrest.

According to data acquired by financial news portal Finbold, between October and January, the number of Bitcoin addresses holding over $1 million has reduced by 28,186 or 24.26 per cent.

In general, the Bitcoin-rich list has plunged over the last three months.

12:21 PM

One-day recoveries surpass fresh COVID-19 cases in Arunachal

Single-day recoveries outnumbered fresh COVID-19 cases in Arunachal Pradesh as 348 more people recuperated from the disease in the last 24 hours, while 194 new infections were reported, a health department official said on Thursday.

The fresh cases pushed the tally in the northeastern state to 60,792, he said.

Altogether, 57,199 people have recovered from the disease so far, State Surveillance Officer Dr Lobsang Jampa said.

12:20 PM

Anti-Covid pills work against Omicron, antibody drugs less effective

The drugs behind the new pills to treat Covid-19 remain very effective against the Omicron variant of the virus in lab tests, according to a new study.

However, lab tests also showed that the available antibody therapies -- typically given intravenously in hospitals -- are substantially less effective against Omicron than against earlier variants of the virus.

Some antibodies have entirely lost their ability to neutralise Omicron at realistic dosage, found researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

11:30 AM

Zero tolerance towards manipulation, says Twitter

Rahul Gandhi had said that while the number of his Twitter followers increased by 400,000 on average for the first seven months of 2021, the growth had come to a halt after his account was suspended for eight days in August last year.

“Twitter has a zero-tolerance approach to platform manipulation and spam. We fight spam and malicious automation strategically and at scale with machine learning tools, and as part of those consistent and ongoing efforts to ensure a healthy service and credible accounts, follower counts can and do fluctuate,” a Twitter spokesperson said.

“We remove millions of accounts each week for violating our policies on platform manipulation and spam... While some accounts notice a minor difference, in certain cases the number could be higher. We understand this change can be concerning, but we believe accuracy and transparency make Twitter a more trusted service for public conversation,” the spokesperson said.

11:11 AM

Air India to be officially handed over to Tata Group today, Chairman N Chandrasekaran in Delhi

10:49 AM

Rahul Gandhi says his Twitter following was squashed by Modi government

Rahul Gandhi has written to Twitter Inc.’s chief executive alleging he is the victim of a government campaign to limit his ability to attract followers on the platform.

10:46 AM

Goa election 2022: Utpal Parrikar to file nomination papers from Panaji as an Independent candidate today

Former Goa CM late Manohar Parrikar's son Utpal Parrikar will file his nomination papers from the Panaji Assembly constituency today as an Independent candidate.

10:23 AM

Samsung logs record sales, 4-year-high operating profit in Q4

Samsung on Thursday reported strong fourth-quarter earnings on robust chip business and brisk sales of consumer electronics.

Net profit rose 64.04 per cent from a year earlier to 10.8 trillion won ($9 billion) in the October-December period, the world's largest memory chip and smartphone vendor said in a regulatory filing.

Operating profit jumped 53.3 per cent to 13.8 trillion won, the highest fourth-quarter operating profit since 2017.

9:54 AM

German soccer coaches banned for using fake vaccine passes

Two German soccer coaches have been suspended from working in the sport after it was ruled they used fake coronavirus vaccination records.

A disciplinary panel at the German soccer federation ruled former Werder Bremen head coach Markus Anfang and his assistant Florian Junge had obtained fake passes last year identifying them as being fully vaccinated.

The federation said Anfang and Junge used the passes to be exempt from virus testing at the club and presented them to local health authorities to avoid going into isolation after contact with an infected player.

Markus Anfang and Florian Junge have significantly infringed against the role-model function of a coach, Hans E. Lorenz, chair of the federation's sports court, said in a statement.

Anfang initially denied using a fake pass when doubts over his documents were first raised in November and said he had been vaccinated. He and Junge both stepped down from their posts at the second-division club soon afterward.

Anfang was banned for a year and fined 20,000 euros ($22,500) and Junge for 10 months and fined 3,000 euros ($3,380), with both bans backdated to start from November.

9:51 AM

Active Covid-19 cases in India decline to 22,02,472

With 2,86,384 people testing positive for coronavirus infection in a day, India's total tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 4,03,71,500, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.

The death toll has climbed to 4,91,700 with 573 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.

The active cases have decreased to 22,02,472 and comprise 5.46 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has decreased to 93.33 per cent, the ministry said.

9:27 AM

Indonesia's sinking, congested capital is moving to new city

Jakarta is congested, polluted, prone to earthquakes and rapidly sinking into the Java Sea. Now the Indonesian government is leaving, and moving the country's capital to the island of Borneo.

President Joko Widodo envisions the construction of a new capital as a panacea for the problems plaguing Jakarta, reducing its population while allowing the country to start afresh with a "sustainable city" that has good public transportation, is integrated with its natural environment and is in an area that is not prone to natural disasters. Read on...

9:17 AM