Bayern Munich will be able to play in front of their fans again soon

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Bayern Munich will be able to play in front of their fans again soon

Robert Lewandowski said he hopes Bayern Munich will be able to play in front of their own fans again soon after winning an eighth straight Bundesliga title on Tuesday behind closed doors. Lewandowski’s first-half goal sealed a 1-0 win at Werder Bremen which saw Bayern become the first team to secure a top league title on the pitch since the coronavirus lockdown.

“It was tough without our fans, without the energy they give us, but we are happy that we are German champions again,” said Lewandowski after Bayern won their eighth straight match following the resumption of German football last month.

“It wasn’t easy, but we showed our quality.”I hope we can play in front of our fans in our stadium soon.”Club chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge admitted it was a “curious, strange” feeling to see only a handful of Bayern officials and backroom staff in the Weserstadion to cheer the players.

Lewandowski admitted Bayern endured a nervous last few minutes as only a finger-tip save from goalkeeper Manuel Neuer protected the lead.”When you are 1-0 up, you know you need to score again to be sure. Werder Bremen played well, but luckily for us, we managed to hold them out,” said Lewandowski.

“The most important thing is that we can celebrate as German champions.”That was typical of ‘Manu’ (Neuer), he loves saves like that and he did really well and we had to be really careful with their long balls.”

Bayern faces Bayer Leverkusen in the German Cup final on July 4 and are among the favorites to win the Champions League.”We have our next game in three days, that is the priority, but after that, we will have enough time to prepare for the Champions League,” said Lewandowski.

Kuldeep was hailed as India’s X-factor in the white-ball cricket

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Kuldeep was hailed as India’s X-factor in the white-ball cricket

MS Dhoni, the former India skipper, has been out of action since India’s semifinal exit from the 2019 World Cup in July last year. While the Indian team hasn’t missed him much in the batting department, his valuable inputs from behind the stumps are something which most bowlers, especially spinners like Kuldeep Yadav, would have missed as they benefited a lot from his wisdom. MS Dhoni’s absence from the team and Kuldeep Yadav’s dip in form both have coincided with each other, but the wrist-spinner insists that he was not dependent on him for his success.

Left-arm wrist-spinners are a rare commodity in the international cricket and Kuldeep was hailed as India’s X-factor in the white-ball cricket. However, since the 50-over World Cup last year things have not turned out for Kuldeep the way he would have liked, with his place in the starting XI always under doubt.

“Just because Mahi Bhai hasn’t played after the World Cup, I don’t need to prove anything to anyone. I don’t need to say if I was dependent on him. I can just work towards bettering my craft and as I said, it’s teamwork,” Kuldeep said in an interview with The Times of India.

The 25-year-old spinner acknowledged that Dhoni’s presence behind the stumps has always helped him as he used to share his insights about batsman’s style of play. He also stressed that cricket is a team sport where every player’s contribution is equally valuable to the team.

“Of course. Mahi Bhai has always guided me because the wicketkeeper is always the best judge of the bowler. Someone like Mahi Bhai is experienced and has an idea about how a batsman plays. All of this is teamwork,” said Kuldeep, only Indian bowler with two ODI hat-tricks to his name.

Kuldeep made his international debut in 2017 in a Test match against Australia in Dharamsala and put up an impressive performance, picking up four wickets in the game. Since then he has gone on to play six Tests, 60 ODIs and 21 T20Is, picking up 24, 104 and 39 wickets respectively.

Williams has never been big on admitting defeat

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Williams has never been big on admitting defeat

Williams has never been big on admitting defeat however, a hallmark of her early days under the tutelage of father Richard Williams, who drummed into his daughters the maxim that “the ball is never out” — an exhortation to chase down every ball.

When Williams does finally call it quits, tennis will bid farewell to one of the greatest players in its history. And even though advances in sports science are increasingly stretching the boundaries of longevity for modern athletes, few players today are likely to match her achievement of a professional career that has spanned four different decades.

By now the broad brushstrokes of Williams career are part of tennis lore: the upbringing in the gritty Los Angeles suburb of Compton, the rivalry with younger sister Serena, who has 23 Grand Slam titles to Venus’s seven, the successful comeback after being diagnosed with Sjogren’s syndrome, an auto-immune disease whose symptoms include joint pain and fatigue.

“I’ve had great moments, I’ve been on the top, I’ve been on the bottom, I’ve been down and out – I’ve done it all and I’ve been equally as happy during all of it,” Williams says.

The final years of Williams career have coincided with the emergence of a young crop of African-American tennis players, including Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys, Taylor Townsend, and Coco Gauff.

Former US professional turned broadcaster Pam Shriver believes Williams has helped African-American women “to feel there’s a pathway for them to the top of the tennis world.”

In recent weeks, Williams has spoken out about the tumultuous protests which erupted in the wake of the killing of unarmed black man George Floyd by police in Minneapolis on May 25.

Williams wrote in a long Instagram post that Floyd’s death and other incidents had shown that “racism that still pervades America.” “This just scratches the surface of the hideous face of racism in America,” she said.

Virat Kohli paid tributes to the 20 soldiers who were killed in a “violent face-off”

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Virat Kohli paid tributes to the 20 soldiers who were killed in a “violent face-off”

India’s leading sportspersons, including cricket captain Virat Kohli, paid tributes to the 20 soldiers who were killed in a “violent face-off” with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh. The clash at the Galwan valley was the biggest Indo-China military confrontation in nearly five decades.

Salute and deepest respect to the soldiers who sacrificed their lives to protect our country in the Galwan Valley. NO one is more selfless and brave than a soldier. Sincere condolences to the families. I hope they find peace through our prayers at this difficult time. 🙏

“Salute and deepest respect to the soldiers who sacrificed their lives to protect our country in the Galwan Valley. NO one is more selfless and brave than a soldier. Sincere condolences to the families. I hope they find peace through our prayers at this difficult time,” Kohli wrote on his twitter page.

Olympic bronze medal-winning duo of wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt and shuttler Saina Nehwal and cricketer Shikhar Dhawan were also among the notable athletes to pay tributes.

UN vote today for Security Council seat assured for India

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UN vote today for Security Council seat assured for India

The 193 members of the UN will vote on Wednesday to elect five non-permanent members to the Security Council and India is assured of a victory having won the unanimous backing of the Asian Pacific group.

The elections run on a COVID-19 prevention model are scheduled to start at 9 am New York time (6:30 pm IST) and have delegates come to the General Assembly chamber in batches of 20 in order to maintain social distancing and vote with paper ballots.

The results from the secret ballot are expected around 2 p.m. (11.30 p.m. IST).

India is running on a platform of fighting terrorism and having a commitment to multilateralism and an equitable international system.

In a campaign document, India laid out a “5S” approach of Samman (Respect), Samvad (Dialogue), Sahyog (Cooperation) Shanti (Peace) and Samriddi (Prosperity).

When elected, India will begin a two-year term on the highest decision-making body of the UN on January 1 joining Vietnam as one of the two non-permanent Asian members and replacing Indonesia that will complete its tenure at the end of this year.

Its election to the Security Council will come as India is entangled in a heated territorial confrontation with permanent member China, which is also the patron on Pakistan on the Council.

India will step into a Council Chamber next year paralysed by the polarisation of its veto-wielding permanent members that almost harks back to the Cold War era.

It will have to deftly deal with intractable issues like the Syrian civil war with international dimensions, Ukraine’s disputes with Russia, the US — or President Donald Trump’s — obsession with Iran or its fallout, and Yemen.

But at least when China tries to bring up the Kashmir issue in the Council as it has done twice recently, India will be right there.

Elections will also be held simultaneously for the president of the next session of the General Assembly that starts in September and for the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

Volkan Bozkir, a Turkish diplomat and politician, is running unopposed for the presidency as are the 18 countries for that many vacancies on the ECOSOC.

The ten non-permanent Security Council seats are distributed among five regional groups and elections are held every year for the five that fall vacant on alternate years.

Mexico, which has the unanimous backing of the group for the Latin American and Caribbean, is assured of the seat.

But there are contested elections for the three others.

For the African seat, Djibouti is running against Kenya, which has the unanimous backing of the group.

Kenya is almost certain to get the African seat with the endorsement of the continent’s countries, while Djibouti is counting on a rift between the Arab and Non-Arab nations in the group.

Canada, Norway and Ireland are contesting the two seats allotted to the group made up of West European countries and others like Canada and Australia that do not fit in elsewhere.

A two-thirds majority is required for election and additional rounds will be held if candidates don’t get it the first time around.

Extra rounds, which will be held on subsequent days, are likely for the West Europe and Others seats, which are very competitive.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau phoned India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday to canvass New Delhi’s vote for his country.

Norway’s Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide had a video conversation with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar last Friday.

Ireland, which is led by Indian-origin Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, is not known to have contacted India in recent days to seek its vote.

When elected, it will be India’s eighth stint on the Council.

Its last term was in 2011-12 and Hardeep Singh Puri, who was then India’s Permanent Representative and is now a minister, immediately planned to bid for it next term not wanting a long gap like the 19 years since the previous 1991-92 tenure.

Intense diplomacy by him and his successor, Asoke Mukerji, sealed India’s bid for the 2021-22 term.

Afghanistan had initially expressed interest in running for the 2021-22 term but did not pursue it, leaving the field for India.

The groundswell of support for India in Asia Pacific group made Pakistan and China fall in line making it a unanimous endorsement.

Self-isolation, contact tracing key to control COVID-19: Lancet

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Self-isolation, contact tracing key to control COVID-19: Lancet

Combining isolation and intensive contact tracing with social distancing measures might be the most effective and efficient way to achieve and maintain pandemic control, says a new study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.

Using social-contact data on more than 40,000 individuals from the BBC Pandemic database to simulate SARS-CoV-2 transmission in different settings and under different combinations of control measures, the researchers estimated that a high incidence of COVID-19 would require a considerable number of individuals to be quarantined to control infection.

“Successful strategies will likely include intensive testing and contact tracing supplemented with moderate forms of physical distancing, such as limiting the size of social gatherings and remote working, which can both reduce transmission and the number of contacts that need to be traced,” said study researcher Dr. Adam Kucharski from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in the UK.

The researchers have used social contact data to quantify the potential impact of control measures on reducing individual-level transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in specific settings.

They aimed to identify not only what would theoretically control transmission, but what the practical implications of these measures would be in terms of numbers quarantined.

However, the authors noted that the model is based on a series of assumptions about the effectiveness of testing, tracing, isolation, and quarantine–for example about the amount of time it takes to isolate cases with symptoms (average 2.6 days) and the likelihood that their contacts adhere to quarantine (90 percent)–which, although plausible, are optimistic.

In the study, researchers analyzed data on how 40,162 people moved about the UK and interacted with others prior to COVID-19 to simulate how combinations of different testing, isolation, tracing, and physical distancing scenarios might contribute to reducing secondary cases.

They also modeled the rate at which the virus is transmitted–known as the reproductive number (R), or the average number of people each individual with the virus is likely to infect at a given moment–under different strategies.

The model suggested that mass testing alone, with five percent of the population undergoing random testing each week (i.e. 460,000 tests per day in the UK), would lower R to just 2.5 because so many infections would either be missed or detected too late.

Compared with no control measures, self-isolation of symptomatic cases (at home) alone reduced transmission by an estimated 29 percent.

Whilst combining self-isolation, household quarantine, and tracing strategies could potentially lower transmission by as much as 47 percent when using app-based contact tracing, and by 64 percent with the manual tracing of all contacts.

“Our results highlight several characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 which make effective isolation and contact tracing challenging,” said study co-author Dr Hannah Fry from University College London in the UK.

HI to introduce system for registration of coaches & technical officials

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HI to introduce system for registration of coaches & technical officials

Hockey India on Wednesday announced further improvements in the Hockey India member unit portal with the introduction of an open application and registration process for coaches and technical officials. A link will be circulated via the media and social media through which any candidate can submit their application to the respective registered member unit to register as a coach or technical official.

Once a candidate submits the application, he or she would require the approval of the concerned Hockey India registered member unit under which a coach or technical official is submitting the application. Once the Hockey India member unit approves the application, the application would require the final approval of Hockey India prior to the confirmation of registration of a coach or technical official.

“It’s a fantastic idea to introduce an open application and registration platform for the coaches and technical officials. Anybody and everybody will be able to submit their application through the Hockey India member unit portal. I am sure that the open application and registration platform will make the registration process a lot smoother and as a result, Hockey India and its member units will have a great opportunity to work with coaches and technical officials across the country,” said Mohd. Mushtaque Ahmad, President, Hockey India.

The technical officials and coaches, who are currently active for at least one recent year and possess a Hockey India identity card, would be pre-registered on the Hockey India member unit portal.

Google Duo increases group calling limit to 32 participants

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Google Duo increases group calling limit to 32 participants

Google has updated its popular Duo chat app by increasing the group video user limit from 12 to 32 people into a single group call to help more people stay connected and practice social distancing.

“Today, one of our most requested features for Duo, group calling on the web with up to 32 people, is starting to roll out on the latest version of Chrome,” tweeted Sanaz Ahari, Google’s senior director of product and design.

At 32 participants, Google Duo is now on par with Apple’s FaceTime, but still less than Skype’s 50 people limit and Zoom which allows as many as 100 users (500 if used with the ‘Large Meeting’ add on).

The search engine giant has rolled out a new video codec technology to improve video call quality and reliability, even on very low-bandwidth connections.

The second feature that Google released was the ability on Duo to click a photo during a video calling.

Google is also adding a feature that will now automatically save video and voice messages that previously expired after 24 hours.

Users can send personalised video and voice messages when they can’t call. Google now lets its users say “I miss you” or “I’m thinking of you” using one of its Augmented Reality (AR) effects.

North will pay if it takes actual military action: Seoul

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North will pay if it takes actual military action: Seoul

South Korea’s military on Wednesday warned it will make sure that North Korea “pays the price” if it actually takes military action against the South.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff statement came hours after North Korea said it will redeploy troops to an inter-Korean industrial park in the western border town of Kaesong and the Mount Kumgang joint tourism zone on the east coast, reported Yonhap news agency.

After a series of statements on Tuesday, ratcheting up tensions on the peninsula, the North also blew up an inter-Koran joint liaison office in the western border town of Kaesong.

The North has also said it will restore guard posts removed from the demilitarized Zone separating the two sides and resume all kinds of regular military exercises near the inter-Korean border in an apparent move to abolish a military tension-reduction deal signed in 2018.

“These moves thwart two decades of efforts by South and North Korea to improve inter-Korean relations and to keep peace on the Korean Peninsula. If the North actually takes such a move, it will certainly pay the price for it,” Jeon Dong-Jin, director of operations at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said.

Earlier, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un’s sister, Kim Yo-Jong, threatened to scrap the deal altogether in anger over anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent across the border by activists here.

The younger Kim said Seoul should get ready for the “scrapping of the North-South agreement in military field which is hardly of any value” if it fails to take corresponding steps for the leaflet campaigns.

“Regarding the current security situation, our military is closely monitoring the North Korean military moves round-the-clock and maintains a staunch readiness posture. We will continue to make efforts to manage the situation stably to prevent this from escalating into a military crisis,” Jeon said.

AIIB’s $750 million loan to India for corona response

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AIIB’s $750 million loan to India for corona response

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has approved a $750 million loan to India to assist the Centre in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the poor.

This loan follows a $500 million emergency Covid relief financing in May to enable the Government of India to scale up efforts to limit the transmission of cases, strengthen the health system to expand its response capacity and enhance preparedness to manage future outbreaks.

Co-financed by the Asian Development Bank, the budgetary support will go toward bolstering economic aid for businesses, including for the informal sector, expanding social safety nets for the needy, and strengthening the country’s health care systems.

The finance would help in strengthening its response to the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on millions of poor and vulnerable households, an AIIB tatement said.

It noted that India is extremely vulnerable to the pandemic given that around 270 million people continue to live below the national poverty line and around 81 million live in densely populated informal settlements with limited access to health services, according to the World Bank.

“The disruption in the economic activities threatens to impact poor households disproportionately, especially women, many of whom are employed in the informal sector,” it said.

AIIB Vice President, Investment Operations, D. J.Pandian said: “Many of the world’s low and middle-income countries are still in the early stages of the health crisis, but are already feeling the impacts of the pandemic. This poses an enormous risk for millions across India who have only recently emerged from poverty.”

Pandian added that AIIB’s support to India also aims to ensure economic resilience to prevent long-term damage to the productive capacity, including human capital, of India’s economy.

The AIIB’s total sovereign loans to India that have already been approved amount to $3.06 billion, including the recent $500 million COVID-19 for emergency response.

The current loan will be the second for India under AIIB’s COVID-19 Crisis Recovery Facility (CRF), which was created as part of the coordinated international response to counter the pandemic, to support AIIB members’ urgent economic, financial, and public health needs and quick recovery from the crisis.

While the AIIB does not have a regular instrument for policy-based financing, the bank is extending such financings on an exceptional basis under the CRF to support its members through projects co-financed with the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank, the statement said.

Microsoft’s undersea data centre drives hunt for Covid-19 vaccine

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Microsoft’s undersea data centre drives hunt for Covid-19 vaccine

Not just above the Earth, efforts are underway beneath the sea to search for a Covid-19 vaccine as an experimental Microsoft data center in Scotlands Orkney Islands is processing workloads for a global, distributed computing project to understand the viral proteins that cause the disease and design therapeutics to stop them.

Distributed computing projects harness otherwise idle computer processing power to perform specific tasks for big science research. Ongoing projects include efforts to understand climate change, map cancer markers and fight infectious disease.

The Folding@home distributed computing project was launched in October 2000 to simulate protein dynamics.

How proteins – chains of amino acids – fold into structures determines their function and the Folding@home simulations can lead to breakthroughs such as identifying sites on a viral protein that a therapeutic drug could bind to.

“Folding@home was one of the first distributed computing groups to start working on Covid-related problems and immediately came out with a bunch of workloads that were geared toward finding antibodies and figuring out ways they could create immunizations,” said Spencer Fowers, a principal member of technical staff for Microsoft’s special projects research group.

When Folding@home announced the Covid-19 related research effort, Fowers jumped on the opportunity and deployed the software across the servers on the Northern Isles.

In addition, Fowers worked with colleagues at Microsoft to enable Microsoft employees currently working from home to deploy the project on their office computers, and worked with the Folding@home community to improve the ability to install the software remotely.

These efforts are in addition to the contributions Microsoft is making to Folding@home via the AI for Health initiative, which recently granted Azure computing resources to help Folding@home run simulations of COVID-19 proteins, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

Fowers is the technical lead for Project Natick, a years-long research effort to investigate the feasibility of manufacturing and operating environmentally sustainable, prepacked data center units.

The project’s Northern Isles data center, which is about the size of a shipping container, has been humming away 117 feet under the sea in Scotland since June 2018.

Unlike commercial Microsoft data centers that run the full Azure infrastructure, including artificial intelligence frameworks tailored to meet specific needs, Project Natick is a research data center and its servers are generic, similar to several thousand high-end personal computers.

“This COVID-19 pandemic is an example of why the distributed computing platform is still relevant today,” said Fowers, explaining that “it makes it quick for adoption, and it gives people the opportunity to feel like they are contributing.”

Cong urges Modi to address nation, call all party meet on China

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Cong urges Modi to address nation, call all party meet on China

A day after 20 Indian soldiers, including officers, were killed in an unprecedented violent clash with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops in Galwan Valley in Eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the Congress on Wednesday demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address the nation and call an all party meeting to discuss the situation.

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera took to twitter and wrote, “Respected Prime Minister, please address the sad nation. Please call an all-party meeting to evolve a unified political posture amidst this national security crisis.”

Another Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha also opined that it is a time for great mature political consensus within India in responding to China’s dangerous aggression.

“This is a time for great mature political consensus within India in responding to China’s dangerous aggression. I don’t care if Modi made several outrageous rhetorical comments against our Congress or UPA government in the past. We must rise. Let’s be different. Let’s be one,” Jha said in a tweet.

The remarks of the Congress leaders came shortly after former party chief Rahul Gandhi slammed Modi over his silence after 20 soldiers were reportedly killed by the Chinese Army in Galwan valley.

Rahul Gandhi in a tweet said, “Why is the PM silent? Why is he hiding? Enough is enough. We need to know what has happened. How dare China kill our soldiers? How dare they take our land?” Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet.

On Tuesday night, the Congress in a statement had blamed the Prime Minister and said “Ever wondered why a vociferous man who never failed to question the govt on every issue is now completely silent? Because now he cannot blame anyone else but himself for all the failures.”

While Congress interim Chief Sonia Gandhi offered condolence, but party members blamed the government for the fiasco.

Twenty Indian Army men, including officers, were killed in an unprecedented violent clash with the Chinese PLA troops in Galwan Valley in Eastern Ladakh on Monday night, the Indian Army said on Tuesday.

The Indian Army issued a statement on Tuesday night wherein it said, “17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the standoff location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total that were killed in action to 20.”

After Google, Apple kills TikTok clone app Zynn from App Store

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After Google, Apple kills TikTok clone app Zynn from App Store

Apple App Store has removed Chinese video app Zynn, a clone of the hugely popular video app TikTok, following accusations of plagiarism. The app was taken down from Google Play Store last week.

A spokesperson for Zynn told The Verge that its issues with plagiarism were minor, and that the company was “in communication with both Google and Apple to ensure compliance with their guidelines and regulations.”

Zynn arrived on iOS and Android in early May and quickly reached the top of the download charts.

By the end of May, the app had become the most downloaded free iOS app and a top 10 download in the Google Play Store.

Part of the reason for this rapid growth is the app’s rewards program where users got paid for watching videos and also to get other users on the app, said the report.

Google Play Store earlier removed another TikTok rival app Mitron.

India in pot 3 for official draw for AFC U-16 Championship

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India in pot 3 for official draw for AFC U-16 Championship

India have been slotted in pot 3 for the official draw of the AFC U-16 Championship Bahrain 2020 which will be held in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.

India qualified for the U-16 finals when they finished as Group B champions in Tashkent from a group which had Uzbekistan (hosts), Bahrain and Turkmenistan. The Indian colts finished with seven points from three matches scoring 10 goals while conceding 1.

This is India’s third consecutive qualification in the AFC U-16 finals, and ninth overall.

“We are eagerly looking forward to the draw. The boys gave a good account of themselves when they qualified above Uzbekistan that too in Uzbekistan in the Qualifiers. It’s time for them to show their character and gear themselves for sterner tests in the future,” head coach Bibiano Fernandes stated.

The current batch will head to the Championship in Bahrain on back of some amazing results last year that saw them net score a whopping 28 goals (without conceding any from five matches on their way to the SAFF U-15 Championship title. The team currently stays unbeaten in eight international matches.

In 2018, the U-16 boys stayed a win away from a direct qualification into the FIFA U-17 World Cup when they lost to the Korea Republic by a solitary goal in the quarterfinals. That was India’s second entry into the quarterfinals, the earlier being in 2002.

Twitter launches dedicated tool to curb domestic violence in India

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Twitter launches dedicated tool to curb domestic violence in India

In a bid to help tackle rise in domestic violence during the social distancing times in India, Twitter on Wednesday launched a dedicated search prompt to serve information and updates from authoritative sources around domestic violence.

Twitter has partnered with the Ministry of Women and Child Development the National Commission for Women in India to expand its efforts towards women.

The search prompt will be available on iOS, Android and on mobile.twitter.com in India, in both English and Hindi languages, the company said in a statement.

Data shows that since the outbreak of Covid-19, violence against women and girls has intensified in India and across the globe.

“We recognise collaboration with the public, government and NGOs is key to combating the complex issue of domestic violence. Accessing reliable information through this search prompt could be a survivor’s first step towards seeking help against abuse and violence,” said Mahima Kaul, Director, Public Policy, India and South Asia, Twitter.

Every time someone searches for certain keywords associated with the issue of domestic violence, a prompt will direct them to the relevant information and sources of help available on Twitter.

This is an expansion of Twitter’s #ThereIsHelp prompt, which was specifically put in place for the public to find clear, credible information on critical issues.

The feature will be reviewed at regular intervals by the Twitter team to ensure that all related keywords generate the proactive search prompt, said the company.

Violence against women and girls across Asia Pacific is pervasive but at the same time widely under-reported.

“In fact, in many countries in our region, the number is even greater, with as many as 2 out of 3 women in some countries reporting experiences of violence,” added Melissa Alvarado, UN Women Asia Pacific Regional Manager on Ending Violence against Women.

Rekha Sharma, Chairperson, the NCW, said: “With social distancing norms in place, several women are unable to contact their regular support systems. This initiative by Twitter will provide big support to the survivors, who would otherwise be easily isolated without access to relevant information and help”.

Good news: Doctors welcome dexamethasone results in Covid patients

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Good news: Doctors welcome dexamethasone results in Covid patients

Leading physicians are celebrating a small dose of good news that arrived Tuesday about dexamethasone, a cheap and widely used steroid shown to be able to save lives among COVID-19 patients, but also cautioning against releasing study results by press release during a global health emergency, like in the case of the latest dexamethasone study by the University of Oxford.

“It will be great news if dexamethasone, a cheap steroid, really does cut deaths by one-third in ventilated patients with COVID19, but after all the retractions and walk backs, it is unacceptable to tout study results by press release without releasing the paper”, Atul Gawande, surgeon and CEO of Haven Healthcare, tweeted.

“Bottom line is, good news,” Dr. Fauci, America’s foremost infectious diseases expert told a US newswire on Tuesday, soon after the dexamethasone results were announced in the UK.

Fauci, who has long championed the therapeutics-first view said that dexamethasone is a “significant improvement” in the available therapeutic options currently available.

On Medical Twitter and Facebook, doctors broadly agree that dexamethasone use aligns well with the way COVID19 attacks the body’s immune system. Fauci said the results in the Oxford study make “perfect sense” in that context.

“We should see the number of people who actually survive go up, if the study holds up,” virologist and epidemiologist Dr. Joseph Fair told a television network.

Global coronavirus cases crossed 8 million on Tuesday. In the US, Texas and Florida are facing a new wave of cases after lifting lockdown orders earlier than medical experts recommended. Amidst the relentless graph upwards, the dexamethasone study results injected hope for better survival rates among those most seriously ill.

World Health Organization chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan welcomed the results from the randomised control trial.

Dr Eugene Gu, Founder and CEO of CoolQuit tweeted that he is “genuinely impressed” with the UK dexamethasone trial. This may be a “game changer”, he wrote.

“There’s no conflict of interest as dexamethasone is a generic steroid. The mechanism of action makes sense because steroids can reduce cytokine storms and overactive immune systems that makes COVID-19 so deadly. The number needed to treat is 8 ventilated patients which is great.”

The Oxford study found that dexamethasone reduced deaths by 35 percent in patients who needed treatment with breathing machines and by 20 percent in those only needing supplemental oxygen. Dexamethasone was one of 5 drugs studied in a large clinical trial in the United Kingdom named RECOVERY, short for Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy.

Peter Horby, chief investigator of the University of Oxford clinical trial, said dexamethasone is the first drug to be shown to improve survival in COVID-19. Details of the study have not been released. The trial organisers said they made their announcement via a news release because of “the public health importance of these results.” According to Horby’s public comments, there was a lot of initial resistance to studying steroids.

During the study, 2,104 patients were randomly selected to be given 6 milligrams of dexamethasone once a day (either by mouth or by intravenous injection) for 10 days. That group was compared with 4,321 patients who received the usual care alone.

Researchers estimated that dexamethasone would prevent one death for every eight patients treated while on ventilators and one for every 25 patients on extra oxygen alone.

UK experts have called the study results a breakthrough in the fight against the virus. The researchers have promised they would publish the results soon.

Gurugram dist reports 205 new corona cases, 9 more deaths

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Gurugram dist reports 205 new corona cases, 9 more deaths

Health officials on Tuesday detected 205 more coronavirus patients in Gurugram district on Tuesday even as nine more patients lost their lives to the deadly virus.

With 9 deaths on Monday, a district official said, 27 patients have died in the last four days. A total of 46 persons have lost their lives in Gurugram city, including 42 in the last 13 days.

Gurugram district has so far reported 3,682 cases, including 1,914 who have been cured. Gurugram has 1,722 patients admitted in different hospitals.

Dr Ram Prakash Jha, a member of Covid-19 team in Gurugram, said: “As many as 55 cases were reported in MCG zone 1, 40 in zone 2, 49 in zone 3, 22 in zone 4, 28 in Pataudi, and 11 in Sohna block.

Gurugram District Magistrate Amit Khatri has appointed seven Covid cluster incharge and 24 accident commanders, with the responsibility to provide necessary things like sanitation of infected areas, barricadings, arrangements of ambulances etc.

In Rajasthan, strategic battle with COVID helped in ‘flattening the curve’

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In Rajasthan, strategic battle with COVID helped in ‘flattening the curve’

Rajasthan Additional Chief Secretary, Medical Health & Family Welfare Rohit Kumar Singh on Tuesday expressed satisfaction at flattening of the COVID-19 curve in the state.

“It’s a matter of satisfaction that active cases in the state are below 3,000 for the last 10 days, indicating a flattening of the curve. However, we are extremely cautious as the situation evolves,” said Singh.

He said efforts are continuing to ramp up facilities in the state on a war-footing. So far, the total cumulative positive cases in Rajasthan are over 13,096 till Tuesday morning, out of which, nearly 9,794 have recovered. The number of people discharged has reached 9,567.

“Rajasthan is ready with enough backup to treat patients with nearly 407 COVID hospitals & care centres,” he said.

Following the number of active cases in Rajasthan, the state government has kept enough capacity of beds to treat thousands of patients at a stretch, if the need arises. The total number of beds in 407 hospitals and centres is 43,704 out of which, 8,090 beds have attached oxygen facilities, 1672 are ICU beds and 882 are with ventilators, Singh added.

“In Rajasthan, the focus has been to save lives. Aggressive testing leading to early detection of cases coupled with quality healthcare is the hallmark of our Covid management strategy. We closely monitor the availability of health infrastructure in each district vis-a-vis the active cases therein. Projections are estimated based on rigorous and intelligent algorithms to plan for any future eventuality,” said Singh.

Along with enough bedding capacity, the Rajasthan Government has also kept the supply of PPE kits — 45,482, 100755 N-95 masks and sanitizers with no district reporting shortage of equipment. “All the districts in the state are being regularly monitored and if required, the stock is sent on time keeping the supply, in an unusual scenario, intact”.

The Rajasthan government has done over six lakh tests till Tuesday and the doubling rate of the cases has reached 26.57 days, which was earlier 19 a few days back.

With recovery rate topping 75.26%, the #RajasthanSatarkHai campaign has shown positive results. The officials with 26,031 teams are conducting active surveillance and reaching out to individuals door-to-door for screening.

Across the state, the medical staff has so far screened nearly 33,41,647 people. More than 82,915 high-risk people have been contacted and made aware of dos and don’ts.

As part of passive surveillance, the officials have screened nearly 1,25,768 people in OPDs, Singh said.

Andhra Assembly again passes bills for three capitals

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Andhra Assembly again passes bills for three capitals

For the second time this year, the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly on Tuesday passed two bills for establishing three state capitals.

On the first day of the budget session, the Assembly passed the Andhra Pradesh Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Bill, 2020 and the Bill to repeal AP Capital Region Development Authority Act, 2014.

The Andhra Pradesh Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Bill 2020 was tabled by Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath and was passed by voice vote. The Bill enables the setting up of three capitals with Amaravati being the legislative capital, Visakhapatnam the executive capital and Kurnool the judicial capital.

The Bill to repeal AP Capital Region Development Authority Act 2014 was moved by Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development, Botsa Satyanaryana and was passed by a voice vote. The Bill, passed earlier by the Assembly, enables the replacement of Amaravati Metropolitan Region and Urban Development Authority.

Both the bills were passed unanimously by the Assembly in January this year. However, they were stuck in the Legislative Council, where the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) is in minority.

Amid high drama, Council Chairman M. A. Shariff had referred both the bills to a select committee, evoking strong protest from the YSRCP.

Irked over the Council chairman’s move, the Assembly passed a resolution the same month, urging the Centre to abolish the upper house of the state legislature.

The Centre is yet to take a decision on the state’s request.

Both the bills are likely to be tabled in the Council on Wednesday.

Border wants more accountability for CA financial crisis

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Border wants more accountability for CA financial crisis

More officials have to be held accountable for the financial turmoil that Cricket Australia (CA) has been going through, according to World Cup-winning former captain Allan Border. Kevin Roberts has resigned from the position of Chief Executive of CA. But Border feels the CEO alone cannot be responsible for the crisis.

“You can’t just lump it all on Kevin Roberts. Surely there are other people, particularly the directors of the Australian cricket board. Where’s their culpability in all of this?” Border told Fox Sports News.

“It was only a couple of years ago we had a couple hundred million dollars in the bank, then all of a sudden we’re broke by August this year?

“I just can’t quite work it out. We’re in the off-season as a sport and all of a sudden we’re losing money hand over fist from a very strong position just a couple of years ago. I just can’t work out where all the money’s gone,” he said.

Cricket Australia’s troubles is part of a wider financial crisis that Australian sport is going through. Roberts is the third CEO of a major Australian sports body to have resigned in the past two months after Todd Greenberg (NRL) and Raelene Castle (Rugby Australia).

“There’s a huge television rights deal. That should be enough to cover expenses, surely, from year to year. To me it just doesn’t ring true that you can be in such a strong position one minute (and then this),” said Border.

“So at the end of last season where were we at financially, and the start of next season hasn’t happened yet – so what’s happened in the meantime apart from sacking lots of people? Where’s the money gone?”

The 64-year-old said other officials who were involved in decision making also need to be made accountable.

“Kevin Roberts has been the CEO through that time … (but) some of the directors have got to be squirming at the moment. At the end of the day they sign off all those financial decisions,” he said.

“It’s not just the CEO. There’s got to be some others that fall on their sword as well.”

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