Month: November 2020

Boston University biomedical engineers and collaborators from the University of Vermont have begun to crack one of the most life-threatening mysteries behind the relationship between silent hypoxia and coronavirus following different scenarios.

According to Science Daily, researchers are still unaware of the fact that tells the reason behind why the lungs of a COVID patient stop providing oxygen to the bloodstream. All the findings would be done with the help of computer models and comparisons with real patient data.

Silent hypoxia is a condition when oxygen levels in the body are abnormally low, which can cause major damage to the vital organs of the body if gone undetected for a long period of time.

Despite experiencing dangerously low levels of oxygen, many people infected with severe cases of COVID-19 sometimes show no symptoms of shortness of breath or difficulty breathing. Hypoxia’s ability to quietly inflict damage is why it’s been coined “silent.”

According to the research, coronavirus is believed to first damage the lungs restraining them to function properly. Those tissues then lose oxygen, causing silent hypoxia. But exactly how that effect occurs is under the table till now. “We didn’t know [how this] was physiologically possible,” says Bela Suki, one of the authors of the study, when many of the patients showed almost no signs of abnormalities when they were undertaken for a lung scan.

The results of the research, attained after a deep study with the help of a computer model is been published in Nature Communications which unveils the study by the lead author of the new study Jacob Herrmann. It states, “Silent hypoxia is likely caused by a combination of biological mechanisms that may occur simultaneously in the lungs of COVID-19 patients.”

The good thing that researchers revealed is the ability of the lungs to constrict the blood vessels in absence of sufficient oxygen caused by an infection which then forces blood to flow through lung tissue crammed with oxygen, throughout the body.

According to Herrmann, “Preliminary clinical data have suggested that the lungs of some COVID-19 patients had lost the ability to restrict blood flow to already damaged tissue, and in contrast, were potentially opening up those blood vessels even more, which is hard to measure on a CT scan.”

The second scenario observed by the researchers with the help of a computer model found that silent Hypnoxia can provoke when the lining of blood vessels are inflamed from the COVID-infection

The last step was to find if COVID-19 interferes with the normal ratio of air-to-blood flow, vital for lungs to function normally. The researchers found that the mismatched air-to-blood flow ratio is a common symptom in many respiratory illnesses, like asthma and this mismatch doesn’t appear injured or abnormal on lung scans.

In all, the researchers concluded that a combination of all three factors can contribute to abnormal oxygen in some COVID-19 patients, and to attain perfection in making choices about treating patients, the clinical are suggested using measures like ventilation and supplemental oxygen.

According to the report provided by Science Daily, a number of interventions are currently being studied to have a more informed study about the combinations varying from patient to patient. One of them is a low-tech intervention called prone positioning that flips patients over onto their stomachs, allowing for the back part of the lungs to pull in more oxygen and evening out the mismatched air-to-blood ratio. (ANI)

Four terrorists have been neutralised in an encounter with security forces near Ban Toll Plaza in the Nagrota area of Jammu district here on Thursday morning, the police said.

A police constable sustained injuries during the gunfight with the terrorists.

The area is being sanitised and security has been tightened.

“Four terrorists have been neutralized and one Police Constable injured in an encounter at Ban Toll Plaza, Jammu with Police, CRPF and Army. The area is being sanitized,” the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Jammu tweeted.

The terrorists, who were neutralised, are likely from the United Nations-designated terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), sources said.

“These terrorists used old modus operandi and had recently infiltrated the Indian side. An investigation is underway,” they added.

According to officials, the Jammu-Srinagar national highway was closed in view of the encounter. Further details are awaited. (ANI)

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Thursday alleged that women were not allowed to exercise their right to vote in the recently held Gilgit-Baltistan elections.

“From election day to today, PPP workers are exercising their democratic right and protesting this selected and incompetent prime minister (Imran Khan) in this harsh weather,” Geo News quoted Bilawal as saying in Gilgit Baltistan.

“They are getting recounts done by putting the election commissioner to shame,” he added.

Lauding the pressure tactics used by the PPP, Bilawal said that the same election commissioner, who had earlier stated there was no rigging in the GB 21’s stolen polling box was now left with no option but to get the votes in that polling station recounted.

Pointing out that women from Tangir were not allowed to participate in the election, the PPP chairman said his party will strive to protect votes of women.

“7,000 women voters were registered and it is the election commissioner’s responsibility to make sure they get an opportunity to exercise their right to vote,” Geo News quoted Bilawal.

“Another shocking development was a picture shared by a Pakistani journalist on Twitter a day earlier. The picture shows the election commissioner sitting with the Governor and the Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Ameen Ali Gandpur, who is a member of the PTI,” Bilawal said.

“We have always said this is not an election commission, but PTI’s election wing,” he further stated.

“How can you sit with ministers of the government when you are the election commissioner?” Bilawal said demanding the election commissioner to issue a clarification on the issue.

“You have sold the public of Gilgit Baltistan. You have sold this land. You cannot handle this post. You are so shamelessly saying on national television that the elections were clean,” Bilawal criticised election commissioner.

Bilawal referred to the Free and Fair Election Network’s report, which said that at least three mishaps took place in every polling station.

“We will not accept any lollipop, will never compromise on the rights of the people,” he added.

PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said that the election commission must not fail the people and should ensure that “every vote is cast and counted”.

This comes after Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz on Wednesday tore into the Pakistan ruling party for “rigging” Pakistan-occupied Gilgit Baltistan elections and said that “no one in Pakistan was ready to accept the fake result” of the elections.

The complete but unofficial results of all 23 constituencies, where polling was held on Sunday, indicate that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has emerged as the single largest party with 10 seats, followed by seven independents.

The Pakistan Peoples Party won three seats, the PML-N two, and the Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen, which had a seat adjustment arrangement with the PTI, got one seat, Dawn reported.

Addressing a press conference in Gilgit a day after polls closed and unofficial results showed the PPP had won only three out of the 24 seats in the GB Legislative Assembly, Bilawal claimed that results were manipulated “overnight” for elections on seats that the PPP was winning and the party was declared to have lost them during the day. (ANI)

An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan on Thursday sentenced Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamat-ud-Dawa head, Hafiz Saeed, to 10-year imprisonment in an illegal funding case.

The court also ordered that Saeed’s properties be confiscated.

According to a report by Samaa TV, a Lahore anti-terrorism court has sentenced Lashkar-e-Taiba sponsor Saeed, Prof Zafar Iqbal, and Yahya Muhajid to a cumulative jail term of 10-and-a-half years. While Hafiz Abdul Rehman was sentenced to six months.

The Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief was arrested on July 17, 2019, at the Kamoke toll plaza, about 50 km north of Lahore. The US has placed a USD10 million bounty on the UN-designated terrorist Hafiz Saeed.

The court has ordered their properties to be seized.

The counter-terrorism department has registered 41 cases against the JuD leaders.

Back in July, the top 13 members of the JuD, including Saeed, were booked in nearly two dozen cases for terror financing and money laundering under Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), 1997. Subsequently, Saeed was arrested from Gujranwala on charges of terror financing by the Punjab Counterterrorism Department (CTD). (ANI)

In the last 24 hours, 45,576 persons were found to be infected with COVID in India. During the same period, India has registered 48,493 new recoveries ensuring a net reduction of 2,917 cases from the Active Caseload, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).

The new recoveries continue to overtake the daily new cases continuously since the past 47 days. India’s active caseload has fallen under the 5 per cent mark today, according to an official press release.

This trend of more daily recoveries than the daily cases has led to a continuous contraction of India’s Active Caseload. It has ensured that India’s present active caseload of 4,43,303 consists of just 4.95 per cent of India’s Total Positive Cases.

New recoveries outnumbering the daily new cases every 24-hour cycle has also improved the recovery rate to 93.58 per cent today. The total recovered cases stand at 83,83,602. The gap between recovered cases and active cases that is steadily increasing presently stands at 79,40,299.

77.27 per cent of the new recovered cases are contributed by ten States/Union Territories (UT).

With 7,066 persons recovering from COVID-19, Kerala saw the most number of recoveries. Delhi registered another 6,901 daily recoveries while Maharashtra reported 6,608 new recoveries.

Ten States/UTs have contributed 77.28 per cent of the new cases.

Delhi reported 7,486 cases in the last 24 hours. Kerala recorded 6,419 new cases while Maharashtra registered 5,011 new cases yesterday. 79.49 per cent of the 585 case fatalities that have been reported in the past 24 hours are from Ten States/UTs. 22.39 per cent of new fatalities reported are from Delhi which reported 131 deaths. Maharashtra also saw a three-digit fatality count of 100 while West Bengal reported 54 new deaths. (ANI)

With tensions running high between the United Arab Emirates and its petroleum allies, Saudi Arabia and Russia, Abu Dhabi considers the idea of leaving OPEC plus, the Bloomberg news agency reported on Thursday, citing its sources.

This step was not in line with the UAE’s policy, as the country has stayed away from public conflicts for a long time, preferring to address issues quietly behind closed doors, the news outlet reported, adding that it was unclear yet whether the warning was “a maneuver to force a negotiation over production levels, or represents a genuine policy debate.”

The relations between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi escalated since the late summer, when the UAE increased its oil output beyond the OPEC+ quota envisaged in the deal, prompting warnings from Saudi Arabia. The situation has deteriorated by now in light of the UAE’s rising backlash on the distribution of production targets, which the country’s government considers unfair.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that the UAE officials have not announced in public its intent to withdraw from the organisation. According to the agency, reports on the UAE’s exit from OPEC+ have appeared in very challenging circumstances, as any internal disputes may undermine the already fragile oil market against the backdrop of the long-standing coronavirus pandemic that threatens oil demand.

Along with these developments, the UAE Energy Ministry said on Wednesday that it had reached a 126-per cent compliance with the OPEC+ oil output cuts deal in October by reducing its production level by 153,000 barrels per day.

Earlier in the week, the OPEC+ Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee discussed the situation in the oil market amid the second wave of the pandemic, as well as the feasibility of increasing the alliance’s production from 2021 under prevailing conditions. It made no recommendation, although a day earlier, OPEC+ experts recommended that ministers consider maintaining the current production restrictions for the first quarter or for the first half of 2021.

The final decision is expected to be made at the annual OPEC+ ministerial meeting, scheduled for December 1. (ANI/Sputnik)

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced that the fine for not wearing a mask has been increased to Rs 2,000 in the wake of rising COVID-19 cases in the national capital.

“In Delhi, a large number of people are wearing masks but still some are not wearing them. A fine of Rs 2,000 will be imposed on anyone who is found not wearing a mask at a public place. Till now it was Rs 500. If you wear a mask, there are fewer chances of people contracting COVID-19. I appeal to all religious, social organisations and political parties to distribute masks,” Kejriwal said.

Addressing a press conference after an all-party meeting to discuss the COVID-19 situation in Delhi, the Chief Minister said that all the parties agreed that this is the time for all of us to become one and serve the people of Delhi.

“They gave us suggestions and we will look into it. I told all parties in the meet that it is a difficult time for the people of Delhi when COVID cases are rising. It is not the time for politics, there is an entire lifetime for it. We should set aside politics and allegations for a few days. This is the time to serve people,” he said.

Kejriwal appealed to people to celebrate Chhath Puja at home as allowing celebrations for the festival may cause a spike in coronavirus cases.

“We want our brothers and sisters to celebrate Chhath Puja very nicely. Please celebrate but if 200 people enter into a pond at a time, and even if just one of them has COVID-19, all of them will contract the infection. This is also the opinion of experts. We should celebrate this time at our home. Several governments have also banned this.

“You can imagine that COVID-19 will be spread on a large scale. So, celebrations are not banned. What is banned is the entering of a large number of people in a pond or river at once. Let’s celebrate at homes,” he said. (ANI)

Pensioners can now get their life certificate at their doorstep, which is required for processing of pensions, said M.P. Bhardwaj, senior postmaster, UP Postal Department on Thursday.

Digital life certificates can be generated at the doorstep by the postman of the area. The digital process is done by biometric authentication, Aadhaar card number, mobile number along with bank account number. Also Pension Payment Order number is required for the process to get completed. A fee of Rs 70 is determined by the department to avail the doorstep facility.

“Pensioners from all the departments can avail this facility. Postmen were chosen for this specific task because they have an idea of their particular area and with the help of our given data, they are communicating with the people and providing the e-generation of the certificate,” Bhardwaj informed.

“I live in a village far away from the city. I had to come to the city every year for generating my life certificate. There were long queues for this before but now it was done within five minutes saving my time and money. I am thankful to the government for the steps they have taken for the old people,” said Fakeer Chand, a pensioner who retired in 2006 and has been receiving pension since then.

All the pensioners are required to provide a life certificate for the processing of the pension. All the pensioners are supposed to generate and submit life certificates from November 1 to December 31. Earlier they (pensioners) used to go to the banks and post offices to get their certificates. Now it can be done at their doorstep. (ANI)

In a press conference held in Islamabad on November 14 Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi became a living example of the proverb “ulta chorr kotwal ko daante” (the pot calling the kettle black).

Flanked on his left by the Director-General of Pakistani military public relations department (ISPR) Major General Babar Iftikhar, Shah told journalists that the purpose of the press conference was to “expose” Indian state-sponsored terrorism and destabilisation of Pakistan!

The allegations Shah raised were those that the rest of the world has been employing to describe the role of Pakistan in sponsoring regional and global terrorism. Whether it is the USA or EU, or India, which has been a direct victim of Pakistani terrorism since October 22, 1947, time and again all have come up with ample evidence of Pakistan’s involvement in terrorism.

Since 1979, when Pakistan set up jihadist camps across the Pak-Afghan border to create havoc in a peace-loving and democratic Afghanistan or later during the 1980 and 90s when Pakistan suddenly diverted its terrorist bands to infiltrate Indian Kashmir and cause mayhem and the genocide of Kashmiri Hindu Pundits that resulted in the great exodus of more than six million pundits from the valley, or be it harbouring terrorist such as Osama Bin Laden or more recently Ehsan Ullah Ehsan, Pakistan’s role in nurturing, harbouring and exporting terrorism is no secret.

Shah kicked off his press conference by accusing India of destabilising Pakistan. He presented a so-called dossier against India’s alleged ‘terrorist plans’ in Pakistan claiming that it contains irrefutable evidence. Yet, in the same vein Shah confessed, “although the details provided in the dossier are incomplete when the time comes we can provide details”!

Shah claimed that Indian intelligence agencies were supporting those banned terrorist outfits that are Pakistan centric. He named Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan, (TTP), Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and Jammat ul Ahrar (JUA).

A faction of the ISI, which previously led the Taliban, formed Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan, a grouping of 13 terrorist outfits, in December 2007. TTP was assembled when former president Pervez Musharraf decided to go after the leader of the Taliban Bait ullah Mehsud who was based in northern Pakistan near the tribal belt adjacent to Afghanistan. Musharraf was supporting other factions of the Taliban. Bait ullah Mehsud was responsible for the September 7 2007 Rawalpindi bombing in which 25 government officers were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up near the bus carrying the ill-fated. Later Bait ullah Mehsud was also blamed for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto on December 28, 2007.

The Baloch Liberation Army has been operating in the region of Baluchistan since 2004. BLA has been actively involved in armed struggle. They claim that Pakistan has been systematically committing cultural and physical genocide of Baloch people and has been settling Punjabis and people from the Khyber Pakhtunkhawa in the region to deplete the indigenous population. Since the advent of CPEC, BLA has been claiming to fight against both Pakistani as well as Chinese colonialism.

Jammat ul Ahrar came into existence after it broke away from Tehreek e Taliban in 2014 and was responsible for the 2014 Wagah border suicide attack that claimed the lives of 60 people. Hence, all the above-mentioned terrorist groups that Shah has accused India of sponsoring were the brainchild of the Pakistani military establishment!

In his demonic press conference, Shah accused India of “planning to upscale terrorist activities in (Pakistan in) November and December”. Shah claimed that Pakistan had irrefutable evidence, though it could not produce it at the conference, that Indian RAW and Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) were involved in terror financing in Pakistan. This accusation is laughable at best. The

Financial Action Task Force (FATF) that comprises 40 countries has laid charges against Pakistan for money laundering that has been used for terror financing! That is why Pakistan and not India is on the grey list of FATF.

Shah claimed that India has three objectives against Pakistan. The first is to interrupt the peace initiatives by Pakistan. Shah maintained that in order to achieve this aim (India) encourages sub-nationalism in Gilgit-Baltistan, FATA, and in Baluchistan. The second objective that Shah claimed India has is not to let Pakistan become stable and prosper economically. And finally, that India wants to make Pakistan politically unstable.

Once again Shah has failed to present to us his ‘irrefutable’ evidence regarding his above-mentioned claims. It is Pakistan and not India, which has been persistently, consistently, and patiently disrupting any attempts to bring peace to the region. From the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament by Pakistan-sponsored Lashkar-e-Taiba to the 2008 Mumbai attacks to Pulwama only those terrorist organisation have claimed responsibility which are based, harboured and exported by the Pakistani military. Even to this day terrorist camps of jihadi outfits are dotted all across Pakistani occupied Jammu Kashmir.

Secondly, what Shah refers to as sub-nationalism is actually a people struggling for their freedom from Pakistani colonialism. Gilgit-Baltistan for that matter is an integral part of the Republic of India that was occupied by Pakistan on November 1, 1947, by instigating a coup against the then state of Jammu Kashmir. How can Shah forget that? Similarly, the struggle waged by the Baloch people for independence from the dual colonisation of both Pakistan and China is a direct result of the abysmal oppression that the Baloch people have been subjugated to since 1948 when Pakistani troops invaded and annexed Baluchistan bringing its autonomous status to an abrupt and a very unpleasant end.

Finally, India has no qualms about a weak Pakistan. A weak Pakistan is prone to more infighting not only among the state institutions but also among the non-state actors. A politically unstable Pakistan is a threat to regional peace. Why would India or Afghanistan or for that matter Iran have a desire to weaken Pakistan? No. It is Pakistan’s inbuilt social, religious, economic and political contradictions that are leading it toward all sorts of instability including political instability.

The fact that Pakistan has not been able to define the working boundaries of its state institutions such as the parliament, judiciary and military are at the core of political instability. Under the current political crisis (note the PDM-led opposition movement) and more importantly economic situation (total debt stands at Rs 2300 billion), Pakistan is presenting itself as prey those countries that crave regional political and economic hegemony. That country is definitely not India but China.

Under the guise of promising economic development through the CPEC agreement, China has already made encroachments in the Pakistani economy and territory. With billions that Pakistan now owes to China and with the presence of thousands of Chinese military and intelligence personal disguised technical assistants to hydropower, road and bridge construction projects, the Chinese state has infiltrated not only Islamabad and Baluchistan but more importantly the PoJK and Gilgit-Baltistan. CPEC has generated anxiety among those who fear that their land and natural wealth is under threat. That is why the Baloch attacked the Chinese consulate in Karachi on November 23, 2018.

It is wake-up time for the world to see how on the eve of elections in Gilgit-Baltistan the Pakistani foreign minister comes up with his cock and bull stories in an attempt to divert the attention of the public. Is it not time the world community compels Pakistan to halt its occupation of Jammu Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, curtail its sponsorship of jihadist terrorism in the vale of Kashmir, bring to justice all those have been responsible for the war of aggression on our lands since the launch of operations Gulmarg and Datta Khel in October 1947, Gibraltar in 1965, Tupac in 1980 and more recently the Kargil adventure? and stop direct funding of ISI groomed terrorist outfits such as the Hizbul Mujahedeen.

Pakistan is a prison of nations in which the jailor is the Pakistan army currently led by military chief Qamar Javed Bajwa. The rest of the instruments of the state act as staff members of this prison. There is no freedom of speech or civilised human rights in Pakistan. The claim of giving its people the choice to elect their representatives is guarded with suspicion at every level by the military establishment. A most recent example to exercise such guarded freedom of choice was demonstrated on November 15 when Gilgit-Baltistan went to the polls to elect yet another puppet legislative assembly that has no powers to make legislation.

During the closing hours of the polls, several ballot boxes were reported stolen and then replaced, several results in constituencies where opposition candidates were said to be winning were delayed by hours and in at least three of the constituencies Pakistan People’s Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto accused the government of stealing the people’s mandate.

A large number of crowds have begun protests against alleged vote-rigging and Bhutto has refused to leave Gilgit-Baltistan until the stolen mandate is returned to the PPP in at least three constituencies.

Addressing the 20th Summit of SCO, Council of Heads of State, on November 10, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said “India believes that in order to deepen connectivity among (trading) nations it is important to respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity’. Pakistan seems not to have grasped this fundamental principle of peaceful co-existence and keeps on rocking the boat of regional peace and stability. Shah’s allegations on India are proof of this deficiency of political insight and narrow-minded communal world outlook.

(The author is a human rights activist from Mirpur in PoJK. He currently lives in exile in the UK – ANI)