Month: April 2022

Mahendra Singh Dhoni becomes the second Indian cricketer after Rohit Sharma to play 350 T20 matches in IPL at the Chennai Super Kings versus Punjab Kings match being played at Brabourne Stadium on Sunday.

Rohit Sharma leads the way with 372 T20 matches while MS Dhoni’s former India and CSK teammate Suresh Raina has played 336 T20 matches.

Out of the 350 T20 matches MS Dhoni has represented India in 98 T20 Internationals while he has played 222 T20 matches in the Indian Premier League for Chennai Super Kings and Rising Pune Supergiants.

In Dhoni’s 350th T20 match CSK will look to register their first win of the season after facing two consecutive defeats against Kolkata Knight Riders and Lucknow Super Giants. (ANI)

After offering prayers at Kaal Bhairav temple, Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and his wife Arzu Deuba accompanied by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath went to Kashi Vishwanath temple and offered prayers on Sunday.

Deuba arrived in India on Friday on a three-day visit. It is his first such visit abroad after assuming office in July 2021. Today on the last day of his official visit he came to Varanasi to offer prayer at the famous Kaal Bhairav temple and Kashi Vishwanath temple.

At Kashi Vishwanath temple, Deuba was welcomed by applying ’tilak’.

The streets of Varanasi were seen decked up with Deuba’s posters and hoardings. Children could be seen standing with the national flags of both countries (India and Nepal).

Earlier today, Deuba along with his wife offered prayers at Kaal Bhairav temple and was welcomed as per the Indian ritual, with conch, damru and “bel patra” garland.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was already in Varanasi before the Nepal Prime Minister’s arrival.

A day earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Deuba met and held delegation-level talks at Hyderabad House in New Delhi.

The two Prime Ministers jointly launched multiple projects which are likely to boost connectivity between the two countries while they expressed hope that the key initiatives being taken by them would take India-Nepal relations to new heights.

Both PMs first inaugurated a 35-km long cross-border rail link from Jayanagar in Bihar to Kurtha in Nepal and also a passenger train service built under India’s Grant Assistance in a joint address at Hyderabad House. Deuba is on a three-day India visit.

Deuba met Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) President JP Nadda at the party headquarters on Friday and discussed strengthening the ties between the Nepali Congress and the BJP.

After meeting BJP President, Nepal PM met the External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla in Delhi.

The Nepal PM was also accompanied by Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka, Energy and Water Resources Minister Pampha Bhusal and Health Minister Mahendra Rai Yadav during the meeting. (ANI)

At least ten people were injured in an explosion that occurred at Kabul’s market Sarai Shahzada on Sunday morning, a crowded market of money exchangers.

The blast was due to a hand grenade thrown into the market by a person who planned a robbery there, said the Ministry of Interior, adding that an investigation has started into the incident, reported Tolo News.

Zirak Zirak, a spokesman for Sarai Shahzada, told Tolo News that the explosion took place on the first floor of the market.

He said that many of those wounded are in critical condition. (ANI)

The Taliban on Sunday announced a ban on the cultivation of poppy.

Taliban’s supreme leader Hebatullah Akhundzada in a decree said the cultivation of poppy seeds as well as drug trafficking are banned in the country, reported Tolo News.

He announced a “strict ban” on poppy cultivation as well as the use and trafficking of all types of illicit drugs.

The decree, read by Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, said that there is a “strict ban” on the use and trafficking of “all types of illicit drugs” such as alcoholic beverages, heroin, “Tablet K”, hashish and others, reported Tolo News.

The decree also puts a ban on the production of illicit drugs.

“If anyone violates the decree and cultivates poppy, their crop will be destroyed and the violator will be punished based on the Sharia law,” the decree said.

“The enforcement of this decree is mandatory. Violators will be prosecuted and punished by judiciaries,” the decree read.

However, multiple reports indicate that poppy cultivation and drug trafficking provide a big income source for the Taliban, mainly in the southern and northern parts of the country. Most of the drug smuggling goes through Iran and the Taliban makes a big money from it.

Afghanistan has been among the world’s top illicit drug-producing countries. There are scores of drug addicts currently on the streets. (ANI)

Pakistan President Arif Alvi has dissolved the National Assembly on the proposal of Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday, with the elections likely to be held in the next 90 days.

Earlier, Imran Khan surprised the Opposition to announce in his televised address to the nation that he has advised President Arif Alvi to dissolve all the Assemblies.

Official notification to dissolve the National Assembly has also been issued by the Pakistani President.

The fast-paced development came shortly after National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri, who was chairing today’s session, dismissed the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan-led government, terming it a contradiction of Article 5 of the Constitution.

“I have written to the President to dissolve the Assemblies. There should be elections in a democratic way. I call upon the people of Pakistan to prepare for elections,” Imran Khan said in his address to the nation.

“I congratulate every Pakistani on the Speaker’s decision. The no-confidence motion was a foreign conspiracy against us. Pakistan should decide who should govern them,” Khan added.

Pakistan Prime Minister had said that he was given three options ahead of the no-trust vote by the “establishment” — resignation, holding early elections or facing the no-confidence motion.

The military establishment however had denied the claim and said that it did not bring the Opposition’s options, and rather it was the federal Government that telephoned the top brass while asking for a meeting to discuss the ongoing political scenario, The News International reported.

The Chief of Pakistan Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa and the Directive General (DG) of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had met Pakistan PM on Wednesday at the request of the ruling government, according to The News International citing sources.

Imran Khan has seemingly lost support both in the lower House of the legislature and the backing of the all-powerful Pakistan Army.

Imran Khan received a massive blow when the PTI “lost the majority” in the National Assembly after losing its key ally in the coalition Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P). The MQM on Wednesday announced that it had struck a deal with the opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and would support the no-trust vote in the 342-member National Assembly. (ANI)

The Central Information Commissioner (CIC) Uday Mahurkar on Sunday achieved a personal and professional milestone, disposing of 5,056 Right to Information (RTI) appeals in 2021-22, which is the highest in a year since the enactment of the RTI Act in 2005.

Mahurkar’s feat in his first year as the CIC beats all records of the past 16 years.

Taking to Twitter, Mahurkar, a former journalist and also an author, said that he “passed landmark judgments without fear or favour”.

“Passed landmark judgments without fear or favour. In one of the ancient Sanskrit manuscripts, I ruled that a manuscript whether owned by Government or Private body is national property as even those who donated for private ones did it for saving our heritage. Was lauded by scholars across the globe,” tweeted Mahurkar on Sunday.

He further stated that in his order, he directed the National Manuscript Mission to put in the public domain all the three lakh manuscripts of private bodies that had been digitized for the benefit of researchers. He said that only 28,000 such manuscripts were in the public domain.

The CIC stated that his decision has been “much appreciated by Indologists”.

He emphasized that he took “creative steps like coordinating with public information officers of Union Ministries”. Mahurkar added that he even called “group meetings to know their problems while strictly directing them to ensure RTI Act’s objectives of transparency and accountability”.

“Thank my office staff led by Dy. Registrar Rakesh Rao made success possible even at the cost of personal sacrifices The entire staff of CIC also needs to be complimented for its stupendous show in disposing of 28903 cases in 2021-2022,” he tweeted.

Mahurkar is an Indian journalist and author. He has written books, including ‘Marching with a Billion’ and ‘Centrestage’. (ANI)

The director of ICMR-National Institute of Virology (NIV) on Sunday advised people to exercise caution while handling animals as negligence may transmit infections like COVID-19 from humans to animals through ‘reverse zoonosis’.

Dr Priya Abraham, ICMR-NIV Director, in an interview with ANI, said that ‘zoonosis’ leads to infections passing on from animals to humans while its vice-versa is called ‘reverse zoonosis’.
“Whenever an infection transmits from humans to animals is called reverse zoonosis. It’s not only about SARS-CoV-2, but also includes other COVID like infections. Any infection that originally comes from animals to humans is called zoonosis,” Dr Abraham said.

She further termed the transmission of COVID-19 from animals to human beings a case of ‘suspected reverse zoonosis’ while stressing that it’s not a challenge to deal with such infections.

“I can’t call it a challenge. We need to keep it in mind and be aware and ready to investigate such infections of reverse zoonosis,” the ICMR-NIV official stated.

On being asked about the possibility of transmissions of infections from animals to humans and vice versa, Dr Abraham said, “I think we have to be cautious when we handle other animal species, particularly those you know don’t usually mingle with us.”

She said that people are unaware of animal species vulnerable to viral infections, hence, they need to be careful and attentive in dealing with them.

“We don’t know which animal species are prone to pick up infections. You can’t get paranoid about it but we have to keep in mind that infection can transmit from us to animals and come back as well,” she added.

The ICMR-NIV official said that environment surveillance is an important indicator of the virus as suggested by other scientists too.

“One environmental surveillance which people are doing is actually the sewage water sampling, which is like an indirect indicator that a particular area from where that sewage water is being drained still has COVID prevalence. So that’s one way to do environmental monitoring or surveillance,” she said. (ANI)

Rising temperatures and the scorching heat in Indore have made the conditions worse for animals.

In view of this, arrangements have been made for coolers, air conditioners and sprinklers to provide respite to the animals from the heat at the Kamla Nehru Zoological Garden.

Water tanks have also been installed so that animals can stay hydrated.

Zoo in-charge Dr Uttam Yadav told ANI, “The water bodies and coolers have been installed for Tiger, Lion, Leopard, besides piped water is also sprayed.

“The same is for monkeys and other animals, birds are covered with cloth to protect them from heat and sun, sprinklers with water, water and mud have been arranged for sambar,” he further added. (ANI)

The 64th Annual Grammy Awards will have a special segment dedicated to Ukraine’s ongoing crisis amid the war with Russia.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, the Recording Academy has partnered with the Stand Up For Ukraine campaign and Global Citizen to dedicate a special segment aimed at creating awareness about Ukraine’s ongoing crisis with Russia.

As part of the partnership, the 2022 Grammys award show will feature a special segment during the live telecast showcasing opportunities for viewers to take action as well as contribute to the global and ongoing ‘Stand Up For Ukraine’ campaign.

“We are heartbroken by the situation in Ukraine, yet still moved by the resilient spirit on display there every day. We hope the segment inspires our worldwide audience to get involved to support these critical humanitarian efforts,” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr said in a statement obtained by the outlet.

No other details about the segment were announced.

The 64th Grammy Awards will take place on Sunday, April 3 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and will be telecast live 8-11:30 pm ET/5-8:30 pm PT. (ANI)