Lender’s plea against BHEL employee’s retirement rejected
MADURAI,
September 16, 2020 21:32 IST
Updated:
September 16, 2020 21:32 IST
Staff Reporte
MADURAI,
September 16, 2020 21:32 IST
Updated:
September 16, 2020 21:32 IST
HC asks advocates to render correct advice to litigants
HC asks advocates to render correct advice to litigants
Coming across an unusual petition that sought a direction to not allow an employee of BHEL, Tiruchi, to retire from service till he repays a loan obtained from the petitioner, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has wondered how such a petition was filed.
The court was hearing the petition filed by R. Marimuthu, who sought a direction to BHEL, Tiruchi, to not allow K. Dhandapani to retire from service till he repaid ₹6 lakh he borrowed from the petitioner.
The petitioner apprehended that if Mr. Dhandapani was allowed to retire on September 24, he would vacate the BHEL Quarters residence and it would be difficult to recover the money from him. No steps were taken by the police on the complaint lodged by him, he said.
Hearing the petition, Justice R. Suresh Kumar wondered how such a petition was filed without even understanding the jurisdiction of the court, that too before a service portfolio when no service-related dispute was involved in the matter.
The petitioner could have filed a suit for recovery of the money or followed up on the police complaint by approaching the Superintendent of Police or the Commissioner of Police or approach the magistrate court concerned seeking a direction to the police to investigate the case.
When these types of issues came to the knowledge of advocates, they must properly advise the litigants to proceed further. Some advocates without even verifying the remedy available to litigants straightaway approach the High Court, the judge said.
Dismissing the petition, the judge observed that since judicial time of the court was consumed by the unwarranted litigation, cost could have been imposed on the petitioner. However, the court would not do so as the petitioner had already lost his money in the transaction.
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Lender’s plea against BHEL employee’s retirement rejected
Lender’s plea against BHEL employee’s retirement rejected
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Lender’s plea against BHEL employee’s retirement rejected
Parliament monsoon session: 478.1 Acres Needed For Ayodhya Airport Phase 1: Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri
478.1 Acres Needed For Ayodhya Airport Phase 1: Civil Aviation Minister
Timeline for start and completion of Ayodhya airport project depends on factors such as land acquisition, clearances, financial closure, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told the parliament.
The Uttar Pradesh government has set aside Rs 525.92 crore for Ayodhya airport land. (Representational)
New Delhi:
The Airports Authority of India, AAI, has said it requires 478.1 acres land for phase 1 of the Ayodhya airport, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
The state government has informed that they have earmarked Rs 525.92 crore for acquiring the land so far, he said, adding that the requirement is based on an assessment of the existing Ayodhya airport by AAI's multi-disciplinary team which visited the city in December last year.
"The pre-feasibilty study was done so the airport can handle wide-bodied aircrafts. The airport is suitable for development in two phases, with the expected rise in passenger traffic in Ayodhya," Mr Puri said, adding that the timeline for start and completion of the project depends on factors such as land acquisition, clearances, financial closure.
Last week, in an e-meeting with Mr Puri Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had extended his "full support" to all airport-related development work.
It is targeted that the Ayodhya Ram Temple, whose groundbreaking ceremony was done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 5, can be completed by 2024.
The temple is likely to elevate Ayodhya as an international religious destination, and the Yogi Adityanath government plans to capitalize on this to generate employment by creating supporting infrastructure, including a new railway station and upgrading the national highway.
Despite dominating politics in north India for decades, Ayodhya had been a sleepy little town. As of now, it has one airstrip for use by VIPs.
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro, despite being a reliable device, isn't the best smartphone in the mid-range segment anymore. Xiaomi frankly borrowed a leaf out of OnePlus' book and refined the popular Redmi Note 5 Pro, and didn't really upgrade it. And in the mid-range segment where loyalties shift with a bump in megapixels or RAM, the Redmi Note 6 Pro could be threatened by other, more powerful devices in that category. Read on to find out why.
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Redmi Note 6 Pro detailed review
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro comes just eight months after the launch of its predecessor, the Redmi Note 5 Pro. In a recent IDC report, Xiaomi remained in top of the Indian smartphone market and grew by an astonishing 27 percent. The chief drivers of the growth were the affordable Redmi 5A and the Redmi Note 5 Pro. When the Note 5 Pro launched back in February 2018, it set a benchmark for performance in the mid-range segment by introducing the Snapdragon 636 alongside 6 gigs of RAM. No wonder it sold like hot cakes.
With the Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro, Xiaomi has done something that OnePlus is known to do. Xiaomi refreshed it’s best-selling offering in a short span of time, improving upon the usability with new software-based features, while leaving out a notable hardware upgrade. While that has worked out well for OnePlus so far in the high-end segment, the mid-range category is a whole different story. With the likes of the Realme 2 Pro, the Moto One Power, and Xiaomi’s own Mi A2 for company in that segment, the Redmi Note 6 Pro has a tough road ahead to glory.
Will its follow-up, the Redmi Note 6 Pro live up to the same hype? More importantly, is it still the high performer? Let’s find out.
Design
The Redmi Note 6 Pro is basically the old Note 5 Pro, but with a notch cut-out in the display. As ugly as the notch looks, Xiaomi gave in to the growing demand of a larger, bezel-less display and the notch was the only way to give the people what they wanted. It doesn’t really help things here as the notch is rather wide and offers little space on either sides for icons and notifications. It’s also quite pesky and refuses to go if you’re playing a game like PubG unless you manually turn it off. The notch is present while you’re reading an article and but not when you’re watching a video on YouTube.
Hello notch, my old friend!
Xiaomi’s design philosophy was once appreciated and even copied across the segment. One of the primary proponents of the metal-body design in the price-range, Xiaomi’s Redmi Note series popularised the design cues that are now present in almost all Xiaomi phones in the budget and mid-range segment. The company does experiment with other materials like ceramic in its flagship products and even kevlar like it did in the Poco F1. I can safely say the metal body design now looks plain boring. Heck, it’s now difficult to tell one Xiaomi phone apart from the other if you’re looking at them from the back. Despite that, one has to admit that these metal-bodied phones are anyday more durable than your glass-sandwich ones even though the latter looks much, much better. You’re anyway going to slap a case on it and if that’s the case, there’s no point calling Xiaomi out for using a recurring design if it’s made to last. But then, the Redmi Note 5 Pro unit we had received for review, doesn’t work all that well now. The power button on the right needs to be pressed harder to have it register. Hopefully, the Redmi Note 6 Pro has better internal construction and durability.
The side bulges are the only thing distinctive in the design
While there’s hardly any major difference in the design of the Redmi Note 6 Pro, Xiaomi did introduce slightly curved edges on the back, with sides that bulge out from the body. It does help in gripping the phone better. The rounded corners also doesn’t let the phone dig into the palm. The dual-camera unit on the back is aligned vertically on the top left corner with the fingerprint sensor located centrally, right where the index finger can reach. The Redmi Note 6 Pro also shaved off the bezels from below, but only by a hair and unless you’re comparing the Note 6 Pro against the Note 5 Pro side-by-side, there’s no way to tell. It’s quite a big bezel though and phones like the Honor 8X are honestly a better alternative if a bezel-less display is what you’re looking for in a phone.
I have mixed feelings about the Redmi Note 6 Pro’s design. At the fag end of the year, after using a bunch of Xiaomi devices that look all the same, I’ve grown tired of the reiteration. However, it’s durable and can take more scratches and bumps than a glass-bodied phone, and that should be a priority in the mid-range segment.
Display
This is where the Redmi Note 6 Pro primarily differs from the Redmi Note 5 Pro. The Note 6 Pro sports a larger 6.26-inch display that has an ugly notch on top, which is how Xiaomi increased the screen size without increasing the footprint of the phone. However, most of the extra screen real-estate is eaten up by the notch itself, and there’s hardly any space for the icons and notifications. The phone does offer the option to turn the notch off, but you have to do it manually by whitelisting apps. Videos are cut out in 16:9 aspect ratio by default and in apps like YouTube you can stretch it to 18:9 aspect ratio, but there will still be space left unused. The notch, like we have mentioned countless times, serves no purpose whatsoever, and should just go.
Colours on the Redmi Note 6 Pro are a little more vibrant
Apart from that, the panel on the Redmi Note 6 Pro is of a higher quality than it’s predecessor. While the brightness levels are more or less the same (500 lux), colours are more vibrant and crisp on this one. The phone also offers options to tweak the white balance and colour temperature, but if you don’t know what you're doing, it’s better to maintain the default settings.
Performance and Software
This is where there’s hardly any difference in between the Redmi Note 6 Pro and it’s predecessor. All other Redmi Note phone have outperformed their respective predecessors in both benchmark tests and in real-world usage, but not this one. The Redmi Note 6 Pro relies on the same Snapdragon 636 SoC coupled with either 4GB or 6GB RAM, along with 64GB storage. While the hardware configuration did excite us in the beginning of the year, by the end of 2018, it has become the standard. The Snapdragon 636, with it’s eight Kryo 260 cores clocked at 1.8GHz, is now aging quickly in the face of the Snapdragon 660 and the Kirin 710 being offered in the same price. The benchmark reports corroborate that.
On AnTuTu, the Redmi Note 6 Pro scored 116046 against the Redmi Note 5 Pro’s 112652, while the Realme 2 Pro with a Snapdragon 660 outscored both of them with 128430 and the Mi A2 trumped even that score with 128895. With similar price points, it becomes an easy choice if you’re looking for the best performance. On Geekbench Single Core and Multi Core tests that puts the CPU capabilities to test, the Redmi Note 6 Pro scored 1632 and 3233 respectively. The scores are once again in line with the Redmi Note 5 Pro and the Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 and here again, the Realme 2 Pro and the Mi A2 outperformed the Note 6 Pro with significantly higher scores. Even on 3DMark Slingshot, which tests the graphics processing capabilities of a device, the scores are similar for both the Redmi Note 6 Pro and it’s predecessor while the Mi A2 and the Realme 2 Pro outscored it by a long margin.
Based on the performance benchmark scores, it’s easy to see that the Redmi Note 6 Pro is not the best Xiaomi has to offer in that price. The Mi A2, with the Snapdragon 660 SoC and Android One-certified stock Android UI is what we would recommend, but if you’re married to the MIUI ecosystem, the Redmi Note 6 Pro is your next best option.
In real-world usage, the difference in performance isn’t all that much. The phone runs MIUI 10 out of the box and it’s optimised brilliantly for the phone. I didn’t face any lag or stutter while opening apps, or browsing the internet. However, the MIUI 10 interface on this phone is based on Android 8.1 Oreo and not the latest Android version. The new update brings gesture-based navigation and a new recent apps menu which is more card-based and arranged vertically. There’s support for autofill now, and a new app management system in Settings. More than that, MIUI feels fast and snappy with quick animations. The phone also boots quickly in around 30 seconds and apps launch slightly faster than the Note 5 Pro.
PubG Mobile is playable on this phone
Gaming on the Redmi Note 6 Pro is not the best experience. Most games will run although the graphically-demanding ones have to be played in low or medium settings. We played PubG Mobile on the Redmi Note 6 Pro with GameBench plugged in, and it recorded a stable FPS of 25. On flagships like the OnePlus 6T, you get around 40 FPS. While FPS count isn’t as much as what flagships offer, you do get stable gameplay with a variability index of 1 FPS on an average across five sessions we tested.
It goes without saying that even though this isn’t the fastest phone in the mid-range segment by any means, it’s fairly reliable and functional and will not let you down.
Camera
The Redmi Note 6 Pro while not offering any upgrades in raw performance, ups the ante when it comes to imaging. The phone’s dual camera unit at the back is better thanks to a bigger sensor with larger 1.4um pixels and a wider f/1.9 aperture as compared to that on the Redmi Note 5 Pro. On the front, inside that ugly notch are two sensors as well for selfies. The secondary sensor, like that on the rear, is used for calculating the depth of field.
12+5MP dual camera with bigger sensors and wider aperture
The notch houses dual front cameras
The camera on the Redmi Note 6 Pro is much better than the Redmi Note 5 Pro’s. In the day as well as in low-light, the Redmi Note 6 Pro takes images that are aesthetically pleasing. The camera relies on machine learning to recognise scenes across 32 categories including buildings, greenery, animals, people, etc. The AI mode is turned off by default and once you turn it on, it automatically recognises what you’re shooting within 1-2 seconds, but what it’s actually doing after recognising is not clear. In some instances, like shooting foliage, the greens do look more vibrant while low-light photos are processed using noise-reduction algorithms. But there’s no real clarity on what the AI is doing in reality. But to cut things short, the Redmi Note 6 Pro can take good photos that are sharp, vibrant and are visually appealing.
We did an article after testing the camera extensively where we concluded the camera on the Redmi Note 6 Pro is more than capable of taking good photos, and is much better than that on the Redmi Note 5 Pro. But the Mi A2 trumps it in low-light with its pixel-binning technique. The Note 6 Pro applies the same technique for selfies with its 20+2MP front camera and the selfies do come out better in low-light because of it.
Further, the Note 6 Pro offers a new experience of portrait mode with dynamic bokeh. The blurred part warps into different shapes and if you ask me, I found them pretty cool. The phone also has various lighting effects and thankfully, Xiaomi’s implementation works much better than what the Realme 2 Pro or the Honor 8X offers.
Overall, the Redmi Note 6 Pro’s primary claim to fame is the camera. That’s where most of the work has gone in developing the phone.
Battery
What a day-and-a-half battery life looks like
The Redmi Note 6 Pro with its 4,000mAh battery offers the same one and a half day battery life like its predecessor. While we would have liked a bigger battery on the phone like the Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1, this one is more than enough to last the entire day. What’s disappointing is that Xiaomi offers a 5V charger out of the box that can’t fast-charge the device. It still uses a micro-USB port to charge even when the Mi A2, offered at nearly the same price has a USB-Type C port. The battery drain while playing PubG was around 15 percent for a full 30-minute session which isn’t all that bad considering other phones also have similar drainage pattern.
Bottomline
The Redmi Note 6 Pro, like we noted before is no longer a leader in the mid-range segment. With underwhelming performance, and a lacklustre design, it’s now a follower. It’s still offers good value for your money though, it’s just not the best, which is what we expect from Redmi’s Note lineup anyway. The Note 6 Pro somewhat redeems itself with good imaging prowess, but if you’re looking for an out-and-out performer, the Realme 2 Pro or the Honor 8X are phones you can consider. Or if you have to stick to Xiaomi and can make do with stock Android, the Mi A2 is a no-brainer. To be frank, I couldn’t find a legit reason to recommend the Note 6 Pro apart from the high value for money. In the mid-range segment where spec-sheets rule the roost and design slowly getting noticed, Xiaomi could have spent a few more months and followed up the popular Redmi Note 5 Pro with a worthy successor.
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Lender’s plea against BHEL employee’s retirement rejected
One of largest known T. rex skeletons up for auction at Christie’s
One of largest known T. rex skeletons up for auction at Christie’s
The dinosaur known as “STAN,”, approximately 67 million years old, was discovered in 1987 in South Dakota by amateur paleontologist Stan Sacrison.
An approximately 67 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton on display ahead of its public auction at Christie's in New York City, on Sept. 15, 2020.Mike Segar / Reuters
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The British auction house Christie’s plans to sell the skeleton of one of the largest known Tyrannosaurus rexes in early October, the company said on Wednesday.
The dinosaur known as “STAN,”, approximately 67 million years old, was discovered in 1987 in South Dakota by amateur paleontologist Stan Sacrison.
“He showed it to scientists at the time who unfortunately misidentified it as a triceratops,” James Hyslop, Christie’s head of Science and Natural History, told Reuters.
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Triceratops remains are relatively common in the paleontological world, so the bones failed to garner much interest until Sacrison took them to the Black Hills Institute in South Dakota in 1992.
Researchers there “realized pretty quickly that they had something special in their hands,” said Hyslop. They recategorized STAN as a T. rex and mounted a new search to uncover the rest of the bones. They recovered 188 out of an estimated 300 total for any T. rex, Hyslop said.
Most T. rex skeletons are held by museums and private institutions. The auction is an opportunity for a private collector or institution to acquire the bones, Christie’s said.
STAN is 40 feet long and 13 feet high, Christie’s said. He is also notable for two fused vertebrae scientists have identified in his neck, suggesting the dinosaur broke his neck and survived during his lifetime. “The clue is in the name, the Tyrannosaurus rex,” Hyslop said. “He is the tyrant lizard king.”
Christie’s will display the dinosaur from Wednesday to mid-October at its Manhattan, New York location, the company said. It plans to book socially distant viewings for the public.
“We’ve got the skull displayed at ground level so that you can get really up close and personal with him and just see the serrations on his teeth,” Hyslop said. “His longest tooth is 11 inches long. It’s just terrifying to behold.”
Christie’s has estimated the value of the dinosaur at between $6 million and $8 million.
Reuters
Lender’s plea against BHEL employee’s retirement rejected
Hurricane Sally Hits US Gulf Coast, Threatens Historic Flooding
Hurricane Sally Hits US Gulf Coast, Threatens "Historic" Flooding
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the Category 2 storm hit Gulf Shores, Alabama at about 4:45 am (0945 GMT), bringing maximum sustained winds of about 105 miles (165 kilometers) per hour.
Hurricane Sally was expected to pick up speed through Wednesday.
New Orleans:
Hurricane Sally barrelled into the US Gulf Coast early Wednesday, with forecasts of drenching rains that could provoke "historic" and potentially deadly flash floods.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the Category 2 storm hit Gulf Shores, Alabama at about 4:45 am (0945 GMT), bringing maximum sustained winds of about 105 miles (165 kilometers) per hour.
"Historic life-threatening flooding likely along portions of the northern Gulf coast," the Miami-based center had warned late Tuesday, adding the hurricane could dump up to 20 inches (50 centimeters) of rain in some areas.
About 75,000 homes in Alabama and Florida were already without power Tuesday evening, according to the Weather Channel, and video posted to social media appeared to show some areas had started to flood.
Sally had been at a crawling pace of two miles per hour, but was expected to pick up speed through Wednesday.
Alabama governor Kay Ivey told a press conference: "We are looking at record flooding, perhaps breaking historic levels. And with rising water comes a greater risk for loss of property and life.
"I urge you in the strongest way possible to evacuate if conditions permit and seek shelter elsewhere as possible today."
Ivey had declared a state of emergency Monday ahead of Sally's arrival.
President Donald Trump, speaking on "Fox & Friends," compared Sally to Hurricane Laura, which battered Texas and Louisiana, as well as the Caribbean, just a few weeks ago.
Record year
"This one is smaller but it's a little bit more direct, but we have it under control," he said. "We have it under watch very strongly."
Earlier, he tweeted: "We are fully engaged with State & Local Leaders to assist the great people of Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi."
He urged people in the storm's path to "listen to State and Local Leaders."
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves had also declared a state of emergency ahead of the approaching storm.
He said the storm surge projections were "worrisome with anywhere from five to eight feet of coastal surge."
Governor John Bel Edwards of Louisiana, which is still recovering after Hurricane Laura made landfall in the state as a Category 4 storm, told residents Monday to be prepared.
"Be smart and be safe," he tweeted.
At a hurricane refuge in Pascagoula, a coastal town in eastern Mississippi, 50-year-old evacuee Cliton Shepherd was hoping the area could avoid the worst.
"I don't think the wind is going to hurt anything, hopefully. I pray that it doesn't. But that's the main thing, you know, hoping and praying for the best, that's all we can do."
There have been so many tropical storms in the Atlantic this year that the UN's World Meteorological Organization, which names the tempests, is about to run out of names for only the second time in history.
The last time was in 2005, the year Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.
The latest Atlantic storm, Hurricane Paulette, pounded the island of Bermuda on Monday with Category 2 winds and heavy rains, according to the NHC.
PAOK Dump Benfica Out Of Champions League Qualifying
Former European Cup winners Benfica crashed out of the Champions League third qualifying round after a shock 21 defeat at PAOK Salonika on Tuesday as Serbia winger Andrija Zivkovic scored against his former club a week after leaving them.
Last Updated: September 16, 2020, 7:43 AM IST
SALONIKA, Greece: Former European Cup winners Benfica crashed out of the Champions League third qualifying round after a shock 2-1 defeat at PAOK Salonika on Tuesday as Serbia winger Andrija Zivkovic scored against his former club a week after leaving them.
Dynamo Kiev also advanced to the playoff round with a 2-0 home win over Dutch side AZ Alkmaar, as did Belgians Gent after they beat visitors Rapid Vienna 2-1.
PAOK’S reward is a two-legged playoff against Russians Krasnodar, while Dynamo face Gent for berths in the money-spinning group stage featuring 32 teams.
Benfica, who won Europe’s premier club competition in 1961 and 1962, saw last season’s woes spill over into this term as Zivkovic, who endured four difficult seasons in Portugal, rubbed salt into their wounds.
Having seen the domestic league and cup double go to Porto last term, Benfica missed a string of chances against PAOK in a one-sided first half as they enjoyed 72% of possession.
They were punished after the break as Dimitrios Giannoulis poked in the opener from close range in the 63rd minute after a one-two with Chuba Akpom and substitute Zivkovic made it 2-0 in the 75th with a sweet shot inside the near post.
Rafa Silva pulled one back with a stoppage time header but it came too late to avoid an embarrassing defeat which will pile pressure on manager Jorge Jesus, who returned to Benfica during the close season for a second spell in charge.
Having been in charge from 2009 to 2015, Jesus went on to win the elusive double of the Brazilian league title and Copa Libertadores with Flamengo in 2019 but now faces a mammoth task to get Benfica back to winning ways.
Dynamo soaked up pressure on home soil against Alkmaar in the first half before Luxembourg forward Gerson Rodrigues fired them ahead just after the break with a neat finish into the roof of the net thanks to good work by Vitaliy Buyalskiy.
Mykola Shaparenko sealed their passage with a late header after visiting keeper Marco Bizot misjudged Tomasz Kedziora’s cross from the right which left the midfielder with the simple task of nodding the ball into an empty net.
Niklas Dorsch headed Gent into a 36th-minute lead against Rapid from a pinpoint Sven Kums assist and Roman Yaremchuk added the second with a penalty on the hour before Yusuf Demir netted a stoppage time consolation for the visitors.
In Wednesday’s standout fixtures, 1991 European Cup winners Red Star Belgrade visit Cypriots Omonia Nicosia while Dinamo Zagreb are at Hungarian champions Ferencvaros.
(Writing by Zoran Milosavljevic; Editing by Ken Ferris)
The Latest: Vietnam To Resume Int'l Flights, But Not Tourism
A man wearing a face mask to help protect against the spread of the coronavirus exercises at Chungwoon Sporex in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020. South Korea's daily tally of new coronavirus infections has stayed in the low 100s for a third consecutive day, maintaining a downward trajectory. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Vietnam will resume international commercial flights connecting the country to several Asian destinations starting Friday, after a monthslong shutdown to curb the coronavirus outbreak.
Last Updated: September 16, 2020, 2:36 PM IST
MADRID The Spanish capital will introduce selective lockdowns in urban areas where the coronavirus is spreading faster.
Deputy regional health chief Antonio Zapatero said Wednesday that the measures will most likely affect southern, working-class neighborhoods of Madrid where infection rates have been steadily soaring since August.
Zapatero said that Madrid wants to flatten the curve before the arrival of autumn and the complications that cold weather could bring, adding that the measures to be taken will be decided by this weekend.
Madrid and its surrounding region of 6.6 million people have accounted for nearly one third of Spain’s new cases, which have averaged 8,200 per day for the past week.
Overall, Spain has had more than 600,000 cases and just over 30,000 deaths.
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HERES WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS OUTBREAK
Trump denies downplaying virus threat, despite audio recording, and continues to cast doubt on masks
Indias virus cases pass 5 million and are still soaring, testing feeble health care system and closing in on US total
Iowa governor wont budge on mandating masks even as virus deaths rise
Doubts persist as NYCs hybrid school year is set to start
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Follow APs pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
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HERES WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
LONDON The British government plans to ration coronavirus testing, giving priority to health workers and care home staff after widespread reports that people throughout the country were unable to schedule tests.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday will face questions about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in the House of Commons and before a key committee amid the outcry over the shortage of testing.
Justice Secretary Robert Buckland says the government is in the process of drawing up a new priority list for testing, suggesting that students and their families could be next in line after the National Health Service and social care.
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VATICAN CITY Pope Francis says the coronavirus pandemic has proved that our own health depends on the health of others and the environment, and that exploiting nature means exploiting others.
Francis doubled down on his insistence of the interconnectedness of people and the planet during his general audience Wednesday, held in a Vatican courtyard with the faithful spaced apart to limit contagion.
Francis said if people are unable to contemplate the beauty and majesty of nature without exploiting it, they will be similarly unable to contemplate others without taking advantage of them. He said: He who lives to exploit nature ends up exploiting people and treating them like slaves. This is a universal law.
Francis is expected to elaborate on the themes of solidarity, fraternity and care for creation in an encyclical hes expected to sign Oct. 3 on living in the post-COVID world.
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HANOI, Vietnam Vietnam will resume international commercial flights connecting the country to several Asian destinations starting Friday, after a monthslong shutdown to curb the coronavirus outbreak.
The flights, however, are reserved for Vietnamese nationals, diplomats, experts, managers, skilled workers, investors and their families. They are not yet available for tourists.
The flights connecting Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to destinations in South Korea, Japan, China and Taiwan will operate weekly, the government website announced. Flights connecting Vietnams two largest cities with Cambodia and Laos will resume next week.
To board a flight, passengers must hold a certificate showing they have tested negative for the coronavirus no more than five days before the departure date. Upon arrival, they will be tested and quarantined, the report said.
Vietnam shut down international flights on April 1. National carrier Vietnam Airlines estimated last month that it would lose $650 million in 2020.
Vietnam has reported 1,059 cases of the coronavirus. It managed to avoid any deaths until July, when the virus crept into the city of Da Nang, killing 35 people.
But no new cases have been reported for two weeks. Last week, Da Nang lifted a travel restriction after two months.
PRAGUE The Czech Republic has registered another steep rise in coronavirus infections, with the number of new confirmed cases surpassing 1,600 in one day for the first time.
The Health Ministry says the day-to-day increase reached a new record of 1,677 on Tuesday. The record was broken four times last week.
The capital of Prague has the highest number of people who tested positive, over 141 per 100,000. The surge has prompted some European countries, including Slovakia, Denmark, Britain and Switzerland to impose travel restrictions for travellers from the Czech Republic.
According to government figures released on Wednesday, 333 people needed hospitalization. That number was over 400 during the first wave of the pandemic in the spring.
The Czech Republic has had 38,896 people infected with 476 deaths.
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SEOUL, South Korea South Koreas daily coronavirus tally has stayed below 200 for two weeks, but the government is urging people not to lower their guard.
Authorities said Wednesday that the 113 cases added in the last 24 hours took the countrys total to 22,504, including 367 deaths.
Eighty-one of them were in the Seoul metropolitan area, the heart of a recent viral resurgence.
Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip called on people to refrain from having unnecessary gatherings and visiting crowded places.
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UNITED NATIONS The new president of the U.N. General Assembly is warning that unilateralism will only strengthen the COVID-19 pandemic and is calling for a new commitment to global cooperation including on the fair and equitable distribution of vaccines.
Turkish diplomat and politician Volkan Bozkir, who took over the reins of the 193-member world body on Tuesday, announced that the General Assembly will hold a high-level special session on the COVID-19 pandemic in early November, though diplomats said the date may slip.
Bozkir takes over from outgoing General Assembly President Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, who presided over a unique year-old session that he said was defined by a pandemic and included virtual meetings and new voting procedures.
Bozkir told diplomats from U.N. member nations, seated at socially distanced spaces in the assembly chamber, that confronting the effects of the coronavirus in all their dimensions will be an overarching priority for my presidency.
He said no state can combat this pandemic alone, and it is the members responsibility to strengthen peoples faith in multilateral cooperation and international institutions, with the U.N. at their center.
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