Slain photojournalist Danish Siddiqui along with his three colleagues Amit Dave, Adnan Adnan Abidi and Sanna Irshad Mattoo from Reuter was awarded the 2022 Pultizer Prize in the Feature Photography category. They received the award for their work on documenting India’s battle against the Pandemic Covid-19’s second wave. The Pultizer Prizes team congratulated the international news agency Reuters, the team members and Siddiqui’s friends and family. The Pulitzer Prize committee wrote on Twitter that their work moved from the breaking photography category by the judges, “balanced inti
On Sunday, Israeli and Bahraini healthcare groups signed a collaborated medical research agreement. In the presence of Bahrain’s Ambassador to Israel Mr Khaled Yousif al-Jalahma and Israel’s Ambassador to Bahrain, Eitan Na’eh, the signing ceremony took place in Bahrain. CEO of Government Hospitals in Bahrain, Dr Ahmed al-Ansari said, “We are pleased to be embarking on this medical-research collaboration between the government hospitals in Bahrain and the Maccabi Health Fund in Israel. I am confident that together we can continue to develop medicine in the Middle East by advancing n
Candian biotechnology company developed a plant-based Covid-19 vaccine which is 70% effective against the symptomatic disease caused by five variants of the novel coronavirus. According to the results of the human clinical trial of the preventive, the phase 3 trial was conducted on 24,141 adults who were randomly assigned to receive two intramuscular injections through 85 centres. The injections were administered either the CoVLP+AS03 vaccine or placebo 21 days apart. Medicago's researchers developed a vaccine that contains coronavirus-like particles (CoVLPs) produced in plants that are
On Wednesday, India’s civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia invited the Montreal-based United Nations agency to join the International Solar Alliance (ISA). Scindia interacted with various national executives and representatives at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). He also met with the president of the Executive Council of ICAO Salvatore Sciacchitano. After his meeting, Scindia tweeted, “Together with other ICAO members, India is committed to playing an instrumental role in growing the global civil aviation market”. In his meeting, he focused on the “demo
On Monday, Germany committed 10 billion euros to help India achieve its climate action target set for 2030. The target will include a 50% energy requirement from renewables and the installation of 500 GW of non-fossil fuel electricity capacity. After the sixth India-Germany Inter-Governmental Consultations (IGS), the joint statement was released after talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, “Germany intends to strengthen its financial and technical cooperation and other assistance to India with a long-term goal of at least 10 billion euros of ne
On Monday, New Zealand dropped most of its remaining pandemic border restrictions and welcomed back tourists from the US, Canada, Britain, Japan and more than 50 other countries for the first time in more than two years. Before the pandemic hit the globe, more than 3 million tourists visited each year in New Zealand. The tourist industry alone accounted for more than 20% of the national foreign income and more than 5% of the overall economy. Due to the pandemic, the nation imposed some of the world’s toughest border restrictions and that remained in place as the government focused on eli
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) picks Nand Mulchandani as its first-ever Chief Technology Officer. Mulchandani is an Indian-American Silicon Valley IT expert who studied at Delhi school and has more than 25 years of expertise working in Silicon Valley. Director William J Burns announced the appointment through social media. CIA said in a tweet, “CIA Director William J. Burns appoints Nand Mulchandani as CIA’s first Chief Technology Officer (CTO). with more than 25 years of experience, Mr Mulchandani will ensure the Agency is leveraging cutting-edge innovations to further CIA’s
On Tuesday, a $32 million humanitarian project was launched by Saudi Arabia and France to help alleviate Lebanon’s crushing financial crisis. The agreement was made between the French foreign ministry, the French Development Agency, and the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre. The aid will provide nearly 30 million Euros to the first humanitarian initiatives with many more to come. It will provide monthly food assistance to 7,500 people, support hospitals in Tripoli and north Lebanon, and distribute baby formula to needy families as part of the first programme. The other part
On Sunday, an experimental treatment from Japanese drugmaker Shionogi & Co. Ltd showed a rapid clearance of the virus causing COVID-19. The data on pill S-217622 was revealed by the Japanese drugmaker. Shionogi said in the statement that the pill “demonstrated rapid clearance of the infectious SARS-CoV-2 virus”, citing Phase-2b results from the Phase II/III clinical trial of the drug. According to Shionogi, the data also showed “there was no significant difference in the total score of 12 COVID_19 symptoms between treatment arms”, however, the pill showed improvement in a co
The Food and Drug Administration issued the first breath test device to detect COVID-19 infection. The InspectIR COVID-19 Breathalyzer can be used in doctor’s offices, hospitals and mobile testing sites due to its small size. InspectIR COVID-19 Breathalyzer utilizes a technique called gas chromatography gas mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to separate and identify chemical combinations and quickly detect five volatile organic compounds (VOCs) associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in exhaled breath. The agency said, “InspectIR expects to be able to produce approximately 100 instruments per w