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Putin keeps Russians at home through April 30 as coronavirus toll jumps President Vladimir Putin extended his order keeping Russians at home until April 30, warning that the spread of coronavirus has yet to reach its peak. “The threat remains,” Putin said Thursday in his second televised address on Covid-19 in just over a week, announcing that he’s extending a national order to work at home from this week to the end of the month. “In the view of virus experts, we haven’t yet reached the peak of the epidemic globally, including in our country.” Source: The Indian Express

Melbourne: Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday urged the WHO and the UN to act against China’s wet markets, like the one where the deadly coronavirus is thought to have originated, as they pose “great risks” to the health and wellbeing of the rest of the world. A wet market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan is believed to be the source of the coronavirus pandemic that began in December last year, crossing from animals to humans. The number of cases from the virus has reached one million worldwide and more than 51,000 deaths have been reported across more...

Covid fight is a balancing act for world’s economies: World Bank India Chief The Coronavirus pandemic is having a strong impact on the global economy. Questions are rife about the possible economic and financial fallout of asking a third of the world’s population to stay home and shutting down factories. Is a systemic financial crisis likely, maybe along the lines of the 2008 crisis 12 years ago? The World Bank’s India Chief says the two crises cannot be compared. In an interview to Times Now, Junaid Kamal Ahmad talked about how the coronavirus impact is different from the financial meltdown...

UP CM Yogi Adityanath says will open coronavirus COVID-19 lockdown in phased manner New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday (April 3) directed that a plan should be chalked out to open the lockdown in a phased manner if it opens from April 15, according to reports coming in. Yogi Adityanath is understood to have told top officials of the state to prepare a plan in this regard.  The Chief Minister, however, invoked National Security Act (NSA) against six persons from the Tablighi Jamaat, who were in quarantine at MMG District Hospital, for misbehaving with the hospital staff...

‘Have been watching so many movies that I can’t even remember the names’: PV Sindhu I was in self-quarantine since returning from the All England Open (in March). Though the two-week period has just ended, things haven’t changed much as we are now under a lockdown. Three months ago, everybody was expecting the Tokyo Olympics to take place as per schedule. We were playing tournaments and preparing ourselves. I was fine and prepared when I got to know about the Olympics being postponed. I was anyway not sure if the Olympics would happen this year because every other day a...

World Cup 2011 was won by the entire India, says Gautam Gambhir April 2 – The date has been etched in the Indian fans’ heart forever. On the same day, India won the World Cup after a long wait of 28 years. MS Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir played match-winning knocks in the night of the final to help the team chase down a mammoth score and scripted history. The country, on Thursday, is celebrating the ninth anniversary of the historic day and recalling the golden moments of the Indian cricket. Many laud the then Indian skipper for promoting himself to number five...

These are strange times, just grateful to be at home: Virat Kohli on coronavirus lockdown India captain Virat Kohli opened up on what all he is doing and how he has been spending time at home during the current 21-day lockdown in the country due to the coronavirus pandemic. Kohli is at home with wife Anushka Sharma in Mumbai and joined former England captain Kevin Pietersen in a candid chat on Instagram. It was during this that Pietersen asked Kohli about the lockdown. Kohli said he was grateful to be in self-isolation at his house in Mumbai and empathised with...

COVID-19: Shah Rukh announces series of initiatives to help citizens MUMBAI: Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan on Thursday announced a series of initiatives to help the central and state governments in their fight against the coronavirus pandemic. The actor has taken the help of his companies — Kolkata Knight Riders, Red Chillies Entertainment, Meer Foundation and Red Chillies VFX — to provide support to the governments. “Given the enormity of the task, my team and I discussed ways to contribute in our own modest way. We have come up with a series of initiatives, which we hope will make a...

People still remember me as Byomkesh, says Rajit Kapur Back in 1993, Basu Chatterjee’s television series Byomkesh Bakshi, based on the life of a fictional detective, received wide critical acclaim. Talking about the re-running of the show on Doordarshan during the 21-day lockdown, Rajit Kapur, who played the titular character, says, “It has been airing every three years. Maybe, more audience, especially the next generation, will watch it now. People who’ve watched it 20 years ago are showing it to their children. It’s pure, clean and wholesome entertainment. What appeals to people is that it’s simple to understand and sometimes,...

AR Rahman: God is in your heart; don’t cause chaos by congregating in religious places Stressing that congregating in religious places will cause “chaos” in the wake of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, music maestro AR Rahman has urged people to adhere to the advice of the government and self-isolate. The Oscar winner’s appeal comes after Tabligh-e-Jamaat’s Markaz in Delhi’s Nizamuddin West emerged as an epicentre for spread of COVID-19 in different parts of the country after thousands of people took part in a congregation from March 1-15. In a lengthy statement on Twitter, Rahman on Wednesday asked people to be “kind and...