Tibetans in Lhasa have been instructed to restrict certain religious practices during the holy month called ‘Saga Dawa’, in what appears to be yet another move by Chinese authorities to curb the religious freedom of the Buddhist population.According to the Phayul news portal, this decision was notified in a circular sent by the Lhasa City Buddhist Association on May 9 ahead of the fourth month of the Tibetan calendar which began on Wednesday, which Buddhists consider sacred.The reason for the order is premised on the risk of spreading coronavirus. But, the Lobby and activist group International Campaign for Tibet (ICT),…
Author: Mike Harrison
While a Texas man who police allege is the owner of a tiger that frightened residents after it was seen briefly wandering around a Houston neighborhood was ordered back behind bars on Friday, the animal’s whereabouts remain a mystery.An all-day court hearing Friday didn’t reveal any new information on the tiger’s whereabouts as Houston police say about 300 tips they’ve so far received haven’t panned out.Police allege Victor Hugo Cuevas is the owner of the tiger, a 9-month old male named India, and he is facing a charge of evading arrest after authorities allege he fled from Houston officers who…
An Israeli air raid in Gaza City killed at least 10 Palestinians, mostly children, early Saturday in the deadliest single strike since the battle with Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers erupted earlier this week. Both sides pressed for an advantage as cease-fire efforts gathered strength.The latest outburst of violence began in Jerusalem and has spread across the region, with Jewish-Arab clashes and rioting in mixed cities of Israel. There were also widespread Palestinian protests Friday in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces shot and killed 11 people.The spiraling violence has raised fears of a new Palestinian “intifada,” or uprising at…
Google Docs will soon receive an enhancement that will further improve its performance. The search engine giant announced its Google Docs update, saying that it will soon change the way in which the popular online tool renders documents. (Photo : Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)A visitor speaks into a smartphone while standing next to the Google stand at the re:publica 19 series of conferences on May 06, 2019 in Berlin, Germany. The three-day gathering hosts speakers and events to discuss the many facets of digital society, including topics such as media, entertainment, politics, culture and technology. However, some experts claim…
Australia carried out its first repatriation flight from India after temporarily banning all travel from the Covid-ravaged country last month, the government said, with 80 passengers arriving in Darwin on Saturday from New Delhi.Passengers had to show two negative Covid-19 tests before boarding the government-backed Qantas flight and were taken upon arrival to a converted mining camp in Howard Springs in the Northern Territory for a two-week quarantine.The Australian government came under fire for temporarily barring all travel to and from India last month, a policy that drew heavy criticism from lawmakers, expatriates and the Indian diaspora.A total of 70…
Taiwan ordered stricter social distancing measures for its capital and surrounding areas on Saturday after a sudden spike in coronavirus cases in a place that has so far weathered the pandemic comparatively unscathed.Authorities raised the alert level for Taipei and New Taipei City after 180 new domestic coronavirus infections were confirmed, up from 29 cases the previous day.The new restrictions mean no more than five people can gather indoors and 10 outdoors — but authorities stopped short of ordering a total lockdown.Schools, government offices, workplaces and most businesses can stay open as long as social distancing measures can be maintained…
Early Friday, just after midnight, the Israeli military put out an ominous statement to the media: “IDF air and ground troops are currently attacking in the Gaza Strip.”The vaguely worded statement set off frenzied speculation that Israel had launched a ground invasion of Gaza — a much-feared scenario that would mark a bloody escalation of this week’s operation against Hamas militants. Some reporters were even told outright the incursion had begun.Hours later, the military issued a “clarification.” There were no troops inside Gaza. But by then, several major news outlets had erroneously reported the ground offensive was underway.While the army…
(Photo : Pixabay/JESHOOTS-com) iPhone security and Apple security Apple’s own device location tracking service, the Find My feature, can be abused to siphon data from nearby devices and deliver it across the globe, a new research claims. Apple Find My Network Hack In a blog post, Positive Security, a cybersecurity company, sets out a proof-of-concept exploit called Send My. The exploit demonstrates that the Bluetooth Low Energy, or the BLE broadcasts on which the Find My network is created can be manipulated by hackers to lift small quantities of arbitrary data, without even the need for any internet connection. Made…
An unmanned Chinese spacecraft landed on Mars on Saturday, making China only the second country after the US to successfully land on the red planet.China’s Tianwen-1 spacecraft, currently in orbit around Mars, dropped its lander and rover – named Zhurong after a Chinese mythological god of fire – on the surface of the planet early on Saturday, completing a critical stage of the ongoing mission, described by Chinese state media as “extremely complicated with no ground control”.The probe landed on a site on a vast lava plain known as Utopia Planitia, “leaving a Chinese footprint on Mars for the first…
The military official responsible for the logistics of Canada’s Covid-19 vaccination programme has been fired after coming under an investigation.Major-General Dany Fortin was seconded to the public health agency of Canada as vice-president for logistics and operations in November last year, as the country prepared to launch its vaccination drive.However, in a sudden announcement on Friday, a spokesperson for the department of national defence said he had “left” the assignment “pending the results of a military investigation”. Details of the reasons for the investigation were not revealed.Fortin was appointed to the critical position by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Fortin was…