11-year-old Puttur boy memorizes Quran in eight months

Thrissur, Mar 7: A local temple in Kerala is at the centre of a social media storm after the picture of a ''Brahmins-only toilet'' outside its main campus went viral on online platforms, prompting the management to remove the signboard.

The picture of three toilets, with signboards showing "Men", "Women" and "Brahmins", at the Kuttumukku Mahadeva Temple in Thrissur, has gone viral with many social media users viewing it as an unethical practise that can portray the progressive state in a bad light.

However, temple officials said the toilets were located outside the main campus and the board was brought to their notice only now.

Kannan, an official of the temple committee, said the board was placed nearly two decades ago and nobody raised any complaint against it so far.

"That particular toilet was being used by priests and other temple employees. We didn't even notice that board... As soon as we came to know about it, we removed it and affixed a staff-only board," he told PTI.

Also a CPI-M functionary and ward councillor, Kannan said the shrine and it's management was against all kinds of unethical customs.

The temple official said they were planning to pursue legal measures against the man who posted the photo of the toilets on social media.

"We suspect that he did it deliberately to create issues during the time of the festival and to tarnish the shrine's reputation. Not only that, the photo he shared was an old one though he claimed that it was taken during the time of the festival, " he said.

French Nobel prize winning scientist Luc Montagnier has sparked a fresh controversy by claiming that the SARS-CoV-2 virus came from a lab, and is the result of an attempt to manufacture a vaccine against the AIDS virus.

In an interview given to French CNews channel and during a podcast by Pourquoi Docteur, professor Montagnier who co-discovered HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) claimed the presence of elements of HIV in the genome of the coronavirus and even elements of the "germ of malaria" are highly suspect, according to a report in Asia Times.

"The Wuhan city laboratory has specialized in these coronaviruses since the early 2000s. They have expertise in this area," he was quoted as saying.

The theory that Covid-19 virus originated in the lab is making rounds for quite some time.

US President Donald Trump last week acknowledged Fox News report that the novel coronavirus may have been accidentally leaked by an intern working at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.

The Fox News, in an exclusive report, based on unnamed sources has claimed that though the virus is a naturally occurring strain among bats and not a bioweapon, but it was being studied in Wuhan laboratory.

The initial transmission of the virus was bat-to-human, the news channel said, adding that the "patient zero" worked at the laboratory. The lab employee was accidentally infected before spreading the disease among the common people outside the lab in Wuhan city.

Professor Montagnier was awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine for the identification of AIDS virus, with his colleague professor Franeoise Barre-Sinoussi.

His fresh claim on coronavirus, however, received criticism from scientists, including his colleagues.

"Just in case you don't know. Dr Montagnier has been rolling downhill incredibly fast in the last few years. From baselessly defending homeopathy to becoming an antivaxxer. Whatever he says, just don't believe him," tweeted Juan Carlos Gabaldon.

As per a recent Washington Post, two years ago, the US embassy officials in China raised concerns about the insufficient biosafety at the Chinese government's Wuhan Institute of Virology where deadly viruses and infectious diseases are studied.

Though the institute, located quite close to the Wuhan wet market, is China's first biosafety level IV lab, the US state department had warned in 2018 about "serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory".

New Delhi, Mar 3: Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kapil Mishra, who instigated violence in northeast Delhi by provoking mobs, has now been provided with 24x7 security. After he claimed threat to his life, he has been provided with “Y” category security — which entitles him to six security personnel round-the-clock to guard him in and outside the city.

He had fought the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections by giving inflammatory remarks around the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act in Shaheen Bagh, and lost to Aam Aadmi Party candidate. But he continued to issue provocative remarks.

While there is clear evidence of his scandalous statements just a day before the violence was unleashed on Muslims in Delhi last week where around 50 people were killed, no action has been taken against him so far. Instead, he is being treated as a hero in his party.

As per sources, Mishra complained that he got life threats over the past week in wake of the violence and based on his request, the Delhi Police has provided the security cover.

Mishra had taken to social media platform Twitter and alleged that he was receiving threats via WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook, from Indian and foreign accounts.

“I am constantly being threatened with murder on the phone, on WhatsApp, on email. Hundreds of threats are being given continuously from the country and abroad. I don’t fear this hate campaign against me,” he had said on Twitter on March 1.

Mishra had on February 23 made an incendiary speech, following which North-East Delhi witnessed anti-Muslim violence.

The Supreme Court of India on Monday said it will on Wednesday (March 4) hear a plea that sought immediate FIRs against Kapil Mishra, Union Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur and other leaders for their recent hate speech, which allegedly triggered the violence in Delhi. The plea was filed by Delhi violence survivors.

The apex court bench, comprising Chief Justice SA Bobde, listed the matter for hearing after senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, who is appearing on behalf of the survivors told the SC that the Delhi High Court had last week adjourned the matter for six weeks even as “people are dying every day”.