Legendary lawyer, fearless activist, matchless politician Ram Jethmalani passes away at 95

Mysuru, Feb 14: Two weeks after her engagement with another boy, a 20-year-old girl who was in love with a boy, committed suicide at her residence in Nanjangud on Wednesday.

Meghana's parents have accused her lover Manikanta of Hemmargala of abetting her suicide. The girl's father in his complaint has claimed that Manikanta threatened to send their photos to her fiance following which she took the extreme step. He has also claimed his daughter was molested by Manikanta two years ago.

Manikanta who is on the run has been booked for rape and abetting suicide following the complaint.

Since the girl was from the SC community, cops have also slapped cases under Atrocities (Prevention) Act against Manikanta. Nanjangud sub-division DSP Prabhkar Rao Shinde will investigate the case as charges have been made under provisions of the act.

Global health experts on Wednesday said novel coronavirus is here to stay for more than a year and called for aggressive testing to prevent its spread.

In an interaction with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, health experts Professor Ashish Jha and Professor Johan Giesecke talked about the COVID-19 pandemic as part of the series being aired on Congress social media channels.

While Jha exuded confidence that a vaccine will be available in a year's time, Prof Giesecke said India should practice a lockdown that is as 'soft' as possible, as a severe lockdown will ruin its economy very quickly.

"When the economy is opened up after lockdown, you have to create confidence among people," Harvard health expert Ashish Jha told Gandhi.

Jha is a professor of Global Health at TH Chan School of Public Health and Director, Harvard Global Health institute.

He said coronavirus is a '12-18 months' problem and the world is not going to be free of this till 2021.

The expert also called for the need for aggressive testing strategy for high-risk areas.

Gandhi, while interacting with the experts, said life is going to change post COVID-19.

"If 9/11 was a new chapter, this will be a new book," he remarked.

Professor Johan Giesecke, former chief scientist, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said India should have a 'soft lockdown'.

"The situation that India is in, I think, you should have a soft lockdown, as soft as possible," he said.

"I think for India, you will ruin your economy very quickly if you have a severe lockdown. It is better, skip the lockdown, take care of the old and the frail...," he noted.

Kalaburagi, Mar 16: A family member of the 76-year-old man from Kalaburgai who died of COVID-19 on March 10 has been tested positive for the virus.

Kalaburagi Deputy Commissioner B Sharat said, "One member of the family of the 76-year-old man from Kalaburgai, who died due to coronavirus has tested positive for the virus."

The disease which originated in China's Wuhan city in December last year has so far spread to more than 100 countries, infecting over 1,30,000 people.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared coronavirus a pandemic.