Upper caste man attempts to rape Dalit girl; crushes her mother, aunt to death for saving her

Tokyo, Mar 4: Takeda Pharmaceutical Co said on Wednesday it was developing a drug to treat COVID-19, the flu-like illness that has struck more than 90,000 people worldwide and killed over 3,000.

The Japanese drugmaker is working on a plasma-derived therapy to treat high-risk individuals infected with the new coronavirus and will share its plans with members of the U.S. Congress on Wednesday, it said in a statement.

Takeda is also studying whether its currently marketed and pipeline products may be effective treatments for infected patients.

"We will do all that we can to address the novel coronavirus threat...(and) are hopeful that we can expand the treatment options," Rajeev Venkayya, president of Takeda's vaccine business, said in the statement.

Takeda said it was in talks with various health and regulatory agencies and healthcare partners in the United States, Asia and Europe to move forward its research into the drug.

Its research requires access to the blood of people who have recovered from the respiratory disease or who have been vaccinated, once a vaccine is developed, Takeda said.

Jan 22: India's ranking in the latest global Democracy Index has dropped 10 places to the 51st spot out of 167 owing to violent protests and threats to civil liberties challenging freedoms across the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has been criticized by rights groups and western governments after shutting off the internet and mobile phone networks and detaining opposition politicians in Kashmir.

Modi’s government has also responded harshly to ongoing protests against a controversial, religion-based citizenship law. Muslims have said their neighborhoods have been targeted, while the central government has attempted to ban protests and urged TV news channels not to broadcast “anti-national” content. Some leaders in Modi’s ruling party called for “revenge” against protesters. India’s score in 2019 was its worst ranking since the EIU’s records began in 2006, and has fallen gradually since Modi was elected in 2014.

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2019 Democracy Index, which provides an annual comparative analysis of political systems across 165 countries and two territories, said the past year was the bleakest for democracies since the research firm began compiling the list in 2006.

“The 2019 result is even worse than that recorded in 2010, in the wake of the global economic and financial crisis,” the research group said in releasing the report on Wednesday.

The average global score slipped to 5.44 out of a possible 10 -- from 5.48 in 2018 -- driven mainly by “sharp regressions” in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa. Apart from coup-prone Thailand, which improved its score after holding an election last year, there were also notable declines in Asia after a tumultuous period of protests and new measures restricting freedom across the region’s democracies.

Asia Declines

Hong Kong, meanwhile, fell three places to rank 75th out of 167 as more than seven months of violent and disruptive protests rocked the Asian financial hub. An aggressive police response early in the unrest, when protests were mostly peaceful, led to a “marked decline in confidence in government -- the main factor behind the decline in the territory’s score in our 2019 index,” the group said.

In Singapore, which ranked alongside Hong Kong at 75th, a new “fake news” law led to a deteriorating score on civil liberties.

“The government claims that the law was enacted simply to prevent the dissemination of false news, but it threatens freedom of expression in Singapore, as it can be used to curtail political debate and silence critics of the government,” EIU analysts said.

China’s score fell to just 2.26 in the EIU’s ranking, placing it near the bottom of the list at 153, as discrimination against minorities, repression and surveillance of the population intensified. Still, in China “the majority of the population is unconvinced that democracy would benefit the economy, and support for democratic ideals is absent,” the EIU said.

Chennai, Feb 20: Three people, including an assistant director were killed and 9 others injured when a crane used for the shooting of “actor Kamal Haasan starrer “Indian 2” film crashed down at Nazarathpet near Poonamallee here late on Wednesday night.

Police said the accident occurred when a group of workers were engaged in erecting a set for a scene at EVP film city, private studio. As the crane crashed down, a heavy-duty light stand that was mounted on it also fell on the workers.

Mr Haasan and the film director S.Shankar escaped unhurt in the accident.

The deceased were identified as Krishna (34), an assistant director of the film, Madhu (29) and Chandran (60), who was part of the catering team.

Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Services personnel, along with a fire tender from Irungattukottai rushed to the spot and retrieved the bodies from the spot.

Mr Haasan, who was at the accident spot, also helped to transport the injured people to a private hospital near Poonamallee.

The bodies were sent to the Government General Hospital for post-mortem.

The Nazarathpet police have filed a case and are investigating the cause of the accident.

Meanwhile, Mr.Haasan condoled the death of three people during the film shoot. “The accident is the most horrific I have seen in my film career. I have lost three colleagues, but my pain pales in comparison to the grief of those who have lost their loved ones.

My deepest sympathies to them, he tweeted.

The Lyca productions also expressed condolences over the tragic accident. “We are extremely saddened with the unfortunate accident happened at the sets of Indian 2. We have lost three of our most hardworking technicians, it tweeted.