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WhatsApp users in India will not be allowed to forward more than 5 messages at once

Agencies
July 20, 2018

Jul 20: Facebook Inc's WhatsApp is launching a test to limit forwarding messages that will apply to all users, the messaging app said on Thursday, after Indian authorities sought curbs on spread of rumours that have led to violent incidents.

Mob lynchings triggered by false incendiary messages in India, WhatsApp's biggest market with more than 200 million users, led to authorities calling for steps to prevent the circulation of false texts and provocative content. It also caused a public relations nightmare.

In India, WhatsApp said it will also test a lower limit of five chats - individual or group chats - at a time and remove the quick forward button next to media messages.

The move is likely to be a deterrent to mass forwarding of messages. Indians forward more messages, photos and videos than any other country in the world, according to WhatsApp.

Earlier this month, WhatsApp in response to a call from the Ministry of Information Technology, said it required a partnership with the government as well as society in general to curb the spread of false information on its platform.

WhatsApp last week published advertisements in key Indian newspapers to tackle the spread of misinformation, its first such effort to combat a flurry of fake messages.

The messaging service had said it was giving users controls and information to help them stay safe, and that it planned to run long-term public safety advertising campaigns.

So far this year, false messages about child abductors on WhatsApp have triggered mass beatings of more than a dozen people in India and some of whom have died.

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News Network
April 27,2020

Bengaluru, Apr 27: A 57-year-old man died of COVID-19 in Kalaburagi on Monday taking the fatalities due to the virus in Karnataka to 20.

"One more person died due to COVID-19 in the state. The 57-year-old person was tested positive for coronavirus on April 21," Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar tweeted on Monday evening.

The minister said he was admitted to the Gulbarga Institute of Medical Sciences with respiratory problem.

He was also suffering from severe liver related ailments.

"With this five deaths have taken place in Kalaburagi district due to the virus," the minister added in his tweet.

The first COVID-19 death in the country was reported from Kalaburagi in March.

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News Network
March 3,2020

Mysuru, Mar 3: Three leopard cubs were rescued by a team of Forest Department in Mysuru on Tuesday.

The cubs were found in a sugarcane field and came into notice of a farmer while cutting the sugarcane.

The villagers alerted the forest department which rescued the three cubs.

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Agencies
May 22,2020

Riyadh, May 22: The family of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi on Friday said that they forgave his killers. Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who had written columns critical of Saudi Arabia, was brutally killed in October 2018, allegedly at the behest of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.

“In this blessed night of the blessed month [of Ramadan] we remember God’s saying: If a person forgives and makes reconciliation, his reward is due from Allah,” Jamal Khashoggi’s son Salah Khashoggi said in a tweet. “Therefore, we the sons of the Martyr Jamal Khashoggi announce that we pardon those who killed our father, seeking reward [from] God almighty.”

The legal outcome of this announcement is not yet clear. Earlier, Salah Khashoggi said he had “full confidence” in the judicial system, and that the accused were trying to exploit the case.

Jamal Khashoggi’s body was said to have been dismembered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and disposed of elsewhere, but his remains were never found.

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