Month: November 2020

Categories
-Top News COVID-19 USA

Guv. Inslee announces statewide COVID-19 exposure tool

 The Governor of the US state of Washington Jay Inslee on has announced the launch of WA Notify, a “simple, anonymous exposure notification tool” to help stop the spread of Covid-19.

By adding WA Notify to their smartphones, Washington residents will be alerted if they spent time near another WA Notify user who later tests positive for Covid-19, the announcement said on Monday, Xinhua reported.

WA Notify uses privacy-preserving technology jointly developed by Google and Apple and works without collecting or revealing any location or personal data, according to the announcement.

“Secure, private and anonymous exposure notification technology is an important tool for Washington,” Inslee said. “We’ve deployed WA Notify in 29 languages so as many Washington residents as possible can protect themselves, their loved ones and their communities.”

He also encouraged all residents to start using WA Notify immediately to work together to contain the coronavirus.

Several US states including Virginia, New York and Colorado are using this tool, the announcement said.

Also Read-Canada Reports New Record Of 1374,051 Cases

Categories
Films Hollywood Lite Blogs

Target Number One: Unveils A shocking true story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVe5xge2N20

Target Number One (Canadian film on Zeeplex); Cast: Antoine Olivier Pilon, Josh Hartnett, Jim Gaffigan, Stephen McHattie, Don McKellar, JC MacKenzie, Amanda Crew; Direction: Daniel Roby; Rating: * * and 1/2 (two and a half stars)

It starts off on a quiet, lazy note but by the time the film has reached its halfway mark, you realise Target Number One is trying to be gritty, slowburn fare, based on a shocking true story.

Daniel Roby’s Canadian crime drama draws inspiration from the real-life story of Alain Olivier, a drug addict in Quebec who ended up in a Thailand jail for years after a sad twist of events. Alain had become a pawn in a top secret operation of the Canadian law enforcers that went wrong.

Olivier is reimagined here as Daniel Leger, played by Antoine Olivier Pilon. Leger’s arrest becomes the focus of an obsessive probe by Victor Malarek (Josh Hartnett), an investigative journalist who wants to crack the case of the drug addict.

Maintaining a parallel narrative structure, the story unfolds through two sub plots. The first is about Leger, who gets involved in a drug sting of the Canadian police in Thailand. The sting operation bombs and Leger lands in a Thai jail.

The other storyline follows Malarek, high-profile television journalist who ends up probing the Leger case only to become obsessed about it.

Roby sets out to balance the contrasting characters of the two sub plots — Leger’s life in the Thai prison bears struggles that are vastly different from Malarek’s as he goes about trying to crack the case. The parallel narratives are woven seamlessly, but in doing so Roby does not give due focus on Leger. Somewhere, the pace of the film falter too, simply failing to pick up.

There is an element of pathos about Leger’s life despite his criminality, and writer-director Roby brings it alive on screen without resorting to melodrama. Roby’s credibility lies in making his characters humane. Malarek, for instance, may be top star in his field of work, but his frenzied and undivided attention towards work creates room for discord at the home front. His marriage lurches on the brink of failure.

Yet, you get a feeling Roby wasted too much time training his camera on Malarek’s family woes. The track only serves to act as distraction from what should have been the film’s focal point — a story of the Canadian man who was forsaken by his own government to cover up an elaborate gaffe.

The setting of the storyline is the nineties and Ronald Plante’s cinematography is suitably rendered in a way that it imparts a feel of the era and also gives the narrative an impact of realism, without getting too loud about it. Hartnett and Pilon topline a cast that exudes their roles effectively, in a film that harks back to the way thrillers used to be made once upon a time.

Target Number One is slightly off target owing to inadequate storytelling treatment.

Also Read-Canada Reports New Record Of 1374,051 Cases

Categories
-Top News Canada COVID-19

Canada Reports New Record Of 1374,051 Cases

As November nears its end, Canada reported a total of 374,051 Covid-19 cases and 12,076 deaths as of Monday afternoon, according to CTV.

Canada has been well into the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and new case numbers grow by thousands each day.

The number of new cases reported daily across the country has increased by more than 2,000 since the beginning of November and is closing in on 6,000 daily, Xinhua reported.

The country is on track to have 4,000 coronavirus patients in hospital by Christmas, a figure that would eclipse the peak of the first wave and put tremendous pressure on a health-care system already pushed to the brink by nine months of battling the pandemic.

A new analysis conducted for The Globe and Mail by researchers at British Columbia’s Simon Fraser University projects that the number of Canadians admitted to hospital for treatment of Covid-19 will continue to grow, with the steepest increases in the West, particularly in Alberta province

If Alberta stays on its current trajectory, the province’s physicians and nurses will be caring for more Covid-19 patients than Ontario, which has three times the population.

There were 435 Covid-19 patients in Alberta hospitals on Sunday.

Over the past week, there has been an average of just over 2,000 Covid-19 patients being treated in Canadian hospitals, 420 of them in critical-care units, according to a Globe and Mail tally of provincial data. Both figures have nearly doubled since the end of October.

The Canadian government announced on Sunday to extend a series of travel restrictions and rules meant to stem the Covid-19 spread into the new year as case counts continue their steady rise across the country.

Also read-Moderna files for US, Europe authorisation for vaccine

Categories
Arts & Culture Lite Blogs

Portrait of an artist as a doctor

Kerala-born ophthalmologist Doctor Jayasree Menon is now a popular artist in England.  Her painting titled “Memories” has occupied among the popular works of 19 painters exhibited at a popular website. The website gives its visitors an opportunity to vote for their favourite painting among these. She has won immense popularity as an artist in Britain.

Dr Jayasree has launched a website to showcase her works and raise funds for charity. (https://jayartgallery.com/). In addition to being a doctor and painter, she also invests her time in social service. As a social worker, she gives off 50% of the amount she receives from selling her paintings to charity. She is a member of an organisation of provincial artists. Even though she has been part of a bunch of exhibitions, this is the first time she is taking part in a virtual painting competition. Audiences of the website can vote for their favourite paintings till November 28. The winner of the competition will be declared on 14 December 2020. (https://huunuu.com/art-and-death/)

She acquired the skill of painting by herself. She was forced to keep aside, her favourite hobby of painting for a few years because of her busy schedule as a doctor. Now she is trying to find more time to invest in her much-loved hobby.  Acrylic is her preferred medium. At first, she concentrated more on portraits. Now her area of interest has shifted to contemporary and abstract works. She is keen to explore and experiment with new styles which is evident from her latest works.

Dr Jayasree, who arrived Britain four years ago, now lives in Greater Manchester with her family and practices as an ophthalmologist. She is married to Dr Sujith Menon, an orthopaedic surgeon. The couple has two daughters.

Also Read-‘There are a lot of barriers to be broken’

Categories
-Top News USA

Asian Lite Daily Digital USA – November 30, 2020 – Fauci Warns of Covid Surge

Fauci Warns of Covid Surge; Australia seeks apology over ‘repugnant’ Tweet by China; Biden to Name Indian-American Neera Tanden For Budget Chief – all in Asian Lite Daily Digital USA – please click here to read.

Categories
Football Sport

India Women Set To Hit The Pitch: Maymol Rocky

Maymol Rocky

Maymol Rocky, head coach of Indian women’s football team, is excited as the team begins its preparation for the forthcoming AFC Women’s Asian Cup qualifiers.

Thirty women footballers have been called up for a national camp that will start from Tuesday in Goa. This is the first senior national women’s camp after coronavirus-induced lockdown.

“The girls have not played football for almost nine months. They are all excited to join the camp. We haven’t seen the women’s team playing for a long time. As of now joining the camp and running on the lush green pitch is what everyone is waiting for,” Maymol said while speaking to the-aiff.com.

“We have been in touch over online sessions and phone calls. But physical interactions always value more, at least in terms of guiding and coaching players. The girls have been following the diet regime and strength and conditioning routine since the start of this unprecedented scenario but the need of the hour is getting used to ball once again,” she added.

The head coach said the initial target of the team would be to get the coordination back.

Maymol Rocky

“Football is a team game and the purpose doesn’t get served until everyone is in sync. We’re looking forward to starting from scratch and get in the grooves quickly.”

In June this year, AFC granted India the right to host the Women’s Asian Cup in 2022.

Talking about the tournament, she said: “The AFC Women’s Asian Cup is the biggest tournament that India women’s senior national team will be playing in years. We competed in Olympic qualifiers but the AFC Women’s Asian Cup is a different ball game altogether.”

“We all are excited about that but there lies a huge responsibility in terms of delivering on the pitch. We’ve to be at the top of our preparations so that we can compete from the get-go. Although we still have a year or more, the preparation is a long-term process and competing with the likes of Asian’s superpowers will be a massive task,” Maymol added.

Also Read: OBIT: Diego Maradona

Categories
-Top News EU News USA

Moderna files for US, Europe authorisation for vaccine

Moderna created its shots in collaboration with the U.S. National Institutes of Health and got a final batch of results over the weekend which show the vaccine is more than 94% effective…reports Asian Lite News

Moderna Inc, which has reported its Covid-19 vaccine is 94 per cent effective, on Monday announced it is filing with US and European regulators for emergency use authorisation.

Moderna follows barely a week after Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech filed for US regulatory approval. By the end of 2020, Moderna expects to have approximately 20 million doses of its mRNA-1273 vaccine available in the U.S and is “on track to manufacture 500 million to 1 billion doses globally in 2021.

Moderna created its shots in collaboration with the U.S. National Institutes of Health and got a final batch of results over the weekend which show the vaccine is more than 94% effective.

Moderna’s efficacy results are based on 196 Covid-19 cases in its huge U.S. study with more than 30,000 participants. Of the 196 cases, 185 were in participants who received the dummy shot and 11 who got the vaccine. Severe cases and one death were reported in participants who got the dummy shot.

Moderna expects to present its data to the US Food and Drug Administration on December 17. First up will be Pfizer and BioNTech, on December 10. Both Pfizer and Moderna are two-shot vaccines.

The US government’s vaccine management chief has said all systems are ready to deliver the vaccines to priority groups within 24 to 48 hours of FDA approval.

Also read:Moderna vaccine to cost $25-37 per dose for Govts

Categories
-Top News UK News

UK Foreign Secy voices concerns over Iran n-scientist’s murder

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab

On November 27, Fakhrizadeh, dubbed the “father of the Iranian bomb”, was assassinated near the capital city on Friday by “armed terrorists”…reports Asian Lite News

Dominic Raab

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab have expressed concerns over the situation in Iran, as well as the Middle Eastern region, in the wake of the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Tehran’s top nuclear scientist.

“We do want to see de-escalation of tensions,” Xinhua news agency quoted Raab as saying on Sky News on Sunday.

“We’re still waiting to see the full facts of what’s happened in Iran, but I would say that we stick to the rule of international humanitarian law, which is very clear against targeting civilians,” the Foreign Secretary added.

On November 27, Fakhrizadeh, dubbed the “father of the Iranian bomb”, was assassinated near the capital city on Friday by “armed terrorists”.

The country’s Ministry of Defence said that Fakhrizadeh, a also professor of physics at Imam Hussein University of Tehran, “was severely wounded in the course of clashes between his security team and terrorists, and was transferred to hospital”, where he succumbed to his injuries.

Fakhrizadeh also headed theMinistry’s Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND).

The Iranian government suspects that the assassination was conducted by Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, though Tel Aviv has neither confirmed nor denied the allegation, according to media reports.

The European Union has strongly condemning the attack and called it a “criminal act”.

Also read:No Huawei 5G Equipment In UK from Sep 2021

Categories
Cricket Sport

Team India’s ODI Blues continue as players retain ‘T20 Mode’

Virat Kohli

Lack of bowling options to back up the regular bowlers and inability to switch to the ODI format quickly enough has already plunged India to a series defeat against Australia with one match still left to be played.

India, trailing 0-2 after conceding record totals to Australia in both the ODIs at the Sydney Cricket Ground, have now lost five ODIs in a row. Prior to this they had lost three in New Zealand in February before Covid-19 pandemic halted international cricket.

The two losses in Sydney have, however, have revealed the massive difference between the Australians and Indians when it comes to adapting to the 50-over format from T20 cricket they have played over the last two months.

Skipper Virat Kohli said after the loss in the first ODI that the players hadn’t got out of the T20 mode yet.

“We have been playing T20 cricket. Probably that’s something that can have an effect. Body language wasn’t great after around 25 overs,” he had said. His obvious reference was to the fielding lapses his teammates made, dropping catches and leaking runs in the first game.

But another example of their inability to adapt came during Sunday’s game when team vice-captain KL Rahul, who made 76, failed to rotate the strike regularly. During his 66-ball stay, the wicketkeeper-batsman played 44 per cent of the deliveries as dots i.e. without scoring even a single run off them.

In the Indian Premier League, the focus had been on hitting fours and sixes, and on that count he excelled on Sunday, hitting 46 off nine deliveries with the help of four 4s and five 6s. But his remaining 30 runs took 57 balls and that was caused mainly because of the 29 dot deliveries he faced.

Though David Warner, who too played the full IPL season for SunRisers Hyderabad, also played out well over 45 per cent of his deliveries as dots but as against Rahul who had come in the middle-overs with a target in sight, the Australian had walked in as an opener and was responsible for providing a platform to other batters.

A better comparison would be with Steve Smith, who too batted in the middle overs for Australia but played only 23 per cent of his deliveries as dots in comparison to Rahul’s 44 per cent. He made a 64-ball 104 in the second ODI which Australia won by 51 runs.

India’s other problem had been their inability to take wickets early on, especially in the power-play as Australians managed to get off to a good start on both occasions.

Jasprit Bumrah, who was phenomenal in IPL 2020, conceded runs at 7.3 and 7.9 in the two matches. He also failed to get early wickets finishing with just one each in the two games.

India’s biggest concern, however, has been the lack of an all-round option that could act as back-up to regular bowlers. The visitors tried a semi-fit Hardik Pandya for four overs on Sunday and he did well but if they have to come back to win in Wednesday’s match, they may have to make him bowl more overs. Since he is not game-ready to bowl, it may be hard and risky for him.

Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, who was India’s match-winning spinner in ODIs till recently, conceded 160 runs in 20 overs he has bowled, picking just one wicket. They may now have to turn to Kuldeep Yadav, who hasn’t played too many games in recent times.

Also Read: Dhoni, Kohli, Mithali among ICC Player of the Decade nominees

Also Read: Kohli’s absence an opportunity for youngsters: Ravi Shastri

Categories
Football Sport

Senegal Football Legend Papa Dies

Papa Bouba Diop

Legendary Senegal midfielder Papa Bouba Diop has passed away at the age of 42.

Diop, who won 63 caps for Senegal, scored the goal which secured a historic 1-0 win over France in their opening FIFA World Cup match in 2002, a tournament where Senegal made it to the quarterfinals.

“FIFA is saddened to learn of the passing of Senegal legend Papa Bouba Diop. Once a World Cup hero, always a World Cup hero,” FIFA confirmed the news on Sunday evening on their official Twitter handle.

“Among Diop’s many accomplishments, he will always be remembered for scoring the opening goal of the 2002 World Cup. RIP, Papa Bouba Diop,” a tweet from FIFA read.

Senegal president Macky Sall also paid tribute on Twitter, saying: “The death of Pape Bouba Diop is a great loss for Senegal.”

“I pay tribute to a good footballer, respected by all for his courtesy and his talent, proudly reminding us of the Lions saga in 2002. I offer my heartfelt condolences to his family and to the football world,” he added.

The midfielder joined Fulham from Lens two years later and excelled as a powerful defensive midfield enforcer and was affectionately known as the ‘Wardrobe’ due to his stature.

“We are devastated to hear news reports this evening that Papa Bouba Diop has passed away, aged 42. Rest well, Wardrobe,” tweeted Fulham FC.

Current Senegal international Sadio Mane wrote on Instagram: “Pape Bouba, it was with a broken heart that we learned of your (death). Know that you will forever remain in our hearts even if you left without saying goodbye to us.”

Also Read: OBIT: Diego Maradona

Also Read: Australia seeks apology over ‘repugnant’ Tweet by China