A new Covid-19 virus, known in the medical community as, JN.1, close relative to BA.2.86, is the fastest growing variant in the US, according to estimates from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). JN.1 was responsible for more than one in five new Coronavirus cases in recent weeks.
Human Rights Watch (HRW), a nongovernmental organisation (NGO) with global foot print, has attacked Israel stating that it is deliberately creating starvation in the Gaza Strip as a means of war. In a statement issued on Monday, the HRW said that Israel is deliberately depriving the people in Gaza access to food, water and other basic necessities, and described this denial of basic amenities to the civilian population as a war crime.
A 67-year-old Indian national, who assaulted three women on a beach in New Zealand on the pretext of taking photographs with them, was ordered to pay NZ$3,000 to his victims on Monday. Jawahar Singh had previously pleaded guilty to three charges of indecent assault and one charge of an indecent act, relating to three incidents at the Tahunanui beach in Nelson, news website Stuff.co.nz reported.
A taxi driver was on Monday sentenced to two months in jail for falling asleep at the wheel and hitting an Indian-origin man who was carrying out road works in Singapore. Ong Boon Leong, 64, pleaded guilty to causing grievous hurt to Madhavan Naveen Kumar, 25, and for driving without due care and attention, The Straits Times reported.
The Joe Biden administration in the US, while supporting Israel in its war with Hamas, wants Israel to end its large-scale invasion in Gaza as its apparently hurting civilians in what the west describes as "collective punishment". US officials stressed on surgical, focussed and targeted attacks on Hamas while protecting the civilians in the enclave.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said it has received a sufficient number of petitions to reach the congressionally-mandated cap for the most-coveted H-1B visa for the fiscal year 2024. This includes the 65,000 H-1B visa regular cap as well as the 20,000 H-1B visa US advanced degree exemption, commonly referred to as the master’s cap.
