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Saudi Arabia To Permit Only Vaccinated Pilgrims On Umrah Pilgrimage From Ramadan

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Saudi Arabia To Permit Only Vaccinated Pilgrims On Umrah Pilgrimage From Ramadan" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2020-05/jdnmt06g_meccaeidcoronavirusafp_625x300_24_May_20.jpg" title="Saudi Arabia To Permit Only Vaccinated Pilgrims On Umrah Pilgrimage From Ramadan" /></div>
Only people vaccinated against Covid will be allowed to perform the year-round umrah pilgrimage. (File)
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Riyadh:
Saudi authorities said Monday only people vaccinated against Covid-19 will be allowed to perform the year-round umrah pilgrimage, starting from the holy month of Ramadan.
The hajj and umrah ministry said in a statement that only "immunised people" will be granted permits to perform umrah as well as prayers in the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Mecca.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/saudi-arabia-to-permit-only-vaccinated-pilgrims-on-umrah-pilgrimage-from-ramadan-2406890">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/saudi-arabia-to-permit-only-vaccinated-pilgrims-on-umrah-pilgrimage-from-ramadan-2406890</a>

news world Saudi Arabia To Permit Only Vaccinated Pilgrims On Umrah Pilgrimage From Ramadan

Only people vaccinated against Covid will be allowed to perform the year-round umrah pilgrimage. (File) Riyadh: Saudi authorities said ...

Google Wins Over Oracle In Key US Supreme Court Copyright Case

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Google Wins Over Oracle In Key US Supreme Court Copyright Case" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2018-10/dl56ce8_google-generic-reuters_625x300_08_October_18.jpg" title="Google Wins Over Oracle In Key US Supreme Court Copyright Case" /></div>
It allows Google to avoid paying out billions to its technology rival.
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Washington:
The US Supreme Court on Monday handed Google a major win in a long-running copyright battle with Oracle, ruling that the use of the Java programming language for the Android mobile operating system was "fair use."
The 6-2 ruling had been closely watched as a key test of copyright in the digital era, and allows Google to avoid paying out billions to its technology rival.
Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in the 39-page majority opinion that even if Google used copyrightable material, "the copying here at issue nonetheless constituted a fair use. Hence, Google's copying did not violate the copyright law."
The case revolved around whether copyright protection should be extended to application software interfaces (APIs), the bits of code that allow programs and apps to work together, and if so, whether Google's implementation was a "fair use" of copyrighted material.
The case drew interest across the spectrum of technology firms and creative industries, and heated debate on how much copyright protection should be afforded to bits of computer code.
Two separate jury trials ended with a determination that Google's "software interface" did not unfairly use Java code, saving the internet giant from a possible multibillion-dollar verdict.
But an appeals court in 2018 disagreed, saying the software interface is entitled to copyright protection, prompting Google to take the case to the highest US court.
Oracle, which in 2010 obtained the rights to Java when it acquired Sun Microsystems -- which had supported Google's use of Java for Android -- sought $9 billion in damages in its original complaint.
Threatening innovation?
Google and many Silicon Valley allies have argued that extending copyright protection to APIs would threaten innovation in the fast-evolving digital world.
According to Google, a win for Oracle would "upend the longstanding expectation of software developers that they are free to use existing computer software interfaces to build new programs."
Others said Google would walk away with "intellectual property theft" in a court victory, arguing that it would make it hard to protect any digital property from Chinese misappropriation.
In a dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Samuel Alito, wrote that the court should have taken a narrower view of copyright in view of Google's copying of 11,500 lines of code.
"The court wrongly sidesteps the principal question that we were asked to answer: Is declaring code protected by copyright? I would hold that it is. Computer code occupies a unique space in intellectual property," Thomas wrote.
Breyer wrote that new technologies call for a broader view.
"The fact that computer programs are primarily functional makes it difficult to apply traditional copyright concepts in that technological world."
Breyer wrote that Google "reimplemented a user interface, taking only what was needed to allow users to put their accrued talents to work in a new and transformative program."
Law professor Steven Vladeck of the University of Texas said on Twitter the ruling was "a win for Google, but the big issue got punted" because the justices failed to decide on whether this type of software code may be copyrighted.
Boston University law professor Tiffany Li meanwhile called the decision a "huge win for fair use and people who understand how coding works!"
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/google-wins-over-oracle-in-key-us-supreme-court-copyright-case-2406863">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/google-wins-over-oracle-in-key-us-supreme-court-copyright-case-2406863</a>

news world Google Wins Over Oracle In Key US Supreme Court Copyright Case

It allows Google to avoid paying out billions to its technology rival. Washington: The US Supreme Court on Monday handed Google a major...

Watch: NASA Spacecraft Prepares To Welcome New Crew

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Watch: NASA Spacecraft Prepares To Welcome New Crew" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-04/kefausqg_crew-dragon-spacecraft-650_625x300_05_April_21.jpg" title="Watch: NASA Spacecraft Prepares To Welcome New Crew" /></div>
The video shows SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience's port being relocated.
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US space agency NASA shared footage of port relocation at the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday. The video shows SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience's port being relocated as the space station prepares to welcome new crew later this month. SpaceX Crew-1 is the first certified mission under NASA's Commercial Crew Program that lifted off from Earth on November 15, 2020. On Monday, four astronauts relocated the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-tv-to-air-first-us-commercial-crew-port-relocation-on-space-station" target="_blank">Crew Dragon spacecraft</a> to prepare for the arrival of new crew members and the upcoming delivery of solar arrays this summer.
The footage shows NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi, undocking the Crew Dragon Resilience from the forward port of the ISS Harmony module and docking to the space-facing port.
According to NASA, the second commercial crew program includes NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, JAXA's Aki Hoshide, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet. The launch is scheduled to take place from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 22.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Why is today's port relocation of the Crew Dragon Resilience happening? It will prepare the <a href="https://twitter.com/Space_Station?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Space_Station</a> for the planned arrival of NASA's <a href="https://twitter.com/SpaceX?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SpaceX</a> Crew-2 mission in just a few weeks, as well as arrival later this summer of a cargo Dragon delivering new solar arrays: <a href="https://t.co/R6wjXqBp3x">pic.twitter.com/R6wjXqBp3x</a>
— NASA (@NASA) <a href="https://twitter.com/NASA/status/1379026171313205249?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 5, 2021</a></blockquote>
After the new crew joins the mission, the Crew-1 astronauts will leave the station and return to Earth in late April or early May. The footage shared on Monday mentions that the vacant portion will serve as a docking space for a Dragon cargo spacecraft which will carry several tons of supplies.
The cargo spacecraft requires the space-facing port position to enable robotic extraction of the solar arrays from Dragon's trunk using Canadarm2.
It is going to be a busy few weeks in the ISS and Twitter seems to agree. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Lol, sounds like my driveway on a Monday morning.
— Michael Curtin (@guitarmike) <a href="https://twitter.com/guitarmike/status/1379040262618484738?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 5, 2021</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Going up on April 22. Follow NASA and SpaceX. A Soyuz is also going up on April 9.
This month 2 spacecrafts going up and 2 coming down.
— Pablo Moysam D. (@PMoysam) <a href="https://twitter.com/PMoysam/status/1379065610949308421?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 5, 2021</a></blockquote>
An Elon Musk fan was quick to credit the tech billionaire for this latest NASA update.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
It's happening cause Elon Musk said so. ????
— IG: @space.terminal (@spaceTerminal_) <a href="https://twitter.com/spaceTerminal_/status/1379026473240133635?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 5, 2021</a></blockquote>
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/watch-nasa-spacecraft-prepares-to-welcome-new-crew-2406833">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/watch-nasa-spacecraft-prepares-to-welcome-new-crew-2406833</a>

news world Watch: NASA Spacecraft Prepares To Welcome New Crew

The video shows SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience's port being relocated. US space agency NASA shared footage of port relocation at the ...

Russia's Vladimir Putin Signs Law Allowing Him To Serve 2 More Terms

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Russia's Vladimir Putin Signs Law Allowing Him To Serve 2 More Terms" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-01/2rclqg88_vladimir-putin_625x300_24_January_21.jpg" title="Russia's Vladimir Putin Signs Law Allowing Him To Serve 2 More Terms" /></div>
Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed the change last year as part of constitutional reforms.
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Moscow:
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday gave final approval to legislation allowing him to hold office for two additional six-year terms, giving himself the possibility to stay in power until 2036.
The 68-year-old Russian leader, who has already been in power for more than two decades, signed off on the bill Monday, according to a copy posted on the government's legal information portal.
Putin proposed the change last year as part of constitutional reforms that Russians overwhelmingly backed in a vote in July. Lawmakers approved the new bill last month.
The legislation will allow Putin to run in presidential elections again after his current and second consecutive term expires in 2024.
Putin was first elected president in 2000 and served two consecutive four-year terms. His ally Dmitry Medvedev took his place in 2008, which critics saw as a way around Russia's limit on two consecutive terms for presidents.
While in office, Medvedev signed off on legislation extending terms to six years starting with the next president.
Putin then returned to the Kremlin in 2012, winning re-election in 2018.
Kremlin opponents have criticised the legislation allowing him to run for two more terms, calling it a pretext to allow Putin to become "president for life".
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/russian-president-vladimir-putin-signs-law-allowing-him-to-serve-2-more-terms-2406807">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/russian-president-vladimir-putin-signs-law-allowing-him-to-serve-2-more-terms-2406807</a>

news world Russia's Vladimir Putin Signs Law Allowing Him To Serve 2 More Terms

Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed the change last year as part of constitutional reforms. Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Pu...

Shut Loopholes, Crackdown On Wildlife Trade Not Enough: Experts To China

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Shut Loopholes, Crackdown On Wildlife Trade Not Enough: Experts To China" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2020-12/km5j8k7_china-coronavirus-bloomberg_625x300_31_December_20.jpg" title="Shut Loopholes, Crackdown On Wildlife Trade Not Enough: Experts To China" /></div>
China tested thousands of animal samples to trace COVID-19 origins. (Representational)
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Shanghai:
China and its neighbours must not only crack down on wildlife trade but also shut legal loopholes that allow disease-prone species to be farmed, experts said after an investigation team concluded that COVID-19 most likely originated in animals.
A World Health Organization-led study, published Tuesday, said it was "likely to very likely" that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the global pandemic, was introduced to humans from bats via an intermediary species, with wildlife farming playing a crucial role.
Tong Yigang, a Chinese animal disease expert involved in the joint study, said the findings vindicated Beijing's decision last year to ban trade in wildlife for human consumption.
But the report also drew attention to the wildlife farms still allowed to operate legally, serving the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) industry and the fur trade - and creating more spillover risks.
"With farms you have a large pool of animals that are more or less genetically homogeneous, where a virus can easily evolve," said Christian Walzer, chief veterinarian at New York's Wildlife Conservation Society.
China tested thousands of animal samples to trace the coronavirus's origins, but the study said more investigations were required. It also recommended surveys at mink and raccoon dog farms, which China still allows even though they are infection-prone.
"Cramming millions of animals together in these abusive industries creates a perfect petri dish for pandemics, and unless we ban farming for fur ... we will continue to play Russian roulette with global public safety," warned Peter Li, China expert at Humane Society International.
SCALES OF JUSTICE
Regulatory gaps, lax enforcement and transnational trafficking gangs have allowed the wildlife trade to continue, experts said. Pangolins, an endangered mammal identified as a potential intermediary species for SARS-CoV-2, remain a major prize.
Pangolin scales were an officially recognised TCM ingredient - used to treat conditions like arthritis - until last year. Though China has since cracked down, activists complain that punishments remain uneven: in a recent case, traffickers caught on the island province of Hainan were given only relatively small fines.
Foreign traffickers also remain in operation. A special economic zone in the border district of Mong La in Myanmar, owned by Chinese businesses, has long been a source of pangolin scales delivered into China.
"There's no real government control there in Mong La," said Chris Shepherd, executive director of the Monitor Conservation Research Society, who studies illegal wildlife trafficking. "There's no enforcement of any kind."
"In many places, wildlife trading isn't seen as a priority or even as something that is necessarily wrong, and we are suffering a pandemic because of it."
China says the original spillover event could have occurred beyond its border, but critics say wildlife trading networks in Myanmar and Laos would not exist without Chinese demand, and Chinese investment.
"Chinese investment and customers support many of the illegal wildlife trading markets in neighbouring countries," said Amanda Whitfort, an animal welfare law specialist at Hong Kong University.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/shut-loopholes-crackdown-on-wildlife-trade-not-enough-experts-to-china-as-who-highlights-covid-animal-origins-2406685">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/shut-loopholes-crackdown-on-wildlife-trade-not-enough-experts-to-china-as-who-highlights-covid-animal-origins-2406685</a>

news world Shut Loopholes, Crackdown On Wildlife Trade Not Enough: Experts To China

China tested thousands of animal samples to trace COVID-19 origins. (Representational) Shanghai: China and its neighbours must not only...

Japan Tracks Chinese Aircraft Carrier Near Okinawa

<a href="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/04052021a1.jpg"><img alt="" class="alignnone wp-image-143208 jetpack-lazy-image" data-lazy-sizes="(max-width: 476px) 100vw, 476px" data-lazy-srcset="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/04052021a1-300x200.jpg 300w, http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/04052021a1.jpg 621w" height="317" src="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/04052021a1-300x200.jpg?is-pending-load=1" srcset="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" width="476" /></a>
<img alt="" class="alignnone wp-image-143208" height="317" sizes="(max-width: 476px) 100vw, 476px" src="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/04052021a1-300x200.jpg" srcset="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/04052021a1-300x200.jpg 300w, http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/04052021a1.jpg 621w" width="476" />
As China attempts to assert herself on a global stage, Japan has been increasing her efforts to ‘stand up’ to her billion man strong neighbor, for as Business Insider reports, China sent an aircraft carrier between Japanese islands to which the Japanese responded by sending a destroyer to follower her.
<blockquote readability="53.87685290764">
China’s carrier group — including the aircraft carrier Liaoning, one Renhai class stealth guided missile destroyer, two Luyang III class guided missile destroyers, one Jiangkai II multi-role frigate and one Fuyu class fast combat support ship — were spotted passing the waterway between Okinawa and Miyako Island and heading toward the Pacific on Saturday morning.
Japan has sent destroyer JS Suzutsuki, a P-1 maritime patrol aircraft and a P-3C anti-submarine-warfare patrol aircraft to “gather information and monitor the movements of the Chinese vessels,” the joint staff said in a statement published on Sunday.
This is the first time the Liaoning is known to pass this waterway since April last year. It follows military exercises the US conducted with allies in the region, including a two-day joint drill with the Australian navy in the Eastern Pacific last week, and the US aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt CSG entering the South China Sea on Sunday morning after a joint-exercise with the Indian army.
The Liaoning crossed the same waterway in June 2019 and December 2016.
Tension between the People’s Liberation Army and the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force in the East China Sea has escalated in recent months following Tokyo repeatedly voicing concerns over China’s new coastguard law.
The law came into effect in February and allows China’s quasi-military force to use weapons against foreign ships that Beijing sees as illegally entering its waters.
In early March, Japan’s coastguard said China’s coastguard had expanded its presence in the contested waters by entering twice a month and as frequently as twice a week near the Japanese-controlled Diaoyu Islands, known in Japan as the Senkaku Islands.
The joint staff office of the Japanese Defence Ministry published photos of the six Chinese vessels in the Liaoning carrier group on Sunday. The statement said they were heading toward the Pacific Ocean.
The new United States administration under President Joe Biden has reaffirmed a pledge to oppose any unilateral action that threatens to undermine Japan’s administration of the islands and that the US is obliged to defend Japan should its territories come under attack.
Last week, China’s Defence Ministry urged Japan to stop making provocative moves and refrain from attacking China over the disputed islands after the defence ministries of both countries held a virtual meeting last Monday. The meeting was for maritime and air liaison communication, a mechanism created in 2007 to improve trust and cut the chance of military miscalculation between the two countries. (<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/japan-sends-destroyer-to-track-chinas-liaoning-aircraft-carrier-group-2021-4?r=US&IR=T">source</a>)
</blockquote>
If Japan is stalking Chinese ships crossing into and near their waters, it is obviously and directly being done with American assistance.
Likewise, this is not new, for the US ha been provoking China for a long time in similar ways. It will be a common trend to watch for more and open examples of this kind of quiet provocation take place as relations deteriorate between China and the US and Japan.
While China may be large and a threat though, she has a lot more issues. China can stalk Japan more easily because of her regional status, but is not and currently cannot doing such say off the coast of Hawaii, Alaska, or in the Caribbean. Even if she was to do this, it could be disastrous for China’s attempts at a military rise, for she has to face off against not just the US and Japan, but will be facing significant internal rebellion and also have a major fight against the Indians in the Himalayas.
China may be powerful, but she is a lot weaker than what she presents herself as, she knows it, and while she wants to assert herself, she will try to be careful, lest as history in China repeatedly shows, she dies by her own hand again and falls to the cycle of revolution that has defined Chinese history for so long.
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source <a href="http://shoebat.com/2021/04/05/japan-tracks-chinese-aircraft-carrier-near-okinawa/">http://shoebat.com/2021/04/05/japan-tracks-chinese-aircraft-carrier-near-okinawa/</a>

armageddon Japan Tracks Chinese Aircraft Carrier Near Okinawa

As China attempts to assert herself on a global stage, Japan has been increasing her efforts to ‘stand up’ to her billion man strong neigh...