Author: Rahul M

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Hurricane Melissa roared toward Jamaica with destructive Category 4 winds Monday and was expected to strengthen further before making landfall on the Caribbean nation with up to 30 inches (76 centimeters) of rain and a life-threatening storm surge.Some local areas of eastern Jamaica could get 40 inches (1 meter) of rain while western Haiti could get 16 inches (40 centimeters), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. “Catastrophic flash flooding and numerous landslides are likely,” it warned.Melissa’s center was forecast to move over Jamaica on Tuesday, across southeast Cuba on Tuesday night and across…

Air Pollution and its effect on Eye Health: As air quality deteriorates in the post-Diwali period, ophthalmologists are seeing a surge in eye-related complaints linked to ambient pollution. Fine particulates (PM 2.5) and gaseous pollutants, such as nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and ozone (O₃), act on the ocular surface, triggering tear-film instability, oxidative stress, and inflammation.   Dr Sunil Morekar, MBBS, MS, Ophthalmology, Ophthalmologist, Eye Surgeon, Lilavati Hospital, Mumbai, says, “Clinically, patients may present with symptoms of dry-eye disease (DED), burning, gritty sensation, photophobia, and intermittent blurring. Pollutants reduce production of the mucin and lipid layers of the tear film, increasing evaporation…

Universal Pictures Based on the eponymous 2004 short story by Joe Hill, 2021’s “The Black Phone” found director Scott Derrickson going back to his genre roots following his “Doctor Strange” stint, and became one of the biggest hits of 2020s horror cinema. The story follows suburban kids Finney (Mason Thames) and Gwen Blake (Madeleine McGraw), whose lives are irrevocably transformed by a masked, child-abducting serial killer known as the Grabber (Ethan Hawke). Soon after Gwen starts having psychic dreams about the Grabber, Finney is kidnapped by him, and his only hope…

Though more women than men have been turning up to vote in Bihar in the last few elections, women’s representation in the elections as well as in the Assembly has remained low, shows an analysis of the past five state elections.In the February 2005 Assembly elections, the first after Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar, 234 women contested the polls, of whom 24 made it to the Assembly. The state went to the polls months later in October, but only 138 women were in the fray. Twenty-five women made it to the Assembly in that election. In 2010, the House…

KYIV, Ukraine — If Silicon Valley startups began in garages, the origin story of Ukraine’s defense startups lies in basements. There, many workshops cobbled together drones from off-the-shelf parts, going underground to avoid Russian missiles. These once small-scale, volunteer-run outfits are now transforming into defense corporations, in a process encouraged by the government of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to scale up innovations. Among the companies, one stands out to both its supporters and its critics for the speed and scale of its rise: an emerging drone-manufacturing giant called Fire Point. At the start of the full-scale war in February 2022, the…

THE BID to fraudulently delete names from voters’ lists ahead of the 2023 Karnataka Assembly polls may not have been restricted to Aland constituency. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the state police investigating the case has found that a data centre used to illegally make online applications for deletion of names may have been used to also “manipulate” voters’ lists in at least two other seats falling in Kalaburagi district.Sources said that it were primarily BJP leaders in Kalaburagi region who approached the data centre for its services. And that “an agreement was signed for changes to voter lists…

Making a campaign stop in Motihari in Bihar’s East Champaran district last Friday, Jan Suraaj chief Prashant Kishor beseeched people to vote for “good candidates”, saying people made the wrong choices earlier because of a lack of alternatives. This time, they do not have that excuse anymore, he appeared to suggest.“For the first time in the past three decades, every constituency has a good alternative. But now, when Doctor Sahab (Jan Suraaj’s Motihari candidate Dr Atul Kumar) is roaming the streets (seeking votes), people are asking, ‘Why should we vote for you?’ They say, ‘We need a strong man’, ‘will…

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — The world’s oldest president, Cameroon ‘s 92-year-old Paul Biya, has won election again, the country’s top court said Monday, after days of protesters’ clashes with security forces left at least four people dead as opposition supporters demanded credible results.Biya has led the central African nation since 1982, ruling longer than most citizens have been alive. Over 70% of the population of almost 30 million is below 35. The Oct. 12 election has displayed growing tensions between Africa’s youth and its many aging leaders.The Constitutional Council said Biya received 53.66% of votes while former ally Issa Tchiroma…

BRUSSELS — As soon as autumn weather arrives, customers at Have a Roll bakeries in Belgium begin to ask the baristas: Is it pumpkin spice latte season yet?“It’s getting more popular every year,” said Dennis Van Peel, the chain’s owner, who puts the drink on the menu at his cafes in Antwerp, Belgium, Brussels and other cities starting in October. He has begun to serve the beverage by request even earlier. But, he admits, “either you love it or you hate it.”Since pumpkin spice lattes were first added to Starbucks’ American menus in 2003, they have become a fall mainstay…

As an American medical resident in a global health program in Uganda 12 years ago, Dr. Ross Boyce saw the devastating toll of malaria firsthand. About half of the patients he saw in a rural clinic had the disease. Most were very young children; many recovered with treatment, but some did not survive. Boyce noticed something else: All of the Ugandan mothers carried their babies tied on their backs with a wide piece of cotton. And this made him think about the clothing he wore long before medical school, when he was deployed to Iraq as an infantry officer: the…