Over 7,000 new marinespecies discovered
Hong Kong: Over 7,000 new marine species have been discovered from the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans, shedding new light on understanding of microbial biodiversity in the seas.
The team from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), discovered over 7,000 new biofilm-forming species and 10 new bacterial phyla, breaking the existing belief that the world has only 35,000 marine microbial species and 80 bacterial phyla, Xinhua news agency reported.
The new species, also included acidobacteria — a natural medicinal phylum with the CRISPR gene editing system — raising hope for the development of new drugs.
“The discovery of new marine microbial species has not only improved our understanding of ocean biodiversity, but more importantly, these species have big potential, both in terms of facilitating our understanding of lives and offering new clues to our search of new treatments for diseases,” said lead author Qian Peiyuan.
Acidobacteria, previously known to exist in terrestrial soils, has been used for developing novel antibiotics and anti-tumour drugs due to its high level of biosynthetic gene clusters. It is the first ocean species found to contain the gene-editing system CRISPR, and offers resistance to foreign plasmids or phages and contains gene-editing capabilities, the report said. (IANS)
Iranian couple arrested after marriage proposal in public
Tehran: A young Iranian couple have been arrested after a marriage proposal in public, captured on a video clip that went viral on social media.
The police say the pair offended Islamic mores on public decency but were later released on bail. The video, which spread on social media last Friday, shows the young man standing in a heart-shaped ring of flower petals next to colorful balloons in a mall in the central city of Arak. After the young woman says “yes,” he slips a ring on her finger to cheers from onlookers. The two weren’t identified. Mostafa Norouzi, deputy police chief in Arak, told the Shahrvand daily that it’s unacceptable for the young “to do whatever is common in other places of the world and disregard mores, culture and religion.” (AP)
Pakistan: Facebook ready to combat anti-vaxxers
Islamabad: While social networking website Facebook has agreed to limit the reach of anti-vaccine videos in Pakistan, the government wants deletion of the videos alleging that vaccines are a conspiracy against Muslims, prime minister’s focal person on polio Babar bin Atta said.
‘We have taken Director General of World Health Organisation (WHO) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations on board and also started efforts to involve other UN agencies to completely eradicate those videos from Facebook and YouTube,? he said. Answering a question, Mr Atta said it was observed after the last month outbreak of measles in the US that a number of people hadn’t vaccinated their children due to anti-vaccine videos on social media. The US health departments then decided to hold a campaign against anti-vaxxers, Dawn reported. Anti-vaxxer is a person opposed to vaccination, typically a parent who does not wish to vaccinate their children. (UNI)
Greek man saved from Ethiopia crash by being late
Athens: A Greek man said on Sunday he would have been the 150th passenger on the Nairobi-bound Ethiopian Airlines Boeing plane that crashed killing all on board, except he arrived two minutes late for the flight.
“I was mad because nobody helped me to reach the gate on time,” Antonis Mavropoulos said in a Facebook post entitled “My lucky day” in which he includes a photo of his ticket. Mavropoulos, president of the International Solid Waste Association, a non-profit organization, was travelling to Nairobi to attend the annual assembly of the UN Environment Programme, according to Athens News Agency. He was supposed to board the plane but he reached the departure gate just two minutes after it was closed. He booked a later flight but was then prevented from boarding by airport staff.
“They led me to the police station of the airport. The officer told me not to protest but to pray to God because I was the only passenger that didn’t board the ET 302 flight that was lost,” Mavropoulos said in his post in which he admits being in shock. (AFP)
China’s Communist Party affiliate seeks ban on child news anchors
Beijing: An affiliate of China’s ruling Communist Party has called for a ban on child news anchors on live streaming platforms following allegations that minors are being used to spread vulgar and pornographic content.
A regulation banning minors from acting as news anchors on live streaming platforms and protection on their use of the internet need to be issued, according to a proposal submitted by the All-China Youth Federation (ACYF) to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a national advisory body which is currently holding its annual session here.
The ACYF, which represents many youth groups in the Communist Party of China (CPC), including the influential Communist Youth League of China, said its proposal was aimed at protecting minors from illegal content, the official media here reported. The draft of the regulation is needed since some live streaming platforms provide vulgar and pornographic information, which affects the values of minors, violates their privacy and causes financial losses due to “irrational” rewards to the network anchors, members of the National Committee of ACYF said. (PTI)