Omani physician unravels medical breakthrough
and London University, United Kingdom, that was conducting a rare operation to rescue and treat a child in critical condition. The child had swallowed a battery cell that damaged the trachea.
The medical team received a licence from Medicine and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA), UK, to use the new technique to treat the child. The operation was conducted at Cellular and Genetic Treatment Centre at Royal Free Hospital.
The implant, termed success, took place at Great Ormond Street, London.
The child recuperated and is currently enjoying good health three years after the operation.
A detailed account of the operation will be published in Nature Medicine journal.
The new technology is being used to start clinical experiments at Barouth Hospital London, Cambridge University, London University and a specialised drug firm.
SEOUL: South Korea said on Monday it had found no link between the coronavirus vaccine and several recent deaths, as it ordered nearly 100,000 foreign workers to be tested after clusters emerged in dormitories.
Health officials had been investigating the deaths of eight people with underlying conditions who had adverse reactions after receiving Astrazeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, but said they found no evidence that the shots played a role.
“We’ve tentatively concluded that it was difficult to establish any link between their adverse reaction after being vaccinated, and their deaths,” Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) Director Jeong Eunkyeong told a briefing.
South Korea began vaccinating residents and workers at nursing homes and other atrisk individuals at the end of February, with 316,865 people having received their first shots as of Sunday.
South Koreans aged 65 or older were not being given Astrazeneca’s vaccine after health regulators concluded that more data was needed to confirm its efficacy among that age group.
But on Monday, Jeong said an expert panel had now recommended that the shot be given to older people, and that the KDCA would soon make a final decision.
WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court on Monday disposed of the last of three cases brought to the justices by former president Donald Trump challenging his election loss, bringing a muted end to his futile quest in the courts to hold onto power.
The court without comment rejected Trump’s appeal challenging thousands of absentee ballots filed in Wisconsin, an election battleground that the Republican businessman-turnedpolitician lost to Democrat Joe Biden by more than 20,000 votes. Biden became president on January 20.
It was the last of three petitions filed at the Supreme Court near the end of Trump’s presidency that the justices declined to take up. The court on February 22 turned away Trump’s other two appeals — a second Wisconsin challenge and one relating to voting in Pennsylvania, another pivotal state Trump lost. Lower courts previously had ruled against Trump in those three cases.
It already was clear that the high court, which includes three justices appointed by Trump, had no intention to intervene in the cases and others filed by his allies because it did not act before Congress on January 6 certified Biden’s victory. That formal certification was interrupted when a pro-trump mob stormed the US Capitol.
In the Wisconsin case, Trump sued two days after the state had certified its election results. He challenged several Wisconsin election policies including one allowing the use of drop boxes for absentee ballots during the Covid-19 pandemic. Both a federal judge and the Chicagobased 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the claims, noting in part that Trump had waited too long to sue.
Courts around the country rejected the cases brought by Trump and his allies, sometimes in colourful terms. A judge put it this way in November in rejecting a Trump challenge in Pennsylvania: “This claim, like Frankenstein’s Monster, has been haphazardly stitched together.”
Trump has made — and continues to make — false claims that the November 3 presidential election was stolen from him through widespread voting fraud and irregularities.
Courts around the country rejected the cases brought by Trump and his allies
Facial recognition technologies installed in at least a dozen government-funded schools in Delhi are an “overreach” by Indian authorities and an invasion of children’s privacy, digital rights advocates said.
The move to introduce facial recognition technology follows a 2019 decision by the Delhi city government to mount closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras in more than 700 public schools to ensure the safety of students.
The facial recognition systems are being installed without laws to regulate the collection and use of data, which is particularly worrying for children, said Anushka Jain, an associate counsel at Internet Freedom Foundation, a digital rights group that became aware of the rollout last week. “CCTV is already a violation of children’s privacy, even though some parents had supported it for the safety of their children... but the use of facial recognition technology is an overreach and is completely unjustified’’, Jain said. “Its use for children is particularly problematic because the accuracy rate is so low — so in the event of a crime, you could have children being misidentified’’, she said.
Parents were unlikely to be aware of the risks related to potential data breaches and misuse, she added. Facial recognition technology is being increasingly deployed in airports, railway stations and cafes across India, with plans for a nationwide system to modernise the police force and its information gathering and criminal identification processes.
But analysts say its benefits are not clear, and that it could breach people’s privacy or lead to greater surveillance, with few safeguards and little clarity on how the technology works, how the data is stored, and who can access it.
A personal data protection law is being drafted by Indian lawmakers.
Delhi authorities did not respond to requests for comment, but previously said that CCTV had reduced truancy in schools. “CCTV in schools is extremely important to ensure safety of students and bring transparency and accountability in the system’’, Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi, said at the time.
Facial recognition systems are often rolled out without a privacy policy or consent from guardians to collect and process the data of minors, said Prasanth Sugathan, Legal Director at Software Freedom Law Centre, a digital rights nonprofit.
CCTV is already a violation of children’s privacy, even though some parents had supported it for the safety of their children... but the use of facial recognition technology is an overreach and is completely unjustified
ANUSHKA JAIN An associate counsel