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Wave of mining waste buries workers in Myanmar

By
Preetika Parashuraman
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A landslide at a jade mine killed more than 100 people in Northern Myanmar. With more expected to be dead, authorities say that a heap of mining waste collapsed into a lake, causing a “muddy wave” that buried many workers under it.

The fire department said the miners were collecting stones in the Hpakant area which is known to be the center of Myanmar’s secretive jade industry. The region was hit by heavy rains. After that, a landslide crashed into the workers causing their deaths.

Death toll has soared to over 126, with many expected to be missing and several injured.

A local who was present at the scene helping officials said those killed were informal workers who were rummaging through the waste dumped by large mining companies. She also says that there is no sign of hope for the families of workers to receive compensation as they were freelance miners. They risked their lives because they had no choice.

Despite being hit by heavy storms, this jade-rich region attracts a large number of impoverished workers from across the northeastern state in search of gems. These gems will earn them a fortune if sold and could change their lives for the better.

Global Witness, a London based rights group said the accident “is a damning indictment of the government’s failure to curb reckless and irresponsible mining practices in Kachin state’s jade mines. The government should immediately suspend large-scale, illegal, and dangerous mining in Hpakant and ensure companies that engage in these practices are no longer able to operate.”

Source: Reuters

 

Aavin goes the extra mile to address customer grievance

By
The Commune
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A few days back, many people in Chennai found that Aavin milk that they had bought last week got spoilt upon boiling. Many complaints from customers were sent to Aavin and an internal investigation was ordered. As all transport vehicles were monitored using GPS, people at Aavin were able to identify the source of issue. The reason was that milk was diluted with water.

Earlier it was reported that 8 people were arrested in Tiruvannamalai for adulterating milk with water.

It was this batch of milk that was the problem.

An Aavin customer who reached out to The Commune, he got a call within 6 hours from Aavin after he sent a mail to the complaints department. The person was asked to send pictures of the batch number. Once the batch was traced to the Tiruvannamalai batch, he was given the option of a refund or free replacement of milk. The person chose the latter and was delivered fresh milk packets as replacement within a day.

Increasing deaths of Botswana’s elephants remains a mystery

By
Preetika Parashuraman
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Hundreds of elephants have died in the South African country of Botswana. However, the reason for the increasing death remains unknown.

Botswana is known for its overwhelming elephant population. Throughout these events, cyanide and an anthrax outbreak were prime suspects for the recent death of elephants.

Poachers have often used cyanide, a poisonous chemical for the killing of elephants by pouring this chemical into water bodies. Since the tusks of the elephants remained intact, poaching was ruled out. Also, there might have been similar deaths of other species that fed on the carcasses of the elephants.

Another possibility was an outbreak of anthrax. Over a hundred elephants died last year due to a suspected anthrax outbreak in Botswana. However, the Botswana government ruled out an anthrax outbreak as a cause of elephant deaths.

Most of the carcasses were seen near the water bodies of the Okavango Delta.

Local witnesses reported seeing elephants walk in circles suggesting that the cause may be neurological.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, there has been a delay regarding the results of the samples of the carcasses.

“A catastrophic die-off of elephants is happening in northern Botswana, and no one knows why. It is vital that a team of independent experts visit and sample the carcasses before any more elephants die, or this spills over into the local human population,” said National Geographic explorer Niall McCann.

Corruption Scandal in Vatican: St. Peter’s Basilica raided, document and computers seized

By
The Commune
-

The Vatican police have seized computers and documents from the department in charge of maintenance and restoration at St. Peter’s Basilica as part of investigation in relation to a corruption scandal.

The raid comes around one month after the Vatican Church had published new procurement rules intended to prevent corruption and cut costs.

The police had acted under orders from Vatican prosecutors in response to a report by the city state’s auditor general, The Holy See Press Office said.

Vatican magistrates ordered the raid based on the tip-off received from the office of the general auditor, the statement said. A commissioner has been appointed by the Pope to run the department temporarily.

It is said that the raid has something to do with awarding of contract for updating statues.

Pope Francis admitted last year that there exists financial corruption in the Vatican. He even described it as a scandal. “There is corruption, it’s clear. With the interrogations, we will see if they are guilty or not. It is an ugly thing, it’s not nice for this to happen in the Vatican,” the Pope said during an in-flight press conference while on the way back from Japan in November 2019.

The Vatican, last month, had introduced a new law aimed at boosting transparency in tenders and cutting costs through competitive bidding. The legislation brought the Holy See in line with international standards. The changes will “significantly reduce the danger of corruption”, Francis said in his written introduction to the law.

Source: Organiser

AltNews Epic Fail: “Fact check” website gets fact-check wrong, tries to make it up, fails again

By
The Commune
-

AltNews, a propaganda vehicle masquerading as fact-check website failed miserably yet again for wrongly “fact-checking”.

In a recent article, the website sought to debunk a video of Apache helicopters flying over a lake that was widely circulated in social media.

The video is actually one that of an Apache flying over Lake Havasu in Arizona. While the article titled “Video of Apache helicopters flying over Lake Havasu in Arizona, US viral as Pangong, Ladakh” bust the fake news that was getting circulated as Apaches flying over Ladakh’s Pangong Tso, it miserably failed by wrongly attributing a Twitter user of peddling fake news.

The Twitter user Mihir Shah who is also a defence journalist and has his by-lines at Livefist (a top defence news portal), Newslaundry and Swarajya had in his Twitter sarcastically remarked “The Indian Navy’s Sea King helicopters with mast-mounted sonars conducting anti-submarine operations at Pangong Tso”.

Clearly the defence journalist was making a sarcastic remark by saying “anti-submarine operations in Pangong Tso”.

However, the writers at Alt News failed to differentiate between good humour sarcasm and fake news and misattributed Mihir Shah as a peddler of fake news.

https://twitter.com/ShivAroor/status/1278708428274200577

Well, you know what they say about sarcasm. If you don’t, click here.

Also, AltNews in their article mentioned that Apache helicopters in the video are black in colour. However, Mihir Shah pointed out that American helicopters are acutally dark green.

No. It doesn’t stop there. They go on to claim that “a roundel identifies that the vessel belongs to IAF” and this input they claim to have received it from a “serving IAF officer”.

However, this fact-check too turned out wrong.

The fact checking website came out with a clarification that read “Mihir Shah who is an aviation writer and a contributor to Livefest, clarified that his post was sarcastic. However, since it was one of the earliest tweets mentioning Pangong Tao, it led to false calims”

There are two spelling errors in the above tweet. They got the name of Livefist wrong. Instead of Livefist, the AltNews clarification read “Livefest”.

They also mentioned Pangong Tso lake as Pangong “Tao”.

AltNews badly needs to spell-check before it goes about fact-checks!

Bye-Bye Cam Scanner, Say Hi To Zoho Doc Scanner

By
Preetika Parashuraman
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Since the ban of 59 Chinese-owned apps was announced in India, people have been looking for alternatives. If you are looking for an alternative for Cam Scanner, Zoho Doc Scanner seems to be the way forward. 

Zoho announced that their Doc Scanner will be free for users in India for a year starting from 2 July, 2020. 

Zoho Doc Scanner has been upgraded with features that you will require in a scanner application. 

Its free edition offers a plethora of tools to make scanning documents convenient. It has the ability to convert an image into text. Users will be able to annotate their scanned documents and create unlimited workflows. The documents will be auto-uploaded to cloud services that are secured with passcodes. 

The Premium plan includes features that enable its users to translate their documents into 17 languages. The documents can be restored at any time as they are backed up automatically. The user can also e-sign up to 10 documents. 

The application is planning to add a feature to import a PDF in the near future. 

Zoho is an Indian software development company founded by Sridhar Vembu.  It is present in seven countries with its global headquarters in Chennai, India. They operate with a primary goal to solve real-world problems via products they develop.

Modi government mulls over inclusion of third gender in paramilitary forces

By
The Commune
-

The Ministry of Home Affairs has asked the views of the Central Armed Police Forces on the matter of inclusion of members from transgender community into the forces.

The MHA in the letter dated July 1 said the ministry is yet to receive comments from CAPF, CRPF, ITBP, SSB and CISF for incorporating the issues on transgender as Third gender along with Male/Female in the rules of CAPF (Assistant Commandants) Examination, 2020.

“They are once again requested to examine the issue and furnish comments to this Ministry by July 2 positively for taking a final view on the matter”, the letter read.

The exam is scheduled to be held in December, 2020. If the MHA receives positive comments from the said agencies, UPSC will include the third gender in the application forms.

As of now, there exists no provision for inducting members of the transgender community into the armed forces.

TN CM takes cognisance of murder and rape of 7 year old child, assures strict action against perpetrators

By
The Commune
-

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said on Thursday that strict action will be taken against the perpetrators involved in the heinous crime where a 7 year old child was brutally raped and killed.

He tweeted that the he was shaken by the incident and assured that strict action will be by law.

He also conveyed his condolences to the family.

A 7 year old girl (name not disclosed) in Aranthangi of Pudukottai district was brutally raped and murdered reportedly by 3 men. A man named Raja from Yembal village has been arrested by the police.

Karnataka’s unsung hero applauded by the Government

By
Preetika Parashuraman
-

Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has given Kamegowda a free lifetime bus pass to recognize his initiatives for the environment.

Kamegowda, also known as Pond-Anna is from Daasanadoddi village in a district called Mandya located in Karnataka.

He aims to create ponds in his village for thirst birds and animals. As of now, he has already created more than 10 ponds with many more on its way.

He is an 84-year old shepherd. Decades ago, while he was taking his sheep for grazing, he noticed the sad plight of his sheep who could not satisfy their thirst.

According to sources, he makes use of his earnings from work and awards to create and maintain ponds. He spends his earnings on agricultural equipment for digging of grounds.

Initially, his family expressed apprehension as they wanted him to spend his earnings on his family. Later, when he began receiving attention from the media and awards for his service to the environment, his family realized the importance of his efforts.

In the recent ‘Maan Ki Baat’ address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi applauded the unsung hero for his efforts to safeguard the environment.

Kannada filmmaker Dayal Padmanaban announced that he intends to film a documentary about Kamegowda in Kannada and English. He plans to begin shooting in July and hopes to spread the inspirational story to a worldwide audience.

 

Source: ANI

2 booked for kicking Nandi idol to make ‘sensational’ TikTok video

By
The Commune
-

Two persons – Jayesh Chudasma (27) and Dinesh Mahida (25) were arrested by the Rajkot Police for kicking and breaking a Nandi idol at a temple in the hapar Veraval industrial zone on Wednesday.

Both of them were reportedly labourers who wanted to make a video to create a ‘sensation’ in social media.

They had made the video and circulated in Whatsapp, TikTok, and other social media platforms on June 28, a day before India announced the ban on 59 Chinese apps.

In the video, Chudasma can be seen kicking the Nandi idol and also the temple door.

The complaint was filed by Karan Parmar, a resident of Metoda GIDC and the culprits were arrested. It was reported that the labourers were drunk and were even found smoking in the temple premises.

They came out with another video apologizing for their act.

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TheCommune
The Commune is a news and views portal focusing on social and political issues of the southern part of India with a focus on Tamil Nadu.
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