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Eco/Invest/Demography

WHO reports third straight daily record in virus cases

According to the WHO’s figures, there have been more than 42.3 million confirmed cases of the respiratory disease, while nearly 1.15 million people have lost their lives, including 6,570 on Saturday.

Nearly half of Saturday’s new cases were registered in the WHO’s Europe region, which logged a one-day record high of 221,898 cases.

In total, more than nine million cases have now been registered in the region.

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Apple fixes 6 malicious apps posing as Adobe Flash installers

Cyber criminals managed to pass malicious apps through the Apple app “notarization” process for the second time this year, reports ZDNet.
The six new notarised apps posed as Flash installers.

Once installed, the apps would download and install the OSX/MacOffers adware.

OSX/MacOffers is known for modifying the search engine in the victim’s browser.

The six malicious apps have now been de-notarised by Apple.

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Xi’s carbon neutrality vow to reshape China’s five-year plan

“The understanding is that there is no time to waste if China is to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.,said Kevin Lo, Associate Director at the David C. Lam Institute for East-West Studies in Hong Kong, who studies China’s environmental policies.

Experts say China needs to bring the share of coal in its total energy mix from 58% last year to less than 50% by 2025, and provide enhanced support for technology like carbon capture.

It could start by setting an absolute emissions cap for the first time, said Zou Ji, head of the Energy Foundation China, which has been involved in five-year plan research.

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LIC IPO may spill over to next fiscal as govt looks at valuation of insurer

Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said the pre-IPO work of LIC is going on at four stages — appointment of advisors for ensuring compliance, legislative amendment, LIC’s internal software changes to come out with its ’embedded value’ and appointing an actuary for vetting LIC’s actuarial valuation.
Pandey said only after the four stages converge, then a decision would be taken on the quantum of government stake to be diluted in LIC.
“We are trying our best to do this fiscal. But this IPO is a big issue and I think it will take time,” Pandey said when asked if the offering would happen this fiscal.

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South Korea urges people to get flu vaccinations despite death tolls

“Vaccination offers far greater benefits compared to side effects, and both the WHO and domestic and overseas experts agree,” Health Minister Park Neung-hoo told a briefing on Sunday, in a reference to the World Health Organization.

Last year, more than 1,500 elderly people died within seven days of receiving flu vaccines, but those deaths were not linked to the vaccinations, the government said.

As South Korea presses on with its inoculations, southeast Asia’s tiny city state of Singapore became one of the first nations this week to call a temporary halt to the use of two influenza vaccines, as a precaution.

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