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Eco/Invest/Demography

China says G4 swine flu virus not new; does not infect humans easily

That study, by a team of Chinese scientists and published by the U.S. journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), warned that a new swine flu virus, named G4, has become more infectious to humans and could become a potential “pandemic virus.”However, China’s agriculture ministry said in a statement that the study has been interpreted by the media “in an exaggerated and nonfactual way.”

An analysis by the ministry concluded that sampling of the published study is too small to be representative, while the article lacks adequate evidence to show the G4 virus has become the dominant strain among pigs.

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Atal Pension Yojana subscribers can change contribution amount anytime during year

The PFRDA further said from July 1, 2020 auto-debit of APY contributions has also started, which was stopped till June 30 in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak.

As per current arrangements, if all the pending APY contributions due between April-August, 2020 get auto-debited from savings account of the subscribers, latest by September 30, then no penal interest would be charged to them.

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Trump admin says foreign students must leave US if classes go online

According to immigration attorney Cyrus Mehta, the latest one-pager policy announcement means three things: Students enrolled in US universities that are moving to an online-only education model will be barred from getting F-1 visas, they will be stopped from entering the US on F-1 visas and not allowed to maintain F-1 status in the Fall semester.

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Fujitsu to halve office space in three years citing ‘new normal’

The IT solutions company said its roughly 80,000 group employees in Japan would work flexible hours, and work-from-home would be standard wherever possible.“We will overhaul our current work, allowance and welfare framework that is based on the assumption that employees commute to designated offices every day,” Hiroki Hiramatsu, head of the human resources unit, told a news briefing.

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WHO halts hydroxychloroquine,HIV drugs in COVID trials after failure to reduce death

“These interim trial results show that hydroxychloroquine and lopinavir/ritonavir produce little or no reduction in the mortality of hospitalised COVID-19 patients when compared to standard of care. Solidarity trial investigators will interrupt the trials with immediate effect,” the WHO said in a statement, referring to large multicountry trials that the agency is leading.

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