As
Italy closes down non-essential businesses, Pornhub will allow Italian
users to access premium content without having to put in their credit
card information.
By
Adam Smith
If you're stuck at home during a global pandemic, what do you do? Pick
up a book? Catch up on the plethora of streaming TV shows? Dial in to
your umpteenth video conference call of the day?
Pornhub is hoping Italians have a little something different in mind. With Italy on lockdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Pornhub is offering its premium service for free to those in Italy during the month of March, The Next Web reports. No credit cards, just click and view.
Meanwhile, a portion of the proceeds from Modelhub, Pornhub's creators
hub, will be donated to local hospitals, The Next Web says.
Pornhub is never one to shy away from a newsy event; it's jumped on the VPN bandwagon, offered Black Friday deals, and launched a Tor site to protect users' privacy.
In the United States, the coronavirus has severely affected technology companies. Just today, MSI extended customers’ warranties by two months so they can focus on their health, while Twitter ordered its near-5,000 strong staff to work from home.
Many tech conventions, including GDC, f8, Google I/O, SXSW, and E3, have been cancelled, and quarantines have affected manufacturing and shipping.
Advertisement
Pure Salon & Spa Koramangla, Bangalore
Led by veteran hair stylist Pure Salon & Spa offers various services from the simple hair cut and styling for women, men, kids, and brides, to vibrant hair colours, conditioning treatments, and Brazilian blowouts. Located at the heart of Koramangla, Bangalore, the salon has been around since 2015, providing professional hair treatments in a relaxed ambience. This is definitely one of our favourite hair salons in Bangalore.
Member churches of the Mizoram Kohhran Hruaitute Committee were asked to
seek God’s intervention so that the State remains safe from novel
coronavirus attack, MKHC general secretary Rev Lalrinsanga said.
A conglomerate of 15 major churches of Mizoram has asked its constituents to seek divine intervention to contain the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, a church leader said on Thursday.
The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared the novel coronavirus a pandemic, saying it has affected more than 1,18,000 people and claimed 4,290 lives worldwide.
“All
the member churches across the State will hold congregational prayer
during church services either on Saturday or Sunday night as per their
convenience,” Lalrinsanga told the PTI.
“We have appealed
to the people to follow and obey the dos and don’ts set by the
government in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus,” the church
leader said.
The church leader also said that the committee held a
meeting in Aizawl on Wednesday during which it expressed concern about
alleged hoarding of essential commodities.
“The church committee appeals to the people not to hoard commodities and hike prices at the time of global crisis,” he said.
To
allay fears of people, officials of State Food, Civil Supplies and
Consumer Affairs Department said there was enough stock of rice, cooking
gas and oil to last for three months.
The State government has formally sealed State borders with neighbouring countries and States on Wednesday.
The closure of borders does not mean disruption of the supply of commodities, the officials said.
An elderly Italian couple who had been married for 60 years died two hours apart of the coronavirus while under lockdown – and their son is heartbroken that he was not allowed to visit them one last time, according to a report.
Luigi Carrara, 86, and Severa Belotti, 82, were confined to their
home in Albino, in the northern province of Bergamo, for eight days
without medical help, according to their son Luca Carrara, the Daily Mail reported.
Carrara’s father, a retired bricklayer, was taken to a local hospital
on Saturday, while his mother was taken there the following day, the
son told the daily Corriere della Sera, the UK news outlet reported.
His parents died on Tuesday – one at 9:15 a.m. and the other at 11 a.m., according to the report.
“They died alone, that’s how this virus works,” the distraught son said.
“Your loved ones are left alone and you can’t even say goodbye, hug
them, try to give them some comfort. [You can’t even tell them] a good
lie like, ‘Everything will be fine,’” added Carrara, a utility worker
who is under quarantine with his family.
The grieving son took to Facebook to bid his parents farewell.
“Hello, Mom and Dad, this evil virus has taken you both the same day,
will you continue arguing up there?” he wrote. “Surely, but then you
will end with a hug.”
He added, chillingly, that his parents’ bodies have been removed to a
cemetery, but “it will take a few days to cremate them because there
are too many dead.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appears to have fled Pyongyang for fear of the coronavirus epidemic there.
"Intelligence
analysis suggests that Kim Jong-un has been away from Pyongyang for a
considerable time," a government source here said on Tuesday. "This
appears to be connected with the coronavirus outbreak."
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (right)
smiles as he watches a firing drill in Sondok, South Hamgyong Province
on Monday, in this photo from the [North] Korean Central Television on
Tuesday. /Yonhap
Kim is reportedly staying in Wonsan, Kangwon
Province, where he last made a public appearance during military drills,
a Unification Ministry spokesman said.
He oversaw the test-firing
of super-large multiple rocket launchers in Wonsan on March 2 and in
Sondok, South Hamgyong Province, around 60 km from Wonsan on Monday.
Kim has his favorite dacha in Wonsan.
Rush hour in Hong Kong, where nearly 130 people are infected with the new coronavirus, on Wednesday.
Hong Kong blue chips have plunged by more than
900 points after the WHO declared a global pandemic from the
coronavirus that surfaced in China in December.
The benchmark Hang Seng Index has sunk now by 924.75 points, or 3.67 percent at 24,306.86.
China's Meituan Dianping (3690) shed more than 6 percent at HK$89.90.
In Tokyo, stocks extended their losses. The benchmark Nikkei is down by 5.27 percent, or 1,022 points at 18,393.34.
In Australia, the benchmark ASX 200 index also slumped and is now down by 6.21 percent, or 355.50 points at 5,370.40.
In
Seoul, stocks are sinking. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price
(KOSPI) Index fell 19.70 points, or 1.03 percent, to 1,888.57 in the
first 15 minutes of trading.
On Wednesday, the KOSPI plunged by nearly 3 percent to 1,908.27 points, the lowest level since February 17, 2016.
Protesters carry a national flag during a rally against the citizenship act in Calcutta on Thursday. (AP)
February 2020, New Delhi: A journalist
with a Hindi news portal was assaulted in riot-hit Maujpur in northeast
Delhi and forced to drop his pants to check if he was circumcised.
Rioters in Maujpur had also threatened to take the pants off a
photojournalist to confirm his religion before he was let off.
Last
Sunday, the unspeakable depravity that unfolded on the streets of
Ahmedabad and Delhi gate-crashed a doctor’s cabin in Calcutta and preyed
on a mother’s worst fears.
The paediatric surgeon, Subhasis Saha,
had conducted a procedure called circumcision on the woman’s child for
medical, not religious, reasons.
The surgeon had explained to the family, who does not belong to
any religion that mandates circumcision, that surgeries for phimosis
are performed through either of the two procedures — circumcision or
preputioplasty.
“Preputioplasty helps retain the foreskin which
is lost in the case of circumcision. But preputioplasty is far more
challenging than getting rid of the foreskin. It involves curing the
foreskin, saving it and ensuring that the situation does not recur
warranting another procedure later,” the surgeon explained.
That
Sunday, the surgeon had to perform two surgeries for phimosis in the
Calcutta hospital. “Both the patients were from a community that doesn’t
mandate the procedure. For one child, I could undertake preputioplasty.
However, for absolute medical reasons, circumcision was the only way
out for the other kid,” Saha recounted.
“When I told the child’s mother that I had to opt for circumcision, her face fell,” the surgeon said.
“The
woman’s brother told me that his sister was worried about the operation
ever since she read reports about the two journalists who were caught
in the recent riots and the way they were made to prove their religious
identity,” Saha said.
He added: “A socio-political crisis has come to influence a medical intervention.”
“It
has not been many days since the northeast Delhi riots, but it has
already left an indelible scar on the minds of parents of kids who have
been advised surgery for phimosis. The parents are worried because their
religion do not require them to undergo the process, but it has to be
done for pure medical reasons. They have already worked the Internet and
are suggesting that I undertake preputioplasty,” the surgeon added.
For
medical reasons, more than 2,000 circumcisions, including on adults,
are performed by general surgeons, urologists, paediatric and plastic
surgeons every month in Calcutta and its surroundings alone, doctors
said, adding that it was a conservative figure.
The Sunday incident does not appear to be an isolated one.
Another
doctor who also performs surgeries for phimosis but didn’t want to be
named said: “In the past few weeks, a couple of parents have approached
me with requests to retain the skin. In our WhatsApp group, doctors are
debating this trend with concern.”
Uday Shankar Chatterjee, who
pioneered preputioplasty in the city a little over two decades ago,
said: “When I had started the procedure, it was about saving the prepuce
or foreskin for medical reasons. In the context of the Delhi riots, it
gives a new dimension to the procedure.”
A Calcuttan whose son
had to undergo the procedure a few years ago recalled: “It was after the
Gujarat riots but it did not even occur to me then that what some thugs
did there will have any bearing on my child here in Calcutta. My son’s
health was my sole concern.”
“When the doctor recommended
circumcision for my son, I readily agreed. Now, I think what has
happened to our country of late is making us fear that such horrors need
not be confined to distant places. They can happen anywhere now,” he
added.
Sociologist Surajit C. Mukhopadhyay said: “This shows how
innocent people are getting drawn into the vortex of fear and that they
are trying to build a defence mechanism in a possible riot situation.”
He
pointed out: “The parents are aware that scientific explanation will
not wash with the bloodthirsty mob. So, they are trying to keep their
children safe.”
Mukhopadhyay added: “People who are not honed into
the majority and minority binary are trying to publicly show their
allegiance to the majority out of fear. This is almost a reflection of
what thousands of Germans did when they displayed their support for the
Nazis. Fear has overtaken democracy, and civil edifices are being
systematically destroyed. We are being pushed back to an era we had
supposedly left long ago.”
Psychologist Mohor Mala Chatterjee
echoed Mukhopadhyay. “Such actions of parents show how deep the threat
runs. Whether children or adults, the anxiety over the medical process
will definitely weigh negatively on their mind.”
advertisement
Pure Salon & Spa Koramangla, Bangalore
Led by veteran hair stylist Pure Salon & Spa offers various services from the simple hair cut and styling for women, men, kids, and brides, to vibrant hair colours, conditioning treatments, and Brazilian blowouts. Located at the heart of Koramangla, Bangalore, the salon has been around since 2015, providing professional hair treatments in a relaxed ambience. This is definitely one of our favourite hair salons in Bangalore.
Hollywood stars Tom Hanks and Rita wife
Wilson have been diagnosed with the deadly coronavirus while in
Australia for the pre-production of an untitled Elvis Presley movie.
'PureFit Kothanur in Bangalore provides dance and fitness with personal training. This is a women led fitness and dance center providing Zumba, Aerobics, Bolly Aerobics, Power Yoga, Personal Training. We are devoted to the job of ensuring that every member who joins the dance or fitness has the best experience possible.'
