NEW DELHI, Mar 7: Three more people were tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 virus in India on Saturday. While two cases were from Ladakh, which were sourced to Iran, one of the four countries worst hit by coronavirus, the other from Tamil Nadu had come from Oman. With this the total number of infected people has gone up to 34.

Earlier cases were reported from, among others, Delhi- NCR, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Kerala. Three people who had returned from Wuhan, where it all started, to Kerala had got cured last last month.

Coronavirus Updates: The breakup of 34 positive cases in India so far:-

Delhi - 19 (from Mayur Vihar 1, Janakpuri - Gurugram PayTM staff 1, Uttam Nagar 1, Ghaziabad 1, Italian tourists 14 at Medanta hospital, Italian tourists' driver 1 at Safdrjung Hospital)

Tamil Nadu - 1

Jaipur - 2 (Italian tourist couple in SMS Hospital)

Ladakh - 2 (Had travelled to Iran)

Hyderabad - 1

Kerala - 3 (cured)

Agra - 6 (relatives of patient from Mayur Vihar, Delhi)

Swab samples of 110 Indians arrive from Iran

Today morning a special flight brought here swab samples of 110 Indians stranded in Iran for testing, after which those who clear it will be evacuated here. Those who test positive will be kept ata health facility in Iran itself, according to the health ministry. The flight that brought the samples has flown back with the Iranians here in return trip.

Contact-tracing, airport-seaport screening on

The contact-tracing and airport, seaport screening are continuing vigorously in a systematic programme to contain the spread of coronavirus here in India.

Screening of all international passengers started on January 17, and the Delhi airport sent 14 passengers who had symptoms to hospitals so far, after screening 2,40,000. 30 other airports also are screening passengers. Delhi registers about 25,000 fliers a day.

Separate exit facilities for passengers from 12 countries

The exit of passengers from 12 countries affected by coronavirus is segregated from other passengers at the IGIA as a preventive step against transmission of coronavirus, from today.

The arrangements include separate baggage belt, customs clearance and pick-up points. The 12 countries are: China, South Korea, Iran, Italy, Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal, Vietnam and Indonesia. There are separate screening counters for passengers from other countries.

Avoid handshakes, say 'Namaste': Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggested today in the context of the spreading coronavirus infection that people should avoid shaking hands and instead fold their own hands and say 'Namaste' to greet each other as was used to in India.

"If due to some reason we have discontinued the habit of (saying) 'Namaste', it is the right time to once again take this up instead of handshakes," he said.

Coronavirus Updates: 15 new cases of coronavirus in UAE

DUBAI: With 15 new cases of coronavirus reported today, the infections in the UAE have reached 45. The health ministry said of the 15, 13 arrived from other countries, including one from India. The 13 are from Emirates (3), Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Iran (2 each), Thiland, Morocco, China and India (one each).

Coronavirus Updates: Another Iranian lawmaker dies

TEHRAN: An Iranian lawmaker died of coronavirus tody, IRNA said. Fatemeh Rahbar,55, was recently elected as MP from Tehran. She is the second lawmaker to die of coronavirus infection. The virus has so far claimed a total of seven politicians and officials.

TOLL: New deaths: 21 ; Total deaths: 145; New cases: 1,076; Total cases: 5,823

Coronavirus Updates: A second lawmaker tests positive in France

PARIS: A second member of the French parliament's Lower House has tested positive for coronavirus. Five more are under observation. There were 103 new cases today, taking the tlly to 716. Eleven people have died.

Coronavirus Updates: Quarantine hotel collapses in China

BEIJING: An 80-room hotel used as a quarantine for coronavirus suspects collapsed in China's Quanzhou city today, trapping 70 people.

Coronavirus Updates: 21 test positive on Grand Princess

SAN FRANCISCO: The Grand Princess which has not been allowed entry here has 21 passengers testing positive for coronavirus. It has on board 2,400 passengers and 1,100 crew. They are quarantined pending another round of tests.

Coronavirus Updates: The toll

GENEVA: The global death toll in the coronavirus outbreak has reached 3,500 with the total cases at 1,04,900 in 95 countries.

ITALY: Death toll 36 today, total 233; Todays' cases: 1,247, total: 5,883

Five people were arrested from a banquet hall in Sector 51 Noida on Thursday where they were called to hold a rave party in a trap laid by the animal rights group, PFA. They named Yadav but he was not present.

Betting through Dubai-based Mahadev Book in India is conducted through a countrywide network. Probes reveal that the online gambling is worth several millions and top politicians, officials and celebs have been beneficiaries.

TAILPIECE: Polling dates for some States are round the corner. Top politicians have begun their acrimonious debate who looted more, even as Mahadev is washing their dirty laundry in the open ghat. Come what may, one needs to seize power to amass "thy wretched pelf!" One simple question is, why else one should spend lakhs or crores to get elected! A question every Indian should ask to oneself at least once a day!

His inaction amounts to defeating the rights of the people of the State to welfare measures sought to be implemented through the Bills, the Kerala Government's petition submitted, while the State of Tamil Nadu remarked that its "Governor is acting as a political rival."

Tailpiece: Coming up back to back, the petitions in their totality seem to question the provision of Raj Bhavan, and not motives of a Governor as a person.

Hundreds of cars piled up behind the wreckage of crashes occurring one after other in backing up - continuous crashes to the rhythm of metallic clanks and bangs back to back. According to reports, some ops required 'Jaws of Life' to pull apart the mangled cars to save lives inside.

The pilots struggled with Emerson to thwart a shut-off as he reached for the T-handles (see pix). Later he admitted to police he had taken psychedelic mushrooms and had a "nervous breakdown."

Doctors reasoned how the incidence of heart attacks is spiking over time and advise the simple way to play safely is to take a break and rehydrate yourself.

But how come ten people, including children, die of cardiac arrest at Garba in 24 hours, and that at different places of Gujarat? Garba had been going on for six days, and every year it is celebrated.

The killing of a teacher in France by an Islamic radical last Friday is linked to the Israel-Hamas war in West Asia, say authorities.

Shocking news from the UK: Leading grocers have started bribing policemen with free food and drinks to persuade them to take action against shoplifters.

Shoplifting has risen by about 27 per cent in 10 major cities across the UK this year. The cost of retail crime last year was $2.15 billion. Besides, “We are seeing organised gangs threatening staff with weapons and emptying stores," Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said. Data shows that the police failed to respond to 73 per cent of serious retail crimes that included assault and abuse of workers, apart from shoplifting.

Isar Mohammad allegedly picked up a banana offered to Ganesh idol on Chaturthi at a makeshift temple in Delhi and consumed it.

Harris said hip-hop is “the ultimate American art form” that “shapes every aspect of American popular culture.” “Hip-hop culture is American culture,” she said in a talk at her official residence at the US Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C.

The social media had mixed reaction. There was much appreciation that she dances better than any VP in American history. But some called her "moves" as “cringe” while others did not like her pink pants - "pink pants don’t look good.” In fact, her ensembles have always been incongruous.

"Let’s see how the (Governor's) Vice-Chancellors are given salary." Mamata's extreme statements will put the Marxist Government in Kerala, which is also facing similar issues, to shame. Has she begun the countdown for a war on the streets?

It's true Mamata has come to see a conspiracy to demolish the established systems across the country, but lacks the ability to foresee what exactly is being pushed.

Brandishing a sword, Mahant Paramhans told reporters on Tuesday he himself will behead MK Stalin's son for his remarks against Sanatan Dharma in case nobody came forward to accept his offer he made in his video. Udhayanidhi reacted to the saint's Monday video, "I will speak more. I am the grandson of the artist who put his head on the rail track for Tamil Nadu."

Somanath elaborated, "I am an explorer. I explore the Moon. I explore the inner space. So it's a part of the journey of my life to explore both science and spirituality. So I visit many temples and I read many scriptures. So try to find the meaning of our existence and our journey in this cosmos. So it's a part of the culture that we are all built to explore, find out the inner self as well as outer self. So for the outer, I do science, for the inner I come to temples." (See videos)

Rao the mathematical legend had fathered the path-breaking Rao-Blackwell theorem, one of the most important theorems in mathematical statistics, at the age of 25. That brought him global fame. He is also famous for his Cramér-Rao Bound inequality theorem relating to quality of estimators in statistics which has had a profound bearing on applications of modern economics and several other diverse fields. Simply put, with the pioneering statistician computation became a tool to analyse even socio-economic challenges of modern times.

The alleged incident has received such a flash publicity that a standardised city's hugely middle class population will have second thoughts about eating outside for some time. Now everything on the table looks suspicious!

“All subjects directly connected to the people should be shifted to the State List. Particularly the subject of education. Only if this is done can cruel exams like NEET be abolished,” Stalin said. Education was moved from the State List to the Concurrent List with the 42nd Constitution Amendment made by the Central Government in 1976.

Decentralisation has been at the core of Tamil politics since the times of CN Annadurai. Stalin indicated there will be political changes in the offing.

TAILPIECE: While the Centre and the States are at loggerheads, it takes a different cognitive acumen to know that entrance tests are not the way for students' admission to courses.

As recently as Tuesday Craig Robertson had posted on Facebook: "Perhaps Utah will become famous this week as the place a sniper took out Biden the Marxist." Biden was scheduled to make his first visit to Utah as President Wednesday afternoon.

Maruti is recalling 87,599 S-Presso and Eeco vehicles to inspect and possibly replace parts in the steering system. All reputed companies around the world do recall their products when a defect comes to light.

Meanwhile, a question arises why just in about a year so many accidents have taken place involving Mercedes sent to India while the car has won safety awards abroad? In most cases, the vehicle collided with divider, while manoeuvring a turn. Was there a split second delay in the steering system coming to a grip when at high speed? Did anybody in India bother to study a pattern in several of these accidents that took place one after other?

Former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry died when his Mercedes-Benz-SUV hit a divider in Gujarat. Cricketer Rishabh Pant's Mercedes-Benz-SUV rammed a divider in Uttarakhand and smashed. It went up in flames but he escaped with injuries. Brother of PM Narendra Modi, Prahlad Modi's Mercedes-Benz-SUV met with a similar accident in Mysuru. And many more.

• Experts blame violation of the Visual Flying Rules (VFR) for most of the chopper crashes in the mountains as the leading cause. VFR means fly only visually - because of the lack of navigation aids in remote areas or unreliability of GPS-like aids in hilly terrains or a remote manipulation of instruments in cases of sabotage - as the topography plays havoc especially in the monsoon (mid-June to September).
• Even when VFR is followed, most crashes occur due to CFIT (Controlled Flight into Terrain) - that is, everything else is OK but the aircraft collides with hills or trees hidden by the clouds. This also occurs mostly in the monsoon.
• On Tueday with Manang, the chopper was brand new, pilot was highly experienced. But it hit an 'invisible' tree and then crashed against a hillside. This CFIT occurred when the pilot tried to dodge patches of clouds even as he was following the VFR.
• Simply put, everyone knows flying in the hills during the monsoon is risky, but the companies want to make more money in any which case. This type of tragedy is very frequently invited in the Indian hill State of Uttarakhand as well, where pilots are even made to fly without the mandatory rest.