NewsBytes

The top diplomats of Britain, France, and Germany threatened to reimpose sanctions on Iran as an end-of-the-month deadline nears for the country to resume negotiations with the West over its nuclear programme and cooperation with the United Nations nuclear watchdog. The three countries, known as the E3, wrote in a letter to the United Nations dated Friday that they were willing to trigger a process known as the “snapback” mechanism, which allows one of the Western parties to reimpose UN sanctions if Tehran doesn't comply with its requirements. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot posted the letter Wednesday to social media platform X. He co-signed it along with top diplomats from Germany and the United Kingdom.  “E3 have always committed to use all diplomatic tools at our disposal to ensure Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon,” the letter said. “We have made clear that if Iran is not willing to reach a diplomatic solution before the end of August 2025, or does not seize the opportunity of an extension, E3 are prepared to trigger the snapback mechanism.” The letter comes following a period of apparent diplomatic deadlock after a 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June, where Israeli and American jets struck some key nuclear-related facilities in the Islamic Republic.

Over six in every one thousand deliveries in India in 2020 could have been a stillbirth, with higher rates among urban mothers compared to rural, according to an analysis of data from national surveys and the civil registration system. Researchers, including those from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Gorakhpur, and the Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi, also identified that stillbirth hotspots are located primarily in northern and central India. Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Rajasthan in north India recorded the highest rates of stillbirth, the findings published in The Lancet Regional Health Southeast Asia journal show. The team analysed data gathered from the fifth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) and the 2020 report of the civil registration system, which is managed by the Ministry of Home Affairs and records vital events, including births, deaths and stillbirths across India.

The Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park in Pune has been asked to take measures to prevent any threats to its animals after Malignant Catarrhal Fever was detected in the samples of a deer that died there, officials said on Wednesday. MCF is a severe, often fatal, viral disease primarily affecting ruminants like cattle, deer, and bison. Between July 10 and July 16, as many as 16 deer had died at the civic body-managed Pune zoo. The samples of the dead animals were sent to multiple labs, including the ICAR - National Institute on Foot and Mouth Disease, Bhubaneswar, and the Bhopal-based ICAR - National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases, officials said.  According to the report from the Bhubaneswar lab, Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) was the primary cause of the deer deaths. Meanwhile, the Bhopal lab's report pointed to the detection of Malignant Catarrhal Fever (MCF) in one of the 16 dead deer samples.

Getting it right if you're born a left-hander… it's just tough in a world armed, attuned and aligned to the other side. School desks are modelled for those right-handed as are scissors, spiral notepads, can openers and incredibly even ladles and sauce pans which have spouts on the left. And, of course, the buttons on a computer mouse have to be reconfigured. The very many everyday details right-handed people take so much for granted. Add to it all, stigma and prejudice. In fact, the word sinister comes from a Latin word meaning “on the left side”. “The association of ‘left' with ‘evil' is likely because of the dominance of right-handed people within a population,” says the Merriam Webster dictionary. The world celebrates left-handers on International Left-Handers Day on Wednesday.