Denmark's parliament banned the wearing of face coverings in public spaces Thursday in a move that critics say will criminalize Muslim women who choose to wear the niqab or burqa.

The measure will come into force on August 1, Reuters news agency reported. Fines will range from 1,000 Danish crowns ($160) for a first offense to 10,000 crowns for a fourth violation, the news agency said.
The ban is the latest in a series to be approved by European lawmakers. A ban on wearing the full-face veil in public went into force in France in 2011. Restrictions on full-face veils are also in place in Belgium, Austria and parts of Switzerland, while other European countries have debated the issue.

Lawmakers in Quebec, Canada, passed a bill last October that would require public workers and citizens seeking government services to have their faces uncovered.

NEW DELHI:  World No Tobacco Day is observed across the world on May 31.Tobacco is one of the most common forms of addiction. Even though scientific evidences have revealed its harmful health effects, the use of tobacco in different forms has seen a dramatic increase, especially in the developing countries.

A Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS-2) report shows that India is the second largest consumer of tobacco products with 28.6 percent of the population addicted to it in any form. Of this, 10.7 per cent smoke, and 21.4 percent use Smokeless Tobacco. Of the 346 million global Smokeless Tobacco consumers, India alone has 152.4 million consumers with a substantial increase across all age groups.

This potentially lethal substance is responsible for more than 1 in 10 deaths globally, with India featuring among the top four users of tobacco. About 11.2 per cent smokers worldwide are Indian.

Microsoft has surpassed Alphabet, the parent company of Google, in the market capitalisation for the first time in three years, becoming the third most valuable firm after Apple and Amazon globally.

According to a report in Investor’s Business Daily late Tuesday, Microsoft is also hot on the heels of Amazon, the second largest company in the world – sitting at $782 billion (£588 billion). At the top of the pack is Apple – which, with a market valuation of $923 billion (£694 billion), isn’t going anywhere soon.

As The Verge points out, Google generates around 90% of its revenue directly from advertising, and 60% of Apple’s entire revenue is also attributable to iPhone sales which could see billions wiped from its valuation if sales slow.

Microsoft, however, has grown much of its business through hardware, software and services. In its latest earnings report, Microsoft’s Windows, Surface and Xbox divisions chalked up to around 35% of its revenue. Cloud services clocked in at around 30% and Office and productivity solutions at another 30%.

The World Trade Organisation’s dispute settlement body has agreed to set up a panel to examine America's allegations against certain alleged export subsidy measures in India.

Last month, the U.S. dragged India to the WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism over export subsidies, saying that these incentives were harming the American companies. “At its meeting on 28 May, the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body agreed to a request from the United States for the establishment of a dispute panel to examine certain alleged export subsidy measures in India,” the WTO said in a statement.

The U.S. has stated that all WTO members, including India, are required to provide subsidies consistent with provisions of the WTO's Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, including refraining from providing subsidies contingent upon export performance.

Credit rating agency Moody's on Wednesday cut its forecast for India's GDP growth in 2018 to 7.3 percent from 7.5 percent earlier.

The government will release GDP data for the quarter ended March on Thursday at 05:30 pm. Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg on Monday said it was expected that annual growth was between 7.3 and 7.5 percent in the March quarter.

• Vikas Gowda's retirement was announced by the Athletics Federation of India on its twitter page

• Gowda, who holds the national record of 66.28m, is one of the most decorated Indian athletes

• His retirement came just a few months before the Asian Games in Indonesia

NASA scientists have discovered a special kind of neutron star for the first time outside of the Milky Way galaxy, and released a stunning image of the stellar body located 200,000 light years from Earth.

Neutron stars are the ultra-dense cores of massive stars that collapse and undergo a supernova explosion.

The newly identified neutron star, discovered using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, is a rare variety that has both a low magnetic field and no stellar companion. 

LUCKNOW: The 13th edition of bilateral annual military Exercise Surya Kiran, between India and Nepal Army commenced at Pithoragarh on Wednesday.

Over 300 soldiers from both the countries will take part in this exercise, which will ensure better coordination between armies of both the countries in disaster management, anti-terrorism operations and strengthening of the bilateral relations.

The aim of the exercise is a joint training of troops in counter-insurgency, counter-terrorism operations in both jungle and mountainous terrain and disaster management.

Surya Kiran can be termed as the facade of long-standing strategic ties between India and Nepal.

With the focus on the implementation of key India-assisted projects and building the trust between two countries, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Nepal, after which it was assumed that battalion level military exercise will strenthen the Indo-Nepal relations in many aspects.

The Papua New Guinean government will ban Facebook for a month in a bid to crack down on “fake users” and study the effects the website is having on the population.

The communication minister, Sam Basil, said the shutdown would allow his department’s analysts to carry out research and analysis on who was using the platform, and how they were using it, admits rising concerns about social well-being, security and productivity.

“The time will allow information to be collected to identify users that hide behind fake accounts, users that upload pornographic images, users that post false and misleading information on Facebook to be filtered and removed,” Basil told the Post Courier newspaper. “This will allow genuine people with real identities to use the social network responsibly.”

• PM Modi said India and Indonesia have agreed to upgrade their ties to comprehensive strategic partnership.

• He also said that India and Indonesia will double their efforts to take bilateral trade to $50 billion by 2025.