Former Fisheries Minister S. Jennifer Chandran died of renal failure on Tuesday.

The 61-year-old, who served as a Minister in the DMK government from 1996-2001, passed away at a private hospital in Madurai.

She won from the Tiruchendur Assembly constituency in 1996 and contested unsuccessfully in 2001. She switched over to the AIADMK, where she served as joint secretary of the fisheries wing.

For a brief period, she worked as the district in-charge of the AIADMK, but was removed from the post in 2010. In 2011, she was declared a candidate for the Thoothukudi Assembly constituency, but the decision was changed subsequently. She rejoined the DMK shortly before the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Renowned educationist and founder of the Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan (PSBB) Group of Schools, Mrs. Y.G.Parthasarathy, passed away at a city hospital on Tuesday afternoon. She was 93.

Her son and actor and theatre personality Y. Gee. Mahendra, said that she had been taken to the hospital on Monday after she complained of breathlessness. “She was stable and talking to us. In the afternoon, she asked for something to eat, but then just collapsed. It was a cardiac arrest,” he said.

FRBs are mysterious and powerful flashes of radio waves from space, thought to originate billions of light years from the Earth, said researchers from Swinburne University of Technology in Australia. 

They last for only a few milliseconds or a thousandth of a second and their cause is one of astronomy's biggest puzzles. The system, described in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal

Astronomical Society, has already identified five bursts -- including one of the most energetic ever detected, as well as the broadest. 

Wael Farah from Swinburne University of Technology trained the on-site computer at the Molonglo Radio Observatory in Australia to recognise the signs and signatures of FRBs, and trigger an immediate capture of the finest details seen to date. 

The bursts were detected within seconds of their arrival at the Molonglo Radio Telescope, producing high quality data that allowed the researchers to study their structure accurately, and gather clues about their origin. 

FRBs can potentially be used to study matter around and between galaxies that is otherwise almost impossible to see, Farah said. "It is fascinating to discover that a signal that travelled halfway through the universe, reaching our telescope after a journey of a few billion years, exhibits complex structure, like peaks separated by less than a millisecond," he said. 

"Molonglo's real-time detection system allows us to fully exploit its high time and frequency resolution and probe FRB properties that were previously unobtainable," said Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and project leader Professor Matthew Bailes. 

South Africa fast bowler Dale Steyn on Monday announced his retirement from Test cricket with immediate effect, Cricket South Africa (CSA) confirmed.

However, Steyn confirmed that he is still available for selection in limited-overs games.

“Today I walk away from a format of the game I love so much. In my opinion Test cricket is the best version of this game. It tests you mentally, physically, emotionally,” Steyn was quoted on CSA's Twitter account.

Washington: Scientists have characterised the first potentially habitable world outside our own solar system located about 31 light-years away.

The super-Earth planet — named GJ 357 d — was discovered in early 2019 owing to NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a mission designed to comb the heavens for exoplanets, according to the research published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

"This is exciting, as this is humanity's first nearby super-Earth that could harbour life — uncovered with help from TESS, our small, mighty mission with a huge reach," said Lisa Kaltenegger, associate professor of astronomy at Cornell University in the US and a member of the TESS science team.

The exoplanet is more massive than our own blue planet, and Kaltenegger said the discovery will provide insight into Earth's heavyweight planetary cousins.

New Delhi: The third edition of India's largest education brainstorming event, the ScooNews Global Educators Fest (SGEF) will be held on August 09 and 10 in Udaipur- the City of Lakes.

It will bring together over 500 educators to discuss the way towards establishing India as the next global education powerhouse.

The theme for this year's fest is 'Education for Sustainability: Moving on from conformity to creativity'.

Lakshyaraj Singh Mewar of Udaipur Royalty is the patron of this year's edition. "We are delighted to be part of The Educators Fest 2019. I strongly believe in passion leading the growth of education in the country. I also salute the hard work, countless hours, and innovation being put to work by the Educators fraternity to scale learning prowess amongst students of the 21st century India", Lakshyaraj said.

"Education should be sustainable, nurture independent thinking, promote creative thought process, prompt life building and character development skills, not just in the classroom but outside for-life too. A lot of India, Indian-ness is in the capable hands of our teachers, school administrators and education policymakers. My best wishes to all the educationists attending the ScooNews Global Educators Fest 2019", said His Excellency VP Singh Badnore, Governor of Punjab and Administrator of UT.

"Global Educators Fest 2019 is a Celebration of Education, its leaders, international wisdom, best practices et al. Now in its third year, it has become a most attended, most recognized and most awaited global event of and for educators. Whether it is Teacher Warriors, Jewels of India, Global Education Awards or the overall fest, our focus is to celebrate the good work and ideas with the educator fraternity and provide a fertile ground for ideation and discussion. I am honoured and thankful to our advisory board, participants and patrons for making this India's Largest Education Brainstorm", said Ravi Santlani, CEO, ScooNews.

Film actor Aamir Khan on Sunday attended the launch function of Mission Shakti, an initiative by Maharashtra minister Sudhir Mungantiwar to train athletes from Chandrapur and Gadchiroli for international events like the Olympics.

Among those present at the function in Ballarpur here was state sports minister Ashish Shelar.

"I don't remember much that I learnt in school except sports. It teaches us how to complete tasks through teamwork. It trains us to handle the situation during ups and downs," Khan told the gathering.

Khan also broke into a song mid-speech to motivate the athletes attending the programme.

Khan felicitated a team of tribal mountaineers from here who had recently scaled Mount Everest as part of 'Mission Shaurya'.

Mungantiwar said youth from Chandrapur and Gadchiroli, through Mission Shakti, will get a chance to bring laurels to India in events like the Olympics in future.

Vinesh Phogat has bagged her third consecutive gold in women's 53kg category after winning the Poland Open wrestling tournament in Warsaw.

The 24-year-old prevailed 3-2 over local wrestler Roksana in the final of the competition.

Vinesh had earlier beaten Sofia Mattson of Sweden, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist, in the quarterfinals of this international tournament.

The top Indian woman wrestler had stood atop the podium at Grand Prix of Spain and at the Yasar Dogu International at Istanbul, Turkey last month.

Former national hockey captain Viren Rasquinha, who is also involved with Olympic Gold Quest, congratulated Vinesh on her success.

Article 370 ‘Scrapped’ Live Updates: By diluting the special status to Jammu and Kashmir guaranteed under Article 370 of the Constitution without scrapping the provision, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fulfilled its election promise.

With the Centre’s decision, political disagreement has also taken centrestage, experts have raised questions on the legality of the move. While senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said history will prove the BJP wrong, TMC’s Derek O’Brien called it a “dark day” for parliamentary democracy, federalism and the Constitution.

With mobile communication and Internet services suspended and public movement restricted, all of the Kashmir Valley was in a state of lockdown from midnight Sunday. On Monday night, former chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah were arrested along with People’s Conference leader Sajad Lone.

The Bill to bifurcate the state into two Union Territories — Jammu and Kashmir with a legislature similar to Puducherry, and Ladakh without one like Chandigarh was passed with a two-thirds majority of the members present in Rajya Sabha. Two PDP MPs Mir Fayaz and Nazir Ahmed Law had protested against the government’s decision in Rajya Sabha. In Lok Sabha, the statutory resolution scrapping the special status was passed by a voice vote in the evening. The bifurcation Bill will be taken up in Lok Sabha Tuesday. With special provisions gone, Indian laws will now apply to the newly created Union Territories.

While political disagreement on the Centre’s decision to strip the preferential status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcate the state has taken centrestage, experts have raised questions on the legality of the move. The government sought to dilute the special status to Jammu and Kashmir guaranteed under Article 370 of the Constitution without scrapping the provision. It did so without bringing a Constitutional amendment that would require two-thirds majority in the Parliament.

By changing the interpretation of certain terms that find mention in Article 370, Monday’s Presidential order, through Article 367, alters the interpretation of the special provision. However, the President draws the power to issue such a notification from Article 370 itself. Article 370 sub clause 1(d) empowers the President to extend provisions of the Indian Constitution to Jammu and Kashmir.