Coronavirus cases in US cross 700,000, death toll more than 35,000
Washington: The number of the coronavirus cases in the US crossed 700,000 on Friday, while over 35,000 people have died from the disease, as President Donald Trump assured his people that America was "very close" to seeing the light "shinning brightly" at the end of the tunnel.
New York, the financial capital of the world, has emerged as the epicenter of the pandemic. More than 14,000 people have died in the city and over 200,000 lakh people have tested positive so far. Neighbouring New Jersey has more than 78,000 cases and 3,800 deaths.
President Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday that to date the US had conducted more than 3.78 million coronavirus tests, by far the most in any country.
"It's not even close. In the hardest-hit areas such as New York and Louisiana we have also tested more people per capita than South Korea, Singapore, and every other country. The United States has the most robust, advanced and accurate testing system anywhere in the world," he said.
Trump said that the number of deaths could have been much higher if his administration had not mounted a massive effort against containing the coronavirus. Against initial estimated death of between one and two lakhs, Trump hoped that the death toll could be far less and around 65,000.
"It's a horrible thing that happened to our country. This is a horrible thing that happened to 184 countries all over the world. It was a horrible thing and there was no reason for it. That should never, ever happen again," Trump said.
Ultimate victory in this war will be made possible by America's scientific brilliance, Trump asserted.
"There is nothing like us, there is nobody like us, not even close. I wish I could tell you stories what other countries, even powerful countries say to me, the leaders. They say it quietly and they say off the record, but they have great respect for what we can do," he said.
The last few months have been among the most challenging times in the history of the nation, Trump said.
"This invisible enemy is tough and it's smart and it's a vicious that every day we are getting closer to the future that we all have been waiting for," he said.
"I talk about the light at the end of the tunnel. We are getting very, very close to seeing that light shine very brightly at the end of that tunnel and it is happening," he said.
According to data maintained by Johns Hopkins University, Over 35,000 people have died in the US and the country has 701,131 infections, the highest in the world.
Vice President Mike Pence said on Friday that despite the tragic loss of more than 36,000 Americans, the latest data show that the new cases are slow and steady on the West Coast.
"We continue to see cases and hospitalisations declining in the new greater New York City area, in New Orleans and Detroit and elsewhere," he said.
A total of 154,142 people have died and 2,242,868 people have been infected by the novel coronavirus that originated in China in November last year, according to Johns Hopkins University.
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2019 mud attack on engineer: Maharashtra court sentences BJP minister Nitesh Rane to one-month jail
Mumbai (PTI): A court in Sindhudurg on Monday convicted Maharashtra minister Nitesh Rane in a 2019 case of pouring mud on an NHAI engineer when he was in opposition, and sentenced him to one-month imprisonment, noting that lawmakers are not supposed to take the law into their hands.
Later, the court suspended Rane's sentence, allowing him time to appeal before a higher court, while acquitting 29 other accused in the case.
"Even though Rane's intention was to raise a voice against the poor quality of work and inconvenience faced by the people, he was not supposed to humiliate or insult a public servant in public," additional sessions court judge V S Deshmukh stated.
"If such incidents continue to occur, public servants would not be able to discharge their duties with dignity," the judge noted.
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Calling the act "abuse of power", the court held that "it is the demand of time to curb such tendency".
Rane, a son of former Union minister Narayan Rane, was among 30 people charged under various offences, including rioting, assault to deter a public servant, and criminal conspiracy. He was in Congress when the incident occurred.
All the accused, including Nitesh Rane, were acquitted of these offences, as the court found insufficient evidence to support most of these claims.
However, the court found Nitesh Rane guilty of an offence under section 504 (intentional insult meant to provoke a breach of public peace) and sentenced him to one month's jail.
Rane, then a Congress MLA, had called the Sub-Divisional Engineer of the National Highway Authority, Prakash Shedekar, to a bridge over the Gad river in Kankavli on July 4, 2019, for inspecting the work to widen the Mumbai-Goa Highway.
According to the prosecution, Nitesh Rane and his followers, frustrated by the poor quality of the roadwork and waterlogging, confronted the engineer. They poured muddy water on Shedekar and forced him to walk through slush in public.
The court, after perusing the evidence on record, noted that the informant (victim) was holding a high post in the National Highway Authority.
"Despite that, he was made to walk through the muddy water in public. It would have certainly humiliated and insulted him," the court remarked.
The judge held that Rane compelling Shedekar to walk through the muddy water "was nothing but an intentional insult to the informant," and provocation which will cause him to break the public peace.
