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• # 1 Glacier National Park
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• # 2 Jasper National Park
• # 3 Vancouver, Canada

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• # 1 Turks & Caicos
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• # 3 British Virgin Islands

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• # 3 Swiss Alps

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• # 1 Zihuatanejo
• # 3 Cozumel

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This Is The Latest Travel Trend In India

Image: Unsplash

The MakeMyTrip 'India Travel Trends Report' dived into travel behaviours based on insights from its users

The report revealed indians are travelling more to destinations like ayodhya, ujjain and badrinath, searches for spiritual tourism witnessed a 97 per cent increase in 2023 compared to 2021, according to the report, tier-2 and tier-3 cities, in particular, are witnessing a surge in searches for destinations with religious significance, searches for ayodhya soared by a whopping 585 per cent in 2023 compared to 2022, as per the report.

X.com/@ShriRamTeerth

Similarly, Ujjain and Badrinath, saw search increases of 359% and 343%, respectively

Weekend getaways continue to be a favourite, with jim corbett national park witnessing a 131% rise , ooty and munnar are also popular choices, especially for those from the southern part of the country, dubai, bangkok, and singapore remain the top three most searched international travel destinations, london, toronto, and new york hold the fort for long-haul travel, check more stories.

Image: Reuters  

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What is Nipah virus? Kerala starts mass testing after outbreak in India

Rare but serious bat-borne virus that can cause fever, vomiting and respiratory infections in humans has killed two in Kerala

Indian authorities have instituted mass testing to halt the spread of the deadly Nipah virus, which has killed two people in the southern state of Kerala.

Public gatherings were curbed and some schools were shut last week, officials said on Thursday. It is the fourth outbreak in the region since 2018.

Nipah is a rare but serious bat-borne virus that can cause fever, vomiting and respiratory infections in humans. Severe cases can involve seizures and encephalitis – inflammation of the brain – and result in a coma.

The virus has a fatality rate between 40-75%, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). It has no known vaccine, and the usual treatment is to provide supportive care.

What is the Nipah virus?

The first Nipah outbreak was recorded in 1998 after the virus spread among pig farmers in Malaysia and Singapore. The virus is named after the village where it was discovered.

It is able to infect humans directly through contact with the bodily fluids of infected bats and pigs, with some documented cases of transmission among humans.

Flying foxes are the natural carriers of the virus. “It’s carried by fruit bats who sit in the tops of trees,” said Joanne Macdonald, an associate professor of molecular engineering at the University of the Sunshine Coast. “They can urinate and contaminate fruit, and when people eat that they get the virus and then they get sick.”

“Once you get it, [the only treatments are] rest, hydration, treatment of symptoms.”

Scientists fear a mutated, highly transmissible strain will emerge from bats. Outbreaks are rare but Nipah has been listed by the WHO as one of several diseases deserving of priority research for their potential to cause a global epidemic, alongside Ebola, Zika and Covid-19.

Nipah is a type of Henipavirus, and is related to Hendra virus, which was first discovered in Australia and has caused deaths in humans and horses.

What has happened during previous outbreaks?

The first Nipah outbreak in 1998 infected nearly 300 people in Malaysia, killing more than 100, and prompted the culling of one million pigs in an effort to contain the virus.

It also spread to Singapore, with 11 cases and one death among slaughterhouse workers who came into contact with pigs imported from Malaysia.

Since then, the disease has mainly been recorded in Bangladesh and India, with both countries reporting their first outbreaks in 2001. Bangladesh has borne the brunt in recent years, with more than 100 people dying of Nipah since 2001.

More than 600 cases of Nipah virus human infections were reported between 1998 to 2015, according to WHO data.

Two early outbreaks in India killed more than 50 people before they were brought under control.

The southern state of Kerala has recorded two deaths from Nipah and four other confirmed cases since last month. This marks Kerala’s fourth recorded outbreak of Nipah in five years, after other instances in 2018, 2019 and 2021.

The state has managed to stamp out previous outbreaks within a matter of weeks through widespread testing and strict isolation of those in contact with patients.

Are animal-to-human viruses becoming more frequent?

Zoonotic diseases – those that can be transmitted from animals to humans - have multiplied over the past 20 to 30 years.

Industrial farming increases the risk of pathogens spreading between animals while deforestation heightens contact between wildlife, domestic animals and humans.

Scientists have warned that the climate crisis is increasing the risk of “zoonotic spillover” events, with 15,000 instances of viruses jumping between species predicted over the next 50 years.

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Israel Faced a Sophisticated Attack From Iran

The weapons Iran employed this weekend travel farther and are more precise than those Hamas and other allies have used against Israel in the past six months.

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By Jin Yu Young

• April 14, 2024

Late Saturday, Iran began firing hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel, including weapons that experts say are more sophisticated than anything Israel had encountered until now in six months of fighting with Hamas and its allies in the region.

Previously, Israel had faced aerial attacks from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, whose rocket arsenal includes short-range (12 to 25 miles) and somewhat inaccurate 122-milimeter rockets of the Grad family, as well as Syrian-made M-302 rockets with a range of about 100 miles. Hamas also has Fajr-5 rockets from Iran and a similar, locally made version of the Fajr-5, both with a range of about 50 miles.

The weapons Iran used on Saturday can travel much farther, and some of them can travel much faster. Still, Israel said that nearly all of the missiles and drones that Iran fired were intercepted, many with help from U.S. forces.

In the attack, 185 drones, 36 cruise missiles and 110 surface-to-surface missiles were fired toward Israel, according to Israeli military officials. Most of the launches were from Iran, though a small portion came from Iraq and Yemen, the officials said.

Fabian Hinz, an expert on Iran’s military at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Berlin, said in a post on X that Iran was probably using a cruise missile developed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the Paveh 351. It has a range of more than 1,200 miles — plenty to reach Israel from Iran.

According to his post, different versions of that missile have also been provided to the Houthis in Yemen and to the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces.

And Jeffrey Lewis, a member of the International Security Advisory Board at the U.S. State Department, said in a post on X that Iran was using land-attack cruise missiles that could carry around a ton of explosives.

He also noted that much of Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal has a long enough range to reach Israel. And though Iran’s drones carry much smaller explosive payloads than missiles, they have the advantage of being able to hover and shift targets.

In recent decades, Iran has largely been focused on deterrence, long-range missiles, drones and air defenses. It has one of the largest ballistic missile and drone arsenals across the Middle East, according to weapons experts, and is also becoming a major arms exporter globally.

Last year, after the attack by Hamas in October, Israel asked the United States for more precision-guided munitions for its combat aircraft and more interceptors for its Iron Dome missile defense system. Israel’s weapons arsenal includes Vietnam-era missiles, some of which have a failure rate as high as 15 percent.

Jin Yu Young reports on South Korea, the Asia Pacific region and global breaking news from Seoul. More about Jin Yu Young