Two months after she was discharged from a hospital, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi is shifting to Jaipur temporarily till the air quality improves in Delhi. Ms Gandhi suffers from respiratory problems and doctors have advised her to temporarily move to a place where the air quality is better. 

The Air Quality Index for Delhi on Tuesday was 375, which is in the ‘severe’ category, while the figure for Jaipur was 72, which is in the ‘moderate’ category, according to private air quality monitoring website aqi.in.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is addressing rallies in various states where the assembly elections will be held later this year, will visit Ms Gandhi in Jaipur on Tuesday night before heading to Chhattisgarh on Wednesday. He will go back to Jaipur and continue with his scheduled rallies in the state on Thursday.

Ms Gandhi had been admitted to Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in September after showing symptoms of fever and had been discharged a day later. She had also been admitted to a hospital in January because of respiratory issues.

This is not the first time that the former Congress president has had to move to another city to avoid the pollution in Delhi. In the winter of 2020, Ms Gandhi had gone to Goa on the advice of her doctors. 

Scientists in China have created a chimera (mixed) monkey with distinctive features like green eyes and glowing fingertips. According to a CNN report, the primate has been created using two sets of DNA, something that is still experimental that they say could ultimately benefit medical research and conservation of species. The lab-born monkey survived for 10 days after which it was euthanised, the outlet further said. The research detailing the process of how the monkey was created has been published in journal Cell.

The primate was created using an unprecedented experiment, by combining the stem cells of two genetically distinct fertilized eggs from the same monkey species – a long-tailed macaque.

It was the world’s first live birth of a chimeric – or mixed – monkey with stem cells, CNN quoted the researchers as saying.

“It is encouraging that our live birth monkey chimera had a big contribution (of stem cells) to the brain, suggesting that indeed this approach should be valuable for modeling neurodegenerative diseases,” the outlet quoted study co-author Miguel Esteban, principal investigator at the Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health, as saying.

“Monkey chimeras also have potential enormous value for species conservation if they could be achieved between two types of nonhuman primate species, one of which is endangered. If there is contribution of the donor cells from the endangered species to the germ line, one could envisage that through breeding animals of these species could be produced,” he added.

The animal contained varying but relatively high ratio of cells that grew out of the stem cells.

The scientists said the presence of donated stem cells ranged from a low of 21 per cent all the way up to 92 per cent. The highest percentage was seen in brain tissues, according to Science Alert.

Chimeric mice were first created in the 1960s and have been commonly used in biomedical research.

The NIA on Tuesday attached properties of two key Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives who allegedly helped Pakistani terrorist Naveed Jatt escape from police custody from a Srinagar hospital in 2018 by attacking a police team.

In a statement, the agency said, “Going full throttle against terrorist organisations and operatives operating in Kashmir, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) attached the properties of two key Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives in the 2018 case relating to the forcible release of a terrorist through a fatal attack on a police party at a Srinagar hospital.” It said eight properties — five belonging to Mohd Shafi Wani and three to Mohd Tikka Khan, both residents of Singoo Narbal in Pulwama — have been attached under Section 33 (1) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act following recent orders from the NIA Special Court, Jammu.

The case involved the killing of two personnel of the Jammu and Kashmir Police in firing on a police party escorting LeT terrorist Jatt alias Abu Hanzla to SMHS Hospital, Srinagar, for a medical examination on February 6, 2018.

The NIA said Jatt, a terrorist of Pakistani origin, was forcibly released in the attack, which was carried out by the two accused, along with others, on orders from their Pakistan-based LeT commanders. Jatt was killed in an encounter with security forces later in 2018.

Jatt was believed to have been behind the killing of journalist Shujaat Bukhari outside his office at Residency Road in June 2018.

“The attached immovable properties of Mohd Shafi Wani and Mohd Tikka Khan, both identified as overground workers of the LeT, include various plots of land. The residential house of Shafi has also been attached,” the agency said.

The two accused were arrested from their Pulwama homes on February 8, 2018, and were also found to be in the possession of weapons. They were charge-sheeted on August 3, 2018, and are currently facing trial before the NIA Special Court in Jammu under several legal provisions, it added.