GOOGLE LAUNCHES PLATFORM IN AUSTRALIA WITH NEWS IT HAS PAID FOR

Tech giant Google on Friday launched a platform in Australia offering news

it has paid for, striking its own content deals with publishers in a drive

to show legislation proposed by Canberra to enforce payments, a world first,

is unnecessary.

Only rolled out previously in Brazil and Germany, the News Showcase platform

was originally slated for launch last June. But Alphabet Inc-owned Google

delayed plans when Canberra moved to make it a legal requirement for Google

and Facebook to pay Australian media companies for content, unprecedented

anywhere else in the world.

The tech firm, still lobbying the Australian government in private meetings,

has previously said was the legislation was "unworkable" and would force it

to pull out of the country altogether if implemented.

With the legislation now before a parliamentary inquiry, the launch of News

Showcase in Australia will see it pay seven domestic outlets, including the

Canberra Times, to use their content. Financial details of the deals weren't

disclosed.

Google said in a statement on Friday it looked forward to striking

agreements with more publishers, whose position has been bolstered by

Canberra's push back.

AMID PROTESTS, NEPAL'S OLI SEEKS SUPPORT FOR EARLY POLL

Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli insisted on Friday he had the legal right

to dissolve parliament and said he was justified in calling an early

election in the face of widespread opposition from within his own ruling

communist party.

Oli was addressing thousands of supporters in Kathmandu, a day after leaders

of a rival party faction called a national strike to oppose what they said

was his "unconstitutional" move to seek a fresh poll amid a pandemic-induced

economic crisis.

"The prime minister has the prerogative to dissolve the parliament," Oli

told a crowd gathered on a main road in the capital.

The 68-year-old PM, who is facing almost daily protests by political

opponents and rights groups, said he had been compelled to take a tough

decision because many colleagues were refusing to cooperate with him.

SQUARE KILOMETRE ARRAY: 'LIFT-OFF' FOR WORLD'S BIGGEST TELESCOPE

A new intergovernmental organisation called Square Kilometre Array

Observatory (SKAO) Council has been formed with the intention of building

the world's largest radio telescope. On Thursday, the council held its

first-ever meeting to approve the plans and start a new journey in space

exploration. Though it is headquartered in the UK, SKAO has members from

Australia, Canada, China, India, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden

and the Netherlands.

According to their website, "The SKA will eventually use thousands of dishes

and up to a million low-frequency antennas that will enable astronomers to

monitor the sky in unprecedented detail and survey the entire sky much

faster than any system currently in existence." It is called the "square

array" because "it is an international effort to build the world's largest

radio telescope, with eventually over a square kilometre (one million square

metres) of collecting area"

But before that process begins, here is short brief on what radio telescopes

are and what this new development means.

Optical telescopes use visual field to explore the vast cosmos. Whereas

radio telescopes have antennae and receivers that are capable of detecting

the most distant radio-waves in space, of which there are plenty. Radio

telescopes are therefore capable of detecting even invisible gases and

studying electromagnetic spectrum signals whereas optical telescope is

limited to visible light.

The new venture is being deemed as important following the collapse one of

the most prolific radio telescopes in the world, the Arecibo in Puerto Rico,

in December last year. The telescope will consist of a vast array of radio

receivers and will be positioned across South Africa and Australia.

The Arecibo had been instrumental in many important astronomical discoveries

including prebiotic molecules in distant galaxies, the first-millisecond

pulsar, and the first exoplanets since 1963. Now the SKA will not only fill

the void left by Arecibo but be far more influential in astronomical

discoveries, or so is the hope.

According to NASA's JPL the SKA will help, "By measuring neutral hydrogen

over cosmic time, accurately timing the signals from pulsars in the Milky

Way, and detecting millions of galaxies out to high redshifts, it will

address some of the biggest questions about the nature of gravity, dark

energy, and how galaxies formed and subsequently evolved."

SKAO suspects the completion of this ambitious project will take nearly a

decade with a cost of 1.9 billion Euros (INR 1,56,96,36,00,000).

According to BBC, the project has taken nearly 30 years of planning and

thinking. According to the official SKA website, the preconstruction

officially started in 2013, while the actual construction will begin this

year. They say the telescope will make preliminary observations by late

2020s.

US DELAYS TRUMP-ERA H-1B POLICY; LOTTERY SYSTEM TO CONTINUE

The Biden administration has announced that it is delaying the H-1B policy

of the previous Trump administration on allocation of the popular foreign

work visas by continuing with the lottery system until December 31, 2021, to

give the immigration agency more time to develop, test and implement the

modifications to the registration system.

On January 7, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced

to do away with the traditional lottery system in deciding the successful

applicants for the H-1B visas.

In a statement on Thursday, the USCIS said that it is delaying the rule's

effective date until December 31, 2021. The Trump-era rule was scheduled to

go into effect on March 9.

"To give USCIS more time to develop, test, and implement the modifications

to the H-1B registration system and selection process, DHS is delaying the

effective date of this final rule from March 9, 2021, to December 31, 2021,"

it said.

This is because it will not have adequate time to complete system

development, thoroughly test the modifications, train staff and conduct

public outreach needed to ensure an effective and orderly implementation of

the H1B Selection Final Rule by the time the initial registration period

will be open for the upcoming fiscal year (FY) 2022 H-1B cap season, the

USCIS said.

The delay will also provide more time for the USCIS to train staff and

perform public outreach as well as give stakeholders time to adjust to the

new rule.

BIDEN SAYS 'NO NEED' FOR TRUMP TO GET INTEL BRIEFS

President Joe Biden said Friday that Donald Trump should not be allowed to

receive classified intelligence briefings, a courtesy that historically has

been granted to outgoing presidents.

Asked in an interview with CBS News what he feared if Mr. Trump continued to

receive the briefings, Mr. Biden said he did not want to "speculate out

loud" but made clear he did not want Trump to continue getting them.

"I just think that there is no need for him to have the intelligence

briefings," Mr. Biden said. "What value is giving him an intelligence

briefing? What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip

and say something?"

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said earlier this week that the issue

of granting Mr. Trump intelligence briefings was "something that is under

review."

NATO URGES TALIBAN TO END VIOLENCE

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday urged the Taliban to

honour commitments to reduce violence and cut ties to terror groups, as the

alliance weighs withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Defence Ministers of the grouping are to discuss whether NATO's

10,000-strong mission should stay or go later this month.

"My message to the Taliban is that they have to live up to their

commitments," Mr. Stoltenberg.

INDONESIA BANS 'HIJAB' IN SCHOOLS

Indonesia has banned schools from forcing girls to wear Islamic "hijab"

headscarves after the case of a Christian pupil pressured to cover up

sparked outrage in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

The move was applauded on Friday by activists, who say non-Muslim girls have

been forced for years to wear a hijab in parts of the country.

State schools will face sanctions if they fail to comply with the edict from

Education Minister Nadiem Makarim.

Schools that violate the rules could see their government funding cut, he

added.

TWO KILLED, 28 INJURED IN PAK BLAST, SAYS POLICE

At least two people were killed and 28 others injured as two bomb blasts

rocked the cities of Quetta and Sibi in the restive Balochistan province of

Pakistan, police said on Friday.

The first blast took place in Sibi in which 24 people were injured while

hours later the second explosion took place in Quetta and was apparently

aimed at a Kashmir Day rally, killing two people and leaving four others

injured.

Police officials said that two bodies were shifted to Quetta civil hospital

after the incident.

Aurangzeb Badini, Deputy Commissioner of Quetta and a retired major,

confirmed that the initial investigations hinted the blast was targeted at a

Kashmir Solidarity Day rally that was passing from the area.

He added that the nature of the blast couldn't be ascertained as yet.

Earlier 24 people were injured when a bomb was hurled at a similar rally in

Sibi, according to police officer Zaman Khan.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks.

KREMLIN SAYS JOE BIDEN COMMENTS ON RUSSIA ARE 'AGGRESSIVE, UNCONSTRUCTIVE

RHETORIC'

The Kremlin on Friday described comments made by US President Joe Biden the

previous day as "aggressive, unconstructive rhetoric" and said it would not

tolerate any US ultimatums.

Biden on Thursday promised a new era of US foreign policy in his first

diplomatic address as President and said he had told President Vladimir

Putin that the days of the United States rolling over in the face of what he

called Russia's aggressive actions were over.

"This is very aggressive, unconstructive rhetoric, to our regret," Kremlin

spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

He said the Kremlin hoped however that there could still be useful dialogue

between the two countries when their interests coincided.

Meanwhile, Russia has expelled three diplomats from Germany, Sweden and

Poland for joining protests in support of opposition activist Alexei

Navalny, who was jailed earlier this week.

The Russian foreign ministry said the three took part in "illegal

demonstrations" on 23 January.

The diplomats' home countries have condemned the expulsions, as have the UK,

France and the EU.

Mr Navalny is a vociferous critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The expulsions were announced just a few hours after EU foreign affairs

chief Josep Borrell met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.

ICC PAVES WAY FOR PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES PROBE

The International Criminal Court ruled on Friday that it has jurisdiction

over war crimes and atrocities committed in the Palestinian territories.

The judgement paves the way for the court to open a criminal investigation.

Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda had previously called for investigations,

saying there was "a reasonable basis to believe" war crimes had happened.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticised the ruling, while

Palestinian officials praised it.

"This decision [of the ICC] is a victory for justice and humanity, for the

values of truth, fairness and freedom, and for the blood of the victims and

their families," Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh was quoted by

Palestinian news agency Wafa as saying.

Israel, which is not a member of the ICC and rejects its jurisdiction,

pledged to "protect all of our citizens and soldiers" from prosecution from

what they called a "political body".

"The court in its decision impairs the right of democratic countries to

defend themselves," Mr Netanyahu said.

MYANMAR COUP: MILITARY LEADERS BLOCK TWITTER AND INSTAGRAM

Twitter and Instagram have become the latest social media sites to be

blocked for users in Myanmar following Monday's coup by the military.

Telenor, one of the country's main internet providers, confirmed it had been

ordered to deny access to the two sites "until further notice".

The coup leaders blocked Facebook on Thursday for the sake of "stability".

There has been a growing movement of civil disobedience over the detention

of democratically-elected leaders.

University teachers and students gathered in Yangon on Friday to chant

support for the country's de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and other

senior members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party.