Hindustan Times (Chandigarh) - School

City girl Nandani earns maiden India call-up for T20 World Cup

CHANDIGARH: In the corridors of the Leaders in Cricket Academy in Sector 26, Deepinder Chabra still recalls a quiet but determined nineyear-old walking in with her brother, clutching a dream far bigger than her years – to play for India.Seventeen years...

More screen time leads to speech delays in toddlers: Study

CHANDIGARH: Toddlers exposed to more than an hour of daily screen time are more likely to show poor communication skills and speech delays, a study by the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) has found. The...

PAK STILL WORKING TO BRIDGE U.S., IRAN GAPS DESPITE FAILURE OF FACE-TO-FACE TALKS

Work has not halted to bridge gaps between the United States and Iran, sources from mediator Pakistan said, despite the failure of face-to-face diplomacy after Donald Trump called off a trip by his envoys and said Iran should phone when it wants a...

TRUMP SAFE AFTER SHOOTING AT WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ DINNER

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump were rushed out of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington by Secret Service agents on Saturday night after a man opened fire on security personnel nearby. The...

MANCHESTER CITY SOAR TO THE TOP, BURNLEY RELEGATED

BURNLEY: Manchester City edged ahead of Arsenal at the top of the Premier League as a 1-0 victory at Turf Moor condemned Burnley to relegation on Wednesday. The defeat confirmed the Clarets’ third Premier League relegation in five seasons, consigning...

HC raps UT over liquor vend in ‘unsafe building’ in Sec-17

CHANDIGARH: Taking serious note of the Chandigarh administration allowing a liquor vend to operate from an “unsafe building” in Sector 17, the Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) has asked the chief secretary for explanation. “The UT administration...

INDIA JOINS IN CELEBRATING ‘OUR POWER, OUR PLANET’

World Earth Day, which falls on April 22, is observed across the globe annually to demonstrate support for environmental protection. This year’s theme is Our Power, Our Planet, emphasising collective community action, reducing plastic use and...

CEASEFIRE AT RISK AFTER U.S. SEIZES IRANIAN SHIP; TEHRAN SHUNS PEACE TALKS

DUBAI: A ceasefire between the United States and Iran appeared in jeopardy on Monday after the United States said it had seized an Iranian cargo ship that tried to run its blockade and Tehran vowed to retaliate, refusing for now to join new peace...

U.S. NEGOTIATORS WILL BE IN PAKISTAN ON MONDAY FOR TALKS WITH IRAN: TRUMP

WASHINGTON : President Donald Trump said that US negotiators will head to Pakistan on Monday for talks with Iran, lifting hopes of extending a ceasefire set to expire this week even as Washington and Tehran remain locked in a standoff over the Strait...

HOPES FOR DEAL TO END IRAN WAR GROW, BUT NUCLEAR ISSUES STILL UNRESOLVED

JERUSALEM/ISLAMABAD: Optimism grew on Thursday that the Iran war may be near an end, with a key Pakistani mediator having made a breakthrough on “sticky issues”, a source said, although Iran warned the fate of its nuclear program had not been...

Class 10: Trivandrum, Vijayawada top with 99.79% pass percentage; Delhi logs 97.38%

NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Tuesday declared the Class 10 results for 2026, recording a marginal improvement of 0.04 percentage points in overall performance, with 93.70% students passing this year compared to 93.66%...

ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING INCREASING EARTH’S BRIGHTNESS AT NIGHT: DATA

Researchers documented a 16% net increase in global nighttime light from 2014 to 2022, but showed it was not a steady brightening but rather a patchwork of increasing and decreasing regional brightness shaped by numerous factors. WASHINGTON: Daily...

IRAN THREATENS TO RETALIATE AGAINST GULF PORTS FOR U.S. BLOCKADE

WASHINGTON/DUBAI: The US military said it will begin a blockade of ships leaving Iran’s ports on Monday, and Tehran threatened to retaliate against ports of its Gulf neighbours after weekend talks on ending the war broke down, putting a ceasefire at...

MELLIFLUOUS VOICE FALLS SILENT: ASHA BHOSLE NO MORE

Asha Bhosle’s sensuous and soulful voice struck a million emotive chords down generations, the one they woke up to in the morning, tuned into at night, romanced and mourned loves that were never to be, and also jived and rock and rolled to. One half...

CEASEFIRE TEETERS IN FACE OF DISAGREEMENTS OVER LEBANON AND HORMUZ

A tentative ceasefire in the Iran war staggered Thursday under the weight of Israel’s intense bombardment of Beirut, Tehran’s continued chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, and uncertainty over whether negotiators can find common ground on a range of...

U.S., ISRAEL AND IRAN AGREE TO 2-WEEK CEASEFIRE BUT STRAY ATTACKS CONTINUE

TEHRAN: Iran, the United States and Israel agreed to a two-week ceasefire, an 11th-hour deal that allowed US President Donald Trump to pull back from his threat to unleash a bombing campaign that would destroy Iranian civilization. Hours after the...

ARTEMIS II BREAKS APOLLO 13’S DISTANCE RECORD WITH DARING MOON FLYBY

HOUSTON: After travelling deeper into space than any other humans, the Artemis II astronauts pointed their moonship toward home Monday night, wrapping up a lunar cruise that revealed views of the far side never beheld by eyes until now. Their flyby of...

U.S., IRAN STUDY CEASEFIRE PLAN AS TRUMP’S ‘HELL’ WARNING NEARS DEADLINE

DUBAI/WASHINGTON: On the eve of a US deadline, the United States and Iran on Monday were weighing the framework of a plan to end their fiveweek-old conflict, even as Tehran pushed back against pressure to swiftly reopen the Strait of Hormuz. President...

ARTEMIS ASTRONAUTS GLIMPSE MOON’S ‘GRAND CANYON’ AHEAD OF LUNAR FLYBY

HOUSTON: The Artemis astronauts have taken in sights of the Moon never before seen by human eyes, crew members reported on Sunday as their spacecraft crossed the twothirds mark on their journey to a long-anticipated lunar flyby. As the astronauts went...

IRAN TERMS U.S. PEACE PROPOSALS UNREALISTIC, TRUMP ISSUES FRESH WARNING TO TEHRAN

TEL AVIV/WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD : President Donald Trump warned on Monday that Iran’s energy plants and oil wells would be obliterated if it did not open the Strait of Hormuz, after Tehran described US peace proposals as unrealistic and fired waves of...

IRAN WARNS U.S. OVER GROUND ATTACK

Iran said it was ready to respond to a US ground attack, accusing Washington on Sunday of preparing a land assault even as it sought negotiations and as regional powers held talks in Pakistan to try to end the fighting. The foreign ministers of...

U.S. JURY FINDS META, YOUTUBE LIABLE IN SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION TRIAL

A Los Angeles jury found Alphabet’s Google and Meta liable on Wednesday in a landmark youth social media addiction trial. Here are the details of the jury’s verdict: Meta, google owe damages Meta and Google owe $3 million in compensatory damages and...

NASA PLANS MOON BASE, NUKE SPACECRAFT IN PROGRAMME EXPANSION

WASHINGTON: Nasa announced on Tuesday it has cancelled plans to deploy a space station in lunar orbit and will instead use components from the project to build a $20-billion base on the Moon’s surface, while also planning to send a nuclear-powered...

IRAN RAINS MISSILES ONTO ISRAEL, MAKES A JIBE AT TRUMP’S CLAIM ON STRAIT

WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM/TEL AVIV: Iran launched waves of missiles at Israel on Tuesday, a day after US President Donald Trump said there had been “very good and productive” talks aiming at halting the war unleashed by the US and Israel now raging across...

HIMALAYAN GLACIERS’ ICE LOSS RATES DOUBLED SINCE 2000: MAJOR REPORTS

EXTENSIVE DAMAGE FEARED AT KEY ENERGY SITES AS IRAN, ISRAEL TRADE BLOWS

Iran attacked energy infrastructure in the Middle East in retaliation against Israeli attacks on it gas facilities, marking the biggest escalation of the nearly three-week war, sparking a 28% surge in European gas prices and 6% jump in oil prices on...

LARGE HADRON COLLIDER DISCOVERS NEW PROTON-LIKE PARTICLE

PARIS: The Large Hadron Collider has discovered a new particle, the 80th identified so far by the world’s most powerful particle smasher, Europe’s CERN physics laboratory announced Tuesday. The new particle has been named “Xi-cc-plus”. Scientists hope...

SCIENTISTS MAKE BREAKTHROUGH IN STUDY OF WHALE SOUNDS

The findings can help us understand better how the animals communicate. Sounds are critical to whales’ survival and important to how they socialise and communicate.

IRAN FIRES BACK AT BASES AND SHIPS DESPITE WAR’S MOST INTENSIVE STRIKES

DUBAI/TEL AVIV: Iran fired at Israel and targets across the West Asia on Wednesday, while at least three ships were hit in the Gulf, demonstrating Tehran can still fight back and disrupt energy supplies despite the most intense US-Israeli strikes...

HEAVIEST DAY OF STRIKES YET ON IRAN DESPITE MARKET BETS TRUMP WILL END WAR SOON

DUBAI/TEL AVIV/WASHINGTON: The United States and Israel pounded Iran on Tuesday with what both the Pentagon and Iranians on the ground described as the most intense airstrikes of the conflict, despite global markets betting that President Donald Trump...

BARBADOS TO AHMEDABAD: INDIA’S ERA OF UNPARALLELED DOMINANCE

NEW DELHI: If Barbados was about breaking a curse, Ahmedabad was about building a kingdom. Simply put, India’s current stranglehold on the shortest format is without precedent in cricketing history. The home team’s 96-run thrashing of New Zealand in...

EXQUISITE FOSSIL OF ONE OF THE SMALLEST DINOSAURS FOUND IN ARGENTINA

Researchers have found a well-preserved and nearly complete skeleton of one of the world’s smallest-known dinosaurs, named Alnashetri cerropoliciensis. It was about the size of a crow and probably hunted small animals like lizards, snakes, mammals and...

ISRAEL TARGETS INFRASTRUCTURE IN LARGE STRIKES ON TEHRAN

DUBAI/JERUSALEM: The US-Israeli campaign against Iran entered its sixth day on Thursday with what residents described as even more intensive bombing, while Iran vowed to retaliate anywhere for a US attack on a ship thousands of miles from the battle...

IRAN CONFLICT WIDENS TO LEBANON; KUWAIT MISTAKENLY SHOOTS DOWN U.S. JETS

DUBAI/WASHINGTON: The US-Israeli air war against Iran expanded on Monday with no end in sight, with Israel attacking Lebanon in response to strikes by Hezbollah, and Tehran firing missiles and drones at Gulf states and a British air base as far away as...

IRAN’S TOP LEADER ALI KHAMENEI KILLED; ISRAEL, IRAN LAUNCH FRESH ATTACKS

JERUSALEM: Israel launched a new wave of strikes on Tehran on Sunday, saying it aimed to dominate the skies after killing Iran’s supreme leader and leaving the Islamic Republic grappling to rebuild its leadership amid its biggest test in five...

PM PAYS TRIBUTES TO HOLOCAUST VICTIMS

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accompanied by his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, visited the Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem on Thursday. At the Hall of Names, Netanyahu showed Modi the names of his wife Sara’s relatives who had perished in...

SCIENTISTS FIND BLACK HOLE BELCHING YEARS AFTER CHEWING UP STAR

Researchers have found a black hole, residing at the centre of a galaxy far beyond our Milky Way, belching out a fast-moving jet of material after ripping apart and devouring a star that wandered too close. What made this stellar fatal encounter...

PUTIN HAS FAILED TO BREAK UKRAINIANS: ZELENSKY

KYIV: More than a dozen senior European officials were in the Ukrainian capital on Tuesday in a show of support on the fourth anniversary of Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine — a grim milestone in a war that has killed tens of thousands of people...

MANIPURI FILM BOONG CLINCHES BEST CHILDREN’S & FAMILY FILM AWARD

LONDON: Quirky Manipuri coming-ofage comedy-drama Boong, produced by Farhan Akhtar’s Excel Entertainment, won the prestigious Bafta Award for Best Children’s & Family Film in London on Sunday. The film’s debutant director, Lakshmipriya Devi, made an...

CITCO set to invest ₹7.5 cr on renovation of its hotels

CHANDIGARH: The Chandi- garh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation (CITCO) is set to invest ₹7.5 crore on the renovation of three of its prominent hotels in the city –Hotel Mountview in Sector 10, Hotel Shivalikview in Sector 17 and Hotel...

PM unveils MANAV vision for AI, bats for stronger guardrails to govern emerging tech

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday outlined an ethical, sovereign, inclusive and globally oriented vision of artificial intelligence (AI) as he pitched India as a central player in the global AI ecosystem and called for stronger...

J&K ENTER RANJI TROPHY FINAL FOR THE FIRST TIME

KALYANI: Sixty seven years after their maiden appearance, Jammu and Kashmir stormed into the Ranji Trophy finals for the first time on Wednesday, upstaging two-time former champions Bengal by six wickets in the semi-finals here to add another historic...

AUSTRALIA, IRELAND EXIT WORLD CUP AS ZIMBABWE GO THROUGH AFTER WASHOUT

KANDY: The 2021 champions Australia were knocked out of the T20 World Cup on Tuesday, with Zimbabwe qualifying for the Super Eights after their match against Ireland was washed out without a ball being bowled in Kandy. Zimbabwe joined Sri Lanka as...

As exams come calling, Chandigarh rolls out helplines

CHANDIGARH: With the Class 10 and 12 board examinations set to commence on February 17, anxiety among students is palpable across the city. For some, the worry centres on unfinished revisions; for others, it is about managing time effectively,...

‘INSIDE OUT’ PLANETARY SYSTEM PUZZLES ASTRONOMERS

The planetary system consists of four planets orbiting a small and dim star. The order of the planets is what caught the attention of scientists. While the innermost planet is rocky, the next two are gaseous and the fourth one, which current planetary...

NEW AI METHOD HELPS IDENTIFY DINOSAURS TO THEIR FOOTPRINTS

WASHINGTON: Footprints are among the most common kind of dinosaur fossils. Sometimes scientists find a single, lonely footprint. Sometimes they come across a chaotic jumble of tracks resembling a dance floor, sort of a dinosaur discotheque. But...

NEWLY DISCOVERED COMET LIKELY TO PROVIDE COSMIC SPECTACLE IN EARLY APRIL

MELBOURNE: A newly discovered comet has astronomers excited, with the potential to be a spectacular sight in early April. C/2026 A1 (MAPS) was spotted by a team of four amateur astronomers with a remotely operated telescope in the Atacama desert on...

NASA’S JUNO FINDS JUPITER A TAD SMALLER THAN EARLIER THOUGHT

WASHINGTON: Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system. But it turns out that it is not quite as large - by ever so small an amount - as scientists had previously thought. Using new data obtained by Nasa’s robotic Juno spacecraft, scientists...

NASA DELAYS ASTRONAUTS’ LUNAR TRIP UNTIL MARCH AFTER HYDROGEN LEAKS MAR TEST

The leaks cropped up early in Monday’s loading operation and again hours later, ultimately halting the countdown clocks at the fiveminute mark. Launch controllers had wanted to get all the way down to a halfminute in the countdown, but the escaping...

AMRIT UDYAN OPENS FOR PUBLIC VIEWING

The Amrit Udyan -- a veritable paradise for the lovers of flowers, plants and gardens -- opened for public viewing at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Tuesday. There are a total of five gardens Amrit Udyan, Bal Vatika, Plumeria, Banyan Grove and Babbling...

A FIRST: BAD BUNNY BAGS TOP PRIZE FOR A SPANISH ALBUM; DALAI LAMA WINS IN AUDIO BOOK SECTION

LOS ANGELES: Bad Bunny, the Latino rap star whose forthcoming Super Bowl gig has ignited a culture wars controversy, won the top Grammy prize on Sunday, a first for a Spanish-language album, with Debí Tirar Más Fotos, a celebration of his Puerto Rican...

REFORMS EXPRESS TAKES KARTAVYA PATH

NEW DELHI: Five university townships in the vicinity of major industrial and logistic corridors, girls hostel in every district, setting up of content creator labs in 15,000 schools and 500 colleges and reduction of the tax collection at source (TCS)...

VIJAY CHOWK REVERBERATES WITH INDIAN TUNES

Patriotic tunes such as Kadam Kadam Badhaye Ja and Vijay Bharat filled the air at the Raisina Hill during the Beating Retreat ceremony on Thursday. The ceremony also celebrated 150 years of the National Song, Vande Mataram.

UNVEILED: MAP DEPICTING DISTRIBUTION OF DARK MATTER IN UNIVERSE

Ordinary matter makes up stars, planets, people and everything else we can see. But it represents only about 15% of all the matter in the cosmos. The rest is dark matter, which does not emit or reflect light, making it invisible to the human eye and to...

India-EU seal mega FTA; PM describes it as New Delhi’s biggest trade deal ever

NEW DELHI: India and the European Union on Tuesday sealed a landmark free trade agreement – billed as “mother of all deals” – with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the top EU leadership unveiling a grand agenda to leverage trade and defence to shore up...

TRUMP BACKS DOWN ON GREENLAND TARIFFS, SAYS DEAL FRAMEWORK REACHED

DAVOS, SWITZERLAND: US President Donald Trump abruptly stepped back on Wednesday from threats to impose tariffs as leverage to seize Greenland, ruled out the use of force and suggested a deal was in sight to end a dispute over the Danish territory that...

NATO SHOULD ALLOW U.S. TO TAKE GREENLAND BUT WON’T USE FORCE, TRUMP SAYS AT WEF

DAVOS, SWITZERLAND: President Donald Trump insisted he wants to “get Greenland, including right, title and ownership,” but he said he wouldn’t employ force to achieve that — using his speech on Wednesday at the World Economic Forum to repeatedly deride...

IMF ups projected GDP growth to 7.3% for 2025-’26, forecasts 6.4% for fiscal 2026-’27

NEW DELHI: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday raised India’s growth projection to 7.3% for fiscal 2025-26, up 0.7 percentage point from its October forecast, on the back of better-than-expected performance of the economy. The...

NASA BRINGS FOUR ASTRONAUTS BACK TO EARTH IN 1ST MEDICAL EVACUATION FROM ISS

Launched in August, Cardman, Fincke, Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russia’s Oleg Platonov should have remained on the space station until mid-February. But on Jan. 7, Nasa abruptly cancelled the next day’s spacewalk by Cardman and Fincke and later announced...

CITIES ACROSS GUJARAT KEEP UTTARAYAN KITE FLYING TRADITION ALIVE

The passion for kite flying will climax across many parts of India on Wednesday as thousands will fly colourful creations to coincide with the harvest festival or Makar Sankranti. Today also marks the end of the three-day International Kite Festival in...

DARK MATTER MAY INTERACT WITH NEUTRINOS, CHALLENGING STANDARD MODEL OF UNIVERSE, FINDS STUDY

LONDON: Scientists have moved a step closer to solving one of the universe’s biggest mysteries, with new research suggesting that dark matter and neutrinos –– two of its least understood components –– may interact with each other, offering a rare...

Qaumi Insaaf Morcha completes three years of protest

MOHALI : The Qaumi Insaaf Morcha on Wednesday completed three years of its sit-in protest at Yadavindra Public School (YPS) Chowk on the Chandigarh–Mohali border, with the stretch continuing to remain partially blocked, causing inconvenience to...

OCEANS STRUGGLING TO ABSORB CO2 AMID MICROPLASTIC POLLUTION: STUDY

An ocean transfers carbon from the atmosphere into the deep sea layers through a process called biological carbon pumping. Now, microplastics, which are found even in the deep seas, are interfering with this process by cutting phytoplankton...

FROZEN DELIGHT: ICE SCULPTORS CREATE MAGIC AT HARBIN’S ANNUAL FESTIVAL

Each January, an odd and beautiful thing happens in the frigid northeastern Chinese city of Harbin when sculptors converge on the capital of Heilongjiang province to compete for the best ice sculpture of the year. The effect is dreamlike. Sculptures...

U.S. TO RUN S AMERICAN NATION FOR NOW, SAYS TRUMP AFTER MADURO’S CAPTURE

NEW YORK: Venezuela’s toppled leader Nicolas Maduro was in a New York detention centre on Sunday awaiting drug charges after President Donald Trump ordered an audacious raid to capture him, saying the US would take control of the oilproducing...