- The mass extinction that killed nearly 70 percent of the Earth's land animals 252 million years ago may have played out at different times on land and in the sea, according to the study of fossils from South Africa and Australia.
- The study found new ages for fossilised vertebrates that lived just after the demise of the fauna that dominated the late Permian era 299 to 251 million years ago.
- The scientists believe that global changes such as a warming climate, a rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and an increase in ocean acidification may have occurred around the end of the Permian period, and the beginning of the Triassic and likely contributed to the extinction.
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News in Short
News in Short - 31-March-2020
Oil prices fall to 17-year low
Date: 31 March 2020 Tags: Miscellaneous- Oil prices extended losses in Asian trade and languished at 17-year lows, with the coronavirus crisis escalating around the world and no end in sight to a vicious price war.
- The falls came after the death toll from the pandemic surged past 34,000 as cases in hard-hit Europe and the United States showed no sign of letting up.
- Even as demand falls, supply has increased dramatically after top producers Saudi Arabia and Russia engage in a price war following a row about whether to cut output to support prices.
Cabinet secretary denies plan for extending lockdown
Date: 31 March 2020 Tags: Miscellaneous- Cabinet Secretary, Rajiv Gauba, said that there are no plans to extend the lockdown period beyond the current 21-day announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24 to fight the Coronavirus pandemic.
- The government has asked all states and UTs to strictly enforce the lockdown in view of the huge exodus of migrant workers.
- It issued a set of measures to be implemented by local authorities to enforce the lockdown and to make sure that the migrant workers do not face any difficulties during the period of the lockdown.
- The government has also constituted 11 empowered groups for planning and ensuring implementation of Covid-19 response activities.
North Korea test fires multiple rocket launchers
Date: 31 March 2020 Tags: Miscellaneous- Nuclear-armed North Korea successfully tested “super-large multiple rocket launchers”, according to a report by its State media.
- South Korea had said two projectiles, presumed to be ballistic missiles, were fired from the North Korean port city of Wonsan into the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea.
- North Korea has been continuing to refine its weapons capabilities more than a year after a summit between Kim and Trump broke down in Hanoi.
- North Korea is under multiple sets of sanctions from the United Nations, United States and others over its banned weapons programmes.
Country music icon Joe Diffie dues due to Coronavirus
Date: 31 March 2020 Tags: Obituaries- Joe Diffie, a Grammy award-winning country music singer who had several chart-topping hits in the 1990s, has died of coronavirus. He was 61.
- Diffie, who was from Oklahoma, had several hit songs during the 1990s including 'Pickup Man', 'Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox (If I Die)' and 'John Deere Green'.
- His first album, 'A Thousand Winding Roads', was released in 1990 and including his hit song 'Home.'