Noida:

A former Delhi Police constable has been arrested for allegedly killing a Greater Noida-based businessman to take possession of his flat. The accused, Praveen, 42, was taken into custody late Thursday, 13 days after businessman Ankush Sharma was reported missing by his family. The former constable allegedly planned the murder in a week after watching Ajay Devgn and Tabu’s crime-thriller, Drishyam, and other crime web series.

Mr Praveen first met Mr Sharma through someone. The businessman wanted to sell his flat in a Greater Noida society, said Saad Miya Khan, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Greater Noida.

“The two fixed the deal for ₹1.20 crore. Praveen gave Sharma ₹8 lakh and the transfer memorandum process was initiated between them,” Mr Khan said.

The dispute started after Ankush Sharma found that the price of the flat, in SKA society, was more than what the two parties had agreed upon.

Unhappy, Mr Praveen hatched a plan to kill Ankush Sharma. On August 9, he picked Mr Sharma up from his office, saying he would give him money for the flat.

They later reached a society’s parking where the two started drinking. When Ankush Sharma got drunk, Mr Praveen hit him with a hammer on the head before strangling him to death.

On the night of August 9, Mr Praveen hid the body on a disputed property not visited often by anyone, the senior police official said.

The victim’s family lodged a missing complaint at the Beta-2 police station.

During the investigation, the police looked into more than 100 CCTV footage and intelligence, leading to the arrest of Mr Praveen. He also informed the police where he hid the victim’s body.

The police have also recovered the hammer used in the crime and a car from the accused, Khan said.

Mr Praveen has been booked under Sections 103(1) (charges of murder), 238 (destroying evidence) and 123 (giving poison to another person) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

The incident comes roughly two weeks after the murder of a Chhattisgarh woman was reported. The 28-year-old was allegedly killed and her body was buried by her estranged husband and paramour. According to officials, the two men also watched Drishyam, taking cues to hide the body and avoid arrest.

The incident took place on July 19 and the police arrested the two accused — Lukesh Sahu (29), the woman’s estranged husband, and Raja Ram Sahu (26) with whom she was in a relationship, an official said.

Lund, Sweden:

Simon Boas, who wrote a candid account of living with cancer, passed away on July 15 at the age of 47. In a recent BBC interview, the former aid worker told the reporter: “My pain is under control and I’m terribly happy – it sounds weird to say, but I’m as happy as I’ve ever been in my life.”

It may seem odd that a person could be happy as the end draws near, but in my experience as a clinical psychologist working with people at the end of their lives, it’s not that uncommon.

There is quite a lot of research suggesting that fear of death is at the unconscious centre of being human. William James, an American philosopher, called the knowledge that we must die “the worm at the core” of the human condition.

But a study in Psychological Science shows that people nearing death use more positive language to describe their experience than those who just imagine death. This suggests that the experience of dying is more pleasant – or, at least, less unpleasant – than we might picture it.

In the BBC interview, Boas shared some of the insights that helped him come to accept his situation. He mentioned the importance of enjoying life and prioritising meaningful experiences, suggesting that acknowledging death can enhance our appreciation for life.

Despite the pain and difficulties, Boas seemed cheerful, hoping his attitude would support his wife and parents during the difficult times ahead.

Boas’s words echo the Roman philosopher Seneca who advised that: “To have lived long enough depends neither upon our years nor upon our days, but upon our minds.”

A more recent thinker expressing similar sentiments is the psychiatrist Viktor Frankl who, after surviving Auschwitz, wrote Man’s Search for Meaning (1946) in which he lay the groundwork for a form of existential psychotherapy, with the focus of discovering meaning in any kind of circumstance. Its most recent adaptation is meaning-centred psychotherapy, which offers people with cancer a way to improve their sense of meaning.

How happiness and meaning relate

In two recent studies, in Palliative and Supportive Care and the American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care, people approaching death were asked what constitutes happiness for them. Common themes in both studies were social connections, enjoying simple pleasures such as being in nature, having a positive mindset and a general shift in focus from seeking pleasure to finding meaning and fulfilment as their illness progressed.

In my work as a clinical psychologist, I sometimes meet people who have – or eventually arrive at – a similar outlook on life as Boas. One person especially comes to mind – let’s call him Johan.

The first time I met Johan, he came to the clinic by himself, with a slight limp. We talked about life, about interests, relationships and meaning. Johan appeared to be lucid, clear and articulate.

The second time, he came with crutches. One foot had begun to lag and he couldn’t trust his balance. He said it was frustrating to lose control of his foot, but still hoped to cycle around Mont Blanc.

When I asked him what his concerns were, he burst into tears. He said: “That I won’t get to celebrate my birthday next month.” We sat quietly for a while and took in the situation. It wasn’t the moment of death itself that weighed on him the most, it was all the things he wouldn’t be able to do again.

Johan arrived at our third meeting supported by a friend, no longer able to grip the crutches. He told me that he had been watching films of him cycling with his friends. He had concluded that he could watch YouTube videos of others cycling around Mont Blanc. He had even ordered a new, expensive mountain bike. “I’ve wanted to buy it for a long time, but was tightfisted,” he said. “I may not be able to ride it, but thought it would be cool to have in the living room.”

For the fourth visit, he arrived in a wheelchair. It turned out to be the last time we met. The bike had arrived; he had it next to the couch. There was one more thing he wanted to do.

“If by some miracle I were to get out of this alive, I would like to volunteer in domestic care services – one or two shifts a week,” Johan said. “They work hard and it gets crazy sometimes, but they make such an incredible contribution. I wouldn’t have been able to get out of the apartment without them.”

My experience of patients with life-threatening disease is that it’s possible to feel happiness alongside sadness, and other seemingly conflicting emotions. Over a day, patients can feel gratitude, remorse, longing, anger, guilt and relief – sometimes all at once. Facing the limits of existence can add perspective and help a person appreciate life more than ever.

(Author:Mattias Tranberg, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Institute of Palliative Care, Lund University)

(Disclosure Statement: Mattias Tranberg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment)

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Pfizer’s gene therapy trial for Duchenne muscular dystrophy resulted in a young patient’s death. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

A young patient died due to cardiac arrest after receiving Pfizer’s experimental gene therapy being tested in a mid-stage trial for a muscle-wasting disorder called Duchenne muscular dystrophy(DMD), the drugmaker told Reuters on May 7.

“A fatal serious adverse event was reported as cardiac arrest for a participant in the Phase 2 DAYLIGHT study,” a company spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed response.

The trial is testing boys two to three years of age with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a genetic muscle wasting disorder in which most patients lack the protein dystrophin which keeps muscles intact. The disorder affects an estimated one-in-3,500 male births worldwide.

“The patient received the investigational gene therapy, fordadistrogene movaparvovec, in early 2023,” as per a statement from a community letter attributed to the drugmaker’s DMD gene therapy team and posted by a nonprofit advocacy group.

Pfizer did not immediately respond to a Reuters request seeking confirmation on the community letter attributed to the company.

All participants will be followed in the study, for five years after treatment with gene therapy, initiated in August 2022 and estimated to complete in early 2029, as per information updated by the company on a registry of clinical trials.

The company said, together with the independent external data monitoring committee, it is in the process of reviewing the data to understand the potential cause.

The gene therapy candidate is also being tested in the another late-stage DMD study, called CIFFREO, in patients in boys 4 to less than 8 years of age, as per pipeline updates on the drugmaker’s website.

There is not an impact to our expectation of having late-stage results, the company told Reuters in its email.

“We anticipate potentially beginning the primary analysis of the Phase 3 CIFFREO trial of fordadistrogene movaparvovec at the end of this month and sharing top-line results relatively soon,” it added.

Homes are surrounded by floodwaters in Sohbat Pur city, a district of Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province
| Photo Credit: Zahid Hussain

Disaster events are not only becoming more frequent and severe but their impact is also expected to worsen. The year 2023 brought an end to the warmest decade on record, marked by unprecedented extreme weather events and large-scale disasters. These catastrophes were worsened by ongoing conflicts and the COVID-19 pandemic.

A report by the Food and Agriculture Organization titled ‘The Impact of Disaster on Agriculture and Food Security’ found that the frequency of extreme disaster events has risen significantly over the past 50 years. The 1970s saw approximately 100 disaster events per year. In the last 20 years, that number went up to about 400, globally (Chart 1). 

Chart 1 | The chart shows the number of disasters by EM-DAT (the international disaster database) grouping and total economic losses in $ billion.

Chart appears incomplete? Click to remove AMP mode

According to the EM-DAT database of the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, 2022 witnessed nearly 31,000 deaths and an estimated $223.8 billion in economic losses from disasters, affecting over 185 million people. 

Agricultural activities and livelihoods rely heavily on environmental conditions, natural resources, and ecosystems. Globally, the agriculture sector faces growing threats from hazards such as flooding, water scarcity, drought, diminishing agricultural yields, fisheries depletion, loss of biodiversity, and environmental degradation. For instance, in Pakistan, exceptional monsoon rainfalls in 2022 led to nearly $4 billion in damages to the agricultural sector. In the U.S., the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimated over $21.4 billion in crop and rangeland losses in 2022, with drought and wildfires responsible for most of the crop losses.

Data from 88 Post-Disaster Needs Assessment surveys conducted from 2007 to 2022 in 60 countries indicated that agricultural losses constituted an average of 23% of the overall impact of disasters across all sectors. However, the available data are limited, primarily focusing on low-income countries and major extreme events. A comprehensive global estimate of economic losses across all sectors is unavailable.

PDNAs revealed that more than 65% of losses attributed to drought affected the agricultural sector, while floods, storms, cyclones, and volcanic activities each accounted for roughly 20% (Chart 2). 

Chart 2 | The chart shows the share of loss in agriculture by hazard type. 

However, data on loss and damage are not systematically collected or reported. To address this gap, the report used secondary data sources such as EM-DAT and FAOSTAT production data to quantify the impact of disasters on agriculture, with a specific focus on crop and livestock production. Findings indicated that estimated losses in these sub-sectors have been gradually increasing over the past three decades. 

The total loss from extreme events over the past 31 years amounted to approximately $3.8 trillion, averaging about $123 billion per year. 

Click to subscribe to our Data newsletter

Losses across major crop and livestock product groups exhibited increasing trends (Chart 3). Over the past three decades, estimated losses in cereals averaged 69 million tonnes annually. Losses in fruits and vegetables, along with sugar crops, averaged 40 million tonnes each annually. Meats, dairy products, and eggs experienced an estimated loss of 16 million tonnes per year. 

Chart 3 | The chart shows the estimated loss in various product groups (in million tonnes) between 1991 and 2021.

The distribution of total losses across regions from 1991 to 2021 also reflected the geographic size of each region. Asia bore the largest share of economic losses (45%), while Africa, Europe, and the Americas displayed similar orders of magnitude. Oceania experienced the lowest total losses (Chart 4).

Chart 4 | The chart shows the distribution of the total estimated $3.8 trillion losses by region (1991-2021).

In absolute terms, high-income countries, lower-middle-income countries, and upper-middle-income countries reported higher losses, while low-income countries and Small Island Developing States experienced lower levels. However, when considering losses relative to agricultural value added, low-income countries suffered losses more than double those of upper-middle-income countries on average (Chart 5).

Chart 5 | The chart shows total agricultural losses as a share of agricultural GDP by country groups (1991-2021).

Source: FAO report titled “The Impact of Disasters on Agriculture and Food Security 2023”

Also read |Data | Over 50,000 hectares of forest land in Uttarakhand diverted for various projects in last 30 years

Listen to our podcast | Is the Environmental Performance Index really faulty?

Sweden supporters wait in the stands after the Euro 2024 group F qualifying match between Belgium and Sweden was halted at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels, on October 16, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

Belgian police early Tuesday hunted for a gunman with suspected extremist motives who killed two Swedes with stunning viciousness before disappearing into the night. He created such fear that authorities shut down a Belgium-Sweden football match and held 35,000 fans inside for several hours as a precaution.

Eric Van Duyse, spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office, said the investigation was centering on “a possible terrorist motivation for the shooting” after “a claim of responsibility was posted on social media.”

“This person claims to be inspired by Islamic State,” Mr. Van Duyse said. “The Swedish nationality of the victims was put forward as the probable motive.” Sweden raised its terror alert to the second-highest level in August after a series of public Quran-burnings by an Iraqi refugee living in Sweden resulted in threats from Islamic militant groups.

“At this time, no element indicates a possible link with the Israeli-Palestinian situation,” Van Duyse said, offering scant relief on a continent where many nations have increased their vigilance for fear of attacks linked to the Israel-Hamas war.

In Belgium, the anti-terror center said the terror alert in the capital was raised to its top rating of 4, meaning a “threat is extremely serious.” It previously stood at 2, which means the threat was average. The alert level or the rest of the country was raised to 2.

“I have just offered my sincere condolences to @SwedishPM following tonight’s harrowing attack on Swedish citizens in Brussels,” Prime Minister Alexander De Croo De Croo said. He added on X, formerly known as Twitter, “As close partners the fight against terrorism is a joint one.”

As for the football match, Mr. Van Duyse said, “security measures were urgently taken to protect the Swedish supporters” at the game in the national stadium not far from the schooting.

Over two hours after the game was suspended, a message flashed on the big stadium screen saying, “Fans, you can leave the stadium calmy.” Stand after stand emptied onto the streets filled with police as the search for the gunman continued.

“Frustrated, confused, scared. I think everyone was quite scared,” said Caroline Lochs, a fan from Antwerp.

Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden said, “A horrible shooting in Brussels, and the perpetrator is actively being tracked down.”

Media reports aired amateur videos showing a man arriving on a scooter in an orange fluorescent vest, dropping the vehicle and immediately taking out a large weapon and opening fire on passersby. Apart from the two Swedes who were killed, a local taxi driver was hurt but his life was not in danger.

The attacker then picked up his scooter and sped off into the gathering darkness.

Even though only two people died in the attack, compared to dozens and dozens in extremist attacks in past years in Europe, the return of a sense of dread was immediate.

“Horrified at the indiscriminate killing in the heart of #Brussels tonight,” said European Parliament President Roberta Metsola. “Terror and extremism cannot infiltrate in our societies. People must feel safe. Hate will not win.”

File picture of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari poses with his medal and diploma during the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in Oslo December 10, 2008.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Nobel peace laureate Martti Ahtisaari, who served as Finland’s 10th president between 1994 and 2000, died on Monday at the age of 86, the Finnish president’s office said in a statement.

Ahtisaari was celebrated around the world for brokering peace in conflict zones in Kosovo, Indonesia and Northern Ireland.

Known by diplomats for his willingness to engage with all parties and ability to wait patiently for the right moment for a compromise, Ahtisaari refused to accept that wars and conflicts were inevitable.

“Peace is a question of will. All conflicts can be settled, and there are no excuses for allowing them to become eternal,” Ahtisaari said when he accepted the Nobel award in 2008.