National Political News
1. India moves a step closer to being a permanent member of the UN Security Council. The UNGeneral Assembly has agreed to carry forward a text on UN Security Council reforms. This move will help India on text based negotiations for the permanent member seat. There is broad support by the International community to India to move forward on the issue at the 70th session of U N General Assembly.
2. Lok Jan Shakti Party (LJP) of Ram Vilas Paswan is sulking over the number of seats allotted to it by the NDA to context the Bihar elections. LJP claims that they have been allotted seats disproportionate to their political clout for the Bihar elections by the NDA.
3. The Coal scam case appeal in the Supreme Court by the Ex. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh against the Trial Court summons, posted before the bench dealing with the coal scam case has been taken away from it by the Supreme Court Chief Justice of India on the plea of Ex. PM Manmohan Singh’s council KabilSibal, a former Union Minister in the Manmohan Singh cabinet.
4. The Supreme Court of India has ordered an Income Tax probe against the kin of the former Chief Justice of India Balakrishnan on the basis of allegations of amassing properties disproportionate to their known sources of income. The kin under the scanner are the ex CJI’s daughter, son in law and brother during his tenure as a Judge and as CJI.
5. Rivers Krishna and Godavari have been interlinked in a decade’s old endeavour. The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh N Chandrababu Naidu performed the ceremony of linking the two rivers at Ibrahimpatnam village near the city of Vijayawada. The water was pumped from Godavari into Krishna by a lift irrigation project to meet the needs of backward regions of Andhra Pradesh.
International Political News
1. Australia’s ruling Liberal Party dramatically ousts Australian Prime Minister, 54 year old Tony Abbott and replaces him with his challenger, 60 year old businessman Malcolm Turnbull. Turnbull will be the 5th Australian premier in 8 years. Economy issue is at the back of this change.
2. The Nepalese Parliament rejects by 2/3rd majority a bill by Hindu aligned National Democratic Party to amend the constitution to make Nepal a Hindu state from a secular state.
3. The erstwhile Hindu state of Nepal was declared a secular state in 2007 after the success of people movement of 2006 in which the monarchy was replaced by a constitutional head of state.
4. There is widespread unrest in Nepal’s Terai regions adjoining India’s Uttarkhand and Bihar by those areas inhabitants known as Madhesis. India has asked Nepal to settle the demands of the Madhesis.
A UN report has held the Sri Lankan government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) of committing war crimes including mass killing of civilians. The report has held that a special court ofInternational Judges be constituted to prosecute the guilty. The 26 year old civil war between the LTTE and Sri Lankan government had ended in 2009 with the LTTE being wiped out from North and North-East Sri Lanka.
Business News
1. The US Federal Reserve (Fed) head Ms. Janet Yellen has for the time being deferred the increase in the interest rates in the US because of the China economic crisis and the weak global markets.
2. The Reserve Bank of India has granted in principle nod to 10 entities for setting up small finance banks. These banks will provide basic banking services to small farmers and micro industries.
Previously IDFC and Bandhan had been given full pledged banking licenses about a year back.
Science and Technology
1. Scientist in Los Angeles have discovered a new antibody that effectively detects and neutralizes HIV virus in infected patients. Protein called (bNAbs) appears to be apromising key for prevention of infection by HIV.
2. Facebook is coming up with a dislike button as stated by Mark Zuckerberg during a Q & A session at Facebook headquarters in California, US.
Miscellaneous News and Events
1. President Obama of the US honours American Author of Indian origin JhumpaLahiri, born to Bengali immigrants with a National Humanities Medal for her works of fiction at a White House event. JhumpaLahiri has authored the Novels ‘Interpreter of Maladies’, ‘The Namesake’ and others. She is quite popular with the Democrats, President Obama and the Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Sports
1. Top seeds Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis outplayed CasseyDellacqua and YaroslavaShvedova 6-3, 6-3 to win the US open women’s doubles final.
In the all Italian women’s final of US open, Flavia Pennetta, 33 year old , beat compatriot 32 year old Vinci 7-6, 6-2 to become the oldest first time grand slam winner. Pennetta also announced her retirement after winning the match and the title.
In the men’s single final Novak Djokovic beat Roger Federer 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 to win the US open final.
2. At the World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas USA, India’s NarsinghPancham Yadav took the bronze medal in the freestyle 74 kg. men’s category.
3. At the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, US, Floyd Mayweather Jr. defeated Andre Berto in 12 rounds to retain his WBC and WBA welterweight titles in Boxing. His carrier record stands at 49-0.
4. Australia take the consolation prize of winning one day international cricket match against England at Manchester. Earlier on, England had won the Ashes Trophy in the test cricket match series played between the two nations.England scored 138 runs all out to lose to Australia who scored 140 runs for 2 wickets.
