NEWSLINE 16th NOVEMBER 2009

National News

Queen's Baton Relay Raises Curtain on 2010 Delhi Games

The curtain-raiser to the New Delhi Games was launched by Queen Elizabeth II when she handed over the baton to Indian President Pratibha Patil after writing a message to the athletes engraved on a miniature 18-carat gold leaf currently in a jewellery box inside the baton. By the end of this epic journey, the baton will have travelled for 340 days and covered more than 190,000 Km, passing through the hands of thousands of individuals across land, air, sea and on many different modes of transport-from bicycle and boat to hot air balloon, steam train and even an elephant. It will enter India from the Wagah border on June 25, 2010 and end at the opening ceremony at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on October 3, where athletes will be read out the Queen's message.

All SC Judges declare their assets on the Court's Website

Chief Justice of India Justice K G Balakrishnan and all other judges of the Supreme Court on November 2, 2009 "voluntarily" declared their assets on the court's website " www.supremecourtofindia.nic.in ". According to the website, the disclosure is purely on a "voluntary basis", as was decided by all the judges, led by Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan.

India skips arms treaty meet

Even as the crucial global arms trade and transfers (ATT) treaty, which seeks to regulate the $55 billion arms trade and promote democracy, found overwhelming support from 153 member countries at the UN, India was among the 19 who abstained from the meet. These 153 countries -including top arms suppliers like US, Britain, Germany and France-supported a UN disarmament committee resolution which will lead into negotiations for the treaty starting next year.

RTI does not cover the ballot box: High Court

The ballot paper is out of bounds for anyone who seeks to know its contents under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the Delhi High Court has ruled. "Right to information is an important right. At the same time, maintaining secrecy and confidentiality of ballot papers is also an equally valuable right," Justice Sanjiv Khanna observed recently.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Nine US banks seized

US authorities seized nine failed banks, bringing the total number of failed banks in 2009 to 115, their highest annual level since 1992, with analysts expecting more to come.

ICANN approves Hindi domain names

The international organization that oversees internet addresses approved the use in domain names of Hindi, Mandarin, Hebrew, Korean and 12 other languages whose scripts are not based on the Roman/ Latin alphabet. The move, which came at the end of six years of discussion and technical work by members of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), will dramatically expand the reach and use of the internet to hundreds of millions of people who don't know the Roman alphabet and who might never learn it. The change will be limited to domains controlled by national governments-in India's case .in and .cn in the case of China. This will enable writing of internet addresses containing non-latin characters from start to finish. 

Iraq election on January 21, 2010

Iraq will hold its general election on January 21, 2010, the war-torn country's election chief said, and a vote crucial to consolidating its fledgling democracy and ensuring a complete US military exit. MPs finally passed the electoral law that will govern the contest, the second national polls since the American-led invasion that ousted Dictator Saddam Hussein six years ago, after weeks of wrangling.

Lifetime Achievement Award for Sir Gulam Noon

Leading NRI businessman Sir Gulam Noon, popularly known as the 'Curry King', has won the Life Time Achievement Award at this year's prestigious World Food Awards in London, for his contribution to the food industry. Noon founded Noon Products in 1987 to produce ready-to-eat meals, specialising in the Indian and Thai food categories. 

Obama nominates Rajiv Shah to head USAID

The Obama administration nominated a young former executive with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to run the top US assistance program, ending months of speculation and complaints about who would take the vacant post. Rajiv Shah, a medical doctor who holds a senior position at the Agriculture Department dealing with food security, will bring "fresh ideas" and an "impressive background" to the U.S. Agency for International Development, President Barack Obama said in a statement announcing the nomination. 

Under Obama, US topples Australia as No. 1 brand

Barack Obama the US President has made the United States the place most people want to visit and do business with, according to an annual survey by Future Brands that ranks Nations like retail brands. The Country Brand Index, complied by brand consultancy Future Brand, found the US had unseated Australia, which held the top spot for the past three years. Australia came in third this year with Canada rising to second place. New Zealand and France rounded up the top five countries brands in this year's index that included 102 countries.

SPORTS NEWS 

Australia Win Cricket Series

Maintaining their numero-uno status in ODI cricket rankings, Australia defeated India 4-2 in the 7-match ODI series with the last match called off due to rain. Australia battling a number of injuries to its key players, put upon formidable show to hand India its first home series loss after 2007

Sachin completes 17,000 runs in One-Day Cricket

Sachin Tendulkar notched up 175 runs in the 5 th One Day International against Australia at Hyderabad enroute to 17,000 runs in One-day cricket. Sachin now holds the world record for most number of centuries- 45, most number of fifties- 91 and most number of runs in the 50 over format of the game.

Serena beats Venus in WTA championships final

Serena Williams beat big sister Venus again, winning 6-2, 7-6 (4) in the season-ending Sony Ericsson WTA Championships final. Serena on November 1, 2009, broke twice in the first set and lost just seven points on serve in her last match of the year.

20,000 turn out for Delhi Half Marathon

Deriba Merga of Ethopia retained his New Delhi Half Marathon title, while Kenya's Mary Keitany won the women's event in a race joined by over 20,000 Indian participants.

Vettel Leads Red Bull One-Two Abu Dhabi, The Year's Final GP

Germany's Sebastian Vettel won Formula One's season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the first race to start in daylight and end at night, in a Red Bull one-two finish. The 22-year-old German beat Australian Mark Webber for his fourth win of the season to make sure of second place overall in the championship. Britain Jenson Button, who clinched the title in previous Brazilian Grand Prix for his championship winning Brawn GP team, rounded out his season with third place after hunting down Webbar and chasing him nose-to-tail in the closing laps.

Anand clinches four game series

World Champion Viswanathan Anand tamed former World Champion Anatoly Karpov of Russia in two successive encounters to win the rapid four-game chess series 3.5-0.5 in Ajaccio, France. The Indian, who was leading the series 1.5-0.5 after winning the first game and drawing the second with the Russian at Bastia, beat Karpov in both the remaining games to ensure a spectacular victory. 

Delhi boy Sahaj is India's youngest International Master

Former under-10 world champion Sahaj Grover became India's youngest International Master, winning the final round game against the higher-rated Nicolas Clery to finish fifth in the International Open Chess meet at Le Touquet (France).\ 

Pankaj Advani accepts Eklavya Award

World Professional Billiards Champion Pankaj Advani on November 10, 2009 accepted the Eklavya Award, the highest recognition for a sportsperson in Karnataka. He was presented a cheque for Rs 10 lakh at a function by State Home Minister V S Acharya. Twenty-four-year-old Advani, a Padmashree awardee, is the reigning IBSF World Billiards Champion (Time and Points Format). 

India win Silver at Woman's Hockey Asia Cup

The valiant Indian Women Hockey team won the silver medal in the seventh Asia Cup played at Bangkok. China emerged worthy winners. This was China's second Asia Cup triumph, coming exactly 20 years after their 1989 victory in Hong Kong. With the final appearance, India have booked their berth for the 2010 World Cup in Argentina. India was ably led by Surinder Kaur.

NEWS & VIEWS

• Faridabad boy Nitin Jain has been declared the winner at the International Science Olympiad held in Tehran, Iran. Approximately, 100 students from 21 countries had participated in the Olympiad, which was held from October 17 to October 26. Nitin, took part in the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics.
• Jeev Milkha Singh will reach another golfing milestone in his illustrious career as he becomes the first Indian to tee up at the 16-man World Matchplay Championships beginning in Casares.
• Internet search giant Google has emerged as the most sought after company for business as well as engineering graduates, according to two surveys, which term the company as the world's 'most attractive employer' followed closely by rival, Microsoft.
• Urvashi Gulati, a 1975-batch officer, takes over as the 27th Chief Secretary of Haryana. She is the third women officer to hold the post. Gulati will look after General Administration, Personnel, Training, Vigilance and Parliamentary Reforms.
• Indian-American Suresh Kumar, who was a news anchor in India from 1970 to 1985, has been appointed to a key administration post by President Barack Obama. Mr. Kumar, known for his expertise of public-private partnership, has been nominated Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Director-General of the United States and Foreign Commercial Service in the U.S. Department of Commerce.
• Robert Enke, Germany Goalkeeper, killed himself by apparently throwing himself before a train. He was 32.
• The Tibetan spiritual and temporal leader, the Dalai Lama, living in exile in India for the past 50 years visited Arunachal Pradesh on November 8, 2009. Notably Arunachal Pradesh has been cited by China on numerous occasions as part of their territory.
• Phil Mickelson won Asia's first ever World Golf Championship event at HSB Champions played at Shanghai.
• India's 1983 World Cup Hero, former all rounder Mohinder Amarnath was honoured with the CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award for the year 2008-09 by the BCCI.
• An autobiographical book titled 'Open' has been written by eight times Grand Slam Champion Andre Agassi.
• An agreement has been reached between Nepal and China to start flights on the Kathmandu-Lhasa route in 2010, making Nepal the first country to operate flights to Lhasa.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Grid: The Future of Science

The next giant leap towards internationalisation will be the grid, which is just weeks away from powering up. The grid, which is made of thousands of desktops, laptops, supercomputers, data vaults, mobile phones, meteorological sensors and telescopes will start work when protons beams collide with each other in the world's biggest experiment ever, deep in a tunnel on the French-Swiss Border. It uses the internet but is not the internet. Grid shares computing power and data storage capacity also. Using cloud computing, the grid will combine the resources of more than 100,000 processors from more than 170 sites in 34 countries and will be accessible to thousands of physicists globally. The grid will be a boon for countries like India, which rank low on the social development index.

Nanoparticles in equipment can damage DNA

Scientists reported that nanoparticles used in medical applications can indirectly damage DNA inside cells by transmitting signals through a protective barrier of human tissue. The stunning discovery by researchers of Southmead Hospital in Bristol, Britain, adds to a growing body of research highlighting proven and potential health hazards from the rapidly expanding universe of engineered objects measured in billionths of a metre.