NEWSLINE OCTOBER IInd, 2009

National News

Law put in place to protect elder

Neglecting your elderly parents can now fetch you up to three months in jail under a special law that was put into force on 30 th September, 2009 to mark World Elders' Day. Lending tooth to the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, that was implemented on 1 st October, 2009, nine maintenance tribunals were also opened to hear cases of senior citizens who face neglect or ill treatment. The tribunals will function out of the additional district magistrate's office at all nine revenue districts and meet twice a week. Each tribunal will have a chairman and two members. They can also direct children or relatives to provide maintenance of up to Rs 10,000 monthly to senior citizens.

Sign of Indus Valley Civilisation

A rock engraving, similar to a sign of the Indus Valley Civilisation, has been found at Edakkal in Wayanad district of Kerala. A recent exploration at the Edakkal Caves revealed a picture of a man with a jar, a unique sign of the Indus Civilisation.

SC puts stop to roadside shrines

No more temples, mosques or other places of worship can come up on roadsides or on public land, the Supreme Court ordered. The ban may not have immediate impact on temples, mosques, gurdwaras and churches that stand tall on roadsides, causing traffic bottlenecks. But the court asked states to review the status of each such illegal structure and take a decision expeditiously.

CBRI to study Qutub tilt as flights cause concern

Qutub Minar will now come under intense scrutiny for keeping tabs on the extent of its tilt. After requests from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), a team of experts from Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) Roorkee will conduct a periodical study of the 13 th century monument to assess the tilt and ensure it has not aggravated. Qutub Minar, built by Qutubddin Aibak, was the first monument in the capital to be awarded world heritage status by UNESCO in 1993.

National Rural Employment Guarantee Act named after Mahatma Gandhi

The Union Cabinet has decided to rechristen National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) as the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

Manna Dey gets filmdom's top prize

Manna Dey was awarded filmdom's top prize, the Dada Saheb Phalke Award. He had earlier won the National Award for Best Male Playback in 1969 and 1971. In 1971 he was awarded the Padma Shri and in 2005 the Lifetime Achievement award by Government of Maharashtra. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2005.

India 's Jurassic nest dug up in TN

Geologists in Tamil Nadu have stumbled upon a Jurassic treasure trove buried in the sands of a river bed. Sheer luck led them to hundreds of fossilized dinosaur eggs, perhaps 65 million years old, underneath a stream in a tiny village in Ariyalur district. Researchers found clusters of eggs of what they believe to be the most aggressive Carnosaur and the docile, leaf-eating Sauropod. While Carnosaurs were large predatory dinasuars, Sauropods were long-necked, herbivores which grew to enormous heights and sizes. Each egg was about 13 to 20 cm in diameter and they were lying in sandy nests which were of the size of 1.25 meters.

NRIs in 180 of 183 countries

Indian citizens are today permanent residents of all but three countries in the world. The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs has registered the presence of Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) in 180 of 183 countries of the world. The numbers may vary from just two in Lebanon to more than nine million in the United States of America . It is only in North Korea , Pakistan and Bhutan that not a single NRI is to be found. Saudi Arabia tops the list with 17.9 lakh NRIs.

Delhi among Top 50 Places to see

Delhi has found a place of honour in the National Geographic Traveller magazine's 50 Places of a Lifetime. The Capital and Fatehpur Sikri are the only two Indian destinations to make it to the prestigious list that is part of the travel magazine's compilation that comes after a decade-long gap. In fact, the first list published in 1999 featured the Taj Mahal and put Kerala on the international map after it was described as 'Paradise Found'.

Bharat Shiromani Awards

Arunachal Pradesh Governor and Former Army Chief General J.J. Singh, Law Commission Chairman Justice AR. Lakshmanan, Actor and MP Jayaprada and former cricketer and MP Mohammad Azharuddin received the Lifetime Achievement Bharat Shiromani Award for 2008-09 for distinguished service. The other awardees are Olympic gold medalist Abhinav Bindra, Chief Executive Officer of Doha Bank R. Seetharaman, Managing Director of Valecha Group Jagdish K. Valecha, Archbishop of Delhi Vincent Conesscaso, popular singer Daler Mehndi, Dr. Shan Nair from the U.S., M.S. Bhukari from Doha, Hiro Mulani from the UAE, Bharatanatyam exponent Komala Varadan, santoor maestro Abhay Rustom Sopori, designers Ashima and Leena Singh, Spinal Injury Centre founder Major H.P.S. Ahluwalia and Olympic bronze medalist in boxing Vijender Singh.

International

US President Barack Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

President Barack Obama on October 9, 2009, won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between people.

Nobel Medicine prize for research into ageing

Three Americans were awarded the Nobel prize for Medicine on October 5, 2009 for the discovery of a built-in protection device in chromosomes, a finding that sheds light on ageing and may help in the fight against cancer. Australian-born Elizabeth Blackburn, British-born Jack Szostak and Carol Greider won the prize of 10 million Swedish Kronor ($1.42 million).

2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Indian Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, American Thomas Steitz and Israeli Ada Yonath won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on October 7, 2009 for mapping ribosomes, the protein-producing factories within cells, at the atomic level.

German writer gets Literature Nobel

Herta Mueller, a Romanian-born German writer who was persecuted for her critical depictions of life behind the Iron Curtain, won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature in an award seen as a nod to the 20 th anniversary of communism's collapse.

Williamson win Nobel Economics prize

Americans Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson won the Nobel Economics prize for their work in economic governance. Ostrom is the first woman to win the prize since it was founded in 1968, and the fifth woman to win a Nobel Award this year - a Nobel record.

' Masters of light' win Physics Nobel

Three scientists who paved the way for two light-based technologies that revolutionized modern life? internet and digital camera? were honoured with 2009 Nobel Prize for Physics. Charles Kao, Williard Boyle and George Smith were hailed by the Nobel jury as "the masters of light" for transforming communications from copper-wire telephony and postal mail to the era of the internet, email and instant messaging. Kao, who has British and US nationality was awarded half of the prize for groundbreaking achievements in the use of glass fibres for optical communication. Boyle, a Canadian-US citizen, and Smith, a 79-year-old American, shared the other half of the prize for inventing the charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor which is the "electronic eye" of the modern- day digital camera. CCD technology is also used in many medical applications, such as imaging the inside of the human body.

Angela Merkel wins second term

German Chancellor Angela Merkel led her party to win yet another term in Berlin. It is certain that Merkel would rule as head of a Black-Yellow alliance comprising the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the Bavarian Christian Socialist Union (CSU) and the business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP), which was the CDU's preferred choice always.

US loses Net Control

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)- the official body that ultimately controls the development of the Internet and is responsible for managing the assignment of domain names and IP Addresses -said that it was ending its agreement with the U.S. Government. This will effectively mean loss of US control over the way the network is run and allow foreign governments more of a say in the future of the system.

Tango steps into UN'S World heritage list

The UN has declared the sultry tango dance steps of Argentina and Uruguay part of the world's "intangible cultural heritage". Developed in working class city dance halls in Buenos Aires and Montevideo, tango is a deep-rooted tradition of dance, poetry and singing that is seen worldwide as the symbol of Latin romantic passion .

UK gets its Supreme Court

The UK's first Supreme Court came into being on 1 st October, 2009 with the swearing in of 11 judges, replacing the House of Lords as the highest appeal tribunal, a move aimed at establishing judicial independence in the country. Eleven new justices took their oaths of office in the new Supreme Court building across Parliament Square in central London.

G7 core group to include China

The Group of Seven rich nations hopes to decide its future as an institution later with the United States pushing for the creation of a smaller core group that would include China. Washington wanted to see the G7 supplanated in global economic policymaking by a group of Four that would bring the US, Europe and Japan together with China.

British novelist Hilary Mantel wins Booker for 'Wolf Hall'

In a short-list bereft of Indian writers, this year's Man Booker prize has gone to British novelist Hilary Mantel for her gripping 16th century tale titled 'Wolf Hall'. Mantel, 57, received 50,000 pounds as prize money in what is considered one of the English-speaking world's most prestigious literary prizes.

Russian Court denies lesbians right to marry

A Moscow court ruled against two lesbians seeking to become Russia's first married gay couple. A District Court upheld a decision by the City's civil registry that said Russian law defined marriage as between a woman and man. Homosexuality was decriminalized in Russia in the 1990s, but many Russians are vehemently opposed to expansion of gay rights or gay-rights demonstrations.

Norway Tops UN Development Index

Every year UN ranks nations according to the Human Development Index (HDI) and the report is published by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). HDI is a summary measure of well being based on life expectancy, literacy, school enrolment and GDP per capita. Norway followed by Australia and Iceland are the top three ranked countries in the Human Development Report 2009. India is ranked at 134, the same as last year while China showed the maximum improvement jumping 7 places to rank 92. The bottom three ranked countries are Niger, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone.

French firm buys Bapu's Johannesburg home

Mahatama Gandhi's historic house in Johannesburg which was his home almost a century ago has been snapped up by a French tourism company Voyageurs du Monde to turn the property into a Gandhi museum in line with its philosophy of investing in heritage properties worldwide .

Sports

Its Rio for 2016

Brazil's second largest city after Sao Paolo- Rio de Janerio edged out strong contenders Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo to earn the 2016 Summer Olympics. The venue for the Olympics is decided by the International Olympic Committee presently led by its President Jacques Rogge. IOC has 106 members. Rio is also going to host the 2014 Football World Cup .

Australia beat NZ to win Champions Trophy

Shane Watson and Cameron White were the batting heroes as title holders Australia coasted to a six-wicket victory over New Zealand in the ICC Champions Trophy final. New Zealand made 200-9 off 50 overs at Centurion and Australia overcame two early blips to reach 206-4 in 45.2 overs and confirm their dominance of the 50-over format with back-to-back titles.

Manavjit Singh Sandhu won the individual gold

Reigning world champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu won the individual gold in trap and then joined hands with Mansher Singh and Anwer Sultan to bag the silver medal in team event of the Asian Clay Shooting Championship in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Mansher also finished with two medals after winning the bronze in the individual event.

Dhoni hogs the limelight at ICC Awards

MS Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir both picked up two important individual ICC Awards. Dhoni was named ODI Player of the Year and Gambhir was named Test Player of the year for 2009. Dhoni was also named captain of both the ICC World ODI Team of the Year and the World Test Team. The World ODI Team also featured two other Indians in Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh while the Test team featured Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar and 12 th man Harbhajan Singh, apart from Dhoni.

The Awardees for 2009 are as follows:

• ICC Cricketer of the Year - Mitchell Johnson
• ICC Test Player of the Year - Gautam Gambhir
• ICC ODI Player of the Year - MS Dhoni
• T20 Performance of the Year - T Dilshan
• Umpire of the Year - Aleem Dar
• Spirit of Cricket Award - New Zealand
• Women's Cricketer of the Year - Calire Taylor
• Associate Player of the Year - W Porterfield
• ICC Emerging Player of the Year - Peter Siddle

World ODI Team of the Year -V Sehwag, C Gayle, K. Pietersen, T Dilshan, Yuvraj Singh, M Guptill, MS Dhoni (Captain and WK), A Flintoff, N Kulasekara, A. Mendis, Umar Gul. 12th Man T Thushara

World Test Team of the Year - G Gambhir, A Strauss, AB De Villiers, S Tendulkar, T Samaraweera, M Clarke, MS Dhoni (Captain and WK) Shakib al Hasan, M Johnson, S Broad, D Steyn. 12th man Harbhajan Singh

News and Views

• Unilever a fast moving consumer goods company, would acquire the personal care business of U.S. based Sara Lee Corporation for 1.27 billion euro (over Rs. 9000 crore) in cash to firm up its position in Western Europe and Asia. Unilever will not have any impact on Godrej Sara Lee. The household brands like Good Knight, HIT, Bryl Cream, Kiwi and Ambipur form the Sara Lee global portfolio.
• In a move to beef up air defence capabilities, the Indian Air Force (IAF) is going to station all its MiG 29 squadrons at Adampur Air Force Base in Punjab. The IAF also plans to induct upgraded MiG 29 aircraft sometime next year. The first lot of six upgraded MiG 29s is expected to reach Adampur by mid-2010.
• The High Court of Kerala has become the first court in the country to post the details of the assets and liabilities of all its judges in the public domain.