Sunday, May 2, 2010

IMPORTANT NEWS

News in brief: World

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Actress Charlize Theron has been made a messenger of

peace by the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-

Moon. The South African-born actress, who won an Oscar

for her role in the 2003 film Monster, will have a special

focus on ending violence against women. She becomes the

UN's 10th peace envoy, joining the likes of US actors

George Clooney and Michael Douglas, British naturalist

Jane Goodall, and Brazilian author Paulo Coelho.

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Oscar-winner Al Pacino has been given a lifetime achievement award at the Rome

Film Festival in Italy.

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US space tourist Richard Garriott, an investor in Space Adventures,

returned to earth in a Soyuz space capsule.

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One of China's most prominent human rights activists, Hu Jia, has won

the European Parliament's 50,000 euro Sakharov Prize for

Freedom of Thought. Hu, is serving a jail term for inciting subversion

of state power.

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Angelina Jolie is the highest paid actress in Hollywood according to an annual report by

the Hollywood Reporter thanks to her prized earning of $23 million for the action film

"Wanted". Julia Roberts followed second with $23 million for her film "Duplicity",

while third was Reese Witherspoon, who pocketed $14 million for her new romantic

comedy "Four Christmases".

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Honda has decided to pull out its team comprising drivers Jenson Button and Reubens

Barrichello from F1.

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The European Union will ban the sale of incandescent light bulbs from 2009 and

replace the market by fluorescent energy-saving bulbs.

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Spanish artist Miquel Barcelo unveiled his lavish, $23 million ceiling painting at the

United Nations building in Geneva, a project that has evoked controversy over its hefty

price tag.


 

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Pakistan People's Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari received the U.N. prize

in the field of human rights on behalf of his mother and slain Pakistani former Prime

Minister Benazir Bhutto on the occasion of 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration

of Human Rights.

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Sonal Shah, the Indian-origin member of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's

transition team, whose links with VHP sparked criticism, has renounced her affiliation

with the Hindu outfit.

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The U.K. has signalled an end to the policy which gave immigrants the "automatic" right

to citizenship if they had stayed for a minimum of five years. Under the proposed rules,

immigrants will have to "earn" British citizenship by demonstrating their commitment to

Britain that would include having a good grasp of English and knowledge of British

history and its institutions.

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Actor Shahrukh Khan received the honour 'Darjah Mulia Seri Melaka' from the

government of Malaysia's Malacca State. He will now be referred to as Datuk

Shahrukh Khan and addressed as Datuk. Malacca authorities said Khan was given the

title because six of his movies were shot in the historical State, giving a boost to tourism.

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The European Union is launching Operation Atalanta–a British-led anti-piracy armada

off the Horn of Africa in Europe's first joint naval operation.

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Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II, who presided over a massive post-Soviet revival

of the church, passed away at the age of 79. Alexy II, elected to head the church in 1990,

took advantage of the lifting of Communist restrictions on religious freedom to

dramatically rebuild the power and influence of the Orthodox Church in Russia and other

former Soviet states.

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Russia has cut natural gas supplies to neighbouring Ukraine after talks on gas prices for

2009 fell through. Europe voiced concern over the row as 80% of Russian gas supplies to

Europe go through Ukraine. Ukraine's state gas company said it could not guarantee

uninterrupted transit of Russian gas to Europe if Russia cut off supplies to Ukraine.

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After a lengthy and bloody campaign, the Sri Lankan army captured the northern town

of Kilinochchi, the administrative headquarters of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil

Eelam (LTTE), and said its forces were continuing to advance towards remaining Tiger

strongholds.

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Lasantha Wickrematunge, editor of a Sri Lankan newspaper, was shot dead on his way

to work. In an article written before his death, he foretold his own murder and implied

that it would be the work of the security forces.


 

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Samuel Huntington, a political scientist best known for his views on the clash of

civilizations, passed away at the age of 81. He argued that in a post-Cold War world,

violent conflict would come not from ideological friction between nations, but from

cultural and religious differences among the world's major civilizations. He made the

argument in a 1993 article and then expanded the thesis into a book, "The Clash of

Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order," which was published in 1996.

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U2 frontman Bono will write an opinion column for The New York Times. The singer

is well known for campaigning against debt for the world's poorest countries. Last year,

he received an honorary degree at Japan's Keio University for his work in the fight

against poverty and AIDS in Africa.

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Guinea's despotic president, Lansana Conte, passed away after 24 years in power

recently. His death prompted a coup by army officers led by a hitherto unknown captain,

Moussa Camara.

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Belgium's parliamentary speaker, Herman van Rompuy, was asked to form a

government after the collapse of the coalition led by Yves Leterme.

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The medieval prince Alexander Nevsky, canonised by the Orthodox Church as saint in

1574, has been named the Greatest Russian of all times in a nationwide poll, leaving

behind early 20th century reformer Pyotr Stolipin and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

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Israel intensified its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, sending ground forces to the

outskirts of the main urban areas as aircraft attacked suspected Hamas fighters, weapons

dumps, rocket-firing positions and arms-smuggling tunnels.

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John Atta Mills was sworn in as Ghana's new president after a wafer-thin victory in a

run-off against the former ruling party's candidate.

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Hillary Clinton has been endorsed as President-elect Barack Obama's secretary of state

by the US Senate's foreign relations committee.

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Denis Mukwege, a doctor in Democratic Republic of Congo who treats women

traumatized by combatants in the war-torn country has been named "African of the

Year" by the Nigerian newspaper Daily Trust. The doctor plans to use the $20,000 prize

money to fund a centre to help rape victims rejoin society.

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Azerbaijan has banned foreign companies from broadcasting on national frequencies,

shutting off groups such as the BBC and Voice of America.


 

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Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser al-Sabah has formed a new cabinet, replacing

the previous government which quit after a dispute with parliament. Nasser had been

accused of intervening to help a controversial Iranian Shia Muslim cleric visit Kuwait,

even though he had been convicted by a Kuwaiti court of insulting the companions of

Prophet Muhammad.

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British lawyer and writer John Mortimer, creator of the criminal lawyer Horace

Rumpole, who appeared in a TV series and a string of novels and stories, passed away at

the age of 85.

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John Lennon, the Beatles singer, who died 28 years ago, will appear in a television

commercial for charity. A voice dubbed over images of Lennon recalls the sentiment of

his 1971 hit song "Imagine' while promoting the "One Laptop per Child Foundation".

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An asteroid has been named after Nandini Sarma, an 18-year-old girl of Assamese

origin, for winning the first place in the first place in the 2007 Intel International Science

and Engineering Fair for her microbiology project that advocates garlic as a replacement

for synthetic chemical food preservatives. The asteroid, discovered in Nov 2000, by the

Lincoln Laboratory Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) team in Socorro, U.S., has

been named 23228 Nandinisarma.

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'What Next: Surviving The Twentieth Century' is a new book authored by Chris

Patten–the last governor of the United Kingdom's last colony Hong Kong, and later

European Commissioner for external relations, His earlier book 'Not Quite the

Diplomat: Home Truths about World Affairs' was largely devoted to explaining why

the traditional Conservative worldview may be out of synch with reality.

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United Nations Security Council (UNSC) banned Pakistan-based Jamaat-ud Dawa

(JuD), a front group for the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), blamed for the recent Mumbai terror

attacks, declaring it as a terrorist group. It also branded as terrorists four of its leaders

including Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the suspected mastermind behind the deadly strike.

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The climate change conference in Poznan, Poland has activated an Adaptation Fund

that will enable developing countries to send proposals for projects to safeguard

vulnerable communities and areas against impacts of climate change and global warming.

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The United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC), released

after the end of the Poznan summit, mentioned activation of the Adaptation Fund and

the progress made in the area of technology with the endorsement of the Global

Environment Facility's "Poznan Strategic Programme on Technology Transfer", as

some of its achievements.


 

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The Cambridge University has started a Manmohan Singh Graduate Students

Scholarship Programme for Indian students.

News in brief: India

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The Sino-Indian Joint Military Exercise "Ex Hand-in-Hand 2008," aimed at

developing combat strategies to counter terrorism, was organised in India recently.

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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the visiting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev

signed an agreement to supply nearly 2,000 tonnes of uranium to India.

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India has struck a deal with France to provide 300 tonnes of uranium for two proposed

1000-MW light water reactors by Areva of France at Jaitpur in Maharashtra's

Ratnagiri district.

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The Rajasthan Congress Legislature Party (CLP) chose the former Chief Minister and

Congress general secretary, Ashok Gehlot as the new Chief Minister of the state.

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Odissi dancer Pritika Kalra Gandhi received the National Women Excellence Award

2008 of the foundation for religious Harmony and Universal Peace recently.

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Nine young scientists from different research institutions have won the prestigious

Scopus Young Indian Scientists Awards for 2008. The awards are instituted by

Elsevier, the Netherlands based research publisher of scientific information. The winners

are: Govindasamy Bala of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (for Earth Sciences

category), Siva Athreya of the Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore (Mathematics),

B.V.S. Reddy of the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad (Chemistry),

Bhanuprakash Reddy of the National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad (Medicine), R.

Raman of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New

Delhi (Agriculture), S. Ganesh of IIT, Kanpur (Agriculture Biological Sciences),

Suman Chakraborthy of IIT, Kharagpur, (Engineering) and Satyabrata Patnaik of

JNU, Delhi, and Moulik Parikh of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and

Astrophysics, Pune (Physics).

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Rajiv Mathur was appointed as the new Chief of the Intelligence Bureau from January

1, 2009. He took over from P.C. Halder, who retired on Dec 31, 2008.

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The world-famous mangoes of Malihabadi in Uttar Pradesh have got Geographical

Indicators (GI) status.


 

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Historian Romila Thapar has been honoured with the $1 million Kluge Prize for

Lifetime Achievement in the Study of Humanity, along with Peter Brown, a historian

of the post-Roman world.

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Bharatanatyam danseuse and director of the Ahmedabad-based Darpana Academy

Mallika Sarabhai has been selected for the "Crystal award for 2009," given by the

World Economic Forum, for her two decades of work in the fields of women

empowerment and social justice as well as arts and culture.

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Nobel laureate and Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency

Mohamed ElBaradei has been chosen to receive the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace,

Disarmament and Development for 2008.

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Editor-in-Chief of the IBN Network Rajdeep Sardesai has been unanimously elected

president of the Editors Guild of India. He succeeds the Chief Editor of Nai Duniya,

Alok Mehta, who served for two terms. Resident Editor of Malayala Manorama and The

Week K.S. Sachidananada Murthy was re-elected secretary-general.

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The Supreme Court collegium, headed by the Chief Justice of India K.G.

Balakrishnan, has refused to reconsider its decision on elevation of three High Court

Chief Justices as apex court judges. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed his

reservations about the elevation of these three judges on the ground that seniority had

been overlooked and certain States were not represented in the apex court.

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Leather technologist T. Ramasami was selected for the prestigious Dr. Y. Nayudamma

Memorial Award for the year 2008.

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Ashutosh Kaushik who hails from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh won the 'Bigg Boss 2'

title and a whopping Rs.1 crore in cash. Model-actor Zulfi Syed was declared the second

runner-up, while Raja Chaudhry became the first runner-up.

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Avtar Singh Makkar was re-elected president of the Shiromani Gurdwara

Prabhandak Committee for the fourth time in a row.

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Konkani writer Ravindra Rajaram Kelekar, 83, was declared winner of 42nd Jnanpith

award for 2006.

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Visva Bharati has decided to confer its highest award, "Deshikottama" to the former

King of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuk. Among others who will be conferred the

award are former Visva Bharati Vice-Chancellor, Amlan Dutta, economist J. Endrez,

historian Irfan Habib and theatre personality Habib Tanvi

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