News: World Politics,
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Sports
World Politics
Pop diva Britney Spears has
beaten US President Barack
Obama as the most searched
for celebrity on the Internet in
the last decade. The singer
shot to fame in 1998 with her
debut track Baby One More
Time, and during her time in
the limelight she has been
married twice, given birth to
two children and suffered a
public meltdown, which saw
her hospitalized on an
involuntary psychiatric hold in
2008 and her drama-filled life
has resulted in her being
named the most popular celeb
on the web. Barack Obama
came in second, while soccer
ace David Beckham was the
third most searched for star.
Ford, although better off than
other U.S. carmakers, has
been hit hard by the global
slump in car sales. Through
November, its sales were
down 19 per cent compared
with the same period last
year. As of October, Ford had
about 80,000 employees in
North America, down from
89,000 at the beginning of the
year.
Rani Mukherji and Prakash
Raj won the V Shantaram
awards for best actress and
best actor for Dil Bole Haddipa
and Kanchivaram respectively
for 2009.
With stock markets up, and
after passing government
“stress tests” to see how they
would cope in future
downturns, many banks,
including Bank of America,
Citigroup and Wells Fargo,
began to repay the bail-out
money they had received at
the height of the crisis. Many
financed this by offering
shares through big capitalraising
plans.
Bank bosses were roasted by
politicians for continuing to
pay out large bonuses. The
revelation that bonuses were
given to executives at
American International Group,
a troubled insurer that
obtained a $170 billion bailout,
sparked outrage. Britain’s
chancellor imposed a super
tax on bankers’ bonuses in
Britain.
Bernie Madoff received a
150-year jail sentence for
defrauding clients of $65
billion in his Ponzi scheme. Sir
Allen Stanford, a Texan
billionaire and cricket
promoter, was arrested for
allegedly defrauding investors
out of $8 billion through his
bank in Antigua.
An Air France jet en route
from Rio de Janeiro to Paris
crashed into the mid-Atlantic
in June killing 228 people, the
worst plane crash in a decade.
The Iranian presidential
election brought about the
Islamic Republic’s worst crisis
since the 1979 revolution.
Polls had suggested that Mir
Hosein Mousavi, a reformminded
candidate, might
defeat Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad. The scale of Mr
Ahmadinejad’s victory caused
millions to take to the streets
to protest against what they
said was a rigged election.
Hundreds were arrested in
Tehran and elsewhere.
Dissidents were sentenced in a
series of televised trials.
After a quarter of a century of
conflict, Sri Lanka’s civil war
came to an end when the
army overwhelmed the last
remnants of the rebel Tamil
Tigers. Thousands were killed
in the final days of fighting
and up to 300,000 were
displaced.
Australia suffered its worstever
outbreak of wildfires in
February, in which more than
170 people died across
Victoria.
Revelations about the
expenses charged by British
members of Parliament
crushed many reputations.
The juicier claims included
those for duck islands,
manure, moat-cleaning and
adult films.
General Motors went bust
with debts of $172 billion,
America’s biggest-ever
industrial failure. The
American government took a
majority stake in the carmaker
as it emerged from
bankruptcy protection. GM
and its rivals benefited from
“cash-for-clunkers” subsidies
schemes, which encouraged
consumers to trade in their old
bangers for more fuel-efficient
models.
Business & Economy
State-run Oil and Natural Gas
Corp (ONGC) which pays the
highest dividend among public
and private firms said its board
of directors had approved an
interim dividend payout of 180
per cent (Rs 18 per share)
aggregating to Rs 3,850 crore.
The Company recently made two
gas discoveries in the well GK-28-
1 drilled in the Kutch offshore
block-1 in western offshore. The
well drilled to the depth of 1,550
meters floated 1.2 lakh cubic
meters a day of gas during test.
For 2008-09 fiscal, ONGC had
paid an aggregate dividend of 320
per cent (Rs 32 per share).
Ammolite Holdings Ltd, an Anil
Dhirubhai Ambani Group
company, withdrew its petition
against customs department
which had alleged that the
company had evaded duty on a
yacht, an expensive vessel
propelled by sail or power and
used for cruising or racing, it
brought to India. 'Tian', the
yacht in question, was reportedly
a gift by Anil Ambani to his wife
Tina. The Customs department,
in February this year, seized it
and asked Ammolite to pay duty
of Rs 3 crore.
Engineering and construction
major Larsen & Toubro’s current
order book stands between Rs
70,000 crore and Rs 75,000
crore. The company is expecting
its sales would grow at 14-15 per
cent in FY 10.
John Mack, Morgan Stanley’s
outgoing chief executive, will
forgo a bonus for the third
straight year as his bank heads
for its first annual loss – a move
that reflects Wall Street’s fears of
fuelling the public backlash over
compensation. In a memo to
employees, Mr Mack, who is
handing over to James Gorman
in January while remaining as
chairman, said he had
recommended to the board that
he “receive no year-end bonus”.
Morgan Stanley’s board was
prepared to award Mr Mack a
bonus for his role in ensuring the
bank’s survival during the crisis,
and its improved performance.
Fortis Healthcare Limited, a
chain of hospitals based in India
has finally acquired 10
Wockhardt hospitals in metro
cities of Mumbai, Bangalore and
Kolkata for Rs 909 crore.
Malvinder Mohan Singh is the
Chairman of Fortis Healthcare and
Religare Enterprises Group.
Earlier in August, Fortis executed
a biding deal with Wockhardt
Hospitals to acquire the latter's 10
hospitals.
Some people fall in with a bad
crowd. Some companies, too.
Accenture recently went through
this problem with Tiger Woods: it
dropped the golfer from its
advertising following his frontpage
swan-dive from grace.
Hennes and Mauritz ditched Kate
Moss, the British model, in 2005
after she was at the centre of
drug allegations. DeWitt Stern, a
US insurance broker, is launching
a product that will allow
corporations to guard themselves
against the risk that the idols that
they pay to appear in their
advertisements will prove to have
clay feet.
Intel is giving a Special Thank
You bonus that's either $1,000
or $500 depending on the country
where they employee is based.
Employees in India will get $500
(about Rs 23,000), just like those
in China, Malaysia, Russia, etc.
Employees in the US, Australia,
France, Germany, Canada, etc.
will be richer by $1,000 (Rs
47,000). The bonus is said to be
uniform across all grades within a
country and will be paid out
between December 18 and
December 31. The bonus is said
to be a mark of appreciation for
outstanding work in 2009.
Forty-four per cent management
students graduating in 2010 have
voted the FMCG sector as the
most preferred industry to work
in, terming giants like Hindustan
Unilever Ltd and Proctor &
Gamble as "dream companies, he
Nielsen Campus Track-B School
Survey revealed.
A professor of the Indian Institute
of Management (IIM)-Indore was
found murdered at her residence
in the campus on December 18.
Amrita Panchauli, 32, who
belonged to Udaipur in Rajasthan,
had been working at IIM-Indore
for one and a half years. Her
driver found the murderer.
IIM Calcutta’s Post-Graduate
Programme for Executives
(PGPEX) wing started a new
programme ‘Lattice- 2009’
which is essentially a networking
initiative which revolves around
reaching out further to the alumni
and strengthening the IIMC
fraternity.
To attract more tourists, the
Indian government has decided to
implement a Visa on Arrival
Scheme for the citizens of five
countries, including Japan, New
Zealand, Luxembourg and Finland
for one year on experimental
basis Japan, New Zealand,
Luxembourg and Finland for one
year on experimental basis. The
present numbers of visitors are
five million visitors every year.
The move is because a large
country like India should have at
least 50 million visitors.
Sports
Former Pakistan captain and
batting legend Hanif
Mohammad has termed Sachin
Tendulkar as the “cricketing
jewel of subcontinent” and said
the 36-year-old right-hander was
destined to break many more
records in the coming years.
Country’s top golfer Jeev Milkha
Singh, has been awarded the
honorary life membership of the
Professional Golf Tour of India
while Bangalore pro Anirban Lahiri
was named the Player of the Year.
Lahiri topped the Aircel—
Professional Golf Tour of India’s
Order of Merit for 2009 with total
earnings of Rs.36,57,853 in the
year, which included two titles
and had seven other top—10s out
of 11 starts in the current season.
Adrian Sutil, is the Formula
One Team driver for India which
is owned by liquor-baron Vijay
Malya.
Saina Nehwal and Chetan
Anand clinched singles titles in
their respective categories after
winning the finals of the USD
50,000 Jaypee Cup Syed Modi
International Grand Prix
Badminton tournament.
Manuel Osborne—Paradis of
Canada won a World Cup downhill
skying on the Saslong course.
Formula One team Sauber has
named Japan’s Kamui
Kobayashi as a driver for the
2010 season. Kobayashi is the
first driver to be named for the
team, which is back in the
ownership of founder Peter
Sauber after BMW withdrew at
the end of the 2009 campaign.
Earlier he was with Toyota.
Felipe Massa, the Brazilian
driver of Ferrari, will get behind
the wheel of a Formula One car in
the “next few days.” Massa, who
hasn’t raced since suffering life
threatening injuries in a crash at
July’s Hungarian Grand Prix, will
drive an F2007 model fitted with
demonstration run tires.
Former Olympic and world
champion Liu Xiang, won gold in
the 110-meter hurdles at the East
Asian Games 2009.
Russia wins women’s Biathlon
relay 2009.
Olympic leaders have reallocated
two individual medals stripped
from Marion Jones but withheld
the 100-metre gold from
disgraced Greek sprinter Katerina
Thanou. The International
Olympic Committee executive
board acted on medals taken from
Jones for doping at the 2000
Sydney Games.
Triple Olympic gold medallist
sprinter Usain Bolt, will take part
in the 2010 Commonwealth
Games in New Delhi in 2010.
Usain Bolt will light up
Commonwealth Games.
Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the
venue for the opening and closing
ceremonies of the Games on
October 3 and October 14, 2010
respectively
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