Today Around The Globe

Pakistan : 55 militants killed in air strike , gun battle

Military says 1200 militants have been killed since start of the operation in North Waziristan .
At least 55 militants were killed in Pakistan military air strikes and a gun battle with the army in volatile northwest tribal region where a major offensive to wipe out terrorists is on.

Pakistan : Four new polio cases
Four new polio cases have been reported in Pakistan, taking the number of those affected by the crippling disease to 295 this year.
According to federal health department, two new cases have been reported from Peshawar and one each from Khyber Agency in tribal areas and Qila Abdullah district in Balochistan.
The year 2014 has been the toughest year for the Pakistan anti-polio programme as the number of confirmed cases is going to touch the 300 mark, the highest in the country since 1999. During the past six months, Pakistan had topped in the world polio cases with 85 per cent of all cases.

Pakistan : Government set to challenge Lakhvi bail
Pakistan government is all set to challenge the bail to Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the key planner of 2008 Mumbai attacks, after getting a copy of the court’s order, the chief prosecutor in the 26/11 case said on Saturday.
“We have finally got the Anti Terrorism Court’s [Islamabad] order copy. We have prepared the appeal against it and will file in the High Court soon after the superior courts’ two-week holidays end by the first week of January,” prosecution chief Chaudhry Azhar told PTI.
Over a week after Islamabad Anti-Terrorism Court Judge Kausar Abbas Zaidi granted bail to Lakhvi, the government on Friday got the copy of the bail order.

Indonesia : Six held for attempting to join IS
Indonesian police on Saturday arrested six people attempting to fly to Syria to join the Islamic State (IS) group, officials said, the latest in a wave of potential sympathizers emerging from the world’s most populous Muslim nation.

Myanmar: Yangon votes for the First time in 60 years Residents of Myanmar's commercial hub Yangon went to the polls on Saturday for first municipal elections in six decades with voters enthusiastic for change even though many knew little about the candidates or their policies.

Myanmar : Protests against China-backed mining project
Around 500 people, including dozens of Buddhist monks, protested near the Chinese consulate in Myanmar’s central city of Mandalay on Saturday demanding the closure of a flashpoint copper mine.
It was the largest protest since the fatal shooting of a woman demonstrating against the Letpadaung mine in the town of Monywa — a Chinese backed venture dogged by complaints of land grabbing and environmental damage.

N. Korea : N. Korea warns U.S. of ‘inescapable deadly blows’
North Korea on Saturday called U.S. President Barack Obama a “monkey” for inciting cinemas to screen a comedy featuring a fictional plot to kill its leader, and blamed Washington for an Internet blackout this week.
The isolated dictatorship’s powerful National Defence Commission (NDC) threatened “inescapable deadly blows” over the film and accused the U.S. of “disturbing the Internet operation” of North Korean media outlets.
The Internet outage triggered speculation that U.S. authorities may have launched a cyber-attack in retaliation for the hacking of Sony Pictures — the studio behind madcap North Korea comedy The Interview . Washington has said the attack on Sony was carried out by Pyongyang.

Malaysia : Floods, 1.6 lakh evacuated ; rescue efforts tardy .
Rescuers struggled on Saturday to get help to the tens of thousands of people affected by Malaysia’s worst flooding in decades as angry victims accused the government of being slow in its response.

PIFF to highlight the futility of war

To mark the centenary of the First World War and the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the 13th edition of the Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) will screen a selection of anti-war films underscoring the themes of peace and harmony to drive home a strong pacifist message.

Under the theme “War against war” come popular films such as The Lives of Others , a tale of the baleful effects of totalitarian control in the former East German state which won an Oscar for the best foreign language film, and the black comedy Goodbye Lenin .

100th anniversary of World War 1

World War 1 :

Causes : New Imperialism , Demands of Nationalism , Armed Camps and Secret Alliances (Triple Alliance, Entente Cordiale etc.) , Armament Race , Racism , Role of Press, Unstable International Relations.

Immediate Cause : Assassination of Austrian King's heir Francis Ferdinand, while visiting Bostnia.

Two Groups of World War 1 :- 

                               Allied Powers : England ,France , Russia , Italy , Japan , Serbia , Greece and USA.

                              Central Powers : Germany , Austria - Hungary , Bulgaria , Turkey .

Result :- Allied Powers were Victorious .

    Treaty of Versailles - B/w Allied Powers and Germany.

    Treaty of Saint Germaine - B/w Allied Powers and Austria-Hungary.

    Treaty of Sevres - B/w Allied Powers and Turkey.

25th anniversary of Fall of Berlin Wall

Berlin Wall : Berlin Wall was a barrier that divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989 , constructed by German Democratic Republic , that  completely cutoff West Berlin from East Germany and East Berlin. It was opened in 1989.

Berlin Wall Video

Farm loan waiver hits credit flow: Rajan

Debt write-off has not been effective, says RBI chief

Questioning the effectiveness of the government’s farm debt waiver programmes, Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan on Saturday said that such schemes had constrained credit flow to farmers.

“In some States, on certain occasions, we have had debt waivers. How effective have these debt waivers been? In fact, the studies that we have typically show that they have been ineffective. In fact, they have constrained the credit flow, post-waiver, to farmers,” he said at the annual conference of the Indian Economic Association.

On farmers’ suicide, he said there was a need to study this important and sensitive issue. “One question is how else we should deal with over-indebtedness in the farm sector. Also worth examining is the very important issue of farmers’ suicide. How much they are caused by indebtedness, especially to the formal [banking] system, how much does the formal system alleviate indebtedness … ,” he said.

The Andhra Pradesh and the Telangana governments had announced loan waivers for farmers affected by Cyclone Phailin last year.

While the Telangana government has given the mandated 25 per cent of the written-off loan to banks, Andhra Pradesh has not done it so far. Banks have a Rs. 1.3-lakh crore exposure to the farm sector in these States. — PTI

Legislation on uniform fee in professional colleges: Patil to hold talks with Nadda

Minister of State for Medical Education Sharanprakash Patil has said that he will take up with Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Jagat Prakash Nadda the need to bring in an Act to regulate admissions in professional colleges and fix uniform fee, during his visit to Bengaluru on Sunday.

He told presspersons here on Saturday that this had become imperative after recent Supreme Court judgments on the issue.

The full bench of the Supreme Court, while giving full powers to private managements to conduct their own entrance examinations and fix fees in medical colleges, had also felt the need for a law on admission and a fee fixation policy.

Dr. Patil said that Mr. Nadda would visit National Institute for Mental Health and Neuroscience (Nimhans) in Bengaluru. The Minister said that he would also raise the issue on the need to hasten the process of setting up a branch of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at any of the four centres suggested by the State government.

The Union Minister would be requested to send a team from the AIIMS and the Health Ministry for finalising the location.

Dr. Patil said that he would take up with Mr. Nadda the proposal for establishing the second unit of the Nimhans in Bengaluru.

Land had been identified for the purpose. Approval would be sought for upgrading the peripheral cancer centres at Kalaburagi and Mandya.

The State government would also press for upgrading the Sanjay Gandhi Institute of Trauma and Orthopaedics and the trauma centre established by the State government at Victoria Hospital, Bengaluru. To a question, the Minister said that a meeting of private professional college managements had been convened in Bengaluru on January 3 to discuss the provisions of the revised Karnataka Professional Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Determination of fee) Bill. “The government has discussed the pros and cons of the Bill with other stakeholders including student organisations, Opposition parties, and parents.”

Dr. Patil said that the government proposed to introduce the Bill in the joint session of the Assembly to be held some time in the last week of January.

The government has appointed retired High Court judges Gururajan and Keshav Narayan to head the fee fixation and admission overseeing committees.

He will also take up the issue of regulation of admissions

4 JD(U) MLAs disqualified

After the disqualification of four JD(U) MLAs last month, Bihar Assembly Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhury terminated the membership of four other rebel legislators on Saturday for “anti-party activities.”

The Speaker said Ajit Kumar, Poonam Devi , Suresh Chanchal and Raju Singh would not be given any benefit available to former legislators.

Last month, the membership of Gyanendra Singh Gyanu, Ravindra Rai, Rahul Sharma and Neeraj Singh ‘Babloo’ was terminated. After the eight MLAs voted against the official candidate in the Rajya Sabha by-poll held earlier in the year, the party served a show-cause notice on them and appealed for their disqualification.

Tenth Schedule of Constitution of India

KPSC nominations: BJP to petition Governor

Taking exception to the nominations to vacant posts in the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC), the Bharatiya Janata Party has decided to petition the Governor against giving approval for them.

Addressing a joint press conference along with the BJP State president Pralhad Joshi, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Jagadish Shettar said that the BJP was against converting the appointments to KPSC into a “political rehabilitation programme”.

Producing a Supreme Court Order dated February 15, 2013, on making political appointments to public service commissions, Mr. Shettar said that the court had quashed the appointment of Harish Rai Dhanda as chairman of the Punjab Public Service Commission and had also issued direction for setting up a search committee and following due procedure for appointments to public service commissions.

Referring to the recommendations of the P.C. Hota Committee, set up by the State government which is being mentioned to increase the number of the members of KPSC, Mr. Shettar said that the committee too had suggested setting up the search committee. Mr. Shettar said that BJP leaders would submit a written appeal to the Governor on January 2.

NJAC to work soon

15 States ratify Bill

The National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) may soon become active, with 15 States having ratified the Constitution (121st Amendment) Bill, 2014. “Now, the Rajya Sabha has to receive authenticated letters from the States, after which the Bill will be sent to the President,” Law Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda has said.

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