HEADLINES

• NATO helicopter kills 24 Pakistani soldiers at a border post next to the Afghan border
• PM meets with heads of Indian airline companies who sought intervention yo tide over the bad operating climate
• Delhi Court directs the police to file an FIR against Kiran Bedi for siphoning off money from a computer training scheme launched by her trusts
• Dalai Lama's plan to address a conference in Delhi was the reason behind postponement of India-China border talks

NATIONAL NEWS

• Home Ministry tells the PM that the UIDAI project poses serious risk to India's security
  • The Home Minister has sent a letter on the issue to the PM and has also stated that the project dangerously encroaches upon the legally-mandated enrollment work being conducted by the Registrar General of India, which is under the Home Ministry;
  • The UIDAI reporting structure is unprecedented as it reports directly to the PM. The planning commission has also written letters protesting the UIDAI's handling of finances as the UIDAI had bypassed the commission and gone directly to the finance minister for increase of its budget.
• States to take the final decision on multi-brand retail says the Commerce Minister
  • The Minister said that the decision to allow investment in multi-brand retail outfits in a particular region is the final call of the state government. He said that states like Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh were in favour of the policy.
• India and China urged by analysts to change stand on legally binding emissions at the upcoming Durban Climate summit
• CAG soon to submit to the president an environment audit which shows the high pollution levels
• China is still the largest lender to Sri Lanka with almost 44% of its foreign loans
• IAF is gearing up for month-long exercise called Livewire in early 2012 to validate its new war strategies, inductions and technologies. IAF is the 4th largest airforce in the world

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• Setback to US on cluster munitions protocol
  • A group of nations – US, China, India, Russia and Israel attempted to bring into force a lax protocol on cluster munitions, one of the most dangerous conventional weapons in history. It was opposed in the UN by UK and international organisations like Red Cross;
  • Cluster bombs are usually aimed at stopping the advance of of army units and are dropped from an aricraft. They release 200 bomblets which cover such a wide area. Each bomblet contains around 25 metal shards which can injure upto 25 metres away from landing;
  • At the heart of the debate there is the question by the new protocol is necessary since there is a more comprehensive 2008 concention on cluster munitions which was ratified by 111 countries. The proposed protocol actually reduced he effectiveness of the earlier protocol;
  • US is arguing that such a bomb is required when covering wide areas (as part of its humanitarian efforts) whereas international NGOs state that such a protocol is not necessary as these weapons are more than 30 years old and are to be decommissioned soon and further cause indiscriminate harm beyond just a particular target.
• John Key wins second term as Premier in New Zealand
• NASA in high gear for Mars rover launch
  • NASA is poised to launch the most powerful and advanced robotic rover ever built to explore Mars and hunt for signs that life may have existed on Mars;
  • The Mars science laboratory which is better known as Curiosity aims to provide scientists with detailed information about the rocks on the surface of mars. It will land on the gale crater area on mars as it has a low surface and likely to hold proof of water;
  • If all goes well then Curiosity will land on mars by August 2012 and will be able to transmit its findings to scientists on earth without having to actually bring the samples back here;
  • NASA exploration of Mars began with the 1976 landing of the Viking spacecraft and has continued, with the most recent being the landing of the Spirit and Opportunity spacecrafts which have been tooling on the mars surface since 2004. This could pave the way for a 2030 manned exploration to mars.
  • Scientists find that oxygen is 2.48 billion years old on the planet. They have done the research by looking at rock samples from Australia which show the happening of the Great Oxidation Event around 2.48-2.32 billion years ago (biologically induced appearance of free oxygen (O2) in Earth's atmosphere)

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS

• Read this very well written piece about the situation of Air India

ECONOMY & BUSINESS NEWS

• India and Nepal to sign new DTAA soon and replace the 1987 one