HEADLINES
- Kerala says that the Supreme Court directive on implementing inter-linking of rivers will not apply to the state as it had opposed it from the beginning; The proposal envisages the Pamba, Achencoil (in Kerala) and Vaipar (in Tamilnadu) rivers being inter-linked
- Tamilnadu urges Central Govt not to support Sri Lanka in the crucial vote in the UN Human Rights Council against it for delay in implementing rehablitation steps
- Laskar-e-Taiba plot to target Delhi was exposed with the arrest of 2 persons
- Vigyan Prasar and IGNOU have launched a free SMS service to deliver content on science and related areas on the mobile phones; go to http://scienceatmobile.ignou.ac.in for more on this
NATIONAL NEWS
- Pakistan to switch to negative list for trade with India
- Pakistan decided to switch to the negative list approach for trade with India and phase out existing positive list mechanism completely by December-end. Giving its approval to the long-pending decision, the Cabinet also cleared a 1,209-strong negative list of items in which bilateral trade is barred; thereby opening up business opportunities in an estimated 6,850 commodities against the 1,900-odd items now traded;
- This move paves the way for granting the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India as mandated by WTO commitments from next year onwards, thereby removing the discriminatory trade regime that Pakistan has had for India. India granted MFN status to Pakistan in 1996;
- Pakistan decided to grant MFN status to India in early November 2011 but there has been considerable resistance to the move from within and outside the business community.
- Iran crucial for India to open up routes to Central Asia
- Notwithstanding the U.S. pressure to scale down its engagement with Iran, India has said that Iran will not only remains an important source of oil for India, but is also crucial to opening up routes to Central Asian and Caucasian countries;
- India has taken the lead to put the missing rail links in place so that a seamless route from Bandar Abbas port in Iran to Russia and Central Asia opens up by next year by when the customs union of Russia-Kazakhstan-Byelorussia would have expanded to include other Eurasian countries;
- Besides the three original signatories, over 15 countries have joined the north-south project. In addition to putting in place missing railways links of about 200 km, all the sides will have to harmonise their customs procedures to make the endeavour workable. Currently Indian goods enter Russia through the Baltic ports of St. Petersburg and Kotka, the European port of Rotterdam and the Ukrainian ports of Illychevsk and Odessa;
- Iran, said the sources, was also critical to stabilising Afghanistan as part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) grouping after the NATO forces scale down their operations in 2014. Nearly all the countries surrounding Afghanistan are either members or observers to the SCO;
- India is also closely following the development of another route into Central Asia via Iran and Afghanistan into Uzbekistan. Currently a portion of the route (part of the the Northern Distribution Network) — from Termez in Uzbekistan to Mazar-e-Sharif — is used by the NATO to transfer non-lethal supplies for its forces to Afghanistan;
- Both these routes bypass Pakistan and the insurgency-hit southern Afghanistan, while giving it access to Central Asia. In both cases as well as the North-South route, India will have to ship its goods to the Iranian ports and then transport them by land into Afghanistan and Central Asian countries in the north and the east.
- India's CAG heads body of Asian Auditors General
- The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) is the new chairman of the 45-nation-strong Asian organisation of the Institutions of the Auditors General, Association of Supreme Audit Institutions (ASOSAI). Comptroller and Auditor General of India Vinod Rai took over as its chairman from Muhammad Akhtar Rana, Auditor General of Pakistan, at the 12th ASOSAI;
- ASOSAI aims to promote understanding and cooperation among member institutions through exchange of ideas and experiences and training in the field of public audit;
- The Indian CAG and auditors of other countries also welcomed the UN General Assembly resolution recognising the autonomy and independence of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs).
- Central university in Bihar
- Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is disappointed over the Union government's proposal to open a Central university in Gaya district instead of at Motihari in West Champaran district as sought by the State government;
- The decade-old demand for a Central university in Bihar has been a sticky question with Mr. Kumar insisting on the institution coming up in West Champaran to foster all-round development of the State.
- 500 year old Banyan tree felled in Kerala
- Environmentalists are bemoaning the cutting down of a banyan tree, believed to be more than 500 years old, which housed nearly 145 nests of darters in Alleppey District;
- At least 145 nests of darters, along with a single little cormorant nest, were housed in the tree. Environmentalists say it was perhaps the largest number of nests of oriental darters or Indian darters, also called snakebird, on a single tree in the world;
- The darter is included in Schedule IV of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and in the endangered category of the IUCN.
- All Kendriya Vidyalayas across the country have been directed to strictly enforce the “tobacco-free” directive to prevent its abuse within educational institutions
- The All-India Muslim Personal Law Board and the Apostolic Churches Alliance have strongly opposed the Delhi High Court's judgment decriminalising homosexuality by saying that privacy cannot be at the cost of social morals
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
- US says that North Korea has agreed to Nuclear Moratorium
- The US confirmed that North Korea has agreed to halt nuclear tests and activities and implement a moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile development in exchange for a US package of 240,000 metric tonnes of food aid. Talks were held at Beijing;
- An agreement with North Korea would include suspension of uranium enrichment activities at Yongbyon and also permission for International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to verify and monitor the moratorium on uranium enrichment activities and confirm the disablement of the 5-MW reactor and associated facilities. North Korea is believed to have produced enough material for six to eight atomic weapons;
- US side offered to discuss the lifting of sanctions and provision of light-water reactors to generate electricity as a priority, once long-stalled six-party nuclear disarmament talks resume. The Beijing discussions were aimed at persuading the North to return to the six-nation talks which it abandoned in April 2009.
- Iran says having nuclear weapons is a sin
- Amid heightened tensions with the West over its nuclear programme, Iran on Tuesday called for negotiations on a treaty banning nuclear weapons and condemned their production or possession as “a great sin”;
- This statement came in light of Iran not permitting the IAEA from visiting certain military sites linked to its nuclear program recently. IAEA reported in November that it had “credible” information that the facilities at Parchin, south-west of the capital, Tehran, included an explosives containment chamber used for experiments that were “strong indicators” of possible nuclear weapons development;
- There are 23,000 nuclear weapons in the world today and Iran said it posed “the gravest threat” to sustainable international security and that as long as they existed there would always be a risk of their use and proliferation. Iran also criticised the western world as having double standards over its support of Israel, the only country in the Middle East possessing nuclear weapons and outside the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
- Yahoo Inc warns Facebook of legal action if FB does not pay licence fees for various technology belonging to Yahoo which is being used by FB
- India's Foreign Secretary makes 2nd visit in a fortnight to Maldives to discuss the issues between all political parties there. A statement issued said that early elections was being discussed and that India's role as a facilitator was welcomed by Maldives
- US Secretary indicates that Syria's Assad could be tried for war crimes in light of continuing violence; Saudi Arabia and Qatar suggest arming the opposition in Syria
- China has come down on Pakistan and told it to provide security to Chinese citizens in Pakistan after a spat of killings on Pakistani soil
EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS
- Read this article on water contamination issues in India
- Read this editorial on the proposal to inter-link rivers that made news few days ago
- Read this very interesting opinion on how the revolutions in the Arab world actually follow a historical trend of interference by developed nations
- Read this article on the rapid loss of privacy over internet and mobile apps being used almost everywhere in developed cities today. Not important if you do not have time
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