National:

Three SC judges sworn in Chief Justices of the Madras, Orissa and Karnataka High Courts, M.Y. Eqbal, V. Gopala Gowda and Vikramajit Sen, were sworn in as judges of the Supreme Court by Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir. Justice Eqbal (61), who hails from Jharkhand, will have a brief tenure of little over three years; Justice Gowda (61), who hails from Karnataka, a little over four years and Justice Sen (62), who hails from Delhi, just three years. With the swearing-in of the three judges, the strength of the Supreme Court has gone up to 27, and there are four vacancies. Justice Kumar is NGT chief Justice Swatanter Kumar has taken over as chairperson of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), to decide on cases relating to environmental protection, and conservation of forests and natural resources. He is the first Supreme Court judge to preside over the Tribunal which was, till now, functioning without a full-time chairperson. Justice P. Jyothimani, a retired Judge of the Madras High Court, who has been appointed a judicial member of the NGT. Akademi honours Ilayaraja Legendary South Indian composer Ilayaraja is among nine artistes from the field of music who will receive the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for 2012, while Grammy Award-winning percussionist T. H. Vinayakram and veteran playwright Ratan Thiyam are among three personalities chosen for the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi fellowship. The Akademi has selected 36 persons from the fields of music, dance, theatre and puppetry for the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards 2012. Ilayaraja has been awarded for creative and experimental music. The other eight eminent artistes from the field of music are: Rajashekhar Mansur and Ajay Pohankar for Hindustani vocal music, Sabir Khan (tabla) and Bahauddin Dagar (rudra veena) for Hindustani instrumental music. O. S. Thyagarajan for Carnatic vocal music, Mysore M. Nagaraja (violin) and K. V. Prasad (mridangam) for Carnatic instrumental music and Bhai Balbir Singh Ragi (gurbani) for other major traditions of music have been selected for the award. Free bus service for cancer patients in Haryana The Haryana Government has decided to provide free travel facility to cancer patients in State roadways buses. It has come to notice that a cancer patient usually has to visit hospitals on an average 15 times in a year for treatment and they have to spend hefty amount as travelling expense. Keeping this in view, the State Government has decided to provide free travelling facility to such patients in State-owned buses. Such patients could avail this facility on the basis of an identity card issued by the Civil Surgeon of the district. This card would be valid for maximum 15 visits (to and fro) or for one year. After the expiry of validity, the patient would have to submit the identity card in the office of Civil Surgeon and thereafter, a new one would be issued. Police launch biometric system Haryana Police have launched a Biometric-based device in Karnal which will enable it to detect criminals by their fingerprints, already stored in a database. Karnal became the first district of Haryana where finger print capturing system has been implemented as a pilot project. Amjad Ali Khan awarded honorary doctorate An honorary doctorate was conferred upon 'sarod' maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan at the convocation th ceremony of Jadavpur University in Kolkata. The D. Litt (Honoris Causa) was conferred upon him at the 57 convocation ceremony of the University. West Bengal Governor M. K. Narayanan, conferred the degree upon him. The University also honoured the former chief of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, E. Sreedharan by conferring him with a D. Litt (Honoris Causa).

Page 1 of 3 25th December 2012

International:
Mayan temple suffers damage Tourists flocking to Guatemala for end of the world parties have damaged an ancient stone temple at Tikal, the largest archaeological site and urban centre of the Mayan civilization. Temple II, which is about 38 metres high and faces the central Tikal plaza, is one of the sites best known structures. Temple II is a [UNESCO] World Heritage Site. The ancient Mayans reached their peak of power in Central America between the years 250 and 900 AD. Baby picture of the Universe unveiled Astronomers have released a new baby picture of the Universe. The all-sky image draws on nine years worth of data from a now-retired spacecraft dubbed the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). WMAP launched in 2001 and from its perch a million km away from Earth (in the direction opposite the Sun) it scanned the heavens, mapping out the afterglow of the hot, young universe with unprecedented accuracy. The image maps the temperature of the radiation left over from the Big Bang, at a time when the Universe was only 375,000 years old. It shows a temperature range of plus-or-minus 200 microKelvin, with fluctuations in the so-called cosmic microwave background radiation appearing here as colour differences. It shows a temperature range of plus-or-minus 200 microKelvin, with fluctuations in the so-called cosmic microwave background radiation appearing here as colour differences. These patterns allow astronomers to predict what could have possibly happened earlier, and what has happened in the billions of year since the Universes infancy. Turkey lifts veto on NATO ties with Israel NATO member Turkey has agreed to lift its veto on non-military cooperation between the alliance and Israel which it imposed over a deadly raid on a Turkish aid ship to Gaza in 2010. Ankara took the retaliatory measure after the Israeli army stormed the ship carrying humanitarian aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip while it was in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea, leaving nine Turks dead. In return, several NATO allies of Israel agreed to drop a veto against cooperating with Turkey-friendly countries, notably in the Arab world. Turkey will agree to Israeli involvement in certain NATO activities but will maintain its ban on joint military manoeuvres, and Ankara reserves the right to bar activities with Israel on its own soil. The agreement comes after NATO agreed to deploy Patriot anti-aircraft missiles along the Turkish border with Syria. Palestinian State to observe its first Christmas Thousands of Palestinians and tourists flocked into the West Bank city of Bethlehem to mark Christmas in the little town where many believe Jesus Christ was born. U.N. granted them the status of non-member observer state, and earlier 2012 Palestinians won their first Unesco World Heritage Site designation for Church of the Nativity. The designation also included part of a pilgrimage route in Bethlehem, along which the traditional Christmas procession headed by the Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal marched.

Business and Economy:

Russian sovereign wealth fund, SBI to form $2 b consortium Russian sovereign wealth fund Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has signed a pact with State Bank of India (SBI) for setting up a $2 billion investment consortium for promoting investments between the two countries. The entities would team up to facilitate access to long-term capital in Russia and India and actively promote mutual investments. RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev and SBI Chairman Pratip Chaudhuri signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) for establishing the consortium in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Russian President Vladimir Putin. SEBI bans Dilip Pendse from capital market The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has restrained Dilip S. Pendse, former Managing Director of Tata Finance Ltd (FTL), from accessing the capital market and prohibited him from buying, selling or otherwise dealing in the securities market, directly or indirectly, for a period of two years with immediate effect. The complaint was filed by TFL, which alleged certain illegal carry forward transactions in these scrips at the behest of Dilip S. Pendse. Page 2 of 3 25th December 2012

Sport:
Aman Indora clinches Indias lone gold Reigning junior National champion Aman Indora (56kg) clinched Indias only gold as the country finished third in the Agalarov Cup youth boxing tournament in Baku, Azerbaijan. The 18-year-old defeated Uzbek boxer Abdujabbarov Azizbek 4-1 in the final. A. Silambarasan (52kg) and Kailash Gill (75kg) also made the final but had to settle for silver medals. Abhishek Beniwal (81kg) got a bronze after losing in the semifinals.

Page 3 of 3 25th December 2012