National:

M.S. Prabhakara receives Siva Prasad Barooah Award

Noted social anthropologist Annada Charan Bhagabati presented the Siva Prasad Barooah National Award
for Journalism 2011 to veteran journalist. Dr. Bhagabati also presented the Kamal Kumari National Award for
Art and Culture 2011 to eminent theatre personality Heisnam Kahailal, the Kamal Kumari National Award for
Science and Technology 2011 to eminent scientist Dr. S.K. Joshi and Amit Barooah Award for Painting and
Sculpture 2011 to noted painter and sculptor Siva Prasad Marar.
DRDO to set up Missile Test Range in Machilipatnam
The Defence Research and Development Organisation is planning to set up a long range missile testing
centre at coastal Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh. DRDO chief V K Saraswat said the organization has
resolved issues with the Ministry of Petroleum as the areawhere the facility is likely to come up falls under
Krishna-Godavari basin. The DRDO chief said the total test facility needs around 260 acres of land, which
has already been identified.
First clinical trials of anti-TB drug soon
An anti-TB molecule developed through collaborative efforts of researchers through CSIRs Open Source
Drug Discovery (OSDD) initiative would enter the first phase of clinical trials, Director-General of CSIR,
Samir K. Brahmachari said. OSDD was launched four years ago to discover and develop low-cost drugs for
infectious diseases. Top priority was being given to TB because it continued to be a major health threat due
to multi-drug resistance with at least 1,000 people dying of the disease every day in the country. Besides TB,
it was also collaborating for developing anti-malarial drug and the initiative received good support from the
European Union and Australia. The third project was for treatment of Leshmaniasis.

International:
Koroma back in power in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leones President Ernest Bai Koroma vowed to transform the fortunes of the war-scarred nation with
more jobs and development after his convincing re-election victory. Mr. Koroma swept to a second term with
58 per cent of votes in a poll that observers praised as peaceful and transparent, triumphing over his main
rival Julius Maada Bio who trailed with 37.4 per cent. By scoring more than 55 per cent of the vote the
incumbent managed to avoid a second round of voting. He called on all Sierra Leoneans, including Mr. Bios
opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP), to unite in moving the country forward. Sierra Leone is rich
in mineral resources and massive iron-ore deposits are expected to add 21 per cent growth in 2012 to its
$2.2-billion Gross Domestic Product, the International Monetary Fund estimates.
British foster parents loose children for being members of UKIP
A British couple had their three foster children taken away by local authorities on the grounds that their
membership of the UK Independence Party meant that they supported "racist" policies. The married couple
from Yorkshire in northern England said they had been fostering children for seven years but have been told
by social workers that they were not suitable because of UKIP'
s calls for curbs on immigration to Britain. The
married couple claimed they had their foster children taken away from them for joining the political party by
Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council. Social workers told the couple, who were caring for three children
from ethnic minorities, that the party had "racist" policies and that their membership of it made them
unsuitable carers.
Nepal President sets Nov 29 deadline for electing new PM
President Ram Baran Yadav has asked political parties to have a new prime minister elected through
'
consensus'by November 29. The president, invoking article 38(1) of the interim constitution of Nepal, issued
the directive to the political parties to find a replacement for Dr Baburam Bhattarai subsequent to his failure
to hold election to the legislature as promised on November 21. The 601-member Constituent Assembly was
dissolved on May without promulgating the Constitution, and the November 22 date passed without holding
the polls.

China city plans Nehru museum, 50 years after war

Fifty years after the end of the India-China war on November 21, 1962, a Chinese city has announced plans
to open a museum to commemorate a much-forgotten visit by Jawaharlal Nehru to China in the autumn of
1939. Chongqing, a municipality in southwest China that hosted Nehru when it was the wartime capital of
Chiang Kai-shek'
s Nationalist government under the Kuomintang (KMT), plans to mark his visit to the city by
opening a museum at the site of the old Indian Embassy residence building, which is today a protected
heritage site.
Brit MP and ex-defence minister wants 'neutron bomb' exploded in Pak border
A former British defence minister stunned peers after he suggested that a neutron bomb could be used to
create a cordon sanitaire (quarantine line) in troubled border regions like the one between Afghanistan and
Pakistan. During a debate in House of Lords on multi-lateral nuclear disarmament, Lord Gilbert said the use
of such weapons could greatly reduce problems of protecting those borders. The Labour minister said that
what used to be called a neutron bomb, and was actually an enhanced radiation reduced blast weapon
(ERRB), could have many uses today,

Technology:
Scientists discover unknown proteins of the Herpes virus
Scientists have sequenced the herpes virus genome identifying several hundred previously unknown
proteins, paving the way for better understanding of complex mechanisms used by the virus. Researchers
from the Max Planck Institute (MPI) of Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich and the University of
California in San Francisco have shown that the genome of this virus contains much more information than
previously assumed. More than 80 per cent of the world'
s population is infected with the herpes virus, which
can cause severe diseases in newborns and in persons with weakened immune system. Researchers had
already sequenced the herpes virus genome 20 years ago, thinking they could then predict all proteins that
the virus produces (virus proteome). Now, scientists have analysed the information content of the genome
more precisely. Scientists have sequenced the herpes virus genome identifying several hundred previously
unknown proteins, paving the way for better understanding of complex mechanisms used by the virus. More
than 80 per cent of the world'
s population is infected with the herpes virus, which can cause severe diseases
in newborns and in persons with weakened immune system.
Climate change may super-size sweet potatoes
Rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may double the size of the hardy sweet potato - which is
increasingly becoming a staple food in Asia and Africa, researchers say. Researcher Hope Jahren from the
University of Hawaii at Manao and colleagues grew the sweet potato at four CO2 concentrations: the current
level of 390 parts per million, as well as 760, 1140 and 1520 ppm. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) predicts that atmospheric CO2 levels will be between 500 and 1000 ppm by the year 2100.
For the least extreme scenario at 760 ppm, the team found the sweet potato tubers - the fifth most important
food crop in the developing world - grew up to 96 per cent larger. The team is now testing the nutrient
content of these tubers. The previous studies, crucially, revealed the protein content in wheat, rice, barley
and potatoes dropped by 15 per cent when grown under CO2 levels double those of today.

Business & Economy:

Direct cash transfer of subsidies through Aadhaar from January 1
Direct cash transfer of subsidies through the Aadhaar card will be rolled out in 51 districts across 15 States
from January 1, 2013, Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram announced. The scheme would aim to cover
the entire country by the end of 2013. Subsidies on LPG and kerosene, pension payments, scholarships as
well as payments under the MGNREGA and other welfare programmes would be made directly.
'Aakash Tab assembled, programmed in India'
Datawind, the maker of Aakash tablet PC, said assembling and programming of the low-cost tablet has been
done in the country and only some main parts have been sourced from China. The company said it got the
approval from the government to procure components from China. The advanced version of Aakash was
launched on November 11 by President Pranab Mukherjee. The new version '
Aakash 2'
, is powered by a
processor running at 1 GHz, has a 512 MB, a 7-inch capacitative touch screen and a battery working for
three hours of normal operations. The first version of tablet had processor with 366 Megahertz, 256 MB RAM
and 2GB flash memory. It has WiFi based Internet connectivity option.

Sport:
Usain Bolt named World Athlete of the Year
Usain Bolt won the IAAF World Athlete of the Year award for the fourth time over United States hurdler Aries
Merritt and Kenyan runner David Rudisha. The Jamaican sprinter, who defended his 100 and 200 meter gold
medals at this summer'
s Olympic Games, had previously won the award in 2008, 2009, and 2011. United
States sprinter Allyson Felix took home the women'
s World Athlete of the Year award. In 2003, Bolt and Felix
won the Rising Star awards for the most promising young athletes of the year. Felix won the 200-meter gold
medal in London after settling for silver in Beijing in 2008.