NIST e-NEWS(Vol 80, April 15, 2012)

Newsdesk
Mr. Manish Billung, B. Tech., 6 th Sem., Team e_news
2012 (MMXII) is a leap year that started on a Sunday. In the Gregorian calendar, it is the 2012th
year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 12th year of the 3rd millennium and of the
21st century, and the 3rd of the 2010s.There are variety of popular beliefs about the year 2012. These beliefs
range from the spiritually transformative to the apocalyptic, and center upon various contemporary interpretations of
the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. Scientists have disputed the apocalyptic versions. Moving on, the explosion
of fist fights, police, jeers, and cheers that greeted the notorious series of co-ordinated bombing attacks in Kano,
Nigeria, results in 185 deaths. The attacks are blamed on the radical Islamist group Boko Haram, 11 members of
which are killed in a shootout in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri. The King who opted to be driven around
in a taxi, George Tupou V, the king of Tonga, has died after ten days in intensive care in a Hong Kong hospital. The 63-
year-old brought democracy to his nation of 115,000 people. The reformist swore into power in 2006 but his coronation
was pushed back two years in the wake of Nuku’alofa rioting. War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable
in armed conflict, also known as international humanitarian law, giving rise to individual criminal responsibility. The
Latest such incident was reported in Afghanistan, when a US soldier, Sgt Robert Bales, went on a spree, killing 16
civilians. The aftermath of World War II left Korea partitioned, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, a Sovietstyle
socialist regime, was established in the north while the Republic of Korea, a Western-style republic, was
established in the south. Amidst tension, President Barack Obama visited the demilitarized zone (DMZ) on South
Korea’s border with the North on Sunday before a nuclear summit in Seoul. The United States president’s trip to the
area separating the north and south on the Korean peninsula comes amidst increased tension over Pyongyang’s plan
to launch a rocket next month. His visit was a show of support for South Korea. The US has travelled a long way in
recent decades, but cases like the killing of Trayvon Martin stir up fears that some lessons have not been learnt well
enough. There’s mounting outrage at the shooting dead of an unarmed black teenager in Florida - it is online and it is
on the streets. The reason for the fury is the belief that 17-year-old ‘Trayvon Martin’ was a victim of racism.
Focusing on the national forefront, the biggest news maker was ‘Akhilesh Yadav’. The youngest CM of Uttar Pradesh
is credited for winning the state for the ‘Samajwadi Party’. In a stunning electoral performance that decimated the
ruling Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Singh’s Samajwadi Party won 224 Assembly seats, shattering
the ‘national’ conceits of both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party along the way. Unhappy over the railway
budget , Trinamool Supremo , Mamata Banerjee demanded the resignation of Dinesh Trivedi . Trinamool Congress MP
Mukul Roy was sworn in as a cabinet minister and is expected to replace party MP Dinesh Trivedi, who had to quit as
railway minister following the rail budget in which he proposed to hike passenger fares. The Maoist abduction of two
Italians have taken the state of Orissa by a shock. Two Italian citizens were taken hostage by Maoists at an undisclosed
location in Odisha’s Kandhamal district on Saturday. One of the two abducted men, Boscusco Paolo, has been
visiting Odisha sinch 1999 and runs a travel agency in Puri that takes foreign tourists on tribal tours. The other, Clandio
Colangilo, is a tourist. Fast industrialization has seen the state lose close to 12000 hectares of forest land that have
been diverted in the past 10 years for mining activities and also to make way for industries in sectors like steel,
aluminium, power and petroleum refining.While mining activities have taken the lion’s share of the forest land (10,182
hectares), 1749.02 hectares have been diverted for industrial projects. In the business world, Apple has launched their
new iPad3 . First weekend sales exceed the iPad 2, but not the iPhone 4S. Early reports that its reception was “notso-spectacular”
seem to have been off the mark. Within hours of Supreme Court dismissing the review petition in the
Vodafone’s tax case, government on Tuesday refunded about Rs 2,500 crore plus four percent interest to the firm. In
its judgment on January 20, the Supreme Court had set aside the Bombay High Court ruling and asked the Income
Tax Department to return Rs 2,500 crore deposited by Vodafone International Holdings within two months along with
4 per cent interest. Rise, cheer, shed a tear, or just clap in awe. The milestone – which for some was awaited with
bated breath, for others seen as merely a number, for some a zenith – has finally arrived. He searched it the world over,
for over a year, not knowing that the landmark would come near to home. And on March 16, 2012, he finally found it,
in Bangladesh. Sachin Tendulkar is a 100-century man. On the other hand ‘THE WALL’ of Indian cricket , Rahul Dravid
, has announced his retirement from International cricket. Dravid left cricket assuring everyone that India had an
abundance of batting talent which could easily fill in the No. 3 slot he has left vacant. The pundits however find it hard
to arrive at a consensus over the most likely candidate capable of filling the void created by his departure.
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