Daily News Notes

· The Gujarat High Court has acquitted all the 12 accused, including main accused Asgar Ali, in the Haren Pandya (former Gujarat Home Minister ) murder case.
· The CBI has formed a Special Investigation Team, SIT, to study the Comptroller and Auditor General's report on Commonwealth Games and to see whether any fresh case could be registered.
· Members in both Houses of Parliament have given Privilege notices against actor Om Puri and civil rights activist Kiran Bedi for using derogatory and defamatory language against politicians. Om Puri has, however, regretted making these remarks and said, the choice of words was inappropriate. Bedi also has said that her action on Friday mocking the MPs went against her grain but she did not mean to hurt anybody.
· Prof. Thomas said, The government has taken adequate measures to ensure the procurement and storage of food grains in view of the bumper production this year. The Food Corporation of India, has taken all possible steps to make available godowns with a storage capacity of 153 million tonnes as against the existing 60 million tonnes. FCI required over 85 thousand crore rupees for payments towards procurement of food grains.
· A Court of Inquiry has been ordered into the fake recruitment racket in the Army which came to light in 2010.
· Government says, about three lakh child laborers have been rehabilitated in last three years. Strict implementation of Right to Education Act will help in minimizing child labour.
· The government is providing a special package to provide solar energy in the naxal affected areas of the country,under Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission for solar lanterns and solar home lighting systems.
· Government is contemplating to increase duty from five to 20 percent on iron ore to discourage its export. The total domestic consumption of iron ore last fiscal was over 111 million tones and its production is about double the consumption in the domestic market.
· President Mrs. Pratibha Devisingh Patil today conferred the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award for the year 2011 on ace shooter Gagan Narang. She also presented 15 Arjuna awards along with five Dronacharya awards and three Dhyanchand awards. Those who received Arjuna awards are Rahul Banerjee from Archery, Preeja Sreedharan - Athletics, Jwala Gutta - Badminton, M. Suranjoy Singh - Boxing, Sunil Chhetri - Football, Rajpal Singh - Hockey, Rakesh Kumar- Kabaddi, Tejaswini Bai - Kabaddi, Veerdhawal Vikram Khade - Swimming, Sanjay Kumar - Volleyball, Ravinder Singh - Wrestling, Katulu Ravi Kumar - Weightlifting, W. Sandhyarani Devi - Wushu and Prasatha Karmakar - Swimming. Dr. Kuntal Roy for Athletics and Rajinder Singh for Hockey were among the five who received Dronacharya Award. Sabir Ali along with two others received this year's Dhyan Chand Award. Indian pacer Zaheer Khan, tennis player Somdev Devvarman, gymnast Ashish Kumar and athelete Vikas Gowda could not receive their Arjuna awards due to their absence.
· Dr. Baburam Bhattarai of the UCPN (Maoist) has been sworn in as the 35th Prime Minister of Nepal. President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav administered the oath of office and secrecy in Shital Niwas at Kathmandu today. 57 year old leader had received his doctorate from Jawaharlal Nehru University.
· US President Barack Obama has warned that flooding and power cuts are still a risk as tropical storm Irene moves north, towards Canada. Irene threatened 65 million people along the US east coast, which is considered as the largest number of Americans ever affected by a single storm.
· Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said that India should capitalize on the opportunities to substantiate its position at the time of global economic crisis.
· The fourth and final Grand Slam tennis tournament of the season, the United States Open, begins in New York today. The Indian duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, which recently won the Cincinnati Open, will look to continue their sublime form.