Daily News Notes

· Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari has left for Ankara today on a 5-day visit to Turkey.
· The Election Commission has amended its Election Symbols reservations and allotment order 1968 to raise the cap of minimum votes a political party (limit is 8 per cent of total valid votes compare to 6 percent earlier, polled in State Assembly or Lok Sabha polls) must secure in election to get the status of a State party or maintain it further.
· Justices Dipak Misra and Jasti Chelameswar of Delhi and Kerala High Court res. were today sworn in as Supreme Court judges, raising the strength of the apex court to 28. Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia administered the oath of office.
· The 50 hours countdown for the October 12th launch of PSLV-C18 which will put Megha Tropiques satellite and three nano satellites into space, began at 0900 hrs today. Launch will be from Sriharikota(A.P.). The 1,000 kg Megha Trophiques satellite is an Indo-French joint collaborative initiative to study climatic and atmospheric changes in the tropical regions. The nano satellites include a ten kg 'SRMSAT' built by students of SRM University on the outskirts of Chennai, a three kg 'Jugnu' satellite designed by Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and the 30 kg 'VesselSat' from Luxembourg. The SRMSat would help in understanding global warming and pollution by studying carbon-dioxide and carbon-monoxide present in the atmosphere. The Jugnu satellite has a camera to take pictures of the earth to monitor vegetation, reservoirs, lakes, and ponds, while VesselSat would help in locating the ships on high seas.
· Veteran ghazal singer Jagjit Singh(70 years old) passed away this morning in Mumbai after undergoing an emergency surgery for brain hemorrhage. He also develop complication such as hypertension, diabetes and ischaemic heart ailment. He sang in Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu and Sindhi. He was awarded Padmabhushan in 2003.
· German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have announced that they will present a comprehensive package of proposals to solve the euro zone sovereign debt crisis and support financially-troubled European banks by the end of this month, thus the two nations have reached an agreement on the question of recapitalisation. The two leaders also reaffirmed their support for heavily-indebted Greece to remain in the euro zone.
· Malaysia is beginning its biggest ever amnesty program for illegal immigrants (mainly from Indonesia and Bangladesh) in an attempt to give more than a million people the right to work(such as work in construction and oil palm plantations) as they have blamed for committing much of the crimes in the country and keeping wages low for unskilled work. Govt. will use a bio-metric system to monitor the movement of illegal workers who registered under the amnesty program.
· In Kerala, LDF opposition walked out of the state assembly protesting against the ongoing loadshedding and power crisis in the state.
· India will help in re-building 79 schools in the war-affected Northern Province of Sri Lanka.
· China has organised special ceremonies and exhibitions to mark the 100th anniversary in the 1911 Revolution which terminated 2000 years of imperial rule in the country.