Daily News Notes

· Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and US President Barack Obama held an hour long bilateral meeting and declares their intention to push the Indo-US cooperation at bilateral, regional and at global levels while made a significant progress in strengthening bilateral cooperation in the field of economy, investment and trade, higher education, clean energy and strategy and defence relations. Dr. Manmohan Singh said, he explained to the President Obama that a law is in place on nuclear liability and rules have been formulated in this regard while Obama reciprocated in the similar tone by stating that the bonds between USA and India are not just at the leadership level but at the person to person level.
· Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also held bilateral meeting with the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao who told Dr. Singh that India and China must work hand-in-hand for development to ensure that the 21st century belongs to Asia.
· Prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh also held a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister of Cambodia Mr. Hun Sen and discussed the issue of direct air connectivity between India and Cambodia and cooperation in the tourism sector.
· Tomorrow’s East Asia summit is likely to take up the complex issue of sovereignty over south China sea about which China and South Asian countries have their differences. India has its interest in the South China sea for oil exploration and passage of ships for trade to east coast of America. Thus both stand India and USA will take at tomorrow’s East Asia meeting to help resolve the issue.
· India was today re-elected to the International Law Commission (34 members who must be experts on international law) for a five year term beginning 1st of next year. India's Narinder Singh re-elected as a member of the Commission.
· International Maritime security organisations have pitched for concerted efforts of nations across the globe to curb the menace of maritime piracy in the high seas as different nations have different approaches on the issue, thus there is a need for unity of approach and more cooperation. While Indian side emphasised that there should be two hundred percent increase in the capabilities of Indian Navy to safeguard its interests in the Indian Ocean and the South and East China sea as 50 percent of India's national trade is carried through East China and South China seas connecting China, Japan, South Korea and Russia. Besides, India has begun oil exploration in Vietnam and Russia.
· The Bihar government has sought the Centre's help in fighting Japanese Encephalitis while Patna High Court has asked the state government to submit a detailed report on measures taken to control encephalitis cases as 386 cases of Japanese Encephalitis have been reported from different parts of Gaya in the last six months. Thus unless all the children in the district are vaccinated, it will be very difficult to control the spread of Japanese Encephalitis.
· India today signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Sri Lanka to restore the damaged railway lines (55km, complete by 2013) in the war ravaged Northern Sri Lanka at an estimated cost of 150 million dollar. With the completion of this rail project, Yal Devi (Goddess of Jaffna) train will again run, facilitating easy access to north and south Sri Lanka.
· The Joint Working Group of India and Bangladesh is in session in New Delhi today to prepare the agenda for the two day Home Secretary level talks begining tomorrow. The working group will focus on the implementation of the pact on demarcation of land boundary, border management, human trafficking, smuggling of narcotics and other goods.
· In China, twelve miners were trapped when a coal mine today caved in northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The cave-in is the latest in a series of coal-mine accidents to have hit China recently.
· Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti is set to face a crucial confidence vote in the Chambers of Deputies, the lower house of parliament today. Mr Monti had won a vote in the upper house, the Senate, yesterday which was widely regarded as his first test since becoming leader. Mario Monti promised to respect Italy's timetable to balance its budget by 2013 and reduce its debt.
· European nations have said that they have enlisted key Arab support for a U.N. resolution on Syria. Germany, France and Britain tabled a resolution at the U.N. General Assembly’s human rights committee condemning the violence.
· The Government has not yet taken any decision on the revision of disinvestment targets for the current fiscal but had set a budgetary target of raising 400 billion rupees during the current fiscal.
· Rice procurement in the current Kharif season has crossed the 10 million mark. Punjab has recorded the highest procurement followed by Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.
· The North-East Frontier Railway has introduced the country’s longest-ever train route (4286 kilometers in 82.30 hours) with induction of a new weekly train ("Vivek Express") between Dibrugarh and Kanyakumari.
· Expressing concern over the poor fitness level of school children, Mr. Makan called upon all the State Ministers to create adequate sports infrastructure and promote the culture of sports amongst the youth. Mr Makan also stressed the need for skill development of the youth to ensure adequate employment opportunities to them.
· In New York, over 300 protesters were arrested today as thousands criss-crossed the city on the two month birthday of the Occupy Wall Street protests. Thousands of students and workers also gathered in the Union Square shouting "Shut the city down" to protest against on how banks and corporate greed have impacted 99 per cent of the population. Around 30,000 protesters held a march at Foley Square along with labour unions and fellow occupiers.
· On the sidelines of the ongoing 17th International Children’s Film Festival of India in Hyderabad, Chairperson Nandita Das told that the Children’s Film Society of India will be archiving and marketing about 250 Children’s films in the form of DVDs.