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(Current Affairs) Person in News | September: 2014
Person in News
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Emotional Reunions (Free Available)
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Pinky Anand appointed ASG (Free Available)
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Nobel laureate, activist Nadine Gordimer dies (Free Available)
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Syrian President Assad sworn in for third term (Free Available)
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Jakarta Governor Widodo wins Indonesian presidential election (Free Available)
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Exoplanet with 704-day-long Year Found (Free Available)
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MH17 black boxes handed over to British experts (Free Available)
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Sachin Tendulkar bats for clean water with Livpure (Free Available)
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Iraq Elects Fuad Masum as President (Only for Online Coaching Members)
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PM launches engagement platform (Only for Online Coaching Members)
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UPSC row: Rajnath apprises Modi (Only for Online Coaching Members)
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Construction of bridge with world’s tallest pillar begins (Only for Online Coaching Members)
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White Tigress Gives Birth to a Black Cub (Only for Online Coaching Members)
Emotional Reunions
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“It’s our second life,” said a relieved Sona Joseph as she arrived at the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) along with her twin sister Veena Joseph and 44 other Indian nurses on special Air India flight, AI 160, from Erbil in strife-torn Iraq.
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In what came as a relief to the Modi government after days of planning a rescue mission in Iraq, the plane carrying 183 evacuees, including workers from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, touched down safely at Kochi though five hours behind schedule.
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Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who was at the airport with a host of leaders and officials, attributed the successful evacuation to the concerted and coordinated efforts of the Ministry of External Affairs, the State government, and the Indian embassy.
Pinky Anand appointed ASG
- Senior Advocate Pinky Anand has been appointed Additional Solicitor-General in the Supreme Court.
- She is the second woman lawyer to be appointed ASG after senior advocate Indira Jaising.
Nobel laureate, activist Nadine Gordimer dies
- Nadine Gordimer, died peacefully in her sleep at her home in Johannesburg on Sunday. She was 90 years old.
- Nadine Gordimer was first a writer of fiction and a defender of creativity and expression, she was also a determined political activist in the struggle to end white minority rule in her country.
- Gordimer won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1991 for novels that explored the complex relationships and human cost of racial conflict in apartheid-era South Africa.
- Gordimer’s first novel, The Lying Days appeared in 1953, and she acknowledged that it had autobiographical elements. A New York Times reviewer compared it to Alan Paton’s Cry the Beloved Country, saying Gordimer’s work “is the longer, the richer, intellectually the more exciting.”
- She won the Booker Prize in 1974 for The Conservationist, a novel about a white South African who loses everything.
Syrian President Assad sworn in for third term
- President Bashar Assad marked the start of his third seven-year term in office amid a bloody civil war that has ravaged the Arab country.
- In the past year, Syria have seized the momentum in the civil war and troops made steady advances on several fronts against outgunned rebels bogged down in infighting.
- Throughout the crisis, Mr. Assad has maintained that the conflict that has torn his nation apart was a Western-backed conspiracy executed by “terrorists” and not a popular revolt by people inspired by the Arab Spring uprisings, seeking democracy and disenchanted with his authoritarian rule.
- Syria’s civil war, now in its fourth year, has killed more than 170,000 people and displaced one third of the country’s population.
- Mr. Assad declared victory over “terrorism” and said countries that supported the Syrian opposition “will pay a high price”.
Jakarta Governor Widodo wins Indonesian presidential election
- Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo, who won the hearts of Indonesians with his common man image, won Indonesia’s presidential election with 53 per cent of the vote.
- The numbers were released shortly after his opponent, former general Prabowo Subianto, declared he was withdrawing from the contest, saying there was massive fraud during the election.
Exoplanet with 704-day-long Year Found
- Using NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, researchers have discovered an exoplanet with the longest known year.
- The newly discovered Kepler-421b circles its star in 704 days. It is the longest period of revolution known yet for a planet outside of our solar system.
MH17 black boxes handed over to British experts
- The British government has confirmed that the two black boxes from Malaysian airlines Flight MH 17 that crashed in eastern Ukraine killing 298 on board have been handed over to British investigators.
- Boxes will contain recordings of all cockpit conversations prior to the crash, The AAIB can now analyse hours of conversation and the contents of the flight data recorder for clues on why and how the plane went down.
- The boxes were handed over by a joint technical protocol signed by representatives of the Netherlands, Malaysia, Ukraine and the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organisation.
- The AAIB is responsible for the investigation of civil aircraft accidents and serious incidents within the U.K.
Sachin Tendulkar bats for clean water with Livpure
- Livpure Foundation, the CSR arm of SAR group, announced an initiative to spread awareness on safe drinking water as water borne diseases are one on the biggest causes of mortality in India.
- As part of the initiative, the foundation would focus on urban slums and various states including West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
- Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar said”There are so many children under 5 who are affected by water borne diseases…not just affected many lives are lost. It is a movement to help eradicate the mortality rate among children due to waterborne diseases”.