Afghan suspends Peace talks with Taliban in Doha

The Afghanistan government has suspended "Bilateral Security Agreement talks" around due to its "inconsistent statement and action" within the Taliban peace process.
Hamid Karzai led government was miffed around government over the announcement it would engage in "direct negotiations with Taliban", who officially opened a political office in Doha, Qatar, recently [ The united states State Department has however denied this report ].

• Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) : is supposed to provide a strategic framework for all of us troops to remain in the country following a NATO combat mission ends after 2014 and its troops formally exit Afghanistan . It'll finalise issues such as the quantity of troops to remain, where they'll be based and under what terms they'll operate.

Karzai has also protested over the name from the Taliban's Doha office- "Islamic Emirate Of Afghanistan" (the formal name of their 1996-2001 government), which seems an effort to portray itself like a "state in exile" (US do not recognise this name).

• Karzai government has additionally declared that it will boycott any peace talks unless these were led by his government i.e Afghan led (instead of US- Taliban bilateral talks ). Till then the High Peace Council (an appearance set up in 2010 to seek a negotiated peace using the Taliban) will not participate in Qatar Talks.

The NATO command in Kabul had recently completed handing over lead security responsibility to Afghan government forces across the nation as it plans to end all combat operations in Afghanistan by December 2014.

• India's Position : India has always maintained that it'll be happy with whatever decision is taken by Afghanis themselves BUT the Peace initiative ought to be Afghanistan-owned and Afghanistan-driven. Further on issue of Doha talks it's cautioned Afghan government not to cross "Red Lines drawn through the International community".
• James Dobbins: US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan

General Joseph Dunford: US commander in Afghanistan

Kosovo observes fifth year of its independence from Serbia

Kosovo celebrated the fifth anniversary of the declaration of independence from Serbia, the very first time since 1998-99 with a parade of police and military, in the main square of Pristina, the main city. The landlocked nation is recognised as independent nation only by 96 nation (i.e. no UN nation) and Serbia is constantly on the claim it as its own territory. Its population comprises mainly of ethnic Albanians and Serbians.

Europe is currently mediating talks between the two former foes who fought a war regarding this in 1998-99. Recently both side were built with a skirmish at the border which caused problems for 30 NATO soldiers.Later both side agreed for any joint border management strategy.

Bhiwani, Mahendragarh and Bharatpur included in National Capital Region (NCR)

National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB), headed by Urban Development Minister , provides approval to add three more districts to National Capital Region.

They're : Bhiwani and Mahendragarh (in Haryana) and Bharatpur ( in Rajasthan). Using these additions, the number of districts inside the NCR now stands at 19, with total area increasing by 34% to 45,887sq km.

• Jaipur included just like a Counter-Magnet Area
• Jind and Karnal in Haryana and Mathura-Vrindavan of UP may also be being considered for inclusion.
• National Capital Region Transport Corporation for implementation of Regional Rapid Transit System ,proposed earlier, is underactive consideration
• A Draft Revised Regional Plan 2021 has the capacity to be approved soon

The National Capital Region (NCR)

An extended metropolitan area (agglomeration) centered on Delhi and comprising cities surrounding it in neighbouring states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

• aims to reduce pressure on the infrastructure of Delhi (health, educational, economic etc.) along with protect it from excessive population pressure. Additionally, it seeks to make sure a better planned development of the entire region.
• NCR Planning Board Act : constituted in 1985 to fulfill the objectives
• Benefits : Funding from NCRPB at Cheaper rates for infrastructure projects ; integrated planning leading to better development
• NCR is the India’s largest and world’s second largest (After Tokyo) agglomeration

Sub Region :

• Haryana Sub-Region : 11 districts, Largest area under NCR (Bhiwani ,Mahendragarh, Gurgaon, Faridabad , Mewat , Palwal , Rewari , Jhajjar, Rohtak , Sonipat , Panipat)
• Uttar Pradesh : 5 districts [Gautam Budha Nagar Dist (Noida and Greater Noida) , Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr and Meerut]
• Rajasthan : Alwar and Bharatpur
• The nation's Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi : comprises minimum area under NCR

Counter-magnet towns :

Role : As interceptors of migratory flows into NCR; As Regional Growth Centres

• The cities within 250 km. radius from Delhi that could serve and develop as alternative centres of growth thereby reducing pressure on Delhi.
• Criteria: Should have their own established roots and potential of growth and can't be centres of religious, strategic or environmental importance.

List: Gwalior, Hisar, Kota, Patiala, Bareily, Ambala, Dehradun, Kanpur and Jaipur

Scientists claim, a child in US functionally cured of HIV

A child treated for Hiv (HIV/ AIDS) ,in Mississippi continues to be claimed to be “functionally cured”(a condition whenever a patient achieves and maintains long-termviralremission without lifelong treatment and standard studies fail to detect HIV replication within the blood. However,it is likely that the minute amount of the virus remains in your body) after being exposed to the virus during birth. The kid was given standard anti-retroviral (ARV) drug therapy within 30 hours of birth whichled to undetectable amounts of virus in the body, 29 days after birth. This is actually the 2nd such case ,theonly documented case of the actual cure was those of an adult in Germany (Timothy Ray Brown) who had bone marrow transplant, there was several such instances of “non-progressors” who was simply exposed tothe virus but seem “naturally resistant.”

The study team behind this project included Johns Hopkins Children’s Centre virologist Deborah Persaud, University of Massachusetts School of medicine immunologist Katherine Luzuriaga, and University of Mississippi Medical Centre paediatric HIV specialist Hannah Gay. The findings could imply “prompt antiviral therapy in newborns that begins within times of exposure may help infants pay off the virus and achieve long-term remission without lifelong treatment by preventing viral hideouts from forming to begin with in the body as in the case of adults who don't realise they were being infected by the time they did, these were already highly infected. In this instance however, infection was caught early, potentially as the virus was still entering the baby’s system and so the doctors supplied the ARVs instead of cases where adults have been infected for a while.

However scientists claim are cautious when it comes to generalising these results and emphasised this may be a single, anecdotal case because it was not a “controlled randomised trial”. Further “Complete viral eradication on the large scale is long-term goal which might come from aggressive, timely and precisely targeted utilization of antiviral therapies in high-risk newborns in an effort to achieve functional cure.” The result of ARVs is to suppress and slow the progress from the infection rather than act as a “sterilising cure,” that is a complete eradication of all viral traces in the body. Prevention really is the very best cure, and it is already proven strategy that 98 percent of newborn infections could be prevented by identifying and treating HIV-positive women that are pregnant.

Chinese Astronauts successfully completes 5th manned space mission

Three Chinese astronauts completed their space journey and returned safely to Earth aboard Shenzhou-10 spacecraft which landed in Gobi desert in inner Mangolia

About Mission

• China's 5th manned space mission since 2003
• 15 days Trip ; longest in Chinese Space history
• Spaceship : Shenzhou 10 ; Launcher : Long March-2F rocket ; Launching Station : Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center (Gobi Desert)
• Astronauts : Wang Yaping, Nie Haisheng (commander from the mission) and Zhang Xiaoguan

Wang Yaping : China's second woman astronaut

• Wang also gave an area lecture in orbit which was transmitted to Chinese students on the planet
• First Chinese Woman wide was Liu Yang ( Mission- Shenzhou-9, 2012)
• first ever Chinese astronaut directly into Space : Yang Liwei (2003)

Objective :

• To dock using the Tiangong-1 space module (was final trial docking) ; transfer supplies towards the Chinese space lab (in orbit since September 2011)
• master the rendezvous and docking capabilities required for the operation of a manned space platform (proposed Chinese space lab set to become ready by 2020 )
• to acquire the technological and logistical skills to operate a full space station that may house people for long periods
• China's first manned docking exercise : with Tiangong 1 (means Heavenly palace) of Shenzhou-9, June 2012

Challenges :

• However to trap on the reigning superpowers in Space technology, US and Russia, besides mastering these Docking manuoevres , launching of cargo and fuel via space freighters and recycling air and water for longer manned missions needs to be mastered by China.
• Tiangong 2- a functional space lab in orbit is planned in 2 years.

The U.S. closed its toyota tows program in 2011 (with the retirement of Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour Spacecrafts ; The ultimate space shuttle mission was STS-135, Atlantis, July 21, 2011) and it is no longer aggressively pursuing manned space exploration (instead encouraging private sector the likes of Virgin Galactic, Orbital corp, Space X etc to go in the arena)

• Russia and China now 3 countries in the world capable of independently sending humans into space.
• International Space Station (ISS) : some pot venture between NASA, Russia's RKA space agency, Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency, the ecu Space Agency and the Canadian CSA (China isn't part of the project that maintains the ISS).

PM inaugurates 'Gandhi Heritage Portal'

Prime Minister inaugurated “Gandhi Heritage Portal” which will help in disseminating writings of Mahatma Gandhi- “The Father of the united states, in an authentic and unabridged form. An internet based archive, developed under the guidance of Secretary of state for culture, it seeks to examine his message of non-violence, humanism and demanding aspects of our freedom find it difficult to the world and specially to Indian youth.

• in line with the recommendations of the The Gandhi Heritage Sites Panel towards preservation, protection and dissemination from the tangible and the intangible heritage of Mahatma Gandhi (another recommendation was the establishing of the Gandhi Heritage Sites Mission that also has been completed ).
• Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust, Ahmedabad : was entrusted the job of concept design, development and maintenance ( the largest repository of Gandhiji’s original writings, photo archive, assortment of over 45,000 books on contributing to Gandhiji and the Indian National Movement).

Options that come with portal :

• The Gandhi Heritage Sites’ section: might have detailed information regarding places that Gandhiji visited.
• “The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi” : obtainable in 3 languages- English, Hindi and Gujarati.

A few of the literary work of Gandhiji :

An Autobiography (The storyline of My Experiments with Truth),
Hind Swaraj,
From Yervada Mandir,
Satyagraha in Nigeria,
Constructive Programmes: Their Meaning and put,
Ashram Observances in Action,
Key To Health and
Gandhiji’s translation from the Gita as Anasakti Yoga.

Journals by Gandhiji :

Indian Opinion
Young India
Navjivan
Harijan Bandhu
Harijan
Harijan Sevak etc.
Just before his project, Ministry of Culture is promoting Bichitra - the web archives of writings of Rabindra Nath Tagore included in its commitment to create and sustain free archive movement to democratise use of our intangible cultural and philosophical heritage. These initiatives would also strengthen and facilitate teaching , research and inquiry.

Computer Mouse Inventor Douglas Engelbart dies

Douglas Engelbart, a computer scientist credited with conceiving the thought of computer mouse- now ubiquitous and indispensable a part of computer system, has died. He worked like a computer scientist at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) which later patented Mouse (later licensed to Apple making commercially available in 1984 with Apple’s new Macintosh).

• ardent believer from the idea that human-computer interaction can be used to “augmenting human intellect”
• Initially documented as “X-Y position indicator for any display system” invention of mouse made computers user- friendly

He earned some other pioneering and “ahead of their time” discoveries in his lab- “Augmentation Research Center” :

• Illustration showing the idea and display of initial ever “video conferencing”
• Development of ‘hypertext’- explained how pages of knowledge could be tied together using text-based links
• Utilization of multiple windows – real-time collaboration on a single desktop; division of a screen into windows-like subsections
• Helped develop ARPANet – the federal government research network that led to the Internet
• Precursors to graphical user interfaces
• Concept of Networked computers

His famous presentation in December 1968 about his vision for future years of human-machine interaction – has become known as ‘The Mother of all Demos’

• US $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize in 1997
• National Medal of Technology by President in 2000 “for allowing the foundations of personal computing”.