[wanabidii] News Digest: Mercedes-Benz to launch 12 models this year

		THE TIMES OF INDIA
		Saturday, January 09, 2016
		Today's Headlines

		Business
		Mercedes-Benz to launch 12 models this year German luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz on Saturday said it posted record sales of 13,502 units in India last year as compared with 10,201 units in 2014, a significant jump of 32 per cent, and is planning to add 12 'fascinating' new products to its portfolio in 2016. Yuan devaluation worrying for Indian exports: Sitharaman India said the devaluation of the Chinese currency is a "worrying" development which will make Indian exports expensive and widen the trade deficit with Beijing. Commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the devaluation of the yuan will make imports cheaper from China to India. Oil down 10% after five-day drop Oil fell for a fifth straight day, losing 10 per cent on the week, and Goldman Sachs said more losses were needed to force producers to cut supplies adequately to balance the glut and bleak demand outlook in the market. More Business News»

		Environment
		Sabarimala to go 'green', pilgrims asked to cooperate With the Kerala high court seeking that the famed Sabarimala temple in the state's Pathanamthitta district and its premises are kept clean and turn "green", local authorities have launched an awareness drive and asked pilgrims to ensure that they adhere to the rules. Peta critical of centre for allowing bull races People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India Chief Executive Officer Poorva Joshipura has criticized the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change decision to permit events like jallikattu and bull races again through a 7th January 2016 notification in the Gazette of India. Tiger reserves in Rajasthan await Rs 50 crore grant It's been seven years since the Centre released a one-time grant of Rs 50 crore to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) for raising, arming and deploying Special Tiger Protection Force (STPF) in 13 sensitive tiger reserves in the country, including Ranthambhore and Sariska More Environment News»

		World
		Beijing to shut down 2,500 polluting firms this year The Chinese capital Beijing will shut down 2,500 polluting firms in 2016 in its latest environmental protection efforts to reduce pollution as the city continues to be engulfed by smog most part of the year. Gunman ambushes US cop 'in the name of Islam' A gunman claiming allegiance to Islamic State militants shot and seriously wounded a Philadelphia police officer, saying he ambushed his patrol car "in the name of Islam," the city's police commissioner said on Friday. Cologne top cop sacked over New Year's Eve assaults he police chief of the German city of Cologne was dismissed on Friday amid mounting criticism of his force's handling of a string of New Year's Eve sexual assaults and robberies blamed largely on foreigners. More World News»

		Science
		Last chance for comet lander Philae to respond before it's goes away forever In a last desperate throw of dice, scientists from the European Space Agency have sent a signal to Philae, the tiny lander sitting on Comet 67P some 237 million kilometers away from Earth. Last-chance bid to contact space robot Philae Scientists initiated a last-chance manoeuvre to contact a long-silent robot-lab dropped more than a year ago onto the surface of a comet. The Philae probe has yielded spectacular scientific results — and a few moments of high drama — since its near crash-landing onto comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Bacterium trained to perform artificial photosynthesis Scientists have successfully trained bacteria to perform photosynthesis - despite being non-photosynthetic, an advance that could lead to the next generation of solar-to-chemical conversion technologies. More Science News»

		Technology
		iPhone 7 will drop headphone jack and sport waterproof body: Report Apple will definitely be removing the headphone port in its next major iPhone release, according to a report. 8 gadgets & tech you should definitely use in 2016 Here are some gadgets and technologies that provide simple solutions to these and many other such problems. Mass layoffs keep IIT-Madras students away from startups While the placement season-2015 has attracted double the number of startups compared to last year, institute officials observe that students are not very enthusiastic this time to attend startup interviews, thanks to the recent news of mass layoffs. More Technology News»

		Education
		Two from Raj bell CAT with near-perfect 99.99 Two aspiring management students from the state - Arnav Pareek and Prabhav Gupta - scored a near-perfect 99.99 percentile in Common Admission Test (CAT) 2015, results of which were declared on Friday evening.Pareek, who is a chemical engineer from IIT-Banaras Hindu University (BHU), prepared for CAT along with a job in a leading MNC. Students across nation surprised by direct CAT'15 results on their mobile phones To the surprise of students (MBA aspirants) and all waiting for Common Admission Test (CAT) results, IIM Ahmedabad declared the results in an unprecedented manner by sending out direct messages to students on their registered mobile numbers on Friday afternoon. IIT Kharagpur's Global Entrepreurship Summit begins The Global Entrepreneurship Summit-2016 at IIT Kharagpur started from Friday and will continue till January 10 as an entrepreneurial platform for academicians, new-age entrepreneurs, business personalities, venture capitalists and the students. More Education News»

		Mumbai
		Mumbai to get world-class football stadium in Andheri sports complex Police jamborees, Bollywood nights and similar spectacles are a thing of the past at the Andheri Sports Complex's stadium, which is being readied for the Fifa Under-17 World Cup in 2017. College girl drowns in Bandra while taking selfies A 20-year-old college girl drowned at Bandra Bandstand on Saturday. She is believed to have been swept away in the high tide. On seeing the incident, a youth who was standing nearby too jumped into the sea. 9 cops in police van injured in accident at Bhayander A Zone 11 police van returning from night duty met with an accident at Utan in Bhayander (west) on Saturday morning. Nine policemen sustained minor injuries. More Mumbai News»

		Delhi
		Get ready to go to jail, BJP tells Arvind Kejriwal Lashing out at Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal over his fresh attack on the Modi government, BJP on Friday accused him of taking one unconstitutional step after another and asked him to be "ready to go to jail" in the defamation case filed by finance minister Arun Jaitley. BSNL officer held for taking Rs 50,000 bribe The CBI on Friday arrested an additional general manager of BSNL for allegedly receiving Rs 50,000 bribe for settling pending bills. Will end odd-even scheme on January 15, may mull Phase 2 later: Delhi government The fate of the AAP government’s odd-even scheme is likely to be decided on Monday, when the Delhi high court takes a call on whether to end it or allow it to run till January 15. More Delhi News»

		Bangalore
		Oppn, civil society cry foul over govt push for Nayak as Lokayukta The Karnataka government appears to be in a fix. While it’s keen to have former State Human Rights Commission chairperson and current law commission chairperson Justice SR Nayak as the new Lokayukta, it’s also dragging its feet over recommending his name to the governor following opposition from political parties and civil society. Govt agencies squatting on 31% of lakebed area The BDA, BBMP and forest de partment have encroached about 3,287 acres of lakebeds in Bengaluru Urban and Rural districts -about 31% of the total 10,472 acres. Helpful' govt staff to face music Government officials or staff who facilitated leading build ers and allowed large-scale lake encroachment, will have to face the music. More Bangalore News»

		Hyderabad
		Oppn parties cry foul over wards reservations fter the row over deletion of voters in the electoral rolls, the reservation for wards for Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) council polls is expected to rake up a fresh controversy Chinna Mulkanur villagers not 'shelter-less', says govt The Karimnagar district administration says that families that lost their homes when government officials demolished their houses in Chinna Mulkanur village to build new ones “are not shelter-less, they are residing in temporary sheds and some of the beneficiaries are residing in rented houses and not suffering from ill-health.” Battle for Nims seats may reach the courts Frustrated with the prospect of losing speciality and superspecialty seats to Andhra medicos in the premier Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (Nims) in the 2016 academic year, the Telangana Junior Doctors’ Association (TJUDA) is mulling taking the legal recourse. More Hyderabad News»

		Chennai
		Judges invoke Veda, Lord Krishna, Prophet to lay stress on mediation Even though civil courts are grappling with several millions of pending cases, only a handful are referred for settlement by mediation and conciliation, lamented a Supreme Court judge, urging subordinate judicial officers and mediators to pull up their socks and bring down pendency by resolving to achieve near-centum success in their mediation efforts. Anzar was on IB radar for sometime Maulana Anzar Shah Qasmi was under the close watch of intelligence agencies for some time. Centre lifts jallikattu ban in poll-bound TN with 'caveats' The Centre on Friday sought to lift the Supreme Court ban on jallikattu by issuing an executive order exempting jallikattu and bullock cart races from a 2011 UPA-era notification that prohibited bulls from being used as performing animals. The notification comes with several riders intended to prevent cruelty to bulls. More Chennai News»

		Ahmedabad
		Delhi fog delays over 35 flights in Gujarat More than three dozen flights were delayed to and from Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot airports on Friday following dense fog in Delhi and consequential traffic congestion. Technical glitch mars results of CAT 2015 In a surprise first, Common Admission Test (CAT) aspirants got their results with percentile score through SMS on Friday afternoon even before being declared officially. Check old diesel vehicles afresh: HC In an effort to reduce pollution by vehicles, Gujarat high court on Friday ordered four government departments to jointly undertake a proper survey of diesel vehicles registered at least 10 years ago, to find out whether their emissions exceeded permitted pollution limits. More Ahmedabad News»

		Allahabad
		Railway to put up ticket vending machines In order to reduce long queues at unreserved ticketing system counters at railway stations, North Central Railway has decided to install automatic ticket vending machines (AVTMs) at many stations in the zone. Allahabad high court seeks reply on land allotment The Allahabad High Court on Thursday directed the state government to file reply on the issue of allotment of land at Magh mela to one of the Khak Chawk Vyavastha Samitis. Seers' bodies sign up on FB to save cow @Magh Mela Popular social networking site Facebook may turn into a tool for a group of young seers associated with Ganga Sena and Akhil Bharatiya Dandi Sanyasi Pravandhan Samiti. They have decided to launch Facebook page for the protection of cows during Magh Mela. More Allahabad News»

		Bhubaneswar
		Civic body fine-tunes Raahgiri programme The Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), with the help of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), on Friday conducted a meeting to finalize the Raahgiri programme, which will be held here on January 17. CM, Bangladesh high commissioner talk biz Chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday requested Bangladesh high commissioner to India Syed Muazzem Ali to explore opportunities to invest in textile sector in the state. Congress stalled GST bill: Jayant Sinha Addressing a news conference here, Sinha said Congress used every possible excuse to stall the upper house. More Bhubaneswar News»

		Bhopal
		Saif lawyer: 'Enemy' ordinance won't hurt Amendment to Enemy Property Act, 1968, which allows the ‘custodian’ to continue to hold sway over such properties, will not have an impact on royal properties in Bhopal, said actor Saif Ali Khan’s lawyer. BJP MLA, supporters create ruckus at police station in Bhind BJP workers and leaders also manhandled mediapersons and a police camera person recording the whole episode. They forced them to switch off their cameras. BJP leader dead, wife battles for life as car crashes into tree A 53-year-old BJP leader from Indore died and his wife sutained critical injuries in a road accident that took place on city outskirts on Friday morning. The BJP leader was coming to attend a party meeting. More Bhopal News»

		Chandigarh
		Contractor robbed of 1L Armed assailants snatched rupees one lakh from a contractor of the road construction department at Anraj Ghati on Garhwa-Ranka Road, 14km from the district headquarters on Thursday. 'Out of 109 kids with special needs, only 50 go to school' According to a survey done by students from the Centre for Human Rights and Duties and University Institute of Legal Studies, Panjab University, 109 children with special needs reside in Dhanas rehabilitation colony and 85 in Bhaskar Colony. BJP ends 15-yr mayor drought The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday won the mayor seat after a gap of 15 years, sweeping the mayoral elections in alliance with Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). More Chandigarh News»

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