TOP 20 LAST WEEK (10th feb to 16th feb)

CURRENT AFFAIRS

USA ECONOMY
US congress has passed the 787-billion-dollar economic stimulus plan to bailout US economy.

USA-PAK-AFGHANISTAN-TALIBAN
Obama said he regards Pakistan and Afghanistan (not Iraq) as the major anti-terror front and appointed Holbrooke as special representative to both countries. Holbrooke said after his visit to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border that Taliban is the common enemy of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Pakistan is facing Terror situation from Taliban. At least 31 people were killed Monday in a remote area of Pakistan close to the Afghanistan border in a missile strike from a remote operated aircraft. It is planning to introduce Islamic law in its north-western region to stop spreading Taliban insurgency.

LTTE WAR
Government troops are on a full-scale military offensive against the LTTE, which are cornered in an area less than 200 square-km in the Mullaittivu district. However, Tamil Tigers are reported to have targeted civilians preventing them from leaving Sri Lanka's war zone which may cause a delay in the situation.

ISRAEL-GAZA-HAMAS-PALESTINE
Israel is not ready to an agreement of peace with Hamas until release of soldier is agreed upon. Israeli warplanes have attacked smuggling tunnels between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, after militants in Gaza fired at least two rockets into southern Israel.

MUMBAI ATTACKS
Pakistan gave its first formal response to the Indian report on Mumbai terror attack. Although some issues are raised, Pakistan has agreed to most of the points. Also, Pakistani investigators arrested the six people charged for the Mumbai attacks. This includes the arrest of a Lashkar-e-Toeba leader and one of India's most wanted men - Zaki Ur Rehman Lakhvi. These steps will go down extremely well with New Delhi. On the other hand, Pakistan terror groups are making efforts to strengthen their stand. Mumbai police said that terror groups have approached Dawood Ibrahim to kill Kasab. Al Qaeda also warned India of more attacks if it retaliates against Pakistan.

SATYAM CASE
The government on Monday transferred the investigation of the Satyam scam to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), a move which comes five days after the Andhra Pradesh government asked the Centre to transfer the investigation from the state Crime Investigation Department (CID) to the central probe agency. However, Bidding for the sale of fraud-hit Indian outsourcer Satyam Computer could begin before its accounts are restated. Details of the bidding process are expected to come as early as next week.

AUSTRALIA WILDFIRE
The Australian wildfires are expected to be an act of Human race. As, there were fresh fire attacks by some people as late as Wednesday. These Fires destroyed the town of Marysville last Saturday and decimated cities northeast of Melbourne. There are Hundreds of bodies lying in the burnt houses. However, the situation is better now with residents returning to fire-destroyed Australian town.

INDIAN ANNUAL BUDGET
1. Lalu Prasad Yadav, the Union Railway Minister, presented the interim Railway Budget for the first four months of FY2009-10 on Friday. He announced 43 new trains including four Garibraths, 15 train extensions and 11 increases in frequency competing with last year’s full-year budget.
2. Interim Budget boosts infrastructure sector. The allocation of about Rs 1, 00,000 crore to the infrastructure sector in the interim Budget presented in Parliament on Monday is expected to generate additional demand for steel, even as the industry said it was awaiting a sector-specific stimulus dose.

NEWS

POLITICS
1. Supreme Court alleged congress party of misusing CBI to save Samajwadi party leader Mulayam Singh in case of assets-in-excess than income.

BUSINESS/ECONOMY
1. India's central bank will start buying government bonds as its open market operations on February, 19 to induce more money in the market plus the government has announced Rs 3,800-crore fund infusion into state-run lenders UCO Bank, Central Bank of India and Vijaya Bank.
2. Indian state-run firms NTPC Ltd and Nuclear Power Corp of India Ltd have agreed to form a joint venture to build a 2,000 megawatts nuclear power plant in India. NTPC, India's largest power utility, will hold 49 percent stake in the venture and Nuclear Power Corp will hold the majority 51 percent stake.
3. The fiscal deficit this financial year is expected to touch 6 per cent of GDP, the highest in seven years

SPORTS
1. Tennis: Vera Zvonareva justified her tag as favourite by beating India's Sania Mirza 7-5 6-1 to win the Pattaya Open. The 24-year-old Russian was tested by the world number 126 in
Bangkok, but came through a difficult first set to win her first title of the year.

TECHNOLOGY
1. Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) will be displaying the export version of the indigenously designed and developed advanced light helicopter (ALH) Dhruv for the first time at the seventh edition of the international air show, Aero India 2009.
2. Even though scientists at the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) here received a setback on Thursday after the country's first cloned buffalo calf died just five days after its birth, they are happy that the "superior technology" they used for cloning was "tested".

OTHERS
1. AT least 15 passengers were killed and 100 injured when 18 bogies of the Chennai-Howrah Coramandel Superfast Express derailed near Jaipur Road railway station in Orissa on Friday evening.
2. The uniform air fare hike by all domestic airlines has come under the lens of the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC). The commission would investigate the alleged cartelisation by all airlines including the national carrier Air India over withdrawal of promotional low air fares and increase in basic fares in unison
3. The Special CBI court pronounced death sentence to Nithari killings' convicts Surender Koli and Moninder Singh Pandher on 13th February afternoon. With this verdict, one chapter of the Nithari serial rapes and killings has ended on a positive note. Nithari is a village in the western part of the state of UP bordering on New Delhi.
4. All 48 passengers and crew, plus one person in the house, have been killed after a passenger plane nose-dived into a house near New York and exploded into a fireball.