TOP 20 LAST WEEK (3rd Feb to 9th Feb)

CURRENT AFFAIRS

USA ECONOMY
1. The Senate on 3rd February began debating possible changes to an $885 billion economic stimulus bill which later grown to $920 billion. The Senate voted on this version of the bill. President Obama wants to get his economic stimulus bill passed as rapidly as possible. The Obama administration has imposed a cap of $500,000 for top executives at companies that receive large amounts of bailout money.
2. United States lost almost 600000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate rose to 7.6 percent, its highest level in more than 16 years.

LTTE WAR
1. Tamil rebels lose last airstrip to Sri Lanka army last week. Sri Lanka’s president predicted the total defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels within a few days.

ISRAEL-GAZA-HAMAS-PALESTINE
1. Israel and Hamas could carry out a long-discussed prisoner swap within six weeks, an Israeli cabinet minister said on Sunday, playing down media speculation that a deal was more imminent.
2. Human rights groups have called on Hamas officials to investigate allegations of abduction, torture and the killing of Palestinians accused of being collaborators during Israel's war on Gaza. A human rights monitor, told Al Jazeera that dozens of ‘Fatah’ members were shot and tortured as Israeli forces bombarded the Gaza Strip for 22 days.

MUMBAI ATTACKS
1. The Pakistan interior minister on Tuesday said the Mumbai attacks were planned outside Pakistan and that the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) final report will be handed over to India in a week, but Pakistan has issued a terse statement saying it has more questions and that India will have to respond to these questions before it can wrap up its probe. In response P Chidambaram said "We have given them a dossier. Let them respond to it. I will comment after they give the response.”
2. Home minister P Chidambaram visited Maharastra and Kerela on Monday 9th Feb to review the security situation in the two coastal states. The home ministry is providing assistance to nine coastal states and four union territories under the Coastal Security Scheme which was launched in 2005.

SATYAM CASE
1. A.S Murty has been chosen as the new CEO of Satyam. Murty's fifteen years in Satyam has been marked by lack of any kind of controversy, although he is reputed to know the DNA of the company. He knows each and every individual at Satyam's senior levels including their strengths and weaknesses.
2. Kiran Karnik was named Satyam's Chairman by corporate affairs minister P C Gupta. The former president of NASSCOM appointment comes a day after A S Murty was made the IT firm's CEO.

NEWS

POLITICS
1. Many muslim leaders wanted one time BJP chief minister of U.p. Kalyan singh to apologize for demolition of Babri masjid as a condition to join Samajwadi party. But Kalyan singh said he had taken the moral responsibility of demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992 and resigned from the post of chief minister.
2. The release of Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan will be met with joy in much of Pakistan, and an equal measure of alarm in Washington.former CIA Director reportedly referred to him as "at least as dangerous as Osama Bin Laden". Dr AQ Khan has always been a hero for many Pakistani people. The reason for his popularity is simple - he is widely seen as having made Pakistan a nuclear state.

BUSINESS/ECONOMY
1. Barely two weeks after India announced a six-month ban on toys from China, Beijing is set to challenge the decision in the World Trade Organization. The decision to ban was meant to protect local manufacturers against the flooding of the market with cheap Chinese imports.
2. India's economy will grow the slowest since 2003-04 at 7.1 per cent this fiscal, as the global economic crisis hammered industrial output and killed jobs, but the government appeared optimistic about the future. The growth rate for agriculture, industry and services is estimated to be 2.6 per cent, 4.8 per cent and 9.6 per cent respectively... the corresponding growth rates for these three sectors were 4.9, 8.1 and 10.9 respectively (last year).
3. China likely overtook the US in vehicle sales for the first time last month, a trend that could make China into the world’s largest auto market this year.
4. Employee Provident fund office (EPFO) has initiated inquiry into Subhiksha for non-payment of provident fund dues of its 4600 employees since june '08. It has given 15 days of time to deposit the money i.e. 5 crores.
5. The friction between the power and the heavy industries ministries surfaced once again when Minister of State for Power and Commerce, Jairam Ramesh urged BHEL to take over NTPC’s 44.6 per cent share in Transformers and Electricals Kerala Ltd (TELK), the Kerala government-owned electrical equipment-maker.

SPORTS
1. After nine consecutive ODI victories, MS Dhoni-led Indian team moved up to the second spot in the ICC rankings last week. India won the series against Sri Lanka by 4-1after Sri Lanka succeeded to win the last match. India displaced Australia, who slipped to third spot after their second consecutive loss in ODI series against New Zealand.
2. West Indies bowled England for 51 to sweep to an incredible win by an innings and 23 runs on the fourth day of opening test on 8th February.
3. India conceded a goal in the dying moments to lose the final of the Punjab Gold Cup hockey tournament 1-2 against European champions the Netherlands on Monday.

TECHNOLOGY
1. One Voice Technologies, Inc, california said " In the telecom sector the government owned phone company in India, MTNL will launch our MobileVoice Email service this month." It allows people to send messages (E-mail, SMS, Instant Messaging and paging), purchase products, get information and control devices - all by using their voice.