CURRENT AFFAIRS

CURRENT GENERAL AWARENESS MISCELLANEOUS






















EESHA KHARE, 18 year old girl from Saratoga,
California has won INTEL YOUNG SCIENTIST AWARD
for her INVENTION of an ULTRA FAST CHARGING DEVICE SUPER CAPACITOR

Banihal-Qazigund rail link opened

The new 11.215 km (7 mile) long Banihal-Qazigund tunnel for the Kashmir Railway line connecting Bichleri Valley of Banihal with Qazigund area of Kashmir Valley has been constructed. The boring was completed in October 2011, its lining and laying of rail tracks was completed in the next one year and trial run commenced at the end of 2012. Commercial runs may start in early 2013. The rail tunnel reduces the distance between Quazigund and Banihal by 17 km (from 35 km by road to 17.5 km by train)


Edward Snowden awarded with German Whistleblower Prize

India ranked 3rd in Global Consumer Confidence Index

India's Advanced Weather Satellite INSAT-3D Successfully Launched

Habiba Sarabi, Afghanistan's First Female Governor Wins Ramon Magsaysay Award

World Bank is _also known as IBRD .

2nd National Conference of Automation in Manufacturing Technology, Delhi
Pharma Project Management, Mumbai


Asia Pacific Conference 2013, Bangalore

123rd Social Media Marketing Workshop, Hotel Sea Princess, Mumbai

2nd Edition COM India Conclave, Mumbai

Indian TDS Business Insurance Laws, New Delhi

China Developed the Fastest Computer of the World Called Tianhe-2

Welspun Energy commissioned Asias largest solar Power Project

 Jute Exhibition, Ooty, 5th to 9th June 2013

BSFI India Conclave, 7th June 2013, Mumbai

Apple annual Worldwide Developers Conference, 10th to 14th June 2013, San Francisco

Electronic Arts, 10th June 2013, Los Angeles Convention Center


 UNESCO declared Six Forts of Rajasthan as World Heritage Sites Six Forts of Rajasthan included in the list of World Heritage Site of UNESCO and won international recognition on 21 June 2013 in the 37th session of the World Heritage Committee (WHC) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The six majestic forts include Amber (Jaipur), Kumbhalgarh, Chittorgarh, Jaisalmer, Ranthambhore (Sawai Madhopur) and Gagaron (Jhalawar).


NEW HIGH COURTS
Tripura            2013       Tripura           Agartala
Manipur          2013     Manipur         Imphal
Meghalaya     2013     Meghalaya     Shillong


Credit Rating in India by setting up CRISIL. He was the founder
Chairman of CRISIL  Shri Vaghul

Talwar became Chairman of the State Bank of India on
st 1 March 1969. The youngest Chairman ever
When he 3rd August 1976 left the Bank on 3 August 1976, he was only 54


Economic and Monetary Union (CSME/EC$, EU/€)
Economic union (CSME, EU)
Customs and Monetary Union (CEMAC/franc, UEMOA/franc)
Common market (EEA, EFTA, CES)
Customs union (CAN, CUBKR, EAC, EUCU, MERCOSUR, SACU)
Multilateral Free Trade Area
(AFTA, CEFTA, CISFTA, COMESA, GAFTA, GCC, NAFTA, SAFTA, SICA, TPP)

Regional trade blocs:

European Union (EU)
African Union (AU)
Union of South American Nations (UNASUR)
Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
Central American Integration System (SICA)
Arab League (AL)
European Free Trade Association (EFTA)
Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC)
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA)
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)
Pacific Islands Forum (PIF)



Apex institution which regards rural credit is NABARD .
NABARD looks after the development of the cottage industry, small

industry and village industry, and other rural industries

Wealth accumulated by evading tax_ is called Black money .

Dr. Raja J Chelliah headed the Tax Reforms Committee .

DPAP stand forthe Drought Prone Area Programme.

A depreciation of a nation's currency usually causes Internal / domestic prices toRise .

Plan Holiday occurred between Third and Fourth Plan .

'White goods' are Durable consumption western countries .

Indian economy is most appropriately described as a Mixed economy .

Karl Marx advocated the establishment of a classless society .

Peter A Pyhrr is known as the father of 'Zero base budgeting' .

The first to implement the concept of planned economy was Joseph Stalin.

Cigarette and betel 'masala' also called 'goods of sin' in
popularparlance, serve as a source of substantial revenue and yet the
tax levied on them is termed as 'Sin Tax".

Sales tax is not a central tax.

Liquidity is the ability of the bank to convert its
non-cash assets into cash easily and without Loss

The financial position of a commercial bank is reflected in its balance sheet. 

The 'secondary sector' of Indian economy includes
( a)Manufacturing (b) Construction (d) Electricity, gas and water supply .

In India, the largest number of workers is employed
in Textile industry.

Rice Bown Theory professed that democracy was useless to the
poor in and underdeveloped country, if it could not guarantee them
adequate food, clothing and shelter.


List Of General Insurance Companies

Public Sector
    New India Assurance Company Limited
    National Insurance Company Limited
    The Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd.
    United India Insurance Co. Ltd.
    Agriculture Insurance Company of India Ltd.


Private Players
    Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Co. Ltd.
    ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd.
    IFFCO-Tokio General Insurance Co. Ltd.
    Reliance General Insurance Co. Ltd.
    Royal Sundaram Alliance Insurance Co. Ltd
    TATA AIG General Insurance Co. Ltd.
    Cholamandalam General Insurance Co. Ltd.

Public Sector life Insurance Company
    Life Insurance Corporation of India


Private Sector life Insurance Companies
    Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company Ltd.
    Birla Sun-Life Insurance Company Ltd.
    HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co. Ltd.
    ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd.
    ING Vysya Life Insurance Company Ltd.
    Max New York Life Insurance Co. Ltd.
    MetLife Insurance Company Ltd.
    Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Ins. Co. Ltd.
    SBI Life Insurance Company Limited
    TATA AIG Life Insurance Co. Ltd.
    Reliance Life Insurance Co. Ltd.



Shri John Mathai was first chairman of State Bank of India

Napolitano Re-elected as Italy’s President

Horacio Cartes Elected as Paraguay’s new President

Park Guen-hye South Korean President

Takehiko Nakao is new ADB President

CZECH PRESIDENT MILOS ZEMANA

IRAN HASSAN ROUHANI

MALAYSIAN PM NAJIB

 IAEA Chief Amano Wins Second Term

Vinod Rai Re-elected as Chair of UN Auditors Panel


ASIAN GAMES 2019 VIENTNAM

50% RESERVATIONS WERE INTRODUCED IN PANCHAYATS TO WOMEN BY BIHAR

25 JULY 2012 PRANAB MUKHERJI SWORN IN AS PRESIDENT OF INDIA

30 YEARS OF EXISTENCE INTERNET HAS PUT UP BY 1 JAN 2013

THE FRST WOMEN JUSTICE OF SC OF INDIA JUSTICE FATIMA BEEVI

3rd MCX-SX national stock exchange 11FEB 2013

GRESHAM'S LAW (carculation of money ) bad money drives good money out of circulation

Consumer item having the paradoxical quality of being in greater demand when its price rises, and lower in demand when the price falls. , a Giffen good

gray goods a woven fabric as it comes from the loom and before it has been submitted to the finishing process.

Brown goods are: television and wireless sets; microwave ovens; coffee makers; and personal computers. Relatively light electronic consumer durables such as TVs, radios, digital media players, and computers,

heavy consumer durables such as air conditioners, refrigerators, dishwasher ,washing machine, stoves ,and dryer which are called white goods.

SMALL POX EDWARD JENNER

main SPICE producer MALABER COAST

FIRST ANUBHUTI ELITE class coaches CHANDIGARH SHATABDI


UK Approved Caste Discrimination Bill

India-Malaysia Double Taxation Agreement in Force

India , Bangladesh Signed Extradition and Visa Agreements

India , thailand Signed Extradition

Special Purpose Vehicle (SVP) Formed for TAPI Pipeline Project

Mathematical Genius Shakuntala Devi Died

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Oscar winner and novelist, died

Two Time Pulitzer Winner Anthony Lewis Dies


Chameli Devi Jain Award given annually Journalism

Elected as IOA President : Abhay Singh Chautala

Mukul Manda Sangma of Congress CM meghalaya

Neiphiu Rio of NPF CM Nagaland

ManikSarkar of CPM CM Tripura

Education Nobel Prize 'WISE Prize" world innovation for education Dr MADHAV CHAVAN

Fastest Indian Debut Scorer in Test Century – ShikharDhawan (in 85 balls)

First four-time winner of the FIFA Player of the Year award - Lionel Messi

Wakhan corridor india between china in ladakh

Titicaca Peru and Bolivia

Germany sliver copper , zinc, and nickel .

India Gold import highest From Country Switzerland

India is famous for its carpets BHADHOI

Tehri Dam Bhagirathi River in Uttarakhand

TadobaAndheri Tiger Reserve is Chandrapura

National Institute Of Sports Located Patiala

Suhelwa Tiger Reserve is Uttar Pradesh

MRMRS was inducted in Indian Navy is a AIRCRAFT

Nuclear capable strategic missile AGNI –IV (4000 km)

ISRO launches its 100th space program PSLV C21

Sunita Williams 2nd woman command of ISS

NGO CHETNA childhood enhancement through training

SEP school excellence program UNEP

CRY children right & you

KALQ Name of new Keyboard


CREDIT RATING Agency Moody's S&P Fitch

Classical Language’ Malayalam 2013
Tamil (in 2004),
Sanskrit (in 2005),
Kannada, Telugu (in 2008),


India’s Bilal Habib wins UNESCO’s young scientist award 2013

Dr. V.K. Saraswat honoured with Aryabhatta award


Putrajaya is the administrative capital of Malaysia
capital of Malaysia KL

Civil society activist Aruna Roy has quit the National Advisory Council

LPG subsidy to be credited directly in bank accounts from June 1

SCORES is a complaint redressal system launched by SEBI

Akshay takes 3 gold, Lalu bags one silver and 2 bronze at 15th Asian Youth Weightlifting Championships

OECD says India probably world’s 3rd largest economy, ahead of Japan

A new home loan product called “Bhagyalakshmi” for women home seekers
is launched by LIC Housing Finance

Short term loan repayable in how many years-3 Years

Annual per capita income of india – 52k

Fermentation of Biomas Manure Sewage Municipal Waste, Green

Waste, Plant Material produce - Biogas

MCX is the stock exchange of – India

SCORES (complains) initiated byorganization– SEBI

SEBI to introduce electronic IPOs 1Jan,2013.

Basel3 norms India 1Jan 2013-18 (world 2013-19)

India FDI in Insurance & Pension Sector as 49%.

'Aichi Targets' refers to Environment

India World Spice Organisation set up recently Kochi

National Development Council approves the draft of the Five Year Plans

Planning Commission is an extra-constitutional and non-statutory body

AADHAAR is a part of Planning Commission Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)

The Doing Business Report (DBR) is released every year by World Bank

Crystal Award World Economic Forum


 *AUDI, BMW, BENZ, VOLKSWAGEN - GERMANY

*FORD,GM-US

*HYUNDAI-SOUTH KOREA

*SKODA - CZECH

*NISSAN,TOYOTA,HONDA-JAPAN

*VOLVO -SWEDEN

*FIAT - ITALY.

  CLASSICAL DANCES OF INDIA

*GARHWALI - ÇUTTARANCHAL

*GARBA - GUJARAT

*KATHAK - NORTH INDIA

*KATHAKALI Ç - KERALA

*KUTCHIPUDI -ANDHRA PRADESH

* LAHO MEGHALAYA

JANUARY

Jan. 1: Sixty persons are crushed to death in a stampede outside a stadium in Ivory Coast’s main city of Abidjan after a New Year’s Eve fireworks display.

The U.S. Senate approves last minute deal to avert the fiscal cliff.

Jan. 2: U.S. President Barack Obama signs into law the “American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012”, fiscal cliff bill.

Jan. 3: Mullah Nazir, a senior Taliban leader is killed in a U.S. drone attack near Wana, the main town of South Naziristan, Pakistan bordering Afghanistan.

Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani schoolgirl shot by a Taliban gunman for advocating girls’ education is selected for Ireland’s Tipperary International Peace Prize for 2012.

Amerish B. ‘Ami’ Bera, an Indian-American and Tulsi Gabbard, the first ever Hindu elected to the U.S. House of Representatives create history as they are sworn in as members of the 113{+t}{+h}Congress.

Jan. 6: Madanjeet Singh (88), former Indian diplomat, founder of South Asia Foundation and a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador since 2000, dies in Beaulieu-sur-Mer in France, following a stroke.

Jan. 7: The U.S. President Barack Obama nominates Charles “Chuck” Hagel as Defence Secretary and John Brennan to head the CIA.

Jan. 10: More than 100 persons are killed in a series of blasts in Quetta, Pakistan.

Jan. 11: The Sri Lankan Parliament impeaches Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake.

Malian authorities declare emergency throughout the country. Fresh troops deployed and helicopter gunships attack rebel-held Konna.

Aaron Swartz (26), Internet activist and computer prodigy who helped create an early version of the Web feed system Rich Site Summary is found dead at his apartment in the New York City borough of Brooklyn.

Jan. 13: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa dismisses Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake.

The Egyptian Court of Cassation orders the retrial of former President Hosni Mubarak accepting his right to appeal against life sentence.

Jan. 15: Sri Lanka’s former Attorney-General Mohan Peiris is appointed the Chief Justice following Parliament nod.

Eighty people are killed as twin blasts rock the Aleppo University, Syria.

Jan. 17: Tahawwur Rana, an accomplice of convicted terrorist David Coleman Headley is jailed for 14 years followed by three years of supervised release by a U.S. District Court in Chicago for providing material support to Laskhar-e-Taiba.

Jan. 19: Eleven militants and a few hostages are killed as Algerian Special Forces storm a natural gas facility near the Libyan border ending a four-day standoff.

Jan. 20: U.S. President Barack Obama takes the official oath for his second term at the White House. Vice-President Joe Bidden is sworn in for a second term by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Jan. 21: Political “absolutism” must not thwart change and renewal, says Barack Obama after being sworn in publicly as the 44{+t}{+h}U.S. President in Washington.

The Bangladesh War Crimes Tribunal pronounces its historic first verdict awarding death sentence to a former Jamaat-e-Islami leader, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.

Jan. 23: Yair Lapid’s centrist Yash Atid Party secures 19 seats in the Israeli polls in its maiden outing.

Jan. 24: Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley is sentenced to 35 years in jail followed by five years of supervised release by a U.S. Court for masterminding the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

Jan. 25: Eleven persons are killed, eight in Suez, in deadly clashes between the police and protestors opposed to President Mohamed Morsy.

Jan. 26: An Egyptian court sentences to death 21 persons on charges related to the February 1, 2012 football violence in Port Said that left 74 dead. The verdict triggers an attempted jailbreak and a riot that leaves 28 dead.

Former left-leaning Prime Minister Milos Zeman wins the Czech Republic’s first directly elected presidential vote.

Jan. 27: At least 245 people are killed and at least 200 injured as a fire sweeps through a crowded nightclub in Santa Maria, southern Brazil.

French and Malian troops regain control of the fabled Saharan trading town of Timbuktu after a three-week military campaign.

Jan. 28: Violence continues in Egypt for the fifth day and toll touches 50. Opposition coalition rejects President Morsy’s call for dialogue.

India and Bangladesh sign two landmark pacts to extradite criminals and liberalise the visa regime, in Dhaka.

Jan. 29: John Kerry’s nomination as U.S. Secretary of State is confirmed by the Senate.

Israel boycotts the U.N. Human Rights Council session in Geneva becoming the first country to do so.

FEBRUARY

Feb. 1: U.S. President Barack Obama honours NRI scientist Rangaswamy Srinivasan with the 2011 National Medal of Technology and Innovation for his groundbreaking work with laser, at the White House in Washington.

Feb. 5: Senior Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdul Quader Mollah nicknamed “butcher of Mirpur” is sentenced to lifer for crimes against humanity during the 1971 war by a war crimes tribunal in Bangladesh. Violence during nation-wide strike enforced by the Jamaat.

Feb. 7: Syrian President Bashar al-Asad’s forces continue the offensive on rebel belts, leaving 64 people dead.

Feb. 8: A major snow-storm hits the north-eastern U.S. Schools ordered closed in Boston. Over 900 flights cancelled.

Feb. 9: A blizzard dumps up to 40 inches of snow with hurricane-force winds across a nine-state region in the north-eastern U.S. leaving about 600,000 without power and disrupting thousands of flights.

Feb. 10: Zhuang Zedong (72), one of China’s most-famed table tennis champions, who played a key role in the ‘Ping Pong’ diplomacy that paved the way for normalising ties with the U.S., dies in Beijing.

France’s Communist Party drops the hammer and sickle symbol replacing it with a five-pointed star representing the European Left.

Feb. 11: Pop Benedict XVII announces at a historic speech at the Vatican, that he has decided to resign, the first Pope to do so in 600 years.

Giuseppe Orsi, the head of Italian Defence Firm Finmeccanica is held in Milan in relation to a probe into international corruption.

Feb. 13: American Airlines and U.S. Airways agree to merge in a $11 billion deal that will create the world’s biggest airline.

Feb. 14: Israel admits that it had jailed in 2010 Prisoner X, an Australian National and Mossad agent Ben Zygier, for leaking work-related details, who later committed suicide in a maximum security cell.

South African Olympian ‘Blade Runner’ Oscar Pistorious, is charged with shooting dead his girl friend Reeva Steenkamp at his house in Pretoria.

Nepal’s major parties agree to form an election government led by the Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi to be known as an “election council” to hold new Constituent Assembly elections.

Feb. 15: Ahmed Rajib Haidar, blogger and key participant of the massive Shahbagh movement in Bangladesh launched on February 5, seeking death for war criminals is shot dead near his house in Dhaka.

Feb. 16: At least 100 people are killed, 180 others injured in a massive blast near a school targeting the Hazara Shia community of Quetta, Pakistan.

Feb. 17: Romanian director Calin Peter Netzer bags the Golden Bear for his dramatic film Child’s Pose as the 63{+r}{+d}Berlin International Film Festival wraps up. Nazif Mujic bags the Silver Bear Best Actor Prize ( An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker ). Chile’s Paulina Garcia is adjudged Best Actress for Gloria .

Feb. 18: Britain’s Channel 4 TV releases photographs of slain LTTE leader Prabakaran’s son Balachandran Prabakaran before and after his execution as part of a forthcoming feature documentary “No War Zone – The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka”.

Feb. 19: Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah swears in the country’s first women members of the Shura Council, an appointed body that advises on new laws.

Feb. 21: At least 90 people are killed and more than 250 wounded after a powerful car bomb explosion near the ruling Ba’ath Party headquarters in the Syrian capital Damascus.

Feb. 24: Fauja Singh (101), the world’s oldest marathoner, calls it a day after taking part in a 10-km race held as part of the annual Hong Kong Marathon.

Italians begin voting in a watershed parliamentary election spread over two days.

Ben Affleck’s Argo picks up the Best Picture Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards in Hollywood. Britain’s Daniel Day-Lewis bags the Best Actor Award ( Lincoln ). Jennifer Lawrence gets Best Actress title for role in Silver Linings Playbook .

Cuban President Raul Castro is elected to a second and final five-year-term by the National Assembly. Miguel Diaz-Canel named first Vice-President.

Feb. 25: Park Geun hye is sworn in as South Korea’s first woman President.

Feb. 26: Italian polls usher in impasse and provides shock debut for Democratic Party leader Pier Luigi Bersani who manages a razor-thin victory in the Lower House of Parliament.

Feb. 27: Pope Benedict XVI addresses a massive crowd at his final general audience in St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City.

MARCH

March 2 : The U.S. President Barack Obama signs an order to begin a huge $85 billion programme of government cuts.

March 3 : At least 48 persons are killed and many injured in two blasts targeting the Shia-dominated Abbas Town area of Karachi, Pakistan.

The Opposition Jamaat-e-Islami and the BNP launch a three-day national strike to protest against the now 27-day-old unprecedented Shahbag upsurge by those demanding death for the war criminals of 1971.

March 4 : Polling begins in Kenyan presidential election.

The Czech Senate votes to impeach outgoing eurosceptic President Vaclav Klaus for treason.

March 6 : Venezuela’s charismatic President Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias (58) dies at a hospital in Caracas after a two-year battle with cancer ending 14 years of tumultuous rule. Seven days mourning announced.

March 8 : North Korea severs hotline with South Korea installed in 1971, after fresh U.N. sanctions and threatens to abrogate peace pacts.

Venezuela gives a lavish farewell to Hugo Chavez. To be embalmed ‘for eternity’. Nicolas Maduro sworn in acting President.

March 9 : Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenya’s first Prime Minister and President Jomo Kenyatta is announced winner of the presidential polls.

March 10 : China’s new leadership unveils the most significant government restructuring plan in more than a decade.

Aung San Suu Kyi is re-elected Myanmar opposition leader at the first National League for Democracy party conference in Yangon.

March 11 : Italy refuses to return two of its marines being tried in India for killing two fishermen off the Kerala coast.

March 13 : Jorge Mario Bergoglio (76) of Argentina is elected the 266{+t}{+h}Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. He is to be known as Pope Francis I. He is the first Jesuit to become Pope.

March 14 : Xi Jinping is formally appointed Chinese President during the fourth plenary meeting of the National People’s Congress in Beijing.

Nepal’s Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi is sworn in interim Prime Minister.

Ieng Sary (87) who co-founded Cambodia’s brutal Khmer Rouge movement and on trial for the deaths of 1.7 million people passes away.

March 15 : Li Keqiang is appointed Chinese Premier, bringing to an end the decade-long term of Wen Jiabao.

Israel’s Prime Minister signs a last minute deal to form a government that reflects a centrist power shift.

March 16 : History is made in Pakistan with its Lower House — the National Assembly — and Pakistan People’s Party-led coalition government both completing a full five-year term — a first in the 66 years of the nation’s existence.

March 19 : People should let tenderness “open up a horizon of hope”, says Pope Francis I during his installation mass at the Vatican.

Malala Yousafzai begins schooling at the Edgbaston High School for Girls in Birmingham, England after an extensive surgery following a bid on her by the Taliban in Pakistan last October.

U.R. Rao, who led India’s space programme between 1984 and 1994 becomes the first Indian to be inducted into the Satellite Hall of Fame, Washington.

March 20 : The U.S. military and the Afghan government reach a deal on a gradual pullout of American Special Forces from Wardak province.

Bangladesh President Zillur Rahman (84) dies in a Singapore hospital.

Belgian mathematician Pierre Deligne is chosen for the 2013 Abel Prize for his seminal contributions to algebraic geometry.

India along with 25 other nations votes in favour of the U.S.-sponsored resolution on the Sri Lankan issue at the UNHRC in Geneva.

. March 23 : Controversial Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky is found dead at his home in Surrey, near London.

March 24 : Central African Republic President Francois Bozize flees the capital Bangui seized by the rebel alliance Seleka.

The former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf arrives in Karachi after four years of self-imposed exile in Dubai and London.

March 25 : Cyprus clinches a last-ditch euro 10 billion deal and will wind down state-owned Popular Bank of Cyprus also known as Laiki.

March 26 : Syrian rebels take the nation’s seat for the first time at an Arab League summit in Qatar.

March 27 : The fifth BRICS summit in Durban, South Africa decides to set up an infrastructure-oriented development bank and to create a $100 billion fund to guard against currency fluctuation. Virtual secretariat planned.

North Korea severs its military hotline with South Korea.

March 29 : Italian centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani announces his failure to form a government.

Sixteen of the world’s biggest banks win a major victory after a judge in Manhattan dismisses federal anti-trust claims in London Inter-Bank Offered Rate (Libor) suits.

March 30 : Kenya’s Supreme Court upholds the election of Uhuru Kenyatta as the next President.

APRIL

April 1: Privately-owned daily newspapers hit Myanmar’s streets for the first time in decades.

A Maldivian court suspends the trial of former President Mohamed Nasheed.

April 2 : The U.N. makes history with the General Assembly passing an unprecedented arms trade treaty to better regulate the international trade in weapons.

April 3 : Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (85), the Booker Prize and Oscar-winning novelist and screen writer dies in New York.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak dissolves Parliament.

April 8 : Margaret Thatcher (87), Britain’s first woman Prime Minister who led the Conservative Party for more than a decade, dies following a stroke at Ritz Hotel in London.

April 9 : Five Indian soldiers are killed and four injured in an ambush of their U.N. peacekeeping mission while escorting a 32-member convoy near the settlement of Gumuruk in Jonglei State in South Sudan. Seven civilians too killed.

Uhuru Kenyatta is sworn in Kenya’s fourth President at the national football stadium. William Ruto takes oath as Vice-President.

April 11 : Foreign Minsters of the G8 countries adopt a historic accord on sexual offences in conflict zones at a meeting in London.

April 12: Bitcoin, the Internet – era currency crashes.

April 13: All 108 passengers and crew survive after a new Lion Air jet crashes into sea and snaps into two while trying to land on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.

April 14: Hugo Chavez’s hand-picked successor, Nicolas Maduro wins Venezuela’s presidential election by a stunningly narrow margin.

April 15: At least three persons, including a child are killed and more than 200 injured as “coordinated” twin blasts target the finishing line of the 26.2 mile Boston Marathon, a 116-year-old event, on Boylston Street near Copley Square.

April 16: A magnitude 7.0 earthquake rocks Iran. At least 35 persons are killed and 150 injured in Pakistan, specifically Balochistan, which bears the brunt.

April 17: Chinese mathematician Yitang Zhang achieves breakthrough in solving the longstanding problem of twin prime conjecture.

April 19: Tamerlan Tsarnaev of Chechnya one of two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing is killed in a gun fight with the police in Cambridge. His injured younger brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is found hiding in a Watertown home.

Nicolas Maduro is sworn in Venezuela President.

April 20: At least with 192 people are killed and 11,300 injured as a powerful earthquake hits Bosheng Township in Ya’an City in south west China’s Sichuan province.

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano is sworn in for a second successive term.

Former Pakistan military dictator Pervez Musharraf is placed under house arrest.

April 22 : The Serbian Government approves a landmark pact to normalise ties with breakaway Kosovo.

April 23 : Bhutan voters cast ballots to choose members of the Upper House National Council.

April 24: At least 1,100 persons are killed and 800 injured in Savar, on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh after Rana Plaza an eight-storied building housing readymade garment factories and shops collapses.

April 25: Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf is arrested in the 2007 Benazir Bhutto assassination case.

April 26: Indian death-row prisoner Sarabjit Singh sustains serious head injuries and becomes comatose after being attacked by inmates in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail.

Serbian lawmakers support agreement normalising ties with Kosovo.

April 28: A coalition cabinet takes oath in Italy. Enrico Letta is sworn in Prime Minister.

April 30: Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury becomes the first woman Speaker of Bangladesh Parliament.

The Netherlands’ Willam Alexander (46) is sworn in as Europe’s youngest monarch at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam, following the abdication of his mother Queen Beatrix.

MAY

May 2 : Sarabjit Singh dies of injuries sustained in an attack at the Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore. Judicial probe ordered.

May 5: Malaysia’s ruling Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition retains its 56-year hold on power.

May 6: Najib Razak is sworn in Malaysia’s Prime Minister for a second term at the National Palace in Kuala Lumpur.

May 8: The three kidnapped women in Cleveland, Ohio — Amanda Berry (27), Gina De Jesus (23) and Michelle Knight (32) — are reunited with their families after they escape their captor after over a decade of imprisonment.

May 11: Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Mulsim League — Nawaz (PML-N) establishes an unassailable lead in general elections.

May 12: Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield records the first video from space on board the International Space Station.

May 18: The French President Francois Hollande signs the Marriage For All bill allowing same-sex marriage and adoption of children by homosexual couples.

Raha Moharrak (25), a native of Jeddah becomes the first woman from Saudi Arabia to climb Mt. Everest.

May 19: Samina Baig becomes the first Pakistani woman to scale Mt. Everest.

Adventurer Raha Moharrak becomes the first Saudi woman and youngest Arab to conquer Mt. Everest.

May 20: A wave of attacks leaves at least 79 people dead and 150 injured in Shia and Sunni areas of Iraq.

At least 24 persons, including nine children are left dead after a tornado with winds at over 320 km/hr., rips through Moore, a suburb of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Two elementary schools — Briarwood and Plaza Towers worst hit.

May 22: American writer Lydia Davis, wins the £ 60,000 Man Booker International Prize.

A British soldier Lee Rigby is beheaded by two men of African descent in Woolwich, London.

Indian-American Sathwik Karnik wins the National Geographic Bee.

May 24: Ecuador’s hugely popular leftist President Rafael Correa takes office for a third term.

The European Union lifts arms embargo against Syrian rebels.

May 25: Thousands of people take part in the “One Run” to finish the Boston Marathon many started a month ago but forced to abandon after bombs exploded near the finish line.

May 26: An audacious lesbian love story, Blue is the Warmest Colour by French-Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche wins the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival. The Grand Prix goes to Joel and Ethan Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis .

May 27: Gunmen kill Yara Abbas, a prominent woman war reporter for Al-Ikhbariyah TV near the Dabaa military airbase in the Syrian province of Homs.

May 28: The Birtish Government gives nod for the extradition of Ravi Shankaran, one of the prime accused in the 2006 naval war-room leak scandal.

May 29: India and Japan sign a joint statement on speeding up talks on civil nuclear deal after summit-level talks between Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Shinzo Abe, in Tokyo.

Harrison Odjegba Okene, a Nigerian cook is rescued after spending three days at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in Jascon, an upended tugboat at a depth of 100 feet. Eleven other seamen aboard are dead.

May 30: India and Thailand sign an Extradition Treaty, after talks between Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Yingluck Shinawatra in Bangkok.

Indian-American Arvind Mahankali wins the Scripps National Spelling Bee contest at National Harbor in Maryland.

JUNE

June 1: The newly-elected members of Pakistan’s National Assembly are sworn in.

June 2 : Egypt’s highest court declares legislature illegal. Shura Council to maintain powers.

June 3: More than 60 countries sign the Arms Trade Treaty at the United Nations.

June 5: Nawaz Sharif is sworn in Pakistan Prime Minister by the President Asif Ali Zardari in Islamabad.

U.S. Sergeant Robert Bales who massacred 16 Afghan villagers in March 2012 escapes the death penalty after a Washington court rules that he will face a maximum of life behind bars.

A leak to The Guardian of a top secret court order compelling telecoms provider Verizon to turn over the telephone records of millions of U.S. customers brings to light PRISM, a programme that gives the government direct access to servers of IT firms.

June 7: The Washington Post breaks the story on the mega-scale snooping by the U.S. of the servers of major Internet companies drip-fed to it by Edward Snowden a former CIA technical assistant and currently with the National Security Agency in Hawaii on behalf of a private contractor.

June 11: China launches its fifth manned space mission with three astronauts, including Wang Yaping the second woman astronaut on board Shenzhou-10 spacecraft from the Jiuquan Satellite Centre in northwest Gansu province.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is elected leader of All Russia People’s Front, a non-party movement, at its founding congress in Moscow.

June 12: Jiroemon Kimura (116) of Japan the world’s oldest person dies in his hometown of Kyotango, western Japan.

June 14: High turnout marks Iranian presidential polls.

June 15: Hassan Rouhani wins Iranian presidential polls.

Turkish police evict protesters from Gezi Park who had launched the stir with a peaceful sit-in to save 600 trees from being razed, prompting a brutal response on May 31.

June 17: Indian-American legal luminary Srikanth “Sri” Srinivasan in sworn in as a judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.

Kolkata–born journalist Amol Rajan becomes the U.K’s first non-white to be appointed editor of a British national newspaper, The Independent.

June 19: The high profile trial in the AgustaWestland chopper deal opens in a Milan Court. India admitted as a civil party.

The World Food Prize 2013 is awarded to three GMO scientists, including Monsanto’s chief technology officer Robert T. Fraley.

June 20: Global stock markets take a hit following the U.S. Fed hinting at plan to slow its unprecedented stimulus to the American economy.

June 21: The U.S. Justice Department makes public a complaint (filed on June 14) against the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden charging him with espionage and theft of government property.

June 23: Hong Kong allows American whistleblower Edward Snowden to leave, rejecting U.S. request for extradition and he reaches Moscow.

U.S. daredevil Nik Wallanda becomes the first man to cross a Grand Canyon area gorge on a tightrope about 457 m above the Little Colarado River in eastern Arizona.

June 24: For the first time in 42 years, a war crimes tribunal indicts two former Jamaat-e-Islami leaders for killing Bangladesh’s top intellectuals during the 1971 liberation war.

June 25: Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani abdicates in favour of his son Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad-al-Thani after 18 years on the throne.

The former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf is chargesheeted in the plot to assassinate former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007.

June 27: Kevin Rudd is sworn in Australian Prime Minister.

June 30: Eight persons are killed and 731 injured across Egypt. At least 200,000 people converge on Tahrir Square, Cairo demanding the resignation of Islamist President Mohamed Morsy. Ruling Muslim Brotherhood headquarters ransacked. Eight killed in the ensuing fighting.

JULY

July 1: Croatia becomes the 28{+t}{+h}member of the European Union.

July 2: The Bolivian President Evo Morales’s plane is forced to land in Vienna and left waiting for 13 hours and allowed to leave only after agreeing to a search for U.S. Whistleblower Edward Snowden. Earlier, Spain, Italy, France and Portugal deny access to the aircraft.

July 3: Egypt’s army chief General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi removes elected Islamist President Mohamed Morsy in a coup, suspends statute.

July 4: Adly Mansour, Chief Justice of Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court is sworn in as interim President.

July 5: Thirtyseven persons are killed in clashes across Egypt between troops and supporters of Mohamed Morsy. Bid to storm presidential guard barracks in Cairo. The African Union suspends Egypt. Upper House Shura Council dissolved.

July 6: Three Indians are among 305 passengers who miraculously survive after an Asiana Airlines flight 214 crashes, breaks into pieces and catches fire while landing at San Francisco International Airport. Two Chinese girl students are killed and 49 critically injured.

The Solar Impulse completes the last leg of a history-making cross-country flight that began in California in early May gliding to a smooth stop at New York’s JFK airport.

July 8: At least 54 persons are killed and around 500 injured as the Army and the police fire at a sit-in supporting the deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy in Cairo.

July 9: Liberal economist Hazem-el-Beblawi is appointed Egypt’s interim Prime Minister and Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei named Deputy President.

July 12: Irish Parliament passes the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013 allowing abortion under limited circumstances after a marathon two-day debate.

Ottavio Quattrocchi (74), main accused in the Bofors scam, dies in Milan, Italy.

July 13: The People’s Democratic Party led by Tshering Tobgay sweeps the elections to the General Assembly of Bhutan bagging 32 out of 47 seats.

July 16: The University of North Virginia is ordered to shut down with immediate effect, leaving a large number of Indian students stranded.

July 20: Seventyone persons are killed in a coordinated wave of late night car bombings and other attacks in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

July 21: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling LDP and New Komeito bloc win decisively elections to the Upper House.

July 22: At least 89 persons are killed and more than 500 injured after a 6.6-magnitude earthquake strikes China’s north-western Gansu province. Over 1,200 homes reduced to rubble.

Britain’s Prince William’s wife Kate gives birth to a baby boy at the St. Mary’s Hospital in London. He has been given the title of Prince of Cambridge.

July 23: Habiba Sarobi, Governor of Bamyan, Afghanistan and Lahpai Seng Raw, founder of Myanmar’s largest civil society group are among the winners of this year’s Ramon Magsaysay awards.

Royal baby is named George Alexander Louis and will be known as His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge.

July 24: At least 79 persons are killed and 95 injured after a massive train derailment near the major Spanish pilgrimage centre of Santiago de Compostela.

July 25: The former Communist Party of China Politburo member Bo Xilai is formally charged with bribery and abuse of power.

July 26: Egypt’s interim government formally levels criminal charges against deposed President Mohamed Morsy for plotting a violent jailbreak in 2011. At least 72 persons are killed and 239 injured in clashes in Cairo.

An Ariane5 rocket lifts off at the French and European spaceport Guyana Space Centre , near Kourou in French Guiana carrying two satellites: Alphasat and Insat 3D, India’s advanced weather satellite.

July 27: Kuwaitis vote for the sixth time in seven years in an election for their 50-member Parliament.

July 28: Malians cast ballots in presidential polls.

Kuwait’s Shia minority loses more than half of their seats and liberals make slight gains in the Gulf state’s second polls in eight months.

The ruling party of Cambodian Premier Hun Sen claims victory in the day’s elections.

July 30: Mamnoon Hussain is elected Pakistan’s 12{+t}{+h}President.

Irish President Michael D. Higgins gives his assent to the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill passed by Parliament recently.

Bradley Manning, the U.S. whistleblower behind WikiLeaks’ publication of confidential cables, is convicted on charges relating to espionage and treason, but the military court in Fort Meade holds him not guilty of aiding the enemy.

July 31: Zimbabweans cast ballots in presidential polls.

Uruguay’s Parliament gives nod for an unprecedented plan to create a legal marijuana market.

AUGUST

Aug. 1: U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden is granted Russian asylum after spending 40 days in limbo in the transit zone of a Moscow airport.

Bangladesh High Court declares illegal Jamaat-e-Islami’s registration as a political party, thus barring it from taking part in any national election.

The U.S. Senate confirms human rights activist Samantha Power as ambassador to the U.N.

Aug. 3: Robert Gabriel Mugabe is re-elected President of Zimbabwe extending a 33-year reign at the helm of the nation.

Moderate cleric Hassan Rouhani takes office as Iran President.

The New York Times Company sells 141-year-old newspaper The Boston Globe for $70 million cash to the principal owner of the Boston Red Sox baseball team.

Aug. 4: Japan launches Kirobo, a small humanoid communication robot aboard a cargo-carrying rocket loaded with supplies for the ISS crew.

Hassan Rouhani is sworn in Iran’s President at a function in Tehran amid a galaxy of world leaders.

Aug. 5: The Washington Post is sold for $250 million to Amazon.com founder Jeffrey P. Bezos.

Aug. 6: Japan unveils “Izumo”, its biggest warship since World War II.

Aug. 11: Malians cast ballots in a presidential runoff.

Aug. 14: At least 683 people are killed in a brutal crackdown on two major encampments of mostly Muslim Brotherhood activists in Cairo. A month-long state of emergency declared. Vice-President Mohammed ElBaradei resigns.

Iqbal Mirchi (63), close aide of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and an accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, dies of heart attack in London.

Aug. 15: Mali announces Ibrahim Boubacar Keita as its new President after confirming that he had won a landslide victory in a runoff.

Aug. 16: Ninetyfive persons are killed in Cairo and 78 others across Egypt as the military crackdown on pro-Morsy protesters continues.

Aug. 17: Egyptian police clears Islamist protesters from a Cairo mosque after a standoff, as the toll from four days of violence crosses 750.

Aug. 18: Michel Djotodia, head of the Seleka rebel coalition is sworn in Central African Republic President.

Aug. 20: Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf is charged with murder and criminal conspiracy in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case by a court in Rawalpindi.

Aug. 21: A military court sentences Bradley Manning to a 35-year prison term after being convicted of the biggest breach of classified data in the U.S. history.

An Egyptian court orders the release of ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak pending a probe into a graft case.

At least 1,400 people, including 400 children are believed killed on the outskirts of Damascus following chemical weapons attack by the Syrian army.

Aug. 22: Robert Mugabe is sworn in Zimbabwe’s President for another five-year term, in Harare.

The trial of former Politburo member Bo Xilai for ‘bribery and abuse of power’ opens at the Jinan Intermediate People’s Court, China.

Aug. 23: A U.S. military jury sentences to life Staff Sgt. Robert Bales for the March 11, 2012 killing of 16 Afghan civilians at their homes in two villages in Kandahar.

A military jury convicts U.S. Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan of all 13 charges of premeditated murder and all 32 charges of attempted premeditated murder for the November 2009 shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announces retirement, after 13 years at the helm.

Aug. 27: The trial of former Pakistan President General (Retd.) Pervez Musharraf in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case begins at the anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi.

Aug. 28: A military jury sentences to death U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan for killing 13 persons and wounding 31 others in a November 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas.

Aug. 30: The 2,650 kg GSAT-7, India’s first full-fledged military communications satellite, is launched from the Kourou spaceport of French Guiana in South America.

SEPTEMBER

Sept. 1: The Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear plant announces leakage of highly radioactive water from a pipe connecting two coolant tanks.

Sept. 2: American long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad (64) becomes the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without the help of a shark cage.

Sept. 4: Indian author Sushmita Banerjee, whose book Kabuliwalar Bangali Bou (A Kabuliwala's Bengali Wife) about her escape from the Taliban in 1995 was made into Bollywood film Escape from Taliban , is shot dead by militants at her home in Paktika province in Afghanistan.

Sept. 5: The BRICS group moves towards creating a $100-billion Currency Reserve Fund by announcing individual contribution, on the sidelines of the G-20 meeting in St. Petersburg.

Sept. 7: Tony Abbott’s Liberal/National coalition heads for a landslide victory in Australian general elections.

Mohamed Nasheed leads in Maldives presidential polls. Runoff scheduled for September 28.

Australian pilot Ryan Campbell (19) becomes the youngest person to fly a single-engine aircraft solo around the globe and lands in Wollongong, in southern New South Wales from where he began his journey on June 30.

Sept. 8: Asif Ali Zardari steps down as Pakistan President after completing his five-year term.

The ruling Cambodian People’s Party of Prime Minister Hun Sen is declared winner of the July polls by the election committee.

Sept. 9: Mamnoon Hussain is sworn in as Pakistan’s 12{+t}{+h}President by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry at a ceremony in Islamabad.

Sept. 10: Erna Solberg leads her Conservative Party to victory in Norway’s parliamentary polls.

Sept. 15: Miss New York Nina Davuluri is crowned Miss America in Atlantic City, New Jersey in the process becoming the first winner of Indian descent.

Sept. 16: Twelve persons, including one of Indian origin are killed as a gunman Aaron Alexis opens fire at the U.S. Navy Yard on the Anacostia river in Washington.

Sept. 18: By a 9-1 majority, the U.S. Federal Reserve chooses to continue with its $85 billion a month monetary stimulus policy of quantitative easing.

Obabiyi Aishah Ajibola of Nigeria wins the Miss Muslimah World contest held in the Indonesian capital Jakarta.

Sept. 19: Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe orders Tokyo Electric Power Co. to scrap all the six nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant.

A U.S. federal court imposes $200,000 fine on Halliburton Co. which pleads guilty to charges of its destroying evidence in the BP oil disaster.

Sept. 21: More than 60 per cent polling is registered in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province.

Seventyseven people, including 10 of Indian origin are killed and 175 injured following an attack by militants on a mall in Kenya.

Sept. 22: Angela Merkel on track for a third term as German Chancellor as poll results show the conservative bloc to be in a strong position.

Former politburo member Bo Xilai is sentenced to life by a provincial court in Jinan, China after finding him guilty of all charges.

The Tamil National Alliance resoundingly wins (by securing 80 per cent of the total votes) the Northern Provincial polls in Sri Lanka.

Seventyeight people are killed and 100 injured as two suicide bombers blow themselves up at the All Saints Church in Kohati Gate, in Peshawar, Pakistan.

Sept. 23: An Egyptian Court bans Muslim Brotherhood and orders its assets be confiscated.

The Maldivian Supreme Court orders postponement of the second round of presidential polls slated for September 28.

Sept. 24: More than 350 people are killed and 765 injured after an earthquake of 7.7 magnitude hits south-western Pakistan.

Kenyan security forces defeat militants ending a four-day siege in the upscale Westgate shopping complex in the capital Nairobi.

Cambodia’s Parliament approves a new five-year term for Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Sept. 27: Indian American Sri Srinivasan is sworn in judge of the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the District of Columbia Circuit.

India and the U.S. have resolved to cut through American laws that have been inhibiting a full-fledged defence partnership, says a joint declaration issued after the Obama-Manmohan Singh meeting in Washington.

The U.N. Security Council unanimously passes a landmark resolution ordering the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons and condemns the poison gas attack in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta on August 21.

Sept. 28: The Philippines’ Megan Young is crowned Miss World 2013 at the 63{+r}{+d}Miss World pageant in Bali, Indonesia.

Sept. 30: The U.S. Federal Government shutdown of all non-essential services begins.

OCTOBER

Oct. 1: A Bangladesh war crimes tribunal awards death penalty to Salauddin Quader Chowdhary, a top BNP leader and MP, for murder and genocide during the 1971 Liberation War.

Oct. 2: Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta wins confidence vote. Oct. 3: At least 300 people are killed after a ship carrying African migrants to Europe catches fire and capsizes off the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Oct. 4: Vo Nguyen Giap (102), the legendary Vietnamese general who masterminded the defeat of the French military at Dien Bien Phu and led North Vietnam’s forces against the U.S., dies at a military hospital in Hanoi.

Oct. 5: The U.S. Army’s Delta Force captures a top Al-Qaeda leader Abu Anas al-Liby indicted in the 1998 bombings of the U.S embassies in Kenya and Tanzania from the streets of the Libyan capital Tripoli.

Oct. 6: International inspectors begin destruction of Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons.

Oct. 7: The 2013 Nobel Prize for Medicine is awarded to three scientists James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman and Thomas C. Sudhof “for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic,” a major transport system in our cells.”

Former Supreme Court Judge C.V. Wigneswaran is sworn in the first Chief Minister of Sri Lanka’s Northern Province.

The Maldives Supreme Court annuls the results of the first round of presidential polls held on Sept. 7.

Oct. 8: Britain’s Peter Higgs and Belgium’s Francois Englert are awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for predicting the existence of the Higgs boson particle.

Oct. 9: Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel are awarded the 2013 Chemistry Nobel Prize.

Azerbaijanis cast ballots in presidential polls.

Oct. 10: Alice Munro, acclaimed for her finely tuned storytelling wins the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming the first Canadian woman to win the prize.

Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai, is awarded the European Union’s Sakharov human rights prize.

The European Parliament passes a historic resolution recognising caste-based discrimination as a violation of human rights.

Scott Malcolm Carpenter (88) legendary U.S. astronaut who in 1962 became the fourth American in space and second to orbit the Earth passes away following a stroke in a hospice in Denver, Colorado.

Oct. 11: The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2013.

Oct. 14: The 2013 Economics Nobel Prize is awarded to three Americans Eugene Fama, Lars Peter Hansen and Robert Shiller, for their “empirical analysis of asset prices.”

Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s conservatives and the right-wing Progress Party take office in Norway.

Oct. 15: At least 185 persons are killed after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake rocks Philippines. Cebu and Bohol are the worst hit.

New Zealand’s Eleanor Catton wins the Man Booker prize 2013 for her 852-page novel, The Luminaries .

Oct. 16: The U.S. Senate announces a proposal extending government financing until January 15.

Oct. 17: The Congress reopens the U.S government and signs off on more borrowing so America could pay its bills.

Oct. 22: Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi receives the European Union’s Sakharov Human Rights Prize for 1990 at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Oct. 23: India and China sign nine pacts, including the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement after talks between Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Li Keqiang in Beijing.

India-Bangladesh Extradition Treaty comes into effect.

Oct. 25: Sri Lanka’s Northern Provincial Council holds its historic first ever session at Kaithady near Jaffna.

The Shandong High Court upholds the life sentence awarded to the former Politburo member Bo Xilai by the Jinan Intermediate People’s Court.

Oct. 27: Argentines cast ballots in nationwide congressional polls.

Oct. 29: Turkey opens Marmaray, the world’s first underwater rail link between Asia and Europe.

NOVEMBER

Nov. 1: Hakimullah Mehsud, head of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan is believed killed in a U.S. done strike in Dande Darpa Khel area in north Waziristan.

Nov. 4: The trial of the former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy begins in Cairo. Adjourned to January 8.

Nov. 5: A special court in Dhaka awards death sentence to 152 persons and lifer to 161 others for their involvement in the February 26, 2009 Bangladesh Rifles mutiny that left 74 dead.

Nov. 6: Tajikistan’s President Imomali Rakhmon wins re-election by a landslide, extending his 20-year long rule by another seven years.

Nov. 8: Super typhoon Haiyan devastates Philippines leaving 10,000 dead and decimating towns, in the country’s worst recorded natural disaster.

Nov. 11: All 52 Ministers and state ministers quit the Bangladesh Cabinet to pave the way for the setting up of an “all-party’’ interim Cabinet to oversee next general elections.

Nov. 12: The communist Party of China gives ‘decisive’ role to the market. Nod for blueprint for reforms.

Nov. 16: Abdulla Yaameen wins the Maldivian presidential run-off narrowly.

Aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya is inducted into the Indian Navy at the Sevmash Shipyard in Russia, bringing down the curtains on a 13-year saga of reconstruction.

Nov. 17: Dorris Lessing (94), the Nobel prize winning author of the Golden Notebook , dies at her London house.

Abdulla Yaameen is sworn in Maldivian President, in Male.

Michelle Bachelet wins the first round of presidential election in Chile.

Nov. 18: A multi-party interim government headed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is sworn in in Bangladesh.

Nov. 19: At least 23 persons including Iran’s cultural attaché are killed and 146 injured as twin blasts rock the Iranian embassy in Lebanon.

More than 70 per cent of Nepal’s 12 million voters cast ballots in elections to the country’s second Constituent Assembly.

Frederick Sanger (95), the “father of genomics’’ and the only person to win the Chemistry Nobel twice (in 1958 and 1980) dies at the Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, eastern England.

Scotland Yard’s human trafficking unit raids a house in Lambeth, south London and arrests a man and a woman for ‘practising’ slavery.

Nov. 20: Pakistani teenager Mala Yousafzai is presented the EU’s Sakharov human rights rights prize at Strausborg on World Children’s Day.

Nov. 23: Negotiators seal a new climate deal at Warsaw involving a relatively weak mechanism for addressing Loss and Damage.

China announces setting up of an Air Defence Identification Zone over parts of the disputed East China Sea.

Nov. 24: Iran strikes a historic nuclear pact with the U.S. and five other world powers at Geneva.

Nov. 27: Lt. General Raheel Sharif is appointed Pakistan Army Chief. Justice Tassaduz Jillani is named the next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian and Social Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party sign a coalition agreement in Berlin.

A UN General Assembly Committee passes a landmark resolution on women’s rights defenders.

Nov. 28: Thailand’s embattled Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra survives a no-confidence vote in Parliament.

Nov. 29: Ukraine refuses to sign a landmark accord with the European Union at the “Eastern Partnership” summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.

General Ashfaque Parvez Kayani hands over charge to the new Pakistan Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif in Rawalpindi.

Nov. 30: Paul Walker (40), Hollywood actor, best known as undercover agent Brian O’Connor in the Fast and Furious action movies dies in a fiery car crash in California.

Prelude, a 1,601-foot floating liquefied natural gas platform is set in the water by South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries.

DECEMBER

Dec. 1: China launches its first-ever moon rover mission with a Chang’e-3 rocket blasting off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center carrying the Jade Rabbit.

Dec. 5: Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (95), anti-apartheid icon and former South Africa President passes away at his Johannesburg home.

Dec. 7: The ninth WTO Ministerial meeting adopts the full Bali package that addresses the Doha Development Agenda.

Dec. 9: Thailand’s Premier Yingluck Shinawatra dissolves Parliament and calls for snap polls.

Whistleblower Edward Snowden is chosen The Guardian’s “Person of Year” 2013.

Dec. 10: Uruguay’s Senate passes a law allowing the citizens to grow, sell and smoke marijuana.

A British Court sentences three Sikh men and a woman convicted of carrying out an attack on Lt. Gen. (Retd.) K.S. Brar for his role as Commander of the 1984 Operation Blue Star in Punjab, to 10-14 years in prison.

Dec. 11: Time magazine names Pope Francis its 2013 Person of the Year.

Dec. 12: War crimes convict Abdul Quader Mollah, assistant secretary general of Jamaat-e-Islami is executed at the Dhaka Central Jail.

Jang Song-Thaek, uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and former Vice-Chairman of the National Defence Commission is executed after a special military trial.

India’s Deputy Counsul-General in New York, Devyani Khobragade is arrested and handcuffed after being charged with visa fraud. Released after executing a $250,000 bond.

Dec.14: China’s lunar probe softlands the 140-kg Jade Rabbit or Yu Tu rover in the Bay of Rainbows or Sinus Iridum on the Moon’s surface.

Dec.15: The former South African President Nelson Mandela is laid to rest at a family plot in his rural boyhood home of Qunu after a state funeral.

Michele Bachelet wins the Chilean presidential runoff against Evelyn Matthei with a huge majority.

Dec.17: Angela Merkel begins her third term as the German Chancellor heading a “Grand Coalition” with the opposition SPD. For the first time a woman, Ursula von der Leyen is appointed Defence Minister.

Dec. 18: British criminal Ronnie Biggs (84), part of a gang that took part in the Great Train Robbery on August 8, 1963, dies in London.

The U.S. Federal Reserve announces the start of a tapering of its $ 85 billion monthly bond-buying programme.

A 75-year-old man is implanted with the world’s first artificial heart developed by French biomedical firm Carmat at the Georges Pompidou Hospital in Paris.

Dec. 19: Two British Muslim converts Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale are found guilty of murdering Drummer Lee Rigby, an Afghan War veteran on May 22 at Woolwich.

South Sudan loses control of Bor, the capital of its largest and most populous Jonglei state. Three Indian U.N. peacekeepers and 20 civilians are killed in an attack on a base in Akobo town.

Dec. 20: Mikhail Khodorkovsky Russian oil tycoon is freed after spending 10 years in prison on charges of fraud and tax evasion.

The Hague-based International Court of Arbitration allows India to go ahead with construction of the 330-MW Kishenganga hydro-electric project in North Kashmir, rejecting Pakistan’s objections.

Dec. 23: Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot jailed for performing a musical punk prayer at a church are freed.

Dec. 24: South Sudan retakes Bor, the state capital of Jonglei. The U.N. votes to augment force.

Dec. 25: Egypt declares the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group.

Dec. 27: Five persons, including Mohammad Chatah, an anti-Syrian regime figure are killed and more than 50 injured in a huge car bomb blast in the Lebanon capital Beirut.

Dec. 28: China abolishes labour camps “re-education” system and loosens family planning restrictions.

A student is killed and 60 arrested as Egyptian police enters the Al Azhar University campus in Cairo after Islamist protesters torch a building.

Dec. 29: Seventeen persons are killed and 40 injured in a suicide bomb attack at a railway station in Volgograd, Russia.

Dec. 30: Fourteen persons are killed and 41 injured as a bomb tears through a trolleybus in Volgograd city, Russia.

Iran and six global powers begin expert-level talks.

Dec. 31: Maragarita Simonyan is appointed chief editor of Russia Today, the new state media behemoth.