1. Rajnath Singh takes charge as Home Minister
i. Rajnath Singh, under whose stewardship BJP has stormed to power with its highest-ever tally, today took charge as the Union Home Minister.
ii. The 62-year-old Singh, who was elected from the Lucknow Lok Sabha Constituency, has succeeded Sushilkumar Shinde in the crucial ministry that handles the country’s internal security and the task of guarding its international borders with Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.
iii. Before assuming charge, Singh paid floral tributes to the country’s first Home Minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, at his statue near Parliament.
iv. He was welcomed with flower bouquets by a number of senior ministry officials led by Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami.
2. Ab de Villiers named South African Cricketer of the Year
i. A.B. de Villiers dominated the Cricket South Africa Awards banquet by bagging four awards, including Cricketer of the Year 2014, in Johannesburg on Wednesday evening.
ii. De Villiers was also named Test Cricketer of the Year, was recognised by his peers as SA Players’ Player of the Year and by popular vote of the public, SA Fans’ Cricketer of the Year.
iii. The only award for which De Villiers was nominated but did not win was the ODI Player of the Year which went to Quinton de Kock, who scored four centuries in the period under review including three in consecutive innings.
iv. Imran Tahir was named T20 International Player of the Year, paceman Dale Steyn won the Delivery of the Year and veteran Jacques Kallis won the KFC ‘So Good’ Award for his century in his final Test match appearance against India.
v. Marizanne Kapp was named Momentum Women’s Cricketer of the Year for the second successive year
3. Ukraine, Slovakia sign deal on reverse gas supply
i. Ukraine has signed an agreement with Slovakia on reverse flow of natural gas deliveries, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk said Monday.
ii. According to the deal, Kiev could annually import around 8 billion cubic metres of gas from the European market through Slovakia, Yatsenyuk said.
iii. The deal inked by Ukrtransgaz, the transport arm of the state-run Naftogaz firm, and Slovak pipeline operator Eustream, stipulates that Kiev is due to start reverse gas imports through Slovakia in October.
4. Writer-environmentalist Peter Matthiessen dies
i. Peter Matthiessen, a rich man’s son who rejected a life of ease in favour of physical and spiritual challenges and produced such acclaimed works as The Snow Leopard and At Play in the Fields of the Lord, died Saturday. He was 86.
ii. Matthiessen helped found The Paris Review, one of the most influential literary magazines, and won National Book Awards for The Snow Leopard, his spiritual account of the Himalayas, and for Shadow Country.
iii. A leading environmentalist and wilderness writer, he embraced the best and worst that nature could bring him, whether trekking across the Himalayas, parrying sharks in Australia or enduring a hurricane in Antarctica.
iv. Matthiessen was born in New York in 1927, the son of Erard A. Matthiessen, a wealthy architect and conservationist. “The Depression had no serious effect on our well-insulated family,” the author would later write.
i. Rajnath Singh, under whose stewardship BJP has stormed to power with its highest-ever tally, today took charge as the Union Home Minister.
ii. The 62-year-old Singh, who was elected from the Lucknow Lok Sabha Constituency, has succeeded Sushilkumar Shinde in the crucial ministry that handles the country’s internal security and the task of guarding its international borders with Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.
iii. Before assuming charge, Singh paid floral tributes to the country’s first Home Minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, at his statue near Parliament.
iv. He was welcomed with flower bouquets by a number of senior ministry officials led by Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami.
2. Ab de Villiers named South African Cricketer of the Year
i. A.B. de Villiers dominated the Cricket South Africa Awards banquet by bagging four awards, including Cricketer of the Year 2014, in Johannesburg on Wednesday evening.
ii. De Villiers was also named Test Cricketer of the Year, was recognised by his peers as SA Players’ Player of the Year and by popular vote of the public, SA Fans’ Cricketer of the Year.
iii. The only award for which De Villiers was nominated but did not win was the ODI Player of the Year which went to Quinton de Kock, who scored four centuries in the period under review including three in consecutive innings.
iv. Imran Tahir was named T20 International Player of the Year, paceman Dale Steyn won the Delivery of the Year and veteran Jacques Kallis won the KFC ‘So Good’ Award for his century in his final Test match appearance against India.
v. Marizanne Kapp was named Momentum Women’s Cricketer of the Year for the second successive year
3. Ukraine, Slovakia sign deal on reverse gas supply
i. Ukraine has signed an agreement with Slovakia on reverse flow of natural gas deliveries, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk said Monday.
ii. According to the deal, Kiev could annually import around 8 billion cubic metres of gas from the European market through Slovakia, Yatsenyuk said.
iii. The deal inked by Ukrtransgaz, the transport arm of the state-run Naftogaz firm, and Slovak pipeline operator Eustream, stipulates that Kiev is due to start reverse gas imports through Slovakia in October.
4. Writer-environmentalist Peter Matthiessen dies
i. Peter Matthiessen, a rich man’s son who rejected a life of ease in favour of physical and spiritual challenges and produced such acclaimed works as The Snow Leopard and At Play in the Fields of the Lord, died Saturday. He was 86.
ii. Matthiessen helped found The Paris Review, one of the most influential literary magazines, and won National Book Awards for The Snow Leopard, his spiritual account of the Himalayas, and for Shadow Country.
iii. A leading environmentalist and wilderness writer, he embraced the best and worst that nature could bring him, whether trekking across the Himalayas, parrying sharks in Australia or enduring a hurricane in Antarctica.
iv. Matthiessen was born in New York in 1927, the son of Erard A. Matthiessen, a wealthy architect and conservationist. “The Depression had no serious effect on our well-insulated family,” the author would later write.
