1. Alan Bean, 4th Man To Walk On The Moon Died.
Alan Bean, the fourth person to walk on the moon and the last surviving member of the Apollo 12 mission, died Saturday in Houston, according to his family and NASA. He was 86.
"Alan was the strongest and kindest man I ever knew," his wife, Leslie Bean, said in a statement. "He was the love of my life and I miss him dearly." She added he died "peacefully ... surrounded by those who loved him."
The retired astronaut fell ill two weeks ago while traveling in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the statement said.
Born on March 15, 1932, in Wheeler, Texas, Bean was a test pilot in the US Navy when NASA selected him and 13 others in October 1963 for training to become the third group of NASA astronauts, according to the family obituary shared by the space agency.
His first mission to space was in November 1969 as a member of the Apollo 12 crew, the second to land on the moon, it said. He became the fourth man -- and one of only 12 in history -- to walk on the moon.
Bean also commanded the second crewed flight to the first US space station Skylab in July 1973.
"In total, Bean logged 69 days, 15 hours and 45 minutes in space," the obituary said, "including 31 hours and 31 minutes on the moon`s surface."
Bean pauses near a tool carrier during the Apollo 12 spacewalk on the moon`s surface.
After retiring from the Navy in 1975 and NASA in 1981, respectively, Bean became an artist and focused his energy on painting artistic impressions of the moon landing.
According to NASA, Bean based that decision on his nearly two decades of experience as an astronaut "during which he visited places and saw things no artist`s eye had ever seen firsthand. He said he hoped to capture those experiences through his art."
2. Akshay Kumar Launches Twin Pit Toilet Technology Campaign.
Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar has launched advertisement campaign for the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) in Delhi. The campaign focuses on promoting the twin pit toilet technology in rural India, and also features actor Bhumi Pednekar along with Kumar. The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation also announced that the producers of Toilet Ek Prem Katha have given rights to all state and district teams of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) to screen the movie in villages on a non-commercial basis.
Akshay Kumar interacted with Swachh Bharat Mission officials, district collectors, communication experts and members from the media on the occasion. During his interaction, he spoke about the need for influencers of society to talk freely about toilets, and empty toilet pits around the country to destigmatise cleaning of one’s own toilet by members of the family itself, a Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation statement on Sunday said.
Parameswaran Iyer, Secretary, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, spoke about the contribution made by Akshay Kumar to the Swachh Bharat Mission. He said that right from his movie, Toilet Ek Prem Katha, which was seen and appreciated by rural and urban people across the country, to his participation in the twin pit toilet advertisement campaign for the Swachh Bharat Mission, Kumar has been a strong supporter of the sanitation movement underway in the country.
3. Pakistan Names Former Chief Justice As Caretaker PM.
Former chief justice Nasirul Mulk was announced as the caretaker prime minister on Monday during a joint press conference held by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Opposition Leader Khursheed Shah.
It took the government and the opposition six meetings to decide on a name for the coveted position.
“Today is a day of great importance in the democratic run of the country. We have agreed on an individual for the position,” said the premier during the press conference.
Election 2018: Caretaker PM likely to be announced today
“We have come to this decision six weeks later, and we had to discuss the nominations with our parties as well,” he added. “The individual’s history is impeccable and contribution has been outstanding.”
PM Abbasi gave Shah the floor to announce the name. “It will be a fair transition. There were challenges, we jointly faced them and in future we will face them,” Shah said.
“There were six names. Four names were under discussion. Saleem Abbas Jillani and Nasirul Mulk had not been discussed but they were being considered. No name has been disqualified, the decision has been taken on merit and with the consent of our parties,” said the opposition leader
Every name was being considered, no one can show any disagreement with this name, PM Abbasi added after the announcement.
Speaker Ayaz Sadiq and Marriyum Aurangzeb were also present during the press conference.
4. Sangeeta Bahl Becomes Oldest Indian Woman To Scale Mount Everest.
Sangeeta Bahl, a 53-year-old former model and entrepreneur from Jammu and Kashmir, has become the oldest Indian woman to conquer Mount Everest.
Bahl, who currently resides in Gurugram, was felicitated on Sunday at the Indian embassy in Kathmandu. She scaled the peak on May 19 with the help of two Sherpas. Her husband Ankur Bahl, who climbed Mt Everest in 2016, was also welcomed at the Indian embassy in Kathmandu.
Sangeeta Bahl has already conquered six out of the seven highest peaks of the world. She broke the record of Premlata Agarwal, 48, who scaled Everest on May 20, 2011. The couple had pledged to scale seven summits in seven continents, which they clinched, some of them together.
“I just returned to Kathmandu after my epic climb to Mount Everest,” she wrote on Facebook. “Wish to thank each one of you who have supported me through your prayers, wishes and constant goodwill.”
Bahl’s mission also had a message: she carried a banner to the peak advocating early detection of breast cancer in women, and funding for the same.
This was her second attempt to scale the mountain. She abandoned the first expedition after suffering from high-altitude sickness.
Her husband scaled Mt Everest two years ago to the date, on May 19, 2016.
According to officials, six dozen Indian nationals have scaled Mt Everest this year, becoming the second nation of mountaineers to do so after climbers from the US.
Shivangi Pathak, 16, from Haryana became India’s youngest woman to climb the Everest from Nepali side.
5. Justice R.K. Agrawal Appointed NCDRC Chairman.
Justice RK Agrawal, who recently retired from the Supreme Court, has been appointed as the President of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC).
Justice Agrawal will take over from Justice DK Jain who retires on May 31. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has reportedly approved Justice Agrawal’s appointment as the President of the Commission.
Justice Agrawal retired on May 4, 2018. In his farewell speech, Justice Agrawal said that the “Bar and Bench are two sides of the same coin” and highlighted the shared responsibility of both the institutions in upholding the legal values and justice. He said,
“Both (Bar and Bench) are indispensable to our free society. The independence of the judiciary is one of the pillars of democracy and the lawyers have worked hard for maintaining this democracy. The freedom of the bar presupposes the independence of the judiciary… Both the bar and bench, though independent, are interconnected and incomplete without each other”
Justice Agrawal graduated in law from Allahabad University and enrolled as an Advocate in 1976. Justice Agrawal was elevated as a permanent judge of the Allahabad High Court in 1999.
He took charge as the Acting Chief Justice of the Madras High Court in February 2013 and ten months later, assumed the office of Chief Justice of Madras High Court. Justice Agrawal was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court in February 2014 and served on the Bench of the Supreme Court for four years.
6. Paraguay Gets Its 1st Woman Interim President.
Paraguay will have a woman president for the first time in its history, at least temporarily, after outgoing leader Horacio Cartes stepped down on Monday ahead of schedule.
Vice President Alicia Pucheta, 68, will complete Cartes’s mandate after he resigned to become a senator.
On August 15, fellow conservative Mario Abdo Benitez, elected in April 22 polls, will begin his five-year term as president of one of Latin America’s poorest countries.
The parliament is due to confirm Cartes’s resignation and proclaim Pucheta as interim president on Wednesday.
Opposed to the legalization of abortion, Pucheta is from the right-wing Colorado Party, which has been in power in Asuncion for decades.
Opposition Senator Desiree Masi said she does not see Pucheta’s nomination as an advance for women in Paraguay.
“A woman who has shown her complete submission to those in power does not represent us,” she said. “One day, a woman will be come to power as she should, through the ballot box.”
But Lilian Samaniego, a senator from the Colorado Party, hailed the former lawyer’s accession to the position as an example to “motivate Paraguayan women to continue to fight for real equality of opportunity with men.”
Paraguay has just eight women among its 45 senators, and 11 among the 80 members of the lower house.
Cartes’s resignation had been expected since he was elected to the Senate in the April elections. The new senators are to be sworn in on June 30.
Landlocked Paraguay — sandwiched between Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil — enjoyed consistent economic growth during tobacco magnate Cartes’s five years in power, but failed to shake off persistent poverty, corruption and drug trafficking.
It remains a land of contrasts, still marked by the 1954-1989 dictatorship of general Alfredo Stroessner.
Despite an official campaign against endemic corruption, Paraguay remains 135th out of 180 countries on the 2017 corruption index of Transparency International.
7. Former Himachal Pradesh Governor Urmila Singh Passes Away.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi condoled the death of former Himachal Pradesh governor and Congress leader Urmila Singh.
Gandhi, who is currently abroad accompanying his mother and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi for her annual medical check-up, sent his prayers to Singh`s family in a condolence message.
"I`m sorry to hear about the demise of Smt. Urmila Singh ji, former Governor and President of the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee. My thoughts and prayers are with her family in their time of grief. May her soul rest in peace," he said on Twitter.
Singh (71) died at a private hospital in Indore yesterday due to prolonged illness.
The former Madhya Pradesh Congress unit chief was admitted to Bombay hospital in Indore on January 6 after she contracted pneumonia, a hospital official said.
She was kept on life support for a long time and her condition remained unstable, he said.
Singh came from a family of freedom fighters and was appointed as the governor of Himachal Pradesh in 2010. Prior to that, she had served as chairman of the National Scheduled Tribes Commission.