1) Union Government extends term of Rajan S Katoch as Director of ED for third time.
- The government has approved continuation of the additional charge of Katoch in ED for three more months
- This is the third extension being given to the 1979-batch IAS officer in the post.
- An IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, Katoch has been heading ED, under the Finance Ministry, for about three-and-a-half years now after he was first appointed in March 2012.
- The agency is mandated to enforce two of the most stringent laws in the country the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) to check black money and hawala trade cases.
- A post-graduate in economics, Katoch has earlier served in the Ministry of Commerce, besides holding a number of posts in his parent cadre.
About Enforcement Directorate:
- The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is a law enforcement agency and economic intelligence agency responsible for enforcing economic laws and fighting economic crime in India.
- It is part of and operates under the aegis of Department of Revenue of Union Ministry of Finance.
- Established: 1st June, 2000.
- It comprises officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Revenue Service (IRS) and Indian Police Service (IPS).
- ED enforces civil law of Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) and criminal law of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 in order to deal with black money and hawala trade cases.
2) Sachin, Amitabh to turn `tiger ambassadors`.
- The Maharashtra government has asked actor Amitabh Bachchan and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar to be the state ambassadors for the `Save the Tiger` campaign and promote tiger tourism.
- Forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar has written to Bachchan and Tendulkar to accept the role.
4) German man Sven Hagemeier set a world record for the longest birthday - 46 hours.
- He is flying from Auckland, New Zealand, to Brisbane, Australia, and then Honolulu, Hawaii, he will just celebrate his 27th birthday.
- Nargis Bhimji of Karachi held the record previously. In June 1998, her birthday lasted 35 hours, 25 minutes, because she flew from Karachi to Singapore to San Francisco.
5) Taliban announces Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor as new leader.
- Mansoor is a former aviation minister in the Taliban regime. He was appointed following the apparent death of Mullah Omar, who sheltered al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden before and after the 9/11 attacks.
- He was leading the Shura council of the Taliban at Quetta most of the time he has the backing of 90 per cent of the Taliban fighters which made him the best choice for leader.
About:
- The Quetta Shura Taliban, sometimes referred to as the QST, is an insurgent leadership group based in the city of Quetta in Baluchistan province of southern Pakistan.
- Taliban Definition:
- The word “Taliban” comes from the Arabic word talib, which means ``student``.
- The organization was founded by Mullah Mohammed Omar, an extremely enigmatic individual who went into hiding in 2001 after the organization`s fall from power.
- Members of the Taliban were originally religious students who developed a very conservative interpretation of Islam and the Sharia, or Islamic law.
- During Afghanistan`s long and bitter civil war, members of the Taliban began a slow rise to power, and the group ultimately took control of most of Afghanistan.