USD 952 Million Sale of Helicopters, Missiles to Pak Approved
The US State Department has approved sale of USD 952 million worth of attack helicopters, missiles and other defence equipment to Pakistan to help Islamabad with its counter-terrorism operations in South Asia.
The deal would also contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a country vital to US foreign policy and national security goals in South Asia.
The proposed sale includes a "precision strike, enhanced survivability aircraft" that Pakistan can operate at high-altitudes.
The deal is to be implemented over a period of five and a half years, involving technical support, training and maintenance by US personnel.
The principal contractors will be Bell Helicopter, General Electric Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Western Canada’s Glaciers may all but Vanish by 2100
The world has 200,000 glaciers, nearly a tenth of which are in British Columbia and Alberta in western Canada, where they cover an area of 27,000 square kilometres and have an average thickness of 112 metres.
The glaciers in these two provinces are losing almost one per cent of their volume each year – among the fastest rates of mountain ice loss anywhere in the world.
Researchers at University of British Columbia in Vancouver have made the first major assessment based on a detailed analysis of how glaciers are likely to move and change shape as they melt. They also concluded that this will substantially speed up melting.
Nudged and prodded by RBI, leading banks -- SBI, ICICI and HDFC Bank -- cut their lending rates by 0.15-0.25 percent despite the status quo in policy rate of the central bank.
The action can also have a snowballing effect forcing other banks to follow suit.
Einstein Ring seen in Stunning Image of Lensed Galaxy
Astronomers have discovered that a distant galaxy -- seen from Earth with the aid of a gravitational lens -- appears like a cosmic ring, thanks to the highest resolution images ever taken with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).
Forged by the chance alignment of two distant galaxies, this striking ring-like structure is a rare and peculiar manifestation of gravitational lensing as predicted by Albert Einstein in his theory of general relativity.
In an effort to curb air pollution in the national capital, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in a landmark ruling banned diesel vehicles over ten years old from plying on Delhi roads.
According to a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Delhi had the worst air quality in the world while 12 other Indian cities also figured among the world’s worst 20.