15 APRIL 2014

Ø  book Crusader or Conspirator? Coalgate and other Truths by Former Coal Secretary P.C. Parakh.

Ø  Before Delhi is accorded the tag of a World Heritage City, United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation will be sending a team of archaeological experts here in June to examine the heritage sites in New Delhi and Shahjahanabad that had been included in the dossier submitted by the Union Culture Ministry. These experts will be from South-East Asian countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Singapore and Hong Kong who are more familiar with the Indian monuments than archaeological experts from Europe and the United States. To ensure unbiased scrutiny of these sites, none of the experts will be from India.

Ø India and China on Monday continued long-running discussions on the possibility of opening new consulates to expand diplomatic contact as they held the sixth round of their strategic dialogue here, but have not reached agreement amid persisting Chinese reservations on India opening a consulate in Lhasa, Tibet. Despite India’s long-pending interest in Lhasa, China has clarified that it will not allow any additional foreign diplomatic presence in Tibet. Only Nepal has diplomatic presence in Lhasa, while U.S. requests were denied.

Ø  In a ground-breaking trial, researchers in the UK will test artificial blood made from human stem cells in patients for the first time. The research, planned for 2016, could pave the way for manufacturing of blood on an industrial scale, which could even supersede donated blood as the main supply for patients. “We have made red blood cells, for the first time, that are fit to go in a person’s body. Before now, we haven’t really had that,” said Marc Turner, medical director at the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service, who is leading the £ 5-million project at the University of Edinburgh. The trial will involve three patients with ‘thalassaemia’, a disorder of the red blood cells that requires regular transfusions. They will receive around 5 millilitres of blood initially to test whether the cells behave normally in the body.

Ø  The unmanned underwater vehicle, the Bluefin 21, was launched on Monday evening from the Australian navy ship Ocean Shield, the joint agency said. The autonomous sub can create a three-dimensional sonar map of any debris on the seafloor.