Year in Review: World-2017:

Bangalore, Dec 31,2017

Donald Trump is sworn in as the 45th President of the United States.:

Friday, Jan 20, 2017 Under dark clouds and a swollen sky, real estate tycoon and TV reality show host Donald Trump was today sworn in as the 45th President of the United States. U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath to Trump, 70, who has never before held public office. Trump used two bibles when he took his oath of office - Abraham Lincoln's Bible and a childhood Bible given to him by his mother. Present at the podium were Trump's children and his wife Melania.
Trump's swearing-in was the culmination of a dizzying political ride that began about two years ago. From a rank outsider, Trump managed to win not just the Republican Party primary but also the November 8 elections even as opinion polls put his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton far ahead of him. Critics said his campaign was highly divisive, racist and sexist. And to be sure, he didn't win the popular vote. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by nearly three million votes.

What is Ransomware?

May 13,2017 Ransomware, also called Business Email Compromise, is a type of malicious software that infects a computer and restricts users' access to it until a ransom is paid to unlock it. Individuals and organisations are discouraged from paying the ransom, as this does not guarantee access will be restored. It was reported last year that this malware globally caused companies a loss of a whopping $3 billion. Ransomware is a form of malicious software that locks up the files on your computer, encrypts them, and demands that you pay to get your files back. Wanna Decryptor, or WannaCry, is a form of ransomware that affects Microsoft's Windows operating system. When a system is infected, a pop up window appears, prompting you to pay to recover all your files within three days, with a countdown timer on the left of the window. It adds that if you fail to pay within that time, the fee will be doubled, and if you don't pay within seven days, you will lose the files forever. Payment is accepted only with Bitcoin.It was first reported from Sweden, Britain and France, but Russia and Taiwan are said to be the worst hit, according to US media. Over 75,000 systems have been affected. Major companies that have reported attacks are FedEx, Telefonica and National Health Service (UK).

New species of orangutan discovered in Sumatra

A new species of great ape has been discovered, according to scientists studying a small population of orangutans in northern Sumatra. While it had been reported in the late 1930s that there were orangutans in the area, it wasn't until 1997 that scientists rediscovered the population and later began studying the animals.The team compared the skull and jaws to those of 33 other adult male orangutans, held in the collections of 10 institutions around the world, revealing differences in numerous metrics , including that the skull of the Tapanuli male is smaller than that of individuals of the other two species.

Robert Mugabe: Is Zimbabwe's ex-president a hero or villain?

Robert Mugabe, the man who became synonymous with Zimbabwe, has resigned as president after 37 years in power.For some, he will always remain a hero who brought independence and an end to white-minority rule. Even those who forced him out blamed his wife and "criminals" around him.But to his growing number of critics, this highly educated, wily politician became the caricature of an African dictator, who destroyed an entire country in order to keep his job.Picture below: President Mugabe (L) has given his support to his wife Grace (R) for the vice-presidency.Image copyrightAFP.
Mr Mugabe's beliefs did not prevent him from having two children by Grace, then his secretary, while his popular Ghanaian first wife, Sally, was dying from cancer.But it was his second wife Grace, 40 years his junior, who ultimately proved his downfall. Although Mr Mugabe outlived many predictions of his demise, the increasing strain of recent years took its toll and his once-impeccable presentation has begun to look rather worn at times. In the end, it was the security forces, who had been instrumental in intimidating the opposition and keeping him in power, who made him go.

Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci, carries an eye-popping estimate of US $450 million.

Fri, Dec 08,2017: Leonardo da Vinci's painting of Jesus Christ, which was sold for a record $450m at an auction last month, was acquired by Abu Dhabi's department of culture and tourism, according to Christie's in New York. The painting shows Jesus, in Renaissance dress, giving a benediction with his right hand raised and two fingers extended, while holding a transparent rock crystal orb in his left hand, signaling his role as savior of the world and master of the cosmos, and representing the'crystalline sphere' of the heavens, as it was perceived during the Renaissance.
It was exhibited in Hong Kong, London, San Francisco and New York in 2017, and then sold at auction at Christie's in New York on 15 November 2017 for $450,312,500, a new record price for an artwork (hammer price $400 million plus $50.3 million in fees). The purchaser was identified as Saudi Arabian prince Badr bin Abdullah. In December 2017, the Wall Street Journal reported that Prince Bader was in fact an intermediary for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the true buyer. However, Christie's confirmed that Prince Bader acted on behalf of Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism for display at the Louvre Abu Dhabi.
Do you want to have copy of this priceless(!) painting to hang it in your drawing room?    It is available with Amazon.in for a price tag of Rs:1200. (20% discount)

The Rohingya Crisis:

The Rohingya are an ethnic Muslim minority who practice a Sufi-inflected variation of Sunni Islam. A majority of the estimated one million Rohingya in Myanmar reside in Rakhine State, where they account for nearly a third of the population. They differ from Myanmar's dominant Buddhist groups ethnically, linguistically, and religiously.The government of Myanmar, a predominately Buddhist country, claims the Rohingya people are illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh and has denied them citizenship, leaving them stateless.
The government refuses to grant the Rohingya citizenship, and as a result the vast majority of the group's members have no legal documentation, effectively making them stateless. Myanmar's 1948 citizenship law was already exclusionary, and the military junta, which seized power in 1962, introduced a law twenty years later stripping the Rohingya of access to full citizenship. Until recently, the Rohingya had been able to register as temporary residents with identification cards, known as white cards, that the junta began issuing to many Muslims, both Rohingya and non-Rohingya, in the 1990s. The white cards conferred [PDF] limited rights but were not recognized as proof of citizenship. Still, Lewa says that they did provide some recognition of temporary stay for the Rohingya in Myanmar.
The UN has described the latest mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar as "the world's fastest growing refugee crisis" and "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing". A wave of refugees began fleeing the country in late August after Myanmar's response to an attack by Rohingya militants on more than 20 police posts that the government said left 12 members of the security forces dead.

"A gift from the sky" record-breaking nine-hour rainbow appears in Taiwan

A professor in Taiwan claims to have witnessed the longest ever visible rainbow, clocking in at nearly nine hours, and plans to submit it for a world record. The rainbow lasted for eight hours and 58 minutes in the mountains around the Taiwanese capital of Taipei, according to Chou Kun-hsuan, a professor at the Chinese Culture University.
The professors observed four separate rainbows during the nine-hour period, at one time photographing all in a single frame. The previous day a rainbow near the campus appeared for six hours.A combination of a seasonal monsoons trapping moist air, a lack of strong winds and a partially cloudy sky allowed for the rainbow to be visible for such a long time. The moisture formed clouds and caused a steady stream of rain, but there was still plenty of sunshine. Sunlight passing through rain and moisture in the air create the phenomenon, but only when viewed from the correct angle. Chou plans to apply to Guinness World Records for the world's longest visible rainbow. The previous record holder was seen for six hours above Sheffield, UK, in 1994.

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