News Roundup - 23 December 2014

1. The 13th edition of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas will be held in Gujarat from January 7 to 9. Gujarat has been chosen as the partner State as 2015 happens to be the 100th year of Mahatma Gandhi’s return to India from South Africa.
2. Over two decades after it was first published, the first revised English edition of “Why I Assassinated Gandhi” – which includes Nathuram Godse’s statement before the court at the Red Fort trial in its “unabridged form,” the judgment and his will – is back in circulation. The revised edition has been compiled and edited by Virender Mehra. Farsight Publishers and Distributors — which brought out the revised edition six months ago in arrangement with Surya Bharti Prakashan, the original publishers of the book in 1993 — maintained that they took up the task because “both sides” of the assassination should come out. The ban on Nathuram Godse’s statement to the special court was lifted by the Bombay High Court in 1968.
3. Princess Cristina, the sister of Spain’s King Felipe VI, will be the first member of the royal family ever to appear in the dock after a judge on Monday ordered her to be tried for tax fraud. The historic decision comes after four years of investigations that plunged the royal family into crisis and contributed to the abdication of King Juan Carlos in June. She is accused of taking part in tax evasion by her husband, the former Olympic handball player Inaki Urdangarin. He is accused of embezzling and laundering millions of euros in public funds. Princess Cristina Federica of Bourbon and Greece is the youngest daughter of Juan Carlos and sixth in line to the Spanish throne. She married Urdangarin in 1997 in a glittering ceremony in Barcelona. The case is a big headache for King Felipe who took the throne on June 19 promising an “honest and transparent monarchy”.
4. The son of kung fu star Jackie Chan, Jaycee Chan, has been charged with providing a venue for others to use drugs.
5. Opening up of the coal sector and upgradation of state-run Coal India and its subsidiaries are vital for scaling up domestic production of the dry fuel, as per the final report of the Advisory Group for Integrated Development of Power, Coal, and Renewable Energy.
6. Jet Airways (India) concluded a $150-million (about Rs.945 crore) five-year syndicated loan facility, which was fully subscribed by banks spread across the Middle East region. 

Credits : The Hindu, Google.