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National:

India placed 94th out of 176 countries in corruption: Transparency InternationalIndia has been ranked 94th out of 176 countries in Transparency Internationals 2012 Corruption PerceptionIndex (CPI). In 2011, India was ranked 95 out of 183 countries that were studied. In 2012, India earned a

very low score of 36 on a scale from 0 (most corrupt) to 100 (least corrupt). Transparency International Indiaattributed the low score to the recent scams and incidents of corruption in the public sector involvinggovernment officials, private officials and private companies. Two-thirds of the 176 countries recorded a CPIscore below 50. Denmark, Finland and Switzerland topped the index with a score of 90 followed by Swedenwith a score of 88. Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia were perceived as the most corrupt countriesscoring just 8 out of 100. India has been ranked below neighbours Sri Lanka and China, while it fared betterthan Iran, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh. CPI methodology has been updated allowing for year-over-yearcomparisons from 2012 onwards. India was ranked 72 among 180 countries in 2007 and since then thecountrys ranking fell to 87 in 2010 and 95 in 2011.

SC directs Karnataka to release Cauvery water to Tamil NaduSupreme Court directed Karnataka to release 10,000 cusecs of Cauvery water per day its neighbouring stateand asked the Cauvery Monitoring Committee (CMC) to hold its meeting to decide the amount of waterrequired by the states. A bench of Justices D K Jain and Madan B Lokur said its interim order will continue till

CMC files its report. Cusec is a measure of flow rate of water and is abbreviation for cubic feet per second(which is equivalent to a flow of 28.317 litres per second) and 11,000 cusecs flow for a day amounts to 1TMC (thousand million cubic feet) water. The Bench said that its immediate concern is to save the cropswhich are allegedly dying because of lack of water and it would decide other issues later on.

Centre okays Indu Mill land for Ambedkar memorialUnion Commerce and Textiles Minister Anand Sharma and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs RajeevShukla announced in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha respectively that the Centre had decided to transfer theIndu Mill land at Dadar for the Ambedkar memorial. Central government made formal announcement aboutthe transfer of 12.5 acres of Indu Mill land in north-central Mumbai for late BR Ambedkars memorial, theState Government announced that it would set up an independent authority to develop a state-of-art nationalmonument in memory of the architect of the Indian Constitution.The defunct Indu Mill is located right next tothe Chaityabhoomi at Dadar-Chowpatty, where late Dr Ambedkar was cremated a day after he passed awayon December 6, 1956. Every year on this day, thousands of Dalits from all over Maharashtra visit the place to

pay their tributes to the revered leader. A 109-metre-tall sea-facing statue towering over Mumbai and tallerthan Statue of Liberty is what Dalit leaders say would be a fitting memorial for Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.

International:

Sonia, Manmohan in top 20; Obama most powerful person: Forbes 2012 power listPrime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi have been named among the top 20most powerful persons in the world by Forbes magazine in its annual power rankings which placed USPresident Barack Obama as number one for a second year in a row. India's richest businessman RelianceIndustries chairman Mukesh Ambani (37th)and and Arcelor Mittal CEO Lakshmi Mittal( 47th) also feature inthe list. Gandhi dropped a notch from list 2011 and ranks at number 12 in 2012 ahead of Chinese Vice-

Premier Li Keqiang and French President Francois Hollande. The second most powerful person in the worldalso happens to be the most powerful woman, German chancellor 58-year-old Angela Merkel. The list alsoincludes Russian President Vladimir Putin at number three, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (4), GeneralSecretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping (9), Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin(20), Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei (21) UN chief Ban Ki-moon (30), North Korean leader Kim Jong-un(44) and former US President Bil l Clinton (50). Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is ranked28th in the list.

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238 dead, hundreds missing in Philippines typhoon BophaThe death toll from a typhoon that ravaged the Philippines jumped to 238 with hundreds missing, as rescuersbattled to reach areas cut off by floods and mudslides. Typhoon Bopha slammed into the southern island ofMindanao yesterday, toppling trees and blowing away homes with 210-kilometre per hour gusts beforeeasing overnight as it headed towards the South China Sea. A total of 142 people died and 241 others weremissing in the mountainous Mindanao town of New Bataan. Eighty-one other people were killed in the

nearby province of Davao Oriental and 15 in other areas.

Rare Amur leopard couple spotted in ChinaA pair of endangered Amur leopards has been spotted in northeastern China, an indication that population ofthe extremely rare cat is recovering in the country. In 2007, International Union for Conservation of Nature(IUCN) concluded that Amur leopards were extinct in China and only 19 to 26 survived in Russia. It is the firsttime that field cameras caught two Amur leopards at the same time in northeastern Chinese province of Jilin,home to a quarter of all the rarest cats in the world. Amur leopards, classified by the IUCN as criticallyendangered, are in the highest risk category in IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. One of the reasons forthe sighting is an improved habitat for the animals.

Scientists discover worlds oldest known dinosaurScientists studying a set of fossilised bones stored in the Natural History Museum in London believe they

may have found the first dinosaur that roamed the Earth and it was similar in size to a Labrador with a tailfive feet long.Nyasasaurus parringtoni would have been alive 10 to 15 million years before any previouslyknown dinosaurs and more than 150 million years before the mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex. The size of aLabrador and slight of build, Nyasasaurus had a five foot-long tail and likely walked upright on two legs. Withonly a few ribs and arm bones to go on, the scientists cant be sure what the worlds oldest dinosaur ate.However, it is likely it had a similar diet to other early dinosaurs of small prey, insects and plants.

Oscar Niemeyer, Brazilian architect, dies aged 104Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, who designed much of the country's futuristic capital Brasilia has died.He was 104. A pioneer in the use of reinforced concrete to produce soaring, curvaceous forms, Niemeyerhas designed 600 works around the world and has some 20 other projects under way. The Brazilian icon,who won architecture's top award, the Pritzker Prize, in 1988, started his career in the 1930s and went onworking well into the 21st century, after turning 100. Niemeyer works can be found in countries as far-flungas Algeria, Italy, Israel, the United States and Cuba, whose longtime leader Fidel Castro was one of his

personal friends.

Business & Economy:

SC orders Sahara to repay deposits in 2 instalmentsThe Supreme Court, gave a breather to the Sahara group by directing it to deposit Rs.5,120 croreimmediately and pay its investors in two instalments, the first instalment of Rs.10,000 crore in the first weekof January 2013 and the balance amount, including interest, in the first week of February. A three-judgeBench of Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and Justices S. S. Nijjar and J. Chelameswar passed this order on asubmission made by senior counsel Gopal Subramanimum, appearing for the Sahara group, requesting formore time to repay the amount to the investors money they had collected through optionally fully convertibledebentures (OFCD). On August 31,2012 a Bench of Justices K. S. Radhakrishnan and J. S. Khehar haddirected the group to deposit Rs.17,400 crore with 15 per cent interest with the Securities and Exchange

Board of India (SEBI) within three months.

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Court tells Kingfisher to deposit tax money with IT departmentIn a setback to Kingfisher Airlines, the Karnataka High Court, has directed the company to deposit 50 percent of the total amount of Rs.371 crore that the company is required to remit to the Income Tax Departmentas tax deducted at source (TDS) from its employees and payments made towards company expenses. ADivision Bench, comprising Justice D. V. Shylendra Kumar and Justice B. Manohar, passed the interim orderon the separate appeals filed by the Department and the company, challenging the May 25 order of theTribunal.

Russia, 5 CIS countries to cut dollar dependenceRussia and five other ex-Soviet States have agreed to reduce their dependence on the dollar, and promotepayments in national currencies. At a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) inAshgabat, Turkmenistan. Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan and Tajikistan signed anagreement to set up an integrated currency market for CIS member States. The agreement is designed tocut the use of the dollar and euro and facilitate transactions in national currencies in foreign trade andfinancial services. It will, above all, promote the use of the Rouble as a reserve currency given the dominantposition of the Russian economy in the former Soviet Union.

RIL arm exits Yemen oil blockReliance Exploration & Production DMCC, the Dubai-based subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), hassigned the completion documents for divestment its 25 per cent working interest in the Yemens Block 9 toMedco Yemen Malik Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of PT Medco Energi Internasional Tbk of Indonesia.

Facebook to replace Infosys on Nasdaq 100Infosys will make way for global social networking giant Facebook on the Nasdaq-100, a key U.S. stockmarket index, effective December 12. Infosys is the only Indian company to figure on Nasdaq-100, where itwas included six years ago, and its imminent exit from the benchmark index follows the IT giantsannouncement to shift its listing to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Prior to its inclusion to Nasdaq-100 index, Infosys had become the first Indian company to get listed on Nasdaq in 1999.

EXIM Bank approves $2.1 b assistance to Reliance IndThe Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank), has voted to provide $2.1-billion worth of directloan and loan guarantee to Reliance Industries Ltd, which, it said, would help increase U.S. export to India.The transaction is the single largest Ex-Im Bank has ever authorised for Reliance and it includes extending a$1.06 billion direct loan and similar amount to guarantee JPMorgan Chase loan to Reliance for export ofAmerican goods and services destined for use in Reliances expansion projects at Jamnagar in the Indian

State of Gujarat.

Sport:

Chanderpaul on topWest Indies Shrivnarine Chanderpaul has replaced Australia captain Michael Clarke as the top Test batsmanin the world. Chanderpaul leads Clarke by a single ratings point to regain his position at the top of the table,according to the latest ICC rankings. South Africa batsman Hashim Amla, who was declared Man-of-the-Match in the Perth Test, has moved up two places to third position with 875 ratings points following hismatch-winning knock of 196 in the second innings of the series-decider.