DAILY GK UPDATE: 7TH JANUARY

1.South Korea Became First Country in Asia to Order Chemical Castration of Child Rapist:

South Korean court ordered the first-ever chemical castration of the country.

i. The sentence of chemical castration was given to 31-year old pedophile (a person who is sexually-attracted to children) along with 15 years of jail term.
ii. The order was the first-ever since South Korea passed the law in 2011 allowing chemical castration or hormonal treatment for offenders who are at the risk of repeating crimes.

iii. The defendant, Pyo was charged against a crime of having sex with 5 teenagers six times between November 2011 and May 2012.The defendant met these teenagers through chat service of a Smartphone.

iv. Pyo threatened these minors to circulate their sexual acts as well as nude photos on the Internet through online video footage. Additionally, he raped the minors while also threatening them using deadly weapons.

v. Judge Kim Ki-young of the Seoul Southern District Court in his ruling explained that Pyo committed crime against various victims for longer time

NOTE: In Asia, South Korea was first country to order such a treatment. Other countries to adopt this treatment are Denmark, Germany, Poland, Sweden as well as U.S. state of California.

The verdict of the Seoul court was passed at a time when India too is debating whether punishments like chemical castration should be introduced or not.

2.PM to lay foundation of BPCL-Kochi Refinery today:

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will lay the foundation for the Integrated Expansion Project of the BPCL-Kochi Refinery at Ambalamugal in Kochi this evening.

i. The Integrated Expansion project, which will be carried out at a total cost of 20,000 crore rupees is the single largest investment in Kerala in recent years.

ii. The project is aimed to meet the country's growing energy needs and make auto fuels more environments friendly.

iii. It involves increasing the refining capacity of the BPCL-Kochi Refinery from the current 9(.)5 million metric tonnes to 15(.)5** million metric tonnes per annum.

iv. The BPCL Kochi Refinery will also be diversifying into propylene based petro chemical industry by investing nearly 6000 crore rupees.

NOTE: Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, who arrives in Kochi this evening, will inaugurate the 11th edition of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas tomorrow and will take part in the meeting of Global Advisory Council of Overseas Indians.

3.Crime against women: CJI wants fast-track courts !

Chief Justice of India (CJI), Altamas Kabir today asked all high courts to set up fast track courts to deal exclusively with offences against women. In a letter to all the chief justices of high courts he said that the delay in disposing such cases might be one of the factors for rise in crimes against women, therefore the time has come to deal expeditiously with such cases.

i. The CJI said the high court chief justices should get in touch with the state governments for appointment of judicial officers but in the meantime some court should be designated as fast-track courts to exclusively deal with offences against women.

4.Omar Abdullah inaugurates First Civil Air Service in J&K:

In an effort to promote tourism and facilitate the movement of people of Kargil which remains cut-off with other parts of the state during winter, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday launched a commercial air service to the mountainous area.

i. The air service will keep Kargil residents connected with the state and also promote tourism in the state.

ii. Air Mantra will operate daily flights from Kargil to Jammu, with its 17 seater aircraft.

5.Haradhan Bandopadhyay, Renowned Bengali Actor Passed Away:

Haradhan Bandopadhyay, (86) the renowned Bengali actor died on 5 January 2013 in Kolkata after struggling for his life for 15 days.

About Haradhan Bandopadhyay:

•Haradhan Bandopadhyay worked in a total of 66 films and he had a career span of six decades.

•He worked with Satyajit Ray in movies such as Mahanagar, Shonar Kella, Jai Baba Felunath and many more.

•He worked with some of the renowned directors such as son of Satyajit Ray, Sandip Ray and Mrinal Sen.

•His recent performance was in Anurag Basu film- Barfi. Apart from this, another Hindi film in which he made appearance was Parineeta.

•In 2012, Haradhan Bandopadhyay was also conferred with the Banga Bibhushan award by the government of West Bengal.

6.Indian Institute of Astrophysics to Develop World’s Largest Solar Telescope:

The Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bangalore in the first week of January 2013 informed about its decision to come up with world’s largest solar telescope in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir.

i. The project would commence by the end of year 2013 and the telescope is likely to be placed at Hanle or Merak village near Pangong Lake in Ladakh.

ii. The telescope would be a 2-metre class, state-of-the-art National Large Solar Telescope (NLST).

iii. The project has been planned with a budget of 300 crore rupees and expected that the project would complete by 2017.

NOTE: It would help the researchers to understand the process of creation and decay of sunspots along with other fundamental processes that takes place on the surface of sun.

i. Also help in filling the longitudinal gap between Europe and Japan.

ii. Also provide crucial information on nature of magnetic fields due to its unprecedented spatial resolution.

7.Former South African Bowler Neil Adcock died from cancer:

Former South Africa fast bowler, Neil Adcock died at the age of 81 in Howick, KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. He had pneumonia and was also suffering from cancer for a long period of time.

i. Neil Adcock made his Test debut in year 1953 at home against New Zealand.

ii. Neil Adcock had played 26 Tests for South Africa between 1953 and 1962, and took 104 wickets at an average of 21.10.

iii. Neil Adcock was the first South African quick bowler to take 100 Test wicket.

8.Dhoni climbs to fourth spot in ICC ODI rankings:

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has returned to the top five in the latest ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen following his consistent performance with the bat in the recently-concluded three-match ODI series against Pakistan.

NOTE: Although India lost the series 1-2, Dhoni scored 203 runs in three games, including a century, and that helped him move up two places to fourth position in the chart.

i. Suresh Raina in 26th (up by one) spot and Yuvraj Singh, who re-entered the rankings in 41st position.

ii. Virat Kohli has climbed down a place to third with 824 points.

9.Shane Warne banned, after ugly T20 bust-up with Marlon Samuels:

Australian star Shane Warne was banned for one match and fined Aus$4,500 (US$4,700) on Monday after an ugly, foul-mouthed clash with West Indian Marlon Samuels during a Twenty20 match in Melbourne.

NOTE: The spin legend, captaining the Melbourne Stars against city rivals the Renegades in the domestic Big Bash tournament on Sunday, was furious that Samuels pulled back David Hussey  when the batsman was turning for a second run.

And when Samuels was batting later in the game, Warne confronted the West Indian with the words "F**k you, Marlon."

In the next over, Warne, in the field, threw the ball at the Jamaican's chest and Samuels reacted by tossing his bat down the pitch towards the Australian. The two players squared up and had to be separated by the umpires.