1. The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to set up the state’s first vulture conservation and breeding centre in farenda area of Maharajganj district. The major aim behind the move is to conserve the endangered vulture population.
2. Saudi Arabia was recently elected to the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for the first time. The development came after the Kingdome won the membership of UNESCO Executive Board.
3. US President Donald Trump has signed two bills into law, which supports the Hong Kong protesters. The bill requires the US State Department to certify once in a year that Hong Kong is sufficiently autonomous to retain its special US trading consideration.
4. Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur was removed from the key parliamentary panel- the defence committee after she described Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin, Nathuram Godse, as a “patriot” during Lok Sabha proceedings. The MP will not be able to attend any BJP parliamentary party meetings during the current session.
5. (d) Maldives
The former President of Maldives, Abdulla Yameen was sentenced to five years of imprisonment in a money laundering case on November 28, 2019. The order was passed by a five-judge bench of a court in Maldives. Yameen also has to pay a penalty of USD 5 million.
6. The Union Sports Ministry recently constituted a 13-member expert committee headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Mukundakam Sharma to review the Draft National Sports Code. The other members of the committee are Gagan Narang, Bhaichung Bhutia, Anju Bobby George, Pulella Gopichand, Ajay Singh, Sudhanshu Mittal, Adille Sumariwala BP Baishya and Dr A Jayathilak.
7. The Lok Sabha recently passed a bill for the merger of two union territories Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. The name of the new union territory will be Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu. India will now have 8 Union Territories.
8. Former Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralidharan has been appointed as the Governor of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. This province is a Tamil majority. Muralidharan has taken 534 in 350 ODIs and 13 wickets in 12 T20s.
9. Satoshi Suzuki has been appointed as Japan’s ambassador in India. He has given this responsibility when both countries want to take their bilateral relations to the new heights.
10. The NuGen Mobility Summit-2019 is being held at the International Center of Automotive Technology (ICAT) in Manesar, Haryana during November 27-29, 2019.
