Current Affairs For SSC CGL Exam - 01 April, 2014

Current Affairs For SSC CGL Exam

The possible shift of a good section of traditional Congress voters after party nominee Imran Masood’s hate speech video against BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi may well turn the fortune towards an unexpected aspirant.
The hate speech by Mr. Masood and his 14-day judicial remand are the main topic of conversation among urbanites as well as in hukkah panchayats in rural areas.
Mr. Masood delivered the speech at a meeting at Talehi Bujurg, near Deoband, in September 2013 when he was in the Samajwadi Party.
Although he apologised, when the hate speech went viral on private television channels, he turned defiant after he was arrested. He told journalists that he would go to jail a hundred times as he had committed no wrong by threatening to chop Mr. Modi into small pieces if he came to Uttar Pradesh.
Mr. Masood is the nephew of the former Union Minister, Rashid Masood, who is in jail on being convicted in the medical admissions scam. The Samajwadi Party has fielded Mr. Rashid Masood’s son, Shahjan Masood, who was given the ticket after withdrawing the same from Mr. Imran Masood.

Authorities in Washington state said they believe 22 people are still missing in the deadly mudslide that has killed at least 24 people. That is down from the 30 people they previously considered missing. The Snohomish County medical examiner’s office said it has positively identified 18 of the 24 victims in the official death toll.
Snohomish County Executive Director Gary Haakenson says the remains of three additional victims were found , but they have not yet been included in the medical examiner’s official numbers. The slide struck a rural area northeast of Seattle on March 22.
Estimated financial losses have reached $10 million, adding that about 30 families need assistance with housing, along with personal and household goods. The estimated losses include nearly $7 million in structures and more than $3 million in their contents.

The second edition of the Indian Badminton League (IBL) will be held from September 30 to October 15.
The governing council has decided to allow franchisees to increase the team strength from 11 in the first year to 13 players. Each franchisee can pick two more players — Indian or foreign — which will further intensify the competition.
The league will be played in Six Indian cities — Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.

Researchers at J. Craig Venter Institute, Maryland have created a synthetic chromosome from yeast paving the way for a new field of study. The team spent years sequencing the DNA of a simple yeast cell known as Saccharomyces Cerevislae, a kind of yeast used to brew beer.
The Venter team, which consisted of many university students and researchers decoded just one of the yeasts 16 chromosomes, entering the data into a software system that allowed the team to recompose and alter at will. The software was used as a sort of “build your own” chromosome. By rearranging the DNA totally new versions of the yeast could be synthesized. According to Jef Boeke the director of New York University’s institute for system genetics Over 50,000 changes were made to the DNA coding of the chromosome.
The yeast is used as a representative of Eukaryotes which is to say an organism that contains a nucleolus and structures inside of a membrane. All animals and plants have Eukaryotes as cells making this yeast a good subject of study with at least a third of its chromosome relating to humans.