Parliament Budget Session: Both Houses adjourned till tomorrow

  • The Budget Session that began on January 31, 2019, is the last session before General Elections. The session will continue till February 13.
  • The Centre and Opposition parties continue trading charges against each other in Lok Sabha over the alleged misuse of CBI in West Bengal.
  • Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan was forced to adjourn the proceedings of the Lower House as the Opposition protests continued over the CBI issue.
  • Months before the national election, this has become another flashpoint in the BJP versus opposition bust-up with several leaders, from Rahul Gandhi to Chandrababu Naidu, Arvind Kejriwal and Tejashwi Yadav, pledging their support to Mamata Banerjee.

Ayodhya case: Plea in SC challenging law on land acquisition near disputed site

  • A petition was filed in the Supreme Court on Monday challenging the constitutional validity of the Acquisition of Certain Area At Ayodhya Act, 1993.
  • This comes days after the Centre moved the top court with a petition asking to return the “non-disputed” surplus land acquired around the disputed structure in Ayodhya to a Hindu trust and other original owners.

US Says Indian Students Arrested In Visa Scam Were “Aware Of Their Crime”

  • All 130 foreign students, including 129 Indians who were detained for enrolling in a fake university, were aware that they were committing a crime to fraudulently remain in the US, the State Department has said.
  • The foreign students were arrested last week by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for enrolling at the University of Farmington allegedly to remain in America.
  • The fake university was set up by the DHS’s investigating unit in Greater Detroit area to bust the “pay-and-stay” racket.

Pope Francis becomes first pontiff to visit Arabian Peninsula

  • The Catholic leader was greeted by Abu Dhabi’s powerful crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and the Emirati vice president and prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, during the presentation of delegations in the courtyard of the royal palace.

Climate Change Will Alter The Colour Of The Oceans, New Research Finds

  • Ocean color varies from green to blue, depending on the type and concentration of phytoplankton, or algae, in any given area.
  • By the end of the century, if not sooner, the world’s oceans will be bluer and greener thanks to a warming climate, scientists reported Monday.
  • “Color is going to be one of the early signals,” said Stephanie Dutkiewicz, a principal research scientist in MIT’s Center for Global Change Science and a co-author of Monday’s study in Nature Communications.