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1. Rising criticism forced govt to blink, free Hazare A nervous government suddenly capitulated, jettisoning its attempt to take on Lokpal activists led by Gandhian leader Anna Hazare in the face of rising criticism that it has cracked down on an anti-corruption movement. Always a risk-laden option, the move to confront Anna and arrest him backfired on the government and Congress as after spending the day defending the police action, the ruling coalition found the civil society leader too hot a potato to keep in the Tihar Jail. Having said that the action against Anna was taken by the Delhi Police because as it apprehended he would commit a "cognizable offence" by defying prohibitory orders at the venue where Anna was to go on fast, it is clear that legal arguments proved to be totally inadequate. 2. Two Railway Board members appointed The government appointed two more members of the Railway Board, filling the posts of Member Staff and Member Electrical which remained vacant for several months. Arvind Kumar Vohra takes over as Member Staff, while Kul Bhushan has been appointed Member Electrical. Mr. Vohra will additionally hold the post of General Manager, East Coast Railways, Bhubaneswar, and Mr. Bhushan will hold the additional charge of Central Railway, Mumbai, which posts they held prior to their elevation to the Board. 3. RTI activist shot in Bhopal hours before protest in support of Hazare Hours before she was to lead a campaign in support of Anna Hazare in Bhopal, where she had threatened to make public names of some “corrupt” officials, RTI activist Shehla Masood was shot dead outside her home. Masood, who was in her late 30s, was found slumped in her car around 11.30 am by her aunt, who came to check why she hadn’t driven away despite leaving her home at Koh-e-Fiza locality of Bhopal several minutes earlier. 4. Five win children's literature awards Five writers have been chosen for the 2011 Kendra Sahitya Akademi's Bala Sahitya Puraskar for lifetime contribution to children's literature: Sailen Ghosh (Bengali), Shyam Dutt Parag (Dogri), Ramesh Parekh (Gujarati), Harikrishna Devsare (Hindi) and Maheswar Mohanty (Oriya). The winners of the awards for poetry include Gh. Nabi Aatash (Kashmiri), Snehalata Rai (Nepali), Darshan Singh Asht (Punjabi), Abhiraj Rajendra Mishra (Sanskrit), Nuhum Hembram (Santali), M.L. Thangappa (Tamil) and Aasil Aseer Dehlavi (Urdu). The short-story writers selected are Maheswar Narzary (Bodo), Mayanath Jha (Maithili), Dileep Prabhavalkar (Marathi), Harish B. Sharma (Rajasthani) and M. Bhoopal Reddy (Telugu). Novelists selected for the awards are Bandita Phukan (Assamese), Siddhartha Sarma (English), Hundraj Balwani (Sindhi), N. D'souza (Kannada), Gajanan Jog (Konkani) and K. Pappootty (Malayalam). Shantibala Devi (Manipuri) has been chosen for her book of folk tales and plays. The awards, each comprising a prize purse of Rs. 50,000 and a copper plaque, will be presented in November. . 5. Sidelined after riots, top cop is new Gujarat Home Secy After having cracked down on two senior IPS officers last week for taking on the Narenda Modi government in connection with the 2002 post-Godhra riots, the Gujarat Home department in a surprise move appointed M D Antani as the state’s new Home Secretary. IGP Antani, a 1990 batch IPS officer, was on Central deputation as the Regional Passport Officer in New Delhi since 2003. He was awaiting an assignment after returning to Ahmedabad at the end of his deputation. 6. UP Lokayukta says sack minister Holding Minister of State for Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development Awadh Pal Singh guilty of indulging in corrupt practices and misusing his official position, UP Lokayukta N K Mehrotra recommended his removal and prosecution under the Prevention of Corruption Act. In a report sent to Chief Minister Mayawati, the Lokayukta held that the minister had grabbed gram sabha land in his village in Etah district, facilitated award of contracts to his son Ranjit Singh and other relatives for the construction of veterinary hospitals and work in milk cooperatives, got criminal cases registered against his political rivals, and influenced the district administration during the election of chairman of the block development committee of Aliganj in Etah.

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7. Global food prices near 3-yr highs: WB Global food prices held near three-year highs in July and stocks were low, piling on pressure on the world's poor, the World Bank said. The World Bank Food Price index increased 33% in July from a year-ago and stayed close to 2008 peak levels, with large rises in the prices for maize, or corn, and sugar.“Persistently high food prices and low food stocks indicate that we are still in the danger zone, with the most vulnerable people the least able to cope,” said World Bank President Robert Zoellick. High food and energy prices have stoked inflation pressures around the global, but the problem has been more acute in developing nations. 8. China sends team to Nepal The Communist Party of China has sent a team of senior members to Nepal amid political turmoil following the resignation of Jhala Nath Khanal as PM. The Chinese delegation led by Zhou Yongkang, a standing committee member of political bureau of the Communist Party of China, will meet senior Nepali leaders like UCPN (Maoist) chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda', Nepal president Ram Baran Yadav and Khanal, who recently quit. Nepal's ministry of foreign affairs said it expected the meetings to result in a deal on economic and technical cooperation. This is the second time within a year that a Chinese delegation will be visiting Kathmandu. The Chinese team is likely to seek a commitment from Nepali leaders about their adherence to the "One China policy" - meaning they would do nothing to encourage separatist forces in Tibet. 9. Libya conflict: Gaddafi forces 'launched Scud missile' Military forces loyal to Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi have fired a Scud missile for the first time in the country's six-month conflict, US defence officials say. They say it was launched from near the coastal city of Sirte and aimed at Brega - currently held by rebels - but landed harmlessly in the desert. Pro-Gaddafi forces are believed to have more than 200 Scuds in their arsenal. The move comes as the rebels continue a push towards the capital, Tripoli. 10. Star Wars coins issued in Niue Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Yoda are among Star Wars characters who will appear on coins that will be legal tender in the Pacific island of Niue. A collection of four silver $2 coins costs NZ$469 (£240) while silver-plated $1 coins cost NZ$23.50 (£12) each. All Niueans are New Zealand citizens and Queen Elizabeth II, who appears on the reverse of coins, is head of state. Coin-issuer New Zealand Mint said they were gift products and would not be used "to go buy an ice cream with". 11. New India Assurance chief suspended M Ramadoss, chairman of the country’s largest general insurance company New India Assurance, has been suspended following a CBI investigation into his role in providing credit insurance for Chennai-based Paramount Airways. The Paramount deal was struck when Ramadoss was chairman-cum-managing director of Oriental Insurance Company, another public sector general insurer. Ramadoss is the second chief of a state-owned insurer to face action this year. On May 3, TS Vijayan, chairman of Life Insurance Corporation of India, the country’s largest life insurer was demoted to managing director, following allegations about LIC’s investments in the last few years. On July 28, the CBI registered a case against Vijayan. 12. No bank licences for corporates: RBI Notwithstanding the finance ministry’s initial prodding to go big on new bank licencing, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has got the ministry to toe its cautious line on how to expand the banking sector in India. The ministry and RBI have come to an understanding that big corporate houses ought not to be allowed to enter the banking business at this juncture. The move is in recognition of the risk to banks’ integrity from the corporates’ other business interests and the paramountcy of maintaining domestic financial stability in times of global crisis

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13. CCI fines DLF Rs 630 cr for unfair trade practices The Competition Commission of India (CCI) slapped a penalty of over Rs 600 crore on real estate major DLF, holding it guilty of abusing its dominant position in the market and imposing unfair conditions on the sale of its services to consumers. In its 237-page order, the anti-competitive activities watchdog asked DLF “to cease and desist from formulating and imposing such unfair conditions in its agreements with buyers in Gurgaon and suitably modify unfair conditions imposed on its buyers within 3 months of the date of receipt of the order.” The Commission levied a penalty at the rate of 7 per cent of the company’s average annual turnover of the last three years, amounting to Rs 630 crore, a sum “commensurate with the severity of the violation through such blatant abuse of dominance.” 14. New Pacific eel is a 'living fossil', scientists say A new type of eel that inhabits an undersea cave in the Pacific Ocean has been dubbed a "living fossil" because of its primitive features. It is so distinct, scientists created a new taxonomic family to describe its relationship to other eels. The US-Palauan-Japanese team say the eel's features suggest it has a long and independent evolutionary history stretching back 200m years. Details appear in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The animal used as the basis for the new study was an 18cm-long female, collected by one of the researchers during a dive at a 35m-deep cave in the Republic of Palau. 15. Darkest exoplanet spotted by astronomers A dark alien world, blacker than coal, has been spotted by astronomers. The Jupiter-sized planet is orbiting its star at a distance of just five million km, and is likely to be at a temperature of some 1200C. The planet may be too hot to support reflective clouds like those we see in our own Solar System, but even that would not explain why it is so dark. The research will be published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The planet, called TrES-2b, is so named because it was first spotted by the Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey in 2006. It is about 750 light-years away, in the Draco constellation.