Australian Ope:Leander Paes - Elena Vesnina ends as Runner Up in Australian Open mixed doubles

Leander Paes and Elena Vesnina ended as runners-up in Australian Open mixed doubles. The fifth-seeded Indo-Russian pair lost 3-6, 7-5, 3-10 to the eighth-seeded Romanian-American Horia Tecau and Bethanie Mattek-Sands in one hour and 48 minutes at the Rod Laver Arena on Sunday.

The 38-year-old Paes was chasing a rare feat of winning two Grand Slam titles in the same tournament for the second time in his career, but fell at the final hurdle. In the 1999 Wimbledon, he had won both the men's doubles (with Mahesh Bhupathi) and mixed doubles (Lisa Raymond) titles.

Earlier on Saturday, Paes had won the men's doubles title with Czech Radek Stepanek to complete a career Grand Slam.

It was Paes' fourth Australian Open mixed doubles final, having won two and lost two. Overall, Paes has six mixed doubles titles.

World GK:Philippines underground river named new wonder of nature

An underground river in the western Philippines was confirmed to be among the world's new seven wonders of nature, the head of a global competition said on Saturday.

The Puerto Princesa Underground River in Palawan province is the second of the new seven wonders of nature to be confirmed after provisional results were announced last November.

Bernard Weber, founder and president of the New7Wonders, announced the confirmation in Manila and hailed the support for the nomination in the global competition.

"Today's confirmation is the well-earned reward for (the Filipino people's) extraordinary display of enthusiasm," he said.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the campaign has raised awareness about the river, where visitor arrivals have "increased tremendously." "This is proof positive of how effective a national effort of this sort can be, to build awareness, express pride, and achieve results," he added.

The 8.2-kilometre navigable underground river is the world's longest. The Geneva-based New7Wonders earlier confirmed Jeju Island as one of the winners of the competition. The other five provisional winners — the Amazon, Halong Bay, Iguazu Falls, Komodo and Table Mountain — are now undergoing the final verification process for their confirmation.

read more :http://www.allcurrentaffairs.tk/2012/01/philippines-underground-river-named-new.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AllCurrentAffairs+%28ALL+Current+Affairs%29

Australian Open: Azarenka won the Australian Open female singles title

Victoria Azarenka won her first grand slam title and became the new world number one when she thrashed a disappointing Maria Sharapova in the Australian Open final on Saturday.

The third-seeded Belarusian overpowered the 2008 champion to win 6-3, 6-0 in 82 minutes to lift the trophy and become the fourth women's first-time grand slam winner in a row.

"I can't wait to be back next year, I've had an amazing month in Australia. It's a dream true," said Azarenka.

Azarenka came from 0-2 down in the first set to win 12 of the next 13 games for a comprehensive victory, as Sharapova's game disintegrated in the face of all-out aggression from the Belarusian.

Sharapova made 30 unforced errors, while Azarenka played almost flawlessly at times with only 12 errors across the two sets.

"As in any sport you have your good days you have your tough days and you have days where things just don't work out. Today Victoria was just too good," Sharapova said.

"It all comes down to the last two athletes, winner takes it all after all the players in the draw. I've had great wins here and I've had tough losses but there's no doubt I'll be back."

Azarenka won the toss and chose to serve, but she started nervously and dished up two double-faults on her way to dropping the first game.

Sharapova consolidated to open a 2-0 lead and got to 0-30 on Azarenka's next game, but the Belarusian seemed to shake off her nerves and slowly took control............

read more at http://sports.ndtv.com/tennis/news/item/184662-azarenka-routs-sharapova-to-win-australian-open-title

Australian Open: Paes-Stepanek win men's doubles title

Veteran star Leander Paes on Saturday created history by becoming the first Indian to complete a career Grand Slam after winning the Australian Open men's doubles title with Radek Stepanek. 

The unseeded Indo-Czech pair played tremendously to upset the dangerous top seeds, Bob and Mike Bryan, 7-6 (7/1), 6-2 in the summit clash, which lasted one hour and 24 minutes.

Paes lauded Stepanek for playing a crucial role in the pair winning the Australian Open men's doubles title.

The title is Paes' first with Stepanek, who at 33 is five years younger than the Indian.

Paes said he told Stepanek that it was special to beat the world number one pair of Mike and Bob Bryan in the final.

"I have to thank my partner Radek for putting me on his shoulders and carrying me through the week. I have played five finals against the brothers and lost three and you know how it feels," Paes said after the win.

Paes acknowledged the prowess and talent of the Bryans, who have consistently dominated doubles tennis.

read more at http://sports.ndtv.com/tennis/news/item/184663-australian-open-2012-leander-paes-radek-stepanek-win-mens-doubles-title

Current Affairs :Lakshya II Pilotless Target Aircraft Proves IT Mettle

Flying at sea skimming height of about 15 meters at DRDO's test range near Balasore, Lakshya-II the advanced version of DRDO's Pilotless Target Aircraft (PTA)  demonstrated its full capability. In a flight lasting over 30 minutes, it was made to dive down from an altitude of around 800 meters to just 12 m and maintained required altitude for the specified time before demonstrating auto climb-out. 

The entire flight was pre-programed and was totally successful. It demonstrated various technologies and sub-systems including software correction to auto rudder scheme done to prevent loss of mission, engaging and flying in way point navigation mode while carrying 2 tow targets. During the flight one of the tow targets was released and the other was deployed while way point navigation was on.

This was the 10th flight of Lakshya-II PTA and this was the first time that the ultimate capability of the Lakshya-II, was demonstrated achieving all the user's objectives. Lakshya-II has been designed and developed by the Bangalore based Aeronautical Development Establishment, a premier DRDO lab specializing in UAVs and flight control systems.

read more at http://www.allcurrentaffairs.tk/2012/01/lakshya-ii-pilotless-target-aircraft.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AllCurrentAffairs+%28ALL+Current+Affairs%29

Tech News:Lab mimics Jupiter's Trojan asteroids in a single atom

An international team, led by Rice University, has showed in a laboratory experiment that it could cause an electron in an atom to orbit the nucleus in precisely the same way that Jupiter's Trojan asteroids orbit the sun.

The findings uphold a prediction made in 1920 by famed Danish physicist Niels Bohr about the relationship between the then-new science of quantum mechanics and Isaac Newton's tried -and-true laws of motion.

"Bohr predicted that quantum mechanical descriptions of the physical world would, for systems of sufficient size, match the classical descriptions provided by Newtonian mechanics," said team leader Barry Dunning.

He added: "Bohr also described the conditions under which this correspondence could be observed.

In particular, he said it should be seen in atoms with very high principal quantum numbers, which are exactly what we study in our laboratory."

In the experiment, the physicists began by using an ultraviolet laser to create a Rydberg atom.

Rydberg atoms contain a highly excited electron with a very large quantum number.

In the Rice experiments, potassium atoms with quantum numbers between 300 and 600 were studied.

"In such excited states, the potassium atoms become hundreds of thousands of times larger than normal and approach the size of a period at the end of a sentence.

Thus, they are good candidates to test Bohr's prediction," Dunning said.

The team said that it wanted to see if it could develop a way to use radio frequency waves to capture this localised electron and make it orbit the nucleus indefinitely without spreading out.

They succeeded by applying a radio frequency field that rotated around the nucleus itself.

This field ensnared the localised electron and forced it to rotate in lockstep around the nucleus.

Jupiter's 4,000-plus Trojan asteroids have the same orbit as Jupiter and are contained in comma-shaped clouds that look remarkably similar to the localised wave packets created in the Rice experiments.

read more at http://www.allcurrentaffairs.tk/2012/01/lab-mimics-jupiters-trojan-asteroids-in.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AllCurrentAffairs+%28ALL+Current+Affairs%29

Complete List of Padma awards 2012 announced

The President of India has approved the conferment of Padma Awards-2012. This year the President has approved 109 awards including one duo case (counted as one) and 14 in the category of Foreigners/ NRIs/ PIOs/ Posthumous. These comprise 5 Padma Vibhushan, 27 Padma Bhushan and 77 Padma Shri Awards. There are 19 ladies among the awardees

The awards are conferred by the President of India at a function held at Rashtrapati Bhawan sometime around March/ April.

Padma Vibhushan

Sl No.	Name	Discipline	State/ Domicile
1.	Shri K G Subramanyan	Art-Painting & Sculpture	West Bengal
2.	Late Shri Mario De Miranda	Art-Cartoonist	Goa*
3.	Late (Dr.)Bhupen Hazarika	Art- Vocal Music	Assam*
4.	Dr. Kantilal Hastimal   Sancheti	Medicine - Orthopedics	Maharashtra
5.	Shri T V Rajeswar	Civil Service	Delhi

Padma Bhushan

Sl No.	Name	Discipline	State/ Domicile
	Smt. Shabana Azmi	Art - Cinema	Maharashtra
	Shri Khaled Choudhury	Art - Theatre	West Bengal
	Shri Jatin Das	Art - Painting	Delhi
	Pandit Buddhadev Das Gupta	Art - Instrumental Music - Sarod	West Bengal
	Shri Dharmendra Singh Deol alias Dharmendra	Art - Cinema	Maharashtra
	Dr. Trippunithwra Viswanathan Gopalkrishnan	Art - Classical vocal and instrumental music	Tamil Nadu
	Ms. Mira Nair	Art - Cinema	Delhi
	Shri M.S. Gopalakrishnan	Art - Instrumental Music-Violin	Tamil Nadu
	Shri Anish Kapoor	Art - Sculpture	UK*
	Shri Satya Narayan Goenka	Social Work	Maharashtra
	Dr. (Judge) Patibandla Chandrasekhar Rao	Public Affairs	Germany*
	Shri George Yong-Boon Yeo	Public Affairs	Singapore*
	Prof. Shashikumar Chitre	Science and Engineering	Maharashtra
	Dr. M S Raghunathan	Science and Engineering	Maharashtra
	Shri Subbiah MurugappaVellayan	Trade and Industry	Tamil Nadu
	Shri Balasubramanian Muthuraman	Trade and Industry	Maharashtra
	Dr. Suresh H. Advani	Medicine - Oncology	Maharashtra
	Dr. Noshir H Wadia	Medicine-Neurology	Maharashtra
	Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty	Medicine-Cardiology	Karnataka
	Prof. (Dr.) Shantaram Balwant Mujumdar	Literature and Education	Maharashtra
	Prof. Vidya Dehejia	Literature and Education	USA*
	Prof. Arvind Panagariya	Literature and Education	USA*
	Dr. Jose Pereira	Literature and Education	USA*
	Dr. Homi K. Bhabha	Literature and Education	UK *
	Shri N Vittal	Civil Service	Kerala
	Shri Mata Prasad	Civil Service	Uttar Pradesh
	Shri Ronen Sen	Civil Service	West Bengal

Padma Shri

Sl No.	Name	Discipline	State/ Domicile
	Shri Vanraj Bhatia	Art - Music	Maharashtra
	Shri Zia Fariduddin Dagar	Art - Music - vocal	Maharashtra
	Smt. Nameirakpam Ibemni   Devi	Art - Music- Khongjom Parba	Manipur
	Shri Ramachandra Subraya Hegde Chittani	Art - Yakshagana dance drama	Karnataka
	Shri Moti Lal Kemmu	Art - Playwright	Jammu and Kashmir
	Shri Shahid Parvez Khan	Art - Instrumental Music-Sitar	Maharashtra
	Shri Mohan Lal Kumhar	Art - Terracotta	Rajasthan
	Shri Sakar Khan Manganiar	Art - Rajasthani Folk Music	Rajasthan
	Smt. Joy Michael	Art - Theatre	Delhi
	Dr. Minati Mishra	Art - Indian Classical Dance-Odissi.	Orissa
	Shri Natesan Muthuswamy	Art - Theatre.	Tamil Nadu
	Smt. R. Nagarathnamma	Art - Theatre	Karnataka
	Shri Kalamandalm Sivan Nambootiri	Art - Indian Classical Dance- Kutiyattam	Kerala
	Smt. Yamunabai Waikar	Art - Indian Folk Music-Lavani.	Maharashtra
	Shri Satish Alekar	Art - Playwright	Maharashtra
	Pandit Gopal Prasad Dubey	Art - Chhau dance and choreography	Jharkhand
	Shri Ramakant Gundecha#	Art - Indian Classical Music- Vocal	Madhya Pradesh
	Shri Umakant Gundecha #	Art - Indian Classical Music- Vocal	Madhya Pradesh
	Shri Anup Jalota	Art-Indian Classical Music- Vocal	Maharashtra
	Shri Soman Nair Priyadarsan	Art - Cinema- Direction	Kerala
	Shri Sunil Janah	Art-Photography	Assam
	Ms. Laila Tyebji	Art-Handicrafts	Delhi
	Shri Vijay Sharma	Art-Painting	Himachal Pradesh
	Smt. Shamshad Begum	Social Work	Chattisgarh
	Smt. Reeta Devi	Social Work	Delhi
	Dr. P.K. Gopal	Social Work	Tamil Nadu
	Smt. Phoolbasan BaiYadav	Social Work	Chattisgarh
	Dr. G. Muniratnam	Social Work	Andhra Pradesh
	Shri Niranjan Pranshankar   Pandya	Social Work	Maharashtra
	Dr. Uma Tuli	Social Work	Delhi
	Shri Sat Paul Varma	Social Work	Jammu and Kashmir
	Smt.Binny Yanga	Social Work	Arunachal Pradesh
	Shri Yezdi Hirji Malegam	Public Affairs	Maharashtra
	Shri Pravin H. Parekh	Pubic Affairs	Delhi
	Dr. V. Adimurthy	Science and Engineering	Kerala
	Dr. Krishna Lal Chadha	Science and Engineering - Agriculture	Delhi
	Prof. Virander Singh Chauhan	Science and Engineering	Delhi
	Prof. Rameshwar NathKoul Bamezai	Science and Engineering	Jammu and Kashmir
	Dr. Vijaypal Singh	Science and Engineering - Agricultural Research	Uttar Pradesh
	Dr. Lokesh Kumar Singhal	Science and Engineering	Punjab
	Dr. Yagnaswami Sundara   Rajan	Science and Engineering	Karnataka
	Prof. Jagadish Shukla	Science and Engineering	USA*
	Ms. Priya Paul	Trade and Industry	Delhi
	Shri Shoji Shiba	Trade and Industry	Japan*
	Shri Gopinath Pillai	Trade and Industry	Singapore*
	Shri Arun Hastimal Firodia	Trade and Industry	Maharashtra
	Dr. Swati A. Piramal	Trade and Industry	Maharashtra
	Prof. Mahdi Hasan	Medicine-Anatomy	Uttar Pradesh
	Dr. Viswanathan Mohan	Medicine - Diabetology	Tamil Nadu
	Dr. J. Hareendran Nair	Medicine - Ayurveda	Kerala
	Dr. Vallalarpuram Sennimalai Natarajan	Medicine - Geriatrics	Tamil Nadu
	Dr. Jitendra Kumar Singh	Medicine - Oncology	Bihar
	Dr. Shrinivas S. Vaishya	Medicine-Healthcare	Daman and Diu
	Dr. Nitya Anand	Medicine - Drugs Research	Uttar Pradesh
	Late Dr. Jugal Kishore	Medicine - Homoeopathy	Delhi *
	Dr. Mukesh Batra	Medicine-Homeopathy	Maharashtra
	Dr. Eberhard Fischer	Literature and Education	Switzerland*
	Shri Kedar Gurung	Literature and Education	Sikkim
	Shri Surjit Singh Patar	Literature and Education - Poetry	Punjab
	Shri Vijay Dutt Shridhar	Literature and Education - Journalism	Madhya Pradesh
	Shri Irwin Allan Sealy	Literature and Education	Uttarakhand
	Ms. Geeta Dharmarajan	Literature and Education	Delhi
	Prof. Sachchidanand Sahai	Literature and Education	Haryana
	Smt. Pepita Seth	Literature and Education	Kerala
	Dr. Ralte L. Thanmawia	Literature and Education	Mizoram
	Shri Ajeet Bajaj	Sports - Skiing	Delhi
	Smt. Jhulan Goswami	Sports - Women`s Cricket	West Bengal
	Shri Zafar Iqbal	Sports-Hockey	Uttar Pradesh
	Shri Devendra Jhajrija	Sports - Athletics- Paralympics	Rajasthan
	Shri Limba Ram	Sports - Archery	Rajasthan
	Shri Syed Mohammed Arif	Sports - Badminton	Andhra Pradesh
	Prof. Ravi Chaturvedi	Sports- Commentary	Delhi
	Shri Prabhakar Vaidya	Sports-Physical Education	Maharashtra
	Shri T. Venkatapathi Reddiar	Others-Horticulture	Puducherry
	Dr. K. (Kota) Ullas Karanth	Others-Wildlife Conservation and Environment Protection	Karnataka
	Shri K Paddayya	Others-Archaeology	Maharashtra
	Shri Swapan Guha	Others-Ceramics	Rajasthan
	Dr. Kartikeya V. Sarabhai	Others - Environmental Education	Gujarat

Note: * indicates awardees in the category of Foreigners / NRIs/ PIOs/ Posthumous.

read more at http://www.allcurrentaffairs.tk/2012/01/padma-awards-2012-announced-full-list.html