August 14 Sanjog Chhetri posthumously awarded Ashok Chakra.

• Tejas, the light combat aircraft TD-1 attained supersonic speed. It crossed the sound barrier with a velocity of 1.1 mach.

• The Mukut Mithi led congress Government in Arunachal Pradesh was voted out of power through voice vote in State Assembly.

• A 37 member United Democratic Front Ministry, headed by Gegong Apang, was sworn in by the Aruchal Pradesh Governor, Shri VC Pandey.

• With Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh at loggerheads over sharing of the Krishna waters, the Centre announced the setting up of a Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal by the end of this month.
• The Election and Other (Amendments) Bill, 2003 got the Parliamentary approval after the Rajya Sabha approved it.
• The Madhya Pradesh Cabinet approved a Bill to reserve 27 per cent jobs for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the State.

• The Supreme Court has sentenced a World Bank official, Hanna Grace Jude, to three months imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs. 50,000 for defying its order to bring back her child to India from the United States.
• The Centre for Science and Environment has claimed that carbonated drinks sold by Pepsico and Coca-Cola have toxic pesticide residue 35 times higher.

• The Supreme Court ruled that Government employees have no fundamental, legal, moral or equitable right to go on strikes as a means of expressing their grievances.
• Salaried taxpayers will now be able to file their returns online. The scheme will initially be available in seven cities.
• A Bill to create an autonomous self-governing body for the Bodo tribals in Assam was passed by the Lok Sabha.

• The Gujarat Government filed an appeal in the High Court at Ahmedabad against the trial court judgement acquitting 21 accused in the Best Bakery case.

• The Telecom Disputes and Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) allowed basic operators to provide WLL mobile services as part of their basic service licences.
• The Supreme Court has converted the National Human Right Commission’s (NHRC) plea in the Best Bakery case into a public interest petition. This will enlarge the scope of the hearing to include larger questions relating to criminal justice system.
• Munir, the Pakistani boy who had strayed across the border into Rajasthan in June, will be released from jail and sent back home.
• Eminent painter Bhupen Khakkar died in Vadodara. He was 69.

• Market regulator SEBI has banned Samir Arora, the Singapore based fund manager of Alliance Capital Asset Management Company, from the capital markets.
• Track-II diplomacy to improve ties between India and Pakistan broke fresh ground as a delegation comprising politicians from all parties, senior journalists and strategic experts crossed over to the neighbouring country through the Wagah border.
• The Arjun Awards Committee selected the Asian Games gold medal-winning athlete, KM Beenamol for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award.

• Attorny General Soli Sorabjee came out strongly against the Supreme Court ruling against the right to strike. He said that the apex court observation that Government employees had no moral right to go on strike was uncalled for and beyond comprehension.

• The Union Cabinet cleared proposals to grant full statehood to Delhi and impose a countrywide ban on cow slaughter.
• The Centre decided to amend the Criminal Procedure Code (Cr PC) to make it obligatory for police to record the statement of a witness before a magistrate and not merely before a police officer.
• Maharashtra Government began implementating of the amended Right to Information Act after getting approval from President Dr. Kalam.

• The Mashekkar Committee, set up by the Union Health Ministry to chalk out an action plan to tackle the spurious drugs menace, has recommended death penalty for those who manufacture and distribute fake drugs.
• Government cleared 26 proposals envisaging Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) worth Rs. 16.08 crore including a Rs. 5.03 crore plan by Citicorp International to set up a unit ion Mumbai to manufacture pharmaceutical ingredients and bulk drugs.
• Thirteen year old Pakistani boy Munir, who strayed into India, left for Pakistan by Sada-e-Sarhad, the bus linking India with Pakistan.
• New Delhi summarily rejected Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s offer of a ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) and in Kashmir.

• The Government introduced a Bill in Lok Sabha to give more teeth to the RBI to regulate cooperatives, banks and FIs besides mooting a depositor protection fund.
• RJD MP Mohammad Shahabuddin surrendered before the chief judicial magistrate of Siwan in connection with four cases, including the kidnapping and suspected murder of a CPI-ML worker.
• Taking suo moto notice of a newspaper cartoon, the Delhi High Court issud a notice to the Central Government for allegedly exempting import duty worth Rs.1.13 crore on the car gifted by the Italian giant, Fiat to the batting maestro, Sachin Tendulkar.

• The Supreme Court banned the collection of capitation fees by professional colleges.
• Sanjog Chhetri, a para-trooper from the Army’s elite special forces has been posthumously awarded the nation’s high gallantry award, the Ashok Chakra.
• The opposition served a notice of no confidence on the Vajpayee Government.

• In his address to nation on 56^th Independence Day, the Prime Minister Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee announced that India would send a spacecraft to the moon by 2008. He also invited Pakistan to walk together with India on the road to peace and to abjure its anti-India outlook.

• FBI Investigators have traced the funding for the September 11 attacks to Al-Qadea accounts in Pakistan.
• A truck bomb shattered a military hospital in a Russian province near Chechnya, killing at least 20 people.

• Pakistan asked the cable operators to strictly observe the ban on broadcasting Indian television channels. The ban was imposed 19 months ago after the December 2001 attack on Indian Parliament for which New Delhi blamed Islamabad backed militants.
• The 16 nation International Space Station may have to be abandoned unless the US clears its grounded space shuttle fleet to restart supply flights or provides funds to Russia to do the job.

• The former heavyweight boxing champion, Mike Tyson, has filed for protection in the US Bankruptcy Court, claiming his finances are in disarray.
• Conceding the demand of the Missionaries of charity, the core committee formed by the Archdiocese of Calcutta to oversee the celebrations of Mother Teresa’s beatification has decided to withdraw Hell’s Angel, the controversial film on her life by Christopher Hitchens.
• In the first settlement of its kind, an Indian-origin doctor, Dr. Bob Rajcoomar, has won $ 50,000 in damages from the US Homeland Security Department over a suit alleging air marshals detained him because of his dark skin.

• Hyundai group top executive Chung Mong-hun enmeshed in a financial scandal over a landmark summit between North and South Korea, leapt to his death from a high-rise office building in central Seoul.
• The Pakistan Olympic Association has supported India’s bid to hold the Commonwealth Games. It has expressed the hope that India will become the first country in the sub-continent to host the event.

• A Swiss court has handed down the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazie Bhutto and her husband Asif Zardari, a six-month suspended sentence. It also fined them $ 50,000 each in a pre-shipment inspection case.
• The Pakistan Government has agreed to release all the 343 Indian fishermen languishing in Pakistani jails for the past one-and-a-half years.

• The Episcopal Church in the US has voted to approve the election of its first gay bishop. The decision risks splitting the denomination and shattering ties with its sister churches worldwide.

• Indonesian Muslim militant Amrozi was sentenced to death after being found guilty of helping to plan and carry out last year’s deadly bombing attacks on the Resort Island of Bali.

• The Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Shri Shivshankar Menon, presented his credentials to President Pervez Musharraf.

• Scattered protests over fuel shortages and power cuts erupted in the southern city of Basara in Iraq, injuring five US soldiers and ten Iraqis.

• The Liberian President Charles Taylor stepped down as demanded by the US and West African leaders. The former warlord has been blamed for 14 years of bloodshed in the country.

• The Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has offered a conditional cease-fire along the Line of Control if India is willing to reciprocate and reduce the strength of its forces in the Kashmir Valley.

• US authorities have arrested a British national of Indian origin after he allegedly tried to smuggle in a Russian surface-to-air missile and sell it to FBI agents posing as Al-Qaeda operatives.
• British Airways has suspended until further notice all its flights to Saudi Arabia due to heightened security concerns.
• An anti-terrorism court in Karachi acquitted the former Pakistan Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto’s husband Asif Ali Zardari, in a murder case, but he will remain in prison facing other charges.

• The White House announced the capture of a top ally of the Al-Qadea leader, Osama bin Laden Riduan bin Isomuddin, also known as Hambali in Asia.