National & International News

Kim Jong-Yang of South Korea Elected As the New President of INTERPOL

• International Police body Interpol elected Kim Jongyang of South Korea as president on November 21, 2018, beating a Russian national whose candidacy had raised concerns in Europe and the United States about the risk of Kremlin interference. Interpol  member states, meeting in Dubai for their annual congress, elected Kim to succeed China’s Meng Hongwei, who disappeared in September and later resigned after Chinese authorities said he was being investigated for suspected bribery.

Jaffer Sharief Passes Away

• He was member of Lok Sabha 8 times. Veteran Congress leader and former Railway Minister Challakere Kareem Jaffer Sharief, 85, passed away at a private hospital on November 25, 2018 following a cardiac arrest. The eight-time member of the Lok Sabha was hospitalised on November 23 after he collapsed as he was getting ready for namaz. Mr. Sharief, son of revenue inspector Kareem Saheb, was born in 1933 in Chellakere taluk of Chitradurga district in Karnataka. He entered the Lok Sabha winning the 1971 elections from Kanakapura constituency. He was Railway Minister in the Narasimha Rao government and had served as Minister of State in the Indira Gandhi and the Rajiv Gandhi governments.

Ricky Jay

• US magician who acted in several films dies at 72. Jay was known for his command of cards, conjuring them with precision or flinging them into the rind of a watermelon. He frequented talk shows and performed in several one-man shows directed by playwright David Mamet, including Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants. He acted in several Mamet films such as House of Games, The Spanish Prisoner, Things Change, Redbelt and State and Main. In the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies he played a cyber terrorist. Born Richard Jay Potash in Brooklyn, he was introduced to magic by his grandfather and started performing in New York.

Fahmida Riaz, Progressive Pakistani Urdu Writer Passes Away

• Hailed as a pioneer in feminist literature, noted Pakistani progressive Urdu writer, poet and rights activist Fahmida Riaz, who spent nearly seven years in exile in India died in Lahore on November 21, 2018 following prolonged illness. She was 73. Fahmida was faced with challenges in Pakistan itself due to her political ideology, being charged with various cases. During her exile in India, she had been poet in residence for Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi.

Superhero of Marvel Comics Stan Lee Passes Away at 95

• Think of ‘Spider Man’, the block buster movie franchise and Broadway spectacle. Think of “Iron Man” another Hollywood goldmine series personified by its star, Robert Downly Jr. Think of “Black Panther” the box office super hero smash that shattered big screen racial barriers in the process. And that is to say nothing of the Hulk, the X-Men, Thor and other film and television Juggernauts that have stirred the popular imagination and made many people very rich.                                                                                                    Stan Lee, who died in Los Angeles on November 12, 2018 at 95.        Lee was a central player in the creation of those characters and more, all properties of Marvel Comics. Indeed, he was for many the embodiment of Marvel, if not comics in general, overseeing the company’s emergence
  as an international media behemoth. A writer, editor, publisher, Hollywood executive and tireless promoter (of Marvel and of himself), he played a critical role in what comics fans call the silver age of the medium.