• India sought clarification from the US on the mandate, role and nature of the forces required for stability operations in Iraq besides the forces’ relationship with the United Nations.

• India has decided to pitch in with humanitarian aid by setting up a military field hospital in Iraq.
• Maharashtra Government announced its decision to ban consumption and possession of guthka with effect from July 1^st.

• The Kilash Mansarovar Yatra, deferred after the SARS scare in Tibet, will now take place next month following its clearance from the Chinese Government. The first batch of 30 pilgrims is scheduled to leave Delhi on July 8^th.
• The Indian Navy acquired the multipurpose frontline stealth warship, INS Talwar.
• Veteran actor, Jankidas Mehra passed away in Mumbai. He was 93.
• The Uttaranchal Revenue Minister, Shri Harak Singh Rawat resigned amid allegations of his sexual links with an unwed mother.

• In an attempt to address India’s concerns on placing its troops under the US command in Iraq, Washington has offered New Delhi representation on a proposed joint task force to run the command-and-control structure of stabilisation forces.
• The Jammu and Kashmir Government has set free 92 prisoners held under the State’s Public Safety Act of 1978 since October last.

• Ten services including commercial training, coaching centres, internet café, franchise services, forex brokers, auto servicing and ports to come under the 8 per cent Service Tax net from July 1^st.

• To promote industry and tourism in north eastern States, the Government will provide Rs.175 crore to Alliance Air, an arm of Indian Airlines for running additional flights in the region.

• The short range surface-to-air Trishul missile was successfully test-fired from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur-on-sea.

• For the second consecutive day, Trishul was successfully test-fired from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur-on-sea.
• The Karwar-Mumbai holiday special train derailed, killing 34 people and injuring 25. It was the first major accident on the 760-km Konkan Railways track.

• Defence scientists successfully test-fired Trishul, for the third time in three days from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur-on-sea.
• Government approved proposals of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Indian Oil Corporation to offer voluntary retirement scheme to their staff.

• Punjabi and Urdu have become the official second languages of National Capital Territory of Delhi.
• India released six Pakistani nationals, from prison in response to Islamabad’s gesture of releasing Indian prisoners last month.

• President Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam begins his three-day tour to Jammu and Kashmir.
• India rejected the Pakistan President Mr. Pervez Musharraf’s suggestion for a US sponsored road map, on the lines of West Asia, to resolve the Kashmir issue.

• Prime Minister Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee ended his six-day official visit to China.
• The RBI has directed banks to discontinue cheque facility to those customers whose cheques of Rs.1 crore and above are dishonoured four times in a financial year due to insufficient funds.
• Citing lack of evidence a local fast-track court acquitted all the 21 accused in the Best Bakery carnage in Vadodara following post-Godhra communal riots.

• The Cabinet approved the Lokpal Bill which seeks to check corruption at high places. It also brings the Prime Minister within its ambit.
• Two militants attacked an army cantonment in Jammu, killing 12 army men and injuring seven.

• Centre waived interest on agriculture loans for a period of one year for drought affected areas last year.

• Shri Ajay Prasad, the OSD to Deputy Prime Minister is the new defence secretary. In a major bureaucratic reshuffle, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet reshuffled 28 senior officials.

• Indians bag two of three Green Oscars awarded in London. Mr. Bunker Roy won the award for Barefoot College in the Himalayas. Mr. S.P. Gon Chaudhari from the West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency was honoured for his outstanding work.

• The US said that it reserves the right to take military action against Iran to stop developing nuclear weapons.

• The Chinese Prime Minister Mr. Wen Jiabao has underlined a new principle of Sino-Indian equality as one of the norms for the final settlement of boundary dispute between the two countries.

• India and China have signed a memorandum on opening border trade through Sikkim.
• India and China initialled nine agreements, including simplification of visa procedure

• National Security Adviser Mr. Brijesh Mishra will be India’s special representative to settle the India-China border dispute. Dai Bingguo, Executive Vice Foreign Minister, will represent the Chinese Government.
• The US rejected Pakistan’s renewed bid to acquire F-16 fighter planes, but announced a $3 billion aid package.
• American novelist Leon Uris, best known for ‘Exodus’, on the creation of Israel, and ‘Trinity’ on the conflict in Ireland, passed away in New York. He was 78.

• Investigators probing the Columbia space shuttle disaster blamed the breakaway foam as the most probable cause for the disintegration of the spacecraft which killed Kalpana Chawla and six other astronauts.
• The External Affairs Minister Shri Yaswant Sinha said that the border agreement has recognised Sikkim’s Nathu La Pass as a border pass between India and China.

• Forty people were killed in the Iraqi City of Najaf when looters accidentally set an ammunition depot on fire.
• Islamists who head the council running Pakistan’s largest city Karachi, has banned unnecessary depiction of women in advertisements, calling it obscene and vulgar.

• India won the title at the four-nation Hamburg Masters hockey tournament in Germany when they beat Spain 4-2.
• Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad declared a three-month cease-fire with Israel.

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