Major News and Events of 17 January 2015

Shazia Ilmi a former AAP leader who has recently joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has deleted her old tweets against the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was using those tweets against her. The AAP even launched a tweet attack against former IPS officer Kiran Bedi who is now part of the BJP team. AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal retweeted one of the old tweet of Shazia Ilmi where she had written ‘Hypocrisy, thy name is BJP’. More than half-a-dozen old Kiran Bedi tweets had been posted by founder AAP member Kumar Vishwas.

Shiromani Akali Dal, Indian National Lok Dal and Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (HSGMC) and other Sikh outfits on Friday shouted slogans and protested against the film "Messenger of God" in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi. It is a controversial movie featuring Dera Sachcha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in lead role. The Censor Board had earlier referred the movie to the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) for clearance. Censor Board Chairperson Leela Samson resigned over "clearance" to the movie by the FCAT. The protestors for peace across the country are demanding a complete ban on the film.

Petrol and diesel price today was cut by Rs 2.42 per litre and Rs 2.25 a litre respectively. The reduction was expected to be double but government had increased the excise duty on both these products by Rs 2 per litre. Since August it is the ninth reduction in Petrol price and fifth in diesel since October. Cost of Petrol in Delhi after reduction will be Rs 58.91 a litre (presently Rs 61.33 a litre) and that of diesel will be Rs 48.26 a litre (presently Rs Rs 50.51 per litre).

Sania Mirza and Bethanie Mattek-Sands defeated top-seeded Americans Abigail Spears and Raquel Kops-Jones to won the Apia International. It's the 23rd title of Sania Miraza's career and fifth WTA title for Sania and Bethanie together. The match lasted for just 69 minutes and duo won it by 6-3, 6-3. The win gave Sania and Bethanie 470 ranking points and USD 39,000 as prize money.

Lenovo is going to launch India's cheapest 4G smartphone A6000 at Rs 6,999 by hosting a sale on Flipkart on January 28 at 2 pm. Buyers need to register on website and the registration window is opened from January 16 to January 27 and closing at 12 midnight. Try to login 2-3 hours before sale if you want get A6000 at first attempt. The phone has 8MP rear camera, 2MP front camera, 2,300 mAh battery and has a storage capacity of 1GB RAM and 8GB internal memory (expandable upto 32 GB).

Air India is involved in yet another controversy in which the airline pilot had attacked a flight engineer at the Chennai Airport. The incident took place inside the cockpit when Manicklal and the engineer Kannan had an argument over a delay in flight departure. Pilot then assaulted the engineer. 122 passenger were on board at the time of incident. As per media report, the flight's pilot had been taken off and management is now investigating the incident.

Samsung always focus on launching smartphones with varied features. The company launched its Galaxy A range smartphones A3 and A5 at the end of Oct in China, Taiwan, Russia and Netherlands. Though not confirmed by Samsung but it is expected that Samsung is soon going to launch these smartphones in India. Samsung Galaxy A3 has a 4.5” qHD Super AMOLED display whereas A5 has a bigger 5” 720p display. A3 has 1 GB RAM and internal storage of 8 GB. A5 will come with 16 GB storage.