NEWSMAKERS OF THE WEEK
SHASHI THAROOR’S COMMENTS ON ‘ GOOD HINDU’’ AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF A RAM TEMPLE IN AYODHYA JUST BEFORE THE 2019 LS ELECTIONS HAS SET OFF A POLITICAL CONTROVERSY. HE SHOULD NOT HAVE SPOKEN AS THE CASE IS ONGOING IN THE COURT. Tharoor, the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, was in the news for his comment, “most good Hindus would want to see a Ram temple at the site where Ram was supposed to be born. But I also believe that no good Hindu would have wanted to see that temple built by demolishing somebody else’s place of worship,” at the Hindu Lit for Life Dialogue in Chennai. He clarified that it was his personal opinion. “I am not a spokesperson for my party and did not claim to be speaking for the Congress. Paul Allen, who founded Microsoft with Bill Gates in the 1970s and later went on to become an investor, philanthropist and sports team owner, has died after his latest battle with cancer at 65. He was known as the owner of sports teams, along with a variety of business and charitable ventures. He also founded Stratolaunch Systems, which built the world’s largest plane designed a rocketlaunching aircraft touted as the future of space travel. Author Anna Burns on Tuesday became the first Northern Irish writer, and the first woman since 2013, to win Britain’s renowned Man Booker Prize for her novel Milkman. Judges of the annual award praised the work, an exploration of Northern Ireland’s three decades of sectarian violence known as The Troubles told through the voice of a young woman, as “utterly distinctive”. The 56- year- old said that she was ‘ completely stunned’ at receiving the prize”. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange sued the Ecuador government on Friday for violating his “fundamental rights” and limiting his access to the outside world while in asylum at its London embassy. “The move comes seven months after Ecuador threatened to remove Assange’s protection and cut off his access to the outside world, including refusing to allow journalists and human rights organisations to see him,” WikiLeaks said. It added that the embassy was requiring Assange's Narayan Dutt Tiwari, 93, veteran politician and former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, passed away on Thursday after prolonged illness. Tiwari who was sworn in as the 21st governor of AP in 2007, had to leave office unceremoniously on charges of inappropriate behavior. During his tenure, retired professor Ujjwala Sharma’s son Rohith Shekhar filed a paternity suit claiming he was Tiwari’s son. Tiwari accepted Rohith as his son and tied the knot with Ujjwala.