February 2013 Current Affairs Daily Feed - 13 Feb 2013

1. Italian investigators on Tuesday, 12 Feb 2013 alleged that Italy's biggest defence company bribed S P Tyagi when he was chief of the Indian Air Force to for the VVIP chopper deal in favour of the company. The CEO of the company, Giuseppe Orsi, has been arrested over allegations he paid bribes to secure a deal to sell 12 helicopters to India. India, the world's largest weapons importer, has a history of corruption in defence deals. A multi-million dollar scandal in the 1980s over the purchase of Swedish Bofors artillery guns contributed to an electoral defeat for the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. Can you name the Italian company which is under scanner for this scam?
[Category: Latest Current Affairs]
[A] Westland
[B] Agusta
[C] Finmeccanica
[D] AgustaWestland


2. On 12th Feb 2013, nearly two months after retiring as the Chairman of Tata Group, Ratan Tata is taking up a new role by joining hands with global leaders, including former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and WTO Director General Pascal Lamy, to launch the GOC. The GOC brings together eminent people from different parts of the world for a new initiative to restore health and productivity to the ocean. What is GOC?
[Category: News and Current Affairs]
[A] Global Ocean Commission
[B] Global Ocean Committee
[C] Global Organization Committee
[D] Green Ocean Commission


3. In a surprising move, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board on Tuesday, 12 Feb 2013, agreed to drop wrestling from 2020 Olympics. The IOC executive board met in Lausanne and decided to remove wrestling, part of the Olympics since the first modern Games in 1896 in Athens, from the list of 25 'core' sports. Wrestling will now join the seven shortlisted sports which are baseball/softball, karate, sport climbing, squash, wakeboarding and _________, vying for the inclusion in the 2020 Olympics as an additional 28th sport. The decision, however, is not final and all eight sports (their respective international federations) are scheduled to make presentations to the executive board at a meeting in St Petersburg, Russia, in May.
[Category: Sports Current Affairs]
[A] Taekwondo
[B] Wushu
[C] Kabaddi
[D] Rugby


4. In a blow to ruling Congress led UPA government, the Central Bureau of Investigation Director was quizzed by the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Tuesday over the prosecutor-accused nexus issue in the 2G scam. Meanwhile, the CBI preliminary inquiry is widening its focus on the other accused as well. The CBI director appeared before the JPC on Tuesday, 12 Feb 2013, and admitted to a collusion between its prosecutor and Unitech MD Sanjay Chandra. Who was the prosecuter from CBI?
[Category: Politics Current Affairs]
[A] PC Chacko
[B] A Raja
[C] Shahid Balwa
[D] AK Singh


5. US President Barack Obama announced on Tuesday, 12 February 2013, that about half the US force in Afghanistan will withdraw by early 2014, bringing the United States one step closer to wrapping up the costly, unpopular war. Obama said that, this drawdown will continue. And by the end of next year, the war in Afghanistan will be over. The announcement came a month after Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed in Washington on a plan to slightly speed up the handover of combat operations in Afghanistan, with Afghan forces taking the lead role throughout the country this spring. What are the number of troops that will be withdrawn in early 2014?
[Category: World Political Current Affairs]
[A] 20000
[B] 34000
[C] 47000
[D] 52000