Daily Current Affairs: 18 January 2014

1) Adarsh scam: Court rejects CBI plea for dropping Ashok Chavan’s name- In a setback to Maharashtra's former chief minister Ashok Chavan, a special court on Saturday rejected the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)'s plea to drop his name from the list of accused in the Adarsh scam case.

2) Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor cremated: The mortal remains of Sunanda Pushkar, who was found dead in mysterious circumstances at a luxury hotel on Friday night, were consigned to flames in presence of her family members. Meanwhile, Doctors at AIIMS, who conducted autopsy on the body of Sunanda Pushkar, on Saturday said that it was a case of "sudden, unnatural death" but ruled out poisoning even as police investigated various angles into death of Union Minister Shashi Tharoor's wife.

3) 18 people dead at Mumbai in Stampede: 18 people were dead following a stampede in Mumbai in a rush to pay last respects to the spiritual leader of the Dawoodi Bohra community Syedna Mohammad Burhanuddin.

4) Subsidised LPG cylinder quota to be increased to 12: Moily- With Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi making a strong pitch for raising LPG cap, Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily on Friday said the quota of subsidised cooking cylinders will be hiked to 12 from 9 per household.

5) Peshawar is world's 'largest reservoir' of polio: WHO- With over 90 percent of Pakistan's polio cases genetically linked to Peshawar, the World Health Organization on Friday described the northwestern city as the world's "largest reservoir" of endemic polio virus.

6) RBI puts brakes on bitcoin trade in India: Enthusiasm over bitcoins has dampened in India after the country’s central bank cautioned investors to be wary of using virtual currency because of the associated security, financial and legal risks.

7) Bhupathi out of men’s doubles at Australian Open: Mahesh Bhupathi in all probability played his last men’s doubles match at the Australian Open when he and his American partner Rajeev Ram lost their second round match against second-seeded Alexander Peya of Austria and Bruno Soares of Brazil in Melbourne on Saturday.

8) Lusofonia Games to begin in Goa from today: Over 800 athletes from 12 Portuguese-speaking countries will be slugging it out for glory at the Lusofonia Games, which will begin in Goa on Saturday. The Lusofonia Games 2014 are the third edition of the Portuguese Commonwealth Games. The first two were held in Macau in 2006 and in Lisbon in 2009.

9) Boxer Vijender Singh's movie 'Fugly' to be released on 16th May: Olympic medal winner and boxer Vijender Singh debut movie 'Fugly', produced by Akshay Kumar, will release on May 16 this year.

10) India, Pakistan agree to allow 24x7 trade through Wagah border: In a major decision that could smoothen trade between India and Pakistan, the two have decided to open theWagah-Attari border for trade 24X7 and allow containers to be moved right up to Amritsar and Lahore instead of  being unloaded at the check-post and re-loaded on the other side.

11) India loses 1-2 to Belgium, finishes 6th in World League Final: Hosts India blew away a goal lead and conceded two late goals to go down 1-2 against Belgium to finish sixth in the Hero Hockey World League Final on a chilly evening at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium New Delhi on Saturday.

12) BoM launches savings bank deposit scheme: Bank of Maharashtra has launched a savings bank deposit scheme — Mahabank Royal Savings Account exclusively for high net worth Individuals having a minimum monthly average balance (MAB) of Rs 1 lakh in their account.

13) India to skip Azlan Shah Cup for World Cup preparation: The Indian hockey team will not participate in the 23rd Sultan Azlan Shah Cup to be held in Ipoh, Malaysia, March 13-23 as they will be preparing for the World Cup in Europe.