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• President Donald Trump said top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was “terminated” when he was on the verge of attacking US diplomats but he insisted that Washington is not seeking to topple Iran’s government.


• “Soleimani was plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel, but we caught him in the act and terminated him,” Trump said in a statement before television cameras in Florida.

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• The Imran Khan government tabled the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Bill, 2020 in parliament after the two main opposition parties assured they would support it.


• The amendment is expected to provide clarity on future extensions to the tenures of army chiefs. According to the bill, the army chief’s extension will not be challengeable in any court of law in the future.


• It also states that the matter of an army chief’s extension “shall not be called into question before any court on any ground whatsoever”.

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• Sri Lanka’s new president endorsed amending the constitution to reduce the power of minority political parties, saying the country wasn’t suited to a system that creates unstable governments “constantly under the influence of extremism”.


• In a speech after he presided over the start of a new Parliament session, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said a majority of the voters who elected him in last November’s presidential election rejected “political agendas founded on race” and proved “it is no longer possible for anyone to manipulate and control the politics of this country by playing the role of kingmaker.

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• Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel set up a committee under agriculture minister Ravindra Choubey to ensure the payment of Rs 2500 per quintal to farmers against procurement of paddy on minimum support price.


• A press release issued by the state government said the committee will examine the schemes of central and state governments for provisions of financial aids for farmers and after detailed discussion-deliberation on all the aspects and submit recommendations within a month.

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• India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Syed Akbaruddin, called out Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan for tweeting an old video clip from Bangladesh which he tried to pass off as a case of “Indian police’s pogrom against Muslims in UP”.


• Akbaruddin took to Twitter to denounce the Pakistani Prime Minister. “Repeat offenders. Old habits die hard,” the Indian envoy tweeted.

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• About 300 protesters were arrested when they blocked a train in Tamil Nadu’s Tirupur as fresh protests were held across the country against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC).


• News agency Press Trust of India reported the arrested protesters to belong to Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK), who tried to stage a ‘rail roko’ agitation and raised slogans against the CAA and NRC.


• Protests were also reported from Coimbatore, where hundreds of people formed a human chain to protest against the CAA.

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• Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia urged parents to visit the schools as the city government organised a mega parent-teacher meeting (PTM) in its schools.


• In a tweet in Hindi, he said for the future of the students, the conversation between the parents and teachers is very important.


• “Today, there is a parent-teacher meeting in the Delhi government schools. I request all the parents to visit the schools. To prepare your child’s future, it is very important that there should be a conversation between the parents and teachers,” he said.

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• Preparations are afoot to introduce the Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) at graduation level in TM Bhagalpur University (TMBU) from the coming session.


• Awadh Kishore Roy, VC, BN Mandal University, who holds additional charge of TMBU, said the university was looking forward to beginning CBCS from the 2020-23 session. He added that the modalities were being finalized for this.


• Discussion on the introduction of the system figured in the agenda of a meeting convened last week by the chancellor in Patna where all the universities in the state have been asked to ensure the CBCS is introduced at graduation level from 2020-23 session.

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• Federal Reserve policymakers who last year were frequently at odds over where to set the United States' borrowing costs opened 2020 telegraphing confidence in the state of the economy and signalling broad agreement that the monetary policy is right where it should be.


• In their first remarks in the new year, heads of several regional Fed banks noted a strong job market, robust consumer spending and a rising optimism for a resolution to the trade tensions that had nicked growth in the second half of 2019.

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• Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey on January 3 held a meeting with senior tax officials and asked them to put forward special efforts to check evasion and meet the target set for the current fiscal.


• It may be recalled, the finance ministry last month had put its GST tax mop up target at Rs 4.45 lakh crore for the remaining period of this fiscal, with Rs 1.1 lakh crore GST collection target for three months and Rs 1.25 lakh crore in a single month.

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• Marnus Labuschagne hit a double century as Australia amassed a huge 454 in the first innings against a weary New Zealand in the third Sydney Test.


• Marnus Labuschagne reached his highest Test score of 215 as the Australians were dismissed just before tea on the second day of the final Australia vs New Zealand Test.

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• Multiple Grand Slam winners Serena Williams and Svetlana Kuznetsova are set to resume their 16-year rivalry after being drawn to face each other in the first round of next week's Auckland WTA Classic.


• Tournament top seed Williams, 38, and Kuznetsova, 34, are in a competitive half of the draw in which the veterans are competing against the rising stars of tennis, including American teen sensations Amanda Anisimova and Coco Gauff as well as 22-year-old Latvian Jelena Ostapenko.


• Williams leads Kuznetsova 10-3 in their head-to-heads dating back to 2004 and has won 23 Grand Slams compared to two for the Russian.

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• Prince William 37 has announced a multi-million-pound prize for “visionaries” working to solve “Earth’s greatest environmental problems,” from climate change to air pollution.


• The Earth shot Prize will be awarded to five winners, every year, for the next 10 years. The initiative’s goal is to provide “at least 50 solutions to the world’s greatest problems by 2030.”

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• Famous Portuguese professional football player Cristiano Ronaldo was awarded by Globe Soccer Award as the best men’s player of the year in the international football function held in Dubai.


• Ronaldo has won the award six times out of its nine years of its existence and also marked 4th consecutive time.

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• Delhi AIIMS’ Professor Suresh Chandra sharma appointed as the 1st ever Chairman of NMC (National Medical commission).


• Sharma was the head of ENT(ears, nose,throat) head-surgery department of AIIMS(All India Institute of Medical Sciences) in New Delhi.The Committee also appointed Dr Rakesh Kumar Vats, Secretary General, Board Of Governors, Medical Council of India as Secretary of NMC.

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• Hillary Rodham Clinton appointed as the first female Chancellor of United Kingdom’s Queen’s University.


• She succeeds Tom Moran. Clinton is the 11th Chancellor of the University and will serve for a period of five years from January 1, 2020. She will act as an advisor to the vice-chancellor Prof Ian Greer and senior management.