Amazon `The lungs of the world`

The Amazon Rainforest, also known as Lungs of the World. This forest supplies 20 percent of oxygen to the entire world. Is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America. More than half of the forest is contained within Brazil, the rest of it in Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, covering five and a half million square kilometers, or 1.4 billion acres. The Amazon represents over half of the planet’s remaining rainforests, and it comprises the largest and most species-rich tract of tropical rainforest in the world. The diversity of plant species is the highest on Earth.

sri lanka's face veil ban comes into effect

Sri Lanka ban all types of face covers burqas and masks comes into effect today. Muslim women in Sri Lanka will not be allowed to wear any form of face veils in public from Monday under new regulations announced by President Maithripala Sirisena who used emergency powers in the wake of the Easter Sunday bombings. The new regulation banning any form of face covering was announced by the President on Sunday, a week after the coordinated blasts hit three churches and three luxury hotels, killing over 300 people and inuring more than 500 others. The ban is to ensure national security.. No one should obscure their faces to make identification difficult, Sirisena's office said in a statement. He took steps under the emergency regulation to prohibit the use of face coverings of all sorts which is an obstacle to ensure the identity of the people and a threat to national and public security. The order clarifies that the key criterion for establishing the identity of a person is the need to clearly expose the face, the report said. The President has taken this decision to establish a peaceful and cohesive society which does not inconvenience any community people as well as ensure national security, it added. Muslims account for 10 per cent of the population and are the second-largest minority after Hindus. Around seven per cent of Sri Lankans are Christians.

500 year old well discovered near gurdwara on kartarpur corridor in pak

On the Kartarpur corridor  a 500-year-old well discovered. It`s believed to have been built during the lifetime of the founder of Sikhism Guru Nanak Dev. At the enclosure of a gurdwara on the Kartarpur corridor which will facilitate easy passage of Sikh pilgrims to the historic Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan.The well was discovered while digging the enclosure of Gurdwara Dera Sahib Kartarpur, some 125 kilometres from Lahore, on the Kartarpur corridor, caretaker of gurdwara Sardar Gobind Singh told the press. It will also be a great attraction for the Indian Sikhs due here on the 550th birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak, he said. The year 2019 marks the 550th birth anniversary year of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev, whose birthplace is Sri Nankana Sahib in Pakistan.The corridor will facilitate visa-free travel of Indian Sikh pilgrims to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur. On November 26 last year, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu laid the foundation stone of the Dera Baba Nanak-Kartarpur Sahib Corridor (up to the International Border) at an event at Mann village of Gurdaspur district of Punjab.On November 28, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan laid the foundation stone for the 4-kilometer corridor which is expected to be completed by 2019.

PVJAI SINDHU

Pusarla Venkata Sindhu is an Indian professional badminton player. At the Rio Summer Olympics in 2016, she became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic silver medal. She is one of the two Indian badminton players to ever win an Olympic medal  other being Saina Nehwal.

Sindhu came to international attention when she broke into the top 20 of the BWF World Ranking in September 2012 at the age of 17. In 2013, she became the first ever Indian women's singles player to win a medal at the Badminton World Championships. In March 2015, she is the recipient of India's fourth highest civilian honor, the Padma Shri. Her silver medal win in the women's singles event of the 2016 Summer Olympics made her the first Indian shuttler to reach the final of an Olympics badminton event and the youngest Indian to make a podium finish in an individual event at the Olympics.

Sindhu was born (5 July 1995) to  P. V. Ramana of  West Godavari district and P. Vijaya of Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh state. In 2000, Ramana was awarded Arjuna Award for his sport. Though her parents played professional volleyball, Sindhu chose badminton over it because she drew inspiration from the success of Pullela Gopichand, the 2001 All England Open Badminton Champion.  She eventually started playing badminton from the age of eight.

Sindhu first learned the basics of the sport with the guidance of Mehboob Ali at the badminton courts of Indian Railway Institute of Signal Engineering and Telecommunications in Secunderabad. Soon after, she joined Pullela Gopichand's Gopichand Badminton Academy badminton academy.  The fact that she reports on time at the coaching camps daily, travelling a distance of 56 km from her residence, is perhaps a reflection of her willingness to complete her desire to be a good badminton player with the required hard work and commitment.

Gopichand seconded this correspondent's opinion when he said that the most striking feature in Sindhu's game is her attitude and the never-say-die spirit. After joining Gopichand's badminton academy, Sindhu won several titles. In the under-10 years category, she won the 5th Servo All India ranking championship in the doubles category and the singles title at the Ambuja Cement All India ranking. In the under-13 years category, Sindhu won the singles title at the Sub-juniors in Pondicherry, doubles titles at the Krishna Khaitan All India Tournament, IOC All India Ranking, the Sub-Junior Nationals and the All India Ranking in Pune. She also won the under-14 team gold medal at the 51st National School Games in India.

Career

In the international circuit, Sindhu was a bronze medallist at the 2009 Sub-Junior Asian Badminton Championships held in Colombo. At the 2010 Iran Fajr International Badminton Challenge, she won the silver medal in the singles category. Sindhu reached the quarterfinals of the 2010 Junior World Badminton Championships that was held in Mexico. She was a team member in India's national team at the 2010 Uber Cup.

2016

In January, Sindhu won the Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold women's singles title after beating Scotland's Kirsty Gilmour in the final. She had also won this tournament in 2013.

In the 2016 Premier Badminton league, Sindhu was the captain of Chennai Smashers team. In the group league, she won all of the five matches to help her team qualify for the semifinal. However, in the semifinal. her team was beaten by Delhi Acers.

Rio Olympics 2016

At the  women's singles event, Sindhu was drawn with Hungarian Laura Sarosi  and Canadian Michelle Li in Group M. During the group stage matches, she beat Laura Sarosi (2–0) and Michelle Li (2–1). Further she ousted Taipei's Tai Tzu-ying (2–0) in the round of 16 to meet the second seed Wang Yihan in the quarterfinals, whom she defeated in straight sets.

Sindhu later faced the Japanese Nozomi Okuhara in the semifinals, won in straight sets, and ensuring her a podium finish. This set the stage for her final showdown with top seed from Spain, Carolina Marín. Marin managed to beat Sindhu in three sets in the 83-minute match. With that result, Sindhu clinched the silver medal. She charted history of achieving the feat as she is youngest and first women individual to bag an Olympic Silver medal representing India. This was the second instance of podium finish at the Olympics by any Indian badminton player.

Honours

• Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award for badminton in 2016

• Arjuna Award for badminton in 2013