Ban Ki-moon ends 10 years at the helm of the United Nations lamenting the "fires still burning" from Syria to South Sudan but buoyed by a global agreement to combat climate change and new UN goals to fight poverty and inequality.

As a final act before his term ends at midnight on New Year's Eve, the secretary-general will push the button starting the descent of the glittering 11,875-pound ball in New York's Times Square in the countdown to 2017's arrival.

At that moment, former Portuguese prime minister Antonio Guterres will start his tenure as United Nations chief for the next five years.

Looking back at his stewardship of the United Nations at a farewell news conference earlier this month, Ban told reporters "this has been a decade of unceasing test." 

While he has seen collective action improve millions of lives, Ban expressed frustration at the failure to end Syria's war, now in its sixth year, and conflicts in South Sudan, Yemen, Central African Republic and Congo, to name a few.

And in rare criticism of world leaders, he blamed unnamed presidents, prime ministers and monarchs for the turmoil in the world on Saturday and expressed disappointment many care more about retaining power than improving their people's lives. He singled out Syria, saying he can't understand why it is being held hostage to "the destiny" of one man, Bashar Assad.

Even after leaving the UN, Ban said he will keep urging new and longstanding leaders to embrace the "pre-eminent 21st century fact" that "international cooperation remains the path to a more peaceful and prosperous world" and to demonstrate "compassionate leadership." 

To reinforce this, the secretary-general's final trip this month was to visit the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois. "Lincoln was a heroic force for equality, integration and reconciliation; and desperately, we need that spirit today," Ban said of the US leader during America's Civil War.

Ban has also expressed frustration at the way the UN operates and expectations in some quarters that the secretary-general has the power "to be some almost almighty person." 

That's impossible, he told the AP in September, because the UN's 193 member states make decisions and the secretary-general implements them. The UN chief cannot implement his or her own policies and initiatives.

John Bolton, who was US ambassador to the UN when Ban was selected to be secretary-general, said President George W Bush's administration supported him because "we wanted someone who would do what the member governments wanted" and not take the lead on issues and act as the world's top diplomat like then-secretary-general Kofi Annan.

"I think Ban Ki-moon lived up to our expectations, which is not to say I agreed with every position he took on climate change and things like that," Bolton told AP. 

Republican Party of India (RPI) president and Union Minister Ramdas Athawale on Saturday claimed that the "ongoing rift within Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh will certainly benefit BJP" in the upcoming assembly polls in that state.

He also claimed that his party can play a vital role in ensuring Dalit votes to BJP to capture power in the Uttar Pradesh.

"BJP is doing well in Chhattisgarh and therefore they are being voted to power again and again here. Congress is fighting among themselves (in Chhattisgarh). There in UP, clash is underway within Samajwadi Party," the Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Athawale told reporters here.

"Dispute within Congress benefits BJP and now feud within SP would be beneficial for the BJP in UP (polls)," he added.

" We are trying that RPI and BJP would contest UP election in alliance we can get Dalit votes to BJP to ensure victory of their candidates and could be a good support (for the saffron party). I spoke to union minister Rajnath Singh on Friday and even he said BJP could get benefit of RPI," he said.

Athawale also said, "only Mayawati does not have rights over Dalit votes but RPI too has. RPI is the actual party of Babasaheb Ambedkar." 

"If we will contest UP polls in alliance with BJP, then we will be fielding candidates in 15-20 seats but in case we enter in the fray alone, we will fight in 150-200 seats," he added.

The Minister, however, said that even if his party's nominees will secure victory while fighting without any alliance in the UP polls, they will later extend support to the BJP.

Athawale further asserted that inter-caste marriages should be encouraged to bridge the gap between different sections of the society.

"In Chhattisgarh, only 170 inter-caste marriages had taken place in in 2015-16. Though the figures are encouraging in comparison to previous years, 2013-14 where 90 marriages and 2014-15 where 80 marriages, had taken place, these mostly are love marriages," said the Union Minister.

"The state government should encourage arranged inter-caste marriages", he said.

According to the Minister, in this regard he will soon write to Chief Minister Raman Singh.

President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday wished people for the New Year and asked them to take pledge to make the country clean and pollution free.

Greeting the people on the eve of New Year, the President said "May the New Year bring progress and prosperity to our glorious nation.

"Let us unite to build an India of our dreams and pledge to make our beautiful country clean and pollution free," he said in a message while wishing all the countrymen here and in abroad.

Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh on Saturday hailed SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's decision to revoke expulsion of his son Akhilesh Yadav and brother Ramgopal as the right thing and said the conspiracy to break the party and the family has "failed".

"Mulayam Singhji has done the right thing. He has given a message through his decision that he will not let either the Samajwadi Party or his family break till he is alive. The conspiracy of the people who wanted the party and the family to break has failed," he said.

Singh also clarified that he does not want to break the party.

Congratulating Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and SP General Secretary Ramgopal Yadav, he said, "Those who had this misconception that I will try to break the party, I would like to tell them that I am not here to break the party, instead I want to keep it united." 

"If somebody is still hurt due to me, I want to tell that I am ready to sacrifice myself to ensure unity in SP pariwar and the workers," he said.

"We have to fight the communal forces and ensure that secular front is victorious in the upcoming elections," Singh added.

Earlier in the day, when Amar Singh was asked about the crisis in the party after supremo Mulayam Singh expelled Akhilesh and Ramgopal for six years after they put up candidates against the official nominees and summoned a party meet on Sunday.

Amar had said, "The foundation of this party was laid by Mulayam Singh with much dedication and hard work. I have said this earlier and will say it now, that Mulayam Singh is the chief of SP and the father of Akhilesh Yadav as well," he said.

Mulayam had yesterday said he had taken the action against Akhilesh and Ramgopal to save the party which he had built through hard efforts.

"We have to save the party. The party comes first. That is why we are expelling both Akhilesh and Ramgopal," he had said.

He explained that the decision was taken after Ramgopal, in his capacity as general secretary, called an emergency meeting of the party on January 1 and Akhilesh "supported" it.

Ramgopal called the meeting after a showcause notice was issued to him and Akhilesh by Mulayam for releasing a list of candidates, parallel to the one issued officially by Mulayam.

Soon after taking charge, new Lt Governor of Delhi Anil Baijal on Saturday said he will "sit together" with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to find ways to resolve the conflict between his office and the elected government.

Talking to reporters here soon after taking oath, Baijal said he won't "speculate" on the matter.

"I don't know how they (relations with Aam Aadmi Party government) will improve and whether they will improve. We will sit together and find out how to go forward," he said.

Baijal, a former Union Home Secretary, added he will try to resolve the problems being faced by Delhi.

Meanwhile, Kejriwal also expressed hope to get cooperation from Baijal so they could work together for Delhi's development.

"During the last few months, many of Delhi's works were stopped. We hope that in the coming days, we will be able to resume them with the same pace with which they were being carried out earlier," he added.

Baijal's predecessor Najeeb Jung, who resigned on December 22, was at loggerheads with Kejriwal and his ministers ever since the AAP swept to power in the national capital in February 2015. 

In September, Jung set up a committee to review over 400 files related to decisions taken by the Delhi government.

A third of new scientific findings are published in languages other than English, contributing to biases in our understanding and hinderances to the advance of science and research, a new study has found.

English is now considered the common language of global science. All major scientific journals seemingly publish in English, despite the fact that their pages contain research from across the globe.

Language hinders new findings getting through to practitioners in the field and causes the international community missing important science, said researchers from the University of Cambridge in the UK.

They argue that whenever science is only published in one language, barriers to the transfer of knowledge are created.

The researchers call on scientific journals to publish basic summaries of a study's key findings in multiple languages and universities to encourage translations as part of their 'outreach' evaluation criteria.

The researchers point out an imbalance in knowledge transfer in countries where English is not the mother tongue – much scientific knowledge that has originated there is available only in English and not in their local languages.

Researchers surveyed the web platform Google Scholar in a total of 16 languages for studies on biodiversity conservation published during a single year, 2014.

Of the over 75,000 documents, including journal articles, books and theses, some 35.6 per cent were not in English.

Of these, the majority was in Spanish (12.6 per cent) or Portuguese (10.3 per cent). Simplified Chinese made up six per cent and three per cent were in French.

Random sampling showed that only around half of non-English documents included titles or abstracts in English.

This means that around 13,000 documents on conservation science published in 2014 are unsearchable using English keywords.

This can result in sweeps of current scientific knowledge – known as 'systematic reviews' – being biased towards evidence published in English, researchers said.

This, in turn, may lead to over-representation of results considered positive or 'statistically significant', and these are more likely to appear in English language journals deemed 'high-impact'.

In addition, information on areas specific to countries where English is not the mother tongue can be overlooked when searching only in English.

For environmental science, this means important knowledge relating to local species, habitats and ecosystems – but also applies to diseases and medical sciences.

"Native English speakers tend to assume that all the important information is available in English," Amano said.

"On the other hand, non-native English speakers tend to think carrying out research in English is the first priority, often ending up ignoring non-English science and its communication," he said.

The research was published in the journal PLOS Biology.

Trying to dispel fears that the MSME sector had taken a big hit from demonetisation, Union Minister Kalraj Mishra on Saturday said things are falling in place slowly despite "initial difficulties".

Addressing reporters here on the ministry's achievements in 2016, Mishra admitted that "there were difficulties initially", but things are moving towards normalisation.

"There were difficulties initially, but wage payment to labourers has started normalising and migrant labourers who had left are returning," Mishra said when asked about reports of job losses in the informal sector after the cash recall exercise.

About banks' reluctance to disburse loans under the MUDRA Yojana in the wake of demonetisation, Mishra acknowledged some issues, saying these are "only for the time being".

Banks are expected to disburse Rs 1.80 lakh crore loans under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) in the current fiscal. Last year, 3.5 crore beneficiaries availed of Rs 1.22 lakh crore loans under PMMY. Under the scheme, loans ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 10 lakh are provided to small entrepreneurs.

To increase sales of khadi products, the government is also trying to penetrate global markets and adopt a franchisee model to open more outlets in India, with an emphasis on attracting youth towards the indigenous fabric, the minister said.

Sales of khadi goods went up by about 29 per cent to Rs 1,510 crore in 2015-16.

Mishra said the much-awaited Goods and Services Tax (GST) will benefit micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) across the country.

Budget passenger carrier IndiGo on Saturday said that it has taken the delivery of 13 Airbus A-320 Neo aircraft on December 27 and also announced the launch of 10 additional frequencies.

According to the airline, with the latest additions, its fleet size has grown to 125 aircraft in its 125th month of operations. 

Besides, the low cost carrier (LCC) announced additional flight operations, which it termed as being "in-sync with its organic growth in route network" and in response to the growing demand on its existing routes.

The additional frequencies will come into effect from January 1, 2017. The new schedule will see 10 additional frequencies connecting Hyderabad to Goa, Coimbatore, Bhubaneswar and Visakhapatnam. 

"The delivery of the 125th aircraft in the 125th month of our operation is indeed a landmark occasion for us. It reinforces our commitment towards the industry and living our promise of providing the best flying experience to our passengers," Aditya Ghosh, President and Whole Time Director, IndiGo was quoted in a statement.

The Union Government has extended the timeline for farmers to get enrolled in the rabi crop insurance scheme till January 10, Maharashtra agriculture minister Pandurang Fundkar said on Saturday.

"The earlier deadline of registration for the crop insurance scheme for rabi season was December 31. It has been extended to January 10 so as to enable more farmers to be benefitted from the initiative," said Fundkar.

The insurance is being offered by National Insurance Company and their officials will be facilitating enrollment of farmers in the scheme, the minister said.

Meanwhile, leader of opposition in legislative council, Dhananjay Munde in a statement today claimed that he had written a letter on December 28 to chief minister seeking some relaxation for rabi crop insurance registration.

Munde who is unhappy with the 10-days extension, said, "I had demanded extra one month's time for the farmers but that demand has not been met." 

Munde in his letter contended that farmers do not have sufficient amount of money in hand due to demonetisation and hence they should get more time to get their crop insured.

Scientists have found a new mechanism that controls blood cell function and several possible molecular targets for treating a group of pre-malignant disorders in which bone marrow does not produce enough healthy blood cells.

Myelodysplasia syndromes (MDS) can lead to acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), a fast-spreading blood cancer that can be deadly if not treated promptly.

Researchers from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Centre in the US led by cancer biologist Daniel Starczynowski, found that overexpression of a protein called TRAF6 in hematopoietic (blood) cells drives the onset of MDS.

TRAF6 normally functions as an immune sensor of pathogens, researchers said.

"We found that TRAF6 overexpression in mouse hematopoietic stem cells results in impaired blood cell formation and bone marrow failure," said Starczynowski, from the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Centre.

"Based on our paper, a number of therapeutic approaches can be tested and directed against TRAF6 and other related proteins responsible for MDS," said Starczynowski.

In testing on laboratory mouse models and human MDS/AML samples, the researchers identified a novel substrate of TRAF6 called hnRNPA1, an RNA binding protein.

They also found molecular interactions with Cdc42, a protein that helps regulate cells also implicated in cancer.

All of these could be potential treatment targets for cases of MDS triggered by overexpression of TRAF6, according to Starczynowski, who said future studies will test their therapeutic potential in mouse models of MDS.

The researchers were able to identify the new molecular targets by conducting a global proteomic analysis of human leukemia cells.

This allowed them to the see entire complement of proteins regulated by TRAF6 in leukemia cells.

Beyond the potential for new therapeutic approaches in treating MDS or AML, the research showed a new and critical immune-related function for TRAF6, scientists said.

In response to various pathogens, the protein also regulates RNA isoform expression, an important step in the translation of genetic code into protein and cell formation.

In the context of the current study, TRAF6's regulation of RNA isoform expression is important to the function of hematopoietic cells and reveals another dimension to how cells respond to infection, Starczynkowski said.

The research was published in the journal Nature Immunology.