News in Short

• Tech giant SpaceX has bagged the contract of an agri-tech company, which will require him to send a marijuana consignment to the International Space Station (ISS).
• The cargo of cannabis will be sent to space on board a SpaceX Dragon capsule in March 2020, alongside a shipment of coffee.
• However, neither of these would be sent for the personal consumption of the astronauts in the space station, but to analyse the effect gravity has on hemp.

• Researchers have discovered a new mechanism involved in a common congenital disease of the aortic valve located in the left ventricle.
• Valve disease affects two per cent of the population, which is a significant proportion. Despite this high incidence and many signs that point to the role played by genetics in aortic diseases, only a few genes have been identified to date.
• Researchers looked at patients with a bicuspid aortic valve, which is an aortic valve that has only two functional leaflets instead of the usual three. Most patients affected by this valve disease are asymptomatic in early life.
• But in adulthood, this bicuspid valve can leak or cause premature aortic narrowing, resulting in shortness of breath or abnormal fatigue on exertion.

• Pakistan's ex-military ruler Pervez Musharraf has been sentenced to death in the high treason case by a special court.
• He was handed the death sentence in the long-drawn high treason case against him for suspending the Constitution and imposing emergency rule in 2007.
• The former army chief left for Dubai for medical treatment in March 2016 and has not returned since, citing security and health reasons.

• The government has cleared the name of Lt-General Manoj Mukund Naravane as the next Army chief after General Bipin Rawat finishes his three-year tenure on December 31.
• Lt-Gen Naravane has served in key appointments in active counter-insurgency environments, both in the northeast and in Jammu and Kashmir, and was also a part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka during “Operation Pawan”.
• He also served for three years as the defence attache in Myanmar.