General Awareness

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - March 2016

Mar 2016

Feb 14, 2020

U.S. Welcomes Saeed's Conviction

The US welcomed the conviction of the 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed and described it as an important step forward for Pakistan in meeting its international commitments to combat terror financing and not to allow non-state actors to operate from its soil.
The statement of a top state department official came after Saeed, a UN designated terrorist whom the US has placed a USD 10 million bounty on, was sentenced to 11 years in two terror financing cases on Wednesday, four days ahead of a crucial meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in Paris where Pakistan will present its case to escape from being blacklisted.

Hope Hicks to Return to the White House

President Donald Trump's former communications director Hope Hicks -- one of his most influential confidantes and a long time loyalist -- is expected to return to the White House in an adviser role.
She will return to an administration gearing up for re-election and serve a President freshly intent on ridding his team of aides he views as disloyal.
Long seen as a stabilizing force on a boss who likes chaos, Hicks will be working closely with Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as well as White House political director.
As per reports, her official title will be counsellor to the President.

UK's New Finance Minister

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointed Indian-origin politician and Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy's son-in-law Rishi Sunak as the new Finance Minister in his cabinet.
Sunak is the second person to join Johnson's cabinet, the first being Priti Patel, the Home Secretary. The 39-year-old is set to move into No. 11 Downing Street, next door to the Prime Minister's Office.
Sunak previously served as the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, the second in command to the Finance Minister. He was elected to the parliament in 2015.

Feb 13, 2020

Vietnam's National Media Group VOV Inaugurates its First Indian Bureau

Vietnam's national media group VOV inaugurated its first Indian bureau in Delhi in the presence of Vietnamese Vice President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh.
Voice of Vietnam (VOV), which runs multiple radio and television channels, two online newspapers and one print newspaper, has a total of 13 bureaus in countries other than Vietnam.
Delhi would be 13th overseas representative bureau of the VOV group.

Hafiz Saeed Gets 5.5 Years in Prison Term

Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed was convicted by a court in Lahore and given a five-and-a-half year prison term in two terror financing cases – the first time the US-designated terrorist has been held guilty by the Pakistani judiciary.
Singnificantly, the verdict came four days before the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) plenary meeting in Paris to assess action taken by Pakistan to counter terror financing and money laundering. Pakistan has been keen to get off the so-called grey list of the organisation set up to combat terror financing and money laundering.
Anti-terrorism court judge Arshad Hussain Bhatta ruled that the five-and-a-half year prison terms given to Saeed in both cases would run concurrently and also fined him Rs. 15,000 in the two cases.

CIA Spied Through Swiss Encryption Firm

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) read the encrypted messages of several countries, including India, for decades through its secretly-owned Switzerland-based company trusted by governments all over the world to keep the communications of their spies, soldiers and diplomats secret, according to a leading American daily.
According to a report by The Washington Post and German public broadcaster ZDF published on Tuesday, the company, Crypto AG, entered into a deal with America's CIA in 1951 and came under its ownership in the 1970s.
The joint reporting project, which uncovered the secret operation from CIA classified documents, described how the U.S. and its allies exploited other nations' gullibility for years, taking their money and stealing their secrets.
The CIA and the National Security Agency (NSA) spied on allies and adversaries alike through Crypto AG specialising in making cryptography equipment.

Bernie Sanders Wins North Hampshire Democratic Primary

Senator Bernie Sanders narrowly won the New Hampshire Democratic primary election, consolidating his hold on the progressive left wing of the party and his position in the race as a front-runner, fending off a surge from moderates Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, who came second and third.
Former Vice-President Joe Biden, who entered the race as a front-runner and continues to lead in polls, finished a poor fifth amidst growing talk of fading prospects. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a progressive like Sanders, came fourth in yet another sign of rapidly diminishing chances.
Senator John Bennet and entrepreneur Andrew Yang, whose unorthodox run and style had generated a lot of interest and headlines, dropped out of the race after performing poorly in the primary, and the field will narrow further as the race travels to other and larger, and more diverse states.

Feb 12, 2020

US Peace Plan is a Gift to Israel

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, appearing before the United Nations Security Council, angrily rejected US President Donald Trump's Middle East peace proposal as a gift to Israel and unacceptable to Palestinians.
Waving a copy of a map that the US plan envisions for a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, Abbas said the state carved out for Palestinians looks like a fragmented "Swiss cheese."
His appearance came as a draft UN Security Council resolution is being circulated that would condemn an Israeli plan to annex its settlements in the West Bank, in what would amount to a rebuke of the Trump plan.
The draft text, circulated to council members by Tunisia and Indonesia, would face a certain US veto, but nonetheless reflected some members' dim view of the peace plan that Trump rolled out two weeks ago with great fanfare.

China Denies Role in Cybertheft

China denied involvement in any hacking activities after the US indicted four members of the Chinese military for allegedly breaking into computer networks and stealing the personal information of tens of millions of people.
The Justice Department accused Beijing of engineering one of the biggest hacks in history, targeting consumer data at the Equifax credit reporting agency.
China's Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that China was committed to firmly oppose and combat cyber-attacks of any kind.
He added that it is a staunch defender of cyber-security and its institutions 'never engage in cyber-theft of trade secrets', claiming China was also the victim of cyber-attacks from the US.
As per Geng, China is also a victim of this.

Sudan to Hand over Bashir to International Criminal Court

Sudan has agreed to hand ousted autocrat Omar al-Bashir and others to the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Darfur.
The Hague-based ICC has charged Bashir and three of his former aides with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Sudan's western region during a brutal conflict from 2003. "Those who have been indicted by the ICC, they have to go there," Mohamed Hassan Al-Taishay, a member of the ruling sovereign council said.

U.K. Unveils Laws to Stop Early Release of Terrorists

Britain unveiled emergency laws to stop convicted terrorists from being automatically released part-way through their prison sentences, following two attacks in London.
The government hopes the bill will swiftly pass through parliament and become law by the end of the month.
Prisoners are currently released on licence around half-way through their sentences.
Under the proposed new law, terror convicts will only be considered for release after serving two-thirds of their sentence, and then only after consideration by a parole board.
The change will affect around 50 prisoners currently behind bars. Usman Khan, 28, stabbed two people to death in November in a knife attack near London Bridge while attending a prisoner rehabilitation conference.

Pak. Court Accepts Saeed's Plea to Club Terror Financing Cases

An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan accepted a plea of Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamat-ud-Dawa chief (JuD) Hafiz Saeed to club all six terror financing cases against him and his aides, and announce the verdict on completion of the trial.
The anti-terrorism court or ATC had indicted Saeed and others on December 11 in terror financing case in day-to-day hearing.
The anti-terrorism court of Lahore accepted the plea of Saeed and his close aides seeking delay in the verdict in two concluded terror financing cases against them till the trial in other four such pending cases is complete.

Feb 11, 2020

Mumbai girl becomes youngest in world to climb South America's highest peak

Kaamya Karthikeyan, a class seven student of Navy Children School (NCS) in Mumbai, became the youngest girl in the world to summit Mt Aconcagua, the highest peak in South America. At 6962 metres, Mt. Aconcagua is the highest peak outside Asia.
Karthikeyan summited the mountain peak on February 1 and unfurled the tricolour.
She achieved this following years of physical and mental preparation and regular participation in adventure sports.
The young girl overcame many administrative hurdles and extreme climbing conditions to achieve this rare feat.

Feb 10, 2020

Syrian Army Overruns Strategic Town in Idlib

The Syrian army took control of a strategic northwestern crossroads town, its latest gain in a weeks-long offensive against the country's last major rebel bastion of Idlib.
The advance on Saraqeb came shortly after Turkey sent additional troops into the region and threatened to respond if any of its military observation posts in Idlib, set up under a 2018 truce, come under attack.
Since December 2019, government forces have pressed a blistering assault against the Idlib region with Russian support, retaking town after town despite warnings from rebel ally Turkey to back off.

Israel Mapping West Bank Annexations

Israel has begun to draw up maps of land in the occupied West Bank that will be annexed in accordance with US President Donald Trump's proposed peace plan.
Netanyahu said that the area would include all Israeli settlements and the Jordan Valley - territory Israel has kept under military occupation since its capture in the 1967 Middle East war but which Palestinians want in a future state.
"The only map that can be accepted as the map of Palestine is the map of the Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital," said Nabil Abu Rdainah, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Prospects for annexations, which have already been widely condemned, are unclear.
Israel will hold a national election next month and Netanyahu, who is facing criminal corruption charges, is hoping to win a fifth term in office.

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