General Awareness

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - March 2018

Mar 2018

Mar 23, 2021

Yemen Conflict: Saudi Arabia Puts Forward Peace Plan

Saudi Arabia has proposed a new peace plan to end nearly six years of war in Yemen.
It suggests an UN-supervised ceasefire between Yemen's Saudi-backed government and Houthi rebels, who are supported by Iran.
The plan also includes the reopening of vital air and sea links, and the start of political negotiations.
Houthi rebels said that the offer did not appear to go far enough to lift the air and sea blockade in place.
The proposal was announced in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, who called on the Houthis, who control large swathes of Yemen, to accept it.

EU and China Impose Tit-for-Tat Sanctions

The EU imposed sanctions on four Chinese officials, including a top security director, for human rights abuses in Xinjiang, to which Beijing responded by blacklisting Europeans in a rare escalation of diplomatic tensions. The EU has sought to avoid confrontation with Beijing, but a decision to impose the first significant sanctions since an EU arms embargo in 1989 has inflamed tensions. Accused of mass detentions of Muslim Uighurs in China, those targeted by EU include Chen Mingguo, director, Xinjiang Public Security Bureau.

Vote on Resolution against Sri Lanka at UNHRC Postponed

The vote on a critical resolution against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva has been postponed, as Colombo stepped up efforts to garner international support ahead of the voting which is being seen as an acid test for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
The vote on the draft resolution titled 'Promotion of Reconciliation Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka' was to be taken on Monday but officials in Geneva said that it has been postponed to Tuesday owing to some scheduling issues.
Sri Lanka was defeated at three consecutive resolutions at the UN rights body when Mr. Gotabaya's elder brother and incumbent Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa was the country's president between 2012 and 2014.
Sri Lanka has been assured of support from China, Russia and several Muslim countries including Pakistan.

Mar 22, 2021

North Korea Closes its Embassy in Malaysia

North Korea closed its embassy in Malaysia after announcing that it is cutting ties with Kuala Lumpur over the extradition of its citizen to the United States for alleged money laundering.
A North Korean diplomat called the extradition an "unpardonable crime.
As per reports, the North Korean businessman living in Malaysia is accused of supplying prohibited luxury items from Singapore to Pyongyang, in violation of UN sanctions.
Malaysia's top court ruled that the businessman can be extradited to the US, rejecting his appeal challenging the extradition request.

Mauritania and Qatar Resume Diplomatic Ties

Mauritania has resumed diplomatic relations with Qatar after a four-year freeze.
Foreign ministers from both countries held talks in Doha, Qatar, on Sunday, on the resumption of ties.
After intensive contacts over the past week and with much appreciated support from the Sultanate of Oman, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania and Qatar decided to resume diplomatic ties.
The West African country cut links with Qatar in 2017, over allegations that it supported terrorists, following on the lead by other Arab powers, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates that had done the same.

Iran in No Hurry to Revive Nuclear Deal

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that his country was in "no hurry" to revive the nuclear deal and warned the U.S. its current policy toward the Islamic Republic was doomed to fail unless sanctions are effectively and fully removed. Khamenei's speech, marking the Persian new year in Iran, highlighted his impatience with the Biden administration's decision to maintain sanctions and continue a standoff that started almost three years ago when former President Donald Trump abandoned the multilateral, 2015 nuclear deal.
Khamenei dismissed the dispute between Washington and Tehran over which country should make the first move to return to its obligations in order to revive the accord that meant to limit the country's nuclear program to peaceful means.

Mar 21, 2021

Bill Nelson Nominated to Lead NASA

President Joe Biden has nominated his longtime colleague, former Senator Bill Nelson (D–FL), to lead NASA, the administration announced today. If confirmed, Nelson will be tasked with leading the country back to the Moon, while also developing an ambitious project to recover the rock samples drilled by the Perseverance rover on Mars.
Nelson has a long history with the agency. He first entered national politics as a representative for the district that is home to Florida's space coast and flew as a civilian on the space shuttle in 1986. As a senator, he was a lead author of the law that created NASA's new Moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), which yesterday saw the first successful test of its engines.

Tanzania Swears in First Female President

Samia Suluhu Hassan was sworn in as Tanzania's first female President after her predecessor, John Magufuli, died suddenly.
Hassan, a soft-spoken ruling party stalwart from the island of Zanzibar, will finish Magufuli's second five-year term, set to run until 2025.
She becomes the only other current serving female head of state in Africa alongside Ethiopia's Sahle-Work Zewde, whose role is mainly ceremonial, whereas the president in Tanzania is also head of government.
Hassan was little known outside Tanzania until she appeared on state television on Wednesday night to announce that Magufuli, absent from public view for three weeks, had died from a heart condition.

World Happiness Report

India has been ranked 139 out of 149 countries in the list of UN World Happiness Report 2021, which is topped by Finland.
The World Happiness Report 2021, issued by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, focuses on the effects of COVID-19 and how people all over the world have fared.
It ranks the world's 149 countries on "how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be".
Finland has been ranked as the happiest country in the world. The Nordic nation is followed by Iceland, Denmark, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and Norway.
The happiness study ranks the countries of the world on the basis of questions from the Gallup World Poll. The results are then correlated with other factors, including GDP and social security.

Mar 20, 2021

Turkey Leaves Istanbul Convention

Turkey has left the Istanbul Convention, a Council of Europe treaty intended to prevent violence and domestic abuse against women, according to a decree published on Saturday in the Official Gazette.
The discussion on the treaty, signed by 45 countries and the European Union in 2011 in Istanbul, divided the ruling AK Parti and the country last year as conservatives argue it is undermining traditional values and family structure.
Protesters took to the streets across the country to demonstrate that the pact should be bolstered by legislative changes and need to be implemented strictly.

Fourth Straight Election Win for Mark Rutte's Conservatives

The process of forming a new Dutch governing coalition began, a day after Prime Minister Mark Rutte's conservative party powered to a fourth consecutive victory in a vote held during a nationwide lockdown and dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The feat put Rutte in position to lead coalition talks, most likely with another big winner — the centrist, pro-European D66 party led by former diplomat Sigrid Kaag, who danced on a table Wednesday night when an exit poll showed her party capturing one of its biggest-ever victories.
However, those two parties will likely need at least two more partners to form a majority coalition. According to the national news agency ANP, based on 88% of votes counted, Rutte's party, known by its Dutch acronym VVD, won 35 of the 150 seats in the lower house of parliament while D66 garnered 24.

Mar 19, 2021

US Senate Confirms Becerra as Head of Biden's Ambitious Health Agenda

The Senate confirmed California Attorney General Xavier Becerra as President Joe Biden's health secretary, filling a key position in the administration's coronavirus response and its ambitious push to lower drug costs, expand insurance coverage, and eliminate racial disparities in medical care.
The 50-49 vote makes the 63-year-old Becerra the first Latino to head the Department of Health and Human Services.
The USD 1.4 trillion agency encompasses health insurance programs, drug safety and approvals, advanced medical research, substance abuse treatment, and the welfare of children, including hundreds of Central American migrants arriving daily at the US-Mexico border.
Becerra has been California's attorney general since 2017. He sued the Trump administration 124 times on a range of policy issues, earning the ire of conservatives. Before that he represented a Los Angeles-area district in the US House for 24 years.

North Korea to Sever Diplomatic Ties with Malaysia

North Korea said that it would sever diplomatic relations with Malaysia after a court there ruled that a North Korean man could be extradited to the United States to face money-laundering charges.
North Korea's Foreign Affairs Ministry also warned Washington would "pay a price". Malaysia's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The North Korean statement did not name its citizen, but in early March, Malaysia's top court ruled that a North Korean man, Mun Chol Myong, could be extradited.
Mun had been arrested in 2019 after the United States accused him of laundering funds through front companies and issuing fraudulent documents to support illicit shipments to North Korea. He fought the extradition request, arguing that it was politically motivated.

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