German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier Re-elected for another Term
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was re-elected for a second term of five years by a special parliamentary assembly.
Steinmeier had been endorsed by most mainstream political parties ahead of the election for the largely ceremonial head of state.
The President was elected with a big majority by a special assembly made up of the members of parliament's lower house and representatives of Germany's 16 states.
Before first becoming president in 2017, Steinmeier served two stints as Chancellor Angela Merkel's foreign minister and earlier was chief of staff to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Norway Tops Democracy Index 2021
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) released its report on the state of democracy in 2021 across 165 independent countries and two territories.
The report was based on five findings – electoral process and pluralism, functioning of the government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties. The report was further bifurcated into a full democracy, flawed democracy, hybrid regime, and authoritarian.
Norway topped the Democracy Index 2021 with an overall score of 9.75 while Afghanistan displaced North Korea as the least democratic country with an overall score of 0.32.
Norway, New Zealand, Finland, Sweden, and Iceland are the top five nations while the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, North Korea, Myanmar, and Afghanistan are the bottom five nations in the Democracy Index 2021.
India was ranked 46th in the 2021 Democracy Index's global ranking.
Anti-vaccine Convoy Protests continue in Canada's Ottawa
Access to three border crossings in Michigan, North Dakota and Montana were cut off by truckers and like-minded demonstrators on the Canadian side of the border who are protesting Covid-related restrictions.
For two weeks now, the trucks have blockaded the downtown core of Ottawa, the capital of Canada. Demonstrators have parked their bulky vehicles in the middle of critical roadways between Canada and the US.
The protests were ignited by truckers who oppose the nation's new rule that requires them to be fully vaccinated when crossing the Canada-US border or face a two-week quarantine. Their "Freedom Convoy" has since drawn others who are resisting Covid-19 preventative measures, including mask mandates, lockdowns and restrictions on gatherings.
Nepal's ruling coalition lawmakers filed an impeachment motion against Chief Justice Cholendra Shamsher JB Rana over allegations of corruption.
Rana, who had assumed the post of Chief Justice on January 2, 2019, was suspended from his post following the registration of impeachment motion against him at the House of Representatives.
A total of 98 lawmakers from ruling alliance signed the proposal to impeach the Chief Justice.
There is a provision for automatic suspension of the Chief Justice with the registration of the impeachment motion.
Feb 13, 2022
Jaishankar Attends Quad Foreign Ministers' Meet in Australia
External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar participated in the 4th Quad Foreign Ministers' meeting in Melbourne.
Australia hosted India, Japan and the United States for the fourth Quad Foreign Ministers' meeting and the top diplomats sought to bolster cooperation in areas including economy, security, coronavirus pandemic and free and open Indo-Pacific.
The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) is a partnership of four nations, each of whom shares a commitment to openness, transparency and challenges coming out of the current global order.
Anti-vaccine Convoy Protests Continue in Canada's Ottawa
Horn-blaring demonstrations demanding an end to Canadian Covid-19 vaccine mandates have caused gridlock in the capital Ottawa since late January. The protests by truckers and others are now spilling to key Canada-United States border crossings and disrupting trade.
The mayor of Windsor, Ontario, where protesters have closed the Ambassador Bridge border crossing to the United States, choking trade, said police were preparing to physically remove protesters if necessary.
The "Freedom Convoy" driving across Canada toward Ottawa in late January ostensibly opposed vaccinate-or-quarantine mandates for cross-border truckers. But most truckers do not support the convoy.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance, an industry group, said it opposes protests on public roadways and the vast majority of Canadian truckers are vaccinated.
The protests have broadened to oppose a range of provincial and federal Covid-19 measures.
Feb 12, 2022
Burkina Faso Junta Chief Declared President
Burkina Faso's new military strongman, Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, was declared President by the country's top constitutional body after a coup last month.
On January 24, disgruntled officers led by Mr. Damiba forced out the country's elected president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, who had faced a wave of public anger over his handling of a bloody jihadist insurgency.
One of the world's poorest and most volatile countries, Burkina Faso is struggling with a jihadist campaign that has claimed more than 2,000 lives and forced around 1.5 million to flee their homes.
Feb 11, 2022
Ukraine Slams Russia
Ukraine criticised Russian naval exercises near its southern coast, saying that the presence of warships was part of a hybrid war that had made navigation in the Black Sea and Azov Sea virtually impossible.
This is a significant and unjustified complication of international shipping, especially trade, which can cause complex economic and social consequences, especially for the ports of Ukraine.
Moscow is staging naval drills in the Black Sea this month at the same time as it holds ground drills north of Ukraine in Belarus, part of a show of force that the West says could be a precursor to an invasion, which Moscow denies.
TomTom Traffic Index Ranking 2021: Mumbai 5th most-congested City in the World
As per the TomTom Traffic Index Ranking 2021, Mumbai was ranked 5th, Bengaluru 10th in terms of the most congested cities in the world in 2021. Delhi and Pune ranked 11th and 21st among 404 cities across 58 countries, according to TomTom Traffic Index's global top 25 lists. Istanbul, Turkey was declared as the most congested city in the world as per the ranking. while Moscow came in second.
The ranking covered 404 cities across 58 countries. The report said that India's congestion level in 2021 was 23% lower than pre-Covid times, with a decrease of 31% specifically during peak hours. In 2020, the traffic congestion in three Indian metros- Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi – made it to the top 10 list.
Feb 10, 2022
Sri Lanka 'Unitary Digital Identity Framework'
India agreed to provide a grant to Sri Lanka for implementing a 'Unitary Digital Identity framework'.
The Unitary Digital Identity Framework is apparently modelled on the Aadhaar card.
Sri Lankan government will give priority to the implementation of this Framework as a national level programme.
Sri Lanka's Cabinet of Ministers approved this proposal made by President Rajapaksa, to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with India to obtain the grant and launch this project.
This project comes amid substantive economic assistance from India, worth USD 1.4 billion to Sri Lanka, since the start of 2022 to help Sri Lanka cope with its dollar crunch, and import food, medicines and fuel due to shortages.
Under the Unitary Digital Identity Framework, a personal identity verification device will be introduced, based on biometric data, which is a digital tool to represent identities of individuals in cyberspace. Identification of individual identities can be accurately verified in physical and digital environments by combining two devices.
Israel Becomes First Country Allowing Drones in Civilian Airspace
Israel's Ministry of Transport and Road Safety has announced the country's first certification for unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs) to operate in civilian airspace.
The certification was issued by the Israeli Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to the Hermes Starliner unmanned system, which was developed and manufactured by Elbit Systems, an Israeli defense electronics company.
"I am proud that Israel becomes the first country which allows UAVs to operate for the benefit of agriculture, environment, fight against crime, the people and the economy," said Israeli Transport and Road Safety Minister, Merav Michaeli.
The approval will allow Elbit's drone to fly in civilian airspace like any other civilian airliner, rather than being restricted to unsegregated airspace.
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