General Awareness

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - May 2019

May 2019

Feb 23, 2020

India ranks 77th in Terms of Sustainability & 131st in Flourishing Index:UN Report

According to the report, "A future for the world's children? A WHO–UNICEF–Lancet Commission" commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and The Lancet medical journal, India ranks 77^th in terms of Sustainability Index and 131^st in the Flourishing Index of Children's Survival, health, education and well-being.
Sustainability index is associated with per capita carbon emissions and ability of children in a nation to live healthy lives.
A commission of more than 40 child and adolescent health experts funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) from around the world has released the report, where the capacity of 180 countries has been assessed whether they are able to ensure that their children grow and prosper.

Sweden Creates USD 1 mn Prizes for Food Solutions

Sweden created two USD 1 million prizes for solutions to feed billions of people, as climate change threatens the world's food supply. "The new Food Planet Prize is designed to contribute to this goal," Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research in Germany who will co-chair the prize jury.

S. Sudan President and Rebel Leader Agree to Form Unity Government

South Sudan President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar agreed to form a unity government, a long-delayed step towards ending six years of war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people.
Kiir said that the new government will be formed on Saturday and he will appoint Machar as his first vice president, or top deputy.
The President also said that security arrangements, one crucial issue, will be resolved after the government's formation. He said the protection of Machar and others with the opposition will be under his responsibility.

Feb 22, 2020

Pompeo Meets Saudi King in Talks Focused on Iranian Threats

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Saudi Arabia's King Salman in a visit focused primarily on discussing shared security concerns about regional rival Iran.
Ahead of his arrival in the capital Riyadh, Pompeo said that he would also raise with the Saudi leadership concerns about human rights and the cases of dual Saudi-American citizens who are either imprisoned in the kingdom or barred from traveling abroad.
Following his meeting at the royal palace with the king, Pompeo headed to a Saudi air base where some 2,500 U.S. troops are stationed in response to threats from Iran.
The U.S. military presence in the kingdom at the Prince Sultan Air Base includes a squadron of U.S. Air Force F-15E fighters that fly daily missions over Iraq and Syria and two American Patriot missile batteries prepared to knock down any Iranian attack against the Saudi kingdom.

Hindi is the 3rd most Spoken Language in the World

The 22nd edition of the world language database Ethnologue stated Hindi, as the 3rd most spoken language of the world in 2019 with 615 million speakers. English language was at the top of the list with 1,132 million speakers and Mandarin Chinese was at the 2nd position with 1,117 million speakers.
Ethnologue publishes a yearly database of living languages of the world, since its establishment in 1951.
Bangla has been ranked as the 7th most spoken language of the world and has 228 million native speakers.
The database covers 7,111 living languages of the world at present (2020). Ethnologue also publishes data on languages which have gone out of use in recent history and the edition lists contains 348 such languages.

Feb 21, 2020

India Will Be Guest of Honour at the International Tourism Fair of Madagascar

India will be the Guest of Honour at the International Tourism Fair of Madagascar, said Abhay Kumar, India's Ambassador to Madagascar.
To prepare for the International Tourism Fair in Madagascar that will be held in June, representatives of 22 Indian tour agencies are visiting the country to explore the tourism potential.
This is for the first time that such a large contingent of Indian tour operators is visiting the country. This shows that there is a great interest among the Indian tourism industry about Madagascar.
Last year, the Tourism Board of Madagascar had done a roadshow in India wherein they told the Indian Tour Operators about the exciting tourism opportunities in their country.

Sri Srinivasan First Indian American to Lead Appeals Court

Sri Srinivasan became the first Indian American to head a US court of appeals after taking over as Chief Judge of the Washington DC circuit from Merrick Garland.
Under US rules, Circuit Courts of Appeals, similar to High Courts in India, must be headed by the senior-most judge under the age of 65, and Garland, who is 67, stepped down on February 12, paving the way for Srinivasan, who is 52. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals is often considered the second most powerful court in the US after the Supreme Court, and has been a stepping stone to the highest court's judgeship.

Pakistan's Attorney General Resigns

Pakistan's Attorney General Anwar Mansoor Khan resigned after an uproar by the legal fraternity over his controversial remarks against judges of the Supreme Court.
Khan reportedly used contemptuous words against some members of the full bench of the apex court which is hearing the case about proceeding to remove Qazi Faez Essa, another judge of the top court.
The court ordered to expunge Khan's remarks from the record. However, lawyers demanded his resignation.
Khan submitted his resignation to Pakistan President Arif Alvi, saying he should be relieved of responsibilities immediately.

Feb 20, 2020

Lanka to Exit UN Resolution on Civil War Crimes

The government of Sri Lanka has decided to withdraw from co-sponsorship of a 2015 UN Human Rights Council resolution calling for the investigation of allegations of war crimes committed during the island nation's long civil war. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa's announcement came days after the US state department imposed a travel ban on Sri Lanka's army commander, Shavendra Silva, and his family over rights violations.

Russia and Turkey Spar over Operation in Syria

Turkey and Russia exchanged warnings after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened an "imminent" operation in Syria to end the regime's brutal assault on the last rebel enclave.
Syrian aid workers called urgently for a ceasefire and international help for nearly a million people fleeing the regime onslaught in the country's northwestern Idlib province — the biggest wave of displaced civilians in the nine-year conflict.
Turkey, supporter of some rebel groups in Idlib, has been pushing for a renewed ceasefire in talks with Russia, which backs the Syrian regime. Ankara is eager to prevent another flood of refugees into its territory adding to the 3.7 million Syrians it already hosts.
Mr. Erdogan said that talks with Moscow over the past fortnight had so far failed to achieve "the desired result" and warned that Turkey would launch an offensive into Syria unless Damascus pulled its forces back by the end of the month.

Iran Election Watchdog Defends Decision to Bar Candidates

Iran's electoral watchdog defended its decision to disqualify thousands of candidates for a parliamentary election in two days, saying it was done in accordance with the law.
The Guardian Council, a powerful body that vets candidates for Iranian elections, also said that it expected at least 50 per cent of registered voters to turn out at Friday's election.
Thousands of candidates, most of them moderates and reformists, have been barred from entering the race by the Council, which is dominated by ultra-conservatives.
But its spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaee said that the body was neutral in its dealings with all political camps.
The Guardian Council follows the laws and regulations the parliament has passed at different times.

Feb 19, 2020

Pakistan Response to FATF Remains Silent

The UN Security Council 1267 Committee may have designated mafia don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar as a global terrorist in November 2003, and also mentioned his location as Karachi, and his last issued passport as Pakistani in 2010, but there is no reference to the main accused in the 1993 Mumbai blasts in the Pakistani response to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) that is being discussed in the body's ongoing plenary meeting in Paris, where one of the key decisions to be made is whether to keep the country on the "grey list".
Pakistan has submitted a detailed reply to the body which was set up to counterterror financing and money laundering, claiming it has now successfully implemented 14 of the 27 action points laid down by FATF, and that it has partly implemented 11 more, but senior officials familiar with the country's submission say that its report does not mention Ibrahim, who, according to the UN, has links to al Qaeda. "There is no reference to Dawood anywhere in Pakistan's reply to FATF as it tries to get out of the grey list with the help of China," said one of the officials who asked not to be identified. A decision by FATF is expected on Friday.

Ghani Named Afghan Election Winner

President Ashraf Ghani was declared the winner of Afghanistan's presidential vote after five months of delayed results and bitter dispute. But the announcement threatened to tip the country into a full-blown political crisis on the cusp of a U.S. peace deal with the Taliban.
Just hours after the announcement, Mr. Ghani's leading challenger, Abdullah Abdullah — who accuses Afghanistan's election commission of favoring the incumbent — also declared himself the winner and said he would form a government of his own.

US Sanctions Rosneft Unit for Maintaining Ties to Venezuelan Oil Trade

The US sanctioned a unit of Russia's largest oil producer, Rosneft PJSC, for maintaining ties with Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro and state-run oil company PDVSA.
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control is acting against Rosneft Trading SA, the company's Swiss-incorporated brokerage firm, as well as its Chairman Didier Casimiro. The US restrictions come with a three-month wind-down period that expires May 20.
The move represents the latest escalation in the Trump administration's campaign to oust Maduro and rally international support behind Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido. For the oil market, it means disruption and increased legal costs for companies, though the wind-down period gives operators time to adjust to the new regime.

UK Gets Ready for New Points-based Visa System

Home Secretary Priti Patel announced the launch of the UK's new points-based visa system, aimed at attracting the brightest and the best from the world, including from India, and cutting down numbers of cheap, low-skilled workers coming to the country.
The new system will come into force from January 1, 2021 at the end of the transition period after the UK's exit from the European Union (EU) last month, which will formally end free movement of people within the economic bloc for the UK as a non-member.
The new post-Brexit system, which will apply equally to the EU and non-EU countries like India, is based on assigning points for specific skills, qualifications, salaries and professions, with visas only awarded to those who gain enough points.

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