(General Awareness For Bank's Exams) International Events

March, 2014

Emergency rule lifted in Tunisia

•  Tunisia's president has lifted a state of emergency in force since the 2011 uprising that ousted dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali , despite a string of recent jihadist attacks.

•  The country has been rocked by sporadic violence since the January 2011 revolution, which ignited the Arab Spring across North Africa and the Middle East.

• The end to the state of emergency however "does not limit the capacity of the security services to implement the law and does not preclude any request for military support should it be needed,"

•  Emergency rule amounted to "a restriction of rights, freedoms, the movement of people and goods" as Tunisia's political crisis was ending and security conditions improving.

•  Much of the deadly violence witnessed in Tunisia since the uprising has been blamed on Ansar al-Sharia, a hardline Islamist movement accused of having links to Al-Qaeda.

NATO airstrike

•  The recent NATO airstrike in Afghanistan’s central Logar province killed 5 Afghan National Army soldiers and wounded another 17.

•  If it turns out that a NATO strike killed ANA troops, it is likely to set Afghan President Hamid Karzai on another attack against U.S. and NATO soldiers in his country. The President has been deeply critical of civilian deaths by international forces.

BIMSTEC summit

•  Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in Myanmar to attend the BIMSTEC Summit, making a strong pitch for giving a fillip to India’s Look East policy and explore ways to enhance connectivity, transport, trade, tourism and other linkages to all the northeastern states.

• Dr. Singh, who is travelling to Myanmar after a gap of nearly two years to attend the two-day summit, is accompanied by National Security Adviser ShivshankarMenon.

•  BIMSTEC is an expression of India’s Look East Policy of the 1990s, coinciding with Thailand’s Look West Policy.

•  The seven members -- India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Bhutan and Nepal -- bring together over 20 per cent of the world population, which is about 1.5 billion, and a GDP of over USD 2.5 trillion.

•  The Summit is expected to discuss steps to bolster cooperation in counter-terrorism. India has led negotiations and finalised the BIMSTEC Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters.

•  India also wishes to see BIMSTEC promote economic and energy cooperation, encourage cultural links and strengthen security contacts.

Israel opens border crossing with Gaza

•  Israel opened a border crossing with Gaza to allow the transfer of gas, after the coastal salient’s only power plant shut down for one day due to lack of fuel.

•  Israel closed its border crossings with the Gaza Strip some time back after the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad launched a massive barrage of rockets from the Strip into Israel.

•  Israel agreed to allow the entry of 500,000 litres of diesel and gasoline for the private sector, 160,000 tons of cooking gas, and 200,000 litres of diesel for the power plant.

•  Since Egypt shut down nearly all smuggling tunnels under its border with Gaza, the enclave is all but entirely dependent on deliveries from Israel, financed by the Palestinian Authority.

Sri Lanka seeks help from NAM

• Sri Lanka has sought the support of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) nations to ward off the U.S. sponsored rights resolution against it at the next U.N. Human Rights Council meet in Geneva.

•  The UNHRC is to vote a U.S. sponsored resolution on Sri Lanka which is widely expected to advocate an international probe into alleged war crimes in the country during the final phase of military battle with the LTTE which ended in 2009.

• Sri Lankan President MahindaRajapaksa’s human rights envoy MahindaSamarasinghe had urged the NAM nations in the 47-member U.N. Human Rights Council to stand in solidarity with the island.

• At least 33 in the 47 member UNHRC are either NAM members or nations with observer states.

• India was a leading NAM member who had voted in favour of the U.S. resolutions in 2012 and 2013 against Sri Lanka.

Reconnaissance Aircraft

•  NATO is going to deploy reconnaissance planes in Poland and Romania to monitor the Ukrainian crisis, shortly after the U.S. announced that it was sending fighter jets to the same region in a show of support for its allies.

• The flights, carried out by E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System, or AWACS aircraft, "will enhance the alliance's situation awareness and all will take place solely over alliance territory.’’

• Poland invoked Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which entitles any NATO member the right to consultation with allied military officials if it feels threatened. As a result, NATO has doubled its air presence in the region, deploying six F-15 fighter jets to the Baltic states, while U.S. and Polish military officials are finalizing plans for a ramped up joint-training exercise between their air forces.

Biggest tunnel in Gaza

• The Israeli military has uncovered another tunnel the biggest so far dug from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, stretching into Israel and intended for militant attacks or abducting soldiers and civilians.

•  The tunnel was found by Israeli intelligence and the military. The structure was lined with concrete and describing it as very sophisticated, resembling a subway tunnel.

•  In 2013, Israel announced finding three such tunnels, including one that was over a kilometer and a half (mile) long and 18 meters (yards) deep.

•  Last week, Gaza militants fired the heaviest rocket barrage at Israeli communities since 2012, and Israel responded with air strike on militant targets.

•  Earlier this month, Israeli special forces captured a ship in the Red Sea carrying rockets and other weapons that Israel said were supplied by Iran and destined for militants in Gaza.

•  Of the 85 constituencies, 34 seats were won by PPM while its coalition partners Jumhoory Party (JP) bagged 15 seats and the Maldives Development Alliance (MDA) five seats. Nasheed’s MDP secured only 24 seats and lost its majority in parliament.

Accession pact signed

• Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty on Crimea’s accession to Russia after delivering a defiant speech defending his move and blasting the West for pursuing “containment” of Russia and flouting international law.

• The treaty was also signed by the Crimean leaders who attended a special joint session of the Russian Parliament in the Kremlin. Mr. Putin said he was confident the Russian Parliament would ratify the pact.

• Western accusations that Russia had invaded Crimea was denied. Russian “reinforcements” were in line with a treaty with Ukraine that allows Russia to have up to 25,000 troops at its Black Sea Fleet base in Crimea. Mr. Putin dismissed concerns that Russia could seize other regions in Ukraine.

Death sentence for Morsy supporters

• A court in southern Egyptian convicted 529 supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsy, sentencing them to death on charges of murdering a policeman and attacking police.

• Those convicted are part of a group of 545 defendants on trial for the killing of a police officer, attempted killing of two others, attacking a police station and other acts of violence.

• More than 150 suspects stood trial, the others were tried in absentia. Sixteen were acquitted.

• The defendants were arrested after violent demonstrations that were a backlash for the police crackdown in August on pro-Morsy sit-ins in Cairo that killed hundreds of people.

Syrian warplane shot down by Turkey

• Turkish armed forces shot down a Syrian military jet which had violated its airspace. An F-16 fighter jet, which was on duty in the region, fired against the Syrian MIG-23 warplane due to rules of engagement.

•  When two Syrian MIG-23 warplanes approached, the Turkish air forces warned them four times that they have approached 10 sea miles to the Turkish border.

•  The incident reportedly took place in the northern border region, near an area where Syrian rebels and government forces are fighting for control of a border crossing.

•  Hundreds of thousands have fled Syria for Turkey to escape the three-year uprising against President Assad.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 crashes

•  Malaysia announced that MH370 jetliner had crashed into the Indian Ocean and naturally it was greeted with hysteria by relatives of those on board .

•  Citing groundbreaking satellite-data analysis by the British company Inmarsat, Malaysian Prime Minister NajibRazak said that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which vanished more than a fortnight ago while flying to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, had crashed thousands of miles away in the southern Indian Ocean.

•  His statement may go some way toward tamping down some of the more fevered speculation about the plane's fate, including one theory some grief-stricken relatives had seized on: that the plane had been hijacked and forced to land somewhere.

•  All 239 people on board were presumed dead.

•  That announcement opened the way for what could be one of the most costly and challenging air crash investigations in history.

•  The Inmarsat data showed the Boeing 777's last position was in the Indian Ocean west of Perth, Australia.

•  In a further sign the search was bearing fruit, the US Navy was flying in its high-tech black box detector to the area.

•  The so-called black boxes — the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder — record what happens on board planes during flight. At crash sites, finding the black boxes soon is crucial because the locator beacons they carry fade out after 30 days.

North Korea’s missiles test-fired

• North Korea test-fired two missiles into the sea, prompting condemnation from South Korea, Japan and the United States.

• It was the latest of several such launches , as South Korean, Japanese and US leaders criticised North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme at a meeting in the Netherlands.

• The missiles were fired from north of Pyongyang and flew around 650 kilometres before falling into the waters east of the Korean Peninsula.

•  The United States said the latest launches of No-Dong type missiles, as well as those of Scud missiles on March 3 and February 27, violated UN Security Council resolutions that established missile moratoriums for Pyongyang.

New Guinness world record by Bangladesh

•  Creating a new Guinness world record, over two-and-half lakh Bangladeshis performed a chorus of their national anthem at the national parade ground here to mark the country’s 43rd Independence Day.

• The erstwhile East Pakistan witnessed a historic moment after 2,54,681 persons gathered at the venue to chant “Amar shonarBongla, amitumebalobashi… (My golden Bengal, I love you)” — penned and tuned by poet Rabindranath Tagore — which inspired the nation during the liberation war against Pakistan in 1971.

•  The venue bore a sea of humanity draped in national colours, red and green clothes and badges, during the much-publicised ceremony attended by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the Speaker of Parliament, Ministers, MPs, armed forces officials and foreign diplomats.

•  The previous record for largest chorus to sing a national anthem at a single venue was held by Sahara India Pariwar, which organised 1,21,653 people to sing the Indian anthem in unison.

Border crossing with Gaza re-opened by Egypt

•  Egypt has partially reopened its border crossing with the Hamas—ruled Gaza Strip after closing it for almost two months.

•  The Hamas—run Interior Ministry said on its website that Egypt partly opened the Rafah crossing, the Palestinian enclave’s only window to the outside world, in both directions for three days.

•  The travel is limited to patients, students, and holders of foreign passports.

•  Up to 10,000 Palestinians have applied to exit through Rafah, the ministry said.

•  Around 150 to 300 people can leave Gaza each day through the crossing.

•  Since the closure, Egypt has partly reopened it three times to allow the travel of Palestinian pilgrims to Saudi Arabia.

•  The crossing has been repeatedly closed since the Egyptian military overthrew Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in July.

•  Ties between Hamas, an offshoot of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, and Egypt’s military—backed government have since worsened.

•  In December, Egypt designated the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.

Black box of C-130J sent to U.S.

•  The black box of the C-130J transport aircraft that crashed near Gwalior has suffered damage and the Air Force has sent it to the U.S. to seek the assistance of its manufacturer Lockheed Martin in decoding the data.

•  The connectors of the Flight Data Recorder or the black box are damaged along with the card inside the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR).

•  The delay in decoding the black box data would also mean a delay in determining the cause of the crash.

•  The Super Hercules Special Operations transport aircraft crashed near Gwalior killing five crew members last after taking off from Agra.

•  The aircraft had apparently hit a hillock before crashing on the rocky surface on the banks of Chambal river near Gwalior.

•  India had recently inducted six C-130J Super Hercules aircraft, which were bought from the U.S. at a cost of around Rs. 5,780 crore ($962 million) four years ago.

•  The home base of the 77 squadron ‘Veiled Vipers’ operating the aircraft is Hindon in Ghaziabad near New Delhi.

•  On the demands of the IAF, the Defence Ministry recently placed orders for six more such aircraft from the U.S.

•  The loss of such a big asset is considered a setback for the IAF.

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