General Awareness : International Events - February, 2014
(General Awareness For Bank's Exams) International
February - 2014
Rajapaksa slams US
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Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa criticised a US decision to table a resolution criticising Colombo’s post-war reconciliation at the UN Human Rights Council, saying such actions undermine his country’s hard won peace.
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The US has said it would table a resolution against Sri Lanka over its human rights accountability and slow pace of reconciliation, putting new pressure on Colombo to address war crimes allegations
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The UN has already asked Sri Lanka to punish army personnel responsible for atrocities during the civil war against the LTTE that ended in 2009.
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Mr. Rajapaksa said that the powerful nations failed to fully understand the challenge faced by the country in combating the LTTE.
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Mr. Rajapaksa urged powerful nations not to be swayed by information coming from defeatist forces meaning the pro-LTTE Tamil diaspora.· Sri Lanka encountered similar UN resolutions both in 2012 and 2013, moved by US and supported by India.
A new Afghan law
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A new Afghan law will allow men to attack their wives, children and sisters without fear of judicial punishment, undoing years of slow progress in tackling violence in a country plagued by honour killings, forced marriage and vicious domestic abuse.
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The small but significant change to Afghanistan’s criminal prosecution code bans relatives of an accused person from testifying against them. Most violence against women in Afghanistan is within the family, so the law — passed by parliament but awaiting the signature of the president, Hamid Karzai — will effectively silence victims as well as most potential witnesses to their suffering.
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Honour” killings by fathers and brothers who disapprove of a woman’s behaviour would be almost impossible to punish. Forced marriage and the sale or trading of daughters to end feuds or settle debt would also be largely beyond the control of the law in a country where prosecution of abuse is already rare.
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It is common in western legal systems to excuse people from testimony that might incriminate their spouse. But it is a very narrow exception, with little resemblance to the blanket ban planned in Afghanistan. The change is in a section of the criminal code titled “Prohibition of Questioning an Individual as a Witness”. Others covered by the ban are underage children, doctors and defence lawyers for the accused.
US visa reform
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India has warned the United States of consequences for its companies if lawmakers tighten visa rules on high-tech firms as part of an immigration overhaul.· India would see a decision to restrict certain temporary visas for skilled workers as a sign that the US economy is becoming less open for business.
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The Republican leadership of the House of Representatives recently laid out general principles for an overhaul of immigration — whose main goal would be to give legal status to the estimated 11 million undocumented foreigners in the United States.
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The Senate bill, while increasing the overall number of H-1B visas available, would hike fees and restrict additional H-1B visas for companies considered dependent on such foreign workers. The move came after complaints by US companies and labor groups that Indian tech firms bring in their own, lower-paid employees rather than hiring Americans.
Children’s Nobel Prize
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Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai has been nominated for the World Children’s Prize in Sweden for her crusade for education rights for girls.
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Malala was last year nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and won the European Union’s Sakharov human rights prize for her fight for the right of all children to education.
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The 16-year-old, who lives in Britain following extensive medical treatment, was shot by the Taliban in 2012 for her outspoken views supporting education for girls in Pakistan.
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The World Children’s Prize, also known as the ‘Children’s Nobel Prize’, was founded in 2000 and aims to raise awareness of children’s rights in 60,000 schools in 110 countries through educational programmes.
UN Conference on Population and Development Beyond 2014.".
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According to an U.N. report, since the adoption of the Cairo Programme of Action at the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994, the status of women has improved worldwide . But , it also says that growing inequalities is likely to undo the significant gains made in health and longevity.
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Maternal mortality has come down by half; skilled birth attendance has increased by 15 per cent since 1990; more women have access to education, work and political participation; and fewer adolescent girls are having babies, says the report “United Nations International Conference on Population and Development Beyond 2014.”
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The report is the first truly global review of progress, gaps, challenges and emerging issues in relation to the landmark Cairo ICPD. It gathers data from 176 countries, alongside inputs from civil society and comprehensive academic research.
World’s longest underwater tunnel
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China plans to build the world’s longest underwater tunnel beneath the Bohai Sea by 2026, connecting the port cities of Dalian in Liaoning province and Yantai in Shandong province.
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The blueprint of the ambitious project is expected to be submitted to the State Council of the People’s Republic of China in April.
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The 123-km underwater tunnel will cost around 220 billion yuan ($36 billion).
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The length of the tunnel will be more than the combined length of the world’s two longest underwater tunnels – Japan’s Seikan Tunnel and the Channel Tunnel
New Prime Minister of Nepal
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· The leader of Nepal's largest and oldest political party was elected prime minister with majority support in parliament that is likely to ease the political instability in the Himalayan nation.
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The president of Nepali Congress party, Sushil Koirala, 76, received 405 votes in the 601-member parliament. He was supported by the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist), the second largest party, and some other smaller groups.
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The declaration from Parliament Speaker Surya Bahadur Thapa that Koirala had secured the simple majority to be elected was followed by applause inside the assembly hall. Hundreds of Koirala's supporters stood outside the parliament building.
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A constitution was supposed to have been written by the last Constituent Assembly, which was elected in 2008 following the end of a 10-year Maoist insurgency and the overthrow of the centuries-old monarchy. But the assembly was riven by infighting and never finished its work.
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Koirala, 76, has led his party for the past four years. He also spent six years in jail and nearly 20 years in exile in India because he opposed the autocratic rule of the king.
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Politicians hope the election of Koirala with support from nearly two-thirds of the members of the assembly will bring some political stability to Nepal.
Ukraine’s new rating - ‘CCC’Standard & Poor’s ratings agency lowered Ukraine’s long-term rating from ‘CCC+’ to ‘CCC’ saying the raging political crisis has put the government’s ability to service its debt at risk and raised uncertainty over Russia providing promised aid. -
The crisis in economically-struggling Ukraine erupted in November when President Viktor Yanukovych decided unexpectedly to reject a European Union integration deal years in the making in favour of closer ties with Russia.Moscow then promised to provide a 15 billion dollar bailout to its former satellite and to slash prices that Kiev paid for energy supplies.
Dalai Lama meets Barack Obama
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U.S. President Barack Obama hosts exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama at the White House, prompting China to issue a statement of "serious concern."
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A statement said the U.S. supports the Dalai Lama's so-called "middle way" approach of neither assimilation nor independence for Tibetans in China.
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China's foreign ministry quickly urged the U.S. to cancel the meeting, calling it a "gross interference" that will "seriously damage" U.S.-China ties.
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Beijing regularly threatens nations hosting the Dalai Lama. It views him as a dangerous separatist responsible for a wave of self-immolations by Tibetans.
Google Lunar XPrize
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A poorly funded, rag-tag team in India is now among the top contenders for the Google Lunar XPrize, the grand global competition to land a robotic spacecraft on theMoon by December 2015.
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Team Indus, co-founded by IITians Rahul Narayan and IndranilChakraborty, has just been named among the five finalists for what are called milestone prizes, teams that have achieved certain technological landmarks and appear closest to reaching the final objective.
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The pioneering reality show in space, announced in 2007 by Google and the XPrize Foundation, an education non-profit, promises the world some edge-of-the seat excitement in the months to come. It had 33 teams participating when registrations closed in 2011. Since then, a number of teams have withdrawn or merged. Currently 18 remain, some of which are led by world-renowned robotics and space researchers and super-rich folk.
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The competition carries $40 million in prize money. The organizers' aim is to do something humanity has never accomplished: the safe landing of a private craft on the surface of the Moon, and possibly do so at a fraction of the cost that governmental space bodies incur.
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Of the 18 teams, six are from the US, and others from countries including the UK, Germany, Japan, Israel, Brazil and Malaysia.
