(General Awareness For Bank's Exams) International Events

August - 2014

WHO declares Ebola an international health emergency

•  The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Ebola outbreak in West Africa to be an international public health emergency that requires an extraordinary response to stop its spread.
•  The WHO announced the Ebola outbreak the largest and longest in history is worrying enough to merit being declared an international health emergency. WHO declared similar emergencies for the swine flu pandemic in 2009 and for polio in May.
•  Countries affected to date simply do not have the capacity to manage an outbreak of this size and complexity on their own, The current outbreak of Ebola began in Guinea in March and has since spread to Sierra Leone and Liberia

U.S. is coming to help: Obama

•  U.S. authorised a two-pronged military intervention in Iraq, aimed both at protecting American personnel and assets located in the conflict zones, and also at staving off “a potential act of genocide,” in the Sinjar area where nearly 50,000 members of the Yazidi minority community were trapped atop a mountain besieged by IS fighters.
•  Mr. Obama said Washington had begun conducting humanitarian airdrops at the request of the Iraqi government.
•  Ahead of the airstrikes, the first direct military action by the U.S. in Iraq since troops pulled out in 2011, which were authorised by the U.S. Central Command commander, the U.S. also used one C-17 and two C-130 aircrafts to airdrop 5,300 gallons of fresh drinking water and 8,000 ready-to-eat meals near Mount Sinjar.
•  Iraqis welcomed the U.S. airlift of emergency aid to thousands of people who fled to the mountains to escape Islamic extremists and called for greater intervention. In contrast to Washington’s decision to invade Iraq more than a decade ago, both the airdrop and the authorisation of military action against the Islamic State group were widely welcomed by Iraqi and Kurdish officials fearful of the militants’ lightning advance across the country.
•  British Prime Minister David Cameron has welcomed the decision taken by the United States to authorise “targeted strikes” against the Islamic militant forces in Iraq. The U.K. chaired a meeting in the United Nations Security Council on Thursday seeking a strong international response to the crisis in Iraq.

WTO imbroglio: India not for 1986-87 as base year

•  India has offered fixing of the base year for food subsidies on the basis of average of last three years, as opposed to 1986-87 as proposed by WTO, as a way forward for an agreement at the WTO.
•  India did a ‘course correction’ on the position taken at the Bali ministerial conference. Explaining the changed stance, the Govt. said India insisted on a ‘single undertaking principle’ to ensure simultaneous implementation of nine plus one issues which the Ministers had agreed at Bali.
•  Govt said it is not alone in this matter, it said that India and other LDCs were willing to wait till September 2014, for every one to convince each other.

Israel agrees to extend Gaza ceasefire

•  Israel has agreed to extend beyond a 72-hour ceasefire that has halted a month of fighting in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
•  The 72-hour ceasefire, which came into effect on Tuesday, has brought relief to millions on both sides after one month of fighting killed nearly 1,900 Palestinians and 67 people in Israel, mostly soldiers.
• United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon urged a permanent end to the cycle of Israeli and Palestinian violence. Indirect talks between Palestinian factions and Israel have been taking place, mediated by Egypt, to broker a long-term ceasefire.
•  Israel and Palestine, both sides are digging in their positions as negotiations continue in Cairo on a lasting truce and reconstruction for the war-battered coastal territory.
  Iraqi militants seize country’s largest dam
•  Sunni militants from the Islamic State group seized Iraq’s largest dam, placing them in control of enormous power and water resources and access to the river that runs through the heart of Baghdad.
•  After a week of attempts, the radical Islamist gunmen successfully stormed the Mosul Dam and forced Kurdish forces to withdraw from the area.
• The Mosul Dam or Saddam Dam as it was once known is located north of Iraq’s second—largest city Mosul, which fell to the militants on June 10. Fighting intensified in the region after the nearby towns of Zumar and Sinjar fell to the militants.
•  The al—Qaeda—breakaway group has established its idea of an Islamic state in the territory it controls in Iraq and Syria, imposing its harsh interpretation of Islamic law. Iraqi government forces, Kurds and allied Sunni tribal militiamen have been struggling to dislodge the Islamic State militants and its Sunni allies with little apparent success.
•  The seizing of dams and reservoirs gives the militants control over water and electricity that they could use to help build support in the territory they now rule by providing the scarce resources to residents. Or they could sell the resources as a lucrative source of revenue.

Israel, Hamas accept Egyptian ceasefire plan

•  Israel and Hamas accepted an Egyptian ceasefire proposal meant to halt a bruising month-long war that has claimed nearly 2,000 lives, raising hopes that the bloodiest round of fighting between the bitter enemies could finally be coming to an end.
•  The war broke out on July 8, 2014 when Israel launched an air offensive in response to weeks of heavy rocket fire out of Hamas-controlled Gaza. It expanded the operation on July 17 by sending in ground forces in what it described as a mission to destroy a network of tunnels used to stage attacks. Israel says the last of the tunnels has nearly been destroyed.
•  Israel has demanded that Gaza become “demilitarised,” requiring the unlikely cooperation of Hamas in giving up its significant arsenal.

Nepal landslide raises fears of floods in East India

•  Rescue workers in eastern India urgently evacuated tens of thousands of people after a deadly landslide in neighbouring Nepal blocked a river that could burst its banks and submerge scores of Indian villages.
•  Nepal’s army triggered three controlled explosions on Saturday to allow some water to flow out of the lake, but much of it remains trapped. Bihar Government has asked all government doctors and civil officials in threatened areas to cancel vacation plans. Soldiers, as well as air force helicopters and jets, were on standby for relief and rescue operations.
•  The local government also invoked a law allowing authorities to forcibly evacuate villagers who refuse to leave their homes and property and move to higher ground or government-run relief camps. The government has so far evacuated 60,000 people and set up 120 such camps.
•  The annual monsoon season, which runs from June through September, is vital for the largely agrarian economies of South Asia but every year also brings in floods and landslides that kill thousands and submerge hundreds of villages.

Lights to go out across UK to mark World War One centenary

•  On August 4, the whole of Britain will be plunged in darkness for an hour in a Lights Out initiative to mark the centenary of the country’s entry into World War 1.
•  Several official and unofficial events that have been planned over the last year will mark the day. They reflect and reinforce a war memorial sentiment that appears as diverse as the forms that memorialisation are taking in this country.
•  All these will in different ways examine the legacy and lessons emerging from World War 1 (1914-1918), which claimed the lives of 10 million soldiers and impacted the lives of countless others.
•  Commonwealth British citizens have marshalled their own memories and histories of the war experience. The largest non-British component of the British fighting forces, and on which the imperial war machine heavily relied was from India. Nearly 1.5 million soldiers were drafted into the war effort. Of them 74,000 died

 UNSC resolution adopted to combat ISIS fighters

•  Responding to the growing terrorist threat in Iraq and Syria, the U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions on six men for recruiting or financing foreign fighters and threatened additional sanctions against those supporting terrorist groups.
•  The U.N.’s most powerful body, in a resolution adopted unanimously, also demanded that the Islamic State extremist group and all al-Qaeda-linked groups end violence and disarm and disband immediately.
•  The British-drafted resolution follows the recent offensive by the Islamic State group, which has taken control of a large swath of eastern Syria and northern and western Iraq, brutalising civilians and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee, as well as increasing terrorist activity by other al-Qaeda-linked groups including Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria.
•  The six men now subject to a global travel ban and asset freeze include four who either recruited or helped finance al-Nusra — Abdelrahman Mouhamad Zafir al Dabidi al Jahani, Hajjaj Bin Fahd Al Ajmi, Said Arif and Abdul Mohsen Abdallah Ibrahim al Charekh.
•  Another man, Hamid Hamad Hamid al-Ali, was blacklisted for helping finance both al-Nusra and the Islamic State group. Abou Mohamed al Adnani was blacklisted for financing and perpetrating acts supporting the Islamic State group.

Outcry over police crackdown in Ferguson

•  A violent crackdown by law enforcement authorities in Ferguson, Missouri, after protests over the shooting of an unarmed teenager by a police officer on August 9, has raised a national furore here, particularly after two journalists of major media outlets were arrested and another television camera crew was hit with tear gas.
•  After Michael Brown (18), an African-American, was shot multiple times by an unnamed police officer following a scuffle near a squad car, residents of Ferguson took to the streets to protest what they believed to be police brutality, prompting a fierce crackdown by SWAT teams armed with military-style weapons including assault rifles and armoured cars.
•  Although the President called for Ferguson police to be “open and transparent” about “heart-breaking” death of Mr. Brown, the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri has already initiated a lawsuit against the police demanding that they release all public records on the case, to which they are entitled under state law.

UN Human Rights Council appoints panel for Palestine inquiry

•  The UN Human Rights Council President Baudelaire Ndong Ella announced a three-member panel to investigate the human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territory, particularly in the conflict-torn Gaza Strip.
•  Ms. Ella appointed Canadian William Schabas to serve as chair of the independent international commission of inquiry, Xinhua reported.
•  The commission also comprises British lawyer Amal Alamuddin and Doudou Diene from Senegal.
•  The Council decided to establish the commission of inquiry at its 21st special session July 23, 2014, to investigate all violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, particularly in the occupied Gaza Strip, in the context of the military operations conducted since June 13.
•  The same session asked the commission to present its findings in March 2015.
• The present Israeli offensive in Gaza that began on July 8 has killed over 1,900 Palestinians and left over 9,500 wounded, including around 2,800 children.

Australian PM seeks Muslims’ support for tougher terrorism laws

• Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott sought support from Muslim leaders for plans to overhaul terrorism laws, with a view to curbing so-called home-grown Islamist extremism.
•  Muslims have expressed fears they will be unfairly targeted by the new measures, which will make it easier for authorities to track and prosecute Australian citiz ens who engage in or support terrorist activities abroad.
• Mr. Abbott said that when it came to fighting terrorism everyone in the country had to be on “Team Australia.” “Everyone has got to put this country, its interests, its values and its people first,” he said on Macquarie Radio.

Suicide tourism on rise in Switzerland

•  People packing their bags to Switzerland not to rest in its serenity but to end their lives through assisted suicide has doubled in four years, reveals a study.
•  There are six right-to-die organisations in Switzerland, of which four permit nationals from other countries to use their services.
•  Citizens from Germany and Britain make up the bulk of the numbers, with neurological conditions such paralysis, motor neurone disease, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis accounting for almost half of the cases, the findings showed.
•  Virtually all the deaths were caused by taking sodium pentobarbital. Four people inhaled helium in deaths that were widely publicised and described as “excruciating”, researchers added.

IS committing crimes against humanity: U.N.

•  The U.N. accused jihadists in Iraq of waging a campaign of “ethnic and religious cleansing,” as Syria said it was ready to work with the global community against “terrorism.”
•  The accusation by U.N. human rights chiefNaviPillay came as Kurdish peshmerga forces pushed back Islamic State (IS) jihadists in northern Iraq a day after the militants overran a key military airport in Syria.
•  Ms. Pillay said in a statement the IS reign of terror in Iraq against non-Arab ethnic groups and non-Sunni Muslims alike involved targeted killings, forced conversions, and destruction of holy and cultural sites.

India And The World

• BASIC ministerial meet on August 7, 8
   The two –day 18th BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) Ministerial Meeting will get underway to discuss important issues relating to the current UNFCCC Climate Change negotiations specially on matters pertaining to the Adhoc Working Group on the Durban Platform.
•  The 17th BASIC Ministerial Meeting on Climate Change was held in Hanzghou, China last October.
•  The BASIC Ministerial meeting provides an opportunity to Environment Ministers to enhance coordination on important issues in climate change negotiations and to arrive at a common position on such issues. The BASIC Ministers have been meeting regularly since the Conference of Parties in Copenhagen.

‘Developed nations must walk the talk on climate goals’

•  The BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) group reiterated that developed countries should walk the talk on climate change goals, accept their historical responsibilities of polluting the planet and finance technology transfer to the developing world.
•  BASIC proposed joint action on various issues including emission targets and other plans to be set out by next year.
•  A joint statement issued here after the two-day 18th ministerial meeting said progress after the Warsaw climate talks was reviewed and the 2015 outcome to be adopted at the meeting in Paris should be comprehensive, balanced, equitable and fair in order to enhance the effective implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
•  India said all countries should ratify the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol quickly and there should be full operationalisation of the Green Climate Fund. Under the Durban Platform, the countries were expected to increase their ambitions on emission cuts but that is not happening, with some like Japan reducing their targets.

‘India, Pakistan must negotiate FTAs’

•  Co-chair of the India-Pakistan Joint Business Forum (IPJBF) said that the two neighbours should consider negotiating free trade agreements (FTAs). He also expressed the hope that Islamabad would soon grant the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India as the formalities on the matter had already been completed. Pakistan is yet to reciprocate India’s grant of MFN status to it in 1996.
•  The PIJBF has constituted 10 task forces including for agriculture, banking and finance, energy, visa facilitation, textiles, automobiles, engineering and IT that will recommend steps and policies that the two neighbours could take for increasing bilateral trade and investments.

India to draft 5-year plan of action to deepen ties with ASEAN

•  In her address at the 12th India-ASEAN meeting in Nay Pyi Taw, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said India would soon draft a five-year plan of action starting 2016 to take the trajectories of common interests with ASEAN to a new level and particularly emphasised on improving connectivity in the region to further boost trade and people-to-people contact.
•  Strongly pitching for improvement in connectivity, Indian said India wanted connectivity in all its dimensions - geographic, institutional and people-to-people. She also referred to 5Ts of government of India — Tradition, Talent, Tourism, Trade and Technology — reflecting priority areas and noted that in foreign policy connectivity precedes them all.
•  The ASEAN-India strategic partnership owes its strength to the fact that India’s ‘Look East’ policy meets ASEAN’S ‘Look West’ towards India.
•  The members of ASEAN include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam. India and the ASEAN have already implemented a free trade agreement in goods and are set to widen its base and include services and investments. The India-ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement was signed in August 2009 and it came into force on January 1, 2010.
•  There has been significant progress in ties between India and the ASEAN grouping in the last few years in diverse sectors, particularly in trade and commerce. The bilateral trade grew by 4.6 per cent from $68.4 billion in 2011 to $71.6 billion in 2012. ASEAN’s exports were valued at $43.84 billion and imports from India amounted to $27.72 billion in 2012. The target has been set at $100 billion by 2015 for ASEAN-India trade.

Committed to working with Modi government, says Singapore PM

•  Singapore Prime Minister Lee HsienLoong re-affirmed his commitment to working with newly elected leaders in India and Indonesia.
•  “There are new leaders in Indonesia and India. How their countries fare will affect the entire region. I look forward to working with them,” said Mr. Lee referring to Indian Prime Minister NarendraModi and Indonesian President JokoWidodo in his annual National Rally speech.
•  Highlighting Singapore’s concern about global uncertainties, Mr. Lee said: “The world is in flux. Conflicts far away could affect us.”

Japanese investment in smart cities high on Modi agenda

•  During his visit to Japan, from August 31 to September 3, Prime Minister NarendraModi is hoping to seal several bilateral agreements.
•  According to diplomatic sources, these will include infrastructural investment for the government’s “smart cities” initiative, with Japan proposing project development agreements on high-speed railways, more industrial corridors, and road-links and rail-links through the north-eastern States to ASEAN countries as well.
•  The one aspect of the new government’s foreign policy that has moved from the past is the tougher language of discourse with leaders.

Great expectations from Modi’s Japan trip

• India has “great expectations” from Prime Minister NarendraModi’s five-day visit to Japa, his first bilateral trip outside the subcontinent.
•  Underlining the importance of the East Asian region, Mr. Modi’s visit to Japan will be followed by a Vietnam trip by President Pranab Mukherjee in September.
•  External Affairs Minister SushmaSwaraj just concluded a visit to Vietnam. Top business leaders, including MukeshAmbani, GautamAdani and Kumar Mangalam Birla, will travel separately to Japan in visits timed to coincide with high-level business interactions Mr. Modi will initiate with his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe.

India, Pakistan hold third flag meeting

•  Officers of the Border Security Force and the Desert Rangers of Pakistan held their third flag meeting along the international border that has witnessed relentless ceasefire violations in the past month and a half.
•  While the BSF complained about regular ceasefire violations, the Pakistani Rangers denied the charge and drew attention to the loss of life and property in BSF shelling.

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