General Awareness : International Events -April, 2014

(General Awareness For Bank's Exams) International Events

April - 2014

Tussle between US and China over Hong Kong

China has cautioned the United States not to interfere in Hong Kong affairs after Vice President Joseph Biden met two prominent pro-democracy advocates who have warned of Beijing's tightening control of the territory.
A former British colony that reverted to Chinese rule in 1997, Hong Kong enjoys considerable autonomy and broad freedoms as a capitalist hub.
But it has been locked in a lengthy battle with Beijing's leaders to push through reforms that could culminate in a direct election of its leader in 2017.
Tension has grown over China's meddling in Hong Kong affairs as well as a proposal that all candidates in the 2017 poll be vetted by a panel stacked with Beijing loyalists, which would essentially keep opposition candidates out of the running.
China has agreed to let Hong Kong elect its next leader in 2017 in what promises to be the most extensive exercise of democracy on Chinese soil. Specific arrangements, however, have yet to be hammered out, including whether public nominations of candidates will be allowed.
A group of pro-democracy activists has threatened to shut down the city's central business district in a campaign of civil disobedience called "Occupy Central", should Beijing bar a fully democratic poll in line with international norms.

Sanctions against Palestinians

Israeli and Palestinian officials held fresh US-mediated talks, but the crisis-hit peace process was dealt a new blow as Israel unveiled sanctions against the Palestinians.
Israel, which collects about €80 million (Dh408 million) in taxes on behalf of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) — two-thirds of its revenues — has decided to freeze the transfer of that money.
Israel was also suspending its participation with the Palestinians in developing a gasfield off the Gaza Strip and putting a cap on Palestinian deposits in its banks, the Israeli official said, asking not to be named.
Palestinian chief negotiator SaebErekat lashed out at the move, calling it an act of “Israeli hijacking and the theft of the Palestinian people’s money.
Washington remains in “intensive negotiations” with both sides.
The talks hit a new impasse last week after Israel refused to release a final batch of Palestinian prisoners and the Palestinians retaliated by seeking accession to several international treaties.
The Israelis have repeatedly asked Barack Obama and previous US presidents to release Pollard, sentenced to life in 1987 for passing US secrets on Arab and Pakistani weapons to Israel.
Psaki revealed that Indyk would return to Washington this week for consultations with Kerry and the White House.
The Palestinians responded by abandoning their own commitment not to seek international recognition until the nine months of talks ended, applying for accession to 15 treaties.

Pakistan Protection bill

The Nawaz Sharif Government managed to get the Protection of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill passed in the National Assembly,but the Opposition parties, which tore up the bill in the House are determined to take the fight to the Supreme Court.
The controversial law which started off as an ordinance, was referred to the Standing Committee on Interior and Narcotics which debated the bill and approved it while proposing some amendments.
The bill, which is expected to give more powers to the security forces to tackle terrorism and powers to search and arrest apart from preventive detention of up to 90 days and excluding the public from proceedings of the special court.
The ordinance, which was notified in January, was not approved by the Senate and the bill too is going to run into difficulties in the Upper House.
The ordinance is not very different from the bill, and members of the Opposition feared that Pakistan could be turned into a police state using this law and its stringent provisions would be misused. While there are no two opinions about the need to tackle terrorism, there are provisions in the existing law which could be efficiently implemented, some felt.

NATO and the Ukrainian Crisis

Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula has placed the spotlight on NATO. Russia’s military incursion into Ukraine was a wake-up call for the 28-member western alliance.
Since the end of the Cold War, the western alliance has been trying to redefine its mission.
Poland and Romania are NATO members that border Ukraine on the west. Russia has amassed thousands of troops on its border on the other side of Ukraine, prompting some western experts to say an incursion into Eastern Ukraine is likely.
As a result of Russia’s military intervention in Crimea, NATO has suspended all civilian and military cooperation with Moscow. NATO officials say they will review their relationship with Moscow in view of Russia’s actions.

China-backed Boao Forum

Ratan Tata, the doyen of Indian industry, was recently inducted as a member of the Board of Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), a rare distinction for an Indian in the Chinese government-backed influential body.
This is the first time a senior Indian business leader was accorded the distinction.It is also a recognition for Tatas as a global conglomerate, he said.
The 15-member Board of BFA included former Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda, former Malaysian prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badwai, former Singapore prime minister GohChok Tong and former prime minister of France Jean—Pierre Raffarin besides former US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
BFA was formed in 2001 on the lines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Every year top world’s political and business leaders gather at Boao to brainstorm on global political and economic issues.
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce (FICCI) is an ordinary member of the forum.
172,000 H1B visa petitions
The US, which received more than 172,000 applications for the H-1B visas, has conducted a computerised draw of lots to determine who all would be given the most sought after work visas that are highly popular among IT professionals from countries like India.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) conducted the computerised draw of lots to select the Congressionally mandated 65,000 applicants, who would receive the H-1B visas.
The USCIS, in a statement, said it also conducted draw of lots for Congressional mandated 20,000 H-1B petitions filed under the advanced degree exemption.
The USCIS conducted the selection process for the advanced degree exemption first.
All advanced degree petitions not selected then became part of the random selection process for the 65,000 limit.
However, the USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap.
Petitions filed on behalf of current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap will not be counted towards the congressionally mandated fiscal 2015 H-1B cap

Rockets fired in southern Israel

Three rockets from Gaza were fired into Israel recently.
The projectile struck uninhabited areas in the Sha'arHanegev Regional Council and set off sirens.
Few days back, Israel Air Force jets struck five terror targets in the Gaza Strip, following rocket attacks on southern Israel the previous night. The IAF hit sites in northern and central Gaza, including two Hamas posts. .
Also last week, a rocket siren went off in the Sha’arHanegev region, but an army spokeswoman later said no projectiles were detected in Israeli territory.
Last month, the air force stuck 29 targets across the Gaza Strip in response to Islamic Jihad rocket attack on the South. More than 30 rockets – fired in simultaneous barrages from northern and southern Gaza – exploded in Israeli territory. The Iron Dome anti-rocket battery stationed in Sderot shot down three projectiles over the town. The bombardment of the western Negev in March marked the largest flare-up of Gazan terrorism since 2012.

New sanctions against Russia

The United States and other nations in the Group of Seven agreed to “move swiftly” to impose additional economic sanctions on Russia in response to its actions in Ukraine.
In a joint statement released by the White House, the G—7 nations said they will act urgently to intensify “targeted sanctions.” The statement said the G—7 will also continue to prepare broader sanctions on key Russian economic sectors if Moscow takes more aggressive action.
The announcement came as top Ukrainians spoke of imminent invasion and Moscow said that pro—Russian separatists would not lay down their arms in eastern Ukraine until activists relinquish control over key sites in Kiev.
The G—7 nations said they were moving forward on the targeted sanctions now because of the urgency of securing plans for Ukraine to hold presidential elections in May.
The penalties are expected to target wealthy Russian individuals who are close to President Vladimir Putin, as well as entities they run. However, the U.S. will continue to hold off on targeting broad swaths of the Russian economy, though the president has said he is willing to take that step if Putin launches a military incursion in eastern Ukraine.
Tensions were heightened on the ground, with Russian fighter jets reported crossing into Ukrainian airspace and a team of unarmed foreign military observers detained by pro—Russian forces in Slovyansk, the heart of the separatist movement in the east.

Hatf-III

Pakistan conducted a successful training launch of short range surface to surface ballistic missile Hatf III (Ghaznavi) recently.
The missile can carry nuclear and conventional warheads to a range of 290 kilometres.
The successful launch concluded the field training exercise of strategic missile group of Army Strategic Forces Command.
As per the statement released by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the training launch was witnessed by Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General RashadMahmood, Director General Strategic Plans Division Lieutenant General ZubairMahmood Hayat, Commander Army Strategic Forces Command Lieutenant General ObaidUllah Khan, Chairman NESCOM Muhammad Irfan Burney and other senior military officials and scientists.

Code Of Conduct On Communication

Naval chiefs from US and Asian-Pacific nations including Vietnam adopted a code of conduct aimed at improving communication at sea to reduce the possibility of conflict.
Citing Australian media reports, VNA said that the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea was approved by countries including the US, China, Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam at the Western Pacific Naval Symposium in China's eastern coastal city of Qingdao.
The pact outlines how naval ships should communicate and manoeuvre when they unexpectedly come into contact in sea lanes surrounding China, Japan and Southeast Asia.
Although not legally binding, the code of conduct is said to help establish international standards in relation to the use of sea lanes.

FATA demand

The clamour for holding local government elections in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) is growing in a region where a governance system is non-existent at a local or provincial level.
A new research study by the FATA Research Centre (FRC) titled ‘Local Government in FATA, Past failures, Current challenges and Future prospects’ highlights the century old political vacuum in the region coupled with bad governance and corruption which has resulted in a gap between the state and society in this volatile tribal belt.
The growing exclusion of people from the political process has created a sense of deprivation and frustration among the masses, the report says and this disconnect was the reason that Taliban were able to consolidate their position in FATA by cutting away at the existing political system and killing the tribal elders and maliks.
The Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) is a draconian law which still operates there and power is wielded by the all powerful political agent even today. Lt Gen (retd.) Abdul QadirBaloch, the minister for States and Frontier Regions said there are no two opinions that local government elections should be held in FATA and he said the driver of reforms must be the people themselves.
Senator Farhatullah Babar said the FATA region which was a buffer zone earlier to press the strategic depth policy was now a strategic threat.

Pope Francis declaration

Pope Francis declared his two predecessors John XXIII and John Paul II saints on before hundreds of thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square, an unprecedented ceremony made even more historic by the presence of retired Pope Benedict XVI.
Never before has a reigning and retired pope celebrated Mass together in public, much less at an event honouring two of their most famous predecessors.
Pope Benedict’s presence was a reflection of the balancing act that Pope Francis envisioned when he decided to canonize Pope John and Pope John Paul together, showing the unity of the Catholic Church by honouring popes beloved to conservatives and progressives alike.
Poep Francis took a deep breath and paused for a moment before reciting the saint-making formula in Latin, as if moved by the history he was about to make.

Chemical weapons destroyed in Syria

The head of an international mission to Syria charged with destroying the country’s chemical weapons called on President Bashar Assad’s government to ensure it meets a deadline to destroy all its toxic chemicals amid a raging civil war.
Sigrid Kaag of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) told reporters in Damascus that 92.5 percent of Syria’s chemical materials had been removed from the country and destroyed. She called it “significant progress,” although she called on Syria’s government to ensure remaining materials would be eradicated by the end of April.
Syria missed an April 13 deadline to destroy all its chemical weapons in accessible locations. International experts say that could impact on reaching a June 30 deadline to remove all Syria’s chemical weapons.
Another 12 chemical weapons production facilities are still being reviewed by the OPCW to see how they will be destroyed.

Assad regime

France has ‘information’ but no firm proof that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime is still using chemical weapons,according to President Francois Hollande .
There are conflicting accounts about one attack that happened in the town of KafrZita in the central Hama province earlier in April, with both the government and the opposition accusing each other of being responsible.
Activists in the area accused the regime of using chlorine gas, saying it caused ‘more than 100 cases of suffocation’.
Throughout Syria's conflict, the Assad regime has sought to portray itself as the protector of the country's religious minorities against a revolt it says is led by foreign-backed extremists.
The Syrian opposition dismisses such claims as part of a divide-and-rule strategy which is also aimed at deterring the West from providing greater support to the rebels.
Syria's uprising began in March 2011 as a peaceful revolt against the Assad family's four-decade rule but escalated into an insurgency and then a civil war when the regime launched a brutal crackdown.
As the war has intensified, claiming an estimated 150,000 lives, it has also grown more sectarian, with jihadists flocking to the ranks of the Sunni-led rebellion and Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah movement fighting alongside the regime.

Internet ‘Bill of Rights’ to protect online privacy

Brazil’s president signed into law on a “Bill of Rights” for the digital age that aims to protect online privacy and promote the Internet as a public utility by barring telecommunications companies from charging for preferential access to their networks.
The law signed by President DilmaRousseff at a global conference on the future of Internet governance puts Brazil in the vanguard of online consumer protection and what is known as “net neutrality,” whose promoters consider it profoundly democratic in part because it keeps financial barriers for innovators low.
The new law promotes privacy by limiting the data that online companies can collect on Internet users in this nation of 200 million people, deeming communications over the Internet “inviolable and secret.” Service providers must develop protocols to ensure email can be read only by senders and their intended recipients. Violators are subject to penalties including fines and suspension.
The law obliges Internet companies, however, to hold on to user data for six months and hand it over to law enforcement under court order.

World's Tallest Building

Kingdom Tower will be 568 feet taller than Khalifa Tower, the current Guinness World Record holder in neighboring Dubai, once it is completed. The tower is the first phase of Jeddah Economic Company's approximately $20 billion, 17 million-square-foot Kingdom City project, of which it will be the focal point. Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, a nephew of Saudi King Abdullah, is chairman of the Kingdom Holding Company, a partner in JEC.
Foundation work for the $1.2 billion skyscraper began in December, and above-ground work will start April 27. The 200-floor tower will be located in Jeddah, a culturally significant city near the Red Sea that is known as the gateway to Mecca.
Kingdom Tower will house a Four Seasons hotel, luxury condominiums, office space and an observatory.
ond spot and give Kejriwal a run for his money.

TIME magazine's online poll

Indian politician ArvindKejriwal has won the readers’ poll for the 2014 TIME 100, TIME’s annual list of people who influenced the world this past year for better or worse.
As the world's largest democracy votes in the ongoing elections, the key candidates obviously have made an impact internationally
NarendraModi, who is already being hailed as the leader at the helm of affairs by Goldman Sachs and other agencies, was expected to be the top candidate from India on TIME magazine's list. But AamAadmi Party (AAP) leader ArvindKejriwal has managed to edge past the BJP's prime ministerial candidate by a small margin.
Kejriwal has edged past international icons such as MalalaYousafzai, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Jared Leto, Vladimir Putin, Janet Yellen, and Michael Bloomberg among others. NarendraModi, who has gained much prominence of late, has secured the third post. According to TIME, Modi may clamour past pop star Katy Perry to the sec

Rape in conflict

A new UN report names 21 countries where rape and other sexual violence has been committed in current and recent conflicts - from Afghanistan and Central African Republic to Myanmar and Syria.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's report, says there is now unprecedented political momentum globally to end conflict-related sexual violence but more action is needed regionally and nationally to respond to these crimes.
Covering 21 countries of concern in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and the Middle East, the report shows that sexual violence in conflict is truly is a global crime.
The report identifies 34 armed groups - including militias, rebel groups and government security forces - suspected of rape and sexual violence in conflict situations.

North Korean nuclear threats

Dismissing North Korea's nuclear threats, US President Barack Obama has reportedly warned the country of tougher sanctions if it were to go ahead with its fourth nuclear test.
Obama said at a joint press conference with South Korean President Park Geun-Hye that threats will get North Korea nothing, other than greater isolation.
South Korea’s satellite images revealed the North could be preparing for another test, Obama stressed that Washington and Seoul stood "shoulder to shoulder" in their refusal to accept a nuclear North Korea.
Obama also said that China is beginning to recognise that North Korea is not just a nuisance but a significant problem for their own security.

No TOEFL and TOEIC testsby ETS

Dealing a blow to many visa aspirants especially students, British authorities have said global testing giant ETS will no longer offer TOEFL and TOEIC tests for U.K. visa-granting purposes, in the wake of a recent controversy.
As per the U.K. Council for International Student Affairs’ official website, “ETS is no longer providing TOEIC and TOEFL tests for people who want to use them in support of U.K. immigration applications. This is because of allegations of fraud.”
Following the broadcast of a BBC Panorama programme in February 2014 which highlighted an organised element seeking to circumvent the U.K.’s visa-granting process, ETS has made the decision not to extend our Secure English-language Testing (SELT) licence with the Home Office. As a result, TOEIC and TOEFL iBT testing will no longer be offered for U.K. visa-granting purposes.
The TOEFL test remains the most widely respected English-language test in the world recognised by more than 9,000 institutions in more than 130 countries.

Afghan landslide

Afghan officials gave up hope of finding any survivors from a landslide in the remote northeast, putting the death toll at more than 2,100, as the aid effort focused on the more than 4,000 people displaced.
Officials expressed concern the unstable hillside above the site of the disaster may cave in again, threatening the thousands of homeless and hundreds of rescue workers who have arrived in Badakhshan province,

bordering Tajikistan.

•Villagers and a few dozen police, equipped with only basic digging tools, resumed their search when daylight broke but it soon became clear there was no hope of finding survivors buried in up to 100 meters of mud.
The United Nations mission in Afghanistan said the focus was on the more than 4,000 people displaced, either directly as a result of Friday’s landslide or as a precautionary measure from villages assessed to be at risk.
Their main needs were water, medical support, counselling support, food and emergency shelter, said Ari Gaitanis, a spokesman from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.
The impoverished area, dotted with villages of mud-brick homes nestled in valleys beside bare slopes, has been hit by several landslides in recent years.

Tunisia’s new law on elections

Tunisian lawmakers have adopted a sweeping new electoral law that paves the way for general elections later this year and is a milestone in this country’s new democracy.
The law requires party lists for legislative elections to be half women and half men. It also allows members of the authoritarian regime ousted in 2011 to run for office.
The members of the National Constituent Assembly approved the law after weeks of heated debate over its 270 articles. The overall law was approved 132-11 with nine abstentions.
Tunisia’s path to democracy has been rocky but is seen as a model for other countries, after street protests overthrew a dictator and unleashed uprisings across the region known as the Arab Spring.

Obama's wage bill

Senate Republicans deployed a filibuster to block a White House proposal to increase the U.S. minimum wage by $2.85 to $10.10 per hour, thereby denying President Barack Obama an important election-year policy achievement.
With mid-term elections scheduled for November 2014, the defeat of the Bill on the floor of the Senate, by a vote of 54 ‘ayes’ and 42 ‘nays’ – short of the 60 votes required for passage – could spell trouble for Democrats.
Although polls have shown that more than 60 per cent of Americans support raising the minimum wage, a measure that Mr. Obama promised in his state-of-the-union address in January, all Senate Republicans but one, Robert Corker of Tennessee, voted against holding a debate on the Bill and getting it passed.
While he appeared frustrated with the proceedings on Capitol Hill and slammed Republicans for preventing “a raise for 28 million hard-working Americans,” he emphasised that several U.S. States had taken the matter into their hands and raised the minimum wage through State Legislatures.
For the Democrats the Bill represented a key component of its broader ‘Fair Shot for All’ midterm campaign, a platform that aimed to project the party as a supporter of the common man, in opposition to Republican pandering to special interests.

Anti-Qaeda offensive

Yemeni forces have launched an operation to drive Al-Qaeda fighters out of southern towns, where blistering air strikes killed nearly 60 militants recently. military officials.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula jihadists established strongholds in towns and rugged zones in Abyan and Shabwa provinces after security forces chased them from major cities in Abyan in 2012.
Yemeni and US drone strikes targeted bases of AQAP, considered by Washington as the most dangerous affiliate of the global jihadist network with links to several failed terror plots against the United States.
AQAP took advantage of the weakening of the central government in Sanaa after the nationwide uprising, establishing strongholds in the southern and eastern regions.
In June 2012, government forces backed by the Popular Committees drove militants out of major cities in Abyan after they had been in control for around a year.
US drones frequently strike suspected militants in the country despite mounting criticism from rights groups concerned about civilian casualties.
The United States has defended its use of drones against Al-Qaeda, saying they allow it to target jihadists without sending soldiers into lawless areas where local authorities have little or no control.

US security deal with Philippines

Protesters have clashed in the Philippines as a 10-year agreement was signed ahead of President Barack Obama's visit which will beef up military forces there.
The military will get greater access to bases across the region as an effort by Washington to counter Chinese aggression.
The presence of foreign troops is a sensitive issue in the Philippines, a former American colony.
The Philippine Senate voted in 1991 to close down U.S. bases at Subic and Clark, northwest of Manila.
However, it ratified a pact with the United States allowing temporary visits by American forces in 1999, four years after China seized a reef the Philippines contests.
Following the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, hundreds of U.S. forces descended in the southern Philippines under that accord to hold counter terrorism exercises with Filipino troops fighting Muslim militants.
However this time, the focus of the Philippines and its underfunded military has increasingly turned to external threats as territorial spats with China in the potentially oil and gas-rich South China Sea heated up in recent years.

Tornadoes strike central, southern US

A tornado system ripped through the central US and left at least 12 dead in a violent start to this year's storm season.
A tornado carved through several Little Rock suburbs. A separate tornado from the same storm system killed one person in Oklahoma.
The large tornado outside Little Rock, Arkansas, stayed on the ground as it moved northeastward for at least 30 miles (48 kilometres).
Emergency workers and volunteers went door-to-door to look for victims. Law enforcement officers checked the damaged and toppled 18-wheelers, cars and trucks on a stretch of Interstate 40, a major thoroughfare in and out of the state's capital.
Tornadoes also touched down in Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas, where dozens of homes in Baxter Springs were destroyed. Twenty-five people were injured and one person died.
Forecasters had warned for days that violent weather would strike over the weekend.

Security for World Economic Forum

Nigeria has assured that it will provide adequate security arrangements during the World Economic Forum on Africa, which begins May 7 in Abuja.
The government would provide adequate security for participants.His remark came after some countries expressed concern over security issues, following a blast in Abuja, which left at least 19 people dead.