General Awareness : International Events -july, 2014

(General Awareness For Bank's Exams) International Events

July - 2014

Israel resumes air strikes on Gaza as ceasefire fails

Israel on Tuesday resumed airstrikes on Gaza after an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire failed to stop the escalating violence that has killed 192 Palestinians in nine days of fighting as Hamas continued to fire rockets at the Jewish state.
Earlier Israel accepted, while Hamas refused the Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire.
The Egyptian-proposed ceasefire plan was aimed at halting Israel’s deadly nine-day offensive on the Gaza Strip that has killed 192 Palestinians but the Israeli premier had warned that the operation would be intensified if Hamas militants refused to accept the truce.

11 top Ukrainian separatists hit with EU sanctions

Ukrainian separatist leader Alexander Borodai and 10 other top rebel officials were hit with EU sanctions. This will include travel ban and asset freeze.
Ukraine has seen a descent into violence since February, when former President Viktor Yanukovych fled the former Soviet nation following mass protests over his reluctance to seek closer ties with the EU.
The separatists have also declared the Donetsk and Luhansk regions independent from Ukraine, with Borodai — a 41-year-old political consultant from Moscow — appointed in May as Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.
New Ukrainian President petro poroshenko called for uprooting of rebels, which led to continous clashes between ukrainian authority and seperatist.

Israel troops briefly raid Gaza as offensive rages

Ignoring international appeals for a ceasefire, Israel widened its range of Gaza bombing targets to civilian institutions with suspected Hamas ties.
It was the first time that Israeli ground troops are known to have entered Gaza in the current offensive. But the operation was carried out by special forces and did not appear to be the beginning of a broad ground offensive.
United Nations Security Council called unanimously for a ceasefire also called for “the reinstitution of the November 2012 ceasefire,” which was brokered by Egypt, but gives no time frame for when it should take effect.
Israel has carried out more than 1,200 air strikes over the six-day offensive to try to diminish Hamas’ ability to fire rockets at Israel. Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza, has fired nearly 700 rockets and mortars at Israel.
The offensive marks the heaviest fighting since a similar eight-day campaign in November 2012 to stop Gaza rocket fire. The outbreak of violence follows the kidnappings and killings of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank, and the kidnapping and killing of a Palestinian teenager in an apparent revenge attack.

US brokers a deal to end Afghan election deadlock

Afghanistan’s presidential candidates have agreed to an audit of all ballots cast on 14th june second round poll, in order to end the election deadlock.
The announcement was made by the two candidates — Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai and Abdullah Abdullah — and Mr. Kerry. Previously, Mr. Abdullah had accused the government, electoral authorities and Mr. Ahmadzai’s camp of being a “triangle of fraud”.
The auditing process will start from the Afghan capital, and ballot boxes from the provinces will be transported to Kabul by international security assistance forces.
Outgoing President Hamid Karzai was against foreign intervention in the election process, although he agreed with the candidates call for an expedient resolution of the election dispute.

UN chief heads to Middle East to help end conflict

Amid an escalation of violence in the Middle East, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will leave for the region to help end the conflict between Israel and Palestinians that has killed more than 300 people, mostly civilians.
Mr. Ban is currently reviewing a request by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas which would place Palestine under an international protection system administered by the UN.
Mr. Abbas met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Cairo, and both agreed to the necessity of an immediate ceasefire and the urgency of holding a donors conference to start rebuilding the Gaza Strip.

Iran nuke talks to be extended till Nov 24

Iran and six world powers failed on Saturday to meet their target date for cutting a nuclear deal but agreed to extend the talks until Nov. 24.
There are still differences over the size and capacity of activities by Tehran that could be used to make nuclear arms.
Months of exhausting negotiations were meant to culminate in an agreement by Sunday that would limit programs Iran says it needs to produce energy and for other peaceful purposes but which can also be used to make nuclear arms.
Both the U.S. and Tehran facing pressure from powerful skeptics at home, the extra time means that both will increasingly be negotiating not only with each other but also those at home.
The main dispute remains over uranium enrichment , Iran, pushed to be allowed to expand its enrichment program over the next eight years to a level that would need about 190,000 current model centrifuges. It now has about 20,000 centrifuges, with half of them operating. But U.S. said that even 10,000 are too many. Diplomats say Washington wants no more than 2,000.
Iran has received more than $6 billion of sanctions relief since late last year under an interim nuclear deal and the U.S. officials said that Tehran would get access to an additional $2.8 billion of frozen assets during the extended talks.

U.N. aviation body to help with Ukraine probe

Officials of ICAO, the U.N. body in charge of civil aviation based in Montreal are being dispatched to assist the Ukrainian investigative team to ascertain just what led to the tragic crash of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine.
ICAO Council President Dr. Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu in a statement announcing that a team of experts would be sent “in response to an official request from Ukraine’s government.”
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced there would be an “open enquiry” into the crash.
Ukraine and Russia have since traded charges on who operated the complex anti-aircraft system which is available to both the Ukrainian military as well as the Russian army.
ICAO official said that some of the blame must be apportioned to the Ukrainian government for allowing the air corridor open over a part of the country under rebel control which is an active zone of conflict.
In march this year, the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) in New Delhi had instructed Indian airlines to move to flying 50 nautical miles above the current flight path, but that still remained over Ukraine.
After the MH 17 crash, another DGCA advisory has shifted the suggested flight path 100 nautical miles further north.
Meanwhile Ukraine accused pro-Russian insurgents of destroying evidence at the crash site of the Malaysia Airlines jet.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a joint call for an independent commission to have immediate access to the site.

Activists: WHO advisory on MSM needs rethink

Activists working on gay and transgender rights feel the new guidelines from the World Health Organisation (WHO) on HIV services for key groups have not been very well thought out specially in the context of providing anti-retroviral therapy (ART) to men who have sex with men (MSM).
The WHO in a neaws release on July 11 for the first time strongly recommended that men who have sex with men consider taking antiretroviral medicines as an additional method of preventing HIV infection alongside the use of condoms.
Rates of HIV infection among men who have sex with men remain high almost everywhere and new prevention options are urgently needed, the WHO said.
In India, the numbers of MSM was much lesser than other countries, compared to the population size.
ART is being given to those with CD 4 cell counts below 350 (CD4 cells or T-cells are the cells that send signals to activate your body’s immune response when they detect viruses or bacteria).
The National Aids Control Programme (NACP) IV aims to provide universal access to free ART to all those who require it.
The WHO warned that failure to provide adequate HIV services for key groups – men who have sex with men, people in prison, people who inject drugs, sex workers and transgenders – threatens global progress on the HIV response.

Pipeline to Pakistan may revive stalled mega projects

India’s decision to pipe natural gas and other petroleum products to Pakistan is being seen as a first step that could lead to the revival of two stalled mega undertakings involving Islamabad — the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline and the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) project.
Instability in Pakistan’s Baluchistan, through which the proposed IPI would pass, coupled with the policy of the United States so far to seek Iran’s political and economic isolation, have impeded the project.
But the IPI could revive, should a breakthrough be achieved in the ongoing nuclear talks between Iran and the six global powers.
‘U.S., E.U. can’t be trusted on Bali package’
India said on Thursday that it no longer trusts the United States at the ongoing World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations on the Bali package in Geneva.
Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is likely to meet WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo, United States Trade Representative and the EU Trade Commissioner in Sydney at the G20 Summit in an attempt to find a solution to the gridlocked Bali Deal negotiations.
India is sticking to its ground in Geneva and refusing to support a Trade Facilitation Agreement [TFA] unless work starts on finding a permanent solution for its minimum support prices for procuring food from poor farmers for below poverty line Indians that are in danger of breaching the WTO caps on subsidies.

Malaysia Airlines plane with 295 on board crashes over Ukraine near Russian border

A passenger plane carrying 295 people was shot down over a town in the east of the Ukraine. killing all 295 people aboard.
Ukraine separatist group blames Ukraine Air Force for the incident. Pro-Russian separatists have told Russian news agency Ria that they are willing to have up to 3-day ceasefire in Ukraine to allow for recovery work at site.
Ukrain has categorically denied the charges.
European Union called for an international investigation into the crash of the Malaysian jetliner in eastern Ukraine and for parties to “share all relevant information”.
The aircraft, which other sources said was a Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, came down near the city of Donetsk, stronghold of pro-Russian rebels, adding that it was hit by a ground-to-air missile.
The region has seen severe fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russia separatist rebels in recent days.

Algerian plane disappeared over northern Mali

An Air Algerie flight carrying 116 people from Burkina Faso to Algeria’s capital Algiers disappeared from radar over northern Mali after heavy rains were reported, nearly half of the passengers were French.
The plane sent its last message around 1.30 a.m. GMT (9.30 p.m. EDT), asking Niger air control to change its route because of heavy rains in the area.
Northern Mali fell under control of ethnic Tuareg separatists and then al-Qaeda-linked Islamic extremists following a military coup in 2012. A French-led intervention last year scattered the extremists, but the Tuaregs have pushed back against the authority of the Bamako-based government.

World needs India to succeed: WB president

The world was closely watching the new government in India and needed India to succeed in order to end extreme poverty by 2020, According to Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank Group.
He also mentioned, If the ranking of India in Doing Business Report(DBR) was based just on Gujarat, [the country] would improve 50 places. So our hope is that what Mr. Modi did in Gujarat in improving the business environment is scaled to all of India, if that does happen, India will rise very quickly in the DBR rankings.
WB will provide financial support to India worth $15-18 billion over the next three years.
He added, “The world needs India to succeed. If India reaches its economic goals, several million people will be lifted out of poverty in a generation’s tim. This represents an historic opportunity [which is] critical not only for India but for the world if we are to end extreme poverty by 2020.”

West Asia: dialogue only viable option, says India

India expressed “deep concern” over the escalation of conflict between Israel and Palestine. India also reiterated its joint stand — with IBSA and BRICS partners — to promote dialogue and understanding in Palestine and Israel.
In a statement made at the 21st special session of the UNHRC — on the human rights situation in occupied Palestinian territory — India urged for an immediate ceasefire and called on both sides to resume dialogue.
The solution to the “Palestine issue,” India said, should be based on relevant U.N. resolutions, the Arab Peace Plan and the Quartet Roadmap resulting in a “sovereign, independent, viable and united State of Palestine within secure and recognised borders side-by-side at peace with Israel and with East Jerusalem as its capital”.

India home to one in every three child brides in world: UN

According to a United Nations report, India has the sixth highest prevalence of child marriages in the world, with one in every three child bride living in India.
Child marriage among girls is most common in South Asia and sub—Saharan Africa and India is among the top 10 countries with the highest rates of child marriage.
Worldwide, more than 700 million women alive today were married as children or before their 18th birthday.
In India, about 27 per cent of women aged 20 to 49 years were married before age 15. About 31 per cent of women in that age group were married after age 15 but before they turned 18.
The report added that in India, the median age at first marriage is 19.7 years for women in the richest quintile compared to 15.4 for the poorest women.

Don’t allow field trials of GM crops: farmers, activists

The recent decision of the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) to allow field trials of GM rice, mustard, cotton, chickpea and brinjal has been met with strong opposition from farmers’ groups and environmental activists.
Supreme Court was about to pronounce its orders on the issue of field trials of GM crops, based on the recommendations of the Court’s Technical Expert Committee (TEC).
Realising the potential of field trials to contaminate the seed, food supply chains and environment, and owing to the lack of a proper regulatory system, the TEC has recommended a moratorium on open-air field trials.

Over 1, 00,000 Palestinians seeking UN refuge

The UN agency assisting Palestinian refugees has said that over 100,000 internally displaced people are seeking safety in its facilities amid deteriorating security conditions in the Gaza Strip as it appealed for $ 60 million for urgent humanitarian needs.
It issued the emergency appeal for funds to respond to the urgent humanitarian needs of the people of Gaza, including tens of thousands who have fled their homes in the wake of the Israeli military offensive that has killed more than 550 Palestinians and wounded over 3,500.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon has urged all parties to rally around collective international efforts to obtain an end to bloodshed in Gaza and Israel and reach a ceasefire.
Mr. Ban was in Egypt on Monday on the third leg of a regional tour aimed at ending the two-week long violence.

Exoplanet with 704-day-long year found

Using NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, researchers have discovered an exoplanet with the longest known year.
The newly discovered Kepler-421b circles its star in 704 days. It is the longest period of revolution known yet for a planet outside of our solar system.

UN Security Council calls for ceasefire as Gaza toll rises to 501

The powerful 15-nation Council held an emergency meeting and expressed serious concern about the escalation of violence in and around Gaza.
The Palestinian death toll rose to 501 after bodies of 16 people who were killed in an Israeli air strike on a house in the south of the Gaza Strip were found this morning.
The members of the Security Council called for an immediate cessation of hostilities based on the November 2012 ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and Hamas.
The Council also emphasised the need to improve the humanitarian situation, including thorough humanitarian pauses, such as the five-hour truce brokered last week by the Secretary-General’s Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry.
The emergency UNSC meeting came even as Mr. Ban is in the region as part of a visit aimed at expressing solidarity with Israelis and Palestinians and help bringing about a ceasefire.
Meanwhile U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to Cairo to meet Egyptian and other officials on the volatile situation in the Gaza Strip and seek an immediate cessation of hostilities.
Mr. Kerry told that Israel is responding to an intransigent Hamas that it was offered a ceasefire and didn’t want to take it.

Typhoon Rammasun leaves 13 dead in Vietnam

The typhoon slammed southern China and the Philippines with torrential rain and gales before hitting Vietnam.
At least 94 people were reported killed in the Philippines and Twenty-six were killed in China.
Now thirteen people were killed and four remain missing after Typhoon Rammasun made landfall in northern Vietnam.
Heavy rain also caused landslides in Lang Son province, which borders China, killing five people.

Iran offers to halt nuclear expansion for deal with world powers

Iran is offering to hold off from expanding its uranium-enrichment programme for about seven years in negotiations with six world powers.
Negotiations are ongoing in Vienna between Iran and the group of Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany to curb Iran's nuclear programme, with deadline on Sunday.
Iran is currently spinning about 10,000 centrifuges at high speeds to purify uranium to levels suitable for use in power reactors. An additional 9,000 centrifuges are installed but not operating.