(General Awareness For Bank's Exams) International Events

March, 2015

Democracy jailed for 13 years: Nasheed’s party

•  Former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed was sentenced to 13 years in prison on a terrorism charge after what rights groups said was a “flawed” trial, sparking international concern.
•  Mr. Nasheed called on his supporters to take to the streets to protest against the sentence after a trial his party said was “blatantly politicised”.
•  “I appeal to all of you today to stay courageous and strong, to confront the dictatorial power of this regime,” his office quoted him as saying.
•  Mr. Nasheed, the Indian Ocean archipelago’s first democratically elected leader, had been arrested on February 22. He was convicted under the country’s Anti-Terrorism Act for ordering the arrest of a chief judge, Abdullah Mohamed, when he was President in January 2012.
•  “The Anti-Terrorism Act, inter alia, classifies an act of terrorism to include kidnapping, holding as hostage or apprehending someone against their will or attempts to kidnap, hold hostage or apprehend someone without their will, for the extra judicial enforced disappearance of the sitting Chief Judge of Criminal Court,” sources told PTI, quoting the court judgement.
•  The 47-year-old was then taken to Dhoonidhoo prison on an island near the capital Male.
•  Mr. Nasheed’s lawyers resigned before the end of his brief trial, saying it was biased and aimed at destroying his political career.
•  The conviction came amid growing opposition to the government of President Abdulla Yameen and will effectively prevent Mr. Nasheed from running for President at the 2018 elections.
•  Mr. Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) said the verdict dealt a blow to the young democracy seven years after it embraced multi-party elections following three decades of rule by former strongman Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.
•  “Democracy jailed for 13 years on March 13, 2015,” said MDP spokeswoman Shauna Aminath. “Nothing good will come out of this.
•  It’s a sad, sad, sad day for the Maldives,” she added. The MDP said its lawyers would appeal Nasheed’s conviction in the high court.

Modi calls for implementation of 13th Amendment in full

•  India stands for a “united Sri Lanka,” but wants an “early and full implementation of the 13th Amendment” that provides for devolution in the Tamil majority Northern and Eastern provinces, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said .
•  Mr. Modi, who was speaking at the historic Presidential Secretariat after talks with Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, also referred to “going beyond” the 13th Amendment that would “contribute to the process” of building a “future that accommodates the aspirations of all sections of society, including the Sri Lankan Tamil community.”
•  The Prime Minister’s comments came a day ahead of his visit to Jaffna and Talaimannar, the first ever by an Indian Prime Minister.
•  In an interview to The Hindu this week, Chief Minister of the Northern Province C.V. Wigneswaran had called upon India to remember its role as “guarantor” of Tamil rights, saying the 13th Amendment was “inadequate” and seeking “something beyond it.”
  Japan, France sign pact
•  France and Japan agreed on Friday to work together on researching military equipment, as Tokyo looks to broaden its defence ties and bolster its international profile.
•  In the latest in a spate of meetings, involving defence and foreign ministers, the fellow G7 members signalled a closer working relationship.
•  French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani and Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida pledged to fight terrorism, to help bring stability to Ukraine, and to seek political solutions to Syria and Iraq.

Allow us to visit India: panel on religious freedom

•  The chair of a high-profile Congressional commission on religious freedom has asked the Indian government to reconsider its view to withhold permission for the commission members to visit the country to assess the state of religious tolerance.
•  Katrina Lantos-Swett, Chairperson of the U.S. Congress-established Commission on Religious Freedom (USCIRF), said, “I would also say that we would really welcome the opportunity to travel to India and we’ve been saddened that until now India has not been yet ready to welcome a USCIRF delegation to come for a visit.”
•  Under her leadership and Congressional mandate, the USCIRF continues to produce an annual report on the state of religious freedom worldwide, which in years past had designated India as a “Tier II” or “watch-list” country.
•  Dr. Lantos-Swett’s comments are significant in the context of two recent occasions on which U.S. President Barack Obama has remarked upon the dangers of religious intolerance for India, a view that Prime Minister Narendra Modi appeared to cognise in February, when he condemned religious-based violent acts in the country.
•  On those remarks by Mr. Obama, Dr. Lantos-Swett appeared to differ from State Department officials who suggested that the President did not specifically intend to critique India’s religious tolerance and that it was a general observation.
•  The Commissioner said that she did not believe that the recent meetings between Mr. Obama and Mr. Modi were any indication that U.S. concerns as a country regarding religious freedom issues in India had gone away, rather that the White House aspired to being able to “speak out about concerns that exist with respect to the robust protection of religious freedom” in India, even as the bilateral rapprochement deepens simultaneously.

Iceland withdraws  its bid to join the EU

•  The North Atlantic island of Iceland has withdrawn its bid to join the European Union, with the government saying that its interests are best served outside the 28-nation EU.
•  EU spokesperson Maja Kocijancic said that the bloc would “fully respect such a decision” and underlined that Iceland remained an important partner.
•  Iceland started its membership negotiations in 2010 looking to better anchor itself to Europe two years after its economy imploded amid a banking collapse.
•  The biggest challenges to those talks were fishing rights and agriculture. The new government froze the EU accession application when it came to power in 2013.
•  Iceland’s foreign ministry had announced that the application was withdrawn.

Rushdie to join journalism faculty of NY university

•  Controversial India-born author Salman Rushdie will join the journalism faculty at the New York University later this year to teach courses and advise graduate students.
•  Mr. Rushdie will join the New York University (NYU) journalism faculty as a ‘Distinguished Writer in Residence’ at the Arthur L Carter Journalism Institute of the Faculty of Arts and Science in September, 2015.
•  A Fellow of the British Royal Society of Literature and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Mr. Rushdie won the 1981 Booker Prize for Midnight’s Children.
•  Mr. Rushdie had spent nearly a decade in hiding after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini had issued a fatwa against him in 1989 following the publication of his book ‘The Satanic Verses’, which was considered offensive to Islam.

‘Time to replace 13th Amendment with a more dynamic system’

•  It is time the 13th Amendment was replaced with a more dynamic system of devolution of powers, according to Sri Lanka’s Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran.
•  Speaking ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Sri Lanka, the former Supreme Court judge said: “[The] 13th Amendment can never be the final solution. Be that as it may, we welcome him [Mr. Modi]. We know we have a friend in him. We appreciate his concerns for us, in wanting to come to
  the North.”
•  Mr. Modi will be in Sri Lanka on a two-day visit. He will travel to the island’s war-torn Northern Province where Mr. Wigneswaran won a historic provincial election in September 2013.
•  Ever since the Chief Minister and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) — the main party representing the Northern Tamils — have been pointing to hurdles in governance due to the limited powers.
•  As “a proponent and an advocate of devolution,” Mr. Modi would appreciate the situation in Sri Lanka, the Chief Minister said. “Especially the inadequacies of the 13th Amendment would no doubt be understood by him.His visit and understanding would be very vital in the ultimate finalisation of our constitutional problems.”
•  From the time Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict ended in May 2009, New Delhi has been pushing Colombo for the full implementation of the 13th Amendment, following up on former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s earlier assurance.
•  Pointing to the Indian model of power sharing between the Centre and the States, Mr. Wigneswaran said it was the quantum of devolution prevalent under the Indian Constitution that made possible Mr. Modi’s “excellent leadership” and “people-centred approach that transformed Gujarat.”
•  In comparison, under Sri Lanka’s unitary Constitution, there was “no chance of our performing the way Hon. Modi performed.”
•  On the changes after former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was unseated, he said President Maithripala Sirisena was “refreshingly different” but certain sections of the new government were acting irresponsibly “following the age-old political tactics of the past which had led to the worsening of the ethnic issue,” adding that the regime change was not an end in itself.
•  As an advocate of devolution, Mr. Modi would appreciate the situation in Sri Lanka, says Northern Province CM Wigneswaran.

Pakistan lifts death penalty moratorium for all cases

•  Pakistan has lifted its moratorium on the death penalty in all capital cases, officials said , after restarting executions for terrorism offences in the wake of a school massacre by the Taliban.
•  The Interior Ministry has directed provincial governments to proceed with hangings for prisoners who had exhausted all avenues of appeal and clemency, a senior interior ministry official told .
•  Pakistan has hanged 24 convicts since resuming executions in December after Taliban militants gunned down more than 150 people, most of them children, at a school in the restive northwest.
•  The partial lifting of the moratorium only applied to those convicted of terrorism offences, but officials said it has now been extended.
•  Rights campaign group Amnesty International estimates that Pakistan has more than 8,000 prisoners on death row, most of whom have exhausted the appeals process.
•  Amnesty International estimates that Pakistan has more than 8,000 prisoners on death row.

ICC hands over  Bashir case to U.N.

•  Sudan has failed to arrest its long-time leader Omar al-Bashir for genocide and war crimes, the International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled, referring the matter back to the U.N. Security Council.
•  Mr. Bashir (71) is wanted by The Hague-based ICC, the world’s only permanent court, for his role in the western Sudanese region of Darfur where insurgents rose up in 2003 in an ongoing conflict that has left more than 300,000 people dead.
•  He faces five counts of crimes against humanity including murder and torture, three of genocide and two of war crimes including attacking a civilian population.
•  The ICC in 2009 and 2010 issued two warrants against Bashir, but he continues to travel across the African continent despite a legal obligation by ICC member states to arrest him.

More U.S. sanctions on Venezuela

•  U.S. President Barack Obama ordered a fresh wave of sanctions against senior Venezuelan officials involved on opposition crackdown, including the prosecution of Caracas’s Mayor.
•  Mr. Obama ordered the freezing of U.S. properties and bank accounts of seven officials, including the director general of the intelligence service and the director of the national police.
•  Most of those targeted for U.S. sanctions on Monday were accused of being involved with a 2014 crackdown on opposition protests that left more than 40 dead.

Sri Lanka may review Tata housing project

•  Sri Lanka has said that a $400 million housing project by the Tata group is being reviewed, weeks after the country’s new government said it was looking for a fresh start into the first-of-its-kind township plan.
•  Tata launched the housing project last year in central Colombo that involved the displacement of 65,000 people.
•  The scale of displacement and the compensation offered have been a sore point with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s opponents, it said. Company spokesperson refused to comment on the matter.

India is not a country of rapists: German envoy to discriminating German professor

•  “Let’s be clear: India is not a country of rapists.” This was what German envoy in India Michael Steiner wrote, in his strongly worded letter, to a German professor who denied internship to an Indian male student citing “India’s rape problem”.
•  Mr. Steiner also commended the high quality of public debate on rape in India, while advising the professor to “learn more about the diverse, dynamic and fascinating country”.
•  “In India, ‘the Nirbhaya case’ has triggered a lively, honest, sustained and very healthy public debate... of a quality that wouldn’t be possible in many other countries,” he wrote in his letter.
•  Dr. Annette Beck-Sickinger, professor of biochemistry at Leipzig University, had refused to accept an Indian student for an internship because of India’s “rape problem”.
•  “Unfortunately, I don’t accept any Indian male students for internships. We hear a lot about the rape problem in India which I cannot support. I have many female students in my group, so I think this attitude is something I cannot support,” Dr. Beck-Sickinger wrote to the student.
•  Mr. Steiner asked the professor to correct her simplistic image “particularly unsuitable for a professor and teacher.”
•  Women’s rights activist Kavita Krishnan termed the professor’s response “shameless racial profiling”.
•  However, it was Ambassador Steiner’s unequivocal condemnation of the actions of the professor, that warmed the heart of several Indians, who thanked and congratulated him for the bold step.

Israel will not cede land to Palestinians: Netanyahu

•  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will not cede territory due to the current climate in the Middle East, appearing to rule out the establishment of a Palestinian state.
•  Mr. Netanyahu said “any evacuated territory would fall into the hands of Islamic extremism and terror organizations supported by Iran. Therefore, there will be no concessions and no withdrawals. It is simply irrelevant.”
•  The statement was released by his Likud party .
•  Mr. Netanyahu is seeking to appeal to hard-liners ahead of elections.
•  Party spokesman Elie Bennett says Mr. Netanyahu’s 2009 speech calling for a Palestinian state alongside Israel is not currently relevant.
•  The international community has long pushed for the creation of a Palestinian state on lands captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war.
•  Mr. Netanyahu’s spokesman declined comment.

Pollution control: China sends mixed signals

•  China has sent mixed signals about its approach to tackle pollution — by announcing zero-tolerance to violators of a stringent environmental law, but the same time seemingly curbing public debate on the subject by pulling out from mainstream video sharing sites a hard-hitting documentary on emissions that had gone viral on the internet.
•  “We are going to punish, with an iron hand, any violators who destroy ecology or environment, with no exceptions,” said China’s President, Xi Jinping, while reviewing the work report of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) — the official body that exercises administrative and planning control over the  Chinese economy.
•  Mr. Xi’s remarks had followed the release of the documentary Under The Dome , which had drawn over a million hits on the internet on account of its unvarnished focus on the enormity of the crisis.
•  The film, produced by Chai Jing, a former employee of CCTV, the state-run broadcaster, began to disappear from mainstream domestic video-sharing sites.
•  It was now no longer available on popular mainland video sites, including Youku and iQiyi.
•  The move was surprising as the film had been praised earlier this week by China’s newly-appointed Environmental Protection Minister, Chen Jining. People’s Daily , the official newspaper of the Chinese government had also posted the documentary on its website.
•  China’s decision to lower its growth rate target for 2015 to seven per cent; the framing of the new environment law; and plans to enhance the role of nuclear and renewables in its energy mix, is expected to sharply reduce emissions in the world’s second largest economy.
•  A major element of China’s clean energy strategy is the reduction in the use of coal — a double-edged weapon that has been both at the heart of the country’s breakneck growth story and the cause for heavy smog choking many Chinese cities.
•  “For areas affected by severe smog, regions where conserving energy is difficult, and industries with overcapacity, we will strictly control the number of energy-intensive projects and implement policies for reducing coal use, and for replacing coal with alternative energy sources,” the report said.
•  Planners say that the country’s energy use has entered “medium-low growth,” in tune with the more sustainable model of development that China plans to follow.
•  Nur Bekri, the head of National Energy Administration, predicts a steep decline in the expansion of China’s primary energy consumption.
•  While annual energy intake increased by 7.9 per cent since 2000, it is expected to grow by only 3.4 per cent over the next six years.
•  That figure conforms with China’s target of capping annual primary energy consumption at 4.8 billion tonnes of standard coal equivalent by 2020.
•  Mr. Bekri said that energy growth will further dip to 2.3 per cent during 2015-2030.
•  China hopes to reduce the use of coal — which fuels 66 per cent of the current energy consumption — by expanding the share of non-fossil energy to 15 per cent by 2020, and 20 per cent by 2030.

Modi to unveil plaque of Jaffna cultural centre

•  Prime Minister Narendra Modi will unveil the plaque of a cultural centre to be built with Indian assistance in Jaffna on March 14.
•  Mr. Modi, in the first state visit to Sri Lanka by an Indian Prime Minister in nearly three decades, will travel to the war-torn Northern Province of the island nation.
•  The cultural centre will serve as a space connecting people through the arts and culture, official sources said.
•  The event will be held at the adjoining Jaffna Public Library, a historic structure torched by a mob during riots in 1981.
•  The Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Mr. Modi would hand over houses constructed as part of the 50,000 built under an Indian housing scheme to beneficiaries in Jaffna and flag off train services from Talaimannar to Colombo restored with Indian assistance.
•  The Prime Minister will visit the ancient town of Anuradhapura and the Sri Maha Bodhi tree, which Buddhists consider sacred with the legend that it grew out of a branch transported from Bodh Gaya in India centuries ago
•  On his first day in Sri Lanka, the Prime Minister will address a special sitting of the Sri Lankan Parliament in Colombo and pay homage at the memorial to Indian Peace Keeping Force personnel, the Foreign Ministry statement said.

Motion in Commons on Gandhiji’s statue

•  An early-day motion (EDM) to mark the unveiling of a statue of Mahatma Gandhi at Parliament Square here was tabled in the House of Commons by Britain’s longest-serving Indian-origin MP Keith Vaz.
•  The EDMs allow MPs in Britain to draw attention to an event or cause and register their support by signing individual motions. There is generally no debate held on such a motion.
•  Mr. Vaz welcomed Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s visit to the U.K. to be present at the high-profile ceremony to be attended by British Prime Minister David Cameron.
•  Mr. Jaitley is expected to arrive in London late on March 12.  Outrage as

IS destroys ancient site

•  Activists, officials and historians have condemned Islamic State (IS) for the destruction of the ancient Assyrian archaeological site of Nimrud in Iraq, saying the group’s actions were part of a systematic campaign reminiscent of the Mongol invasion of Arabia that aims to erase millennia of culture
  and civilisation.
•  Iraq’s tourism and antiquities ministry said that IS had bulldozed the ancient city of Nimrud, south of Mosul, which was conquered by the militants in a lightning advancelast summer.
•  The destruction of the site, which became the capital of the neo—Assyrian empire, was confirmed by a local tribal source speaking to Reuters.

Maldives’ internal issues might have led to cancellation of Modi trip

•  The omission of the Maldives from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Indian Ocean foray next week is significant because the Foreign Minister of the island nation, Dunya Maumoon, announced the trip two weeks ago.
•  Mr. Maumoon met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in New Delhi, and reportedly discussed the “upcoming visit.”
•  Sources said the government did not want to be seen “involved in domestic issues” of the Maldives, though the Ministry gave no explanation for the cancellation of the Male trip.
•  Sources said the government was taken by surprise over the treatment of former President Mohammad Nasheed, who was arrested and charged with treason and roughed up by the police on the way to court.
•  The External Affairs Ministry issued a strong statement expressing “concern” over his “arrest and manhandling.”
•  Despite the concern, the Prime Minister’s visit was expected to continue, and local newspapers in Male have been reporting on various investment initiatives and agreements planned by President Yameen’s government during the visit.
•  The Maldives government has not reacted to the cancellation of Mr. Modi’s visit. However the opposition groups led by Mr. Nasheed’s MDP said that Mr. Modi’s decision was caused by the strain in India’s relations with the Maldives, because of what it called “the authoritarian actions and confrontational nature of President Yameen.”

‘Colombo will work in cooperation with U.N.’

•  Sri Lanka will take pointers from the U.N. report on Sri Lanka’s rights record for its domestic mechanism, the country’s Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera has said.
•  Addressing the high level segment of the 28th Session of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, the Minister briefed the Council on developments in Sri Lanka following the presidential election on  January 8.
•  Pointing to the Maithripala Sirisena government’s efforts to ensure media freedom, Mr. Samaraweera said it unblocked websites that were earlier blocked, lifted restrictions placed on foreign media personnel visiting the country, enabled journalists to travel freely to all parts of the country and invited all media personnel living in exile to return.
•  The Human Rights Council, in March 2014, adopted a U.S.-sponsored resolution calling for an international probe into allegations of war crimes in Sri Lanka.
•  As many as 23 countries backed the resolution then, while 12 voted against it and 12 other countries, including India, abstained.
•  The Mahinda Rajapaksa administration then had refused any cooperation to the process and rejected the resolution.
•  A year later, the Council, in a clear departure from its earlier stance on Sri Lanka, deferred the key report on the country’s conflict that was due for submission in the ongoing March sessions, to September 2015.
•  The decision was to allow space for the new government to demonstrate its willingness to cooperate on human rights issues, it said.

Google Maps goes ‘trekking’ in Amazon

•  For its next technological trick, Google will show you what it’s like to zip through trees in the Amazon jungle.
•  The images released are the latest addition to the diverse collection of photos supplementing Google’s widely used digital maps.
•  The maps’ “Street View” option mostly provides panoramic views of cities and neighbourhoods photographed by car-mounted cameras, but Google has found creative ways to depict exotic locations where there are no roads.
•  In its latest foray into the wilderness, Google teamed up with the environmental protection group Amazonas Sustainable Foundation, or FAS, to explore a remote part of an Amazon rainforest.
•  Google Inc. lent FAS its Trekker device, a camera mounted on an apparatus originally designed to be carried like a backpack by hikers walking on trails.
•  FAS, though, sent the Trekker down a zip line. Google is renowned for going out on a technological limb, but even this project made the company nervous at first, said Karin Tuxen-Bettman, who oversees Google’s Street View partnerships.
•  The set-up required FAS workers to tread through the rainforest to find a place where they could string the zip line so the Trekker would not bump into tree trunks and branches as it zoomed through the thick canopy.
•  With the help of some monkeys who joined their scouting expedition, FAS workers found just enough room to erect a zip line for the Trekker’s trip.
•  Since Google developed the Trekker camera in 2012, the device has been dispatched on other unusual journeys. The Trekker went scuba-diving in the Galapagos Islands to take underwater photographs of the preserve, and travelled on a dog sled in the Canadian Artic to photograph the tundra.
•  Privacy issues should not be an issue in any of the photographs taken by the zip-lining Trekker. Birds and insects are the only visible forms of life in the pictures it took.

Writer’s body donated for research

• Thousands of people from all strata of life on Sunday paid their last respects to assassinated writer-blogger Avijit Roy.
•  The coffin of Avijit was placed on a platform erected at the base of Dhaka University’s Aparajeyo Bangla, the symbolic architecture built in memory of the Bangladesh Freedom Fighters of 1971.
•  Keeping in with his wish, Avijit’s body was handed over to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for medical research. Avijit and his wife Rafida Ahmed Bonya were hacked on Feb 26 by suspected extremists. His badly injured wife is being treated at a hospital in Dhaka.

Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia to trial new flight tracking system

•  Indonesia and Malaysia will lead a trial to enhance the tracking of aircraft over remote oceans, allowing planes to be more easily, Australia’s transport minister said.
•  The announcement comes one week ahead of the anniversary of the disappearance of flight MH370, which vanished last year on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. No trace of the plane has been found.
•  The trial is expected to use satellite-based positioning technology already on board 90 per cent of long-haul aircraft that transmits the plane’s current position and its next two planned positions, said Airservices Australia chairman Angus Houston, who helped lead the search for MH370.
•  The trial would boost the frequency in which planes would automatically report their position, allowing air traffic controllers to better track them, Houston said.
•  There is no requirement for real-time tracking of commercial aircraft and ever since flight 370 disappeared, air safety regulators and airlines have been trying to agree on how extensively planes should be tracked.
•  The Boeing 777 veered sharply off-course and vanished from radar shortly into its flight on March 8.
•  An international team of experts who analysed a series of hourly transmissions between the plane and a satellite later determined that the plane travelled for another seven hours before crashing somewhere within a remote 60,000 square kilometer or 23,000 square mile patch of the Indian Ocean.

The Tablet set to celebrate 175th year of continuous publication

•  The Tablet , the Catholic weekly regarded as one of Britain’s oldest journals, is about to celebrate 175 years of uninterrupted publication.
•  Founded in May 1840 by a Quaker convert to Catholicism, Frederick Lucas, it is published in London but has garnered an international audience.
•  Its anniversary will be marked with a series of events throughout the year, including a mass at Westminster Cathedral on 16 May. In June, novelists Antonia Fraser, David Lodge and Andrew O’Hagan, plus historian Roy Foster, will debate faith and fiction at the Tablet Literary Festival in Birmingham.
•  In October, an interfaith seminar at the London School of Economics will consider whether Catholics, Jews and Muslims remain outsiders in British society. It will be moderated by Professor Conor Gearty.
•  Also that month, the pianist Stephen Hough will perform a specially commissioned Tablet Sonata at the Barbican Centre. Throughout 2015, The Tablet will also be awarding bursaries to postgraduate students in religious studies departments.
•  Catherine Pepinster, The Tablet ’s editor, points out that few publications have lasted 175 years, adding: “That a Catholic publication should have done so, given the tempestuous history of Roman Catholicism in this country, is testimony not only to The Tablet ’s journalism but to the capacity for a minority group to thrive in Britain.”

China formally backs trilateral partnership with India, Sri Lanka

•  China formally backed a trilateral partnership with India and Sri Lanka to establish a Maritime Silk Road (MSR) and promote the rise of Eurasia.
•  It is an announced by the Chinese Forign Minister Wang Yi During a joint press Conference.
•  He reinforced the three-way engagement by pointing out that China would like to “expedite such cooperation and see practical measures between China and India,” where each country would pool its bilateral strengths, leading to Sri Lanka’s social and economic development.
•  Mr. Wang’s comments, signalling a more inclusive strategic appreciation of the region, run counter to Indian concerns, expressed during former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s tenure, that a firm military relationship between China and Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean was taking root, following the docking of a Chinese submarine in Colombo.
•  Mr. Wang said China would “certainly like to hold talks” with India on a triangular relationship with Sri Lanka in the future, in tune with Sino-Indian partnership on key global and regional issues.
•  The Chinese Minister commented that Beijing would like to see progress in India-Sri Lanka relations, which would become a factor of stability in South Asia.
•  With the conceptual lines of a triangular relationship surfacing, Mr. Samaraweera also said Sri Lanka saw China as a “great friend” and India as a “neighbour and relative.”
•  He stressed that Sri Lanka’s centrist and pragmatic foreign policy, liberated from any specific ideology, was grounded in the principle of non-alignment, and was ultimately geared to benefit the Sri Lankan people.

Writer hacked to  Death in Dhaka

•  Suspected radical Islamists have hacked to death a popular writer and blogger, Avijit Roy, and seriously injured his wife Rafida Ahmed Banna in Dhaka
  . The couple came under attack as they were returning home from Bangla Academy Book Fair near the Dhaka University campus.

•  Avijit, son of Prof Ajay Roy who taught physics at Dhaka University, used to work in the U.S. as a software engineer. He had received several threats from Islamist fundamentalists, said family members and fellow bloggers.

•  The attackers dragged the couple onto the footpath and hacked them with sharp knifes. Avijit suffered a deep gash on his head in the indiscriminate attack and Banna, also a writer and blogger, lost a finger and suffered cut wounds.

•  Islamist radicals have been threatening Avijit, who was founder of popular blog Mukto-Mona, for his sustained campaign against Islamist radicals. He is also well known for his books “Biswaser Virus” (Virus of Faith) and “Sunyo theke Mahabiswa” (From Vacuum to the Universe).

•  Last year, Rakamari.com, an online bookstore, was forced to remove Avijit’s books from its list following threats by Shafiur Rahman Farabi, a fundamentalist blogger.

•  Mr. Farabi was arrested for posting provocative comments on his Facebook page supporting the killing of blogger Ahmed Rajib Haidar in Mirpur on February 16, 2013. He was later released on bail.

•  The couple came to Dhaka recently to attend the Bangla Academy Book Fair, where two of his recent titles had been launched. His writing and blogging had evoked the ire of fanatics and he regularly received threats. He was to fly back to the U.S. on March 4.

•  The attack on Avijit resembles the one on noted writer Prof Humayun Azad and bloggers Rajib Haidar and Asif Mohiuddin. Prof. Azad was also returning home from the same book fair when he was hacked with machetes by radical militants a few years ago. He later died in Germany while undergoing treatment.

•  The radicals had attacked several other secular bloggers after the Shahbagh agitation, demanding capital punishment for war criminals, polarised opinions in Bangladesh. Police said they recovered two bloody machetes and a bag from the spot, and were working to identify the killers.

Iraq statue-smashing video sparks outrage

•  A video of jihadists in Iraq gleefully smashing ancient statues to pieces with sledgehammers sparked global outrage and fears that more of the world’s oldest heritage will be destroyed.
•  The destruction of priceless Assyrian and other artefacts from the main museum and an archeological site in the northern city of Mosul drew comparisons with the 2001 dynamiting of the Bamiyan buddhas in Afghanistan.
•  Archaeologists and heritage experts called for urgent action to protect the remains of some of oldest civilisations in the world and the U.N. cultural agency demanded an emergency meeting of the Security Council.

China’s draft anti-terrorism law high on privacy and human rights

•  China is drafting an ambitious counterterrorism law, which seeks to address concerns over privacy and human rights, without losing the sting to target international terror groups.
•  The draft law has taken into account the Charlie Hebdo terror incident in France, the Copenhagen strike, as well as the essence of the Global War on Terror (GWOT) led by the United States.
•  Besides, the legislation has been sensitised by last year’s deadly terror attack, at Kunming station, in the country’s Yunnan province, which left 29 people dead, and scores injured
•  The draft advocates establishing mechanisms that would ensure that access to private phone and Internet records goes through a strict approval procedure.
•  The information that is gathered should also be used solely for the purpose of counterterrorism and not otherwise. A similar approval must also be obtained to inquire into, seal up, seize or freeze assets.
•  The new law is being drafted at a time when Chinese President Xi Jinping has been calling for firmly implanting the rule of law as the anchor for China’s national rejuvenation.
•  Chinese state-media has been reporting that the President has been advocating, “Four Comprehensives” — a moderately prosperous society, reform, rule of law, and Party discipline — as the blueprint for China’s future.
•  It challenges the western narrative on counterterrorism and human rights by pointing to a more rational Chinese alternative.
•  Besides, it hopes to shore up CPC’s legitimacy, especially among China’s cyber connected youth. President Xi is well aware of the dangers of a widening legitimacy gap in his country.

Britain misses targets on immigration control

•  The British government has missed its targets on immigration control, which was a key pledge by Prime Minister David Cameron. He had promised in 2011 to cap immigration at 100,000 by the end of the current Parliament.
•  The figure for net migration (inflows minus outflows) stood at 298,000 for the year 2014 till September, according to figures released by the Office of National Statistics.
•  According to opinion polls, immigration has emerged as a key issue for voters — ahead of the National Health Service, the economy, unemployment and crime — in the run-up to a closely-fought general elections this May.
•  However, while immigration into the United Kingdom has substantially risen, there is no evidence to suggest that this has had a negative impact on jobs, wages, housing and other public services for the U.K.-born.
•  This are the findings of a study done on the latest U.K. immigration statistics by the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP)of the London School of Economics, and the first in a series of background briefings by the CEP on important policy issues in the run up to the general elections.
•  The report ‘Immigration and the U.K. Labour Market’ by author Professor Jonathan Wadsworth finds that rising immigration in the last 20 years means that there are now around 7.8 million individuals – and 6.5 million adults of working age – living in the U.K. who were born abroad.
•  Indeed, the doubling of the share of immigrants among working age adults in the U.K. between 1995 and 2014 – from 8% to 17% “is not particularly different from many other rich countries in terms of its share of immigrants,” he argues.
•  European Union (EU) countries account for one-third of the total immigrant stock, and new inflows of EU immigrants are almost as large as inflows from outside the EU. While EU arrivals are for work-related reasons most non-EU arrivals are for study-related reasons.
•  While 30 years ago 30 per cent of all immigrants came from just two countries, Ireland and India, today these two countries account for just 13 per cent of all immigrants.

Death toll from Afghan avalanches crosses 200

•  More than 200 people have been killed in a series of avalanches triggered by heavy snowfall around Afghanistan, warning the death toll could rise still further.
•  The bulk of the deaths came in Panjshir province, north of Kabul, where at least 168 people were killed.
•  The avalanches came after days of heavy snow, which destroyed more than 100 homes in the province and blocked main roads, making it difficult for rescue workers to reach the stricken villages.

U.K. mulls proposal to raise new Sikh regiment

•  The British Army is examining proposals to re-establish a Sikh Regiment, along the lines of the erstwhile British Indian Army.
•  Chief of the general staff, General Sir Nicholas Carter, is looking into the feasibility of a Sikh unit, including the possibility of a reserve company, and it “may well have merit,” U.K. armed forces minister Mark Francois told the House of Commons recently.
•  A new unit would inherit many of the “proud traditions of Sikh regiments” from the army’s past, he said.
•  Latest figures show the British armed forces have around 160 Sikhs in their ranks, including 130 in the army.
•  Thousands of Sikhs had served in the British Indian Army during the two World Wars. They were known for their bravery and gallantry and won as many as 10 Victoria Crosses, the highest British battlefield honour.
•  In 2007, the U.K.’s Ministry of Defence had scrapped a similar plan after the Commission for Racial Equality warned it could be seen as divisive and perceived as “segregation”.
•  The Network of Sikh Organisations said it was in favour of a Sikh unit.

Iranian wins award for ‘giving voice to the voiceless’

•  An Iranian journalist has received a human rights award in Geneva for creating a Facebook page inviting women in Iran to post pictures of themselves without their headscarves in defiance of rules requiring them to wear a hijab .
•  Masih Alinejad (38) launched Stealthy Freedoms of Iranian Women last year, attracting more than half a million likes on Facebook in a matter of weeks. Thousands of women took off their veils in public and sent in their photos to be published.
•  The Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, a group of 20 non-governmental organisations, gave Ms. Alinejad its women’s rights award for “giving a voice to the voiceless and stirring the conscience of humanity to support the struggle of Iranian women for basic human rights, freedom and equality.”
•  Ms. Alinejad’s campaign, reported in the Guardian last May, irritated Iranian authorities, and state-affiliated media launched a smear campaign accusing her of using recreational drugs or being perverse.
•  Ms. Alinejad said she was delighted to win the award and hoped it would raise awareness about Iranian women demanding basic rights
•  Ms. Alinejad, who lives in exile, told the Guardian last year that she was not opposed to the hijab and that her mother was veiled, but she had created the page because she wanted people to have the freedom to choose.
•  A year after it was created, the Facebook page has more than 760,000 followers and still receives photos from Iran.
•  Many Iranian men have also supported the campaign. One man took a picture of himself along with his mother while she was without veil last week, saying they were both against compulsory hijab .

Draft Accord  Reached, says Greece

•  Euro zone Finance Ministers drafted an outline agreement that could form the basis for extending Greece’s financial rescue package, officials on both sides said.
•  However, they stressed there was no formal deal on a common text in the full 19-nation Eurogroup of Ministers.
•  European Union paymaster Germany, Greece’s biggest creditor, had demanded “significant improvements” in reform commitments by the new Leftist government in Athens before it would accept a six-month extension of euro zone funding.
•  With the 240 billion euro EU-IMF bailout programme due to expire in about a week, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras voiced confidence of an agreement despite the objections to the request made in a letter to Dijsselbloem.

India-Israel ties out in the open, says Ya’alon

•  In a statement of strategic significance, Israel Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon acknowledged that India and Israel ties were out in the open after keeping a low profile for years.
•  Talking on the significance of his visit, Mr. Ya’alon said that India was important to his country’s defence industry and pledged complete support to partner with India on “Make in India.”
•  India and Israel established bilateral relations in 1992 and with several common concerns, strategic cooperation quickly progressed. Since Mr. Modi’s government came to power, India has been more assertive in acknowledging the depth of the relationship. Both sides have seen a flurry of interactions even at the highest level.
•  India is one of Israel’s biggest defence customers and both sides have embarked on joint development of weapon systems. A long-range surface-to-air missile under development was tested for the first time in November. In October, India selected Rafael’s Spike anti-tank guided missile over the U.S. Javelin missile in a deal worth $525 million.

Second film festival in Saudi Arabia

•  Saudi Arabia is rolling out the red carpet for its second film festival in seven years but the deeply conservative country has one major problem — cinemas are banned.
•  The kingdom practises an austere version of Islam that does not permit conventional entertainment venues such as cinemas so screenings will take place in an arts centre in the Gulf coast city of Dammam.
•  Organisers said they hope the five-day festival will open eyes in Saudi Arabia to the possibilities of film despite objections from some conservatives that cinema will “Westernise” the kingdom or corrupt its morals.
•  Most of the film-makers being showcased are under the age of 25, said Mr. Mulla, who sees his role as helping them to develop.
•  Without cinemas, “sadly there is no way” to show such films publicly in Saudi Arabia, Mr. Mulla said, though many end up on video websites such as YouTube. Others are sometimes featured at small, special screenings.
•  As well as no movie theatres, Saudi Arabia has no film industry to speak of, said Mr. Eyaf, whose award-winning 2006 documentary Cinema 500 km highlighted the kingdom’s theatre ban.
•  This year’s event comes seven years after the first Saudi Film Festival, which Mr. Mulla also directed.
•  Mr. Mulla expects an overflow audience at the society’s 600-capacity screening hall on Friday’s opening night.

U.S.-based news portal Mashable to foray into Indian market

•  U.S.-headquartered news portal Mashable announced its foray into the Indian market in partnership with Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd’s JV firm India.com.
•  Mashable, which termed India as one of its top five global markets, said its Indian arm would have an editorial team based in the country for localised content.
•  Commenting on its India foray, Mashable Founder and CEO Pete Cashmore said: “As Mashable continues to grow in parallel with the expansion of digital, entering India was an obvious next step.”
•  Mashable India will have an editorial team based in India for localised content. It will offer the best global coverage from mashable.com and augment it with extensive editorial coverage from India.
•  The addition of Mashable India will continue Mashable’s global expansion, which began last year with the opening of a U.K. office, while also adding reporters in Australia and building a strong network of global journalists.
•  Approximately, half of Mashable’s 42 million monthly unique visitors come from outside the U.S., the company said.

China’s ‘Silk Road fund’ becomes operational

•  China has taken a firm step to implement its vision of the Silk Road Economic Belt — an initiative to integrate the economies of Asia and Europe along the Eurasian corridor — by putting into operation its $40 billion infrastructure fund for this purpose.
•  Xinhua quoted President Xi as saying during the November meeting with officials from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan and Tajikistan that the purpose of the fund is to “break the connectivity bottleneck” in Asia.
•  The $40 billion fund was in addition to the decision to establish a $50 billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which is also meant to help finance construction in the region.
•  On Monday, the semi-official China Business News quoted Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), as saying the $40 billion fund “has already started operations, with registration on December 29 and the first board meeting on January 6”.
•  China has poured part of its foreign exchange reserves in the fund, which include investors such as the China Investment Corp, the country’s sovereign fund, and China Exim-Bank.
•  Analysts point out that as its economy slows down from its earlier blistering pace, China has developed large overcapacity in construction material, including cement and steel. China’s “One Road, One Belt” strategy, aimed at establishing new “growth engines” along the Eurasian corridor, could well absorb some of this surplus.

China opens ‘largest’ embassy in Pak

•  China has opened a new embassy in Pakistan, its “largest overseas” diplomatic mission, which Foreign Minister Wang Yi described as a symbol of friendship between the “all weather” allies.
•  “As China’s largest overseas embassy, it is a symbol of friendship between China and Pakistan,” state-run China Daily quoted Mr. Wang as saying. It however did not provide the details of the new embassy. An opening ceremony was held on February 13, during Mr. Wang’s visit to Islamabad.
   

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