(Current Affairs) International Events | July : 2017

International Events

First local elections in Nepal in two decades

  • Millions of Nepalis voted in the country’s first local elections for two decades, a key step in its post-war transformation from feudal monarchy to federal democracy.
  • The government had deployed troops and sealed the border with India, fearing violence in second phase of voting. Police said a small bomb exploded in the west of the country, but there were no casualties and the polls passed off peacefully.
  • The elections began last month in other parts of the nation but were repeatedly delayed in the southern plains, which were shaken two years ago by deadly ethnic protests.
  • Voting was taking place across around half the country of 26 million people, including large swathes of the south.
  • The local elections are supposed to be the final step in the peace deal that ended a 10-year civil war in 2006. Since then the country has suffered persistent instability, cycling through nine governments.
  • The government had repeatedly postponed the polls in the south due to objections from the local Madhesi ethnic minority, who say federal boundaries laid out in a new national constitution will leave them under-represented in Parliament.
  • The Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal, the main party representing the Madhesi community, has said it will boycott this phase, raising doubts about the legitimacy of the vote.
  • More than 50 people died in 2015 when the Madhesi and Tharu ethnic minorities took to the streets. Most of the victims were killed when police fired at the demonstrators, a response condemned by rights campaigners, and tensions persist.

Colombia’s leftist FARC rebel force declared its disarmament complete

  • Colombia’s leftist FARC rebel force declared its disarmament complete on Tuesday after half a century of war against the state, bringing Latin America’s oldest civil conflict close to an end.
  • “Farewell to war. Farewell to arms, welcome to peace!” said commander Rodrigo Londono, alias Timochenko, in a speech in the central town of Mesetas, site of one of the group’s demobilisation camps.
  • The move is a key part of efforts to end the long territorial and ideological conflict under a 2016 peace accord. The accord was at first narrowly rejected by Colombians in a referendum last year before it was redrafted and pushed through Congress.
  • Since then, the process has been blighted by ongoing violence involving other armed groups.United Nations monitors said they “have the entirety of the FARC’s registered individual arms stored away”.
  • That excluded some arms that were exempted for transitional security at rebel demobilisation camps until August 1.
  • A global wave of cyber attacks brought havoc on govt and corporate systemsMr. Modi addressed the gathering ahead of his first meeting with President Donald Trump.
  • The Prime Minister’s pitch before the CEOs of prominent American companies was a prelude to extensive interactions he is expected to have with Mr. Trump and senior members of his cabinet.
  • America's economic and employment recovery is the topmost political priority for the Trump admin

Intergovernmental financial watchdog has slammed Pakistan

  • A leading intergovernmental financial watchdog has slammed Pakistan for continued complicity in financing terrorist entities, saying certain UN-designated terror groups in the country receive money due to lack of control by the authorities.
  • At its meeting in Valencia, Spain, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a Paris-based organisation which sets standards for banks globally, closely scrutinised Pakistan’s record on terror financing.
  • A report on Pakistan’s complicity in terror financing was discussed at the FATF Plenary, the group’s highest decision-making body, that took place from June 18-23.
  • As per the report, certain entities designated under UN Security Council Resolution 1267 continue to receive and disperse funds without controls being applied by the competent authorities in Pakistan.
  • As a consequence, the International Cooperation Review Group of FATF has requested its regional arm Asia Pacific Group to provide the revised follow-up report on Pakistan.
  • The ICRG asked APG to provide the report following the discussion over it at the APG annual meeting in July. In February, the ICRG had requested the APG to provide its analysis report on Pakistan.
  • Al Jazeera, the royal family-funded television station, continued its sympathetic coverage of the Muslim Brotherhood. When the political leadership of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules Gaza, fled crisis-hit Damascus, Qatar offered them refuge.
  • Moreover, despite conflicting interests elsewhere in the region, Sheikh Tamim retained good diplomatic ties with Iran, Saudi Arabia’s main regional rival.
  • Within a year of his rule, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain temporarily suspended diplomatic ties with Qatar over Doha’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood. But Sheikh Tamim stayed the course on foreign policy.
  • Things started changing after King Salman took power in Saudi Arabia and his young son, Mohammed bin Salman, was appointed Defence Minister. The new Saudi rulers took a tougher line towards Qatar.
  • The Saudi attempt to isolate the emirate is certainly the biggest foreign policy crisis. For now, Iran and Turkey have offered him support, including food supplies.

Trump wants to change the deal with Cuba

  • U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to overhaul Barack Obama’s deal to restore ties with Cuba, promising to instead support the Cuban people against Raul Castro’s government.
  • Mr. Trump flew to Miami’s Little Havana, spiritual home of the Cuban-American community, to denounce his predecessor’s “one-sided” settlement and pledge to work for Cuba’s freedom.
  • In practical terms, Mr. Trump’s review of the deal was limited. He will not break the diplomatic ties Mr. Obama worked so carefully to restore, nor does he plan to impose new trade sanctions.
  • But he did tighten rules for Americans travelling to Cuba, ban ties with a military-run tourism firm and reaffirm the existing U.S. trade embargo, which will be firmly enforced.
  • The Cuban government response was restrained. In a statement on state television it denounced the measures, but said Havana “reiterates its willingness to continue the respectful dialogue and cooperation.”
  • That may have been overstating his case. Mr. Trump’s new measures mainly relate to stricter enforcement of existing laws that had begun to loosen as Mr. Obama sought a rapprochement.
  • The new measures prohibit financial transactions with Cuba’s military-backed tourism conglomerate GAESA, which had hoped for a windfall from a new surge in American visitors.
  • Signing a new National Security Presidential Memorandum, Mr. Trump announced stricter application of the rules under which Americans can travel to Cuba.
  • American citizens will still be able to take commercial flights to Cuba, but once again only for 12 specific reasons, ranging from journalism to educational activities.

French voters have put President Emmanuel Macron's party on course of majority

  • French voters have put President Emmanuel Macron's party on course for a crushing parliamentary majority, though a record low turnout in the first round of voting raised concerns over the strength of his future mandate.
  • Projections showed Macron continuing his centrist revolution, with his Republique en Marche party and its ally MoDem tipped to win between 400 and 445 seats in the 577-member National Assembly in next Sunday's second round.
  • Such a share would give Mr. Macron — who founded his party just a year ago — one of the biggest parliamentary majorities the modern French state has seen.
  • But government spokesman Christophe Castaner admitted the 49% turnout — the lowest for six decades in such a vote — was “a failure of this election” and that Mr. Macron’s team would need to reach out to those who stayed away.
  • Former Prime Minister Alain Juppe of the rightwing Republicans said the mass stayaway by voters was a sign of “deep malaise” in the electorate and that a clean sweep by Mr. Macron would be bad for democracy.
  • Mr. Macron's camp is expected to significantly boost its score in Sunday’s second round with voters fed up with mainstream politics keen to try out his team, half of which is composed of rookie politicians. ::International::

Britain will head to the polls as the issue of terrorism continue

  • Britain will head to the polls as the issue of terrorism continued to dominate the agenda, and as both parties sought to get the upper hand in the debate on security, following three terrorist attacks in the country in as many months.
  • While Prime Minister Theresa May signalled her party’s willingness to put aside human rights laws in order to be able to bring in greater restrictions on those suspected of being involved in terrorism activities.
  • Ms. May pledged her party would introduce steps to restrict the movement of terror suspects, even those against whom there was not enough evidence to launch formal prosecutions.
  • The Conservatives’ manifesto committed the party not to repeal or replace the Human Rights Act while exiting the EU, but says the party would “consider our human rights legal framework when the process of leaving the EU concludes”.
  • The roller-coaster campaign, which began less than two months ago, has seen a dramatic turnaround in the fortunes of the main parties, and a shift of focus away from the reason for which the election was purportedly called: Britain’s imminent exit from the EU.
  • Many domestic issues such as the state of the National Health Service and other public services have entered the forefront of the debate.
  • The campaign has seen intense personalisation too, with the main political parties seeking to attack perceived weaknesses in the top leadership of their opponents.
  • The Conservatives on the other hand have sought to emphasise the past battles within the Labour Party, which saw a no-confidence vote against Mr. Corbyn brought last year.

Afghanistan’s President made another offer for talks to the Taliban

  • Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani made another offer for talks to the Taliban, even as he hit out at Pakistan for not acting “according to the global consensus on terror”.
  • Mr. Ghani has appointed a new Chairman of the High Peace Council, Mohammad Khalili, to take forward the talks, which he said could take place in “any mutually acceptable location”.
  • It would allow the Taliban to set up a representative office, as long as it follows the established guidelines of abiding by the Constitution, and abjuring violence.
  • However, he added that if the Taliban failed to take up the offer, Afghanistan would push for the UN to sanction the group as a “perpetrator and sponsor” of terror.
  • Even as Mr. Ghani began to speak at the Kabul Process meeting, attended by 24 countries, including India, militants launched a rocket that landed inside the compound of the Indian Embassy in the diplomatic zone.
  • In another blast at Herat’s Grand Mosque, seven people were killed on Tuesday.
  • Officials see the Kabul Process as an attempt by the Afghan government to replace other processes on reconciliation like the Moscow meetings held since December 2016, and the American-backed Murree Process in Pakistan in 2015.
  • India, Afghanistan and the U.S. had protested the Russian decision to hold a trilateral meeting on Afghanistan with China and Pakistan only, in December 2016.
  • In subsequent meetings in Moscow, India, Iran and Central Asian countries were included, but the U.S., which was invited to a meeting in May, refused to join.
  • Previously, India had objected to the Murree Process, which saw Taliban leaders meet with Afghan and Pakistan representatives, in a process that included the U.S. and China.

Successive Israeli governments have invested billions of dollars on West Bank

  • Successive Israeli governments have invested billions of dollars over the past 50 years on settlements in the occupied West Bank, making any withdrawal from the Palestinian territory a costly proposition.
  • There is no official overall figure for Israel’s spending on Jewish settlements since the June 1967 Six-Day War.
  • Each year, the Finance Ministry has published partial figures, amounting to $3.5 bn over the 12 years up to 2015, but the sum does not include investments before 2003.
  • It also does not cover the vast amounts spent on infrastructure such as special roads reserved for settlers and on their security.
  • More than 6,00,000 settlers live among 2.9 million Palestinians in the West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem, with frequent outbreaks of violence.
  • The figures also do not include the Gaza Strip, which Israel also captured in 1967 but from where its army and settlers pulled out in 2005.
  • The settlements, deemed illegal under international law, are seen as a key obstacle to peace between Israel and the Palestinians. No Israeli government, however, has turned its back on the settlers.
  • The total surface area of settlements construction has doubled in 18 years, according to the non-governmental organisation.
  • As a financial incentive for the expansion of settlements, the average settler receives three times more in public subsidies than a resident of Israel proper within its pre-1967 borders.

Russians warships fired cruise missiles in IS

  • Russians warships in the Mediterranean Sea fired four cruise missiles at the Islamic State group’s positions in Syria, the Russian Defence Ministry said.
  • The announcement came as Syrian government troops pushed ahead in their offensive against IS and militants in central and northern Syria.
  • Moscow said in a statement that the Admiral Essen frigate and the Krasnodar submarine launched the missiles at IS targets in the area of the ancient town of Palmyra. There was no information on when the missiles were launched.
  • Syrian troops have been on the offensive for weeks in northern, central and southern part of the country against IS and U.S.-backed rebels under the cover of Russian airstrikes, gaining an area almost half the size of neighbouring Lebanon.
  • Most recently, Syrian troops and their allies have been marching toward the IS stronghold of Sukhna, about 60 km northeast of Palmyra.
  • The strategic juncture in the Syrian desert aids government plans to go after IS in Deir el-Zour, one of the militants’ last major strongholds in Syria. The oil-rich province straddles the border with Iraq and is the extremist group’s last gateway to the outside world.
  • The fighting came days after the U.S. told Syrian government forces and their allies to move away from an area near the Jordanian border where the coalition is training allied rebels.
  • The warning comes less than two weeks after the Americans bombed Iranian-backed troops there after they failed to heed similar warnings.

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