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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 28 April 2014

From thin air to drinking water

An Israeli company has developed a new and inexpensive technology that produces drinking water from thin air, an advancement that can address the problem of water scarcity in developing countries such as India.
Using the technology, a litre of water can be produced for a mere Rs. 1.5, as compared to Rs. 15 for a litre of bottled water, the company claims. The Atmospheric Water-Generation Units created by Water-Gen use a “GENius” heat exchanger to chill air and condense water vapour.
The clean air is passed through the heat exchanger system where it gets dehumidified. The water is then removed from the air and collected in a tank inside the unit.
The company claims its water generator is more energy efficient than other such companies as it uses the cooled air created by the unit to chill incoming air. The system can produce 250-800 litres of potable water a day depending on temperature and humidity conditions.

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.

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.

Shares fall over Ukraine crisis

Shares fell in Asia as investors remained wary of mounting violence in Ukraine, while awaiting a raft of financial indicators due later in the week.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index fell 1.2 percent to 14,257.37, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was 0.4 percent lower at 22,142.16.
Shares in New Zealand, Taiwan, China, India and Singapore also fell, though South Korea’s Kospi added 0.2 percent to 1,975.68 and Australia’s S&P ASX 200 gained 0.1 percent to 5,534.30.
The U.S. was preparing to levy fresh sanctions against Russia for Moscow’s failure to uphold terms of an agreement with the U.S., the European Union and Ukraine that calls for Moscow to withdraw Russian forces from the border with Ukraine and encourage pro-Russian militia to turn over buildings they’re occupying in eastern Ukraine.
Meanwhile, pro-Russian gunmen turned to kidnapping, taking dozens hostage, including journalists, pro-Ukraine activists and European military observers.
Worried investors have been shifting from riskier assets into traditional havens like bonds, gold and mainstay equities like utilities, sapping markets of their earlier upward momentum

River policing

Batting to end all encroachments and to enforce a ban on developmental activities on the floodplains of River Yamuna, the Union ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) said that a dedicated 'river policing' unit should be set up to stop unauthorised construction and maintain the ecological integrity of the river.
It also said the entire 52-km stretch of the Yamuna in Delhi and UP should be declared a 'conservation zone' in order to frame proper rules for permitting/prohibiting human activities.
The MoEF recommendations came in the form of a report to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) for saving Yamuna.
Acting on a complaint by environmentalist Manoj Mishra regarding "serious degradation" of the river, NGT last year asked MoEF to submit a comprehensive report for restoration, preservation and beautification of the river, as well as identify people who should carry out the work.
It has also sought immediate action for identifying "additional landfill sites, catering to the next 25 years of requirement" as there is shortage of landfill sites in Delhi.
The MoEF has recommended a slew of measures like controlled dredging, construction of culverts, development of wetlands and floodplain vegetation having native biodiversity, development of green belt on both sides of the embankments, controlling of sewage pollution, etc for saving the Yamuna. It also said agricultural activity on floodplains should be regulated to totally prohibit the use of pesticides and fertilisers.
The ministry has also called for a separate programme for promoting public awareness on river conservation and community participation in restoration, management and monitoring of the river.

Death penalty of LeT man

The Supreme Court has stayed the execution of the death sentence of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist Mohd Arif alias Ashfaq in the attack on the Red Fort in 2000 during which three people, including two Army soldiers, were killed.
A bench headed by Chief Justice R.M. Lodha also issued notice to the Centre on Arif's plea seeking its direction for his release on the ground that he has already spent over 13 years behind bars and he should not be hanged after such a long period.
He submitted that execution of his death sentence would amount to punishing him twice for the crime as he has already spent over 13 years, which is nearly equivalent to life imprisonment.