(Current Affairs) International Events | July: 2014

International Events

Abuse of Power Case

  • Thailand's Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra defended herself against abuse of power allegations in a crucial court case that is one of several legal challenges, which could remove her from office.
  • Ms. Yingluck is accused of abusing her authority by transferring her National Security Council chief in 2011 to another position. Critics say the transfer was to benefit her ruling party and violated the Constitution.
  • The case was lodged by anti-government senators, who won an initial victory in February when another court ruled that the official, Thawil Pliensri, must be restored to his job.
  • If Ms. Yingluck is found guilty of interfering in state affairs for her personal benefit or that of her political party, she would have to step down as Prime Minister.

First 'Born Free' election

  • South Africans voted in the first "Born Free" election , although polls suggest the allure of the ruling African National Congress as the conqueror of apartheid will prevail even among those with no memory of white-minority rule.

  • Opinion polls suggest there is no doubt about the overall result, with ANC support estimated at around 65 percent, only a shade lower than the 65.9 percent it won in the 2009 election that brought President Jacob Zuma to power.

  • The resilience of ANC support has surprised analysts who a year ago were saying it could struggle at the polls as its glorious past recedes into history and voters focus instead on the sluggish economic growth and slew of scandals that have typified Zuma's first term.

  • Africa's most sophisticated economy has struggled to recover from a 2009 recession - its first since the 1994 demise of apartheid - and the ANC's efforts to stimulate growth and tackle 25 percent unemploy-ment have been hampered by powerful unions.

  • South Africa's top anti-graft agency accused Zuma this year of "benefiting unduly" from a $23 million state-funded security upgrade to his private home at Nkandla in rural KwaZulu-Natal province that included a swimming pool and chicken run.

Ceasefire in South Sudan

  • South Sudan's President has reached a ceasefire agreement with a rebel leader, an African regional bloc said , after a vicious cycle of revenge killings drew international alarm.

  • The deal means "an immediate cessation of hostilities within 24 hours of the signing" and "unhindered humanitarian access" to all people affected by the months-long conflict, said a statement by the political bloc known as IGAD, which is mediating the conflict.

  • Ethnically targeted violence in the world's youngest country broke out in December, killing thousands of people and forcing more than 1.3 million to flee their homes. The U.N. Security Council has expressed "horror" at recent killings of civilians.

  • U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice welcomed the peace agreement in a statement, saying it "holds the promise of bringing the crisis to an end".

  • South Sudan is a largely Christian nation that broke off from the Muslim-dominated Sudan after a 2011 referendum. The fighting is an embarrassment to the U.S., which has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and has been its strongest international champion.

Rockets fired in southern Israel

  • Three rockets from Gaza were fired into Israel recently.
  • The projectile struck uninhabited areas in the Sha'ar Hanegev 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'ar Hanegev 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 Rashad Mahmood, Director General Strategic Plans Division Lieutenant General Zubair Mahmood Hayat, Commander Army Strategic Forces Command Lieutenant General Obaid Ullah 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 unex-pectedly 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 Qadir Baloch, 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 progre-ssives 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 Kafr Zita 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 Dilma Rousseff 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.

TIME Magazine's Online Poll

  • Indian politician Arvind Kejriwal 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.

  • Narendra Modi, 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 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal has managed to edge past the BJP's prime ministerial candidate by a small margin.

  • Kejriwal has edged past international icons such as Malala Yousafzai, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Jared Leto, Vladimir Putin, Janet Yellen, and Michael Bloomberg among others. Narendra Modi, 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 second spot and give Kejriwal a run for his money.

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 tests by 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.

<< Go Back To International Events Main Page

International Issues
Current Affairs
Civil Services EXAM
Civil Services Preliminary
UPSC