(Current Affairs) International Events | May: 2016

International Events

Peace talks for Syria started

  • Talks to e nd Syria’s civil war opened in Geneva, but hopes for a breakthrough remained remote with the sides locked in a bitter dispute over the future of President Bashar Al-Assad.
  • The negotiations, which began a day before the fifth anniversary of the outbreak of the conflict, are the latest effort to end violence that has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced millions.
  • As the delegations arrived in Geneva oaver the weekend, Damascus warned that any discussion about removing Mr. Assad would be a “red line”.
  • UN envoy said agreeing on a new Syrian government was the main obstacle to forging a lasting peace.

Myanmar will get new President today

  • Myanmar’s Parliament confirmed it will pick the country’s new President on Tuesday after the three proposed candidates.Nominees include a close aide of Aung San Suu Kyi and others.
  • The front runner is Htin Kyaw, a respected writer and close friend of Ms. Suu Kyi.
  • He has been put forward by her National League for Democracy party to act as a proxy for democracy veteran Suu Kyi, who is barred from the highest office by a junta-scripted charter.

Indian born business man Rajat Gupta released after two years

  • India-born former Goldman Sachs Director Rajat Gupta has been released after completing his two-year prison term, weeks after a U.S. court agreed to rehear his appeal to throw out his 2012 insider trading conviction.
  • While Gupta’s prison term was to end on March 13, but since the date fell on a Sunday, he was released on Friday, four years after he lost his insider trading trial and suffered multiple legal setbacks to overturn his conviction.
  • Apart from the two-year prison term, he was fined $5 million and the Securities and Exchange Commission also slapped a $13.9 million penalty against him.
  • Gupta started out his prison term in 2014 at FMC DEVENS, an administrative security federal medical centre with an adjacent minimum security satellite camp in Ayer, Massachusetts.

US president wants mobile data to accessible to government

  • President Barack Obama has made a passionate case for mobile devices to be built in a way that will allow the government to access personal data if needed to prevent a terror attack or enforce tax laws.
  • The President said he could not comment on the legal case in which the FBI is trying to force Apple to allow access to an iPhone linked to San Bernardino, California, shooter Rizwan Farook.
  • But he made clear that despite his commitment to Americans' privacy and civil liberties, a balance was needed to allow some government intrusion if necessary.
  • Last month, the FBI obtained a court order requiring Apple to write new software and take other measures to disable passcode protection and allow access to Farook's iPhone.

UN to probe South Sudan attack

  • A high-level board of inquiry will investigate how United Nations peacekeepers responded to an attack at their camp in South Sudan where tens of thousands of civilians were sheltering.
  • Gunmen in army uniforms stormed the camp in the northeastern town of Malakal on February 17 and 18, firing on civilians and torching shelters.
  • At least 25 people were killed and 160 were wounded.
  • UN said the independent panel will “conduct an in-depth investigation into the UN mission's response to clashes that broke out.”
  • The UN mission in South Sudan is also reviewing security at the eight “protection of civilians” sites.

Senator's objection to F-16 deal did not find success

  • An attempt by Republican Senator Rand Paul to stall the U.S. move to sell eight F-16s to Pakistan hit a procedural roadblock in the Senate, but lawmakers expressed strong disapproval of the deal.
  • The State Department had last month approved the sale to Pakistan.
  • Mr. Paul’s move to disrupt the deal found support from 24 Senators — 12 Republicans and 12 Democrats, in a rare development.
  • The Congress has never overturned administration’s decisions on foreign military sales. In this case, even those who supported the deal pledged to oppose its funding through U.S. assistance.
  • They have called for demonstrable “behavioural changes” from Pakistan in terms of its support for terrorism and its dealings with India.
  • “I can’t in good conscience look away as America crumbles at home and politicians tax us to send the money to corrupt and duplicitous regimes abroad,” Mr. Paul said.

Syu Kyi's aide Htin Kyaw moves closer to become first civilian leader in Myanmar

  • A trusted aide of Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi was a step closer to becoming the country’s first civilian leader in generations after sailing through a parliamentary vote.
  • While the still-powerful military put forward a hard-line retired general as its Vice-President nominee.
  • Htin Kyaw, a respected writer who helps run Ms. Suu Kyi’s charitable foundation, was seen as the top choice to act as a proxy for the democracy veteran who is barred from the office by a junta-scripted charter.
  • One further vote of approval is needed in the combined houses before Htin Kyaw can officially be anointed leader of the nation that has been run by the military for decades.
  • The country still burdened by the legacy of nearly 50 years of rule by the military, which retains significant influence including a quarter of the Parliament's seats.

Scientists believe Britain’s exit from EU will be a disaster to science

  • Over 150 Fellows of Britain’s leading scientific institution, the Royal Society, have expressed their opposition to Brexit [Britain’s exit from the European Union] arguing that it could be a “disaster for science”.
  • In a letter to The Times, the signatories, who include physicist Stephen Hawking, astronomer Royale Martin Rees and eminent Cambridge scientist Alan Fersht, have drawn attention to the benefits that have accrued to science as a shared enterprise in the EU.
  • The signatories point to the example of Switzerland, which was for long a popular destination for scientists.
  • It now has limited access to EU funds be- cause it voted to restrict the free movement of workers, and is desperately trying to find other ways to attract young talent.

Think tank believes SAARC should include China as well

  • Globalisation is putting pressure on the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to change its traditional ways of working, according to Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS), a 23-year-old South Asian regional think tank.
  • The message behind the trend of globalisation is that the region has to include China, which, he called, has now become a “South Asian country” for all practical purposes.
  • This is because the South Asian countries, be it India, Pakistan, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka, were having very close and strong ties with China in terms of trade and development.
  • Emphasising the need for changes in the two fundamental provisions of the SAARC Charter, he said a time-frame had to be fixed for the continuance of the two provisions — decisions at all levels to be based on unanimity and exclusion of bilateral issues.
  • It was all right to have these stipulations 30 years ago at the time of establishment of the SAARC but “you cannot have them frozen”.

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