INTERNATIONAL APRIL 2014

INTERNATIONAL APRIL 2014

• The first full-fledged gurudwara is to be built in Johannesburg. African-born Sikh businessman Harbinder Singh Sethi donated the land. This Gurudwara Sahib will start within two months.
  
• The world's highest tunnel for high-speed trains became operational in North West Chinaon 30th April. It is constructed at a height of 3,607.4 meters. It has 16.3-km-length.It was operationalizing the line linking Gansu Province and Xinjiang provinces. This tunnel passes through the Qilian Mountains with two sections and a bridge. The construction began in 2009. The 1,776-km Lanxin high-speed railway links Lanzhou, capital of Gansu, with Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang and runs across Gansu and Qinghai provinces to Xinjiang, traversing the Gobi Desert. It is designed for trains running at over 200 km per hour and will cut the train travel time between Lanzhou and Urumqi from 20 hrs to 8 hrs.
  
• According to a World Bank report released on 30th April, India became the world's third biggest economy in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP). India displaced Japan in this regard. According to the 2011 round of the bank's International Comparison Program (ICP) India took the position after the US and China. The last survey in 2005 had placed India on 10th place. The survey covered 199 economies. According to the ICP-India's share in World GDP in terms of PPP was 6.4% in 2011.Where as China's share is 14.9% and the US' share is 17.1%. 
  • The United States remained the world's largest economy, but it was closely followed by China when measured using PPPs.
  • In the recent years prices in India are well below those in advanced economies.
  • In the latest ranking, India's economy was 37.1% of the US economy. The report said in terms of spending power, the differences have come down.
  • PPP is used to compare economies and incomes of people by adjusting for differences in prices in different countries to make a meaningful comparison.
    
• An Egyptian court on 27th April, sentenced to death 683 supporters of former President Mohammed Morsi. The new sentences passed on Muslim Brotherhood members came over charges relating to an attack on a police station last year. The deadly attack took place on August 14th in the city of Minya. Violent clashes had been occurred between Morsi supporters and Egyptian security troops. The trial was held in Minya.
  • The Islamist movement Muslim Brotherhood became a prominent political force following the public uprising against President Hosni Mubarak in 2011. It managed to win enough votes in 2012 election to bring its candidate Morsi to power.
  • His government however failed to address acute economic and security problems that Egypt was facing, with protests continuing. A year after Morsi took the presidential oath; the Egyptian military staged a coup and deposed him. The Muslim Brotherhood was subsequently outlawed again.
  • Former Egyptian army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is seeking presidency now in upcoming May election.
    
• The United States on 28th April, signed a new defense agreement with the Philippines. The US President Barack Obama visited Philippines as part of his Asia tour. The ten-year deal, signed by Philippine's defense minister Voltaire Gazmin and US ambassador Philip Goldberg which would allow the high-profile war games that are regularly conducted by the two countries and for some US military hardware to be stationed on Filipino soil, as part of a US rebalancing of military power towards China. But the deal will not allow the U.S to establish a permanent base in the Philippines or bring in nuclear weapons to the country. Obama is also visiting the Japan, South Korea and Malaysia in this trip. Anti-China sentiments are grown high in the Philippines, because of China’s claiming over disputed atolls in the South China Sea. The Philippines has accused China of becoming increasingly aggressive in staking its claims to the sea, and has called on the US for greater military as well as diplomatic support.
  
• The Namibian government has purchased 3,400 India-made electronic voting machines (EVMs) to conduct smooth and fair polls for its presidential election. EVM’s were already been used by other countries in Asia. Namibia purchased EVM’s at a cost of $10 million from Bangalore based public sector unit, Bharat Electronic Limited (BEL). The Bharat Electronic Limited (BEL), which is six decades old, has provided 850,000 new EVMs to the Election Commission for the ongoing Lok Sabha poll. Earlier, it had also provided over 3,000 such machines to Bhutan for conducting their polls. Namibia is the first African country to use such machines in any of its polls.
  
• The Fatah and Hamas on 23rd April 2014 signed a reconciliation agreement to end their difference and form a Palestinian Unity Government in Gaza Strip. The agreement was signed in Gaza by the Prime Minister of Gaza strip and Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh and Fatah-led Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) delegation chief Azzam al-Ahmed.
  The important points of the agreement are-
  
  • An independent government headed by Palestinian President headed by Mahmoud Abbas would be formed within five weeks.
  • The two faction groups will work for the implementation of Egyptian-brokered deal in 2011. The unity deal aimed at ending the political divide between Gaza and the Palestinian Authority-ruled West Bank.
  • To reviving the Palestinian Legislative Council that has been paralysed since 2007.
    
• Hamas and Fatah split in 2007. Previous reconciliation agreements have never been implemented. Since 2007, Hamas has been in control of the Gaza Strip and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority has been ruling in the West Bank. Israel suspended the peace talks with the Palestinians on 24th April 2014 due to the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas. The Israel rejects Hamas as terror organisation where Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah offered his resignation on 26th April 2014, a move which may pave the way for a unity government agreed between President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas.
  
• South Korean Prime Minister Chung Hong-won announced his resignation on 27th April over the government response to the ferry disaster. More than 300 people, most of them students and teachers on a field trip from the Danwon High School on the outskirts of Seoul, have died or are missing and presumed dead. The Sewol ship sank on a routine trip south from the port of Incheon to the traditional holiday island of Jeju on April 16th.The confirmed death toll till now was 187. Chung's resignation was approved by President Park Geun-hye. South Korea is the Asia’s fourth-largest economyand has developed into one of the world's most technically advanced countries, but faces criticism that regulatory controls have not kept pace.
  
• India and 21 other countries on 21st April adopted an agreement aimed at ensuring that miscommunication between naval vessels does not develop into conflict in the Pacific Ocean. Naval chiefs of several countries attended the biennial conference of the Western Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS) which opened in the eastern Chinese port of Qingdao on 21st April. The Indian Navy was represented at the meet by Rear Admiral S N Ghormade. The 21-member WPNS which includes the US, China, Japan, the Philippines and Malaysia who have strategic interests in the Western Pacific region unanimously approved the framework.
  
  • The WPNS was established in 1987 with goals to promote cooperation between the navies of its member countries, strengthen mutual understanding and trust, and jointly safeguard regional maritime security.
  • It comprises navies whose countries border the Pacific Ocean region.
  • The WPNS now has 21 member states, including Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, France, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga, The US and Vietnam with India as an observer. China is one of the WPNS' founding members.
  • The Qingdao symposium is the first biennial meet to be hosted by China.
    
• Pakistan successfully test-fired short range ballistic missile Hatf-III named Ghazanvi in Rawalpindi, Pakistan on 22nd April 2014. The short range surface-to-surface ballistic missile can carry nuclear and conventional warheads to a range of 290 kilometers. The successful launch concluded the Field Training Exercise of Strategic Missile Group of Army Strategic Forces Command.
  
• South Korean ship carrying 462 passengers and crew drowned on 16th April 2014 off the south of the Korean Peninsula. Only 174 passengers were rescued and as many as 293 people were still missing. The ship was drowned some 20 kilometres off the island of Byungpoong. Ship was carrying about 470 passengers including the students and teachers towards a route to Jeju Island. Jeju Island is located at about 100 km (60 miles) south of the Korean peninsula and is an excursion place. At least four people, including a student, died in the accident.
  
• Russia, the United States, the European Union and Ukraine on 17th April agreed on a plan to resolve the crisis in Ukraine through a constitutional reform. It would grant more powers to Russian-speaking regions. The Foreign Ministers of the four Countries signed a joint statement on de-escalation of the Ukraine crisis. Talks were held at Geneva. The Plan document claims that disarming all irregular forces and vacating seized buildings across Ukraine. It also provides for amnesty for all protesters, except those who have committed grave crimes. Russia, the U.S. and the E.U. have called on Ukraine to launch a broad national dialogue involving all political forces and all regions with the aim of undertaking a constitutional reform. The constitutional reform should provide for “decentralisation” of authority, election of regional bodies of power and guaranteeing the language rights of Russian-speakers. The plan has incorporated Russia’s main demands for a settlement in Ukraine. The four-party talks took place against the backdrop of a serious aggravation of the situation in eastern Ukraine.
  
• Abdelaziz Bouteflika won the Presidential elections for the fourth time consecutively in Algeria on 18th April 2014. He belongs to National Liberation Front party. Abdelaziz Bouteflika got around 81 per cent of the vote. Ali Benflis, main opponent, received 12.18 percent of the total votes. In 1999, Bouteflika took office when Algeria was still in a civil war between the military and Islamist militants and restored some economic stability.
  • Algeria is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa on the Mediterranean coast.
  • Its capital city is Algiers.
  • Algeria is the tenth-largest country in the world.
  • Abdelaziz Bouteflika has been the President of Algeria since 1999 and has won four consecutive elections.
  • Algeria's economy is largely based on hydrocarbons. The country supplies large amounts of natural gas to Europe and energy exports are the backbone of the economy.
  • Algeria has 17th largest reserves of oil in the world, and second largest in Africa.
    
• Two Russian navy ships on 19th April reached at Karachi port on a first-ever goodwill visit to Pakistan for a naval exercise. The visit is for strengthening bilateral relations. During their stay, various training activities and discussions on maritime security will be held between Pakistani and Russian naval officers. The Russian ships will also conduct passage exercise with Pakistan Navy's vessels. The Russian navy ships are being led by Rear Admiral Dmitrieve Vladimir Alexandrovich. The Russian navy goodwill visit is so important that, Pakistan and Russia have historically been on opposite sides since the Cold War, when Islamabad supported the anti-Soviet Mujahideen in neighbouring Afghanistan against invading Russian troops in the 1980s. Russia has also been traditionally close to India and is a major defence supplier for the Indian military.
  
• A three-day international conference on genocide opens on 4 April at Rwanda’s capital Kigali. It is holding at Parliament building in Kigali ahead of the 20th Genocide anniversary on 4 April, 2014. International policy makers, parliamentarians, scholars and media personalities are going to participate in this forum. This forum will run under the theme, "After Genocide: Examining legacy, taking responsibility." International analysts say that it will be an opportunity to discuss enduring challenges of justice, education and reconstruction with experts from around the world. It will also discuss prevention initiatives undertaken against genocide by national parliaments around the world, such as ad hoc commissions. The conference is also expected to examine the repercussion of the international community's reluctance to intervene to stop the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi race. The purpose of this conference is to expose genocide and its impact to the world, so that it never happens anywhere else. It will also provide an opportunity to mobilise the international community for support of Genocide survivors. The forum will also assess Rwanda's responses to unprecedented situation in human history, involving complete destruction of society and nation.
  • The Rwandan Genocide was a genocide mass slaughter of Tutsi and moderate Hutu in Rwanda by members of the Hutu majority. During the approximate 100-day period from April 7, 1994 to mid-July, an estimated 500,000–1,000,000 Rwandans were killed, constituting as much as 20% of the country's total population and 70% of the Tutsi then living in Rwanda.
  • The genocide was planned by members of the core political elite known as the akazu, many of whom occupied positions at top levels of the national government. Perpetrators came from the ranks of the Rwandan army, the National Police.
  • The genocide took place in the context of the Rwandan Civil War, an ongoing conflict beginning in 1990 between the Hutu-led government and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which was largely composed of Tutsi refugees whose families had fled to Uganda following earlier waves of Hutu violence against the Tutsi.
  • Today, Rwanda has two public holidays commemorating the genocide. The national commemoration period begins with Genocide Memorial Day on April 7 and concludes with Liberation Day on July 4. The week following April 7 is designated an official week of mourning. The Rwandan Genocide served as the impetus for creating the International Criminal Court to eliminate the need for ad hoc tribunals to prosecute those accused in future incidents of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
    
• International aid organisations launched a series of emergency measures across west Africa on 10 April in an attempt to restrict one of the worst ever outbreaks of the deadly Ebola virus, which is threatening every country in the West African region. The virus is thought to have killed more than 110 people in Guinea and Liberia since January. The Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) announced emergency training for 70 people to track people who have had close contact with Ebola patients. The WHO is also setting up a special alert and response operation centre within the Guinean health ministry. WHO has described West Africa's first Ebola outbreak as one of the most challenging since the virus emerged in 1976. It is also one of the most deadly, with 157 people infected and 101 deaths in Guinea alone. The Ebola outbreak began in the impoverished Guinea’s southern forests. Immediately it has spread to Conakry, a port city on the Atlantic coast and has the population nearly two million people. In neighbouring Liberia, there have been 21 cases, including 10 deaths.
  • The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that is concerned with international public health.
  • It was established on 7 April 1948, with its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
  • WHO Head--Margaret Chan.
  • Ebola virus-The most severe strains of Ebola have had a 90-percent fatality rate. There is no vaccine for this virus, and cure or specific treatment.
  • The virus leads to haemorrhagic fever, causing muscle pain, weakness, vomiting, diarrhoea and, in severe cases, organ failure and unstoppable bleeding. Sexual contact, or the unprotected handling of contaminated corpses, can also lead to infection. It can be transmitted to humans who handle sick or dead wild animals -- believed to be its original source -- and between humans through direct contact with another's blood, faeces or sweat.
  • Ebola can be stemmed by identifying the sick and tracing those with whom they have had contact and applying infection-control measures in homes and clinics.
    
• South Korea is going to hold its largest-ever joint air drill with the United States. The twice-yearly military exercise is to be held from 11 April to 25 April. It is to be named as "Max Thunder" exercise, which is held twice a year. The last Max Thunder drill held in October-November last year involved 97 aircraft and some 1,000 troops. Seoul’s F-15K jet fighters will take part along with US Air Force F-15 and F-16s and US Marines' FA-18 and EA-18 aircraft. The exercise will focus on practical scenarios involving precision attacks on enemy positions and supply-drop missions for troops infiltrating enemy territory. Analysts say that the combined air forces will strengthen their battle readiness under the current situation when tension rises over the Korean peninsula. North Korea has slammed the drills as a rehearsal for invasion. In a protest, Pyongyang has launched a series of rockets and missiles in recent weeks. The two Koreas also exchanged fire across the tense Yellow Sea border on March 31, after the North dropped some 100 small rockets across the border during a live-fire drill, prompting the South to fire back.
  
• The world’s largest-ever swarm of genetically modified mosquitoes has been released in Brazil to combat infectious dengue disease. The newly-hatched Aedes aegypti mosquitoes have been engineered to terminate their own species. Genetically modified (GM) in a laboratory with a gene designed to devastate the non-GM Aedes aegypti population and reduce dengue's spread. The newly hatched Aedes aegypti mosquitoes called “Franken-skeeters” were released in Jacobina, a farming town in Bahia state of Brazil. The mosquitoes contain a lethal gene but are kept alive in the laboratory with the help of the antibiotic tetracycline. Once they reach larval stage, the males are separated from the females, which are subsequently destroyed. Then the males, which don’t bite, are released so they can mate with wild females. Their offspring inherit the lethal gene and then die before they can reproduce because they are not treated with tetracycline. Last year, Brazil reported 1.4 million cases of dengue, the most severe form of the illness, dengue hemorrhagic fever, can lead to shock, coma and death.
  • Dengue is transmitted by the bite of a mosquito infected with one of the four dengue virus serotypes. It is not transmitted directly from person-to-person and symptoms range from mild fever, to incapacitating high fever, with severe headache, pain behind the eyes, muscle and joint pain, and rash.
  • The newly hatched Aedes aegypti mosquitoes called “Franken-skeeters
  • WHO reports that there has been a 30-fold increase in dengue cases around the globe during the last 50 years
  • While there is no vaccine to treat dengue, patients are advised to rest, drink plenty of fluids and reduce the fever using Paracetamol
    
• An Israeli court on 31st March convicted Israel former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (68) of taking about $140,000 in bribes from real estate developers when he served as mayor of Jerusalem 1993 to 2003. Analysts said with this, his political life is almost over. Olmert can face 10 years in prison. The court found that he received bribes via post-dated checks made out to his brother. Olmert was appointed prime minister in 2006 after Ariel Sharon. He was forced to resign in 2009 to face charges in a different corruption case involving charges of fraud, breach of trust and tax evasion.
  
  • Israel is a unilateral parliamentary republic, President is Shimon Peres.
  • The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of the Government, and the most powerful political figure in Israel. Although the President of Israel is nominally the country's head of state, his powers are largely ceremonial; the Prime Minister holds the real power.
  • The current prime minister is Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud party.
  • Its legislature is named as Knesset.
    
• A major earthquake of magnitude 8.2 struck off the coast of Chile on 1st April. It triggers a tsunami, causing landslides .Five people died in this mishap. The US Geological Survey said the earthquake was shallow at 20.1 km below the seabed and struck about 100 km northwest of the mining port of Iquique near the Peruvian border. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said the earth quake generated a large tsunami with the biggest wave of 2.3 meters. Iquique is a key copper exporting port, close to Chile’s main copper mines. Chile is the world’s No 1 copper producer. In 2010, an 8.8-magnitude quake triggered a tsunami that devastated several coastal towns in central-south Chile and 526 people were killed.
  
  • The mining sector in Chile is one of the pillars of Chilean economy and copper exports alone stands for more than one third of government income.
  • Most mining in Chile is concentrated to the Norte Grande region spanning most of the Atacama Desert.
    
• NATO decided to suspend all practical civilian and military cooperation with Russia because of its annexation of Crimea. Foreign ministers from the 28 members of NATO met in Brussels on 1st April for the first time since Russia grabbed Crimea from Ukraine last month .They were discussed ways to boost NATO's military presence in formerly communist central and Eastern Europe to reassure allies worried by Russia's moves. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told in this context that Russia's aggression was the gravest threat to European security in a generation and it challenged their vision of a Europe whole, free and at peace. The foreign ministers said they would review NATO's relations with Russia at their next meeting in June. NATO and Russia have cooperated on an anti-narcotics operation in Afghanistan, counter piracy and various counterterrorism measures. Rasmussen said cooperation on the anti-narcotics operations would continue.
  
  • The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4th April 1949.
  • Membership-28
  • Its H.Q is in Brussels, Belgium.
  • Its present Secretary General Fogh Rasmussen.
  • Recently joined nations were Albania and Croatia, joined in April 2009.
    
• The Nepal government has decided to host the 18th SAARC summit on Nov 14 this year. Nepal has previously hosted the summit twice in 1987 and 2002. The last SAARC summit was held in the Maldives in 2011. SAARC chair rotates among its members on the alphabetical basis. Recently, the meeting of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) council of foreign ministers was held in Maldives on 20th February.
  
  • The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is an economic and geopolitical cooperation among its member nations that are primarily located in South Asia continent.
  • Membership-8
  • Its secretariat is headquartered in Kathmandu, Nepal.
  • The first summit held in Dhaka on 8th December in 1985.
  • Its members are- Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. In 2007, Afghanistan was joined.