INTERNATIONAL JULY 2014

INTERNATIONAL JULY 2014

• Netherlands opened war crime probe
  (Netherlands, war crime probe, Malaysia Airline flight MH-17)
  Dutch prosecutors have opened an investigation into the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH-17 on suspicion of murder, war crimes and intentionally downing an airliner. Based on the Law on International Crimes, the Netherlands can prosecute any individual who committed a war crime against a Dutch citizen. The 298 people who were killed when the plane was downed over Ukraine included 193 Dutch citizens.
  Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17/MAS17) was a scheduled international passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that crashed on 17 July 2014. The plane is believed to have been shot down with a Buk surface-to-air missile. The Boeing 777-200ER airliner went down near Hrabove inDonetsk Oblast, Ukraine, about 40 km (25 mi) from the Ukraine–Russia border, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew on board. The crash occurred in the conflict zone of the ongoing Donbass insurgency, in an area controlled by the Donbass People's Militia.
  The two sides in Ukraine's ongoing civil conflict (the Ukrainian government and the pro-Russian separatists) accused each other of shooting down the plane with a missile. A Ukrainian Interior Ministry official, Anton Gerashchenko, said a Buk missile hit the aircraft at an altitude of 10,000 m (33,000 ft). The crash of MH17 is the deadliest-ever air incident in Ukraine, Boeing 777 hull loss and airliner shootdown. The crash was Malaysia Airlines' deadliest incident and its second of the year, after the disappearance on 8 March of Flight 370, en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.
  
• Iran eliminated Nuclear material: UN Atomic Agency
  (Iran, Nuclear material, UN atomic agency)
  Iran has eliminated all its most sensitive nuclear material in line with an interim deal struck with world powers, a new UN atomic agency report showed on 21st July. Days after a deadline to reach a lasting nuclear deal was pushed back four months, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran was continuing to comply with its international commitments, in a report seen by AFP.
  Under a Geneva agreement with world powers reached in November, the Islamic republic vowed to freeze certain nuclear activities for six months in return for some relief from hard-hitting sanctions. As of the July 20 deadline, Tehran had indeed cut half of its stock of 20-percent enriched uranium down to five-percent purity, while the rest has been converted into uranium oxide, the IAEA said.
  Tehran has also refrained from enriching above the five-percent level at any of its nuclear facilities. This was a significant step towards alleviating international fears that Tehran may be seeking to build a bomb, as the West has long believed and Iran has long denied. The European Union meanwhile announced on 21st July that it would extend by four months the suspension of a series of sanctions against Iran, following the decision to continue the negotiations. Brussels had already suspended these sanctions while Iran was negotiating a nuclear deal with the world powers. The suspension means Tehran can continue to export crude oil.
  IAEA
  The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an international organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. The IAEA was established as an autonomous organization on 29 July 1957. Though established independently of the United Nations through its own international treaty the IAEA Statute the IAEA reports to both the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council. The IAEA has its headquarters in Vienna, Austria.
  
• US pressed for cease fire
  (Cease fire in Gaza, Hamas, Isreal, Palestine)
  US has made certain proposals to end the chaos condition that is being prevailed in Gaza. Its Secretary of State John Kerry has called on the Palestinian group, Hamas, to accept a ceasefire along the lines of an Egyptian proposal, to end the raging Gaza conflict that has already killed at least 633 Palestinians and 30 Israelis.
  The Palestinian leadership has proposed to Egypt a plan for a ceasefire to be followed by five days of negotiations to stop the fighting,.
  The deadliest conflict in five years between Israel and the Palestinians has killed 635 Palestinians, many of them civilians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. At least 30 Israelis, 28 of them soldiers, have died in the fighting.
  According to the latest reports, a United Nations school sheltering displaced Palestinians in central Gaza has come under Israeli fire as a team was inspecting damage from a day earlier.
  The reasons for GAZA conflict
  Actually Gaza strip is an area, which separates Israel and Israel-Gaza barrier. The Israel-Gaza barrier is a border barrier first constructed by Israel in 1994 between the Gaza Strip and Israel. The barrier was extended in 2005 to cover the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt
  The present conflict is taking place in Gaza strip and Southern Israel, which is a part of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict began in of 2006 and, although the principal parties involved – Israel and Hamas – agreed a ceasefire following Operation "Pillar of Defense" in November 2012, it is considered ongoing at a low level.
  Palestinian militant actions escalated in the Gaza Strip following the overwhelming election to government of the Islamic political party Hamas in 2005 and 2006. The conflict escalated with the split of the Palestinian Authority to Fatah government in the West Bank and the Hamas Government in Gaza and the following violent ousting of Fatah. Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel and Israel's blockade of Gaza have exacerbated the conflict.
  
• Operation Protective Edge
  (Israel Defence Forces, Plaestina Gaza strip, operation protect edge, Hamas militants)
  Operation Protective Edge is an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) offensive in the Palestinian Gaza Strip, launched on 8 July 2014. The operation follows an escalation in rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas' militants.
  Following the kidnapping and murders of three Israeli teenagers in mid-June 2014, the IDF initiated Operation Brother's Keeper in search of the three teenagers. As part of the operation, in the following 11 days Israel's military arrested between 350 and 600 Palestinians, including nearly all of Hamas' West Bank leaders, with five to ten Palestinians being killed during the operation.
  On the night of 6 July, an Israeli strike killed seven Hamas militants. In response, Hamas' militants increased rocket attacks on Israel. By 7 July, Hamas militants had fired 100 rockets from Gaza at Israeli territory and the Israeli Air Force had bombed several sites in Gaza. Early on 8 July Israel's air force bombed 50 targets in the Gaza Strip. Israel's military thwarted a militant infiltration from the sea. That same day, Hamas declared that "all Israelis" had become "legitimate targets"and insisted that Israel end all attacks on Gaza, release those re-arrested during the crackdown in the West Bank, lift the blockade on Gaza and return to the cease-fire conditions of 2012 as conditions for a ceasefire.
  On 13 July the Israeli military reported that more than 1,300 Israeli attacks had taken place, while more than 800 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel.
  On 14 July, Egypt proposed a cease-fire. The Israeli government accepted the proposal, and temporarily stopped hostilities in the morning of 15 July. However, Hamas, which claimed it had not been consulted on the cease-fire, rejected it in "its current form". On 16 July, Hamas and Islamic Jihad offered Israel a 10-year truce, with ten (10) conditions
  
• Lithuania to join Eurozone in January
  (Lithuania, euro zone, European Central bank)
  European leaders announced on 23rd July that Lithuania will become the 19th country to use the Euro, with the currency entering circulation there on January 1, 2015. The country's accession to the Euro will also mark a procedural change at the European Central Bank.
  Lithuania is an EU member state and will join the Euro zone by adopting the Euro on 1 January 2015. This will make it the last of the three Baltic States to adopt the euro, after Estonia (2011) and Latvia (2014). Until then, its currency, the Litas, is pegged to the euro at 3.4528 litas to 1 Euro
  Why Lithuania want to join in Euro zone?
  Estonia and Latvia have already adopted the Euro currency - Estonia in 2011 and Latvia in 2014. Now Lithuania, as the last of the three Baltic countries, is set to follow suit.
  The terms of the European Union's Maastricht Treaty of 1992 require all EU countries to join the Euro currency eventually, with the exception of Denmark and the United Kingdom, which negotiated special exemptions. But some countries, like Poland and Sweden, have deliberately avoided fulfilling the technical requirements of Euro zone membership (including specific targets for low deficit spending and low inflation) in order to retain the advantages of keeping their own national currency.
  A national currency is a powerful tool for economic flexibility.
  It can be useful for a country to have its own currency. It makes it possible for a country to devalue its currency when its economy gets into trouble. A weaker currency encourages exports. It also induces domestic consumers to switch away from imported products and buy comparable domestic products instead. Both of these factors stimulate domestic job creation.
  But if a country like Lithuania, Portugal or Spain doesn't have its own currency, or has a fixed exchange rate with a powerful currency like the dollar or the Euro, then devaluation isn't an option. Under those circumstances, if the country's economy runs into trouble -- either because of weaker exports or weaker domestic demand - then the economic policy options for returning to economic growth are fewer. Exports must then be stimulated by substantially increasing productivity per worker-hour, which is difficult, or by "internal devaluation" - i.e. slashing wages, which harms domestic aggregate demand and can drive the economy into a deep recession. That's what happened in Spain and Portugal in the post-2008 crisis years.
  
• Fouad Massoum is new president of Iraq
  (Iraq, Iraq new president, Fouand Massoum)
  Fouad Massoum, a veteran Kurdish politician has been elected President of Iraq on 24th July. He received 211 of 269 votes in the Iraqi parliament after Kurds presented him as their candidate. Under an informal power-sharing agreement, the role of president goes to a Kurd, the job of speaker of parliament to a Sunni, and the position of prime minister to a Shiite.
  
• Ukaraine Prime Minister resigned
  (Ukarine, Prime Minster, resigned, Arseniy Yatsenyuk)
  Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk resigned on 24th July after his governing coalition collapsed, plunging the former Soviet State into political limbo. The Udar (Punch) party of former heavyweight boxer Vitali Klitschko and the radical nationalist Svoboda party of Oleh Tyahnybok called for fresh elections as they withdrew from the coalition.
  Yatsenyuk said his resignation comes in response to parliament’s failure to pass legislation that would have eased the country’s gas dependency on Russia.
  Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Groisman will head the government in the interim, announced Interior Minister Arsen Avakov.
  If no new governing coalition is formed within 30 days, President Petro Poroshenko can call new elections. Yatsenyuk said he would not consider any coalition with the Communists or the Party of Regions of former president Viktor Yanukovych, making any new coalition unlikely. Indeed, officials said they were working to ban the Communist Party.
  Poroshenko, who won presidential elections on May 25, promised that parliamentary elections would be held this year. Ukrainians are expected to hit the polls on October 26.
  Yanukovych was impeached by parliament in February after fleeing Kiev following three months of mass protests against his government. Mr. Yatsenyuk’s government took over after Mr. Yanukovych fled the country.
  
• Heritage tags for Portugal’s ‘Hogwarts’
  (Heritage tags, Portugal’s, Hogwarts)
  One of world's oldest universities, with an uncanny similarity to Harry Potter's Hogwarts, has been declared a world heritage site. India was among the main countries that backed the University's bid.
  The university's edifices became a reference in the development of other institutions of higher education in the Portuguese-speaking world where it also exerted a major influence on learning and literature.
  Unesco says that as the centre for training the elite for all the territories under Portuguese administration, the University played a key role in the institutional and architectural development of universities in the Portuguese colonies.
  UNESCO
  The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN).
  Its purpose is to contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education, science, and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and human rights along with fundamental freedom proclaimed in the UN Charter. It is the heir of the League of Nations' International Commission on Intellectual Cooperation. UNESCO has 195 member states and nine associate members.
  • It formed on 4th November 1946
  • Head quarters is at Paris
  • Present head is – Irina Bokova
  
  
• Women allowed to become Bishops
  The Church of England has voted to allow women to become bishops for the first time in its history. Its ruling General Synod gave approval to legislation introducing the change by the required two-thirds majority. A previous vote in 2012 was backed by the Houses of Bishops and Clergy but blocked by traditionalist lay members.
  
• Malaysian plane crashes in Ukraine
  A Malaysia Airlines jet carrying 295 people has crashed in east Ukraine on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. There are no signs of survivors at the scene of the crash near the village of Grabovo, in rebel-held territory close to the border with Russia. Both sides in Ukraine's civil conflict accused each other of shooting down the plane with a missile. It is still not clear why the plane came down. It is the second disaster suffered by Malaysia Airlines this year. Flight MH370 disappeared en route from Malaysia to China in March and still has not been found.
  
• US want Food Programmes of developing nations reviewed
  The US has called for a review of the food security and procurement programmes of developing countries, including India, by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to ensure that these do not distort trade or affect food security of other countries.
  But India has said that the US proposal is “totally unacceptable” and that it will not support the protocol for trade facilitation pushed by developed countries till serious work starts on drafting a ‘permanent solution’ to resolve public stockholding issues.
  India, China and Cuba have already stated that as a ‘permanent solution’ it wanted incentives for public procurement and food aid to be included in the ‘Green Box’ of permissible subsidies. The G-33, of which India is a member, is also working on an alternative solution of changing the base year of calculating subsidies that would allow much higher levels of sops.
  China, Cuba support to India
  India, China and Cuba have joined hands at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to demand inclusion of subsidies for food procurement and food-aid programmes in the list of permissible incentives. India has refused to give its consent to a trade facilitation protocol being pushed by several developed WTO members, such as the US, Australia and the EU, till there is a permanent solution on public stockholding.
  At present, food procurement subsidies are categorised as trade distortive subsidies, which could attract sanctions from other countries on breaching the cap of 10 per cent of value of agriculture production.
  WTO
  The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. The goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business.
  
• Medicines Patent Pool inks pact with 7 firms for Anti-Aids Drugs
  In a significant step in the treatment of AIDS, the United Nations-backed Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) has announced sub-licensing agreements with seven pharmaceutical companies for the manufacture of two anti-AIDS drugs. Indian pharmaceutical companies Cipla, Aurobindo Pharma, Micro Labs, Emcure and Mylan’s Indian subsidiary are part of the group of companies which will make generic HIV medicines, atazanavir (ATV) and dolutegravir (DTG). The other companies are: Desano of China and Laurus Labs.
  
• Bolivia legalises Child Labour
  Bolivia has become the first nation to legalise child labour from age 10. Congress approved the legislation early this month, and Vice-President Alvaro Garcia signed it into law on 17th July in the absence of President Evo Morales
  The bill’s sponsors say lowering the minimum work age from 14 simply acknowledges a reality: Many poor families in Bolivia have no other choice than for their kids to work. The bill offers working children safeguards, they say.
  Under the legislation, 10-year-olds will be able to work as long as they are under parental supervision and also attend school. It sets 12 as the minimum age for a child to work under contract. They also would have to attend school.
  
• Australia abolishes Carbon Tax
  Australia on 18th July axed carbon tax. The upper house Senate voted 39-32 to scrap the charge, which was imposed by the former Labor government on major polluters from 2012 in a bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
  Under the carbon tax, the country's biggest polluters, including mining, energy and aviation companies, paid for the emissions they produced, giving them an incentive to reduce them. The current administration favors a "direct action" plan that includes financial incentives for polluters to increase their energy efficiency.
  The Climate Action Tracker, an independent monitor of countries' carbon pledges and actions, has said this method will increase Australia's emissions by 12 percent in 2020 instead of reducing them by five percent from 2000 levels as per its own target.
  What is carbon tax?
  A carbon tax is usually defined as a tax based on greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) generated from burning fuels. It puts a price on each tone of GHG emitted, sending a price signal that will, over time, elicit a powerful market response across the entire economy, resulting in reduced emissions. It has the advantage of providing an incentive without favoring any one way of reducing emissions over another. By reducing fuel consumption, increasing fuel efficiency, using cleaner fuels and adopting new technology, businesses and individuals can reduce the amount they pay in carbon tax, or even offset it altogether
  Carbon Taxing in Australia
  A carbon pricing scheme in Australia, commonly referred to as a carbon tax, was introduced by the Gillard Government and became effective on 1 July 2012
  The scheme required entities which emit over 25,000 tons per year of Carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gases and which were not in the transport or agriculture sectors to obtain emissions permits. The Department of Climate Change said there were 260 liable entities in June 2013. When related parties are identified, there are approximately 185 discrete companies which have paid carbon tax in 2013. Permits are either purchased or issued free as part of industry assistance measures.
  Australia generates 1.3% of global emissions; on a per capita basis Australia is the eleventh highest emitter of all countries, and second (after Luxembourg) of developed countries
  
• Rajapaksa inducts war crimes experts in probe panel
  President Mahinda Rajapaksa on July 17, directed a Commission of Inquiry appointed by him to probe the roles of Sri Lankan army and the rebel Tigers, during the nearly 30 year war, for alleged violation of international humanitarian law.
  The announcement comes about three months after the U.N. Human Rights Council adopted a resolution that calls for an international probe into Sri Lanka’s rights record.
  The Sri Lankan government has rejected the inquiry and said it would not offer any cooperation. In August 2013, President Rajapaksa appointed a commission to look into cases of disappearances after the brutal war that ended in 2009. The commission has been holding public hearings in many parts of the country, including the island’s Northern Province, and received over 15,000 complaints until January this year.
  
• Boost Economic Growth: B 20
  Australia wants Western countries to continue cooperating with Russia within the G20 framework, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on the sidelines of the B20 summit, after the US and EU agreed new sanctions on Russia. The event held on July 16 - 18 in Sydney involves more than 300 business leaders from 48 countries who decide on aspects of the G20 agenda.
  The G20 consists of the group of 19 world leading economies and the European Union. The G20 represents about 85 percent of global GDP, 80 percent of world trade and two thirds of the world's population. Last year Russia hosted the G20 summit and in 2015 the presidency will pass to Turkey.
  Other decisions
  • Implement unilateral structural reforms for diversified and sustained growth
  • Close infrastructure gap which could create 100 million jobs and generate 6 trillion US dollars
  • Create human capital in the right place, at the right time with the right skills
  • Allow private sector investment which is a prerequisite for sustained and inclusive economic growth
  • Frame policies that ensures greater structural flexibility and freedom of movement across borders of goods, services, labor and capital within an effective regulator
  • Framework which promotes transparency in commerce
  • Ensure safely regulated, accessible and affordable finance
    
• World’s largest mall to come up in Dubai
  Dubai has unveiled plans to build the world’s first temperature-controlled city Mall of the World, an ambitious project spread over an area of 48 million sq ft, to attract tourists even during the scorching summer months. The project will comprise the world’s largest indoor theme park, covered by a glass dome during the sweltering summer months, and 100 hotels and serviced apartments.
  
• INDIA, UK to set up financial partnership
  India and United Kingdom have made an agreement to launch financial partnership. The aim of this is to promote the ties between Indian Financial Capital Mumbai and London (Britain’s financial centre). The financial service industries will be set up in the coming three months This followed the seventh round of UK-India Economic and Financial Dialogue held on 8th July.
  
  Other agreements are made and in the deal
  • will cover the following work-streams: collaboration to develop the Indian corporate bond market;
  • mutual sharing of expertise on banking regulation and capitalisation;
  • enhancing financial training and qualification; financial inclusion;
  • developing a programme around the opportunities to improve cross-border provision of financial and insurance services.
    
• United Nations tribunal judgment in favour of Bangladesh
  The verdict on the dispute regarding the delimitation of the maritime boundary between India and Bangladesh was delivered on 7th June, with a United Nations tribunal awarding Bangladesh 19,467 sq. km of the 25,602 sq. km sea area of the Bay of Bengal. The content of the verdict of the long-standing dispute was announced by Bangladesh Foreign Minister A.H. Mahmood Ali
  
  The verdict of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) came after nearly five years of arguments and counter-arguments, spot visit by judges and examination of survey reports. Bangladesh Ambassador to the Netherlands Sheikh Mohammed Belal and Indian Ambassador in The Hague, Rajesh Nandan Prasad, received the copies of the verdict. The tribunal verdict is binding on all parties and there is no option for appeal.
  
  However, according to the rules of procedures, if any party needs any interpretation of the verdict, it can make a request to the court within 30 days of receiving the verdict and the interpretation would be made available within 45 days.
  
  Bangladesh went in for arbitration over the delimitation of maritime boundary under the United Nations Convention on Law of Sea (UNCLOS) on October 8 2009.The court concluded its hearings on December 18, 2013 in The Hague.
  
  South Talpatti, or New Moore was a small uninhabited offshore sandbar landform in the Bay of Bengal, off the coast of the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta region. It emerged in the Bay of Bengal in the aftermath of the Bhola cyclone in 1970, and disappeared at some later point.
  
  Although the island was uninhabited and there were no permanent settlements or stations located on it, both India and Bangladesh claimed sovereignty over it because of speculation over the existence of oil and natural gas in the region. The issue of sovereignty was also a part of the larger dispute over the Radcliffe Award methodology of settling the maritime boundary between the two nations
  
• China, US sign agreements on climate change
  Chinese and US firms and research institutes on 8th July signed agreements on eight joint projects for coping with climate change ahead of a strategic dialogue between the two countries. The projects address carbon capture, usage and storage, hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) reduction, and the move toward low-carbon cities and a low-carbon model for the cement industry.
  
  The deals marked some of the achievements by the China-US climate change working group, launched during US Secretary of State John Kerry's visit to China in April 2013 and aimed at enhancing cooperation on climate change, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The working group will report to senior Chinese and US leaders attending the sixth China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue beginning tomorrow in Beijing. The US and China, two of the world's biggest emitters of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming, have agreed to closely work together on concrete steps against climate change.
  
• EU slaps fine on drug makers Lupin, Unichem and Matrix Labs
  Leading domestic drug makers Lupin, Unichem and Matrix Labs (now part of Mylan) have come under the scanner of the European Commission for curbing entry of the low-cost generic version of cardiovascular medicine Perindopril in the European Union (EU).
  
  The anti-trust wing of the Commission has slapped a hefty fine of euro 427.7 million (around Rs. 3,458.7 crore) on five generic drug manufacturers, besides Servier, a French pharmaceutical company that held patent protection for blockbuster Perindopril.
  
  Of the total fine, Lupin has to pay euro 40 million (around Rs. 324 crore), while Unichem and Matrix have been fined for euro 13.96 million (around Rs. 113 crore) and euro 17 million (Rs 138 crore), respectively.
  
  India-Canada audiovisual co-production treaty signed
  India and Canada has signed an India-Canada Audiovisual Co-production Treaty with an aim to create jobs in both countries and boost tourism. This audiovisual treaty is the first of its kind for India and was signed in Delhi. The treaty came into force on 1 July 2014 but the announcement was made on 9 July 2014
  
  Canada is a country in North America consisting of 10 provinces and 3 territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean. At 9.98 million square kilometres in total, Canada is the world's second-largest country by total area and the fourth-largest country by land area. Its common border with the United States is the world's longest land border shared by the same two countries
  
• U.N. calls For Gaza ceasefire
  The UN Security Council has called for a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Israeli air strikes hit the territory's security HQ and police stations. Wars between Hamas and Israel tend to finish with some sort of ceasefire.
  
  Factors influencing the timing of a deal include the amount of blood spilt, and the level of international pressure on both sides to make a deal. It looks as if that point has not yet been reached. Ceasefires involve a certain loss of face, as leaders glide away from some of the rhetoric they threw around when the guns started to fire. Neither side is ready for that yet. This conflict may have to get worse before the pressure for a ceasefire becomes unanswerable.
  
  All 15 members the UN Security Council approved a statement calling for calm and peace talks.
  
  It is the first time since Israel's offensive began that they have issued a statement, with members previously divided on their response.
  
  The UN has estimated that 77% of the people killed in Gaza have been civilians. The Security Council members expressed serious concern regarding the crisis related to Gaza and the protection and welfare of civilians on both sides.
  
  The Security Council members called for de-escalation of the situation, restoration of calm, and reinstitution of the November 2012 ceasefire. The Security Council members further called for respect for international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians.