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(Current Affairs For SSC Exams) International |June 2014
First ‘Born Free’ election
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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.
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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.
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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.
Self-Rule in Ukraine
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Separatists in Sloviansk targeted soldiers and the television tower with grenades,.
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Recent vote in the self—proclaimed “people’s republics” of Donetsk and Lugansk was organised by the separatists despite international condemnation and a call from Russian President Vladimir Putin for a postponement.
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The separatists said voter turnout exceeded 80 per cent, with a “yes” vote of nearly 96 per cent in Lugansk and 90 per cent in Donetsk.
First electric aircraft
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The world’s first airplane completely powered by electricity has successfully taken to the skies for its maiden flight, and could bring down air travel cost by more than a third, its developer Airbus said.
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The small experimental aircraft called ‘E-Fan’ took off from an airport near Bordeaux in southwestern France. E-Fan measures little more than 19 feet from nose to tail and slightly more noise than a hairdryer.
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Powered by 120 lithium-ion polymer batteries, the plane’s first official flight last month lasted less than 10 minutes, though the plane has the capability to fly for around an hour before recharging.
Strike of US drone
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A US drone killed three suspected militants in north-western Pakistan recently, the first such airstrike in nearly five months.
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The last drone attack in the country was on December 26. Strikes were halted since then apparently to facilitate the government’s peace talks with Islamist militants.
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Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif last year announced negotiations with Taliban insurgents to end a decade of fighting but the talks appear to be heading nowhere.
Aircraft crash in Laos
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A Lao military aircraft carrying top officials including its defence minister crashed in the north of the Communist country Laos.
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The aircraft was carrying about 20 people including DefenceMinister DouangchayPhichit, the Vientiane governor and other prominent figures, foreign ministry spokesman SekWannamethee told AFP quoting information from the Thai embassy in Vientiane.
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There was no immediate confirmation from Laos’s secretive communist government.
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In October last year a civilian airplane operated by Lao Airlines plunged into the Mekong River in bad weather killing all 49 people on board.
War on Boko Haram
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African leaders at a summit in Paris have agreed on a regional plan of action to combat Boko Haram, the Islamist group that has abducted more than 200 girls and threatened to sell them into slavery.
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In a rare show of unity, the leaders of Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, Chad and Benin pledged cooperation including joint border patrols and sharing intelligence to find the girls, snatched from Nigeria more than a month ago.
Spouses of H-1B visa-holders to work
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A U.S government website that is currently inviting public comments on whether to allow the spouses of H-1B visa-holders to work has provided a glimpse at the trials and tribulations of Indians who go abroad to work ‘onsite’ at various IT firms.
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The Department of Homeland Security, a U.S government body, had, a few months ago, decided to allow spouses of H-1B visa-holders, who are seeking green cards, to get work authorisation.
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The U.S government is, therefore, interested in collecting comments through its ‘Regulations.gov’ comment board, which allows feedback to rise and fall on its own merit. .
Tax hike in Japan
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Japan’s consumer prices rose 3.2 percent from a year earlier in April to the highest level since 1991, largely due to a sales tax increase that is expected to dent growth this quarter.
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Other April data for the world’s third-largest economy were largely in line with forecasts. Industrial production fell 2.5 per cent from a year earlier and household spending sank 4.6 per cent. Unemployment was 3.6 percent, the same as in March.
U.S troops in Afghanistan
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President Barack Obama said the U.S. will keep 9,800 of its troops in Afghanistan this year and will withdraw them completely by 2016 as he admitted it was “time to turn the page” on more than a decade of military intervention in the war-torn country.
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He said the current 32,000-strong U.S. deployment in Afghanistan will be reduced to around 9,800 by the start of 2015. The number would be further halved by the end of 2015 before eventually being scaled back to a normal embassy presence with a security assistance component by the end of 2016.
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However, any U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan after 2014 is subject to signing of the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) by the new Afghan president.
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Afghan President Hamid Karzai has refused to authorise the BSA that should be signed by Karzai’s successor to become effective.
New Libyan PM
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Libya’s new Prime Minister Ahmed Maitiq and his cabinet swore-in amid objections raised to his election process.
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Mr. Maitiq took his oath before President of the Parliament Nuri Abu Sahmain. He will wait for acting Prime Minister Abdullah Thinni to hand over his power.