(Current Affairs For SSC Exams) International |September 2014

International

WTO imbroglio: India not for 1986-87 as base year

India has offered fixing of the base year for food subsidies on the basis of average of last three years, as opposed to 1986-87 as proposed by WTO, as a way forward for an agreement at the WTO.
India did a ‘course correction’ on the position taken at the Bali ministerial conference. Explaining the changed stance, the Govt. said India insisted on a ‘single undertaking principle’ to ensure simultaneous implementation of nine plus one issues which the Ministers had agreed at Bali.
Govt said it is not alone in this matter, it said that India and other LDCs were willing to wait till September 2014, for every one to convince each other.

Iraqi militants seize country’s largest dam

Sunni militants from the Islamic State group seized Iraq’s largest dam, placing them in control of enormous power and water resources and access to the river that runs through the heart of Baghdad.
After a week of attempts, the radical Islamist gunmen successfully stormed the Mosul Dam and forced Kurdish forces to withdraw from the area.
The Mosul Dam or Saddam Dam as it was once known is located north of Iraq’s second—largest city Mosul, which fell to the militants on June 10. Fighting intensified in the region after the nearby towns of Zumar and Sinjar fell to the militants.
The al—Qaeda—breakaway group has established its idea of an Islamic state in the territory it controls in Iraq and Syria, imposing its harsh interpretation of Islamic law. Iraqi government forces, Kurds and allied Sunni tribal militiamen have been struggling to dislodge the Islamic State militants and its Sunni allies with little apparent success.
The seizing of dams and reservoirs gives the militants control over water and electricity that they could use to help build support in the territory they now rule by providing the scarce resources to residents. Or they could sell the resources as a lucrative source of revenue.

Israel, Hamas accept Egyptian ceasefire plan

Israel and Hamas accepted an Egyptian ceasefire proposal meant to halt a bruising month-long war that has claimed nearly 2,000 lives, raising hopes that the bloodiest round of fighting between the bitter enemies could finally be coming to an end.
The war broke out on July 8, 2014 when Israel launched an air offensive in response to weeks of heavy rocket fire out of Hamas-controlled Gaza. It expanded the operation on July 17 by sending in ground forces in what it described as a mission to destroy a network of tunnels used to stage attacks. Israel says the last of the tunnels has nearly been destroyed.
Israel has demanded that Gaza become “demilitarised,” requiring the unlikely cooperation of Hamas in giving up its significant arsenal.

Lights to go out across UK to mark World War One centenary

On August 4, the whole of Britain will be plunged in darkness for an hour in a Lights Out initiative to mark the centenary of the country’s entry into World War 1.
Several official and unofficial events that have been planned over the last year will mark the day. They reflect and reinforce a war memorial sentiment that appears as diverse as the forms that memorialisation are taking in this country.
All these will in different ways examine the legacy and lessons emerging from World War 1 (1914-1918), which claimed the lives of 10 million soldiers and impacted the lives of countless others.
Commonwealth British citizens have marshalled their own memories and histories of the war experience. The largest non-British component of the British fighting forces, and on which the imperial war machine heavily relied was from India. Nearly 1.5 million soldiers were drafted into the war effort. Of them 74,000 died.
UNSC resolution adopted to combat ISIS fighters
Responding to the growing terrorist threat in Iraq and Syria, the U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions on six men for recruiting or financing foreign fighters and threatened additional sanctions against those supporting terrorist groups.
The U.N.’s most powerful body, in a resolution adopted unanimously, also demanded that the Islamic State extremist group and all al-Qaeda-linked groups end violence and disarm and disband immediately.
The British-drafted resolution follows the recent offensive by the Islamic State group, which has taken control of a large swath of eastern Syria and northern and western Iraq, brutalising civilians and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee, as well as increasing terrorist activity by other al-Qaeda-linked groups including Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria.
The six men now subject to a global travel ban and asset freeze include four who either recruited or helped finance al-Nusra — Abdelrahman Mouhamad Zafir al Dabidi al Jahani, Hajjaj Bin Fahd Al Ajmi, Said Arif and Abdul Mohsen Abdallah Ibrahim al Charekh.
Another man, Hamid Hamad Hamid al-Ali, was blacklisted for helping finance both al-Nusra and the Islamic State group. Abou Mohamed al Adnani was blacklisted for financing and perpetrating acts supporting the Islamic State group.

Australian PM seeks Muslims’ support for tougher terrorism laws

Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott sought support from Muslim leaders for plans to overhaul terrorism laws, with a view to curbing so-called home-grown Islamist extremism.
Muslims have expressed fears they will be unfairly targeted by the new measures, which will make it easier for authorities to track and prosecute Australian citizens who engage in or support terrorist activities abroad.
Mr. Abbott said that when it came to fighting terrorism everyone in the country had to be on “Team Australia.” “Everyone has got to put this country, its interests, its values and its people first,” he said on Macquarie Radio.

Suicide tourism on rise in Switzerland

People packing their bags to Switzerland not to rest in its serenity but to end their lives through assisted suicide has doubled in four years, reveals a study.
There are six right-to-die organisations in Switzerland, of which four permit nationals from other countries to use their services.
Citizens from Germany and Britain make up the bulk of the numbers, with neurological conditions such paralysis, motor neurone disease, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis accounting for almost half of the cases, the findings showed.
Virtually all the deaths were caused by taking sodium pentobarbital. Four people inhaled helium in deaths that were widely publicised and described as “excruciating”, researchers added.

IS committing crimes against humanity: U.N.

The U.N. accused jihadists in Iraq of waging a campaign of “ethnic and religious cleansing,” as Syria said it was ready to work with the global community against “terrorism.”
The accusation by U.N. human rights chiefNaviPillay came as Kurdish peshmerga forces pushed back Islamic State (IS) jihadists in northern Iraq a day after the militants overran a key military airport in Syria.
Ms. Pillay said in a statement the IS reign of terror in Iraq against non-Arab ethnic groups and non-Sunni Muslims alike involved targeted killings, forced conversions, and destruction of holy and cultural sites.