Current Affairs For SSC CGL Exam

23 April, 2014

Hatf-III

• Pakistan conducted a successful training launch of short range surface to surface ballistic missile Hatf III (Ghaznavi) recently.
• The missile can carry nuclear and conventional warheads to a range of 290 kilometres.
• The successful launch concluded the field training exercise of strategic missile group of Army Strategic Forces Command.

• As per the statement released by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the training launch was witnessed by Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Rashad Mahmood, Director General Strategic Plans Division Lieutenant General Zubair Mahmood Hayat, Commander Army Strategic Forces Command Lieutenant General Obaid Ullah Khan, Chairman NESCOM Muhammad Irfan Burney and other senior military officials and scientists.

Code Of Conduct On Communication

• Naval chiefs from US and Asian-Pacific nations including Vietnam adopted a code of conduct aimed at improving communication at sea to reduce the possibility of conflict.
• Citing Australian media reports, VNA said that the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea was approved by countries including the US, China, Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam at the Western Pacific Naval Symposium in China's eastern coastal city of Qingdao.
• The pact outlines how naval ships should communicate and manoeuvre when they unexpectedly come into contact in sea lanes surrounding China, Japan and Southeast Asia.
• Although not legally binding, the code of conduct is said to help establish international standards in relation to the use of sea lanes.

World senior snooker title

• India's Chitra Magimairaj emerged champion in the senior category when she defeated Alena Asmolova of Belarus 3-0 in the final at the World Snooker championship held at Leeds.
• Magimairaj, thus made up for a disappointing performance in the Open category as she drubbed Asmolova 57-32, 76-16, 42-9.
• Earlier, in the semi-finals, Magimairaj beat fellow-Indian and Bangalorean Revanna Umadevi 2-0 after getting past Carmelita Yumito (Brazil) 2-1 and Jenny Poulter (England) 2-1, in the previous rounds.

Course for safe roads

• Indian roads have proved to be giant killers demanding immediate attention and remedial action, the Supreme Court observed recently and appointed a panel to suggest measures to prevent road accidents and to ensure accountability.

• Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan, who retires as Supreme Court judge soon will be part of this panel along with S. Sundar, Former Transport Secretary and Dr. Nishi Mittal, formerly HoD, Traffic Engineering and Safety (TES)

• A Bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and Justices Ranjan Gogoi and N.V. Ramana, gave this direction acting on a public interest writ petition (PIL) filed by renowned orthopaedician Dr. S. Rajasekaran.

• The bench quoted figures furnished by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) in the volume “Road Accidents in India 2010” highlighting the extent of increase of road accidents and fatal cases between 1970-2010.

• It is reported that road traffic accidents in 2010 numbered 4,30,654 resulting in 1,26,896 deaths and serious injuries 4,66,600 that includes amputation of limbs. One serious road accident in the country occurs every minute; and one person dies in a road traffic accident every 4 minutes.

• In his judgment Justice Gogoi said: “Road traffic accidents have the potential of being one of the largest challenges to orderly human existence necessitating immediate and urgent intervention.

• The Bench asked the three-member panel to submit a report to the apex court after receipt of reports from Centre and States on the status of implementation and enforcement of various road safety laws.

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