1) Sri Lanka, China begin joint military training exercise `Silk Route- 2015`.
- Joint military training exercise code named `Silk Route- 2015` between China and Sri Lanka has begun at Buttala in Central Sri Lanka.
- It is three-week long joint military training exercise will be conducted in three phases.
- In the first phase of the 2nd joint exercise involves Sri Lankan Army and People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China have participated.
- This training will focus on weapon handling, live firing, VIP protection study and other warfare and battle skills related fields.
2) India pledges 1 billion dollar aid for Nepal’s reconstruction.
- India has pledged an assistance of one billion US dollars to the quake-ravaged Nepal for its massive re-construction programme.
- The announcement was made by Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj during the International Donors’ Conference held in Kathmandu, Nepal.
- One fourth of the assistance from India will be grant and it will be part of India’s existing bilateral developmental assistance of another one billion dollars over the 5 five years.
About International Donors’ Conference:
- The International Donors’ Conference was organised by the Nepalese government to raise funds to re-build the country.
- It was attended by several countries including China, Japan and Britain, European Union (UN) besides world agencies like United Nations, World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB).
- On 25th April 2015, Nepal was struck by 7.9-magnitude devastating earthquake. In this natural disaster around 9,000 people were killed and around 23,000 were injured. It had destroyed lakhs of houses.
3) Union Cabinet approved signing of MoC between India and Japan on Industrial Property.
- The Union Cabinet gave its approval for signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) between the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) and the Japan Patent Office (JPO), Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan.
- The MoC is aimed at establishing a framework for bilateral cooperation in the field of industrial property (IP) with emphasis on capacity building, human resource development and awareness generation.
4) US Supreme Court gave nod to subsidies under US Health Care Law in States without health exchanges.
- The US Supreme Court ruled that federal subsidies under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), 2010 could be made available to individual States, even if those States did not set up their own insurance exchanges.
- The judgment was delivered by a 9-judge bench in the King v. Burwell case with 6-3 division. The bench was headed by the Chief Justice John Robert.
- The verdict will benefit 6.4 million people in the 34 states as they are eligible to receive health-insurance subsidies even though those States did not create insurance marketplaces to purchase their policies.
- Health insurance marketplaces or health exchanges are organizations set up to facilitate the purchase of health insurance in each state in accordance with the ACA, 2010 or Obamacare.
5) U.S. Supreme Court lifts ban on gay unions.
- The U.S. Supreme Court declared that same-sex couples had a right to marry anywhere in the country, in a culmination of two decades of litigation over marriage and gay rights.
- Gay and lesbian couples already could marry in 36 states and the District of Columbia.
- The court’s 5-4 ruling means the remaining 14 States, in the South and Midwest, will have to stop enforcing their bans on same-sex marriage.
- The ruling will not take effect immediately because the Supreme Court gives the losing side roughly three weeks to ask for reconsideration.
6) Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has dissolved parliament, paving the way for an early general election.
- The president signed a gazette notification dissolving parliament.
- The general election was not scheduled for another 10 months.
- About Sri Lanka Presidential Election:
- Mr. Sirisena defeated incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa in presidential elections held in January.
- The president`s decision to dissolve parliament came shortly after a spokesman for the United National Party (UNP) said it had formally requested him to do so.
- The UNP was the main party behind Mr Sirisena`s presidential bid and its leader, Ranil Wickremesingha, is the country`s prime minister.
- Sri Lankan law dictates that elections be held between 52 and 66 days after the dissolution.
- Government sources told the BBC that the election will be held on 17 August.
- Sri Lankan election Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya is scheduled to hold a news conference where he will announce the dates.
7) Pakistan seeks U.K. help to probe MQM-India `link`.
- The Pakistan government has requested Britain for assistance in establishing whether India has funded and trained cadre of the Pakistan opposition party, the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM).
- “The British High Commission, Pakistan, has received a formal request from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pakistan, which will be sent to the relevant U.K. authorities”.
8) India, Thailand sign multiple agreements including double taxation avoidance treaty.
- India and Thailand signed a number of important agreements, including the double taxation avoidance treaty, and exchanged instruments of ratification on the extradition treaty inked in 2013, which provides for the legal framework for seeking extradition of fugitive offenders.
- The tax treaty provides for the framework to avoid double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes so as to promote bilateral economic cooperation.
9) US Supreme Court legalized Same-Sex Marriage Nationwide.
- The United States (US) Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage across the nation in a closely divided ruling by a 5 to 4 vote.
- The 28-page ruling was made by Justice Anthony Kennedy and was agreed by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
- With this ruling, now the states cannot deny marriage rights enjoyed for thousands of years by opposite-sex couples to gay men and lesbians.
- The decision is expected to trigger same-sex marriages in fourteen states that banned the practice.
10) India, Thailand ink MoU on Double Taxation Avoidance Treaty.
- India and Thailand signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on double taxation avoidance treaty (DTAT).
- The MoU was signed during 7th meeting of the India-Thailand Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation co-chaired by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
- Apart from DTAT, both nations signed and exchanged instruments of ratification on the extradition treaty inked in 2013. This treaty provides for the legal framework for extradition of fugitive offenders.