1) North Korea claims to have built miniature nuclear warheads that fit on ballistic missiles.
- North Korea has miniaturized nuclear warheads to mount on ballistic missiles and ordered improvements in the power and precision of its arsenal.
- Kim has called for his military to be prepared to mount pre-emptive attacks against the United States and South Korea and stand ready to use nuclear weapons.
- U.S. and South Korean troops began large-scale military drills, which the North called ``nuclear war moves``.
- Kim also inspected the nuclear warhead designed for thermo-nuclear reaction.
2) China should become part of SAARC structure.
- Globalisation is putting pressure on the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to change its traditional ways of working.
- The message behind the trend of globalisation is that the region has to include China, which has now become a “South Asian country” for all practical purposes.
- This is because the South Asian countries, be it India, Pakistan, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka, were having very close and strong ties with China in terms of trade and development.
- Emphasising the need for changes in the two fundamental provisions of the SAARC Charter, a time-frame had to be fixed for the continuance of the two provisions- decisions at all levels to be based on unanimity and exclusion of bilateral issues.
- On the structure of the SAARC secretariat, Prof. Ahmed called for the appointment of a former Prime Minister or President from any one of the member-countries of the region as Secretary General.
About China :
Capital: Beijing
Currency: Renminbi
President: Xi Jinping
3) Arab League declares Hezbollah group a terrorist organization.
- The Arab League has declared Lebanese movement Hezbollah, a Shia political organisation a terrorist group.
- The move comes after the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) had adopted the same stance.
- All-22 Arab League members supported the decision except Lebanon and Iraq expressed reservations.
- Hezbollah (Party of God) is a Shia political organisation created by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in the 1980s.
- The United States, Canada and Australia already have listed Hezbollah as a terrorist group and the European Union (EU) has also blacklisted its military wing.
4) India, US launch Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship.
- India and the US have launched the Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship, in a new initiative to advance bilateral cooperation on climate change.
- The Indian research scholars to work with American institutions in the field.
- It will sponsor up to 6 Indian PhD students and post-doctoral researchers to work with US institutions for a period up to one year.
- The fellowship has been named after late Indian President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.
- It will be operated by the binational US-India Educational Foundation (USIEF) under the umbrella of the prestigious Fulbright programme. It will be jointly funded by both the governments.For Extra Information....
About USA :
Capital: Washington, D.C.
Currency: United States Dollar
President: Barack Obama
5) UN adopts measure to tackle sex abuse by peacekeepers.
- The UN Security Council has adopted a resolution to take strong action to confront the problem of sexual exploitation and abuse committed by peacekeepers.
- The United States, requests UN Secretary-General to replace all military and police unit of a troop or police contributing country in UN peacekeeping operations.
- It was the first time that the council has approved measures to address the rise in troubling allegations of sexual abuse by peacekeepers deployed worldwide to protect civilians in conflict.
- Fourteen members of the 15-nation Council voted in favor of the resolution. Egypt abstained.
- Before voting for the resolution, the Security Council voted for an amendment to the resolution proposed by Egypt, which was intended to slightly adjust the language on conditions of contingent repatriation.
- The resolution is first-ever of its kind to confront increasing allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse conducted by peacekeepers.
- It is in response to UN secretary-general’s annual report on measures to curb sexual exploitation and abuse within the UN system.
6) Amid South and East China Sea disputes, China plans to set up maritime judicial.
- China`s Supreme Court is setting up its own international maritime "judicial centre" to handle territorial disputes.
- It was announced by China’s Supreme Court Chief Justice Zhou Qiang at the annual meeting of the national legislature National People’s Congress (NPC).
- The decision has been taken to ensure the protection of country`s sovereignty and rights at sea.
- This move will help China to bolster its claims in the disputed South and East China seas and also help it become a maritime power.
- Presently China is locked in disputes with its neighbours over claims in the resource-rich South China Sea.
- Due to the disputes with Japan involving a group of uninhabited islets in the East China Sea, and claiming the most of the South China Sea where other countries such as Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam also have competing claims, the Chinese courts have heard 16,000 maritime cases.
About China :
Capital: Beijing
Currency: Renminbi
President: Xi Jinping
7) Malawi, UNICEF tested first UAV flights for early diagnosis of HIV in infants.
- UNICEF is trialling the use drones to reduce waiting times for HIV test results in rural Africa.
- The UN`s children`s charity has started testing a 10 km flight route in Malawi, west Africa, with a custom made drone from Matternet.
- Though drones were used in the past for surveillance and assessments of disaster, this is the first known use of UAVs in Africa for improvement of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) services.
- While still in testing, if the flights prove cost-effective the drones will be able to carry up to 250 tests, or 1 kg of samples, at once.
- After successful completion of further tests, the drone services will be integrated into the health system alongside others existing mechanisms such as road transport and short message service (SMS).
About South Africa :
Capital: Pretoria, Cape Town, Bloemfontein
Currency: South African rand
President: Jacob Zuma