Daily Top-10 Current Affairs MCQs / News (August 23, 2022) for CSS

Table of Contents

6. Despite frustration with Taliban, US agrees to asset talks

• US President Joe Biden`s administration will press ahead with talks on releasing billions of dollars in Afghanistan`s foreign-held assets despite the late Al Qaeda leader`s presence in Kabul and foot-dragging by the Taliban and Afghan central bank, according to three sources with knowledge of the situation.
• The decision to pursue the initiative to help stabilise Afghanistan`s collapsed economy underscores growing concern in Washington over a humanitarian crisis as the United Nations warns that nearly half the country`s 40 million people face `acute hunger` as winter approaches.
• At the core of the US-led effort, as Reuters reported last month, is a plan to transfer billions in foreign-held Afghan central bank assets into a proposed Swiss-based trust fund. Disbursements would be made with the help of an international board and bypass the Taliban, many of whose leaders are under US and UN sanctions

7. Sri Lanka faces international censure over arrests

• Sri Lanka`s new government came under international censure on August 22, 2022 over the use of tough anti-terror laws to detain protesters who forced Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step down from the presidency last month.
• Three student activists arrested last week during the first anti-government rally after the end of a state of emergency were being held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), authorities said on Sunday, including student leader Wasantha Mudalige. The PTA allows suspects to be detained for 90 days without judicial review.
• `Using laws that don`t conform with international human rights standards like the PTA erodes democracy in Sri Lanka, said US ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung. `We encourage the government to uphold the rights of the people to express their views, she tweeted

8. Finnish PM tests negative for drugs

• Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin tested negative in a drug test she took following the publication of video footage last week that showed her partying with friends, the premier`s office said on August 22, 2022.
• Video clips of Marin, 36, at a party with Finnish celebrities began circulating on social media last week and they were soon published by several media outlets in Finland and abroad.
• On Thursday, Marin said she was upset that videos of her dancing at private parties were published online as they were meant to be seen only by friends

9. Nearly 9,000 Ukrainian troops killed since Russian invasion

• Nearly 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Russia invaded, the country`s top military officer said on August 22, 2022, two days before the country`s independence anniversary.
• Ukraine`s Commander-in Chief General Valeriy Zaluzhny said Ukraine`s children needed particular attention `because their fathers have gone to the front and are maybe among the nearly 9,000 heroes who have been killed`.
• Zaluzhny`s comments on the Ukrainian death toll, reported byInterfax-Ukraine news agency, was the first indication of Kyiv`s military losses since April

10. Rawalpindi to stage opening Test of Pakistan-England series

• England`s first Test series in Pakistan in 17 years will begin in Rawalpindi before matches in Multan and Karachi, the Pakistan Cricket Board said on August 22, 2022 as it announced the schedule.
• England last toured in 2005, before Pakistan were forced to play international matches at neutral venues due to security concerns following an attack on a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore in 2009.
• International cricket has gradually returned since 2015,but suffered another setback when New Zealand pulled out of a tour minutes before a one-day international was due to start in September last year, citing security alerts