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May 17, 2020: National / International Current Affairs
1. Limited domestic flights operation resumes
• After having been suspended for nearly two months, alimited domestic flight operation began on May 16, 2020 from Karachi airport when two flights one operated by the national carrier and the other by a private airline -left for Lahore and Islamabad, respectively.
• The government had on Friday announced resumption of the domestic flight operations from Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta airports due to growing demand and ease in coronavirus restrictions across the country.
• The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the Airport Security Force had made elaborate arrangements to ensure social distancing during boarding, check-in and disembarkation. It was mandatory for every passenger to wear mask while entering the airport.
2. Presidential order for holding elections, forming caretaker govt in GB issued
• President Dr Arif Alvi has promulgated a presidential order to form a caretaker government and for extension of the Elections Act 2017 to Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).
• According to a notification issued by the federal Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan on May 16, 2020, the president promulgated the `Gilgit-Baltistan Election and Caretaker Amendment Order, 2020` to conduct transparent elections in GB. The GB Assembly will complete its five-year tenure on June 24 this year.
• The presidential order said it was necessary to provide for adaption of laws to install a caretaker government in GB for conducting a fair and transparent election. It is expedient to amend the Government of Gilgit Baltistan Order 2018 SRO number 704 (1), 2018.
3. Sindh agrees to resume public transport after Eid holidays
• Just a day after the Sindh government refused to lift its ban on public transport despite prime minister`s appeal, provincial authorities on Saturday announced that they would allow operations of buses and ride-hailing service across the province after Eid holidays.
• It has been more than two months to the curb imposed on public transport as well as ride hailing companies to contain the spread of coronavirus.
• Sindh Transport Minister Syed Awais Shah also announced a relief package for transporters, who he said had suffered huge losses due to the lockdown but extended their cooperation to the government.
4. Punjab cuts transport fares by 20pc
• The Punjab government on May 16, 2020 formally granted permission to resume inter-city and inter-district transport besides announcing a 20 per cent cut in transport fare.
• In the wake of reduction in petroleum prices, the Punjab government has directed transport owners to reduce their fares by 20pc.The government also decided to allow online and app-based transport services to operate. However, all public transport companies will be required to ensure implementation of the laid down standard operating procedures (SOPs). Wearing masks have also been made mandatory for passengers, drivers and conductors.
• Passengers will be required to observe proper distance.
5. Trump selects Muslim American to find Covid-19 vaccine
• US President Donald Trump has named a Muslim American, Moncef Mohamed Slaoui, to head a fast track programme called for finding a vaccine for Covid-19.
• `Operation Warp Speed`s chief scientist will be Dr Moncef Slaoui, a world-renowned immunologist who helped create 14 new vaccines,` President Trump announced at a White House news briefing on Friday afternoon. `That`s a lot of our new vaccines in 10 years, during his time in the private sector,` he added.
• President Trump said that Moroccan-American immunologist was `one of the most respected men in the world in the production and, really, on the formulation of vaccines.
6. Top Rwandan `genocide` fugitive arrested after 26 years on the run
• Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga, who is accused of funding militias that massacred about 800,000 people, was arrested on May 16, 2020 near Paris after 26 years on the run, the French justice ministry said.
• The 84-year-old, who is Rwanda`s most-wanted man and had a $5 million US bounty on his head, was living under a false identity in a flat in Asnieres-Sur-Seine, according to the ministry. French gendarmes arrested him at 5:30 GMT on Saturday, the ministry said.
• Kabuga was indicted in 1997 on seven criminal counts including genocide, complicity in genocide and incitement to commit genocide, all in relation to the 1994 Rwanda genocide, according to the UN-established International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT).
7. Iran sentences French academic to 6 years in prison
• Iran has sentenced French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah to six years in prison on national security charges, her lawyer said on May 16, 2020, drawing protests from the French government which demanded her immediate release.
• `The court has sentenced her to six years,` said Saeid Dehghan.
• `The branch 15 of Tehran`s Revolutionary Court has sentenced her to five years jail for gathering and conspiring against Iran`s national security. She was also sentenced to one year jail term for propaganda against the Islamic Republic.` Dehghan said he would appeal against the sentence.
8. US to continue withdrawing troops as agreed, officials say
• The United States will withdraw several thousand troops from Afghanistan by mid-July as required under the peace agreement it signed with the Taliban in Doha earlier this year, two senior US officials said.
• `We are still moving forward with the force reduction levels that we are committed to … getting down to 8,600` troops, said Jonathan Rath Hoffman, assistant to the US Secretary of Defence for public affairs.
• `We have been moving forward with that since the agreement was signed … and we expect to meet that within the timeline laid out under the agreement,` the Pentagon official said at a Friday afternoon news briefing in Washington.
9. India ups foreign investment in defence manufacturing
• India announced on May 16, 2020 that global companies can now invest up to 74pc in the country`s defence manufacturing units, up from 49pc, without requiring any government approval.
• Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman expressed hope that the new policy will attract foreign companies with highend technologies to set up their manufacturing bases in India in collaboration with Indian companies.
• Sitharaman`s announce-ment came as part of reforms Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s government is implementing to revive India`s economy, which has been shattered by the coronavirus pandemic.
10. Cambodia says all Covid-19 patients recovered
• Cambodia’s last patient with the new coronavirus has recovered and left hospital, leaving the Southeast Asian country with zero cases, the health ministry said on May 16, 2020, while urging continued vigilance.
• No easing of restrictions related to the virus, including school closures and border entry checks and quarantines, were included in the Ministry of Health statement.
• Cambodia has reported 122 cases of the virus that causes Covid-19 and no deaths from the disease since it emerged in China. A 36-year-old woman from Cambodia’s northwestern province of Banteay Meanchey was released from the Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital in the capital, Phnom Penh, and was presented to the media in a livestream on Saturday, thanking the health authorities
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