Daily Top-10 Current Affairs MCQs / News (October 13, 2020) for CSS, PMS

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October 13, 2020: National / International Current Affairs

1. PM accepts Asim’s resignation as SAPM on information

• Prime Minister Imran Khan on October 12, 2020 accepted the resignation of Lt Gen (Retd) Asim Saleem Bajwa from his portfolio of special assistant to prime minister on information and broadcasting.
• Last month, Asim Saleem Bajwa who is also Chairman of CPEC Authority, had resigned from his portfolio of SAPM, however, the PM had not accepted his resignation and directed him to continue his work as SAPM.
• In a tweet yesterday, Bajwa announced, “I requested the honourable prime minister to relinquish me from the additional portfolio of SAPM on information and broadcasting. The Premier very kindly approved my request.”

2. Pakistan, ITFC sign agreement worth $386m for import of oil, LNG

• Pakistan and International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) on October 12, 2020 has signed agreement amounting $386 million for the import of oil and LNG.
• The signing of financing agreement amounting to $386 million with the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), a subsidiary of Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group, for import of oil and LNG was held in Economic Affairs Division.
• This facility will be utilised by Pakistan State Oil Company Limited (PSOL), Pak Arab Refinery Limited (PARCO) and Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL). The Agreement was signed among the Economic Affairs Division and ITFC and the representatives of PSO, PARCO and Pakistan LNG Limited

3. AJK govt decides to impose smart lock down to combat 2nd spell of COVID-19

• A high level meeting, chaired by Chief Secretary of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Dr Shehzad Khan Bangush, reviewed latest situation of Covid-19 in the State.
• The meeting decided to impose Smart Lockdown and Micro Smart Lockdown in the areas where coronavirus cases were being reported, an official statement of the AJK government issued October 12, 2020 said.
• Smart and micro smart Lockdowns will be imposed in Coordination of Health Department, Administration, Police and other concerned departments will be ensured”, the meeting decided

4. US launches first air strikes against Taliban since accord

• The United States launched air strikes against Taliban in Afghanistan`s Helmand province, US officials said on October 12, 2020, after a large-scale offensive saw insurgents take over military bases in the region and close in on a key provincial capital.
• The strikes, carried out over the last two days, mark a rare military intervention by the United States since it signed an agreement on troop withdrawal with the Taliban in February.

5. India, China hold fresh talks on ending military faceoff

• Senior Indian and Chinese military commanders were holding fresh talks on October 12, 2020 aimed at ending a months long standoff along their disputed border in the remote Ladakh region.
• The talks were being held on the Indian side of the frontier in the Chushul area. No details were immediately available.
• The negotiations come as tens of thousands of rival soldiers on both sides backed by artillery, tanks and fighter jets brace for a harsh winter in the cold-desert region where temperatures can fall to minus 50 degrees Celsius (minus 58 Fahrenheit).

6. Rising temperatures continue to cause heatwaves: UN

• As Karachi prepared for an unusual, early winter heatwave, UN experts warned on October 12, 2020 that a 1.1-degree Celsius increase in the global temperature would continue to cause such calamities.
• `Between 2000 and 2019, extreme temperatures caused13percentofalldisaster deaths worldwide, with the majority (91pc) being the result of heatwave waves,` warned a report the UN Office on Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR).

7. American duo wins Nobel Economics Prize

• US economists Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson won the Nobel Economics Prize on October 12, 2020 for work on commercial auctions, including for goods and services difficult to sell in traditional ways such as radio frequencies, the Nobel Committee said.
• The duo was honoured `for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats,` the jury said. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences noted that the discoveries by Milgrom, 72, and Wilson, 83, `have benefitted sellers, buyers and taxpayers around the world`, it said in a statement.

8. Russia expels two Bulgarian diplomats in tit-for-tat move

• Russia said on October 12, 2020 it was expelling two Bulgarian diplomats in a tit-for-tat move after two Russians were ordered out of the EU country on accusations of spying for the military.
• The foreign ministry said in a statement that Bulgarian ambassador Atanas Krystin was summoned to be informed that the two Moscow-based diplomats had been declared “personae non gratae”.

9. Biggest North Pole mission back from ‘dying Arctic’

• Germany-Researchers on the world’s biggest mission to the North Pole returned to Germany on Monday, bringing home devastating proof of a dying Arctic Ocean and warnings of ice-free summers in just decades.
• The German Alfred Wegener Institute’s Polarstern ship returned to the port of Bremerhaven after 389 days spent drifting through the Arctic trapped in ice, allowing scientists to gather vital information on the effects of global warming in the region

10. Telescopes capture supermassive black hole devouring star

• Astronomers have captured the moment a supermassive black hole shredded a star the size of our Sun, releasing images Monday showing the devastating process in unprecedented detail.
• Using telescopes from the European Southern Observatory (ESO), they were able to monitor light flaring from the process — known as a tidal disruption event — from a black hole just over 215 million light years from Earth.
• They observed the star being physically torn apart as it was sucked into the black hole’s giant maw.

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