Daily Top-10 Current Affairs MCQs/News (Feb 04 2023) for CSS

Table of Contents

6. Health ministry, UAE firm ink MoU to boost plasma collection

• The federal health ministry on February 3, 2023 signed an agreement with Hayat Biotech to boost plasma collection in Pakistan.
• According to a statement, the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) to boost Pakistan`s plasma sector using a phased approach.
• Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, global plasma shortage has become a serious concern. According to US-based Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association (PPTA), a 20 per cent decline has been witnessed in plasma donations from 2019 to 2020 in the US.
• The MoU was signed during the visit of Federal Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel to the UA E

7. Convention signed with Kabul to avoid double income tax

• Pakistan and Afghanistan have signed a draft convention to avoid double taxation on income between the two countries.
• The convention was signed after three-day talks that concluded in Islamabad on Friday.
• The Afghan delegation was headed by Revenue Legal Services Director Nida Muhammad Seddigi while FBR`s International Tax Operations DG Sajidullah Siddiqui headed the Pakistani delegation

8. `Ukraine is the EU`, says bloc chief Michel in Kyiv

• European Union chief Charles Michel on Friday reiterated support for Ukraine`s closer integration with the bloc during a summit in the capital hosted by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
• `Ukraine is the EU, the EU is Ukraine,` Michel said at a press conference with Zelensky and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, adding: `The EU is with you today, the EU will be with you and your people tomorrow.
• The European Union offered strong support for Ukraine at the summit but set `no rigid timelines` for its accession to the wealthy bloc.
• President Volodymyr Zelensky had hoped the EU would put Ukraine on a rapid road to membership. But he used the summit to step up calls for his allies to deliver long-range weapons to help repel Russian forces besieging the city of Bakhmut and occupying much of the Donbas region in the east of the country

9. South Korea`s ex-justice minister sentenced to two years in jail

• A disgraced former South Korean politician, Cho Kuk, was sentenced to two years in prison on February 3, 2023 for forging documents to facilitate his children`s school admissions in a scandal that has deepened political divides and frustrated many young voters.
• A star law professor, Cho was a key aide to former President Moon Jae-in and briefly served as a justice minister before resigning and being indicted on a dozen charges, including bribery and document fraud in late 2019.
• The Seoul Central District Court convicted Cho of falsifying documents to send his son and daughter to prestigious high schools and universities, and peddling influence to interfere with a corruption investigation involving a Moon confidant

10. Biden backs legal `status quo` of Al-Aqsa mosque

• President Joe Biden has underlined his support for the legal `status quo` of Jerusalem`s Al-Aqsa mosque compound in a meeting at the White House with Jordanian King Abdullah II.
• Biden, the king and Crown Prince Hussein had a private lunch on Thursday in which the US president `reaffirmed the close, enduring nature of the friendship between the United States and Jordan,` the White House said. They also both spoke with Iraq`s prime minister by phone.
• Referring to growing tensions around the Al-Aqsa mosque located on a site venerated both by Muslims and Jews inside Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem Biden reaffirmed `the critical need to preserve the historic status quo`. He also recognised Jordan`s `crucial role as the custodian of Muslim holy places in Jerusalem,` the White House said in a statement