Daily Top-10 Current Affairs MCQs/News (Feb 12 2023) for CSS

Table of Contents

February 11, 2022: International Current Affairs MCQs

6. Belgian lawmaker charged in EU graft probe

• Prosecutors on February 11, 2023 charged a Belgian lawmaker in the European parliament with corruption after searching his bank safe as part of a probe into a bribery scandal linked to Qatar that has rocked the EU.
• The Socialist deputy Marc Tarabella, 59, was detained by police on Friday after Belgium`s federal prosecutors said raids were carried out targeting his safe in the city of Liege and offices in the town hall of Anthisnes, where he is mayor.
• Eric van der Sijpt, spokesman for the prosecutor`s office, said Tarabella had been indicted on charges of corruption, money laundering and for `participating in a criminal organisation`, as part of the Belgian investigation into suspected bribery linked to Qatar and Morocco

7. Bangladesh withdraws school books after protests

• Bangladesh said on February 11, 2023 it had withdrawn two new school textbooks after protests from some groups incensed by a curriculum overhaul to recognise transgender identities, same-sex relationships and secular science.
• Thousands have demonstrated in the capital Dhaka since last month demanding that the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) scrap the changes to the books, published for students aged 11 to 13.
• One section of the new history and social science book narrates the story of a child called Sharif who transitions, takes the female name Sharifa and goes to live with other transgender people.
• The state-run NCTB said it took the decision to withdraw the books `due to some criticisms and to reduce reading load on students`

8. Biden, Lula vow to defend democracy in Americas

• President Joe Biden and his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Friday at the White House that the two biggest countries in the Americas have successfully seen off attacks on their democracies and will now work together on fighting the climate crisis.
• `Both our nations` strong democracies have been tested,` Biden told Lula, and `both in the United States and Brazil, democracy prevailed.` Meeting in the Oval Office, Biden and Lula expressed solidarity over their similar paths.
• Biden defeated Donald Trump in 2020, but two months later, a mob of Trump supporters stormed Congress believing his conspiracy theory that he`d been the real election winner

9. Ukraine says Russia launched new wave of aerial attacks

• Ukraine has said that Russia had launched a major new wave of aerial attacks, as President Joe Biden announced he would mark one year since the invasion by visiting Kyiv`s neighbour Poland.
• Strikes were reported from the eastern region of Kharkiv to the western region of Ivano-Frankivsk, a day after President Volodymyr Zelensky travelled to Brussels to lobby EU leaders for long-range weapons and fighter jets.
• Zelensky said on Friday Russian missiles had crossed over ex-Soviet Moldova and Nato member Romania while heading to Ukraine, though Bucharest denied the claim

10. Popular S. African rapper AKA shot dead

• One of South Africa`s hottest rap artists, Kiernan Forbes, known as AKA, has been shot dead outside a restaurant in the southeastern city of Durban, his family said on February 11, 2023.
• The 35-year-old won multiple South African awards, was nominated several times for a Black Entertainment Television (BE T) Award in the United States, and was once nominated for an MTV Europe Music Award.
• `It is with extreme sadness that we acknowledge the passing of our beloved son, `his parents Tony and Lynn Forbes said in a statement posted on AKA`s Twitter account