WELCOME TO CSS TIMES DAY BY DAY CURRENT AFFAIRS MCQs, YOUR BEST SOURCE FOR UP-TO-DATE AND DAILY TOP CURRENT AFFAIRS MCQs 2022 FOR PREPARATION OF CSS, PMS, BANKING, NTS, RAILWAYS AND ALL COMPETITIVE EXAMS. “DAY TO DAY CURRENT AFFAIRS MCQs” BASICALLY IS TOP 10 NEWS SUMMARY ON CURRENT HAPPENINGS OF NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL IMPORTANCE FOR ALL EXAMINATIONS
February 19, 2022: National Current Affairs MCQs
1. Terrorism a threat to Pakistan and beyond, warns Bilawal
• Even if the Afghan rulers demonstrate the will to counter terrorism, they certainly don`t have the capacity to do so, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said on February 18, 2023, warning that the threat will soon spill over outside the region if the international community doesn`t get serious.
• Speaking at a panel discussion at the59thMunich Security Conference in Germany, Mr Bhutto-Zardari said the most important issue regarding Afghanistan in the region was the `security and terrorist threat emanating out` of the country, adding that there was a whole `alphabet soup` of terrorist organisations that were based out of Afghanistan.
• Lamenting that not enough seriousness was paid to the issue by the world or the Afghan government, he urged the international community to help Afghan authorities build their capacity to take on the threat of terrorism.
2. Balochistan passes bill to set up Daanish schools
• The provincial assembly on February 18, 2023 unanimously approved the Balochistan Daanish Schools and Centres of Excellence Authority Bill, 2023, a month after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif inaugurated a model school in the Sohbatpur city of Nasirabad division.
• Balochistan Education Minister Nasibullah Marri presented the bill in the assembly session, which was presided over by Acting Speaker Sardar Babar Khan Musakhail.
• Under the authority, Daanish schools would be established across the province as announced by the prime minister.
• The schools` authority will be chaired by Chief Minister Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo, whereas the education minister will be its vice chairman
3. Rice exports shrink 16pc to $1.08bn
• Amid a global economic slowdown, Pakistan`s exports of rice posted a negative growth of 15.82 per cent in the first seven months of the current fiscal year mainly due to the flood devastation of paddy fields in Sindh.
• Invalue, the total rice exports dipped to $1.08 billion in July January this year from $1.28bn in the corresponding months of last year. The stagnation in export proceeds, especially of basmati rice, is mainly because of several reasons particularly the under-invoicing of rice to Afghanistan and Iran under the barter trade system.
• Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (Reap) Chairman Chela Ram Kewlani told Dawn that the data compiled by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) did not show the basmati rice exports to Iran and Afghanistan. However, he said the crop of long-grain white rice (non-basmati rice) has witnessed a 40pc reduction in Sindh
4. US accuses Russia of `crimes against humanity` in Ukraine
• US Vice President Kamala Harris on February 18, 2023 accused Russia of committing `crimes against humanity` in Ukraine, saying Moscow`s forces had conducted `widespread and systemic` attacks on the country`s civilian population.
• She made the comments at the Munich Security Conference, days ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion which unleashed war in Europe for the first time in decades.
• `The US has formally determined that Russia has committed crimes against humanity,` she told world leaders at the gathering the first time that the United States has designated Russia`s actions in Ukraine as such
5. 345,000 apartments destroyed in Turkiye quake; death toll over 46,000
• More than 46,000 people have been killed in the earthquake that struck Turkiye and Syria and the toll is expected to soar, with some 345,000 apartments in Turkiye now known to have been destroyed, and many still missing.
• As Turkiye attempts to manage its worst modern disaster, concerns were growing over the victims of the tragedy in Syria, with the World Food Programme (WFP) pressuring authorities in the northwest to stop blocking access to the area as it seeks to help hundreds of thousands of people ravaged by earthquakes.
• Twelve days after the quake hit, workers from Kyrgyzstan tried to save a Syrian family of five from the rubble of a building in Antakya city in southern Turkiye
