WELCOME TO CSS TIMES DAY BY  DAY CURRENT AFFAIRS, YOUR BEST SOURCE FOR UP-TO-DATE AND DAILY TOP CURRENT AFFAIRS 2018 FOR PREPARATION OF CSS, PMS, BANKING, NTS, RAILWAYS AND ALL COMPETITIVE EXAMS.  “DAY TO DAY CURRENT AFFAIRS” BASICALLY IS TOP 10 NEWS SUMMARY ON CURRENT HAPPENINGS OF NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL IMPORTANCE FOR ALL EXAMINATIONS

April 17, 2018

1. Abbasi, COAS meet Saudi king, attend war games

• Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on April 16, 2018 left Saudi Arabia after attending the concluding ceremony of Joint Gulf Shield-1 military drill.
• During his twoday stay in the Kingdom, Mr Abbasi was accompanied by Defence Minister Khurram Dastagir, Chief of the Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and ISIDirector General Lt Gen Naveed Mukhtar.
• Besides attending the concluding ceremony in the Kingdom`s eastern city of Jubail, the prime minister and his entourage on the second day of their trip met King Salman bin Abdulaziz. There was a brief interaction with Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman as well.
• The concluding ceremony was attended by leaders of the participating countries.
• Twenty-four countries participated in the Gulf Shield-1 military exercise, which continued for nearly a month. Besides hosts Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, the other countries that took part in the exercise were the US, the UK, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, Mauritania, Malaysia, Chad, Djibouti, Niger, Comoros, Afghanistan, Oman, Guyana, Turkey, and Burkina Faso.Troops from the Pakistan Army, Pakistan Air Force, and Pakistan Navy participated in the exercise.

2. Eight new AJK ministers get portfolios
   • Eight recently inducted members of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) cabinet got portfolios on April 16, 2018.
   • The local government and rural development was given to Raja Mohammad Naseer.
   • Retired Col Waqar Ahmed Noor was given planning and development, Chaudhry Javed Akhtar: law, justice and parliamentary affairs, Raja Abdul Qayyum: Auqaf and religious affairs; Chaudhry Mohammad Yasin Gulshan: Zakat and Ushr; Chaudhry Mohammad Ishaq: prisons; Chaudhry Masood Khalid: civil defence, and Mohammad Ahmed Raza Qadri: State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA).
   • Meanwhile, Minister for Revenue Sardar Farooq Sikandar was given additional charge of population welfare, which was withdrawn from Noreen Arif, minister for trade, industries, social welfare and women development.
3. Pakistan world’s largest host of refugees: UNHCR
   • The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has declared Pakistan as the largest country for giving shelter to refugees in the world and most of the refugees were belonging to Afghanistan.
   • As per the UNHCR report, Pakistan was hosting the largest number of refugees in the country and as many as 1.45 million were hailed from Afghanistan.
   • The report added that Pakistan unconditionally hosted millions of refugees and provided best possible facilities to these affected people of different countries especially Afghan citizens when the war was on peak in it and still 1.45 million were living in Pakistan. Pakistan continued hosting Afghan refugees for more than three decades, it said. Similarly, the voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan to their own country was also the largest in the world, the report stated.
4. Pakistan backs neither US nor Russia on Syria conflict
   • Pakistan neither backs the United States nor Russia over the Syrian conflict to remain a ‘safe neutral’ amid the new phase of US-Russia tension.
   • Pakistan was reluctant to take sides as Islamabad was itself faced with diplomatic challenges.
   • Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that further Western attacks on Syria would bring chaos to world affairs, as Washington prepared to increase pressure on Russia with new economic sanctions.
5. US, UK blame Russia over global cyber campaign
   • The United States and Britain on April 16, 2018 alleged that Russian government backed hackers had infected computer routers around the world in a cyber espionage campaign that targeted government agencies, businesses and critical infrastructure operators.
   • US and British officials told reporters in a conference call that they planned to issue a joint alert on the attacks, which targeted routers that form a key part of the internet infrastructure in a cyber espionage campaign that could be leveraged in the future to launch offensive attacks.

   • 

6. National Savings launches scheme for disabled persons
   • The government has formally launched the scheme aiming at payment of profit to disabled persons at par with Bahbood Savings Scheme.
   • It may be recalled that the government had made an announcement about the scheme in the budget 2017-18. Accordingly, the National Savings was entrusted with the task to frame rules under the guidance of Finance Division.
   • The rules have been approved by the federal government and were notified by the Finance Division on 16th April 2018.
7. China, Japan vow ‘new starting point’ in ties
   • Asian rivals China and Japan on April 16, 2018 pledged a “new starting point” for bilateral ties, vowing close co-operation amid a flurry of diplomacy on the North Korean missile threat and global trade tensions.
   • Welcoming Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi for a rare three-day visit, Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe called for warmer relations between the two countries and said they should work together on North Korea.
   • After meeting Abe, Wang told reporters that Beijing wanted to place “Sino-Japanese cooperation at a new starting point” and cooperate on energy, financial and environmental issues.
8. Russia blocking access to Telegram
   • Russia’s communications watchdog on April 16, 2018 began blocking access to the popular messaging app Telegram after a court banned the service for refusing to give security services access to private conversations.
   • Some Russian internet providers began blocking Telegram on April 16, 2018. “Russian authorities have begun blocking Telegram. The service could be unstable without a VPN. We will inform you on the developing situation,” the messaging app notified its Russian users.
9. Political crisis deepens: Sri Lanka arrests ruling party dissident
   • Sri Lankan police on April 16, 2018 arrested a leading dissident within President Maithripala Sirisena’s party, deepening political tensions on the island after the head of state suspended parliament.
   • Mahindananda Aluthgamage, a former sports minister, was held over 39 million rupees that were allegedly misappropriated in 2014, police said in a statement.
   • He was accused of spending government money to buy sports goods, which were handed out in a bid to get support for former president Mahinda Rajapakse ahead of a national election. The items included 14,000 boards for the popular South Asian game of carrom.
10. Canadian formerworld champion Chan announces retirement
    • Canada’s Patrick Chan, a Winter Olympic gold medallist and three-time world champion, announced his retirement from competitive figure skating on April 16, 2018.
    • Chan, Canada’s most decorated male figure skater, capped off his career taking gold in the team event at the Pyeongchang Games to go along with silvers won in the individual and team events in Sochi four years ago.
    • For a period of time, Chan was considered the dominant athlete in men’s figure skating winning three consecutive world championship titles from 2011 to 2013.There were also disappointments.

Watch Video: 25 Preparation Tips on How to Study for CSS at home

Check our daily updated ‘s Complete Day by Day Current Affairs Notes MCQs

[catlist name=”Day by Day Current Affairs”]