Day by Day Current Affairs (July 02, 2018) | MCQs for CSS, PMS, NTS

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July 02, 2018

1. Sindh govt approves resettlement plan for Karachi BRT project

• The Sindh government has approved a resettlement plan for the construction of the Karachi Bus Rapid Transit (KBRT) project which is estimated to cost Rs227 million.
• Through a letter, the project director of the Transport and Mass Transit Department has informed the Asian Development Bank (ADB) that the Sindh Mass Transit Authority has endorsed the draft resettlement plan on the recommendations of the gender, social development, public participation and resettlement expert of the project implementation unit.
• The KBRT is a transport system being designed to respond to the increasing need in Karachi for reliable and safe public transport. It`s being undertaken by the recently formed Sindh Mass Transit Authority (SMTA) in collaboration with the ADB.
• The construction on the KBRT `Red Line` is intended to start in the first quarter of 2019.
• The construction process will cause some negative impacts to those impinging and using the right of way (ROW) and some temporary access disturbances to the surrounding populations for which mitigation measures have been provided in the project`s Environment Impact Assessment report.
• The KBRT `Red Line` route has been determined to be the most viable option while taking into consideration the project objectives and potential resettlement impacts. The construction works will be contained within the ROW, especially in the congested residential and commercial areas.

2. Printing of 220m ballot papers begins

• The process of printing 220 million most expensive ballot papers for the general elections has begun at three places in the country.
• The printing process would be completed by July 20 after which the ballot papers would be sent to polling stations under strict security and with the assistance of Pakistan Army.
• The ECP had prepared a comprehensive plan for dispatching the ballot papers to around 85,000 polling stations across the country.
• The ballot papers would be sent to some far-flung areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan by air whereas these would be transposed by road to other areas.
• Half of the ballot papers would be printed in Karachi, some 32.5 million in Islamabad and the remaining at the printing press of the Postal Foundation in Islamabad.
• The army had been providing security at all the places where the ballot papers were being printed.
• Current ECP Secretary: Babar Yaqoob Fateh Mohammad

3. Army rescues two British climbers from Ultar Sar mountain

• The Pakistan Army on July 1, 2018 rescued two foreign mountaineers who had stranded on Ultar Sar mountain in Hunza Valley.
• Two British members of an alpinist team were trapped at a height of 19,000 feet who were evacuated by military helicopters.
• An Austrian, Christian Huber, was killed and two others injured after their tent was hit by an avalanche on June 30, 2018.
• Two other mountaineers whose nationality was not immediately known had also been injured in the incident. Efforts were underway to bring Huber’s body and the injured mountaineers back to Islamabad.
• British High Commissioner Thomas Drew has thanked the Pakistan Army for rescuing the stranded British mountaineers. In a statement, he expressed sorrow and grief over the death of the Austrian mountaineer during the expedition.

4. Australia beat India to win last edition of Champions Trophy, Pakistan finish last

• Australia defeated India in the final to win the 37th and last edition of the Champions Trophy Hockey 2018 in Breda, Netherlands on Sunday.
• Australia were the superior side in the penalty shootout after the match ended 1-1 in regulation time. History repeated itself as the outcome of the 2018 edition mirrored the penalty shootout result of 2016.
• Australia converted three of their penalties as Manpreet Singh was the only Indian to convert his penalty for India. Aran Zalanewski, Daniel Blale and Jeremy Edwards all converted their penalties for Australia. The final on July 1, 2018 was the repeat of the 2016 edition when Australia got the better of India via a controversial penalty shootout.
• Australia bagged their 15th (the highest ever) Champions Trophy title – having won the title in 1983, 1984, 1985, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1999, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2016. India finished runners-up for the second time in their history.
• Hosts Netherlands beat Argentina to earn third place

5. Pakistan whip Zimbabwe in T20 tri-series opener

• Top-ranked Pakistan got off to a flying start in the Twenty20 International tri-series with a thumping 74-run win over depleted Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club on July 1, 2018.
• Zimbabwe, going into the series without five top players because of a pay dispute with the country`s cricket board, were bowled out for 108 in 17.5 overs after Pakistan had made a strong 182-4.
• Opening batsman Fakhar Zaman (61) scored his second Twenty20 International century before Asif Ali blazed four sixes in his robust unbeaten 41 off 21 balls that advanced Pakistan`s total.

6. Napoleon`s rifle, silver soup spoon go under hammer

• A silver soup spoon that belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte during his exile on St Helena and a hunting rifle owned by the French emperor were sold at auction in France on July 1, 2018.
• Engraved with Napoleon`s coat of arms, the silver soup spoon sold for 8,375 euros ($9,700) while the rifle, originally owned by King Louis XVI, went for 80,000 euros in the sale held by the Osenat auction house at Fontainebleau.
• Also going under the hammer was an 18-page herbarium probably used by Napoleon`s wife Josephine, which sold for 70,000 euros.

7. Remains of ancient Arab city near Cordoba added to Unesco heritage list

• The remarkably well-preserved remains of the Caliphate city of Medina Azahara, a medieval Arab Muslim town near the Spanish city of Cordoba, was added to Unesco`s list of World Heritage sites on July 1, 2018.
• The 10th-century Moorish site provides in-depth knowledge of the now vanished Western Islamic civilisation of Al Andalus, at the height of its splendour.
• After prospering for several years, the magnificent palace-city, which was the de facto capital of Al Andalus, or Muslim Spain, `was laid to waste during the civil war that put an end to the Caliphate in 1009-10` the committee said in a statement.
• The city was built as a symbol of power to rival the caliphate of Baghdad, but lasted less than a century before it was destroyed in an uprising which ended the Cordoba caliphate at the beginning of the 11th century.
• The remains of the city were forgotten for almost 1,000 years until their rediscovery in the early 20th century.

8. Notorious thief flees French jail by helicopter

• A notorious career thief who was once France’s most-wanted man pulled off a daring jailbreak on July 1, 2018, fleeing a prison in the Paris area by helicopter.
• Redoine Faid, 46, broke out of the prison in Reau in the city’s southeastern suburbs within minutes, helped by a number of heavily-armed men.
• The escape came after an appeals court sentenced him to 25 years for masterminding a May 2010 botched armed robbery, in which a policewoman was killed.
• Faid fled on July 1, 2018 with three accomplices.
• The helicopter was later found in a northeastern suburb of the French capital, a police search has been launched across the entire Paris region.
• It is the second time Faid has pulled off a spectacular jailbreak – in 2013, he blasted his way out of a prison in northern France using dynamite.
• He had been in prison since mid-2011 for breaking the terms of his parole over past convictions for bank robberies and brazen heists of cash-in-transit vehicles. Armed with a pistol, he briefly took four guards hostage before escaping in a waiting getaway car. All the hostages were released unharmed.

9. Cambodia earns Guinness Record for longest woven scarf

• Cambodia won a place in the Guinness book of World Records on July 1, 2018 for a 1,100-metre long version of the country’s popular krama scarf.
• Supported by a youth movement with links to the nation’s ruling party, more than 23,000 people took part in the six-month weaving marathon outside Phnom Penh’s Royal Palace. Thousands of young people then rolled out the krama along a street in the capital July 1, 2018 for a visiting Guinness official to measure the garment.
• “With 1,149.8 meters, you have set a new Guinness World Record!” Swapnil Dangarikar, a Guinness adjudicator, told a large cheering crowd. Long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen earlier gave his own blessing to the campaign by weaving a few strands of thread into the scarf.
• The Guinness event comes just weeks before a highly controversial election that Hun Sen, who has ruled for 33 years, is poised to win after backing the dissolution of the opposition party last year.

10. ‘Myanmar not safe for Rohingya Muslims’

• The head of the Red Cross on July 1, 20181 said it was not safe to return Rohingya refugees to their homes in Myanmar, where he described whole villages abandoned and destroyed.
• Peter Maurer toured strife-torn western Myanmar before visiting refugee camps over the border in neighbouring Bangladesh, where nearly one million Rohingya have sought refuge from violence.
• The bulk of the persecuted Muslims in Bangladesh have arrived since August, fleeing a huge Myanmar army crackdown in troubled Rakhine state that the UN has likened to ethnic cleansing.
• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will make his first visit to the camps since that influx of nearly 700,000 Rohingya sparked a humanitarian crisis in southeast Bangladesh.