Day by Day Current Affairs (July 08, 2018) | MCQs for CSS, PMS, NTS

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July 8, 2018

1. Tarbela makes history hitting dead level in peak monsoon season

• For the first time in its history Tarbela dam will hit dead level during the height of the monsoon season, due to low rainfall and diminished snow melt Indus River System Authority (IRSA) said on July 7, 2018.
• Irsa is bracing for Tarbela dam to reach its dead level of 1,386 feet as current water level at Indus River at Tarbela Dam was 1,387.82 feet that is merely above the dead level. July and August are always months of peak inflows in the dam situated on the main stem of the Indus River.
• Traditionally May and June are the driest months of the year but the cloudless sky and high heat led to melting of glaciers and snow in Western Himalayas, As the temperature rose to 30 degrees Celsius and above in GilgitBaltistan mainly around Skardu area snow melting results in inflow of water in Tarbela but it did not happen this year.
• The figures released by IRSA show that inflow of River Indus at Tarbela was 133,100 cubic feet per second (cusec) and outflows were 145,200 cusecs, due to kharif demand for cotton crops, sugarcane and paddy sowing.
• As a result the irrigation requirements of Punjab and Sindh will be suffer from a short fall in the next 3-4 days.
• The water level in the Jhelum River at Mangla Dam was 1,123.70 feet, which was 83.70 feet higher than its dead level of 1,040 feet whereas the inflow and outflow of water was recorded as 46,500 cusec and 30,800 cusec respectively.
• Other rivers have recorded comfortable inflow, with inflows in Chenab at Marala at 43,400 cusecs and outflows at 13,500 cusecs.
• Currently the only river at low flood level was Kabul at Nowshera with inflow of 49,800 cusec and the outflows too was 49,800 cusec.
• The release of water at Kalabagh, Taunsa and Sukkur was recorded at 183,100, 183,300and 35,100 cusec respectively.

2. In a first, Navy inducts 32 religious, motivation officers

• The 109th midshipmen and 18th SSC course commissioning parade, comprising 45 Pakistani and 43 midshipmen from friendly countries as well as 54 cadets of short service commission (SSC) course, was held at Pakistan Naval Academy PNS Rahbar on July 7, 2018.
• Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi, who was the chief guest on the occasion, congratulated and extended felicitations to the graduating officers on achieving this milestone. He highlighted that in order to enhance spiritual combat power of the men, for the first time, 32 religious and motivation officers (RMOs) had been commissioned as part of the SSC course.
• The statement, however, does not elaborate what spiritual combat power is and why the need was felt to induct religious and motivation officers to enhance it.

3. Italy considers easing visas to Pakistanis

• Italy has been considering introducing visa relaxations for Pakistani businessmen and tourists to strengthen Pak-Italy relations.
• Tanvir Ahmed, the deputy head of the mission at the Pakistan embassy in Rome, said that Italy had shown a positive response to Pakistan’s proposals on the visa issue.
• Italy had expedited visa cases of the Pakistani businessmen and tourists in recent months.
• Italy is providing visas to Pakistanis at a higher rate over the months due to our efforts.
• In Italy, Pakistanis form one of Europe’s larger diaspora communities. The number of Pakistanis living in Italy varies, media reports in 2017 gave numbers higher than 130,000.
• Most Pakistani migrants are employed in the north of Italy, around Milan, they earn roughly $ 700-1000 per month in wages.

4. Canadian climber dies in fall on K2

• The Canadian leader of an international mountaineering expedition has fallen to his death on the K2 mountain, often considered the world’s most difficult to climb.
• Karrar Haidri, secretary of Alpine Club of Pakistan, said that mountaineer Serge Dessureault, 53, died July 7, 2018 while attempting to scale the 8,611-metre mountain in northern Pakistan. Haidri said it wasn’t immediately clear how Dessureault fell.
• Dessureault was leading the nine-member “K2-Broad Peak” expedition up the mountain, which is extremely steep and attracts notoriously bad weather.
• The Canadian climber was a Montreal firefighter and lived in Saint-Bruno with his wife and two daughters.

5. Indian army shoots dead 3 protesters in Held Kashmir

• Indian army shot dead three stone-throwing protesters including a 16-year-old girl in Indian-occupied Kashmir on July 7, 2018, as tensions rose ahead of the anniversary of the death of a popular freedom-fighter.
• Witnesses said soldiers opened fire in the southern Kashmiri district of Kulgam after hundreds of people angry at an army search operation for suspected militants gathered to protest, some hurling objects.
• As the clashes intensified, the Indian troops resorted to indiscriminate firing of bullets, pellets and teargas shells on the protesters resulting in the killing of three people and injuring of several others, according to the Kashmir Media Service. The martyred civilians have been identified as Shakir Ahmed Khanday (22), Irshad Majeed (20) and a girl Andleeb (16).

6. North Korea rejects US call for unilateral disarmament

• The peace process between the United States and North Korea was in crisis after Pyongyang angrily rejected Washington’s “gangster-like” demand for rapid nuclear disarmament, despite two days of intense talks.
• When US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo flew out of Pyongyang after negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s right-hand Kim Yong Chol man he tried to appear positive, insisting progress had been made.
• But as he arrived in Tokyo to brief his Japanese and South Korean counterparts, his North Korean hosts issued an angry statement rejecting his efforts and appealing to US President Donald Trump to revive the peace process.
• US officials suggested the North Korean statement was a negotiating tactic. But after two days of theatrical amity in Pyongyang it appeared to mark a return to the North’s traditional hardline position.
• The North’s foreign ministry took exception to Pompeo’s effort to secure concrete commitments to back Kim’s promise, made at a summit last month with US President Donald Trump, to work towards the “denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”.

7. IMF gives $250m loan to Tunisia

• The International Monetary Fund on July 7, 2018 approved the payment of a $250 million tranche, the fourth from Tunisia’s loan programme tied to economic reforms aimed at keeping its deficit under control, the fund said.
• The tranche brings disbursements so far under the four-year programme to $1.139 billion, the fund said in statement. The programme agreement reached in 2016 is worth about $2.8 billion.
• Tunisia has been praised as the only democratic success among the nations where “Arab Spring” revolts took place in 2011. But successive governments have failed to trim its fiscal deficit and create economic growth.
• Tunisia’s central bank last month raised its key interest rate by 100 basis points to 6.75 percent, the second hike in three months, to tackle inflation that has reached the highest level since 1990. The IMF said in May that anchoring inflation expectations through additional rate increases would be crucial if price pressures did not moderate quickly.

8. Turkey swears in new parliament with pro-Erdogan majority

• Lawmakers on July 7, 2018 began taking their oaths in Turkey`s new parliament, with the ruling party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan needing to rely on nationalist allies to ensure an overall majority.
• Legislative polls were held simultaneously on June 24 with presidential polls, where Erdogan won a new mandate to extend his 15 year domination of Turkey under a new system that gives him greater powers.
• But Erdogan`s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was less dominant in the parliamentary elections, winning 295 seats and falling slightly short of an outright majority in the 600 MP chamber.
• To ensure a majority it will have to rely on its ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) which won 49 seats in a far stronger performance than was predicted.

9. Lebanese tourist sentenced to eight years for FB post against Egypt

• A Lebanese tourist who was arrested last month for posting a video on Facebook complaining of sexual harassment and conditions in Egypt was sentenced to eight years in prison by a Cairo court on July 7, 2018.
• Mona el-Mazboh was arrested at Cairo airport at the end of her stay in Egypt after a 10-minute video in which she called Egypt a “son of a bitch country” went viral on social media.
• The 24-year-old Mazboh complains of being sexually harassed by taxi drivers and young men in the street, as well as poor restaurant service during the holy month of Ramadan and an incident in which money was stolen from her during a previous stay.
• A Cairo court found her guilty of deliberately spreading false rumours that would harm society, attacking religion, and public indecency.

10. Twitter suspends over 70mln accounts in two months

• Twitter Inc suspended more than one million accounts a day in recent months to reduce the flow of misinformation on the platform.
• Twitter and other social media platforms such as Facebook Inc have been under scrutiny by U.S. lawmakers and international regulators for doing too little to prevent the spread of false content.
• The companies have been taking steps such as deleting user accounts, introducing updates and actively monitoring content to help users avoid being a victim to fake content.
• Twitter suspended more than 70 million accounts in May and June, and the pace has continued in July, citing data it obtained.