Day by Day Current Affairs (July 22, 2018) | MCQs for CSS, PMS, NTS

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

July 22, 2018

1. Ex MNA Hanif Abbasi gets life in jail

• The Control of Narcotics Substances (CNS) Court special judge July 21, 2018 awarded life imprisonment to Pakistan PML-N ex-MNA and candidate from NA-60, Muhammad Hanif Abbasi, while announcing verdict in ephedrine smuggling case.
• Hanif Abbasi was the fourth PML-N leader disqualified and sentenced by the courts before the election.
• The court acquitted other seven accused in the ephedrine case due to insufficient evidence. Those acquitted are Nasir Khan, Basit Abbasi (brother of Hanif Abbasi), Siraj Abbasi, Mohsin Khurshid, Nazakat, Ghazanfar and Ahmed Bilal.
• With conviction in ephedrine smuggling case, Hanif Abbasi stands disqualified and can’t contest election. He was contesting election on the ticket of PML-N against Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed who is also enjoying support of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. The court also imposed fine of Rs 1 million on Hanif Abbasi. In case of nonpayment of fine, he will have to spend two more years behind bars, the court held.
• Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) investigators arrested Hanif Abbasi with a lot of difficulty after the announcement of the verdict as scores of leaders and workers of PML-N tried to hinder his capture. The workers also ransacked the courtroom.
• Judge Sardar Muhammad Akram in his verdict noted Hanif Abbasi could not prove the use of 137kg of ephedrine in procurement of medicines and could only prove use of 363kg ephedrine.

2. 31-member team of mountaineers summit K2

• After struggling for two months, a 31-member team of mountaineers has ascended K2, the world`s second highest and most dangerous peak.
• This is the first summit of K2 this summer.
• The team members were: Jianjonh Li and Changjuan He (China), Noel Hanna (Ireland), Muhammad Ali Sadpara, Imtiaz Sadpara, Fida Ali and Ali Musa (Pakistan),YoshiharuNakamura and Naoko Watanabe (Japan), Gangaamaa Badamgarav (Mongolia), Viridiana Alvarez Chavez (Mexico), Sophie Lavaud (Switzerland), Dimarescu (USA), Marek Novotony (Czech Republic), Paul Hegge (Belgium) and Mingma Gyabu Sherpa, Chhiji Norbu Sherpa, Dawa Gyaljen Sherpa, Lhakpa Temba Sherpa, Krishna Thapa Magar, Pemba Thinduk Sherpa, Ngima Thenduk Sherpa, Ngima Dorchi Sherpa, Dawa Sangay Sherpa, Lhakpa Nuru Sherpa, Pastemba Sherpa, Mingma Tenjen Sherpa, Furba Ongdi Sherpa, Gheorghe and another climber from Nepal.
• The Seven Summit Treks team comprising five foreign women mountaineers and four Pakistanis was led by Dawa Sherpa from Nepal.
• Alpine Club of Pakistan spokesman Karar Haidari told that the climbers had been trying to scale the peak for two months.

3. US meeting Taliban members, says report

• US officials are meeting former Taliban members as the Trump administration has intensified its efforts to seek a negotiated settlement of America`s longest war, the US media reported.
• In a joint report by its correspondents in Kabul, Peshawar and Washington, NBC News claimed that the meetings took place at undisclosed locations in Afghanistan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
• At least five Americans participated in a series of recent meetings in hotel suites in Doha, Qatar, the report added, quoting `three senior Taliban commanders`.
• The report noted that Taliban often use a `network of former commanders and political leaders` as interlocutors and negotiators.
• Some of those used as interlocutors `have previously been imprisoned by the US or Afghanistan and no longer have active roles, the report added.
• The US has lost more than 2,400 soldiers in Afghanistan since late 2001, when it invaded the country after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

4. Germany drops sanctions on Turkey

• Germany has lifted economic sanctions on Turkey and relaxed its travel advice to the country, Berlin said Saturday, after Ankara ended its two-year state of emergency.
• A 1.5 billion-euro ($1.7 billion) limit on export guarantees to Turkey would not be renewed this year.
• The measure was imposed in July 2017 as a way to pressure Ankara after the detention of a German human right campaigner and five other activists, including the head of Amnesty International in Turkey.
• Opposition parties in Germany have accused the 1.5 billion-euro limit of being too timid, given that the value of export guarantees increased from 1.1 billion euros in 2016 to 1.46 billion euros the following year.
• Germany’s foreign ministry also removed a warning on its website about its nationals facing a high risk of arrest when visiting Turkey.
• Turkey’s state of emergency, which was imposed after a failed 2016 coup and saw the biggest purge of officials in the country’s modern history, came to an end on Thursday.

5. Xi ends visit to UAE with raft of deals

• The United Arab Emirates on July 21, 2018 said it agreed to set up a “comprehensive strategic partnership” with China as President Xi Jinping wrapped up a three-day visit to the Gulf country.
• The UAE and China have agreed to enhance cooperation in all fields to higher levels and forge overall strategic partnerships. It said this would “contribute to cementing and intensifying cooperation, boost joint development and prosperity, which is consistent with the common interest of both countries and their peoples”.
• China and the UAE had already signed on Friday a raft of economic agreements and in the run-up to Xi’s visit they agreed oil and trade deals.
• Xi met UAE Vice President Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, who is also ruler of Dubai, and Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan during his visit.
• Abu Dhabi was the Chinese president’s first stop on a tour which now takes him to Senegal, Rwanda and South Africa.
• A joint statement by China and the UAE, published Saturday by WAM, said the two countries were committed to bolster cooperation across the board, including politics, economy, oil, gas and security.
• There would also be joint military training, the two countries agreed.

6. FIA sends red warrant request for Dar

• On the request of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Interpol Wing after approval of the Ministry of Interior has sent request for issuance of red warrants against former finance minister Ishaq Dar to bring him to Pakistan as he was declared a proclaimed offender in a case of assets beyond known sources of income.
• The NAB has sent a request to the Interior Ministry for issuance of red warrants notice for Ishaq Dar so that he could be brought back to face the corruption references in the accountability court.
• An interim reference against Ishaq Dar is under trial in Accountability Court No-1 in Islamabad on the allegation of assets beyond known sources of income under Section 9(a)(v) of the National Accountability Ordinance 1999, and during the proceedings, Ishaq Dar left the country without the permission and intimation to the court.

7. Syrian army pushes into Quneitra province

• The Syrian army and allied forces made advances in the southwest that bring it closer to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights as rebels refusing to return to state rule boarded buses for opposition controlled northern Syria, state television and rebels said.
• The army, backed by a Russian air campaign, has been pushing into the edges of Quneitra province following an offensive last month that routed rebels in adjoining Deraa province who were once backed by Washington, Jordan and Gulf states.
• The offensive has restored Syrian government control over a swathe of the southwest, strategic territory at the borders with Jordan and Israel.
• The capture of a string of villages, announced by the army on Saturday, comes as evacuation of rebels and their families resumed for the second day from villages along the Golan frontier towards rebel-controlled northern Syria.

8. Qaiser wins silver in Asian Cadet Judo

• Pakistan’s Qaiser Khan won silver medal in the Asian Cup Cadet 2018 held in Macau.
• Qaisar Khan, world number 20 in 90kg weight category displayed commendable performance.
• Qaisar in preliminary round was up against Tajikistan’s Judoka Kurbono Emomrizo world no 12. Qaisar defeated him and qualified for the semi-finals, where he was against Mongolian judoka.
• Qaisar defeated him by ippon (full point) while in the final, Qaiser was up against world number 8 Hungarian Veg Zsombor.
• Qaisar gave him tough time and got golden score, but he failed to defeat Zsombor and had to settle for silver. Qaisar is the first Pakistani, who got silver medal at Asian level. He will initiate his international career as Junior by participating in Asian Junior Judo Championship starting in Macau.

9. Nasa prepares to touch the sun

• Nasa is preparing to send a probe closer to the Sun than any other spacecraft has ventured, enduring wicked heat while zooming through the solar corona to study this outermost part of the stellar atmosphere that gives rise to the solar wind.
• The Parker Solar Probe, a robotic spacecraft the size of a small car, is slated to launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida, with Aug. 6 targeted as the launch date for the planned seven-year mission.
• It is set to fly into the Sun’s corona within 3.8 million miles (6.1 million km) from the solar surface, seven times closer than any other spacecraft.
• ‘To send a probe where you haven’t been before is ambitious. To send it into such brutal conditions is highly ambitious,’ Nicola Fox, a project scientist from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, told a news conference on other day. The previous closest pass to the Sun was by a probe called Helios 2, which in 1976 came within 27 million miles (43 million km).
• By way of comparison, the average distance from the Sun for Earth is 93 million miles (150 million km).
• The corona gives rise to the solar wind, a continuous flow of charged particles that permeates the solar system.

10. 10 Iran Revolutionary Guards killed in border clash

• At least 10 members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were killed when insurgents attacked one of their bases along the border with Iraq.
• The attack happened on July 20, 2018 night in the village of Dari, in the Marivan district of Iran’s northwestern Kurdistan region.
• “The attack by the evil rebels and terrorists against a revolutionary border post and the explosion of a munitions depot caused the martyrdom of 10 fighters,” the Guards’ ground forces division said in the statement.
• There was some confusion over the announcement, as the statement listed 11 names of “martyred” soldiers. It added that “several terrorists” had also been killed and injured in the clash.