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July 26, 2018

1. Elections 2018 : PTI delivers knockout punch; six major parties cry foul

• Imran poised to be next Prime Minister
• With the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf poised to form the new government at the Centre, all other major parties across the country have cried foul over attempts to rig the elections and blamed the Election Commission of Pakistan for failing to conduct transparent polls.
• As the vote count was still under way, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz the main contender to the PTI rejected the election results and said a puppet mandate to Imran Khan`s party was not acceptable to it. The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), Tehreek-iLabbaik Pakistan (TLP), Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP), Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) raised almost similar com-plaints of foul play.
• In a historic first, women in some conservative parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab came out of their homes to cast their votes in the general election on Wednesday as candidates sought to fulfil the legal requirement of minimum 10 per cent women`s turnout to validate their result. In Balochistan, too, women came out in large numbers to vote despite terror attacks and repeated threats.
• Complaints of polling agents eviction
• PML-N plans to formulate joint strategy after consulting other parties
• MQM-P, PkMAP, MMA join chorus of condemnation
• ECP rejects all allegations

2. 31 die in suicide bombing outside Quetta polling station

• A day after an attack in Kech district in which three soldiers and a teacher were martyred, about 31 people six of them policemen lost their lives and around 70 suffered injuries in a suicide bombing outside a polling station in Quetta on July 25, 2018.
• Deputy Inspector General of Quetta police Abdul Razzaq Cheema survived the suicide attack but another police officer, Riaz Ahmed Nothani, was killed. The injured included policemen and voters. Earlier in the deadliest attack on the election campaign, 149 people including Balochistan Awami Party candidate Nawab Siraj Raisani were martyred and 150 others were injured in a stunning suicide bombing in the Mastung area on July 13.
• The so-called Islamic State (IS) militant group has claimed responsibility for Wednesday`s suicide attack through its official prop agenda agency.
• According to official sources, a large number of people had gathered in election camps set up by candidates near a polling station in Tameer-i-Nau Public College Complex at the Eastern Bypass of Quetta. The suicide bomber blew himself up when DIG Cheema reached there to inspect security measures.

3. EU mission terms election satisfactory, calls it better than 2013

• The chief observer of the European Union Election Observation Mission to Pakistan, Michael Gahler, has said that apart from a few incidents of terrorism, the overall situation of the general election was satisfactory.
• `Our observers visited as many as 300 polling stations in 87 constituencies and I have personally visited four polling stations.
• Though we will release our preliminary report on July 27, 2018 and a detailed report will be released later after assessing the overall situation, there is improvement as compared to the previous election held in 2013.
• Mr Gahler also visited a polling station and asked a number of questions from presiding officer Muhammad Yousuf, who is a faculty member at the Federal Urdu University.
• Earlier, while visiting Islamabad Model College for Girls F-6/2, Mr Gahler said that as many as 60 EU observers were working across the country, apart from Balochistan and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

4. Pakistan, Oman discuss defence cooperation

• Pakistan and Oman have discussed various avenues of defence collaboration between the two countries.
• According to the spokesperson of Pakistan Navy, these avenues were discussed in separate meetings of Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi with Secretary General of Ministry of Defence Oman Mohamed Bin Naseer AL-Rasby and Chief of Staff Sultan’s Armed Forces Lt. Gen Ahmed Bin Harith Al Nabhani in Oman.
• Admiral Abbasi who has concluded his official visit highlighted during his interactions with Omani leader the Pakistan’s commitment and performance in the fight against terrorism, including the Pakistan Navy’s contributions towards regional maritime security through a collaborative approach and expressed existing cordial relationship between two countries be translated into further constructive engagements between armed forces of the two countries in general and the navies in particular to promote peace and prosperity in the Indian Ocean Region.

5. Modi plans 18 new African embassies

• India will open 18 new embassies across Africa, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Uganda’s parliament on July 25, 2018 during a charm-offensive tour of the continent.
• Rounding off a two-day visit to Kampala, Modi also announced the donation of a badly-needed cancer therapy machine and loans worth $200 million for infrastructure and environmental projects.
• India, the world’s most populous democracy, is vying for influence in Africa with its regional competitor China which has aggressively developed trade, financial and diplomatic ties on the continent. India currently has 29 full diplomatic missions in Africa, according to Delhi, compared to China which has 50.
• It hopes to open its new missions within three years, according to an Indian official who did not confirm which countries would receive envoys. Modi also praised Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni for welcoming back the so-called Uganda Asians who were expelled by despot Idi Amin Dada, who was in turn ousted by Museveni.

6. Iran replaces central bank chief as economy faces crisis

• Iran replaced its central bank chief on July 25, 2018, local media reported, amid the fallout over banking scandals and the crisis facing the country`s economy.
• Valiollah Seif, who had served as the bank`s governor since President Hassan Rouhani took power in August 2013, was replaced by Abdolnasser Hemati following a cabinet meeting, according to the official IRNA news agency.
• Hemati, 61, previously served as head of Central Insurance of Iran, as well as both Sina Bank and Bank Melli.
• He had been slated to become ambassador to China until he was recalled at the last minute.
• The head of Iran`s Planning and Budget Organisation, Mohammad Bagher Nobakht, who is also government spokesman, offered his resignation at the cabinet meeting but it was rejected by Rouhani.

7. Body of water discovered on Mars

• A massive underground lake has been detected for the first time on Mars, raising the possibility that more water and maybe even life exists there, international astronomers said on July 25, 2018.
• Located under a layer of Martian ice, the lake is about 20 kilometres wide, said the report led by Italian researchers in the US journal Science.
• It is the largest body of liquid water ever found on the Red Planet. `Water is there. We have no more doubt,` coauthor Enrico Flamini, the Italian space agency`s Mars Express mission manager.
• Mars is now cold, barren and dry but used to be warm and wet. It was home to plenty of liquid water and lakes at least 3.6 billion years ago.
• Scientists are eager to find signs of contemporary water, because such discoveries are key to unlocking the mystery of whether life ever formed on Mars in its ancient past, or if it might persist today.

8. Ex-England keeper Murray passes away

• Former England wicket-keeper John `JT` Murray has died aged 83, his club Middlesex announced on July 25, 2018.
• Murray was taken ill at Lord`s, Middlesex`s home ground, following the completion of their dramatic County Championship win against Warwickshire on July 24, 2018 and died later that evening.
• In a 24-year first career, with Middlesex his only county, from 1952 to 1975 the stylish Murray completed more than 1,500 in all first-class matches and scored nearly 19,000 runs.
• Many shrewd judges felt he was unlucky to play just the 21 Tests for England, which yielded 55 dismissals and 506 runs at 22, including an innings of 112 against the West Indies at The Oval in 1966.
• `Losing JT is a devastating blow to Middlesex cricket, said Middlesex president and former England off-spinner John Emburey in a club statement. `He is undoubtedly thefinest wicket-keeper in the history of the club and would be one of the first names on any team sheet when picking an alltime Middlesex XI. What he achieved is unlikely to be repeated.

9. HIV infects one teenage girl every 3 minutes: UN

• Every three minutes, a girl between the ages of 15 and 19 is infected with the virus that causes AIDS, said a UN report July 25, 2018 that warned of a “crisis” fuelled by gender inequality.
• Girls and young women made up two-thirds of 15- to 19-year-olds infected with HIV in 2017, according to data unveiled at the 22nd International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam.
• Henrietta Fore, head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), referred to it as a “crisis of health”. “In most countries, women and girls lack access to information, to services, or even just the power to say no to unsafe sex,” she said. “HIV thrives among the most vulnerable and marginalised, leaving teenage girls at the centre of the crisis.” Last year, 130,000 youngsters aged 19 and under died from AIDS, while 430,000 – almost 50 every hour – were newly infected, the agency said.
• While AIDS-related deaths have decreased since 2010 in all other age groups, among older adolescents aged 15 to 19 they have remained stubbornly constant. About 1.2 million 15- to 19-year-olds were living with the immune system-destroying virus in 2017, three in five of them girls, said UNICEF. “The epidemic’s spread among adolescent girls is being fuelled by early sex, including with older males, forced sex, powerlessness in negotiating about sex, poverty, and lack of access to confidential counselling and testing services,” it pointed out.

10. Volunteers find 560,000-year-old milk tooth in France

• France-French and Spanish volunteer archeologists have discovered a child’s milk tooth dating back 560,000 years in the mountains of southern France – an “exceptional fossil”.
• The fossil was discovered on July 23, 2018 evening in the Arago Cave, a vast prehistoric grotto at Tautavel on the French side of the Pyrenees mountains bordering Spain.
• The site’s laboratory confirmed the tooth belonged to a human sub-species, likely homo heidelbergensis, which shares features with both modern humans and our homo erectus ancestors.
• “The tooth likely belonged to a child aged five or six, who still had their milk teeth but had used them a fair amount,” said Tony Chevalier, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Perpignan and the research centre in Tautavel.
• The tooth is estimated to date back 560,000 years – give or take 5,000 years – which would make it 100,000 years older than the famous Tautavel Man whose skull was found at the same site in 1971.
• Researchers said the find was “exceptional” as human remains dating back to this period are extremely rare, although a few teeth from the era have been found previously at the Arago Cave.