Day by Day Current Affairs (June 11, 2018) | MCQs for CSS, PMS, NTS

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June 11, 2018

1. Pakistan, Russia, China form ‘unofficial bloc’

• Pakistan, Russia and China have formed an unofficial bloc on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Qingdao, vowing to work together in the coming years.
• President Mamnoon Hussain, who represented Pakistan at the SCO Council of Heads of State meeting, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of Qingdao summit on June 10, 2018. He had earlier held a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
• A foreign ministry statement issued after the meeting said: “The leaders discussed matters of mutual interest including bilateral, contemporary regional and global issues. Both leaders agreed that relations have strengthened. Trade, energy, security, culture, education and people-to-people contact were identified as avenues for enhanced future cooperation.”
• The summit witnessed the signing of over 20 documents outlining future SCO trajectory in a number of spheres. Besides the Qingdao declaration these included: Action plan on implementing the provisions of treaty on long-term good neighbourliness, friendship and cooperation; cooperation plan on combating terrorism, separatism and extremism; anti-drug strategy and its plan of action, concept on preventing the abuse of narcotic drugs, declaration on trade facilitation; vision on environment protection and joint appeal of heads of state on the necessity to prevent involvement of youth in activities of destructive nature and action plan.

2. ECC gives tax reliefs to Tapi, RLNG projects

• In a major development the federal government has granted billion of rupees income tax, sales tax and custom duties exemptions, to cross borders Iran Pakistan and Turkmenistan Afghanistan, Pakistan India (TAPI) gas pipeline projects.
• The exemption granted by the Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet would also be available to RLNG III Pipeline project (RLNG-III) or any other project declared as Large Diameter Gas Pipeline Project by the Ministry of Energy Petroleum Division.
• The ECC granted these exemptions in its meeting held on 30th May 2018. According the minutes of the ECC meeting available with The Nation, in its summary the petroleum division requested the exemption from custom duty in excess of 5 percent ad valorem leviable under the first schedule to the Customs Act 1969 and whole of sales tax leviable under the Sales Tax Act 1990 on import and subsequent supply of plant, machinery, equipment, materials, specialized vehicles or vessels, accessories, spares, chemicals consumable as are not locally manufactured by developers, contractor and service companies of North South Gas Pipeline (NSGP), Turkmenistan Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (TAPI)gas pipeline, Iran-Pakistan Pipeline( IP), RLNG III Pipeline project (RLNG-III) or any other project declared as Large Diameter Gas Pipeline Project by the Ministry of Energy Petroleum Division.

3. GB Assembly approves Rs63b budget for 2018-19

• The Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly unanimously approved the budget for financial year 2018-19 with a total outlay of over Rs 63 billion.
• The Chief Minister claimed that budget for financial year 2018-19 was formulated keeping in view need and merit in distribution of funds.

4. Bhasha, Mohmand Dams get Rs25b to start construction

• The government has made special allocation to start construction of Bhasha Dam and Mohmand Dam and enhanced water sector allocation from Rs 36 billion to Rs 65 billion for next fiscal year.
• Pakistan is facing acute water scarcity requiring special interventions and that was why authorities concerned increased allocation to conserve water and its augmentation during 2018-19.
• The Annual Development Plan (ADP), highlighting initiatives under Public Sector Development Programme for next fiscal, on Sunday showed that to start construction of Bhasha Dam and Mohmand Dam, Rs 23 billion and Rs 2 billion have been earmarked respectively.
• The others water sector projects includes seven new schemes worth of Rs 849 billion to be started in 2018-19 to conserve and augment water resources. These new schemes are National Flood Protection Plan-IV, Diamer Basha Dam Project (Dam Part), CRBC 1st lift cum Gravity Project DI Khan, Mohmand Dam Hydropower Project (Dam Part), Lining of KB Feeder Upper Canal for Water Supply to Karachi City, Rehabilitation and Modernization of Sukkur Barrage (90 per cent WB, 10 per cent federal) and Construction of Feeding Canal to Manchar Lake to eradicate contamination.
• Similarly, for fast track development of Special Areas, Rs 62 billion (AJK Rs22 billion, GB Rs15 billion and FATA Rs 25 billion), have been allocated.
• Special Areas have been authorized to ensure that fruit of development reach to the common man.

5. Malala delighted as G7 pledges $3bn for girls’ education

• Pledges worth nearly $3 billion dollars to help vulnerable women and girls, including refugees, get an education were announced at a G7 summit.
• Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who hosted his fellow leaders at a Quebec resort, called it “the single largest investment in education for women and girls in crisis and conflict situations.”
• Canada will provide $300 million of the total.
• The amount was more than feminist groups that met with Trudeau on the sidelines of the summit had asked for, earning the G7 praise from civil society groups and activists, including Nobel prize-winner Malala Yousafzai who said it would “give more girls hope that they can build a brighter future for themselves”.

6. Trump, Kim arrive for US-N Korea summit

• North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump arrived in Singapore Sunday for an unprecedented summit, with Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal at the top of the agenda and the US president calling it a “one-time shot” at peace.
• Bringing the Korean War to a formal end 65 years after hostilities ceased will also be on the table at the first-ever meeting between a North Korean leader and a sitting president of its “imperialist enemy”. It is an extraordinary turnaround from the tensions of last year, when Kim accelerated his weapons programmes – earning the North more sets of UN Security Council sanctions – and the two men traded personal insults and threats of war.
• But critics charge that the meeting risks being largely a triumph of style over substance.
• Kim arrived in Singapore on board an Air China 747 that according to flight tracking website Flightradar24 took off from Pyongyang in the morning ostensibly bound for Beijing, then changed its flight number in midair and headed south.
• Trump landed in the evening after a long flight from Canada and the G7 meeting there, telling Singaporean officials who welcomed him that he was feeling “very good” about the summit.

7. Polio makes comeback in Venezuela

• Polio has been reported in Venezuela, a crisis-wracked country where the disease had been eradicated decades ago, the Pan-American Health Organization reports.
• The organization said the child had no history of vaccination and lives in an under-immunized extremely impoverished Delta Amacuro state.
• Polio, or poliomyelitis, is a crippling childhood disease caused by the poliovirus, and preventable through immunization. Doctor Jose Felix Oletta, a former Minister of Health, told AFP that the last case of acute poliomyelitis in Venezuela was reported in 1989.

8. Missile attack from Yemen kills three in S Arabia

• Three civilians were killed in the south of Saudi Arabia from a missile launched from Yemen by the Houthi movement, said Saudi state-owned Al Ekhbariya.
• The Houthis, an Iran-allied group that controls much of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, have fired a series of missiles into the kingdom in recent months, part of a three-year-old conflict in Yemen widely seen as a proxy battle between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
• A US-backed, Saudi-led military coalition is fighting against the Houthis on behalf of the government of President Abd Rabbu Mansour al-Hadi, who lives in exile in Riyadh. The three civilians were killed in Saudi’s Jizan province in southern Saudi Arabia.
• The coalition said it would retaliate against anyone who threatens the safety of its citizens and residents. Last month, the group fired a salvo of missiles at the capital Riyadh, saying it was targeting economic targets.

9. Incredible Nadal bags 11th French Open title after injury scare

• Rafael Nadal hailed his lith French Open title as `just incredible` after he demolished Austria`s Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 despite a worrying injury scare in the closing stages on June 10, 2018.
• The 32-year-old world number one now has 17 Grand Slam titles, just three behind great rival Roger Federer.
• Nadal endured a nervy conclusion to the final, however, when he needed treatment in the fourth game of the third set for a finger injury before sealing victory on a fifth match point when Thiem fired a backhand long.
• Nadal joins Australia`s Margaret Court as the only player to win 11 titles at the same major.

10. 18th-century Chinese moon flask sells for $4.8m

• A rare porcelain moon flask that belonged to the 18th-century Chinese Emperor Qianlong has been sold for 4.1 million euros ($4.8 million) after a bidding war at an auction in France.
• The blue, white and celadon flask more than 200-years-old -was bought by a French woman who outbid 17 Chinese buyers during a sale that lasted about 10 minutes, according to auctioneers who described the buy as `historic and legendary`.
• Emperor Qianlong, one of the longest serving Chinese emperors who ruled for much of the 18th century, was an avid art collector.