Day by Day Current Affairs (June 24, 2018) | MCQs for CSS, PMS, NTS

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June 24, 2018

1. Six militants killed in South Waziristan operation

• A gunfight between suspected terrorists and security forces left six militants, including a `high value target`, dead while two soldiers were martyred in Ladha tehsil of South Waziristan tribal district on June 23, 2018.
• The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement that security forces conducted a successful intelligence based operation in Spina Mela village in South Waziristan. The operation was carried out in the area dominated by Mehsud tribe.
• It said the IBO was launched on reports of presence of some terrorists, who had entered the area along with temporarily displaced persons returning from Afghanistan. After an exchange of fire, six terrorists including the high value target Nanakar were killed. During theexchange, Havaldar Razzaq Khan and Havaldar Mumtaz Hussain embraced martyrdom.

2. Pakistani Taliban choose Noor Wali as new chief

• The Pakistani Taliban announced they had appointed a religious scholar as their new leader on June 23, 2018 after the militant group confirmed for the first time its former chief Mullah Fazlullah was killed in a US drone strike last week.
• US forces targeted Fazlullah in a counterterrorism strike on June 14 in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province, close to the border with Pakistan.
• US officials had not confirmed whether the strike was successful but Afghan President Ashraf Ghani later confirmed the killing to Pakistan’s leader and army chief in phone calls.
• The 40-year-old Noor Wali Mehsud is a respected Islamic scholar or mufti as well as a fighter, and belongs to the fierce Mehsud tribe in South Waziristan district.
• He was the Pakistani Taliban’s chief justice and authored a book last year detailing the assassination plot of the country’s former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in December 2007.
• Mehsud hails from Sararogha, a Taliban stronghold where Pakistan’s military has fought many pitched battles against fighters from the group in the past years.
• Mehsud is reported to have studied in various seminaries in Pakistani cities of Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Karachi. He is also known as Abu Mansoor Asim.
• He fought against the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan in 1990 along with Afghan Mujahideen fighters.
• Mehsud had also served as deputy of TTP founder Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a US airstrike in 2009 in South Waziristan.

3. Direct flight links China’s Xinjiang, Lahore

• A new direct flight linking Urumqi, capital of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and Lahore has been launched.
• A Boeing 737-800 aircraft is scheduled to depart from Urumqi at 8 am every Thursday and Sunday, and will arrive in Lahore at 8:15am local time on the same days.
• The journey takes around three hours. The return flight will take off at 9:35am local time and arrive in Urumqi at 3:20pm

4. NA-182 independent candidate declares Rs403b assets

• Muhammad Hussain alias Munna Sheikh, an independent candidate from Muzaffargarh’s NA-182, shocked everyone after he declared his assets worth Rs403 billion. Alarmingly, the candidate despite possessing a large amount of money does not pay taxes.
• In his affidavit, Hussain said he had 350 acres land, gardens, three houses and household appliances. The candidate said that political representatives contest elections while concealing their assets and deceiving the public.
• He said he had revealed his assets with complete honesty. The man also appealed to the chief justice of Pakistan to order probing assets of all the politicians of the country.

5. Argentina gets first $15b from IMF

• Argentina has received $15 billion, the first tranche of a $50 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to help stabilize its fragile economy.
• Following a currency crisis in April and May, the IMF announced the $50 billion standby loan in early June after Latin America’s third largest economy sought help to bolster market confidence
• Argentina has a bitter history with the global crisis lender, which many Argentines view as having imposed tough conditions that worsened economic pain 17 years ago

6. Iraq killed 45 IS jihadists in Syria strike

• Iraq said June 23, 2018 it had killed 45 jihadists from the Islamic State group, including senior members, in an air strike in eastern Syria, the second such operation in less than a month.
• Iraqi F-16 fighter jets carried out a “successful strike targeting a meeting of Daesh (IS) leaders” on Friday in the Hajin region, in the eastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor, a military statement said. Among those killed, it said, were a senior member of the jihadists’ “ministry of war”, his deputy, a local commander and a media official. There was no independent confirmation

7. US sets up task force to reunite migrant families

• A US task force has been set up to reunify migrant families divided at the Mexican border under President Donald Trump`s `zero tolerance` approach, a report said, as opposition Democrats on June 23, 2018 kept up the pressure against a `barbaric` policy.
• Trump ordered an end to the family separations which have sparked domestic and global outrage, but the fate of the more than 2,300 separated children remains unclear.
• US Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Alex Azar issued an order on Friday to create the reunification task force, the Politico website reported, citing an internal document it had obtained.
• Reflecting the breadth and complexity of the challenge, the document orders the department`s preparedness and response office which deals with emergencies and public health disasters to assist its refugee resettlement office with the effort

8. India thrash ‘goalkeeper-less’ Pakistan 4-0 in CT opener

• India thrashed Pakistan on Friday to get their Champions Trophy campaign off and running at Breda in The Netherlands on June 23, 2018.
• While Team India registered a comprehensive 4-0, the last two goals were scored after Pakistan withdrew their goalkeeper Imran Butt. In second match of the day, Argentina defeated host The Netherlands 2-1.
• Trailing 2-0, Pakistan were forced to withdraw its goalie for an extra player with four minutes left on the clock as they hoped to turn things around. The move, however, backfired as Indian pumped in two more goals in an open net in a span of three minutes to register the convincing win.

9. 2,000-year-old remains of ‘sleeping beauty’ found

• The 2,000-year-old remains of a ‘sleeping beauty’ buried in lavish clothes and carrying gifts for the afterlife have been found under a Russian reservoir.
• The woman – laid to rest in a silk skirt and with a pouch of pine nuts on her chest – was accidentally mummified as her impervious stone tomb naturally preserved her body.
• Scientists believe several high-value items found in the grave, including a gemstone buckle on a beaded belt and a Chinese-style mirror found in the woman’s make-up box, were placed there to accompany her to the afterlife.
• Archaeologists speculate she was a young ‘Hun woman’ and hope to understand more about her life as they continue to analyse the well-preserved remains.
• The woman’s grave was found on the shoreline of the River Yenisei when a reservoir, upstream of the 794-foot (240m) Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectricity dam, experienced a significant drop in water level.

10. 75m-years-old ancient lizard fossil discovered

• Paleontologists have discovered a shockingly well-preserved fossil of a previously unknown ancient lizard.
• The marine lizard is a dolichosaur, related to snakes and mosasaurs, and is believed to have lived about 70 million to 75 million years ago.
• Scientists named it Primitivus manduriensis after the Manduria variety of red wine grape primitivo local to Puglia, Italy, where it was found. It was found in an area that used to be shallow water.
• When it died, the creature fell into the bottom and was covered in sediment, safe from water that would have scattered its remains.