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
March 17, 2019: National Current Affairs
1. Indian spy drone shot down near LoC
• The Pakistan Army has shot down an Indian spy drone close to the restive Line of Control (LoC) in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).
• `Pakistan Army troops shot down an Indian spying quadcopter in Rakh Chikri Sector along Line of Control,` tweeted Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor, director-general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military`s media affairs wing, on March 16, 2019.
• `The quadcopter had come 150 metres inside Pakistan,` added the ISPR chief in his post that included two pictures of the fallen drone.
• Rakh Chikri sector is located in AJK`s Poonch division.
2. KP gets first child protection court
• Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth inaugurated the first child protection cour there at the Judicial Complex on March 16, 2019 amid plans for the establishment of such courts in all divisional headquarters and districts of the province by the end of the current year.
• Accompanied by child rights activists, judicial officers, lawyers and civil society members, the chief justice visited different parts of the court, which was refurbished to provide a conducive atmosphere to minor visitors.
• The high court recently posted additional district and sessions judge Wadya Mushtaq Malik as the presiding officer of the exclusive child protection court under Section 15 of the Child Protection and Welfare Commission Act, 2010.
• The judge will head both child protection court and juvenile court under the Juvenile Justice System Act, 2018.
• Sixty-two cases earlier pending with other courts have been shifted to the child protection court for hearing. Six of them were fixed for hearing on Saturday.
3. Heavy bikes allowed on motorway
• The National Highway and Motorways Police (NHMP) has allowed the heavy bikes on the Motorways, a notification as well as terms and conditions for bikers have also been submitted to the Islamabad High Court (IHC).
• IHC in December last year ordered the NHMP to make arrangements for driving heavy bikes on Motorways as under existing laws all types bikes were prohibited on the Motorways.
• Inspector General NHMP in response to the court`s direction issued a notification and formulated the terms and conditions for heavy bikers on Motorways which was submitted to the IHC in compliance to the said order.
• According to the notification, permission to 600cc bikes has been granted till the decision of the Supreme Court on an appeal filed by the NHMP against the IHC`s decision.
4. Six Pakistani victims of mosque attacks identified
• The Foreign Office on March 16, 2019 confirmed the death of six Pakistanis in Christchurch mosque shootings and said three others were still unaccounted for as New Zealand authorities continued with the identification of victims.
• `The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Islamabad, announces with profound sorrow and grief that the following (six) Pakistanis have embraced `Shahadat` in the terrorist attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 15 March 2019,` the FO said in a statement.
• The six victims have been identified as Sohail Shahid; Syed Jahandad Ali (Lahore); Syed Areeb Ahmed (Karachi); Mahboob Haroon (Islamabad); Naeem Rashid and Talha Naeem (Abbottabad).
5. WB may cancel $38m water loan
• The World Bank has warned of cancelling its soft loan of $38 million to support the management and development of water resources in the Indus River, after finding little progress on the project since itsapprovalin2OO8.
• The credit from International Development Association (IDA) for the water sector capacity building and advisory services project was aimed at improving the management of water resources and strengthen those federal institutions involved in water resource planning, management and development. The loan has a maturity period of 35 years with a 10-year grace period.
• The mid-term review of the project has been planned to be undertaken in June this year, and if this review does not find significant improvement in implementation process and disbursement of project funds, partial or even full cancellation of the credit will need to be considered, to enable these funds to be more usefully deployed within Pakistan, a report of the bank said.
March 17, 2019: International Current Affairs
6. Trump signs first veto to secure funding for border wall
• Donald Trump signed the first veto of his presidency on Friday, overriding congressional opposition to secure emergency funds to build more walls on the US-Mexico border.
• Trump declared in the Oval Office that he was `proud` to sign the veto.
• It came after he suffered an embarrassing defeat on March 14 when senators, including fellow Republicans, voted to terminate his declaration of an emergency on the Mexican border.
• Surrounded by law-enforcement officials, senior aides and people who have lost loved ones to cross-border crime, Trump said the veto reaffirming his power to get the funds without Congress was to `defend the safety of all Americans.` `The mass incursion of illegal aliens… has to end,` he said.
• `People hate the word `invasion` but that`s what it is…
7. Ready for talks with India on JeM chief: China
• China said on March 16, 2019 it was willing to have more discussions with all parties concerned, including India, on blacklisting the head of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), which claimed responsibility for the attack on an Indian paramilitary convoy in held Kashmir in February.
• China prevented a UN Security Council committee on Wednesday from blacklisting JeM founder Masood Azhar.
• India said it was disappointed at the block, while the United States said it was counter to a goal it shared with China of achieving regional peace and stability.
• In a statement faxed to Reuters late on March 15, 2019, China`s Foreign Ministry reiterated that the `technical hold` on the blacklisting was to give more time for the committee to have further consultations on the issue.
8. Iran calls for OIC meeting after New Zealand attacks
• Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has called for holding an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), following a deadly attack on two mosques in New Zealand that killed dozens.
• The call came during a phone call between Zarif and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu as Turkey currently holds the rotating OIC presidency. In a statement, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said Zarif called for “appropriate reaction of Muslim states to this heinous crime”
• At least 49 Muslims were killed when a gunman opened fire on worshippers during the weekly Friday prayers at the Al Noor and Linwood mosques in Christchurch in New Zealand.
9. UN chief urges all parties in Idlib to uphold ceasefire
• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged all parties involved in the Syrian conflict to maintain their commitments and uphold the ceasefire arrangement in the country’s northern Idlib province.
• In a written statement released on March 15, 2019, Guterres said: “I am extremely concerned about reported increased military operations in the last few weeks.”
• “Counter-terrorism operations cannot override responsibilities to protect civilians,” he said. “A ceasefire in Idlib is a necessary step to pave the way for a nation-wide ceasefire.” Regime attacks in Idlib’s de-escalation zone, in which acts of aggression are expressly prohibited, are believed to have killed at least 138 civilians since the start of the year. Along with regime artillery barrages, Russian SU-34 warplanes struck central Idlib and its rural outskirts, leaving 15 dead, including eight children, the White Helmets civil defense group said Thursday.
March 17, 2019: Sports Current Affairs
10. Ancient migration transformed Spain’s DNA
• A migration from Central Europe transformed the genetic make-up of people in Spain during the Bronze Age, a study reveals. DNA evidence shows the migrants streamed over the Pyrenees, replacing existing male lineages across the region within a space of 400 years.
• It remains unclear whether violence played a role or whether a male-centric social structure was more important. The result comes from the most extensive study of its kind.
• Researchers reconstructed the population history of Iberia (modern Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar and Andorra) over 8,000 years – the biggest slice of time tackled by a single ancient DNA study. The region has been a crossroads for different cultures over time. Their study is published in Science journal. They extracted and analysed DNA from 403 Iberians who lived between 6,000 BC and AD 1,600.
