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Day by Day Current Affairs (May 19, 2018)

1. UN votes to send war crimes probe to Gaza

• The UN Human Rights Council voted on May 18, 2018 to send a team of international war crimes investigators to probe the deadly shootings of Gaza protesters by Israeli forces.
• The UN`s top human rights body voted through a resolution calling on the council to `urgently dispatch an independent, international commission of inquiry`-the UN rights council`s highest-level of investigation.
• Only two of the council`s 47 members, the United States and Australia, voted against the resolution, while 29 voted in favour and 14 abstained, including Britain, Switzerland and Germany.
• The text said the team should investigate all alleged violations and abuses… in the context of the military assaults on large scale civilian protests that began on 30 March 2018, … including those that may amount to war crimes.

2. National Assembly passes Rs5.25tr budget

• The National Assembly on May 18, 2018 approved a Rs5.247 trillion budget for the year 2018-9 as well as the Finance Bill-2018 with some amendments.
• The approved amendments to the Finance Bill-2018 include a Tax Amnesty Scheme and enhancements in tax exemptions for local NGOs and welfare organisations from one year to five years. Two new acts were also approved. The first was regarding transferring offshore monetary assets to the country and the second was concerning the voluntary declaration of assets within the country.
• The government, which could not approve the budget on May 14 due to a lack of quorum, managed to get it passed on May 18, 2018 despite it being heavily contested by the opposition.
• A good number of members on the treasury benches helped approve the budget and the finance bill. The amendments to the finance bill were presented by Finance Minister Miftah Ismail.

3. Nishan-i-Imtiaz conferred on China`s top military official

• Acting President Sadiq Sanjrani conferred the Nishan-iImtiaz (Military) on the visiting vice chairman of the Chinese Central Military Commission, Gen Zhang Youxia, at an investiture ceremony held at Aiwan-i-Sadr on May 18, 2018.
• The event was attended by Chief of the Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan, Naval Chief Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi, Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing and other senior officials.
• Gen Zhang later called on the acting president. Mr Sanjrani congratulated the Chinese general on the conferment of Nishan-iImtiaz and said that Pakistan and China were close friends, neighbours and trusted partners because their relations were based on mutual respect and trust.

4. Govt approves bill to establish Health Regulatory Authority

• The federal government has finally approved the bill for establishing the first Health Regulatory Authority (HRA) to regulate the health departments and programs being run by ministry of National Health Services (NHS) on May 18, 2018.
• After the 18th amendment and devolution of health sector to the provinces, the federal city has been lacking a regulatory body in the health sector.
• After the approval of the bill from the president, all the health facilities in public and private sector will be restricted to registered with the health authority.
• All the hospitals, medical laboratories, health clinics, dispensaries, homeopathy clinics, teaching hospitals, surgery centers, nursing homes, dental centers, private X-Ray labs, psychiatric centers, nursing homes, burn center, community centers, dialyses centers, rehabilitation centers, slimming clinics, hair transplant centers and other will be registered with the authority.
• The establishing of the authority will help in eliminating the quackery business in the city providing health rights to the citizens.

5. Six martyred in Indian shelling

• Six people, including a mother and her three young children, were martyred and 22 other civilians sustained severe injuries in one of the worst incidents of unprovoked firing and shelling by the India’s Border Security Forces (BSF) at different sectors of the Sialkot Working Boundary on May 18, 2018.
• Kulsoom (40), her daughters Shama Naz (18) and Muskan (10) and son Ali Hamza (14) embraced martyrdom in the border area village Khanoor in the Merajke Sector when a mortar shell hit their house. Two other civilians – Naveed (25) and Ehtesham (12) — were also martyred in village Harnanwali in the same sector.
• As many as 22 people, including women and children, sustained injuries in Khanoor, Patwal, Harpal, Surakhpur, Harnanwali and Bhagiari villages. They were rushed to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Sialkot Cantt by Rescue 1122.
• “In 2018, the Indian forces carried out more than 1050 ceasefire violations along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary, resulting in the shahadat of 28 innocent civilians, while injuring 117 others,”

6. Egypt opens Gaza border

• Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has made a rare decision to open the Rafah crossing with Gaza for a month, allowing Palestinians to cross during the holy period of Ramazan.
• The decision to keep the crossing open was taken “to alleviate the suffering” of residents in the Palestinian enclave, Sisi said. The Rafah crossing is Gaza’s only gateway to the outside world not controlled by Israel, but Egypt has largely sealed it in recent years, citing security threats.
• The last extended opening lasted three weeks in 2013, while usually Palestinians are able to cross for a few dozen days a year. Previous openings of Rafah have been cut short by violence in the Sinai peninsula or with authorities giving other reasons.

7. Plane with 104 on board crashes in Cuba

• A Boeing 737 plane crashed on May 18, 2018 shortly after taking off from Havana`s main airport, carrying 104 passengers plus crew on a domestic flight.
• Wreckage was strewn over the area and ambulances and firefighters were at the scene, said a witness. The fire had been put out and blackened parts of the fuselage could be seen.
• The plane crashed in an agricultural area in Boyeros, some 20 kilometres south of Havana. The flight was destined for Holguin and operated by national airline Cubana.
• The last fatal crash in Cuba was that of a military flight that killed all eight personnel aboard. In 2010, a commercial Aero Caribbean plane crashed in central Cuba. All 68 people on board were killed.

8. EU launches steps to fight US sanctions on Iran

• The European Union took steps May 18, 2018 to avoid reimposed US sanctions on Iran and save the international nuclear deal as a rift with Washington widened.
• The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, moved to help EU firms skirt US penalties and have member governments directly pay Iran’s central bank for oil.
• The commission launched the formal process to activate the blocking statute by updating the list of US sanctions on Iran falling within its scope.
• President Donald Trump last week pulled Washington out of the 2015 international deal with Iran to curb its nuclear programme in return for easing sanctions.

9. US Senate confirms Gina Haspel as new CIA director

• The US Senate has confirmed Gina Haspel as the first female CIA director, despite deep reservations among some lawmakers that her past involvement in the torture of terror suspects was a red flag.
• President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Central Intelligence Agency passed on a vote of 54-45, with half a dozen opposition Democrats bucking their party and supporting the controversial Haspel’s nomination.
• Two Republicans voted against her, while Republican Senator John McCain, who was tortured during years spent as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, also opposed her nomination but is in Arizona battling brain cancer and could not vote.
• The 61-year-old Haspel, a Russia specialist who spent her career in the clandestine service, takes over from Mike Pompeo, whom Trump recently made his secretary of state.
• Haspel is widely respected as a disciplined, non-political field agent. She rose to manage the global clandestine network before becoming the CIA’s deputy director one year ago.

10. Israel builds ‘missile net’

• Israel has built a unique “missile net” to defend a new airport, as part of a newly-completed segment of its eastern border barrier.
• The 34-kilometre fence runs along Israel’s border with Jordan, beginning near the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat and reaching the site of a new airport being constructed in the Timna Valley.
• The fence, 6 metres high, is part of a broader strategy by Israel to surround itself by barriers, including at its southwestern border with Egypt, to prevent militants and migrants crossing the border illegally.

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