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• The federal cabinet at an urgent meeting on January 1, 2020 approved proposed amendments to the Constitution and the Army Act in order to give a three-year extension to Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa.
• In the wake of the Supreme Court`s order to remove ambiguity in rules on the issue of extension in the army chief`s tenure, the government also decided to introduce the amendment bill in parliament on Friday after building a consensus with the opposition on the matter.
• `According to an amendment, the maximum age limit for an army chief will be 64 years and this will be applied in case of extension in his term, but the regular age limit of COAS will be 60 years,` a cabinet member said, insisting that it would be the prime minister`s prerogative whether to give extension to the army chief in future.
• A total of 366 Pakistanis are languishing in Indian jails, while 282 Indians are in the custody of Pakistani authorities, according to the prisoners` lists exchanged by the two countries on January 1, 2020.
• The two sides exchange lists of each other`s prisoners in their custody twice a year under their bilateral Consular Access Agreement signed on May 21, 2008. The lists are exchanged on Jan land July1 every year, separately mentioning the civilian prisoners and the fishermen.
• The agreement doesn`t cover those held on charges of espionage or other military-related offences.
• `The Government of Pakistan today handed over a list of 282 Indian prisoners (55 civil + 227 fishermen) in Pakistan to the High Commission of India in Islamabad.
• The Sindh Assembly has been in session at least one-third of the last calendar year during which it considered and passed dozens of government and private pieces of legislation, making it inarguably a vibrant elected forum among its likes in the country.
• According to the rules of procedures of the provincial legislature, it has to remain in session for at least 100 days a year. The present mandate of the assembly was formed on Aug 13, 2018; thus, it has passed more than 16 out of 60 months of its legitimate life.
• During that period, official figures show, the assembly has been in session for 199 days out of 506 days, making it well ahead of the legislatures in other provinces.
• Officials said the assembly had been in session for around 135 days this calendar year alone, which makes it one out of less than three days.
• Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan will visit Islamabad on January 2, 2020 on his way back home after hunting in the countryside.
• The crown prince, according to a diplomatic source, has been in Pakistan for the past few days for houbara bustard hunting.
• The deputy commissioner of Rahim Yar Khan, Ali Shehzad, told that the crown prince was in the area along with a Dubai prince for the last five days. He said that on Wednesday the prince left the Abu Dhabi Palace in the area and moved to some other place
• The federal government on January 1, 2020 transferred Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police chief Dr Mohammad Naeem Khan and replaced him with Sanaullah Abbasi.
• Dr Naeem was appointed the KP police chief in February last year.
• An establishment division notification said Sanaullah Abbasi, a BS-21 officer of Police Service of Pakistan and currently serving as the Gilgit-Baltistan police chief, under the Kashmir affairs and GB division, had been transferred and posted Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police chief, in his own pay and scale.
• The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on January 1, 2020 posted Mohammad Humayun Khan, a senior officer of the Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS), as secretary planning and development (P&D) department.
• According to a notification issued here, the competent authority is pleased to appoint Mohammad Humayun Khan (BS-20, PAS), currently serving as special secretary II, finance department, as secretary to P&D department against the vacant position.
• The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on January 1, 2020 issued SRO 1640(I)/2019 to operationalise the second phase of China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
• The board in order to implement the agreed protocol, after thorough deliberations with the Ministry of Commerce transposed the offer list and developed the SRO.
• The China Pakistan FTA Phase-II will operationalise vide SRO 1640 (I)/2019 from Jan 1 and supersede the old SRO 659(I)/2007.
• The tariff elimination schedule/offer list shared by the commerce ministry is divided under the categories A0, A7, A15, MOP1, MOP2, C1 and C2.
• North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has declared an end to moratoriums on nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests and threatened a demonstration of a `new strategic weapon` soon.
• Analysts said the announcement, reported by state media on Wednesday, amounted to Kim putting a missile `to Donald Trump`s head` but warned that escalation by Pyongyang would probably backfire.
• Washington was swift to respond, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging Kim to `take a different course` and stressing that the US wanted `peace not confrontation` with the North, while Trump played down the development.
• Opposition leader Umaro Sissoco Embalo won presidential elections in the volatile West African state of Guinea-Bissau, picking up 53.55 percent of votes, the National Electoral Commission (CNE) announced on January 1, 2020.
• Domingos Simoes Pereira, head of the country`s historic ruling party PAIGC, was credited with 46.45 percent in Sunday`s runoff.
• Embalo declared he would be a `president of national harmony` and appealed for the country to rally behind him, but Pereira blasted the result as a fix and vowed to overturn it
• For the first time, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is going to stage all the 34 matches of the fifth HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL) at four different centres of the country Lahore, Karachi, Multan and Rawalpindi from Feb 20 to March 22.
• According to the schedule of the PSL 2020 announced by the PCB on January 1, 2020, Karachi`s National Stadium will stage the opening ceremony followed by the league`s first match between reigning champions Quetta Gladiators and former two-time winners Islamabad United on Feb 20 and the Gaddafi Stadium will host the final on March 22.
• The National Stadium will also play host to the qualifier between the top two sides while the Gaddafi Stadium will be the venue of the two eliminators.
December 2019:
[catlist name=”December 2019″]
November 2019:
[catlist name=”November 2019″]
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• Members of a parliamentary committee were shocked to learn on December 30, 2019 that 128,000 people die due to climate change in Pakistan.
• Members of the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights were also told that the average age or lifespan could decreased by two to five years because of environmental pollution.
• The senators were informed that 43pc of pollution in the country is caused by low grade oil being imported and used by the transport industry and energy sector, and Pakistan cannot use environmentally friendly fuel until 2021.
• They were particularly upset to learn that Pakistan`s last oil sector policy came in 1997, and no one has formulated a new policy since that is at par with advancements in technology, development and other requirements.
• The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet on December 30, 2019 waived all duties and taxes on import of cotton and allowed its import via the Torkham border land route from Afghanistan and Central Asian States to meet the growing demand of the textile value-added sector.
• The decision taken at a meeting of the ECC, headed by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr Hafeez Shaikh, will be effective from Jan 15, 2020.
• The government had in 201415 imposed one per cent customs duty along with 5pc sales tax on cotton import. Over the next few years, its import was subject to 3pc regulatory duty, 2pc additional customs duty and 5pc sales tax. The duties were withdrawn in January/ February 2017 and re-imposed in July-August.
• On Oct 4 this year, the Cotton Crop Assessment Committee projected that cotton production at the end of the year would be 10.20 million bales as against the target of 15 million bales for the fiscal year 2019-20
• The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-iInsaf`s (PTI) nominee for the office of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Babar Yaqub Fateh Mohammad, retires as secretary of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on December 31, 2019.
• He will be replaced by Zafar Iqbal Hussain, currently serving as the provincial election commissioner, Punjab. A notification to this effect was issued on Monday with the approval of the acting CEC, retired justice Altaf Ibrahim Qureshi. A BPS-21 officer Mr Hussain is expected to take charge on Jan 1.
• Meanwhile, the matter pertaining to the appointment of CEC and members of the ECP has again been delayed for a week this time because of fog. The parliamentary committee on appointment of CEC and ECP members was to meet on Monday, but the meeting had to be put off for a week as some members of the panel could not reach Islamabad due to foggy weather.
• Pakistan witnessed a nearly 31 per cent reduction in terror and counterterrorism-related fatalities in 2019, according to data released by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) on December 30, 2019.
• According to the research, only two militant outfits Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) splinter groups and the militant Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for 12and one attacks, respectively, but their own ranks depleted by nearly 30pc. Civilian fatalities declined by about 36pc.
• The report observed a 30.71pc drop in fatalities in 2019 (from 980 in 2018 to 679 in 2019). If Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) are counted as separate regions, Balochistan still remains most affected by militancy and insurgency. The largest drop in fatalities was observed in Balochistan (44.2pc), followed by Fata (39pc), Sindh (19pc), and Punjab (11.8pc).
• Prime Minister Imran Khan on December 30, 2019 launched the Sehat Insaf Card facility for the transgender community, the first in the country`s history, to provide succour to the most vulnerable segment of society.
• The prime minister regretted that previous governments never took responsibility for the most vulnerable sections of society, including transgenders.
• The present government, he said, had taken the responsibility of transgender community and would give them a sense of ownership. Pakistan was created on a great idea of sense of justice, humanity and humane feelings for the downtrodden, he added
• Facebook has blocked live streaming of the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation`s (PBC) news bulletins for highlighting Indian atrocities in occupied Kashmir, Radio Pakistan reported on December 30, 2019.
• However, temporary arrangements have been made to continue live streaming of Radio Pakistan`s bulletins on YouTube, the report added.
• Radio Pakistan in its report included screenshots of earlier warning messages received from the social media giant, dating back to May, warning the public broadcaster of violating `community standards on dangerous individuals and organisations`.
• A Chinese court on December 30, 2019 sentenced the scientist who claimed to be behind the world`s first gene-edited babies to three years in prison for illegal medical practice.
• He Jiankui, who shocked the scientific community last year by announcing the birth of twin girls whose genes had allegedly been altered to confer immunity to HIV, was also fined three million yuan ($430,000), Xinhua news agency said.
• He, who was educated at Stanford University, was sentenced by a court in Shenzhen for `illegally carrying out the human embryo gene-editing intended for reproduction`, Xinhua said.
• Two of his fellow researchers were also sentenced
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s handpicked Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat was on December 30, 2019 appointed India`s first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), a day before he was to step down on superannuation.
• `Government has decided to appoint Gen Bipin Rawat as the CDS with effect from December 31, 2019 and until further orders and extension of Gen Bipin Rawat with effect from December 31, 2019 and till such period he holds the office of CDS.
• Gen Rawat is set to retire as the Army Chief on December 31 on completing three years of tenure and will assume charge as the CDS. Vice Chief of Army Lt Gen MM Naravane is scheduled to take over as the 28th Chief of Army Staff (COAS).
• A Croatian court on December 30, 2019 sentenced former prime minister Ivo Sanader to six years in jail and the boss of Hungary`s MOL energy group to two years for bribery.
• Sanader already serving time for a separate graft conviction and MOL`s Zsolt Hernadi were convicted for `receiving and giving a bribe` concerning a 2009 deal after the Hungarian firm purchased shares in local oil and gas group INA, the judge said.
• Judge Maja Stampar Stipic said the deal allowed then-PM Sanader to pocket 10 million euros ($11 million)in exchange for granting the Hungarian firm control over INA.
• MOL, whose main shareholder is the Budapest government, has a 49 percent INA stake, while Zagreb holds a 44 percent stake.
• A Sudanese court on December 30, 2019 sentenced 27 intelligence agents to death for torturing and killing a protester early this year.
• It is the first time members of the security forces have been condemned to death in relation to the killing of protesters whose movement toppled veteran autocrat Omar al-Bashir.
• The defendants were found guilty of torturing to death Ahmed al-Kheir Awadh at an intelligence services facility and sentenced to be hanged, judge Sadok Albdelrahman said.
• The teacher was beaten and tortured to death after he was arrested in late January by intelligence operatives in Kassala state in eastern Sudan, the judge said.
• Dozens of protesters from the capital`s teachers` association gathered in front of the court in Khartoum`s twin city of Omdurman, carrying pictures of Awadh.
December 2019:
[catlist name=”December 2019″]
November 2019:
[catlist name=”November 2019″]
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• The Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) has repealed the cap of maximum four attempts to clear theoretical phases of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) and Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) and empowered universities to decide about the number of attempts by students to clear their theoretical studies.
• But critics believe that it is a step to allow universities to have unlimited number of students without caring about the minimum number of faculty members.
• However, PMC President Dr Arshad Taqi claimed that the decision would help the commission keep a check on universities/ colleges violating rules.
• He said medical and dental colleges would have to retain a minimum number of faculty and cannot exceed the limit of maximum number of students.
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• The Pakistan embassy in Kabul is set to restore its full consular services on December 29, 2019 (today) after a gap of nearly two months.
• The embassy made this announcement over Twitter saying: `@PakEmbKabul is happy to announce that it would be resuming its full consular services with effect from Sunday, 29 December, 2019`.
• The embassy had suspended the services on Nov 4, citing concerns about safety and security of its staff. The decision was taken after harassment of some Pakistani diplomats in the Afghan capital where embassy vehicles were hit by motorcycles.
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• The Pakistan Tehreek-i-insaf government made drastic changes in the country`s accountability law the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 through a presidential ordinance promulgated on December 27, 2019 that would benefit not only politicians from across the aisle but also bureaucrats as well as the business community.
• The new ordinance The National Accountability (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019 has made the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) a `toothless` body since now it can only take up cases involving corruption or corrupt practices exceeding an amount of Rs500 million.
• The latest amendments have hit the core of the accountability law that was first promulgated by then military dictator retired Gen Pervez Musharraf soon after ousting then prime minister Nawaz Sharif in a coup in 1999.
• The powers of NAB have been curtailed keeping in view frequent complaints of the bureaucracy and the business community.
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• Skywatchers from Saudi Arabia and Oman to Pakistan and Singapore were treated to a rare `ring of fire` solar eclipse on December 26, 2019.
• Annular eclipses occur when the Moon is not close enough to the Earth to completely obscure the Sun, leaving a thin ring of the solar disc visible.
• While these types of eclipses occur every year or two, they are only visible from a narrow band of Earth each time and it can be decades before the same pattern is repeated.
• Depending on weather conditions, this year`s astronomical phenomenon was set to be visible from the Middle East across Pakistan, southern India and Southeast Asia before ending over the northern Pacific.
• Pakistan witnessed the penumbral eclipse from 07:30am till 13:06pm, partial eclipse from 08:34am till 12:01pm, total eclipse from 08:37am till 11:58am while the greatest eclipse was observed at 10:18am, assistant meteorologist Dawood Khan said
• Two Pakistan Army`s soldiers were martyred and two civilians injured along the Line of Control (LoC) in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) in unrelenting ceasefire violations by Indian troops.
• A befitting response by Pakistani troops had left at least three Indian soldiers dead and some others injured, added the officials.
• `Indian CFVs (ceasefire violations) along [the] LoC [continued] during the last 36 hours. Responding to CFVs, in Haji Pir Sector Pakistan Army troops damaged [an] Indian post, killing 3 Indian soldiers including a Subedar, and injuring few others,` said Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor, director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), military`s media affairs wing, in a tweet posted at 9.25am.
• `In Dewa Sector, Naib Subedar Kandero and Sepoy Muhammad Ehsan of Pakistan Army [had] embraced shahadat,` he added.
• Former chief justice of Pakistan Justice Tassadug Hussain Jillani has been awarded the 2020 J.
• Clifford Wallace Award by the J. Reuben Clark Law Society in recognition of his extraordinary career as a judge and a jurist.
• According to a press release, the decorated career of Justice Jillani spans thirty years (1994-2014).
• He has also served as Pakistan`s representative judge at the International Court of Justice at The Hague.
• Justice Jillani is the co-chair of the World Justice Project, which works to lead a global, multidisciplinary effort to strengthen the Rule of Law for the development of communities of opportunity and equity.
• Every fourth district of Punjab will have a metropolitan corporation, taking the number of such bodies to nine from one, according to the recently promulgated Punjab Local Government Act 2019.
• Previously, only the provincial headquarters of Lahore enjoyed the status of a metropolitan corporation.
• The eight other districts added to the list now include Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Multan, Rawalpindi, Sahiwal and Sargodha.
• In addition, there will be 16 municipal corporations, 134 municipal committees, 160 town committees and 136 tehsil councils in the province.
• The minimum population benchmark for a city to be classified as metropolitan or municipality has been set at a quarter million.
• According to Section 9 (1) of the local government act, an area displaying distinct urban features may either be classified as metropolitan, municipality or a town. Under Section 9 (2) all areas comprising Lahore district and the areas comprising cities of another eight districts will have a metropolitan.
• Saudi Arabia is planning to convene a meeting of the foreign ministers of member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for a discussion on the situation in India-held Kashmir.
• This was conveyed by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud during a meeting with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi at the Foreign Office.
• Prince Faisal was on a daylong visit to Pakistan to convey the Saudi leadership`s gratitude for not participating in the recently held Kuala Lumpur summit in view of the kingdom`s reservations and dispelling the impression that Riyadh`s attitude towards Islamabad was patronising. Prince Faisal also called on Prime Minister Imran Khan.
• Stage, film and TV actor Ashraf Rahi died of cardiac arrest here. He was 66.
• The actor had been facing multiple medical complications, including chronic diabetes and hepatitis C.
• Rahi was a contemporary of comedians such as Mastana and Babu Baral.
• Rahi performed in almost 3,000 stage productions, both in the country and aboard
• The Afghan consulate in Peshawar, which was closed in protest after raid by police on its property about two months ago, will reopen on December 27, 2019 (today).
• First Secretary Faridoon Khalil said in a brief statement issued here on Thursday that the consulate would start functioning from December 27, 2019 (today). He said that visa section would start issuing visas.
• The consulate was shut down in protest on October 11 when district administration along with police removed Afghanistan`s national flag from a disputed property in the city.
• Japan executed its first foreigner in 10 years on December 26, 2019, a Chinese man convicted in the 2003 murder and robbery of a family of four.
• Wei Wei, 40, was hanged on Thursday at a detention center in Fukuoka where he had been on death row for more than 16 years, Justice Minister Masako Mori said.
• Wei was convicted of robbing and killing a clothing store owner and his wife and two children at their home in Fukuoka. He and two Chinese accomplices dumped the bodies into the ocean after attaching weights to them, Mori said at a news conference.
• Japan has maintained the death penalty despite growing international criticism
• Turkey’s Constitutional Court ruled on December 26, 2019 that a more than two-year block on access to online encyclopaedia Wikipedia in the country is a violation of freedom of expression.
• The ruling opens the way for lifting the website ban, which has been in place since 2017 due to entries that accused Turkey of having links to terrorist organisations.
• On its website, the court said it had ruled “that freedom of expression, which is under the protection of the 26th clause of the Constitution, had been violated.”
• Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organisation that hosts Wikipedia, had applied to Turkey’s highest court to challenge the access block
• President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on December 26, 2019 opened the way for direct Turkish military intervention in Libya, announcing a parliamentary vote in early January on sending troops to support the UN-backed Tripoli government against strongman Khalif a Haftar.
• Sending Turkish troops will complicate the situation in an already fragile country torn by internal dissent since the ouster and killing of dictator Moamer Qadhafi in 2011.
• `We will present the motion to send troops (to Libya) as soon as parliament resumes` on January 7, Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara.
• `God willing, we will pass it in parliament on January 8-9 and thus respond to an invitation` from the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), he said
December 2019:
[catlist name=”December 2019″]
November 2019:
[catlist name=”November 2019″]
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• An annular solar eclipse, said to be the last big celestial event of the year as it comes to a close, will occur on December 26, 2019 morning.
• Starting at 7.30am (PST), it is to peak at 8.37am and go on till 1.06pm. The eclipse will be visible all over Pakistan, especially in Karachi and Gwadar, according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department.
• It said the celestial event will be visible in eastern Europe, northern and western Australia, eastern Africa, Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean, and much of Asia, including Pakistan.
• The solar eclipse is not a total eclipse but an annular one. This means the sun and the moon will be positioned in a way to form a `ring of fire` as the moon won`t be able to completely cover the sun. Hence its edges will be illuminated.
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• Amid a growing dispute between the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) and the Capital Development Authority (CDA), cabinet approved the formation of a Local Government Commission on December 24, 2019.
• The commission is a requirement under the Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government Act 2015. Its formation was announced in a post-cabinet briefing by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information Dr Firdous Ashig Awan.
• The cabinet took up the matter of sanitation workers` delayed salaries. She said the CDA chairman told the cabinet that the MCI was responsible for paying sanitation workers but did not do so, and the CDA released the funds as a result.
• The federal cabinet on December 24, 2019 decided to give a one-time permission for import of polio markers from India and reduce prices of 89 medicines by 15 per cent.
• The markers, which are used to mark the fingers of children after administering them polio vaccine, are approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
• It is worth mentioning that after India`s Aug 5 annexation of occupied Kashmir, the Pakistan government had on Aug 9 decided to suspend all kinds of trade with India.
• However, since a large number of medicines and raw material are imported from India, the country`s pharmaceutical industry started demanding that the ban be lifted on them because otherwise Pakistan could face severe crisis of medicines, especially life-saving drugs, within a few weeks. Consequently, the government had in September lif ted the ban on import of medicines and raw material from India.
• Prime Minister Imran Khan on December 24, 2019 appointed Dr Moeed Yusuf as his special assistant on national security and strategic policy planning.
• A notification issued by the Cabinet Division said that Dr Yusuf would hold the status of the minister of state.
• He would be the fourteenth special assistant to the prime minister.
• Prior to his appointment as special assistant, DrMoeed Yusuf was working as chairman of Strategic Policy Planning Cell a position that he held since Sept 26. The cell was based in Prime Minister`s Office and had been tasked to provide input on issues that fell under National Security Committee`s mandate
• Pakistan Stock Exchange has appointed Farrukh Hussain Khan as its chief executive officer, an internal memo released by the company secretary on December 24, 2019 said.
• The appointment had been made on the recommendation of the bourse`s board of directors and approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan.
• `Khan will assume the charge of his office in due course of time,` the memo stated.
• Khan has been the Chief Investment Officer/ Executive Director at BMA Asset Management and has been serving for over 13 years.
• China hosted the leaders of squabbling neighbours South Korea and Japan for their first official meeting in over a year on December 24, 2019, flexing its diplomatic muscle with America`s two key Asian allies and seeking unity on how to deal with a belligerent North Korea.
• The gathering in the southwestern city of Chengdu was held with the clock ticking on a threatened `Christmas gift` from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that could reignite global tensions over its nuclear programme.
• Kim has promised the unidentified `gift` which analysts and American officials believe could be a provocative missile test if the US does not make concessions in their nuclear talks by the end of the year.
• President Vladimir Putin said on December 24, 2019 that Russia has got a strong edge in designing new weapons and that it has become the only country in the world to deploy hypersonic weapons.
• Putin said that for the first time in history Russia is now leading the world in developing an entire new class of weapons unlike in the past when it was catching up with the United States.
• The Russian leader noted that during Cold War times, the Soviet Union was behind the United States in designing the atomic bomb and building strategic bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
• Now we have a situation that is unique in modern history when they are trying to catch up to us, he said. Not a single country hashypersonic weapons, let alone hypersonic weapons of intercontinental range
• Tim Clark will retire as the president of Emirates Airline at the end of June 2020 after more than three decades at the state-controlled business that has helped to transform Dubai into one of the world`s major travel crossroads.
• Emirates Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum said on December 24, 2019 in an internal memo to staff that Clark would stay on as an adviser to the company.
• `Through wars, economic recessions, disasters natural or manmade, and various industry upheavals, Tim has ably steered and grown Emirates to its standing today as the world`s largest international airline, and an eminent player in the global airline industry,` Sheikh Ahmed said in the memo
• India`s federal cabinet on December 24, 2019 approved funds for a census and population survey to be conducted next year amid fears that the database could be used to build a controversial citizens` register against which there have been widespread protests.
• Hundreds of thousands of Indians have taken to the streets to protest against a new citizenship law enacted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s Hindu nationalist government that provides non-Muslim minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who moved here before 2015 a pathway to Indian citizenship.
• Some of these protests have led to clashes between the police and demonstrators in which at least 21 people have been killed
• FIFA has banned Bahrain defender Sayed Bager for 10 matches for `discriminatory behaviour` in a World Cup qualifier against Hong Kong, football`s world governing body has said.
• Bager, 25, formed a slanteyed gesture in the direction of Hong Kong supporters after a goalless draw in the city on November 14.
• The incident was captured on camera from the stands as the players left the field and the footage was posted on Twitter.
• FIFA opened disciplinary proceedings against Bager last month and announced that the player had also been fined 30,000 Swiss francs ($30,549.90) and warned over his conduct.
• The federal cabinet headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan on December 24, 2019 approved restructuring of the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) and its executive committee, reducing the numbers of members.
• After discussing a summary moved by Ministry of Inter Provincial Coordination (IPC), the federal cabinet decided that PSB will be comprised of 11 members including two members from private sector.
• Well-placed sources informed that the PSB board currently comprises 37 members while the 16-member executive committee has now been reduced to five.
December 2019:
[catlist name=”December 2019″]
November 2019:
[catlist name=”November 2019″]