International Current Affairs MCQs

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On 1^st January each year, India and Pakistan exchange a list of their nuclear installations in accordance with the Agreement on the Prohibition of attack against Nuclear Installations and Facilities. This agreement prohibits both the countries from attacking each other’s atomic facilities.

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The Bangladesh High Court recently ordered the Government to impose a ban on single use plastic in the country’s coastal areas and hotels.
Polythene has been banned in the country since 2002, but the usage of polythene could not be controlled in the country. Hence the court ordered to enforce the ban in a strict manner across the nation within one year from the order.

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In the recently held presidential election of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen was re-elected as the country’s President. With more than 57% of the votes, Tsai won her second presidential term. Her victory in the election has gained significance as she vowed to protect the sovereignty of Taiwan amidst of the threats posed by China.
China has announced that Taiwan must be united with China at any cost and it would use power if necessary. There were several protests across the country against China’s Authoritarian behaviour.

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The 42 -year-old lawyer, Robert Abela was recently elected as the next Prime Minister of Malta. The previous Prime Minister of the country, Joseph Muscat was forced to exit the post last month, after he was found involved in the murder of a journalist.
The journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was investigating corruption in the country and she was killed by a car bomb two years back. Robert Abela was elected as the leader of the ruling Labour Party with more than 57% votes.

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The entire government of Russia including the then Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev resigned following the constitutional reforms proposed by the Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin proposed the former bureaucrat and tax official, Mikhail Mishustin as the next Prime Minister of Russia.
The lawmakers have approved the nomination of Vladimir Putin, for the new Prime Minister. Russia’s lower house of Parliament, the State Duma voted in favour of the nominated Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, which fetched him 383 votes out of 424.

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Lebanon formed a new government recently under Prime Minister Hassan Diab amidst various economic and political crises. The country remained without an effective government, after the former Prime Minister Saad Al Hariri quit from his role in October 2019 under pressure from protests against state corruption and mismanagement.
The President of Lebanon, Michel Aoun nominated Hassan Diab as the new Prime Minister. Hassan Diab is a 60-year-old professor at the American University of Beirut, who heads a new cabinet of 20 members. The members were mostly backed by political parties while the protestors demanded a new government with independent technocrats.

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The Ministry of Law and Justice recently issued a Gazette Notification, which declared the United Arab Emirates to be a “reciprocating territory” under Section 44A of the Civil Procedure Code, 1908. The notification also declared a list of courts in the UAE to be ‘Superior Courts’ under the same section of CPC.
The orders passed by certain designated courts from a ‘reciprocating territory’ can be implemented in India, as if they were passed in India. Besides UAE, the other countries which were declared as reciprocating territories include United Kingdom, Singapore, Bangladesh, Malaysia and New Zealand among others. The decision is believed to help bring down the time required for executing verdicts between the two countries.

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The United Kingdom government has recently donated 20 million pounds, equivalent to nearly $25 million, for developing vaccine to combat the deadly coronavirus.
The country’s investment is set to be given to the global body named CEPI (the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations), which aims to develop the vaccine in six to eight months. The World Health Organisation has categorised the coronavirus outbreak as a global health emergency. The death toll in China due to the virus infection has crossed 400. Philippines and Hong Kong also reported their first deaths from the outbreak.

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The Prince of Britain, Charles has recently unveiled a new children’s protection fund for India. This fund is a part of the charity founded by him in 2007, the British Asian Trust. The trust was founded to fight poverty in South Asia.
Noted American singer Katy Perry was named as the ambassador of the new fund. The Protection fund will focus on reducing the exploitation of children by 50 per cent in India over 10 years. The Children’s Protection Fund will primarily cover child sexual abuse, child labour and trafficking. School safety nets are also proposed to be aet up through child-friendly village models.

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The ‘International Day of Women and Girls in Science’ is celebrated across the world on 11 February. The United Nations General Assembly adopted the resolution in 2015 and declared 11 February as the day of Women and Girls in Science. Since then, the day is celebrated annually.
The day is aimed to achieve complete gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls and to encourage more women to take up their career in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) field.