Places in News Current Affairs MCQs

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India resumed importing Tur dal from Mozambique’s Nacala Port after a disruption. Mozambique is a Southeast African country with a long Indian Ocean coastline, separated from Madagascar by the Mozambique Channel. It borders Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Eswatini. Major rivers include the Zambezi and Limpopo, and its highest peak is Mount Binga. Mozambique is rich in resources like gold, emeralds, copper, iron ore, and bauxite.

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The Panama Canal is working to regain trade in liquefied natural gas and food commodities after a historic drought disrupted traffic last year. It connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Isthmus of Panama, serving as a key maritime trade route. Construction began in 1881 by France but failed due to financial and health issues. The U.S. completed the canal in 1914 and managed it until 1999, when Panama took full control under the Torrijos-Carter Treaties.

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Russian forces attacked port infrastructure in Odessa, injuring two people, including a port employee and a grain carrier driver. The attack involved a ballistic missile. Ukraine’s port infrastructure has faced frequent Russian attacks since Russia withdrew from a U.N.-brokered grain shipment deal. Kyiv has since created its own maritime corridor for shipments.

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INS Shivalik recently arrived in Guam for an operational turnaround after participating in RIMPAC 2024, the world’s largest multinational maritime exercise. Guam is the largest and southernmost of the Mariana Islands in the Northern Pacific Ocean and is a US territory. It was a Spanish colony until 1898, becoming a US territory after the Spanish-American War. Guam has a tropical climate with trade winds and equatorial currents. The native Chamorros are of Malayo-Indonesian descent with influences from Spanish, Filipino, Mexican, and other ancestries. The capital of Guam is Hagatna.

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Recent tensions between Japan and China have increased due to a Chinese military aircraft violating Japanese airspace. A Chinese Y-9 surveillance plane breached Japanese airspace near the Danjo Islands for about two minutes. This is the first confirmed airspace incursion by a Chinese military aircraft into Japanese airspace. The Danjo Islands, situated in the East China Sea off Japan’s southern Nagasaki prefecture, are strategically important with potential resources. The incident adds to ongoing maritime provocations by Chinese vessels near these disputed islands.

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Five-year-old Teghbir Singh from Ropar, Punjab, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa. He started the trek on August 18 and reached the Uhuru peak on August 23. Mount Kilimanjaro stands at over 19,340 feet (5895 meters) in Tanzania. The trek posed challenges like low oxygen and altitude sickness, with temperatures dropping to -10°C. Teghbir received a Mountain Climbing Certificate from Tanzania National Parks. He matched the world record set by a Serbian boy for summiting Kilimanjaro at age five. Teghbir is now the youngest Asian and Indian to achieve this feat.

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Oceanographers found a new seamount on the Nazca Ridge, 900 miles off Chile’s coast. Nazca Ridge is a submarine ridge in the southeastern Pacific Ocean near South America. It is around 1,100 kilometers long and varies in width. The ridge starts at the Nazca Plate off Peru and extends southwest towards Easter Island, Chile. It was created by volcanic activity from a hotspot in the Earth’s mantle. The ridge consists of unusually thick basaltic ocean crust.
It is tectonically active, subducting beneath the South American Plate at the Peru-Chile Trench.

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The Prime Minister of India expressed a desire for stronger ties with Brunei, focusing on enhancing commercial and cultural connections during his visit to Bandar Seri Begawan. Brunei is located on the northern coast of Borneo Island in Southeast Asia and sits in both the Northern and Eastern hemispheres. It is bordered by the South China Sea to the north and surrounded by Malaysia, with two non-contiguous parts divided by Sarawak. The capital and largest city is Bandar Seri Begawan, and the highest point is Bukit Pagon, reaching 6,069 feet along the border with Malaysia. Brunei has several rivers, including Belait, Pandaruan, and Tutong, and is a significant oil producer in Southeast Asia.

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A Russian missile strike on Poltava, Ukraine, killed 51 people and injured 271 others. Poltava is a city in east-central Ukraine, located 300 km east of Kyiv, along the Vorskla River. Archaeological evidence traces its origins to the 8th-9th centuries; it was first referenced in 1174. The city was destroyed by Tatars in the 13th century and became a Cossack regiment center by the 17th century. In 1709, Peter the Great defeated Sweden’s Charles XII at Poltava, marking Russia’s rise as a power. Modern Poltava was rebuilt after World War II and is a key agricultural hub.

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Rapa Nui, also called Easter Island, did not experience a population collapse, based on ancient DNA analysis of 15 former inhabitants. Rapa Nui is a Chilean territory in the southeastern Pacific Ocean and is the easternmost Polynesian island.
It is located 3,540 km west of Chile and 1,900 km east of Pitcairn Island. The island covers 163.6 sq. km and is one of the most remote inhabited places. It is a small volcanic island with a tropical rainforest climate. Easter Island was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996, with much of it protected under Rapa Nui National Park.