International Polity - Current Affairs for July, 2015

The meeting in Brussels has been called by Turkey, which has become involved in the Syrian conflict in recent days. The country, which had previously been reluctant to intervene, has launched raids against IS in Syria and Kurdish PKK guerrillas in northern Iraq. The Turkish strikes followed a wave of attacks by militants on Turkish soil.

So far 66 deaths and 365 JE positive cases have been reported from different districts of the State. Maximum numbers of deaths were reported from the upper Assam districts.

Ishaq was on a US list of global terrorists and the group he founded has claimed responsibility for the deaths of hundreds of civilians. The police said Ishaq's two sons and eleven top members of the group linked to al-Qaeda were also killed in the encounter in Muzaffargarh district. Ishaq has been accused of masterminding dozens of attacks against the minority Shia community.

A majority of people wanted the word to be replaced by "Hindu" or "religious freedom," according to Nepal’s Constituent Assembly. Nepal was declared a secular country in 2007 after Nepal’s hardcore Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist joined mainstream politics after a decade-long insurgency that killed over 13,000 people.

In a statement published on his personal blog on 6th July’15, Varoufakis said he was stepping down to allow Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to reach a new deal with European creditors. The announcement came as European Union leaders scrambled for a response following the overwhelming "No" vote in yesterday's referendum.

Israeli lawmakers voted 69 to 17 to increase the punishments, approving legislation proposed after a wave of Palestinian protests last year in East Jerusalem.

Mr. David Cameron. PM of U.K. says the extremist ideology of the group, also known as ISIL, must be countered so Britain becomes a more cohesive nation in which young Muslims feel they have a stake.

Japan has been concerned that Chinese drills could tap reservoirs that extend into Japanese territory. Japan's Defence Ministry added the demand to its annual defence review after members of the ruling party complained that its original draft was too soft on China. China resumed exploration in the East China Sea two years ago.

Election for 24 seats of Bihar Legislative council passed off peacefully. An estimated 94% voting was recorded during poll. Counting of vote will take place on the 10th July’15. All eyes are on the result of this poll as the election has been dubbed as semifinal before the upcoming assembly polls in September-October with a grand alliance of JDU RJD and the NDA taking on each other.

On 4th July 2015 President of Tunisia Beji Caid Essebsi declared state of emergency in the country for 30 days. The decision was taken against the backdrop of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) gun attack on 26 June 2015 on Hotel Riu Imperial Marhaba on the Mediterranian coast and calls for more such attacks by the militant organisation during the holy month of Ramadan.

Rajiv Mohan Kulshrestha, who travelled along with 19 other foreigners from Gift of the Givers, a South African charity, was taken into custody at Ordos’s in China’s Inner Mongolia province on July 10 for allegedly watching videos of a banned terror group in their hotel rooms.

PM Narendra Modi remarked that this was his first visit to Central Asia, and a statue of Mahatma Gandhi had been unveiled in two countries, during this visit.

The plan is to completely replace English with Urdu for official business within the next 10 to 15 years. It follows concerns that many young Pakistanis are shunning their national dress and language to adopt a more Western point of view.

The MoU was signed by the Chief Election Commissioner of India, Dr. Nasim Zaidi and Chairperson, Central Election Commission of Georgia, Ms Tamar Zhvania.

Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta has been charged with several counts of corruption in a long-running investigation. The country's anti-corruption agency said he faces charges of fraud, tax evasion and money laundering dating back to when he was a lawyer before he became Prime Minister in 2012.

The two Italian marines were accused of killing two Indian fishermen three years ago. The court allowed one of them to remain in Italy for six more months on medical grounds. On the other hand, Additional Solicitor General P S Narasimha told the apex court bench, hearing the case said that India had jurisdiction to try the two Italian marines, Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, as the alleged offence had taken place in the Indian waters.

Activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and its Students' Wing Islami Chhatra Shibir vandalised several vehicles and blasted crude bombs in Dhaka's Sobhanbhag and Mirpur areas on 12th Apr’15. At the same time thousands of people took to streets to applaud the government action.

Nitrogen Gas (Nitrogen-induced Hypoxia). The Nitrogen gas chambers will become the primary backup method for execution for Oklahoma.

State-run China Daily reported that a proposed extension of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway to the China-Nepal border through Tibet would boost bilateral trade and tourism as there is currently no rail line linking the two countries. The rail line is expected to be completed by 2020. The 1,956-km long Qinghai-Tibet railway already links the rest of China with the Tibetan capital Lhasa and beyond.

Two Canadian CF-18s successfully targeted an Islamic State (IS) garrison near Raqqa, Syria. In March the Canadian Parliament agreed to expand the country's campaign against IS into Syria. Canadian air strikes against IS were previously limited to Iraq. Canada is the first NATO country, other than the US, to strike inside Syria. Canada's mission against IS has also been extended for one year, beyond October's election and well into 2016.

The Memorandum aims to foster cooperative work on key issues of mutual interest for all modes of transportation, coordinating public and private sector resources and expertise to advance safe, secure, efficient and integrated transportation systems.

The modified deal will enable Bangladesh to use Indian territories for transiting goods to Nepal and Bhutan, while India would be able to send goods to Myanmar through Bangladesh. Cabinet Secretary Musharaf Hossain Bhuiyan said both countries would be able to use each other's rail, road and waterway networks for transporting the goods for a fee.

Chairman Imran Khan said, they have decided to attend the joint session of Parliament on 6th Apr’15 to present the party’s point of view on very important Yemen Issue.

One of the main deliverables of Mausam project is nomination of maritime cultural landscapes across the Indian Ocean as a trans-national property on the World Heritage List of UNESCO.

President Mamnoon Hussain issued the ordinance for the setting up of the commission following an agreement between the government and the Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf on the 20th of last month after months of hectic parleys.

He defeated incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan in the elections.