GS-II

A British Muslim has been detained in Syria on suspicion of being a member of the Islamic State. Anwar Miah, who claims to be a pharmacist from Birmingham, was reportedly seized by Kurdish forces near the Iraqi border, according to U.K. media reports. Source : https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-international/british-muslim-held-in-syria-on-suspicion-of-being-isis-member/article25023780.ece

China has responded robustly to Washington’s decision to impose military sanctions — opening up key diplomatic channels to air its protest, and recalling its visiting naval official from the U.S. It has also cancelled an upcoming defence officials meeting in Beijing later this month. On Friday, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister …

Women Foreign Ministers meeting for the first summit of its kind vowed on Saturday to bring a ‘women’s perspective’ to foreign policy. The two-day meeting, which began on Friday in Montreal and brought together more than half of the world’s top women diplomats, focussed on topics such as conflict prevention, …

The Delhi High Court has directed the Centre to ensure that Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card holders or foreigners are informed in advance if they are blacklisted and would be denied entry into the country. Justice Vibhu Bakhru said a number of cases were being filed in the High …

A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the continued existence of Article 370, which gives a temporary autonomous status to the State of Jammu and Kashmir and restricts the power of Parliament to make laws for the State. The petition especially challenges a particular proviso in Article …

No government formation will take place through underhand means, there will be elections; whoever wins will be sworn to power, says Governor Ahead of the local body elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Governor Satya Pal Malliksays the Congress had rigged earlier polls, leading to alienation of the youth. Asserting that …

Defence Acquisition Council to take up deal through the government-to-government route A deal to procure the Spike anti-tank guided missiles from Israel through the government-to-government route has been brought before the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) for approval. However, some validation trials have to be held before the deal is signed. …

A meeting of Uttar Karnataka Horata Samiti to discuss the demand for statehood for North Karnataka, which faced a protest from Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (Narayanagouda faction), here on Sunday, resolved to take up the agitation on the Telangana model. Samiti’s State president Bhimappa Gadad said that 80 % of the …

Attacked during visit to interior village in Visakhapatnam agency area Araku MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao of the Telugu Desam party (TDP) and former MLA of the same constituency Siveri Soma, also of the TDP, were shot dead on Sunday morning, allegedly by cadres of the banned CPI (Maoist). The incident …

The U.S. is increasingly diverse and census calculations project that by the year 2044, the White population of the country will be less than half of the total. The growing diversity appears to be reflecting on the political arena, though differentially, for the Democrats and the Republicans. In the current …