GS-II

Onus on Parliament to bar persons facing charges from polls The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed political parties to publish online the pending criminal cases of their candidates and urged Parliament to bring a “strong law” to cleanse political parties of leaders facing trial for serious crimes. Rapid criminalisation of …

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that he expects to soon hold a second summit with Kim Jong-un as he returned to the United Nations with warm words for the North Korean leader whom he eviscerated last year. Mr. Trump used his début address to the UN General Assembly …

Statehood movements have gathered momentum across the Northeast, with a renewed push for Bodoland, a proposed State comprising areas beyond the four districts under the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC). On Sunday, organisations such as All Bodo Students’ Union, Peoples’ Joint Action Committee for Bodoland Movement, and two factions of the …

Indian diplomats are very smart, and we have learnt a fair bit from them, says exiled former Maldivian President Following the upset victory of the joint Opposition candidate, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, in the Maldivian presidential elections, exiled former President Mohamed Nasheed , among the fiercest critics of outgoing President Abdulla …

Petitions had sought a ban on practice by Dawoodi Bohras The Supreme Court on Monday referred to a five-judge Constitution Bench petitions seeking a declaration that the practice of female circumcision or ‘khafz,’ prevalent in the Dawoodi Bohra sect, amounts to “female genital mutilation (FGM)” and is a violation of …

Joint Opposition candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih gets 58.3% of votes Much to the surprise of his critics and political rivals, Maldives President Abdulla Yameen on Monday conceded defeat in Sunday’s presidential election, making way for the joint Opposition candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih. Senior parliamentarian of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) …

The Right Livelihood Award, also known as the Alternative Nobel, was awarded on Monday to three jailed Saudi human rights defenders and two Latin American anti-corruption crusaders. The prize foundation said the 1 million kronor ($113,400) cash award for 2018 would be shared by Abdullah al-Hamid, Mohammad Fahad al-Qahtani and …

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj kicked off her week-long diplomatic engagements at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Monday morning, attending a special meeting on drugs convened at the instance of U.S President Donald Trump. Ms. Swaraj will attend several bilateral and multilateral meetings over the next few days. …

What seemed a like a crazy idea turned out to be just that: a 1980s experiment that saw 25,000 car tyres dumped into the crystal-clear waters of the Mediterranean to create a sanctuary for sealife off the French coast is being cleaned up after it was found to be polluting. …

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday appeared to blame Arab separatists for a deadly attack on a parade, accusing an unnamed U.S.-backed Gulf state of supporting them. Tehran also summoned diplomats from Denmark, the Netherlands and Britain for allegedly hosting members of the group suspected of links to Saturday’s attack …

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 …