Monthly Current Affairs February 2016 “INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS” key points to Remember.
1) Cuban President Raul Castro announced that he is dispatching 9,000 soldiers to help keep the Zika virus out of Cuba, calling on the entire country to help kill the mosquito that carries the disease.
2) Oil fell below $33 per barrel after Saudi Arabia ruled out production cuts.
3) President Barack Obama on Tuesday called for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility after delivering his plan to Congress to achieve a goal that has long eluded his presidency.
4) Vienna, Austria’s grand capital on the Danube river, offers the highest quality of life of all cities in the world, while the Iraqi capital Baghdad, once more took its place at the bottom of a live ability list compiled by consulting firm Mercer.
5) Pakistan parliament became the first in the world to completely run on solar power, a venture supported by China with $55 million funding.
6) Royal Enfield has opened its first exclusive store in Thailand. It has been set up in the Thonglor area of Thailand by the General Auto Supply Co. Ltd.
7) Afghanistan’s National Women’s Cycling Team has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by members of the Italian parliament.
8) The European Parliament called on the European Union to impose an arms embargo against Saudi Arabia, saying Britain, France and other EU governments should no longer sell weapons to a country accused of targeting civilians in Yemen.
9) Google is shuttering Google Compare, its US comparison-shopping site for auto insurance, credit cards and mortgages after one year.
10) The UN has urged Pakistan to resolve the status of more than 2.5 million Afghan refugees living in Pakistan whose registration cards have expired or who remain unregistered.
11) A US appeals court has handed Samsung a win over Apple in a long-running patent fight, overriding a jury verdict ordering it to pay $119.6 million to the iPhone maker.
12) The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will launch a sleek, 132- foot unmanned ocean drone from Portland, OR, testing its abilities over a succeeding period of 18 months.
13) An Australian company unearthed a massive 404-carat diamond in Angola valued at as much as $14 million.
14) The Sindh Assembly of Pakistan has passed the Hindu Marriage Bill 2015, thus becoming the first province in the country to allow the minority community to register their marriages.
15) The Union Cabinet was apprised of the BRICS memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the fields of science, technology and innovation signed last year.
16) China has deployed surface-to-air missile launchers on an island in the South China Sea.
17) The first freight train to resurrect the ancient Silk Road route arrived in Iran from China.
18) Google’s balloon-powered high-speed internet service known as ‘Project Loon’ began its first tests in Sri Lanka.
19) A team led by an Indian-origin scientist in US has discovered a new kind of 2D semiconducting material for electronics that opens the door for much speedier computers and smartphones that consume a lot less power.
20) US President Barack Obama has signed legislation imposing new sanctions against North Korea in response to Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile tests.
21) China is to ban foreign firms from “online publishing” under new rules issued this week, as the country increasingly seeks to minimize Western influence.
22) The International Monetary Fund its board re-elected Managing Director Christine Lagarde to a second five-year term, starting on July 5.
23) David Cameron said that he had reached a deal to give the UK “special status” in the EU.
24) Faustin Archange Touadera, a former prime minister and maths teacher standing as an independent, has been elected president of the Central African Republic.
25) North Korean state media has confirmed that the country has a new military chief following earlier reports in Seoul that the former holder of the post had been executed.
26) UK wind energy industry received a boost with the announcement of the world’s biggest offshore wind farm, to be built off the north-east coast.
27) A UN Panel panel has proposed long-sought greenhouse gas emissions standards for airliners and cargo planes.
28) World powers pressed Russia to stop bombing around Aleppo in support of a Syrian government offensive to recapture the city.
29) The Obama administration has proposed $860 million aid for Pakistan, including $265 million for military hardware, which it said would help the country fight terrorists, secure nuclear weapons and improve ties with India.
30) YouTube has launched its first original movies and series’ exclusively for which subscribers – YouTube Red.
31) NATO and the European Union have signed an agreement to improve cooperation in Cyber defence.
32) United States and Cuba will sign a bilateral agreement to restore regular flights between the two countries after more than half a century.
33) Canada, the US and Mexico signed a deal in Winnipeg, Canada, to tap into energy cooperation among them.
34) The US government has approved the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan
35) Dubai said it would build the world’s largest shopping mall despite an economic slowdown looming in the region.
36) The United States has temporarily deployed an additional Patriot missile battery in South Korea
37) Titanic II, a replica of the Titanic, which infamously was declared “unsinkable” and promptly sank on its maiden voyage after hitting an iceberg in 1912, killing 1,503 people, is being built for a whole new journey across the Atlantic to set sail in 2018.
38) BandPage has been acquired by Google owned YouTube for a reported $8 million.
39) Tom Hanks is officially America’s favourite Hollywood star.
40) A total of Thirty One countries have signed the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) for the automatic exchange of Country-by-Country reports.
41) Axiata Group Berhad (Axiata) and Bharti Airtel will merge their telecom operations in Bangladesh.
42) Apple Inc has acquired education-technology startup LearnSprout, which creates software for schools and teachers to track students’ performance.
43) WHO declared the Zika virus and its suspected link to birth defects an international public health emergency.
44) The world’s longest three-rope cable car system was inaugurated in Vietnam’s Lao Cai province, with a total length of 6,292.5 metres.
45) The Trans Pacific Partnership, one of the biggest multinational trade deals ever, has been signed by ministers from its 12 member nations in New Zealand.
46) A US Senate Armed Services Committee has confirmed the nomination of General John Nicholson as the commander of the NATO forces in Afghanistan.
47) France has become the first country in the world to ban supermarkets from throwing away or destroying unsold food, forcing them instead to donate it to charities and food banks.
48) Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, has declared a state of disaster in rural areas hit by a severe drought, as more than a quarter of the population face food shortages.
49) North Korea has launched a long-range rocket carrying what it called a satellite, but its neighbours and the United States denounced the launch as a missile test.
50) The United Nations Postal Administration has released six new postage stamps promoting equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender or LGBT people.