International Current Affairs June 2015

US President Barack Obama Signed USA Freedom Act 2015 into Law

US President Barack Obama on 2 June signed the USA FREEDOM Act 2015 in law. The USA FREEDOM stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ensuring Effective Discipline Over Monitoring Act of 2015. With this, the National Security Agency (NSA) lost its authority to collect the phone records of millions of Americans.

Ameenah Gurib-Fakim Is First Woman President of Mauritius

Ameenah Gurib-FakimProminent scientist Ameenah Gurib-Fakim was on 5 June sworn in as President of Mauritius. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim is an internationally-renowned scientist and biologist. She replaced Kailash Purryag who stepped down as country’s President on 29 May 2015.

African Leaders Signed 26 Nation Free Trade Agreement

African countries have signed a historic The Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) that facilitates creation of Africa’s largest free-trade zone. This free-trade zone will cover 26 countries in an area from southernmost tip of African continent i.e. Cape Town (South Africa) to Cairo (Egypt) in the north. The agreement was signed on 10 June in Egypt.

Hwang Kyo-ahn Is The New Prime Minister of South Korea

South Korea’s Justice Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn was on 18 June appointed as the country’s new Prime Minister.The National Assembly approved the appointment of Hwang Kyo-ahn by a vote of 156-120.

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International Current Affairs July 2015

Cuba Becomes First Nation To Eliminate Mother-To-Child HIV:

World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced Cuba has become the first country to eliminate the transmission of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and syphilis from mother to baby. Over the past five years, Caribbean countries have had increased access to antiretroviral drugs as part of a regional initiative to eliminate mother-to-child transmission.

Iran and P5+1 Countries Reached Agreement On Iran’s Nuclear Programme

Iran and P5+1 countries comprising of the United States, the United Kingdom (UK), Russia, China, France and Germany on 14 July reached an agreement on the Iran nuclear programme. The agreement called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPA) or Vienna agreement was reached after 17 days of almost uninterrupted negotiations in Vienna (Austria) involving foreign ministers of seven countries.

Japan Pledges $6 billion To Mekong Nations

Japan on 4 July committed 6.1 billion US dollars (750 billion Japanese Yen) in Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Mekong Region countries for the next three years. The decision was taken by Japan during the seventh Mekong-Japan Summit held in Tokyo. The Mekong region countries include Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

Japan’s Lower House Approved Change To Self-defence Law

Lower House of Japan’s Parliament (Diet) on 16 July approved 11 security-related bills that change the self-defence law, which was followed by Japan since World War -II.The change paves the way for the Japanese military to potentially fight abroad for the first time since World War II.

EU approves 7 Billion Euro Short-Term Loan To Greece

The European Union (EU) on 17 July approved a short-term loan of 7.16 billion euros to Greece after it was backed by the 28 member states. This loan will allow Greece to pay its debt to European Central Bank (ECB) and the Inter-national Monetary Fund (IMF) till new bailout plan is ratified. The loan will be given through the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM) which is a rescue fund set up during the first time bailout of Greece in 2010. But presently it covers the whole of the 28 EU member nations and not just the 19 eurozone members.

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