Misc. Test – 08

  1. Pakistan has been mandated to host the World Environment Day on 5th June 2021 in Islamabad. The day would also mark the formal launch of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021 – 2030.

    The fifth session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-5) was scheduled took place virtually on 22 and 23 February 2021. Host: Nairobi, Kenya. 

  2. President Donald Trump on December 16th, 2020 signed the Space Policy Directive-6 (SPD-6), which lays out a national strategy for the responsible and effective use of space nuclear power and propulsion (SNPP) systems.

  3. Pakistan is all set to host the World Tourism Forum in the year 2021. Around 1000 dignitaries mainly from D-8 countries are expected to attend the event.

  4. Niqab was banned in Tunisian government offices in July 2019.

  5. Pakistan will host the Kabaddi World Cup in 2024 and Asia Kabaddi Cup in 2022. Pakistan also won the World Cup 2020.

  6. The seventh Commonwealth Youth Games are set to take place ‪from 1-7 August 2021 in Trinidad and Tobago (the southernmost island country in the Caribbean). Birmingham (England) has been positioned to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games. It will be the third time England has hosted the Games, following on from London in 1934 and more recently Manchester in 2002.

  7. Pakistan will host the South Asian Road Cycling Championship in 2021. The activities of 2021 will begin with the National Track Cycling Championship which will explode into action on March 29. All eight nations of South Asia will field their riders in the event.

  8. The law on Preventing Financing of Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction adopted in Turkey entered into force on 31st December 2020.

  9. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 was passed by the Parliament of India on 11 December 2019. It amended the Citizenship Act, 1955. The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) passed the upper house of parliament, where the BJP lacks a majority, by 125 votes to 105. Under CAA 2019 amendment, migrants of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who entered India by December 31, 2014, and had suffered “religious persecution or fear of religious persecution” in their country of origin, were made eligible for citizenship by the new law.

  10. Australia’s 32-year-old Claire Polosak is also the first woman umpire in men’s ODI and first female umpire in domestic men’s game. In 2019, she officiated the final of World Cricket League (WCL) Division 2 between Namibia and Oman.

  11. The UN declared Pakistani Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai as “the most famous teenager in the world” in its ‘Decade in Review’ report 2020.

  12. The first Global Refugee Forum (GRF), held in Geneva, Switzerland on 17–18 December 2019. Prime Minister Imran Khan represented Pakistan as a co-convener.

  13. Saudi Arabia opened its doors to foreign tourists in September 2019 by a visa regime for 49 countries and relax strict dress codes for female visitors.

  14. During 75th session of the UN General Assembly, Antonio Guterres called the pandemic as ‘the fifth rider of the apocalypse’.

  15. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar was included in BBC’s list of 100 influential women of 2020. Jalila Haider made on the list in 2019. Jalila was also awarded the Inter­national Women of Courage award from the US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo on March 4th, 2020.

  16. The Kartarpur corridor was first proposed in February 1999 when India’s late Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, took his symbolic bus ride from Delhi to Lahore on the inaugural journey of Routemaster 10, intended to provide a way for citizens of India and Pakistan to visit. The bus service was halted the attack on Indian Parliament in 2001.

    This was established in 1522 by Guru Nanak Dev. On 9th November 2019, Prime Minister Imran Khan, inaugurated the Kartarpur corridor at a ceremony that was held in Gurdwara Darbar Sahib complex, Kartarpur and around 12,000 pilgrims were present on this ceremony.  The corridor connects Dera Baba Nanak in Indian Punjab’s Gurdaspur to Kartarpur in Pakistan’s Narowal district.
  17. The United Nations (UN) inter agency group for child mortality produced a report titled “Levels and Trends in Child Mortality” in 2020.

  18. John McCain, of US Republican Party and a Vietnam War veteran, died on August 25th, 2018. He served as a chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He was also the nominee for President of the United States in the 2008 elections. Cause of death‎: ‎Glioblastoma.

  19. South Punjab’s first-ever zigzag brick kiln was made operational in Jahanian, Khanewal in 2018. Pakistan’s second zigzag brick kiln after Lahore.

  20. Pro-Democrats protesters – known as the “Hong Kong 12” by supporters and “separatists” by authorities in China – were caught and arrested at sea in  August 2020  while trying to escape by speedboat to Taiwan.

  21. Hand in Hand 2019 was a joint military exercise between India and China, conducted at Umroi Cantonment, Meghalaya. It is an annual military exercise held under a United Nations mandate. It was conducted between December 7th to December 20th, 2019, with a theme against terrorism.

  22. Pak-Russia joint military exercises Druzhba (friendship) are held every year. The first exercise held on 24th September 2016 in Cherat, Pakistan. Druzhba V – conducted at Tarbela in November 2020. Pakistan had participated in the similar series of exercises called ‘Tsentr 2019’, in Russia last year. 

  23. Taiwan (Yuan Court) is the first ever country in Asia whose constitutional court declared that same -sex couples have right to marry legally in 2019. Costa Rica became the first Central American country to legalize it on May 26th, 2020. The Netherlands became the first country to do in 2001.

  24. The International Democracy Day is observed on September 15th. The 2020 day was under the theme ‘Covid-19: A spotlight on democracy’.

  25. The 2020 theme for the International Day of Peace is “Shaping Peace Together.” It is held on 21 September every year. 

  26. Lee Chong is a former Malaysian badminton player. As a singles player, Lee was ranked first worldwide for 349 weeks, including a 199-week streak from 21 August 2008 to 14 June 2012. Retired: 13 June 2019

  27. Hosni Mubarak was an Egyptian politician and former military officer who served as the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011 for almost 30 years. He died in Cairo at the age of 91 on February 25th, 2020. Mubarak, of National Democratic Party, was ousted after 18 days of demonstrations during the 2011 Egyptian revolution when, on 11 February, Vice President Omar Suleiman announced that Mubarak had resigned as president and transferred authority to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.

  28. The body of Russian-American mountaineer Alex Goldfarb, who went missing on the Pastore Peak 6209-M, was found by a team of Pakistan Army Aviation. Pastore Peak is an easy “trekking peak” located near K2 and Broad Peak base camp.

  29. Every year World Cancer Day is celebrated on 4 February. The theme for World Cancer Day 2021 is ‘I Am and I Will. ‘ It is a multi-year campaign that began in 2019 and this year will mark the last year.

  30. Imran Tahir, the leg-spinner of South Africa,  scripted history by becoming the first-ever spinner to bowl the first over in a World Cup during the opening match of the 2019 World Cup against England at the Oval.

  31. Turkey’s TCG Istanbul (F-515), the country’s first I-class frigate was launched on 23rd January, 2021 as part of the National Ship (MILGEM) project, which was created to build domestically produced warships. The 113-meter-long (43-foot-long) frigate is expected to be delivered to Turkey’s Naval Forces Command (DzKK) in 2023 and will perform advanced air defense, surface warfare, submarine defense warfare and patrol activities.

  32. Australia became the first country in the world to recognise so-called orphanage trafficking as a form of modern-day slavery in 2018.

  33. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency JAXA launched the Lunar Orbit Explorer SELENE (Selenological and Engineering Explorer), better known in Japan by its nickname Kaguya, on September 14th, 2007 from the Tanegashima Space Center.

  34. Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a commemorative World War II medal marking the 75th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany on 5th May, 2020.

  35. Syed Zaheer Abbas is known as ‘the Asian Bradman’. He is the only man from the subcontinent to amass over 100 centuries in First-Class cricket. He became the sixth Pakistan’s cricketer to join the International Cricket Council (ICC) Hall of Fame in August 2020.

  36. The United States on August 16th, 2018 formed the Iran Action Group (IAG) to coordinate and run the state policy towards Iran.

  37. China launched a powerful rocket of the new type Long March 5B into space for the first time on May 5th, 2020. The rocket took off from Wenchang Space Station on the southern Chinese island of Hainan.

  38. In Afghanistan, Vice Presidents are currently elected on the same ticket as the President. A Presidential candidate nominates two candidates for Vice President before the election. The current Vice Presidents are Amrullah Saleh (First Vice President) and Sarwar Danish (Second Vice President).

     

  39. The World Health Organization (WHO) issued its first-ever guidelines on screen time for children younger than five, recommending no time on smartphones in 2019.

  40. The World Health Organization (WHO) on January 13th, 2020 released its report on the Global challenges for 2020, that identified 13 health challenges in this decade.

  41. The United States on 10th January 2020 complained to World Trade Organisation against India for increasing customs duties of 28 American goods in July 2019.

  42. The majority of the Amazon rainforest is contained within Brazil (around 60%) and eight other countries in South America region. 8,550 km2 of forest was destroyed so far in 2020. Although the total so far this year was less than in 2019, October 2020 was 50% greater than in 2019.

  43. The Badr-1, meaning Full Moon-1 in Urdu, was Pakistan’s first indigenously developed and manufactured digital communications and an experimental artificial satellite which was launched into low Earth orbit by Pakistan on 16th July 1990, through a Chinese carrier rocket. Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), the national space agency, was established in 1961 as a Committee and was granted the status of a Commission in 1981.
  44. Prime Minister Imran Khan on August 7th, 2020 launched Rs5-trillion Ravi Riverfront Urban Development Project in Lahore.

  45. The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced USA Cricket was approved as the 93rd Associate Member to become the ICC’s 105th Member, on January 8th, 2019.

  46. The OSCE Minsk Group was created in 1992 by the Conference on Security & Cooperation in Europe to resolve the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. It was co-chaired by France, Russia and the United States but the deal collapsed in 2010. The 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war was an armed conflict was under the code-name “Operation Iron Fist”. The South Caucasus countries are three (Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan).

  47. Spread over 50 acres, Pakistan’s first tea garden is located in Shinkiari (near Mansehra in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) where black and green tea is produced.

  48. Loujain al-Hathloul, one of the most prominent women’s rights activist from Saudi Arabia was released on 10th February, 2021 after spending more than 1000 days in prison. For years, she had challenged the ban on women driving and other legal restrictions in Saudi Arabia. 

  49. Karachi (Rs572.59 bn) is on the top on account of tax collection in the sixth consecutive Tax Directory of Parliamentarians for Tax Year 2018, followed by Islamabad (Rs204.14 bn), Lahore (Rs200.71bn), Rawalpindi (Rs35.17 bn) & Faisalabad (Rs16.26 bn). Sindh stands at top with 44.91pc share.

  50. Sana Mir, who was the first female bowler from Pakistan to take 100 ODI wickets in the ICC’s ODI Bowling Rankings  announced her retirement in April 2020. 

  51. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second female justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, died from pancreatic cancer on September 18th, 2020 at age 87. Ruth is the first woman in the US history to lie in state at the US Capitol in Washington DC. It is the meeting place of the US Congress. President Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett on September 26th, 2020 in her place. Barrett is the youngest Supreme Court nominee since conservative Clarence Thomas, who was 43 in 1991.

  52. The ICC and UNICEF partnership commenced in 2015, as part of the ICC’s global community outreach programme ‘Cricket 4 Good’. The partnership and public donations continue to bring positive change to children through the programmes in cricket playing nations focused on empowering women and girls in cricket.

  53. Pak-American chef Fatima Ali died on January 25th, 2019 after losing a long battle with cancer. She was laid her to rest in the Bagh-i-Rehmat graveyard, Bedian Road in Lahore.

  54. On 24th September, the World Maritime Day was observed under the theme for 2020: ‘Sustainable shipping for a sustainable planet’.

  55. The World Tourism Day is observed on 27th September. The theme for the year 2020 is: ‘Tourism and Rural Development’.

  56. The 12th BRICS Summit was hosted by Russia, under the theme “Global Stability, Shared Security and Innovative Growth” on 17th November 2020. The meeting will be held in a virtual format. Five member states are: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

  57. The Alliance for Multilateralism, launched on 2nd April 2019 by the French and German Foreign Ministers.

  58. The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres paid his first official visit to Pakistan from February 16th to 19th, 2020. He addressed the Int’l Conference on 40 Years of Hosting Afghan Refugees in Pakistan: A New Partnership for Solidarity on February 17th, 2020 in Islamabad.

  59. Around 10 militants were involved in the Mumbai Terror Attacks launched on November 26th, 2008. Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, suspected Mumbai attack leader, jailed in Pakistan on 8 January, 2021.

  60. The 2021 AIBA World Boxing Championships are going to be held from 10th April to 24th April 2021 in Belgrade, Serbia. This is the Second time, this event will take place in Belgrade. After India didn’t fulfill its obligations to pay host fee.

  61. The 13th edition of the men’s Cricket World Cup, scheduled to be hosted by India from 9th February to 26th March 2023. 

  62. Chang’e No. 4 is a robotic spacecraft mission, part of the second phase of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program. China achieved humanity’s first soft landing on the far side of the Moon, on 3rd January 2019. This landed on the moon’s far (dark) side. 

  63. An estimated 14,161 babies were born in Pakistan on New Year’s Day of 2021, according to UNICEF. More than 371,500 babies were born worldwide on New Year’s Day and India is estimated to have recorded the highest number of births at around 60,000. Fiji in the Pacific was projected to have welcomed 2021’s first baby while the United States would welcome its last.

  64. Singapore’s most popular attractions, hawker food culture, was designated an Intangible Cultural Heritage by the Unesco in December 24th, 2020.

  65. Japan on January 13, 2021 formally agreed to participate in the lunar-orbiting Gateway space station that is part of NASA’s Artemis program to return astronauts to the Moon. 

  66. German Ambassador Bernhard Schlagheck and Federal Minister of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) Sahibzada Muhammad Mehboob Sultan inaugurated the ‘Urban Cohesion Hub’ in Rawalpindi on 15th February, 2021.’

  67. Pakistan will host the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) International Squash in April 2021.

  68. Prime Minister Imran Khan opened the 14th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) that will be held virtually on 4th March, 2021. The theme of the Summit was “Regional Economic Cooperation in the Aftermath of COVID-19”. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan chaired the summit.

  69. Kernowite is a mineral which was first described in 2020. This was collected at a single location in Cornwall, UK and named after it. 

  70. The Republic of Korea and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on March 1st, 2021 donated six hundred thousand (600,000) medical masks to the Government of Pakistan as a donation for distribution among Afghan refugees.

  71.  The Davis Cup, the tennis equivalent of the football World Cup, was named after American collegian Dwight Filley Davis, who came up with the idea to start a challenge tennis match between the USA and Great Britain. First played in 1900, it was originally called the International Lawn Tennis Trophy. In 2019 on 24th of November Canada was defeated by Spain by 2-0, making Spain the first country to win the Davis Cup with the new format. The 2020 Davis Cup by Rakuten Madrid Finals are to take place in Madrid in the 22nd November 2021.

  72. Pakistan hosted the first SAARC Planning Ministers meeting dedicated to the theme, ‘Shaping SAARC Vision 2030’ which was scheduled virtually on November 25th, 2020.

  73. The ‘Global Trends Report of 2020’ of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that, Turkey hosted the highest number of refugees, 3.9 million, most of whom were Syrian refugees (92%). Colombia followed, hosting nearly 1.8 million displaced Venezuelans. Germany hosted the third-largest number, almost 1.5 million, with Syrian refugees (42%) Pakistan and Uganda are the 4th and 5th.

  74. Toni Morrison, the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (1993) died on 5 August, 2019 at the age 88. Toni Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award in 1988 for her 1987 novel ‘Beloved’.

  75. The North African country’s first democratically elected leader, Beji Caid Essebsi became the first president to be elected by universal suffrage after the Revolution in 2011, on 21 December 2014. On 31st December 2014, he took office as the fourth president of Tunisia, and the first to be freely elected. He died on 25th July 2019 at the age of 92, and was succeeded by Mohamed Ennaceur as an Interim President. Essebsi in 2012 founded the secular-leaning Nidaa Tounes (Call of Tunis) party.

  76. Former Foreign Minister of Pakistan and a diplomat Abdul Sattar died on June 23, 2019 at the age of 88. Besides serving as foreign minister for two consecutive terms – in 1993 (as caretaker).

  77. Stanley Albert Wolpert – an America historian, professor and author of Jinnah of Pakistan – died in California on February 19th, 2019 at the age of 91.

  78. The first ever image of a black hole captured on 10th April, 2019 by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a network of eight linked telescopes. The black hole was found in a galaxy called M87 – was rendered by Dr Katie Bouman’s algorithm. She graduated in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States.

  79. The World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020, declared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak a global pandemic.

  80. On January 26th, 2020, Britain unveiled the new 50 pence coin to mark the country’s departure from the European Union (EU). The coin was inscribed with a quote from Thomas Jefferson,“Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations” and the Brexit date of, 31st January 2020.

  81. Kristalina Georgieva, from Bulgaria, has been Managing Director and Chairman of the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund from October 1st, 2019. Georgieva was CEO of the World Bank from January 2017 to September 2019. Chief Economist: Gita Gopinath.

  82. The Rugby World Cup 2021 is set to be postponed until next year following a recommendation by governing body World Rugby. The tournament is currently scheduled to be held in New Zealand between 18th September and 16th October.

  83. ‘They’, the word was chosen by US linguists as their “Word of the Decade” on January 3rd, 2020.

  84. Bangladesh upgraded a 200-year old colonial era breakfast menu in all prisons on June 16th, 2019 as part of a reform of the penal system.

  85. Mikhail Vladimirovich Mishustin is a Russian politician and economist serving as Prime Minister of Russia since 16th January 2020. He previously served as Director of the Federal Taxation Service from 2010 to 2020.

  86. Switzerland minted the world’s smallest gold coin of 2.96 millimeter (0.12 inches), that features a face of scientist Albert Einstein sticking out his tongue on January 23rd, 2020.

  87. Renowned radio and television anchor Tariq Aziz passed away in Lahore on June 17th, 2020. He was 84. Aziz was born in Jalandhar on April 28, 1936. He started his career with Radio Pakistan in the 1960s and later went on to become Pakistan’s first television host. His programme Neelam Ghar — later named Tariq Aziz Show — started in 1974.

  88. Pakistan will host the 48th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in 2021. The last session was held in Niger in November 2020. 

  89. Afghan leader Ustad Karim Khalili arrived in Pakistan for a three-day trip from January 11 till January 13, 2021. Karim is the current chairman of the Afghan High Peace Council, who served as Vice President of Afghanistan from 2004 to 2014, in the administration of President Hamid Karzai.

  90. United Nations (UN) World Humanitarian Day is marked on August 19 . It is the anniversary of the 2003 Canal Hotel bombing in Baghdad where twenty-two people lost their lives including, UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello.

  91. The Pakistan Army carried out the ‘Zarb-e-Hadeed’ exercise in Bahawalpur city of Punjab province (as of March 4th, 2021).

  92. The 4th International Pakistan Army Team Spirit Competition-2021 is underway at National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) near Kharian (as of March 4th, 2021).

  93. Pakistan has emerged as one of the most sought-after tourist destinations over the past few years. Pakistan has topped several international travel lists such as Forbes’ “The 10 coolest places to go in 2019” and Conde Nast’s “best holiday destination in 2020”.

  94. Pakistan and India on 25th February 2021 recommitted themselves to the 2003 ceasefire arrangement at the Line of Control. 

  95. An American Centrist Republican Richard Lugar, a foreign policy expert who championed nuclear nonproliferation during 36 years in the US Senate, died on 28th April, 2019 at age 87.

  96. A no-confidence vote against Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani was held on 1st August, 2019. Senator Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif chaired the session. The final vote count was 50 votes in favour of the motion, five votes rejected, and 45 cast against.

  97. Three EU countries (Germany, France and the UK) set up a payment channel with Iran called INSTEX (Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges) in order to continue trade and circumvent US sanctions in January 2019.

  98. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who is nearing the end of his second four-year tenure, will leave office in early August. His replacement will be decided in an election set for June 18, 2021. Political party: Moderation and Development Party (1999–present).

  99. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced first presidential elections in 15 years to take place on July 31st, 2021. Abbas is a member of the Fatah party and was elected chairman of Fatah in 2009.

  100. The 60th National Amateur Golf Championship held in Karachi marked a new chapter in history as for the first time, a 16-year-old, Omar Khalid became the champion. After the final round on January 3rd, 2021, Khalid won with a total score of 292.