Digest year-ender for international stories for month of August, 2018

Digest year-ender for international stories for month of August, 2018

Press Trust of India

Aug 1: New York: Akshay Venkatesh, a renowned Indian-Australian mathematician, is one of four winners of mathematics' prestigious Fields medal, known as the Nobel prize for math.

Aug 2: San Francisco: Apple has become the world's first publicly traded company to be valued at USD 1 trillion.

Aug 3: Beijing: China today said it will slap additional tariffs on about USD 60 billion worth of American products in retaliation to President Donald Trump's plan to raise duty on USD 200 billion Chinese imports, escalating the trade war between the top two economies of the world.

Aug 4: Sao Paulo/Brasilia: Brazil's leftist Workers' Party nominated its charismatic founder Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for the upcoming presidential contest today despite him being imprisoned for corruption.

Aug 5: Mataram (Indonesia): A major earthquake on the Indonesian holiday island of Lombok killed at least 37 people and injured dozens, officials said today, damaging homes and triggering panic among tourists and locals.

Aug 6: Riyadh: Saudi Arabia said today it was expelling the Canadian ambassador and recalling its envoy while freezing all new trade, in retaliation for Ottawa's vigorous calls for the release of jailed activists.

Aug 7: New York: A US Navy veteran was today awarded three consecutive life sentences on federal hate crime charges for killing Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla and wounding two others at a suburban Kansas City bar last year.

Aug 8: Islamabad: In a major relief to Imran Khan, the Supreme Court today suspended a recount in a National Assembly constituency in Lahore where the cricketer-turned-politician had narrowly defeated his rival in the July 25 general elections.

Aug 9: Yangon: Myanmar said today that a request at the International Criminal Court to probe the mass deportation of Rohingya Muslims from the country was "meritless" and should be rejected.

Aug 10: Islamabad: Indian High Commissioner Ajay Bisaria today called on Pakistan's prime minister-in-waiting Imran Khan and discussed bilateral relations even as he voiced the Indian leadership's concerns over terrorism and cross-border infiltration.

Aug 11: Mataram (Indonesia): An earthquake on the Indonesian island of Lombok has killed 387 people, authorities say, adding hundreds of thousands of displaced people were still short of clean water, food and medicine nearly a week on.

Aug 12: London: V S Naipaul, the Trinidad-born Indian-origin author known for his critical commentary on colonialism, religion and politics, has died at the age of 85, his family says.

Aug 13: Dhaka: Bangladesh's High Court today granted six-month bail to imprisoned former prime minister Khaleda Zia in a defamation case over her "derogatory remarks" about the 1971 Liberation War and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country's first post-independence president and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's father, media reports said.

Aug 14: Istanbul: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Turkey would boycott US electronic goods in retaliation for punitive sanctions by Washington against Ankara over the detention of an American pastor.

Aug 15: Islamabad: Pakistan's newly-elected Parliament today voted an ally of Prime Minister-in-waiting Imran Khan as the Speaker of its lower house, kicking off the process of transition and handing over powers to the new government.

Aug 16: Islamabad: Pakistan will hold presidential elections on September 4 to elect President Mamnoon Hussain's successor at the end of his five-year-tenure, the election commission announced today.

Aug 17: Islamabad: Imran Khan was voted as Pakistan's new prime minister today in a one-sided election in the National Assembly, nearly 22 years after the former cricket hero entered politics, promising to act against those who "looted" the country.

Aug 18: Islamabad: Pakistan's new Prime Minister Imran Khan today announced a 21-member Cabinet, including foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi who held the portfolio during the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

Aug 19: Lahore: Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's candidate Usman Ahmed Khan Buzdar was elected as chief minister of Punjab today, ending the 10-year rule of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party in the country's politically powerful and the most populous province.

Aug 20: Islamabad: Pakistan's new Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi today extended the hand of friendship to India by offering "uninterrupted" dialogue to resolve all the outstanding issues, saying it is the "only wise course" as the two countries cannot afford any "adventurism".

Aug 21: Beijing: El Salvador, one of the 18 countries which has recognised Taiwan as a separate nation, today broke off ties with it and established diplomatic relations with China as Beijing continues to chip away Taiwan's dwindling allies, alluring them with its economic clout.

Aug 22: London: Indians have emerged as the third-largest group affected by the UK's 'Windrush' immigration scandal involving Commonwealth nationals being wrongly denied their citizenship rights in Britain.

Aug 23: Islamabad: Pakistan has "solid evidence" against Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav and is hopeful of winning the case against him at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the country's new Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said today.

Aug 24: Washington/Islamabad: A fresh row has erupted between the US and Pakistan with Islamabad taking exception to a State Department' statement that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed the issue of terrorism with newly-elected Prime Minister Imran Khan while Washington stands by its version.

Aug 25: Islamabad:Pakistan's new government has banned the discretionary use of state funds and first-class air travel by officials and leaders, including the president and the prime minister, as part of its austerity drive. Aug 26: New York: Influential US Senator John McCain, a Vietnam war hero and a towering figure in the American political scene, who turned out to be a prominent critic of President Donald Trump has died following a battle with an aggressive form of brain cancer.

Aug 27: The Hague: Iran today demanded that the UN's top court order the United States to suspend nuclear-linked sanctions against Tehran, but Washington vowed to "vigorously" fend off the legal challenge.

Aug 28: Hanoi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj holds wide-ranging talks with her Vietnamese counterpart Pham Binh Minh and discussed steps to boost bilateral trade, investment, maritime and defence cooperation.

Aug 29: Islamabad: Pakistan's election commission today accepted the nomination papers of the three presidential candidates after the Opposition parties failed to field a joint nominee for the top post, which is now expected to go to Prime Minister Imran Khan's party candidate.

Aug 30: Washington: The Pentagon has ruled out an automatic waiver for India from the punitive US sanctions over its weapons purchase from Russia, saying Washington has concerns over the nearly USD 5 billion missile defence system deal, ahead of the first 2+2 dialogue in New Delhi next week. Aug 31: Manila: Two Indians - one a psychiatrist who works for the mentally-ill street persons and another whose initiative to harness science and culture creatively for economic progress improved the lives of Ladakhi youth - today received this year's Ramon Magsaysay Award.

(Source PTI)