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

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

Press Trust of India

Jan 1: Lahore: Pakistan today banned Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed-led Jamaat-ud Dawa and Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation from collecting donations, on a day when President Donald Trump accused Islamabad of giving nothing to the US but "lies and deceit" and providing "safe haven" to terrorists.

Jan 2: Washington: The US-led international sanctions and "other pressures" are beginning to have a big impact on the authoritarian North Korean regime, President Donald Trump said today.

Jan 3: Houston: The much-awaited autopsy report in the death of 3-year-old Sherin Mathews says she died of "homicidal violence," US media reported today, nearly three months after the adopted Indian girl was found dead in a culvert in suburban Dallas.

Jan 4: Islamabad: Pakistan today released yet another video of Indian death row prisoner Kulbhushan Jadhav in which he purportedly says he has not been harmed in custody and also asks why India was "lying" that he was not working for an intelligence agency.

Jan 5: Washington: The US today suspended about USD 2 billion in security aid to Pakistan for failing to clamp down on the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network terror groups and dismantle their safe havens, a White House official said.

Jan 6: Washington: The US is keeping "all options" on the table apart from suspending about USD 2 billion in security aid to Pakistan to put pressure on it to take decisive action against the Taliban and the Haqqani network and eliminate their safe havens, the White House warns.

Jan 7: Beijing: Thirty-two crew members, mostly Iranians, go missing after a tanker carrying oil from Iran to South Korea collided with a cargo ship and caught fire off the coast of east China.

Jan 8: Milan: An Italian appeals court acquits Giuseppe Orsi, the former president of defence and aerospace giant Finmeccanica, over charges of alleged bribes paid in exchange for a Rs 3,600 crore VVIP chopper deal to sell 12 AgustaWestland helicopters to the Indian government.

Jan 9: Washington: In a relief for Indian techies, US authorities say the Trump administration is not considering any proposal that would force H-1B visa holders to leave the country.

Jan 10: Yangon: Myanmar security forces took part in a massacre of 10 Rohingya in September, the army chief's office says, as it admits for the first time abuses during a crackdown that sparked a mass exodus of the Muslim minority.

Jan 11: Quito: Ecuador has granted citizenship to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been sheltering at its London embassy for five years to avoid arrest, Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa announced today.

Jan 12: Washington: US President Donald Trump today decided not to re-impose sanctions on Iran, keeping the 2015 landmark nuclear deal alive, even as his Administration announced another round of tough sanctions on 14 individuals and entities of the Islamic Republic.

Jan 13: Tehran: Iran today rejected any modification of its nuclear deal with world powers after US President Donald Trump demanded tough new measures to keep the agreement alive.

Jan 14: Washington: US President Donald Trump pushes for a merit-based immigration system, saying he wants only those people who can help America become "strong and great again".

Jan 15: Beijing: China hits out at Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat for calling Dokalam a disputed territory and says that his "unconstructive" comments were not helpful for maintaining peace at the borders.

Jan 16: Islamabad: Wracked by terrorism, extremism and sectarianism, Pakistan government today issued a fatwa signed by over 1,800 Islamic scholars from different schools of thought against the use of violence, including suicide bombings, for religious purposes.

Jan 17: Seoul: The two Koreas agreed today to march together under a single flag at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony and field a united women's ice hockey team at the Games in a further sign of easing tensions on the peninsula.

Jan 18: Washington: Donald Trump insists that his view on building a wall along US-Mexico border has not changed and Mexico would pay for it "directly or indirectly", contradicting remarks by his chief of staff that the president's opinion on the barrier has "evolved".

Jan 19: Washington: The US says it has told Islamabad clearly that Hafiz Saeed is a "terrorist" and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, reacting strongly to Pakistan Prime Minister's remarks that there was no case against the Mumbai attack mastermind.

Jan 20: Beijing: China accuses the US of trespassing its territorial waters and warned taking "necessary measures" to firmly safeguard its sovereignty after an American missile destroyer sailed close to a shoal in the disputed South China Sea to assert freedom of navigation.

Jan 21: Kabul, Jan 21 (AP) Security forces said today they had killed the last of six Taliban militants to end an overnight siege at Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel that left at least 18 people dead, including 14 foreigners. Jan 22: Islamabad: Nawaz Sharif's legal woes mount with Pakistan's anti-graft body filing a supplementary case against the ousted premier and his family over properties in London as the probe in the Panama Papers scandal widened. Jan 23: Washington: Claiming a "big win", President Donald Trump sign a bill to end a three-day government shutdown after striking a deal with Democrats to hold a debate on the future of over 700,000 young undocumented immigrants. Jan 24: Washington: Special counsel Robert Mueller wants to question US President Donald Trump on his decisions to fire his national security adviser and the FBI chief, a media report says, days after he interviewed the Attorney General in a probe into whether Russia colluded with the Trump campaign in the 2016 election. Jan 25: Davos: Pakistan today said Kashmir and Rohingya issues are among the "causes of a fractured world" being witnessed today and they also need to be discussed at the international level.

Jan 26: Beijing: The Dokalam standoff has been blown out of proportion but it is important to not change the "status quo" at sensitive points at the India-China border, says Indian Ambassador to China Gautam Bambawale. Jan 27: Kabul: An explosives-packed ambulance blew up in a crowded area of Kabul, killing at least 95 people and wounding 158 others, officials said, in one of the biggest blasts to rock the war-torn city in recent years.

Jan 28: Melbourne: A tearful Roger Federer surged home to beat Marin Cilic in five riveting sets and win his sixth Australian Open and 20th Grand Slam title in Melbourne on Sunday.

Jan 29: London: British Prime Minister Theresa May today convened what is being branded a "war cabinet" meeting as a fresh round of infighting within the ruling Conservative party over Brexit threatened to escalate into a full-blown rebellion.

Jan 30: Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping was today unanimously elected as a deputy to the 13th National People's Congress, the national legislature of China, from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Jan 31: Lahore: The legal woes of Pakistan's ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family mounted when a top court issued notices to them for allegedly committing contempt of court during a rally in Punjab province last week.

(Source PTI)