CSSForum.com.

pk
Content Copyright jWorldTimes.com

Jahangir World Times

Published: April 2014

World in Focus (Feb-Mar 2014)

News From National & International Press
Quest for Quality Education
Tuesday, April 01, 2014

National
Feb 16: A militant outfit, Mohmand Agency Taliban, claimed to have killed 23 FC soldiers
they had kidnapped from Shongari checkpost in the tribal region in 2010.
Feb 16: Clean Water Trust, for providing clean and hygienic drinking water to people across
the Punjab, was formed with Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar as its chairman.
Feb 17: In a joint declaration, issued at the conclusion of Saudi Crown Prince Salman bin
Abdul Aziz Al Saud's three-day visit to Pakistan, both countries announced a common regional
view which signified growing centrality of Riyadh in Islamabad's foreign and security policies.
Feb 17: An Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Abdul Rageeb, who also served as a minister during
the 1996-2001 Taliban rule in Afghanistan, was gunned down in Peshawar.
Feb 18: Former military ruler retired Gen Pervez Musharraf finally appeared before the Special
Court.
Feb 18: Leading Pakistani journalist Sidra Iqbal received an award for her achievements in
Journalism at the 4th Annual GR8! Women Awards 2014.
Feb 20: Dozens of militants were killed as air force jets and army's helicopter gunships carried

out punitive strikes against terrorist hideouts in North Waziristan and Khyber Agency.
Feb 20: Leaders of nine political parties pledged commitment to ensure 100 per cent school
enrolment in Sindh at a conference held by an education advocacy group, Alif Ailaan.
Feb 21: The Special Court rejected a plea of former president retired General Pervez Musharraf
for transferring his high treason trial to a military court.
Feb 23: Military planes pounded bases and hideouts of militants in Tirah valley of Khyber
Agency and killed at least 30 fighters of banned organisations.
Feb 23: Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) and MCR (Pvt) Ltd; Franchise of
international food chain of Pizza Hut, Burger King and TGIF for the territory of Pakistan,
signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to impart vocational training to the BISP
beneficiaries and to provide trained labour work force to the food industry.
Feb 24: Senior Taliban leader Asmatullah Shaheen Bhittani and his two guards and driver were
shot dead in North Waziristan.
Feb 25: The federal cabinet approved the much-awaited and talked-about national security
policy.
Feb 25: The Peshawar High Court ruled that a campaign by activists of PTI and its allied
parties to stop and check trucks and containers taking goods to Afghanistan was illegal and
unconstitutional.
Feb 25: Pakistan showed insufficient progress towards Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) as the newborn mortality rate has merely reduced from 52 deaths per 1,000 live births in
1990 to 42 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2012.
Feb 25: The civil society organisations Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO),
Aurat Foundation, and South Asia Partnership (SAP-PK) and Sungi Development Foundation
jointly launched an initiative to nurture and strengthen democratic processes at the grassroots
level.
Feb 25: University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) observed World Spay Day to
create awareness about controlling the increasing population of dogs.
Feb 27: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf decided to end its nearly four-month blockade of Nato
supplies to Afghanistan.
Feb 28: The country's economy grew by five per cent during the first quarter of the current
fiscal year, but the State Bank believes that the full year growth will remain between three and four
per cent.

Feb 28: The Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) completed 130MW Duber
Khwar hydropower project.
March 01: The banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) announced a month-long unilateral
ceasefire.
March 01: Pakistan's last direct air link with Central Asian states was broken after Uzbekistan
Airways suspended its Lahore operation. No other airline, in Pakistan, is operating direct flights to
and from any of the Central Asian states.
March 01: The USAID inaugurated the Public Policy Research and Resource Centre at the
Forman Christian College (FCC) to provide support to all those interested in issues of
governance and public policy in Punjab.
March 02: After TTP's unilateral ceasefire, the government also halted air strikes on militant
hideouts. But it warned the TTP that troops would retaliate if a terrorist attack took place in any
part of the country during the truce.
March 02: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif approved a plan for revival of Pakistan International
Airlines (PIA), aimed at bringing the national flag-carrier to a break-even level within a year, by
increasing revenue and taking cost-cutting measures.
Under the plan, 20 new generation, narrow-bodied and fuel-efficient planes will be inducted
into the fleet with Airbus 320 and Boeing 737 as the preferred options, besides getting four
Boeing 777 and then same number of ATR 72-500 aircraft on 'dry lease'.
March 02: The Baloch Culture Day was observed across the country.
March 03: The capital city faced the onslaught in form of a gun-and-bomb attack on the district
courts in the heart of Islamabad that left 11 people, including a district and sessions judge, dead.
March 05: The National Assembly passed the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (Amendment)
Bill, 2013 which envisages inclusion of Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court as ex-officio
member of the commission.
March 06: It was revealed that most areas of Sindh's Tharparkar district are facing a
faminelike situation and at least 32 malnourished children have died. About 175,000 families
are reported to have been affected.
March 06: The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved four
projects in irrigation and power sectors, to be completed at a cost of Rs. 67.36 billion including the
first phase of the Kurram Tangi multi-purpose dam project in North Waziristan at a reduced cost of
Rs12.66 billion.
March 06: In order to facilitate public complaints against any aspect of broadcast media or

cable TV operators, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) set up a 24/7
Complaint Call Centre (0800-73672).
March 07: Japan and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) signed an agreement to
procure vaccination with the grant of $3.7 million for eradicating polio from Pakistan.
Japan and Unicef will boost up the global eradication effort in one of the last strongholds of
polio virus in the world.
March 08: While addressing a function held in connection with International Women's Day at
Aiwan-e-Iqbal in Lahore, Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif announced the
regularisation of lady health workers. The chief minister announced that: a comprehensive
package for legal reforms to bring women into the mainstream would be announced soon.
the Punjab government will distribute 200,000 more laptops worth Rs.8 billion among talented
students.
Child Marriage Act, Dowry and Gift to the Bride Act, Marriage Functions Atc, Guardian and
Ward Act, Married Certificate, Punjab Land Revenue Act and the law regarding distribution of
assets were being amended by Punjab government.
A provincial commission on women has been set up in Punjab and its chairperson has also been
appointed.
The government is also introducing a comprehensive policy regarding domestic servants
registration fee on birth certificate would be abolished; due to which registration of female
children will be encouraged.
Only women contractors would be able to operate canteens in women educational institutions
representation of women as office-bearers will be essential for trade unions.
March 10: Maulana Mohammad Khan Sheerani, chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology
(CII), said that the laws regarding second marriage of a man in the presence of first wife were
against religious principles.
March 11: The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) ruled that laws setting the minimum age of
marriage are un-Islamic and said that an adolescent of any age can be married on attaining
puberty.
March 11: The government of Sindh made several administrative changes in the wake of
reports of death of over 100 children in drought-hit Thar and criticism of the government's
perceived failure to take timely action to contain the crisis.
March 12: The government formed a new committee, comprising three serving bureaucrats and a
former one, to begin work for holding dialogue with militants.

March 14: The Special Court seized with treason trial of former president retired Gen Pervez
Musharraf directed the government to arrest and produce him if he refused to appear before it on
his own.
March 14: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Minister Shaukat Ali Yousafzai announced
autonomous status for all district headquarters hospitals of the province.
March 15: A tribal area authority upheld the conviction of Dr Shakil Afridi, the doctor accused of
having colluded with the American CIA in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, but reduced the
sentence awarded to him by an assistant political agent (APA) from 33 years to 23 years
imprisonment.
March 15: Ayaz Latif Palijo helped conclude a ceasefire between the two warring gangs of
Lyari. A peace committee was also formed under a newly-signed declaration.
March 15: The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved the
Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro Bus Service Project which also involves the construction of the
Peshawar Mor Interchange at a cost of Rs23.83 billion.

Appointments & Transfers

Feb 17: Pakistan appointed Abdul Basit as Pakistan's High Commissioner to India; after the
receipt of Mr Basit's agrment; diplomatic acceptance of the appointment by the host country.
Feb 23: The government appointed Hassan Raza as new high commissioner to Malaysia.
Earlier, Raza was working as Pakistans ambassador to Qatar.
March 12: The government appointed Dr Joseph Wilson as the acting Chairman of the
Competition Commission of Pakistan.
The decision followed the exclusion of the CCP from the purview of the federal commission for the
selection of heads.

Education
Feb 24: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government approved establishment of two universities
Air University and Technical University in Azakhel area of Nowshera.
March 01: The Punjab government appointed Dr Muhammad Zareef as Chairman BISE
Rawalpindi; Muhammad Aslam as Chairman BISE Gujranwala; Ghulam Muhammad as
Chairman BISE Faisalabad; and Dr Anwaar Ahmad as Chairman BISE Sahiwal.
March 15: The Balochistan University's Khuzdar campus started functioning.

Sports
Feb 16: Lahore Lions retained their Faysal Bank T20 Cup crown after winning final against
Faisalabad Wolves.
Feb 16: MPA Nadir Magsi, a former Sindh minister, retained his title after winning the ninth
Cholistan Jeep Rally near Derawar Fort, about 75km from Bahawalpur, after covering the
215km distance in 2.15 hours.
Feb 16: Pakistan's Hamza Amin won a slot in the Asian Golf Tour bringing the country's golf in
the forefront. Hamza succeeded in winning the tour card after he finished 8th out of 700
contestants, in the Asia Tour Qualifying School final stage.
Feb 17: Retired Lt Gen Syed Arif Hasan was elected as president of the Pakistan Archery
Federation in place of Raja Ishtiaqullah Khan.
Feb 19: Pakistan's Imam-ul-Haq recorded the highest-ever individual score for Pakistan in
Under-19 World Cup by making 133 off 137 balls with 13 fours and one six against Scotland at
Dubai.
Feb 20: Mohammad Majid Ali of Punjab captured his maiden national junior under-21 snooker
title after outplaying Sindh's Mohammad Haris Nadeem.
Feb 23: Pakistan blind cricket team snatched a four-wicket victory over visiting India at the
National Stadium to clinch the series 2-1.
Feb 26: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) appointed former Test captain/wicketkeeper Rashid
Latif as chief selector for an indefinite period.
Feb 26: Spirited Pakistan youth created 9 Guinness World Records (GWR) at Sports Board
Punjab (SBP) Gymnasium Hall, with army officials and some civilians setting new marks of
agility, fitness and dedication.
Feb 28: Pakistan's amazing youth, under the banner of Punjab Youth Festival, established 10
more Guinness Book World Records.
March 01: Pakistan's tennis ace Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and his Indian partner Rohan Bopanna
defeated Canada's Daniel Nestor and Serbian Nenad Zimonjic in the Dubai Open final.
March 02: The Pakistan Derby 2014 Cup was lifted by Irfan Mehdi's four years old colt The
Incredible under Jockey Bilal Ahmad at Lahore Race Club.
March 02: M. Shabbir's grip on the game of golf earned him the inaugural JA Zaman Golf title.
March 04: Shahid Afridi and Fawad Alam stunned thousands of Banglasehi cricket fans by

bludgeoning half-centuries and blasting defending champion Pakistan into the Asia Cup final
with a record rundown win against the hosts.
Bangladesh posted 326-3, its highest score in one-day internationals, but couldn't prevent
Pakistan from achieving its biggest run chase in one-day internationals, reaching 329-7 with a
ball to spare.
Pakistan's previous best run chase in a one-day was 322-6 against India at Mohali in 2007.
March 06: Syed Fakhar Ali Shah and Mazhar Ahmad were elected as president and Secretary
General of the Punjab Baseball Association (PBA), respectively.
March 08: Pakistan No. 1 Aqeel Khan lifted Ch Rehmat Ali Memorial PTF National Ranking
Tennis Championships men's singles title.
March 10: Mohammad Asif Toba beat defending champion Hamza Akbar in the final of
Jubilee Insurance 39th National Snooker Championship to win maiden title of his career.
March 10: Shahzad and Fahad Naseem Butt were adjudged Mr South Asia and Junior Mr
South Asia respectively.
As both the individual titles were won by the men in green, Pakistan, obtaining 49 points, also
won the South Asian Bodybuilding Championship that concluded here at Al-Hamrah. Pakistan
claimed four gold medals, eight silver and eight bronze medals to win the event while
Afghanistan clinched three gold medals and Nepal earned two gold medals.

Obituaries
Feb 16: Mirza Khan, one of the last surviving sepoys from World War II in Pakistan, expired
on 5th February 2014, almost a 100 years of age.
Feb 18: TV and film comedy actor Munir Zarif passed away in Lahore. He was 75.
Feb 18: Veteran volleyball official Allama Ghulam Hasan, who was also vice-president of the
Pakistan Volleyball Federation (PVF) passed away.
Feb 20: A well-known journalist, chief editor of daily Balochistan Times and daily Zamana
Quetta, publisher, former president of APNS and CPNE and a former senator, Syed Fasih Iqbal,
passed away after a brief illness.
Feb 21: Founder of the ARY Group, Haji Abdul Razzak Yaqoob, better known as ARY, died in
London. He was 69.
Feb 22: Veteran film writer, director and lyricist Aziz Meeruthi passed away in Lahore. He was
90.
Feb 24: Former interior minister Gen (retd) Hamid Nawaz passed away.

March 07: Haji Altaf Hussain Unar, a renowned political figure of Larkana, passed away at the
age of 55.
March 11: PTI senior vice president Iftikhar Durrani of Nowshera died in a traffic accident.

Economy
Feb 17: Pakistan and the European Union signed a 'declaratory statement' for a 100 million
euros credit to co-finance the 128MW Keyal Khwar hydropower project to be built on the right
tributary of the Indus River in Dasu district in next four years.
Economic Affairs Division Secretary Nargis Sethi and Vice President of the European
Investment Bank (EIB), Magdalena Alvarez Arza, signed the agreement.
Feb 17: Getz Pharma's Quality Control Lab achieved WHO pre-qualification certification to
become the first Pakistani company to have the certification.
Feb 18: Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan signed a series of agreements with
the World Bank to facilitate the transfer of surplus electricity from Central to South Asia.
Feb 20: Pakistan and China signed an agreement of early harvest projects in the economic
corridor under which Beijing will provide more than $20 billion for projects to generate over
20,000MW of electricity and other crucial infrastructure projects.
Feb 23: Pakistan and Afghanistan Joint Economic Commission (JEC) agreed to enhance
bilateral trade and economic cooperation during a meeting in Kabul.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar led the Pakistan's delegation while the Afghan side was headed by his
Afghan counterpart Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal.
Feb 24: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) launched a strategic plan to augment the growth of
Islamic banking industry in the next five years. The strategic plan 2014-2018 aims at setting a
direction for the industry, which is to be pursued in said period.
Feb 25: MCB launched Pakistan's first Purchasing Manager Index (PMI), a system based on
five major indicators: new orders, production, employment, supplier deliveries and inventories.
March 05: The Arab National Construction (ANC) Holdings of Dubai signed a memorandum of
understanding (MoU), at Islamabad, with the government to set up two coal-based power projects
at Gadani, a jetty for coal import and a transmission line to add 1,320 megawatts of electricity to
national grid at an investment of $2.5 billion.
March 11: The rising rupee finally brought the US dollar below the Rs100 mark, setting a new
record for the currency's depreciation in the country.
March 12: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) notified a 22-member tax advisory council to

deliberate upon new tax measures for extending the narrow tax base. The Finance Minister
Ishaq Dar approved the formation of the council.
March 15: The State Bank kept its policy rate unchanged at 10 per cent for next two months.
Unveiling the monetary policy, the bank noted an improvement in key indicators, but also
warned that the economy was still be facing serious challenges, and suggested a proactive policy
effort was required to maintain the momentum.

International
Feb 16: Powerful cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, leader of a major political movement and a key figure
in post-Saddam Iraq, announced his exit from politics.
Feb 16: Indigenous communities in Canada will be given control over the education system on
their reserves under an agreement signed between the Canadian government and the Assembly
of First Nations, a national advocacy organization representing Canada's indigenous citizens.
Feb 17: Iran's largest private bank, Bank Mellat, announced suing the British government for
almost $4 billion in damages to compensate for the significant pecuniary loss, after the
Supreme Court quashed sanctions imposed against it over alleged links to Tehran's nuclear
programme.
Feb 17: The force of Gravity was strong at the British Academy Film Awards but it was
unflinching drama 12 Years a Slave that took the top prize.
Steve McQueen's visceral, violent story of a free black man kidnapped into servitude in the 19th
century US South was named best picture. Its star, Chiwetel Ejiofor, took the male acting
trophy.
Feb 18: India's Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice P. Sathasivam, spared three killers of
Rajiv Gandhi, former prime minister of India, from the hangman's noose, citing delays in the case
23 years after his assassination by a Tamil suicide bomber.
Feb 19: J. Jayalalithaa, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, ordered the release of all seven people
jailed for plotting the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Feb 20: India's parliament approved a plan to create 29th state; following days of political
mayhem.
Feb 20: A group of 82 elderly and frail South Koreans held an emotional reunion with family
members in North Korea, more than 60 years after they were separated by the Korean War.
Feb 21: The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan and Nissan are partnering on electric cars, with the
Japanese automaker's Leaf being chosen for the government fleet and taxis.
Under the deal, Nissan will help Bhutan achieve its goal of becoming a zero-emissions nation.

Feb 21: Ukraine's embattled leader signed a deal with the opposition in a bid to end the
exSoviet country's worst crisis since independence.
Feb 21: Indonesia instituted the world's biggest manta ray sanctuary covering millions of square
kilometres as it seeks to protect the huge winged fish and draw more tourists to the sprawling
archipelago.
New legislation gives full protection to the creatures across all the waters surrounding Southeast
Asia's biggest country, which for years has been the world's largest ray and shark fishery.
Feb 21: India's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) got a shot in the arm when Pakistan-friendly
Rajmohan Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, joined it.
Feb 21: US District Judge William Martini in Newark, New Jersey, threw out a lawsuit by
ruling that New York City's secret police surveillance of mosques, Muslim businesses and a
Muslim student group in New Jersey did not violate the US Constitution.
Feb 22: The UN Security Council adopted a unanimous resolution calling for lifting of the
siege on several Syrian cities to allow passage of humanitarian aid convoys in the war-torn
country.
Feb 24: Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel proposed shrinking the US Army, closing military
bases and making other military-wide savings as part of a broad reshaping of priorities after
more than a decade of war.
Feb 24: Philippine security forces arrested a key member of the country's main Muslim rebel
group, potentially undermining a peace deal aimed at ending a decades-long insurgency.
Feb 24: Iran signed a deal to sell Iraq arms and ammunition worth $195 million - a move that
would break a UN embargo on weapons sales by Tehran.
Feb 26: Turkey's President Abdullah Gul signed into law a contested bill tightening the
government's grip on the judiciary as it grapples to contain the fallout from a major corruption
probe.
Feb 26: A US appeals court ordered Google Inc., to remove from its YouTube video-sharing
website an anti-Islam film that had sparked protests across the Muslim world in 2012.
Feb 27: Ukraine issued a blunt warning to Russia after pro-Kremlin men in combat fatigues
seized parliament and government buildings on the volatile Crimean peninsula.
March 01: Me, Myself and Mum, a comedy about a young man who worships his mother and
whose entire family treats him as a girl since childhood swept five trophies at the French Cesar
awards ceremony, including Best Film and Best Actor.

March 01: Twenty-seven people were confirmed dead and 109 others injured in a railway
station attack by unidentified knife wielding people in southwest Chinese city of Kunming. It
was an organised, premeditated violent terrorist attack according to the authorities.
March 01: US lawmakers announced a caucus to fight for the rights of the Ahmadi community.
Republican Representative Frank Wolf, the co-chair with Democrat Jackie Speier, said the
Ahmadiyya Caucus would press for the rights of Ahmadis in trouble in Pakistan, Indonesia, Saudi
Arabia and elsewhere.
March 01: Russia's parliament granted President Vladimir Putin permission to use the country's
military in Ukraine and also recommended that Moscow's ambassador be recalled from
Washington over comments made by President Barack Obama.
March 01: A US appeals court rejected Google's request to put on hold an order requiring the
company to remove an anti-Islamic video from YouTube. The order came from the 9th US
Circuit Court of Appeal in San Francisco.
March 02: At least 74 people were killed in three weekend attacks in Nigeria's restive
northeast, the epicentre of the Boko Haram insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives since
2009.
March 02: Ukraine mobilised for war and Washington threatened to isolate Russia
economically, after President Vladimir Putin declared he had the right to invade his neighbour in
Moscow's biggest confrontation with the West since the cold war.
March 02: Twelve Afghan Taliban escaped from the 1,200-inmate Kandahar Prison after a jail
employee falsely put their names on a list of detainees who were scheduled for release.
Two of the 12 were later recaptured.
March 03: Harrowing historical drama 12 Years a Slave won the coveted best picture Oscar,
while 3D space thriller Gravity was the top winner at the Academy Awards with seven
Oscars.
March 03: The surging price of Microsoft shares returned US tech tycoon Bill Gates back to
the top of Forbes's world's billionaires list, with his $76bn beating out Mexico's Carlos Slim's
$72bn.
The annual list counted 1,645 men and women as billionaires, with an average wealth of $4.5bn and
a collective wealth of $6.4 trillion, up $1 trillion from a year ago.
March 04: US whistleblower Edward Snowden, Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai and
Russian President Vladimir Putin are among the nominees for this year's Nobel Peace Prize, as the
Nobel Institute announced a record 278 candidates.
March 05: Three Gulf monarchies, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain,

recalled their ambassadors from Doha in an unprecedented escalation in tension with fellow
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member Qatar, accused of backing the widely banned Muslim
Brotherhood.
March 05: India announced a nine-stage election from April 7 that will invite 814 million
voters to send 543 deputies to the 16th Lok Sabha.
March 05: Swami Vivekanada Subharti University in Meerut suspended 67 Kashmiri students
for apparently cheering Pakistan during the India-Pak match in the Asia Cup.
March 06: An Iraq-based militant group, named the Ansar al-Islam released a video of its new
training camp, which is named after the Lal Masjid's Abdul Rasheed Ghazi. They have also
apparently named a subdivision of their group after the Lal Masjid's controversial cleric.
March 06: Lawmakers in Crimea voted to join Russia, escalating tensions in Ukraine as the new
government in Kiev said it wanted to sign an EU agreement as soon as possible and the US
announced sanctions to punish Moscow.
The motion was passed by 78 out of 86 MPs in favour.
March 06: Turkey's constitutional court ruled that the legal rights of a former army chief, Ilker
Basbug, jailed over an alleged coup plot had been violated, a decision that paves the way for his
release.
March 06: The 67 Kashmiri students from Swami Vivekanand Subharti University who had
cheered Pakistan when it beat India in an Asia Cup match were freed from sedition charges as
withering criticism of the move forced the Uttar Pradesh (UP) government to intervene in the matter.

March 06: Harvard University again topped world university rankings pushing down
Cambridge and Oxford University to fourth and fifth positions respectively.
Harvard University is followed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology at second and
Stanford University at the third rank respectively, according to this year's Times Higher
Education World Reputation.
The top 10 universities are:
1. Harvard University
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3. Stanford University
4. University of Cambridge
5. University of Oxford
6. University of California, Berkley
7. Princeton University
8. Yale University
9. California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
10. University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

March 07: The International Criminal Court convicted a rebel leader Germain Katanga of
charges including murder and pillage over a deadly attack on a village in eastern Congo, but
acquitted him of rape, sexual slavery and using child soldiers.
March 07: Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's acquittal on sodomy charges was
overturned, in a fresh threat to the career of a charismatic politician who helped turn around the
country's once-hapless opposition.
March 07: Saudi Arabia listed the Muslim Brotherhood and two Syrian jihadi groups as
terrorist organisations, and ordered citizens fighting abroad to return within 15 days or face
imprisonment.
March 08: Iran's modern-learning president strongly criticized hard-line judicial officials for
ordering reformist newspapers shut down.
March 08: Egypt's interim president issued a decree that governs upcoming presidential election,
clearing the way for the vote that many expect the country's military chief to take part in and win.

March 09: A Canadian freelance photographer Ali Moustafa was killed in the Syrian city of
Aleppo after a crude bomb exploded.
March 09: Saudi and Emirati pundits quit major media outlets in Qatar, including the
broadcaster of top-flight European football as tensions soar between Doha and Gulf states.
March 11: Croatia's ex-prime minister Ivo Sanader was found guilty of embezzling millions of
euros in public funds while in power and was sentenced to nine years in jail.
March 11: Lawmakers on the flashpoint Crimean peninsula voted for independence from
Ukraine ahead of a referendum on joining Russia.
March 12: The share of seats held by women in parliaments around the world rose 1.5
percentage points in the past year to a record 21.8 per cent, almost doubling since 1995, a study by
the Inter-Parliamentary Union and UN Women showed.
March 14: Officials from the EU, United States, Japan, Philippines, Colombia and Indonesia,
some of the world's top fishing powers, signed a declaration in Greece to promote sustainable
management of fish stocks.
The signatories pledged to support measures to address fishing overcapacity. These include
developing international fishing vessel records, limiting the number of licenses and vessel
tonnage and eliminating fisheries subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing.
March 14: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry
utterly failed to defuse the crisis over Ukraine, ending up at loggerheads following tense talks
over the worst East-West clash since the Cold War.

March 15: Russia vetoed a Western-backed resolution condemning the Crimea referendum at a
UN Security Council emergency vote, but China abstained, isolating Moscow further on the
Ukraine crisis.
March 15: A New York grand jury re-indicted Devyani Khobragade, an Indian diplomat,
accused of mistreating her housekeeper on two counts of visa fraud and making false
statements, threatening to reignite a bitter row with New Delhi.
Feb 27: NASA confirmed 715 newly discovered planets outside the solar system. It's a major
step towards the planet-hunting Kepler telescope's ultimate goal: 'finding Earth 2'.

Appointments & Resignations

Feb 17: India's President Pranab Mukherjee imposed President's rule in Delhi and accepted the
Arvind Kejriwal government's resignation.
Feb 19: The Andhra Pradesh chief minister, Kiran Kumar Reddy, resigned in protest over the
contentious bill to create the country's 29th state by splitting his state in two.
Feb 21: Democratic Party leader Matteo Renzi formed new government in Italy.
At 39, Renzi is Italy's youngest and the third straight premier to come into the office without
being elected. The last premier who stood for election was the scandal-tainted Silvio Berlusconi in
2008.
Feb 22: Ukraine's parliament voted to remove President Viktor Yanukovich, who abandoned
his Kiev office to protesters and denounced what he described as a coup.
Parliament also freed his archnemesis, former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko.
Feb 23: A new era dawned in Ukraine as parliament appointed a pro-Western interim leader
after ousted president Viktor Yanukovych fled Kiev to escape retribution.
Feb 24: The military-installed government of Egyptian prime minister Hazem al-Beblawi
resigned ahead of a presidential poll which will bring army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to
power.
Feb 26: Ibrahim Mehlib, an industrialist who rose to prominence during the Mubarak era, was
named Egypt's new prime minister.
Feb 26: Ukraine's new leaders named a strongly pro-Western cabinet as brawls erupted between
rival factions on the volatile Crimean peninsula and Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered snap
military drills near the border with the ex-Soviet state.
Feb 26: The Indian Navy's run of serious accidents over a stretch of a few months hit another
fatal patch when a fire on a Russian built submarine injured seven sailors and left two officers

missing. Naval Chief Admiral D. K. Joshi resigned owning moral responsibility.

March 11: The Libyan parliament ousted Prime Minister Ali Zeidan after a tanker laden with
crude oil from a rebel-held terminal broke through a naval blockade and escaped to sea.
March 06: Japan's biggest brokerage Nomura Holdings chose Chie Shimpo, 48, to be the next
president of Nomura Trust and Banking. It is believed to be a first in the country's maledominated financial sector.
Feb 20: Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan suspended the central bank governor for alleged
financial recklessness.

Sports
Feb 17: Brendon McCullum and Bradley John Watling of New Zealand broke the world record
for the highest sixth-wicket partnership with a 352-run stand against India on the fourth day of the
second Test at Basin Reserve, Wellington.
Feb 17: Kuldeep Yadav became the first Indian bowler to take a hat-trick in Under-19 World
Cup history.
Feb 22: Sri Lanka trounced Bangladesh by six wickets in the third and final One-day
International to sweep the series 3-0.
Feb 23: The Sochi Olympics completed their 17-day run with Russia seizing first place in the
medals table while Canada won the men's ice hockey final.
Canada claimed the last, most coveted title of the Games by sweeping aside Sweden 3-0 to
retain their men's hockey crown.
Russia bagged most medals (33) after Norway (26) and Canada (25).
Feb 26: Mahela Jayawardene became only second player after India's Sachin Tendulkar to
appear in 600 or more international matches.
Feb 27: Bangladesh defeated New Zealand by 77 runs to win their fourth Plate Championship
title at the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup in Abu Dhabi.
March 01: Afghanistan put up a brilliant performance to upset hosts Bangladesh by 32 runs in
the Asia Cup match.
March 01: South Africa made history as they won their maiden ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup
title by handing Pakistan a six-wicket defeat in the final at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

March 01: Football's world governing body FIFA officially authorised the wearing of head
covers for religious purposes during matches.

March 01: Asghar Stanikzai and Samiullah Shenwari set up a new record for the sixth wicket
in Asia Cup by adding 164 runs against Bangladesh.
March 02: Roger Federer subdued Tomas Berdych in the Dubai Championships final as the
Swiss maestro sealed his 78th singles title.
March 04: Graeme Smith, one of the most dogged batsmen of his generation, stunned South
Africa by announcing he will retire from international cricket at the end of the third Test against
Australia.
March 05: Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) president Kazi Salahuddin retained his post as
chief of the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) after the elections were held during the
body's Annual Congress.
March 06: England defeated the West Indies by 25 runs in the deciding third and final One-day
International to clinch the series.
March 07: Nike will supply the kit for more teams than Adidas for the first time ever at this
year's World Cup finals.
The two sports giants will throw Lionel Messi against Cristiano Ronaldo and Spain against
Brazil to see who can claim a bigger chunk of the multi-billion dollar market for football boots,
shirts and shorts.
March 08: Sri Lanka defeated Pakistan by five wickets in the final of the Asia Cup.
March 09: Ashton Eaton won yet another gold medal and again proved himself the world's
greatest athlete, the title which traditionally goes to the best multi-event competitor in
athletics.
March 12: West Indies rallied from a middle-order wobble to romp to a series-clinching
fivewicket victory over England in the second Twenty20 International.

Obituaries
Feb 16: Father of former AJK prime minister and Peoples Party AJK leader Barrister Sultan
Mahmood Chaudhry Noor Hussain passed away. He was 96.
Feb 16: William Duff, the British banker who helped transform Dubai into a financial
powerhouse, serving as an advisor to its ruling sheikh, died at the age of 92.
Mr William came to Dubai after a stint as a banker in Kuwait and became financial advisor to
the late Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed al-Maktoum in 1960. At the time, the emirate's population was
about 50,000; it survived largely on fishing, herding and small-scale trade across the Gulf in
wooden dhows.

Feb 23: Alice Herz-Sommer, believed to be the oldest-known survivor of the Holocaust, died in
London at age 110.
Feb 26: Former world champion boxer Antonio Cermeno was kidnapped and killed in his
native country Venezuela.
March 09: Afghan Vice-President Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim, formerly one of the
country's most feared warlords, died.
March 14: Tony Benn, a committed British socialist who irritated and fascinated Britons
through a political career spanning more than five decades and who renounced his aristocratic
title rather than leave the House of Commons, died at 88.

Economy
Feb 25: Greece was back in the black for the first time since 1948, the EU's economics
commissioner Olli Rehn said as figures showed the economically-hobbled nation returning to
growth.
March 01: Bangladesh will receive a $600-million loan from the World Bank in order to
improve electricity supplies to rural areas, in order to reduce poverty and create jobs, the
multilateral lender said in a statement.
The loan was approved by the World Bank's board a day earlier.
March 05: Iraq is reclaiming its rank as the world's fastest-growing oil exporter, cushioning
consumers from Libyan supply outages for now and, perhaps, reviving Opec market share
rivalries down the road.

People in News
John Kerry
On Feb 16, US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Southeast Asia's largest mosque, the
Istiqlal mosque in the heart of Jakarta, during his visit to Indonesia, paying tribute to Islam in the
world's most populous Muslim-majority nation.
Somayya Jabarti
On Feb 16, Somayya Jabarti became the first woman to be named as editor-in-chief of a daily
newspaper published in Saudi Arabia.
Hailemedehin Abera Tagegn
On Feb 17, 31-year-old Hailemedehin Abera Tagegn, the co-pilot of an Ethiopian Airlines
plane hijacked his aircraft and forced it to land in Geneva so he could seek asylum.

Chiwetel Ejiofor
On Feb 17, Chiwetel Ejiofor took the male acting trophy at the British Academy Film Awards for
his performance in unflinching drama 12 Years a Slave.
Hans Raj Hans
On Feb 19, a famous Indian singer Hans Raj Hans embraced Islam. Hans, while confirming his
conversion to Islam, said that he had been studying Islam very closely and even his elders had been
telling him about the virtues of the religion.
Dalai Lama
On Feb 21, US President Barack Obama welcomed Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai
Lama to the White House, defying China, which said the meeting would seriously impair ties
between the two countries.
Abraham de Villiers
On Feb 21, South Africa batsman Abraham de Villiers became the first player in the history of
Test cricket to score a fifty plus knock in 12 consecutive Tests after he made 116 off 232 balls in the
first innings on the second day of the second Test against Australia.
Bill Gates
On March 3, the surging price of Microsoft shares returned US tech tycoon Bill Gates back to the
top of Forbes's world's billionaires list, with his $76bn.
Snowden, Malala and Putin
On March 4, US whistleblower Edward Snowden, Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai and
Russian President Vladimir Putin were nominated for this year's Nobel Peace Prize.
Subrata Roy
On March 4, India's top court jailed Subrata Roy, the head of Sahara business group, after he
apologised to the judges for failing to show up for a hearing.
Perenna Kei
On March 5, Perenna Kei, a 24-year-old Hong Kong-based woman was named the world's
youngest billionaire, replacing a former Facebook cofounder and spurring gossip in the city.
She was ranked by Forbes as the world's youngest tycoon in its annual superrich list, with a net
worth of $1.3 billion.
Maurice Faure
On March 6, former French minister Maurice Faure, the last surviving signatory of the Treaty of
Rome which paved the way for European integration, died aged 92.
A former Resistance fighter during World War II, Faure was deputy foreign minister when the

path breaking 1957 treaty was signed.

Mohammed Khurshid Hussain
On March 6, 23-year-old boy from Hyderabad India, Mohammed Khurshid Hussain, broke the
world record for nose-typing. He typed the sentence: Guinness World Records have challenged me
to type this sentence using my nose in the fastest time in just 48.62 seconds. He already
holds the title of fastest typist of the English alphabet on a keyboard - just 3.43 seconds - but that
was set using his fingers.
The previous record holder was another Indian, Neeta, who finished the task way back in 2008, in 1
minute and 33 seconds.
Ansar Burney
On March 6, the Cholistan Development Council of Pakistan announced 16th Cholistan
Award for the United Nations former expert adviser on human rights and Chairman of Ansar
Burney Trust International, Ansar Burney in the field of human and civil rights.
Fatima Bhutto
On March 7, Fatima Bhutto, the niece of former prime minister Ms Benazir Bhutto, was
nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction. Ms Bhutto is among 20 women on the long list for the
award, which was formerly known as the Orange prize and is open to English-language novels
from anywhere in the world.
She has been nominated for The Shadow of the Crescent Moon, her first attempt at fiction.
Anwar Ibrahim
On March 7, Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's acquittal on sodomy charges was
overturned.
Nadeem Aslam
On March 9, Pakistani writer Nadeem Aslam won the Yale University's prestigious Windham
Campbell Literature Prize 2014 for his fiction works which explore historical and political trauma
with lyricism and profound compassion.
Dr Margaret Chan
On March 12, President Mamnoon Hussain conferred Hilal-i-Pakistan upon Dr Margaret Chan,
Director-General of World Health Organisatin, during a special investiture ceremony held at the
Aiwan-i-Sadar.
Devyani Khobragade

On March 15, a New York grand jury re-indicted Devyani Khobragade, an Indian diplomat,
accused of mistreating her housekeeper on two counts of visa fraud and making false statements.

Places in News
Singapore
On Feb 19, Singapore topped an international survey of the best cities in Asia for expatriates
while the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka was named the worst. Japan took all the other spots in the
Asian top five, with Tokyo in second place followed by Kobe, Yokohama and Osaka.
Allahabad
On March 1, female sadhus broke away from tradition and formed a new all-female group,
akhada, in India that they hope will end male domination of spiritual practices.
Kunming, China
On March 1, twenty-seven people were killed and 109 others were injured in a railway station
attack by unidentified knife wielding people in southwest Chinese city of Kunming.
Kandahar
On March 2, twelve Afghan Taliban prisoners escaped from the 1,200-inmate Kandahar Prison
after a jail employee falsely put their names on a list of detainees who were scheduled for release.

Paris
On March 4, the first patient to receive an artificial heart intended as a permanent replacement for
his own ailing organ died 75 days after the transplant operation, said Paris Georges
Pompidou European Hospital. The name of the patient has not been disclosed.
Meerut, India
On March 5, Swami Vivekanada Subharti University in Meerut suspended 67 Kashmiri
students for apparently cheering Pakistan during the India-Pak match at the Asia Cup.
Belgium
On March 6, Belgian postal company Bpost issued a commemorative stamp to mark
International Women's Day. The stamp was created by graphic designer Ann Bessemans and
contains 606 words, a Guinness World Record.