Current Affairs (December 15th - 21st 2014) International: Shinzo Abe was reelected Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won comfortable re-election on 14th December in a snap poll. Despite only around half of voters casting a ballot, the conservative Abe claimed popular endorsement. The ruling coalition Liberal Democratic Party and its junior partner Kimeito had won the elections. This coalition has got two-thirds majority in the lower house of parliament, giving them the power to override the upper chamber. Shinzo Abe belongs to Liberal Democratic Party and he is also the President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The 47th general election of members of the House of Representatives of Japan was held on 14 December 2014. Voting took place in all Representatives constituencies of Japan including proportional blocks, in order to appoint Members of Diet to seats in the House of Representatives, the lower house of the National Diet of Japan. Aneroid Jugnauth became Mauritius PM Mauritius President named veteran politician Sir Anerood Jugnauth as Prime Minister, after he won a landslide taking nearly three-quarters of the seats in Parliament. Mr. Jugnauth, a former President and Prime Minister, was handed his letter of appointment at a meeting at State House. Mr. Jugnauth‘s centre-right Alliance Lepep swept 47 out of 62 seats in the Indian Ocean nation‘s Parliament, after voters rejected the ruling party‘s bid to boost presidential powers. The coalition of the outgoing ruling Labour Party and the former opposition Mauritian Militant Movement (MMM) of ex-Prime Minister Paul Berenger took just 13 seats. Mr. Jugnauth, previously PM between 1982 and 1995 and again between 2000 and 2003, has promised he will boost the economy. General elections were held in Mauritius on 10 December 2014 and resulted in a victory for the Alliance Lepep coalition. India in International Committee India has been included in the International Coordination Committee under UNESCO to oversee the management of the famous Shiva Temple at Preah Vihar in Cambodia. According to Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma, Cambodia has invited India to co-chair the International Coordination Committee on the Shiva Temple along with China to further improve bilateral relations. Terror attack in Peshawar Terrorists attacked a school in Peshawar, a Pakistani city, in the incident almost 150 people died, most of them are school children. Pakistan for the first time has experienced the dangerous of terrorism. Militants from the Pakistani Taliban have attacked an army-run school in Peshawar on 16th December, killing 141 people, 132 of them children. The attack in the north-western city is over, with all the attackers killed. Seven militants took part in all, according to the army. The six militants of the Tehreek-e-Taliban stormed the premises and fired Claiming responsibility for the attack, TTP representative Muhammad Khorasani said in a statement sent to the media, that the Taliban were forced to attack the school because of Operation Zarb-e-Azb and Operation Khyber-I . Soon after this tragedy, Pakistan started attacks on terrorists and also took following measures - Lifted the freeze on death penalty: The first decision in retaliating Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on 17th December to counter terrorism was lifting a self-imposed moratorium on death penalty in terror related cases. He took this decision a day after ruthless Taliban militants massacred at least 132 students and 16 staffers at an army-run school in Peshawar. Prime Minister Sharif told an All Parties Conference that the moratorium on death penalty has been lifted. He said important legal steps will be taken to plug loopholes in the justice system so that militants should not use them to escape punishment. A de facto moratorium on civilian executions has been in place in Pakistan since 2008. Attack on militants: Pakistan army started attacking militants; in the process atleast 32 militants were killed on 19th December by the Pakistan Army in the restive northwest region bordering Afghanistan, taking the number of terrorists killed to 89 after the Peshawar school massacre that left 148 people dead. The Army targeted the rebels in Khyber Valley when they were moving towards the Afghanistan border. Arrest warrant against Fazullah: An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan on 20th December issued non-bailable arrest warrants against eight persons, including Pakistan Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah, for the brazen militant assault on Karachi airport in June. The warrants were against Fazlullah, former TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid and six others. The court issued the warrants after police filed a charge-sheet in the court Terror strike in Sydney In Australia, two people were killed and 5 injured after commandos stormed a cafe in Sydney to bring to an end a 16-hour hostage crisis. A lone gunman, identified as Man Haron Monis of Iranian-origin, was also killed during the operation on 15th November. Two Indian nationals - Vishwakant Ankit Reddy and Pushpendu Ghosh, trapped in the cafe, are safe. The two hostages killed have been identified as Tori Johnson, 34, manager of the Lindt cafe and Katrina Dawson, 38, a barrister. They were among 17 hostages at the Lindt Chocolate Cafe. Global N-power Production Doubles by 2050: WNA The World Nuclear Association (WNA) has projected that global production of nuclear energy will double from current levels by 2050, especially with new countries actively pursuing nuclear power programmes. It feels that public acceptance of nuclear energy has come back to levels prior to the Fukushima incident, with more stringent adherence to safety standards. According to the World Nuclear Industry, the combined production of 427 operating plants is 364 giga watts by the end of 2013. Nuclear energy constitutes 11 per cent of the global power production. European Parliament vote for recognition of Palestine The European Parliament has adopted a resolution recognizing Palestinian statehood in principle. A total of 498 MEPs voted in favor, while 88 were against. A parliamentary session in Strasbourg on 16th December could not decide on the matter, opting for further negotiations, but on 17th December the European Parliament eventually adopted a resolution that ―in principle‖ grants the troubled region statehood. The vote also saw 111 abstentions. The European Parliament reiterated its support for the two-state solution on the basis of the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as the capital of both states, with the secure State of Israel and an independent, democratic, contiguous and viable Palestinian State living side by side in peace and security on the basis of the right of self-determination and full respect of international law. Several of the EU's 28 member countries were already in favor of full recognition. Sweden in October became the only EU member so far to officially recognize Palestine as an independent state. The European Parliament vote comes as the Palestinians are soon to make their case at the UN Security Council in New York, where they will ask for a complete Israeli withdrawal from East Jerusalem and the West Bank to the 1967 borders in two years' time. US revives ties with Cuba The United States on 17th December announced it is restoring full diplomatic ties with Cuba, a country that it has undermined overtly and covertly for more than half a century because of its communist orientation. Secret negotiations lasting more than 18 months hosted by Canada and backed by the Vatican led President Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro, brother of Fidel Castro, to speak directly over phone for 45 minutes on 16th December and agree to end decades of hostility. The immediate consequence of the ceasing of hostilities is the freeing of an American contractor who has been held in a Cuban prison for more than five years in exchange for the U.S sending back three alleged Cuban spies it has incarcerated since 2001. The United States will also ease restrictions on remittances, travel and banking relations, eventually leading to establishment of embassies and consulates in each other's country. Pak granted bail to LeT commander and arrested again Bail was granted to Lashkar-e-Taiba Commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, but again he was arrested after international pressure, particularly from India. o Anti Terrorism Court in Pakistan on 18th December granted bail to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi o Zakir Rehman,is one of the main accused in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. o Lakhvi is among the seven persons charged with planning and helping carry out the attacks in which 166 people were killed. o Court said that there was no evidence of Lakhvi's involvement in the 26/11 carnage Lakhvi to remain in jail o On 19th December Lakhvi was blocked from coming out of a Rawalpindi jail as Pakistan government detained him for three months under a preventive detention law. o Under international and media glare in the wake of the Peshawar school massacre and outrage in neighbouring India, the authorities stepped in swiftly and slapped the provisions of Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) to keep him in jail for at least three months. UN sends team to clean up Bangladesh oil spill The United Nations on 18th December said it has sent a team of international experts to Bangladesh to help clean up the world's largest mangrove forest, more than a week after it was hit by a huge oil spill. Thousands of litres of oil has spilt into the protected Sundarbans mangrove area, home to rare Irrawaddy and Ganges dolphins, after a tanker collided with another vessel on 16th December. A team from the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) has arrived in the capital Dhaka to support Bangladesh's "cleanup efforts of the oil spill in the Sundarbans.