28th May - Current Affairs

Politics

1. Treaty of Pelindaba - It establishes a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Africa.
The treaty was signed in 1996 and came into effect with the 28th ratification on 15 July 2009. It is also known as African Nuclear Weapon Free Zone Treaty.
Salient features:

• The Treaty prohibits the research, development, manufacture, stockpiling, acquisition, testing, possession, control or stationing of nuclear explosive devices in the territory of parties to the Treaty and the dumping of radioactive wastes in the African zone by Treaty parties
• It prohibits African nations from nuclear commerce with countries that have not signed the NPT

2. Jacob Zuma's Delhi visit Agenda:

• Discussion on permanent membership to the United Nations Security Council
• Discussion on closer defence ties and expansion of the Brazil-Russia-India-China grouping
• Launch a book From Dutch South Africa to the Republic of South Africa, 1652-1994 written by Prof. Daleep Singh

Miscellaneous:

1. 4 new countries which have joined OECD are : Chile,Israel, Estonia and Slovenia. With this Chile becomes the first member from S.America to join OECD.

Membership extension debate:

There has been discussion of increasing the number of permanent members. The countries who have made the strongest demands for permanent seats are Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan. Japan and Germany are the UN's second and third largest funders respectively, while Brazil and India are two of the largest contributors of troops to UN-mandated peace-keeping missions. But this is being opposed by a group called Uniting for Consensus.

Uniting for Consensus (UfC): is a movement (nicknamed the Coffee Club) that developed in the 1990s in opposition to the possible expansion of the United Nations Security Council. Recently revived by Italy, it now has about 40 members aiming to counter the G4 nations' bids for permanent seats. The leaders are Italy, South Korea, Mexico, Argentina and Pakistan

2. Scientists have discovered a giant flying dinosaur with a wingspan of six metres that lived in the Sahara region of Africa, when it was a lush green paradise, some 95 million years ago

3. Quetzalcoatlus - the largest animal ever to fly

4. Indian Monsoon :

• usual arrival dates: Kerala - 1st June, Mumbai - 10th June, Calcutta - 7th June
• There are two branches of the S-W monsoon:the Bay of Bengal branch and the Arabian sea branch. Both these branches meet in and around Agra.
• The Arabian sea branch is more powerful than the BoB branch because 1. the Arabian sea is larger than the BoB 2. the entire Arabian sea current advances towards India whereas the BoB current enters India, the remainder proceeding to Myanmar, Thailand and Malayasia
• Lowest duration of stay of the monsoon: Punjab plains
• Highest duration of stay of the monsoon: Coromandel coast
• Highest frequency of cyclones occur during October- November
• I always wonder why is Chennai given a raw deal by nature when it comes to rains due to S-W monsoon? The answer lies in the fact that the TN coast lies in the rain shadow area of the Arabian sea branch and is parallel to the BoB branch. To explain it a bit more, any monsoon current can cause rain only when it meets with an obstruction like mountain e.g. the Arabian sea branch meeting the Western Ghats. Since it is parallel to the coast it doesn't cause any rain in Chennai.

5. What is Top Kill?

A "top kill" consists of pumping huge amounts of mud and cement into the leak in hopes of stopping it. BP is using a “top kill” procedure to stop the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.The mud and cement will be pumped at high pressure from barges down 5,000 feet.The challenge will be to pump the mud at sufficient downward pressure to counteract the upward pressure of the gushing oil.
6. Space shuttle Atlantis retires. The Atlantis was the fourth operational Space Shuttle to be constructed by the Rockwell International company in Southern California, and she was delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center in eastern Florida in April of 1985.