Current Affairs 25th December 2017

Current Affairs 25th December 2017 - Important Points

• Russia to build nuclear power plant in Sudan by - Nuclear agency Rosatom
• Land exploration satellite launched by - China
• IndiGo and SpiceJet to start using Terminal 2, instructed by - Delhi High Court
• North Korea says new U.N. sanctions an act of war on - 24th December 2017

Current Affairs 25th December 2017 - Details

Russia to build nuclear power plant in Sudan by - Nuclear agency Rosatom

Russia signed an agreement with Sudan to build a nuclear power plant in the nation on 21st December 2017.Russia’s nuclear agency Rosatom shared this information. Rusatom Overseas, a branch of Rosatom and Sudan's electricity ministry in Khartoum, the capital city of Sudan signed this deal.
The agreement followed up on the high-level meeting that took place between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Sudan counterpart Omar al-Bashir in November 2017.

This nuclear technology's development will be allowing Sudan to deal with its energy security problem. The agreement also has strategic implications, as it will be determining the nature of relations between Russia and Sudan for a long time to come.

The Sudanese President had also asked for Russia to protect Sudan from the "aggressive acts" of the United States during Vladimir Putin’s visit to Sudan.
Bashir also expressed his wish to strengthen military ties with country - Russia and praised Moscow's military campaign in Syria.
The Sudanese President is wanted by the ICC (International Criminal Court) for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the conflict in Darfur, which claimed at least 300,000 lives.

Land exploration satellite launched by - China

A land exploration satellite into a preset orbit for remote sensing operations launched by China. It was conducted from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi desert, northwest China's Gansu Province during early morning hours.

Important Objectives

• The satellite will be mainly used for remote sensing exploration of land resources.
• Long march-2D rocket carried this out.
• This launch was the 259th mission of the Long March rocket series.

Did you know?

China had launched remote sensing satellites  which are designed to conduct electromagnetic probes and other experiments successfully on 25th November 2017.

IndiGo and SpiceJet to start using Terminal 2, instructed by - Delhi High Court

Indigo Airline passengers flying to and from Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru and other domestic locations will now have to utilize Terminal 2 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport as the Delhi High Court has refused its petition challenging the guidelines of DIAL, explaining that traffic load at Terminal-1 was heavy beyond its capacity. SpiceJet, which was later impleaded as party in the matter, was also denied any relief. Present year, Delhi International Airline Limited had released directions to different airlines to operate flights to and from Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru and other domestic locations from Terminal-2 by 4 th January 2018.
These instructions were opposed by Indigo that was refused by the court. The court however
extended the final dates to 15 th February as the earlier limit for starting the operations is near and
is supposed to expire soon. Indigo recognised passenger's inconvenience due to changes in the operations and to that the court replied that the argument does not hold much weightage. Delhi International Airline Limited informed the court that during the re-development of Terminal-1, there would be decrease in the boarding gates from 15 to 10 and aircraft parking places from 55 to 33, reducing the capacity of Terminal-1 to 13 mppa only.
With additional estimate, the potetial can be brought up to 17 million passengers per year. DIAL also highlighted that peak fog season in the month of January can causes delay in the flights, that will result in an increased load on the structure of the terminal, and could risk the safety of passengers and flights performances.

North Korea says new U.N. sanctions an act of war on - 24th December 2017

The current U.N. sanctions opposition to North Korea are an act of war and equivalent to a complete economic blockade against the nation, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry informed on 24th December 2017, frightening to punish those who assist the measure. The U.N. Security Council without opposition applied new sanctions on North Korea on 22nd December 2017 for its latest intercontinental ballistic missile test, looking forward to limit its access to refined petroleum and crude oil and its incomes from workers outside.
The U.N. resolution looks forward to restrict approximately 90 percent of refined petroleum exports to North Korea by capping them at 500,000 barrels per year and, in a quick change, requests the repatriation of North Koreans working outside within 2 years, instead of 1 year as earlier proposed.