United Nations Suspended Maria Sharapova’s Role as Goodwill Ambassador
- The United Nations (UN) has suspended Maria Sharapova in the second week of March, 2016 as Goodwill Ambassador after she failed a drug test at the Australian Open. She tested positive for meldonium, that was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s^ banned list on January 1, 2016.
- Due to this, USA sportswear giant Nike, German luxury car maker Porsche and Swiss watchmaker TAGHeuer have all halted their relationship. Sharapova had been a goodwill ambassador for the UN Development Programme for the past nine years, and had been active in helping recovery efforts after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
- Sharapova has made visits to Belarus as goodwill ambassador and donated $ 100000 to support youth projects in rural areas that suffer from the after-effects of the Chernobyl nuclear accident.
China Planned to Build International Maritime Judicial Centre
- As per the report by the Supreme People’s Court (SPC).
- on March 13, 2016, China will set-up an international maritime judicial centre in its latest bid to protect national sovereignty and maritime rights.
- Courts across China shall work to implement the national strategy of building the country into a ‘maritime power’. According to the chief justice, some 16000 maritime cases were concluded by Chinese courts in 2015, the most in the world.
- According to the earlier reports, some 225000 cases involving over 70 countries and regions were handled by China’s maritime courts in the three decades between 1984, when the first such court was set-up, and 2013. Close to 8000 vessels, of which 1660 were foreign, were detained and 663 were auctioned off during that period.
Arab League Declared Hezbollah Group a Terrorist Organisation
- Arab League Foreign Ministers declared Lebanon’s Shia movement Hezbollah as a ‘terrorist group’ on March 11, 2016. Sunni-dominated Gulf monarchies has already adopted the same stance. The European Union has also blacklisted its military wing.
- Hezbollah declared as a ‘terrorist group’ due to escalating tensions with the movement which has lawmakers in Lebanon’s Parliament and is backed by Saudi Arabia’s regional rival Iran. Nearly, all members of the pan-Arab body supported the decision except Lebanon and Iraq.
- The Revolutionary Guards created Hezbollah (Party of God) in the 1980s. Funded by Iran, it is the only side not to have put down weapons after Lebanon s civil war from 1975 to 1990. The USA, Canada and Australia have listed Hezbollah as a ‘terrorist group.
Gender Gap in Dobs and Wages Remain Unchanged in 20 Years
- On International Women’s Day, a new ILO report, Women I at Work : Trends 2016, finds millions of women worldwide are not getting the same kind of quality, ILO well-paying jobs as men. So, ILO has found that gender equality in the workplace remains elusive.
- The report also noted that women are over represented in clerical service and sales work, which are among the lowest paying jobs. The report notes significant progress has been made by women in education during the past two decades, but this has not translated into improvements at work.
- At the global level i.e., in 178 countries, the employment gender gap has closed by only 0.6 percentage points since 1995, with an employment-to-population ratio of 46% for women and almost 72% for men in 2015.
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