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- Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar was listed as a designated terrorist by the UN Security Council 1267 Committee on 1st May.
- Significantly, the reasons for listing did not mention the Pulwama attack of February 14, for which the JeM had claimed responsibility, and which found mention in the latest (February 27) listing request for Azhar.
- Nevertheless, the listing is a victory for India in a decade-old diplomatic battle waged primarily by it and supported by its friends at the UNSC, as it would mean a travel ban, arms embargo and asset freeze on Azhar.
- The P-3 or group of three permanent UNSC members, the U.S., the U.K. and France, had co-sponsored a listing request at the Committee on February 27, weeks after the Pulwama attack that killed over 40 security personnel.
- That request, which The Hindu has access to, reads, “…JeM claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in Pulwama”.
- However, China placed a hold on the request which normally lasts for three months on March 13. This was the fourth such attempt to designate Azhar, over a decade, that had gone awry.
- At the end of March, the U.S. circulated a draft resolution (to sanction Azhar) among the UNSC members, i.e., outside the 1267 Committee, presumably to pressure China into either supporting the listing or having to take a stand in open proceedings and risk being seen as supporting terror.
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- Former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara has been appointed as the first non-British president of the Marylebone Cricket Club.
- The wicketkeeper-batsman, whose nomination was announced by current president Anthony Wreford on 1st May, will begin his one-year tenure in October.
- The 41-year-old, who is already an honorary life member of MCC and has sat on its influential world cricket committee for the past seven years, said: “It is a huge honour to be named the next president of MCC and it is a role that I am thoroughly looking forward to.
- “For me, MCC is the greatest cricket club in the world, with its global reach and continued progress for cricket on and off the pitch.”
- MCC, which owns Lord's and acts as the guardian of the laws of the game, was founded in 1787 and lists 168 presidents in its history.
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- Former ISRO chairman A S Kiran Kumar was Thursday conferred with France's highest civilian award - Chevalier de l'Ordre national de la Lgion d'Honneur - for his contribution to India-France space cooperation.
- According to an official statement, on behalf of the President of France, Ambassador of France to India, Alexandre Ziegler conferred Kumar with the highest civilian honour of France.
- Jean-Yves Le Gall, Chairman of CNES, the French space agency, was present at the special investiture ceremony held at the Residence of France here, it said.
- "France's highest civilian honour comes in recognition of A S Kiran Kumar's invaluable contribution to the development of India-France space cooperation," the statement said.
- Throughout his career at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), including as its chairman from 2015 to 2018, Kumar fostered the historic and ambitious space cooperation between India and France.
- He directly contributed to making it cooperation of peoples as well as one of the cornerstones of Indo-French strategic partnership, it said.
- Created in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte, the Ordre national de la Lgion d'Honneur (National Order of the Legion of Honour) is the highest civilian award given by the French for outstanding service to France, regardless of the nationality of the recipient.
- The President of the French Republic is the Grand Master of the Ordre national de la Lgion d'Honneur
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- Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was sentenced to nearly a year in jail for skipping bail as he prepares to fight extradition to the US.
- Assange was last month found guilty of bail violations following his dramatic arrest in London.
- The 47-year-old had been holed up inside the Ecuadorian embassy since 2012 as he sought to escape questioning in a Swedish sexual-assault case
- Judge Deborah Taylor at a London court hearing Wednesday sentenced him to 50 weeks in jail, saying he deliberately evaded justice.
- Assange said in a letter that he regretted the course that his actions took.
- While the British sentence takes precedence, Assange’s imprisonment is unlikely to delay the US request. American authorities are pursuing extradition so he can face trial on charges that he conspired with ex-US Army analyst Chelsea Manning to disclose classified government material.
- A trim-looking Julian Assange raised his fist to a gallery of supporters, who shouted "shame on you" as the judge left the court.
- The UK hearing took place hours before US Attorney General William Barr, who has ultimate oversight of the Assange indictment, is set to testify before Senate and House panels on Robert Mueller’s Russia report. Lawmakers will press him to reconcile his findings with those of the special counsel.
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