Baalbek and Tyre
Lebanon’s UNESCO Cultural Heritage sites Baalbek, Tyre, and Anjar are being endangered by assaults.
- Baalbek – A colossal structure and one of the finest examples of Imperial Roman architecture at its apogee.
- Tyre – Phoenician city founded prosperous colonies such as Cadiz and Carthage
- It is believed that purple dye was invented in Tyre.
- Anjar – The city founded by Caliph Walid I at the beginning of the 8th century is a unique testimony to city planning under the Umayyads.
International Cooperative Alliance
International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) Global Cooperative Conference is being organised in India for the first time
- Founded in – 1895, London.
- A global organization that unites, represents, and serves cooperatives around the world.
- Serves as the apex body for the cooperative movement
- Members – 306 member organizations across 105 countries.
Quantum Tunneling
Recently, researchers achieved a controlled transfer of atoms from one place to another via quantum tunneling
- A phenomenon in quantum mechanism where a particle is able to penetrate through a potential energy barrier that is higher in energy than the particle’s kinetic energy.
- It is a direct consequence of the wave-like nature of particles at the quantum level
National Cooperative Development Corporation
91st General Council Meeting of NCDC held in Delhi.
- Established in 1963 as a statutory Corporation under Ministry of Cooperation.
- Functions –
- Finance projects for certain notified services in rural areas like water conservation, irrigation etc.
- Advance loans and grants to State Governments for financing primary & secondary level cooperative societies.
Treaty on Crimes against Humanity
UNGA adopts a Resolution paving way for negotiations of a Treaty on Crimes against Humanity
- Crime against Humanity – Defined as specific criminal acts (murder, rape, torture, apartheid, deportation, and persecution), when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population according to a state or organizational policy. (Rome Statute)
- International Humanitarian Laws to prevent Crimes against Humanity – Geneva Conventions (1949), Biological Weapons Convention (1972), Chemical Weapons Convention (1993), Rome Statute for International Criminal Court (1998), etc.