SC wary of WhatsApp, FB data sharing

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1.Edouard Philippe named French PM :-

French President Emmanuel Macron has picked centre-right mayor of the northern port city of Le Harve, Edouard Philippe (46), as his Prime Minister.

The appointment of Mr. Philippe, a moderate from France’s mainstream right-wing party Les Republicains, is seen as a strategic move that could secure the support Mr. Macron needs to win a majority in the 577-seat National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, which goes to the polls next month.

2.Trump wants NATO members to make ‘greater effort’ to counter terrorism :-

President Donald Trump wants the NATO countries to make a greater effort towards combating terrorism and expects more financial commitment than they agreed to, the White House has said.

“With respect to NATO, there’s two issues. One is, he [Trump] would like to see a greater effort placed on combatting terrorism.

And two is to see more of the countries living up to their financial obligation that they agreed to,” the White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters at his daily news conference.

Mr. Trump leaves on a five-nation tour later this week, during which he would attend the NATO Summit in Brussels.

3.Global ransomware virus found prowling in Indian cyberspace; Maha police dept partially hit :-

The country’s cyber security agency has alerted Internet users against damaging activities of a strong and globally active ransomware virus— ‘Wannacry’— that critically infects work stations and locks them remotely.

In the evening, the Maharashtra Police department said it was partially hit by the ransomware.

“Cyber experts have been engaged to fix the systems,” a senior police officer said.

The red-coloured ‘critical alert’ was issued by the Computer Emergency Response Team of India (CERT—In), the nodal agency to combat hacking, phishing and to fortify security- related defences of the Indian Internet domain

4.Donald Trump shared sensitive information with Russians: Report :-

US President Donald Trump shared highly classified information with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov when the latter met him at the White House last week, The Washington Post has alleged.

The news report was immediately refuted by both the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the National Security Advisor, who said that there was no discussion of specific threats with the Russians.

“This is code-word information,” an unnamed US official familiar with the matter, was quoted as saying by The Washington Post.

Code-word information is a terminology that refers to one of the highest classification levels used by American spy agencies, the daily reported. Trump “revealed more information to the Russian ambassador than we have shared with our own allies,” the newspaper said, adding that following this, US officials have gone into damage control mode.

5.CBI books 13 firms for illegal money transfer :-

The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case against 13 companies for alleged illegal transfer of over ?2,250 crore to foreign entities against imports worth just about ?24.64 crore.

The agency suspects it to be a case of trade-based money laundering.

Over 1,211 transactions were made through Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, State Bank of Hyderabad, Corporation Bank, Central Bank of India and Axis Bank in 2015-16.

6.Hearings at the Hague: Stop Kulbhushan Jadhav’s execution, says India, Pakistan cites 150-day period :-

IN A tense face-off on Monday at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, India sought “annulment” of the death sentence awarded to Kulbhushan Jadhav’s  by a Pakistani military court while Pakistan said the clemency process of 150 days should be exercised first and the plea citing urgency should be “dismissed”.

Pakistan, which wanted to screen a six-minute video of Jadhav’s confession at the ICJ, was denied permission by the court.

However, its representative displayed a purported copy of Jadhav’s Indian passport, issued in the name of Hussein Mubarak Patel, on a screen inside the packed courtroom.

7.SC wary of WhatsApp, FB data sharing :-

The Supreme Court on Monday expressed concerns whether the citizens’ rights are affected by the contract entered into between WhatsApp and Facebook in 2016 to share user information, including messages, pictures, and videos.

A five-judge Constitution Bench led by Justice Dipak Misra asked what was the need to share the attributes of the identities of users.

“You say the name is not shared but the attributes of identity is shared. What is the need to share the attributes of identity?

Now they [users] fear what you will share. We are concerned with whether an individual’s rights are affected under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution,” the Bench asked WhatsApp.

8.Petrol price cut by Rs 2.16 a litre, diesel by Rs 2.10 :-

Petrol price was on Monday cut by Rs 2.16 per litre and diesel by Rs 2.10 a litre, reversing the four week trend of rising rates.

The reduction, which will be effective from midnight tonight, comes on back of a marginal 2 paise a litre increase in petrol and 52 paise per litre hike in diesel rates effected from May 1.

Prior to that, petrol price was hiked by Rs 1.39 per litre and diesel by Rs 1.04 a litre from April 16.

Indian Oil Corp (IOC), the nation’s largest fuel retailer, said the price of petrol is being reduced by Rs 2.16 per litre and that of diesel by Rs 2.10 – both excluding state levies.

9.ICICI Bank, HDFC cut home loan rates :-

ICICI Bank — the country’s largest private sector lender — has reduced its home loan rate for the affordable housing segment.

The bank cut rates for its salaried customers by 30 basis points (bps) to 8.4% for loans up to ?30 lakh. For self-employed borrowers, the new rate will be 8.55%.

Women borrowers in both the categories will get an additional 5 bps discount. The new rates are effective from Monday.

The bank has kept rates for loans of more than ?30 lakh unchanged.

“ICICI Bank is committed to support the government’s vision to provide housing for all by 2022,” said Chanda Kochhar, managing director and chief executive officer, ICICI Bank in a statement.

10.Nadal in top-4 after Madrid triumph :-

Rafael Nadal claimed his fifth Madrid Masters title with a 7-6(10), 6-4 win over No. 8 seed Dominic Thiem on Sunday.

The triumph is Nadal’s 30th Masters title, level with Novak Djokovic for the most among current players. The win in the final also means Nadal leapfrogs Roger Federer into No. 4 on the ATP rankings.

“I am going to every tournament trying to give my best, being aware that if things are done right — as I have done this year — I will have confidence in myself. Things are going very well and I’m very happy,” Nadal said.