Current Affairs-Persons in News in May 2016

                           Persons in News

• Barack Obama became the first U.S. President to visit Cuba after the 1959 revolution. The visit is a milestone in the historic thaw the two countries announced in December 2014, after decades of ideological hostilities, which also negatively affected Washington’s relations with Latin America.
  The U.S. and Cuba resumed diplomatic relations in July 2015 with the subsequent reopening of embassies in the respective capitals.
  During his visit, Mr Obama strolled through the colonial centre of Old Havana, met at the Cathedral with the Archbishop of Havana, Cardinal Jaime Ortega, one of the few negotiators recognized by the Communist Party outside the Castro government apparatus on the island. He also met with the Cuban President Raul Castro.
  The rapprochement with Cuba is part of a new policy of Mr Obama during his last year in office. The U.S. president wants to promote greater openness on the island through dialogue. Meanwhile, Cuba says it will continue “updating” its socialist system.
• Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou has been re-elected. His main opponent Hama Amadou remains in France seeking medical treatment after being jailed for several months.
  The incumbent Mr Issoufou received more than 92 percent of the vote. Mr Amadou received 18 percent of the vote, which saw a low turnout after the opposition called for a boycott. Mr Amadou was arrested and held from November until March for alleged involvement in a baby-trafficking scheme, a charge he has dismissed as politically motivated.
  Despite large uranium deposits and other resources, Niger is one of the world’s poorest countries. Apart from political turmoil, the landlocked country is under constant threat from al-Qaeda-linked fighters to the north and west, and Boko Haram in the south.
   
• Johan Cruyff, the man credited with helping reinvent modern soccer, died aged 68. The former player and manager of Spanish giants Barcelona and the Netherlands’ most successful club Ajax, had been battling lung cancer.
  One of the world’s greatest ever footballers, Cruyff’s Dutch team finished runners up in the 1974 World Cup playing a revolutionary style of soccer that was dubbed “total football”.
  Not many players have a football trick named after them but Cruyff did. He innovated the Cruyff turn, notably bamboozling Swedish defender Jan Olsson in the 1974 World Cup.
  Mr Cruyff feinted to go one way before dragging the ball behind him leaving Olsson trailing in his wake. It is a trick that is still regularly used on football pitches and playgrounds around the world.
  Cruyff came to epitomize football in the 1970s and with his lanky hair and flared jeans, the Dutchman had as much swagger off the pitch as he did on it.
  The Dutchman won the Ballon d’Or – the old European Player of the Year award – three times in 1971, 1973 and 1974 as he helped Ajax to its hat-trick of European titles in 1971, 1972 and 1973. He also inspired Netherlands to a first ever World Cup final in 1974 in which the Oranje – one of international football’s most exciting sides in history – lost to host West Germany. He received the Player of the Tournament award for his efforts.
  The Dutchman also enjoyed success in Spain, where he won the Spanish La Liga title and Spanish Copa del Rey while at Barcelona. As a coach Cruyff’s influence has been almost as great as his playing legacy. With Cruyff as coach, Barcelona won four consecutive Spanish La Liga titles from 1991 to 1994, as well as the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1989 and the Spanish Copa del Rey in 1990. 
• Protests erupted in several Brazilian cities after President Dilma Rousseff named her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva chief of staff and a taped conversation fed opposition claims the move was meant to shield Mr Lula from prosecution.
  In the capital Brasilia, riot police fired pepper spray at more than 5,000 demonstrators who filled the streets outside the presidential palace and Congress building. They waved banners calling for the leftist leader’s resignation and Mr Lula’s arrest.
  Thousands more demonstrators packed the main Avenue Paulista in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s financial hub, which was the centre of national protests that drew more than one million people onto the streets in a call for Ms Rousseff’s departure.
  With Brazil’s economy mired in its worst recession in a generation, popular anger at Rousseff is mounting as an investigation into bribes and political kickbacks at state oil company Petrobras taints her inner circle.
  Ms Rousseff’s appointment of Mr Lula, who was charged recently with money laundering and fraud as part of the probe, was slammed by opposition parties as a desperate attempt to rally support in Congress against impeachment proceedings due to start in the third week of March 2016.
  Mr Lula, a 70-year-old former union leader whose 2003–2010 government helped lift some 40 million Brazilians out of poverty, remains one of Brazil’s most influential politicians. However, the corruption investigation has weakened his sway in Congress and there are growing signs that Ms Rousseff’s main coalition partner is preparing to abandon the government. 
• President Barack Obama signed new sanctions on North Korea into law, punishing the regime for its nuclear and missile tests as well as for suspected cyber-hacking incidents.
  The measure is meant to compel American allies to enact similarly tough restrictions on North Korea to further isolate the country, which conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and recently launched a satellite into space.
  Tough new multilateral sanctions have been held up at the United Nations Security Council over disagreements between China and other nations. China, a long-time sponsor of North Korea, has expressed concerns about measures that it worries could debilitate North Korea’s economy.
  China made its objections clear: “As the situation on the Korean peninsula remains complex and sensitive, all relevant parties should keep calm and restrained, and refrain from doing anything that could escalate tensions. We think it is impossible to resolve any hotspot issues through simple sanctions or pressuring.”
  But South Korea welcomed the American sanctions, with its Ministry of Foreign Affairs saying the new law “shows the strong determination of the U.S. to respond firmly to North Korea’s nuclear test and long-range missile launch”.
  The unilateral U.S. sanctions would freeze the assets of anyone doing business related to North Korea’s nuclear or weapons programmes or is involved in human rights abuses in the country.
      

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