Consider the following pairs : Region often in news : Country 1. Chechnya : Russian Federation 2. Darfur : Mali 3. Swat Valley : Iraq Which of the above pairs is/are correctly matched?

Option (a) is correct because Chechnya is a constituent republic of the Russian Federation, while the other pairs are mismatched: Darfur is a region in western Sudan (not Mali) and the Swat Valley is located in Pakistan (not Iraq). The most tempting errors arise from misassociating these high-profile conflict zones with other countries experiencing similar instability during that period. This question tests the core concept of "Places in News," requiring candidates to accurately link major geopolitical hotspots to their specific geographical and political locations.