Arab League suspends Syria, calls for sanctions
The Arab League on Saturday suspended Syria until President Bashar al-Assad implements an Arab deal to end violence against protesters, and called for sanctions and transition talks with the opposition, it also called for the withdrawal of Arab ambassadors from Damascus, but left the decision to each Arab state.
A statement, read by Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani, said the League decided "to suspend Syrian delegations' activities in Arab League meetings" if it continued to stall the Arab plan and to implement "economic and political sanctions against the Syrian government." It also called for the withdrawal of Arab ambassadors from Damascus, but left the decision to each Arab state.
Sheikh Hamad said at a press conference the decision would take effect on 16th November. The statement warned that Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi would contact international organisations concerned with human rights, "including the United Nations," if the bloodshed continued. It called for a meeting in Cairo with Syrian opposition groups in three days to "agree a unified vision for the coming transitional period in Syria."
A week of deadly violence in city of Homs had overshadowed the meeting, in which Arab ministers appeared divided on what measure to take but eventually voted by majority on the final statement. Assad's regime agreed on 2nd November to an Arab roadmap which called for the release of detainees, the withdrawal of the army from urban areas and free movement for observers and the media, as well as negotiations with the opposition.
Instead, human rights groups say, the regime has intensified its crackdown on dissent, especially in flashpoint Homs, killing at least 125 people in the city since signing onto the League's deal. "Homs is a microcosm of the Syrian government's brutality," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director of Human Rights Watch, which accused the regime of crimes against humanity based on its systematic abuses against civilians.
Human Rights Watch, like protesters and Syrian opposition leaders, urged the Arab League to suspend Syria's membership of the pan-Arab bloc as punishment for its brutal eight-month crackdown on dissent.
At least 23 people were killed in violence in Syria on Friday alone, most of them civilians inHoms, which an opposition group declared a "humanitarian disaster area" earlier this week. Syrian security forces carried out new raids and arrests in the Homs neighbourhoods of Al-Sebaa, Bab al-Dareeb and Baba Amro on Saturday and gunfire was reported in the morning, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
With Nato ruling out operations and UN Security Council sanctions unlikely because veto-wielding permanent members Russia and China are allies of Assad's regime, regional actors have come to represent the best avenue to pressure Damascus.
Damascus says it has moved forward on the deal by releasing 500 prisoners and its envoy to the Arab League expressed on Friday his government's willingness to receive a pan-Arab delegation. "This will help assess Damascus's commitment to the (Arab) plan and to unveil motives behind certain external and internal parties working for the failure of the Arab blueprint," the official SANA news agency quoted Ahmed as saying.
Despite the Assad regime's prevarication, the United States insists its days are numbered and says that even Arab leaders are encouraging him to step down quickly. "Some Arab leaders already have begun to offer Assad safe haven in an effort to encourage him to leave peaceably and quickly," said Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman. "Almost all the Arab leaders say the same thing -- Assad's rule is coming to an end. Change in Syria is now inevitable," Feltman told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a hearing.
The Arab League is a regional organisation of Arab states in North and Northeast Africa, and Southwest Asia (Middle East). It was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945 with six members: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan (renamed Jordan in 1949), Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, andSyria. Yemen joined as a member on 5 May 1945. The Arab League currently has 22 members and four observers. The main goal of the league is to "draw closer the relations between member States and co-ordinate collaboration between them, to safeguard their independence and sovereignty, and to consider in a general way the affairs and interests of the Arab countries."
Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi resigns
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi has resigned after parliament's lower chamber passed European-demanded reforms, ending a 17-year political era. President Giorgio Napolitano accepted his offer and is likely to appoint technocrat Mario Monti his successor. Mr Berlusconi lost his majority amid an acute debt crisis that threatens the eurozone. He promised to go once MPs had approved new austerity measures. Crowds celebrated outside the presidential palace, shouting "buffoon" as he entered. Reports say Mr Berlusconi's last journey as Prime Minister was an undignified one.
Police struggled to control a large, hostile crowd which booed and jeered as his convoy swept by, and after his resignation he left by a side exit to avoid the protesters. Mr Berlusconi is Italy's longest-serving post-war Prime Minister. His premiership has recently been marred by many scandals. 29 September 1936 Silvio Berlusconi is born in Milan. The young man begins his career by selling vacuum cleaners and builds a reputation as a singer in nightclubs and on cruise liners.
1961 Graduates with a law degree from the University of Milan and sets up Edilnord, a construction company, establishing himself as a residential housing developer around his native Milan. 1965 Marries Carla Elvira Dall'Oglio. The couple have two children, but divorce in 1985. 1971 Launches local cable-television company Telemilano, which grows into Italy's biggest media empire, Mediaset. Through his holding company Fininvest, Berlusconi also owns football club AC Milan, Italy's largest publishing house, Mondadori, and newspaper Il Giornale, among other holdings. 1990 Marries Veronica Lario 10 years after seeing her for the first time, performing topless in a play. They have three children. 1993 Founds his own political party, Forza Italia - Go Italy - named after a chant used by AC Milan fans. March 1994 Wins first of three election victories and forms a coalition with the rightwing National Alliance and Northern League. The coalition crumbles after seven months. April 1996 Loses first of two elections to Romano Prodi. May 2001 Returns to power. His government goes on to be the longest-serving in Italy since the second world war. August 2004 Hosts Tony and Cherie Blair at his Sardinian hideaway. April 2006 Declares himself "the Jesus Christ of politics" on the campaign trail, but loses again to Prodi. July 2006 Ordered to stand trial for alleged fraud, false accounting, embezzlement and tax fraud. A Milan court refuses to indict the prime minister in 2011, but his eldest son, Pier Silvio Berlusconi the Mediaset chairman, Fedele Confalonieri, and nine other defendants will appear in court. May 2008 Elected prime minister for the third time. Faces 50 votes of confidence over the next three years. May 2009 Lario confirms she will file for divorce. She is reported to have said she could not be with a man who "consorted with minors" after Berlusconi attends Noemi Letizia's 18th birthday party. October 2009 Patrizia D'Addario gives a TV interview claiming Berlusconi slept with her knowing she was a prostitute. Months of lurid allegations of Berlusconi-hosted "bunga-bunga" sex parties follow. December 2009 Is hit in the face with an alabaster statuette of Milan cathedral during a political rally.
February 2011 Judge orders Berlusconi to stand trial on charges of paying for sex with underage alleged prostitute Karima "Ruby" El Mahroug, a charge they both deny. He is also accused of abuse of office after it emerges he intervened in 2010 to have Ruby released from a police station where she was being held for theft.
12 November 2011 Four days after losing his parliamentary majority and saying he will resign as prime minister, Berlusconi steps down. He faces three ongoing trials. Nobel laureate Har Gobind Khorana dies at 89
Pioneering Indian American biochemist, Har Gobind Khorana, who won the 1968 Nobel Prize for medicine, died of natural causes in Concord, Massachusetts. Khorana, 89, who was MIT's Alfred P Sloan Professor of Biology and Chemistry emeritus, died earlier this week. He won the Nobel Prize in 1968, sharing it with two others, for unravelling the nucleotide sequence of RNA and deciphering the genetic code. He was then with the University of Wisconsin (UW). He is survived by his daughter, Julia, and son, Dave. Born in 1922, in a small village called Raipur in Punjab, which is now in Pakistan, Khorana is known as a scientist who revolutionised biochemistry with his pioneering work in DNA chemistry.
"The work that he did in Wisconsin from 1960 to 1970 continues to propel new scientific discoveries and major advances," said Aseem Ansari, professor of biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where Khorana taught and did research from 1960 to 1970 before moving to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It was at Wisconsin that Khorana along with his colleagues worked out mechanisms of RNA codes for the synthesis of proteins, which won him the Nobel Prize.
He shared the prize with Robert Holley of Cornell University and Marshall Nirenberg of the National Institutes of Health. Khorana was among the pioneers of the now-familiar series of three-nucleotide codons that signal to the cell which amino acids to use in building proteins - for example, uracil-cytosine-uracil, or UCU, codes for the amino acid serine, while CUC codes for leucine, MIT said in a statement.
"Gobind was a brilliant, path-breaking scientist, a wise and considerate colleague, and a dear friend to many of us at MIT," said Chris Kaiser, MacVicar Professor of Biology and head of the Department of Biology, in an email announcing the news.
In a statement released by MIT, Khorana's daughter, Julia Khorana, said her father loved mentoring young scientists. "Even while doing all this research, he was always really interested in education, in students and young people," she said. "After he retired, students would come to visit and he loved to talk to them about the work they were doing. He was very loyal to them, and they were very loyal to him, too," she said.
Inspired by Khorana's story in 2007, UW-Madison faculty members Ansari and Ken Shapiro established the Khorana Scholars Programme to enable the exchange of top students between select Indian research institutions and the UW-Madison.
The programme has recently expanded to include students from other Midwestern universities as well as MIT, Harvard and some West Coast schools, the university said in a statement.
The programme also sends Wisconsin agricultural scientists to India to assist in entrepreneurial efforts to improve economic stability and food security in poor rural areas. "There's no more appropriate way to honour Khorana," Ansari said in a statement. "He served as an icon for why international programmes are so important. He personified the Wisconsin Idea, the idea of knowledge without boundaries. Here was a man who came from a poor rural Indian family, working in Wisconsin, making a contribution that changed the course of science." Khorana, in an autobiographical note after getting the Nobel Prize, wrote, "Although poor, my father was dedicated to educating his children and we were practically the only literate family in the village inhabited by about 100 people."
According to his biography issued by the MIT, Khorana attended high school in the nearby city of Multan before enrolling in Punjab University, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1943 and master's in 1945, both in chemistry and biochemistry.
Upon graduating, he received a fellowship from the Indian government to study at the University of Liverpool in the UK, where he received his PhD in 1948.
Khorana did postdoctoral work at Switzerland's Federal Institute of Technology, where he met his wife, the late Esther Elizabeth Sibler. After returning to the UK for another postdoc position in Cambridge, Khorana and his wife created a new home together in Vancouver, Canada, where he took a job at the British Columbia Research Council in 1952. Khorana stayed in Vancouver for eight years. In 1960, he went to the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he became co-director of the Institute for Enzyme Research.
Har Gobind Khorana also known as Hargobind was an Indian-born American biochemist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968 with Marshall W. Nirenbergand Robert W. Holley for research that helped to show how the nucleotides in nucleic acids, which carry the genetic code of the cell, control the cell's synthesis of proteins. Khorana and Nirenberg were also awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize fromColumbia University in the same year.
He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1966, and subsequently received the National Medal of Science. He served as MIT's Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Biology and Chemistry, Emeritus and was a member of the Board of Scientific Governors at The Scripps Research Institute.
Visit of Prime Minister of Bangladesh to Tin Bigha
The Hon’ble Prime Minister of Bangladesh H.E. Mrs. Sheikh Hasina visited Dahagram and Angarpota through the Tin Bigha Corridor today. She was received at the Tin Bigha Corridor by the Hon’ble Minister for Health & Family Welfare H.E. Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad and the Hon’ble Minister of State for Home Affairs Shri Jitendra Singh.
The announcement regarding India’s facilitation of 24-hour access for Bangladesh nationals from the Bangladesh mainland to Dahagram & Angarporta through the Tin Bigha Corridor was made during the visit of the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh to Bangladesh on September 06, 2011
The Tin Bigha area will continue to be manned efficiently by Indian personnel as per the agreement between the two countries. It is earnestly hoped that the beneficial arrangements will bring the people of the two countries closer together.
The announcement regarding India’s facilitation of 24-hour access for Bangladesh nationals from the Bangladesh mainland to Dahagram & Angarporta through the Tin Bigha Corridor was made during the visit of the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh to Bangladesh on September 06, 2011
The Tin Bigha area will continue to be manned efficiently by Indian personnel as per the agreement between the two countries. It is earnestly hoped that the beneficial arrangements will bring the people of the two countries closer together.
Text of agreements signed between Indian and Bangladesh
Framework Agreement on Cooperation for Development
Memorandum of Understanding for Cooperation in Renewable Energy
Protocol to the Agreement concerning the demarcation of the Land Boundary between India and Bangladesh and related matters
Addendum to the MOU between India and Bangladesh to facilitate Overland Transit Traffic between Bangladesh and Nepal
Memorandum of Understanding on Conservation of the Sunderban
Protocol on Conservation of the Royal Bengal Tiger of the Sunderban
Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Fisheries
Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation between Doordarshan and Bangladesh Television
Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation between Jawaharlal Nehru University and Dhaka University
Agreement of Cooperation between National Institute of Fashion Design (NIFT), India and BGMEA Institute of Fashion Technology (BIFT), Bangladesh
Memorandum of Understanding for Cooperation in Renewable Energy
Protocol to the Agreement concerning the demarcation of the Land Boundary between India and Bangladesh and related matters
Addendum to the MOU between India and Bangladesh to facilitate Overland Transit Traffic between Bangladesh and Nepal
Memorandum of Understanding on Conservation of the Sunderban
Protocol on Conservation of the Royal Bengal Tiger of the Sunderban
Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Fisheries
Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation between Doordarshan and Bangladesh Television
Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation between Jawaharlal Nehru University and Dhaka University
Agreement of Cooperation between National Institute of Fashion Design (NIFT), India and BGMEA Institute of Fashion Technology (BIFT), Bangladesh
Brazil police invade Rio's biggest slum
Brazil invade Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro's biggest favela or slum, in a bid to clean the city ahead of the 2014 Football World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics. Elite police units backed by armored military vehicles and helicopters invaded Rio's largest slum before dawn Sunday, the most ambitious operation yet in an offensive that seeks to bring security to a seaside city long known for violence. The action is part of a policing campaign to drive heavily armed drug gangs out of the city's slums, where the traffickers have ruled for decades.
Authorities vow to continue the crackdown and stabilize Rio's security before it hosts the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics. Officials are counting on those events to signal Brazil's arrival as a global economic, political and cultural power.
"Rocinha is one of the most strategically important points for police to control in Rio de Janeiro," said Paulo Storani, a security consultant and former captain in the elite BOPE police unit leading the invasion. "The pacification of Rocinha means that authorities have closed a security loop around the areas that will host most of the Olympic and World Cup activities."
"Rocinha is one of the most strategically important points for police to control in Rio de Janeiro," said Paulo Storani, a security consultant and former captain in the elite BOPE police unit leading the invasion. "The pacification of Rocinha means that authorities have closed a security loop around the areas that will host most of the Olympic and World Cup activities."
The Rocinha slum is home to about 100,000 people living in flimsy shacks that sprawl over a mountainside separating some of Rio's richest neighborhoods. The location has made it one of the most lucrative and largest drug distribution points in the city.
Some estimates say the Friends of Friends gang that has controlled Rocinha and the neighboring Vidigal slum make more than $50 million in drug sales annually. Much of the sales are to tourists staying in the posh beach neighborhoods of Leblon, Ipanema and Copacabana and to middle and upper class Brazilians who live in them."This action is a huge blow to the structure of drug trafficking in Rio de Janeiro and against the second-largest drug faction," Storani said. "Beyond that, it's essential to have security in this area simply because of the huge number of people who circulate there."
Some estimates say the Friends of Friends gang that has controlled Rocinha and the neighboring Vidigal slum make more than $50 million in drug sales annually. Much of the sales are to tourists staying in the posh beach neighborhoods of Leblon, Ipanema and Copacabana and to middle and upper class Brazilians who live in them."This action is a huge blow to the structure of drug trafficking in Rio de Janeiro and against the second-largest drug faction," Storani said. "Beyond that, it's essential to have security in this area simply because of the huge number of people who circulate there."
The invasion of Rocinha comes near the end of a watershed year in the fight against drug gangs that rule more than half of Rio's 1,000 slums, where about one-third of the city's 6 million residents live. Rio's program of installing permanent "police pacification units" in slums started in 2008.
The slums initially targeted were not among the most violent. But last November, gangs struck back with a weeklong spree of attacks that included burning buses and staging armed robberies of motorists on highways, spreading fear and chaos. At least 36 people died in the violence, mostly suspected drug traffickers fighting with police.
The surge of violence prodded police to invade with little planning the much-feared Alemao complex of slums on Rio's north side, near a highway leading to the international airport. Police routed the gangsters and took control within hours, imbuing the city with a new confidence that its security woes might be overcome even though most gang leaders had escaped capture.
A year later, the operation in Rocinha comes after careful planning and at a time chosen by authorities.
Police officials openly announced when they planned to invade Rocinha. They've used that tactic before and say it's led to less firefights during the incursions, with gang members either fleeing or simply laying down their weapons before police step foot in the slums. Up to 2,000 officers are expected to be involved.
A year later, the operation in Rocinha comes after careful planning and at a time chosen by authorities.
Police officials openly announced when they planned to invade Rocinha. They've used that tactic before and say it's led to less firefights during the incursions, with gang members either fleeing or simply laying down their weapons before police step foot in the slums. Up to 2,000 officers are expected to be involved.
In recent days, police set up roadblocks at Rocinha's entrances in a bid to capture the slum's drug kingpins.
The effort paid off Thursday, when police captured Antonio Bonfim Lopes, known as "Nem," who was the most-wanted drug trafficker in Rio. He was found hiding in the trunk of a car as it tried to flee the slum. His top lieutenants were also captured in recent days, leading many to think that police might take control of Rocinha with little fight. In previous slum invasions, "we've not even needed to fire a single shot," said Jose Mariano Beltrame, head of Rio state security department and architect of the policing program. "But there is one variable we can't count on, and that's the intention of the criminal, of the gangster who is there inside."
The effort paid off Thursday, when police captured Antonio Bonfim Lopes, known as "Nem," who was the most-wanted drug trafficker in Rio. He was found hiding in the trunk of a car as it tried to flee the slum. His top lieutenants were also captured in recent days, leading many to think that police might take control of Rocinha with little fight. In previous slum invasions, "we've not even needed to fire a single shot," said Jose Mariano Beltrame, head of Rio state security department and architect of the policing program. "But there is one variable we can't count on, and that's the intention of the criminal, of the gangster who is there inside."
India-Vietnam sign six pacts
India and Vietnam on Wednesday inked an agreement to promote oil exploration in South China Sea along with a slew of pacts, including an extradition treaty, to deepen trade, security and strategic ties between the two countries. In all, six agreements were signed after Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held comprehensive talks on issues of mutual interest, including situation in the region where they decided to launch a biennial Security Dialogue between their home ministries.
"India and Vietnam are maritime neighbours. We face common security challenges from terrorism, piracy and natural disasters. We believe that it is important to ensure the safety and security of the vital sea lanes of communication. We have agreed to continue and strengthen our exchanges in these fields," Singh told the press after his meeting.
The pact between the Indian and Vietnamese state-owned oil companies includes new investments and the exploration and supply of oil and gas to the two countries. Irked by the Indian exploration projects on Vietnamese blocks in South China Sea, Chinese authorities have raised objections claiming that it was in their area.
The Chinese claim on the South China Sea has been rejected by both India and Vietnam, saying as per the UN, the blocks belong to Vietnam. India has also made it clear that its state-owned firm would continue to explore in the resource-rich South China Sea. In the field of security cooperation, the two countries instituted a mechanism of a biennial dialogue on security issues between Ministry of Home Affairs and its Vietnamese counterpart. "The Extradition Treaty signed today will provide a legal and institutional basis for our cooperation," Singh said.
Noting that they discussed the situation in the Vietnamese Eastern Sea (also know as South China Sea), Sang said it was felt that the dispute in these waters should be settled peacefully according to the terms of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (CLOS). The two sides also decided to increase the trade target to USD 7 billion by 2015 from the present mark of USD 2.7 billion apart from agreeing to work towards early finalisation of the India-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement in Services and Investment.
This is the first visit by the Vietnamese President outside the ASEAN region and reflects the importance attached by both sides to the relationship, Singh said. Singh said he has conveyed India's commitment to greater investment flows between the two countries. "Several Indian companies are working in Vietnam, and we similarly welcome Vietnamese investments in India. We will continue to render assistance to Vietnam in its capacity building and human resource development efforts," the Prime Minister said.
Apart from an extradition treaty, oil exploration agreement and a 'Friendship' pact to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the diplomatic relations next year, the other three accords were in the field of agriculture and fisheries research, cooperation in sports and tourism, and cultural exchanges.
Developing close relations with Vietnam is an important component of our Look East Policy, Singh said, adding, "We have agreed to strengthen our cooperation in regional mechanisms such as the ASEAN, the ASEAN Regional Forum, the East Asia Summit and the Asean Defence Ministers Plus Eight Dialogue".
He said a strong India-Vietnam partnership "is a factor of peace, stability and development in the Asia-Pacific region. It is a partnership that stands on its own merits."
India-Vietnam aims USD 7 bn bilateral trade by 2015
India and Vietnam today decided to work for an early conclusion of India-ASEAN free trade pact in services apart from setting a bilateral trade target of USD 7 billion by 2015 to give a boost to economic ties.
India and the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) have already implemented the free trade pact in goods last year and are engaged in intense negotiations to widen the base of the pact by including services and investments.
The announcements were made after Vietnamese President Troung Tan Sang and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held comprehensive talks on bilateral issues to boost strategic and trade ties.
"We have set ourselves the target to increase it to 7 billion US dollars by 2015. We have agreed to work towards an early finalization of the India-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement in Services and Investment," Singh said, adding India is committed to greater investment flows between the countries.
Last year, India-Vietnam bilateral trade stood at USD 2.7 billion. several Indian companies are working in Vietnam and we similarly welcome Vietnamese investments in India. "We will continue to render assistance to Vietnam in its capacity- building and human resource development efforts," he said. Sang also sought Indian investments in sectors like infrastructure, oil exploration, power, IT and pharmaceutical. The two sides also inked a pact in civil aviation, paving way for direct flights between the two country and also in the field of oil and gas exploration.
Ramon Magsaysay Awards 2011
This year’s Ramon Magsaysay Awardess have been announced. The list includes an Indian engineer, a Philippine charity group and an Indonesian social worker. The three have been cited for their contributions in giving green technology to the poor in their respective countries. According to Ramon Magsaysay Awards Foundation president, Carmencita Abella, the aforementioned recipients helped harness the technologies to empower their countrymen and worked to create waves of progressive change across Asia.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award is an annual award established to perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay’s example of integrity in government, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society. The Ramon Magsaysay Award is often considered Asia’s Nobel Prize. The prize was established in April 1957 by the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund based in New York City with the concurrence of the Philippine government.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award is an annual award established to perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay’s example of integrity in government, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society. The Ramon Magsaysay Award is often considered Asia’s Nobel Prize. The prize was established in April 1957 by the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund based in New York City with the concurrence of the Philippine government.
Each year, six people or organizations are named joint winners of the Magsaysay award in the following categories: Government Service, Public Service, Community Leadership,Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts, Peace and International Understanding and Emergent Leadership.
This year’s Ramon Magsaysay Awardees are:
This year’s Ramon Magsaysay Awardees are:
Harish Hande, from India. He is being recognized for “his passionate and pragmatic efforts to put solar power technology in the hands of the poor, through a social enterprise that brings customized, affordable, and sustainable electricity to India’s vast rural populace, encouraging the poor to become asset creators.”
Nileema Mishra, from India. She is being recognized for “her purpose-driven zeal to work tirelessly with villagers in Maharashtra, India, organizing them to successfully address both their aspirations and their adversities through collective action and heightened confidence in their potential to improve their own lives.”
Koul Panha, from Cambodia. He is being recognized for “his determined and courageous leadership of the sustained campaign to build an enlightened, organized and vigilant citizenry who will ensure fair and free elections — as well as demand accountable governance by their elected officials – in Cambodia’s nascent democracy.”
Hasanain Juaini, from Indonesia. He is being recognized for “his holistic, community-based approach to pesantren education in Indonesia, creatively promoting values of gender equality, religious harmony, environmental preservation, individual achievement, and civic engagement among young students and their communities.”
Tri Mumpuni, from Indonesia. She is being recognized for “her determined and collaborative efforts to promote micro hydropower technology, catalyze needed policy changes, and ensure full community participation, in bringing electricity and the fruits of development to the rural areas of Indonesia.”
Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation, Inc. (AIDFI), from the Philippines. The organization is being recognized for “their collective vision, technological innovations, and partnership practices to make appropriate technologies improve the lives and livelihoods of the rural poor in upland Philippine communities and elsewhere in Asia.”
The winners are to receive their awards in Manila on August 31.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award was created in 1957, the year the Philippines lost in a plane crash a President who was well-loved for his simplicity and humility, his passion for justice, particularly for the poor, and his advancement of human dignity. Among the many friends and admirers of the late President around the world were the Rockefeller brothers. With the concurrence of the Philippine government, the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) established the Award to honor his memory and perpetuate his example of integrity in public service and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society. The winners are to receive their awards in Manila on August 31.
Yoshihiko Noda new PM of Japan
Japan's ruling Democratic Part of Japan (DPJ) on August 29, 2011 picked Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda to be the party's next leader and almost certainly the nation's sixth prime minister in five years, in a party presidential election. Following a runoff vote between favorites Noda, 54, who secured 215 votes, and economic, industrial and trade minister Banri Kaieda, 62, who secured 177, Noda will now almost definitely be named Japan's new prime mister as early as Tuesday and will serve out Kan's term as the party's chief until September 2012.
Born on May 20, 1957 into a poor family in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, Noda, in his speech prior to Monday's vote held at the Hotel New Otani in Tokyo, made no apologies for his tough upbringing on the outskirts of Tokyo. "It's the reason why I do not look like a 'city boy,'" he said, adding that his introduction to politics was a gloomy one.
A son of a serviceman in Japan's Self-Defense forces, and a graduate of Tokyo's prestigious School of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University, Noda went to a school for political leaders that champions free-market economic policies, called the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management. The school boasts 70 politicians among its alumni, including some currently serving as cabinet members.
Noda in 1993 was first elected to the Diet representing the No. 4 region of Chiba Prefecture as a member of the now obsolete Japan New Party, but lost his House of Representatives seat in 1996, only to return to national politics in 2000 on the DPJ ticket and become a lawmaker.
Noda was initially charged with heading the party's public relations office as well as being its Diet affairs chief. When the DPJ secured power of the Diet in September 2009, Noda was appointed senior vice finance minister.
In June 2010 Noda was appointed as Minister of Finance by Kan, himself also a former finance minister.
Born on May 20, 1957 into a poor family in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, Noda, in his speech prior to Monday's vote held at the Hotel New Otani in Tokyo, made no apologies for his tough upbringing on the outskirts of Tokyo. "It's the reason why I do not look like a 'city boy,'" he said, adding that his introduction to politics was a gloomy one.
A son of a serviceman in Japan's Self-Defense forces, and a graduate of Tokyo's prestigious School of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University, Noda went to a school for political leaders that champions free-market economic policies, called the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management. The school boasts 70 politicians among its alumni, including some currently serving as cabinet members.
Noda in 1993 was first elected to the Diet representing the No. 4 region of Chiba Prefecture as a member of the now obsolete Japan New Party, but lost his House of Representatives seat in 1996, only to return to national politics in 2000 on the DPJ ticket and become a lawmaker.
Noda was initially charged with heading the party's public relations office as well as being its Diet affairs chief. When the DPJ secured power of the Diet in September 2009, Noda was appointed senior vice finance minister.
In June 2010 Noda was appointed as Minister of Finance by Kan, himself also a former finance minister.
Man Booker prize 2011
Julian Barnes was fourth time lucky at this year's Man Booker prize with his latest novel 'The Sense of an Ending' winning the prestigious award, in the middle of a raging row between 'readability' and 'literary merit'. British author Barnes, 65, won the 50,000 pounds prize for his latest novel which is a tale of childhood friendship and the imperfections of memory. London-based Barnes, whose novels were shortlisted on three previous occasions for the Man Booker prize was fourth time lucky and was the bookies favourite to win, but had once described the prize as 'posh bingo'.
Barnes was previously nominated for the prize thrice, but without success, in 1984 for 'Flaubert's Parrot', in 1998 for 'England, England' and in 2005 for 'Arthur and George'.
The Man Booker Prize is awarded to the best novel of the year written by a citizen of the British Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. It is not only one of literature's highest honors but quite lucrative as the winner takes home £50,000.
The other nominees for the prize were Carol Birch ('Jamrach's Menagerie'); Canadians Patrick deWitt ('The Sisters Brothers') and Esi Edugyan ('Half Blood Blues'); and debut authors Stephen Kelman ('Pigeon English') and AD Miller ('Snowdrops').
US Senate passes China currency bill
Defying Chinese anger and White House warnings, the US Senate passed legislation to punish Beijing for alleged currency manipulation widely blamed in Washington for costing American jobs. Lawmakers voted 63-35 to approve the measure, which faced a gloomy future in the Republican-led House of Representatives amid warnings from leaders there that it could spark a trade war between the two economic giants. "We are in trade war. But today we're fighting back," said Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, one of the bill's chief champions, celebrating an end to "the unilateral disarmament approach we've taken for the past decade."
The proposal, powered by a tide of US voter frustration at a sour economy and high unemployment ahead of November 2012 elections, envisions retaliatory duties on Chinese exports if the value of the yuan is unfairly "misaligned." Republican House Speaker John Boehner has signalled that he will not bring the legislation to a vote, calling it "dangerous" to economic relations between the world's number-one and number-three economies. "You could start a trade war. And a trade war, given the economic uncertainty here and all around the world -- it's just very dangerous, and we should not be engaged in this," Boehner said recently.
President Barack Obama last week declined to back the legislation and worried it could violate World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules even as he accused China of "gaming the trade system" in a way that hurts the US economy.
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner reiterated Obama's concerns about breaking international trade rules but, asked whether senators had fired the first shot in a trade war, replied: "They did not."
Few in Washington dispute the charge that China keeps the yuan unfairly low against the dollar, giving its goods as much as a 30 percent edge over similar US products, widening the American trade deficit and costing jobs in Washington.
But the measure's opponents warn that it risks worsening ties with China, and say a rise in the yuan would merely boost manufacturing and jobs in countries such as Vietnam or Malaysia not in the United States.
They also contend that, if successful, the bill will increase the cost of commodities or consumer goods from China, hurting rather than helping US businesses and families.
The legislation's backers, an unusual coalition of Democrats and Republicans, have said it's time for Washington to take on Beijing, and predict a boost in the yuan will make Chinese workers wealthier and more likely to buy US goods, thus creating jobs and narrowing the trade gap.
UNESCO becomes the first UN agency to admit Palestine as a full member state
It was a symbolic victory in their battle for full membership of the United Nations in a move that Israel and the US said harmed hopes for peace.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The admission of a new Member State is a mark of respect and confidence. This must be an opportunity to strengthen the Organization and not weaken it, a chance for all to commit once again to the values we share and not to be divided.
Let me be frank. As Director-General, it is my responsibility to say that I am concerned by the potential challenges that may arise to the universality and financial stability of the Organization. I am worried we may confront a situation that could erode UNESCO as a universal platform for dialogue. I am worried for the stability of its budget. It is well-known that funding from our largest contributor, the United States, may be jeopardized. I believe it is the responsibility of all of us to make sure that UNESCO does not suffer unduly as a result.
The admission of a new Member State is a mark of respect and confidence. This must be an opportunity to strengthen the Organization and not weaken it, a chance for all to commit once again to the values we share and not to be divided.
Let me be frank. As Director-General, it is my responsibility to say that I am concerned by the potential challenges that may arise to the universality and financial stability of the Organization. I am worried we may confront a situation that could erode UNESCO as a universal platform for dialogue. I am worried for the stability of its budget. It is well-known that funding from our largest contributor, the United States, may be jeopardized. I believe it is the responsibility of all of us to make sure that UNESCO does not suffer unduly as a result.
The United States withdrew their funding from the UN cultural body in response, while other UN agencies may have to debate the thorny issue. Staunch Israel ally the United States in the 1990s banned the financing of any United Nations organisation that accepts Palestine as a full member, meaning the body would lose $US70 million ($66 million), or 22 per cent of its annual budget.
Nepal parties seven-point peace deal
Putting their differences aside, Nepal's main political parties have inked a historic deal that includes an agreement on integrating former Maoist combatants into the security forces, to take a major step towards concluding the stalled peace process. The four major political forces which represent more than 85 per cent strength of the 601 member Constituent Assembly reached a seven-point agreement on Tuesday night to conclude the stalled peace process within a month and to prepare a draft constitution.
An agreement on the contentious issue of integrating the former combatants was a major part of the deal which decided to integrate a maximum of 6,500 Maoist combatants into security forces and returning properties seized during the civil conflict to their rightful owners.
Those who signed the deal at the end of a crucial meeting held at Prime Minister's residence at Baluwatar Tuesday night include UCPN-Maoist chief Prachanda, Nepali Congress president Sushil Koirala, CPN-UML chairman Jhala Nath Khanal and leader of Joint Democratic Madhesi Front and Deputy Prime Minister Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar.
As per the deal a maximum of 6,500 Maoist combatants will be integrated into the Nepal Army by creating a separate directorate, whose responsibility would be to carry out development activities, forest conservation, industrial security and crisis management, according to Nepali Congress vice president Ramchandra Poudyal.
The directorate will consist of 65 per cent personnel from Nepal Army and 35 per cent from the Maoist combatants.
An agreement on the contentious issue of integrating the former combatants was a major part of the deal which decided to integrate a maximum of 6,500 Maoist combatants into security forces and returning properties seized during the civil conflict to their rightful owners.
Those who signed the deal at the end of a crucial meeting held at Prime Minister's residence at Baluwatar Tuesday night include UCPN-Maoist chief Prachanda, Nepali Congress president Sushil Koirala, CPN-UML chairman Jhala Nath Khanal and leader of Joint Democratic Madhesi Front and Deputy Prime Minister Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar.
As per the deal a maximum of 6,500 Maoist combatants will be integrated into the Nepal Army by creating a separate directorate, whose responsibility would be to carry out development activities, forest conservation, industrial security and crisis management, according to Nepali Congress vice president Ramchandra Poudyal.
The directorate will consist of 65 per cent personnel from Nepal Army and 35 per cent from the Maoist combatants.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn's rape charges to be dismissed
Dominique Strauss-Kahn's appearance in court on Aug 23, his first since July 1, has turned out to be his last trip to the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse. In the weeks since the latest hearing over his alleged sexual assault of a chambermaid at a midtown Manhattan hotel, in which Judge Michael J. Obus freed Strauss-Kahn and vacated his bail because of questions about the accuser's credibility, more and more signs have pointed toward prosecutors' dropping charges against Strauss-Kahn. On Aug 22 afternoon, prosecutors filed a dismissal on recommendation papers recommending that Obus drop the charges. At noon on Aug 23, the judge complied, dismissing the charges before then issuing a stay on his order so an appellate court could decide whether a special prosecutor should be appointed."For a trial jury to find the defendant guilty, it must be persuaded beyond a reasonable doubt that the complainant is credible," the motion to dismiss says. "Indeed, the case rises and falls on her testimony." The motion explains, "The physical and other evidence does not establish forcible compulsion or lack of consent," meaning that the case would hinge on a jury's believing the accuser's testimony over Strauss-Kahn's assertions that the sexual encounter was consensual. (See pictures of Dominique Strauss-Kahn during the case.)
In court Tuesday morning, Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzi-Orbon spoke before Judge Obus and explained their reasoning for the motion to dismiss charges. Illuzi-Orbon said that Strauss-Kahns accuser, Nafissatou Diallo, was untruthful with us in virtually every substantive interview in matters of large and small significance. Illuzi-Orbon explained that while the physical and forensic evidence in the case suggests a hurried sexual encounter, it did not answer questions of force or consent. For a jury to believe an assault took place, jurors would have to rely on Diallos credibility. Indeed, the case rises and falls on her testimony, said Illuzi-Orbon in a direct quote from the dismissal motion.
Judge Obus agreed and dismissed the charges, but the legal proceedings had one more act. On Monday, Diallos lawyers filed a motion to appoint a special prosecutor, arguing that Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr. had not fulfilled his duties. Judge Obus denied that motion, and just hours before the hearing, Diallos lawyers appealed that ruling. When Judge Obus dismissed the charges, he placed a stay on the ruling for 30 days, meaning that the ruling would not go into affect for that time, allowing the appellate court to rule on Diallos appeal. It turns out the court didnt need much time at all. Less than two hours after the hearing ended, the appellate court denied the appeal, leaving Strauss-Kahn free to go.
Outside the courthouse, lawyers for Strauss-Kahn said they were pleased with the decisions. It is impossible to understand the full measure of relief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is feeling, his lawyer Benjamin Brafman said. You can engage in inappropriate behavior perhaps, but that is much different than a crime. When asked if Strauss-Kahn would be free to leave the country, Brafman said, He can go now if he wants to, but hes not.
The decision to end the case altogether comes after weeks during which the accuser and her attorneys tried to publicly pressure the prosecutors into continuing the case. On July 25, Diallo went forward in interviews with Newsweek and ABC News and told her side of the story of the alleged attack. Two weeks later, Diallo filed a civil suit in the Bronx, asking for unspecified monetary damages for what the complaint called a "violent and sadistic attack." (See "The Double Standard of Sex Crimes.")
Yet on Aug. 19, Assistant District Attorney Artie McConnell sent a letter to Thompson, inviting Diallo to a meeting on Aug. 22. According to the letter, which was obtained by the New York Times, the purpose of the meeting was for McConnell to "[explain] to her what I anticipate will occur in Court on the following day" which Thompson said he interpreted to mean they would be dropping the case or altering the charges.
Yet on Aug. 19, Assistant District Attorney Artie McConnell sent a letter to Thompson, inviting Diallo to a meeting on Aug. 22. According to the letter, which was obtained by the New York Times, the purpose of the meeting was for McConnell to "[explain] to her what I anticipate will occur in Court on the following day" which Thompson said he interpreted to mean they would be dropping the case or altering the charges.
In an interesting twist, Thompson himself gave the letter to the Times after criticizing the Manhattan DA's office for press leaks in the complaint filed for the civil lawsuit. "There have been leaks to the news media of false information about Ms. Diallo, apparently by members of the Manhattan District Attorney's Office," the complaint states, "that have severely damaged Ms. Diallo's credibility, reputation and character."
The civil suit ensured that Diallo's version of the story remained in the public eye; however, it may not have been the best legal move in her push for criminal prosecution. "If they have any hope for the prosecution going forward and resulting in a conviction, then it's a very foolish move," Bob Bennett, a leading criminal-defense attorney and former federal prosecutor who represented Bill Clinton against Paula Jones in her sexual-harassment suit, tells TIME. "This just confirms the theory of the defense that this is just all about money. What better evidence than the fact that she filed a suit for money?"
In particular, the timing of the civil suit before the criminal prosecution had ended appeared to be a hedge against the prospect that the case would be dropped. But by initiating the lawsuit weeks before the possible announcement that criminal charges would not proceed, Diallo's lawyers may have hurt their cause. "If it were dropped, you would have a perfect opportunity to stand up and say, 'She's not getting any justice in our criminal courts. We have no choice but to file civilly to try to get justice,' " Bennett says. "They can't make that statement now." The lawsuit may also have been an attempt to keep Strauss-Kahn from returning to France, but it's unlikely that a civil suit would be enough to keep him in the States.
On July 1, prosecutors admitted that the case was weakened because of issues with Diallo's credibility. The motion to dismiss details instances in which the DA's office contends Diallo was not truthful. The papers describe three different versions of the incident, which the DA says Diallo provided at different times. The motion also explains falsehoods Diallo said to prosecutors, including that she had been raped in her native Guinea. In the end, the motion says, "The complainant's testimony at trial cannot be relied upon to establish proof beyond a reasonable doubt," although its first footnote explains that the motion "does not purport to make factual findings. Rather, we simply no longer have confidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty."
Yeonpyeong Island
Why Yeonpyeong Island is in the news in this time, because this South Korean island hit last week by a North Korean artillery attack was designated as a "control zone," in which the military can effectively ban the entrance of civilians and order their departure when necessary. Ongjin County, which governs the Yellow Sea border island of Yeonpyeong, said it has approved a military request to declare the island a control zone under the United Defense Act, aimed at effectively defending the nation through unified command in times of a security crisis. Tensions remained high on the island as South Korea and the United States continued their joint military drill south of it in the Yellow Sea. The North brands the exercises an attempt to "ignite a war." North Korea fired some 170 artillery shells on and near Yeonpyeong Island on Nov. 23, killing two marines and two civilians and injuring at least 18 people.
Yeonpyeong Island or Yeonpyeongdo is a group of South Korean islands in the Yellow Sea, located about 80 km (50 mi) west of Incheon and 12 km (7.5 mi) south of the coast of Hwanghae Province, North Korea. The main island of the group is Daeyeonpyeongdo also referred to simply as Yeonpyeong Island, with an area of 7.01 km2 (2.71 sq mi) and a population of around 1,300.
SECOND AFRICA-INDIA FORUM SUMMIT
Addis Ababa, 23 March 2011 – Preparations ahead of the Second Africa-India Summit Forum, scheduled for 20 to 25 May 2011 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, launched at the headquarters of the African Union Commission (AUC), under the theme: ''Enhancing partnership Shared Vision''.It is within this framework that a working session chaired by the Vice Minister of External Affairs of India, Mr. Vivek Katju, was held with members of the Permanent Representatives Committee (PRC) Sub-Committee on Multilateral Cooperation, in the presence of high officials of the AU Commission, on Friday 18 March 2011, at the African Union (AU) headquarters in Addis Ababa.
H.E. Ambassador John K. Shinkaiye, Chief of Staff at the Bureau of the Chairperson of the Commission chaired the AU side. The meeting considered the Draft Africa-India Framework of Enhanced Cooperation as well as the Draft Addis Ababa Declaration.
Earlier, the Indian vice Minister and his delegation met with the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Mr. Jean Ping.
The Second Africa-Indian Summit Forum is expected to bring together, following the Banjul format, President of Equatorial Guinea as the current Chairperson of the AU, President of Malawi, as the preceding Chairperson of the AU, as well as the Chairperson of the AU Commission, and Presidents of the five countries of NEPAD, namely: Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa.
According to the adopted format, the Summit will also be attended by the Prime Minister of Ethiopia in his capacity as Chair of the Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee HSGIC, and the Chairs of the eight Regional Economic Communities (RECs) namely; Libya for the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA), Swaziland for the Common
Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Chad for the Community of Sahel.
Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Chad for the Community of Sahel.
Saharan States (CEN-SAD), and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), Nigeria for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) , Burundi for East African Community (EAC), Ethiopia for the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and Namibia for the Southern Africa Development
Community (SADC).
Community (SADC).
Worth recalling that, the Second Africa-India Summit Forum falls within the framework of partnership between Africa and India. It is a follow-up to the first Africa-India Summit Forum which took place in New Delhi from 4 to 9 April 2008, during which the New Delhi Declaration and the First Framework for Co-operation were adopted.
India ratified United Nations Convention Against Corruption
India ratified UN Convention Against Corruption which will help it deal with the problem of black-money and corruption through legislative and administrative measures. In its resolution 55/61 of 4 December 2000, the General Assembly recognized that an effective international legal instrument against corruption, independent of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (resolution 55/25, annex I) was desirable and decided to establish an ad hoc committee for the negotiation of such an instrument in Vienna at the headquarters of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
The text of the United Nations Convention against Corruption was negotiated during seven sessions of the Ad Hoc Committee for the Negotiation of the Convention against Corruption, held between 21 January 2002 and 1 October 2003.
The Convention approved by the Ad Hoc Committee was adopted by the General Assembly by resolution 58/4 of 31 October 2003. The General Assembly, in its resolution 57/169 of 18 December 2002, accepted the offer of the Government of Mexico to host a high-level political signing conference in Merida for the purpose of signing the United Nations Convention against Corruption.
In accordance with article 68 (1) of resolution 58/4, the United Nations Convention against Corruption entered into force on 14 December 2005. A Conference of the States Parties is established to review implementation and facilitate activities required by the Convention.
10th Anniversary of SCO
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) which is intergovernmental mutual- security organization, recently celebrated its 10th anniversary. The 10th summit was held in June at Kazakh capital Asthana. Astana summit participants signed the “Astana Declaration,” a document which praised the SCO for its successes in its first 10 years in creating functioning institutions to foster cooperation in several spheres. The declaration also emphasized the importance of peaceful resolution to internal conflicts.The SCO was launched in 1996 as the "Shanghai Five"; members included China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. In 2001, Uzbekistan joined and the SCO was born. The SCO has slowly expanded in size. Now, there are four observer nations, India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan and two dialogue partners — Belarus and Sri Lanka — and three guest members — Afghanistan, the Commonwealth of Independent States and Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The official purpose of the SCO is fighting "the three isms" — terrorism, separatism and extremism — a struggle that took on new purpose and urgency in the aftermath of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Members participate in military exercises, share information and strive to build law enforcement and military capacity. A Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure has been set up in Tashkent that serves as an information clearinghouse for members' security forces and facilitates security and intelligence cooperation.
In June 2002, the heads of SCO member states met in St. Petersburg and signed the SCO Charter, which clearly expounded the SCO purposes and principles, organizational structure, form of operation, cooperation orientation and external relations, marking the actual establishment of this new organization in the sense of international law. The main purposes of SCO are: strengthening mutual trust and good-neighborliness and friendship among member states; developing their effective cooperation in political affairs, the economy and trade, science and technology, culture, education, energy, transportation, environmental protection and other fields; working together to maintain regional peace, security and stability; and promoting the creation of a new international political and economic order featuring democracy, justice and rationality.
The SCO stands for and acts on a new security concept anchored on mutual trust, disarmament and cooperative security; a new state-to-state relationship with partnership instead of alignment at its core, and a new model of regional cooperation featuring concerted efforts of countries of all sizes and mutually beneficial cooperation.In the course of development, aShanghaispirit gradually took shape, a spirit characterized by mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, cooperation, respect for diversified civilizations and common development.
The responsibilities of the group have expanded in recent years. China wants SCO to promote economic cooperation. The China’s trade with the group has expanded from $12 billion to $90 billion over the one decade. It is more interest to gain access to the region's extensive energy resources to feed its own economic expansion.
At the summit, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for joint economic projects such as the establishment of a venture fund, a commercial center and a feasibility fund that would look at the suitability of potential projects. Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov backed a SCO Development Bank to finance major projects in Central Asia.
At the summit, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for joint economic projects such as the establishment of a venture fund, a commercial center and a feasibility fund that would look at the suitability of potential projects. Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov backed a SCO Development Bank to finance major projects in Central Asia.
India has also shown its keenness for getting full membership. Joining SCO, India will get an important platform for sharing security concerns of the region and to work closely on issues relating to the stability of Afghanistan. Though SCO is not interested in sending troops to Afghanistan as they had bitter experience on this front during the Soviet times, which they would not like to repeat, but as most of the SCO member/observer states share the common border with Afghanistan it becomes essential for the SCO to maintain peace and stability in Afghanistan. Hence, in this regard the SCO appreciates India's cooperation. Afghanistan has already submitted its application for getting membership in the SCO and this was discussed at length during Astana summit. It is expected that Afghanistan will soon get the status of an observer from the dialogue partner so that they can play a more active role in the organisation.
Thailand first woman Prime Minister
Thailand first woman Prime Minister
The Pheu Thai Party led by the sister of ousted fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatraon swept the general elections in Thailand on July 3, 2011, paving the way for its leader Yingluck Shinawatra to be the country's first woman prime minister. Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva conceded that Yingluck had won the nation's election and congratulated her for being the first female Prime Minister. Yingluck, the telegenic youngest sister of former premier and telecoms billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, who is on a self imposed exile in Dubai and has been out of Thailand since the coup five years ago when he was ousted. Yingluck dubbed as Thaksin's political proxy will be the 28th prime minister of the country, which has a history of military coups and political instability. With over 90 per cent of votes counted, Puea Thai had won 260 seats out of 500. It is well ahead of the Democrats with 163, according to the Election Commission. The general elations were the first major electoral test for the elite-backed government since mass demonstrations by Thaksin's "Red Shirt" supporters last year paralysed Bangkok and unleashed the worst political violence in decades. Today's elections may bring to an end the last few years of unrest between supporters of Thaksin and the Democrats and Royal supporters.
The Pheu Thai party is allied with Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted as prime minister the 2006 military coup. Tensions between the Democratic Party and the Pheu Thai party erupted last year, with protests against Abhisit's government leading to a military crackdown resulting in 90 deaths and hundreds injured. Abhisit became the prime minister after he was put in office in 2008 by a parliamentary vote after the court dissolved the previous pro-Thaksin ruling party. However, it is not yet clear what will be the status of Thaksin, who faces an arrest warrant.
US President Barack Obama to unveil plan to withdraw troops from Afghanistan
President Barack Obama was set to unveil his plan to start bringing U.S. troops home from Afghanistan, a first step toward ending a decade-long war that is increasingly unpopular in the United States. Barack Obama is expected to announce in a televised address at 8 p.m. EDT a plan that may include the withdrawal by year's end of up to a third of the 30,000 'surge' troops he sent to Afghanistan in 2010, possibly followed by the removal of the rest of those extra forces by the end of 2012.The announcement caps weeks of speculation about the future direction of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, nearly 10 years after the September 11 attacks on the United States that triggered the war in which U.S. and other Western forces have been unable to deal a decisive blow to the insurgent Taliban. Obama received recommendations last week from General David Petraeus, the outgoing commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, with several options for drawing down some of the 100,000 U.S. soldiers there starting in July.
The president faces a host of contradictory pressures as he seeks to rein in government spending on the war and halt American casualties without endangering the gains his military commanders say they have made across southern Afghanistan. "There's almost no decision Obama can make that's a good one. We are in an economic crisis and this an expensive war," said Robert Lamb, a conflict expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "On the other hand, we can't leave an Afghanistan that is unstable -- it's not in our interest to be seen as cutting and running."
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other military leaders have warned against a precipitous departure. Removing too many troops before the United States can prove it has turned a corner, Gates said, would be "premature." But some in Congress, impatient with a war that now costs over $110 billion a year, are demanding a larger initial drawdown. The debate in Washington has shifted palpably since the U.S. special forces raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in May. His death has given critics from both parties ammunition to argue that the Obama administration must narrow more sharply U.S. goals in Afghanistan, which remains desperately poor and notoriously corrupt. While the United States has embraced efforts to find a political settlement with the Taliban, officials acknowledge a peace deal may be far in the future even if one could be had.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other military leaders have warned against a precipitous departure. Removing too many troops before the United States can prove it has turned a corner, Gates said, would be "premature." But some in Congress, impatient with a war that now costs over $110 billion a year, are demanding a larger initial drawdown. The debate in Washington has shifted palpably since the U.S. special forces raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in May. His death has given critics from both parties ammunition to argue that the Obama administration must narrow more sharply U.S. goals in Afghanistan, which remains desperately poor and notoriously corrupt. While the United States has embraced efforts to find a political settlement with the Taliban, officials acknowledge a peace deal may be far in the future even if one could be had.
Barack Obama is mindful of the American public's lack of support for the war as he looks to his 2012 re-election campaign.
A Pew Research poll released on Tuesday found a record 56 percent of Americans favor bringing U.S. forces in Afghanistan home as quickly as possible. Still, the situation on the ground in Afghanistan is worrying.
A Pew Research poll released on Tuesday found a record 56 percent of Americans favor bringing U.S. forces in Afghanistan home as quickly as possible. Still, the situation on the ground in Afghanistan is worrying.
The Taliban has been pushed out of some areas of their southern heartland, but the insurgency has intensified along Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan and U.S. commanders are expected to shift their focus to that area. July will see the official start of NATO's handover to local security forces in keeping with a plan to put Afghan soldiers in charge across the country by the end of 2014.
Serious doubts remain about whether Afghan forces, plagued by desertion and illiteracy, will be up to the task. Vali Nasr, who until April was a senior State Department advisor on the region, said a decision to shrink the U.S. military footprint without fully taking into account the many challenges that remain in Afghanistan would be reckless. "Without a real turning point in the war, without a peace treaty or a clear defeat of the Taliban, we are going to pull out these troops unilaterally," he said. "It's going to be a very consequential decision in what we're trying to achieve over there."
France seeks change to Schengen Pact
France has called for an easier mechanism to temporarily suspend an agreement which allows freedom of movement across 25 European countries.The move follows an influx of migrants from Tunisia and Libya into Italy. Italy's decision to grant Tunisians 20,000 temporary residence permits, allowing free travel in the passport-free Schengen zone, has angered France. French officials temporarily stopped trains with migrants crossing the border from Italy into France. The decision sparked anger between Italy and France, with Italy accusing its neighbour of overstepping the treaty on border-free travel. In an off-the-record but widely-reported briefing, a senior French official said: "The governance of Schengen is failing. It seems there is a need to reflect on a mechanism that will allow a temporary suspension of the agreement, in case of a systemic failure of an external (EU) border." The official, at the presidential Elysee Palace, said that any such an intervention would be provisional, until any "weakness" in the system was corrected.
Suspension of the agreement is permitted under the Schengen Pact, but only in the case of a "grave threat to the public order or internal security". Under the current agreement, in these exceptional circumstances, border controls can only initially be reintroduced for a maximum of 30 days. Mr Sarkozy is due to address the problem of migrants entering France through Italy when he meets Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Tuesday in Rome.
Earlier this month, Italy and France agreed to launch sea and air patrols to try to prevent the influx of thousands of people from Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Many Tunisians have close ties with France - a former colonial power - with friends and relatives in French cities.
Schengen Agreement is a treaty signed on 14 June 1985 near the town of Schengen in Luxembourg, between five of the ten member states of the European Economic Community. It was supplemented by the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement 5 years later. Together these treaties created Europe's borderless Schengen Area which operates very much like a single state for international travel with border controls for travellers travelling in and out of the area, but with no internal border controls.
Schengen Agreements and the rules adopted under them were entirely separate from the EU structures until the 1997 Amsterdam Treaty that incorporated them into the mainstream of European Union law. The borderless zone created by the Schengen Agreements, the Schengen Area, currently consists of 25 European countries, covering a population of over 400 million people and an area of 4,312,099 square kilometers (1,664,911 sq mi).
Now that the Schengen Agreement is part of the acquis communautaire, the Agreement has lost the status of a treaty which could only be amended according to its terms; instead, its amendments are made according to that legislative procedure of the EU that covers the rules to be amended as defined in the EU treaties. Ratification by the former agreement signatory states is not required for altering or repealing some or all of the former Schengen-Acquis. Legal acts setting out the conditions for entry into the Schengen Area are now enacted by majority vote in the legislative bodies of the European Union. New EU member states do not sign the Schengen Agreement as such; instead, they are bound to implement the Schengen rules as part of the pre-existing body of EU law which every new entrant is required to accept.
This led to the result that the Schengen States which are not EU members have few formally binding options to influence the shaping and evolution of the Schengen rules; their options are effectively reduced to agreeing with whatever is presented before them, or withdrawing from the agreement. Of course, similarly to the European Economic Area practice, consultations with the affected countries are conducted informally, prior to the adoption of particular new legislation.
Pakistan forms commission to probe Osama killing
The Pakistan government has formed a commission to probe the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a covert US raid in Abbottabad. The Commission will also determine the nature and causes of lapses associated with the incident. PAKISTAN'S government on May 31, 2011 named the members of a commission tasked with probing the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden, including how it come about that the Al-Qaeda chief was living in a Pakistani garrison city.
Parliament passed a resolution earlier this month demanding that an independent commission - as opposed to one led by the military - investigate the May 2 incursion, which deeply humiliated Pakistani leaders.
Its creation suggests the weak civilian government is using the opportunity to gain leverage over the powerful security establishment during a time when army and intelligence leaders are facing unusual levels of public criticism. Pakistan has a poor history when it comes to holding leaders accountable for mistakes, especially if they are in the security establishment. Commissions may be formed, but their findings often are not far-reaching and may not be released to the public.
The five-member panel commission will be led by Javed Iqbal, a Supreme Court justice. Its other members include a retired lieutenant general and a former ambassador. According to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's office, the commission's mandate includes establishing 'the full facts' regarding Osama's presence in Pakistan, as well as details about the US incursion. The commission is also expected to figure out what security lapses were involved on the Pakistani side, and to ultimately make 'consequential recommendations.' The Osama killing battered the already uneasy relationship between the US and Pakistan.
Georgia Recognizes 'Circassian Genocide'
Georgia becomes the first country to recognize the 19th-century Russian military campaign against the Circassians in the northwest Caucasus as a "genocide". The Georgian Parliament passed a resolution on May 20 saying that "pre-planned" mass killings of the Circassians by the Tsarist Russia in second half of 19th century, accompanied by "deliberate famine and epidemics", should be recognized as "genocide" and those deported during those events from their homeland, should be recognized as "refugees."“This decision is not directed against the Russian people,” Giorgi Gabashvili, a senior ruling party lawmaker, said during the discussion of the draft at the parliamentary session on May 20.
“The Russian people should not be permanently living under the burden imposed on them by their leaders in the 19th century, 20th century and 21st century,” he added.
Another senior ruling party lawmaker Givi Targamadze said that the Parliament should also consider “situation surrounding other peoples” of the North Caucasus. “This process will lead us to a powerful and a significant Caucasian unity,” MP Givi Targamadze, who chairs parliamentary committee for defense and security, said.
The only lawmaker who spoke against of the resolution during the parliamentary debates on May 20 was MP Jondi Bagaturia, who said that although “it is impossible not to show solidarity towards the Circassian people,” emotions should be put aside. “Will not it look unfair in respect of Armenians?” MP Bagaturia said, referring to multiple requests from Georgia’s Armenian community to recognize the massacre of Armenians in Ottoman Empire as genocide. Such appeals, made by the Armenian community almost every year in April, remain unheeded by the Georgian lawmakers.
A lawmaker from the ruling party, Nugzar Tsiklauri, who chairs parliamentary committee for diaspora and Caucasian issues, responded that linking these two issues was inappropriate. He said that Armenia and Turkey, “Georgia’s two friendly nations”, would address differences in the process of “a positive dialogue”. He said that Georgia’s meddling in this process would mean “playing unclear and unjustified role.”
Christian-Democratic Movement (CDM), which is a leading party in the parliamentary minority group, did not voice its position during the debates. MP Giorgi Akhvlediani of CDM told Civil.ge after the vote that his party abstained from voting because the decision was taken too hastily and the decision might be inappropriate from the political point of view.
The ruling party lawmakers first announced about the intention to consider possibly of recognizing mass killings of Circassians as genocide in April, 2010. The announcement was made a month after Tbilisi hosted a conference, Hidden Nations, Enduring Crimes: The Circassians & the Peoples of the North Caucasus Between Past and Future. The conference was organized by Washington-based Jamestown Foundation and Tbilisi-based Ilia State University’s International School for Caucasus Studies with the participants including, among others, representatives of Circassian diaspora.
At the end of the conference, on March 21, 2010 participants made an appeal to the Georgian Parliament requesting to recognize deportations and massacre of Circassians more than a century ago as genocide.
Southern Sudan a new country arrival on world map on 9 July 2011
The announcement of final voting results, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan, that his government would accept the choice of the long-embattled region of Southern Sudan to separate from the north, setting the stage for the creation of the world's newest country this summer. According to the final count, announced in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, 98.83 percent of the more than 3.8 million registered voters in southern Sudan chose to separate from the north. In many parts of the country the vote was over 99 percent. Sudan has endured two long and brutal civil wars between the Arab north and the mostly animist and Christian south, in a period from the early years of independence from Britain to 2005, when a peace agreement was signed, setting the stage for the referendum. Both President Bashir and the southern region's president, Salva Kiir, were in attendance for the announcement as street celebrations spread through the southern capital, Juba. The poll was agreed as part of a 2005 peace agreement ending more than two decades of civil war between the south and north Sudan. Although the vote was peaceful, tension remains high in parts of the oil-rich border region. The Southern Sudan Referendum Commission announced in Khartoum that 98.83% of the voters had backed independence. "We are going to take to the streets and celebrate until dawn," said Peter Deng, a youth leader. "All us here grew up during the war, so we are so happy to be celebrating our freedom in peace." Many in the south have already privately been celebrating the results, which have filtered out in recent days. One woman - a northerner - cried after the announcement, saying she had relatives in the south, the BBC's James Copnall in Khartoum says. Earlier on Monday, President Bashir reiterated that he would accept the outcome of the vote, allaying fears that the split could re-ignite conflict over the control of the south's oil reserves. The formal declaration of independence will be made on 9 July 2011 - six years after the peace deal, which led to the referendum, took effect.
Southern Sudan, also known as South Sudan, is an autonomous region in the southern part of the Sudan, soon to become an independent country. Juba is its capital city. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the east; Kenya, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the south; and the Central African Republic to the west. To the north lies the predominantly Arab and Muslim region directly under the control of the central government, with its capital at Khartoum. Southern Sudan includes the vast swamp region of the Sudd formed by the White Nile, locally called the Bahr al Jebel. The region's autonomous status is a condition of a peace agreement between the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) and the Government of Sudan represented by the National Congress Party ending the Second Sudanese Civil War. The conflict was Africa's longest running civil war.
A referendum on independence for Southern Sudan was held from 9–15 January 2011. Preliminary results released by the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission on 30 January 2011 indicate that 98% of voters selected the "separation" option, with 1% selecting "unity". The final resuls were announced on 7 February with 98.83% of the electorate opting for secession. The Sudanese Government accepted the outcome of the referendum the same day. Southern Sudan is expected to become an independent country on 9 July 2011. On 23 January 2011, members of a steering committee on post-independence governing told reporters that upon independence the land would be named the Republic of South Sudan "out of familiarity and convenience." Other names that had been considered were Azania, Nile Republic, Kush Republic and even Juwama, a portmanteau for Juba, Wau and Malakal, three major cities.
Operation Neptune Spear
The operation was authorized by President Barack Obama and carried out by members of the United States Navy SEALs from the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), informally referred to by its former name, SEAL Team Six, under the command of the Joint Special Operations Command, in conjunction with U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives. The team was sent across the border of Afghanistan to launch the attack.
Lobsang Sangay is elected as the head of the Central Tibetan Administration
Lobsang Sangay is elected as the head of the Central Tibetan Administration replacing the 14th Dalai Lama. The 75-year-old Dalai Lama, who is worshipped as a near deity by many of his followers, has long said he wanted to give up his political role while remaining the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists. The shift to a more powerful elected leader is widely seen as a way to prepare for the Dalai Lama's eventual death.While he is believed to be in fairly good health, China's continued heavy-handed rule over Tibet has made the succession question all important within the Tibetan community.
Many observers believe there eventually will be rival Dalai Lamas - one appointed by Beijing, which rules Tibet, and one by senior monks loyal to the current Dalai Lama. The political change announced Wednesday and yet to be written into the community's constitution reverses centuries of tradition in which the top monk also guided the Tibetan government.
The Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has said that he believes leaders should be elected, and has suggested that negotiations with Beijing - which has vilified him for his vocal resistance to China's rule over Tibet - would be less complicated under another Tibetan figurehead.
Sangay, a senior fellow at Harvard Law School with extensive experience in international law and conflict resolution, won the election with 55 percent of the votes cast by tens of thousands of Tibetans around the world, chief election commissioner Jamphel Choesang said in the north Indian town of Dharmsala, where the exile government is based.
Sangay has said he would move to Dharmsala from Boston if he won the election. It was not immediately clear when he would take office. He has said the Dalai Lama's decision to abdicate political power means the Tibetans will be able to fight China on two fronts."On one side we'll have the Dalai Lama, who has historical legitimacy and global popularity," he told The Associated Press in a March interview. "And on the second, we have a democratic government functioning in exile. We are showing China that if Tibetans are allowed to choose, they are capable of forming a stable democratic government." Successive rounds of talks between Chinese officials and representatives of the Dalai Lama have made no apparent progress toward bringing the sides together. Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking to separate Tibet from China, despite his claims to be working only for more autonomy under Chinese rule.
Sangay has said he would move to Dharmsala from Boston if he won the election. It was not immediately clear when he would take office. He has said the Dalai Lama's decision to abdicate political power means the Tibetans will be able to fight China on two fronts."On one side we'll have the Dalai Lama, who has historical legitimacy and global popularity," he told The Associated Press in a March interview. "And on the second, we have a democratic government functioning in exile. We are showing China that if Tibetans are allowed to choose, they are capable of forming a stable democratic government." Successive rounds of talks between Chinese officials and representatives of the Dalai Lama have made no apparent progress toward bringing the sides together. Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking to separate Tibet from China, despite his claims to be working only for more autonomy under Chinese rule.
The exiled Tibetan community in Dharmsala said it would not celebrate Wednesday's election results as it was protesting a Chinese crackdown on a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the Himalayan foothills of China's western Sichuan province. The Kirti monastery has been forcibly shut down after a police raid left two villagers dead when they tried to stop police from removing 300 monks to an unknown location.
China occupied Tibet in 1950 and claims the region has been part of its territory for centuries, although many Tibetans, who are linguistically and ethnically distinct, say they were effectively independent. Tibetans fear they are being marginalized economically by Chinese and that their religion - the core of Tibetan culture - is under threat from restrictions imposed by the authoritarian government. The outgoing prime minister said Sangay would have a host of new responsibilities with the Dalai Lama relinquishing his political duties."Our democracy is mature enough to handle this change. It's a significant change from old to new, from a monk to a lay person, from older to young, and from traditional to modern," said Prime Minister Sambhong Rinpoche, who is mandated to serve until August but may step down early. The new parliament-in-exile, elected in the same elections, will take its oath of office May 30 in Dharmsala. But the Dalai Lama's power and influence go far beyond the exile constitution, which will make it almost impossible for the new prime minister to achieve very much without the spiritual leader's backing.
Despite more than a half-century in exile, the Dalai Lama is still revered by most Tibetans as their traditional king. He is the 14th person to hold the title in a tradition stretching back 500 years, with each Dalai Lama chosen as a child by senior monks through a series of mystical signs. Each is believed to be the reincarnation of his predecessor.
The current Dalai Lama has indicated his successor would come from the exile community, and could even be a girl. Beijing, though, insists the reincarnation must be found in China's Tibetan areas, giving the Communist authorities immense power over who is chosen.
The current Dalai Lama has indicated his successor would come from the exile community, and could even be a girl. Beijing, though, insists the reincarnation must be found in China's Tibetan areas, giving the Communist authorities immense power over who is chosen.
Russian President signs new START nuclear treaty with US
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday signed the ratification of a New START nuclear treaty with the US. The move is likely to boost arms control and strengthen efforts to reset ties between the two former Cold War rivals. Medvedev said in his televised remarks at national Security Council meeting today that this is a very important event for Russia, considering the understandings that Russia has with the U.S. The New START signed in April 2010 in Prague by US President Obama and Medvedev provides for the mutual reduction of deployed nuclear warheads and delivery weapons over the next seven years. The deal may be extended by agreement between both parties. The treaty limits each country to 1,550 strategic warheads, down from the current ceiling of 2,200, and also re-establishes a system for monitoring that ended in December 2009 with the expiration of a previous arms deal.
Why Daryoush Rezayeenejad was in the news
Iran's residing Representative at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali Asqar Soltaniyeh described protection of nuclear scientists from terrorist attacks as part of the UN agency's undertakings in line with nuclear safety, and called on the UN nuclear watchdog to adopt powerful measures to prevent assassination of nuclear scientists.
Addressing a meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors in Vienna on Tuesday evening, Soltaniyeh called assassination of nuclear scientists as "an ugly and unprecedented phenomenon", and stated, "This is, no doubt, a form of nuclear terrorism and is defined within the framework of nuclear safety which pertains to the IAEA undertakings."
He asked the IAEA to take urgent measures to stop such crimes against humanity and against the context of the IAEA statute that seeks encouraging use of nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
The Iranian diplomat further reiterated that Iran is a major victim of terrorism and has lost hundreds of its innocent civilians during the last 32 years (after the victory of the Islamic Revolution). Iran's young scientist, Daryoush Rezayeenejad, a brilliant post graduate student in the field of Power and Electronics, was gunned down late in July in the country's capital city of Tehran by two unknown terrorists.
On November 29, 2010, two other Iranian academics became the target of terrorist attacks. Terrorists detonated bombs in the vehicles of Dr. Majid Shahriari and Professor Fereidoon Abbasi in separate locations in Tehran. Shahriari was killed immediately but Abbasi and his wife sustained injuries. Later, the Iranian Intelligence Ministry announced that Mossad, CIA and MI6 spy agencies played a role in those attacks. Also in January 2010, Iranian university professor and nuclear scientist, Massoud Ali Mohammadi, was assassinated in a terrorist bomb attack in Tehran.
Addressing a meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors in Vienna on Tuesday evening, Soltaniyeh called assassination of nuclear scientists as "an ugly and unprecedented phenomenon", and stated, "This is, no doubt, a form of nuclear terrorism and is defined within the framework of nuclear safety which pertains to the IAEA undertakings."
He asked the IAEA to take urgent measures to stop such crimes against humanity and against the context of the IAEA statute that seeks encouraging use of nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
The Iranian diplomat further reiterated that Iran is a major victim of terrorism and has lost hundreds of its innocent civilians during the last 32 years (after the victory of the Islamic Revolution). Iran's young scientist, Daryoush Rezayeenejad, a brilliant post graduate student in the field of Power and Electronics, was gunned down late in July in the country's capital city of Tehran by two unknown terrorists.
On November 29, 2010, two other Iranian academics became the target of terrorist attacks. Terrorists detonated bombs in the vehicles of Dr. Majid Shahriari and Professor Fereidoon Abbasi in separate locations in Tehran. Shahriari was killed immediately but Abbasi and his wife sustained injuries. Later, the Iranian Intelligence Ministry announced that Mossad, CIA and MI6 spy agencies played a role in those attacks. Also in January 2010, Iranian university professor and nuclear scientist, Massoud Ali Mohammadi, was assassinated in a terrorist bomb attack in Tehran.
Ramon Magsaysay Awards 2011
This year’s Ramon Magsaysay Awardess have been announced. The list includes an Indian engineer, a Philippine charity group and an Indonesian social worker. The three have been cited for their contributions in giving green technology to the poor in their respective countries. According to Ramon Magsaysay Awards Foundation president, Carmencita Abella, the aforementioned recipients helped harness the technologies to empower their countrymen and worked to create waves of progressive change across Asia.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award is an annual award established to perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay’s example of integrity in government, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society. The Ramon Magsaysay Award is often considered Asia’s Nobel Prize. The prize was established in April 1957 by the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund based in New York City with the concurrence of the Philippine government.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award is an annual award established to perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay’s example of integrity in government, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society. The Ramon Magsaysay Award is often considered Asia’s Nobel Prize. The prize was established in April 1957 by the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund based in New York City with the concurrence of the Philippine government.
Each year, six people or organizations are named joint winners of the Magsaysay award in the following categories: Government Service, Public Service, Community Leadership,Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts, Peace and International Understanding and Emergent Leadership.
This year’s Ramon Magsaysay Awardees are:
This year’s Ramon Magsaysay Awardees are:
Harish Hande, from India. He is being recognized for “his passionate and pragmatic efforts to put solar power technology in the hands of the poor, through a social enterprise that brings customized, affordable, and sustainable electricity to India’s vast rural populace, encouraging the poor to become asset creators.”
Nileema Mishra, from India. She is being recognized for “her purpose-driven zeal to work tirelessly with villagers in Maharashtra, India, organizing them to successfully address both their aspirations and their adversities through collective action and heightened confidence in their potential to improve their own lives.”
Koul Panha, from Cambodia. He is being recognized for “his determined and courageous leadership of the sustained campaign to build an enlightened, organized and vigilant citizenry who will ensure fair and free elections — as well as demand accountable governance by their elected officials – in Cambodia’s nascent democracy.”
Hasanain Juaini, from Indonesia. He is being recognized for “his holistic, community-based approach to pesantren education in Indonesia, creatively promoting values of gender equality, religious harmony, environmental preservation, individual achievement, and civic engagement among young students and their communities.”
Tri Mumpuni, from Indonesia. She is being recognized for “her determined and collaborative efforts to promote micro hydropower technology, catalyze needed policy changes, and ensure full community participation, in bringing electricity and the fruits of development to the rural areas of Indonesia.”
Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation, Inc. (AIDFI), from the Philippines. The organization is being recognized for “their collective vision, technological innovations, and partnership practices to make appropriate technologies improve the lives and livelihoods of the rural poor in upland Philippine communities and elsewhere in Asia.”
The winners are to receive their awards in Manila on August 31.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award was created in 1957, the year the Philippines lost in a plane crash a President who was well-loved for his simplicity and humility, his passion for justice, particularly for the poor, and his advancement of human dignity. Among the many friends and admirers of the late President around the world were the Rockefeller brothers. With the concurrence of the Philippine government, the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) established the Award to honor his memory and perpetuate his example of integrity in public service and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society. The winners are to receive their awards in Manila on August 31.
Yoshihiko Noda new PM of Japan
Japan's ruling Democratic Part of Japan (DPJ) on August 29, 2011 picked Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda to be the party's next leader and almost certainly the nation's sixth prime minister in five years, in a party presidential election. Following a runoff vote between favorites Noda, 54, who secured 215 votes, and economic, industrial and trade minister Banri Kaieda, 62, who secured 177, Noda will now almost definitely be named Japan's new prime mister as early as Tuesday and will serve out Kan's term as the party's chief until September 2012.
Born on May 20, 1957 into a poor family in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, Noda, in his speech prior to Monday's vote held at the Hotel New Otani in Tokyo, made no apologies for his tough upbringing on the outskirts of Tokyo. "It's the reason why I do not look like a 'city boy,'" he said, adding that his introduction to politics was a gloomy one.
A son of a serviceman in Japan's Self-Defense forces, and a graduate of Tokyo's prestigious School of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University, Noda went to a school for political leaders that champions free-market economic policies, called the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management. The school boasts 70 politicians among its alumni, including some currently serving as cabinet members.
Noda in 1993 was first elected to the Diet representing the No. 4 region of Chiba Prefecture as a member of the now obsolete Japan New Party, but lost his House of Representatives seat in 1996, only to return to national politics in 2000 on the DPJ ticket and become a lawmaker.
Noda was initially charged with heading the party's public relations office as well as being its Diet affairs chief. When the DPJ secured power of the Diet in September 2009, Noda was appointed senior vice finance minister.
In June 2010 Noda was appointed as Minister of Finance by Kan, himself also a former finance minister.
Japan's ruling Democratic Part of Japan (DPJ) on August 29, 2011 picked Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda to be the party's next leader and almost certainly the nation's sixth prime minister in five years, in a party presidential election. Following a runoff vote between favorites Noda, 54, who secured 215 votes, and economic, industrial and trade minister Banri Kaieda, 62, who secured 177, Noda will now almost definitely be named Japan's new prime mister as early as Tuesday and will serve out Kan's term as the party's chief until September 2012.
Born on May 20, 1957 into a poor family in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, Noda, in his speech prior to Monday's vote held at the Hotel New Otani in Tokyo, made no apologies for his tough upbringing on the outskirts of Tokyo. "It's the reason why I do not look like a 'city boy,'" he said, adding that his introduction to politics was a gloomy one.
A son of a serviceman in Japan's Self-Defense forces, and a graduate of Tokyo's prestigious School of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University, Noda went to a school for political leaders that champions free-market economic policies, called the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management. The school boasts 70 politicians among its alumni, including some currently serving as cabinet members.
Noda in 1993 was first elected to the Diet representing the No. 4 region of Chiba Prefecture as a member of the now obsolete Japan New Party, but lost his House of Representatives seat in 1996, only to return to national politics in 2000 on the DPJ ticket and become a lawmaker.
Noda was initially charged with heading the party's public relations office as well as being its Diet affairs chief. When the DPJ secured power of the Diet in September 2009, Noda was appointed senior vice finance minister.
In June 2010 Noda was appointed as Minister of Finance by Kan, himself also a former finance minister.
Solar Energy Could Produce Majority of the World's Energy By 2060
Solar generators could meet most of the global demand for power in the next 50 years according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Bloomberg reported.
Photovoltaic plants and solar-thermal plants could meet most of the world's electricity demand by 2060, and half of all energy needs. The findings go beyond the IEA's previous forecast which had said photovoltaic and solar energy would meet 21% of the world's power needs by 2050.
Wind, hydropower and biomass plants would supply most of the remaining energy and greenhouse gas emissions would subsequently fall. Carbon dioxide emissions from the energy sector would fall to about 3 gigatons per year, compared with about 30 gigatons at current levels. More details are expected to be revealed at a conference in Germany this September. Germany is pushing a €20 billion solar energy plan in Greece, according to ekathimerini. The investment plan called Project Helios will convert solar energy in the country through photovoltaic systems and export the energy across Western Europe. The project is expected to create 30,000 - 60,000 jobs in Greece.
The project involves installing photovoltaic panels with a total capacity of 10 gigawatts which would be about the same as the total capacity of Greece's main electric company Public Power Corporation. The plan would however need about 77 square miles of public land.
Photovoltaic plants and solar-thermal plants could meet most of the world's electricity demand by 2060, and half of all energy needs. The findings go beyond the IEA's previous forecast which had said photovoltaic and solar energy would meet 21% of the world's power needs by 2050.
Wind, hydropower and biomass plants would supply most of the remaining energy and greenhouse gas emissions would subsequently fall. Carbon dioxide emissions from the energy sector would fall to about 3 gigatons per year, compared with about 30 gigatons at current levels. More details are expected to be revealed at a conference in Germany this September. Germany is pushing a €20 billion solar energy plan in Greece, according to ekathimerini. The investment plan called Project Helios will convert solar energy in the country through photovoltaic systems and export the energy across Western Europe. The project is expected to create 30,000 - 60,000 jobs in Greece.
The project involves installing photovoltaic panels with a total capacity of 10 gigawatts which would be about the same as the total capacity of Greece's main electric company Public Power Corporation. The plan would however need about 77 square miles of public land.
Did you know?
- To achieve a 50% reduction of CO2 emissions by 2050 will require investment of USD 316 trillion, 17% more than “business as usual.” See the BLUE Map Scenario of ETP 2010.
- Smart grids could reduce CO2 emssions by 0.9 – 2.2 Gt per year by 2050, IEA analysis indicates. See Energy Technology Perspectives 2010, Chapter 4.
- In 2030, 10% of global agricultural and forestry residues could provide roughly 50% of the biofuel demand forecast in the IEA World Energy Outlook 2009 450 Scenario which looks at what needs to be done in the energy sector to keep the global temperature rise to around 2°C above pre-industrial levels. For more information see the new IEA study Sustainable Production of Second-Generation Biofuels – Potential and Perspectives in Major Economies and Developing Countries.
- Every year of delay in global efforts to mitigate climate change adds an extra USD 500 billion to the clean energy investment needed by 2030, according to WEO 2009
- Transport accounts for about one quarter of global energy use and energy-related CO2 emissions. In absence of new policies, transport energy use and related CO2 emissions are projected to increase by nearly 50% by 2030 and by more than 80% by 2050. For more information seeTransport, Energy and CO2: Moving Towards Sustainability.
- Nearly 70% of electricity is generated from fossil fuels: coal (42% of generated power globally in 2007); gas (21%); hydro (16%); nuclear (14%); oil (6%); and non-hydro-renewables (2%). As a result, electricity accounts for 40% of global energy-related CO2 emissions; these emissions will grow by 58% globally by 2030 unless new policy measures are introduced. For more information, see the IEA publication, Sectoral Approaches in Electricity: Building Bridges to a Safe Climate.
- Industry accounts for approximately one-third of global final energy use and almost 40% of total energy-related CO2 emissions. Over recent decades, industrial energy efficiency has improved and CO2 intensity declined in many sectors, but this progress has been offset by growing industrial production worldwide. Projections of future energy use and emissions show that without decisive action, these trends will continue. To learn more, see Energy Technology Transitions for Industry: Strategies for the Next Industrial Revolution.
- Energy investment worldwide has plunged over the past year in the face of a tougher financing environment, weakening final demand for energy and lower cash flow. All these factors stem from the financial and economic crisis. Energy companies are drilling fewer oil and gas wells, and cutting back on spending on refineries, pipelines and power stations. Many ongoing projects have been slowed and a number of planned projects have been postponed or cancelled. Businesses and households are spending less on new, more efficient energy-using applicances, equipment and vehicles, with important knock-on effects for the efficiency of energy use in the long term. SeeWorld Energy Outlook 2009.
- Although Chile has limited indigenous fossil energy resources, fossil fuels account for almost 80% of the country’s total primary energy supply. As a result, Chile imports close to 75% of its energy in the form of gas, oil and coal. Yet Chile’s geography has endowed it with significant renewable energy potential. The Chilean government recognises the significant long-term potential of renewable energy in Chile and has recently adopted a wide-ranging approach, which includes assessment studies, a law for the development of non-conventional renewable energy, specific financial support measures, and research and development activities. To learn more, see Chile Energy Policy Review 2009.
- Around 8.2 gigatonnes of CO2 could be saved annually by 2030, if IEA efficiency recommendations to the G8 were implemented globally. See the 25 Efficiency Recommendations made to the G8.
- Information and communication technologies and consumer electronics now account for 15% of global residential electricity consumption. The IEA estimates that energy use by these devices will double by 2022 and increase threefold by 2030. See Gadgets and Gigawatts
- Electricity consumption from electronic devices such as laptops and mobile phones could be cut by more than half through the use of the best available technology (Source: Gadgets and Gigawatts)
- The world’s car fleet is expected to triple by 2050 with 80% of this growth occurring in developing economies. See "50by50" report from the Global Fuel Economy Initiative (GFEI) for more details. See also the IEA press release.
- Excluding traditional biomass use, the share of renewable energy in global primary energy demand is projected to climb from 7% in 2006 to 10% by 2030 in the World Energy Outlook Reference Scenario. World renewables-based electricity generation – mostly hydro and wind – is projected to rise from 18% in 2006 to 23% in 2030. According to the World Energy Outlook 2008
Barack Obama declares emergency in four States
President Barack Obama has declared emergency in three States of New York, Virginia and Massachusetts which empowered federal agencies to take all steps required to protect people and properties, as hurricane Irene with a sustained wind speed of 100 miles per hour gushed toward the eastern shores of the United States. While Obama declared emergency in New York early in the day, the US President signed off on the emergency declaration for the States of Virginia and Massachusetts around midnight soon after he arrived at the White House, a day early from his summer vacation.Emergency in North Carolina was declared earlier. Obama's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency, to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in these three States.
Governors of Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Connecticut, and New York have already declared states of emergency as hurricane Irene nears land. Federal storm-surge maps showed the potential for four-to 10-foot surges across a massive swath of the eastern United States, with potentially disastrous impacts in eastern North Carolina, the Tidewater area of Virginia, as well as the Potomac River that runs through Washington.
Kim Jong Il visits to Russia's Republic of Buryatia
Kim Jong Il, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), has visited the Republic of Buryatia in Siberia of the Russian Federation, the official news agency KCNA reported on August 24. According to the KCNA, Kim, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission, arrived at Ulan-Ude, capital of Buryatia, Tuesday morning. He was warmly welcomed by citizens in national costumes. He was offered bread, salt, blue kerchief, milk and bouquet according to the customs of various nationalities in the region. Kim exchanged greetings and had conversations with Byacheslav Nagovitsin, president of the Republic of Buryatia, and other officials, said the report. He toured various places of the region including Ulan-Ude and Lake Baikal as well. Nagovitsin hosted a reception for Kim and a special performance was also staged to welcome him Tuesday, the report added. Kim was accompanied by Kim Yong Chun, member of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee and minister of the People's Armed Forces and other senior DPRK officials. Kim left Pyongyang for a visit to Russia on Aug. 20 at the invitation of Russian Federation President Dmitry Medvedev. He visited Russia in August 2002 last time.Niels Holck alias Kim Davy
As a result of strenuous diplomatic efforts by the Government, the Danish Government agreed to extradite Mr. Niels Holck alias Kim Davy in April 2010. He appealed against the decision in the City Court which ruled against the extradition on November 1, 2010. The City Court decision was immediately appealed against by the Danish Government. The Eastern Court in Denmark delivered its verdict on June 30, 2011 upholding the judgment of the City Court and ruled against the extradition. Government immediately conveyed its extreme disappointment at the highest levels to the Government of Denmark and urged it to appeal against this judgment. However, on July 7, 2011, Danish Director of Public Prosecution announced the decision not to appeal. Government’s disappointment and concerns were again conveyed to the Danish Government and it was emphasized that the judgment had grave and far-reaching implications and could only serve as an encouragement to terrorists and criminals. The grounds cited by the Danish Court as the basis for its decision; which included possible violation of human rights in police and prison custody in India and the fact that India has not ratified the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment were completely rejected by the Government. Government’s demand for extradition of Mr. Niels Holck alias Kim Davy to India stands. Indo-Pak relations to improve after Hina Rabbani Khar's visit
The Krishna-Khar talks held in New Delhi on July 27 yielded new Confidence Building Measures including increasing cross-LoC trading days and expanding travel to include tourism and religious aspects apart from relaxing permit conditions for travel by people of Jammu and Kashmir to the other side of LoC by having a system of six-month multiple entry. External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Friday said Indo-Pak relations will "certainly improve" after the visit of his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar. "This was the roadmap that we had worked out and I am very happy that she came to India and that certainly will improve bilateral relations between our two countries," Krishna told reporters on his way back from Maldives. "With reference to various issues that we discussed with Mrs Khar during the course of her interaction would be subject matter of a suo-moto statement that I am going to make on August 1 on both houses of the parliament," he said. External Affairs Minister SM Krishna had advised a cautious "wait and watch" approach to evaluating any change in Pakistan's attitude towards India. UN chief Ban Ki-moon welcomed the recent "constructive" talks between the Indo-Pak foreign ministers and encouraged the two countries to resolve their outstanding issues through dialogue in the interest of the regional security. Hina Rabbani Khar is a Pakistanipolitician and Minister of Foreign Affairs since 20th July 2011. She is youngest and first female Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan. She was appointed Minister of State for Foreign Affairs on 11th February, 2011, as part of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani cabinet reshuffle. After Shah Mehmood Qureshi's resignation as foreign minister, she became Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs on 13th February 2011. Hina Rabbani Khar was born on 19th January 1977 in Multan, Punjab, Pakistan. She is daughter of the politician Muhammad Ibrahim Arqam and niece of Ghulam Mustafa Khar. India achieved 10th rank in export of services worldwideIndia achieved 10th rank in export of services worldwide, while emerged as the 20th biggest merchandise exporter in 2010, latest WTO report has said. In 09, the country stood at the 12th and 22nd position globally in services and goods exports, respectively.
TKA Nair Appointed Advisor to Prime Minister
Shri T.K.A. Nair, IAS(PB:63) (Retired), Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, as Adviser to Prime Minister with the rank and status of Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office with effect from the October 3, 2011 till further orders.
Shri T.K.A. Nair, IAS(PB:63) (Retired), Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, as Adviser to Prime Minister with the rank and status of Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office with effect from the October 3, 2011 till further orders.
India signs civil nuclear deal with S.Korea
India on Monday signed a civil nuclear cooperation deal with South Korea, allowing a framework for Korean companies to participate in atomic power plant projects in the country. The agreement was signed after a meeting between President Pratibha Patil with her South Korean counterpart Lee Myung-Bak. South Korea has become the ninth country which had signed nuclear agreement with India after it got the waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) in 2008. The others are the US, France, Russia, Canada, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Argentina and Namibia, an official said. South Korea operates 20 nuclear plants that generate some 35 percent of its electricity needs, and is keen to export its technology to fast developing countries like India. "The two countries have just concluded and signed a bilateral agreement on cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy," said Sanjay Singh, Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs. "It is like other civil nuclear agreements signed between India and other countries. We look forward to Republic of Korea for becoming one more partner in the development of civil nuclear energy in India," the official said without divulging further details on the agreement and its mandate but termed the deal as a "win-win" for both the nations. Both India and South Korea decided to start talks on civil nuclear cooperation during a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and South Korean President Lee on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Hanoi in October last year. The nuclear agreement was signed by Dr Srikumar Banerjee, Secretary Department of Atomic Energy and Kim Sung Hwan, Foreign Minister of the Republic of Korea. Earlier, Patil and her South Korean counterpart Lee held a 20-minute restrictive meeting followed by a delegation level talks for over an hour at 'Blue House', official residence of Korean President. Patil is on a week-long tour of Korea and Mongolia. Besides the agreement on nuclear cooperation, the two sides also signed a Memorandum of Understanding on media exchanges and another agreement on administrative arrangements to provide social security to people working in India and Korea. The MoU on media was signed by Singh and Choung Byoung-gug, Minister for Culture, Sports and Tourism. The third agreement for administrative arrangements for social security was signed by Skand Ranjan Tayal, Ambassador of India to South Korea and Chin Soo Hea, Minister of Health and Welfare.First Border Haat Bangladesh-India border open
Union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and his Bangladeshi counterpart M Faruk Khan on Saturday jointly inaugurated the first Border Haat on the Bangladesh-India border. Khan and Sharma opened the Haat on the border stretched from Kalaichar in West Garo Hills district of Meghalaya to Baliamari of Kurigram district in Bangladesh on Saturday. Bangladesh and India have agreed to set up a number of Border Haats, which, if opened, are expected to witness bilateral trade worth 20 million US Dollars every year. West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner Sanjay Goyal said after the hoisting of national flags of both the countries and recital of the national anthems, a brief cultural programme was organized. A crowd of about 1000, from both sides of the international border witnessed the re-opening of the haat. The first transaction will be held on July 27. Twenty five vendors from each side and some 300 vendees are expected on the first day. The Haat will open ever Wednesday from 9.30 AM to 3 PM. The Union Commerce Minister has expressed the hope that “the opening of Border Haats shall herald a new chapter of cooperation in India-Bangladesh trade.” He was confident that the opening of Border Haats will make the border villages on both sides more prosperous through improved market accessibility for their locally produced goods. It is estimated that bilateral trade worth 20 million US $ will take place annually from the Border Haats once they are opened. The Border Haats aim at promoting the well being of the people dwelling in remote areas across the borders of India and Bangladesh by establishing traditional system of marketing of local produce. The commodities traded shall be locally produced vegetables, food items, fruits, spices; minor local forest produce.Thailand first woman Prime Minister
The Pheu Thai Party led by the sister of ousted fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatraon swept the general elections in Thailand on July 3, 2011, paving the way for its leader Yingluck Shinawatra to be the country's first woman prime minister. Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva conceded that Yingluck had won the nation's election and congratulated her for being the first female Prime Minister. Yingluck, the telegenic youngest sister of former premier and telecoms billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, who is on a self imposed exile in Dubai and has been out of Thailand since the coup five years ago when he was ousted. Yingluck dubbed as Thaksin's political proxy will be the 28th prime minister of the country, which has a history of military coups and political instability. With over 90 per cent of votes counted, Puea Thai had won 260 seats out of 500. It is well ahead of the Democrats with 163, according to the Election Commission.The general elations were the first major electoral test for the elite-backed government since mass demonstrations by Thaksin's "Red Shirt" supporters last year paralysed Bangkok and unleashed the worst political violence in decades. Today's elections may bring to an end the last few years of unrest between supporters of Thaksin and the Democrats and Royal supporters. The Pheu Thai party is allied with Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted as prime minister the 2006 military coup. Tensions between the Democratic Party and the Pheu Thai party erupted last year, with protests against Abhisit's government leading to a military crackdown resulting in 90 deaths and hundreds injured. Abhisit became the prime minister after he was put in office in 2008 by a parliamentary vote after the court dissolved the previous pro-Thaksin ruling party.
However, it is not yet clear what will be the status of Thaksin, who faces an arrest warrant.
Christine Lagarde named new IMF chief
France's Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, 55, has been named the first woman to head theInternational Monetary Fund (IMF). Christine Lagarde Christine Lagarde will start her five-year term
at the IMF on 5 July, 2011. The post became vacant following the resignation of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
Jose Graziano da Silva appoint head of FAO
Jose Graziano da Silva, the former Brazilian Food Security Minister, will be the eighth Director General (DG) of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the United Nations said in a statement. Graziano da Silva is the first person from Latin America to head the United Nation's (UN) global body on agriculture. Graziano da Silva's term will expire on 31st July 2015, but he will be eligible to run for a second, four-year term. The other candidates -- Franz Fischler (Austria), Indroyono Soesilo (Indonesia), Mohammad Saeid Noori Naeini (Iran) and Abdul Latif Rashid (Iraq) - withdrew from the contest after receiving fewer votes during the first round of balloting, it added. Mario Draghi new President of the European Central Bank
Mario Draghi is an Italian banker and economist who has been governor of the Bank of Italy since 16 January 2006. He has been designated to succeed Jean-Claude Trichet as President of the European Central Bank by November 2011. In his capacity as Bank of Italy governor, he is a member of the Governing and General Councils of the European Central Bank and a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements. He is also governor for Italy on the Boards of Governors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Asian Development Bank. In April 2006 he was elected Chairman of the Financial Stability Forum, which became Financial Stability Board in spring 2009. Omar al-Bashir visit to China
Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has arrived in China a day after his plane turned back with no explanation. Mr Bashir's scheduled meeting with China's President Hu Jintao on Monday was cancelled as his flight was rescheduled. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Mr Bashir, accusing him of war crimes during the conflict in Darfur. Human rights groups say China should not have invited Mr Bashir. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said his government had every right to invite Mr Bashir, as it is not a signatory to the ICC treaty. 
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