INTERNATIONAL APRIL 2010

INTERNATIONAL APRIL 2010

• The World Expo 2010 was held in Shangai in China. 189 countries have attended the event. The Chinese government has spent an estimated $ 45 billion on the Expo, upgrading Shanghai's infrastructure in a bid to make the city a “world financial capital” by 2020. 
• The 16th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation decided to establish an Inter-governmental Expert Group on Climate Change to develop a clear policy direction and guidance for regional cooperation as envisaged in the SAARC Plan of Action on Climate Change. The member-states also resolved to commission a study, for presentation to the 17th summit, on ‘Climate Risks in the Region: ways to comprehensively address the related social, economic and environmental challenges'. It was also decided to plant one crore trees over the next five years to build a “green and happy South Asia.” 
• On the sidelines of the SAARC summit, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart, Yusuf Raza Gilani, agreed to the resumption of high-level dialogue, which has been disrupted since the Mumbai terror attacks of November 2008.
• The 16th summit of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) started in Thimpu, Bhutan. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa,current head of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, took the chair. Other leaders of the grouping Manmohan Singh of India,Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh, Lyonchhen Jigmi Thinley of Bhutan, Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, Madhav Kumar Nepal of Nepal, and Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani of Pakistan attended the summit. For the first time, Bhutan is hosting the summit.
• Chamal Rajapaksa, brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was unanimously elected Speaker of the newly elected Sri Lankan Parliament on its opening day. 
• Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari signed into law a landmark constitutional amendment bill that will divest him of his sweeping powers.
• Addressing representatives of over 60 countries and several international organisations, at the start of a two-day conference on nuclear disarmament in Tehran, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for the suspension of the United States from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and proposed a five-point plan to democratise the global security architecture. 
• Russia has launched the construction of the $12-billion Nord Stream pipeline to Europe that would carry up to 55 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas a year from Siberian gas fields 900 km over land and 1,200 km under the Baltic Sea from Vyborg in Russia to Greifswald in Germany.
• Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has unveiled the first model of “third generation”centrifuges that Tehran claims are six times more efficient than the previous variants. Ahmadinejad said at a ceremony in Tehran marking the fourth “national nuclear festival” that 60,000 new generation centrifuges would be installed at the Natanz enrichment plant.
• In the parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka, President Mahinda Rajapaksa-led ruling alliance won in 120 constituencies of the 180 seats declared in the 225-member House. The main Opposition grouping, led by the United National Party (UNP), bagged only 47 seats.
• The Pakistan National Assembly passed the 18th Amendment Billthat seeks to bring back the 1973 Constitution. The Bill , which proposes 102 amendments to the Constitution , was passed by a two-thirds majority after the House rejected the amendments moved by some members on the abolition of the concurrent list, renaming the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), and removal of the provision for intra-party elections.
• Presidents Barack Obama of the United States and Dmitry Medvedev of Russia signed a Strategic Arms Reduction Treatywhich will reduce their nuclear weapons stockpiles by a third.
• Anti-government protests broke out in Kyrgyzstan and its President Kurmanbek Bakiyev has reportedly left the country and Prime Minister Usenov resigned, clearing the way for the Opposition to form its own government. A “Cabinet of people's trust” has been headed by Opposition leader Roza Otunbayeva.
• Aid agencies are warning of an impending food emergency in South Sudan. According to them, Akobo, in the eastern region of Jonglei, is now the“hungriest place on earth.''
• A volcano erupted under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier, 120 km east of Reykjavik in Icelandshooting smoke and steam into the air and forcing hundreds of people to leave their homes. 
• A 7.1-magnitude quake struck a remote border area in north-west Qinghai province in western China leaving at least 400 dead and more than 10,000 injured. The epicentre of the quake was in Yushu county, in a Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture which borders Sichuan. 
• China is building a new airport near Mount Everest, to be called ‘Peace Airport’ in Xigaze prefecture in Tibet. 
• The Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) was held in Washington in which 37 of the participating 47 countries are represented at the level of President or Prime Minister. The agenda of the summit was how to physically secure sensitive nuclear materials around the world so that terrorists don't get hold of them. The next Nuclear Security Summit will be held in South Korea in 2012. 
• The President of Poland Lech Kaczynski and a high-level delegation were killed when the president’s Tu-154 passenger jet carrying 97 people crashed as it was approaching a Russian airport in the city of Smolensk. 
• Sudan geared up for its first multi-party elections in 24 years,with a 16-million-strong electorate eligible to vote for President, MPs and local representatives.