INTERNATIONAL AUGUST 2010

INTERNATIONAL AUGUST 2010

• President Pratibha Patil inaugurated the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM 2010) at HICC, Hyderabad. For the first time ever, the Union's General Assembly has elected Ingrid Daubechies of the U.S., a woman as its president for the 2011-14 terms. 
• Vuvuzela, the horn instrument which became the sound of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, has won an entry in the latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. It defines the horn as a long plastic instrument, in the shape of a trumpet that makes a very loud noise when it is blown and is popular with football fans in South Africa.
• China passed Japan to become the world's second-largest economy behind the United States, according to Chinese government figures. With this growth continuing, China will pass the United States as the world's biggest economy as early as 2030.
• Sri Lankan court martial, probing charges against General (retd.) Sarath Fonseka, found him guilty and recommended that he be ‘cashiered.'When an officer was cashiered, he would lose the rank and all the awards/honours received as a military officer.
• The clock atop the Abraj Al-Bait Towers under construction in Macca, Saudi Arabia has billed as the world's largest clock and will top a massive skyscraper that when completed will be around 600 metres tall, the second tallest in the world after Dubai's Burj Khalifa. 
• Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State for Environment and Forests, will be one of the 21 members of the United Nations' (UN) newly formed High-level Panel on Global Sustainability. It will be co-chaired by South African president Jacob Zuma and Finnish president Tarja Halonen, and includes foreign and environment ministers, environmentalists, diplomats and businessmen, as well as former Heads of State from around the world.
• Nepal's Parliament failed to elect a Prime Minister for the fourth time. Both Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda' and Nepali Congress leader Ram Chandra Poudel could not obtain a simple majority of 301 votes in the House of 601 as required by the interim constitution. 
• The Jantar Mantar in Jaipur is now been in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation's(UNESCO)World Heritage List. Located outside the city palace, this large stone observatory with its many instruments was built by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II in the 18th century. It is one of the four existing astronomical observatories in India. The others are located in Varanasi, Delhi and Ujjain.