INTERNATIONAL AUGUST 2013

INTERNATIONAL AUGUST 2013

• A 25-year quest by nearly 1,000 scholars to document and present one of the world's oldest living traditions came to fruition when the 'Encyclopedia of Hinduism' was unveiled in the University of Southern California campus, Columbia, on 28 August. Hundreds of scholars, dignitaries, students, Hindu leaders and the public converged on the university campus to witness the release of much anticipated and definitive 11-volume guide conceived, compiled and produced by the India Heritage Research Foundation.
  
• Those present on the occasion included South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, Indian Consul General in Atlanta Ajit Kumar and Gandhian Anna Hazare. The comprehensive encyclopedia has 11-volume work and it covers Hindu spiritual beliefs, practices and philosophy, and is the culmination of a 25-year academic effort. The English language encyclopedia includes about 7,000 articles on Hinduism and its practices. The work also deals with Indian history, languages, art, music, dance, architecture, medicine, and women's issues. It contains more than 1,000 illustrations and photographs. The encyclopedia's volumes run from 600 to more than 700 pages. Some 3,000 copies are being printed in first edition. Hinduism is the world's third-largest religion, with 1 billion followers, according to a Pew Research Center study. Christians number 2.2 billion and Muslims 1.6 billion.
  
• India on 31 August 2013 announced an aid of Rs. 5,000 crore to Bhutan. The aid includes economic stimulus package of Rs. 500 crore. The decision to provide an aid to Bhutan was taken by the Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India after his talk with his Bhutanese counterpart Tshering Tobgay at New Delhi. The Butanese Prime Minister is on six day visit to India and during this visit issues related to political security, developmental assistance and matters of mutual concern was also discussed between the two nations to strengthen bilateral relations. During the meet, the India also ensured the Bhutanese Prime Minister about its commitment to install an additional 10,000 Mega Watt of power generating capacity in Bhutan. At present three Indian projects are under process in Bhutan.
  
• Around 35 per cent of food is lost between harvest and distribution across the Asia-Pacific region, depriving millions of nutrition, the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization said on 27 August. Poor production planning, a lack of storage, weak transport systems, crop disease and parasites also cause some 30 per cent of cereals and 42 per cent of fruit and vegetables to be lost before reaching consumers, the FAO said in Bangkok. The FAO defines “loss” as food which does not make it from harvest to the market, while “waste” is food thrown away by consumers, restaurants and supermarkets — a trend that increases with greater urbanization. The region, whose economies have boomed in recent years, wastes substantially less than more developed areas such as the United States and Europe. The FAO says that if just a quarter of the food wasted worldwide was saved, this would be enough to feed the 870 million people suffering from hunger, of whom 536 million live in the Asia-Pacific region.
  
• The trial of former Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case began on 27 August, at the anti terrorism court (ATC) in Rawalpindi. According to special public prosecutor Chaudhury Mohammed Azam, the evidence of the constable Kashif Bashir was completed and so was his cross examination. Four more witnesses, all of them doctors will be examined next week. Two of them had not come to the court. These were the doctors who had conducted autopsies following the December 2007 assassination of Ms. Bhutto in Rawalpindi. Last week, Gen. Musharraf was charged with murder and criminal conspiracy among eleven charges in the case. He pleaded not guilty and the court granted him exemption from appearing in court after his lawyer made an application that his life was under threat. The trial will resume on September 3.
  
• The Chinese and Pakistani air forces will hold a joint exercise next week. The joint drill will be held during September 2-22 in China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the Chinese Defence Ministry said on 27 August. The exercise, code-named Shaheen (Eagle)-2, is another cooperative project between the two air forces after the Shaheen-1 drill in Pakistan in March 2011, sources said. The drill between the two close allies is being held ahead of an India-China military exercise planned for November. That exercise, codenamed Hand-in-Hand, is scheduled to be held in China’s Chengdu Military Command area from November 4 to 14. India and China are expected to field about 150 troops each for the exercise, which is likely to focus on anti-terrorism manoeuvres.
  
• The 22-nation Arab League has opposed a military attack, despite holding “the Syrian regime responsible for this heinous crime” of chemical attack on civilians. On 28 August, Iran, a top ally of the Syrian leadership stepped up the level of its opposition in anticipation of U.S.-led military strikes in Syria. Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned the Americans that the consequences of military intervention in Syria would be catastrophic, as Washington would incur losses comparable to its experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. With high stakes riding their mission, U.N. chemical weapons inspectors, who are in Syria, proceeded on 28 August to inspect the site where the alleged chemical attack took place. Counselling patience and restraint, the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the U.S. and its allies to give time to the inspectors to complete their findings.
  
• Ghana’s Supreme Court on 27 August, upheld President John Dramani Mahama's victory in elections last year, dismissing the opposition's case alleging voter fraud in a test for one of Africa’s most stable democracies. The decision ended a month-long saga that had riveted the west African nation which is widely seen as a rare beacon of democracy in the turbulent region. In the December polls, Ghana’s electoral commission said Mr. Mahama took 50.7 per cent of the vote over ex-Foreign Minister Akufo-Addo’s 47.7 percent. “The first respondent [Mahama] was validly elected and the petition is therefore dismissed,” presiding judge William Atuguba said, reading from the verdict issued by the nine-justice panel.
  
• The advocacy of war in Syria by the United States and its allies is meeting stiff escalatory resistance, with countries including Russia, China and Iran citing the violations of international law, regional destabilization, and the fragility of the international economy as arguments against a military intervention. As the drumbeat of war grew louder, Russia quietly decided to strengthen naval presence in the Mediterranean Sea close to the Syrian coastline. A Russian anti-submarine warship is now steaming towards the Mediterranean coast. The Russians made it clear that their deployments are in response to the situation surrounding Syria.
  
• By announcing their intentions, the Russians seemed to have reinforced the point that a conflict in Syria could quickly acquire a dangerous international dimension, as the area is already teeming with American and British warships. Iran’s recently elected President Hassan Rouhani counseled the U.S. and its allies to respect international law in their decision-making on Syria, which has been accused of mounting a chemical attack last week on the outskirts of Damascus. The Chinese have also been highlighting the negative fall-out of the escalating Syrian crisis on the global economy. In Britain, the opposition Labour Party seemed unconvinced about the justification of waging a war against Syria. The coalition government of Prime Minister David Cameron is confronting a growing number of skeptics in parliament who do not wish to repeat the Iraq experience, when a military invasion against Baghdad materialized a decade ago on the false pretext that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction.
  
• Thousands of people, including children were killed in the toxic gas attack on 21 August 2013 on the eastern suburbs of Damascus, the capital of Syria. Rocket barrages and intense artillery firing took place on 21 August 2013 and killed at least 100 people. The death tool, which is rising continuously, made it the deadliest alleged chemical attack in the civil war of Syria. The death toll ranged from 100 to 1300. The shelling started off in the eastern suburbs of Zamalka, Arbeen and Ein Tarma. The bombardment as well as sounds of fighter jets was observed on 21 August 2013. The White House said that the Obama administration was working in order to gather the information about the use of chemical weapons. It accuses that the Syrian government was behind the gas attack. The US also demanded UN to investigate the matter and start off the Security Council debate.
  
• Former rebel leader Michel Djotodia sworn in as president of the Central African Republic on 18 August, five months after seizing power in the violence-wracked country. Djotodia swore the oath of office on the Transition Charter, which has substituted for the constitution since the removal of President Francois Bozize, who himself had come to power on the back of a military coup in 2003. The UN said more than 60,000 Central Africans had fled their country and 2,00,000 have been internally displaced since the crisis erupted in December 2012.
  
• Germany will become the first country in Europe to join a small group of nations which recognise a third or “undetermined” sex when registering births, according to the sources. From November 1, babies born in Germany without clear gender-determining physical characteristics may get birth certificates registered without a reference to their sex, according to the report. The change is being seen as the country’s first legal acknowledgment that it is possible for a human to be neither male nor female — which could have far-reaching consequences in many legal areas. While transsexuals are already legally recognised in Germany, hermaphrodites — those with both male and female genitalia — have always been forcibly registered as one or other sex at birth. The decision was based on a recommendation by the constitutional court, which sees legal recognition of a person’s experienced and “lived” gender as a personal human right. Such “undetermined” persons will be allowed, at a later date, to identify themselves as the one or other sex and register the change on their birth certificates .
  
• Facebook and other technology giants launched Internet.org, an initiative on 21 August, designed to give the whole world access to the internet. The project’s goal is to cut the cost of smart phone-based Internet services in developing countries.“Everything Facebook has done has been about giving all people around the world the power to connect,’’ The company founder Mark Zuckerberg said, “There are huge barriers in developing countries to connecting and joining the knowledge economy. Internet.org brings together a global partnership that will work to overcome these challenges, including making internet access available to those who cannot currently afford it.’’ Today some 2.7 billion people, just over a third of the world’s population, have access to the Internet and the number of new users is growing only slowly each year, a statement said. The other partners in the project are Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung, Qualcomm, MediaTek and Opera, while Twitter and LinkedIn also due to sign up. The seven founding partners are going to develop joint projects, share knowledge and mobilise governments and industry to bring the world online. The partnership emulates one launched by Face book in 2011 called Open Compute Project. That project was originally met with scepticism but has gradually won over the computer industry. The new thrust comes at a key time for tech groups. Mature markets are saturated and have little potential for significant growth, while poor regions like Africa, Latin America and some parts of Asia are pools of potential new customers.
  
• Robert Mugabe, the incumbent President of Zimbabwe on 21 August 2013 sworn in for his seventh term as the President of the country. He took oath to the office in the main sports stadium in Harare. Earlier, the 89 year old Mugabe of Zanu-PF (Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front) party won the Presidential election (Parliamentary Election) by winning 61 percent votes in his favour on 3 August 2013. Presidential election of Zimbabwe was held on 2 August 2013.The swearing-in ceremony of Mugabe was delayed due after his rival; Morgan Tsvangirai (won 34 percent votes) filed a petition against Mugabe in the court alleging widespread electoral fraud. The petition was dismissed by the Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe by declaring Mugabe's re-election free, fair and credible. Mugabe has headed the country ever since its independence from United Kingdom in 1980.
  
• Egypt declared a state of emergency on 14th August, after a heavy crackdown on two huge Cairo protests by supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi turned into a bloodbath. The violence in Cairo, that drew international condemnation, sparked deadly clashes across the country. Egypt's army-installed authorities declared a month-long state of emergency effective from 14 august.
  
  The Muslim Brotherhood, from which Morsi emerged, said that 2,200 people had been killed and over 10,000 injured as authorities confirmed 95 deaths in 14th August violence. Europe's leading powers along with Iran, Qatar and Turkey strongly denounced the use of force by the military-backed interim government. It was a dramatic turn of events for the Muslim Brotherhood, who just over a year ago celebrated Morsi's victory as Egypt's first elected president.
  
  But his turbulent year in power, marred by political turmoil, deadly clashes and a crippling economic crisis, turned many against the Islamist movement. On June 30, millions took to the streets to call on the army to remove Morsi. The 14th August crackdown came just hours after the United States, which provides US $1.5 billion in mostly military aid to Egypt every year, urged the military-backed interim government to allow Morsi supporters to protest freely.
  
• Israel and the Palestinians resumed their first direct peace talks under total secrecy in Jerusalem on 15th August, after a three-year of hiatus, as the Jewish nation freed 26 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture. Few details have been released about the location, timing or agenda of the US-brokered talks as Israel released a brief video showing the chief negotiators - Yitzhak Molcho and Tzipi Livni of Israel and Saeb Erekat of the Palestinians - shaking hands in an undisclosed location. "The talks resumed," Justice Minister Livni's spokesperson Mia Bengel wrote on Twitter at around 7 pm.
  
  The US special envoy Martin Indyk did not initially take part in the discussions. He, however, met Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on 14th August, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the next day. The next round of talks is expected to be held next week in the West Bank, also under total media blackout. There were extremely low expectations on both the sides over the outcome of the fragile peace talks as Palestinian fears that Israeli announcements of settlement plans could torpedo the talks. As per US Secretary of State John Kerry's announcement last month, the negotiations between the two sides will be held under American mediation.
  
• Egypt’s Vice President Mohamed Elbaradei resigned in protest over the attacks on pro Mohamed Morsi supporters in Cairo on 14th August. The Egyptian police stormed the two sit in protest sites to disperse them following which 281 people were killed.United States, European Union and United Nations condemned the violent dispersal of protesters while the Prime Minister of Egypt Hezam Beblawi justified the act saying it was necessary since it had become a threat to national security.
  
  Emergency was declared in Egypt for a month and night curfew was clamped in 14 Governorates.Mohamed ElBaradei had given political support to the ousting of Egypt's first freely elected President Mohamed Morsi. However, he resigned in protest at the use of force instead of a negotiated end to the stand-off between the government and protesters. It should be noted that Mohamed ElBaradei is a Nobel Peace Prize winner.
  
• The United Nations Trusteeship Council elected Alexis Lamek of France as its President and Peter Wilson of the United Kingdom as its Vice President on 15th August. Both candidates were elected by acclamation during a brief organizational meeting held at UN Headquarters in New York, during which the Council also adopted its provisional agenda.
  
  The Trusteeship Council is a principal organ of the UN, created to administer 11 Trust Territories placed under the Organization’s care at its founding in 1945. The Council suspended operations when the last UN Trust Territory, Palau, attained independence in 1994.Membership of the Council now comprises the five permanent members of the Security Council – China, France, Russia, United Kingdom and the United States. The Council’s future role is under consideration as part of the broader reform of the UN and the Security Council.
  
• Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has been announced as Mali's new president on 16th August, after he won a landslide victory in a poll intended to give a fresh start to the African nation .The ex-prime minister won an overwhelming 77.6 per cent of the vote, with his rival Soumaila Cisse trailing on 22.4 per cent.
  
  The country's first election since 2007 was seen as crucial for unlocking more than US $ 4 billion pledged by international donors. Aid to the country had been halted after a separatist uprising led to a 2012 coup and an Islamist insurgency that plunged the country, then seen as one of the region's most stable democracies, into turmoil. Keita, 68, has a reputation for toughness and is known for his blunt speaking and unwillingness to compromise.
  
• To mark India's 67th Independence Day, a street in the Canadian city of Winnipeg has been named after Mahatma Gandhi. A portion of York Avenue leading to the Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg, capital of Manitoba province, got the new name on 15th August.“It is only fitting that Mahatma Gandhi Way leads to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, devoted to promoting respect for others and encouraging reflection and dialogue,” Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz was quoted as saying in media reports.
  
  Winnipeg councillor Devi Sharma, K. Dakshinamurti, president of the Winnipeg-headquartered Mahatma Gandhi Centre of Canada, and members of the Indian community in Winnipeg attended the event. Sharma said the naming was done at the request of the Mahatma Gandhi Centre of Canada. Incorporated in 2007, the Centre is a Canadian national organization with membership spanning the country's entire ethnic and cultural mosaic.
  
  Spain's Melia brand of hotels on 11th August, has unveiled their new Sol Wave House in Majorca as the first 'Twitter Hotel' of the world that merges the real and virtual worlds to create a total new experience. Social Wave House connects everyone in the hotel to their own social community, where they can meet, interact, have fun, compete, experience, flirt, tweet, and much more. There's a dedicated Twitter concierge and a Twitter Party Suite that includes concierge assistance during the stay of visitors. Guests can communicate with the check-in desk and hotel staff using # SocialWave hashtag. Guests can order room service, a drink by the pool, or any other request using the hashtag (#).
  
• Brushing aside pleas and warnings from President Obama and other senior American officials, Russia granted Edward J. Snowden temporary asylum and allowed him to walk free out of a Moscow airport transit zone on 1st August, ending his legal limbo of more than five weeks.
  
  Snowden thanked Russia in a statement issued by WikiLeaks. He stated that the United States of disregarding the law in its global manhunt to arrest him and said "in the end, the law is winning".
  
  Russia's decision, which infuriated American officials, significantly alters the legal status of Snowden, the former intelligence analyst wanted by the US for leaking details of the NSA's surveillance programmes. Even as those leaks continued, Snowden now has legal permission to live — and conceivably even work — anywhere in Russia for as long as a year, safely out of the reach of American prosecutors. Meanwhile, founder of Russia's most popular social network VKontakte, known as the Facebook of Russia, Thursday offered a job to Snowden, Agence France-Presse reported.
  
• The International Monetary Fund approved a further 1.7 billion Euros (2.3 billion US dollars) for Greece's bailout program after completed the fourth review of IMF on 29th July. The total funds from the IMF, the European Commission and the European Central Bank include 5.8 billion Euros.
  
  Greece's reform record has been dismal ever since its EU/IMF bailout began in mid 2010, resulting into frequent delays in the disbursement of rescue funds. Greece goes through its sixth year of recession and unemployment increases at a record rate of 27 percent.
  
  The IMF's board relinquished several requirements Greece had to fulfill by the end of June2013, since data was not yet available. This comprises targets for overall government debt, government domestic arrears and the general government balance. Although Greece cut budgets and external imbalances it has not done enough on broader reforms to its tax collection and public sector, which are necessary to ensure its economy returns to growth. Greece will receive another 1 billion Euros from international lenders in October 2013.
  
  Greece's bailout package was approved in March 2012, will total 173 billion Euros over four years. It was done to help Greece recover from a sovereign debt crisis and return to markets, and protect the country from a possible exit from the euro zone.
  
• The Cambodian People's Party (CPP), which is led by Prime Minister Hun Sen won at least 68 seats in the Lower house comparing with the 55 seats for the main opposition. The National Election Committee (NEC) gave a list of results from each polling station but no tally for parliamentary seats. The election in Cambodia was held on 28 July 2013 and the results were also declared on the same day.
  
  The Prime Minister Hun Sen has been in power in Cambodia for nearly three decades (28 years). The major opponent of CPP in the election was Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which is led by Sam Rainsy, who recently came back to the country from self-imposed exile.
  
  More than nine million people were found eligible to vote. Cambodia is a one party dominant state with the Cambodian People’s Party in power. Opposition parties do exist, but are widely considered to have no real chance of gaining power.
  
• Italy's Supreme Court on 1 August, upheld a jail sentence against Silvio Berlusconi for tax fraud in a devastating blow to the former prime minister that could throw the country's fragile coalition government into crisis.Berlusconi is Italy's most colorful and scandal-prone figure but it was his first definitive conviction in up to 30 court cases on charges ranging from fraud and corruption to having sex with an under-aged prostitute.
  
  After a three-day hearing, the five judges of the apex court rejected Berlusconi's final appeal against the verdict handed down by two lower courts in Milan which sentenced the media mogul to four years in jail - commuted to one year under an amnesty. But the top judges ordered a review by a Milan court of the second part of his sentence, a five-year ban from public office. This will enable him to remain as a Senator and as leader of his center-right People of Freedom Party (PDL) for the moment.
  
  Berlusconi, a 76-year-old billionaire who has dominated politics for 20 years, was convicted over the fraudulent purchase of broadcasting rights by his Mediaset television empire. Because of his age he is likely to serve the sentence either through community service or under house arrest.
  
• Bangladesh's High Court has declared the registration of Jamaat-e-Islami, the country's main Islamist party, is illegal, banning it from contesting January's general election. The court made the ruling in the country's capital, Dhaka, on 1st August, after a petition was lodged arguing that Jamaat's charter breached the constitution."It is hereby declared illegal," said Moazzem Hossain, the chief judge hearing the case amid tight security outside the courthouse in Dhaka. Violence flared amid mass protests after the ruling. Jamaat immediately appealed to the Supreme Court against the High Court verdict, senior defense lawyer Abdur Razzak said. The party would be barred from contesting elections if the Supreme Court upholds the verdict. The ruling comes after a leading Sufi group, which practices Islamic mysticism, filed the public interest litigation in January 2009 seeking to scrap Jamaat's registration. Secular protesters have long demanded that Jamaat be banned for its role in the 1971 war of independence, during which it opposed Bangladesh's breakaway from Pakistan. Top Jamaat leaders are being tried for crimes during the war and four of them have been sentenced to death for murder, mass murder, rape and religious persecution in Bangladesh's controversial International Crimes Tribunal, which is not endorsed by the UN and has been criticized by rights groups.
  
• Robert Gabriel Mugabe was re-elected the President of Zimbabwe on 3 August, extending a 33-year reign at the helm of the country he helped liberate from white rule in 1980. Mr. Mugabe’s ZANU (PF) proved similarly dominant, winning two-thirds of the seats declared thus far. Mr. Mugabe (89) and the ZANU (PF) have ruled Zimbabwe since independence, seeing off numerous challenges through a recipe of realpolitik and control of security forces and institutions of state. The victory was as comprehensive as it was controversial with Mr. Mugabe sweeping the polls with 61 per cent of votes cast, nearly twice as those polled by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, his closest rival, amidst opposition allegations of fraud. At the time of press, Harare was calm with none of violence of the 2008 election in which security forces killed 200 people after Mr. Tsvangirai emerged as the front-runner in a presidential run-off.
  
• Mamnoon Hussain was elected as the 12th President of Pakistan on 30 July 2013. 73-year old Mamnoon Hussain belonged to the PML-N Party. He will be administered the oath on 9 September 2013. Mamnoon Hussain succeeded Asif Ali Zardari. Mamnoon Hussain competed against the ex-judge Wajihuddin Ahmed of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. Raza Rabbani of Pakistan People’s Party was withdrawn as a competitive candidate. Mamnoon Hussain was born on 2 March 1940 in Agra, India.He is the textile businessman and politician of Pakistan.He migrated to Pakistan from India in 1954.
  
• The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif on 1 August 2013 announced that China has agreed to set-up four coal-fired power plants at Gadani Power Corridor in Balochistan, Pakistan. He also made an announcement that the corridor would be renamed as Gadani Power Park. The first plant in the park would be established to attract local and foreign investors. Nawaz Sharif also confirmed that the park envisages establishment of eight coal fired power plants with an aggregate capacity of 5200 MW. The Project is being developed with an aim of creating economic and employment opportunities in the far-flung and backward regions of Balochistan and Sindh.
  
• Japan has unveiled its biggest warship since the Second World War as part of a plan to bolster its defense of territorial claims in disputed waters. Japanese authorities revealed the 250-meter-long destroyer Izumo at a ceremony in Yokohama on 6 August. The $1.2 billion Japanese-made vessel will be capable of carrying at least nine helicopters when it goes into service in 2015.Tokyo says the warship is designed for use in defense and surveillance of Japanese-claimed waters, such as those around an East China Sea island chain where China also claims sovereignty. The Izumo also is intended to provide assistance to areas affected by natural disasters. The Japanese military is barred from building up offensive capabilities by the country's pacifist constitution, but the government of conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is considering modifications to that restriction. Beijing has long viewed Japanese military activities with suspicion and accused Tokyo of failing to fully atone for 20th century wartime atrocities against China. China's growing military arsenal also has alarmed its Asian neighbors, as the build-up has coincided with an increasingly assertive Chinese stance on maritime disputes. Beijing commissioned its first aircraft carrier last year.
  
• Hassan Rouhani took oath as the new President of Iran in the ceremony held at the Iranian Parliament in Tehran on 4 August 2013. The 64 year old Rouhani took his oath to the office before the countries senior politicians, foreign dignitaries and MPs. The newly elected, Iranian President began his four-year mandate to the office from 3 August 2013 after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme leader certified his victory in the Presidential election that was conducted on 15 June 2013. Rouhani is the seventh (different) President of Iran after the Islamic Revolution of 1979.He secured a little over 50 percent votes to win the election and has succeeded Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the President. Earlier, he defeated Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf of Islamic Society of Engineers party. The Presidential elections in Iran took place on 14 June 2013.
  
• Japan on 8 August, pledged huge spending cuts amounting to $83 billion over two years as it works to bring down the industrialized world's biggest debt mountain. The cuts amounting to an average reduction of more than 4.0 per cent of current annual spending , comes days after the International Monetary Fund warned again over Tokyo's borrowings. The moves were outlined in the government's mid-term fiscal plan which called for cuts of 8.0 trillion yen ($83 billion) between April 2014 and March 2016. There were few details about where the reductions would be made, and they come after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to boost public spending to stoke Japan's tepid economy. Another key part of Abe's plan, dubbed "Abenomics", was the Bank of Japan's huge monetary easing plan, unveiled in April, as Tokyo looks to counter years of growth-sapping deflation. Japan's annual budget is about 93 trillion yen, with about 40 per cent of that spending coming from borrowing which has created a debt pile that is more than twice as big as Japan's economy -- the worst among industrialised nations. The country has not faced a public debt crisis like the kind seen across the Euro zone, largely because most of its low interest rate debt is held domestically rather than by international creditors .However, the IMF and others have warned that Japan must follow through on key fiscal and structural reforms to the economy, another key plank of Abe's plan but a difficult sell to many of Japan's cosseted industries.
  
• U.S. President Barack Obama has cancelled a much-talked-about summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin next month, blaming Russia’s decision to grant whistleblower Edward Snowden temporary asylum and other components of a bilateral morass. In a statement on 7 August, the White House delivered the “snub” saying, “Following a careful review begun in July, we have reached the conclusion that there is not enough recent progress in our bilateral agenda with Russia to hold a U.S.-Russia Summit in early September.” However, the Obama administration admitted that Snowden “was also a factor that we considered in assessing the current state of our bilateral relationship”. The White House said there had been a lack of progress in areas of bilateral cooperation such as missile defense and arms control, trade and commercial relations, global security issues, and human rights and civil society in the last 12 months, prompting it to inform the Russian government it would be “more constructive to postpone” the summit.