INTERNATIONAL DECEMBER 2014

INTERNATIONAL DECEMBER 2014

• Lativa took over as EU president
  Latvia takes over as European Union (EU) president on 27th December, putting it on the front line of negotiations with neighbouring Russia over the deadly crisis in Ukraine. But it is the Kremlin in particular that has spooked the nation of 1.9 million people, which broke free from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991 and joined the EU and NATO in 2004. Though Latvia is among the voices backing a hard-line approach to Moscow’s actions in Ukraine, the government insists its EU presidency will be bias-free.
  
  Latvia took over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union, and on the same day pledged to launch a 315 billion euro ($381 billion) investment plan for the bloc and hoping to start a review of Europe's border defence.
  
  Latvia, which became an EU member in 2004 and adopted the euro a year ago, has said the investment plan unveiled by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker a month ago is a main focus.
  
  Latvia also believes the European Union should retain its firm line towards Russia and says it is time for the bloc to review its security stance, last drawn up in 2003 at a time when the Cold War appeared ended and East-West tension over.
  
  Russia's role in the Ukraine crisis, which included the annexation of Crimea, has awoken fears in the Baltics, which have sizable ethnic Russian minorities, that they could be next.
  
  About Presidency of Council of European Union
  • The Presidency of the Council of the European Union is responsible for the functioning of the Council of the European Union, the upper house of the EU legislature.
  • It rotates among the member states of the EU every six months. The presidency is not an individual, but rather the position is held by a national government.
  • Three successive presidencies, known as presidency trios, the current trio (2014–15) is made up of Italy (Jul-Dec 2014), Latvia(incumbent) and Luxembourg (Jul-Dec 2015).
  
  
• NATO ends Afghan mission
  NATO formally ended its war in Afghanistan on 28th December, in Kabul after 13 years of conflict that have left the country in the grip of worsening insurgent violence. About 12,500 foreign troops staying in Afghanistan will not be involved in direct fighting, but will assist the Afghan army and police in the battle against the Taliban, who ruled from 1996 until 2001. When numbers peaked in 2011, about 130,000 troops from 50 nations were part of the NATO military alliance.
  
  NATO has a special security force, in the name of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). This mission was established in Afghanistan by the United Nations Security Council in December 2001 by Resolution. It is envisaged by the Bonn Agreement. Its main purpose is to train the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and assist Afghanistan in rebuilding key government institutions but is also engaged in the 2001–present war with insurgent groups.
  
• Air Asia flight crashed into Java sea
  Indonesian officials have confirmed that flight Air Asia QZ8501, which disappeared on 28th December, crashed into the Java Sea off Borneo. The Airbus A320-200, carrying 162 people from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore, was just over 40 minutes into its flight when contact was lost during bad weather. Wreckage and bodies have been recovered some 16km (10 miles) from the plane's last known co-ordinates.
  
  Flight QZ8501 took off from Surabaya with 162 people on board. The plane was nearly halfway into its two-hour flight to Singapore when it disappeared.
  
  Debris from the plane and human remains were found two days after the crash in the Karimata Strait.
  
• A brief account of 2014 air accidents
  24 July: Air Algerie AH5017 disappears over Mali amid poor weather near the border with Burkina Faso. The McDonnell Douglas MD-83 was operated by Spain's Swift air, and was heading from Ouagadougou to Algiers carrying 116 passengers - 51 of them French. All are thought to have died.
  
  23 July: Forty-eight people die when a Tawainese ATR-72 plane crashes into stormy seas during a short flight. TransAsia Airways GE222 was carrying 54 passengers and four crew to the island of Penghu. It made an abortive attempt to land before crashing on a second attempt.
  
  17 July: Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashes near Grabove in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board, 193 of them Dutch. Pro-Russian rebels are widely accused of shooting the plane down using a surface-to-air missile - they deny responsibility.
  
  8 March: The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines MH370 during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing leads to the largest and most expensive search in aviation history. Despite vast effort, notably in the hostile South Indian Ocean, to date no debris of any kind has been found from the flight.
  
  11 February: A military transport plane - a Hercules C-130 - carrying 78 people crashes in a mountainous part of north-eastern Algeria. Reports suggest there is one survivor from among the military personnel, family members and crew.
  
• Ukraine with drawn from Non-aligned
  Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko signed a bill on 29th December dropping his nation’s non-aligned status but signalled that he will hold a referendum before seeking NATO membership. The legislation was adopted by Parliament in the third week of December. On this occasion Petro Poroshenko vowed to reform Ukraine’s economy and military forces to meet European Union (EU) and NATO standards. But he also said he will leave it up to Ukrainian citizens to decide in a popular vote whether to join NATO or not.
  v While public support for joining the alliance has swelled after Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in March and a pro-Russia insurgency in eastern Ukraine, prospects for NATO membership in the near term appear dim.
  
  With its long-underfunded military suffering from the war with the separatists and the country’s economy in peril, Ukraine has much to overcome to achieve the stability that the alliance seeks in its members.
  
  Representatives of Ukraine and the rebels agreed on a ceasefire in September, but it has been frequently violated as the parties have failed to reach a deal on a line of division to create a buffer zone.
  
• US aid to Pakistan
  Pakistan will soon be granted US aid worth USD 532 million under the Kerry-Lugar assistance package, reports said on 30th December. The announcement of aid was made by US Ambassador to Pakistan Richard Olson, who is in Pakistan to discuss agenda ahead of Kerry's visit in Jan 2015.
  
  The US Congress has notified the Obama administration to release $532 million to Pakistan to spur economic growth, community building and counter-terrorism efforts, the American envoy told Pakistani Finance Minister Ishaq Dar
  
  According to the finance ministry, the money will be given under the civilian assistance package-- the Kerry-Lugar Act of 2010-- which expired in September 2014. Olson said the fund would be given for energy, counter- terrorism, economic growth, community building, education and health.
  
  He said the entire USD 7.5 billion assistance to Pakistan would take longer to allocate and disburse than the five-year period originally envisioned.
  
• North Korea under scrutiny at UNSC for its dismal rights record
  North Korea comes under scrutiny on 22nd December at the UN Security Council in the first-ever meeting on its dismal rights record, amid calls for Pyongyang to be referred to the International Criminal Court.
  
  Until now, the top UN body has focused on North Korea's nuclear programme as a security threat, but the scope has widened to human rights following the release of a UN commission of inquiry report.
  
  The report confirmed that the human rights violations in North Korea are among the worst in the world. They are widespread and systematic. The unprecedented meeting comes as North Korea faces US accusations of staging a cyber-attack on Sony Pictures.
  
• Lotus temple inaugurated in USA
  The replica of Swami Satchidananda’s Light of Truth Universal Shrine (LOTUS) was inaugurated by Tamil Nadu governor Rosaiah on 22nd December. The LOTUS was constructed on a 2.5 acre site with a statue of Satchidananda and a meditation hall.
  
  Satchidananda Ashram - Yogaville was founded by Yogiraj Sri Swami Satchidananda in 1980. The ashram is the international organizational headquarters of Swami Satchidananda's documented teachings, located in the county of Buckingham, Virginia.
  
  The primary vision of this world-travelled guru Yogiraj Sri Swami Satchidananda (1914-2002) was interfaith understanding as a vehicle to world peace. To this end, with his vision and much work from thousands of disciples and admirers, the LOTUS constructed.
  
• Arms treaty into force
  A treaty laying down international rules for the 85 billion US dollars global arms trade comes into force on 24th December. The United States, by far the world's largest arms producer and exporter, has signed the treaty, but is yet to ratify it. Other key exporters such as France, Britain and Germany have ratified the charter and pledged to adhere to its strict criteria aimed at cutting off weapons supplies to human rights violators worldwide. A total of 130 countries have signed the treaty and 60 have ratified it, including Israel which joined the movement this month.
  
  All about treaty
  The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) is a multilateral, legally-binding agreement that establishes common standards for the international trade of conventional weapons and seeks to reduce the illicit arms trade. The treaty aims to reduce human suffering caused by illegal and irresponsible arms transfers, improve regional security and stability, as well as to promote accountability and transparency by state parties concerning transfers of conventional arms. The ATT is not an arms control treaty, per se, and does not place restrictions on the types or quantities of arms that may be bought, sold, or possessed by states. It also does not impact a state’s domestic gun control laws or other firearm ownership policies.
  
  The ATT is the product of nearly two decades of advocacy and diplomacy. After years of preparation, a UN diplomatic conference was formally convened in July 2012,
  
  Why Arms treaty?
  The Arms trade causes violence, and also poverty.
  
  Every day, millions of people suffer from the direct and indirect consequences of the irresponsible arms trade: thousands are killed, others are injured, many are raped, and/or forced to flee from their homes, while many others have to live under constant threat of weapons.
  
  The poorly regulated global trade in conventional arms and ammunition fuels conflict, poverty and human rights abuses. The problems are compounded by the increasing globalization of the arms trade – components being sourced from across the world, and production and assembly in different countries, sometimes with little controls. Domestic regulation of the arms trade has failed to adapt to these changes. While existing national and regional controls are important, these are not enough to stop irresponsible transfers of arms and ammunition between countries. The poorly regulated arms trade impedes socio-economic development. It is estimated that armed violence costs Africa $18 billion per year. This is approximately equivalent to the annual sums of development aid to the entire continent. Armed conflict shrinks an African nation’s economy by 15 per cent (Oxfam, 2007, ‘Africa’s Missing Billions: International Arms Flows and the Cost of Conflict’.) Violence and instability, and the crime levels to which they contribute, discourage outside investment.
  
• Japan parliament re-elects Abe as prime minister
  Japan's parliament re-elected Shinzo Abe on 24th December to serve another term as prime minister after his party won a snap election earlier in December, 2014. Abe won 328 votes out of the 470 cast by lawmakers in a special session of the lower house. Since the ruling Liberal Democrats hold only two lower house seats, two other lawmakers also cast votes for Abe. Following a similar vote by the upper house, Abe will name his cabinet, replacing only his defense minister.
  
  The victory by the ruling Liberal Democrats and their coalition partner the Komei Party was viewed as an endorsement by the public of Abe's strategies for reviving Japan's stagnant economy, despite a record low turnout.
  
• China readies sea-based nuclear deterrent against US
  China has planned to mount submarines long range ballistic missiles, aiming United States of America. So far, China could strike the U.S. only with land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles. But with western advancements in surveillance that could track their location and movements, these weapons had become vulnerable to a U.S. first strike, gravely undermining Beijing’s nuclear deterrence.
  
  However, China is on the verge of a course correction, says a report submitted in November to Congress by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. The commission has concluded that the Chinese are set to acquire a reliable, hard-to-destroy sea-based deterrent.
  
• Shinzo Abe was reelected
  Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won comfortable re-election on 14th December in a snap poll. Despite only around half of voters casting a ballot, the conservative Abe claimed popular endorsement. The ruling coalition Liberal Democratic Party and its junior partner Kimeito had won the elections. This coalition has got two-thirds majority in the lower house of parliament, giving them the power to override the upper chamber.
  
  Shinzo Abe belongs to Liberal Democratic Party and he is also the President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The 47th general election of members of the House of Representatives of Japan was held on 14 December 2014. Voting took place in all Representatives constituencies of Japan including proportional blocks, in order to appoint Members of Diet to seats in the House of Representatives, the lower house of the National Diet of Japan.
  
• Aneroid Jugnauth became Mauritius PM
  Mauritius President named veteran politician Sir Anerood Jugnauth as Prime Minister, after he won a landslide taking nearly three-quarters of the seats in Parliament. Mr. Jugnauth, a former President and Prime Minister, was handed his letter of appointment at a meeting at State House.
  
  Mr. Jugnauth’s centre-right Alliance Lepep swept 47 out of 62 seats in the Indian Ocean nation’s Parliament, after voters rejected the ruling party’s bid to boost presidential powers. The coalition of the outgoing ruling Labour Party and the former opposition Mauritian Militant Movement (MMM) of ex-Prime Minister Paul Berenger took just 13 seats.
  
  Mr. Jugnauth, previously PM between 1982 and 1995 and again between 2000 and 2003, has promised he will boost the economy.
  
  General elections were held in Mauritius on 10 December 2014 and resulted in a victory for the Alliance Lepep coalition.
  
• India in International Committee
  India has been included in the International Coordination Committee under UNESCO to oversee the management of the famous Shiva Temple at Preah Vihar in Cambodia. According to Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma, Cambodia has invited India to co-chair the International Coordination Committee on the Shiva Temple along with China to further improve bilateral relations.
  
• Terror attack in Peshawar
  Terrorists attacked a school in Peshawar, a Pakistani city, in the incident almost 150 people died, most of them are school children. Pakistan for the first time has experienced the dangerous of terrorism. Militants from the Pakistani Taliban have attacked an army-run school in Peshawar on 16th December, killing 141 people, 132 of them children. The attack in the north-western city is over, with all the attackers killed. Seven militants took part in all, according to the army. The six militants of the Tehreek-e-Taliban stormed the premises and fired
  
  Claiming responsibility for the attack, TTP representative Muhammad Khorasani said in a statement sent to the media, that the Taliban were forced to attack the school because of Operation Zarb-e-Azb and Operation Khyber-I .
  
  Soon after this tragedy, Pakistan started attacks on terrorists and also took following measures -
  
  Lifted the freeze on death penalty: The first decision in retaliating Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on 17th December to counter terrorism was lifting a self-imposed moratorium on death penalty in terror related cases. He took this decision a day after ruthless Taliban militants massacred at least 132 students and 16 staffers at an army-run school in Peshawar.
  
  Prime Minister Sharif told an All Parties Conference that the moratorium on death penalty has been lifted. He said important legal steps will be taken to plug loopholes in the justice system so that militants should not use them to escape punishment. A de facto moratorium on civilian executions has been in place in Pakistan since 2008.
  
  Attack on militants: Pakistan army started attacking militants; in the process atleast 32 militants were killed on 19th December by the Pakistan Army in the restive northwest region bordering Afghanistan, taking the number of terrorists killed to 89 after the Peshawar school massacre that left 148 people dead. The Army targeted the rebels in Khyber Valley when they were moving towards the Afghanistan border.
  
  Arrest warrant against Fazullah:An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan on 20th December issued non-bailable arrest warrants against eight persons, including Pakistan Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah, for the brazen militant assault on Karachi airport in June. The warrants were against Fazlullah, former TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid and six others. The court issued the warrants after police filed a charge-sheet in the court
  
  Terror strike in Sydney
  In Australia, two people were killed and 5 injured after commandos stormed a cafe in Sydney to bring to an end a 16-hour hostage crisis. A lone gunman, identified as Man Haron Monis of Iranian-origin, was also killed during the operation on 15th November. Two Indian nationals - Vishwakant Ankit Reddy and Pushpendu Ghosh, trapped in the cafe, are safe. The two hostages killed have been identified as Tori Johnson, 34, manager of the Lindt cafe and Katrina Dawson, 38, a barrister. They were among 17 hostages at the Lindt Chocolate Cafe.
  
• Global N-power Production Doubles by 2050: WNA
  The World Nuclear Association (WNA) has projected that global production of nuclear energy will double from current levels by 2050, especially with new countries actively pursuing nuclear power programmes. It feels that public acceptance of nuclear energy has come back to levels prior to the Fukushima incident, with more stringent adherence to safety standards.
  
  According to the World Nuclear Industry, the combined production of 427 operating plants is 364 giga watts by the end of 2013. Nuclear energy constitutes 11 per cent of the global power production.
  
• European Parliament vote for recognition of Palestine
  The European Parliament has adopted a resolution recognizing Palestinian statehood in principle. A total of 498 MEPs voted in favor, while 88 were against. A parliamentary session in Strasbourg on 16th December could not decide on the matter, opting for further negotiations, but on 17th December the European Parliament eventually adopted a resolution that “in principle” grants the troubled region statehood. The vote also saw 111 abstentions.
  
  The European Parliament reiterated its support for the two-state solution on the basis of the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as the capital of both states, with the secure State of Israel and an independent, democratic, contiguous and viable Palestinian State living side by side in peace and security on the basis of the right of self-determination and full respect of international law.
  
  Several of the EU's 28 member countries were already in favor of full recognition. Sweden in October became the only EU member so far to officially recognize Palestine as an independent state.
  
  The European Parliament vote comes as the Palestinians are soon to make their case at the UN Security Council in New York, where they will ask for a complete Israeli withdrawal from East Jerusalem and the West Bank to the 1967 borders in two years' time.
  
• US revives ties with Cuba
  The United States on 17th December announced it is restoring full diplomatic ties with Cuba, a country that it has undermined overtly and covertly for more than half a century because of its communist orientation. Secret negotiations lasting more than 18 months hosted by Canada and backed by the Vatican led President Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro, brother of Fidel Castro, to speak directly over phone for 45 minutes on 16th December and agree to end decades of hostility.
  
  The immediate consequence of the ceasing of hostilities is the freeing of an American contractor who has been held in a Cuban prison for more than five years in exchange for the U.S sending back three alleged Cuban spies it has incarcerated since 2001. The United States will also ease restrictions on remittances, travel and banking relations, eventually leading to establishment of embassies and consulates in each other's country.
  
• Pak granted bail to LeT commander and arrested again
  Bail was granted to Lashkar-e-Taiba Commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, but again he was arrested after international pressure, particularly from India. 
  • Anti Terrorism Court in Pakistan on 18th December granted bail to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi
  • Zakir Rehman,is one of the main accused in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
  • Lakhvi is among the seven persons charged with planning and helping carry out the attacks in which 166 people were killed.
  • Court said that there was no evidence of Lakhvi's involvement in the 26/11 carnage
  Lakhvi to remain in jail
  • On 19th December Lakhvi was blocked from coming out of a Rawalpindi jail as Pakistan government detained him for three months under a preventive detention law.
  • Under international and media glare in the wake of the Peshawar school massacre and outrage in neighbouring India, the authorities stepped in swiftly and slapped the provisions of Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) to keep him in jail for at least three months.
  
  
• UN sends team to clean up Bangladesh oil spill
  The United Nations on 18th December said it has sent a team of international experts to Bangladesh to help clean up the world's largest mangrove forest, more than a week after it was hit by a huge oil spill. Thousands of litres of oil has spilt into the protected Sundarbans mangrove area, home to rare Irrawaddy and Ganges dolphins, after a tanker collided with another vessel on 16th December. A team from the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) has arrived in the capital Dhaka to support Bangladesh's "cleanup efforts of the oil spill in the Sundarbans.
  
• Iran Nuclear Talks resume in Geneva
  World powers resumed negotiations with Iran on 17th December over Tehran’s disputed nuclear programme, more than three weeks after they last met and gave themselves another seven months to strike a deal. Political directors of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany — the so-called P5+1 — held a one-day meeting in Geneva with the Iranians, mediated by the European Union (EU). The P5+1 failed to meet a November 24 deadline for a comprehensive deal with Iran last months and gave themselves seven more months — until June 30 — to strike a deal.
  
• Palestinians submit UN resolution
  The Palestinians have submitted a draft UN resolution paving the way to a final peace deal with Israel but the Palestinian representative said that there could still be negotiations on the text, Envoy Riyad Mansour told the media. The draft was presented on 17th December to the UN Security Council by fellow Arab member Jordan.
  
  The Palestinians had earlier said they wanted a quick vote on the draft resolution but they backed away, apparently under pressure from fellow Arabs including Jordan, which is seeking a draft that will be acceptable to the United States. USA has repeatedly vetoed Security Council resolutions seen as undermining its close ally Israel.
  
• China launches major water project in Sri Lanka
  After, Silk Project agreement with Maldives, and Economic Corridor agreement with Pakistan, now China launched water project agreement with another Asian nation, Srilanka. The China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) has launched the $230-million enterprise — the largest ever undertaken by the Sri Lankan government. The Chinese company had earlier been involved in the construction of the $1.2-billion Lakvijaya coal fired power plant in Sri Lanka.
  
  Once completed, the project will yield clean drinking water for 600,000 people in 42 villages not far from Colombo. The CMEC will build a water treatment plant with a supply capacity of 54,000 cubic meters a day and other infrastructure within three years. That would include lying over 1,000 km of pipes.
  
  The Maritime Silk Road would transit through the Indian Ocean via India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Nairobi in Kenya. It would terminate in Venice after crossing into the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal. The dollar-denominated loan will come from the Exim Bank of China and the the Yuan loan from the Chinese government. The first phase of the Hambantota port was also financed by China.
  
• Among P5, US, UK joined nuclear conference
  The United States and Britain took part for the first time on 8th December in an international conference on nuclear weapons’ humanitarian impact and were expected to face pressure to do more to eliminate their atomic arsenals.
  
  The three other officially recognized nuclear weapon states – Russia, France and China – avoided the two-day meeting. Many of the 157 participating states are critical of what they see as slow headway on nuclear disarmament.
  
  The conference, the third in a series since 2013, comes amid talk of a new Cold War between the West and Russia over the Ukraine crisis, during which President Vladimir Putin has pointedly stressed Moscow's nuclear arsenal.
  
  Under the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the five recognized atomic bomb "haves" agreed to work toward eliminating their bombs, while the "have-nots" pledged not to pursue them. A treaty review conference is scheduled for 2015.
  
  The U.S. atomic arsenal has been cut by 85 percent from its Cold War heights to 4,800 weapons, a U.S. official said last week. But, "that is still too many and we know it," said Rose Gottemoeller, undersecretary of state for arms control.
  
  Pakistan and India, which both have nuclear weapons, have not signed the NPT. They attended the Vienna talks, as did Iran, which rejects Western accusations it too wants to build a bomb. Israel, which is believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal and is also outside the NPT, did not attend.
  
  Talks on 17 Dec: The EU and the US on 12th December confirmed that extended nuclear talks between with Iran will resume on 17th December in Geneva after they failed to reach a deal with Tehran last month. The talks, first announced in a report from Iran on 11th December, will be at the level of senior policy officials rather than foreign ministers, the European Union's diplomatic service said. The P5+1 group comprise the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany.
  
  It will be the first time the sides have met since failing to meet a 24th November deadline for a full deal with Iran on reining in its nuclear programme in exchange for an easing of crippling international sanctions.
  
  The global powers and Iran agreed to give themselves until 30th June to strike a deal, although they hope to have the broad outlines hammered out by March.
  
  A final agreement is aimed at ensuring Tehran will never develop nuclear weapons under the guise of its civilian activities. Iran denies that it is seeking the bomb and insists its nuclear activities are for solely peaceful purposes.
  
• Australia’s first digital hospital opened
  Australia's first hospital with fully integrated, digital eHealth capability opened on 8th December in Queensland. St Stephen's Private Hospital, operated by UnitingCare Health in Hervey Bay, has been created by expanding the regional hospital with a new, three-storey inpatient hospital with 96 acute care beds and three additional operating rooms.
  
  The patient-centred clinical systems include automatic record feed, automated care pathways, alerts, and medication management. Instead of paper scripts, all medication transactions will be done electronically. The Australian government provided $21.4 million for the construction of the new hospital building and $17.57 million to equip the expanded hospital with state-of-the-art eHealth technology.
  
• U.S., NATO combat role ends
  The US and NATO ceremonially ended their combat mission in Afghanistan on Monday, 13 years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks sparked their invasion of the country to topple the Taliban-led government. NATO’s International Security Assistance Force Joint Command, which was in charge of combat operations, lowered its flag, formally ending its deployment.
  
  US Gen. John F. Campbell, commander of NATO and US forces, said that the mission now would transition to a training and support role for Afghanistan’s own security forces, which have led the fight against the Taliban insurgents since mid-2013.
  
  From Jan. 1, the coalition will maintain a force of 13,000 troops in Afghanistan, down from a peak around 140,000 in 2011. There are around 15,000 troops now in the country.
  
  Up to 10,800 US troops will remain in Afghanistan for the first three months of next year, 1,000 more than previously planned as the new mission, called Resolute Support, waits for NATO partners to deploy, said a NATO official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss troop deployments.
  
  As a result, there will be little, if any, net drop in US troop numbers between now and Dec. 31. By the end of 2015, however, the US troop total is to shrink to 5,500, and to near zero by the end of 2016.
  
• Herbal Koran in Dubai
  The world’s first handcrafted herbal Holy Koran, made from about 200 medicinal plants, has been unveiled in Dubai. The Koran has been made by the Islamic arts and calligraphy company, Heddem Arts and has been crafted over 23 years from 1957 to 1979 by Turkish Unani Doctor Hamdi Taher. The Koran is made of high potency herbal mixtures prepared as per Unani medical system. The herbal-cream-written Koran includes 606 pages and weighs about 7.5 kg.
  
• First nation to recognise Bangladesh is Bhutan
  Bhutan was the first nation that recognised Bangladesh. Bangladesh’s Foreign Office has said, putting an end to decades old speculation on the issue. According to foreign office of Bangladesh both Bhutan and India had recognised Bangladesh as an independent country on December 6, 1971 but Bhutan’s announcement came hours ahead of India’s official recognition. But the time gap was not specified.
  
• Pact on hiring Indian domestic workers
  The Saudi Arabia government has approved an agreement for recruitment of Indian domestic workers including maids. The council of ministers, chaired by Crown Prince Salman, Deputy Premier and Minister of Defence, on 8th December approved the Saudi Arabia’s agreement with India.
  
• NZ voted best country to travel
  The Telegraph Travel Awards named New Zealand as the world's best country. More than 90,000 people voted for their favourite travel companies and destinations, in what is the widest-ranging travel survey of its kind, the Daily Telegraph reported. New Zealand Prime Minister John Key described the result as a great accolade. The government has invested $600 million in tourism and tourism promotion since 2008, he added. Runners-up in the country category were the Maldives and South Africa, while Cape Town won in the best city category. This is the third year running that New Zealand has won the best country honours.
  
• 114 undergraduates awarded
  As many as 114 students from across the world were felicitated for their winning research papers at the Undergraduate Awards (UA) Global Summit held in Dublin in November.
  
  UA organizers received 4,792 submissions from 209 universities in 27 countries, including new ones added this year. The papers were assessed by an international panel and the top 10% in each of the 25 categories were selected and recognized as 'highly commended entrants' from which, 49 winners were identified.
  
  Founded in 2008 in Ireland, the UA is the world's only pan-discipline academic awards identifying talent at undergraduate level across disciplines globally. A panel of international academics and industry representatives selected two winners per academic category - an international winner and a winner from Ireland. The papers are judged anonymously during the summer months. UA is open to all final-year students of a degree course as well as to recent graduates.
  
• UN declares June 21 as 'International Day of Yoga'
  The UN general assembly on 11th December adopted an India-led resolution declaring June 21 as 'International Day of Yoga', recognizing that "Yoga provides a holistic approach to health and well-being."
  
  The resolution on 'International Day of Yoga' was introduced by India's ambassador to UN Asoke Mukerji and had 175 nations joining as co-sponsors, the highest number ever for any general assembly resolution.
  
  It is also for the first time that such an initiative has been proposed and implemented by any country in the UN body in less than 90 days.
  
  Through the resolution, adopted under the agenda of 'Global Health and Foreign Policy,' the 193-member general assembly decided to proclaim June 21 every year as the 'International Day of Yoga'.
  
• Bangla oil spill: India on alert
  An oil spill from a tanker that collided with an empty cargo ship in Bangladesh-Sunderbans on 9th December has sent a chill down the spine of wildlife officials in the Sunderbans in this country. A high alert has been sounded and forest officials along with other security agencies are closely monitoring the situation in the Sunderbans.
  
  A tanker named OT Southern Star 7, carrying an estimated 350,000 litres (350 tons) of oil collided on Tuesday with another empty cargo vessel and partly sank in the Sunderbans’ Shela River in Bangladesh. The cargo ship was allegedly unable to locate the Southern Star due to heavy fog.
  
  The Sunderbans forest, which covers 26,000 square kilometres in India and Bangladesh, is the habitat of famous Royal Bengal Tigers. It is also a UNESCO Heritage site. According to Bangladesh forest authorities the oil had spread along a 40 km (25 mile) section of the Shela River and has also affected portions of Passur River.
  
  Manual cleaning started:Bangladesh launched an intensified manual campaign on 13th December to clean up seepage following a huge oil spill in 34,000 hectares at the Sunderbans that threatened the world's largest mangrove forest. The manual cleanup campaign came as authorities on India's eastern coast are on alert with additional director of India's Sundarban Biosphere Reserve Pradeep Vyas saying "We are taking all precautionary measures".
  
  The authorities earlier had asked local people to collect the furnace oil using fishing nets, sponges or any other manual means and sell it to the state-run Padma Oil Company.
  
  The Sundarbans forest is the world largest mangrove forest, which covers 26,000 square km in India and Bangladesh, is also the habitat of famous Royal Bengal Tigers
  
  The Sundarbans is a natural region in Bengal. It is the largest single block of tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the world. The Sundarbans covers approximately 10,000 square kilometres (3,900 sq mi) of which 60 percent is in Bangladesh with the remainder in India. The Sundarbans is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  
  The Sundarbans National Park is a National Park, Tiger Reserve, and a Biosphere Reserve located in the Sundarbans delta in the Indian state of West Bengal. Sundarbans South, East and West are three protected forests in Bangladesh. This region is densely covered by mangrove forests, and is one of the largest reserves for the Bengal tiger.
  
• Ebola death toll climbed: WHO
  Nearly 6,600 people have now died from the Ebola virus, almost all of them in west Africa, the World Health Organisation said on 12th December. The UN health agency reported that as of December 10, there had been 18,188 cases of infection from the deadly virus in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, of whom 6,583 people had died.
  
  Sierra Leone which earlier this week overtook Liberia as the most infected nation, counted 8,069 cases and 1,899 deaths on December 10. Ebola, one of the deadliest viruses known to man, is spread only through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person showing symptoms such as fever or vomiting. People caring for the sick or handling the bodies of people infected Ebola are especially exposed.
  

Environment friendly bus in UK
An environmental friendly bus was introduced in United Kingdom, this is first of its kind in that country. It powered entirely by human and food waste. The service launched between Bristol and Bath. The bus runs on gas generated through the treatment of sewage and food waste that’s unfit for human consumption helps to improve urban air quality as it produces fewer emissions than traditional diesel engines.

The bus can travel up to 300km on a full tank of gas generated at Bristol sewage treatment works — a plant run by the company GENeco.

GENeco claim to be the first company in the UK to start injecting gas generated from food waste and sewage into the national gas grid network and at the same time installing a gas refuelling plant for the bus. The Bio-Bus can travel up to 300km on a full tank of gas, which takes the annual waste of around five people to produce.

Economic corridor between China-PakistanEconomic corridor agreement happened between India’s archrival Pakistan and China, both the nations have agreed multi-billion dollar ‘Economic Corridor’ project that passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) by laying the foundation of a fenced four-lane motorway, setting in motion a mammoth project connecting the two countries. The 60-km-long, 4-lane fenced Hazara Motorway in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province will cost $297 million and will take two years to complete. The Corridor was proposed in an agreement reached during Mr. Li’s visit to Pakistan in May 2013.

Planned to connect Kashgar in China’s Xinjiang with Pakistan’s Gwadar Port in Balochistan province, the corridor is expected to serve as a terminal for China to pump oil procurement from Persian Gulf.

Vazquez won Uruguay electionsUruguay's leftist candidate Tabare Vazquez has won in a presidential run-off. Final results gave Vazquez, from the governing Broad Party, 52.8%, compared with 41% for Mr Lacalle Pou, of the right-wing National Party.

Vazquez, is a cancer doctor and served as president from 2005-10. He won the first round of voting in October with more than 46% of the vote but it was not enough for an outright majority. Incumbent President Jose Mujica was barred by the constitution from running for a second consecutive term.

General elections were held in Uruguay on 26 October 2014, alongside a constitutional referendum. Since no presidential candidate received the absolute majority, a runoff took place on 30 November 2014. Primary elections were held on 1 June 2014.

Agreement between China-MaldivesChina and Maldives have signed an agreement on Maritime Silk Road Project. This would be followed by a full-scale project feasibility study, yielding a design plan, which would result in the two sides exploring possible funding options for the project.

China’s Maritime Silk Route has raised concerns in India, which opposes the militarisation of the Indian Ocean. National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has stressed that there should be peace in Indian Ocean zone.

Case dropped against KenyattaProsecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague have withdrawn charges of crimes against humanity against Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta. He had been indicted in connection with post-election ethnic violence in 2007-08, in which 1,200 people died. 

The prosecutor's office said the Kenyan government had refused to hand over evidence vital to the case. Mr Kenyatta was the first head of state to appear before the court, after he was charged in 2012. About 1,200 people were killed in the violence in 2007-8 and 600,000 were displaced.

About Kenyatta:

 

• Born in 1961, became Kenya's youngest president
• Son of the country's first president, Jomo Kenyatta
• Heir to one of the largest fortunes in Kenya, according to Forbes magazine
• Entered politics in 1990s, groomed by ex-President Daniel arap Moi
• Lost presidential race in 2002 by a large margin to coalition led by Mwai Kibaki
• Backed Mr Kibaki for re-election in 2007.

Cuba’s initiation to fight against Ebola
Cuba is ahead of US and UK in fighting Ebola, a deadly disease that hit West Africa. The country is leading the world, in providing medical support fighting against Ebola. During the Ebola emergency that has devastated West Africa, Cuba leads the world in direct medical support to fight the epidemic. The US and Britain have sent thousands of troops and, along with other countries, promised aid – most of which has yet to materialize. But, as the World Health Organization has insisted, what’s most urgently needed are health workers. The Cuba, with a population of just 11m and official per capita income of $6,000 (£3,824), answered that call before it was made. It was first on the Ebola frontline and has sent the largest contingent of doctors and nurses – 256 are already in the field, with another 200 volunteers on their way.

Britain to establish military base in WA
Britain will broaden its military footprint in West Asia with the establishment of a permanent military base at the Mina Salman Port in Bahrain. An agreement on this was signed in Manama by the United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al-Khalifa. It will be Britain’s first permanent military base in West Asia since it withdrew from the region in 1971, closing all bases east of the Suez.

The naval base will become the springboard for Britain’s involvement in West Asia, most importantly its operations in Iraq as part of the U.S.-led collation against the Islamic State.

The U.K. already has four mine-hunter warships permanently based in Bahrain that supports British destroyers and frigates in the Gulf. The base will “bolster the existing facilities at the Port, providing the Royal Navy with a forward operating base and a place to plan, store equipment for naval operations and accommodate Royal Navy personnel,” a Foreign Office release states.