INTERNATIONAL DECEMBER 2015

INTERNATIONAL DECEMBER 2015

• China's Parliament adopts country's first law against domestic violence
  In a landmark decision, China's Parliament on 27th December adopted the country's first law against domestic violence, bringing traditionally silent abuse victims, including couples who are in live-in relationship, under legal protection. The new law, passed by the Chinese national legislature, prohibits any form of domestic violence, including psychological abuse.
  
  The legislation was approved at the end of a week-long bimonthly session of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee. According to the new bill, victims and those in immediate danger can file for a personal protection order that the court must grant or deny within 72 hours. In urgent cases, decisions must be made within 24 hours.
  
  If the abuser violates the protection order, they may be fined up to 1,000 yuan, detained for up to 15 days or face criminal charges in serious offences. Police will have to step in immediately when such a report is filed. China previously did not have a special law covering violence in the family.
  
• Japan, South Korea reach historic deal to settle issue of comfort women
  Japan and South Korea have agreed to settle the issue of "comfort women" forced to work in Japanese brothels during World War Two, in their first such deal since 1965. Japan has apologised and will pay 8.3 million dollars, the amount South Korea asked for - to fund victims. The issue has been the key cause for strained ties. South Korea has demanded stronger apologies and compensation. Only 46 former "comfort women" are still alive in South Korea.
  
  The announcement came after Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida arrived in Seoul for discussions with his counterpart Yun Byung-se, following moves to speed up talks. Up to 200,000 women were estimated to have been forced to be sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during WW2, many of them Korean. Other women came from China, the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan.
  
• Guinea declared free from Ebola by WHO
  Guinea has been declared free of Ebola by the World Health Organization (WHO) two years after the epidemic began there. The disease killed more than 2,500 people in the country. A country is considered free of human-to-human transmission once two 21-day incubation periods have passed since the last known case tested negative for a second time.
  
• Pakistan executes four militants
  Pakistan on 29th December executed four militants involved in major crimes, the latest hangings since it lifted a moratorium on death penalty last year following the Peshawar school carnage. Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif had signed their black warrants earlier this month after a military court gave them death penalty.
  
  They were convicted for killing of innocent people, suicide bombing, training and providing assistance to suicide bombers, kidnapping for ransom and funding terrorist organisations. Pakistan lifted moratorium on executions in December 2014 after the Taliban attacked a school and killed 150 people, mostly students. There are about 8,000 death row prisoners in Pakistan.
  
• Taiwan, China launch hotline after historic summit
  China and Taiwan on 30th December launched first hotline between the two sides with an aim to build ties. Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed to set up the hotline between senior officials during a landmark meeting in Singapore in November. The summit was the first time leaders from the two sides had met since their traumatic 1949 split.
  
• Yemen peace talks end without agreement
  Peace negotiations between Yemen's warring factions in Switzerland ended without agreement and will resume in mid-January as heavy fighting continued in the country. UN special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed told reporters, they have decided to hold the next round of talks on January 14th. He said, the location of the next round is yet to be decided.
  
  Fierce clashes and air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition pounded northern Yemen on 19th December, as the two main parties in the country's nine month conflict continued to violate a ceasefire. The main fight is between forces loyal to the President, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, and those allied to Shia rebels known as Houthis. According to UN figures, more than 5,800 people have been killed, about half of them civilians, and about 27,000 injured in Yemen.
  
• UNSC extends sanctions against Taliban
  The UN Security Council has extended sanctions against the Taliban for 18 months in a resolution that warned of the increasing presence and potential growth of Islamic State affiliates in Afghanistan. The council expressed serious concern about the ongoing violent and terrorist activities by the Taliban, al-Qaida and other violent extremist groups in Afghanistan. The resolution was passed unanimously on 20th December.
  
  Afghanistan is grappling with an intensified conflict with much reduced international military support but has made it through the first year of political transition an achievement in itself.
  
• EU renews economic sanctions against Russia for 6 months
  The European Union has renewed its economic sanctions against Russia for six months over its involvement in the Ukraine crisis. The 28-member body extended the sanctions until July 31st, 2016, as it assesses Russia's adherence to a peace agreement in eastern Ukraine. Despite signing a cease fire deal earlier this year, Ukraine says it has still not gained control of its border with Russia. The United Nations has said that over 8,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict.
  
• World Trade Organization strikes farming subsidy deal
  Countries in the World Trade Organization (WTO) have agreed to abolish subsidies on farming exports. Developed countries agreed to stop the subsidies immediately and developing nations must follow by the end of 2018.
  
  The WTO, which represents 162 countries, called it "the most significant outcome on agriculture" since the body's foundation in 1995. But longstanding talks on other trade barriers were left unresolved at the end of the summit in Kenya. Removing agriculture export subsidies is intended to help farmers in poorer countries to compete more fairly. The summit of ministers, which finished on 19th December after five days of talks, was the first to be held in Africa.
  
  Doha deadlock: The WTO called the farming agreement "historic", while the European Commission said it would be "good for fairer trade". It follows a WTO deal in July to cut tariffs on $1.3trn (£833bn) worth of technology products. But the body had been under pressure in Nairobi to remove other trade barriers after discussions had stalled in recent years.
  
  The lack of progress in the ongoing Doha Round of talks, which first started in the Qatari capital in 2001, had led some countries to seek agreements among smaller groups.
  
  Doha's goals included increased duty-free access for developing countries; lower tariffs on agricultural products, textiles and clothing; and the reduction of trade-distorting subsidies from developed countries.
  
  The final declaration adopted in Nairobi said "many members" reaffirmed their "full commitment to conclude" the Doha Development Agenda goals. Two new countries, Afghanistan and Liberia, were accepted into the WTO at the summit.
  
• Philippines is first Asian country to approve sale of dengue vaccine
  Philippines became the first Asian country on 21st December to approve the sale of the world's first ever dengue vaccine. Dengvaxia, manufactured by French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, secured its first regulatory approval in Mexico a fortnight ago and is currently being reviewed by around 20 countries in Asia and Latin America. It is hoped the drug could eventually help prevent millions of deaths from dengue, the world's fastest growing mosquito borne disease. Scientists have long been stumped by dengue, which has four separate strains, forcing researchers to find a drug able to fight all of them at once. The World Health Organisation says as many as 400 million people are infected worldwide every year, and two thirds are in Asia.
  
• Madhesis reject Nepal govt's proposals; call them vague
  Madhesis on 22nd December rejected as "vague" Nepal govt's three-point roadmap to address their demands over some provisions of the new Constitution and vowed to continue their stir, dimming hopes of an early end to the political crisis plaguing the country. The agitating United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) held a meeting after which the four-party alliance stated it will continue with its protest programmes on the grounds that the government's proposals "failed to address issues".
  
  The Madhesi Front rejected the government's three-point roadmap to address the issues raised by it, saying the proposals were "vague, abstract and visionless". The government earlier had floated a three-point proposal to address the demands of the Madhesis.
  
  The roadmap included the provision to amend the Constitution to ensure proportionate representation of the Madhesi communities in all state organs and to allocate Parliament seats on the basis of population. The proposal also included constituting a high-level political committee to re-demarcate the provincial boundaries within a period of three months.
  
• UN Security Council backs Libya unity accord
  The United Nations Security Council on 23rd December unanimously adopted a resolution endorsing an agreement between Libya's rival camps on forming a unity government. The 15-nation UN body gave its support to the deal signed last week in Morocco between representatives of strife-torn Libya’s two competing regimes.
  
  The internationally recognised government was expelled from Libyan capital Tripoli in August last year and is based in the east of the country, while another Islamist-backed body holds the capital. On 17th of this month, envoys from both sides and a number of independent political figures signed a deal to unify the government. It calls for a Unity government, headed by businessman Fayez el-Sarraj as premier.
  
• Brazil declares emergency after 2,400 babies are born with brain damage
  Brazilian health authorities are sounding the alarm about a mosquito-borne virus that they believe may be the cause of thousands of infants being born with damaged brains. The pathogen, known as Zika and first discovered in forest monkeys in Africa over 70 years ago, is the new West Nile - a virus that causes mild symptoms in most but can lead to serious neurological complications or even death in others. Brazil's health ministry said on Nov. 28 that it had found the Zika virus in a baby with microcephaly - a rare condition in which infants are born with shrunken skulls - during an autopsy after the child died. The virus was also found in the amniotic fluid of two mothers whose babies had the condition.
  
  Brazil is investigating more than more than 2,400 suspected cases of microcephaly and 29 deaths of infants that occurred this year. Last year the country saw only 147 cases of microcephaly.
  
• UN adopted annual budget
  India has underlined the need for the UN to allocate more resources for responding to emergencies like Ebola and other humanitarian and natural disasters as the world body adopted a budget of USD 5.4 billion to carry out its vital work during the 2016-2017.
  
  India's Ambassador to the UN Ambassador Asoke Mukerji reiterated that adequate resources should be allocated for fulfilling the mandate generated by the collective membership and those resources for programmatic and substantial component should overweigh resources allocated for posts.
  
  He reiterated the need for the world body to speed up the long-pending UN Security Council reform process.
  
  The budget for the 2016-2017 biennium is slightly lower than the USD 5.83 billion final appropriations for 2014-2015.
  
• More than 100,000 flee El Niño flooding in Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay
  Worst El Nino in more than 15 years causes several deaths and drives thousands from their homes in border areas of four South American countries. More than 100,000 people evacuated their homes in the bordering areas of Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina due to severe flooding in the wake of heavy summer rains brought on by El Nino, authorities said. The Paraguayan government declared a state of emergency in Asunción and seven regions of the country. Several people were killed by falling trees, local media reported.
  
  The flooding was directly influenced by the El Nino phenomenon which has intensified the frequency and intensity of rains,” the national emergencies office said.
  
  This year’s El Nino, which is linked to global climate fluctuations, is the worst in more than 15 years, according to the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
  
  Severe droughts and devastating flooding being experienced throughout the tropics and subtropical zones bear the hallmarks of this El Nino. In northern Argentina about 20,000 people had to abandon their homes, the government said.
  
• Gambia president declares country an 'Islamic state’
  Gambia President Yahya Jammeh has declared the Gambia "an Islamic state", but stressed that the rights of the Christian minority in the small West African country would be respected and that women would not be held to a dress code.
  
  Christians will be given their due respect. The way of celebrating Christmas will continue," he said, adding that no one had the right to interfere with others' "way of life". He also warned against trying to impose a dress code on women.
  
  The Gambia has a population of nearly two million, 90 percent of whom are Muslim. Of the remainder, eight percent are Christian and two per cent are defined as having indigenous beliefs.
  
  Jammeh, a military officer and former wrestler from a rural background, has ruled the country with an iron fist since he seized power in a coup in 1994.
  
• Seventeen women elected to Saudi local councils
  Saudi Arabians voted 17 women into public office in municipal elections in the conservative Islamic kingdom on 13th December, the first to allow female participation
  
  The election was the first in which women could vote and run as candidates, a landmark step in a country where women are barred from driving and are legally dependent on a male relative to approve almost all their major life decisions.
  
  Under King Abdullah, who died in January and who announced in 2011 that women would be able to vote in this election, steps were taken for women to have a bigger public role, sending more of them to university and encouraging female employment.
  
  However, while women's suffrage has in many other countries been a transformative moment in the quest for gender equality, its impact in Saudi Arabia is likely to be more limited due to a wider lack of democracy and continued social conservatism. Before Abdullah announced women would take part in this year's elections, the country's Grand Mufti, its most senior religious figure, described women's involvement in politics as "opening the door to evil".
  
• Saudi Arabia announces Islamic military coalition to counter terrorism
  Saudi Arabia said on 15th December that 34 nations have agreed to form a new Islamic military alliance to fight terrorism. It will have a joint operations center based in the kingdom's capital, Riyadh. The announcement published by the state-run Saudi Press Agency said the alliance will be Saudi-led. The statement said Islam forbids corruption and destruction in the world. It also said, terrorism constitutes a serious violation of human dignity and rights, especially the right to life and the right to security.
  
  The new counter-terrorism coalition includes nations with large and established armies such as Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt as well as war-torn countries such as Libya and Yemen. African nations that have suffered terrorist attacks such as Mali, Chad, Somalia and Nigeria are also members.
  
• Iran's October missile test violated U.N. ban: expert panel
  Iran violated a U.N. Security Council resolution in October by test firing a missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead, a team of sanctions monitors said, leading to calls in the U.S. Congress on 15th December for more sanctions on Tehran. The White House warned that it would not rule out additional steps against Iran over the test of the medium-range Emad rocket.
  
  The Security Council's Panel of Experts on Iran said in a confidential new report, that the launch showed the rocket met its requirements for considering that a missile could deliver a nuclear weapon.
  
  n the basis of its analysis and findings the Panel concludes that Emad launch is a violation by Iran of paragraph 9 of Security Council resolution 1929, the panel said.
  
  Diplomats say the rocket test on Oct. 10 was not technically a violation of the July nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers but the U.N. report could put President Barack Obama's administration in an awkward position.
  
  Iran has said that any new sanctions would jeopardise the nuclear deal but if Washington failed to call for sanctions over the Emad launch it would likely be perceived as weakness.
  
  Diplomats say it is possible for the U.N. sanctions committee to blacklist additional Iranian individuals or entities, something Washington and European countries are likely to ask for. However, they said Russia and China, which dislike the sanctions on Iran's missile programme, might block any such moves.
  
  The panel's 10-page report was dated Dec. 11 and went to members of the United Nations Security Council's Iran sanctions committee in recent days. The report came up on 15th December when the 15-nation council discussed the Iran sanctions regime.
  
  It said the panel considers ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons to be those that can deliver at least a 500 kg (1,102 lb) payload within a range of at least 300 km (186 miles).
  
• Liberia and Afghanistan joined WTO
  Ebola-ravaged Liberia on 16th October joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) at the body's first ministerial conference in Africa. Liberia's membership came after formal approval by the WTO ministers in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. Liberia earlier this month released its last two known Ebola cases from hospital and started the countdown to being declared free of the virus for a third time. War-torn Afghanistan is expected to join the WTO at a separate ceremony on 17th December in Nairobi at the conference.
  
  Afghanistan: Afghanistan formally gained accession to World Trade Organization (WTO) during the Ministerial Conference of WTO on 17th December. The terms of accession by Afghanistan to World Trade Organization was formally adopted during the 10th Ministerial of WTO organized in Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya. Afghanistan will become the 164th Member of the World Trade Organization once it ratifies today’s decision by the Ministerial Conference of WTO until 30 June 2016.
  
  The World Trade Organization is a global trading organization that accounts for about 95 percent of the commerce of the world and the membership of WTO is expected to provide a number of rights for the country including the critical right to transit besides opening lucrative markets.
  
• Russia to suspend Ukraine trade pact
  Russian president Vladimir Putin has signed a decree that will exclude Ukraine from a free trade zone that includes former Soviet countries from 1 January. Ukraine plans to join an EU free trade zone from that date. Mr Putin cited extraordinary circumstances affecting the interests and economic security of Russia. Tensions between the countries have been high since Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula last year.
  
• WTO’s first ministerial draft reflects huge differences between members
  The World Trade Organisation’s first draft ministerial declaration for the ongoing ministerial meet in Nairobi circulated on 17th December is full of brackets, an indication of a lack of consensus, even as the meet moves towards its scheduled closure on 18th December.
  
  All important issues, including a decision on the future of the ongoing Doha Round, doing away with export subsidies, allowing special safeguard measures for developing countries, achieving reduction in domestic support and commitments favoring LDCs (least developed countries) are in bracketed texts.
  
  The intention to introduce new issues in the WTO, vehemently opposed by India as it opens the door to issues such as investment, competition policy and environment goods, has also been put in brackets.
  
  Indian demand ignored: India is even more disappointed with the draft on agriculture circulated by the ministerial facilitator for agriculture on 17th December as its demand for an agreement on a special safeguard mechanism (SSM) to protect poor farmers against import surges and a work programme for arriving at a permanent solution for calculating food procurement subsidies to make them non-actionable were ignored.
  
  On the other hand, in the area of export competition pushed by a number of developed and agriculture goods exporting countries, the draft is more definite and talks about specific commitments on elimination of subsidies.
  
  Despite India demanding specific commitments on the SSM, the text just talks about work on the SSM for developing countries being pursued at the WTO without any mention of the structure and by when it would be delivered.
  
  Moreover, the text mentions pursuing work on SSMs in the context of agricultural market access which could make it difficult for developing countries to make use of it in the absence of additional lowering of tariffs on farm items. As per the draft, developed members shall eliminate their remaining scheduled export subsidy entitlements by the end of 2020.
  
  Developing members, on the other hand, shall eliminate their export subsidy entitlements by reducing to zero their scheduled export subsidy budgetary outlay and quantity commitment levels in equal annual installments by the end of 2023.
  
  What would affect India is a particular provision in the draft that lay down that developing countries will have to do away with the transport and marketing subsidies, currently allowed to them, by 2028. India has been lobbying for a longer timeframe for its dismantling.
  
  India’s refusal to accept restrictions on the functioning of its agriculture state trading enterprises has been respected with the draft not putting any mandatory disciplines in place. But there are other provisions for state trading enterprises that India says it does not have a mandate to accept.
  
• UN Security Council unanimously adopt resolution to cut-off supply of funds to IS group
  Finance Ministers from the UN Security Council unanimously adopted resolution to increase sanctions against the Islamic State, IS, group and cut off its revenue flows. The resolution adopted on 17th December calls on governments to ensure they have adopted laws that make the financing of IS a serious criminal offence. The first-ever meeting of finance ministers to support a diplomatic push to end the war in Syria was led by US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew. IS Militants control a large swath of territory in Syria. Drafted by the United States and Russia, the measure aims at signaling UN's stronger focus on the IS. Countries have to report within 120 days on steps taken to target IS financing.
  
• Number of people forcibly displaced worldwide likely to surpass a record 60 million this year
  The number of people forcibly displaced worldwide is likely to have surpassed a record 60 million this year, mainly driven by the Syrian war and other protracted conflicts, the United Nations said pm 18th December. The estimated figure includes 20.2 million refugees fleeing wars and persecution, the most since 1992, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a report. It said, nearly 2.5 million asylum seekers’ requests pending with Germany, Russia and the United States receiving the highest numbers of the nearly one million new claims lodged in the first half of the year.
  
• UNSC approves peace draft for Syria
  The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution endorsing a peace process in Syria to end the five-year-long war through talks between the govt and the opposition, but the draft is silent on the role of President Bashar Assad in a political transition.
  
  In its first resolution to focus on the politics of ending the brutal war, the 15-nation Council, meeting at the Foreign Minister level at the United Nations on 18th December, asked UN chief Ban Ki- moon to convene government and opposition representatives in formal talks next month on a political transition as a step to lasting peace, in line with the 2012 Geneva Communique.
  
  It called for a Syrian-led political process facilitated by the UN to establish within six months "credible, inclusive and non-sectarian governance," setting a schedule for drafting a new constitution, with free and fair elections to be held within 18 months under UN supervision with all Syrians, including members of the diaspora, eligible to vote.
  
  It acknowledged the close linkage between a ceasefire and a parallel political process, with the former to come into effect as soon as the sides have begun initial steps towards a political transition under UN auspices. The resolution was adopted unanimously after Ban briefed the UNSC on his meeting earlier in the day with the International Syria Support Group (ISSG), comprised of the Arab League, the European Union, the United Nations, and 17 countries, including the US and Russia, which have been seeking a path forward for several months.
  
• New norms for H-1B visa
  The US lawmakers have passed a 1.8 trillion US Dollar spending package which among other things introduced a hefty 4,000 US Dollars on H-1B visas for Indian IT companies and imposed stringent condition on America's aid to Pakistan
  
  The bill includes a USD 1.1 trillion spending bill that funds the government until September 30, 2016, as well as a USD 680 billion tax package. US President has signed the bill into law.
  
  The bill comes as a shock for the Indian IT companies as they would have to pay millions of dollars while applying for H-1B visas, as they heavily rely of this work visa for highly skilled IT workers to get their work done in the US. According to the bill they would have to pay an additional USD 4,000 for H-1B visa and USD 4,500 for L1 visa.
  
• WTO meeting: chaos persisting
  The World Trade Organisation's ministerial conference in Nairobi concluded on 19th December, with the fate of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) still uncertain and no significant progress on the contentious issues of public stockholding of food crops and special safeguard mechanism in agriculture.
  
  The ministerial declaration reaffirmed a full commitment to conclude the DDA along earlier, established lines of discussion, but also recognised that "some wish to identify and discuss other issues for negotiation, others do not." Current procedures at the WTO mandate any new resolution must garner the unanimous support of all member-countries before being adopted.
  
  The DDA, adopted way back in 2001, had struggled to find a common ground among members after a schism developed between the rich nations, who want new issues to take its place, and their poorer counterparts, who demand it be continued.
  
  An earlier draft had to be junked after the US had vehemently opposed any mention of the DDA. A small group of countries, including the US, European Union (EU), China and Brazil, had been locked up in negotiations since 18th December.
  
  The developed members led by the US and EU and some others such as Brazil, have been opposing the continuation of the Doha round and have so far shown no signs of yielding to the demands of the developing nations. On the contentious matter of special safeguards in agriculture, a declaration has recognised developing members will have the right to have recourse to a special safeguard mechanism (SSM) as envisaged under the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration.
  
  The SSM allows countries to temporarily raise tariffs to deal with surging imports and subsequent price falls. The draft agreement said developing countries will have the right to have recourse to it. Dedicated sessions of the Committee on Agriculture in Special Session will hold regular talks on the issue and the General Council shall regularly review progress in these negotiations.
  
  Developing countries had demanded that a provision already existing in Article 5 of the multilateral body's Agreement on Agriculture be amended to provide them the same benefit that rich countries derive from the Special (Agricultural) Safeguards (SSGs).
  
  As to a permanent solution on the issue of public stockholding for food security purposes which had been repeatedly demanded by India, similar assurances have been given. The negotiations on this subject shall be held in the Committee on Agriculture in Special Session, which will be distinct from the ongoing agriculture negotiations under the DDA.
  
  The conference, originally scheduled to be concluded by 18th December, had entered its fifth day of hectic negotiations on Saturday. Emerging economies have repeatedly alleged they were being sidelined on the issues of reducing farm subsidies and providing protection to poor farmers.
  
  The draft agreed that much less progress than what was expected had been made in agriculture and other central components of the WTO's negotiating agenda, namely non-agriculture market access and change in services trade law. It also noted, with concern, that the recovery from the 2008 global financial crisis had been slow and uneven.
  
• 42 mega food parks worth Rs 2,000 crore to be set up: Union Food Processing Minister
  Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on 19th December said 42 mega food parks worth Rs 2,000 crore will be set in the entire country, out of which five have already been established.
  
  Union Minister said that these Food Parks will be having all facilities like Production, Processing Plant, Cold Store, Collection Centre and Transports, besides this it will also facilitate the farmers by providing value for their hard work. One Mega Food Park provides employment to 30 thousand persons directly and will provide benefit indirectly to more than 1 lakh persons.
  
• China to become world's biggest electric car market
  China is forecast to become the world's biggest electric car market this year, with sales estimated at 220,000 to 250,000 vehicles, the official news agency Xinhua said on 6th December, quoting the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
  
  Worldwide electric cars sales are expected to increase to 600,000 this year, according to association deputy secretary-general Xu Yanhua. China is tipped to surpass the United States as the world's biggest electric car market, she said, putting the US market at an estimated 180,000 vehicles. China's electric-car industry is developing rapidly, but quality and not just quantity should be the focus for the development to be sustainable.
  
  The industry saw explosive growth in the past two years, due to supportive government policies, including subsidies and tax cuts. In the first 10 months of this year, sales of electric cars surged 290 percent year-on-year to 171,145.
  
• Ancient tombs discovered in China
  A group of tombs dating back to 771-476 BC were discovered in China's Henan province, archaeologists said on 6th December. The group, located in Luoyang city, is composed of more than 200 tombs, eight horse and chariot pits, over 30 ash pits and more than 10 kilns. It covers an area over 200,000 sq metres, Xinhua reported.
  
  Alongside the tombs, an ancient city dating back to the Han Dynasty (202 BC-220 AD) was also discovered. Archaeologists believe the site was home to an ancient tribe over 2,600 years ago. The tribe was one of the few in the region whose migration and time of perish was recorded.
  
• UN Appeals for Record $20.1 Billion for Aid Work In 2016
  The United Nations appealed on 7th December for a record $20.1 billion (18.6 billion euros) to provide aid to a surging number of people hit by conflicts and disasters around the globe. The global appeal from UN agencies and other humanitarian organisations aims to gather funds to help more than 87.6 million of the some 125 million people expected to require assistance next year.
  
  Conflicts and serious crises are raging in 27 countries, and six of them -- the Central African Republic, Burundi, Nigeria, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen -- have spilled over to surrounding regions, bringing the total number of countries currently in peril to a staggering 37, the UN said.
  
  The conflicts have already forced more than 60 million people to flee their homes worldwide, with those escaping violence in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan especially sparking Europe's biggest migration crisis since World War II.
  
  With so many conflicts raging out of control, the UN said the amount needed next year was five times more than what it requested a decade ago. The appeal also dwarfs the $16.4 billion requested last December in the initial appeal for 2015.
  
  The World Food Programme has for instance been forced to scale back desperately needed assistance for Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries, even temporarily halting food handouts to hundreds of thousands of refugees in Jordan.
  
• EU agrees to new rules on cyber security
  Technology firms and those running critical services will have to report cyber-breaches, under new rules proposed by MEPs. The rules will also establish minimum standards of cyber security for banks, energy and water firms. It is the first time Europe has created EU-wide rules on cyber security. It comes in the wake of concerns that key infrastructure, such as airports or power stations, could be targeted by hackers. The proposed laws - agreed by MEPs and Ministers from the 28 EU countries - will also apply to some tech firms. The details of this have yet to be worked out but the rules are likely to include online marketplaces, such as eBay and Amazon, and search engines such as Google.
  
  Under the new rules, member states would have to co-operate more on cyber security, exchanging information about breaches, offering best practice and assisting member states in securing their infrastructures.
  
• 6.9 magnitude quake hits off Indonesia
  A 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia on 9th December, seismologists said, adding that there was no threat of a tsunami. The quake, which was relatively shallow, hit in the Banda Sea, 151 kilometres east-southeast of the coastal city of Ambon. USGS reported the quake hitting at a depth of 33.9 kilometres. Indonesia’s tsunami warning centre said there was no potential for the quake to trigger a tsunami. Earlier in November, two powerful quakes struck Sumatra — an initial 6.1-magnitude undersea tremor followed hours later by a strong 6.4-magnitude quake.
  
• UN calls on China to halt oppression of human rights activists
  A United Nations committee has called on China to halt the torture of detainees and oppression of human rights activists, saying the practice remains prevalent. It issued its report after questioning a large Chinese government delegation as part of a two-day hearing.
  
  The report gives Beijing one year to make progress towards complying with the Convention Against Torture. The Committee said it remains seriously concerned over consistent reports indicating that the practice of torture and ill-treatment is still deeply entrenched in the criminal justice system, which overly relies on confessions as the basis for convictions.
  
  The committee made up of 10 independent experts said 200 lawyers have been rounded up in China since July, of which at least 25 remain in detention. It also voiced alarm over the high number of deaths in custody.
  
  The Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying defended China's record in a daily news briefing, saying in recent years China has been promoting the rule of law and has made great efforts in all regards, including on opposing torture.
  
• 1st ever vaccine against dengue fever to be publicly available for 1st time
  The first-ever vaccine against dengue fever which affects up to 400 million people per year will be publicly available for the first time after being cleared for use in Mexico, French manufacturer Sanofi said on 9th December. It took 20 years in research and development to create Dengvaxia.
  
  Until now, scientists have been stumped by dengue, which has four separate strains. The World Health Organisation says dengue has become the fastest-growing mosquito-borne disease, with as many as 400 million people infected every year. It can trigger a crippling fever, along with muscle and joint pain. There is no known cure and children are at particular risk. The deadliest form of the disease kills 22,000 people per year, the WHO says.
  
• Saudi Arabian women vote for first time in local elections
  Saudi Arabian women voted for the first time on 12th December in local council elections and also stood as candidates, a step hailed by some activists in the Islamic patriarchy as a historic change, but by others as merely symbolic. The election, which follows men-only polls in 2005 and 2011, is for two thirds of seats on councils that previously had only advisory powers, but will now have a limited decision making role in local government.
  
  This incremental expansion of voting rights has spurred some Saudis to hope the Al Saud ruling family, which appoints the national government, will eventually carry out further reforms to open up the political system.
  
  Saudi Arabia is the only country in which women cannot drive and a woman's male "guardian", usually a father, husband, brother or son, can stop her travelling overseas, marrying, working, studying or having some forms of elective surgery.
  
  Under King Abdullah, who died in January and who announced in 2011 that women would be able to vote in this election, steps were taken for women to have a bigger public role, sending more of them to university and encouraging female employment.
  
  However, while women's suffrage has in many other countries been a transformative moment in the quest for gender equality, its impact in Saudi Arabia is likely to be more limited due to a wider lack of democracy and continued social conservatism.
  
  Before Abdullah announced women would take part in this year's elections, the country's Grand Mufti, its most senior religious figure, described women's involvement in politics as "opening the door to evil".
  
  The pace of social reform in Saudi Arabia, while ultimately dictated by the Al Saud, is also strongly influenced by a tussle between conservatives and progressives over how the country should marry its religious tradition with modernity.
  
  Only 1.48 million Saudis from a population of 20 million registered to vote in the election, including 131,000 women, the widespread apathy partly the product of a poll with no political parties, strict laws on campaigning, and in which only local issues are at play.
  
  Some voters hope that the Al Saud will eventually allow elections for the advisory parliament, the Shura Council.
  
• Zuckerberg vows to donate 99% of his shares for charity
   Mark Zuckerberg, The CEO of Facebook, announced on 1st December that he and his wife would give 99 percent of their Facebook shares "during our lives" - holdings currently worth more than $45 billion - to charitable purposes.
  
  According to the reports, the pledge was made in an open letter to their newborn daughter, Max, who was born about a week ago. Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr Priscilla Chan, said they were forming a new organization, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, to manage the money, through an unusual limited liability corporate structure.
  
  Zuckerberg's charitable plans are the latest indication of a growing interest in philanthropy among Silicon Valley's young billionaires, who, unlike previous generations of business tycoons, appear eager to spread their wealth while they are still young.
  
  Earlier this week, Zuckerberg was also one of the billionaires who signed on to the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, a group organized by the Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to contribute toward a multibillion-dollar clean energy fund. The announcement coincided with a Paris summit meeting intended to forge a global accord to cut planet-warming emissions. Zuckerberg and Chan had previously pledged about $1.6 billion to charitable endeavors.
  
• Iran worked on developing nuclear weapons: UN
  United Nations nuclear watchdog has said that Iran took limited steps towards developing a nuclear bomb in the past. But the report from the IAEA said the efforts did not go beyond planning and testing of basic components. In its report, the IAEA said most of the co-ordinated work by Iran took place before 2003, with some activities continuing up to 2009. The report was a condition of this year's landmark deal between Iran and six world powers. Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said the findings confirmed that Tehran's nuclear programme was peaceful.
  
• Oscar Pistorius convicted of murder on appeal
  Olympic athlete, Oscar Pistorius, has been found guilty of murder after a South African appeals court overturned an earlier manslaughter verdict. The court announced its ruling today in the case against the double amputee athlete, who was convicted last year of the 2013 shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
  
  He is currently under house arrest after spending one year of his original five-year sentence in jail. Pistorius will have to return to court to be re-sentenced, for murder. The minimum sentence for murder is 15 years but judges can apply some discretion. South African law does not make provision for someone to be placed under house arrest for more than five years; hence Pistorius will be going back to prison.
  
• US authorities begin probe into California shootings
  US authorities are investigating the motives of a shooting spree that left 14 people dead and another 17 wounded at a centre for people with learning disabilities in Southern California.
  
  A man and a woman suspected of taking part in yesterday's attack in San Bernardino died in a shootout with police hours later. The slain suspects were identified by police as Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik.
  
  San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said Farook was a US-born county employee who had attended a holiday party at the Inland Regional Center, a social services agency, and later returned to open fire on the celebration. San Bernardino police said a possible third suspect had been detained over the shooting.
  
  The attackers were dressed in military-style gear and carried assault weapons as they burst into the auditorium where the shooting took place. The FBI is not ruling out the possibility of terrorism but the situation is still being investigated. Authorities found three possible explosive devices at the Inland Regional Center, where the shooting took place. No details have yet been released on the victims' identities.
  
• Australia passes anti-terrorism law to strip citizenship
  Australia's parliament has passed laws to strip dual nationals of their citizenship if they are convicted of terrorism offences or found to have fought with banned groups overseas, despite concerns about deporting known militants. Those who fight for a declared terrorist group also automatically lose their citizenship. Attorney-General George Brandis said in Sydney today that the Australian Citizenship Amendment (Allegiance to Australia) Bill, passed.
  
  Canberra has been increasingly concerned about the flow of fighters to Iraq and Syria to join extremist groups such as Islamic State, with some 110 Australians currently fighting in the region.