INTERNATIONAL FEBRUARY 2010

INTERNATIONAL FEBRUARY 2010

• China has denied claims by Google, the internet Giant, that it had faced cyber attacks targeting the E - mail accounts of several Chinese human right activists. American investigators have reportedly traced the attacks to two Chinese universities.
• Pakistan joined 52 other Asian States to endorse India's candidature for non - permanent membership of the UN Security Council. Out of 128 votes needed to get the seat, India already has 122.
• Japan and Australia pledged to help countries with atomic energy programmes to stay clear of the nuclear-weapons path in the realm of "3S". The "3S" relate to nuclear non-prolife ration-related safeguards, safety and security.
• A diplomatic battle between Britain and Argentina is underway over oil exploration around the Falklands as a rig hired by British companies is to begin drilling off the coast of the remote archipelago. Geologists think the territory, over which the two countries fought a war in 1982, could hold up to 60bn barrels of oil.
• Octogenarian Tinoo was set free by the Myanmar's military rulers and will lead the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) as long as Nobel peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest.
• The European Union member states have decided to temporarily withdraw preferential tariff benefits known as GSP+ granted to Sri Lanka from August on the ground that they are "significant shortcomings" in the implementation of three U.N. human rights conventions.
• The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) at Shamshabad, Hyderabad was declared the World's Best Airport under the 5 to 15 million passengers category by Airports Council International (ACI). This is the first time that an Indian airport will be featured among the top airports of the world.
• International Conference on Biodiversity in relation to food and human security was held in Chennai.
• Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad while declaring the country to be a 'nuclear state' said, Iran had produced a first stock of 20 percent enriched uranium for its nuclear programme and was capable of enriching it to 80 percent.
• Ukraine's Opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych narrowly beat Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in the presidential election.
• The Secretary - General of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) Anders Fogh Rasmussen Said that, NATO's troubles in Afghanistan showed it were vital to boost ties with nations like China, India and Pakistan and transform the alliance into a global security hub.
• An Australian mining firmResource House has signed a record $60 - billion deal to supply 30 million tonnes of coal every year to China Power International Development (CPI) for the next 20 Years. The deal is the biggest - ever export contract in Australia's history with the energy - hungry china.
• The last Bo speaking person on earth, an 85-year old Andamanese woman named Bo Sr, was dead. The Bo are believed to have existed for 65,000 years, making them the descendants of one of the oldest human cultures.
• A landmark deal between Northern Ireland’s two major political parties, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Fein, removed the last hurdle to granting full autonomy to the province envisaged in the 1998 Good Friday agreement that brought decades of sectarian violence to an end. The deal paves the way for transferring policing and justice powers from the central government in London to the provincial administration in Belfast.