INTERNATIONAL FEBRUARY 2013

INTERNATIONAL FEBRUARY 2013

• Nicos Anastasiades, the centre-right DISY (the Democratic Rally) party leader won the presidential elections of Cyprus. Nicos Anastasiades had a very easy-going victory over Communist-backed Stavros Malas . The major challenge that would be faced by Nicos Anastasiades is that Cyprus is standing on the verge of bankruptcy because of knock-on effect of the economic despair of Greece. Nicos Anastasiades after winning therefore declared that his first priority would be to reinstate the credibility of Cyprus. For this, he would favour deals with the foreign lenders. Nicos Anastasiades is a 66-year old lawyer and a member of the Cyprus’s parliament since 1981. He is the leader of centre-right DISY (the Democratic Rally) party since 1997.Nicos Anastasiades would be replacing the former President of Cyprus, Dimitris Christofias who served the office from 28 February 2008 and will remain into the designation till the end of his term on 28 February 2013. Dimitris Christofias belonged to the Progressive Party of Working People.
  
• Former Republican senator Chuck Hagel on 27 February, sworn-in as the new US Defence Secretary, in the midst of a controversy over his remarks that India "financed problems" for Pakistan in Afghanistan. 66-year-old Hagel, a Vietnam war veteran, was confirmed by the Senate on 26 February. Senators voted 58-41 to approve Hagel, ending a long and acrimonious nomination process and clearing President Barack Obama's choice for the top post held by Leon Panetta. Sworn in by the Director of Administration and Management Michael L Rhodes, Hagel took the oath of office in a private ceremony attended by family members and his immediate office staff. Hagel will replace incumbent Panetta at a time when the department is faced with multiple challenges including defence budget cuts, rapidly changing developments in the Middle East, increasing threat from North Korea besides the scheduled withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in 2014.
  
• Fresh clashes erupted on 1 March, in Bangladesh, bringing the number of people killed to 52 in violence triggered by convictions for Islamist leaders over war crimes committed during the 1971 independence war. On 28 February, clashes flared across the country after Jamaat's vice president was found guilty of murder, religious persecution and rape by a war crimes tribunal hearing cases dating back to the 1971 independence conflict. Delwar Hossain Sayedee, now a firebrand preacher, was the third person to be convicted by the court whose previous verdicts have been met with outrage from Islamists who say the process is more about settling scores than delivering justice. According to Sultana Kamal, head of rights group Ain O Salish Kendra, it was the deadliest political day of violence in the impoverished country's history since winning its independence from Pakistan in 1971.Security has been stepped up at Hindu villages after homes and temples came under attack by Islamists in the southern Noakhali and Chittagong districts, killing one old Hindu man, police said.
  
• Cuban President Raul Castro (81) elected, sworn in to a second and final five-year term. “This will be my last term,” he told lawmakers after the National Assembly re-elected him. In a surprise move, the new Parliament named a rising young star as his first Vice-President, Miguel Diaz-Canel (52), a member of the political bureau who rose through the party ranks in the provinces to become the most visible possible successor to Mr. Raul Castro. He would succeed Mr. Raul Castro if he cannot serve his full term. Mr. Raul Castro was in charge of the security apparatus and its armed forces during his brother Fidel’s rule. But after succeeding the ailing Cuban revolutionary leader, he embarked on a reformist course in order to secure Communism’s survival. Having assumed presidency in February 2008, he took the helm of the Communist Party in April 2011.
  
• Targeting highly skilled talents from India and China, the US lawmakers have introduced a new bill in the Congress on 15 February, to create more than 125,000 new visas to attract global talents to America. The bill called Startup 3.0 proposes to help increase America's access to talent by creating a new set of conditional visas for 75,000 immigrant entrepreneurs and 50,000 foreign STEM (Science technology, engineering and math) graduate students. This will create half a million new American jobs. Startup 3.0 allows qualified companies to apply research and development tax credits to their payroll tax liability, up to $250,000.For small startups, it also makes permanent the 100 per cent capital gains tax exemption on investments that are held for more than 5 years, in addition to the 28 per cent exemption on qualified small business stock. These provisions will unlock over $7.5 billion in new investments which will result in more innovation and jobs. Finally, the bill helps cut red tape, by requiring a cost-benefit analysis of any significant rule being proposed by a federal or independent agency. According to the authors of the bill, research has demonstrated the positive impact of immigrants on American job creation: more than 40 per cent of all Fortune 500 companies were founded by an immigrant or the child of an immigrant. Research shows that startups create three million jobs per year, on average.
  
• North Korea on 12 February 2013 announced success of its underground Nuclear Test. The country cleared that the miniaturized nuclear device was detonated successfully and it announced that the test was an act of self-defence from the US Hostility and threatened stronger steps in future. This was the third test conducted by the country since 2006 that had defied the UN regulations in existence. The test is reported to have conducted in the North Hamgyeong Province nearby the Punggye-ri nuclear complex, the place where the tests of 2006 and 2009 were conducted. Due to the past two nuclear tests of 2006 and 2009, North Korea is already facing many sanctions over it imposed by the United Nations Security Council. This is the first test conducted in North Korea under the leadership of Kim Jong-un. The Western Nations termed this act to be highly provocative act of North Korea and claimed it to be a threat to the stability of the region. Whereas Asian countries like, China, Japan and Russia criticized the test and announced it to be a threat beyond tolerance. The international bodies like UN and NATO claimed this test as irresponsible and threat to the world peace.
  
• About 1200 people were injured when a meteorite shot across the sky in central Russia on 15 February, sending fireballs crashing to Earth, smashing windows and setting off car alarms. Residents on their way to work in Chelyabinsk heard what sounded like an explosion, saw a bright light and then felt a shockwave, according to a media correspondent in the industrial city 1,500 km (950 miles) east of Moscow. The meteorite raced across the horizon, leaving a long white trail in its wake which could be seen as far as 200 km (125 miles) away in Yekaterinburg. Car alarms went off, windows shattered and mobile phones worked only intermittently. Chelyabinsk city authorities said about 1200 people sought medical help, mainly for light injuries caused by flying glass. The Emergencies Ministry described the event as a "meteor shower in the form of fireballs" and said background radiation levels were normal. It urged residents not to panic. Chelyabinsk city authorities urged people to stay indoors unless they needed to pick up their children from schools and kindergartens. They said a blast had been heard at an altitude of 10,000 metres (32,800 feet), apparently signaling it occurred when the meteorite entered Earth's atmosphere.
  
• Giuseppe Orsi, head of an Italian defence and aerospace giant Finmeccanica was arrested in Milan on 11 February 2013 on the charges of his alleged involvement in the bribery activity to secure an Indian defence helicopter deal of 3600 crore rupees. He was arrested in relation to the probe of the international corruption. The contract signed with Italian defence giant Finmeccanica in February 2010 involved supply of 12 VVIP three-engine AW-101 choppers from AgustaWestland for the Indian Air Force’s elite Communication Sqadron. By now, three choppers have already been delivered to India. As per the reports on the bribe scam, it’s expected that about 362 crore rupees that is equivalent to about 10 percent of the final deal was given back to help the Italian firm in winning the contract. The Finmeccanica is an Italian defence Giant company that entered into a deal to supply 12 three-engine AW-101 helicopters to India in February 2010.Giuseppe Orsi, now the CEO of Finmeccanica and the then head of its Helicopter Unit was arrested on the charges of the bribe scandal that surfaced.
  
• Pope Benedict XVI announced on 11 February 2013 that he would resign at the end of the month. He reasoned that he was too infirm to carry on. He is the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years. The decision set the stage for the election of a new Pope before the end of March 2013.Pope Benedict XVI is 85 years old. He had become the Pope in 2005. The last Pope to resign was Pope Gregory XII, who took this step in 1415 to put an end to the Great Western Split among competing papal claimants.
  
• The Indian government has permitted former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed to stay in Indian Mission in Male. Nasheed entered into Indian High Commission on 13 February soon after an arrest warrant was issued against him by a Maldivian court. The 45-year-old leader turned up at the single-storey Indian mission around noon to evade arrest warrant issued by a court in a case concerning the detention of Chief Judge of the Criminal Court during his Presidency in January last year. Later in the day, as his application for stay on the arrest was rejected by the Maldivian High Court, Nasheed stayed put in the Indian mission. "Following the arrest warrant issued against him by the Hulhumale Magistrate Court, Nasheed, who is a candidate for the Presidential elections in Maldives scheduled for September 2013, is in the Indian High Commission and has sought India's assistance. "We are in touch with the relevant Maldivian authorities to resolve the situation," official spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs said in New Delhi. India has expressed concern over the ongoing political instability in Maldives and called upon the Government and all political parties to adhere strictly to democratic principles and the rule of law, thereby paving the way for free, fair, credible and inclusive elections. Nasheed became the first democratically elected president of the Indian Ocean archipelago in 2008. He resigned a year ago after weeks of public protests against the judge's arrest. His deputy, Mohammed Waheed, succeeded him. Immediately after his resignation, Nasheed claimed that he was ousted in a coup; a claim was dismissed by an inquiry commission last year.
  
• India will host the next meeting of BASIC Environment Ministers. The meeting will be held in Chennai on February 15-16, 2013.This was stated by Smt. Jayanthi Natarajan, Minister for Environment & Forests while briefing the media in New Delhi on 5 February. Smt. Natarajan said that BASIC Group is a platform of the four countries for coordination on issues related to climate change. BASIC has emerged as an important grouping in the climate change negotiations, and has acted as a key voice of developing countries.BASIC countries meet four times in a year and once a year in each of the four countries by rotation. Typically, the first meeting of the year takes place in India. At the Chennai meeting, the BASIC Ministers are expected to review the decisions taken at Doha and plan the future steps for taking the global process for an ambitious and equitable agreement under Durban Platform, she added. The important issues that will engage the attention of the BASIC Ministers are principles under the Durban Platform, the role and relevance of independent international initiatives including sectoral actions in promotion and achievement of global ambition, and the steps needed to ensure means of implementation to parties for enhancing their efforts. Smt. Natarajan further stated that in line with the BASIC Plus approach; representatives of other important members of G-77 and China have also been invited. Bhutan (SAARC and Mountain), Mali (LDC and Africa), Argentina (Latin America), Fiji (G-77 Chair), Nauru (SIDS) and Qatar (CoP-18 Presidency) have been invited. India is a member of like minded developing countries who are meeting in Geneva on 27-28 February, 2013 to review the decisions at Doha and plan the future steps. The deliberations in the BASIC meeting will help India and other BASIC countries in formulating their approach to the future issues in the negotiations and plan help build ambitious and equitable architecture for post 2020 arrangements.
  
• The United States of America on 5 February 2013 filed a civil lawsuit against Standard and Poor's (S&P) the credit rating agency alleging that the agency lied about the nations objectivity and independence by the way it rated the mortgage bonds. The lawsuit have claimed that as a result of the ratings issued by the S&P, which misrepresented the securities true credit risks the investors, even those who were federally insured financial institution lost billions of dollars on collateralized Debt Obligations.
  
• Pakistan and Afghanistan on 4 February, pledged to have a peace deal in place within six months following talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron in London aimed at ensuring regional stability after the withdrawal of western troops from Afghanistan next year. Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai promised to “take all necessary measures” to achieve peace in the region. Mr. Cameron said the two sides agreed to “an unprecedented level of cooperation.” The talks centred on the Afghan-led peace process and strengthening of cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Mr. Zardari said that Pakistan wanted to help Kabul in peace talks with the Taliban. It was the third round of trilateral talks in less than a year but it was the first time that military leaders and intelligence chiefs of the two countries were also present.
  
• President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became on 5 February, the first Iranian head of state since the 1979 revolution to pay an official visit to Egypt , a step which could become a game changer in defining the region’s power hierarchy.Iran’s Press reported, quoting an official from the Presidential office that Mr. Ahmadinejad was participating in the OIC meeting as the current chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) — a grouping of more than hundred countries.Significantly, the Iranian President is slated to meet the Grand Sheikh of al-Azhar Ahmed al-Tayeb. Analysts view this meeting as part of an effort by Iran and Egypt to heal the rift between the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam, exacerbated by the crises in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.Before his plane touched down in Cairo, Mr. Ahmadinejad advocated unity among Sunnis and Shias. In an interview with Lebanese satellite channel al- Mayadeen, Mr. Ahmadinejad slammed the Sunni-Shia rift as a “colonial plot”. He also pledged to provide security cover to Egypt and Saudi Arabia against any attack, similar to the support that Tehran has provided to Afghanistan and Iraq.According to Iranian media reports, Mr. Ahmadinejad could hold talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during his three-day stay. Ahead of his arrival, the Iranian President said that Iran and Egypt should work together to “liberate Palestine entirely”. Mojtaba Amani, head of Iran’s interest section in Egypt said that Tehran is willing to hold consultations with Cairo for reaching a political settlement of the Syrian crisis.