INTERNATIONAL FEBRUARY 2015
- Oscars 2015: 'Birdman' wins Best Picture Award
The Oscars red carpet was rolled out to honor the best in cinematic world. The 87th celebration of Academy Award at Dolby Theater in Hollywood on Sunday (February 22nd) saw cinema being celebrated in the most beautiful way.
The nominations for the Oscar Awards were announced on January 15, 2015. The Academy has already announced Honorary Awards for Jean Claude Carrière, Hayao Miyazaki and Maureen O’Hara and a Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Harry Belafonte in November 2014.
The list of winners is: Best Picture
Birdman — Alejandro G. Inarritu, John Lesher and James W. Skotchdopole
Best Director
Alejandro González Iñárritu — Birdman
Best Actor
Eddie Redmayne — The Theory of Everything
Best Actress
Julianne Moore — Still Alice
Best Supporting Actor
J.K. Simmons — Whiplash
Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette — Boyhood
Achievement in Costume Design
Milena Canonero — The Grand Budapest Hotel
Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling
Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier — The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Foreign Language Film
Ida – Pawel Pawlikowski
Best Live Action Short Film
The Phone Call — Matt Kirkby and James Lucas
Best Documentary Short Subject
Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 — Ellen Goosenberg Kent and Dana Perry
Original Screenplay
Birdman – Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. and Armando Bo
Achievement in Sound Mixing
Whiplash — Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins, Thomas Curley
Achievement in Sound Editing
American Sniper — Alan Robert Murray Bub Asman
Achievement in Visual Effects
Interstellar — Ian Hunter, Scott Fisher, Andrew Lockley and Paul Franklin
Best Animated Short
Feast — Patrick Osborne and Kristina Reed
Best Animated Movie
Big Hero Six — Don Hall, Chris Williams and Roy Conli
Achievement in Production Design
The Grand Budapest Hotel — Adam Stockhausen and Anna Pinnock
Achievement in Cinematography
Birdman — Emannuel Lubezki
Achievement in Film Editing
Whipalsh — Tom Cross
Best Documentary Feature
Citizen Four — Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy and Dirk Wilutzky
Best Original Song
Glory — John Stephens and Lonnie Lynn
Best Original Score
The Grand Budapest Hotel — Alexandre Desplat
Best Adapted Screenplay
The Imitation Game – Graham Moore - Round 3 of bilateral nuclear talks begin between US, Iran
A third round of bilateral talks has commenced between the US and Iran to resolve the remaining issues over Tehran's contentious nuclear programme even as a meeting of the P5+1 nations with the Islamic republic ended on a positive note.
US Secretary of State, John Kerry, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, Wendy Sherman, senior director at the National Security Council, Rob Malley, Secretary of Energy, Ernest Moniz and their Iranian counterparts, including Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's brother, Hossein Fereydoun, along with their nuclear experts are discussing the technical details for the outline of an agreement which the parties are scrambling to reach by the March 31 deadline.
The P5+1 China, Russia, the UK, the US, France and Germany - are trying to broker a deal with Iran to end an over decade-long standoff over its nuclear programme in return for an easing of sanctions. Iran, however, has maintained that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. - India urged reforms in UN Security Council
India has urged the United Nations to reform the UN Security Council this year, arguing that the most powerful body of the UN itself is representative of an undemocratic chokehold of a few over it, courtesy of a wartime alliance that exists no more.
In his address to an open meeting of the UN Security Council on Maintenance of International Peace and Security on 23rd February, the Indian Ambassador to the UN Ashoke Kumar Mukerji said, that It is ironical that calls for democracy and the rule of law are being made in a Council that itself embodies the undemocratic stranglehold of the privileges of a few, forged by a wartime alliance that no longer exists.
Not a member yet, India however, being the world's largest democratic country, and a top economic and world power, is a rightful claimant to a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.
Significantly, almost all the veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China- have supported India's place in this most powerful wing of the UN. - IS kidnaps 90 Assyrian Christians in Syria
Jihadists from the Islamic State group have kidnapped at least 90 Assyrian Christians in northeast Syria, after overrunning two villages
The abductions appeared to be the first time the group has kidnapped Christians en masse in Syria, though the jihadists have taken thousands of prisoners as they have advanced in the country and neighbouring Iraq.
There were just 30,000 Assyrians in Syria before the country’s conflict erupted in March 2011, with most of them living throughout Hassakeh province. They represent a tiny percentage of the country’s overall Christian population, which numbered around 1.2 million people before the war.
The mass IS abduction of Assyrians appeared to be the first of its kind in Syria, but the group has become infamous for its abuses, including the mass kidnapping of minority Kurdish Yazidis in Iraq. It also abducted dozens of Kurdish students in Syria last year, freeing them only after months in captivity. - Nod for 3-parent babies in UK
Britain has become the first country in the world to legalize the creation of human embryos from the DNA of three people, a controversial technique aimed at preventing the passing on of deadly genetic diseases from mothers to children. The House of Lords- the upper house of the British Parliament- voted 280 votes to 48 on 23rd February to approve changes to the invitro-fertilisation (IVF) law allowing fertility clinics to carry out mitochondrial DNA (mDNA) donation.
The bill was approved earlier this month by the House of Commons and clinics can apply for licences to use the technique from later this year. Babies conceived via this IVF technique would have biological material from three different people – a mother, father and a female donor. - All female patrol protecting rhinos
Unarmed Black Mambas recruited from local communities are guarding nature reserve inside the Greater Kruger national park The battle against the poaching that kills a rhino every seven hours in South Africa has acquired a new weapon: women.
The Black Mambas are all young women from local communities, and they patrol inside the Greater Kruger national park unarmed. Billed as the first all-female unit of its kind in the world, they are not just challenging poachers, but the status quo.
The Mambas are the brainchild of Craig Spencer, ecologist and head warden of Balule nature reserve, a private reserve within Kruger that borders hundreds of thousands of impoverished people.
The private reserve’s scientists and managers have had to become warriors, employing teams of game guards to protect not only the precious rhinos but lions, giraffes, and many other species targeted by poaching syndicates. The Mambas are their eyes and ears on the ground.
Authorities developed an approach that addresses the huge economic and cultural divide between the wealthy reserves and local communities, which is believed drives poaching.
In a bid to engage communities outside the park fence, the reserve hired 26 local jobless female high-school graduates, and put them through an intensive tracking and combat training programme. Kitted out in second-hand European military uniforms, paid for by donations, the women were deployed throughout the 40,000 hectare reserve, unarmed but a visible police presence, like a British bobby.
The numbers suggest the approach works. In the last 10 months the reserve has not lost a rhino, while a neighbouring reserve lost 23. Snare poaching has dropped 90%.
The reserve uses a team of 29 armed guards, 26 unarmed Black Mambas, and an intelligence team that seeks to stop the poachers before they can kill. The Mambas’ main job is to be seen patrolling the fence. They also set up listening posts to hear vehicles, voices and gunshots and patrol the reserve on foot, calling in the armed guards whenever they find something. - German Parliament backs Greek bailout
Germany's parliament approved an extension of Greece's bailout on 27th February but a record number of dissenters from Angela Merkel's conservatives underscored growing scepticism in Berlin about whether a new Greek government can be trusted to deliver on its reform pledges.
With Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble promising not to let Greece proposals its euro zone partners, 542 members of the Bundestag voted yes to the extension, while 32 opposed it and 13 abstained.
It was the biggest majority for a euro zone bailout since the crisis erupted five years ago, in part because Merkel's year-old "grand coalition" enjoys a dominant position in the Bundestag lower house.
But 29 of the 32 "no" votes came from Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and their sister party, the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) -- more conservative rebels than any other lower house vote.
The parliamentary debate showed widespread misgivings about Greece. The broader German population also grown more skeptical since Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras took power last month, with a poll this week showing only 21 percent of Germans backs an extension for Greece. - UN moves world court on heritage destruction in Iraq
UNESCO chief Irina Bokova called on the International Criminal Court to look into the destruction of priceless artefacts by jihadists in Iraq that has caused outrage globally. A video released recently of Islamic State militants smashing ancient statues to pieces with sledgehammers in the main museum and an archeological site in Mosul drew shocked condemnation and sparked fears that more of the world`s oldest heritage would be destroyed.
The Islamic State group has controlled Iraq`s second city of Mosul since June last year and has destroyed several historical and cultural sites across the country, including Muslim shrines. - China opens largest embassy in Pakistan
China has opened a new embassy in Pakistan, its largest overseas diplomatic mission, which foreign minister Wang Yi described as a symbol of friendship between the all-weather allies. As China's largest overseas embassy, it is a symbol of friendship between China and Pakistan," state-run China Daily quoted Wang as saying. It however did not provide the details of the new embassy.
China maintains large diplomatic missions abroad including Washington, New York and New Delhi. Its mission in New Delhi has over 300 personnel The opening of the new Islamabad embassy came as China and Pakistan deepen their all weather relations with the construction of the multi-billion Economic Corridor through the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK).
The Corridor, which is part of the Silk Road projects proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping aims to connect China's Xinjiang with Pakistan Gwadar Port in Balochistan province neighbouring Iran. China also set to construct two 1,100 nuclear reactors with $6.5 billion in addition to the four medium size reactors. - Egypt joins anti-IS battle
The Islamic State released a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya, drawing swift retaliation from Egypt which launched air strikes in the neighbouring country, in an escalation of Egypt's battle against growing militancy.
For the first time, Egypt publicly acknowledged taking military action in Libya as war plans targetted training camps and arms depots of the dreaded outfit. The attack came as "retribution" to a gruesome five- minute video released by the IS hours earlier that showed handcuffed hostages dressed in orange jumpsuits being murdered by black-clad masked terrorists at a beach near Libyan capital Tripoli. Terming the beheading of the Christians as 'vicious', Sisi said a new series of terrorism is spreading across the world and demanded that all people come together to fight it.
Civilians, including three children and two women, were killed in the strikes, reports said, citing two Libyan security officials who were not named.
Egypt is battling a burgeoning Islamist insurgency centred in the Sinai Peninsula, where militants recently declared their allegiance to the IS. They rely heavily on arms smuggled across the porous border between Libya and Egypt. Meanwhile, Sunni Islam's top body, Al-Azhar has condemned the "barbaric" beheading of the Christian labourers.
As many as 21 such Egyptians were kidnapped from the coastal city of Sirte in December and January. However, it was not clear from the video whether all 21 hostages were killed. The killings raise the possibility that the Islamic militant group has established a direct affiliate close to the southern Italy. - China’s ‘Silk Road Fund’ becomes operational
China has taken a firm step to implement its vision of the Silk Road Economic Belt — an initiative to integrate the economies of Asia and Europe along the Eurasian corridor — by putting into operation its $40 billion infrastructure fund for this purpose.
The fund, flagged in November last by Chinese President Xi Jinping, has started functioning on the lines of Private Equity (PE) venture. With China as the fulcrum, it is meant to finance development of roads, rail tracks, fibre optic highways, and much more, that would connect South Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia and Europe along an integrated land corridor.
Funds can also be allocated for the Maritime Silk Road (MSR), which envisions development of ports and facilities, mainly in the Indian Ocean. These ports will be connected to the hinterland by a string of land arteries, which will eventually hook up with the main Silk Road Economic Belt at specific junctions. The $40 billion fund was in addition to the decision to establish a $50 billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which is also meant to help finance construction in the region. - World cereal production at an all-time high
World cereal production reached a new all-time record of nearly 2,534 million tonnes (MT) in 2014, beating the previous record of the 2013 by over 13 MT, according to latest estimates put out by the UN affiliated Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). In one decade, global cereal production has gone up by almost 25%, setting all-time high records in five years out of 10.- There are over 805 million hungry people in the world according to FAO estimates for 2012-14. That is down about 100 million in a decade — the same decade that saw just cereal production go up by nearly 500 MT and world population grow by about 700 million.
- Indian cereal production was 245.5 MT in 2013-14, also a record, registering an uptick of nearly 33% over a decade, according to agriculture ministry estimates.
- Both wheat (96 MT) and rice (106.5 MT) were produced at record breaking levels.
- According to the FAO, global food demand is expected to rise 60% by 2050
- UN finds 22 percent rise in Afghan civilian casualties
The number of civilians killed or wounded in fighting in Afghanistan climbed by 22 percent in 2014 to reach the highest level in five years as foreign troops concluded their combat mission, the U.N. said in an annual report released on 18th February
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan documented 10,548 civilian casualties in 2014, the highest number in a single year since 2009. They include 3,699 civilian deaths, up 25 percent from 2013.
According to the U.N. the Taliban and other insurgents were responsible for 72 percent of all civilian casualties, with government forces and foreign troops responsible for just 14 percent.
U.S. and NATO troops pulled back from volatile areas last year, handing security responsibility over to Afghan forces and officially concluding their combat mission at the end of the year. At least 2,213 U.S. soldiers have died in Afghanistan since the invasion to topple the Taliban following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to an Associated Press count.
The U.N. report attributed the rise in casualties to intensified ground fighting, in which weapons like mortars, rockets and grenades are used in populated areas, sometimes indiscriminately.
For the first time since 2009, more Afghan civilians were killed and injured by ground fighting than by any other tactic, including roadside bombs.
The report found that civilian deaths and injuries resulting from ground operations surged by 54 percent, making them the biggest killers of Afghan women and children in 2014. - UN rights body condemned violence in Tanzania
The UN human rights chief condemned on 19th February the murder and mutilation of an albino toddler in Tanzania, demanding authorities protect albinos, whose body parts are used for witchcraft in the country. The one-year old boy was seized by men with machetes from his home in northern Tanzania's Chato district, and his mother was badly injured in the attack. Police found his body, with his arms and legs hacked off
Zeid said attacks on people with albinism, which are often motivated by the use of body parts for witchcraft rituals, had claimed the lives of at least 75 people since 2000.
The UN repeated its fears that the uptick in attacks against albinos could be linked to looming general and presidential elections in October 2015, as political campaigners may be turning to influential sorcerers to improve their odds. Albino body parts sell for around $600 in Tanzania, with an entire corpse fetching $75,000, according to the UN.
Albinism is a hereditary genetic condition which causes a total absence of pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes. It affects one Tanzanian in 1,400, often as a result of inbreeding, experts say. In the West, it affects just one person in 20,000. - EU agreed to help Greece
Euro zone finance ministers agreed in principle on 20th February to extend Greece's financial rescue by four months, averting a potential cash crunch in March that could have forced the country out of the currency area.
The deal, to be ratified once Greece's creditors are satisfied with a list of reforms it will submit next week, ends weeks of uncertainty since the election of a leftist-led government in Athens which pledged to reverse austerity.
The agreement, clinched after the third ministerial meeting in two weeks of acrimonious public exchanges, offers a breathing space for the new Greek government to try to negotiate longer-term debt relief with its official creditors.
But it also forced radical young Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras into a major climbdown since he had vowed to scrap the bailout, end cooperation with the "troika" of international lenders and roll back austerity.
The accord requires Greece to submit by 23rd February a letter to the Eurogroup listing all the policy measures it plans to take during the remainder of the bailout period. - Thailand bans surrogacy for foreigners
Thailand has passed a law banning foreign couples from using Thai women as surrogates after a series of high-profile scandals tainting the image of the unregulated industry. The legislation was unanimously approved by Thailand's junta-picked parliament on Thursday in a bill spurred by the case of an Australian couple accused of abandoning a baby with Down's syndrome while taking his healthy twin sister borne by a Thai surrogate.
Under the new law, likely to be enforced by June, only Thai couples or those where at least one partner comes from Thailand will be eligible to use surrogates in the kingdom. They will have to prove that they are unable to bear children and have no relatives to act as surrogates on their behalf. - Iran mooted for nuclear deal
The Nuclear talks were held at Munich between Iran and P6 powers from February 6th to 8th. The United States and its five negotiating partners, the other members of the UN Security Council and Germany, hope to clinch a deal setting long-term limits on Tehran's enrichment of uranium and other activity that could produce material for use in nuclear weapons.
Both sides are under increasing pressure ahead of two deadlines to agree on main points by late March and to reach a comprehensive deal by June 30.
Iran says its programme is solely for energy production and medical research purposes. It has agreed to some restrictions in exchange for billions of dollars in relief from US economic sanctions.
US negotiators had previously presented Iran negotiators with a few different ways an acceptable enrichment capacity could be achieved in a final deal that would meet Washington’s requirements for a minimum one year “breakout”—the amount of time it would hypothetically take Iran to produce enough fissile material for a weapon, Al Monitor previously
The US also assesses that Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s February 8 remarks that he would be willing to accept a good deal to be mostly positive, experts briefed by U.S. administration officials the week of February 12 said.
They also see as a good sign that top US and Iran leaders have publicly asserted the shared conviction that another extension is not an option, and if they are to get a deal, they need to get it done in the current timeframe. The Munich “meeting itself coincided with the decision in both the US and Iran that they needed to get this deal, and could get this deal, and that an extension is not an option - Report on attack on school girls
According to the United Nations human rights office, there have been threats, violent attacks and other abuse against girls for going to school in at least 70 countries over the past five years.
A report published on 9th February by the Geneva-based body noted that, despite some progress, girls still face difficulty getting an education in many countries around the world.The report cites the kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls in Nigeria last year and the shooting of education activist Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan in 2012.It says that in 2012 alone there were 3,600 attacks against schools, teachers and students. - Britain becomes first country to donate to IMF Ebola debt relief fund
Britain on 9th February has declared that it would contribute 50 million dollars to a new IMF fund to help West African countries hit by Ebola to service their debts so they can use their own money to help save lives.The IMF’s Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust was launched and is designed to help Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone cope with their debt service payments to the IMF for the next two years. The idea is that they can redirect other resources to help fight the outbreak, and to repair their economies and societies. Britain is the first country to pledge cash to the new fund.
The Ebola epidemic in parts of West Africa is a humanitarian catastrophe that has drawn attention of the international community to the need of addressing the rapid spread of life threatening infectious diseases that cause substantial domestic disruption and cross international borders.
On February 4, 2015, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) discussed how to better support Low-Income Countries hit by public health disasters. The Board approved the establishment of the Catastrophe Containment and Relief (CCR) Trust, allowing the Fund to provide debt relief in these cases, as well as to members experiencing other types of catastrophic disasters. These grants can ease pressures on the members’ balance of payments and create fiscal space to tackle relief and recovery challenges.
The CCR will provide grants for debt relief totaling $100 million for the three countries affected by Ebola in West Africa—Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. This comes in addition to the $130 million of assistance provided in September 2014, and a second round of new concessional loans amounting to about $160 million to be considered soon by the Executive Board.
In the November 2014 meeting in Brisbane, the G-20 called on the Bretton Woods Institutions to continue their strong support to countries severely affected by the Ebola outbreak through a combination of concessional loans, debt relief and grants, and asked the institutions to explore new, flexible mechanisms to address the economic effects of future comparable crises. The CCR Trust is the Fund’s response to that call. It replaces the Post-Catastrophe Debt Relief (PCDR) Trust established on June 25, 2010 in the wake of a massive earthquake in Haiti, and expands the circumstances under which the Fund can provide exceptional assistance to its low income members to include public health disasters. - China building 6 nuclear plants in Pakistan
China is going to involve in nuclear power projects in Pakistan and is likely to export more reactors to the country. China has been involved in the construction of six reactors in Pakistan. China's recent projects with Pakistan have come under scrutiny as the NSG does not allow members to supply nuclear technology to countries that have not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)
In 2009, the China National Nuclear Corporation signed agreements for two new nuclear reactors, Chashma-3 and Chashma-4. The deals became a matter of controversy and were debated at the NSG, with China arguing that the reactors were "grandfathered" as part of its earlier Chashma agreement -- Chashma-1 and Chashma-2 -- and were not new projects. - World’s biggest solar telescope being built in Hawaii
The world’s biggest solar telescope is being built in Maui, Hawaii. It would be launched in2019. It would significantly improve the forecasting of space weather hazards, say researchers from the University of Sheffield in Britain. The development of this telescope provides great potential to make earlier forecasts of space weather hazards, such as identifying solar winds which can cause huge disruption to life on Earth.
With a four-metre diameter primary mirror, the telescope will be able to pick up unprecedented detail on the surface of the Sun — the equivalent of being able to examine a one pound coin from 100 km away. - Ukraine ceasefire deal reached
The leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France discussed on 11th February in pursuit of a solution to the Ukrainian conflict that has claimed more than 5,000 lives.
The contact group, comprising the Kiev government and the ethnic-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine and mediators from Moscow and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, plan to present the four leaders with a draft document for their approval. The contact group is said to be finalising technical details of the application of the accords signed last Sep 19
The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany have reached a ceasefire deal after 17 hours of talks in Minsk, Belarus, on the Ukrainian conflict. The ceasefire will come into force on 15th February as part of a deal that also involves the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front line.
The main points of the agreement- Ceasefire to begin at 00.00am local time on 15 February
- Heavy weapons withdrawn in a two week period starting from 17 February
- Amnesty for prisoners involved in fighting
- Withdrawal of all foreign militias from Ukrainian territory and the disarmament of all illegal groups
- Lifting of restrictions in rebel areas of Ukraine
- Decentralizations for rebel regions by the end of 2015
- Ukrainian control of the border with Russia by the end of 2015
- The participants also agreed to attend regular meetings ??to ensure the fulfilment of the ??agreements
- G20 pledges to improve business environment, check tax evasion
In the G-20 Summit of World Finance Ministers in Istanbul, India has called for full and fast implementation of automatic exchange of information on black money
The minister of state for finance, Jayant Sinha while making the lead intervention on tax issues at G 20 finance minister's meet in Istanbul, advocated for full and fast implementation of automatic exchange of information within the agreed time frame and on a global scale including by all financial centers.
India also pitched high for investment specially in infrastructure to achieve G20's collective growth objective. India proposed that this should be done through taking policy measures to improve business environment to promote infrastructure as an asset class.
India called for early operationalization of the Global Infrastructure Hub which has been set up following the last G-20 Summit for the development of a knowledge sharing platform and to improve investment Indian authorities will probe new Indian names related to blackmoney issue. The government is expected to disclose the names of close to 60 Indians and entities as it has recently initiated tax evasion prosecution proceedings against them as part of its crackdown on black money accounts as reported in the HSBC bank's Geneva branch list.
Committed to improve business: sCommitting to resist protectionism, the G20 nations have pledged to improve business environment to promote growth and strengthen transparency to prevent cross border tax evasion
The G20 Ministers also expressed concern over terrorist activities and called upon the member nations to expeditiously comply with international norms concerning exchange of information and freezing of terrorist assets.
The communique issued at the end of the two-day meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and central bank governors on 12th February also underlined the need for IMF quota reforms to give greater representation to emerging economies.
India was represented by Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha and RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan. Observing that global economic recovery continues to remain uneven, the communique said G-20 is determined to overcome these challenges. G-20 also pledged that it will provide some boost to global growth with varying implications across economy. The member nations committed to boost investment in their countries via concrete and ambitious investment strategies that will also support collective growth objective.
Emerging counties, like India, China, Brazil and Russia have been asking for increased voting rights in IMF, which would reflect their growing share in the world economy. Quota reform, if implemented, will increase India's voting share from current 2.44 per cent to 2.75 per cent, following which the country will become the eighth largest quota holder at the IMF, up from 11th position. - UN adopts resolution to crack down on terrorist financing
The UN Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution aimed at cracking down on the financing of terrorist groups and calling for sanctions on individuals and companies trading oil produced by the Islamic State and other al-qaida linked groups.
The Russian-sponsored resolution, co-sponsored by the United States and many other council members, requires all 193 UN member states to take “appropriate steps” to prevent the trade in antiquities and other items of historical, cultural, rare scientific and religious importance illegally removed from Syria. A similar ban already exists for antiquities from Iraq.
The resolution adopted on 12th February also reaffirms that it is illegal to pay ransom to individuals and groups that are already subject to UN sanctions, and that all countries are required to freeze such funds. - 800 years for Magna Carta
The four surviving original copies of the 1215 Magna Carta have been brought together for the first time in London. Magna Carta is one of the most important, well-known documents in history and this year marks its 800th anniversary. The Magna Carta was authorized on 15 June 1215 at Runnymede.
The document was agreed by King John to appease rebel barons in the heart of battle. It is considered one of the first steps towards parliamentary democracy and includes the principle that no one was above the law, including the king
All about Magna Carta
Magna Carta outlined basic rights with the principle that no-one was above the law, including the king- It charted the right to a fair trial, and limits on taxation without representation
- It inspired a number of other documents, including the US Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- Only three clauses are still valid - the one guaranteeing the liberties of the English Church; the clause confirming the privileges of the City of London and other towns; and the clause that states that no free man shall be imprisoned without the lawful judgment of his equals.
- Guidelines for Nepal Constitution
The Proposal Drafting Committee of the Nepal Constituent Assembly (CA) on 1st February passed its working guidelines, declaring that principles like democracy, federalism, republicanism, secularism, and inclusiveness would be an integral part of the new Constitution.
In its second meeting, the Proposal Drafting Committee (PDC), which has been tasked to study the report submitted by the Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee on agreements and disputes over the new Constitution, said no questions would be prepared on it for voting. The new committee has been tasked to prepare a questionnaire with ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ voting option to decide the disputes. - Obama’s $4tn budget sets up fight with GOP
President Barack Obama sent to Congress a $4 trillion budget that seeks to raise taxes on wealthier Americans and corporations and increase domestic spending.
The annual budget proposals are more like wish lists than initiatives soon to become law. Congress is now fully controlled by Republicans who oppose Obama's proposals. And the budget resolutions eventually approved by Congress would be non-binding.
But budgets influence the spending bills that determines how much Americans will be taxed and how government programs will be funded.
In a lengthy run-up to 2nd February budget release, the Obama administration said its budget represented a strategy to strengthen the middle class
The new budget offers an array of spending programs and tax increases on the wealthy that Republican lawmakers have already rejected. But it puts Republicans in the politically awkward position of rejecting tax cuts for middle-class families.
The president also wants to give a huge boost to spending on infrastructure, funded by a one-time tax on profits US companies have amassed overseas.
Obama would ease tight budget constraints imposed on the military and domestic programs back in 2011, when attempts at a bipartisan budget deal failed. His budget will propose easing those painful, automatic cuts to the military and domestic agencies with a 7 percent increase in annual appropriations.
Obama's fiscal blueprint, for the budget year that begins Oct. 1, would leave a deficit of $474 billion. Obama's budget plan never reaches balance over the next decade and projects the deficit would rise to $687 billion in 2025.
The administration contends that various spending cuts and tax increases would trim the deficits by about $1.8 trillion over the next decade, leaving the deficit at manageable levels.
Republicans rejected:Republicans in control of Congress summarily rejected US President Barack Obama's $4 trillion budget. The ink was barely dry on Obama's proposal -- which would bypass mandatory spending caps and post a $474 billion deficit -- before Republicans came out en masse to make clear it will not become law. - Serbia and Croatia claims rejected
The International Court of Justice has rejected claims of genocide by Serbia and Croatia against each other during the Croatian war of secession from Yugoslavia. The Croatian government had alleged that Serbia committed genocide in the town of Vukovar and elsewhere in 1991.
Serbia later filed a counter-claim over the expulsion of more than 200,000 Serbs from Croatia. About 20,000 people died during the 1991-1995 war, mostly Croatians.
The Croatian town of Vukovar was devastated when it was occupied by Serbs for three months in 1991. Tens of thousands of ethnic Croats were displaced, and about 260 Croat men were detained and killed. Four years later, the Croatian military's Operation Storm bombarded the majority ethnic-Serb Krajina area, forcing about 200,000 people from their homes.
A brief back ground: The Republic of Croatia filed the suit against the Yugoslavia on July 2, 1999, citing Article IX of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
The Republic of Serbia counter-filed a genocide lawsuit against the Republic of Croatia on January 4, 2010.
The application covers missing people; killed people, refugees, expelled people and all military actions and concentration camps with historical account of World War II persecution of Serbs committed by the Independent State of Croatia, puppet state of Nazi Germany, and Ustaše, a pro-Nazi Croatian group, during World War II. Both applications have a financial aspect, seeking compensation of damages. - UK nod for three parent babies
Britain on 3rd February created history by becoming the first country to legalize children conceived with DNA from three parents after lawmakers voted in favour of the controversial procedure
In the House of Commons, 382 MPs were in favor and 128 against the technique that stops genetic diseases being passed from mother to child. A further vote is required in the House of Lords for complete clearance.
The British Parliament was to decide whether to allow the creation of IVF babies using DNA from three people - mother, father and a female donor. The technique is aimed at preventing deadly genetic diseases being passed from mother to child and is expected to help about 150 couples a year.
Under the proposed change to the laws on in-vitro fertilization (IVF), as well as receiving normal "nuclear" DNA from its mother and father, the embryo would also include a small amount of healthy mDNA from a woman donor. Experts believe that the use of mDNA from a second woman could potentially help around 2,500 women in Britain at risk of passing on harmful mDNA mutations.
Brief note on three parent babies:Three-parent babies are human offspring with three genetic parents, created through a specialized form of In vitro fertilization in which the future baby's mitochondrial DNA comes from a third party. The procedure is intended to prevent mitochondrial diseases including Diabetes mellitus and deafness and some heart and liver conditions
The process of producing a three-parent baby, Three Parent In Vitro Fertilization (TPIVF), involves taking the nucleus of one egg and inserting it into the cytoplasm of another egg which has had its nucleus removed, but still contains mitochondrial DNA, and then fertilizing the hybrid egg with a sperm. The purpose of the procedure is to remove a nucleus from a cell with defective mitochondria and place it in a donor cell with healthy mitochondria, which after fertilization will contain a nucleus with genetic material from only the two parents. - Jordan executes two jihadists
Jordan has executed two convicts, including a female jihadist, following the killing of one of its air force pilots by Islamic State (IS) militants. The woman, failed suicide bomber Sajida al-Rishawi, and al-Qaeda operative ZiyadKarboli - both Iraqi nationals - were hanged
The executions came hours after IS posted a video appearing to show pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh being burned alive. He was seized after crashing during an anti-IS mission over Syria in December. Jordan had attempted to secure Lt Kasasbeh's release in a swap involving Rishawi, but IS is believed to have killed him a month ago. - China tightens rules on Internet use, online comments
China has tightened Internet controls with new rules that require users to register their real names and barring online material that challenges the country's political system. The rules issued on 4th February follow what technology companies to block use of virtual private networks to circumvent Chinese Internet filters.
The new rules apply to blogs, online discussion forums and other forums that allow Chinese to express themselves in public in a society in which all media are state-controlled. The rules say Internet companies are required to confirm the identities of their users. It says users that post material deemed to challenge state power or national unity will lose their accounts. - Cancer cases may rise sharply: WHO
The number of new cancer cases is expected to rise by about 70 per cent globally over the next two decades, the World Health Organisation has cautioned. WHO has released data on 4th February. This day is celebrated as Cancer day. According to World Health Organization,- There were 14 million new cases of cancer.
- Over eight million people died of cancer in 2012, with 60 per cent of these deaths reported in Africa, Asia and Central and South America.
- Cancer was among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality globally in 2012, and as per India’s Cancer Incidence Report (2009-2011), from 10,57,204 cases in 2012, the number went up to 10,86,783 in 2013 and to 11,17,269 in 2014.
- According to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry (India), the estimated mortality every year is five lakh in the country.
The WHO, which has launched a global drive to prevent premature deaths from non-communicable diseases by 25 per cent by 2025, has called for vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV), reducing exposure to non-ionizing radiation by sunlight and ionizing radiation (occupational or medical diagnostic imaging) and early detection.
It said more than 30 per cent of cancer deaths could be prevented by modifying or avoiding key risk factors, which include tobacco use, obesity, unhealthy diet, urban air pollution and indoor smoke from the household use of solid fuels. Owing to the increasing cancer cases and the burden they put on the health budget, the Ministry of Health in India has rolled out cancer screening programmes. - Egypt court upholds death sentence of Muslim Brotherhood supporters
An Egypt court upholds death sentence of 183 Muslim Brotherhood supporters for attack on police station near Cairo. The attackers were convicted over the deaths of at least 11 officers in Kerdasa. A court in Egypt has upheld death sentences on 183 Muslim Brotherhood supporters over a 2013 attack on a police station near Cairo. The men were convicted over the deaths of at least 11 officers in Kerdasa. The attack took place after Egyptian military forces cracked down on Islamist supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi that July, 2013. - Conference on Tamil Language in Singaore
A three-day conference on Tamil language computing and Tamil internet will be held in Singapore by the end of May and international experts have started work on their papers to be presented at the event. The event is scheduled May 30 to June 1
Tamil teachers from around the world would also join the conference themed "Natural Language Processing and Mobile Computing".
The Tamil computing development began in 1997 at the National University of Singapore with about 25 academics having brainstormed the importance of computerization.
The annual conference has since been held in different places in India, the US, Malaysia and Singapore which is organized by the California-registered International Forum of Information Technology in Tamil (INFITT), a non-profit global organization for the language.
The Tamil language computing began with a standard keyboard of 99 characters and has since progressed to international encoding and uni-code methods
Tamil is also one of the four official languages in Singapore along with English, Chinese and Malay. Singapore hosts the INFITT secretariat with the government support. Singapore will host the annual Tamil Language Festival in April. - Rebels take over Yemen
Yemen's Shia Houthi rebel movement has announced it is taking over the government and dissolving parliament. A five-member council would act as the president for an interim period.The group took control of the capital Sanaa in September, forcing the resignation of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi in January.
Yemen is in the grip of its most severe crisis in years, with Houthi rebels having taken over large parts of the country, including the capital, Sanaa.
The Houthis are members of a rebel group, also known as Ansar Allah (Partisans of God), who adhere to a branch of Shia Islam known as Zaidism. Zaidis make up one-third of the population and ruled North Yemen under a system known as the imamate for almost 1,000 years until 1962. The Houthis take their name from Hussein Badr al-Din al-Houthi. He led the group's first uprising in 2004 in an effort to win greater autonomy for their heartland of Saada province, and also to protect Zaidi religious and cultural traditions from perceived encroachment by Sunni Islamists.
After Houthi was killed by the Yemeni military in late 2004, his family took charge and led another five rebellions before a ceasefire was signed with the government in 2010
In 2011, the Houthis joined the protests against then President Ali Abdullah Saleh and took advantage of the power vacuum to expand their territorial control in Saada and neighbouring Amran province.
They subsequently participated in a National Dialogue Conference (NDC), which led to President Hadi announcing plans in February 2014 for Yemen to become a federation of six regions.The Houthis oppose the plan, which they say will leave them weakened. - UN prepares resolution to confront Islamic State on oil, antiquities
In a show of unity by the world powers against the Islamic State, the United Nations Security Council is preparing to adopt a legally binding resolution intended to choke the terrorist group's ability to trade in oil, antiquities and hostages.
The draft resolution requires all 193 member states of the United Nations to prevent the sale of antiquities from Syria, similar to a measure the Council passed 10 years ago regarding antiquities from Iraq. It also calls for sanctions against those who help the banned terrorist organisation produce and smuggle oil out of Syria, and reminds all countries around the world that it is already illegal to pay the group ransom in exchange for hostages.
In a measure of rare consensus among world powers about the need to confront the Islamic State, the draft resolution was proposed by Russia and backed by the United States and other Western powers.
The draft resolution is under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, though it does not authorize the use of military force. Council resolutions already prohibit providing financial support of any kind to the Islamic State, as well as to a Qaida affiliate operating in Syria known as the Nusra Front.
The draft measure cites the trade in oil, making it specifically illegal to buy oil produced or sold by those groups, or to supply equipment to help them run oil refineries, though the plummeting price of oil is believed to have reduced how much the group earns from doing so.
The draft also refers to a previous resolution that prohibits the payment of ransom to banned terrorist organizations, though it does not specifically address the issue of prisoner exchanges. A United Nations panel late last year estimated that the Islamic State received more than $35 million in ransom payments over the past year, though it could not quantify how much it made from the sale of antiquities, directly or from taxing dealers who operated in its territory.
The draft resolution does not add any new names to the list of individuals who face sanctions already, though it asks a United Nations sanctions committee to "immediately consider designations of individuals and entities engaged in oil trade-related activities."
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