INTERNATIONAL JANUARY 2015

INTERNATIONAL JANUARY 2015

• Nepal Assembly forms panel on proposals
   Nepal Constituent Assembly (CA) announced formation of a proposal committee to prepare questionnaire on the disputed issues of the new Constitution.A majority of lawmakers in the CA approved the move by voice vote when the CA Chair made the announcement as per Clause 91 of the CA Rules 2014. In the 73 member committee, 49 members were named
  
  The committee is to study the report submitted by the Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee (PDCC). The PDCC, despite four extensions, could not resolve the disputes. The new committee has also been tasked to prepare ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ questions for voting.This paves the way for drafting the Constitution through the process of voting. The ruling parties have more than the required two-thirds majority to pass the Constitution.
  
• Anti-austerity Syriza party wins Greece's general elections
  In Greece, anti-austerity Syriza party has won general election, putting the country on a possible collision course with the European Union over its massive bailout. With nearly 75 per cent of the votes counted, Syriza is projected to win 149 seats, just two short of an absolute majority, though that number could change.
  
• Greece New PM Alexiz Tsipras
  The head of Greece's far-left Syriza party, Alexis Tsipras, has been sworn in as prime minister and is set to lead an anti-austerity coalition government.Turning up for the ceremony without a tie, the leftist took the oath less than 24 hours after winning the general election on an anti-austerity platform.Earlier, he formed a coalition with the centre-right Independent Greeks.
  
  Syriza, acronym meaning the "Radical Coalition of the Left", was formed in 2004 and is led by Alexis Tsipras, 40; first came to prominence after 2008 Greek riots. The Greek Independents, a right-wing party formed as a New Democracy splinter in 2012 and led by Panos Kammenos; hard line on immigration. Both allies want to end austerity and renegotiate Greece's debt.
  
  What is Syriza?
  A large portrait of Marxist revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg hangs in the Thessaloniki office of Nikos Samanidis, a founder member of Greece's Coalition of the Radical Left, better known as Syriza.
  
  With many Greeks exhausted by five years of recession, tax hikes and record unemployment rates, Syriza and its firebrand leader Alexis Tsipras are tipped to win the early elections that must be called, according to the Greek constitution, if parliament fails to elect a new head of state by 29 December.
  
• Gates, UK take lead in $7.5 bln pledge for children's vaccines
  International donors pledged $7.5 billion on 27th January to immunise 300 million children in poor countries against deadly diseases such as diarrhoea and pneumonia.
  
  At a Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) conference in Berlin, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and the British government topped the donations list at $1.55 billion and $1.5 billion respectively.
  
  German development minister Gerd Mueller said the total reached $7.54 billion, surpassing GAVI's target of $7.5 billion, despite a stronger dollar complicating funding efforts.
  
  Other major donors included the United States, Norway and Germany. China, a recipient of GAVI assistance early last decade, has now become a donor.
  
  Gates, who has donated $4 billion to GAVI since it began 15 years ago, said there had been "amazing" progress but one in 20 children still died before their fifth birthday.
  
  GAVI has provided vaccines to about 500 million children worldwide and saved 6-7 million lives from diseases like pneumonia, hepatitis B, diarrhoea and measles, working with the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, World Bank and charities.
  
  GAVI funds immunisation for countries that cannot afford them, using its buying power to negotiate discounts from the likes of GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer. Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres argues that it should strike even tougher deals.
  
• Dubai Airport soared success
  Dubai has soared ahead of London’s Heathrow, riding a boom in long-haul flights between Asia and the West to become the world’s top international travel hub, it said on 27th January.Traffic at the airport increased 6.1 per cent last year to 70.47 million passengers, Dubai Airports said, adding that it expected a further surge in traveller numbers in 2015.
  
  Dubai International is home to Emirates, the Middle East’s largest carrier, which along with Abu Dhabi’s Etihad and Qatar Airways has seized a significant portion of travel between the West, Asia and Australasia.
  
• Impeached Srilankan Chief Justice reinstated
  Sri Lanka's new president has reinstated the country's chief justice, who was impeached two years ago after she refused to back a law granting wider powers to the former president's brother, the government said on 28th January.
  
  Bandaranayake reassumed her duties 28th January afternoon but would retire after attending a farewell ceremony on Thursday. That would allow the government to appoint a new chief justice.
  
  Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa built up immense power during his nine-year rule, including the ability to appoint the heads of formerly independent agencies. The government of new President Maithripala Sirisena, who defeated Rajapaksa in a Jan. 8 election, has been slashing the former leader's influence and investigating corruption allegations against his family.
  
• UN Security Council meets on Israel-Lebanon flare-up
  The UN Security Council has met in an emergency session to discuss ways to defuse tensions between Israel and Lebanon after a deadly flare-up on the border. France requested the urgent talks in the 15-member council on 29th January, after two Israeli soldiers and a Spanish UN peacekeeper died in an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters.
  
  The violence raised fears of another all-out conflict between the two countries, who fought a month-long war in 2006, in a region already wracked by fighting with Islamist fighters in Syria and Iraq.
  
  France was to present a draft statement to council members urging restraint.Tension in the area has been building, especially after an Israeli air strike on the Syrian sector of the Golan Heights killed six Hezbollah fighters and an Iranian general on January 18.
  
  Israel's ambassador to the United Nations told the Security Council in a letter that Israel will take all necessary measures to defend it. The clashes began when Hezbollah fired an anti-tank missile at a military convoy in the Israel-occupied border area, prompting Israel to respond with air and ground strikes.
  
  Why conflict between Israel and Lebanon?
  The Israeli–Lebanese conflict is of military clashes. It involved three countries, apart from Israel, Lebanon, it also involves Syria. This started after Palaestine Liberation Organization’s recruitment of militantsin Lebanon from among the families of Palaestinianwho had been expelled or fled due to the creation of Israel in 1948.
  
  After the PLO leadership and its Fatah brigade wereexpelled from Jordan for fomenting a revolt, they entered Lebanon and the cross-border violence increased. Meanwhile,demographic tensions over the Lebanese National Pact led to the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990). Israel's 1978 invasion of Lebanon pushed the PLO north of the Litani River, but the PLO continued their campaign against Israel. Israel invaded Lebanon again in 1982 and forcibly expelled the PLO. Israel withdrew to a slim borderland buffer zone, held with the aid of proxy militants in the South Lebanon Army (SLA). In 1985, Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shia radical movement sponsored byIran, called for armed struggle to end the Israeli occupation of Lebanese territory. When the Lebanese civil war ended and other warring factions agreed to disarm, Hezbollah and the SLA refused. Combat with Hezbollah weakened Israeli resolve and led to a collapse of the SLA and an Israeli withdrawal in 2000 to their side of the UN designated border. Citing Israeli control of the Shebaa farms territory, Hezbollah continued cross border attacks intermittently over the next six years. Hezbollah now sought freedom for Lebanese citizens in Israeli prisons and successfully used the tactic of capturing Israeli soldiers as leverage for a prisoner exchange in 2004. The capturing of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah ignited the2006 Lebanon War. Its ceasefire called for the disarmament of Hezbollah and the remaining armed camps of the PLO, and for Lebanon to control its southern border militarily for the first time in four decades.
  
• Tokyo is Safest City: The Economist report
  Tokyo and Singapore has topped the list of safest cities in the world listed down by The Economist. The Economist's Safe Cities Index looked at 50 cities and ranked them on more than 40 metrics that spanned four main categories i.e. digital security, health security, infrastructure safety and personal safety, the Huffington Post reported.
  
  Osaka, Japan and Stockholm, Sweden were ranked at third and fourth spot respectively. Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Sydney, Australia, Zurich, Switzerland, Toronto, Canada, Melbourne, Australia, and New York, US were among other safest cities in the world.
  
  Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Johannesburg, South Africa, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam, Tehran, Iran, and Jakarta, Indonesia were some of the cities that were considered most dangerous cities to live in. The report notes that wealth and economic development is closely linked to city safety but certainly does not guarantee it.Researchers also stated that being statistically safe is not the same as feeling safe.
  
• US, Iran talks at Switzerland
  Top diplomats from Iran and the United States held substantive talks aimed at speeding up negotiations for a nuclear deal, with US Secretary of State John Kerry. The talks between Kerry and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif are aimed at breaking a stalemate which has caused them to miss two previous deadlines for a full agreement to rein in Iran's suspect nuclear programme
  
  Iranian and US diplomats resumed talks in Switzerland on 24th January, as the pace intensifies toward a complex deal on Tehran’s nuclear program.
  
  Two days of meetings between Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and top US negotiator Wendy Sherman began, EU political director Helga Schmid was also taking part in the meetings
  
  The talks are taking place less than a week after Araghchi met with Sherman and representatives for five other global powers in Geneva in a bid to hammer out a comprehensive deal which would rein in Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for relief from a tight network of sanctions.
  
  US Secretary of State John Kerry, who met last week in Geneva and then again in Paris with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif to discuss the nuclear negotiations, also returned to Switzerland 24th January.
  
  Under an interim deal agreed in November 2013 by Tehran and the so-called P5+1 powers — Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States plus Germany — Iran has frozen its uranium enrichment in exchange for limited sanctions relief. But two deadlines for a full accord cutting off Iran’s possible pathway to an atomic bomb have been missed.
  
  Among issues complicating negotiations are hardliners in Washington and Tehran who appear willing to torpedo the efforts.
  
  The new Republican-controlled US Congress is considering a fresh sanctions bill, despite strong opposition from President Barack Obama, who has threatened to veto any such legislation. If a sanctions bill does go through, some Iranian lawmakers have hinted they will push to resume unlimited uranium enrichment.
  
• Boyhood', 'Budapest' take the cake at Golden Globes
  Director Richard Linklater's latest movie 'Boyhood' has added another laurel to its kitty- the 72nd Golden Globes awards in three categories, including best drama, and best director, in Los Angeles on 18th January.Wes Anderson's capricious film 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' surprised all by sweeping the Golden Globe in the musical or comedy category.
  
  Linklater’s masterpiece was shot over an astoundingly long period of 12 years, following the story and growth into adulthood of a boy from age seven through eighteen.
  
  Adding to the film’s list of awards, actress Patricia Arquette clinched the best supporting actress Globe. Anderson's eccentric flm about a colourful hotel concierge in 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' beat frontrunners 'Birdman' and recent releases 'Into The Woods', 'Pride' and 'St Vincent', to the top slot.
  
  The awards were commenced with tributes paid to the recent Charlie Hebdo victims by numerous Hollywood A- listers like George Clooney, Diane Kruger, Helen Mirren, Kathy Bates, Jared who also wore 'Je suis Charlie' (I am Charlie) badges, expressing solidarity with the breaved.
  
  Julianne Moore was awarded the best actress - drama trophy for her portrayal of a linguistic professor battling with an early onset of the Alzheimer’s in 'Still Alice'.
  
  This also was Amy Adams’ second consecutive Globe for her role as portraying a painter, Margaret Keane, in 'Big Eyes' , Tim Burton's movie inspired by real life.
  
  She won the Globe in the best actress Comedy / Musical category this time after her last year’s award for 'American Hustle'.
  
• IMF downgrades global growth forecast
  The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has lowered its forecast for global economic growth for this year and next. The IMF now expects growth of 3.5% this year, compared with the previous estimate of 3.8% which it made in October. The growth forecast for 2016 has also been cut, to 3.7%.
  
  The downgrade to the forecasts comes despite one major boost for the global economy - the sharp fall in oil prices, which is positive for most countries. The IMF expects that to be more than offset by negative factors, notably weaker investment.
  
  That in turn reflects diminished expectations about the growth prospects for many developed and emerging economies over the next few years. If business expects weaker growth, there is less opportunity to sell goods and services and so less incentive to invest.
  
  The eurozone is a case in point. The IMF does expect the recovery there to continue, but not strongly. It is estimating growth of 1.2% in the euro area this year and 1.4% in 2016. For the European Central Bank, the immediate priority is to tackle the deflation, or falling prices, now under way.
  
  The slowdown in China is another factor behind the revised forecasts. On Tuesday, official figures showed that China's growth slowed to 7.4% last year, from 7.7% in 2013. Next year, the IMF growth forecast for China is 6.3%, compared with an average of 10% over the three decades up to 2010.
  
  The sharpest downgrade of all is for Russia, which is forecast to see its economy contract by 3% this year and 1% next. That is the result of the fall in oil prices and what the report calls increased geopolitical tensions - in other words, the crisis in Ukraine and Western sanctions on Russia.
  
• Richest 1% to own more than rest of world: Oxfam
  The wealthiest 1% will soon own more than the rest of the world's population, according to a study by anti-poverty charity Oxfam. The charity's research shows that the share of the world's wealth owned by the richest 1% increased from 44% in 2009 to 48% last year.
  
  On current trends, Oxfam says it expects the wealthiest 1% to own more than 50% of the world's wealth by 2016. The research coincides with the start of the World Economic Forum in Davos. The annual gathering attracts top political and business leaders from around the world.
  
  Oxfam's executive director Winnie Byanyima, who will co-chair the Davos event, said she would use the charity's high-profile role at the forum to demand urgent action to narrow the gap between rich and poor. In a statement ahead of the gathering, Ms Byanyima said the scale of global inequality was "simply staggering".
  
  Oxfam based its prediction on data from the annual Credit Suisse Global Wealth datebook, which gives the distribution of global wealth going back to 2000. It uses the value of an individual's financial and non-financial assets, mainly property and land, minus their debts to determine what individuals "own".
  
  The data excludes wages or income. The BBC's head of statistics, Anthony Reuben, said in order to be part of the wealthiest 1% of the world's population, an individual would need to be worth just over half a million pounds.
  
  Oxfam is calling on governments to adopt a seven-point plan to tackle inequality, including a clampdown on tax evasion by companies and the move towards a living wage for all workers.
  
  Oxfam made headlines at Davos last year with the revelation that the 85 richest people on the planet have the same wealth as the poorest 50% (3.5 billion people).
  
  It said that that comparison had now become even more stark, with the 80 richest people having the same wealth as the poorest 50%.
  
• UNSC calls for lasting ceasefire in Yemen
  UN Security Council has called for lasting ceasefire and dialogue to end the political and security crisis in Yemen. At its emergency meeting on 20th January, the 15 nation council expressed its support for President Mansour Hadi as the Houthi rebels seized the Presidential palace in the capital Sanaa. It has strongly condemned the attacks on the Presidential palace and called for all parties to rapidly engage in finalizing the constitution in a constructive manner. UN special envoy for Yemen, Jamal Benomar has been rushed to Sanaa to help restore stability.
  
  Only a day after signing a ceasefire deal with the Yemeni army, the Shiite Houthi rebels backtracked and launched an assault to seize the Presidential Place in Sanaa on 20th January. They used heavy artillery and tanks to take over the palace at a time when President Haadi was inside meeting visitors.
  
  Earlier on 19th January, nine persons were killed and 90 others were injured in the massive fighting between Houthi rebels and Yemeni army in the capital Sanaa.
  
• Yemen government resigns amid rebel stand-off
  In Yemen, President Mansour Hadi, Prime Minister KhaledBahah and his cabinet have resigned. The development comes a day after the President agreed to demands of Shia Houthi rebels, who stormed his palace and private home in Sana'a earlier this week. Yemeni Presidential adviser Sultan al-Atwani said Mansour Haadi submitted his resignation just hours after receiving the resignations of Prime Minister Khalid Bahah and his cabinet. However parliament speaker Yahia al-Rai refused to accept the President's resignation. He has called an extraordinary session of parliament on Friday morning. Yemeni Prime Minister Bahah posted on his Facebook page that he doesn’t want to be a part of what is happening or will happen.
  
  Meanwhile Houthi rebels continued to stand guard President Haadi's home and palace despite having promised to withdraw militia and siege of both buildings. They have also not released the chief of Presidential staff, Ahmad Awad Bin Omar. Supporters of Haadi protested outside his residency in Sana’a, demanding to know where the president was. Houthi leaders said he would come out after implementing the power sharing agreement.
  
• China accelerated drive on silk road
  China has accelerated its drive to draw Africa into the Maritime Silk Road — Beijing’s ambitious transcontinental initiative — following the visit to the continent by Foreign Minister Wang Yi.Among the several themes covered during Mr. Wang’s five-nation visit, the push for speedy construction of a modern standard-gauge rail link between Nairobi and Mombasa was one of the star highlights.
  
  The project to linkup the capital of Kenya and the country’s well-established port has much larger implications. Once it is through, the rail corridor will help connect the vast hinterland of East Africa with the Indian Ocean, making it a salient strategic project, which will add one more layer to the realisation of President Xi Jinping’s dream of establishing a 21st century Maritime Silk Road (MSR).
  
  The Chinese undertook the project, clearly aware of the larger regional opportunities that it presented. Symbolically, this was evident when the leaders from Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan stood aside with visiting Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang in Nairobi, along with representatives from Tanzania, Burundi and the African Development Bank, to sign a deal on the project.
  
  Hoping to avoid the vulnerable Malacca strait, the Chinese are building rail corridors from Kunming, Yunnan’s capital, to Myanmar and Thailand via landlocked Laos. China has signed an agreement to build a rail corridor that will connect Yunnan with Myanmar’s port city of Kyaukphyu on the Bay of Bengal, thus bypassing Malacca straits. Kyaukphyu is also the starting point of the China-Myanmar oil and gas pipeline, and enters China at the city of Ruili.
  
  With Laos, the China-Vientiane railroad project is expected to be completed by 2018. China has recently approved a $23 billion project, which includes a high-speed link between ChaingKhong, just south of the Laos’ capital Vientiane, and Ban Phachi in Thailand.
  
• Cuba, U.S. open talks
  The United States and Cuba launch talks on 22nd January on restoring diplomatic relations after a contentious session on immigration accentuated the difficulties in overcoming half a century of hostilities. The highest-level U.S. delegation in 35 years will conclude two-day talks in Havana, with both sides cautioning an immediate breakthrough was unlikely.
  
  Senior U.S. officials say they hope Cuba will agree to reopen embassies and appoint ambassadors in each other's capitals in coming months. The United States also wants travel curbs on its diplomats lifted and unimpeded shipments to its mission in Havana.
  
  During talks on 21st January, the Americans vowed to continue granting safe haven to Cubans with special protections denied to other nationalities.
  
  Cuba complained the U.S. law promotes dangerous illegal immigration and protested against a separate U.S. program that encourages Cuban doctors to defect, calling it a reprehensible brain drain practice.
  
  As her deputy sparred with the Cuban officials over immigration policy, the lead U.S. negotiator in the diplomatic talks, Roberta Jacobson, arrived in Havana aboard a commercial charter from Miami.
  
  She became the first U.S. assistant secretary of state to travel to the communist-led island in 38 years and the highest-ranking visitor in 35 years. Her Cuban counterpart will be Josefina Vidal, director of the foreign ministry's U.S. affairs, who also participated in the immigration talks.
  
  The meetings are the first since U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced on Dec. 17 they would work to restore diplomatic ties snapped by Washington in 1961.
  
  Despite resistance from some in Congress, Obama has set the United States on a path toward removing economic sanctions and a 53-year-old trade embargo against Cuba.
  
  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he looked forward to formally opening a U.S. embassy in Cuba. Kerry also said he was prepared, when the time was right, to meet his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez, with whom he has only talked by telephone.
  
  In his annual State of the Union speech on 20th January, Obama urged Congress to start work on ending the embargo but critics say Obama first needs to win concessions on Cuban political prisoners and democratic rights, the claims of U.S. citizens whose property was nationalized after Cuba's 1959 revolution, and U.S. fugitives who have received asylum in Cuba.
  
  Sought to reopening embassies:
  Cuban officials sat down on 22nd January with the highest-level US delegation to visit Havana in 35 years for landmark talks on reopening embassies and thawing long frozen ties.US assistant secretary of state Roberta Jacobson, the most senior US official on the communist-ruled island since 1980, led the American delegation as the Cold War-era rivals opened a second day of meetings.
  
  Cuba was represented by the director of the foreign ministry's US affairs department, Josefina Vidal, at the capital's Convention Centre. The two sides claimed a good first day on 21st January despite persistent disagreements over US migration policies, which Havana says encourages Cubans to flee to nearby Florida.
  
  US Secretary of State John Kerry warned that the two sides still have much to negotiate before they can normalize ties frozen since 1961.Cuban officials have also downplayed expectations of major breakthroughs this week, stressing that normalising ties will be a long and complex process.
  
  Immigration row
  • Cuba complained that the US law promotes dangerous illegal immigration and protested against a separate US programme that encourages Cuban doctors to defect
  • However, the Americans vowed to continue granting safe haven to Cubans with special protections denied to other nationalities
  • The US also wants travel curbs on its diplomats lifted and unimpeded shipments to its mission in Havana
  • Roberta Jacobson became the first US assistant secretary of state to travel to the communist-led island in 38 years and the highest-ranking visitor in 35 years
  
  
• Pakistan bans Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Haqqani Network
  Pakistan has included Jamaat-ud-Dawa led by 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed and Haqqani network in the list of proscribed organisations. The step was taken after pressure heaped on Pakistan to stop making a distinction between good and bad militants following a deadly Taliban attack on an army-run school in Peshawar that killed 150 people. After the ban, the assets of these groups will be frozen.
  
  The Haqqani network, founded by Jalaluddin Haqqani, has been blamed for the Indian embassy bombing in Afghanistan in 2008 that left 58 people dead, a 2011 attack on the US embassy in Kabul, and several big truck bombing attempts in Afghanistan.
  
• Thai Ex-Premier Yingluck impeached
  Thailand's first woman premier Yingluck Shinawatra was on 23rd January banned from politics for five years and faces criminal charges for negligence that could put in jail for up to 10 years, in a heavy blow to the ousted leader's powerful family that has ruled the nation for years.
  
  Thailand's military-appointed legislature voted to successfully impeach Yingluck Shinawatra. Yingluck was impeached by the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) over a controversial rice subsidy scheme, which, though popular, cost billions of dollars and triggered protests that toppled her government. Under the scheme, the crop was purchased from farmers at around twice the market prices. The vote, that implies Yingluck will be banned from politics for five years, came hours after the attorney general's office announced plans to indict her on criminal charges for negligence related to the rice programme. Yingluck will face criminal charges in the Supreme Court and if found guilty faces up to 10 years in jail, the Attorney General's Office said.
  
• South Korea launches world's second-biggest carbon market
  Trading started on 12th January in South Korea's new emissions trading scheme, which will impose caps on emissions from 525 of the country's biggest companies and becomes the world's second biggest carbon market. The new market is a key component in the government's plan to meet a target of limiting climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 to 30 percent below current levels.
  
  Under the scheme, South Korea's power generators, petrochemical firms, steel producers, car makers, electro-mechanical firms and airlines have been given a fixed amount of permits to cover their emissions for the next three years.
  
  The government has set the total amount of allowed emissions for the 2015 to 2017 period at 1.687 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. Any company emitting more than they have permits to cover must buy allowances from others in the market.
  
  On 12th January trading, a first batch of permits went through at 7,860 won ($7.26) each before the price climbed to 8,640 won ($7.97), similar to price levels in the European market, the world's biggest.
  
  In the first day of trading, four deals for a total of 1,040 permits went through on the Korea Exchange (KRX), which hosts trading under the scheme.
  
  The Korean trading scheme has no links to the international carbon market and participation is restricted to companies directly covered by the scheme, with the exception of three policy banks. Commercial banks and trading houses are excluded.
  
  South Korea is the second country in Asia after Kazakhstan to launch a nationwide emissions market. Regional schemes are in operation in China and Japan. The EU market will be dwarfed by the eventual national scheme in China, which should be fully operational in 2020.
  
• World leaders join millions in March for 'unity' in Paris
  World leaders joined nearly 4 million people on the streets of Paris and around France on 11th January in solidarity with the victims of a terror spree that killed 17 people in the first week of January 2015.
  
  Over 40 world leaders joined the start of the Paris march, linking arms in an act of solidarity. French President Francois Hollande and leaders from Germany, Italy, Israel, Turkey, Britain, Russia and the Palestinian territories among others, moved off from the central 'Place de la Republique' ahead of a sea of French and other flags. This march was organized shortly after the march of attack on French magazine, 'Charlie Hebdo'.
  
  Back ground:
  On 7 January 2015, two Islamist gunmen forced their way into and opened fire in the Paris headquarters of Charlie Hebdo, killing twelve: staff cartoonists Charb, Cabu, Honoré, Tignous and Wolinski, economist Bernard Maris, editors Elsa Cayat and Mustapha Ourrad, guest Michel Renaud, maintenance worker Frédéric Boisseau and police officers Brinsolaro and Merabet, and wounding eleven, four of them seriously.
  
  Charlie Hebdo is a French satirical weekly newspaper,featuring cartoons, reports, polemics, and jokes. Irreverent and stridently non-conformist in tone, the publication describes itself as strongly anti-racist, anti-religiousand left-wing, publishing articles on the extreme right, religion (Catholicism, Islam, Judaism), politics, culture, etc.
  
  The magazine has been the target of two terrorist attacks, in 2011 and in 2015, presumed to be in response to a number of controversial Muhammad cartoons it published. In the second of these attacks, 12 people were killed, including Charbonnier and several contributors.
  
• Pak launches special campaign to eliminate polio
  In Pakistan, a special campaign has been launched to eliminate polio from the most affected Federally Administered Tribal Areas -FATA. According to official data so far fourteen thousand children below the age of five have been vaccinated in FR Bannu. Children of Temporarily Displaced People of North Waziristan were also administered injections and anti-polio drops during the campaign.
  
• Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic: first woman President of Croatia
  Opposition challenger Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic has become the first female president of Croatia, winning by the narrowest of margins.She secured 50.5% of the vote with 99% of ballots counted, while incumbent Ivo Josipovic was close behind on 49.5%.
  
  The election was seen as a key test for the main parties ahead of parliamentary elections expected to be held towards the end of 2015.The gap between the two candidates remained at about one percentage point throughout much of the second round.Turnout was 58.9% - some 12% more than in the first round held two weeks ago, which was equally close.
  
  Ms Grabar-Kitarovic is a politically conservative member of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), which pushed the country towards independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991.The 46-year-old, is a former foreign minister and assistant to the Nato secretary general.
  
• Former Thailand PM faces impeachment
  Former Thailand Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has been facing impeachment proceedings for alleged abuse of power. Yingluck's government was removed from office in a coup last May.
  
  The proceedings in the military-backed legislature, is seen as a move to keep her powerful family out of politics. The former Prime Minister is under scanner over the controversial programme, which, though popular, cost billions of dollars and triggered protests that toppled her government.
  
  The National Assembly began impeachment proceedings on 9th January. A decision on the impeachment could come at the end of the month. Yingluck, who showed up at parliament amid tight security, defended her rule saying she ran the government with honesty and as per the law.
  
  Yingluck defended the rice scheme saying it aimed to address the livelihood of rice farmers, their debts and falling rice prices. She also questioned the impeachment. The rice scheme, which paid farmers up to 50 per cent above market rates for their crop, helped bring Yingluck to power in a landslide election in 2011 due to support from farmers mostly in the north and north-east of the country.
  
  However, the scheme became financially unsustainable, leaving hundreds of thousands of farmers unpaid and an estimated 19.2 million tones of unsold rice in state warehouses. The impeachment hands the ruling junta its first big test of 2015 given Yingluck's popularity among millions who elected her in a 2011 landslide.
  
  After the hearings, the NLA will set up a nine-member panel to ask Yingluck questions raised by assembly members. The closing statements will be made on January 21 and the NLA, hand-picked by the junta and dominated by active and retired military officers, will hold a meeting to vote in the next three days.
  
  Yingluck's brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, was also ousted by the army in a 2006 coup. She also faces charges of dereliction of duty in supervising the programme. If impeached, Yingluck could be banned from politics for five years.
  
• US designates leader of Pakistani Taliban as global terrorist
  The United States has added to its official terrorism list the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, which involved for last month's assault on a Pakistani school that killed 150 people, including 134 children. The State Department named MaulanaFazlullah, also known as Mullah Fazlullah, a specially designated global terrorist, a label meant to target terrorists and those providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism.
  
  The designation makes it a crime for US citizens to engage in transactions with Fazlullah. It also allows the US government to seize any of his property or interests that are in the United States, including those under the control of US citizens.
  
  The United States designated the Pakistani Taliban a terrorist group in 2010.The State Department said that before becoming the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Fazlullah claimed to be behind the killing of Pakistani Army General SanaullahNiazi in 2013, and that he ordered the 2012 assassination attempt on Pakistani schoolgirl and activist MalalaYousafzai.
  
• Evidence against Lakhvi in detention case
  Islamabad High Court on 13th January resumed an in-camera hearing in the Mumbai attack mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi's detention case. Pakistan government submitted evidence against him. The High Court had agreed for an in-camera hearing of the case after the appeal of Pak government yesterday in Islamabad High Court that the government had strong evidence against Lakhvi which could not be shared in open proceedings. The Islamabad High Court has taken up the case on the direction of the Pak Supreme Court which earlier had set aside its decision to suspend the government's order to detain Lakhvi. Supreme Court bench had referred the case back to the High Court for a complete hearing before giving a final decision.
  
• Sirisena takes over as chief of SLFP
  Beleaguered former president Mahinda Rajapaksa has agreed to hand over Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP)’s reins to the country’s new leader Maithripala Sirisena, bowing to the demand of party members after his shock election defeat.
  
  Sirisena was the general secretary of the SLFP but was expelled from the party by Rajapaksa ahead of polls as he broke away from the then ruling alliance in November to become the challenger in the polls. Sirisena went on to topple Rajapaksa and end his decade-long rule in the January 8 polls.
  
  After winning the election, Sirisena claimed the party leadership even as Rajapaksa’s loyalists initially refused to back him, threatening to split the party
  
  In another related development, Basil Rajapaksa, the brother of Mahinda, resigned from his post of National Organizer of SLFP. Basil accepted full responsibility for his brother’s defeat in the presidential elections, a statement said. He led the then ruling coalition UPFA’s election campaign in the run-up to the polls. Basil left Colombo immediately after his brother lost the election. He is currently believed to be in the US on a private visit.
  
• Media organizations join in drone-test programme
  Ten US media organizations including the New York Times and Washington Post announced a coalition to test drones for news gathering in collaboration with Virginia Tech University.
  
  The initiative is "designed to conduct controlled safety testing of a series of real-life scenarios where the news media could use small UAS (unmanned aircraft systems) technology to gather the news," according to a statement from the media coalition.
  
  Virginia Tech is among a small number of institutions authorized to conduct testing on various civilian applications for drones as the US Federal Aviation considers rules for these systems.Some drones going onto the market are designed as toys, while others have various applications for industries or agriculture, and online retailer Amazon wants to use drones for deliveries.
  
• ICC opens inquiry on war crimes
  The International Criminal Court, ICC has opened an inquiry into possible war crimes in the Palestinian territories by Israel. In a statement, the Prosecutor of the ICC, Fatou Bensouda announced that she has opened a preliminary examination into the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory.
  
  The move comes after Palestinian Authority joined the Court and accepted its jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, since 13th of June, 2014. The prosecutors would examine independently and impartially the crimes that may have occurred since June 13 last year. This allows the court to probe the civil war between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza in July-August 2014 in which which more than 2,100 Palestinians and 73 Israelis were killed.
  
  Israel has condemned the ICC decision as scandalous. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the decision was intended to harm Israel's right to defend itself from terror and motivated by political anti-Israel considerations.
  
  Lieberman questioned why the ICC was silent when more than two lakh people were killed in Syria. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki welcomed the move. He said everything is going according to plan, no state and nobody can now stop this action and in the end a full investigation will follow.
  
• New Leadership in Mali
  Modibo Keita is a Malian politician who was appointed as Prime Minister of Mali in January 2015. He previously served as Prime Minister for less than three months, from 18 March 2002 to 8 June 2002; he was the final prime minister appointed by President Alpha Oumar Konare.
  
  In April 2014, he was appointed as President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita's chief representative for negotiations with rebels. President Keita subsequently appointed him to succeed Moussa Mara as Prime Minister on 8 January 2015
  
  Before him Moussa Mara was the Prime Minister. But he resigned under pressure from the President of the strife-torn West African nation. Mara left the job after just eight months
  
  Modibo Keita has been leading peace negotiations with rebel groups. Modibo Keita had been appointed as the president's representative in peace talks that began in July bringing together the government and rebels based in northern Mali.
  
  Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita named seven new ministers on 10th January, with cabinet members replaced in key defence and economy posts in the strife-torn west African nation.
  
  The new government faces many challenges in the conflict-hit country, which descended into crisis in 2012 after Islamist groups seized control of its vast northern desert for several months, prompting a French-led military intervention.
  
• Sirisena, Srilanka’s new President
  Maithripala Sirisena won in the Srilankan Presidential Election. These elections were held on 9th January. With this election the 10 year rule of Mahinda Rajapaksa came to an end. Sworn-in along with him was his new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who till now was the leader of opposition. Both of them took the oath of office at a ceremony in the Independence Square. Supreme Court Justice K Sripavan administered the oath to Sirisena.
  
  • Eelections were held in Sri Lanka on 8 January 2015, two years ahead of schedule.
  • The incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa was the United People's Freedom Alliance's candidate, seeking a third term in office.
  • The United National Party (UNP)-led opposition coalition chose to field Maithripala Sirisena, the former Minister of Health in Rajapaksa's government and general secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) – the main constituent party of the UPFA — as its common candidate.
  • Sirisena was declared the winner after receiving 51.28% of all votes cast compared to Rajapaksa's 47.58%.
  
  
• U.N. confirms Palestinians will be ICC member on April 1
  United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has confirmed the Palestinians will formally become a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on April 1 and the court's registrar said on 7th January that jurisdiction would date back to June 13, 2014.
  
  This means the court's prosecutor could investigate the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip in July and August 2014, during which more than 2,100 Palestinians, 67 Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel were killed.
  
  The International Criminal Court (ICC), governed by the Rome Statute, is the first permanent, treaty based, international criminal court established to help end impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community.
  
  The ICC is an independent international organisation, and is not part of the United Nations system. Its seat is at The Hague in the Netherlands. Although the Court’s expenses are funded primarily by States Parties, it also receives voluntary contributions from governments, international organisations, individuals, corporations and other entities.
  
  The Hague-based court handles war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. It could exercise jurisdiction over such crimes committed by anyone on Palestinian territory. Israel, like the United States, is not a an ICC member, but its citizens could be tried on accusations of crimes on Palestinian land.The Palestinian government signed the Rome Statute on Dec. 31, a day after a bid for independence by 2017 failed at the U.N. Security Council.
  
  The Palestinians, who have been locked in a bloody conflict with Israel for decades, seek a state that covers Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem - lands Israel captured in a 1967 war.
  
• U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to visit Pakistan
  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Pakistan this month, shortly after certifying the Pakistan government’s “action against” Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM). Kerry will lead the Strategic Dialogue in Islamabad later in January, the Pakistan Foreign Ministry announced
  
  The certificate is a condition for the U.S. to disburse funds under the Kerry-Lugar Bill for civilian aid to Pakistan that was co-authored by Mr. Kerry in 2009. This year’s grant of $532 million to Pakistan will be disbursed shortly, as the Congress gave its nod to President Obama, the U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Richard Olson disclosed.
  
• Women-only buses in Nepal capital
  Nepal has introduced women-only minibuses in its capital city, in an attempt to protect female passengers from sexual assault. The initiative has begun with "women-only" signs being placed on four 17-seater minibuses and they will operate on key routes in Kathmandu during morning and evening rush hour. Only one of the buses currently has a female conductor, but he said the goal was to eventually employ an all-women crew.
  
  In a 2013 World Bank survey, 26% of female respondents aged between 19 and 35 said they had experienced some form of sexual assault on public transport in Nepal. In 2011, a 21-year-old Buddhist nun was gang-raped in a bus in eastern Nepal by five men, including the bus driver.
  
  Complaints about groping prompted authorities in neighbouring India to introduce women-only carriages on the metro system in the capital New Delhi in 2010
  
• International Hindi conference in New Jersey
  The International Hindi Conference with the theme of "Expanding World of Hindi: Possibilities and Challenges," would be held in New Jersey in April. To be attended by Hindi scholars from various parts of the world, in particular from the US and India between April 3-5, participants of the International Hindi Conference would discuss the current status of the teaching and learning of Hindi among other things.
  
• More women, minorities in new U.S. Congress
  The new 114th U.S. Congress counts more minorities and women than ever, although lawmakers remain overwhelmingly white and male in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and Senate. A record 104 women are in the new Congress, and for the first time, African-American members of both genders are representing both parties. No seats in Congress are reserved for women or minorities.
  
  The number of woman lawmakers is up slightly from 100 at the close of the last Congress, but represents about 20 per cent of the total in Congress. It’s far less than the nearly 51 per cent of the U.S. population.
  
  A total of 84 women will serve in the House, compared with 80 in the last Congress. The House will also have 44 African-Americans, 34 Hispanic lawmakers and two Native Americans.
  
• Palestinian statehood resolution fails at UNSC
  The UN Security Council has failed to adopt a Palestinian statehood resolution that set a deadline for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Palestinian territories by 2017.
  
  The long-anticipated draft tabled here last night drew the support of eight countries - Argentina, Chad, Chile, China, France, Jordan, Luxembourg, Russia - just one shy of the nine needed to pass a resolution in the absence of a veto by any of the Council's five permanent members.
  
  The United States and Australia opposed the resolution while the United Kingdom, Nigeria, South Korea, Rwanda and Lithuania abstained. The resolution failed to receive the required majority among members, the United States also opposed the text, a move that would have seen the draft fail to pass. The draft outlined a solution which fulfilled the vision of two independent, democratic and prosperous states - Israel and a sovereign, contiguous and viable State of Palestine - living side by side in peace and security in mutually and internationally recognised borders.
  
  It also outlined several parameters for the proposed solution - with a one-year deadline for negotiations with Israel and a "full and phased withdrawal of Israeli forces" from the West Bank by the end of 2017 and would have looked forward to welcoming Palestine as a full UN Member State within the 12-month time frame, urging both parties to build trust and negotiate in good faith.
  
  The text also envisaged a "just solution" to the status of Jerusalem as the capital of the two states and to the question of Palestinian refugees as well as to all other outstanding issues, including control of water resources and the fate of prisoners in Israeli jails.
  
  Security arrangements for the transition would have required a "third-party presence". Following the vote, Permanent Representative of the US to the UN Samantha Power stressed her country's support for new ways to constructively support both parties in achieving a negotiated settlement.
  
• China’s Three Gorges Power Plant claims new world record
  China’s Three Gorges Power Plant, the largest hydropower project in the country, generated 98.8 billion kwh of electricity in 2014, bettering the world record for hydropower generation set by Brazil’s Itaipu hydroelectric plant
  
  Three Gorges Dam is the world’s largest power station in terms of installed capacity, but with a much smaller capacity, Brazil’s Itaipu hydroelectric plant had long been the champion of world hydropower generation. Brazil’s dam generated 98.6 billion kwh of electricity in 2013.
  
  According to officials three Gorges Corporation said 98.8 billion kwh is the equivalent of saving 49 million tonnes of coal consumption and preventing the emissions of carbon dioxide by 100 million tonnes. The Three Gorges Project generates electricity, controls flooding by providing storage for water and adjusts shipping capacity on the Yangtze River, China’s longest waterway.
  
• Nepal to join Silk Road Economic Belt through Tibet
  China has taken a firm step to extend the Silk Road Economic Belt to South Asia, by working out a blueprint of connecting Nepal with the Eurasian transport corridor. Last month, Nepal formally signed a four-point document endorsing the Silk Road Economic Belt — a pet project of President Xi Jinping for connecting Asia with Europe along a land corridor, with China as its hub. The agreement was signed during a meeting in Beijing of the Nepal-China Inter-governmental Business and Investment Coordination.
  
  Under the new Silk Route blueprint, the Chinese want to open up the transportation channel from the Pacific to the Baltic Sea, from which would radiate rail and road routes, which would also connect with East Asia, West Asia, and South Asia. China wants to connect with Nepal and South Asia through an extension of the Qinghai-Tibet railway.
  
• Jaffna-Kankasanthurai rail track restored
  Indian Railway’s construction company (IRCON) has restored the rail track between Jaffna and Kankasanthurai in North Sri Lanka. This restored commercial Yal Devi Express service was formally inaugurated. The track is about 18 kilometres. This passes through the high security zone which was freed from the control of Tamil tigers in 2009.
  
  IRCON was established in 1976 by Union Government, it is wholly owned by the Ministry of Railways. In 1995, it was renamed as IRCON International Limited. Since its establishment, this company had undertaken construction of railway projects in India and abroad especially in difficult terrains. It has completed more than 300 major infrastructure projects in India and over 121 major projects globally in more than 21 countries.
  
• Beji Caid Essebsi sworn in as President of Tunisia
  Tunisia's President Beji Caid Essebsi has pledged to work towards national reconciliation after winning the country's first free election. After taking his oath of office on 31st December, he told parliament he would be "the president of all Tunisians". The 88-year-old secured victory in the elections that were conducted in the third week of December, over incumbent Moncef Marzouki.
  
  Essebsi was speaker of parliament under President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, who was ousted in 2011 in the first "Arab Spring" uprising. Tunisia is the only Arab country to have moved from authoritarian rule to democracy since a wave of popular uprisings spread across the region. Essebsi became the first freely elected leader of Tunisia since it gained independence from France in 1956.