INTERNATIONAL JULY 2011

INTERNATIONAL JULY 2011

• Vietnam’s lawmaking National Assembly appointed Truong Tan Sang as the communist country’s new president following Vietnam’s 13th National Assembly election. Sang is the ninth president for the country, the first being revered founding father Ho Chi Minh. Sang succeeded Nguyen Minh Triet, who served one term. The role of the president in Vietnam is mostly ceremonial, while the prime minister runs the country’s day-to-day operations.
  
• Time magazine compiled and published in July 2011 the list 10 wives who were resolute even in troubled times. The Time magazine compiled and published in July 2011 the list of 10 wives who were resolute even in troubled times. India’s 19th century queen Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi, who fought the British valiantly in the 1857 war, was listed by the Time magazine in the list. The magazine compiled its list of 10 such women following the much talked about charge by Rupert Murdoch’s wife Wendi Dang against the man who tried to throw a pie at her husband’s face during the hearing of the phone-hacking scandal. Time Magazine's Top 10 Daredevil wives list is : Sarah Palin, Michelle Obama, Wendi Dang Murdoch ,Elin Nordegren, Rani Laksmibai, Eleanor Roosevelt, Egyptian Queen Cleopatra, Queen Isabella of Spain, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, June Carter Cash and Melin.
  
• World Health Organization-sponsored study on Major Depressive Episode (MDE) published in the BMC Medicine journal revealed that Indians are among the worlds most depressed. 9% of people in India reported having an extended period of depression within their lifetime, nearly 36% suffered from what is called Major Depressive Episode (MDE).WHO ranked depression as the fourth leading cause of disability worldwide and projected that by 2020, it will be the second leading cause.
  
• The World Investment Report 2011 was released by UNCTAD on 26 July 2011. According to the report, India’s position among the top 20 FDI recipients fell to 14th position, from 8th in 2009.The country that saw the maximum FDI inflow in 2010 was the United States at $228 billion. China stood at 2nd position with inflows totalling $106 billion in 2010.The report stated that half of the top 20 host economies for FDI in 2010 were developing and transition economies.
  
• Russia made an announcement on 22 July 2011 that it built a missile defence shield, which covers two-thirds of the country. The new system is designed to provide protection against missile attacks on Moscow and central Russia. Most of the industry is located in this area. The missile defence system features S-300 and S-400 long-range anti-missiles.The system is likely to become operational by 1 December 2011
  
• Hina Rabbani Khar from Pakistan People’s Party (PP) on 19 July 2011 became Pakistan’s first woman foreign minister.
  
• The Libya Contact Group in its fourth meeting held in Istanbul, Turkey on 15 July 2011 declared Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s regime no longer legitimate. This will potentially free up cash that the rebels fighting Libyan forces urgently need. In addition to the USA, the 32-nation Contact Group on Libya includes members of NATO, the EU and the Arab League. Te Group also formally recognized the main opposition group as the country’s legitimate government until a new authority is created.
  
• USA announced that it would with hold the 800 million dollars aid to the Pakistan’s military.
  
• South Sudan became an independent nation on 9th July, ending 50 years of exploitation and discrimination by the mainly Arab dominated north area. Southern Sudan became the 193rd nation of the United Nation. Kenya, which mediated the end of Sudanese civil war between Khartoum and South Sudan People's Liberation Movement and traditionally a strong ally of the South, was among the first countries to recognise Southern Sudan. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and dozens of other world leaders were in attendance under as South Sudan President Salva Kiir hosted the ceremony. For the formation of Southern Sudan as new nation, a referendum took place in Southern Sudan from January 9th to 15th 2011. The 98.8% of the people voted in favour of independence. The black African tribes of South Sudan and the mainly Arab north battled two civil wars over more than five decades, and some 2 million died in the latest war, from 1983-2005.
  
• People of Morocco (North African country) on 1 July 2011 approved the constitutional reforms which are expected to bring democratic reforms in the country. According to an official estimate, 98 percent of voters on the day of referendum voted to approve the constitutional reforms. King of Morocco, Mohammed VI had announced his proposed reforms in June 2011 according to which his power would be limited while strengthening the prime minister’s office and the parliament. In February 2011, Morocco also experienced pro-democracy demonstrations along with other Arab world nations. But its intensity was less in comparison to nations like Egypt and Tunisia which toppled the rulers there.
  
• A two-day meeting of foreign ministers of the 46-nation Asia-Europe (ASEM) began on 4 July 2011 in Godollo, Hungary, and ended on 5 July 2011. This was the 10th ASEM Foreign Ministers' Meeting. The summit was chaired on 4 July 2011 by Catherine Ashton, the foreign policy chief of the European Union (EU) while Hungarian Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi took over the chair on 5 July 2011. Hungary is the current holder of the EU's rotating presidency. Next Asia-Europe (ASEM) meet will be held in India in 2013, while an ASEM summit will be held in Vientiane, Laos in 2012.
  
• The Greek Parliament approved the 28 billion euro austerity package aimed at saving the nation from defaulting on its debts. If the austerity package had been rejected, Greece could have run out of money in recent future. Total Greek debt is 340 billion Euros. Greece is heavily in debtand the package is required to win the latest package of a 110 Billion euro loan from the EU (European Union) and IMF. Besides Greece, Ireland and Portugal are other member countries of EU who face similar kind of financial crisis.
  
• Thailand's Prime Minister-elect, Yingluck Shinawatra, formed a coalition consisting of five parties under the wings of her own Pheu Thai Party following her landslide victory in parliamentary elections in Thailand. The grouping of five constituent parties would have 299 seats in the 500 member new house. With her landslide victory she is poised to become Thailand’s first female prime minister. 
• The world's longest sea bridge, spanning 36.48 km across the mouth of the Jiaozhou Bay in eastern Shandong Province, China, opened to traffic, four years after construction started. The 14.8-billion-yuan ($2.3-billion) bridge connects urban Qingdao with the city's less-developed district of Huangdao. Authorities expect the project to boost the development of an industrial zone in Huangdao. Authorities said the bridge would shorten the route between Huangdao and urban Qingdao by 30 km, cutting the travel time down from over 40 minutes to around 20 minutes. Before the project's completion, the Hangzhou Bay Bridge across the bay of Hangzhou, in eastern Zhejiang Province, was considered the world's longest sea bridge. 
• An ancient Angkor temple in north-western Cambodia was reopened to the public following the completion of a decades-long renovation project described as the world's largest puzzle. The restoration of the 11th-century Baphuon monument, one of the country's largest after Angkor Wat, was celebrated with a high-profile ceremony attended by Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni and French Prime Minister Francois Fillon. The finished project is the result of half a century of painstaking efforts by restorers to take apart the crumbling tower's 300,000 sandstone blocks and then piece them back together.