INTERNATIONAL MARCH 2010

INTERNATIONAL MARCH 2010

• China stood first in implementing death sentence in the world, according to the report given by Amnesty International.
  
• Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak announced plans for a “New Economic Model (NEM),” raising prospects of a fair deal for all racial groups.
  
• During a session at the Arab League summit in Libya, the Arab leaders called for a review of the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to create a definitive plan for eliminating nuclear weapons development. These countries view Israel and Iran's nuclear programmes with alarm, and have repeatedly called for an agreement to ban nuclear weapons from the region.
  
• The Former interim Prime Minister of Iraq, Iyad Allawi's Iraqiyah formation has secured the maximum number of seats in Iraq's March 7th parliamentary elections, narrowly edging out the State of Law grouping led by incumbent Premier Nouri al-Maliki.Out of the 325 seats, National Iraqi List (“Iraqiyah”) of Mr. Allawi secured 91. Mr. Maliki's State of Law grouping got 89.
  
• India joined the world to celebrate Earth Hour, from 8.30 to 9.30 p.m. on 27th march 2010 organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The event is the largest global campaign on climate change with over one billion people around the globe joined the campaign, involving more than 6,000 cities and towns, to turn off lights in show of support for action on climate change.
  
• The Agriculture Ministers of the BRIC nations — Brazil, Russia, India and China have adopted aMoscow Declaration where they identified four areas for quadripartite cooperation
  1. To set up a common database of production and consumption of farm products in their respective countries to facilitate comprehensive analysis of food security and coordinate formation of national grain reserves.
  2. The four countries to jointly draw up a BRIC food security strategy for vulnerable sections of the population and share experience in providing food for the poor.
  3. To mitigate the impact of climate change on food security and adapt farming to the changing climate.
  4. To promote cooperation and exchanges in farm technology and innovation.
  
  
• The United States and Russiahave concluded a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) which include reduction by about one third the nuclear weapons that the two countries would deploy and a significant reductions in missiles and launchers and putting in place a strong and effective verification regime.
  
• China is now set to take the lead as the world's premier green energy power, according to a report released by the Pew Charitable Trusts, which measured the growth of clean energy investments in the world's major economies. In 2009, China invested $34.6 billion on expanding its renewable energy capacity, out of $162 billion invested globally. The U.S. invested $18.6 billion, losing the top spot for most investments for the first time ever. India invested $2.3 billion, ranking tenth among the G-20 group of countries.
  
• According to a new report from U.N.-Habitat, the U.N. agency for human settlements
  1. The worldwide number of slum-dwellers now stands at 827 million and is on course to grow to 889 million by 2020.
  2. Southern Asia now has 190.7 million slum dwellers (35 per cent of the population) and eastern Asia 189.6 million (28.2 per cent).
  3. China and India, the world's most populous countries, have together lifted 125 million people out of slums in the last decade.
  
  
• The United States House of Representatives passed the Senate version of the Healthcare Reform bill which will soon be signed into law by President Obama as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, will lead to additional insurance coverage for almost 32 million more Americans and also bring down the deficit of the country by $143 billion over 10 years and by over a trillion dollars within the following 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). It will cost the American taxpayer $940 billion, according to the CBO.
  
• The temple city of Tirupati has been identified as 'most favourable' to be developed as a 'low - carbon foot print city' by European Aid and Development which works under the European Commission.
  
• The Russia led defence bloc of ex - soviet states, Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) signed a cooperation pact with the United Nations, which amounts to recognition of the CSTO as a full fledged international security organisation.
  
• Iran and Pakistan have signed in Istanbul, Turkey, the final agreement to launch the $7.5 billion Iran - Pakistan gas pipelinewith a provision for India's possible participation in the project at a later date. This would set in motion the broader Gas Sales Purchase Agreement (GSPA) with the signing of two provisions i.e., the Operational Agreement (OA) and the Heads of Agreement (HOA) which deals with details regarding the transportation of gas to India "if and when India decides to join the project''.
  
• Court martial proceedings begins against the former Army Chief of Srilanka, General (retired) Sarath Fonseka, for alleged involvement in politics while in uniform.
  
• U.S. magazine Forbes annual list of the world's top billionaires :
  Richest men in the World:
  1. Carlos Slim ($ 53.5 billion)
  2. Bill Gates ($ 53 billion)
  3. Warren Buffett ($ 47 billion)
  4. Mukesh Ambani ($ 29 billion)
  5. Lakshmi Mittal ($ 28.7 billion)
  Richest men in India: There are eight Indians in the list of 100 wealthiest people in the world.
  1. Azim Premji ($ 17 billion) (27th in the world)
  2. Anil Ambani ($ 13.7 billion) (36th in the world)
  3. Ravi Ruia ($ 13 billion) (40th in the world)
  4. Savitri Jindal ($ 12.2 billion) (44th in the world)
  5. Kushal Pal Singh ($ 9 billion) (74th in the world)
  6. Kumar Birla ($ 7.9 billion) (86th in the world)
  
  
• China supports India in opposing any international 'scrutiny' of voluntary actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As both countries face common challenges, such as task of developing economy, eliminating poverty, improving people’s livelihood, reducing emissions and protecting the environment, China sought to continue and expand cooperation with India as negotiations between the developing world and the west headed towards the climate change conference in Mexico later this year, said Xie Zhenhua, vice-chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission of China.
  
• The new constitution for the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal set to be launched on May 28, 2010 was to be delayed as the calendar for its release has been amended for the tenth time.
  
• India has emerged as one of the world's top ten countries in industrial production, according to United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) year book of Industrial Statistics 2010.
• "Power, Voice and Rights - A Turning point for Gender Equality in Asia and the Pacific", a report brought out by the United Nations Development Programme to mark the International Women's Day found that the problem of "missing girls" - a scenario where more boys are born than girls, as girl foetuses are presumably aborted and women die from health and nutrition neglect is growing in Asia Pacific. Birth gender disparity is the greatest in East Asia, where 119 boys are born for every 100 girls. China and India together account for more than 85 million of the nearly 100 million ''missing'' women estimated to have died from discriminatory treatment in health care, nutrition access or pure neglect.
• Iraq voted in the parliamentary polls defying the threat of militant attacks.
• The united States House of Representatives followed the senate in passing the Hiring Incentive to Restore Employment Act (The HIRE Act), which offers a payroll tax holding for business that hire unemployed workers and an income tax credit of $ 1000 for businesses that retain them. The bill is for tackling unemployment.
• The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) led by V. Anandasangaree in its manifesto for the April 8 general election in Srilanka has advocated a federal model on the lines of Indian system to resolve the ethnic conflict.
• The Chinese government has appointed the 11th Panchen Lama, Gyaincain Norbu, the second most important figure in Tibetan Buddhism, to the country's top legislative advisory body. His appointment comes amid Beijing's efforts to further legitimise its contested selection of the monk, who analysts say may have a crucial role to play in the appointment of the current Dalai Lama's successor.