- The people of Egypt went wild with celebrations after President Hosni Mubarak resigned and handed power to the military on 11th February. For eighteen days thousands of people had taken to the streets all over Egypt demanding the ouster of their autocratic President who had been in power for the past thirty years. One of the key reasons for such public outrage has been widespread poverty, inflation and rampant corruption in the government for many years. Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the anti-government protests burst with joy when the announcement was made. This has been a hard fought struggle for the people of Egypt after many episodes of violence having been reported between the public and Mubaraks forces.
- China has now overtaken Japan as the world's second-biggest economy. Japan's economy was worth $5.474 trillion (£3.414 trillion) at the end of 2010, figures from Tokyo have shown while that of China's economy is closer to $5.8 trillion for the same period. China has been enjoying a manufacturing boom for quite a few years now and it is expected that at its current rate of growth, analysts see China replacing the US as the world's top economy in about a decade. The US economy is currently almost three times the size of the Chinese economy in dollar terms.
- A massive earthquake on 22nd Feb has caused massive destruction in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. The 6.3-magnitude earthquake was the second in five months for the city and the death toll continues to increase with the police having confirmed 148 deaths with 200 still missing. The damage caused has been said to be much worse than the 7.1-magnitude quake on 4 September, which left two people seriously injured but no fatalities. The city's historic cathedral was one of the many buildings that got significantly damaged, while cars lay in a mangled heap under a pile of rubble and roads cracked open with fissures as a result of the tremors. Dazed, bleeding residents could be seen wandering through streets strewn with debris and piles of concrete.
- Inspired by the outcomes of Tunisia and Egypt over the past few weeks the people of Libya have also taken out to the streets in their cries for freedom against their autocratic leader Muammar Gaddafi. Thousands of people have joined the struggle and there have been continuous reports of frequent clashes with the Muammars loyalists and the protesting public. Scores of people have been reported killed in continuing violence in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, amid escalating protests against Muammar Gaddafi's 40-year rule across the North African nation. With each passing day the leader seems to be losing support from people working in his own government and is also under increasing pressure from International powers to step down.
- ‘The Kings Speech’ had a great outing at this years Oscars winning four awards. The film won in the best picture category and its director Tom Hooper received Best Director. Colin Firth received the award for best actor for his central role in Kings Speech while best female actor went to Natalie Portman for Black Swan. ‘The Best Supporting Actor’ and The Best Supporting Actress’ awards were bagged by Christian Bale and Melissa Leo for their performances in film, ‘The Fighter’. Indian musician AR Rahman missed out on his two nominations for his score in ‘127 hours.’
Mubarak resigns, Egypt celebrates
China overtakes Japan as world's second-biggest economy
New Zealand earthquake strikes Christchurch, killing at least 148 people
Libyan people take to the streets in their demand for freedom
The Kings Speech Wins Best Picture at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards
- Salman Taseer Killed in Islamabad
Punjab Governor Salman Tasser was shot dead by one of his own body guards at the Khosar market in Islamabad. Taseer was a member of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party(PPP) and was vocal on a various issues including Pakistans Blasphemy Law. The assassin was Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, a member of Punjab Elite Force who shot the Governor with his weapon and surrendered to the security forces moments after shooting the governor dead. Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters that the killer admitted to killing the Governor over his statement when he called the Blasphemy Law as a “black law”. - Iranian plane crash kills 77
The IranAir Boeing 727 was flying from Tehran with 106 passengers when it came down and crashed near the city of Orumiyeh. With 77 casualties at least 35 people have said to have been injured. According to official reports plane had taken off an hour later than scheduled, and came down because of bad weather conditions. This is the second major crash since 2009 when a plane caught fire mid are resulting 168 deaths. The country has been under international sanctions for years, preventing it from buying new aircrafts or spare parts from the West. Hence as a result the countries civil fleet of aircrafts are in poor condition due to their old age and lack of maintenance. - 35 dead at Moscow Airport Blast.
A suicide bomber carrying a suitcase walked into Moscow’s busy Domodedovo airport and set off a huge explosion Monday, killing at least 35 people and wounding 180. The air was engulfed in a cloud of smoke with body parts and shrapnel strewn all over the place. Hundreds of people were in the loosely guarded area at the time. The blast was the worst terrorist attack since two female suicide bombers from the troubled Dagestan region blew themselves up on Moscow’s subway last March, killing 40 people. - Whistleblower Elmer hands over bank data to Wikileaks
Swiss whistle-blower and former banker Rudolf Elmer has given WikiLeaks information about bank accounts of more than 2,000 prominent individuals who have parked money offshore. Rudolf Elmer once worked in the office of Julius Baer in the Cayman Islands until he was fired by the bank in 2002. The Swiss whistleblower Rudolf Elmer handed over two CDs containing the data to the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, in London on 16/1/2011. However Julian Assange has said the information was unlikely to be published soon and may take a few weeks to process and confirm them. - Brisbane Faces Worst Flood Since 1893
Brisbane faces its worst floods since 1893 as overflowing rivers have begun to engulf the city. Overnight, emergency workers went from door to door in Brisbane helping residents flee to higher ground, with hundreds relocating to evacuation centres. About 2500 businesses are said to be fully affected and another 2500 partially affected. Close to 3000 people are in evacuation centres across the state and 60 schools and almost 90 kindergartens and childcare centres have been severely damaged or are inaccessible. The death toll from the floods disaster has risen to 15 and the many parts of the city have been affected by massive power cuts. - Massive Protests Rock Egypt
Egypt has been rocked by violent protests by demonstrators who have been demanding the ouster of the country's longtime autocratic president, Hosni Mubarak. Tens and thousandths of people have taken out to streets raising slogans with protests turning violent in many parts of the country. The tension increased today when Mohammed ElBaradei, a former top official at the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency and a high-profile Mubarak opponent was placed under house arrest when he returned to Cairo in his bid to provide a leader for the mass movement.
- Sri Lanka abandons Tamil version of its national album
The Sri lankan government has decided to scrap the tamil version of the national anthem in its official and state functions. This move may possibly further alienate the tamil minorities in the country. A directive to use only the Sinhalese version as been sent by the ministry as president Rajapakse pointed out that no country uses two versions of the same language. - China reveals world’s fastest train
China unveiled its new high speed train CRH380 that can clock a maximum speed of 486.1 kmph. It is said to be much faster than even the bullet trains of Japan. At a cruising speed of 380 this is certainly a major accomplishment. China on its part has gone ahead and is now working on a model that is expected to clock 600kmph. - Mark Zuckerberg, Times Person Of The Year
Times magazine has named Mark Zuckerberg as the person of the year . Mr Zuckerberg is the founder of thesmash hit social networking site Facebook and is also the world youngest billionaire currently. Although, Julian Assange the editor in chief of wikileaks was the pick of the time readers, but Zuckerberg won because of the scope and reach his website and how it has touched and remodeled our thoughts on social networking bringing the world that much more closer. Facebook has reached 500 million users this year all around the globe and the numbers are still counting.
- Pakistan’s Initiative against Terrorism
Pakistan has been the victim of international terrorism in the past few months. As a result of this, a top US official recently said that Islamabad should begin to crack down on terrorists and terrorist groups operational within the country immediately. Barrack Obama, President of the United States of America has also agreed to this statement and feels that Pakistan has been one of the major victims of international terrorism lately. President Obama also said that Pakistan needs to take strong and immediate steps against all terrorist groups operating on Pakistani soil. Furthermore, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake said that a number of terrorist groups are operating in a syndicate and working together against American interests, not just in the US but in other nations such as Afghanistan and India as well. Mr. Blake also stated that the US has welcomed every step take by Pakistan so far and that it is in full support of Pakistan as always. - UN’s terrorism sanctions list
In a recent and sudden move, a US committee took down several names of al-Qaida and Taliban terrorists off its terrorism sanction lists. The committee said that the reason for such an action was that several of the names on the sanctions list were probably dead. The committee Chairman Thomas Mayr Harting said that following this step, the committee had started investigations into how many terrorists put on the list were actually dead. This committee was set up in 1999. - New Government in Iraq
Prolonged warring and quarrels between rival political factions in Iraq had caused over an eight month deadlock over the issue of forming the next government. Recently, the Iraqi Prime Minister appealed to these political factions to work together and unite following his acceptance of the President’s request to form the next government. Senior officials admitted that a Herculean task now lay before them, that of forming a government comprising of members of all possible political factions. The task has been made harder by the month long deadline to form the government which will preside over the country’s affair as US troops move out and power is handed back to the Iraqi people. The new government is expected to have members from all the political factions such as the Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis. Prime Minister Designate al-Maliki called upon al Iraqi citizens and politicians to help him in this difficult task. - Friendly neighbor China
Rising concerns over China’s assertive and aggressive attitude in the Asian continent has prompted China’s President Hu Jintao to assure all nations that China is committed to being a friendly and helpful neighbor. China has been in the news recently over its spats with neighboring nations over international borders and territories. The reason for this has been said to be China’s interests in a group of potentially resource rich islands in the Asian Pacific. Speaking to leaders at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Japan, President Hu said that China was committed to the regional policy of building good neighborliness and friendship. - Rolls Royce sued by Qantas
Australian flight safety officials have recently warned that manufacturing defects have been found in the Rolls Royce Trent 900 engines. Officials further urged airlines using these engines to carry extensive checks before using them because defects present in them could lead to catastrophic failures. In the meanwhile, Qantas began court proceedings against Rolls Royce and was granted an injunction by the federal court of Australia which ensured that the airline could pursue legal action against the engine manufacturing giants. - Myanmar polls called fake
The first democratic polls in Myanmar after several years of military rule were held among complaints of threats, intimidation and accusations of the polls being a charade. In most constituencies, the poll was a competition between the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and the National Unity Party (NUS). Several accusations were made by opposition parties against the USDP, claiming that they illegally collected advanced ballots. USA and UK officials also voiced their concerns about the transparency and fairness of these polls. - China’s slowest growth
China had its slowest rate of economic growth in a year during the September quarter. In addition to this, a World Bank report hinted at a further decrease in its economic growth. One of the reasons for this has been the long term inflation that China has faced for almost two years. China’s industrial growth has also fallen considerably in recent times. This slow growth in China’s economy has gotten many people to believe that India might be the next economic superpower to rise because of its high levels of industrial and economic growth in recent times. Though not immediately, but experts predicted India’s rate of growth to exceed that of China’s by a considerable margin in the next five years.
- India gets UNSC non-permanent seat:
The biggest news on the international front for India has been its inclusion into the UNSC as a non-permanent member after a gap of 19 years. Even as India’s acclamation for a non-permanent bench on the body that includes fifteen members in total was an inevitable cessation afterwards Kazakhstan back out of the chase for the Asian bench beforehand in early January. India got an unbelievable 187 of the 191 votes in the UN General Assembly ballot on October 14th 2010. India's previous spell in the Security Council was way back in 1992. Almost immediately afterwards India's appointment, Indian agent to the United Nations Hardeep Singh Puri put it straight that New Delhi would make use of this couple of year valid span to build assurance and accord a feeling of aplomb to the five non changing associates (famously known as the P-5) - the United States of America, Russia, Britain, France and China. Considering that Brazil, a running affiliate of the United Nation Security Council, and South Africa and Germany, which got appointed with India, on October 14th were as well in contention for a permanent membership, he stated: 'Of course everybody of us will attempt to bring into play the two years we need to render our allies a feeling of aplomb and formulate trust and faith so that they are at ease with our role playing in the United Nation Security Council on a continued period of time'. - India and Mozambique sign 3 agreements:
India and Mozambique came together and signed three agreements and a credit band of 500 million United States dollars has been advanced to that nation state for works regarding the infrastructure, agronomics and power during a convention that featured President of Mozambique Armando Guebuza and Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh. Guebuza and Singh, who captivated entrustment level converses, resolved to actualize an affiliation following the lines of superior political meeting, deepening of bread-and-butter collaboration, deepening of defense and aegis collaboration, distinctively to get hold of sea lanes in opposition to piracy and, cooperation in competence building and human resource (or workforce) development. “Both of us together accord to the aforementioned Indian Ocean association and we carve up familiar issues. It is in our alternate absorption to ensure the assurance and aegis of sea lanes of communication in the Indian Ocean,” Dr. Manmohan Singh said in a collective journalist statement. India will back the enactment in preparation and setting up organizations in Mozambique to back capacity building in the coal business and will as well back the ability formation for the defense and patrolling personnel of that nation state, the Prime Minister alleged. Conveying worry over the assurance and aegis of sea lanes in Indian Ocean, Guebuza promised India it will accommodate all practical aid to safeguard them.
- Indians freed from Malay traffickers:
Not less than 24 Indian men who were discovered bound up in a residence in a Malaysian boondocks were successfully freed from the arrest and two Pakistani men supposedly engaged in a human trafficking guild were detained with immediate effect. "Inquiries into the matter exposed that those people, age-old amid 20 and 30, were from Uttar Pradesh. If the reports of the media are to be trusted, the victims landed on to the capital’s intl. airport four months back, afore getting picked by the accused people who were apparently looking for workers in an industrial unit in Johor," he said. He further stated that the two men promised the Indian workers appealing wages as the bait. It is once again proved that Malaysia is a magnet for wide spread drug peddling and human trafficking. Unemployed workforce looking out for jobs is brought for added transfers to other Southeast Asian countries and to Australia. - Indian to lead FIDE:
Indians have already proved their metal in various sports at the international level. Tennis, Cricket, Shooting, Boxing and also Chess. After Vishwanathan Anand, another lot of Indians are about to triumph on the World Chess Podium. D.V. Sundar has been elected has the President of the world body for the sport of chess, FIDE at Russia. Apart from that, the president for the Asian Continent was Mr. Dongre and Commonwealth Chess Federation President was revealed in the name of Mr. B.S. Chahuhan, a press statement by the All India Chess Federation revealed. - Make way for the new breed:
The new world power calendar for 2010 has once again predicted that New Delhi’s dominance in the world will see acceleration by 2025. Among the able coalition, the country has been placed at the fourth position afterwards the US, China and the European Union. ‘The Global Governance 2025’ was together brought out by the National Intelligence Council (NIC) of the US and the European Union’s Institutes for Security Studies (EUISS). In the current year, the US leads the lot of able countries/regions, cumulatively for about 22 percent of the worldwide supremacy. The US is chased by China at 12 percent, European Union at 16 percent and India at eight percent. India comes next to Japan, Russia and Brazil with beneath than 5 percent apiece. Following these global statistics, by 2025 the ability of the US, EU, Japan and Russia will cut down although that of China, India and Brazil will boost but this surge will see the positions unchanged. By 2025, the United States of America will continue to be the most dominating nation, but it will be possessing just a bit above 18 percent of the global authority. The US will be carefully trailed by China with 16 percent, European Union with 14 percent and India with 10 percent looking to overleap.
- Mission Accomplished
The United States have finally started pulling its troops out of Iraq. President Barack Obama has confirmed that the US plans to withdraw significant number of combat troops from Iraq stating that the war was nearing an end. The remaining force of 50,000 soldiers will train Iraqi security forces and provide security for ongoing US Diplomatic efforts. - Australia with a hung parliament
Australians failed to elect a new government in the polls held in August and were left with a hung parliament. The non-result elections between Julia Gillard’s Labor and Abbott’s Liberal party led to the first hung parliament in Australia since World War II. Three key Independents are now in the process of deciding which party to support to form a government. - Pakistani cricketers tainted
The Game of cricket gets murkier with alleged match-fixer Mazhar Majeed’s claim of having rigged games played by Pakistan for three years. The British Police recovered cash from hotel rooms of Pakistani players involved in spot fixing. Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammed Asif were interviewed and their mobiles confiscated after Majeed’s confession. The Anti-Corruption Unit of the ICC will probe all 82 international matches played by Pakistan during this time. The news came as a bolt for the flood-stricken and violence-plagued country where cricket is the national sport. - Pakistan Floods
Annual monsoons rains have led to flooding in Pakistan leading to the death of 1500 people and rendering thousands homeless. In the worst flooding disaster in 80 years the floodwaters have affected about one-fifth of the country washing away millions of hectares of crops, submerging villages and destroying roads, bridges, schools, electricity and communication setting back the infrastructure by many years. Disease is fast spreading in these flood affected areas and there have been warnings that dams in the south may burst. It is estimated that the floods in Pakistan have displaced people thrice the number displaced during partition. - Hike in Visa fee
The Obama Regime has raised H-1B and L1 visa fees to protect its borders from illegal Mexican immigrants. This additional fee would be used to build operating bases and deploy unmanned aerial surveillance to beef up U.S.-Mexico border security. The impact of this hike will be substantial on Indian IT companies that account for approximately 50,000 H1 and L1 visas per year. - Mosque near ground Zero
A New York city panel has cleared the way for the construction of a mosque near ground zero that has been causing a political uproar over religious freedom. The proposed construction of the mosque near ground zero has sparked debate all around the country. President Barack Obama, however, supported the right of having a mosque by asserting that Muslims have the same right to freedom of religion as everyone else in America. - China to launch space station
Having finished the first module of a planned space station and testing its electronics and other systems China is all set to launch it into orbit next year. Changes were being made to the rocket that will carry the 8.5ton Tiangong 1 module into a set orbit. No finishing or manning dates have been given for the space station. The official Xinhua news agency said that The Shenzhou 8 spacecraft and Shenzhou 9 and 10 spacecraft would dock with it in the second half of 2011 and 2012 respectively. - Online route
Oxford English Dictionary that has been in print for over a century may never appear in print for the future generations. The word reference Bible is likely to loose its existence to its online version. With the digital books becoming popular, the format that the 3rd edition, currently being worked upon, will take is anybody’s guess.
- Japan Elections
Democratic Party of Japan suffered a heavy blow in the elections for the upper house of Japan’s Diet (parliament) when it won ten seats fewer than expected thus loosing its majority. DPJ will now have to look for new coalition partners to restore its majority in the upper house and enable it to easily pass laws through the Diet legislature. After breaking the 55 year period of dominance of the Liberal Democratic Party and naming Naoto Kan the new prime minister just a month back the results have baffled the DJP. - July 15th Summit, Islamabad
Failed talks between Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna and the Pakistani counterpart Mr. Shah Mehmood Qureshi's have once again proved that whenever efforts were initiated by India to improve the relations between the two countries. The Pak leaders and officials took deliberate steps to derail the process conveying a clear message to India that the talks can continue only on its terms. - Gulf of Spill
More than three months after the April 20 explosion aboard the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil platform, which killed 11 workers and sank the rig gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the most severe US environmental disaster ever is close to coming to an end. In an operation called “static kill” 2,300 barrels of mud was forced down into the well’s opening overnight pushing the crude back down to its source. A cap over the wellhead has shut in leaking oil since July 15 and the static kill — also known as bull heading — probably would not have worked without the cap in place. - Genocide
Omar-al-Bashir, President of Sudan has been charged with three counts of genocide over the Darfur Conflict, he was convicted by the International Criminal Court at The Hague. It is for the first time that a court has accused anyone of genocide. - Jacob Lew the new Budget Director
President Barack Obama has chosen Mr. Jacob Lew as his new budget director. This is Mr. Lews second stint with the federal budget.
- Julia Gillard become Australia’s first women Prime Minister replacing Kevin Rudd following a sudden revolt against him.
- No more time for sorrow’ written by Robert Beeman. The author predict that terrorist will set off an atom bomb in the USA by 2013.
- Tuvalu become 187th member of IMF (International Monetary Fund). The island is located in the Pacific Ocean.
- Kyrgyzstan voted for a new constitution in a referendum. It is Central Asia’s first parliament democracy.
- G-20 summit held at Toronto, Canada.
- G-15 summit was held at Tehran on 16-17 May.
- Bangladesh handed over Ranjan Daimary of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland to India. The group was responsible for serial bombing in Assam in 2008.
- National League for Democracy (NLD) party of Myannmar’s democracy leader Aung San Sui Kyi was abolished after deadline to re-register as a political party was over.
- EU-IMF provide a $ 1 trillion rescue package to the Greece to resolve its debt crises.
- Pakistan successfully test fired two short range ballistic missiles, Shaheen I( range 650 Km) and Ghazani (range 290 Km) capable of carrying nuclear war heads and striking Indian cities.
- Belgium became the Europe’s first country to ban burqa.
- Pakistan’s National assembly passed a bill that takes away the President’s power to dissolve parliament, dismiss a elected government and appoint the three services Chiefs. Pakistan’s parliament passes 18th amendment which was later signed by Presient cutting President’s powers.
- USA and Russia signed Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty(START) that allowed a maximum of 1550 deployed overheads, about 30% lower than a limit set in 2002. The treaty was signed in the Progue Castle.
- Emergency was imposed in Thailand.
- Nuclear Security Summit held at Washington.It was a 47 nation summit wherein P.M. announced setting up of a global nuclear energy centre for conducting research & development of design systems that are secure, proliferation resistant & sustainable.
- PM visit USA & Brazil, a two nation tour. He attended Nuclear Security Summit in USA & India- Brazil-S.Africa(IBSA) and Brazil-Russia-India-China(BRIC) summit in Brasilia (Brazil).
- 16th SAARC Summit held in Bhutan in 28-29 April. The summit was held in Bhutan for the first time. It is the silver jubilee summit as SAARC has completed 25 years. The summit central theme was ‘Climate Change’. The summit recommended to declare 2010-2020 as the “Decade of Intra-regional Connectivity in SAARC”. The 17th SAARC summit will be held in Maldives in 2011.
- China will launch in 2011 unmammed space mode ‘ Tiangong I’ for its future space laboratory.
- US internet giant Google close its business in China.
- India’s largest telecom service provider Bharti Airtel buy Zain’s Africa operations for an enterprise value of $ 10.7 billion (Rs 49000 crore). Currently Bharti’s non-India operations include Sri Lanka & Bangladesh.
- Russia abolished two of its eleven time Zones.
- NATO forces carried out Marjah operation (dubbed Moshtarak) against Taliban forces in Afghanistan.
- European Union summit was held in Brussels. EU & IMF decided to giving support to Greece in its struggle to bring its ballooning budget deficit under control. EU President is Herman Van Rompuy.
- Iran’s President Mahmood Ahmedinejad declared that Iran had produced first batch of 20 % enriched uranium and now Iran became a nuclear state.
- Iran launched ‘Kavoshger -3 rocket’ capable of carrying a satellite. It carried a mouse, worms & two turtles.
- Gilgit Baltistan region elected its first Chief Minister Mehdi Shah on the basis of Gilgit Baltistan Empowerment & Self Governance Order 2009. The new appointed CM declare the Gilgit Baltistan region as 5th province of Pakistan. The Indian Govt has, however, of the view that the region was part of J & K, and thus objected to the remarks of CM.
- Venezuela devalued it currency ‘Bolivar’.
- A massive earthquake strike Haiti, the Carribbean nation. Capital of Haiti is Port-au-Prince.
- Mahinda Rajapaksa won a second term as Sri Lanka’s President. He belongs to Sri Lanka Freedom Party.
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