(Current Affairs & GK)

International (Political & Economy)

Content:

1. New Franco-Russian rapprochement
2. India set to unveil green pavilion as Shanghai readies for World Expo
3. Ian Paisley steps down as MP
4. ETA chief held in France, says Spain

Brief Description:

New Franco-Russian rapprochement

• French President Nicolas Sarkozy has clearly decided to forget his earlier strident and principled declarations about Russia, Chechnya and human rights and cosy up to Moscow.
• During Russian President Dimitri Medvedev's visit to Paris the two countries took their relationship to a new level of understanding, with Paris opening exclusive negotiations for the sale of four French Mistral warships to Russia and Moscow agreeing to be more cooperative on sanctions against Iran.
• Paris underlined the importance of Mr. Medvedev's three-day visit by receiving him with unusual pomp. The Russian leader arrived in the French capital by helicopter, landing on the vast esplanade in front of the Invalides museum, where Napoleon is buried. Scores of golden-helmeted Republican Guards on horseback led his limousine across the Alexandre III bridge, named for the second-to-last Tzar.
• The message to Washington was clear — Paris is a major player on the international scene and France is determined to carve out a foreign policy niche for itself with or without the active cooperation of Washington. Paris decided to go ahead with the sale of the warships despite opposition openly expressed by U.S. President and Congress as well as by the Baltic States.
• Mistrals, They are in fact amphibious combat tank and helicopter carriers. Such an arms sale would be the biggest ever by a NATO country to Russia. The purchase, each ship can carry up to 16 attack helicopters, would allow Russia to land hundreds of troops quickly on foreign soil. The possibility has alarmed Georgia as well as the three Baltic countries in NATO — Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
• In return a key business deal signed during the visit will give France's GDF Suez a 9-per cent stake in the Nord Stream gas pipeline project run by Russia's Gazprom. Once again, this runs counter to efforts by U.S. and other European countries to lessen Europe's dependence on Russian pipelines and gas. The pipeline also competes with Nabucco, a proposed pipeline backed by the U.S. and the European Union that would bring natural gas to Europe from the Caspian Sea region.
• It will be more difficult for Washington and Paris to get the newly renewed U.N. Security Council to commit to a resolution calling for even tougher sanctions against Iran, a prime goal for the French. Besides China, a permanent member that opposes sanctions against Iran, the new U.N. Security Council includes recalcitrant non-permanent members like Brazil, Turkey, Nigeria or Lebanon where the pro-Iranian Hizbollah is a major force in politics. Although as rotating non-permanent UNSC members, none of these states has a veto, their votes against sanctions would greatly undermine the credibility of any resolution.
• From Moscow's point of view it would be giving nothing away by agreeing to fresh sanctions against Iran. With western impatience growing over Tehran's nuclear ambitions, Mr. Medvedev said his country is ready to consider targeted new sanctions against the Islamic Republic. "Russia is ready, with other partners, to consider sanctions," he said.

India set to unveil green pavilion as Shanghai readies for World Expo

• Even on Chinese New Year's day, when all of the country comes to a standstill, the hammering does not stop along the banks of the Huangpu river.
• At a sprawling 1,200-acre site, construction workers toil round the clock, carrying bricks, laying steel pipes and furiously drilling, all to ensure that Shanghai is ready for its big show.
• Come May, this site will host what is being billed as the biggest fair in history, when more than 70 million people from at least 190 countries descend on Shanghai for the World Expo.
• Just as the 2008 Olympics in Beijing was seen as announcing China's arrival on the world stage, the Expo is being perceived here as making an equally significant statement — declaring the coming of age of the country's commercial capital.
• Since Shanghai won the bid to host the World Expo 10 years ago, the city has spent more than $45 billion on a spectacular infrastructure makeover, part of its quest to become a global financial capital by 2020 — this exceeds even Beijing's spending in the lead-up to the Olympics.

Ian Paisley steps down as MP

• Ian Paisley bowed out of the House of Commons announcing he would not stand again in the forthcoming general election, while defending his decision to go into a power-sharing government with Sinn Fein.
• The 83-year-old former Northern Ireland First Minister said he had done the deal with Sinn Fein because the public wanted a compromise. He said he had no regrets about entering the power-sharing arrangement with former IRA members.
• The securing of the deal at St. Andrews in 2006 led to Mr. Paisley serving as First Minister and Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness as Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland.
• They were so often pictured together joking, they were nicknamed the "Chuckle Brothers", which stuck until Mr. Paisley stepped down in 2008.
• The announcement draws to a close the career of a man who dominated Ulster politics throughout the Troubles, as a fundamentalist, firebrand and, latterly, peacemaker. Mr. Paisley was a key player in the Ulster workers' strike of 1974, which brought down the first power-sharing government between unionists and nationalists, and condemned Northern Ireland to decades of political stasis. The move was critical to the formation of the province's present assembly government. However, his influence has waned in recent years amid declining health.

ETA chief held in France, says Spain

• The leader of the armed Basque group ETA was arrested in France , said officials, in another setback for the separatists, who have seen five of their commanders taken into custody in the last two years.
• ETA chief Ibon Gogeascoechea and two other suspected separatists were arrested in a joint French-Spanish police operation in the village of Cahan, France, following a long surveillance operation on a cottage that had been rented using false identity papers, said Spanish Interior Minister Alferdo Perez Rubalcaba.
• Gogeascoechea (54) is wanted for allegedly helping to place 12 explosive devices around the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, northern Spain, in 1997 on the eve of the gallery's inauguration by the king of Spain.

Obama pushes for energy-saving homes

• U.S. President Barack Obama announced a new multi-pronged policy to reduce the United States' dependence on oil consumption and create new jobs after the worst recession in a generation.
• Mr. Obama described the policy, called HOMESTAR, as aiming to create jobs by encouraging American families to invest in energy-saving home improvements.
• Building supplies and systems that would save energy over time would be identified. Any homeowner putting in new windows, replacing a heating unit or redoing a roof would be eligible to claim from the store or the contractor 50 per cent of the cost of each upgrade up to $1,500, said Mr. Obama.
• The scheme mirrors the Cash for Clunkers initiative launched last year — a $3-billion federal programme that created incentives for people to purchase more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Ukraine- Cabinet voted out

• Ukraine's newly-elected President Viktor Yanukovych has won his first victory in Parliament forcing out his rival, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
• The Ukrainian Parliament on Wednesday passed a no-confidence motion sending the Prime Minister and her Cabinet packing. Mr. Yanukovych's Party of the Regions, which controls only 172 seats in the 450-seat Parliament, mustered the backing of 243 deputies for the no-confidence vote as the majority "orange" coalition comprising supporters of Ms. Tymoshenko and the former President, Viktor Yushchenko, collapsed.
• Mr. Yanukovych beat Ms. Tymoshenko in a presidential election runoff last month with a 3.5 per cent margin.
• To appoint a Prime Minister of his choice, Mr. Yanukovych has to build up a new majority coalition. If he fails, the country will face snap parliamentary elections.

Ex-tycoon slams Russian justice

• The former oil tycoon, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is in prison for fraud and tax evasion.
• The former CEO of the now-defunct Yukos oil company.

Hillary in Latin America to boost U.S. image in the region

• Hillary Clinton is midway through a week-long tour of Latin America, as she seeks to rescue the United States' flagging image in the region. The Secretary of State will wrestle with a host of thorny issues during her trip, most of which offer but a slim chance of success.
• Starting out in Uruguay, where Ms. Clinton attended the inauguration of President José Mujica, she may well have bumped into co-attendee and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, one of the most vocal critics of U.S. foreign policy in all of the Southern Cone.

UAE blocks infected sheep, goat shipment

• The United Arab Emirates has blocked an Indian shipment of 950 goats and sheep after a number of animals were found to be infected with foot and mouth disease.
• The owners of the shipment attempted to enter the country at night through Ras Al Khaimah, but were prevented by the quarantine and customs authorities, the UAE's official news agency WAM reported.

Trial on in Da Vinci theft case

• A solicitor has been accused along with four other men of threatening to destroy a stolen Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece unless they were paid £4.25 million, in a conspiracy allegedly hatched in the offices of one of Glasgow's leading law firms.
• Marshall Ronald (53), a lawyer from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, has gone on trial for allegedly helping to organise a plot to extort the money from the Duke of Buccleuch for the safe return of Leonardo's Madonna of the Yarnwinder.
• The painting was recovered in October 2007 after police raided the offices of the law firm, HBJ Gateley Wareing, in Glasgow. The duke, a keen fine art collector, had died aged 83 a month before it was recovered.

Chile death toll over 700

• Police fired tear gas and imposed an overnight curfew to control looters who sacked virtually every market in this hard-hit city as Chile's earthquake toll surpassed 700.
• President Michelle Bachelet promised imminent deliveries of food, water and shelter for thousands living on the streets.

Waves reach Japan, Russia

• The tsunami from Chile's devastating earthquake hit Japan's main islands and the shores of Russia but the smaller-than-expected waves prompted the lifting of a Pacific-wide alert. Hawaii and other Pacific islands were also spared.
• Hundreds of thousands of people fled shorelines for higher ground after the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii warned 53 nations and territories that a tsunami had been generated by magnitude-8.8 quake.
• In Japan, the biggest wave hit the northern island of Hokkaido.
• The tsunami raised fears Pacific nations could suffer from disastrous waves like those that killed 230,000 people around the Indian Ocean in December 2004, which happened with little-to-no warning and much confusion about the impending waves.

Storm claims 60 lives in Europe

• The weather bureau and radio stations across France had posted warnings of gale force winds and a storm to come.
• But what hit France's western Atlantic coastline in the early hours was no ordinary storm and no one foresaw the mayhem it would bring in its wake.
• Winds at 160 km per hour combined with unusually high tides pounded small, unprotected fishing villages and seaside tourist havens. Entire rural communities were inundated and nearly 50 lives were lost, most of the dead caught unawares by the swiftly mounting wall of water.
• The storm, called Xynthia, flooded ports, destroyed homes and left one million households without electricity.
• It also battered Belgium, Portugal, Spain and parts of Germany. The death toll across Europe was 60 although a dozen persons are still missing and feared dead.

Pro-government demonstrations in Turkey

• Tens of thousands of Turks took to the streets in support of an ongoing investigation related to a 2003 coup plot and to create awareness against military takeovers of democratically-elected governments in their country.
• The countrywide demonstrations were organised on February 28 to mark the thirteenth anniversary of the "post-modern" coup, when the Turkish military forced the resignation of the religiously-inclined government of Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan.

U.S. denies nuclear deal, power plant to Pakistan

• The U.S. has told Pakistan that it will not get any atomic power plant or civilian nuclear deal, similar to the one it signed with India.
• "The United States is working closely with Pakistan to help meet its growing needs. Nuclear power is not currently part of our discussions," a senior official told PTI.

Suu Kyi's appeal dismissed

• Aung San Suu Kyi, celebrated democracy campaigner and Nobel Peace laureate, will continue to remain under house arrest in Yangon, following the Myanmar High Court's dismissal of her appeal for freedom.
• Also known as Supreme Court, this apex judicial forum pronounced only the operative portion of the judgment, without reading out the reasons.

Italy oil spill termed eco-terror

• As sludge from an oil spill began polluting the Po, Italy's longest river, raising fears of contamination of specialised farm products such as Parma cheese, ham or the famous arborio rice used in making risotto, central authorities in Rome struggled to find answers who could have deliberately set off the oil leak from an abandoned refinery near the town of Monza.

Gul seeks to ease civil-military tensions

• Amid growing tensions following Monday's arrest of more than 40 military officers in connection with an alleged 2003 coup plot, Turkish President Abdullah Gul has held a summit with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Armed Forces Chief General Ilker Basbug.
• The meeting was prompted to ease civil-military tensions after the arrest of more than 40 officers for their suspected role in the alleged "sledgehammer" plot.

Dylan, Eastwood get White House awards

• U.S. President Barack Obama honoured actor and director Clint Eastwood and singer Bob Dylan with arts awards.
• The White House called Mr. Dylan "an icon of youthful rebellion and poetic sensitivity" and said Mr. Eastwood's films and performances are "essays in individuality, hard truths and the essence of what it means to be American."

Rigi's arrest should worry U.K., U.S.: Iran

• The dramatic arrest of Abdolmalek Rigi, leader of a high-profile anti-Iran militant group based in Pakistan, should worry the intelligence agencies of the United States, Britain and a number of "regional states," a senior Iranian official has said."The information that he [Rigi] has is more important than his trial and punishment.
• Iranian officials say Rigi, head of the militant group Jundallah, worked closely with the intelligence services of the U.S, Britain and Israel.
• Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency (FNA).

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with warm regards

Harish Sati
Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)
Maidan Garhi, New Delhi-110068

(M) + 91 - 9990646343 | (E-mail) Harish.sati@gmail.com

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