October 2012 Month Current Affairs - International

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Oct ob er 2012

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O ct obe r 2 0 1 2 M ont h s Cur r e n t A f fa i rs In t e r na t iona l

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ak SC gives govt m ore tim e to am end Swiss dr aft : Pakistan Supreme

Court on 5th October objected to contents

of a fresh draft of a letter to be sent to Swiss

authorities over graft charges against President

Asif Ali Zardari and gave government time until

October 10 to finalise it in accordance with its

order that sought revival of the cases.

ussia rejects Pak plea for Kashmir mediation : Russia on 4 October

ruled out playing a role in resolving the Kashmir problem, saying India and

Pakistan were capable of settling their outstanding issues themselves.

ndia calls for total elim ination of Chemical W eapons, W M Ds :

India on 2 October stressed the importance of total elimination of chemical

weapons and Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) and called for universal

adherence to international legal norms

and Chemical Weapons Convention

(CWC). Speaking at a special meeting of

the Organisation for Prohibition of

Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in New

York to mark 15 years of the CWC, External

Affairs Minister S M Krishna said India viewed the Convention as a unique,

multilaterally negotiated and non-discriminatory disarmament instrument, which

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served as a model for elimination of an entire category of weapons of mass

destruction. The Minister told the meeting that the international legal norms against

the use of chemical weapons anywhere must not be breached.

onsensus reached on settin g up BRI CS Bank : Think tanks of five

member--Brazil, Russia, India,

China and South Africa- BRICS bloc,

representing the emerging economies,

reached consensus on creating a BRICS

development bank to complement existing

global financial institutions like World

Bank.

lobal biodiversity meet begins : The mega 19-day, global biodiversity

event -- the 11th Conference of Parties (COP) to Convention on Biological

Diversity (CBD) -- kick- started on 1 October with the inauguration

of a meeting on the implementation of Cartagena

Protocol on Bio-safety by Union

Environment Minister Jayanthi

Natarajan. While 9,000 delegates from 193

countries participated in the deliberations,the five-day sixth meeting relating to Conference of

the Parties serving as the meeting of the

Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Bio-

safety (COP MOP), saw the presence of

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around 2,000 delegates from 150 countries. At COP MOP, a host of issues will be

discussed and decisions adopted for ensuring the safe transfer, handling and use of

Living Modified Organisms(LMOs) resulting from modern biotechnology. Besides

providing further guidance on operation of Bio-safety Clearing House (BCH), it will

also adopt means of mobilising additional financial resources for implementation of

the Protocol, a framework and action plan for capacity building and encourage

parties to expedite domestic ratification to the Supplementary Protocol on liability

and redress, among others. At COP-11 beginning October 8, delegates will review the

progress of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and address ways tostrengthen its implementation.

hagat Singh road in Pakistan : Pakistani authorities have renamed a road

crossing in Lahore after freedom fighter Bhagat Singh to acknowledge his

revolutionary spirit and his role in the movement

against the erstwhile British rulers of the

subcontinent. The Shadman Chowk of Lahore will

now be known as Bhagat Singh Chowk. Bhagat

Singh was hanged in March 1931 in the Lahore

Jail, which stood at the spot where the

roundabout was built later. While authorities have

changed the Hindu names of several places in the

old quarters of Lahore over the years, the decisionto rename a busy roundabout after Bhagat Singh has been appreciated by some local

residents as a bold move. (Update : Later the things got out of control over this

issue Bt its better to know about this)

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apan PM reshuffles cabinet, names new fin ance minister : Japanese

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda

reshuffled his cabinet on 1 October, naming

Koriki Jojima, a senior member of the ruling

Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), as new

finance minister. Foreign Minister Koichiro

Gemba was among heavyweight names

keeping their posts in the reshuffle as Noda

looks to move past a damaging row with China and boost his flagging popularity. Thereshuffle came, as the prime minister's poll numbers remain dreary after a costly

battle over legislation to double sales tax. Noda elevated Makiko Tanaka to the

cabinet as new education minister, a woman with pro-Beijing credentials reflecting

her father's status as the prime minister who normalised ties with China in 1972.

he Indian Union Cabinet on 3 October, approved the ratification of

the N agoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing signed by India .

The Nagoya Protocol has been signed by 92 countries. Five countries have also

ratified the Protocol.

India signed the

Nagoya Protocol on

May 11, 2011. The

country is hosting

the eleventh CoP

to the CBD in

H yderabad this

month. India is one

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of the identified mega diverse countries rich in biodiversity. With only 2.4 per cent of

the earth's land area, it accounts for 7-8 per cent of the recorded species of the world.

It is also rich in associated traditional knowledge, which is both coded as in ancient

texts of Indian systems of medicines such as Ayurveda, Unani and Sidha, and also

non-coded, as it exists in oral undocumented traditions. The genetic resources and

associated traditional knowledge can be used to develop a wide range of products

and services for human benefit, such as medicines, agricultural practices, and

cosmetics. India is a Party to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) which is

one of the agreements adopted during the Rio Earth Summit held in 1992. One of thethree objectives of the CBD relates to Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS), which refers

to the way in which genetic resources may be accessed, and benefits resulting from

their use shared by users with countries that provide them. The CBD prescribes that

access to genetic resources is subject to national legislation. Accordingly, India after

extensive consultative process had enacted the Biological Diversity Act in 2002 for

giving effect to the provisions of the CBD, including those relating to CBD. However,

in the near absence of user country measures, once the resource leaves the country

providing the resources, there is no way to ensure compliance of ABS provisions in

the country where it is used. Towards this, a protocol on access and benefit

sharing has been negotiated under the aegis of CBD, and adopted by the

Tenth Conference of Parti es (CoP-10 ) held in Nagoya, Japan in October

2010 .India has participated actively and contributed meaningfully in the ABS

negotiations which formally started about six years back. The objective of the Nagoya

Protocol on ABS is fair and equitable sharing of benefits, arising from the use of

genetic resources, including by appropriate access to genetic resources and by

appropriate transfer of relevant technologies.


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ix years after the for mal end of the civil war , Nepals peace process

has concluded with the integration of a little over 1,450 former

M aoist fighters into the Nepal Arm y (NA) . The cantonments where the former

combatants of the Maoist Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) resided have closed down,

Maoist weapons are

under state control, and

the PLA has ceased to

exist ending the state of

one country, twoArmies. Over the past

five years, there has

been a gradual

reduction in the

number of combatants in the cantonments. About 32,000 individuals had initially

registered in the camps in early 2007. But the United Nations Mission in Nepal

(UNMIN) verified only 19,602 of those as combatants and disqualified over 4,000

persons for being under-age or joining the Maoist Army after the ceasefire began.

The disqualified were discharged from the cantonments in early 2010. In

November 2011, a seven-point agreement was signed between the parties, which

stipulated that a maximum of 6,500 former combatants could be integrated in a

specially created general directorate under the NA. In April 2012, the Nepal Army

had also taken charge of the cantonments as well as containers that included over

3,000 Maoist weapons.

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nited Nations Population Fund (U NFPA) and H elp Age

I nter national report said I ndia's population is likely to increase by

60 per cent between 20 0 0 and 20 50 but the num ber of elders, who have

attained 60 years of age will go up by 360 per centand the government

should start

framing policies.

The report

says,"India has

around 100 millionelderly at present

and the number is

expected to increase to

323 million,

constituting 20 per cent of the

total population, by 2050" .The UNFPA in its study in India, which was conducted in

seven states, found that around one-fifth of the elderly live alone or with spouses

only in both rural and urban areas. According to the report, by 2050, India

and China wi ll have about 80 per cent of the wor ld's elderly living there,

and India is likely to pip China in the number of centenarians.

eorgian Pr esident M ikheil Saakashvili conceded defeat on 1

October, in parliamentary

polls that handed a victoryto an

opposition coalition led by

billionaire tycoon Bidzina

Ivanishvili . Although Saakashvili

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remains president, the defeat of his United National Movement to Ivanishvili's

Georgian Dream coalition in the elections spells the end of his nine years of largely

unchallenged dominance over Georgia.

t least 46 students were killed and several others injured when

unidentified gunmen wear ing mi litary uni form attacked a hostel in

northern Nigeria on 3 october. The massacre has taken place on Nigeria's 52nd

Independence celebration. police sources said gunmen invaded the hostel of Mubi

Polytechnic in northern state of Adamawa, killing 46 students. A lecturer said that

the gunmen wore military attire and told the students to identify themselves by

name.

adical preacher Abu H amza al-M asri and four other terr or suspects

were extradited on 5 October from the UK after Britain's high court ruled

they had no more grounds for appeal in

their years long battles to avoid

facing charges in the United

States.Scotland Yard said the

suspects had been brought to an

air force base in eastern England

from Long Lartin Prison, where

two planes provided by US

authorities were waiting to fly them to America.


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lobal H unger Repor t 20 12 : I ndia r anked at 65th position:

The report on Global Hunger Index for seventh year was released on 11

October 2012 by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI),

Welthungerhilfe, and Concern Worldwide. The basic theme of the report for the 2012

Global Hunger Index -- The Challenge of Hunger: Ensuring Sustainable Food

Security under Land, Water, and Energy Stresses. IFPRI that calculated the global

hunger Index analysed the measures based upon multidimensional angles. The

published report have shown a proportional growth in hunger reduction of people

worldwide but recorded the progress speed was tragically slow and alarming. Thereport in its findings

recorded twenty

countries across the

world mainly from

South Asia and Sub-

Saharan Africa to be

highly alarming and

have highest level of

hunger, and showcased

the sufferings of

millions of poor. As per the report, the nations that had showcased an absolute

progress between 1990 Global Hunger Index to 2012 Global Hunger Index were

Bangladesh, Angola, Malawi, Nicaragua, Ethiopia, Niger, and Vietnam. Whereas

there are 15 countries that have managed to reduce it by 50 percent or more. As per

the report, India instead of its fast paced economic growth in past two decades has

lagged behind in improving its record in Global Hunger Index chart. In the list of 79

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countries in the global Hunger Index, India was ranked 65th behind China that was

placed at 2nd place position, Pakistan at 57th and Sri Lanka at 37th position. The

report also points out the three countries Bangladesh, India and Timor-Leste

constitutes to the highest occurrence of underweight children under the age group of

five years, which records to more than 40 percent in each country. India was ranked

second with 43.5 percent of the children less than five underweight in the list of the

129 countries compared for underweight child, after Timor-Leste. Countries like

Ethiopia, Niger, Nepal and Bangladesh followed the chart.

ndia had signed the contract for buying the second-hand warship, now

rechristened INS Vikramaditya, in 2004 and it was supposed to be delivered in

2009. Due to recurring escalation in price, it

was rescheduled to be delivered in

December this year but the present

problem has pushed it back by almost one

more year. "We have handed over the

revised overhaul and transfer schedule to

the Indian side and we believe that transfer

of the ship will take place in the 4th

quarter of the 2013," Serdyukov told

reporters at the joint press conference after the meeting of the India-Russia Inter-

Governmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation (IR-IGMTC).

ir craft carr ier Adm ir al Gorshkov will be handed over towards the end

of next year, Russia said on10 October as India conveyed its "serious concern"

over the prolonged delay and asked it to adopt a "wartime approach" for ensuring its

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early delivery. The issue came up at a meeting here between Defence Minister AK

Antony and his Russian counterpart Anatoly Serdyukov during which Moscow said

the 45,000-tonne aircraft carrier had suffered a "big malfunction" in its engine and

could be handed over only in "fourth quarter of 2013".

ealth of China's super rich declines : As the Chinese economy slowed

down due to steady fall in exports, the wealth of some of the country's

richest people registered a decline in the past year.

According to the Hurun Rich List, China has

251 people worth $1 billion or more,

20 fewer than last year. However,

the number of Chinese

billionaire has increased many folds

compared with 2006, when there were only

fifteen. It is the first time in seven years that the

number of billionaires in China has

fallen. The Chinese economy has

slowed in recent months with growth

falling to a three-year low of 7.6 per cent, compared with the previous year. Of the

1,000 richest people tracked by Hurun, nearly half saw their wealth shrink in the

past year, BBC reported. Topping the list this year is Zong Qinghou, from the

beverage company Wahaha, who is worth $12.6 bn.

lection Commission of India and the United Nations Development

Programme UNDP on 11 October signed an M OU for cooperation in

election management, particularly for supporting elections and

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democratic pr ocess in other countr ies. The MOU was signed by Shri Akshay

Rout, Director General from the Commission and Ms. Lise Grande, UNDP Resident

Representative and UN Resident Coordinator from UNDPs side in the presence of

Chief Election Commissioner of India, Shri V S Sampath, Election Commissioners,

Shri H S Brahma and Dr Nasim Zaidi and UNDP Under Secretary General and

UNDP Associate Administrator, Ms. Rebeca Grynspan. Chief Election Commissioner

Shri Sampath observed that transparency and strict enforcement have been the

strength of ECI, which have lent total credibility to Indian elections. He underlined

the Commissions commitment to work along South-South cooperation and extendsupport to electoral process wherever there is a need.ECI and UNDP have been

working jointly in recent months to harness ECIs competence in election

management to the benefit of several countries. The collaboration is specially built

around Commissions one-year-old India International Institute of

Democracy and Election M anagement, I I I DEM , which offers courses for

international election practitioners. Election Commission has signed

M OUs with four teen countr ies for sharing electoral pr actices and

extendin g electoral assistance.

Libyan pr emier M ustafa Abu Shagur was dismissed on 8 October, after the

General National Congress rejected his proposed "crisis" cabinet of just 10 ministers,

days after his first line-up was also turned down. The embattled Abu Shagur, who

had been given 72 hours to come upwith a new cabinet, was relieved of

his duties and the GNC will have to

elect a new prime minister within

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he had even put forward his second cabinet list in just four days, a motion of no

confidence in Abu Shagur was signed by 126 assembly members. That was rejected

by the GNC president. But when his pared-down list was put to the vote, 125

members of the 186 members present in the 200-seat GNC did not express

"confidence" in his choices, against 44 members for and 17 abstentions. Under GNC

rules, the assembly will now elect a new premier.

rabic on 10 October 2012 made its official debut among one of the

Languages at Pope Benedicts weekly general audiences. This is an

exercise and attempt of Vatican to expand its reach to Christians and Muslims in

Middle East. Speaking Arabic during the audiences that is broadcasted across the

world on radio and television may bring down the fear of

Christians in Middle East comforting them to

stay back on the land that

is a home for many of the holy

places for Christians. It is

likely that this act of Popes

address to the world in Arabic

language would help in improving the strained

relations with the Muslim world. The relations between the Christians and the

Muslim world turned sour after Popes speech at Regensburg in 2006, which made

the Muslim world feel that his message was an attack on Islam. On occasion of the50th anniversary of the second Vatican Council, Pope for the first time addressed

people in Arabic.


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ncumbent Venezuelan President

H ugo Chavez has won the

presidential electionwith 54.42 percent

of the vote. With 90 percent of the votes

counted, Chavez, who will serve a third

six-year term starting from January

2013, defeated opposition challenger

Henrique Capriles, who represents the Democratic Unity

Roundtable (MUD) coalition and gained 44.97 percent of votes.

uwaits ruler Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah on 6 October,

dissolved par liam ent, a step toward ending months of political mess and

calling the second elections this year that

could again swing in favour of opposition

groups led by Islamist factions. The move by

Kuwaits Western-allied emir, announced on

state-run media, followed a failed attempt

last month by the government to overturn a

voting district law that appeared to favour

the opposition. New elections must now be held within 60 days.

he Pakistani army has said that the Pakistani girl M alala Yousafzai

(14) who shot in the head by Taliban gunmen on 9 October , is being

sent to the UK for medical treatment. The girl has until now been at a military

hospital in Rawalpindi, with doctors saying her progress over the next few days

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would be "critical". The girl wrote a diary

about suffering under the Taliban and

was accused by them of "promoting

secularism. The Pakistani army said

Ms Yousafzai's trip was being sponsored

by the United Arab Emirates. The

teenager - who has been campaigning for

education for girls was attacked on 9 October as she was returning home

from school in Mingora in north-western Swat. The Taliban has warned they willtarget Malala Yousafzai again.

cour t in the M aldives on, ordered the arr est of the countr ys fir st

democratically elected Pr esident, M ohamed Nasheed, who has

challenged the legality of a criminal trial against him. The court issued the arrest

warrant after Mr. Nasheed failed for a second time to show up before a special three-

judge bench set up to try him for abuse of power when he was in office. Earlier in the

day, Mr. Nasheed said he was challenging the legality of the judicial process against

him

he Philippine government and the countrys

biggest M uslim rebel group

announced on that they had

agreed on a plan to end a

decades-long separatist

insurgency that has killed more

than 1,50,000 people. The

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agreement would see the establishment of a new semi-autonomous Muslim area in

the resource-rich southernPhilippine region of Mindanao, which the 12,000-

strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) regards as its ancestral

homeland. In this regard, Philippines President Benigno Aquino told this framework

agreement would pave the way for a final and enduring peace in Mindanao. The two

sides said they were aiming for a final peace deal to be achieved before the

Presidents term ends in the middle of 2016. Mr. Aquino said a final agreement

would have to be approved by a plebiscite. Such approval is not certain in the mainly

Catholic country. A planned peace deal during the term of previous President GloriaArroyo crumbled in 2008 at the final moment amid intense domestic opposition.

There are roughly four million Muslims in Mindanao. They see it as their ancestral

homeland dating back to Islamic sultanates established before Spanish Christians

arrived in the 1500s.Muslim rebel groups have been fighting for independence or

autonomy in Mindanao since the early 1970s.The rebellion has claimed more than

150,000 lives, most in the 1970s when all-out war raged, and left large parts of

Mindanao in deep poverty. The MILF is the biggest and most important remaining

rebel group, after the Moro National Liberation Front signed a peace pact with the

government in 1996.Mindanao is home to vast untapped reserves of gold, copper and

other minerals, as well as being one of the countrys most important farming

regions.

ussian President Vladimir Putin

has categorically opposed wearing

'hijabs' (head scarves) in country's

schools and welcomed the idea of returning to

school uniforms. "We need to see how our


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neighbours in European countries are tackling this problem of wearing hijabs. Then,

everything will become clear," Mr Putin said on 18 October at a meeting with

representatives of the Russian People's Front.

sman Ali Khan the last Nizam of H yderabad was named in list of

the 25 richest people across the world who ever

lived by US website Celebrity Networth. Osman Ali

Khan, the Nizam, who ruled Hyderabad between

1886-1967, was ranked sixth in world and the richest

in India with $236 billion. He died in 1967 at age of

80. The list declared by US website Celebrity

Networth was compiled after adjusting the fortunes

of people across history for inflation. For example,

$100 million in 1913 is equivalent to $2299.63

billion in 2012. As per the report, The 25 richest who ever

lived had a combined fortune of $4.317 trillion, of which 14 are American.

srael's parliament voted overnight to dissolve itself and hold early

elections on January 22, officials said on Tuesday. The dissolution of the Knesset

was approved by 100 votes to none in a third reading after a lengthy session in the

120-seat chamber.

ndia has been r anked at a poor 115 by a global survey which looked into thelevel ofeconomical empowerment of women in 128 countries. The list

was topped by Australia and followed by three Scandinavian countries Norway,

Sweden and Finland. At the bottom of the list were Yemen, Pakistan, Sudan and

Chad. The research done by an international consulting and management firm Booz

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& Company ranked India at 115 and noted that with the second-largest population in

the world, India generates 14 per cent of the global talent pool, among which are the

5.5 million women entering India's workforce each year, all overwhelmingly driven

to succeed. It added that although the knowledge economy has created enormous

opportunities in India, too many women are still prevented from reaching their full

potential by a combination of cultural restrictions, gender discrimination, and lack of

resources. It underlined that if India is to sustain its rate of growth, it will have to

break down these sizable barriers to women's empowerment.

The report is based on the country's performance in terms of primary, secondary andtertiary education, equal pay for equal work, non-discrimination policies, access to

childcare, property ownership rights and ability to access credit. It also looks at

whether wages are equal, the number of women in work compared with men, and

whether there is equality in the number of female managers, senior business leaders

and politicians.

kosazana Dlamini-Zumawaved an African Union flag, tapped a wooden

gavel and becamethe fi rst woman to take office as the Chairperson of

the African Union Commission (AUC) at the A.U. headquarters in Addis Ababa

on 15 October. Upon taking office, Dr. Dlamini-Zuma shall be confronted by

simmering conflicts in the Democratic

Republic of Congo and Guinea Bissau;

chronic instability in Somalia; and aninsurgency in northern Mali where fighters

affiliated with al-Qaeda have taken control

of large swathes of land. She supported

military intervention in Mali if it did not worsen an already fraught situation. She

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also pledged support for continued negotiations between Sudan and South Sudan as

they seek to demarcate international boundaries under the aegis of the A.U. High

Level Implementation Panel.

angladesh has been named the fifth in the list of 173 countries that

are most prone to natural disasters, according to a report. The "World

Risk Report 2012" examines which countries are more at risk from natural disasters

than others, what contributes to this

risk and what can be done about

it, the Daily Star said.

Island nations Vanuatu,

over 3,600 km from

Australia in the Pacific

Ocean, and Tonga, at a distance of

5,200 km from Australia, have the highest disaster risk.

Malta and Qatar face the lowest risk worldwide, said the report. It said

environmental degradation is a significant factor that reduces the capacity of

societies to deal with disaster risk in many countries around the world. The report

was published in Brussels by the German Alliance for Development Works, UN

University Institute for Environment and Human Security, and The Nature

Conservancy. "This report illustrates the powerful role that nature can play in

reducing risks to people and property from coastal hazards like storms, erosion andfloods," Michael Beck, lead marine scientist at The Nature Conservancy, was quoted

as saying. The top 15 most "at-risk" countries are all tropical and coastal. There,

coastal habitats like reefs and mangroves are incredibly important for people's lives

and livelihoods.

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ibya's 200-member General National Congress on 14 October 2012 elected Ali

Zidan as the new Prime

Minister. Ali Zidan, an independent,

won 93 votes.He beat a candidate

favoured by the Justice and

Construction party which is linked to

the Muslim Brotherhood. Announcing

his victory, President of the National

Assembly asked Mr Zidan to propose a

cabinet within two weeks. Ali Zidan is a human rights lawyer. The previous Prime

Minister, Mustafa Abu Shagur, was dismissed a week ago after failing to form a

government.

ritish Government and Scotland signed on 15 October, a historic deal

that will allow Scotland to hold a referendum in 20 14 on whether it

wants to remain part of the United Kingdom or secede from the 300-

year-old political union . For this referendum, voting age will be 16 years.

Agreement was signed by Prime Minister David Cameron and Scotlands First

Minister and the leader of the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) Alex Salmond in

Edinburgh. If Scotland does break away, it will end more than 300 years of political

union with England.

n an international testimony to the fact that security situation in Jammu and

Kashmir has remarkably improved, Japan on 20 October, has relaxed its

travel restrictions to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Japan is the second

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country among the G8 nations to take this step. Germany had relaxed travel

restrictions to the state for its nationals in July 2011. Japans move to ease

restrictions is valid for Srinagar and adjoining areas like Gulmarg. The decision was

arrived at after the Japanese embassy officials met the J&K government, and made

site visits. With two of the G-8 countries easing the travel restrictions to Kashmir,

many other embassies of developed countries are expected to follow suit. Sources

said Australians, Canadians, British and some more countries are also making

enquiries about the situation in Kashmir. The foreign tourist arrivals in J&K have

steadily increased from 52,750 tourists to about 72,000 in 2011.

akistan's Supr eme Cour t on 19 October, order ed the government to

take legal action against former army chief Gen Mirza Aslam Beg

and former ISI chief Asad Durrani for distributing millions of rupees

among politicians to rig the 1990 general election. A three-judge bench

headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry also said that any "political cell" operating

in the presidency, ISI, Military Intelligence or Intelligence Bureau should be shut

down immediately as such an institution is unconstitutional.

olombian leftist rebels and the Colombian government have

formally launched talks to end nearly 50 years of armed

conflict, with each side laying out its vision of how the talks will develop and the

type of peace that the country can hope for if a deal is reached. Negotiating teams

from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) and the

Colombian government issued a joint statement in the Norwegian town

of Hurdal, marking the start of the talks that will continue next month in Cuba.

Ivan Marquez is the rebels' chief negotiator. The official launch of the talks was the

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first time the two sides have met publicly since peace negotiations broke down in

2002, unleashing an intense military campaign by the government of lvaro Uribe

against the Farc, which funds itself through kidnapping, extortion, drugs and illegal

gold mining. The Farc negotiators reiterated their insistence that the rebel leader

Simon Trinidad, who is serving a 60-year sentence in a US prison after being

convicted of kidnapping three Americans, be allowed to participate as a negotiator.

Mrquez appealed to the US government to make "a great contribution" to Colombia

by allowing Trinidad to be involved.

he UN General Assembly on 18 October 2012 elected five new non-

permanent members to the Security Council. South Korea,

Luxembourg, Argentina, Australia

and Rwanda are the new members.

The newly elected member countries

are going to serve a two-year term in

the UNSC that will begin on 1

January 2013. The five new members

are going to replace Colombia,

Germany, India, Portugal and South

Africa, whose term ends on 31 December 2012.Under the UN Charter, the 15-

member Security Council has the primary responsibility for the maintenance of

international peace and security. To be elected to the UN Security Council, a countrymust win support from two thirds of the General Assembly members, or 129 votes.

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rchaeologists believe they have discovered the largest ancient

H indu temple ever found in the In donesian island of

Bali. Construction workers

were digging a new drainage

basin near a Hindu learning

center on Jalan Trengguli,

in East Denpasar, when

their tools struck a large

stone structure one metreunderground. The crew then excavated a large

stone plate, the first of many discovered at the site. The Denpasar Archeology Agency

took over the excavation and uncovered an 11-metre-long structure. The island is

home to most of the Hindus in Indonesia.

eorgia's Parliament on 25 October approved a billionaire, Bidzina

Ivanishvili as the country's new Prime Minister and endorsed his

government. When Saakashvili's second and final term ends in October 2013, a

constitutional reform will transfer many of the President's powers to the Prime

Minister. Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia, has stressed the need to

restore relations with Moscow that have been severed since the two countries fought

a brief war in August 2008. He said after his approval that Georgia will rely on

international assistance to try to start a dialogue with Russia "with a goal ofdeveloping a strategy for overcoming a crisis in bilateral ties. At the same time he

vowed to continue Saakashvili's course to integrate more closely with the West.

"Georgia will aspire to join the European Union, maintain its Euro-Atlantic

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orientation and integrate with NATO," he told reporters. Ivanishvili emphasised that

"the United States remains Georgia's main ally.

ore than 24,00 0 Pakistanis on 22 October formed the world's largest

"human national flag" in the eastern city of Lahore, smashing a

five-year-old record set in Hong Kong, officials said. A total of 24,200 people stood

up in the national hockey

stadium to make the green

and white Pakistani

standard, smashing the 2007

record set by 21,726 people

in Hong Kong. "It's an amazing, amazing

display of unity of 24,200 people here in LahoreGuinness World Records

adjudicator Gareth Deaves said on Monday to a cheering crowd. "Every single one of

you holds this record," he said, handing over the certificate to Punjab provincial

government representative Hamza Shahbaz Sharif. 42,813 people in the national

hockey stadium sang the national anthem together, smashing the previous best of

15,243 held by India

akistan has sought extradition of M ullah Fazlullah, a militant

commander who planned the attack on teenager Malala Yousafzai and is

believed to be hiding in Afghanistan. Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar has

demanded Fazlullah's extradition during her meeting with US special envoy to

Pakistan and Afghanistan Mark Grossman. Malala came to prominence in 2009 at

the age of 11, when she started writing a diary for BBC Urdu about life under the

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Taliban. Under the pen-name Gul Makai, she described the problems caused by

militants who had taken control of the Swat Valley.

ith Australia and India agreeing to launch negotiations for a civil nuclear

pact, Queensland Premier Campbell Newman on 22 October lifted

the ban on the state's uranium mining. Uranium has not been mined in

Queensland since the closure of the Mary Kathleen mine in 1982.

espite months of protracted negotiations, mediated by the African Union

(A.U.), Sudan and South Sudan appear no closer to a

comprehensive resolution on issues left unresolved after the south seceded

from the North last year. A pr im ary issue is the status of Abyei a 10 ,0 0 0 sq

km oil-rich territory claimed by both sides. On 24 october, the A.U. High

Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) submitted a report to the A.U. Peace and

Security Council, urging that the council give the Sudans two weeks to implement

existing agreements on establishing a transitional administration for the disputed

territory, and to arrive at a final solution in six weeks.

witzerland has reinforced its opposition to unilateral sanctions

imposed on Iran outside the framework of the United Nations. The

assertion comes in defiance of such unilateral sanctions imposed by Israel, the

United States (U.S.) and the European Union (EU).Not being a member of the

European Union (EU), Switzerland is not bound by the decisions of the

27-nation grouping, which has recently imposed fresh curbs, including a

ban on Iranian gas imports. Last month, Swiss President Eveline W idm er-

Schlumpf slammed unilateral Western sanctions against Iran by calling them

unacceptable. She stressed that Switzerland would continue its economic

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engagement with Iran within the framework of U.N. decisions. Switzerland is a

major global centre for oil trading, and is host to an office of the National Iranian Oil

Company (NIOC).

court in Italy has convicted the former Premier, Silvio Berlusconi,

of tax fraud and sentenced him to four years in pr ison . The conviction

on 26 October was the 76-year-old media moguls first in a long series of trials, but

it did not mean he was going to

prison right away. Cases in Italy

must pass two levels of appeal before

the verdicts are final. Berlusconi, along

with others convicted in the case, must

deposit $13 million into a fund as

appeals, which could take years, proceed. The trial began in July 2006, but was put

on hold by an immunity law that shielded Berlusconi from prosecution while he was

Premier until it was watered down by the constitutional court.

ali was readmitted into the African Union (A.U.) after a meeting of

the A.U. Peace and Security Council [AUPSC] on 24 October. The A.U. had

suspended the West African nation after a coup in March this year saw a military

junta seize power even as two thirds of Mali slipped into the control of a coalition of

armed groups and organised gangs. The soldiers behind the coup had claimed that

the existing dispensation was unable to tackle the insurgents in the north. Since

then, the junta has given way to a transitional all-party government and has asked

for pan-African assistance to regain control of its territory. Northern Mali has

steadily slipped into chaos since late 2011, when entrenched gangs involved in

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smuggling and drug trafficking struck up alliances with a variety of armed groups ,

ranging from the self-proclaimed secular Tuareg combatants, some of them from

Libyan Army of the Qadhafi regime to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a

north African group associated with al-Qaeda. The A.U. estimates that the conflict

has resulted in 160,000 Internally Displaced Persons, and another 202,000 Malians

are living as refugees in the neighbouring countries of Algeria, Burkina Faso,

Mauritania and Niger.

t least 56 people have been killed and nearly 2,000 homes

destr oyed in the latest outbr eak of ethnic violence in M yanm ar on

25 October. Twenty five men and 31 women were reported dead in four Rakhine

state townships in violence between the Buddhist Rakhine and M uslim

Rohingya communities that re-erupted on 23 October. In June, ethnic violence

in the western state left at least 90 people dead and destroyed more than 3,000

homes. Tens of thousands of people remain in refugee camps. The unrest is one of

the worst reported in the region since June, after clashes were set off by the alleged

rape and murder of a Buddhist woman by three Muslim men in May.Tensions still

simmer in part because the government has failed to find any long-term solution to

the crisis other than segregating the two communities in some areas. The crisis in

Myanmars west goes back decades and is rooted in a dispute over where the regions

Muslims are really from. Though many Rohingyas have lived in Myanmar for

generations, they are denigrated here as foreigners who came from Bangladesh.

celanders have backed proposals for a new basic law, drafted by a

citizens constitutional council that sought the publics help on websites like

Twitter, referendum results released early on 22 October. Voters were asked in the

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non-binding referendum on 20 October, whether they wanted the proposals of 25

ordinary citizens to form the basis of a new constitution. According to the results,

two-thirds of those voting wanted the constitutional councils proposals to be the

foundation for a Parliament bill on a new constitution. A proposal to keep the

countrys national church got the support of 57.5 per cent of voters. Icelands

financial collapse in 2008 prompted allegations of crony capitalism and renewed

longstanding calls for a revised constitution, which dates back to the countrys

independence from Denmark. Any changes to Icelands basic law must be approved

twice by Parliament, with a general election held between the votes.

nited Nations-Arab

League peace envoy

Lakhdar Brahimi appealed to

both sides in Syrias conflict to

cease fir e for the M uslim

holiday this week after meeting

President Bashar al-Assad, even as a

deadly blast rocked Damascus. Lebanons opposition, meanwhile, called for a huge

demonstration against the Syrian regime at the funeral later on 21 October, of a top

police intelligence chief killed in a Beirut car bombing which it has blamed on

Damascus. In Damascus, a bomb exploded outside a police station in a Christian

quarter of the Old City, killing seven people and wounding many others, said officialsand state media. The bombing came as Mr. Brahimi, after holding talks with Mr.

Assad, called for unilateral ceasefires by the regime and the rebels for the Id al-

Adha holidays.

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urricane Sandy grew stronger before dawn of 29 October as it

churned northward through the Atlantic Ocean en route to what

forecasters agreed would be a devastating

landfall, possibly within 100 miles of

New York City. As the storm bore down on

some of the nation's most densely populated

areas, city and state officials went into

emergency mode. The New York City subway

system and all of the region's commuter trainsand buses were shut down. The major stock exchanges called off all trading.

Forecasters said the hurricane was a strikingly powerful storm that could reach

inland.

3-day 8th International Conference on Public Administration

(ICPA) New Frontiers in Public Administration: Practice and

Theory was held in Hyderabad from 29 October. It was hosted by the Department

of Public Administration, Osmania University in collaboration with the University of

Electronic Science and Technology of China and the American Society for Public

Administration. 120 papers were presented at the conference. Later, a symposium on

the Status of Public Administration as an Academic Discipline was held and world

renowned scholars like Prof. Donald

C Menzel, Prof. Allan Rosenbaum,Prof. V.S. Prasad, Prof. G.

Haragopal and Prof. Riant Nugroho make keynote presentations.At the valedictory,

T. N. Chaturvedi, former Comptroller and Auditor General and former Governor,

was the chief guest.

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Weve got a New Name f or our Blog

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October 2012 Month Current Affairs - International

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Transcript of October 2012 Month Current Affairs - International