international-march-09

CURRENT INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

Taliban seal truce in Pakistan’s Swat: Taliban fighters and Pakistani officials agreed on February 21, 2009, to a permanent ceasefire in the north-western Swat valley. The outlawed Tahreek-i-Taliban Swat (TTS) formally accepted the Swat accord. It also promised to release all security personnel in its custody, unconditionally. The Swat peace accord appeared progressing substantially with life returning rapidly to normalcy in Swat’s main cities. Having been freed from its engagement in Swat and Bajour, Pakistan army is likely to refocus full attention on tribal militants along the Afghanistan border.
 

Terror bouncer hits Lanka cricket team in Pakistan: On March 3, 2009, six Pakistani policemen were killed and six Sri Lankan cricketers were injured when gunmen armed with automatic weapons attacked the visiting team’s convoy as it headed for Lahore’s Gaddafi stadium. A military helicopter later evacuated the cricketers as Sri Lanka cancelled its Pakistan tour. Police said 12 terrorists were involved in the attack. India voiced its strong condemnation of the dastardly attack on Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore, warning that such incidents would continue to occur until Pakistan dismantled the terrorist infrastructure on its territory.

Pakistan acknowledges part of Mumbai attack was planned there: Pakistan has accepted for the first time that the Mumbai terrorist attacks were launched from its shores and at least partly plotted on its soil. Interior Ministry Chief Rehman Malik also said Pakistan had arrested most of the main suspects and had started criminal proceedings against them. India termed the development as positive and expressed willingness to share what-ever it can after examining the issues raised by Islamabad. The revelations appear to suggest that Pakistan is serious about punishing those behind the November attacks, which killed 183 people and stirred fear that the nuclear-armed neighbours could slide towards war.

Pakistan—Election ban for Sharif brothers: Triggering a fresh round of political instability in Pakistan, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother, Shahbaz Sharif, Chief Minister of the Punjab province, have been barred from contesting elections and holding office. Within hours of the Supreme Court ruling on February 26, 2009, upholding the ban on the Sharif brothers, Governor’s rule was imposed on the Punjab province. As people hit the streets in Lahore, Nawaz Sharif accused President Asif Ali Zardari of being behind the move to disqualify him from contesting elections and asked people to come out on the streets to protest the move. The PML-N chief said that the bone of contention between his party and President Zardari was the NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance) under which criminal cases against Zardari and other politicians were dropped by the Musharraf administration. The former PM said the reason why the Chief Justice and other deposed judges were not being reinstated was because these judges would question the validity of the NRO.

Bangladesh—BDR mutiny: The 33-hour mutiny by Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) troopers ended February 26, 2009, as the rebels laid down their arms in the face of an imminent attack by the army, which had moved tanks into position for an assault on the BDR headquarters in Dhaka. The mutiny by troopers of the Bangladesh rifles, the country’s border guards, had spread to several towns despite Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina’s warning of stern action to quell the unrest. Political observers said the government’s dilemma was that it was banking on the army to stop the rebellion, while the troopers’ grievances are largely centred on poor wages and discrimination as compared to the army.

India and China may hold the key to world’s economic survival: In a survey of the global outlook for 2009, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) makes some stark and dire observations. EIU believes that the economic crisis could last at least a couple of years. While the EIU survey says that China may hold the key to the world’s economic survival, many economists in India believe that it could be both India and China. These are the only two countries that could account for growth rates of at least 4.5%.

Time blames Bush, Clinton, Jiabao for financial crisis: Former US Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao are on the list of 25 people to blame for the financial crisis, compiled by Time magazine. The list also features former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, past Securities and Exchange Commission Chief Chris Cox, former Treasury secretary Hank Paulson and American Consumers, among others. Pointing out that Bush embraced a governing philosophy of de-regulation, the magazine said it trickled down to federal oversight agencies, which in turn eased off on banks, and mortgage brokers.

US economy drop biggest since 1982: The US economy suffered its deepest contraction since early 1982 in the fourth quarter, shrinking at a much worse-than-expected at a much worse-than-expected 6.2% annual rate as exports plunged and consumers slashed spending. A separate report showed mounting job losses had turned consumers gloomier in February, evidence that the US recession continues to deepen. The final Reuters/University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index for February fell to 56.3 from January’s 61.2. The commerce department said consumer spending which accounts for more than two-thirds of domestic economic activity, dropped at a 4.3 per cent rate in the fourth quarter, the biggest decline since the second quarter of 180. The spending decline dropped more than 3 percentage points off GDP.

Success of US stimulus tough to measure: Deciding whether the US government’s $ 1.5 trillion
economic bailout is a success or a failure may end up being more an exercise of politics and perception than exact science. Markers for determining the outcome of the treasury’s $700 billion in rescue funding for the financial sector and the $87 billion economic stimulus package are not all clear-cut and can end up relying on eye-of-the-beholder judgements. There are “the what if” scenarios and the possibility that the government’s best intentions will have unintended consequences. But experts tend to agree that doing nothing was not an option and, regardless of political affiliation. Some economists say the bailout of big banks was not helpful because it took away their incentive to restructure by providing a taxpayer-funded cushion.

Additional American troops to Afghanistan: In an attempt to stabilize a deteriorating situation, President Barack Obama has approved sending 17,000 more US troops to Afghanistan over the next few months. It was Obama’s first major military decision. “There is no more solemn duty as President than the decision to deploy our armed forces into harm’s way”, he said. The United States already has 38,000 troops in Afghanistan, apart from 30,000 military personnel from allied nations. But the violence is expected to rise further in the spring and afterwards in the run-up to Presidential elections set for August 20, 2009. The new troops are expected to be deployed in the south, which has been worst hit. The situation in Afghanistan, Obama said, had not received the strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently required.

Pakistan signs FTA with China: China and Pakistan signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) during the four-day visit of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to Hubei and Shanghai, China. Zardari’s mission was largely focused on economy and investment issues because the Pakistani President did not get to meet the top echelons of Chinese leadership who were busy hosting the first official visit of Hilary Clinton, the US Secretary of State. Meanwhile, China has signed an agreement with Pakistan’s main Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami despite the fact that official credo of China is atheism. A China observer said as part of the agreement with Beijing’s Communist leaders, Jamaat-e-Islami has promised not to encourage Islamic Uighur separatists in the Xinjiang region, which is a hotbed of the East Turkmenistan movement.

Bailed out US companies can’t hire people on H1-B: In what could be seen as a major blow to Indian IT professionals, the US Congress has prohibited banks and firms receiving federal bailout
money from hiring people on H-1B visas in place of Americans laid off by them due to the economic meltdown. The measure forms part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, popularly known as the Stimulus Bill. The Act makes a provision of USD 787 billion for reviving the battered US economy. The measure as finally approved by the Congress, would require the bailed-out banks to hire only Americans for two years unless they could prove they were not replacing laid-off Americans with guest workers.