Feb-2011-Inernational

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

People power forces Hosni Mubarak to quit as President of Egypt
On February 11, 2011, Hosni Mubarak stepped down as Egypt's President, handing over to the army and ending three decades of autocratic rule, bowing to escalating pressure from the military and protesters demanding that he go.

A military council would run the affairs of the Arab world's most populous nation, till a free and fair presidential election is held in September.

After a speaker made the announcement in Cairo's Tahrir Square, hundreds of thousands of protesters broke down in tears, celebrated and hugged each other chanting: “The people have brought down the regime.”

The 82-year-old Mubarak's downfall after 18 days of unprecedented mass protests was a momentous victory for people power and is sure to rock autocrats throughout the Arab world and beyond.

The sharpening confrontation had raised fear of uncontrolled violence in the most populous Arab nation, a key US ally in an oil-rich region where the chance of chaos spreading to other long stable but repressive States troubles the West. Washington has called for a prompt democratic transition to restore stability in Egypt.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters rallied across Egypt, including in the industrial city of Suez, earlier the scene of some of the fiercest violence in the crisis, and the second city of Alexandria, as well as in Tanta and other Nile Delta centers.

Since the fall of Tunisia's long-time leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, which triggered protests around the region, Egyptians had been demonstrating in huge numbers against rising prices, poverty, unemployment and their authoritarian regime.

Nepal finally gets a Prime minister after seven months and sixteen attempts
Ending a seven-month-long standoff over the Prime Ministerial election, Nepal's Parliament, on February 3, 2011, elected veteran communist leader and chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) Jhalanath Khanal as the new Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Nepal.

UML chairman Khanal, 61, was elected by securing 368 votes in the 601-member Parliament.

Khanal proved lucky and became the third communist Prime Minister after the April 2006 uprising by replacing his fellow comrade Madhav Kumar Nepal after the Unified CPN-Maoists, the single largest party in the Parliament, decided to withdraw its candidate and forge a Left alliance by extending support to Khanal.

Jhalanath Khanal, who was elected chairman of the UML in February 2009, was born in Ilam in May 1950. A graduate in political science and history from Tribhuvan University, Khanal entered politics in 1965. He was one of the founding members of the National Co-ordination Committee for all Communist Revolutionaries of Nepal in 1975 and CPN (ML) in 1978. He was jailed for a total of 26 months in his early political career and went underground in 1979.

After restoration of democracy, he was a minister in the interim government formed in 1990. He was elected as a lawmaker in the 1991 and 1994 general elections.

G-20 ministers reach deal to correct economic flaws
G-20 Finance Ministers have reached a compromise deal to correct global economic imbalances and expressed concern over excessive commodity price volatility impacting the world food security, an issue pressed by India.

After two days of hard bargain by their Finance Ministers, major economies, faced with uneven recovery and downside risks, reached a text in the face of tough resistance from China to agree on guidelines for removal of structural flaws in the global economy.

However, the document did not talk about an issue of much interest to India. New Delhi wanted that G-20 should urge all jurisdictions to conclude Tax Information Exchange Agreements so that menace of black money in tax havens can be tackled.
This issue seems to have been put on back seat as a lot of time was spent on reaching an agreement with China, which was opposed to inclusion of foreign exchange reserves and its exchange rate among the guidelines. China is sitting on a $2.8 trillion forex reserves and is accused by the US of manipulating its currency yuan.

Faced with a double-digit food inflation, India also pressed for a coordinated approach to tackle food, commodity and oil price volatility, which make emerging economies "vulnerable".

The ministers agreed on a plan to strengthen the international monetary system (IMS) with regard to disruptive capital flows and disorderly movement in exchange rates, a matter of great concern to India.
The document also expressed its worries on the impact of rising oil prices, which have exceeded $100 per barrel.

On the most contentious guidelines to remove structural imbalances, the communique appeared to have accommodated China's objections to including forex reserves and current account deficit. The communiqué, instead, said that indicative guidelines, without targets will be used to assess: i) public debt and fiscal deficit; private savings and private debt; ii) external imbalances composed of trade balance and net investment income flows and transfers, taking into due consideration of exchange rate, fiscal, monetary and other policies.

US, Russia launch nuclear arms reduction pact
On February 5, 2011, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launched a landmark nuclear arms reduction pact with Russia, a showpiece of Washington’s “reset” of ties with its former Cold War enemy.

The new START officially came into force when Clinton and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov exchanged ratification documents at a security conference in the German city of Munich.

“Today we exchange the instruments of ratification for a treaty that lessens the nuclear danger facing the Russian and American people and the world,” Clinton said.

The chief US diplomat hailed the pact as another example of “clear-eyed” cooperation between the two military powers, “part of a journey we have been taking for more than 60 years.” Lavrov told the Munich conference that the agreement would “enhance international stability.”

The pact slashes existing warhead ceilings by 30 per cent over the next 10 years and limits each side to 700 deployed long-range missiles and heavy bombers. The original 1991 pact expired at the end of 2009 amid stark differences over how the two sides planned to proceed.