Pakistan Budges on Bonn Meet

Pakistan on Wednesday hinted at the possibility of participating in the coming Bonn Conference on Afghanistan but ruled out any highlevel representation on the ground that Afghan soil had been used by
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) to attack the country in what the Army calls a “deliberate” act of aggression. Agreeing to consider German Chancellor Angela Merkel's repeated requests for Islamabad's participation, Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani said he would refer the suggestion of having Pakistan's Ambassador in Germany attend the deliberations to the Parliamentary Committee on National Security. Ms. Merkel called Mr. Gilani to impress upon him the importance of Pakistan's participation at the meeting to make it meaningful. As Mr. Gilani was unwilling to budge on high-level participation, she suggested the Ambassador be permitted to represent Pakistan so that its seat at the table was not left vacant. In view of bilateral relations and the fact that the German Foreign Minister
was among the first to personally call his Pakistani counterpart to express solidarity with Pakistan and condole the death of 24 Pakistan Army soldiers in the NATO firing at Pakistani outposts on Saturday
morning, Mr. Gilani agreed to refer the request to the Parliamentary Committee. Meanwhile, the formal communication to the U.S. asking it to vacate the Shamsi airbase has been sent with December 11 set as the deadline. Pakistan has released footage of two posts which came under fire from helicopters of the coalition forces in Afghanistan and wanted to know where the NATOcasualties were in case there was firing from the Pakistani side.

EU to ban Import of Iranian Crude Oil

The member states of European Union(EU) on 4 January 2012, agreed in principle to ban import of Iranian crude oil to put pressure on Iran for its nuclear programme. However, the time-frame to implement
this was not decided. The United States, which recently imposed fresh sanctions on Iran, has welcomed the news. Meanwhile, Iran has dismissed the threat of new sanctions and denies Western claims that it is trying to develop a nuclear weapons programme. Western powers accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian energy programme. The EU is one of Iran’s biggest markets for oil. This generates most of the Iranian government’s revenue. China is the top buyer of Iranian oil.The EU is a political and economical union of 27 member states. Ban lifted by Maldives on Spas
Maldives on 4 January 2012 lifted ban on spas in the upmarket tourist destination following its verification that these spas were not being used for prostitution. Earlier, it was alleged that these spas were the hub of prostitution. Following this, the tourism ministry ordered all massage centres to close six days ago. The tourism industry is an important foreign exchange earner and employer in the Maldives and the ban on spas could harm the industry. Maldives in 2011 received more than 850000 tourists. Israel-Palestine talks The Israel-Palestine talks ended in the first week of January 2012 with the international mediators from Quartet (the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, and Russia) and Jordan ended without any breakthrough in Amman, capital of Jordan. The talks and the outcome were positive and the two sides agreed to carry forward the discussions. The Amman round of peace talks may not have yielded a breakthrough, yet it has broken the ice between the Israeli and Palestinian sides to discuss resumption of the stalled peace talks. Israel charged the Palestinians with raging propaganda campaigns and uni-lateral diplomatic initiatives against it while Palestine asked Israel to stop settlement construction and accept the 1967 borders. USA and Saudi Arabia inked an Agreement worth 29.4 billion US Dollars

White Paper by China

China on 29 December 2011 issued a white paper entitled China’s Space Activities in 2011. The white paper is on the development of space industry since 2006 and the major tasks for the next five years. It was the third white paper on China’s space activities. The white paper was issued by the State Council Information Office. China has made the space industry an important part of the nation’s overall development strategy with the objective of exploring and utilizing outer space for peaceful purposes. The Major tasks , which were listed in the white paper for the next five years include space transportation system, Earth satellites, human spaceflights and deep-space exploration. The white paper stated that China would work together with the international community to promote world peace and
development.

India wanted 358 items removed

India is one of only four countries which, during the first half of 2011, requested Google to remove content on the basis that it was critical of the government. Google refused to comply. The other countries were Thailand and Turkey -- where Google restricted local users from accessing the offending content -- and the United States, where it refused. According to Google's Transparency Report for January to June 2011, the Internet search giant received requests from the Indian government – which seems to include State and Central governments, police and courts – to remove 358 items. In a breakdown of reasons for such requests, 255 items were classified under the “government criticism” category. It is not clear if Google would classify offensive items about a political leader under the category of defamation or government criticism. Interestingly, the biggest chunk of this is accounted for by a single “request from a local law enforcement agency to remove 236 communities and profiles from [social networking site] orkut that were critical of a local politician.” Google did not identify this politician, but it did state that “we did not comply with this request, since the content did not violate our Community Standards
or local law.” Google's statistics gain significance in the light of its alleged refusal to comply with the Indian government's recent demand to block the publication of incendiary hate speech from its sites. On
Monday, Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology Kapil Sibal summoned executives of Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Microsoft for a meeting after they stonewalled repeated requests to block incendiary communal material being posted on social networking sites they operated. However, Google's Transparency Report data seems to indicate that only 8 items were requested to be
removed under the category of hate speech. Instead, 39 items were requested to be removed on grounds of defamation, 20 due to privacy and security concerns, 14 due to impersonation, three identified as pornographic items, and one request due to national security reasons. However, the single largest category is government criticism; apart from the 236 items on orkut, the government also asked for 19 items on YouTube to be removed on these grounds. Overall, Google says it complied fully or partially with 51 per cent of the requests. “We received requests from state and local law enforcement agencies to remove YouTube videos that displayed protests against social leaders or used offensive language in reference to religious leaders,” said the Google report. “We declined the majority of these requests and only locally restricted videos that appeared to violate local laws prohibiting speech that could incite enmity between communities.”

Iranian Embassy shut down by UK

The United Kingdom shut down the Iranian embassy in London and expelled all its staff in retaliation to the storming of the British diplomatic compound by an angry mob. They were asked to leave the UK
within 48 hours. The British government also shut its embassy in Iran and evacuated the staff. France and Germany have both recalled their ambassadors to Iran for consultations following the attack on the U.K. embassy in Tehran.

Arab League Observers in Syria

A team of 50 Arab League Observers arrived in Damascus in Syria on 26 December 2011. The team consisting of experts from Algeria and Tunisia is led by Sudanese General Mustafa Daby. It would take about a week for Arab League to find out if the peace plan is being implemented in totality. The Arab Observer mission to monitor the implementation of League mediated peace plan would visit the worst hit cities in phases. However, the group will maintain an element of surprise by only announcing the specific areas they would be visiting on the same day of departure. The 50-member group consists of politicians, lawmakers and military officials. They will split themselves into ten groups for different cities. The team is likely to visit Homs amidst reports of killings of 23 people by the security forces.
Iranian Exiles in Iraq to be relocated The United Nations (UN) and the Iraqi Government on 24 December 2011 signed an agreement to relocate Iranian exiles living in a camp in northeastern part of Iraq. The Iraqi government has been insisting on closing the camp by the end of this month. Under the agreement, UN High Commission for Refugees will monitor the relocation while Iraqi Government will be responsible for their security. UNHCR would decide the refugee status for the residents of Ashraf here. This will be the first step toward resettlement to the third countries other than the native or the host countries. Camp Ashraf was the base of dissident Iranians led by the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran. The group moved to Camp Ashraf during the regime of Saddam Hussein and sided with
Iraq in the war against Iran in the 1980s. The camp, now home to over 3400 dissident Iranians will be shifted to Camp Liberty, a former U.S. military base near the Baghdad International Airport.

CSTO agreed to Tighten Rules

The leaders of the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organisation) nations on 21 December 2011 agreed that the deployment of foreign bases in their territory would be done with the approval of all partners of the defence alliance. The CSTO summit was held in Moscow. Besides Belarus and Kazakhstan, CSTO includes Armenia, Russia, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Kazakhstan succeeded Belarus as the President of CSTO. However, the CSTO agreement does not apply to existing facilities such as a German air transit facility in Uzbekistan, French military aircraft in Tajikistan and US transit centre in Kyrgyzstan.

A unique protest in China

It is the farmers who are usually evicted in land conflicts in China's villages. But in the southern Chinese village of Wukan this week, a firstof- its-kind rebellion by 20,000 villagers over a land conflict has forced out the entire local government, Communist Party leadership and police forces, sparking clashes that resulted in an unprecedented siege of the village, located in prosperous southern Guangdong province, on Wednesday. According to accounts from witnesses posted on Chinese websites, the village has now been surrounded by thousands of riot police, while villagers had barricaded themselves in by blocking roads with trees and rocks. The siege of Wukan was the denouement of more than three months of protests over land acquisition, seen as the biggest driver of the more than 180,000 “mass incidents” Chinese authorities record every year. Local authorities had recently appeared willing to address grievances over what villagers said was inadequate land compensation, when they welcomed a group of residents, elected by the local community to represent the farmers' interests, to negotiate. However, the chief negotiator, Xue Jinbo, was subsequently held by authorities and died in custody
this week. The Lufeng city government, which oversees Wukan, said in a statement he died of heart problems, though Wukan's residents widely suspected he was murdered while in custody. Following Xue's
death and after months of stalled negotiations with local officials, the residents of Wukan decided enough was enough, storming the local police station and clashing with police. By Wednesday, authorities had been driven out of the village, with both the local police station as well as the Communist Party's local offices reported as being deserted, and Wukan village — in a likely first in China's modern history — being entirely controlled and administered by its residents. Villagers in Wukan have demanded that officials return Xue's body, as well as suspend plans to acquire lands for a development project. It
remains unclear whether the local officials will concede to the demands, or on the other hand use greater force to disperse the pro-tests. This week's incident came as China's highest leaders met in Beijing for an annual economic work conference. The meeting, chaired by President Hu Jintao, concluded with a declaration that the focus of China's economic development in the coming year would be “making
progress while maintaining stability.”

Hillary Clinton visited Myanmar

Making a diplomatically risky trip to the long-isolated Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she wanted to see for herself whether new civilian leaders were truly ready to throw off 50 years of military dictatorship a test that includes rare face-to-face meetings with former members of the junta. During her visit, Ms. Clinton will also encourage Myanmar to sever military and nuclear ties with North Korea.Ms. Clinton arrived in the capital of Naypyidaw on the first trip by a U.S. Secretary of State to Myanmar in more than 50 years. She is to meet senior Myanmar officials on Thursday before heading to the commercial capital of Yangon, where she will see opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Most Uncharitable Nation in South Asia is India

As per the Charities Aid Foundation’s World Giving Index, India ranked as the most uncharitable nation of South Asia in 2011. India is the worst performer in South Asia with a global ranking of 91. India was ranked at 134 in 2010. Pakistan was ranked to 34th position in 2011 while Sri Lanka ranked 8th. Bangladesh was placed at 78th position and Nepal at 84th. Thailand was the most generous
nation, with 85 per cent of its people. The United Kingdom was the second most generous nation, with 79 per cent regularly giving to charity.Charities Aid Foundation’s World Giving Index ranked nations
on the strength of monetary donations and charitable acts.

Switzerland may Free Nuclear Smugglers

In an unexpected turn of events, Swiss authorities announced a decision to enter into a plea bargain with the notorious Tinner family members, who have been in jail over nuclear smuggling charges in the illicit
network of disgraced Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. The Tinners, Friedrich and his two sons Urs and Marco, were also accused of being informants for the CIA and one of the father-sons team was
actually said to have been a CIA contractor. The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland has noted that it had formally filed charges against the Tinnners under the War Material Act, an indictment based on their alleged aiding of “the illegal nuclear weapons programme of an unknown state through various activities”. However, the Swiss authority also sought to close the case against the Tinners after the courts found verdicts of guilt “in relation to offences under the WMA and against one of the sons for forgery of documents”. The prosecutors said the proceedings in respect of other offences had already been dropped and the court was “requested to accept a plea bargain between the parties covering sentences, the allocation of costs, the forfeiture of assets and other matters”.

Sanctions on Libya lifted by USA

The USA government on 16 December 2011 lifted most of its sanctions on Libya, unfreezing some of Libya's assets held in the United States. The USA government freed about 30 billion dollars in assets owned by the Libyan government and 2 Libyan banks that had been blocked since February. But holdings of the late leader Muammar al-Qadhafi and his family, as well as those of his aides, will be kept frozen. The US decision coincided with a similar action by the UN Security Council, which decided to end a freeze on the assets of Libya's financial institutions, including the central bank.

Fai Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy

Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai (62), a Kashmiri-origin U.S. citizen arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on July 19, 2011 for allegedly acting as an unregistered lobbyist of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax violations. Fai's guilty plea pertained to a decades-long scheme to conceal the transfer of at least $3.5 million from the government of Pakistan to fund his lobbying efforts in America related to Kashmir, the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) said in a statement. Specifically Fai pleaded guilty on two counts of “criminal information,” the DoJ re-ported, explaining that the first count was conspiracy to falsify, conceal and cover up material facts he had a duty to disclose; and to defraud the Treasury Department by impeding the lawful functions of the IRS in the collection of revenue. The second count to which he admitted guilt was the charge of endeavouring to impede the administration of tax laws. In a case that rocked the already dismal U.S.-Pakistan relationship over the summer the arrest of Fai was followed by revelations that he had served as the Director of the Kashmiri American Council (KAC), a non-governmental organisation in Washington, D.C.

NATO ended its Training Mission in Iraq

NATO ended its training mission in Iraq on 17 December 2011. The mission was aimed at assisting in the development of Iraqi security forces training structures and institutions. It was comprised of 120 soldiers from 12 countries. All of them will leave by the end of 2012. The move follows a day after US military handed over the last military base in Iraq and officially announced shutdown of its operations in the country. Earlier, the alliance had been asked by Prime Minister Maliki to extend its training mission until the end of 2013 and it had accepted the request in principle. However, Baghdad made it clear that it can't grant immunity to the soldiers on its own as the matter has to be taken to the cabinet and then parliament for approval.

Sanctions on Libya’s Central Bank lifted by UNSC

The UN Security Council on 16 December 2011 lifted sanctions on Libya's central bank and the country's foreign investments banks. The move is aimed at easing the current cash crisis in Libya. The United States has also lifted most of the sanctions against Tripoli. The Libyan banks' assets abroad were frozen in early 2011 as part of sanctions against former Libyan leader Col. Muammer Gaddafi. The USA
rolled back most sanctions on the government of Libya to keep its commitment to the Libyan people.

OPEC to increase its Production

OPEC, (The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) in its summit held in Vienna, on 14 December 2011 decided to increase its production ceiling to 30 million barrels a day, which is the first change in three years. Earlier, the production output was 24.88 million barrels per day. OPEC agreed to the new limit but it won't set individual quotas for each member country. OPEC is increasing its quota to match up actual production. The last OPEC summit in June failed to reach consensus when six members including Iran and Venezuela opposed the idea to pump more oil by Saudi Arabia and three other Gulf countries, who increased their oil production to make up for Libyan exports which was stopped following the civil war. OPEC will need to produce 30.1 million barrels a day in 2012 to balance world supply and demand of oil. OPEC is an organisation of twelve oil-exporting countries consisting of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, Angola, Venezuela, Libya, Algeria and Ecuador. The organisation has its headquarters in Vienna since 1965, and hosts regularmeetings among the oil ministers of its member nations.

India signed Loan Agreement with ADB

The Government of India and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on 15 December 2011 signed an agreement for the first tranche (113 million US dollars) under the 350 million US dollars Himachal Pradesh Clean Energy Transmission Investment Programme, which is a multitranche financing facility. The total estimated investment cost of the programme is 437.85 million US dollars which includes financing of 87.85 million US dollars by the state govt. of Himachal Pradesh. The programme is for the upgradation of transmission system to help Himachal Pradesh take greater advantage of its vast hydropower resources. It will help expand the supply of power to industry, commerce and households, within and outside the state, and thereby contribute to job creation and poverty reduction.

US Mission in Iraq ended

The US military officially ended its mission in Iraq on 15 December 2011. As per Pentagon statistics, approximately 4487 US soldiers lost their lives in Iraq war, with another 32226 Americans wounded in action.Despite the official declaration of ending its mission in Iraq, US military still has two bases in Iraq and 4000 troops. While in 2007, there were 505 bases and more than 170000 troops. However, these two military bases will be closed and the final US troops will be withdrawn by 31 December 2011.

Veiled Women barred From taking Oath of Citizenship by Canada

The Government of Canada announced on 12 December 2011 that women who aspire for Canadian citizenship can’t wear burqa or Islamic hijab when they take oath of citizenship. Belgium, France, Australia and Netherlands have also banned women from covering their face in public. The government received complaints from lawmakers and judges that they found it difficult to know whether women who masked their faces were actually reciting the oath or not.

4th International Tax Dialogue

The 4th International Tax Dialogue (ITD), a global conference on Tax and Inequality was inaugurated by the Finance Ministry of India from 7 December to 9 December 2011. Indian Finance Minister Pranab
Mukherjee inaugurated the threeday Tax meet. More than 400 senior tax policymakers from almost 90 countries attended it including Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund – Min
Zhu, World Bank Vice President –Otaviano Canuto, and Deputy Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation Development – Rintaro Tamaki. The ITD is a joint initiative of various
organisations working on tax issues – the IMF, the OECD, the World Bank, the European Commission, the IADB, and CIAT. This conference provides an opportunity to address how taxation can be seen as a part of the solution to growing inequalities in income and wealth around the world. The use of plenary and parallel sessions, with active country participation, allows a peer dialogue between Ministers of Finance and Heads of Revenue Administration internationally. Issued discussed

• Design of growth-enhancing and equitable tax systems

• Administrative challenges, issues and solutions for fair tax systems

• Income taxes, progressivity and inequality across regions

• Fair tax systems: vital for statebuilding and an exit from aid dependency

• Informality, inequality and the Role of the tax systems

• Gender friendly tax systems and inequality

• Taxation of elites and inequality Highlights

• More global cooperation is required to tackle black money in India: annual illicit capital outflows from emerging and developing economies has been estimated at $725-810 billion

• Direct Taxes Code (DTC) has been proposed in India: DTC seeks to replace the archaic Income Tax Act, 1961 and thereby modernize the taxation regime. It’s supposed to be implemented from 1 April 2012

• Uruguay signed 7 new agreements providing for the exchange of tax information.

Japan decided to Impose Sanctions Against Iran

Japan announced on 9 December 2011 that it is imposing a fresh round of financial sanctions against Iran. Japan will freeze the assets of 106 organizations, one individual and three Iranian banks. More than 350 Iran-based entities are now subject to Japanese sanctions. However, the move will not restrict imports of Iranian crude oil, a step many Western nations have been urging. Resource-starved Japan
relies on Iranian oil for 10 percent of its energy supply.

New Sanctions against Syria by Turkey

Turkey on 8 December 2011 announced a new set of sanctions against Syria. Turkey would impose 30 percent tax on goods coming from Syria. The move as a response to Damascus imposing 30 percent
customs duty on goods imported from Turkey besides suspending the free trade agreement with Ankara. Turkey earlier announced a series of economic sanctions on Syria for its crackdown on anti-regime protests. These include an immediate ban on transactions with the Syrian Government and its central bank and freezing the Syrian government assets in Turkey. Turkey has also been seeking alternative routes to bypass Syria for trade with the Middle East. The Turkish government was considering three alternative routes through Egypt’s Alexandria, Lebanon and Iraq to bye pass Syria.

Austerity budget For 2012 Approved in Greece

Greek Parliament on 7 December 2011 approved a budget for 2012 pledging tough fiscal goals demanded by European Union partners in return for fresh loans. The austerity budget projects a modest primary surplus excluding interest payments on debt. A broad majority of the parties backing Lucas Papademos' caretaker administration secured the economic blueprint's passage by 258 votes to
41, after the vote concluded. Greek has been relying on loans from other eurozone countries and the IMF (International Monetary Fund) since May 2010. In return, Greece cut salaries and pensions and hike taxes to reduce budget deficits.

New International Buddhist Organization in India to be setup

The first Global Buddhist Congregation which was aimed to provide a joint platform to Buddhist communities across the world and also to impact geo-politics in Asia was concluded in New Delhi on 30 November 2011. The four-day congregation decided to set up a new international Buddhist organization in India. It was attended by heads and representatives from Buddhist Sanghas, national Buddhist federations, organizations and institutions from 46 different countries of the world. The international Buddhist organization in India is to serve as a common platform for Buddhists worldwide. The congregation in India was organized by the Asoka Mission. The new body was named as the International Buddhist Confederation which was decided to be based in India as Buddhists all over the world recognize
India as the home of Buddha. This move could be proved to be an important one for a diplomatic row between India and China.