Current Affairs International Namibian capital of Windhoek. The back its seat. P¸m\v ]pXnb {][m-\-a{´n meet was attended by representatives Mitchell report rejected of governments, the UN and media Junichiro Koizumi has been elected Israel has rejected the report of the organisations decided to launch a cam- as the new Prime Minister of Japan. He five-man enquiry panel headed by the paign against restrictions on free flow won the elections held by the ruling former US Senator George Mitchell of information, to fight racism and dis- Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). He suc- which enquired into the causes of vio- crimination and look for ways to check ceeds Yoshiro Mori as the PM. He is lence in West Asia. The main recom- the use of Internet for spreading com- the 11th Prime Minister of Japan since mendation of this international panel munal hatred. 1989. was that Israel must freeze all building 4 May 3: World Press Freedom Day. 4 In a bold move, the new Prime Min- activity in the Jewish settlements. This 4 It was at Windhoek, 10 years ago, ister has appointed five women in recommendation goes against Israeli that the ‘Windhoek Declaration’ on his Cabinet. This is a record in Japa- policy followed for the past few years. press freedom was adopted. nese politics. Among them is 4 The government of Ariel Sharon Makiko Tanaka who has thus be- John Paul-II creates history has infact planned to approach par- come Japan’s first woman Foreign The Pope, John Paul-II, during his liament for the provision of an ad- Minister. Masajuro Shiokawa has four day visit to Syria created history ditional 1.5 billion shekels (over been appointed as the new Finance by becoming the first Pope to set foot $300 million) to fund building ac- Minister. in a mosque. On May 6, he entered the tivity in the settlements. McDonald’s sued in US Omayyad mosque in Damascus. The 4 Other recommendations include lift- mosque was built on the site of a ing of the ban on the movement of The international foodchain church in 705 AD and contains the people and goods within the Pal- McDonald’s Corporation is in trouble tomb of Saint Joan the Baptist. estinian territories, for Israel to de- over its French fries. It has been sued sist from the use of rubber-coated in US by two Hindus and one non- US loses seat at the UN steel bullets against unarmed Pal- Hindu for using beef fat in preparing The United States, for the first time estinian demonstrators and for Is- french fries over a decade after saying since 1947, lost its seat at the UN Hu- rael to desist from demolishing Pal- it would cook its fries in vegetable oil. man Rights Commission. To add insult estinian houses and levelling farm- Pakistan’s position on to injury those nations which the US land. Kashmir backed consistently criticises for poor human rights record like Sudan have made it LDCs meet at Brussels Pakistan’s position on the Kashmir to the Commission. Later it also lost A meeting of 49 Least Developed issue has been virtually endorsed by the seat at the International Narcotics Countries (LDCs) was held at Brussels China. A reason for this might be Control Board. under the auspices of the Union Na- theperceived closeness of India and 4 To protest at the loss of the seats tions. This is the third UN conference USover issues like NMD. the House of Representatives has on the LDCs. World Conference on withheld some overdue payments 4 The 49 LDCs have a population of Press Freedom to the UN. It has voted to withhold 630 millions or a tenth of global $244 millions out of a total $582 mil- population. Of this, nearly half of A three-day World Conference on them live under the poverty line. Press Freedom was held at the lions. It will be paid once US gets They also count for less than half by Royal/Dutch Shell in 1993. The its seats. percent of the global trade and in- company was forced to leave due to a Djukavoic wins Montenegro vestment. A majority of the LDCs violent campaign by the Ogonis. Their are struggling with unsustainable struggle became famous after their elections external debt and the average life leader, the writer Ken Saro Wiva was The Socialist Party led by the Presi- expectancy in LDCs have reduced hanged with eight other activists by dent Milo Djukavoic has won a slim by 10 years due to AIDS. Nigeria’s ruling junta. majority in the elections to the legisla- 4 The developed nations have failed temI-¯nse Gähpw \à ture. Djukanovic is a supporter of to deliver their promised aid of upto hnam\ Xmhfw tlmt¦m-§n Montenegro declaring its indepen- 0.2 percent of their national income dence from the Yugoslav Federation. to the LDCs and 0.7 percent to de- Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok airport The slim majority dashes his hopes for velopment assistance. has been voted the best airport in the early declaration of independence. world in a survey in which 4,00,000 trav- 4 Recently Albanians in Montenegro New government in Italy ellers participated. Kuala Lumpur and had revolted against the estab- Silvio Berlusconi, the richest Ital- Singapore won the second and third lished government. ian, has once again voted to power in position. 4 Podgorica is the capital of the Parliamentary elections. His con- Montenegro. servative House of Freedoms Alliance Violence rejected by Basques won a comfortable majority in the The people of Basque-region of Humans affected with F&M Chamber of Deputies (lower House) Spain has rejected parties supporting For the first time since the outbreak and a majority in the Senate. It won 380 violence as a means to achieve inde- foot and mouth disease, three Britons seats in the 630-member lower House pendence. They have supported par- have been affected by the disease. and 204 seats in the 315-member Sen- ties which advocated non-violent sepa- They have blisters either on their ate. His rival, the left wing Olive Tree ration from Spain. PNV or Nationalist tongue or hands and feet. They are Alliance led by Francesco Rutelli came Basque Party, the oldest Basque party feared to have caught the disease while a poor second. and its coalition partner, Eurko helping the disposal of carcasses of Alkartasuna won 33 seats in the 75 slaughtered animals. The new devel- Massive oil spill in Nigeria party legislature or regional assembly. opment goes against the consistently A huge oil spill in Ogoni, south- The Popular Party of the Prime Minis- held view that the disease does not east Nigeria has polluted the area and ter Jose Maria Aznar won 19 seats. affect human beings. is threatening to engulf the district into 4 The Eurkal Herritarok party or EH, a devastating fireball. The spill was believed to be the political arm of German shadow over EU caused by a damaged well abandoned the terrorist organisation ETA, lost integration The further integration of Euro- Summit of the Americas pean Union (EU) has been hit by fears A three-day Summit of the Americas was held in Quebec City, Canada. The of German domination. Germany’s main issue discussed was the creation of the world’s largest free trade area – Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, has put Free Trade Area of Americas (FTAA). The leaders of the 34 Nations partici- forward certain proposals for radical pated in the meet. The meeting was not attended by Fidel Castro of Cuba. He changes in the 15-member EU struc- had not been invited because Cuba is not a democratic country. At the end of ture. The main point of the plan, which the Summit an agreement was signed to usher in FTAA by 2005. The accord will be laid before the EU Constitutional would create a barrier free-trade zone from the Arctic to Argentina. It would Convention in 2004, is the creation of a create a market of about 800 millions and bring about a $13 trillion economy. A stronger European Parliament. The new highlight of the pact is the so-called Democracy clause that denies participa- parliament will reduce the role of the tion of undemocratic nations in the FTAA. national parliaments. The plan has raised visions of a German domination because Germany is still the economic powerhouse of EU and is also the most populous nation with over 80 million. Russia and China to sign friendship treaty China and Russia are likely to sign a friendship treaty when the Chinese _n tKävkns\ ]n³XÅn hmÄ«³ Gähpw henb [\n-I³ President, Jiang Zemin visits Russia inJuly. The Foreign Ministers of the After a remarkably long stay at the top, Bill Gates, the Chairman and Chief twocountries signed a protocol on Technology Officer of Microsoft Corporation has been pushed down to sec- theagreed draft when the Chinese ond spot as the world’s richest man. His position has been taken by Sam ForeignMinister, Tang Jiaxuan, visited Robson Walton, the owner of Wal-Mart supermarket empire. He is currently Moscow. The new treaty is likely to worth £45.3 billion. This is eight million pounds more than Gates’s worth. A bebased on mutual support in matters major reason for the slump in Gate’s worth has been the loss sustained by his ofsovereignty, the fight against company’s stocks. He is likely to regain his spot once Microsoft’s stocks terrorism,extremism and separatism and make gains. The list was released by The Sunday Times on April 22.