In Kabul, Hamid Karzai was inaugurated as Afghanistan’s re-elected president, after a controversially flawed election in August. Apparently in response to international pressure, his officials announced the formation of a force to fight corruption, to work with the FBI and Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency. [19/11]
A new report on Iran’s nuclear work by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear guardian, doubted Iran’s claim that a newly discovered uranium-enrichment plant being built inside a mountain near Qom is a recent, stand-alone civilian site. Building started five years earlier than Iran claims, so inspectors worry that there could be other hidden sites to support this one. [19/11]
Barack Obama paid his first visit to China, where he held talks with his counterpart, Hu Jintao, and the prime minister, Wen Jiabao. A “town-hall meeting” in Shanghai was attended by only carefully vetted young people, and no questions were permitted at a joint press conference by Mr Obama and Mr Hu. A long joint statement promised co-operation on trade, climate change and a range of other issues. But there were no breakthroughs. [19/11]
Democrats in the Senate unveiled their much-anticipated health-care bill, less than two weeks after the House passed its version. As with the House legislation, the Senate bill creates new insurance exchanges and stops insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. It also sets up a government-run insurance plan, but with a provision allowing states to opt out. The Congressional Budget Office costed the bill at $848 billion and said it would reduce the deficit by $130 billion over a decade. [19/11]
Fighting intensified in northern Yemen, with Saudi forces blockading the northern coast and helping their Yemeni counterparts to attack rebels loyal to the Houthi clan. [19/11]
Saudi Arabia got more deeply involved in the civil war in northern Yemen. It said its navy was blockading the northern strip of Yemen’s Red Sea coast in an effort to stop weapons reaching rebel Yemeni Shias, who have recently been attacking both Yemeni and Saudi government forces. [12/11]
Mr Obama delayed his decision about whether to send more troops to Afghanistan until after Hamid Karzai’s inauguration on November 19th. America’s envoy in Kabul wrote to the president opposing a troop surge, until Mr Karzai can prove he has tackled corruption. [12/11]
On the eve of Barack Obama’s first presidential trip to Asia, America said its special envoy would soon go to North Korea to try to get stalled six-party talks on nuclear disarmament going again. Separately, boats from North and South Korea exchanged fire near their disputed maritime border. [12/11]
An army psychiatrist went on a shooting rampage in Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 people. Major Nidal Malik Hasan’s motive for the rampage was unclear, but investigators hope to get some answers when they interview him; he was shot and injured by a police officer at the base. [12/11]
World leaders gathered in Berlin to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Heavy rain did little to dampen the celebrations, which were attended by Mikhail Gorbachev, the then Soviet leader. [12/11]
Hamid Karzai was declared re-elected as president of Afghanistan when a second-round run-off ballot was cancelled. The other candidate, Abdullah Abdullah, withdrew in protest at the failure to remove officials accused of involvement in the widespread fraud that marked the first round in August. Meanwhile, the UN decided to relocate 600 of its foreign workers in Afghanistan and halted development work in north-west Pakistan because of deteriorating security. [05/11]
Radovan Karadzic entered the dock for the first time at his war-crimes trial in The Hague. Previously the former Bosnian Serb leader, who is defending himself, had refused to appear as he does not accept the court’s legitimacy. [05/11]
Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, addressed a joint session of the United States Congress. Speaking just before the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German leader urged America to join the fight against climate change. [05/11]
The prosecution opened its case against Radovan Karadzic at the start of his trial for war crimes before a tribunal in The Hague. The former Bosnian Serb leader stands accused on 11 charges, including genocide for the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men at Srebrenica in 1995. He outraged his alleged victims by refusing to leave custody and attend the proceedings. [29/10]
A majority of countries on the UN’s Human Rights Council voted for a resolution to send its Goldstone report on the Gaza war to the UN Security Council for possible referral to the International Criminal Court. The United States and five other countries voted against the resolution, which was critical of Israel. Unusually, Britain and France withheld from voting. [23/10]
Davos: ‘World Economic Forum’…
THE Swiss mountain resort of Davos, once again, hosts the World Economic Forum’s consortium. Syndication includes people from business, civil society and politics; it is expected some 2,500 or so individuals will attend the event amid tight security. This time, though, rather than concentrating on how they can help solve problems such as climate change [...]
Filed under: Art, Banking, Economic, European Union, Financial Markets, Fiscal and Monetary, United Nations, World Affairs, barack obama, cartoon | Tagged: AIG, Banking, blackstone, climate change, davos, European Union, global economic crisis, guardian comments, jamie dimon, jp morgan, klaus schwab, lloyd blankfein, poverty, steve schwarzman, third point, wall street, world economic forum 2009 | 1 Comment »