Current Affairs January 2008
Venezuela introduces the new Bolνvar Fuerte currency (ISO 4217, code: VEF) to combat inflation
Cyprus and Malta adopt the euro currency, becoming the 14th and 15th countries to do so.
Technip is awarded a $1.2 billion contract to develop the Pazflor oil deposit in Angola. Acergy is awarded a $700 million contract to assist in petroleum
production at Pazflor
The price of gold reaches a new record of $865.35 per troy ounce in the a.m. London Gold Fixing, breaking the previous high of 21 January 1980
Georgian presidential election, 2008: Georgian Incumbent President Mikhail
Saakashvili has been re-elected for a new mandate following a snap poll with
nearly 53% of the votes
China will ban stores from handing out plastic bags as of June 2008
India's Tata Motors launches the world's cheapest production car, Tata Nano, in Pragati Maidan, Delhi.
Snow falls in Baghdad, Iraq for the first time in a century.
Republic of China legislative election, 2008: The Kuomintang (KMT) and its
coalition allies win a landslide victory over the Democratic Progressive Party,
garnering 86 of 113 seats in the Legislative Yuan
Atonement wins the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Drama at the 65th Golden Globe Awards. Sweeney Todd wins the Golden Globe Award for Best
Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
A team of researchers from the University of Minnesota announce the creation of a beating rat heart using cells from the heart of newborn rats and a heart structure from a dead rat
Alvaro Colom is sworn in as President of Guatemala
MESSENGER, a NASA mission, flies by Mercury, the second spacecraft to do so and the first in thirty-three years
Bobby Jindal is sworn in as the 56th Governor of Louisiana. He is the first Indian American governor in U.S. history
The discovery of Tahina spectabilis, a palm in northern Madagascar that dies after flowering, is announced.
Sun Microsystems announces the acquisition of MySQL AB, a leading open
source relational database management system vendor, for US$1 billion
NYSE Euronext, the holding company for the New York Stock Exchange, agrees to buy the American Stock Exchange for $260 million in stock.
The Russian government closes British Council offices in St Petersburg and
Ekaterinburg.
An Israeli TecSAR spy satellite is launched aboard an Indian Polar Satellite
Launch Vehicle.
Former Liberian warlord Joshua Milton Blahyi confesses that he is responsible for at least 20,000 deaths during the First Liberian Civil War
Australia's longest running magazine, The Bulletin, is closing down after almost 130 years of publishing
Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi is forced to resign following a lost vote of confidence in the Senate.
An Australian girl spontaneously switches blood types and adopts her donor's
immune system following a liver transplant in the first known case of its type
Maria Sharapova wins the Australian Open women's title defeating Ana Ivanović 7-5, 6-3. Andy Ram & Yoni Erlich win the men's doubles title.
Novak Đoković wins the men's title of the 2008 Australian Open
George W. Bush delivers his final State of the Union Address as President of the United States.
Inflation in Zimbabwe rises to about 150,000%. The Zimbabwean dollar is
essentially worthless.
Near-Earth asteroid 2007 TU24 passes Earth at a distance of 334,000 miles
(537,500 km), and observations reduce the estimate of its size from 2,000 feet (610 m) diameter to 800 feet (250 m)
The United States Federal Reserve cuts the federal funds rate by half a point to 3 per cent, the second cut in this key interest rate in eight days as it acts to head offa recession
The Government of Australia announces that it will apologize to the "stolen
generation" of indigenous Australians in the Parliament of Australia on February13.
Internet failure affects parts of Asia and Africa after two undersea cables, SEAME-WE 4 and FLAG, are damaged.
Current Affairs till Feb
A third fiber-optic submarine communications cable, FALCON, is cut two days after SEA-ME-WE 4 and FLAG were damaged. 2008 submarine cable disruption: the Egyptian transport ministry reports that footage of the areas where cables were snapped or damaged shows no maritime traffic
French President Nicolas Sarkozy marries singer and former supermodel Carla
Bruni at the Ιlysιe Palace.
Serbian presidential election, 2008: Boris Tadić is reelected President of Serbia.
Silver State Helicopters, one of America's largest helicopter flight schools,
suddenly closes its doors and files bankruptcy.
The Versailles Assembly, bringing together both the French Senate and the
Chamber of Deputies, votes 560 to 181 in favour of amending the constitution to allow adoption of the EU Lisbon Treaty.
Iran launches the Kavoshgar-1 research rocket to inaugurate a newly built space center
U.S. President George W. Bush introduces a Federal budget of $3.1 trillion and a near-record deficit just ahead 410 billion $ The Budget includes a financial assistance of $830 million for Pakistan. A $158 billion plan to stimulate economic growth in the United States fails in the U.S. Senate on a procedural vote 58-41, just short of the 60 votes needed to advance. The United States Congress approves a $168 billion economic stimulus package and sends it to President George W. Bush for his approval
War in Chad
Post election violence in Kenya
Winter Storms in China
WTO approves Ukraine to become a new member.
President of Italy Giorgio Napolitano dismisses the parliament; the cabinet sets early elections for 13 and 14 April
The Slovakian Parliament vote on the Lisbon Treaty ratification is indefinitely
postponed
The National Assembly of France approves the Treaty of Lisbon by 336 votes to 52.
Space Shuttle Atlantis launches successfully on its STS-122 mission.
British Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri will be extradited to the United States to face terror charges.
NATO meets in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Rice and Miliband visit Afghanistan
Rio Tinto rejects BHP Billiton's $147 billion hostile takeover bid.
The Grand National Assembly of Turkey votes to change the Constitution of
Turkey removing a ban on wearing religious head cover in Turkish universities
The military government of Myanmar announces a national referendum to pass a new constitution will be held in May, and that democratic multi-party elections will take place in 2010.
Paintings by Paul Cιzanne, Edgar Degas, Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet are stolen from the Foundation E.G. Bόhrle, a museum in Zόrich
The Singapore Flyer, the largest observation wheel in the world (30 meters higher than London Eye), starts to turn.
Assasnation attempts on East Timor President and PM
European Space Agency's Columbus module is attached to the International
Space Station.
Russia and Ukraine resolve a dispute over Ukraine's natural gas debt which saw Gazprom threatening to cut off supplies
The Iraqi Parliament adopts an accord on the budget, detainees and federalism, setting provincial elections for late 2008.
The Swedish government rejects the Nord Stream underwater natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issues a formal apology to the Indigenous Stolen
Generation on behalf of the Parliament of Australia.
Malaysian Parliament dissolved for The 13th Malaysian general election
Kiribati now has the largest protected marine reserve in the world
National
The new discount rate is 10.5 per cent effective from Feb 1
Bird flu reappears in Karachi
The government has decided to cut the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) by Rs70 billion
Bachat card scheme approved
Pakistans water infrastructure is in poor condition and needs Rs60 billion ($1
billion) annual investment in reservoirs and related projects over the next five
years, says a World Bank study
1,000-MW coal-fired power plant at Thar to be built
$2.16bn Neelum-Jhelum hydel project launched
: The government is planning to open 1,500 more Utility Stores Corporation
(USC) outlets to cover all union councils
The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has issued licences to five independent power producers (IPPs) for initiating wind power projects in the country
China may replace India in pipeline deal: Iran
Pakistan on successfully carried out the training launch of Ghaznavi (Hatf-III) short-range nuclear capable ballistic missile.
Current Affairs March
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia Peoples Army also known
by the acronym of FARC or FARC-EP, is a self-proclaimed Marxist-Leninist
revolutionary guerrilla organization.
Raϊl Reyes, the second in command of the FARC guerilla organization, is killed in a Colombian military operation in northern Ecuador.
President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrives in Baghdad for the first state visit to Iraq by an Iranian president since the Iran-Iraq War.
The U.N. Security Council approves a third round of sanctions against Iran with near unanimous support.
Androulla Vasiliou replaces Markos Kyprianou as European Commissioner for
Health
United States Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Dan
Fried estimates that Kosovo will need about $2 billion in foreign aid to become
economically viable, and says that the United States will participate in a major
donors' conference on Kosovo in June.
India wins cricket's Commonwealth Bank Series in Australia.
U.S. Republican presidential nominee John McCain is endorsed by President
George W. Bush.
Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, is named the richest person in the world by Forbes magazine.
The discovery of the Rings of the Saturnian moon Rhea, the first known rings around a moon, is announced.
Viktor Bout, one of the worlds most notorious arms dealers, is arrested at a hotel in Thailand.
Vαclav Klaus is sworn in for another term as the President of the Czech Republic
A United States Department of Labor report shows that the United States
economy lost 63,000 jobs in February.
Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt becomes the first foreign minister to visit Kosovo since the country declared its independence.
Malaysians go to the polls for the Malaysian general election, 2008. The Barisan National secures another term in government, but suffers its worst performance since the country's independence in 1957.
Admiral William Fallon resigns as Commander of the U.S. Central Command due to reports in Esquire Magazine of disagreement with President George W. Bush over the administration's policy with Iran.
The total amount of digital information is estimated at 281 exabytes in 2007,
exceeding available data storage for the first time.
An exabyte (derived from the SI prefix exa-) is a unit of information or computer storage equal to one quintillion bytes.
Swedens largest lake, the Vδnern, which is also the third largest lake in Europe, will be lowered by 15 centimeters, in order to avoid flooding.
The Canadian House of Commons extends the Canadian military mission in
Afghanistan until 2011.
The price of gold reaches $1000 per troy ounce for the first time.
Queen Elizabeth officially opens London Heathrow Airport's new Terminal 5.
After a summit in Brussels, European Union leaders agree to a 20% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020
Michael D. Griffin, the current Administrator of NASA, announces the agency
will concentrate more on the outer Solar System and less on Mars exploration,
due to cuts to its 20092012 budget.
At the 11th National People's Congress, Hu Jintao is elected to a second term as the President of China, and Xi Jinping is elected Vice-President.
regards
faryal shah