India and Zimbabwe have decided to boost bilateral cooperation in sectors such

as pharmaceuticals, infrastructure and health to enhance trade and investment be

tween the countries.
* This was agreed during a meeting between Commerce and Industry Minister Anand
Sharma, who is on an official visit to Harare, and Zimbabwe Vice President Joice
T.R. Mujuru and Industry and Commerce Minister Michael Bimha in Harare.
* India is also considering setting up a $2 million Food Testing Laboratory in Z
imbabwe.
Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the King of Saudi Arabia has passed a new order
which imposes jail terms ranging from three to thirty years for the Saudi citiz
ens, who are fighting outside the country.
* This order has been passed to check the number of people of Saudi Arabia, who
go outside their country to fight in other countries like Syria along with the f
oreign fighters.
* This order comes after repeated reports on foreign fighters in large numbers i
ncluding people of Saudi Arabia, fighting in Syria and other countries.
February 4
Libyan officials announced that the North African state has destroyed countries
the last known large stockpile of chemical weapons from the era of Muammar Gadd
afi. The operation was carried out with the help of Western countries which had
been concerned that the weapons might fall into the hands of Islamist militants
and regional militias.
Thailand has announced that a contract to sell more than a million tonnes of ri
ce to China has been cancelled. The Chinese government pulled out of the deal to
buy 1.2 million tonnes of rice after Thailand's Anti-Corruption Commission bega
n investigating PM Yingluck Shinawatra over a rice purchase policy. The policy h
as been a factor in the anti-government protests that have sparked Thailand's po
litical crisis.
February 5
The project to expand the Panama Canal, one of the world's most important shipp
ing routes, was stalled after talks between the canal administrator and a Spanis
h-led building consortium fell apart and work ground to a halt.
* Group United for the Canal, a consortium led by Spanish builder Sacyr, said in
a statement that the government's canal authority had broken off talks on who w
ill pay some $1.6 billion needed to complete the ambitious project.
In a bid to boost tourism, India has decided to extend the visa-on-arrival faci
lity to tourists from 180 nations. Visa-on-arrival facility will be extended to
tourists of all nations barring eight, including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Sudan and
Iran, as it looks to boost tourism, Planning Minister Rajeev Shukla said. The ne
w decision is expected to be implemented from the next tourist session beginning
in October.
* India currently offers visa-on-arrival to tourists from 11 countries like Finl
and, the Philippines, Singapore and Japan.
Vowing to fight climate change, President Barack Obama's administration will an
nounce the formation of seven "climate hubs." These hubs aim to help farmers and
rural communities adapt to extreme weather conditions and other effects of clim
ate change.
* The hubs will act as information centers and aim to help farmers and ranchers
handle risks, including fires, pests, floods and droughts that are exacerbated b
y global warming.
India and Germany signed two umbrella agreements for financial and technical co
-operation under Indo German bilateral Development Cooperation framework. From I
ndia Mr. P. Chidambaram, the Union Finance Minister and from Germany Gerd Muelle
r, the German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development signed t
he pacts during their bilateral meeting.
India and Germany could sign an agreement for 1 billion euro for Greenfield pro
jects during the visit of the German President Joachim Gauck. Addressing a press
conference, the German Ambassador said the agreement is being finalized.
February 6
U.S. authorities have temporarily banned liquids, gels and aerosols in carry-on
s aboard Russia-bound flights. The Transportation Security Administration direct
ive came a day after Washington warned American and foreign airlines that extrem
ists could hide explosives in toothpaste or cosmetic tubes in an attempt to disr
upt the Games, set to start in Sochi.
South Korea's Nuclear Safety and Security Commission said that it had given per
mission for the restart of a reactor that was shut by a technical problem on Jan
uary 29th leaving three of South Korea's 23 nuclear plants offline. Operator Kor
ea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co Ltd (KHNP) has replaced two damaged control cards fo
r fuel rods so that the 1,000-megawatt Hanul No.5 reactor could be restarted.
The first round of peace talks between Pakistani Taliban insurgents and the gov
ernment began in Islamabad after overcoming a number of hurdles.
* The insurgents have been trying to bring down Pakistan's government and establ
ish strict Islamic rule since 2007.
Turkey's parliament has passed a bill which allows telecommunications authoriti
es to block web pages within four hours without a prior court order. The opposit
ion has alleged that this move is part of the governments attempt to suppress a c
orruption scandal in which Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan is involved.
February 7
The Hong Kong police successfully dismantled the largest World War II bomb yet
found in the city. The U.S. Navy ANM66 bomb was discovered by building workers i
n the Happy Valley district, near the citys famous downtown racing track.
* ''It was the biggest bomb ever found in Hong Kong'', a police spokeswoman told
AFP.
* The bomb weighed 2,000 pounds more than 900 kg and was more than 1.7-metre lon
g, with a diameter of 60 centimeters.
Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev may drop the 'stan' from the booming
oil-rich countrys name to distinguish it from the rest of Central Asia, where the
other so-called Stans are mostly mired in poverty. The world's ninth largest na
tion by area with a population of just 17 million, Kazakhstan is the largest eco
nomy of the post-Soviet region, which also includes Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turk
menistan and Uzbekistan.
The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda says she has
opened a preliminary investigation into possible war crimes in the Central Afri
can Republic (CAR). The country has been in chaos for more than a year after the
Muslim rebels seized power. A large number of Muslims have already fled to Chad
and Cameroon.
February 8
Veteran Nepali Congress leader Sushil Koirala is set to become the next prime m
inister of Nepal with the support of the CPN-UML. The CPN-UML standing committee
has decided to back Koirala for the top post after the party reached a six-poin
t deal with the Nepali Congress (NC). This ends long months of political stalema
te in the country after last years elections.
IRNA, the official Iranian news agency has reported that Iran has resumed talks
on its nuclear program with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The
discussions are expected to tackle sensitive military-related issues. Tehran has
rejected the accusations of weaponization-related work as baseless and said it
will cooperate with the IAEA to clear up any "ambiguities." Iran has long mainta
ined that its nuclear program is peaceful.
The US is set to make changes to the justice system to give greater legal recog
nition to same-sex marriages. In a speech at a gay rights event in New York, Att
orney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department had a role in "confronting
discrimination". Benefits will include couples being exempt from having to test
ify against each other in court, and having equal rights to visits in federal pr
isons. Same-sex marriages are currently legal in 17 US states and in Washington
DC.
February 9
Israel opposed an Iranian announcement that it was sending naval ships towards
the United States as further evidence that loosening sanctions on Tehran was cou
nterproductive. The ships have already started their voyage towards the Atlantic
Ocean via the waters near South Africa," said Admiral Afshin Rezayee Haddad, in
remarks quoted by Iran's semi-official Fars news agency.
Switzerland voted in favor of new immigration curbs on European Union citizens,
in a referendum that threatened pave way for a confrontation with Brussels. 50.
3 per cent of voters had supported the Stop Mass Immigration proposal pushed by ri
ght-wing populists.
February 10
Toyota Motor Corp announced that it would stop making cars and engines in Austr
alia by the end of 2017. It is anticipated that this move would cause thousands
of people to lose their jobs.
* Toyota is the third major car manufacturer to stop operations in Australia aft
er the planned exits of General Motors and Ford Motor due to high costs and a st
rong currency which makes the country an unattractive production base.
Adding a new deterrent to deteriorating bilateral ties, The United States said
it would take India to the World Trade Organization to gain a bigger foothold fo
r U.S. manufacturers in its fast-growing solar products market.
* The Obama administration said it was filing its second case at the WTO over th
e domestic content requirements in India's large scale solar program, which aims
to tackle the energy crisis in Asia's third-largest economy.
India and Netherlands signed a Memorandum of Understanding for enhancing cooper
ation on renewable energy. The MoU was signed between the Dutch Ambassador Alpho
nsus Stoelinga and the Secretary of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Dr
. Satish Balram Agnihotri.
* New and Renewable Energy Minister, Farooq Abdullah said the decision to enhanc
e cooperation in the renewable energy field between the two countries marked the
beginning of a symbiotic relationship in the clean energy sect