Digest of international news for the week

Saturday

Oslo/New Delhi: In a new twist to the alleged child abuse case involving an Indian couple in Norway, criminal charges of "gross or repeated maltreatment" of their children by "threats, violence or other wrong" have been slapped against them by the prosecution, which has proposed a minimum sentence of one year and three months.

Paris/London: In a deal that averts nationalisation of its Florange plant, ArcelorMittal has committed to socialist French government it will not lay off any worker at the steel facility and make a fresh investment of 180 million euros (USD 233.6 million).

Washington: The Obama administration has announced to appoint a blind Indian-American to a key administrative post in an independent US agency devoted for people with disabilities.

Sunday

Islamabad: The Pakistan government has missed a self- imposed deadline for allowing all tradable items through land routes from India because of stiff resistance from "land- owning elite" in the federal cabinet.

Beijing: In the first high-level Sino-India contact since the once-in-a-decade leadership change in the ruling CPC, National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon arrives here for wide-ranging talks on bilateral ties, including the vexed border issue.

Monday

Cairo: Egyptian media joins hands with the mostly secular opposition against Islamist President Mohamed Mursi as several newspapers printed front-page headlines saying "No to Dictatorship", escalating the biggest political crisis not seen since the toppling of Hosni Mubarak.

Beijing: Making a strong pitch for deepening ties with India after the leadership changes here, China says that Sino -Indian ties should not be affected by "noise" by "some parties" intended to undermine bilateral ties which had improved despite the lingering border dispute.

Singapore/Male: Indian infrastructure giant GMR wins a reprieve from Singapore High Court which stays the unilateral termination of its $500 million Male airport project by the Maldivian government, which, however made it clear that they will not honour the order.

Tuesday

New York: In a relief to India-born former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta, a US appeals court here grants his bid to remain free on bail while he appeals his conviction on insider trading charges.

Male/New Delhi: The Maldives government is going ahead with its plan to take full control of Male airport after ousting India's GMR even as New Delhi warns that arbitrary and coercive action without waiting for the outcome of legal proceedings on the issue would have adverse consequences for bilateral relations.

Doha: After vociferous protests by developing countries over absence of proposals on climate finance and technology transfer, discussions begun to address their concerns at the Doha climate talks, which saw the BASIC group make a strong pitch for developed nations to step up their emission and funding targets.

Oslo: An Indian software professional and his wife were held guilty of "serious child abuse" and sentenced to jail terms for 18 months and 15 months respectively.Beijing: India and China have reached a "common understanding" on the progress made so far in their Vexed border talks that will provide a framework for drawing a "fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable" boundary says National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon.

Wednesday

Cairo: Deadly clashes break out between supporters of Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Mursi and opposition protesters in front of the high-security presidential palace even as his deputy proposed a way to end the dispute over a draft constitution.

Doha: India says "a crisis of confidence" had hit the Doha climate talks due to lack of movement on past pledges and failure to provide urgently needed resources to help developing countries fight impacts of climate change.

Beijing: India and China have been friends for 99.9 percent of the time in over 2,000 years of exchanges between them, Beijing's chief negotiator in boundary talks Dai Bingguo says, underlining that the two sides should "cast off" the shadow of the 1962 war and build a bright future together.

Thursday

Kathmandu: Political parties in Nepal fail to reach a consensus on forming a national unity government as the week- long deadline given by President Ram Baran Yadav to complete the exercise ends today.

Singapore/Male: In a severe blow to Indian infrastructure major GMR, Singapore Supreme Court rules that the Maldivian government has the authority to reclaim the Male airport from the firm even as India stresses on "fulfilment" of all legal processes regarding compensation.

Friday

Male: Maldives' state-run MACL takes over the operations of the Male international airport from GMR after the Indian infrastructure major lost a week-long legal battle over the "unilateral" termination of its $511 million airport modernisation contract.

Doha: With several differences and concerns yet to be resolved, negotiators head for another night of diplomatic wrangling at the Doha climate talks which have inevitably spilled over into an extra day.