Digest of international news for week

Hazem el-Beblawi appointed Egypt's new PM; Snowden says he would seek asylum in Russia

Saturday

Beijing: Setting aside recent acrimony over Chinese incursions in Ladakh, India says there is "real forward movement" on the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement with China aimed at averting such incidents.

Beijing: Calling for closer military ties between India and China, Defence Minister A K Antony says that it would be easy to maintain peace along the borders if both the forces have trust, mutual respect and confidence.

Sunday

San Francisco/Washington: Three Indians are among 305 passengers who miraculously survive when an Asiana Airlines flight crashed, broke into pieces and caught fire while landing at San Francisco airport, killing two Chinese students and leaving 49 others seriously injured.

Johannesburg: South Africa's anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela, battling for life with a recurring lung infection, completes a month in hospital.

Monday

Islamabad: Osama bin Laden's family entered into Pakistan way back in October/November 2001, just around 9/11 while the then al-Qaeda chief joined them in Peshawar in mid-2002, a media report says quoting the findings of the Abbottabad Commission Report.

Beijing: China's former Railways Minister Liu Zhijun is given a suspended death sentence by a court here for corruption and abuse of power.

Tuesday

Islamabad: The Afghan Taliban have closed their office in the Gulf state of Qatar, at least temporarily, to protest the removal of a sign identifying the movement as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, a diplomat and Taliban official say.

Cairo: Hazem el-Beblawi, a liberal economist and Egypt's former finance minister, was appointed as the country's new Prime Minister in a transitional government as the interim President unveiled a roadmap for fresh polls by early next year to end the raging political crisis.

Wednesday

Tokyo: Japan's nuclear watchdog says the crippled Fukushima reactors are very likely leaking highly radioactive substances into the Pacific Ocean.

Beijing: Virtually defending the latest incursion by the PLA in the Chumar sector in Ladakh, China says its troops were patrolling on its side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and asserted that "status quo" should not be changed pending a final settlement.

Beijing: About 30 to 40 people were buried in a rain-triggered landslide in China's southwestern Sichuan Province, according to local officials.

Thursday

Dhaka: India hands over $50 million to Bangladesh as the third and final tranche of the $200 million grant committed by it.

Islamabad: In a new revelation, it has now emerged that some CIA operatives might have been on the ground around Osama bin Laden's house during the 38-minute raid in which the world's most dreaded terrorist was killed in Abbottabad.

Washington: Seeking US investment in manufacturing in India, Finance Minister P Chidambaram says the government was committed to ensuring a fair, transparent and non-discriminatory environment for foreign investors.

Friday

United Nations: Pakistani teen activist Malala Yousafzai told the UN that she would not be silenced by terrorist threats, as she gave her first public speech since being shot in the head by the Taliban.

Moscow: Fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden tells rights activists he would seek asylum in Russia, in his first encounter with the outside world since becoming marooned at a Moscow airport three weeks ago.

London: Irish lawmakers overwhelmingly back a groundbreaking law that will allow abortion in limited cases in the predominantly Catholic country, following an outcry over the tragic death of an Indian dentist after a miscarriage last year.