The Beijing Olympic Games is unparalleled.
Multiple records refresh history.
On August 8th and September 6th, the 29th Olympic Games and Beijing Paralympic Games were grandly opened in Beijing. Beijing Olympic Games broke 85 Olympic records and 38 world records, Beijing Paralympic Games set 279 disabled world records and 339 paralympic games records, and the China delegation won 5/kloc-0 gold medals at the Beijing Olympic Games, ranking first in the gold medal list for the first time. The Beijing Olympic Games also set many records in the Olympic history: 204 countries and regions participated, 87 delegations won medals, conducted 4,800 doping tests, more than 30,000 journalists participated in the coverage, 4.7 billion people around the world watched and listened to the broadcast of the games, 6,543,800 Chinese and foreign volunteers served, and more than 80 foreign dignitaries attended the opening ceremony. The Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games have been highly praised by the international community, which not only became an important milestone in the history of the Olympic Games, but also achieved the goal of "distinctive and high-level".
International oil prices soared and plummeted.
The ups and downs are breathtaking.
Driven by financial speculation and global inflation, international oil prices soared in the first half of this year. On the first trading day after the New Year, the oil price broke through the mark of 100 USD per barrel, and reached a record high of 1 1 USD in July. Since then, affected by the financial crisis and economic recession expectations, oil prices have turned around and dropped rapidly. By the end of 65438+February, the futures price of light crude oil for February delivery in the New York Mercantile Exchange once fell below $40 per barrel. At the same time, the prices of grain and some bulk products have also fluctuated greatly, which has seriously affected the people's livelihood in many countries, especially in poor countries.
The United States elected an African-American president.
Adjust the policy and repair the image.
Voting in the 2008 U.S. general election165438+1October 4th. Democratic candidate Obama defeated * * * and party candidate John McCain by an overwhelming margin, and was successfully elected as the 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African-American president since the founding of the United States. Obama's concept of "change" conforms to the general trend of American ideological changes and voters' dissatisfaction with * * * and the party's eight years in power, which indicates that the domestic and foreign affairs of the United States will enter a new period of policy adjustment. The American people hope that Obama will repair the badly damaged American image as soon as possible.
The terrorist attacks in Mumbai suffered heavy casualties.
India and Pakistan interrupt the peace process
165438+1From October 26th to 29th, a terrorist attack occurred in Mumbai, India, killing at least 172 people and injuring hundreds. Some analysts believe that this terrorist attack presents some new features, indicating that the focus of violent attacks by international terrorist forces has begun to shift. India accused Pakistan of creating this terrorist attack, but Pakistan denied it. The Mumbai incident made India-Pakistan relations suddenly tense, and the peace process that lasted for four years was temporarily suspended again, causing concern in the surrounding areas and even the entire international community.
A devastating earthquake happened in Wenchuan.
We unite to overcome the earthquake.
On May 12, an earthquake of magnitude 8 occurred in Wenchuan, Sichuan, China, involving China 10 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. According to statistics, the earthquake killed 69,227 people,17,923 people were missing,1565,438+10,000 people were affected, and the direct economic loss was 845 1 100 million yuan. The China Municipal Government quickly organized the earthquake relief activities with the fastest rescue speed, the widest mobilization scope and the largest investment in history, and decided to accept the support of international rescue forces at the first time. The people of the whole country and local governments including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan quickly merged into a torrent of earthquake relief. International troops also extended a helping hand. China's national spirit of fighting disasters and uniting as one, as well as the efficient and powerful rescue from the government, have been highly praised by international public opinion.
Multi-country participation in space exploration
"Shenzhou VII" demonstrates extravehicular technology.
This year, global space exploration has shown a new feature of more countries participating. In April this year, South Korea's first astronaut took off in a Russian spaceship. In May, the American Phoenix probe successfully landed near the North Pole of Mars. In June+10, 5438, India successfully launched the first lunar probe "Yuechuan-1". In February 65438, American astronomers published a group of newly discovered photos of four planets outside our solar system. What is particularly striking is that on September 25th, three astronauts from China took the Shenzhou VII manned spacecraft into space, and realized extravehicular space activities and space science experiments. China has become the third country to independently master the key technologies of space extravehicular activities after Russia and the United States.
Somali pirates often rob ships.
Multinational ships escort Gulf of Aden
165438+ 10 15, the Saudi Arabian giant oil tanker Sirius was hijacked by Somali pirates. Since the beginning of this year, nearly 70 merchant ships have been hijacked in the waters near Somalia, including Ukrainian arms ships carrying 33 T-72 main battle tanks. Since the beginning of June, the United Nations Security Council has passed four successive resolutions to combat Somali piracy, authorizing foreign troops to enter Somalia to combat piracy with the consent of the Somali government. Warships from the United States, France, Denmark, Russia, India and other countries have successively entered the waters near the Gulf of Aden. China also sent three ships to the Gulf of Aden and Somali waters on February 26th, 65438.
Subprime loans triggered a financial tsunami.
The whole world united to stop the economic recession.
After September, American financial institutions such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Lehman Brothers were in trouble one after another. The subprime mortgage crisis created by Wall Street triggered the world's worst financial tsunami since 1929, which led to the real economy facing the threat of recession. In this crisis, the world's major economies have spent about $2 trillion to rescue the market and cut interest rates sharply several times to restore confidence in the financial market. The Asia-Europe Summit, the G20 Leaders' Meeting and the APEC Leaders' Informal Meeting all focused on coping with the financial crisis and containing the economic recession, and reached a number of understandings such as strengthening coordination and coping together.
Armed conflict broke out between Georgia and Russia.
The contradiction between Russia and the United States and Europe has intensified.
From the night of August 7th to the early morning of August 8th, Georgia dispatched tanks and armored personnel carriers to attack Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia. The attack by Georgian troops immediately caused a strong reaction from Russia. An armored unit of the Russian army entered Tskhinvali, and the armed conflict between Russia and Georgia broke out. Shortly thereafter, South Ossetia and Abkhazia declared independence, and Russia immediately recognized it. Some analysts believe that the armed conflict between Georgia and Russia is actually a total outbreak of intensified contradictions between Russia and the United States and Europe, which will definitely affect the readjustment of Russia-US-Europe relations.
The Israeli army launched a large-scale air raid on Gaza.
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict suddenly escalated.
12 On February 27th, Israeli warplanes and helicopter gunships attacked the Gaza Strip, causing more than 1000 casualties, including senior Palestinian military officials in Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). This is the largest attack launched by the Israeli army on Gaza since the Third Middle East War in 1967, and it is also the day with the largest number of Palestinian casualties. The Israeli military claimed that the air strikes were aimed at preventing Palestinian militants in Gaza from launching rockets into southern Israel. The sudden deterioration of the situation in Gaza after the air raid has aroused serious concern of the international community.
International news in 2009
The press release issued by Iowa State University in the United States on June 54381October 5 stated that its scientists cooperated with scientists from Zurich University in Switzerland and Ruhr University in Germany to draw a complete picture of the spiral arms of the Milky Way for the first time. The image shows that there are two obviously symmetrical spiral arms inside the Milky Way, which extend to the periphery of the Milky Way and are divided into four spiral arms. Compared with the two main spiral arms inside the Milky Way, the peripheral spiral arms are dim. Scientists say that the drawn image shows that the internal structure of the Milky Way is very symmetrical.
The United States Congress held a joint meeting of the Senate and the House of Representatives on October 8, 65438. After counting the electoral votes, it officially announced that Obama was elected as the 44th president of the United States. On October 7th, 65438/kloc-0, the current US President George W. Bush invited the 4th/kloc-0 President George H. W. Bush, President-elect barack obama, 42nd President Bill Clinton and 39th President Jimmy Carter to meet at the White House. On that day, in the famous Oval Office of the White House, former and current American President George W. Bush and President-elect barack obama gathered together. This is the first gathering of the president-elect, current president and former president of the United States in the White House in 27 years.
1October 30th, the United States * * * and Party 65438+ elected michael steele, the former deputy governor of Maryland, as the chairman, becoming the first African-American leader in the history of the Party. On the same day, after six rounds of voting by * * * and 68 members of the Party National Committee/KLOC-0, Steele defeated four competitors successively, and was finally elected as the 6th1Chairman of the Party National Committee with 9 1 vote. Steele is 50 years old and was born in a Democratic family in Maryland. But when he was young, he joined * * * and became the representative of the moderate in the party.
The 12 summit of the African union (au) was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on February 1. Heads of state, government or representatives from more than 50 AU member States attended the meeting. At the special closed meeting held on June 5438+0, representatives from African countries focused on issues such as establishing the African Union government and accelerating the pace of political and economic integration on the African continent. After a heated debate all day, it was decided to postpone the establishment of the African Union Government.
On February 10, the US Treasury Department announced a new financial rescue plan aimed at repairing the financial system and unfreezing the credit market. According to this plan, the government and the private sector jointly set up an investment fund to help clean up "toxic assets" in the banking system. The initial capital of the fund is $500 billion, which may eventually expand to 1 trillion. The fund will operate as a "bad bank" to help financial institutions evaluate the value of their mortgage bonds and remove "toxic assets" from their balance sheets.
The world's first polar research station with zero greenhouse gas emission authorized by the Belgian government was completed in Antarctica on February 15, 2005. This research station is named after Princess Elizabeth, the granddaughter of the King of Belgium, with a total investment of more than 20 million euros. This research station covers an area of 400 square meters and weighs 200 tons. The average temperature during use is 18 to 20 degrees Celsius. "Princess Elizabeth Station" runs on wind and solar energy, and strives to minimize the impact on the environment. Solar panels and wind turbines will provide it with electricity and hot water, and even windows are designed to help collect energy. In addition, all the waste generated by the research station can be recycled. Because of the microbial degradation technology, the bath water and toilet water in the research station can be recycled for up to 5 times. Considering the cost and equipment, this research station is only used in the best season, and generally only accepts 12 experts at a time, unless there is special need.
The preview of the auction of "Yves Saint-Laurent and Pierre Berger Collection" of Christie's auction house in France opened on February 2 1 at the Grand Palais in Paris, France. All the fine works of art in this auction are on display, including the bronze statues of the mouse head and rabbit head in the famous cultural relic "12 Zodiac Animal Head" lost in Yuanmingyuan, China. The European Association for the Protection of Chinese Art (APACE) filed a complaint with the French court on the 20th, demanding that the auction of the bronze statue of the rabbit's head and mouse's head in Yuanmingyuan be stopped urgently. The Government of China emphasized that the bronze statues of the mouse head and the rabbit head were precious cultural relics that were taken away by the British and French allied forces during the war and lost overseas for many years, and should be returned to China. China government did not directly stop the auction. Lawyer China contacted Gomez, president of the European Association for the Protection of Chinese Art, and Gomez agreed that the association, as the plaintiff, "sought a solution to restore good relations with China".
The14th ASEAN Summit opened in Hua Hin, Thailand on the afternoon of February 28th. 10 ASEAN leaders gathered together and walked onto the stage hand in hand, symbolizing that a United and friendly ASEAN body began to appear in front of the world. After the ASEAN Charter came into effect in February 2008, ASEAN officially entered the process of integration. This meeting is the first gathering of leaders of 10 ASEAN countries since the entry into force of the ASEAN Charter. 10 countries are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
On March 4th, the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Netherlands, announced that it had formally issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Bashir on the grounds that he was suspected of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, Sudan. This is the first time that the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant against a sitting head of state of a country since its establishment in July 2002. Lawrence Breron, a spokeswoman for the International Criminal Court, announced at a news conference that Bashir will face five charges of crimes against humanity and two charges of war crimes, but will not face charges of genocide. She urged the Sudanese government to actively cooperate with the International Criminal Court to arrest Bashir. Some countries are concerned about the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court. According to reports, Egypt called on the UN Security Council to cancel this arrest warrant. A senior Russian official also believes that this move by the International Criminal Court has set a "dangerous precedent".
At 22: 50 EDT on March 6th (Beijing time on the 7th 1 1 50), the kepler mission was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base. This is the first spacecraft in the world dedicated to searching for terrestrial planets outside our solar system. During the mission of at least three and a half years, kepler mission will observe about 654.38 million+star systems in Cygnus and Lyra, looking for signs of terrestrial planets and life.