China – 3rd largest by area

Japan – Land of the Rising Sun

Hu Jintao – President; Wen Jiabao – PM

Yasuo Fukuda – new PM
Is building GWADAR port in Pakistan, also Karakoram

Highway to Pakistan

Kuril Islands – source of dispute with Russia
World’s largest FOREX reserves - $1 trillion (Oct ’06)

World’s second and Asia’s largest economy
Received highest FDI in 2005-06

Oldest still ruling Royal House in the world
Built THREE GORGES DAM on Yangtze River, world’s
largest hydro-electric dam

Monarch sits on Chrysanthemum Throne
Built world’s highest railway – linking Lhasa in Tibet with
Golmund; nicknamed Qing - 1

Thailand Myanmar – Stratocracy

King Bhumibol Adulyadej completes 60

General Than Shwe – Leader No.1, visited India in 2006
years in power, world’s longest reigning
monarch

Aung San Suu Kyi – pro-democracy leader under house
arrest since 1990

Surayud Chulanot is the PM

Capital moved from Yangon to Pyinmana (administrative

Bangkok – capital, Baht - currency capital Naypyidaw)

1
Sri Lanka / Bhutan

Mahinda Rajapakse – Prez

Peace talks between SL government and the LTTE
are brokered by NORWAY

Bhutan - world’s first no-smoking country

Jigme Singye Wangchuk is the King of Bhutan
Afghanistan

Hamid Karzai – Prez;

NATO forces battling resurgent Taliban in the south

Taliban headed by Mullah Omar

Durand Line – boundary line with Pak is source of
dispute
Pakistan – First Islamic Republic

Musharraf – Prez; Shaukat Aziz – PM

Attack on Lal Masjid Leaves scores dead

NWFP – stronghold of al-Qaeda & Taliban

Benazir’s return to Pak marred by bomb explosions
which leave over a hundred dead
Iran - Land of the Aryans

Mahmoud Ahmedinejad – Prez

Ayotallah Khameini – Spiritual Head

Secret nuclear weapons program

World’s 2nd largest gas producer & 4th largest oil exporter

Has developed missiles like
HOOT, a torpedo; Shahab, Fajr, and Shaegah series.
2
 Israel – World’s 1st Theocratic State (1948)
Iraq – Mesopotamia

Tel Aviv – capital; Knesset – parliament

Jalal Talabani – Prez; Nouri al-Maliki – PM
Ehud Olmert – PM; Ex-PM Ariel Sharon is in
coma

Saddam gets death penalty for Dujail Massacre (1982)

Prez: Shimon Peres

Abu Ayyub al-Masri, al-Qaeda chief in Iraq, successor

Mossad – secret service
to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi

Owns Barak missile system, supplied to India

Moqtada al-Sadr – head of Mahdi Army, Shiite militia
group

Is building a Barrier Wall to separate it from
Palestinian areas

Lebanon Jordan Syria Turkey

Nicknamed Switzerland of the
Middle East

Emile Lahud – Prez;
Fuoad Siniora – PM

Beirut – Capital; Nicknamed
Paris of the Middle East

Israel attacked Hezbollah
strongholds

Hashemite Kingdom

King Abdullah II – HoS

Lost West Bank to Israel in
1967 War

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
slain al-Qaeda leader in Iraq,
belonged to Jordan

Bashar al-Assad – Prez
Recep T Erdogan – PM

Accused of interference in
Nicknamed Sickman of
Europe
Lebanon & Iraq

Controversy over Armenian

Indicted by UN in killing of
Genocide
former Lebanese PM, Rafiq
Hariri

Occupies part of Cyprus

Part of new “Axis of Evil”

3
 Sudan – Largest African nation South Africa – Rainbow Nation

Prez Omar al-Bashir, ranked world’s worst dictator (’06)
Thabo Mbeki – Prez;

Second largest HIV infected population after India

Darfur Genocide – 4 lakh dead over 4 years

Desmond Tutu, recipient of Gandhi Peace Prize (’06)

Janjaweed, Govt-backed Arab Muslim militia against
Centenary of Gandhiji’s launching of Satyagraha Movement
non-Arab Muslims celebrated in that country

3 capitals - Pretoria (administrative), Bloemfontein (judicial),

Civil war in the south between Arab Muslims & and Cape Town (legislative)
Christians – Africa’s oldest still running civil war

Name of Pretoria changed to Tshwane

Africa in a nutshell Brazil – 5th largest country by area

The Dark continent
Luiz Inacio LULA da Silva is Brazil prez

High Incidence of Aids

Largest ETHANOL producer

Wide spread malnutrition

Numerous failed states

Member of BRIC & IBSA

African Union – HQ at Addis Ababa, 53 members

Brasilia – Capital (named after a wood type)

4
 South America in a nutshell

Simon Bolivar, Jose de Martin most important leaders
of Independent struggles in South American Countries

Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) – Marxist militant
group in Peru

Communist resurgence in Latin American Countries

Augusto Pinochet, former dictator of Chile died in a
military hospital, while under trial

History of high inflation thus low investment
Central America in a nutshell

Panama agrees to a new wider Panama Canal

Felipe Calderon is prez of Mexico

Daniel Ortega, Marxist leader, prez of
Nicaragua

Cuban prez Fidel Castro temporarily hands
over power to Raul Castro (his brother)
USA – 300 million pop

Robert Gates is defence secretary

Largest exporter & importer – overall; biggest seller of military
equipment

Ben Bernanke – Federal Reserve chief

Refuses to sign Kyoto Protocol & shuns International Criminal Court

Sarbanes-Oxley Act – for corporate governance

Fence built on U.S. border with Mexico to curb illegal immigration
& drugs trade
Europe in a nutshell

Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, is ranked World’s
Most Powerful Woman by Forbes

Romania & Bulgaria join EU (EU membership - 27)

Denmark – PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen

Romano Prodi Italy’s PM paid a state visit to India in 2007
5
 World Trade Organisation
International Who’s who

Successor to the GATT

Established on Jan 1, 1995
World Bank – HO at Washington, Prez – Robert

Zoellick (US)

WTO HQ – Geneva, Switzerland

DG – Pascal Lamy (France)
IMF – HO at Washington, MD – Rodrigo Rato (Spain)

WTO has 150 members
ADB – HO at Manila, Prez – Haruhiko Kuroda (Japan)

Vietnam is 150th member

European Commission – HO at Brussels, Prez – Jose
Manuel D Barroso (Portugal)

6th Ministerial Meeting held in Hong Kong

Business – Facts & Figures

Wal Mart – world’s largest company by revenue

Exxon Mobil – world’s largest company by profits, &
market capitalisation

IOC – India’s largest company by revenue

RIL – India’s largest company by market capitalisation

GM – largest auto company, foll by Toyota & Ford

Intel – largest chip-maker, launches CORE DUO 2

Diageo – largest spirits company (owns Smirnoff, JW)

McDonald’s – largest fast food chain

Vodafone – largest mobile company by revenue