Top ten 2010 world events

1.  The success of the 17^th ASEAN Summit and related meetings laid a firm foundation for accelerating the establishment of the ASEAN community by 2015. It also contributed to building a strong ASEAN bloc with a central role in the region and the world.  

2. Despite having mostly recovered from the economic crisis, the world economy grew just 4.8 percent. The widespread public debt crisis of Eurozone strongly devaluated the Euro against other currencies, threatening the region’s economic recovery. 

3. The Group of Twenty (G-20), consisting of important industrialized and developing economies, resolved to reform the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by transferring 6 percent of votes from industrialized economies to developing nations to create better opportunities for them to have a more important voice and role in financial mechanisms and major international organisations. 

4. The artillery fire exchange between the Republic of Korea (RoK) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), on November 23, 2010, made relations between the two Koreas seriously tense. It was the most severe development on the Korean peninsula since the cease-fire agreement in 1953. Consequently, the six-party talks concerning the DPRK’s nuclear programme was not resumed as expected. 

5. The political situation in Thailand became very complex as massive demonstrations by the anti-government red-shirt forces took place in Bangkok in April and May. The red-shirt demanded an early election. Reprisals, however, left 90 people dead and more than 1,000 injured. Despite this, the country has shown positive economic signs with this year’s economic growth rate reaching 7 percent. 

6. The Russia-US New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) was officially ratified by the US Senate during the final days of the year, a landmark in improving relations between Russia and the US- the two biggest owners of nuclear weapons in the world. However, to achieve a nuclear- free world and to prevent an arms race, the parties stressed the need to take tougher actions. 

7. Natural disasters raged fiercely over the past decade. A magnitude 7.7 Richter earthquake rocked Haiti’s capital city of Port-au-Prince on January 12, 2010, killing 250,000 people. This ravaging earthquake was considered the worst of the two past centuries in Haiti. Also in the year, thousands of people lost their lives as earthquakes struck in Chile, volcano eruptions in Greece, Iceland, and Indonesia, and floods in Asian countries.

The terrible floods in Pakistan claimed the lives of 2,000 people, submerged villages and forced around 20 million people to seek shelters. Heavy snowstorms at the year’s end delayed transport activities in many European countries, especially in the aviation sector.

Meanwhile, the December UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico, attracted 200 nations around the world, but failed to reach a treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol which will expire in 2012. This showed that coping with climate change was seen as a top urgent target set by the international community. 

8. A miraculous rescue saved 33 miners in Chile after they were trapped 700m underground in San Jose mine for 70 days,  they were brought to the surface safe and sound thanks to tireless efforts made by rescuers with cutting-edge equipment.

The BP oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico – The explosion of BP’s drilling platform Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20 triggered the most damaging oil spill in history. An estimated volume of more than 750,000 million tons of crude oil leaked out per day, posing a great threat to the eco-system and environment in the region and the world.

More than 340 people were killed in a stampede at a water festival in Cambodia. The bridge stampede was called the country's biggest tragedy since the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge regime.

9. WikiLeak’s revelation – WikiLeaks, a Sweden-registered website revealing sensitive news and government-level secrets, unveiled a series of leaks on US involvement in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and US internal diplomatic telegrams, shaking the world and raising major questions around national security capacity in the 21^st century era of digital technology. 

10. The World Cup 2010 was successfully held from June 11- July 11 in South Africa, drawing the participation of 32 national football teams. The event honoured the nobility, peace and friendship of all nations around the world while giving them a chance to witness a beautiful, friendly and safe South Africa.