Nobel and Clinton

Current Affairs for Week 2

1. US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has just completed a three-day visit to Myanmar. The highlight of her visit was her meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy heroine who has been released from a two decade long house arrest recently. She had initially been arrested by the Military Junta, which is still ruling the country with a very brutal approach. The US is trying to reinitiate ties with Myanmar after it had imposed sanctions on the latter for human rights violations. Suu Kyi is currently the Opposition Leader and is a hopeful Prime Minister for the upcoming Parliamentary Elections. Together with Hilary Clinton and President Barack Obama, they are pressing the in-place government to undertake political reforms and free all political prisoners. These events happened at a time when Myanmar's new government has suspended a Myitsone dam construction project backed by neighbouring China, who is thought to exploit the resources of Burma.

2. Nobel Prizes have recently been announced and below is a list of the laureates and their achievements:

Nobel Peace Prize

* 3 ladies: Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee and Yemeni women's rights activist, Tawakkul Karman

* They were rewarded for their non-violent struggle for women's safety and right to participation in peace-building work. The award has been awarded with the hope that it will discourage suppression against women and to realise the great potential for peace and democracy that women represent.

Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology

* Bruce Beutler (US); Jules Hoffman (France) & Ralph Steinman (Canada)

* Their discovery of Toll and Toll-like genes have revolutionised the understanding of how the body's immune system fights infections.

Nobel Prize for Physics

* 3 astrophysicists: Saul Perlmutter (Supernova Cosmology Project, California); Brian B Schmidt (High-Z Supernova Search Team, Australian National University)& Adam G.Riess (John Hopkins University, Baltimore)

* For their work in late 90s that showed that the Universe is expanding at an ever-accelerating rate.

Nobel Prize for Chemistry

* Daniel Schechtman (Israeli scientist aged 70)

* For the discoverer of quasicrystals, an entirely new form of solid .During decades scientists have derided his discovery as ridicule. However, quasicrystals which are poor conductors of heat and electricity and present a non-sticky character due to its no-reactivity property might show great potential